Readings & Study Notes
(Note: Please don't read uncritically and without context. The point is not to agree with everything anyone writes. The meeting notes here will help)
Current readings
Programme for 2024
January
28 January 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 1)
Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul
February
18 February 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 2)
Chapters 1, 2, and 10 of Pan-Islamic Connections by Christtophe Jaffrelot
Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 of Communal and Pan Islamic Trends in Colonial India, edited by Mushirul Hasan
24 February 2024 (Class)
Principles of Communism by Engels
The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx, *Read this with the 1872 preface
Wage-Labor and Capital by Marx
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
Civil War in France by Marx
Zasulich Letter by Marx
March
03 March 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 3)
Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2 of Merchants of Virtue by Divya Cherian
Bolshevism, Patriarchy, and the Nation: The Soviet "Emancipation" of Muslim Women in Pan-Islamic Perspective by Adrienne Edgar
Chapter 12 (Historicity, hagiography, and hierarchy in Gangetic India) of Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization of Hinduism
09 March 2024 (Class)
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
Civil War in France by Marx
Zasulich Letter by Marx
Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx
17 March 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 4)
First three chapters of Forgotten Friends: Monks, Marriages, and Memories of Northeast India by Indrani Chatterjee
First five chapters of the Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies
Ham Hindu Nahin: Arya-Sikh Relations, 1877-1905 by Kenneth W. Jones
Chapters 4, 5, and 6 of Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia
23 March 2024 (Class)
Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Rosa Luxemburg
The State and the Revolution by V. I. Lenin
State and the Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay
The April Theses by V. I. Lenin
Luxemburg versus Lenin by Paul Mattick
31 March 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 5)
Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal by Rachel McDermott
Harichand Thakur's Matua Movement and Dalit Awakening in Bengal by Kapil Krishna Thakur
Ramakrishna and the Calcutta of His Times by Sumit Sarkar
April
06 April 2024 (Class)
Luxemburg versus Lenin by Paul Mattick
The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
Left wing communism an Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin
Open Letter to Comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter
Workers Control by Paul Mattick
Council Communism by Mark Shipway
14 April 2024 (Meeting Theme 1: Religion 6)
Revision meeting
20 April 2024 (Class)
Revision class
28 April 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 1)
Every Cook Can Govern by CLR James
The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ in Marx and Engels by Hal Draper
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Autonomy by Giles Dauvé
Authority and Democracy in the United States by Paul Mattick
May
12 May 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 2)
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat by Karl Kautsky
The proletarian revolution and the renegade Kautsky by V. I. Lenin
The Russian Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
18 May 2024 (Class)
Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis by SA Smith
Zasulich Letter by Marx
Red Virgin and Vision of Utopia by Mary Talbot
Red Rosa by Kate Evans
June
01 June 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 1)
An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
09 June 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 3)
India: Liberal Democracy and the Extreme Right
Clientelism in Indian Villages
15 June 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 2)
Chapter 1 to 6 of Capital vol 1
First 331 pages of How to Read Marx's Capital by Michael Heinrich
23 June 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 4)
Part 2 and Part 3 of Modi's India by Christophe Jaffrelot
29 June 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 3)
Chapter 7 to 11 of Capital vol 1
332 - 398 pages of How to Read Marx's Capital by Michael Heinrich
July
07 July 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 5)
Council Democracy by James Muldoon
29 July 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 4)
