Vijay Prashad
Prashad in 2010
Born
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Education
Alma mater
RelativesBrinda Karat (aunt)
Websitethetricontinental.org

Vijay Prashad is an American-based Indian historian, author, journalist, political commentator, and Marxist intellectual.[1][2] He is the executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Editor of LeftWord Books, Chief Correspondent at Globetrotter,[3] and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.[4] For Tricontinental, he writes a weekly newsletter.[5] Ideologically a Marxist, Prashad is well known for his criticisms of capitalism, neocolonialism, American exceptionalism, and Western imperialism, while expressing support for communism and the global south.[6][7][8]

Previously, Prashad has been the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and a professor of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, from 1996 to 2017. Presently, he is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, part of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement,[9][10] and co-founder of the Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL).[1][11]

Prashad has provided reporting and political commentary for several publications, including Monthly Review,[12] The Nation,[13] and Salon.[14]

In addition, Prashad is often invited to give talks, lectures, and presentations (virtually or in person) all over the world, like at The People's Forum. He is also frequently interviewed by a variety of news sources, such as Democracy Now!, The Real News Network, and BreakThrough News.

Early life and background

The son of Pran and Soni Prashad,[15] Vijay was born and raised in Kolkata, India.[16] He attended The Doon School (an Indian residential boarding school for boys aged 12–18).[17] In the United States, he received a BA from Pomona College in 1989 as well as earning a PhD at the University of Chicago in 1994—writing a dissertation under the supervision of Bernard S. Cohn.[18][19][20] He is the nephew of Marxist Indian politician Brinda Karat.[21]

Political views

Vijay Prashad is a fervent proclaimer of democracy, Marxism, socialism, and communism.[1][2][22] One partial summary, in his own words, was provided in a talk at the People's Forum NYC in 2021:

I'm a Marxist. I'm a Communist. I believe in women's emancipation. I believe in gay rights. I believe in everything good, decent, and sensitive in the world.[22]: 11:13 

Criticism of capitalism is a recurrent theme throughout all of his work; one summary of such criticisms can be found in his 2002 book Fat Cats and Running Dogs. In addition, criticisms of imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism and other such topics are regular themes.

Prashad's political views are paired with frequent calls for people to become activists, struggle, join movements, protest, organise in political parties, form trade unions and other such related activities. He has argued that progressive forces typically have very good ideas, but no power—without power, good ideas have little consequence; socialists must organise as well as theorise.[23] Addressing the same People's Forum in NYC, 2021, he stressed:

You have to ennoble democracy. It doesn't happen by existing; it has to be made. Democracy has to be produced—it's a lot of hard work. [...] I want you get involved. It's not enough to believe things, guys. We have to build democracy. The bourgeoisie is not going to donate democracy to you. You have to take democracy. The Soros Foundation isn't going to give you a grant for democracy. You have to seize democracy.[22]: 35:13 [...] 38:39 

Elsewhere, he has stated that American leftists, specifically, are not as effective as they could be in situations where they win influence through community organising, such as in local governments, because they often do not appreciate ideas originating from other parts of the world. He also calls on leftists, in general, to have a long-term view of social struggle rather than a focus on short-term results; this short-term focus often results from an economic system where companies are incentivised to demonstrate quarterly profits.[24]

U.S. foreign policy

Prashad is an outspoken critic of American hegemony and imperialism.[25][26] He debated historian Juan Cole on the 2011 US-French-NATO military intervention in Libya. Cole was for it, Prashad against.[27] Prashad argued that the genuine Libyan rising had been "usurped" by various unsavory characters, including some with CIA connections.[28] Prashad wrote the 2012 book Arab Spring, Libyan Winter AK Press on the topic.[29][30]

Mother Teresa and Western charity

The Communists don't give people fish, so they might eat for a day; the point of Communism is to teach the masses how to fish, so that they might eat forever. Each day, Calcutta's Communists – as real nameless Mother Teresas! – conduct the necessary work towards socialism, for the elimination of poverty forever.

— Mother Teresa: A Communist View, Vijay Prashad, Australian Marxist Review No. 40 August 1998[31]

Prashad offered his analysis of Mother Teresa's missionary work in Calcutta, designating her as a representative of the collective "bourgeois guilt" of Western nations.[32] He argued that people like Mother Teresa obscure the tragedies of capitalism. For instance, "During the night of December 2–3, 1984, the Bhopal disaster poisoned thousands of people". He states that the Bhopal disaster, which was caused by Union Carbide, was the most flagrant example of a transnational corporation's disregard for human life in defence of its own profit. In 1983, Union Carbide's sales came to US$9 billion and its assets totalled US$10bn. Part of this profit came from a tendency to shirk any responsibility towards safety standards, not just in India, but also in their West Virginia plant. After the disaster, Mother Teresa flew into Bhopal and, escorted in two government cars, she offered Bhopal's victims small aluminium medals of St. Mary. "This could have been an accident," she told the survivors, "it's like a fire (that) could break out anywhere. That is why it is important to forgive. Forgiveness offers us a clean heart and people will be a hundred times better after it." Pope John Paul II joined Mother Teresa with his analysis that Bhopal was a "sad event" which resulted from "man's efforts to make progress."

