Abstract
The book under review is about social change vis-à-vis the interrelated issues of subalternity and exclusion in India. It is an edited volume of 15 essays. Most of the chapters are based on empirical data derived from historical studies or fieldwork. Though the book does not have a singular perspective, it engages critically with the established subaltern perspective. The specific questions that the volume tries to deal with are: Why and how does a society produce and reproduce subalternity? How do subalterns negotiate their social and political emancipation? How do they absorb social and political changes?
The volume is thematically divided into five sections. The first section consists of a comprehensive introductory essay by the editors. They detail the subject matter, critically engage with a structural–functional study of Indian society using insights from dalit, feminist and Marxist perspectives, define subalternity and locate subalterns as the subject of study, deal with processes of their exclusion and inclusion, and present some significant aspects of social change in contemporary India.
Three chapters in the second section deal with subaltern studies. The chapter by K. L. Sharma introduces subaltern studies by presenting its meaning, nature, origin and theme. Sharma claims that subaltern studies, in its initial stage, used Marxism to create a new historiography of subaltern groups, but subsequently dissociated from Marxism and changed its profile under the influence of postmodernism. He argues that so long as issues confronting subaltern groups remain, subaltern studies will continue to thrive even in the age of globalisation. However, the earlier zeal shown by Ranajit Guha and his team is missing now. Dipankar Gupta’s chapter is a critique of subaltern studies. He claims that subaltern historians have left even the basic concepts of structure or elementary aspects unexplained in their studies, and their attempts to use anthropology ‘to alter the ego in peasant history by bringing the people back in’ (p. 56) falls in the trap of methodological naiveté. Their search for self or autonomous peasant consciousness has remained unrealised and elusive and resulted in establishing a culturological hegemony in the realm of history. V. S. Sreedhar’s chapter argues that the methodology in subaltern historiography has ignored human rights and dalit perspectives while ostensibly presenting facts from below. That is why it is silent about Ambedkar, and does not ‘adequately take into account many strands of anti-caste movements’ (p. 95).
Three chapters in the third section discuss the continuous reproduction of the ‘subaltern’ in India. The chapter by Ashok K. Pankaj observes that when dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) were agitating for their empowerment in the 1980s and 1990s, the traditional upper-caste/class elites fashioned neoliberal politico-economic discourses and agendas that eroded the ideological legitimacy of their movement, defeating their larger objectives, and thus contributed to the long-term reproduction of dalits and OBCs as subjugated subjects. Their discourse argued that problems lay with policies and institutions but not with upper-caste/class policymakers, and claimed that replacement of traditional upper-caste/class elites by dalit or backward class leaders would unleash an era of uncertainty, conflict and criminalisation in the realm of society and polity. Madhav Govind outlines the reproduction of subalternity in India in terms of knowledge production. He argues that there has been a subjugation and marginalisation of indigenous knowledge systems controlled and followed by lower service castes through a system of knowledge production fashioned by Brahmins or other upper castes. It has happened by valuing Brahminical knowledge over the skills of lower castes and making the language of knowledge production—such as English or Sanskrit—alien to the lower castes. Nita Kumar reasons that the failure of mass education has been the biggest source of subaltern reproduction in India. This failure is all-pervasive in post-Independence India.
The fourth section is about the exclusion of subalterns and their struggles for empowerment and emancipation. Yagati Chinna Rao focuses on dalit movements in Andhra Pradesh. For Rao, the dalit movement has been trying to establish an egalitarian society by rejecting Brahminical caste hierarchy and reconstructing the dalit self through destroying derogatory identities imposed on them by the upper castes. Rao argues that there was a general apathy among historians towards dalit consciousness and struggle. However, dalits and other subaltern groups have now established themselves as an important object of history. Rajan Joseph Barrett narrates the failure of the project of inclusion in India. For him, Bama—a dalit Christian—tries hard for an inclusive mainstream space in society but ends up dejected, lost and perplexed. Inclusion has remained a mirage because subalternity has various facets. Barrett finds religious conversion an illusionary attempt towards inclusion. He argues that dalits have to develop their own agency and projects for inclusion. S. Galab and E. Revathi have studied the status of women in different parts of India with respect to their increased access to land and agriculture. They find greater ownership of land by women in Andhra Pradesh compared to their counterparts in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. Their chapter also states that women’s participation in agriculture is higher in the less-developed regions and lower in the more-developed ones. It is higher amongst SCs, STs and OBCs compared to upper-caste groups even though upper-caste women have greater ownership over land.
Five chapters in the fifth section deal with social change with reference to religion, caste and class. The chapter by T. N. Madan is about religion, religious resurgence and secularisation in contemporary times. He observes that religiosity and secularisation coexist in modern times. Religion does not only survive as private faith but has also re-emerged as public religion and as an ideology of domination using modern methods of communication and institutional organisation. But it is no longer a constitutive principle of society anywhere. He argues that the problem of religious resurgence in many parts of the world cannot be resolved by the principle of secularisation. Hetukar Jha and M. P. Singh argue in their chapter that right from its inception, Hinduism did not subscribe to an exclusivist disposition, but has rather imbibed a broad liberal tradition facilitating debate, deviation and innovation. An exclusivist image of Hinduism is a denial of history that is being propagated by both Hindu nationalists and dalit activists. Gerry Rodgers examines the changing nature of caste, class and land in the rural social formation of Bihar. He observes that different castes have different occupational strategies and are affected to different degrees by changing production relations. The decline in semi-feudal relations has weakened the dominance of upper castes in villages. But the influence of caste, class and land on human behaviour has continued to remain strong. These three categories influence different aspects of behaviour differently. Among all the three categories, caste is more influential. K. L. Sharma finds the caste–class nexus still significant for understanding social stratification in India. He argues that the nexus exposes misconceptions about caste and class as antithetical formations. With the weakening of the ritual aspect of the caste system, it has made inroads into the politico-economic domain as an interest group and has accordingly maintained its significance for understanding social stratification. Class has entered into caste hierarchy leading to inter- and intra-caste differentiation. Madhu Nagla’s chapter has tried to understand the tension between tradition and modernity in terms of Jat khap panchayats. Khaps like many traditional institutions have resisted modernity, which has resulted in inter-generational tensions. She argues that as a traditional institution, it is struggling to retain its relevance and authority. Therefore, it resorts to reprehensible practices such as social boycott, expulsion from the village and honour killing.
There are not many data-based works on subalternity by scholars who do not belong to the subaltern studies collective. In this context, this volume is an exception. Though the volume is an excellent contribution to scholarship, helping to clearly define a number of issues concerning subalternity and exclusion, its quality could have been further enhanced by including chapters on tribes, transgender groups and minorities. The volume is also lacking a chapter by a recognised subaltern scholar on the tradition of subaltern studies in India. While the book could have been a little more theoretically engaging, it offers a wide terrain of cases to rethink various issues concerning subalternity. It is a well-written work, and it opens up many areas for research that require our serious attention.