Two books in the ‘Critical Perspectives in South Asian History’ series, viz., Forms of the Left in Postcolonial South Asia and Towards Peoples’ Histories in Pakistan, provide a fresh perspective to the study of non-elite histories. While the former studies these histories from the perspective of the Left and focuses on South Asian regions including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the latter explores peoples’ histories in the specific context of Pakistan.
Sanjukta Sunderason and Lotte Hoek’s edited work is divided into seven chapters (apart from Introduction and Afterword). The volume, as indicated in the crisply written Introduction, emerged from ‘conversations among a group of scholars who have collected stories, resonances and possibilities around the field of Left-wing aesthetics across postcolonial South Asia’ (p. 2). The chapters throw light on different facets of Left-Wing politics and the manner in which it shaped in postcolonial South Asia. The discussions transcend political borders created in the region post-1947. An important aspect of the present book is that it outlines in detail the evolutionary histories of the Communist Parties in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. And while deliberating on this issue, it sheds light on the way in which the idea of the ‘Left’ expanded and transformed into a wider political and social formation in South Asia, especially during the decades leading ‘up to and after Partition in 1947’ (p. 5). The evolutionary history of Left- Wing politics, particularly in the post-1947 period, has been studied against the backdrop of such developments as the forging of Afro-Asian and South Asian solidarities, Cold War, crisis of the 1960s and the emergence of Maoist internationalism with its strong base in South Asia.