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Selected Subaltern Studies
This provocative volume presents the most wide-ranging essays from the first five volumes of Subaltern Studies , along with an introductory essay by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak--the translator of Derrida's Of Grammatology into English--and a foreword by eminent critic Edward W. Said. Addressed to students and scholars throughout the humanities, these essays address what Antonio Gramsci--the founder of the Italian communist party--called the subaltern classes, reexamining well-known historical and political events, such as Gandhi's role in India, from a Marxist perspective. Together, the essays examine aspects of the analysis of domination, with special reference to the critique of imperialism, in an attempt to rectify the elitist bias characteristic of much academic work on India. A ground-breaking work of considerable pedagogical relevance for courses dealing with colonialism and imperialism in literature, sociology, anthropology, politics, and history, Subaltern Studies also
features a comprehensive glossary of Indian terms for readers not familiar with Indian history.
features a comprehensive glossary of Indian terms for readers not familiar with Indian history.
452 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Ranajit Guha
34 books59 followersRanajit Guha was a historian of South Asia who was greatly influential in the Subaltern Studies group, and was the editor of several of the group's early anthologies. He migrated from India to the UK in 1959, and currently lives in Vienna, Austria.
His Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India is widely considered to be a classic. Aside from this, his founding statement in the first volume of Subaltern Studies set the agenda for the Subaltern Studies group, defining the "subaltern" as "the demographic difference between the total Indian population and all those whom we have described as the ‘elite’."
His Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India is widely considered to be a classic. Aside from this, his founding statement in the first volume of Subaltern Studies set the agenda for the Subaltern Studies group, defining the "subaltern" as "the demographic difference between the total Indian population and all those whom we have described as the ‘elite’."
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 31, 2017
Notes from Gender Class Paper:
The inclination of “empowered women” to follow after material desires only serves the consumerist structure which is ambivalent of its political repercussions on those women who are not part of the ‘center’ but on the ‘margin’ (hooks, 1984). There is an indication that the privileged, Western, and dominant stance prevents the ability to understand the marginal “Other” (Spivak, 1988,) and there are various women scholars from across the world who have pointed out the problematic expectation of white feminist schools of thought for women of color and the “Third World woman” to follow through and “adapt to their expectations and their language” (Anzaldúa, 2015, p. 167). Be it through language, space, or possible action to bring about change, there is a ‘central’ direction from which the conversation about women’s empowerment is steered. Issues related to discourse, power, and resistance are inherent in the reproduction of dominant culture, and are the basis of deliberate distance-making and prejudice in the ways that the ‘Other’ is perceived as that which is feared, belittled, or deemed exotic: In emphasizing the opposing difference that distinguishes between the West and the Other/Orient, the dominant structures of colonialism and imperialism of the West were able to preserve their power and ascertain the criteria by which that power is defined (Said, 1979). The power of whiteness and of the central, dominant image as personified by women in the public domain who look down on the marginalized is not to be under-estimated, and it manifests itself in trends such as the post-colonial “Global Motherhood” that has Western women offer substitute lives and more promising futures for underprivileged children from the global South (Shome, 2011).
The inclination of “empowered women” to follow after material desires only serves the consumerist structure which is ambivalent of its political repercussions on those women who are not part of the ‘center’ but on the ‘margin’ (hooks, 1984). There is an indication that the privileged, Western, and dominant stance prevents the ability to understand the marginal “Other” (Spivak, 1988,) and there are various women scholars from across the world who have pointed out the problematic expectation of white feminist schools of thought for women of color and the “Third World woman” to follow through and “adapt to their expectations and their language” (Anzaldúa, 2015, p. 167). Be it through language, space, or possible action to bring about change, there is a ‘central’ direction from which the conversation about women’s empowerment is steered. Issues related to discourse, power, and resistance are inherent in the reproduction of dominant culture, and are the basis of deliberate distance-making and prejudice in the ways that the ‘Other’ is perceived as that which is feared, belittled, or deemed exotic: In emphasizing the opposing difference that distinguishes between the West and the Other/Orient, the dominant structures of colonialism and imperialism of the West were able to preserve their power and ascertain the criteria by which that power is defined (Said, 1979). The power of whiteness and of the central, dominant image as personified by women in the public domain who look down on the marginalized is not to be under-estimated, and it manifests itself in trends such as the post-colonial “Global Motherhood” that has Western women offer substitute lives and more promising futures for underprivileged children from the global South (Shome, 2011).
November 4, 2025
So. Damn. Dense.
August 21, 2015
well I liked this a lot. it starts out with a very theoretical intro by spivak that sets the tone for the historical work to follow. I read elsewhere that if I didn't know a lot about Indian history I wouldn't understand this but I feel as if the authors did a good job at illuminating it for me. guha charts out 3 elitist historical tendencies he refers to as the colonial, nationalist and radical and generally the pieces here attempt to confront all 3 views. bhadra's essay was especially interesting to me
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews