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A Brief Introduction of Subaltern Historiography The historical root of subaltern studies started with the notable generalization in the work of British historians Eric Hobsbawm (1965) and Edward P. Thompson ( 1966 ) . They examined the “ history from below " by focusing on the political agency of subordinated social groups . Thompson in his noticeable work the making of the English working class highlighted the lives of people who had been previously silenced in the traditional historiography .Although the term ‘subaltern’ has several diverse meanings in social science disciplines. the term subaltern has come in the work and writing of Italian Neo Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci in his three volumes of Selections from Prison Notebooks (1971) in context to Italian marginalized groups in the sense of ‘any group of inferior' rank specifically southern Italian workers marginalized by hegemonic politics of fascist party, which was based on ethnic class gender or identity extraction. Through this concept, he analyzed the history of society and culture with regard to subaltern groups in his popular note titled “On the Margins of History: The History of Subaltern Social Groups”. He observed that the history of subaltern groups was largely unwritten or “on the margins of history”. Apart from this he used this concept for studying colonial societies and to understand the groups under cultural hegemony that were manipulated by colonial powers to ensure their dominance. The emergence of contemporary post- colonial studies is usually associated with Edward W. Said’s Orientalism (1978) as a founding text, as well as with works by Gayatri C. Spivak and Homi Bhabha. By the 1990s, Edward Said, Spivak and Bhabha were considered as a ‘Holy Trinity’ (Young 1991) in the Subaltern Studies. From 1980s, Guha started his critical analysis with basic epistemological inquiry into how Indian society had overlooked the marginalized groups of women, peasants, labor, workers and tribals on the periphery of Indian society, while they were makers to their own history in an autonomous realm. The term “Subaltern” was defined by Guha (1982) as ‘the demographic difference between the total Indian population and all those whom we have described as the 'elite' in his research in academic writing on South Asian history. The word 'subaltern' used in preface of the first volume of Subaltern Studies in the title stands for the meaning as given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary , that is , ' of inferior rank ' . This is the name for the general attribute of subordination in South Asian society whether this is expressed in terms of class, caste , age , gender and office or in any other way. Terms like 'people' and 'subaltern classes' have been used as synonymous throughout this note . Guha raised the real question, that is how far various subaltern groups , whether women , peasants , outcastes , the working - class , tribals , the downtrodden , or other marginalized people who had been relegated to the periphery of Indian society, had been able to make history and constitute their politics as an "autonomous" realm. The project of subaltern historiography in the context of South Asia had started in systematic way through an academic writing of Ranajit Guha along with young scholars as a subaltern social group in the forms of twelve edited volumes from An Oxford University press as Subaltern Studies between 1982 to 2005. The first six volumes came with the editorship by Guha himself and the remaining six by other scholars associated with the project. Through method of epistemological inquiry, these scholars have made history more experimental, implicative, scholarly, meaningful, relevant by questioning the method of analysis. Since then, the series had got global presence specifically in South Asia and India as an area of academic specialization. From 1985, Indian Historians critically started looking at both capitalist and socialist State 'from the bottom up' approach to focus on local, subaltern, agrarian, pastoral and tribal experiences (Ludden, 2008). After a few years later, Subaltern Studies became a hot topic in academic circles on several continents; a weapon, magnet, target, lightning rod, hitching post, icon, gold mine, and fortress for scholars ranging across disciplines from history to political science, anthropology, sociology, literary criticism, and cultural studies (Ludden, 2008). In this project, young historians also played an important role to initiate a new approach on the study of Postcolonialism and Indian nationalism. They argued that Indian history writing was dominated since long by an elitism that focused on either the colonial state or the indigenous elites, the bourgeois nationalists or the middle classes. To know the subaltern classes they started investigation on diverse sources, moving away from archives and official papers to a variety of local sources, private and popular.

 

Dalit Discourse in Social Sphere
Dalits have been excluded from the social sphere for a long time due to peculiarity of caste institutions in pan Indian society. Caste is distinguished as an ancient institution of traditional Hindu social structure. According to Majumdar (1958) Caste was a closed system where 'entry into a social status was a function of heredity and not of individual achievement'. This closed hierarchical social order based on Varna (classes/color) and jati through the ideology of purity and pollution. Celestine Bougle (1971) defines three fundamental features of Castes – hereditary specialization, hierarchy and repulsion/isolation of one group from another. The binary of purity and pollution has been exercised by the Hindu doctrine of karma and dharma. Douglas (1966) said one simply cannot violate one’s social system’s ideas of purity and pollution: There is "a power inhering in the structure of ideas, a power by which the structure is expected to protect itself”. The origin of four fold  Hindu social order is mentioned for the first time in the tenth mandala of Purushashukta of Rg-Veda. According to this belief, Brahmins originated from the mouth of the first man Brahma, Kshatriyas from the arms, Vaishyas from the abdomen and Shudras from the feet. In this foul fold Varna, the Jatis of a micro-region formed a hierarchy with the Brahmins at the top and former Untouchables, now Scheduled Castes or Dalits at the bottom ( Srinivas, 2004). By traditional system,  several castes have been outside the pale of the four-fold Varna hierarchy of Hindu society. Out of this Varna system, another Varna called Pancham Varna or achhoot emerged. The menial occupations of the people of this caste group kept its settlements away from the upper caste people. They are mostly landless and laborers. Because of this caste group people are socially exploited, culturally backward, economically deprived and politically powerless. Due to this they have to face deprivation, discrimination, exploitation, inequality, marginalization and exclusion. Dr. Ambedkar has called him a broken man. For this reason, they emphasize on the establishment of social justice by the annihilation of the caste system. For this their slogan is to be educated, be organized and struggle .Anthropologists and Sociologists have included a fifth group called the Ashprishyas, better known as Dalits in the Hindu Social Order (Kumar, 2014).
Srinivas used the term Sanskritization in his book Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India ( Srinivas, 1952,P.32).Sanskritization is the process by which a “low” Hindu caste, or tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual, ideology, and way of life in the direction of a high, and frequently, “twice-born” caste. In recent years, a few scholars, particularly historians of the subaltern school, have argued that Sanskritization is a kind of conversion. In the changing social scenario, the process of Sanskritization is thus becoming increasingly delinked from castes, including the so-called untouchable castes, and from the so-called tribes (Shah, 2019). For the eradication of caste and improvement in social mobility, various powerful movements were launched by saints, poets and Socio-religious reformers. Jyotiba Phule launched a powerful anti-Brahmanical movement in Maharashtra. He founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to know the reality of society and challenge the upper caste Brahmanical ideology. In North India, the Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana backward class movement was launched against Brahmanical ideology. The aim of this movement was to ameliorate the socio-economic conditions of backward classes. Since independence various provisions and programs have been launched by the central and respective governments for uplifting and improving their statuses. The term also first used by British in the Government of India Act-1935. In this regards, after independence Dalit listed as a Scheduled Castes in article-341.In order to  safeguard their interest the government made protective, welfare and development measures (Ram,2020).These measurements improved their social, economic , political and cultural statuses in the society .