Chapter 12 to 15 of Capital vol 1
21 July 2024 (Meeting Theme 2: Democracy 6)
Revision meeting
August
03 August 2024 (Capital vol 1 revision meet 5)
Chapter 16 to 33 of Capital vol 1
11 August 2024 (Meeting Theme 3: Migration 1)
Letter of Karl Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt
Capitalism and Workers’ Immigration by V. I. Lenin
Introduction, Chapter 1 and 2 of Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls by Teresa Hayter
17 August 2024 (Capital vol 2 meet 1)
Chapter 1 and 2 of Capital vol 2
25 August 2024 (Meeting Theme 3: Migration 2)
294. Chapters 8, 9, and 10, from Marx, Engels, and Marxisms
31 August 2024 (Capital vol 2 meet 2)
Chapter 3 and 4 of Capital vol 2
Past readings
2023
January
22 January 2023 (Class)
Principles of Communism by Engels
The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx, *Read this with the 1872 preface
Wage-Labor and Capital by Marx
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
February
12 February 2023 (Class)
Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx
Theses on Feuerbach by Marx
Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Luxemburg
25 February 2023 (Meeting - Theme: History)
Chapter 1 of Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women's Movement by Kavita Punjabi
The Long Haul by Rajani Bakshi
Chapters 3,4,5 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
Video
Many Straws Make a Nest: Documentary on Workers Struggle in the Industrial Belt around Delhi
March
19 March 2023 (Class)
The Civil War in France by Marx
The State and the Revolution by Lenin
State and the Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay
Luxemburg versus Lenin by Mattick
The April Theses by Lenin
April
1 April 2023 (Meeting - Theme: State)
A Manifesto of Emancipation by Paresh Chattopadhyay
The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ in Marx and Engels by Hal Draper
Marx and the State by Ralph Miliband
State power and class interests by Ralph Miliband
Poulatnzas and the capitalist state by Ralph Miliband
16 April 2023 (Class)
Zasulich Letter by Marx
Red Virgin and Vision of Utopia by Mary Talbot
Red Rosa by Kate Evans
Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis by SA Smith
30 April 2023 (Meeting - Theme: Philosophy)
Philosophy of Science by Samir Okasha
Video
Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx
May
14 May 2023 (Class)
Chapter 4,5,6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis by SA Smith
The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
Left wing communism an Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin
Open Letter to Comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter
Workers Control by Mattick
Council Communism by Mark Shipway
28 May 2023 (Meeting - Theme: Organisation)
(revision) The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
(revision) Democratic centralism
(revision) Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Luxemburg
(revision) Worker's Opposition
(revision) Workers' Opposition by Alexandra Kollontai
(revision) Chapter 9, 15, and 27 of My Disillusionment in Russia by Goldman
(revision) Kronstatd Resolution
e) Lenin in New York Herald on Kronstatd
(revision) 10th Party Congress resolutions
ii) On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation
Extra Reading
Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists
June
18 June 2023 (Capital 1)
(revision) An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
16 July 2023 (Capital 2)
(revision) An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
July
30 July 2023 (Capital 3)
Chapter 1 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
186 pages of How to Read Marx's Capital by Michael Heinrich
August
13 August 2023 (Capital 4)
Chapter 2 to 6 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
187 to 331 pages of How to Read Marx's Capital by Michael Heinrich
27 August 2023 (Meeting - Theme 5: Gender + Theme 6: Science)
(revision) Part 1 of Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
(revision) Chapter 1 and 2 of Science in Saffron by Meera Nanda
(revision) What is Socialist Feminism? by Barbara Ehrenreich
Revisiting the Domestic-Labour Debate: An Indian Perspective by Rohini Hensman
Chapter 1 of Social Reproduction Theory by Tithi Bhattacharya
Chapter 5 of Transgender Marxism by Nat Raha
September
17 September 2023 (Capital 5)
Chapter 7 to 11 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
332 to 398 pages of How to Read Marx's Capital by Michael Heinrich
October
08 October 2023 (Capital 6)
Chapter 12 to 15 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
