# Subaltern Studies > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Subaltern_Studies > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Subaltern_Studies.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_Studies > Source revision: 1356187353 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) The **Subaltern Studies Group** (**SSG**) or **Subaltern Studies Collective** is a group of [South Asian](/source/South_Asian) scholars interested in [postcolonial](/source/Postcolonial) and post-[imperial](/source/Empire) societies.[1] The term *Subaltern Studies* is sometimes also applied more broadly to others who share many of their views. Subaltern Studies is often considered to be "exemplary of postcolonial studies" and as one of the most influential movements in the field.[2] Their anti-[essentialist](/source/Essentialism#In_historiography) approach[3] is one of [history from below](/source/People's_history), focused more on what happens among the masses at the base levels of society than among the elite. ## Definition The term "[subaltern](/source/Subaltern_(postcolonialism))" in this context is an allusion to the work of Italian [Marxist](/source/Marxist) [Antonio Gramsci](/source/Antonio_Gramsci) (1891–1937). The term's semantic range has evolved from its first usage by [Ranajit Guha](/source/Ranajit_Guha), following Gramsci, to refer solely to peasants who had not been integrated into the industrial [capitalist](/source/Capitalist) system. It now refers to any person or group of inferior rank or station, whether because of [race](/source/Race_(classification_of_human_beings)), [class](/source/Social_class), [gender](/source/Gender), [sexual orientation](/source/Sexual_orientation), [ethnicity](/source/Ethnicity), or [religion](/source/Religion). The SSG arose in the 1980s, influenced by the scholarship of [Eric Stokes](/source/Eric_Stokes_(historian)) and [Ranajit Guha](/source/Ranajit_Guha), to attempt to formulate a new narrative of the history of India and South Asia. The group started at the [University of Sussex](/source/University_of_Sussex), then continued and spread, mainly through Guha's students.[4] The narrative strategy of subaltern studies, inspired by the writings of Gramsci, was explicated in the writings of their mentor Ranajit Guha, most clearly in his "manifesto" in Subaltern Studies I and also in his classic monograph *The Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency*. Although the scholars associated with the Subaltern Studies Group are, in a sense, on the [left](/source/Left-wing_politics), they are very critical of the traditional [Marxist narrative of Indian history](/source/Marxist_historiography), in which semi-[feudal](/source/Feudal) India was colonized by the [British](/source/United_Kingdom), became politicized, and earned its [independence](/source/Independence). In particular, they are critical of the focus of this narrative on the political consciousness of elites, who in turn inspire the masses to resistance and rebellion against the British. Instead, they focus on non-elites, subalterns, as agents of political and social change. They have had a particular interest in the discourses and rhetoric of emerging political and social movements, as against only highly visible actions like demonstrations and uprisings. ## Criticism One of the group's early contributors, [Sumit Sarkar](/source/Sumit_Sarkar), later began to critique it. He entitled one of his essays "Decline of the Subaltern in Subaltern Studies", criticizing the turn to [Foucauldian](/source/Foucauldian) studies of [power-knowledge](/source/Power-knowledge) that left behind many of the empiricist and Marxist efforts of the first two volumes of *Subaltern Studies*. He writes that the socialist inspiration behind the early volumes led to a greater impact in India itself, while the later volumes' focus on western discourse reified the subaltern-colonizer divide and then rose in prominence mainly in western academia.[5] Even [Gayatri Spivak](/source/Gayatri_Spivak), one of the most prominent names associated with the movement, has called herself a critic of "[metropolitan](/source/Metropole) post-colonialism".[6] American sociologist [Vivek Chibber](/source/Vivek_Chibber) has criticized the premise of Subaltern Studies for its obfuscation of [class](/source/Class_(social)) struggle and [class formation](/source/Marxian_class_theory) in its analysis and accused it of excising [class exploitation](/source/Exploitation_of_labour) from the story of the oppression of the subaltern.[7] His critique, explained in his book *[Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital](/source/Postcolonial_Theory_and_the_Specter_of_Capital)*, is focused on the works of two Indian scholars: Ranajit Guha and [Dipesh Chakrabarty](/source/Dipesh_Chakrabarty). According to Chibber, subaltern scholars tend to recreate the [Orient](/source/Orient) as a place where cultural differences negate analyses based on Western experience. ## Bibliography of Subaltern Studies Edition Publication date Editors Title Pages Publisher 1 1982 Ranajit Guha Writings on South Asian History and Society 231 Delhi: Oxford University Press 2 1983 Ranajit Guha Writings on South Asian History and Society 358 Delhi: Oxford University Press 3 1984 Ranajit Guha Writings on South Asian History and Society 327 Delhi: Oxford University Press 4 1985 Ranajit Guha Writings on South Asian History and Society 383 Delhi: Oxford University Press 5 1987 Ranajit Guha Writings on South Asian History and Society 296 Delhi: Oxford University Press 6 1989 