Subaltern
Studies: Writings on Indian History and Society began in 1982 as a
series of interventions in some debates specific to the writing of
modern Indian history. Ranajit Guha (b.1923), a historian of India
then teaching at the University of Sussex, was the inspiration behind
it. Guha and eight younger scholars based in India, the United
Kingdom, and Australia constituted the editorial collective of
Subaltern Studies until 1988, when Guha retired from the team. The
series now has a global presence that goes well beyond India or South
Asia as an area of academic specialization. The intellectual reach of
Subaltern Studies now also exceeds that of the discipline of history.
Postcolonial theorists of diverse disciplinary backgrounds have taken
interest in the series. Much discussed, for instance, are the ways in
which contributors to Subaltern Studies have participated in
contemporary critiques of history and nationalism, and of orientalism
and Eurocentrism in the construction of social science knowledge. At
the same time, there have also been discussions of Subaltern Studies
in many history and social science journals. Selections from the
series have been published in English, Spanish, Bengali, and Hindi
and are in the process of being brought out in Tamil and Japanese. A
Latin American Subaltern Studies Association was established in North
America in 1992. It would not be unfair to say that the expression
“subaltern studies,” once the name of a series of publications in
Indian history, now stands as a general designation for a field of
studies often seen as a close relative of postcolonialism.
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