22 October 2023 (Meeting - Theme 7: Caste)
Chapters 2, 5, 8, and 9 of Mapping the Elite collection of essays by Jodhka and Naudet
Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2 of Outcaste Bombay by Junaid Shaikh
November
19 November 2023 (Capital 7)
Chapter 16 to 25 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
26 November 2023 (Capital 8)
Chapter 26 to 33 of Capital Vol 1 by Karl Marx
December
17 December 2023 (Meeting - Theme 8: Palestine)
Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl
The Introduction to Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha
Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims by Edward Said
Chapter 1 of Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine of Joel Kovel
Introduction and Chapter 4 of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse by Ali Abunimah
14 January 2024 (Meeting - Theme 9: Nation + Theme 10: Faith + Theme 11: Reaction)
(Revision) The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos
Chapter 1 to 6 of The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin (2017 Ed)
Part 1 of Modi's India by Christophe Jaffrelot
Past Readings 2020 - 2022
2020
January - Introduction and Fascism
An excerpt from the graphic novel Red Rosa
What is fascism and how to fight it: a collection of writings from Leon Trotsky
February - Introduction and Manifesto
The Manifesto of the Communist Party
Notes: 16-02-2020, 22-02-2020
March - Electoralism, Reform, Revolution, Political Theory
Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband
Notes: 08-03-2020, 14-03-2020 and 15-03-2020
April - Marxist Analysis of Nationhood/Borders/Indegenity etc
Rabindranath Tagore: Nationalism in India
The National Question: Rosa Luxemburg
The Russian Tragedy: Rosa Luxemburg
The Rights of Nation to Self Determination: Lenin
Between Red and White: Trotsky Chapter 9
Selected Readings from Suraj Gogoi's Reading List:
Notes: 05-04-2020, 17-04-2020
May - Wage Labour and Capital, Grundrisse, Marxism and Technology
Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx
Science and Freedom: D D Kosambi's Exasperating Essays
Anatomy of an AI System by Kate Crawford
Notes from the Grundrisse (pages 690-698) on Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine: Karl Marx
Lying Eyes, The Victorian roots of facial recognition by Richard Woodall
Artificial Scapegoat by Anupam Guha
Capitalism’s New Clothes by Evgeny Morozov
A tale of two AI cities by Melissa Hellmann
(We)Work is a Scam by Eliza Levinson
Notes: 10-05-2020, 22-05-2020
June - Political Economy
Don’t Mention the War – Mike Beggs
What Do Bosses Do? – Stephen Marglin
The Origin of Capitalism – Ellen Meiksins Wood (pp 1-37)
The Keynesian Counterrevolution – Mike Beggs
The Left in A Foxhole – Geoff Mann
Introduction in Simon Clarke’s Keynesianism, Monetarism and the Crisis of the State (pg 1-20)
Extra Readings : State of Development Economics – Stephen Resnick Introduction – Perlman, F. in Rubin’s Essays in Marx’s Theory of Value The Political Economy of Capitalist Labour, Chapter 4 – Commerce or Capitalism in The Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood
July - Political Economy
Anti delinking: Fantasies of Secession – Jamie Merchant
Pro delinking:
1. Socialize Finance – J W Mason,
2. A Cautious Case for Economic Nationalism – J W Mason
Marxist Theories of Imperialism (Introduction, Lenin, Luxemburg, Dependency Theory)
August - Gender and Marxism
The Variety of Feminisms and their Contributions to Gender Equality - Judith Lorber
The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism - Heidi Hartmann
Feminism for the 99% - Cinzia Arruzza, Nancy Fraser, and Tithi Bhattacharya
Women's Oppression Today - Pages 67-77 (or Part V of Chapter 2) - Michelle Barrett
Capitalism and the Gay Identity - John D'Emilio
Transition and Abolition - Jules Joanne Gleeson
“Minding Their Business: The unfinished battle for sex workers' rights” by Siddharth Dube
The Combahee River Collective Statement
Kinderkommunismus by K.D. Griffiths and J.J. Gleeson
Notes: 16-08-2020, 23-08-2020, 30-08-2020
September - Caste
The Mirage of a Caste-less Society
Competing Narratives of Caste in the 21st Century
Kosambi & The Question of Caste
David Mosse’s paper on The Modernity of Caste
Introduction from the Ants Among Elephants
Bridging the Unholy Rift by Anand Teltumbde
Ambedkar, Ambedkarites, Ambedkarism by Anand Teltumbde
Caste, Class, and Women's Liberation by Gail Omvedt
Prejudice Against Reservation Policies by Sukhadeo Thorat & others
Recommended readings September
Does Untouchability exist among Muslims?
