- Feb 8, 2020
- 20 min read

Kosambi Reading and Analysis Circle

Who are we?

We are a reading, writing, research, analysis, and discussion circle for multi-tendency socialist theory, based in India primarily but with members from all around the world joining in remotely as well. We had our first meeting on 28th Jan 2020. Our current membership is 1000+.

We started in Bombay but currently in a process of creating a federation of city and campus based chapters. Within this circle there are smaller focus groups which read and meet on specific aspects of society they analyse with socialist theory.

What do we engage with?

Theory from Marxist and other socialist tendencies. We also read other things not socialist but relevant to socialist understanding.

How to join us?

If you are interested in socialist theory, do join us! We try to be as accessible as possible. Contact our convenor Anupam_Guha

How do we meet?

Currently due to the pandemic, all meetings whether of the circle itself (which happen twice or thrice a month) or its caucuses happen remotely.

Why Kosambi?

We wanted a theorist for a mascot who represents our values, and Dr. D. D. Kosambi's work is extremely important. His writing is interesting and useful, he has important contributions to as diverse fields as historiography, Marxist analysis of caste, physics, mathematics, to things as odd as stamp collecting. At the core of this group is the desire to understand material reality and Kosambi's contributions to both the natural and social sciences reflect that.

Thematic plan by month for 2020

January: Introduction and fascism
Readings: 1 to 2 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 28-01-2020, 31-01-2020
February: Introduction and the manifesto
Readings: 3 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 16-02-2020, 22-02-2020
March: Electoralism, reform, revolution, political theory
Readings: 4 to 5 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 08-03-2020, 14-03-2020 and 15-03-2020
April: Marxist analysis of nationhood/borders/indegenity etc
Readings: 6 to 11 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 05-04-2020, 17-04-2020
May: Marxism and technology, Wage labour and capital, Grundrisse
Readings: 12 to 21 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 10-05-2020, 22-05-2020
June: Political economy
Readings: 22 to 27 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 13-06-2020, 20-06-2020, 27-06-2020
July: Political economy
Readings: 28 to 31 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 19-07-2020, 25-07-2020
August: Gender, feminism, and Marxism
Readings: 32 to 40 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 16-08-2020, 23-08-2020, 30-08-2020
September: Marxism and caste, representation, identity
Readings: 41 to 51 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 13-09-2020, 27-09-2020
October: Marxist analysis of mental health
Readings: 52 to 68 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 11-10-2020, 25-10-2020
November: History of Indian communism, land redistribution, peasantry in India
Readings: 69 to 88 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 15-11-2020, 29-11-2020
December: Friendship, relationships, in class society and socialism
Readings: 89 to 95 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 13-12-2020, 20-12-2020

Thematic plan by month for 2021

January: Propaganda and Gramsci
Readings: 96 to 99 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 17-01-2021
February: Art and Culture
Readings: 100 to 104 in the “Readings covered” list below
Notes: 21-02-2021, 28-02-2021
March: Imperialism (continued from 2020 Political Economy)
Readings: 105 to 107 in the “Readings covered” list below
April: Platform Labour
Readings: 108 to 114 in the “Readings covered” list below
May: Energy, materials, rare earths, extractivism
Readings: 115 to 122 in the “Readings covered” list below
June: Ecology, Climate Change
Readings: 123 to 133 in the “Readings covered” list below
July: Faith and Politics feat. Nationalism
Readings: 134 to 148 in the “Readings covered” list below
August: Hindutva feat. Nationalism
Readings: 149 to 154 in the “Readings covered” list below
September: Law, Justice, and Socialism
Readings: 155 to 161 in the “Readings covered” list below
October: Violence
Readings: 162 to 176 in the “Readings covered” list below
November: Strategies, Programmes, and Histories of Communisms
December: Philosophy, Epistemology, and Theory of Mind

Caucuses

Caucuses are ways for circle members to organise discussions on specific areas on which they might want to turn a socialist lens on, thus to have parallel discussions with the central monthly themes which are pan circle. Caucuses thus act as reading circles within the reading circle

Currently some of the caucuses are

Kosambi Science and Technology Caucus
Kosambi Caste Caucus
Kosambi Gender Caucus
Kosambi Art and Culture Caucus
Kosambi History Caucus
Kosambi Law Caucus
Kosambi Food Caucus
Kosambi Political Economy Caucus
Kosambi Writing Caucus
Kosambi Sports Caucus
Kosambi Health Caucus
Kosambi Philosophy Caucus
Kosambi Pedagogy Caucus
Kosambi Ecosocialist Caucus
Kosambi Capital Reading Caucus
Kosambi Anarchism Caucus

