Ranajit Guha

Referência para citação:
Araújo, Sara. “Recensão a The Postcolonial Orient. The Politics of Difference and the
Project of Provincialising Europe de Vasant Kaiwar.” Práticas da História, Journal on
Theory, Historiography and Uses of the Past, n.º 11 (2020); 287-296

Nei Quaderni del carcere Antonio Gramsci sviluppa un nuovo concetto di classi o gruppi sociali subalterni, utilizzato per caratterizzare tutti quei gruppi sociali che sono soggetti a forme di comando e di direzione politica e sociale imposto da altre classi, dominanti o dirigenti. Convertito al singolare, il concetto di "subalterno" è una di quelle nozioni originariamente gramsciane, che ha goduto grande successo a livello internazionale, soprattutto negli ultimi anni. Esso ha dato origine a un intero campo di ricerca accademica -i Subaltern Studies -affermando Gramsci come uno dei suoi "padri-teorici" più significativi. Oggi questo concetto gode di una diffusione disciplinare e di un riconoscimento diffusi tra giovani studiosi e studiose, in maniera paragonabile al concetto di egemonia; addirittura, in alcuni casi, il concetto di "subalterno" è considerato ancora più significativo rispetto al concetto, ad esso integralmente connesso, di egemonia, dal quale è talvolta visto come distinto ed indipendente, se non addirittura con esso posto in antagonismo.

E.P. Thompson used the Confucian trope of “rectification of human names” to summarize the major themes of his work.  Such rectification has both political and scholarly ramifications that extend to poststructuralist debates over historical discourse (Ranajit Guha’s meditation on the method of Subaltern Studies, Hayden White’s theory of rhetorical universalism); organic relationship between working-class gesture, linguistic philosophy, and political economy (as exemplified in Piero Sraffa's renowned contribution to the "epistemological break" between the early and late Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy); and the universality of class struggle in defining the crucial intellectual breakthroughs of the 1970s, from the works of Michel Foucault and Yoshimoto Takaaki to those of autonomist Marxism and history from below.  As is clear in Thompson’s revealing but also limited polemic against Louis Althusser, every act of rectification is necessarily incomplete and requires endless revision, both individually and collectively.

The subalterns refer to the masses—the peasants, fishermen, laborers, and the like. Ranajit Guha  argues that the masses reacted not only against British rule but also against the Indian elitist brand of nationalism. Theirs was a “history from below,” a “postcolonial history,” and a “post-nationalist historiography.” Their consciousness was not “pre-political,” as what Marxists say, but a genuine immanent political consciousness during  the moment of rebellion.

This article traces the notion of ressentiment beginning with several key uses by Denis Diderot and Edmund Burke from the 1770s and 1780s, but shifts from there to consider Nietzsche’s impactful and distinct use in On the Genealogy of Morality (1887) emphasizing linkages between ressentiment and temporality. It juxtaposes these two moments with the colonial context, turning to Frantz Fanon and Ranajit Guha to explore how the sentiments of conquest are reflected in a conception of the past inextricably marked by colonialism. The conclusion notes Fanon’s struggle with Nietzsche’s formulation, and suggests he is closer to the understanding of ressentiment visible in Diderot.

This paper uses Gayatri Spivak's discussion of Sati and Ranajit Guha's interpretive account of Chandra's death in colonial India in order to critically reexamine the concept of subalternity that runs through various postcolonial theories. It is argued that there is a major tendency in postcolonial theory to conflate hegemony with domination. By introducing the concept of experience, enabled by a reading of Antonio Gramsci's theory, the paper relates subalternity to hegemony and discusses that the success or failure of hegemony involves the degree to which hegemonic re-grounding can succeed in maintaining the existential continuum of the subject.