Sumit Guha's The Birth of Caste
Dumont, Guha, and The Danger of Stereotyping India
Dalit & Naxalite Movements in Andhra Pradesh
Introduction to Caste, Gender, and Indian Feminism by Anupama Rao
Caste, Class, and Property Relations by B.T. Ranadive
October - Mental Health
Chapter 6 and 7 of The Managed Heart by Arlie Hochschild
Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure by Arlie Hochschild
Chapter 3 and 4 of Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
Women mental health in India by Indira Sharma and Abhishek Pathak
Stop making sense by Paeder O'Grady
A Future with No Future: Depression, the Left, and the Politics of Mental Health by Mikkel Krause
How capitalism foments mental illness and discourages mental well-being
A history of drug advertising by Julie Donohue
A theory of mental health and monopoly capitalism
The Employment of people with mental illness by Geoffery Waghorn, Chris Lloyd
Disorder: Contemporary Fascism and the Crisis in Mental Health by Emma Dane York
Also listen to these
Policing and racial trauma with Angela Davis
Recommended extra readings for October
The concept creep of emotional labour by by Arlie Hochschild
Where social justice meets mental health
The Second Shift by Arlie Hochschild
Impact of advertising psychiatric drugs
Antidepressants and advertising by Nathan Greenslit, Ted Kaptchuk
The prevalence of ptsd and depression among Gaza children by Hamza, Elsantil, et al
Mapping children’s play and violence in Kashmir by Aatina Nasir Malik
Kashmir: Through the eyes of a Grand-daughter by Khadeeja Raina
I'm a dalit woman, and my mental health matters by Christina Dhanraj
November - Indian Communist History
on Dadabhai Naoroji by Inderjeet Parmar
MPT Acharya: Reminiscences of a Revolutionary also, a clean transcription of this by Kosambi Circle people also, as the material is not the full story (we could not find the book) here is what happened to MPT after Morocco
The Indian Sociologist by A M Shah
History of the Anushilan Samiti
Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army (H.S.R.A.) by Ram Chandra
Formation of the CPI version 1920
Formation of the CPI version 1925
Cellular Jail: Stories of Clemency and Betrayal by Zubair Ahmed (approximately covering 1930 to 1970)
The United Socialist Front: The CSP and the CPI by Vineet Kaitan D'mello
CPI and its mass Organizations – 1936-1947 by Arindam Datta
Tebhaga Movement in Bengal: A Retrospect by D. Bandyopadhyay
The Great Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946 by Iqbal Javed
State and the Making of Communist Politics in India, 1947-57 by J Alam
Communism in Kerala by Jitendra Singh
Recommended extra readings for November
The Bomb in Bengal by Peter Heehs
An Early Communist Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta, 1913–1929 by Suchetana Chattopadhyay
The Swing Back, a critique of the 40s CPI by the RSP and CPM's own telling of that era
Telengana's People's Struggles and Its Lessons by P Sundarayya
Amar Bari Tomar Bari NaxalBari by Sumit Kumar
The Left in India's Freedom Movement and in Free India by E. M. S. Namboodiripad
Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women's Movement by Kavita Punjabi
The Story of an Aborted Revolution: Communist Insurgency in Post independence West Bengal, 1948–50 by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
India’s Simmering Revolution by Sumanta Banerjee
From Popular Movements to Rebellion, Bengal in the 50s and the 60s by Ranabir Samaddar
December - Friendship and Relationships
Chapter 1 of The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin (2017 Ed), “The Private Life of Power”
Bad Romance by Lisa Featherstone (Content warning: there is mention of sexual violence in this)
Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship by Daniel J. Hruschka
Make way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth by Alexandra Kollontai
Chapter 6 of Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value by David Graeber, “Marcel Mauss Revisited”
2021
January - Gramsci and Propaganda
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of An Antonio Gramsci Reader, selected writings, 1916-1935, Edited by David Forgacs
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky
Mythologies by Roland Barthes
Fascinating Fascism by Susan Sontag
References
For reading more on Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci by Quentin Hoare
February - Art and Culture
The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin
The Slow Cancellation of the Future by Mark Fisher (this is an essay in Chapter 00 of the book Ghosts of my Life)
