What is the meaning of subaltern and subaltern studies?

‘Subaltern studies’ refers to the study of social groups excluded from dominant power structures, be these (neo)colonial, socio-economic, patriarchal, linguistic, cultural and/or racial.

What is the meaning of subaltern studies?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Subaltern Studies Group (SSG) or Subaltern Studies Collective is a group of South Asian scholars interested in the postcolonial and post-imperial societies.

What is subaltern nationalism?

Antonio Gramsci coined the term subaltern to identify the cultural hegemony that excludes and displaces specific people and social groups from the socio-economic institutions of society, in order to deny their agency and voices in colonial politics.

What is meant by subaltern historiography?

Subaltern is a word used by the British army to denote a subordinate officer, and “subaltern studies” was coined by Indian scholars to describe a variety of approaches to the situation of South Asia, in particular in the colonial and postcolonial era.

What do you mean by Subaltern Studies in history?

Subaltern Studies. The term Subaltern Studies is sometimes also applied more broadly to others who share many of their views. Their anti-essentialist approach is one of history from below, focused more on what happens among the masses at the base levels of society than among the elite.

Who are the subaltern scholars in postcolonial theory?

His critique, explained in his book Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital, is focused on the works of two Indian scholars: Ranajit Guha and Dipesh Chakrabarty. According to Chibber, subaltern scholars tend to recreate the Orient as a place where cultural differences negate analyses based on western experience.

What does Ranajit Guha mean by Subaltern Studies?

Within “subaltern studies,” a term first used by Ranajit Guha, the word “subaltern” stands as “a name for the general attribute of subordination in South Asian society whether this is expressed in terms of class, caste, age, gender and office or in any other way” (“Preface” 35).

What was the meaning of subaltern in Gramsci’s work?

In discussions of the meaning of the term subaltern in the work of Gramsci, Spivak said that he used the word as a synonym for the proletariat (a code word to deceive the prison censor to allow his manuscripts out the prison), but contemporary evidence indicates that the term was a novel concept in Gramsci’s political theory.