LeftWord Books is a

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

-based publisher that seeks to reflect the views of the

Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

in India and South Asia. Its Managing Director is

Prakash Karat Prakash Karat (born 7 February 1948) is an Indian Communist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 2005 to 2015. Education and early career Prakash Karat was born in Letpadan, Burma on 7 Februar ...

, the former General Secretary of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

, or CPI(M). The Chief Editor is

Vijay Prashad Vijay Prashad is an Indian Marxist historian and commentator. He is an executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financi ...

and the Managing Editor is the actor-publisher Sudhanva Deshpande.

History

LeftWord Books was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of ''Naya Rasta Publishers Private Limited''. It was conceived by a group of Leftist intellectuals including

Prabhat Patnaik Prabhat Patnaik is an Indian Marxist economist and political commentator. He taught at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in the School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, from 1974 until his retirement in ...

Aijaz Ahmad Aijaz Ahmad ( hi, ऐजाज़ अहमद, ur, اعجاز احمد; 1941 – 9 March 2022) was an Indian-born American Marxist philosopher, literary theorist, and political commentator. He was the Chancellor's Professor at the University ...

, Indira Chandrasekhar,

, V. K. Ramachandran and

N. Ram Narasimhan Ram (born 4 May 1945) is an Indian journalist and a prominent member of the Kasturi family that controls The Hindu Group of publications. Ram was the managing-director of ''The Hindu'' since 1977 and its editor-in-chief since 27 Ju ...

and sometimes regarded as "the English publishing arm of the

". It is managed by the Managing Editor Sudhanva Deshpande, who had earlier worked with

Tulika Books Tulika Books is a New Delhi-based independent publisher of scholarly and academic books in the humanities and social sciences, with a "broadly left perspective." The Chennai-based Tulika Publishers is a sister company of Tulika Books. History ...

during 1994–98 and continues to be involved with the theatre group

Jana Natya Manch Jana Natya Manch (People's Theatre Front; Janam for short) is a New Delhi-based amateur theatre company specialising in left-wing street theatre in Hindi. It was founded in 1973 by a group of Delhi's radical theatre amateurs who sought to take the ...

. LeftWord differs from Tulika Books, according to Deshpande, by being explicitly Leftist. The company runs the May Day Bookstore and Cafe in New Delhi, as well as Internet retailing, through which it sells books from various Leftist publishers including

. It also has a membership-based book club, whose subscriptions served to form the seed capital of the publishing division. By mid-2000, the company established itself as a successful publisher with several well-subscribed titles.

Book series

* LeftWord Classics * SIGNPOST: The Issues that Matter

Selected titles

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, ''King Leopold's Soliloquy'', . *

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

, ''The Gigantic Casino: Reflections on the World Financial Crisis'', . *

Hugo Chavez Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...

, ''The South Also Exists'', . * Carlos Ferrer, ''Becoming Che'', . * Teo Ballve,

, ''Dispatches From Latin America- Experimenting Against Neoliberalism'', . * John Harriss, ''Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank and Social Capital'', (also issued by London: Anthem Press). * E. M. S. Namboodiripad, ''History, Society, and Land Relations: Selected Essays'', . *

Thomas Isaac Travancore Mathew Thomas Isaac (born 26 September 1952) is an Indian politician and economist, who served as the Minister for Finance and Coir of the Indian state of Kerala and a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist ...

, Richard W. Franke, ''Local Democracy and Development: The Kerala People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning'', (also issued by Rowman & Littlefield, A rare double for Isaac, The Hindu, 22 June 2008
/ref> *

, ''Subordinate Ally: The Nuclear Deal and India-US Strategic Relations'', . *

Harkishan Singh Surjeet Harkishan Singh Surjeet (23 March 1916 – 1 August 2008) was an Indian Communist politician from Punjab, who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 1992 to 2005 and was a member of the party's Political Bu ...

, ''History of the Communist Movement in India, Vol. 1: The Formative Years, 1920-1933'', . *

Richard Levins Richard "Dick" Levins (June 1, 1930 – January 19, 2016) was an ex-tropical farmer turned ecologist, a population geneticist, biomathematician, mathematical ecologist, and philosopher of science who researched diversity in human populations. Un ...

, ''Talking about Trees: Science, Ecology, and Agriculture in Cuba'', . *

Utsa Patnaik Utsa Patnaik is an Indian Marxian economist. She taught at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in the School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, from 1973 until her retirement in 2010. Her husband is t ...

, ''The Agrarian Question In Marx And His Successors'', . *

Irfan Habib Irfan Habib (born August 10, 1931) is an Indian historian of ancient and medieval India, following the methodology of Marxist historiography in his contributions to economic history. He identifies as a Marxist and is well known for his strong ...

, ''A World To Win: Essays on the Communist Manifesto'', . * A. G. Noorani, ''The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour'', . * A. G. Noorani, ''Savarkar and Hindutva: The Godse Connection'', . *

Dwijendra Narayan Jha Dwijendra Narayan Jha (19404 February 2021) was an Indian historian who studied and wrote on ancient and medieval India He was a professor of history at Delhi University and a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Some of his boo ...

, ''The Many Careers of DD Kosambi'', . *

, ''The Darker Nations- A Biography of the Short-Lived Third World'', . * Vijay Prashad, ''War against the planet: the fifth Afghan war, imperialism, and other assorted fundamentalisms'', . * Archana Prashad, ''Environmentalism and the left: contemporary debates and future agendas in tribal areas'', . *

, ''Riding the nuclear tiger'', . *

Praveen Swami Praveen Swami (born 1969) is an Indian journalist and author specialising on international strategic and security issues. He is currently the Group Consulting Editor at Network18 Group. He was the Diplomatic Editor of ''The Daily Telegraph'' new ...

, ''The Kargil War'', . * Parvathi Menon, ''Breaking Barriers: Stories of Twelve Women'', . *

Ninan Koshy Ninan Koshy (; 1 February 1934 – 4 March 2015) was an Indian political thinker, foreign affairs expert, theologian and social analyst. Life He was born in 1934 in Thiruvalla. Former director of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on Inte ...

, ''Under the Empire: India's New Foreign Policy'', . *

Govind Deshpande Govind Purushottam Deshpande (Devanagari: गोविंद पुरुषोत्तम देशपांडे; 1938 – 16 October 2013) was a Marathi playwright and academic from Maharashtra, India. Biography Education and career Bor ...

, ''Selected Writings Of Jotirao Phule'', ,. * C. P. Chandrasekhar,

Jayati Ghosh Jayati Ghosh (born 16 September 1955) is an Indian development economics, development economist. She is the Chairperson of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and her core areas of study inc ...

, ''The market that failed: a decade of neoliberal economic reforms in India'', . * Prabir Purkayastha, Ninan Koshy, M. K. Bhadrakumar, ''Uncle Sam's Nuclear Cabin'', . * Madhura Swaminathan, ''Weakening welfare: the public distribution of food in India'', . *

Githa Hariharan Githa Hariharan (born 1954) is an Indian writer and editor based in New Delhi. Her first novel, ''The Thousand Faces of Night'', won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the best first novel in 1993. Her other works include the short story colle ...

, ''From India to Palestine — Essays in Solidarity'', . *

K. Chandru Justice K. Chandru (born 1951), is an Indian advocate and former judge of Madras High Court. Chandru has disposed of 96,000 cases during his tenure as a Judge. Chandru is known for a case which took place in 1993 when he was practising as a la ...

, ''Listen to My Case!'',

References

{{Reflist 1999 establishments in Delhi Book publishing companies of India Leftist organisations in India Publishing companies established in 1999