Ideology of the Hindi Film: A Historical Construction by M Madhava Prasad
Cine Politics: On the Political Significance of Cinema in South India by M Madhava Prasad
March - Imperialism
Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer Chapter 8, 9, 10,11 (do the other chapters if you have time and want to learn the historical context) (*we did this last year in July as well, also focus on the chapters on contemporary theories)
Empire of Capital by Ellen Woods Chapter 1, 6, 7 (do the other chapters if you have time)
Critical Theory and the Critique of Anti-Imperialism by Marcel Stoetzler
April - Platform Labour
On the conditions of possibility for worker organizing in platform-based gig economies by Neils van Doorn
Algorithmic Management, Employment, and the Self in Gig Work by Julia Tomassetti. This is Chapter 6 of Beyond the Algorithm
Turkopticon by Lilly Irani et al
Left Populism and Platform Capitalism by Nick Dyer-Witheford
Chapters 8 and 9 of Platform Capitalism in India
Platform Capitalism by Nick Srnicek
May - Energy, Materials, and Extractivism
Extractivism by Jeff Diamanti
Once Again on So-called “Extractivism” by Álvaro García Linera
Between the Devil and the Green New Deal by Jasper Bernes
Phantasmagorias of Energy: Toward a Critical Theory of Energy and Economy
Inside Out by Francis Tseng
Chapter 1 and 2 of Resource Radicals by Thea Riofrancos
Chapter 3 of Planetary Mine by Martin Arboleda
Resource geography II: What makes resources political? by Matt Huber
June - Ecology and Climate Change
IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 7)
IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC (read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 5)
Oceans that Keep Capitalism Afloat by Katy Fox-Hodess
Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation by Arturo Escobar
Chapter 1 and 2 of Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom
Marx and Nature by McKenzie Wark
Why Dalits dislike environmentalists by Gail Omvedt
The Incorporation of Mountain Ecosystems into the Capitalist World by Wilma A Dunaway
The Socialist Case for Nuclear Energy
Nuclear scare stories are a gift to the truly lethal coal industry by George Monbiot
Western Ghats A Lifescape by Madhav Gadgil
July - Faith and Politics feat. Nationalism
Karl Marx and Religion by Cyril Smith
Introduction of A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right by Karl Marx
Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
Marxism and Ancient Indian Culture by D D Kosambi
Read these three wiki pages
a) League of Militant Atheists,
b) Cultural Revolution in the Soviet Union,
and c) Hujum
Girl-Brides and Socio-Legal Change: Age of Consent Bill (1891) Controversy by Meera Kosambi
Remembering Tilak: 'The Father of India’s Revolution' (this piece is hagiography, do not read uncritically)
Harichand Thakur's Matua Movement and Dalit Awakening in Bengal by K K Thakur
Across borders, the turbulent journey of South Asia’s Matua community
Celebrating the ‘essence of Hinduism’: How 19th century Brahmo Samaj altered Bengali society
The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos
Navayana Buddhism and the Spread of Buddha Vihara in Maharashtra (this piece is badly edited, read with care)
This is why Dalit women are singing Tathagata Buddha songs in UP
Aligarh's "Notre Eminent Contemporain": Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan's Reformist Agenda by Mushirul Hasan
August - Hindutva feat. Nationalism
Part 1 and Part 2 of Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot
Hindutva by V. D. Savarkar
India: Liberal Democracy and the Extreme Right by Aijaz Ahmed
Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s by Marzia Casolari
Swami Vivekananda's Construction of Hinduism by Tapan Raychaudhuri, this is the first chapter of Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization of Hinduism
Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul
September - Law, Justice, and Socialism
"Exercise of Law" and "The Rule of Law" from Whigs and Hunters by E. P. Thompson (page 245-269)
"The Oral Shape of the Law" in The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories by Alessandro Portelli
"Defining Right as Wrong: Reflections on Associational Freedom and Free Speech" in The Wages of Impunity by K.G. Kannabiran
Progressive and Conservative Constitutionalism by Robin West (page 642-651)
Law and Political Economy: Towards a Manifesto
On the Human Rights Question by Paul O'Connell
The Right to Medicines in the Age of Neoliberalism (full symposium):
