Author: Aijaz Ahmed
Publisher: LeftWord
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 252
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187496150
Description
Marx and Engel were first drawn into political militancy on the issue of the national unification of their native land, Germany, and the creation of a democratic republic there to replace monarchical autocracy. They had begun studying the colonial question in diverse countries from Ireland to India and China, as well as the national question in several European countries such as Poland, in their youth. Then, the decade following the publication of the communist Manifesto witnessed the national-democratic revolutions of 1848 all across Europe and the uprisings in India during 1857-59. They participated actively in the European revolutions and thought deeply about British colonialism in India, writing thousands of pages on these developments.
Their reflections on India and China were crucial in Marx’s later and more mature work, notably Capital, where colonialism is seen as a fundamental element in the primary accumulation of capital within Europe. Similarly, the German experience made them deeply aware of the frequent counter-revolutionary role of the bourgeoisie even in the national-democratic revolutions.
Their analyses of European nationalisms on the one hand, and of the colonial experience in Asia on the other, are usually seen as totally separate bodies of writing. This selection is unique in that it tries to see all of that work as part of a single political and theoretical project.
Contents
Note on the Selections
Introduction
CHAPTER I
On the Decline of Feudalism and the Emergence of National States
From the Communist Manifesto
From the Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist
The Movements of 1847
From England in 1845 and 1885
Engels to Karl Kautsky
Marx to Engels
CHAPTER II
The British Rule in India
India
The Future Results of the British Rule in India
The Revolt in the Indian Army
The Revolt in India
The Indian Revolt
Investigation of Tortures in India
British Incomes in India
Details of the Attack on Lucknow
The British Army in India
Marx to N F Danielson
From Persia and China
The Opium Trade
The Opium Trade
CHAPTER III
On Poland
On the Polish Question
What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland?
From the Frankfurt Assembly debates the Polish Question
The State of Germany
The Prussian Constitution
From the Constitutional Question in Germany
From The Berlin Debate on the Revolution
CHAPTER IV
Engels to Marx
From the Crisis in England
Record of a Speech on the Irish Question
From Lord John Russell
Marx to Engels
From confidential communication
From the English Government and the Fenian Prisoners
Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann
Marx to Engels
Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt
Engels to Eduard Bernstein
Index