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Disenchanted India and Beyond

Musings on the Lockdown Alternatives

Bhabani Shankar Nayak author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Lexington Books

Published:20th Apr '21

Should be back in stock very soon

Disenchanted India and Beyond cover

Disenchanted India and Beyond: Musings on the Lockdown Alternatives engages with the lineages of the present disenchantment and everyday issues of people in India and beyond. It depicts local, regional, national and global transitions in politics, economy and society. It rejects the ideals that promotes ‘there is no alternative’ narratives. It unravels the way reactionary and right-wing forces weaponize pessimism that helps capitalist forces and undermines working classes. The book examines existing and available alternatives for a prosperous and peaceful society. The book argues for pluriversal political and philosophical praxis to consolidate and defend the progressive achievements of the working-class struggles.

At a time of intense, almost universal repression in the name of a virus, the indomitable humanism and sharp insight that Bhabani Nayak has demonstrated over the years, stands out as a beacon of sanity. With so many academics bowing to the 'power of nightmares', this time a virus infection for which a simple medication exists, Bhabani has retained the ability to analyse how this global intervention is connected to the capitalist system in terminal decline. His passionate humanism and sustained commitment run through this fine collection.

-- Kees van der Pijl, Professor Emeritus, University of Sussex

Narendra Modi appears in the Western media as the genial leader of a modernising India. Dr Nayak’s book provides a timely and important antidote. India today, he argues, is as close to fascism as Germany was in 1932. Drawing on his wide knowledge of Indian and world politics, Dr Nayak details the parallels: the subordination of the judiciary, the merger of party and state, the proclamation of a racially supremacist Hindutva ideology, the everyday use of paramilitary force, mass imprisonment, the outlawing of religious and racial minorities and, not least, backing by India’s business elite. This collection of essays is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the market led fascist politics of what will soon be the world’s most populous state placed within its wider global context.

-- John Foster, Professor Emeritus, University of the West of Scotland

This is a bold initiative of Dr Bhabani Nayak with new genre of publication combining journalistic observations and academic research and covering a wide field of global capitalism, Indian political economy and the functioning of modern universities.

-- Pritam Singh, Professor Emeritus, Oxford Brookes Univer

ISBN: 9781793642790

Dimensions: 228mm x 164mm x 21mm

Weight: 494g

204 pages