In the same article he also commented on Mother Teresa's alleged links with Charles Keating and Michele Duvalier (wife of Haitian dictator Baby Doc Duvalier). Denouncing the "cruel rule of capital" he also offered the view that the communists of Calcutta were the "real nameless Mother Teresas who conduct the necessary work towards socialism, for the elimination of poverty forever".[31]

Resignation of Evo Morales

Prashad has written extensively about the removal of Evo Morales as President of Bolivia in 2019 and the 2020 Bolivian general election.[33] He described Morales' removal as a coup d'état and said the Organisation of American States had "legitimised" the coup with unsubstantiated conclusions in its preliminary report.[33] In March 2020, he wrote that Morales' removal from office was the result of his government's "socialist policy toward Bolivia's resources" which required that returns from mining resources such as lithium "be properly shared with the Bolivian people". He said that the government of Jeanine Áñez had extended a "welcome mat" to Tesla to establish a factory in Bolivia to manufacture lithium batteries from Bolivia's reserves.[33]

Israel-Palestine conflict

In 2010, as Prashad was appointed to head the newly formed Trinity Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at Trinity College, a group of professors wrote a letter protesting the appointment based on "the prominent role he has played in promoting a boycott of Israeli universities and of study abroad in Israel".[34] After initially refusing to meet with them, Trinity President James Jones eventually met with representatives from Jewish organisations, including the Connecticut Jewish federation, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford[35] on 14 September 2010. One participant reported a "veiled threat" to have Jewish donors "weigh in". The university backed Prashad and rejected attempts to rescind his appointment.[36]

Appraisal and criticism

The historian Paul Buhle writes, "Vijay Prashad is a literary phenomenon."[37]

The writer Amitava Kumar notes, "Prashad is our own Frantz Fanon. His writing of protest is always tinged with the beauty of hope."[38]

Notable works

Books
Author
  • (2000) The Karma of Brown Folk. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816634385.
  • (2002) Untouchable Freedom: A Social History of a Dalit Community. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195658484.
  • (2002) War Against the Planet: The Fifth Afghan War, Imperialism and Other Assorted Fundamentalism Manohar. ISBN 978-8187496199.
  • (2002) Fat Cats and Running Dogs: The Enron Stage of Capitalism. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1842772614.
  • (2002) Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0807050118.
  • (2003) Namaste Sharon: Hindutva and Sharonism under US Hegemony. New Delhi: LeftWord Books. ISBN 8187496355.
  • (2003) Keeping up with the Dow Joneses: Stocks, Jails, Welfare. Boston: South End Press. ISBN 978-0896086890.
  • (2007) The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World. The New Press. ISBN 978-1565847859.
  • (2011) Marx's Capital: An Introductory Reader. Contributed by Vijay Prashad, Venkatesh Athreya, Prasenjit Bose, Prabhat Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, T. Jayaraman, R. Ramakumar. LeftWord. ISBN 978-93-80118-00-0.
  • (2012) Arab Spring, Libyan Winter. AK Press. ISBN 978-1849351126.
  • (2012) Uncle Swami: South Asians in America Today. The New Press. ISBN 978-1595587848.
  • (2013) Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. Verso. Foreword by Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
  • (2015) No Free Left: The Futures of Indian Communism. New Delhi: LeftWord Books.
  • (2015) Letters to Palestine. Verso Books.
  • (2016) The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520293250.
  • (2017) Red October: The Russian Revolution and the Communist Horizon. New Delhi: LeftWord Books.
  • (2017) Will the Flower Slip Through the Asphalt: Writers Respond to Climate Change. New Delhi: LeftWord Books.
  • (2019) Red Star Over the Third World. Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0745339665.
  • (2020) Washington Bullets. New Delhi: LeftWord Books. ISBN 978-8194592525. Preface by Evo Morales Ayma.
  • (2022) Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism, edited by Frank Barat. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1642596908.
  • (2022) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power, with Noam Chomsky. The New Press. ISBN 978-1620977606. Foreword by Angela Davies.
Books
Editor
Articles
Interviews
Talks