Timeline and notes

Readings covered till now

(Note: Please don't read uncritically and without context. The point is not to agree with everything anyone writes. The meeting notes above will help)

January '20

1. An excerpt from the graphic novel Red Rosa

2. What is fascism and how to fight it: a collection of writings from Leon Trotsky

February '20

3. The Manifesto of the Communist Party *Read this with the 1872 preface

March '20

4. Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg

5. Marxism and Politics by Ralph Miliband

April '20

6. Rabindranath Tagore: Nationalism in India

7. The National Question: Rosa Luxemburg

8. The Russian Tragedy: Rosa Luxemburg

9. The Rights of Nation to Self Determination: Lenin

10. Between Red and White: Trotsky Chapter 9

11. Selected articles on Assam and NRC (from Suraj Gogoi's reading list)

* http://www.freedomgazette.in/2020/01/caa-nrc-has-set-off-dangerous-identity-politics-in-the-northeast/

* https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-narrow-nationalism-again/article29394298.ece * https://fountainink.in/essay/a-register-most-flawed

* https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-state-needs-identity-politics-so-that-its-agenda-can-survive/cid/1702936

May '20

12. Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx

13. Science and Freedom: D D Kosambi's Exasperating Essays

14. Anatomy of an AI System by Kate Crawford

15. Notes from the Grundrisse (pages 690-698) on Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine: Karl Marx

16. The Platform as Factory: Crowdwork and the Hidden Labour behind Artificial Intelligence by Moritz Altenried

17. Lying Eyes, The Victorian roots of facial recognition by Richard Woodall

18. Artificial Scapegoat by Anupam Guha

19. Capitalism’s New Clothes by Evgeny Morozov

20. A tale of two AI cities by Melissa Hellmann

21. (We)Work is a Scam by Eliza Levinson

June '20

22. Don’t Mention the War – Mike Beggs

23. What Do Bosses Do? – Stephen Marglin

24. The Origin of Capitalism – Ellen Meiksins Wood (pp 1-37)

25. The Keynesian Counterrevolution – Mike Beggs

26. The Left in A Foxhole – Geoff Mann

27. Introduction in Simon Clarke’s Keynesianism, Monetarism and the Crisis of the State (pg 1-20)

July '20

28. Anti delinking: Fantasies of Secession – Jamie Merchant

29. Pro delinking: Socialize Finance – J W Mason

30. Pro delinking: A Cautious Case for Economic Nationalism – J W Mason

31. Marxist Theories of Imperialism The chapters: Introduction, Luxemburg, Lenin, Dependency Theory

June/July recommended readings

State of Development Economics – Stephen Resnick

Introduction – Perlman, F. in Rubin’s Essays in Marx’s Theory of Value

The Political Economy of Capitalist Labour

Chapter 4 – Commerce or Capitalism in The Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood

August '20

32. The Variety of Feminisms and their Contributions to Gender Equality, Judith Lorber

33. The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism, Heidi Hartmann

34. Feminism for the 99%, Cinzia Arruzza, Nancy Fraser, and Tithi Bhattacharya

35. Pages 67-77 (or Part V of Chapter 2), Michelle Barrett, Women's Oppression Today

36. Capitalism and the Gay Identity, John D'Emilio

37. Transition and Abolition, Jules Joanne Gleeson

38. “Minding Their Business: The unfinished battle for sex workers' rights” by Siddharth Dube

39. The Combahee River Collective Statement

40. Kinderkommunismus by K.D. Griffiths and J.J. Gleeson

September '20

41. Anthropology of Caste

42. The Mirage of a Caste-less Society

43. Competing Narratives of Caste in the 21st Century

44. Kosambi & The Question of Caste

45. David Mosse’s paper on The Modernity of Caste

46. Introduction from the Ants Among Elephants

47. Bridging the Unholy Rift by Anand Teltumbde

48. Ambedkar, Ambedkarites, Ambedkarism by Anand Teltumbde

49. Caste, Class, and Women's Liberation by Gail Omvedt

50. Prejudice Against Reservation Policies by Sukhadeo Thorat & others

51. Dalit Panther Manifesto

Recommended extra readings for November

The Bomb in Bengal by Peter Heehs

An Early Communist Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta, 1913–1929 by Suchetana Chattopadhyay

