000			02173nam a2200205 4500
001			19146513
010			_a 2016317354
020			_a9789351775164
020			_a935177516X
082	0	4	_a324.254075 _bPRA/P
100	1		_aPraful Bidwai
245	1	4	_aThe phoenix moment : challenges confronting the Indian left
260			_aNoida _bHarper collins _c2015
300			_axiii, 586 p.
520			_aStudy refers to the states of Kerala and West Bengal, India. Praful Bidwai's analysis and conclusions compel serious engagement both by academics and political leaders.' - K.N. Panikkar 'Bidwai's assessments will undoubtedly trigger further discussion.' - Romila Thapar 'Praful raises the right questions and is scrupulously fair.' - Susan George India still has a significant and relatively powerful communist movement. In spite of the massive setbacks communist parties have suffered in and since the 2014 national elections, and their general decline during the past decade, the Indian Left is a significant component of the political spectrum. It is represented in virtually every state in the form of trade unions, peasant associations, women's organizations and student unions, and in state legislatures, municipal bodies and village councils. The Phoenix Moment seeks to understand how a communist movement, almost unique within the world's capitalist democracies, flourished for so long in India, and what accounts for its initially gradual and then rapid decline. It also asks how far and in what manner the Left has accomplished its goals; whether it could have achieved more and what its future prospects are. Crucially, political analyst Praful Bidwai investigates whether the Left's core agenda of progressive or socialist transformation can yet be reinvented and restored to relevance - either with its own agency or through other forces, formations and initiatives. Given the paucity of analytical literature on the mainstream Left at the national level, Bidwai's timely and deeply insightful book fills a crucial void.
650		0	_aCommunist parties
650		0	_aIndia
650		0	_apolitics and government
942			_cBK
999			_c61725 _d61725