"Preface" (with cover image) (original) (raw)
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Subaltern's image and the real: an inquiry
For last few decades post-colonial studies has been one of the ruling framework for cultural theory in Indian subcontinent. In search for the subaltern we mostly can not articulate ourselves as theory. Our inquiries in to the epistemic domain (‘What can we know of the subaltern?’), the metaphysical domain has largely gone unanswered (‘What makes the subaltern possible?’). Here I would like to propose that the solution lies in our proleterization process. In this article I give an outline of just such a theoretical framework, harnessing the theoretical kernel of Marx, Hegel, Lacan and Zizek.
When Subaltern Studies emerged in the 1970’s it was a critical moment in Indian Independence History as it was and as it had been perceived or propagated through nationalist historiography, India had been through a state of emergency and political tyranny. We can then safely subsume that disillusionment took place within the Indian people about whether or not they had received the political freedom that they had imagined independence would bring. This was also a critical moment in the way scholars began to think about India and its independence, the Subaltern Studies Group ushered in a wave of intellectualism which was concerned with the everyday life of everyday people in India and more specifically the lower caste and the peasants, arguing that there is in fact a peasant consciousness.
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