The Swing Back, a critique of the 40s CPI by the RSP and CPM's own telling of that era

Telengana's People's Struggles and Its Lessons by P Sundarayya

Amar Bari Tomar Bari NaxalBari by Sumit Kumar

The Left in India's Freedom Movement and in Free India by E. M. S. Namboodiripad Unclaimed Harvest: An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women's Movement by Kavita Punjabi The Story of an Aborted Revolution: Communist Insurgency in Post independence West Bengal, 1948–50 by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

India’s Simmering Revolution by Sumanta Banerjee

From Popular Movements to Rebellion, Bengal in the 50s and the 60s by Ranabir Samaddar

December '20

89. Chapter 1 of The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin (2017 Ed), “The Private Life of Power” 90.Bad Romance by Lisa Featherstone (Content warning: there is mention of sexual violence in this)

91. Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship by Daniel J. Hruschka

92. Make way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth by Alexandra Kollontai

93. The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism by Richard Sennett

94. The Care Manifesto

95. Chapter 6 of Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value by David Graeber, “Marcel Mauss Revisited”

January '21

96. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of An Antonio Gramsci Reader, selected writings, 1916-1935, Edited by David Forgacs

97. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky 98. Mythologies by Roland Barthes 99. Fascinating Fascism by Susan Sontag References For reading more on Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci by Quentin Hoare

February '21 100. The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer

101. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin

102. The Slow Cancellation of the Future by Mark Fisher (this is an essay in Chapter 00 of the book Ghosts of my Life)

103. Ideology of the Hindi Film: A Historical Construction by M Madhava Prasad

104. Cine Politics: On the Political Significance of Cinema in South India by M Madhava Prasad

March '21

105. Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer

Chapter 8, 9, 10,11 (do the other chapters if you have time and want to learn the historical context) (*we did this last year in July as well, also focus on the chapters on contemporary theories)

106. Empire of Capital by Ellen Woods Chapter 1, 6, 7 (do the other chapters if you have time) 107. Critical Theory and the Critique of Anti-Imperialism by Marcel Stoetzler

April '21

108. On the conditions of possibility for worker organizing in platform-based gig economies by Neils van Doorn

109. Algorithmic Management, Employment, and the Self in Gig Work by Julia Tomassetti. This is Chapter 6 of Beyond the Algorithm

110. Turkopticon by Lilly Irani et al

111. The Platform as Factory: Crowdwork and the Hidden Labour behind Artificial Intelligence by Moritz Altenried

112. Left Populism and Platform Capitalism by Nick Dyer-Witheford

113. Chapters 8 and 9 of Platform Capitalism in India

114. Platform Capitalism by Nick Srnicek

May '21 115. Extractivism by Jeff Diamanti

116. Once Again on So-called “Extractivism” by Álvaro García Linera

117. Between the Devil and the Green New Deal by Jasper Bernes

118. Phantasmagorias of Energy: Toward a Critical Theory of Energy and Economy

119. Inside Out by Francis Tseng

120. Chapter 1 and 2 of Resource Radicals by Thea Riofrancos

121. Chapter 3 of Planetary Mine by Martin Arboleda

122. Resource geography II: What makes resources political? by Matt Huber

June '21

123. IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 7)

124. IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC (read the executive summary of each chapter 1 to 5)

125. Oceans that Keep Capitalism Afloat by Katy Fox-Hodess

126. Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation by Arturo Escobar

127. Chapter 1 and 2 of Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom

128. Marx and Nature by McKenzie Wark

129. Why Dalits dislike environmentalists by Gail Omvedt

130. The Incorporation of Mountain Ecosystems into the Capitalist World by Wilma A Dunaway 131. The Socialist Case for Nuclear Energy

132. Nuclear scare stories are a gift to the truly lethal coal industry by George Monbiot

133. Western Ghats A Lifescape by Madhav Gadgil

July '21

134. Karl Marx and Religion by Cyril Smith

135. Introduction of A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right by Karl Marx

136. Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx

137. Marxism and Ancient Indian Culture by D D Kosambi

138. a) League of Militant Atheists,

b) Cultural Revolution in the Soviet Union,

and c) Hujum

139. Girl-Brides and Socio-Legal Change: Age of Consent Bill (1891) Controversy by Meera Kosambi

140. Remembering Tilak: 'The Father of India’s Revolution' (this piece is hagiography, do not read uncritically)

141. Harichand Thakur's Matua Movement and Dalit Awakening in Bengal by K K Thakur

142. Across borders, the turbulent journey of South Asia’s Matua community 143. Celebrating the ‘essence of Hinduism’: How 19th century Brahmo Samaj altered Bengali society

