“Subaltern Studies”, founded in 1982 by a group of historians of India, has now established itself as an internationally recognised school ...
“Subaltern Studies”, founded in 1982 by a group of historians of India, has now established itself as an internationally recognised school of history. Its most famous article was published a few years later and simply titled “Can the Subaltern Speak?” – and the author, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ended by denying the very possibility of meaningful subaltern utterance.
It is indisputable that Dalit-Bahujan political formations such as the BSP have risen to prominence in Indian life since the 1990s and this has therefore found lodgements in the academic world, till then obsessed with the multiplicity of modes of production and the authentic flavour of Indian nationalism. The role of Dr BR Ambedkar (1891-1956) in the making of the Indian republic was more widely accepted. His precursor – and founder of the non-Brahman movement, Jyotirao (known in Maharashtra as “Mahatma”) Phule (1827-1890) also received wider recognition in the English-language segment of Indian public life.
Meanwhile, a hitherto little-noticed Dalit celebration at the British-era war memorial to at Bhima-Koregaon burst into public notice when the gathering was attacked on January 1, 2018. The episode illustrated how a Dalit historical memory has gathered around the site since the 1920s, unnoticed by the official media and academy.
My recent book studies when and where...
