Democratic Governance and Politics of the Left in South Asia

Acclaimed senior academics like Ajjaz Ahmad, Prabhat Patnaik and Sobhanlal Dattagupta, on the one hand, and young energetic researchers like Srinivasan Ramani, Maidul Islam and Taimur Rahman, on the other, have contributed to the making of this volume which focuses on democratic governance and politics of the left in South Asia. The essays included cover an astonishingly wide range. While Pradhat Patnaik deliberates on the questions of identity and Marxian politics in India, Taimur Rahman’s paper expresses the hope that the small left groups in his country would perhaps come together to give a consolidated shape and size to the working class movement in Pakistan. The essays presented trace the rise of Left politics in India and analyses the nature of the crisis through which the left is traversing in this hour. Only the Left in Tripura, is securely entrenched in power and the exhaustive interview with Tripura’s Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar, offers the reasons for its splendid though isolated success. From Nepal’s Constituent Assembly experiment and the role of the Left in Bangladesh to the rise of the Left Front in West Bengal and the nature of the crisis that has gripped the Left at present–the themes covered offer a comprehensive picture of democratic governance and Left politics as it stands now in the subcontinent. This book is a part of the research project sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, South Asia. Hence, appropriately, the editor has written an excellent text on Rosa Luxemburg’s vision of democracy.