https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=LeftWord_BooksLeftWord Books - Revision history2026-07-30T22:57:13ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=LeftWord_Books&diff=470230&oldid=prevIgnacioElem3 at 10:59, 10 January 20262026-01-10T10:59:02Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian publisher}}<br />
{{Primary sources|date=December 2025}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2022}}<br />
{{Infobox publisher<br />
| image = LeftWord Books Logo.png<br />
| imagesize = <br />
| parent = <br />
| status = Active<br />
| founded = {{start date and age|1999}}<br />
| founder = [[Prakash Karat]]<br />
| successor = <br />
| country = [[India]]<br />
| headquarters = [[New Delhi]]<br />
| distribution = <br />
| keypeople = [[Sudhanva Deshpande]], [[Vijay Prashad]]<br />
| publications = [[book]]s<br />
| topics = [[Left-wing politics|Leftist]] views, [[Marxist]] theory<br />
| genre = <br />
| imprints = <br />
| revenue = <br />
| numemployees = <br />
| nasdaq = <br />
| url = http://leftword.com/<br />
|owner=[[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]]}}<br />
<br />
'''LeftWord Books''' is a [[New Delhi]]–based publisher that seeks to reflect the views of the [[left-wing politics|Left]] in India and South Asia. Its Managing Director is [[Prakash Karat]], the former General Secretary of the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]], or CPI(M).<br />
The Chief Editor is [[Vijay Prashad]] and the Managing Editor is the actor-publisher Sudhanva Deshpande.<ref name="aboutus"><br />
{{cite web |title=LeftWord Books: About us |url=https://leftword.com/aboutus |access-date=15 January 2015}} <br />
</ref><ref name=freemarket><br />
{{cite news |title=What's the 'Leftword' for free market? |first=Hasan |last=Suroor|date=15 May 2000 |url=http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2000/05/15/stories/0215000k.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150106195924/http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2000/05/15/stories/0215000k.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 January 2015 |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=6 January 2015}}<br />
</ref><br />
<br />
== History ==<br />
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]], [[Aijaz Ahmad]], [[Tulika Books|Indira Chandrasekhar]], [[Prakash Karat]], [[V. K. Ramachandran]] and [[N. Ram]] and sometimes regarded as "the English publishing arm of the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]]".<ref name=raredouble/> It is managed by the Managing Editor Sudhanva Deshpande, who had earlier worked with [[Tulika Books]] during 1994 to 1998 and continues to be involved with the theatre group [[Jana Natya Manch]]. LeftWord differs from Tulika Books, according to Deshpande, by being explicitly Leftist.<ref name=Despande>{{cite web |title=Interview with Sudhanva Deshpande |url=http://notjustpublishing.in/interview/Sudhanva/Deshpande# |publisher=Not Just Publishing |access-date=5 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103183714/http://notjustpublishing.in/interview/Sudhanva/Deshpande |archive-date=3 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><br />
<br />
== May Day ==<br />
[[File:May Day Bookstore.jpg|thumb|May Day Bookstore from the outside]]<br />
The company runs the May Day [[Bookselling|bookstore]] and [[Coffeehouse|cafe]] in New Delhi which happens to the only left-leaning bookstore in the city, next to the [[Theatre|theater]] space, Studio Safdar. It lives in the vibrant neighborhood of [[Shadipur Depot|Shadipur]] in [[West Delhi district|West Delhi]], nearby the [[Shadipur metro station]].<br />
<br />
== Internet Retail ==<br />
It sells books via its website from various Leftist publishers including [[Tulika Books]]. 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 [[Publishing|publisher]] with several well-subscribed titles.<ref name="aboutus" /><ref name="freemarket" /><br />
<br />
== Book series ==<br />
* LeftWord Classics<br />
* SIGNPOST: The Issues that Matter<br />
<br />
== Selected titles ==<br />
* [[Fidel Castro]], ''The Gigantic Casino: Reflections on the World Financial Crisis'', {{ISBN|8187496827}}.<br />