a) Article
b) Responses
October - Analysis of Violence
Against the Logic of the Guillotine
Chapter 1, 2, and 7 of the Technique of Revolution by Curzio Malaparte
Bankruptcy of Individual Terrorism by Leon Trotsky
Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Terrorism and Communism by Leon Trotsky
The Russian Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
Trotsky Protests Too much by Emma Goldman
The Legitimacy of Violence as a Political Act? by Noam Chomsky
War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler
Noam Chomsky on institutional violence
Chapter 1, 6, 7, and 8 of The Production of Hindu Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul Brass
Chapter 1, 2, and 6 of Rebels from the Mud Houses by George Kunnath
Worker Politics, Trade Unions and the Shiv Sena's Rise in Central Bombay by J Shaikh
Violent and Non-Violent Political Islam in a Global Context
Caste and Gender: Understanding Dynamics of Power and Violence
Chapter 10 of Direct Action: an Ethnography by David Graeber
November - Strategies, Programmes, and Histories of Communisms
First 3 chapters of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
First 3 chapters of What is to be Done? by V. I. Lenin
Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Luxemburg
The April Theses by V. I. Lenin
Chapters 4 to 6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek
e) Lenin in New York Herald on Kronstatd
a) Workers' Opposition by Alexandra Kollontai
b) 10th Party Congress resolutions
ii) On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation
c) Emma Goldman on Trade Unions in 1920
d) Trotsky on Trade Unions in 1922
Left wing communism an Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin (read page 10 to 105)
Open Letter to Comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter
The Fundamentals of Revolutionary Communism by Bordiga
Workers Control by Mattick
Council Communism by Mark Shipway
December - Philosophy, Epistemology, and Theory of Mind
Doing Philosophy: From Common Curiosity to Logical Reasoning by Williamson
Reread readings 135 and 136
Introduction of A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right by Marx
Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx
Think by Simon Blackburn
Philosophy of Science by Samir Okasha
Video
Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx
2022
January and February 2022 - Theory and Analyses
The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx
Wage-Labor and Capital by Marx
Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx
The Paris Commune from the Civil War in France by Marx
Chapter One of Capital vol 1: Commodities
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels
Theses on Feuerbach by Marx
Reform or Revolution by Luxemburg
Marxism and Politics by Miliband
The State and the Revolution by Lenin
State and the Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay
Luxemburg versus Lenin by Mattick
What is Fascism and How to Fight It by Trotsky
Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton
Chapters 6, 7, 8 of An Antonio Gramsci Reader, selected writings 1916-35, edited by David Forgacs
March and April 2022 - Nations and Countries
(revision) The National Question: Rosa Luxemburg
(revision) The Rights of Nation to Self Determination: Lenin
(revision) Rabindranath Tagore: Nationalism in India
Chapters 4,5, and 6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928
(revision) The Russian Tragedy: Rosa Luxemburg
(revision) Between Red and White: Trotsky Chapter 9
(revision) Selected articles on Assam and NRC (from Suraj Gogoi's reading list)
* https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-narrow-nationalism-again/article29394298.ece
* https://fountainink.in/essay/a-register-most-flawed
Part 3 of Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot
(revision) Part 1 and 2 of Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot
(revision) The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos
(revision) Aligarh's "Notre Eminent Contemporain": Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan's Reformist Agenda by Mushirul Hasan
(revision) Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer
(revision) Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul
May and Jun 2022 - Caste, Gender, and Identity
Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(revision) Caste, Class, and Women's Liberation by Gail Omvedt
(revision) Prejudice Against Reservation Policies by Sukhadeo Thorat & others
(revision) Does Untouchability exist among Muslims?
