• Ranajit Guha is one of the most influential figures in postcolonial and subaltern studies.
• He is the founding editor of Subaltern Studies.
• Guha taught history for many years at the University of Sussex, England.
• He also served as Professor of History at the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.
• Guha’s works have deeply influenced the writing of subcontinental history and also historical investigations globally.
• His influence extends to cultural studies, literary theories, and social analyses across the world.

Methodology

• Guha used subaltern historiography as a method for his study of peasant insurgency.

Writings

• Guha’s important writings include:

  1. A Rule of Property for Bengal: An Essay on the Idea of the Permanent Settlement (1963)
  2. Elementary Aspects of Insurgency in Colonial India (1983)
  3. Subaltern Studies (edited volumes 1 to 10).

• Guha focuses on the following aspects of the subaltern perspective:

  1. Defining the subaltern perspective through subaltern studies.
  2. How did subaltern studies get recognized?
  3. The idea of subaltern perspective.
  4. The emerging subaltern perspective.
  5. The inchoate quality associated with the subaltern perspective.
  6. Peasant insurgency.

• Guha aimed to write the history of subaltern from the subaltern’s perspective, to recognize the role of the silent majority in shaping history.

• Central to this study is the issue of who was dominating whom and who revolted against this domination, and how.

Defining the Subaltern Perspective through Subaltern Studies

• The word ‘subaltern’ originally referred to a junior army officer in Indian vocabulary until the 1980s, later extended to mean subordinates or the alternate.
• Guha and his team of scholars presented a series of academic essays between 1982 and 1984, later published in Subaltern Studies volumes.
• These volumes became highly anticipated by younger scholars in the social sciences.
• The subaltern perspective is difficult to define clearly, even after two decades of existence, retaining an inchoate quality.
• The subaltern perspective can be understood through the papers presented in Subaltern Studies, with two versions:
  1. Volumes 1 to 5: Focus on the study of politics and rebellion.
  2. Volume 5 onwards: Focus shifts to constructing the articulation of subaltern culture and its relationship with colonial power, dominant culture, and resistance.
• Between volume 1 and 10, 76 papers were published in Subaltern Studies.
• Key contributors to Subaltern Studies included:
  • Ranajit Guha and Partha Chatterjee (16 papers each).
  • David Arnold, David Hardiman, Gyanendra Pandey (five papers each).
  • Dipesh Chakrabarty, Gautam Bhadra, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Sahid Amin (more than one paper each).
• The writings of these contributors set the tone for the subaltern paradigm, though from volume 5 onwards, the focus shifted towards cultural studies away from history.