Back in print after thirty years, this is a classic collection of Chomsky essays. It is particularly valuable as the first of Chomsky’s works to fully demonstrate his power as a political thinker. In his biting critiques of American foreign policy, the collection showcases his unique ability to join broader philosophical concerns with the political realities of his time.
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Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov, 1857–1918, a Russian revolutionary and founder of Marxism in Russia and known as the “Father of Russian Marxism.” His best works in the fields of history, philosophy, aesthetics, social and politics, especially the philosophy of historical materialism, were contributions that very valuable for the development of scientific thought and progressive culture.
Publisher: Aakar Books (1869)
Stretcher-Bearer of Empire
In the pantheon of global liberation heroes, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has pride of place. Leaders like Mandela have lauded him as being part of the epic battle to defeat the white regime and prepare the way for a non-racial country. A popular sentiment in South Africa goes: ‘India gave us Mohandas, and we returned him to you as Mahatma’.
Against this background, The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire unravels the complex story of a man who, throughout his stay on African soil (1893–1914), remained true to Empire while expressing disdain for Africans. For Gandhi, whites and Indians were bound by an Aryan bloodline that had no place for the African. His racism was matched by his class (and caste) prejudice towards the Indian indentured. He persistently claimed that they were ignorant and needed his leadership, and wrote their struggles out of history—struggles this book documents.
The authors show that Gandhi never missed an opportunity to demonstrate his loyalty to Empire, with a particular penchant for war. He served as stretcher-bearer in the war between Brit and Boer, demanded that Indians be allowed to carry fire-arms, and recruited volunteers for the imperial army in both England and India during the First World War.
Ashwin Desai is Professor of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg. His previous books include South Africa: Still Revolting, ‘We are the Poors’: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa and Reading Revolution: Shakespeare on Robben Island among others.
Goolam Vahed is Associate Professor of History at the University of KwaZulu Natal. He writes on histories of migration, ethnicity, religion, and identity formation among Indian South Africans.
‘To be sure, When Google Met WikiLeaks is a vital book, an admirably direct and clear-eyed attempt to make sense of the modern-day privacy and freedom of speech debates’—The Sunday Guardian
‘For those interested to know how present-day geopolitics, surveillance, censorship and publishing (if not foreign policy itself) are being shaped by the gods of the internet, this is recommended reading’—The Telegraph
‘In When Google Met Wikileaks, Assange makes a case for the dark net by suggesting that the open web site we all know best has sinister intentions’—The Independent
‘The most important accomplishment of the book may be the connection Assange establishes between the Google Politic and the ambitions set loose in Digital Age’—Prague Post
‘Editors K. Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu have drawn from their previous experience editing anthologies of Dalit writing from south India to collate poetry, essays, memoir and fiction into an immersive experience of Dalit literature as both aesthetic and socio-political identity.’— LiveMint
Read an excerpt published in the Hindustan Times.
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