Do the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 signal the end of the road for the Left? Over the past twenty years, the Indian political climate has shifted decidedly to the Right - with the BJP and the Congress dragging India into a growth trajectory that squanders the hopes of working people.
The old consensus on Indian socialism is threadbare, and socialist parties in disarray.
//The future of Indian communism is rooted in the popular hopes for a better tomorrow and in the popular discontent with the bitter present.
No Free Left is a critical examination of the past of Indian Communism and an assessment of its future.
//Most literature on Indian communism feels claustrophobic.
It assumes that the communist movement lives on a detached landscape - its programme and political judgments are adjudged against a divine standard.
A history of communism cannot be written, Gramsci said, without writing a general history of a country.
Vijay Prashad does exactly that.
//No Free Left stays alive to the details of the present while drawing out the long term dynamic, combining a rich historical survey with acute political analysis of the present.
It is a compelling work for students of Indian politics.
For activists of the Left, it is indispensable reading.
Above all, it is a live work, an invitation to debate and discussion.
