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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)

Maulana Sayyid Abul A'La Maududi: An appraisal of histhought and political influence by Zohair Husain 

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)

Logic and Ontology

Epistemology

Philosophy of Science by Samir Okasha

Theory of Mind

 

Video

Philosophy for beginners

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

Proletarian democracy

(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

a) Trotsky on Kronstatd

b) Berkman on Kronstatd

c) Emma Goldman on Kronstatd

d) Victor Serge on Kronstatd

e) Lenin in New York Herald on Kronstatd

(revision) 10th Party Congress resolutions

i) On Party Unity

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: 16-02-202022-02-2020

March - Electoralism, Reform, Revolution, Political Theory

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg 

Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband

Notes: 08-03-202014-03-2020 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: 05-04-202017-04-2020

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

The Platform as Factory: Crowdwork and the Hidden Labour behind Artificial Intelligence by Moritz Altenried

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 

Anthropology of 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

Dalit Panther Manifesto

 

Recommended readings September

Annihilation of Caste

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

Social Exclusion and Mental Health: The Unexplored Aftermath of Caste-based Discrimination and Violence by G C Pal

Good for nothing

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

Capitalism and mental health

A theory of mental health and monopoly capitalism

People Are Using ‘Pandemic Productivity’ as a Distraction From Grief, Vulnerability by Gretchen Walker

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

The Impact of Decades of Political Violence on Palestinian Children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by Thabet

Identifying depression symptoms among general population living in conflict zone in Jammu and Kashmir by Anood Tariq Wani, Tafazzul Hyder Zaidi

 

Also listen to these

Policing and racial trauma with Angela Davis

Social crisis, mental crisis

 

Recommended extra readings for October

The concept creep of emotional labour by by Arlie Hochschild

Where social justice meets mental health

What Fanon still teaches us about mental illness in post-colonial societies by Nigel Gibson, Roberto Beneduce

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

All About Love by Bell Hooks

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

Virendranath Chattopadhyay

M.N. Roy and the Mexican Revolution: How a Militant Indian Nationalist Became an International Communist by Isabel Alonso

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

Origins of the RSP

The Meerut Conspiracy

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

Mid-life crisis or terminal decline?: The Indian Communist movement from its foundation to-date by Nathalène Reynolds

State and the Making of Communist Politics in India, 1947-57 by J Alam

On the 1964 split

Communism in Kerala by Jitendra Singh

The Srikakulam movement. A Space within the Struggle: Women's Participation in People's Movements by Vindhya Undurti

 

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

The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism by Richard Sennett

The Care Manifesto

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

The Platform as Factory: Crowdwork and the Hidden Labour behind Artificial Intelligence by Moritz Altenried

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

Maulana Sayyid Abul A'La Maududi: An appraisal of histhought and political influence by Zohair Husain

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

Democratic centralism

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

Kronstatd

a) Trotsky on Kronstatd

b) Berkman on Kronstatd

c) Emma Goldman on Kronstatd

d) Victor Serge on Kronstatd

e) Lenin in New York Herald on Kronstatd

Worker's Opposition

a) Workers' Opposition by Alexandra Kollontai

b) 10th Party Congress resolutions

i) On Party Unity

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

Logic and Ontology

Epistemology

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

Theory of Mind

Video

Metaethics

Philosophy for beginners

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)

* http://www.freedomgazette.in/2020/01/caa-nrc-has-set-off-dangerous-identity-politics-in-the-northeast/

* https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-narrow-nationalism-again/article29394298.ece

* https://fountainink.in/essay/a-register-most-flawed

* https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-state-needs-identity-politics-so-that-its-agenda-can-survive/cid/1702936

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) Maulana Sayyid Abul A'La Maududi: An appraisal of histhought and political influence by Zohair Husain

(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

(revision) M.N. Roy and the Mexican Revolution: How a Militant Indian Nationalist Became an International Communist by Isabel Alonso

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) Mid-life crisis or terminal decline?: The Indian Communist movement from its foundation to-date by Nathalène Reynolds

(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

(revision) The Srikakulam movement. A Space within the Struggle: Women's Participation in People's Movements by Vindhya Undurti

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)

On Shankar Guha Niyogi

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

 

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