Introduction

• Subaltern Studies is a series of volumes edited initially by Ranajit Guha, who was the prime mover and ideologue of the project.
• Guha edited the first six volumes of the Subaltern Studies, and the subsequent five volumes were edited by other scholars associated with the project.
• The project critiqued the elitist bias in the entire tradition of Indian historiography before its inception.
• Historians involved in Subaltern Studies aimed to write history from the perspective of the common people.
• The unit discusses the various positions taken by the writers of Subaltern Studies and the criticism of the project from other historians and scholars in Indian studies.

Beginning of the Idea

• Subaltern Studies was proclaimed as a new school in Indian history-writing by its adherents.
• Some historians associated with the project viewed it as a sharp break from the tradition of Indian historiography.
• A group of dissatisfied writers with conventional history-writing joined the collective, contributing to the volumes.
• The collective also involved historians and social scientists not formally associated with the subaltern collective.
• In addition to articles in Subaltern Studies volumes, writers contributed to other journals, edited volumes, and published monographs related to subaltern themes and methodology.
• The project, initially intended to be three volumes, has expanded into an ongoing series with eleven volumes published to date.
• Ranajit Guha also edited a volume of essays from earlier volumes for international audiences.
• Some recent volumes of Subaltern Studies have incorporated themes from non-Indian Third World countries.
• The term ‘subaltern’ originally referred to serfs and peasants in medieval England and later to subordinate military ranks by 1700.
• Antonio Gramsci popularized the term in scholarly circles, using it broadly to refer to subordinate groups in society.
• Gramsci saw the history of subaltern groups as intertwined with that of ruling groups, often fragmentary and episodic.
• Ranajit Guha defined ‘subaltern’ in the Concise Oxford Dictionary sense as “of inferior rank” and used it for subordination in South Asian society across class, caste, age, gender, or other factors.
• Guha further clarified that the terms “people” and “subaltern classes” were synonymous, representing the demographic difference between the Indian population and the elite.
• Subaltern historians made a radical departure from Gramsci’s use of the term, arguing that the history of subaltern groups is autonomous from the dominant classes.