Ranajit Guha Writings on South Asian History and Society 335 Delhi: Oxford University Press 7 1993 Partha Chatterjee and Gyanendra Pandey Writings on South Asian History and Society 272 Delhi: Oxford University Press 8 1994 David Arnold and David Hardiman Writings on South Asian History and Society 240 Delhi: Oxford University Press 9 1996 Shahid Amin and Dipesh Chakrabarty Writings on South Asian History and Society 248 Delhi: Oxford University Press 10 1999 Gautam Bhadra, Gyan Prakash, and Susie Tharu Writings on South Asian History and Society 252 Delhi: Oxford University Press 11 2000 Partha Chatterjee and Pradeep Jeganathan Community, Gender and Violence 347 New York: Columbia University Press 12 2005 Shail Mayaram, M. S. S. Pandian, and Ajay Skaria Muslims, Dalits, and the Fabrications of History 322 New Delhi: Permanent Black and Ravi Dayal Publisher Note: [8] ## People associated with Subaltern Studies Scholars associated with Subaltern Studies include: - [David Arnold](/source/David_Arnold_(historian)) - [Gautam Bhadra](/source/Gautam_Bhadra) - [Dipesh Chakrabarty](/source/Dipesh_Chakrabarty) - [Partha Chatterjee](/source/Partha_Chatterjee_(scholar)) - [Ranajit Guha](/source/Ranajit_Guha) - [David Hardiman](/source/David_Hardiman) - [Sudipta Kaviraj](/source/Sudipta_Kaviraj) - [Gyanendra Pandey](/source/Gyanendra_Pandey_(historian)) - [Gyan Prakash](/source/Gyan_Prakash) - [Sarojini Sahoo](/source/Sarojini_Sahoo) - [Ajay Skaria](/source/Ajay_Skaria) - [Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak](/source/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak) - [Susie Tharu](/source/Susie_Tharu) ## See also - [Latin American subaltern studies](/source/Latin_American_subaltern_studies) - [Latino philosophy](/source/Latino_philosophy) - [Orientalism](/source/Orientalism) - [Edward Said](/source/Edward_Said) - [Howard Zinn](/source/Howard_Zinn) ## References 1. ["Subaltern Studies : The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies : Blackwell Reference Online"](https://web.archive.org/web/20180519144042/http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781444334982_chunk_g978144433498223_ss1-28). Archived from [the original](http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781444334982_chunk_g978144433498223_ss1-28) on 2018-05-19. Retrieved 2018-05-18. 1. Connell, Raewyn (2005). *Southern Theory* 1. Atabaki, Touraj (2003). [*Beyond Essentialism: Who Writes Whose Past in the Middle East and Central Asia? Inaugural lecture, 13 December 2002*](http://atabaki.nl/upload/Beyond%20Essentialism.pdf). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160822192630/http://atabaki.nl/upload/Beyond%20Essentialism.pdf) 22 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 29 April 2013. 1. ["Ranajit Guha and Subaltern Studies"](https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi323/lectures/ranajit_guha_and_subaltern_studies_sakar_2016.pdf). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20180519120715/https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi323/lectures/ranajit_guha_and_subaltern_studies_sakar_2016.pdf) 2018-05-19 at the Wayback Machine. 1. Sumit Sarkar, "The Decline of the. Subaltern in Subaltern Studies" in his Writing Sggial History. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1997. 1. Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak, *A Critique of Postcolonialism*, Harvard University Press 1. ["How does the subaltern speak?"](https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/04/how-does-the-subaltern-speak/). jacobinmag. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160208004929/https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/04/how-does-the-subaltern-speak/) 2016-02-08 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2016-01-21. 1. ["Subaltern Studies: Bibliography of articles and reviews and listing of table of contents of the series of books"](https://asianstudies.github.io/area-studies/subaltern/ssmap.htm). *asianstudies.github.io*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20181201035715/https://asianstudies.github.io/area-studies/subaltern/ssmap.htm) 2018-12-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-10-23. ## Further reading - Young, Robert, *White Mythologies*. Routledge, 1990, reissued 2004. Several associated ISBNs, including ISBN 0-415-31181-0, ISBN 0-415-31180-2. - Ludden, David, ed., *Reading Subaltern Studies. Critical History, Contested Meaning and the Globalization of South Asia*, London 2001. - Chaturvedi, Vinayak, ed., *Mapping Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial*. London and New York 2000. - Cronin, Stephanie, ed., *"Subalterns and Social Protest: History from Below in the Middle East and North Africa"*. Routledge, 2008. US & Canada. ## External links - [Tim Spurgin's notes on Subaltern Studies](http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/english/courses/60A/handouts/poco.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20041217204309/http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/english/courses/60a/handouts/poco.html) 2004-12-17 at the Wayback Machine and other topics in [postcolonialism](/source/Postcolonialism) - [A Bibliography of Subaltern Studies](http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/subaltern/ssmap.htm) – the books, articles, and reviews --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Subaltern Studies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_Studies) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_Studies?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.