«The task of historiography is to interpret the past in order to help in changing the world» GUHA 1983A, p. 336 A theoretical consciousness: the connection between knowledge and power The history-rewriting project of Subaltern Studies is determined by a strong political value, display of the awareness of the connection between history, power and coercion: The assumption that the power relations of colonial rule were contained in an integrated and unified field with all the ideologies and political practices of the period articulated within a single domain. GUHA 1997, p. X By analyzing the studies of previous scholars, subaltern historians discover their collusion with the dominant structures of oppression. Guha is aware that historiography contributes to the fabrication of both the spurious hegemony and the «complicity between the formation of a colonial state in India and the production of colonialist histories of the Raj» 2 .

İktidar ve bilgi üretimi arasındaki ilişkiyi madun kavramı etrafında ele alan bu bildiride, emperyalizmin ve sömürgeciliğin entellektüel üretimdeki kurucu işlevi sorunsallaştırılmaktadır. Kavramın nasıl geliştiği ve bugüne kadar hangi değişmeleri geçirdiği tartışılmaktadır. Kavramın Türkçeye çevirisinin yarattığı sorunlar, entellektüel ve akademik alana nasıl bir müdahale yaptığı, epistemik bir kopuşu nasıl gerçekleştirdiği, Avrupamerkezcilik ve Modernite eleştirisindeki yeri, elit olmayan bir tarih yazımı çabası, madunlardan/alttakilerden öğrenme tezi gibi konular ele alınmaktadır. Bu bildiri, madun ve maduniyet kavramı ile birlikte geliştirilen bakış açılarının ve üretilen bilginin Türkiye sosyal
bilimleri içinde nasıl bir anlam bulabileceği sorusunu yöneltmektedir. Bu anlamda, madun kavramıyla birlikte çalışarak Türkiye’de nasıl ilişkiler, eylemler ve düşünceler üretebileceğimiz sorusuna cevap aramaktadır.

The 2013 publication of Vivek Chibber’s book Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital has reignited debates over the relative merits and demerits of Marxism and postcolonialism. This article reviews the debate and raises some critical questions about Chibber’s engagement with questions pertaining to universalism and capitalist development. Focusing on Chibber’s critique of Dipesh Chakrabarty’s Provincializing Europe, the article contends that whereas Chibber is right in arguing for a concept of universal history, the approach he offers towards this end pushes in the direction of Eurocentrism. As an alternative, the article proposes the possibility of crafting passages from Marxism to postcolonialism in order to move beyond Eurocentrism in the historical-sociological study of capitalist development.

Título: La prosa de contra-resistencia. Una crítica poscolonial del pasado indígena en el Noroeste Argentino. Autor: Manuel Fontenla Resumen: Los estudios de Ranajit Guha constituyen una fuente obligada de la crítica poscolonial y fueron pioneros en la construcción de la historiografía de la subalternidad. Su análisis de las rebeliones campesinas en la India abrió la puerta a una larga lista de críticas a las historiografías del nacionalismo y el colonialismo que hasta el día de hoy siguen vigentes. A partir de sus aportes, el objetivo central de este artículo será el análisis de la Historia del Noroeste Argentino (la obra historiográfica por excelencia de la región) de Armando Raúl Bazán, trazando allí algunas operaciones críticas que nos permitan dar cuenta del carácter colonial de esta historiografía en el tratamiento de las historias y las resistencias indígenas, específicamente en las Guerras Calchaquíes (S. XVI y S.XVII), teniendo presente los cuidados correspondientes a las diferencias en la historia colonial de la India y de nuestra América. Palabras clave: Historiografía regional – critica poscolonial-Historia Indígena – Noroeste Argentino. Abstract: The studies of Ranajit Guha constitute an obligatory source of postcolonial criticism and they were pioneers in the construction of a historiography of the critical subaltern of colonialism. His analysis of the peasant rebellions in India opened the door to a long list of criticisms of the historiographies of nationalism and colonialism that continue to this day. From his contributions, the central objective of this article will be the analysis of the History of the Argentine Northwest (the historiographic work par excellence of the region) of Armando Raúl Bazán, tracing there some critical operations that allow us to account for the colonial character of this historiography in the treatment of the histories and the indigenous resistances, specifically in the Calchaquíes Wars (S. XVI and S.XVII), bearing in mind the care corresponding to the differences in the colonial history of India and our America.