References

  1. 1 2 3 "ZNet - Junevijayint". Archive.is. 16 April 2013. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 "I came to Marxism against my self-interest. Born into affluence, I was raised in an revolutionary city (Calcutta, India)" Left history, Volumes 11–12, pp 61, Department of History, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, 2006
  3. ↑ Prashad, Vijay. "Vijay Prashad, Author at Globetrotter Media". Globetrotter Media. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  4. ↑ "Morocco Drives a War in Western Sahara for Its Phosphates". NewsClick. 21 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "NEWSLETTER". Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  6. ↑ Vijay Prashad - Imperialism suffocates humanity like a Boa Constrictor, retrieved 8 July 2023
  7. ↑ Vijay Prashad: Why Does India Remain Entrapped by the UK?, retrieved 8 July 2023
  8. ↑ Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad: American Exceptionalism is Imperial Policy, retrieved 8 July 2023
  9. ↑ "Advisory Board - US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel". Usacbi.org. 3 February 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  10. ↑ Guttman, Nathan (26 August 2014). "Anti-Israel Professor Returns to Trinity College — Will Controversy Come Back Too?". Forward. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  11. ↑ Hindutva For a Few Dollars a Day (author info) Archived 28 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine People's Democracy, Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
  12. ↑ "Monthly Review | Vijay Prashad". Monthly Review. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  13. ↑ "Vijay Prashad". The Nation. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  14. ↑ "Vijay Prashad's Articles at Salon.com". www.salon.com. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  15. ↑ My Japanese parents, VIJAY PRASHAD, Himal, May 31, 2013
  16. ↑ Prashad, Vijay. "Columnist Vijay Prashad: Coronavirus and the virus of debt". Daily Hampshire Gazette.
  17. ↑ "About Us - Best Boarding School for Boys | The Doon School". Doon School. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  18. ↑ "2011 Indian-American Achiever Awards" (PDF). GOPIO-Connecticut. Global Organization of People of Indian Origin. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  19. ↑ "Vijay Prashad Video - Book Interviews". OVGuide. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  20. ↑ Prashad, Vijay (1994). Revolting labor: The making of the Balmiki community. (Volumes I and II) (PhD). University of Chicago. p. v.
  21. ↑ "Vijay Prashad". STOP HINDU HATE ADVOCACY NETWORK (SHHAN). 28 August 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  22. 1 2 3 Prashad, Vijay (18 September 2021). What's the Left to Do in a World on Fire?. YouTube. China and the Left: A Socialist Forum (conference). Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  23. ↑ Prashad, Vijay (17 March 2009). "The Dragons, Their Dragoons". The Nation. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  24. ↑ "Against the Grain – October 18, 2004" (Podcast). KPFA. 18 October 2004. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  25. ↑ "Vijay Prashad has come to be known for his expert critical analysis of US imperialism and war", Chopping Through the Foundations of Racism With Vijay Prashad, Joel Wendland, 8 August 2003, Friction Magazine
  26. ↑ "Casual Imperialism". Globalpolicy.org. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  27. ↑ "A Debate on U.S. Military Intervention in Libya: Juan Cole v. Vijay Prashad". Democracy Now. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  28. ↑ "Professor: In Libya, A Civil War, Not Uprising". NPR. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  29. ↑ "Vijay Prashad: Arab Spring Libyan Winter - Part I". YouTube. 18 July 2012. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  30. ↑ "Vijay Prashad: Arab Spring Libyan Winter - Part II". YouTube. 18 July 2012. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  31. 1 2 Mother Teresa: A Communist View, Vijay Prashad, Australian Marxist Review No. 40 August 1998, previously published in Political Affairs, the Journal of the Communist Party USA
  32. ↑ White Women in Racialized Spaces: Imaginative Transformation and Ethical Action in Literature, Samina Najmi, Rajini Srikanth, Mother Teresa as the Mirror of Bourgeois Guilt - Chapter 4, pp 67, Published by SUNY Press, 2002, ISBN 0-7914-5477-0, ISBN 978-0-7914-5477-0
  33. 1 2 3 Prashad, Vijay; Bejarano, Alejandro (11 March 2020). "Elon Musk is South America's neo-conquistador". Salon. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  34. ↑ Prashad, Vijay. "Understanding the boycott of Israel's universities" Washington Post, 24 January 2014
  35. ↑ "About Us". Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  36. ↑ Anti-Israel Professor Returns to Trinity College — Will Controversy Come Back Too? The Forward, 26 August 2014
  37. ↑ Buhle, Paul (1 January 2014). "Prashad at Large". Monthly Review. 65 (8): 58. doi:10.14452/MR-065-08-2014-01_5. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  38. ↑ Rana, Aziz (18 March 2014). "Break the Silence: An Interview with Vijay Prashad". Asian American Writers' Workshop. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  39. ↑ Original Wikipedia reference within square brackets: Reality Asserts Itself – Vijay Prashad Archived 19 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine. (October 2014)].
  40. ↑ Original Wikipedia reference within square brackets: ["What Was Missing from Obama's Anti-Terrorism Speech" Archived 19 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine. "Vijay Prashad says President Obama failed to acknowledge how Western intervention has contributed to the rise of extremism." (February 2015)].
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