ONE hundred and seventy-five years ago, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels celebrated the publication of the Communist Manifesto on February 21, 1848 and then watched as Europe’s peoples rose up against one monarchical system after another. The text seemed to anticipate the Springtime of Nations, which included the attempt by the French people to redeem the promise of their 1789 Revolution, whose promise had been squashed by the restoration of the monarchy. ‘A spectre haunts Europe’, the Manifesto opens, and indeed the ghosts had appeared on the streets to dress themselves in republican ideas – and to some extent even socialist ideas (although the rest of the sentence in the Manifesto, ‘the spectre of communism’, was truer in theory at that time than in practice). The Manifesto was not read widely when it was first published, mainly because it was censored in country after country and because the Communist League – which had commissioned the text – fell apart during the uprising and then disbanded in 1852.

The Manifesto had a second life in the 1870s as a consequence of Marx’s own increasing prominence in the International Workingmen’s Association (the First International) and due to his writings on the Paris Commune (1871). The growth of the German Social Democratic Party and the trade union movement in the decade of the 1870s provided the social basis for the circulation of a new German edition of the Manifesto, published in 1872. By the next year, nine editions of the Manifesto appeared in print in six languages. It is now one of the most widely circulated texts, one of the most regularly read books by Marx (given the difficulties associated with reading Capital, Marx’s most important book). The Manifesto has been translated into almost all Indian languages, with the first translation being into Bengal by Soumyendranath Tagore (in Ganavani, the weekly paper of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party, edited by Muzaffar Ahmad, and serialised between 1926 and 1927).

A few years ago, the Indian Society for Left Publishers decided to hold events on February 21, the date of the publication of the Manifesto in 1848. The plan was to hold public readings of the Manifesto in the various Indian languages, since that date – February 21 – is also International Mother Language Day. The idea was to hold a Red Books Day on that date and make this a broadly cultural activity to ‘rescue the collective life’ on a secular and socialist basis. Not long after the idea had been proposed, publishers from around the world expressed an interest in being involved in Red Books Day, so that when it was first held – in 2020 – already writers, publishers, booksellers, and others joined in from South Korea to Cuba. The epicentre for Red Books Day in 2020, as in 2023, was in India, where during that year thousands of people read the Manifesto across the country. This year, in 2023, it is estimated that over a million people joined in to participate in Red Books Day from China to Mexico. An idea of the Left publishing houses in India is now being rooted into the international calendar of the Left.

During the planning for Red Books Day 2020, the first such activity, the Indian Society of Left Publishers convened meetings of publishers from around the world. These convenings led to the creation of the International Union of Left Publishers (IULP), which now includes over forty publishers. The IULP was formed not only to promote Red Books Day, but to provide a platform for Left publishers to defend ourselves from attacks by the right-wing, to promote rational and socialist ideas, and to share our books between each other. Over the course of the past four years, the IULP has been able to produce several joint books (including of the writings of Che Guevara and to commemorate the Paris Commune). These joint books are published in our various languages (from Romanian to Indonesian) on the same day. We have released statements to defend our authors and to defend our publishers when they have come under attack. The core of the work of the IULP – in which all members of the Indian Society of Left Publishers belong – is to promote the work of Red Books Day.

Despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic – when Red Books Day went online in 2021 – the enthusiasm for a day such as this has grown astronomically. For now, the epicentre remains in India, with readings conducted across the country of the Manifesto (since it was its 175th anniversary) but also of other Red Books. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) gave a call in January to build Red Books Day, a call taken up with enthusiasm across the Party and the mass organisations. Public readings took place before large audiences, but equally importantly small groups gathered to read and discuss Red Books of various kinds. The library movement in Kerala adopted Red Books Day, having held discussions during the Indian Library Congress about the project and then executing it through the network of public libraries in the state. Cultural workers sang and acted, while lakhs of people lifted their spirits with rationality and the promise of socialism.

A week-long Red Book literary festival was held in Kannur. Teesta Setalvad, the author and activist, inaugurated the event. The festival featured a Red Books Day talk, various discussions on red books, a young writers meeting, seminars, and other events. Pondicherry saw a wide range of gatherings, from auto drivers, street vendors to working class women, reading the Manifesto. Bharathi Puthakalayam initiated a discussion across Tamilnadu and Pondicherry around Marx’s writings on religion. The books chosen for the collective reading in Maharashtra varied by district.  In the run-up to Red Books Day, The Young Socialist Artists collective in India began collecting various types of art and disseminating it. These art works were shared widely on social media, emphasising that Red Books Day is about more than just books, but also about art, music, and other forms of collective culture. In Assam and Karnataka, Navyug Prakashan and Kriya Publications were instrumental in organising events. Telangana held readings on Bhagat Singh's life and ideology. In Andhra Pradesh, the book Maha Prasthanam was chosen for Red Books Day discussions. Campuses across India, from Jamia, Presidency, Delhi University, Hyderabad Central University to Jawaharlal Nehru University enthusiastically celebrated Red Books Day with talks, art performances, film screenings, and book exhibitions, among other activities. The final event in India was held at May Day Bookstore (Delhi) and featured a variety of programmes, starting from reading of Manifesto in various languages and concluding with a street play of Janam, that lasted until late at night. In many places, the programmes were also linked to International Mother Language Day.

While there were events in countries that had participated in Red Books Day from 2020 – such as in Nepal and Cuba – there were new participants in countries such as Malaysia and Mexico. The president of Cuba – Miguel Díaz-Canel – tweeted about Red Books Day, while the leaders of several socialist parties on the African continent read the Manifesto in public. Socialist forces are now seized with the idea that Red Books Day must be part of their routine, with February 21 being an important date in the calendar of the Left. It was remarkable to see Red Books Day exceed the circuits of those affiliated to the IULP or to the Left currents already in our networks, and to see those far outside our ranks adopt this day as their own. This is precisely the objective of a day such as this – to become an integral part of public culture and to struggle to establish rational and socialist ideas as the ideas of society. By the end of the decade, we estimate over ten million people will participate in Red Books Day.