Il progetto dei Subaltern Studies pone l'accento sull'importanza delle classi sociali inferiori come soggetti agenti (agency) della storia passata in primis, e quindi della politica nel presente. Una così ambiziosa volontà di riscrittura deve per prima cosa emanciparsi dalla dimensione epistemologica dominante e mettere in discussione i presupposti metodologici tradizionali, indagando nuove strade di ricerca storica e inseguendo stimoli e risultati differenti 1 .

Este libro comprende las versiones modificadas de tres ensayos escritos en 1986-1987 y publicados entre 1988 y 1992. Los tres se conectan con nuestro proyecto, Subaltern Studies [Estudios subalternos], y se refieren, desarrolladas, a ciertas posiciones que tomé del mismo. Ese proyecto hizo su debut cuando anunció sus objetivos revisionistas sobre los estudios de la India colonial. Al hacerlo, no reclamó, sin embargo, ninguna novedad. La nuestra no fue la primera o la única intervención dirigida a expresar descontento sobre el estado de la historiografía y las ciencias sociales del sur de Asia, generando debates al respecto. Los debates de este tipo ya habían comenzado en el siglo xix, cuando los intelectuales indios hicieron evidente su primera crítica pública, si bien cautelosa y leal, a la administración colonial; y han continuado desde entonces frente a toda una gama de tendencias liberal-imperialistas o liberal-nacionalistas. A pesar de sus diferencias en otros aspectos, estas tendencias han sido unánimes en el supuesto de que las relaciones de poder del gobierno colonial estaban contenidas en un campo integrado y unificado, que articulaba dentro de un solo dominio todas las ideologías y prácticas políticas del periodo.
Los Subaltern Studies hicieron su debut cuestionando ese supuesto,
argumentando que no existía un dominio tan unificado y singular de
la política y que esta, por el contrario, estaba dividida estructuralmente
entre una élite y una parte subalterna, cada una de las cuales resultaba
autónoma a su modo. Mucho de lo que tenemos que decir está relacionado, de un modo u otro, con el hecho de documentar la existencia de estas dos partes distintas, pero que interactúan, así como con la discusión de por qué tal división estructural resultaba históricamente necesaria.

Numero monografico dei "Quaderni di teoria sociale" dedicato a "Gramsci e la sociologia". A distanza di 20 anni dall'ultima presa di parola degli studiosi sul rapporto di Gramsci con i grandi del pensiero sociologico ("Gramsci e i classici della sociologia", a cura di Massimo Paci), questo numero monografico vuole riaprire il dibattito tra due tradizioni (studi gramsciani e studi sociologici) che si sono poco frequentate negli ultimi anni. Per fare di Gramsci un classico della sociologia, e dei temi della sociologia una chiave centrale di lettura dei Quaderni.

In this thesis I compare the social history of movements against hydropower projects in two states of India, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, from 1921 to 2004 in three phases. The specific aim of this project is to demonstrate the shifting notion of subaltern political subjectivity and `state-formation' in postcolonial India. Here I argue that the subalterns played significant causal and constitutive roles in transforming the structure of postcolonial Indian state in a more democratic direction and in that process considerably changed their political discourses, practices and strategies. The two extended historical cases of movement against large dams illustrated in this thesis mark the different types of subaltern politics that emerged in postcolonial India.

This Bangla paper is on the translations of three stories of Mahasweta Devi by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in the book 'Breast Stories. The author  of this paper analyzed the discursive formation of three narratives, viz. ‘Draupadi’, ‘Breast-giver’, ‘Behind the Bodice’ along with the translator’s strategic multiple interpretations of these three stories by pointing out the problems of migrated third world intellectual’s gaze(s), which is trying to penetrate the problems of post-colonial condition of the subaltern females (as protagonists or not) as speaking subjects.