* [[Hugo Chavez]], ''The South Also Exists'', {{ISBN|8187496568}}.<br />
* Carlos Ferrer, ''Becoming Che'', {{ISBN|8187496800}}.<br />
* Teo Ballve, [[Vijay Prashad]], ''Dispatches From Latin America- Experimenting Against Neoliberalism'', {{ISBN|8187496584}}.<br />
* [[John Harriss]], ''Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank and Social Capital'', {{ISBN|184331049X}} (also issued by London: Anthem Press).<br />
* [[E. M. S. Namboodiripad]], ''History, Society, and Land Relations: Selected Essays'', {{ISBN|8187496924}}.<br />
* [[Thomas Isaac]], Richard W. Franke, ''Local Democracy and Development: The Kerala People's Campaign for Decentralized Planning'', {{ISBN|8187496126}} (also issued by Rowman & Littlefield, {{ISBN|0742516075}}<ref name=raredouble>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/a-rare-double-for-isaac/article1281999.ece |title=A rare double for Isaac|newspaper= The Hindu|date= 22 June 2008|first=Gouridasan |last=Nair}}</ref><br />
* [[Prakash Karat]], ''Subordinate Ally: The Nuclear Deal and India-US Strategic Relations'', {{ISBN|8187496738}}.<br />
* [[Harkishan Singh Surjeet]], ''History of the Communist Movement in India, Vol. 1: The Formative Years, 1920-1933'', {{ISBN|8187496495}}.<br />
* [[Richard Levins]], ''Talking about Trees: Science, Ecology, and Agriculture in Cuba'', {{ISBN|8187496630}}.<br />
* [[Utsa Patnaik]], ''The Agrarian Question In Marx And His Successors'', {{ISBN|8187496606}}.<br />
* [[Aijaz Ahmad]], [[Irfan Habib]], [[Prabhat Patnaik]], ''A World To Win: Essays on the Communist Manifesto'', {{ISBN|8187496010}}.<br />
* [[A. G. Noorani]], ''The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour'', {{ISBN|8187496134}}.<br />
* A. G. Noorani, ''Savarkar and Hindutva: The Godse Connection'', {{ISBN|8187496282}}.<br />
* [[Dwijendra Narayan Jha]], ''The Many Careers of DD Kosambi'', {{ISBN|9380118066}}.<ref>[http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?279686 The Master Revisited, Outlook, 6 February 2012] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402121615/http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?279686 |date=2 April 2015 }}</ref><br />
* [[Vijay Prashad]], ''The Darker Nations- A Biography of the Short-Lived Third World'', {{ISBN|8187496665}}.<br />
* Vijay Prashad, ''War Against the Planet: the fifth Afghan war, imperialism, and other assorted fundamentalisms'', {{ISBN|8187496193}}.<br />
* Archana Prashad, ''Environmentalism and the left: contemporary debates and future agendas in tribal areas'', {{ISBN|8187496444}}.<br />
* [[N. Ram]], ''Riding the Nuclear Tiger'', {{ISBN|8187496029}}.<br />
* [[Praveen Swami]], ''The Kargil War'', {{ISBN|8187496045}}.<br />
* Parvathi Menon, ''Breaking Barriers: Stories of Twelve Women'', {{ISBN|8187496479}}.<br />
* [[Ninan Koshy]], ''Under the Empire: India's New Foreign Policy'', {{ISBN|8187496525}}.<br />
* [[Govind Deshpande]], ''Selected Writings Of Jotirao Phule'', {{ISBN|8187496215}},.<br />
* C. P. Chandrasekhar, [[Jayati Ghosh]], ''The market that failed: a decade of neoliberal economic reforms in India'', {{ISBN|8187496207}}.<br />
* Prabir Purkayastha, Ninan Koshy, M. K. Bhadrakumar, ''Uncle Sam's Nuclear Cabin'', {{ISBN|8187496746}}.<br />
* Madhura Swaminathan, ''Weakening welfare: the public distribution of food in India'', {{ISBN|8187496088}}.<br />
* [[Githa Hariharan]], ''From India to Palestine — Essays in Solidarity'', {{ISBN|978-93-80118-20-8}}.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-bookreview/searching-for-palestine-in-indias-israel-policy/article6099332.ece |title=Searching for Palestine in India’s Israel policy|first=T. N. |last=Gopalan|newspaper= The Hindu|date= 10 June 2014}}</ref><br />
* [[K. Chandru]], ''Listen to My Case!'', {{ISBN|9788194475934}}<br />
<br />
== References ==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
== External links ==<br />
<br />
* {{OpenStreetMap link|n|6763955887|May Day Bookstore}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:1999 establishments in Delhi]]<br />
[[Category:Book publishing companies of India]]<br />
[[Category:Leftist organisations in India]]<br />
[[Category:Publishing companies established in 1999]]</div>IgnacioElem3