Mainstream Weekly

For Left Consolidation: A Note on the Crisis and Tasks of the Left in the Present Situation | Bhanudeb Dutta & Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2024-11-09T06:16:33Z

Preliminary remarks :
It is undeniable that the Left in India is at present passing through a crisis which is unprecedented since independence. In contrast to the steady concentration of power in the hands of the Right, the rapid decline of the Left over the years is extremely alarming. This is especially manifest in the marginalization of the Left in Parliament and their exit from power in West Bengal and Tripura. Only in Kerala the Left is still in power, but it is plagued with many (…)

- 2024

Lenin 150: Revisiting Lenin's Understanding of Democracy in post-revolutionary Russia | Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2020-07-31T06:55:38Z

The literature on Lenin spanning the Cold War as well as the post-Cold War era has been broadly characterized by two rather opposite viewpoints: deification or demonization of this iconic figure of the twentieth century.

- 2020

Hari Vasudevan and the Soviet Archives : A Personal Remembrance

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2020-05-16T22:05:23Z

It was May, 1995, exactly 25 years ago. Hari Vasudevan (Calcutta University), Purabi Roy (Jadavpur University) and I myself (Calcutta University) were in Moscow for two months, working as a team sent by The Asiatic Society, Calcutta in connection with a project of collection of documents from the newly opened Soviet archives on Indo-Russian Relations : 1917-1947. This project was the result of a Protocol signed between The Asiatic Society, Calcutta and Moscow's Institute of Oriental (…)

- 2020

Lucid, Factual, Detailed, Balanced Account of Communism in Bengal

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2017-09-02T08:21:20Z

BOOK REVIEW
Undivided Communist Movement in Bengal: Background—India by Bhanudeb Dutta; People's Publishing House, New Delhi; 2016; pages 344; Rs 450.00.
This book, written by a veteran Communist, is an attempt to understand the emergence and growth of the communist movement in Bengal against the background of how the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) changed its course at different moments of history from a small beginning till 1964, when the Party witnessed its first split (…)

- 2017

Magisterial Study of Left Politics in Contemporary India

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2016-06-11T19:26:54Z

BOOK REVIEW
The Phoenix Moment: Challenges confronting the Indian Left by Praful Bidwai; Noida: Harper Collins Publishers India; 2015; 586 + xiii pages; Rs 599.00
The Left in India, admittedly, is passing through its worst crisis since independence. Praful Bidwai, the author of this book, who died at a rather premature age in 2015, was an engaged researcher as well as an activist, with vast experience of political journalism. He has written virtually a comprehensive history of the Indian (…)

- 2016

Revisiting P.C. Joshi in Today's Context

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2015-05-30T21:14:20Z

BOOK REVIEW
People's ‘Warrior': Words and Worlds of P.C. Joshi by Gargi Chakravartty (ed.); Tulika Books, New Delhi; 2014; 474 + xxii pages; Rs 995.
It is an irony of history that P.C. Joshi, the architect of united front politics in pre-independence India, is a much-maligned, almost forgotten, figure in today's Left circles, although it is precisely his idea of forging unity with the secular, nationalist forces under the slogan “Left-democratic unity” that is the key issue which now (…)

- 2015

The Left‘s Exit: Notes for Consideration of All Concerned

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2009-05-23T17:32:18Z

History, at times, is a cruel reminder. Twenty years ago, 1989 signalled the impending collapse of the Soviet Union, as the Berlin wall crashed. Two years thereafter, the year 1991, watched how the USSR, together with the regimes in Eastern Europe, crumbled. Are we going to witness a repeat of this scenario, 2009 marking the beginning and 2011, the year of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, being the probable year of the erasure of the Left from Indian politics? If this catastrophe is to (…)

- May 2009

Some Notes on Rethinking Marxism for the Future of Socialism in India

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2008-07-16T03:46:28Z

[(DISCUSSION
CPI leader and former Union Agriculture Minister Chaturanan Mishra, in his article “Need to Redefine Socialism after the Collapse of the Soviet Union” (Mainstream, Annual 2007), called for a discussion on the subject. D.G. Bokare, D.P. Sen and K.G. Somasekharan Nair participated in the discussion with contributions in March 22, 2008 and May 10, 2008 issues of this journal. The following is another contribution.)]
This note is in response to the self-critical analysis of the (…)

- July 12, 2008

Perceptive Analysis of European Left

Sobhanlal Datta Gupta — 2008-05-08T23:17:03Z

[(BOOK REVIEW)]
Against Capitalism: The European Left on the March by William A. Pelz; Peter Lang, New York; 2007; pages: 159 + ix.
In an age dominated by the spirit of neo-liberalism at one end and postmodernism at the other, it is a somewhat challenging job to indulge in writings concerning any history of the Left. The present book, authored by a distinguished American labour historian, who has over the years written extensively on various aspects of the revolutionary working class (…)

- May 3, 2008