• David Hardiman was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in October 1947.
• He has taught at several prestigious institutions, including the University of Leicester, School of Oriental and African Studies in London, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and University of Oxford.
• Currently, he is associated with the University of Warwick, UK.
• In 1980, Hardiman was a fellow at the Centre for Social Studies in Surat.
• In 1981, he was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
• Hardiman is a prolific writer and a founding member of the Subaltern Studies group.
• Since 1982, all of Hardiman’s articles and books have been aligned with the subaltern studies perspective.

Writings of Hardiman

• Hardiman’s Works:

  1. The Quit India Movement in Gujarat (1980)
  2. Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat: Kheda District, 1917-1934 (1981)
  3. The Coming of Devi: Adivasi Assertion in Western India (1987)
  4. Peasant Resistance in India: 1858-1914 (1992)
  5. Subaltern Studies VIII: Essays in Honour of Ranajit Guha (1994)
  6. Feeding the Baniya: Peasants and Usurers in Western India (1996)
  7. Gandhi in his Time and Ours (2003)
  8. Histories for the Subordinated (2006)
  9. Missionaries and their Medicine: A Christian Modernity for Tribal India (2008)
• David Hardiman is a sociologically-sensitive historian who contributed to the creation of the subaltern perspective.
• He specializes in Modern Indian history, particularly focusing on the colonial period in South Asia.
• Hardiman has written extensively on the effects of colonial rule on rural society, the Indian independence movement, popular bases to Indian nationalism, and environmental and medical history.
• In the late 1970s, he joined a group of historians studying the social history of subordinate groups in South Asia.
• He adopted the Gramscian term ‘subaltern’ to emphasize the centrality of relationships of domination and subordination in South Asian society, where class divisions were different from those in industrialized societies.
• Hardiman focused on local-level studies of the Indian nationalist movement, particularly in Gujarat, Gandhi’s home region. He highlighted the disjuncture between Gandhian leadership and local peasant activists.
• He studied power structures in rural society, including the influence of usurers and the limits to their control, as well as revolts against these hegemonies.
• He examined an adivasi movement asserting itself against liquor dealers who had a monopoly granted by the British.
• He wrote a book on Gandhi and his legacy, applying his knowledge of Gandhi’s social milieu and reflecting on contemporary social issues in India.
• From 1983 to 1989, Hardiman worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Studies, Surat, Gujarat, focusing on government and NGO development projects and engaging in development-linked research while continuing his historical research.
• He contributed to sociological perspectives of the subaltern, including works on the Devi Movement in South Gujarat and Feeding the Baniya.

Hardiman’s Sociological Perspective of Subaltern

• Essay Focus: A glimpse into the subaltern perspective, with emphasis on the writings of David Hardiman, a sociologically sensitive historian.
• Hardiman’s interest was shaped by his participation in the subaltern studies project, which, inspired by Ranajit Guha, focuses on studying relationships of domination and subordination in India.
• He was influenced by western Marxist historians, notably E.P. Thompson on systems of moral economy and Eugene Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese on the mix of ruthless exploitation and paternalism in the slave system of the American South.
• His work draws from the insights of Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, as well as D.D. Kosambi, Jairus Banaji, and Frank Perlin in the context of western India.
• These influences provided foundational support for Hardiman’s approach to understanding domination, subordination, and historical social dynamics.