(revision) Dalit & Naxalite Movements in Andhra Pradesh by Ajay Gudavarthy
(revision) Dumont, Guha, and the Danger of Stereotyping India by Krzysztof Iwanek
Video
Gender Critical - Contrapoints
Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Feminist Philosophy (Parts 1-3) - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Chapter 6 of Seeing Like a Feminist by Nivedita Menon
Annihilation of Caste by B. R. Ambedkar
Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 of Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present by Sumit Guha
Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of Caste, Culture, and Hegemony: Social Domination of Colonial Bengal by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay
Caste in Modern India: A Reader by Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar
Read these chapters of this book: Chapters 2, 3, 6, 11, 13 from Volume 1. Chapter 1, 5, 7, 10, 11 from Volume 2
Following authors are covered: Dirks, Bayly, Sumit Guha, Bernard Cohn, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, S J Patel, Nandini Gooptu, Anupama Rao, Sumit Sarkar, Jaffrelot
Castes of Mind by Dirks
(revision) Kosambi and the Question of Caste by Kumkum Roy
The Social Basis of the Woman Question by Alexandra Kollontai
What is Socialist Feminism? by Barbara Ehrenreich
(revision) The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism by Heidi Hartmann
(revision) Capitalism and the Gay Identity by John D'Emilio
(revision) Transition and Abolition by Jules Joanne Gleeson
(revision) Feminism for the 99% by Cinzia Arruzza, Nancy Fraser, and Tithi Bhattacharya
Recommended extra reading
July and August 2022 - Indian Communist History
(revision) on Dadabhai Naoroji by Inderjeet Parmar
(revision) MPT Acharya: Reminiscences of a Revolutionary also, a clean transcription of this by Kosambi Circle people also, as the material is not the full story (we could not find the book) here is what happened to MPT after Morocco
(revision) The Indian Sociologist by A M Shah
(revision) History of the Anushilan Samiti
(revision) Virendranath Chattopadhyay
Selected articles on pre 1920 events
Extra readings
The Bomb in Bengal by Peter Heehs
(revision) Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army (H.S.R.A.) by Ram Chandra
(revision) a. Formation of the CPI version 1920 b. Formation of the CPI version 1925
(revision) Origins of the RSP
Wiki article on the Workers and Peasants Party
Wiki article on Shaukat Usmani
Muzaffar Ahmad’s Unexpected Turn in Life by Suchetana Chattopadhyay
A Lok Sabha booklet on Sripad Dange, this is a hagiography read critically
On ITUC by M N Roy later called AITUC 222.