144. The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos

145. Navayana Buddhism and the Spread of Buddha Vihara in Maharashtra (this piece is badly edited, read with care)

146. This is why Dalit women are singing Tathagata Buddha songs in UP

147. Maulana Sayyid Abul A'La Maududi: An appraisal of histhought and political influence by Zohair Husain

148. Aligarh's "Notre Eminent Contemporain": Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan's Reformist Agenda by Mushirul Hasan

August '21

149. Part 1 and Part 2 of Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot 150. Hindutva by V. D. Savarkar

151. India: Liberal Democracy and the Extreme Right by Aijaz Ahmed

152. Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s by Marzia Casolari

153. Swami Vivekananda's Construction of Hinduism by Tapan Raychaudhuri, this is the first chapter of Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization of Hinduism

154. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul

September '21

155. "Exercise of Law" and "The Rule of Law" from Whigs and Hunters by E. P. Thompson (page 245-269)

156. "The Oral Shape of the Law" in The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories by Alessandro Portelli

157. "Defining Right as Wrong: Reflections on Associational Freedom and Free Speech" in The Wages of Impunity by K.G. Kannabiran

158. Progressive and Conservative Constitutionalism by Robin West (page 642-651)

159. Law and Political Economy: Towards a Manifesto

160. On the Human Rights Question by Paul O'Connell

161. The Right to Medicines in the Age of Neoliberalism (full symposium):

a) Article

b) Responses

October '21

162. Against the Logic of the Guillotine

163. Chapter 1, 2, and 7 of the Technique of Revolution by Curzio Malaparte

164. Bankruptcy of Individual Terrorism by Leon Trotsky

165. Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Terrorism and Communism by Leon Trotsky

166. The Russian Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg

167. Trotsky Protests Too much by Emma Goldman

168. The Legitimacy of Violence as a Political Act? by Noam Chomsky

169. War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler

170. Noam Chomsky on institutional violence

171. Chapter 1, 6, 7, and 8 of The Production of Hindu Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul Brass

172. Chapter 1, 2, and 6 of Rebels from the Mud Houses by George Kunnath

173. Worker Politics, Trade Unions and the Shiv Sena's Rise in Central Bombay by J Shaikh

174. Violent and Non-Violent Political Islam in a Global Context

175. Caste and Gender: Understanding Dynamics of Power and Violence

176. Chapter 10 of Direct Action: an Ethnography by David Graeber

November '21

177. First 3 chapters of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928

178. Democratic centralism

179. First 3 chapters of What is to be Done? by V. I. Lenin

180. Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy by Luxemburg

181. The April Theses by V. I. Lenin

182. Chapters 4 to 6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928

183. The Differences in the Communist Party of Germany by Pannekoek

184. Kronstatd

a) Trotsky on Kronstatd

b) Berkman on Kronstatd

c) Emma Goldman on Kronstatd

d) Victor Serge on Kronstatd

e) Lenin in New York Herald on Kronstatd

185. Worker's Opposition

a) Workers' Opposition by Alexandra Kollontai

b) 10th Party Congress resolutions

i) On Party Unity

ii) On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation

c) Emma Goldman on Trade Unions in 1920

d) Trotsky on Trade Unions in 1922

186. Left wing communism an Infantile Disorder by V. I. Lenin (read page 10 to 105)

187. Open Letter to Comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter

188. The Fundamentals of Revolutionary Communism by Bordiga

189. Workers Control by Mattick

190. Council Communism by Mark Shipway

December '21

191. Logic and Ontology

192. Epistemology

193. Doing Philosophy: From Common Curiosity to Logical Reasoning by Williamson

Reread readings 135 and 136

Introduction of A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right by Marx

