Subaltern historiography

power point presentation on subaltern historiography

1. Study of S ubaltern T rend o f M odern Indian Historiography

2. OBJECTIVES   Explain the meaning and nature of the subaltern history . A study of rise and growth of the subaltern history writing . A study of available sources for the history writing . The survey of early contribution of subaltern history writing in India . Criticism and response of the subaltern studies.

3. INTRODUCTION ‘ Subaltern studies’ is a new term of history writing .which about society and social concept with special focus of the class and equality concept. Literally the meaning of the word subaltern is ‘lower in position or rank’ . In historiograpy . the term subaltern is used in post colonial theory to refer to marginalized groups and the lower class . This sense of word was coined by Antonio Gramsci .

4. What is historiography ? Historiography is the study of were history is written . And how our historical understanding changes over time . Historiography acknowledged and discusses this process of change. It also refers to the sum total of history written about a particular person or event.

5. Various S chools of M odern Indian H istoriography Modern Indian historiography began with the writing of scholar administration of the E nglish E ast India C ompany and they found history as an instrument to legitimise the colonial rule by put making some interpretations  . Thus there emerged different schools of thoughts or historiographical trends in Indian history .They are as the followings - 

6. 1.Colonial or imperialist school of  historiography   2.Utilitarian S chool of Historiography  3. E vangelical S chool of Historiography   4. A dministrative School of H istoriography   5 . Nationalist school of historiography  6.Marxist school of historiography  7.Neo-imperialist school of historiography  8.Subaltern trend of historiography 

7. What is subaltern historiography? Subaltern historiograpy is a school that originated in I ndia 1982. I t has introduced an almost new genre of history writing on modern I ndia . Subaltern studies are collections of monographs on diverse unconnected topics. Their one theme is the insurgency of the lower classes.

8. Origin of subaltern historiography 1 . Firstly Marxist socialist Antonio Gramsci began subaltern studies in England in 1970;he used the word "Subaltern " first in his "prison notebooks"(1971).He wrote a symbol of Italian manufacture which reglferred to the class , gender ,race, language and culture . 2 .The word Subaltern came from Italian word Subaterno .

9. subaltern historians (Foreigner and Indian) Eric stokes - He was a famous historian of south Asia , especially early modern and colonial India and of the British Empire .His works are - The peasant and the Raj studies and agrarian society  Peasant rebellion in colonial India and the peasant armed ;the Indian revolt of 1857.   Foreigner writers of subaltern trend :- Shahid Amin  is a junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Oxford. He is working on a book, shortly to be published, on the interrelation of sugar mills and the peasantry in eastern Uttar Pradesh in the 1930s.

10. Indian writers of subaltern trend :- Gautam Bhadra  is a Lecturer in History at the University of Calcutta. His most recent work, a monograph in Bengali on the history of peasant uprisings in Mughal India, is now in the press. Partha Chatterjee  is Professor of Political Science, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. He has published Arms, Alliances and Stability: The Development of the Structure of International Politics (Delhi, London and New York, 1975) and is co-author of The State of Political Theory: Some Marxist Essays (Calcutta, 1978).

11. Aims of subaltern studies 1)Rejection of elitist historiography 2)Narratives of the lower and subordinate classes 3) New Research and Re-examination of subalternist histories

12. Different V iews O f D ifferent H istorians A ccording to the M arxist theory, different historians found that subaltern is very difficult And accept the principles of caste and religion as factors of Indian history . According to Ranjit Guha , that the main intention of subaltern studies is to. Produce historical analysis which the subaltern group were viewed as the subject of history.

13. “ We are indeed opposed to much of the prevailing academic practice in historiography…for its failure to acknowledge the subaltern as the marker of his own destiny. The critique lies at the very heart of our project.” Partha Cahtterjee , another great historian in subaltern studies project, who gave a remarkable involvement in this respect which proved fundamental point in time to identified with that engagement with elite themes is not on the whole innovative to the subaltern. And also he said that there were also main two controversies over the publication of the first series of the Subaltern Studies.

14. subaltern historiography in India   The founder of the subaltern studies is Ranjit Guha (an Indian) and the trend of ‘Subaltern studies’ prevailed in India, in the last twenty years of the 20th century. This new trend gave a way to new challenges by crossing the traditional writing of history. It provided a new direction, new amplitude and helped to begin a new chapter. Indian point of view of Subaltern history is similar to the trend of writing in England, which became famous as ‘History from Below’

15. Decline of subaltern history According to S umit Sarkar one of the famous historian has said in his book “ the decline of the subaltern” there is a reason behind the unsuccessfulness of subaltern studies it says there are disagreements with late subaltern. studies which flow from a compound of academic and political misgivings. There are two kinds of misrecognition .Subaltern Studies does not happen to be the first Indian historiographical school whose reputation has come to be evaluated primarily in terms of audience response in the West. For many Indian readers, particularly that gets interested in postmodern trends for the first time. The sense of being ‘with it’ strongly conveyed by subaltern studies appears for more important than any possible insubstantiality of empirical consent.

16. History of subaltern classes is interrupted and varying from one part to another which stay behind as open-ended and as well as self-critical. In a nut shell it is saying that at the present time this project stands with the cost of denying to itself the security for the political positions . Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak made two necessary distinction in the research work of Subaltern Studies about the peasant revolt and as well as inside the domain of colonial governance. The other one is about the structural model of subaltern consciousness – a ‘pure’ structure and on the other side about the shapes and forms for appearing a history. And she also mentioned women as a subaltern of the contemporary society as she said at the end of her essay “Can the subaltern speak?” as ‘The subaltern cannot speak. There is no virtue in global laundry lists with ‘woman’ as a pious item. Representation has not withered away.

17. Future of subaltern studies Future of subaltern studies is very bright. According to our society and its condition the importance of subaltern studies has become very relevant. There is a price that has to be paid for this shift to the ethnographic , the practical ,the everyday and the local. Subaltern historiography is the only one trend of history writing which specially takes interest in the inferior class of society , It refers the struggles of the workers , the peasants and the tribals and the important thing is that in our society day by day the condition of these lower class is decreasing and that’s way we think for them the subaltern historiography will definitely work.

18. Conclusion The subaltern studies asserted itself as a radically new form of history-writing in the context of Indian history. The history written till now is one-sided, partial and mot showing true picture of lower level group in society. A group of people is deprived of proper position. A great man or intellectual group cannot create history. True history is not of superior group but it is shaped from the group of common people.

19. Subaltern studies became an original site for a new kind of history from below, a people’s history free of national constraints, a post-nationalist reimaging of Indian nation, on the other side, at the margins, outside nationalism. This work brings together all the historians through the new trend of writing “subaltern studies” , so that the recipients of success should get justice and in the same way true history will be written.