THE SUBALTERN STUDIES SCHOOL OF HISTORIOGRAPHY AN ANALYSIS

Abstract

The theoretical framework of the subaltern studies school of historiography has been influenced by the writings of Antonio Gramsci and postmodernist thinkers, especially Michel Foucault. The Subaltern Studies excavated lost history of the deprived classes. They discuss the small scale resistance of subaltern classes against the oppressive power culture. They challenged the state centered histories. The Subaltern Studies historians argue that the knowledge produced both by the colonial masters and indigenous nationalists was not devoid of power. To put it another way, the knowledge production was done for the sake of hegemony. The Indian past was appropriated by colonizers in order to legitimize their rule. The nationalists, on the other hand, counter-appropriated the past for their own narrow political objective. For Subaltern Studies historians, the historiography of statism was introduced by the British through education. Later, Bengali nationalist intellectuals adopted that European scholarship model and constructed past from a nationalistic perspecti ve.