LeftWord Books is a New Delhi–based publisher that seeks to reflect the views of the 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). The Chief Editor is Vijay Prashad and the Managing Editor is the actor-publisher Sudhanva Deshpande.[1][2]

LeftWord Books
StatusActive
Founded1999; 27 years ago (1999)
FounderPrakash Karat
Country of originIndia
Headquarters locationNew Delhi
Key peopleSudhanva Deshpande, Vijay Prashad
Publication typesbooks
Nonfiction topicsLeftist views, Marxist theory
OwnerCommunist Party of India (Marxist)
Official websitehttp://leftword.com/

History

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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, 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)".[3] 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.[4]

May Day

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May Day Bookstore from the outside

The company runs the May Day bookstore and cafe in New Delhi which happens to the only left-leaning bookstore in the city, next to the theater space, Studio Safdar. It lives in the vibrant neighborhood of Shadipur in West Delhi, nearby the Shadipur metro station.

Internet Retail

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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 publisher with several well-subscribed titles.[1][2]

Book series

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  • LeftWord Classics
  • SIGNPOST: The Issues that Matter

Selected titles

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References

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  1. 1 2 "LeftWord Books: About us". Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  2. 1 2 Suroor, Hasan (15 May 2000). "What's the 'Leftword' for free market?". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 January 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  3. 1 2 Nair, Gouridasan (22 June 2008). "A rare double for Isaac". The Hindu.
  4. "Interview with Sudhanva Deshpande". Not Just Publishing. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  5. The Master Revisited, Outlook, 6 February 2012 Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Gopalan, T. N. (10 June 2014). "Searching for Palestine in India's Israel policy". The Hindu.
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