Subaltern Quotes

“There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
― Arundhati Roy

“Decolonizing knowledge shouldn’t put us in the position of only producing knowledge as a reaction to Western knowledge. Our existence should not become one in which everything we produce is to justify our intellectual existence vis-à-vis the West. It means to produce what we see as important, fit, and nurturing to our communities, countries, and cultures, in separation from the West and its colonial and imperial agenda. This way, we will ensure to not waste our energy in simply reacting to the West to justify the value of our contribution to knowledge.”
― Louis Yako

“আন্ধার আর সুমসাম কুঠুরিতে একলা থাকলেই আমার খালি খালি নরক আর শয়তানের কথা মনে আহে। নরক যাওনের রাস্তাঘাটগুলা চিনা নাই, চিনাজানা থাকলে মাঝেমধ্যি আওন-যাওন যাইতো। পূজা-পাইলের দিনে তেহার-পরবে ঐহানে গিয়ে দুই একদিনের লাইগ্যা ঘুইর্যা আওন যাইতো। ... হয়তানের কথা হগল সময়ে মনে আহে, অর কথা ভাইব্যা-ভাইব্যা শরীল নিপাত করি, অথচো কোন কুলকিনারা পাই না। ক্যান জানি মনে হয়, হয়তানে আমার কাছে পিঠেই আছে। ...যারে দেহি তারেই জিগাই, ‘এখানে শ্রীযুক্ত বাবু শয়তান নামে কেউ থাকেন কি?”
― Subimal Basak, Subimal Basak Sankalan

“If anything, sources that have the support and protection of power and institutions should be treated as suspicious not superior. There are very few words that make me as nauseous as words like ‘prestige’ and ‘prestigious’. Prestige is often a shortcut for getting power’s approval and blessings, which automatically, in my view, should disqualify any intellectual from being taken seriously.”
― Louis Yako

“While the imperial university continues to pay lip service to letting the subaltern speak, make no mistake: the subalterns have never been silent. They have always been thinking, writing, doing, and sensing. The problem has always been with the shortsightedness and racism of the colonizers and the imperial spaces where certain knowledge gets produced and promoted, while other knowledge gets silenced, mutilated, and buried under the rubble of indifference and arrogance.”
― Louis Yako

“I personally believe (and I know many readers will find this controversial) that we should never engage with any writers or scholars whose work is intentionally Euro-American centered and purposely ignores or refuses to engage with knowledge produced by thinkers outside the West. In other words, in knowledge production, reciprocate treatment (whether in engagement or citation) can be effective in challenging and changing the rules of the game.”
― Louis Yako