A Brief History of Workers’ Movements in India, with focus on Bengal
(revision) The Meerut Conspiracy
(revision) Cellular Jail: Stories of Clemency and Betrayal by Zubair Ahmed
(revision) The United Socialist Front: The CSP and the CPI by Vineet Kaitan D'mello
(revision) The Great Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946 by Iqbal Javed
The Role of the Working Class in the Political Upsurges in Undivided India by Keka Bose
Extra readings
CPI and its mass Organizations – 1936-1947 by Arindam Datta
Telengana's People's Struggles and Its Lessons by P Sundarayya
An Early Communist Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta, 1913–1929 by Suchetana Chattopadhyay
Wiki article on Hare Krishna Konar
(revision) Tebhaga Movement in Bengal: A Retrospect by D. Bandyopadhyay
The Swing Back, a critique of the 40s CPI by the RSP and CPM's own telling of that era
The Left in India's Freedom Movement and in Free India by E. M. S. Namboodiripad
The Story of an Aborted Revolution: Communist Insurgency in Post-independence West Bengal, 1948–501
(revision) State and the Making of Communist Politics in India, 1947-57 by J Alam
(revision) On the 1964 split
(revision) Communism in Kerala by Jitendra Singh
The CPI Congress alliance in India by Ouseph Varkey
Extra readings The Long Haul by Rajani Bakshi Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women's Movement by Kavita Punjabi
Amar Bari Tomar Bari NaxalBari by Sumit Kumar
India’s Simmering Revolution by Sumanta Banerjee
From Popular Movements to Rebellion, Bengal in the 50s and the 60s by Ranabir Samaddar
No one killed the Dalits by Meena Kandasamy (71 pages)
Land Reform Law and Implementation in West Bengal page 40-60 (20 pages)
Bathani Tola (Bihar) (8 pages)
The Left Front Government by Ashok Rudra (4 pages)
The Communist Movement in India by Mohan Ram (15 pages)
The Left Front’s First Term in West Bengal (1971-1982) (8 pages)
Bal Thackeray, or, Why the Communists Did Nothing (5 pages)
The Naxalite Movement in Central Bihar by Bela Bhatia
The Burning Forest by Nandini Sunder, read Chapter 4,5,12,14 (60 pages)
Land Acquisition and Compensation in Singur: What Really Happened? by M Ghatak (40 pages)
Dwelling on Morichjhanpi by Annu Jalais (7 pages)
Mandal and the parties (2 pages)
Read completely the books whose chapters are required readings
Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age by Bayly
September and October 2022 - Critique of Political Economy
Chapters 1,2,3,4 of An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital by Michael Heinrich
(revision) What Do Bosses Do? by Stephen Marglin
(revision) Don’t Mention the War by Mike Beggs
(revision) The Keynesian Counterrevolution by Mike Beggs
(revision) The Left in A Foxhole by Geoff Mann
(revision) Introduction in Simon Clarke’s Keynesianism, Monetarism and the Crisis of the State (pg 1-20)
(revision) Fantasies of Secession by Jamie Merchant
(revision) Critical Theory and the Critique of Anti-Imperialism by Marcel Stoetzler
Empire of Capital by Ellen Woods
Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Woods
(revision) Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer
November and December 2022 - Science, Technology, and Labour
Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein
(revision) Science and Freedom: D D Kosambi's Exasperating Essays
(revision) Notes from the Grundrisse (pages 690-698) on Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine: Karl Marx
(revision) A tale of two AI cities by Melissa Hellmann
Part 1 of Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
(revision) The Platform as Factory: Crowdwork and the Hidden Labour behind Artificial Intelligence by Moritz Altenried (revision) Algorithmic Management, Employment, and the Self in Gig Work by Julia Tomassetti
(revision) Turkopticon by Lilly Irani et al
(revision) Capitalism’s New Clothes by Evgeny Morozov
(revision) Platform Capitalism by Nick Srnicek
(revision) The Socialist Case for Nuclear Energy
(revision) Lying Eyes, The Victorian roots of facial recognition by Richard Woodall
(revision) IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC (read the summary for policymakers, for reference read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 5)
Physiognomic Artificial Intelligence by Luke Stark, Jevan Hutson
Chapters 1 to 5 of Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz
Science in Saffron by Meera Nanda
Reflections on the past two decades of neuroscience by Bassett et al
2023