In the wake of the enormous interest across the globe in the fall of the Left Front in West Bengal, this book describes the Left era as one of passive revolution: limited reforms and changes, big compromises, corruption of the commissars and the failure of the Left in assessing popular discontent and anger; thus, it is the end of revolution even in passive form.

A collection of articles by Samaddar from leading national dailies and journals between 1977 and the downfall of the Left in West Bengal, this books analyses the era of the Left rule, its political decisions and its social and economic viability. Samaddar argues that the Left's rule and its own governmental style destroyed the hegemony it had built up through assiduous work of decades.

A commentary on contemporary history and an assessment of it, this work helps the reader understand, better, the re-emergence of the Maoist movement in West Bengal, the governmental techniques of the Left and the dynamics of popular politics.