*An Introduction to Marx's 'Capital'* has a web site -- partly under
construction: www.ranganayakamma.org . Ordering information is located
there. The author's email address is
"Ranganayakamma N.S." <nranganayakamma@hotmail.com>
One of the published reviews of the three-volume work -- by Madhusudan Pal
-- is reproduced below, as taken from the web site. Her "Introduction" is
obviously an immense accomplishment, a result of YEARS of working and
writing on *Capital*.
*An Introduction to Marx's Capital* was originally written in Telugu.
After wide interest in India and financial support from a doctor in the
United States, it was translated into very clear English ("a superb piece
of smooth reading").
Please feel free to forward this message to other lists you may be on, as
it is not so easy for Indian authors to get connected to the international
Marxist community. Having been in India about 16 months ago, I came back
feeling that a lot goes on there for which we are quite uninformed.
Paul Z.
P.S. Ranganayakamma is also a major novelist in India.
***********************************************************************
Paul Zarembka, editor, RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY at
******************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka
An Introduction to Marx's 'Capital' (in 3 volumes), originally written in
Telugu by Ranganayakamma, translated into English by KVR,
S.V.Rajyalakshmi, B.R.Bapuji and published by Sweet Home Publications,
1-95/1, Guttala Begameta, Jubilee Hills post, Hyderabad-50 033, India,
(Price:Rs. 90.00/$10.00 for Vol. I, Rs. 110.00/$15.00 for Vol. II, and Rs.
80.00/$10.00 for Vol. III) is a great creation, is more than an
Introduction, is a smooth journey from easy-to-follow steps towards the
building blocks of Marx's labour theory of value, such as the concepts,
use-value, exchange value, commodity, productivity, circulation of
commodities and money, creation of surplus value, leading to the intricate
processes of capitalist production, reproduction and circulation, laying
bare various forms of imperialism, scanning crises and classes always
helping the earnest, careful and patient reader to find and grasp the
truth of capitalist exploitation and expropriation through do-yourself Q-A
session at the end of each chapter, is indeed a marvelous set of three
gems under a very small price tag.
Rich or poor, we handle commodities but we seldom think and care to know
that the commodity holds the secrets of human relations, and if
commodity-its production, exchange, circulation-is properly explained, the
features of human society-past, present and future-will also come to
light. It is in this context that commodity is taken up first. A reading
of two aspects of a commodity, use value and exchange value, will assist
the reader to discern the transition from natural to human society based
on exchange of articles. As exchange develops, the articles turn into
commodities meant for exchange only and labour is employed to produce
commodities. The author guides the reader to the truth that labour is the
sources of value, labour creates value. Material wealth of society, that
is the collection of commodities in society, is the product of labour
only. Side by side develops the market with money as the medium of
exchange and store of value. The veil of money creates fetishism of
commodities which has been amply explained. This reviewer would request
the reader at this stage to work out the answers to the questions put
after the chapter. This reviewer requests the reader at this stage to work
out the answers to the questions put after the chapter. Once, in this way,
an insight into the nature of commodity is formed, the reader sails
through the chapters on circulation of Commodities and profit. Now the
reader is on a hard soil, terra firma. If the reader happens to have an
experience of modern conditions of work in a big or small factory, he/she
will feel as if the chapters on Labour Process and Working Day are taken
out of his/her work-place and explain the increasing intensity and
productivity of labour and accumulation of capital.
Each volume ends with an index that helps the reader to locate a subject
that animates his/her mind before or after studying it. This set of 3
volumes is unique. That the author, Ranganayakamma intensively read the 3
volumes of Marx's Capital is evident. She took the liberty of rearranging
the topics of discussion considering the felt need of her readers. She
took extensive notes from Marx's original work, pondered over the issues
in her own way and knit them in the new socio-political milieu and in her
characteristic simple way sought to address them in vernacular for popular
consumption. This popular science of Marx's 'Capital' she wrote in Telugu
and published serially in a Telugu journal. Later the articles were
collected and formed the basis of a 5-volume Telugu work. As the articles
in Telugu were being published, an NRI, Mr. M.Srihari Rao, a General
Surgeon by profession working in America, took great interest. He provided
funds for the publication of the 3 volume English translation of the
5-volume Telugu work. Late K.V.R. (K.V.Ramana Reddy) translated in English
the first volume. Later S.V. Rajyalakshmi looked into and made some
modifications. B.R. Bapuji translated the second and third volumes. It
appears that due to genetic differences in syntax and vocabulary between
Telugu and English, the translators were not satisfied until Probal Das,
A.D.Bhogle, Sonia Gupta, P. Sailaja, P.S. Sundaram and V.Prakasham put
their linguistic expertise into it to make each of the three volumes of
'An Introduction to Marx's 'Capital' by Ranganayakamma a superb piece of
smooth reading. The quality of translation has thus been raised to a
superior level. Thus the 3-volume Introduction is the product of
cooperation and camaraderie. Every Marxist, whether individual or
institution, should possess this set.
(APPEARED IN 'FRONTIER', Dated March 12-18, 2000, on pp: 10-11)
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