The Subaltern Studies Group (SSG) or Subaltern Studies Collective is a group of

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...

scholars interested in the

postcolonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

and post-

imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

societies. The term ''Subaltern Studies'' is sometimes also applied more broadly to others who share many of their views and they are often considered to be "exemplary of postcolonial studies" and as one of the most influential movements in the field. Their anti-

essentialist Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In ''Categories'', Aristotle sim ...

approach is one of

history from below A people's history, or history from below, is a type of historical narrative which attempts to account for historical events from the perspective of common people rather than leaders. There is an emphasis on disenfranchised, the oppressed, the p ...

, focused more on what happens among the masses at the base levels of society than among the elite.

Definition

The term "

subaltern Subaltern may refer to: *Subaltern (postcolonialism), colonial populations who are outside the hierarchy of power * Subaltern (military), a primarily British and Commonwealth military term for a junior officer * Subalternation, going from a univer ...

" in this context is an allusion to the work of Italian

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...

(1891–1937). The term's semantic range has evolved from its first usage by

Ranajit Guha Ranajit Guha (born 23 May 1923, in Siddhakati, Backergunje) is a historian of the Indian Subcontinent who has been vastly influential in the Subaltern Studies group, and was the editor of several of the group's early anthologies. He migrated fro ...

, following Gramsci, to refer solely to peasants who had not been integrated into the industrial

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

system. It now refers to any person or group of inferior rank or station, whether because of

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

, or

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. The SSG arose in the 1980s, influenced by the scholarship of Eric Stokes and

, to attempt to formulate a new narrative of the history of India and South Asia. The group started at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

and then continued and traveled, mainly through Guha's students. This narrative strategy most clearly inspired by the writings of Gramsci was explicated in the writings of their "mentor"

, most clearly in his "manifesto" in Subaltern Studies I and also in his classic monograph ''The Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency''. Although they are, in a sense, on the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

, they are very critical of the traditional Marxist narrative of Indian history, in which semi-

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

India was colonized by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, became politicized, and earned its

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

. In particular, they are critical of the focus of this narrative on the political consciousness of elites, who in turn inspire the masses to resistance and rebellion against the British. Instead, they focus on non-elites — subalterns — as agents of political and social change. They have had a particular interest in the discourses and rhetoric of emerging political and social movements, as against only highly visible actions like demonstrations and uprisings.

Criticism

One of the group's early contributors,

Sumit Sarkar Sumit Sarkar (born 1939) is an Indian historian of modern India. He is the author of ''Swadeshi Movement''. Early life, education and career He was born to Susobhan Sarkar. His maternal uncle was Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. He completed h ...

, later began to critique it. He entitled one of his essays "Decline of the Subaltern in Subaltern Studies", criticizing the turn to Foucauldian studies of power-knowledge that left behind many of the empiricist and Marxist efforts of the first two volumes of ''Subaltern Studies''. He writes that the socialist inspiration behind the early volumes led to a greater impact in India itself, while the later volumes' focus on western discourse reified the subaltern-colonizer divide and then rose in prominence mainly in western academia. Even

Gayatri Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...

, one of the most prominent names associated with the movement, has called herself a critic of "metropolitan post-colonialism". Indian sociologist

Vivek Chibber Vivek Aslam Chibber (born 1965) is an American academic, social theorist, editor, and professor of sociology at New York University, who has published widely on development, social theory, and politics. Chibber is the author of three books, ''The ...

has criticized the premise of Subaltern Studies for its obfuscation of

struggle and

class formation In mathematics, a class formation is a topological group acting on a module satisfying certain conditions. Class formations were introduced by Emil Artin and John Tate to organize the various Galois groups and modules that appear in class field t ...

in its analysis, and accused it of excising class exploitation from the story of the oppression of the

. His critique, explained in his book ''

Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital ''Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital'' is a 2013 book by the Indian sociologist and New York University professor Vivek Chibber. Coming from the radical Enlightenment tradition, this book is a critique of Postcolonial Theory. C ...

'', is focused on the works of two Indian scholars:

and

Dipesh Chakrabarty Dipesh Chakrabarty (born 1948, in Kolkata, India) is an Indian historian, who has also made contributions to postcolonial theory and subaltern studies. He is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in history at the University ...

. According to Chibber, subaltern scholars tend to recreate the

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

as a place where cultural differences negate analyses based on western experience.

Bibliography of Subaltern Studies

Note:

People associated with Subaltern Studies

Scholars associated with Subaltern Studies include: *

David Arnold David Arnold (born 23 January 1962) is a British film composer whose credits include scoring five James Bond films, as well as ''Stargate'' (1994), '' Independence Day'' (1996), ''Godzilla'' (1998) and the television series '' Little Britain'' ...

Gautam Bhadra Gautam Bhadra ( bn, গৌতম ভদ্র) is a historian of South Asia and was a member of the erstwhile Subaltern Studies collective. Bhadra was born in Kolkata in 1948. He obtained education at Presidency University, Kolkata, Presidency ...

Partha Chatterjee Partha ( sa, pārtha) may refer to: * Partha, an epithet of Arjuna, a warrior in the Mahabharata * Partha, an ancestor of the Shah Mir dynasty of Kashmir * Partha, a given name (for a list of people with the name, see ) * Partha See also * Parth ...

David Hardiman David Hardiman is a historian of modern India and a founding member of the subaltern studies group. Born in Rawalpindi in Pakistan, Hardiman was brought up in England where he graduated from the London School of Economics in 1970 and received his ...

* Sudipta Kaviraj *

Gyanendra Pandey Gyanendra Kedarnath Pandey (born 12 August 1972) is a former Indian cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each compr ...

Gyan Prakash Gyan Prakash is a historian of modern India and the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. Prakash is a member of the Subaltern Studies collective. Prakash received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the Univers ...

Sarojini Sahoo Sarojini Sahoo (born 4 January 1956) is an Indian feminist writer, a columnist in ''The New Indian Express'' and an associate editor of Chennai-based English magazine ''Indian AGE.'' She has been enlisted among '' 25 Exceptional Women of India ...

(later dissented) * Ajay Skaria *

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...

* Eric Stokes *

Susie Tharu Susie Tharu (born 1943) is an Indian writer, publisher, professor, editor and women's activist. Throughout her career and the founding of several women's activist organizations, Tharu has helped to highlight those issues in India. Career Tharu ...

* Engin Sustam

References

External links

Tim Spurgin's notes on Subaltern Studies
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041217204309/http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/english/courses/60a/handouts/poco.html , date=2004-12-17 and other topics in

postcolonialism Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

A Bibliography of Subaltern Studies
– the books, articles, and reviews Historiography of India Fields of history