Dominacja bez hegemonii-pojęcie władzy w studiach postkolonialnych szkoły Subaltern Studies Słowa kluczowe: Subaltern Studies, studia postkolonialne, dominacja, hegemonia, władza, nacjonalizm Subaltern Studies to powstały na początku lat osiemdziesiątych i działający do dziś projekt badawczy skupiający się wokół serii wydawniczej Subaltern Studies, która ma dziś już dziesięć tomów. Światową sławę zyskał wraz z wejściem do amery-kańskiego świata akademickiego publikacją Selected Subaltern Studies w 1988 roku z przedmową już wówczas światowej sławy teoretyka studiów postkolonialnych, czyli Edwarda Saïda. Wyboru dokonali wspólnie Ranajit Guha oraz Gayatri Cha-kravorty Spivak. Guha jest uznawany za "ojca założyciela" grupy, natomiast Spivak za najbardziej rozpoznawalną postać, której esej Czy podporządkowani inni mogą przemówić? zyskał status tekstu kanonicznego. Przedstawiciele i przedstawicielki tej szkoły wykładają w szeregu światowej sławy uczelniach wyższych. W niniejszym artykule przedstawiam analizę pojęcia władzy w książce Dominance without Hege-mony Guhy, uznając ją za reprezentatywny przykład teorii postkolonialnej w wyda-niu szkoły Subaltern Studies. Przedstawiam także krytykę amerykańskiego socjologa Vivka Chibbera, zgodnie z którą sformułowana przez Guhę teza o "specyficznie in-dyjskiej" drodze do kapitalizmu ("dominacji bez hegemonii"), przeciwstawiona tej zachodniej, rozumiana jako nieudana formacja władzy demokratycznej, jest właśnie typową formą władzy w kapitalizmie. Typowa forma demokracji to dominacja oparta na systematycznym wykluczaniu klasy pracującej ze struktur władzy.

Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/person-time-and-25097955

This article explores the critical inheritance of the Marxist tradition by the postcolonial intellectual formation Subaltern Studies. It investigates the remarkable centrality of the ‘person’ and its various modern instantiations (the subject, the citizen, the individual) to postcolonial critiques of Marxist categories, focusing particularly on the work of Dipesh Chakrabarty. It uses the ‘person’ as a lens through which to view theoretical debates on historical temporality, as well as recent arguments – generated largely by Vivek Chibber’s blistering 2013 book Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital – over the meaning of the ‘universalisation of capital’. It concludes with a reflection on the ways in which the Indian caste system challenges or exemplifies certain aspects of these debates.

Marxismo y Estudios Subalternos: La controversia sobre la fallida universalización del Capital Marxism and Subaltern Studies: The controversy over the failed universalization of Capital RESUMEN En el presente artículo se hace una revisión de la controversia iniciada por la publicación del libro Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capitalism (PTSC) del sociólogo norteamericano Vivek Chibber, el cual trata de las limitaciones analíticas y políticas de la Teoría Poscolonial (TP), específicamente de los Estudios Subalternos (ES). Se hará una breve reseña del argumento de Chibber y se presentarán las respuestas a su análisis, haciendo especial énfasis en la discusión acerca de la pertinencia del marxismo y el concepto de "universalización del capital" propuesto por Marx en los Grundrisse. Se concluye que la tesis marxiana de la universalización del capital debe entenderse como la globalización del modo de producción capitalista y que la historiografía del capitalismo debe incluir el papel del sur global en la conformación del capitalismo con el objetivo de dejar el eurocentrismo.

Fifth class about Historiography in 2015-2016 Academic course "Prácticas de la Monarquía Hispánica", II year of History career, Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain). I lecture: Origen of Historiography. II lecture: Annales. III lecture: Marxist School. IV lecture: Microhistory. V lecture: Latest trends.