Indian Debates on the International Left: Selected Writings of Lajpat Rai

Abstract

This book traces the Indian Left’s engagement with the international communist debates of the 1960s and 1970s, shedding new light on the fault lines within the Left as well as on its international solidarities. Lajpat Rai argued for rethinking established leftist positions, seeking inspiration in experiment and developing creative approaches for the sustainability of socialist ideas and ideals.

The contemporary relevance of these debates is significant as the Left remains without a sharp response to the rise of neoliberalism and right-wing populism in India, and a failure of the Left to recognize the challenges emanating from a strongly integrated and organized finance capital on the one hand and the increasingly self-aware identity politics on the other. Democratic opposition rather than a bureaucratic thinking needs to be the backbone of any meaningful Left struggle. Lajpat Rai’s passionate writing gives expression to the spirit and intensity of political debates at the time and the role of the Left intelligentsia in comprehending, from a committed socialist angle, the shifting paradigms of an unstable world to help bring about progressive change.

Citation

Rai, S. M., & Prakash, A. (Eds.). (2021). Indian Debates on the International Left: Selected Writings of Lajpat Rai. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9789354792120

• Book Type: Edited Book
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Apr 5, 2023
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Series Title: Politics and Society in India and the Global South
• ISBN: 9354792111
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9789354792120
• Publisher URL: https://spectrum.sagepub.in/book/indian-debates-on-the-international-left-shirin-m-rai-9789354792113/7
• Additional Information: Copyright Statement : Open Access