[Reader-list] Left Perspectives In South Asia

[Harsh Kapoor]

Exclusive report on South Asia Citizens Web
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex
[Last Updated on 9 Sept. 2001]
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LEFT PERSPECTIVES IN SOUTH ASIA

Meena Dhanda & Pritam Singh

[The paper below has been published in The British Association for 
South Asian Studies Bulletin Vol.4 No.1 Winter 2001 ]

At the Annual Conference of the British Association of South
Asian Studies held at the Bath College of Higher Education on
April 11-13, 1997 , a panel discussion on Left Perspectives in
South Asia was convened by Pritam Singh on April 11. The
panelists were: Yogendra Yadav (Center for the Study of
Developing Societies, Delhi), Ranjan Poudyal (London School Of
Economics and Save the Children Fund, Kathmandu), Mohammed
Waseem (St. Antonyís College, Oxford and the University of
Islamabad), Jairus Banaji (Wolfson College, Oxford and the Union
Research Group, Bombay), Surinder Jodhka (Queen Elizabeth House,
Oxford and the University of Hyderabad)  and Robin Archer
(Corpus Christi College, Oxford). In planning the format of the
panel discussion, no guidelines were given to the panelists
except to try to focus less on past introspection and more on
futuristic thinking. This was done deliberately, in order to
enable the spontaneous articulation of their engagement with and
reflections on the 'Left' in their own country. All the
panelists had a chance to revise their contributions in the
written comments they put forward for the preparation of this
report.
I
It is rare for Left scholars and activists from South Asia to be
able to meet each other and exchange ideas and experiences on
issues of mutual interest. The panel discussion at Bath was
expected to make a contribution to enriching our understanding
of the Left in different countries in South Asia. A comparative
assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Left in
different countries of South Asia could be mutually beneficial
to the Leftist political forces in these countries. In
organizing the panel, the aim was to get at least one
commentator on each of the five countries of South Asia-
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. As we did not
succeed in arranging a speaker on Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, this
aim was only partially fulfilled.

[ Full text of the above (47k long) paper is available to all at the 
recently updated South Asia Citizens Web Site. The exact URL for the 
paper is: http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/leftperspectives01.html ]