Gyan Prakash maps the principal lines of inquiry pursued by the Subaltern Studies Group and their evolution. The group started with Antonio Gramsci’s concept of the subaltern, and sought to rewrite South Asian historiography from the perspective of this subordinated and inarticulate actor. However the project soon moved away from the “history-from-below” approach, as it became clear that if the subalterns had been denied autonomy and agency in history, any after-the-fact restoration contradicted their historical subordination. The work of the group therefore turned to the functioning of dominant discourses of colonialism, nationalism, and modernity, and their effects in subordinating other forms of knowledge and agency. These scholars argued that, though suppressed, subaltern agency could be read in the acts of containment and repression exerted against it in the dominant discourses. This concept of subalternity yields a critique of the modern West, which, through colonialism, the nation-state, and the ideology of modernity, has marginalized the “other” as a source of knowledge and agency. The Subaltern Studies scholars accordingly urge revision of the discipline of history to allow the story to be told from a postcolonial, subaltern perspective. At the same time, they mount a critique of their native elite’s discourse on nationalism in India.