Theses On Feuerbach by Karl Marx 194. Think by Simon Blackburn

195. Philosophy of Science by Samir Okasha

196. Theory of Mind

Video

Metaethics

Philosophy for beginners

Peter Singer on Hegel and Marx

From 2022 new readings are numbered while repeats are mentioned

January '22 and February '22

(revision) The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx

(revision) Wage-Labor and Capital by Marx

(revision) Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx

197. The Paris Commune from the Civil War in France by Marx

198. Chapter One of Capital vol 1: Commodities

(revision) Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels

(revision) Theses on Feuerbach by Marx

(revision) Reform or Revolution by Luxemburg

(revision) Marxism and Politics by Miliband

199. The State and the Revolution by Lenin

200. State and the Revolution: Theory and Practice by Ian Mckay

201. Luxemburg versus Lenin by Mattick

(revision) What is Fascism and How to Fight It by Trotsky

202. Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton

(revision) Chapters 6, 7, 8 of An Antonio Gramsci Reader, selected writings 1916-35, edited by David Forgacs

March '22 and April '22

(revision) The National Question: Rosa Luxemburg

(revision) The Rights of Nation to Self Determination: Lenin

(revision) Rabindranath Tagore: Nationalism in India

203. Chapters 4,5, and 6 of Russia in revolution : an Empire in crisis, 1890 to 1928

(revision) The Russian Tragedy: Rosa Luxemburg

(revision) Between Red and White: Trotsky Chapter 9

(revision) Selected articles on Assam and NRC (from Suraj Gogoi's reading list)

* http://www.freedomgazette.in/2020/01/caa-nrc-has-set-off-dangerous-identity-politics-in-the-northeast/

* https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-narrow-nationalism-again/article29394298.ece

* https://fountainink.in/essay/a-register-most-flawed

* https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-state-needs-identity-politics-so-that-its-agenda-can-survive/cid/1702936

204. Part 3 of Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot (revision) Hindu Nationalism: a Reader by Christophe Jaffrelot

(revision) The Arya Samaj and the Antecedents of Hindu Nationalism by John Zavos

(revision) Maulana Sayyid Abul A'La Maududi: An appraisal of histhought and political influence by Zohair Husain

(revision) Aligarh's "Notre Eminent Contemporain": Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan's Reformist Agenda by Mushirul Hasan

(revision) Marxist Theories of Imperialism by Anthony Brewer

(revision) Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India by Akshaya Mukul

May '22 and June '22

205. Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(revision) Caste, Class, and Women's Liberation by Gail Omvedt

(revision) Prejudice Against Reservation Policies by Sukhadeo Thorat & others

(revision) Does Untouchability exist among Muslims?

(revision) Dalit & Naxalite Movements in Andhra Pradesh by Ajay Gudavarthy

(revision) Dumont, Guha, and the Danger of Stereotyping India by Krzysztof Iwanek

206. Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

207. Feminist Philosophy (Parts 1-3) - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

208. Chapter 6 of Seeing Like a Feminist by Nivedita Menon

209. Annihilation of Caste by B. R. Ambedkar

210. Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 of Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present by Sumit Guha

211. Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of Caste, Culture, and Hegemony: Social Domination of Colonial Bengal by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

Video

Gender Critical - Contrapoints

212. Caste in Modern India: A Reader by Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar Read these chapters of this book: Chapters 2, 3, 6, 11, 13 from Volume 1. Chapter 1, 5, 7, 10, 11 from Volume 2

Following authors are covered: Dirks, Bayly, Sumit Guha, Bernard Cohn, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, S J Patel, Nandini Gooptu, Anupama Rao, Sumit Sarkar, Jaffrelot

213. Castes of Mind by Dirks (revision) Kosambi and the Question of Caste by Kumkum Roy

214. The Social Basis of the Woman Question by Alexandra Kollontai

215. What is Socialist Feminism? by Barbara Ehrenreich (revision) The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism by Heidi Hartmann

(revision) Capitalism and the Gay Identity by John D'Emilio

(revision) Transition and Abolition by Jules Joanne Gleeson

(revision) Feminism for the 99% by Cinzia Arruzza, Nancy Fraser, and Tithi Bhattacharya

Recommended extra reading Read completely the books whose chapters are required readings Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age by Bayly

July '22 and August '22

(revision) on Dadabhai Naoroji by Inderjeet Parmar

(revision) MPT Acharya: Reminiscences of a Revolutionary also, a clean transcription of this by Kosambi Circle people also, as the material is not the full story (we could not find the book) here is what happened to MPT after Morocco

(revision) The Indian Sociologist by A M Shah

(revision) History of the Anushilan Samiti

(revision) Virendranath Chattopadhyay

(revision) M.N. Roy and the Mexican Revolution: How a Militant Indian Nationalist Became an International Communist by Isabel Alonso

216. Selected articles on pre 1920 events