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Vijay Prashad | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Prashad in 2010 | |
| Born | 1967 (age 57–58) |
| Education | |
| Relatives | Brinda Karat (aunt) |
| Website | thetricontinental |
Vijay Prashad (born 1967) is an Indian-born American, author, journalist, political commentator, andMarxist intellectual.[1][2] He is the executive-director ofTricontinental: Institute for Social Research, editor ofLeftWord Books, Chief Correspondent at Globetrotter,[3] and a senior non-resident fellow atChongyang Institute for Financial Studies,Renmin University of China.[4] Ideologically aMarxist, Prashad is well known for his criticisms ofcapitalism,neocolonialism,American exceptionalism, andWesternimperialism, while expressing support forcommunism and theglobal south.[5][6][7]
Previously, Prashad has been the George and Martha Kellner Chair inSouth Asian History and a professor of international studies atTrinity College inHartford, Connecticut, United States, from 1996 to 2017. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, part of the globalBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement,[8][9] and co-founder of theForum of Indian Leftists (FOIL).[1][10]
Prashad has provided reporting and political commentary for several publications, includingMonthly Review,[11]The Nation,[12] andSalon.[13]
The son of Pran and Soni Prashad,[14] Vijay Prashad was born and raised inKolkata, India.[15] He attendedThe Doon School as a child.[16] In the United States, he received a BA fromPomona College in 1989 as well as earning a PhD at theUniversity of Chicago in 1994—writing a dissertation under the supervision ofBernard S. Cohn.[17][18][19] He is the nephew of Marxist Indian politicianBrinda Karat.[20] Prashad identifies as queer.[21]
Vijay Prashad is a fervent proclaimer of democracy,Marxism, socialism, and communism.[1][2][22]
Criticism ofcapitalism is a recurrent theme throughout his work. In addition, criticisms ofimperialism,colonialism,neocolonialism and other such topics are regular themes.[citation needed]
Prashad is an outspoken critic ofAmericanhegemony andimperialism.[23][unreliable source?][24] He debated historianJuan Cole on the 2011 US-French-NATO military intervention in Libya, which Cole supported.[25] Prashad argued that the genuineLibyan rising had been "usurped" by various unsavory characters, including some withCIA connections.[26] Prashad wrote the 2012 bookArab Spring, Libyan Winter, released throughAK Press, on the topic.[27][28]
Prashad offered his analysis ofMother Teresa's missionary work inCalcutta, designating her as a representative of the collective "bourgeois guilt" ofWestern nations.[29] He argued that people like Mother Teresa obscure the tragedies of capitalism. For instance, "During the night of December 2–3, 1984, theBhopal disaster poisoned thousands of people". He states that the Bhopal disaster, which was caused byUnion Carbide, was the most flagrant example of a transnational corporation's disregard for human life in defence of its own profit. In 1983, Union Carbide's sales came to US$9 billion and its assets totalled US$10bn. Part of this profit came from a tendency to shirk any responsibility towards safety standards, not just in India, but also in their West Virginia plant. After the disaster, Mother Teresa flew into Bhopal and, escorted in two government cars, she offered Bhopal's victims smallaluminium medals ofSt. Mary. "This could have been an accident," she told the survivors, "it's like a fire (that) could break out anywhere. That is why it is important to forgive. Forgiveness offers us a clean heart and people will be a hundred times better after it."Pope John Paul II joined Mother Teresa with his analysis that Bhopal was a "sad event" which resulted from "man's efforts to make progress."[30][31][improper synthesis?]
In the same article he also commented on Mother Teresa's alleged links withCharles Keating andMichele Duvalier (wife ofHaitian dictatorBaby Doc Duvalier). Denouncing the "cruel rule of capital" he also offered the view that the communists ofCalcutta were the "real nameless Mother Teresas who conduct the necessary work towards socialism, for the elimination of poverty forever."[32]
Prashad has written extensively about the removal ofEvo Morales as President of Bolivia in 2019 and the2020 Bolivian general election.[33] He described Morales' removal as acoup d'état and said theOrganisation of American States had "legitimised" the coup with unsubstantiated conclusions in its preliminary report.[33] In March 2020, he wrote that Morales' removal from office was the result of his government's "socialist policy toward Bolivia's resources" which required that returns from mining resources such aslithium "be properly shared with the Bolivian people". He said that the government ofJeanine Áñez had extended a "welcome mat" toTesla to establish a factory in Bolivia to manufacture lithium batteries from Bolivia's reserves.[33]
In 2010, as Prashad was appointed to head the newly formed Trinity Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at Trinity College, a group of professors wrote a letter protesting the appointment based on "the prominent role he has played in promoting a boycott of Israeli universities and of study abroad in Israel".[34] After initially refusing to meet with them, Trinity President James Jones eventually met with representatives fromJewish organisations, including theConnecticut Jewish federation, theAnti-Defamation League, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford on 14 September 2010. One participant reported a "veiled threat" to have Jewish donors "weigh in". The university backed Prashad and rejected attempts to rescind his appointment.[9]
Alexander Reid Ross and Courtney Dobson, writing inNew Lines magazine, said Prashad has argued that thepersecution of Uyghurs inXinjiang does not constitute agenocide. In April 2021, Prashad authored an article for Globetrotter in which he wrote that the diplomatic boycott of China was an American disinformation campaign designed to create hostilities between the two nations, writing "The U.S. government’s information warfare against China has produced the ‘fact’ that there is genocide in Xinjiang... Once this has been established, it helps develop diplomatic and economic warfare." On an episode ofThe Zero Hour with RJ Eskow, Prashad stated there was no evidence that the Chinese government's actions constituted genocide.[35]
In response to theNew Lines article's accusation ofgenocide denial, Prashad wrote that he had never written about China's treatment of ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim populations in Xinjiang. He said he had commented on aYouTube show that he "did not believe there was reliable evidence or investigation to meet the high legal burden of genocide under international law" and that his remarks corresponded with similar statements by figures such as former UN advisorJeffrey Sachs and the former president of theInternational Association of Genocide ScholarsWilliam Schabas, as well as theUS State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser.[36]
HistorianPaul Buhle has described Prashad as "a literary phenomenon."[37] Indian writer and journalistAmitava Kumar also praised Prashad, writing "Prashad is our ownFrantz Fanon. His writing of protest is always tinged with the beauty of hope."[38]
Prashad has come under international scrutiny for his association withNeville Roy Singham, who has been accused of funding and promoting pro-Chinese government messaging and causes via a network of organizations (including the Prashad-associated Tricontinental Institute,NewsClick, The People's Forum,BreakThrough News, and Globetrotter).[39][35] Prashad has responded to the criticism, deeming it “scurrilous” and characterizing it as an attempt “to conjure a conspiracy from something that is no secret at all” as well as a pretended “scoop based on public statements that I – and others – have made. The [critics] … uncovered no conspiracy and had no scoop, only innuendo."[36]
As author
As editor
Articles
Interviews
Talks
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| External videos | |
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 Vijay Prashad - Hybrid Wars and US Imperialism onYouTube | |
| The Chris Hedges Report: Struggle makes us human onYouTube |
