Talat Ahmed teaches at the Department of History, Goldsmiths,University of London, UK and is also a member of the British Association for South Asian Studies and the Royal Asiatic Society, London. Her current research is focused on intellectual and cultural history of modern South Asia and radical literary and cultural projects in twentieth-century South Asia. She has published articles and reviews in a number of academic journals and other publications across the world.

This book aims to provide a historical account of the All-India Progressive Writers' Association (AIPWA). In a structured narrative, it focuses on the political processes inside India, events and circumstances in South Asia and the debates and literary movements in Europe and the United States to demonstrate how the literary project was specifically informed by literary-political movements. It explores the theorisation of literature and politics that informed progressive writing and argues that the progressive conception of literature, art and politics was closer to the theorisation of two thinkers of whom the writers themselves knew very little - Leon Trotsky and Antonio Gramsci.

Introduction 1. Literature and Politics 2. The PWA's Conception of Literature, Arts and Society 3. The Politics of Independence 4. The PWA During the War 5. The Fate of Hindustani 6. Writer's and Nationalism in the Age of Independence Conclusion Bibliography Index