Dalit Discourse in Intellectual Spheres

In the Social Sphere, various types of anti-caste movements were started by lower castes to eradicate the evils prevailing in the Hindu Social Order under the banner of Socio-religious reform movements. The  Intellectual Sphere has an important role in Dalit discourses. It has a central role in Dalit research, writing, thinking and field work. The aim of Guha's  project is to rectify the elitist bias characteristic of much research and academic work (Guha,1982,viii preface).  Subaltern historiography was like a revolution in the science of Thomas Kuhn.  Kuhn portrayed this idea in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions where he proposed how a new paradigm comes from revolution after anomalies and crisis in normal science. Indian historians of the subaltern social group began to rethink the theories of nationalism and postcolonial social construction ( Hall et al ,1978). The preface to Subaltern Studies volume-IX  (1996-97)  which was edited by Shahid Amin and Dipesh Chakrabarty displayed new and original research on colonial and contemporary South Asia. Contemporary problems and theoretical formations have been added to it for its intellectual horizon. Scholars from various fields started writings on the oppressed caste system.In her essay,  ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ Spivak (1985 ) argued that  it is  impossible to recover the voice of subaltern . The combined working of colonialism and patriarchy had silenced the voice of the Indian widow. The reason for this she says is that 'there is no space from  where the subaltern  subject can speak'.

Partha Chatterjee (1982) provides a critique of political Marxism. He talks of community as the organizing principal for Subaltern studies. Thomas (2018) argued that a contextual and historical study of Gramsci's notebooks helps to reconstruct the subordinate classes.  Its relevance in this context has been proved in historical writings, socio-cultural and scientific paradigms.  Nevertheless, this figure has been challenged by neoliberal economic policies and the rise of new political rationalities. In this regard ,Ranajit Guha along with young  scholars formed the Subaltern Social Group to highlight the contribution of marginalized groups in the historiography of South Asian Societies. Subaltern social groups have been  greatly influenced by the knowledge power and discourse hypothesis of Michel Foucault. These ideas helped the subaltern studies’ historians to focus on the marginalized and oppressed sections of the society. In the context of Indian society power and knowledge belonged to the upper strata of society. Through this they exercised power on the lowest  sections of the society . For a long time, they established their hegemony and exploited the people of the lower rung of society. Kancha Illaiah (2009) has rejected the Brahminical elitist interpretation of history.  He said that Hindutva has suppressed the scientific creativity and productivity of Dalit Bahujan communities. For this reason, there is a need to encourage indigenous scientific ideas for national progress. Moreover, Socio-economic impact of Chamar/Madiga of North India was not accepted in the written discussion. Indian society must understand the subaltern scientific role of this caste community in a new perspective. Indologist claimed that Indian society can be understood on the basis of book view instead of empirical social structure. G S Ghurye was the founding father and main architect of sociology in India . He used an Indological method to study Indian society. Most of the famous sociologists who studied Indian society before independence were Indologists in their method of study (Singh, 2004). The postcolonial turn in writing of India historiography was started with investigation of India society by criticism of the Indological perspective due to its root based on upper caste textual ideology. Desai (1998) started the work of documenting the movement of the working class in the Indian under the ambitious project. This task not only visualized the agitations and struggle of the working class but also defined it very well. This project provided significant content in history writing to the respected group. Ludden (2001) observed that commentators have acknowledged his work for their subject matter in the study of this group. Guha (1982) argued that peasants and workers are able to create their own forms of oppositional culture and identity as autonomous agents . He proposed a new interpretation of peasants consciousness in South Asia .With the influence of subaltern historiography many scholars turned their attention to the study of tribal communities. Anthropologists have  highlighted that the lower and marginalized strata of society which includes tribes and rural peoples are their basic unit of study. Subaltern Studies -X (1999)  was edited by Gautam Bhadra,Gyan Prakash and Susie Tharu .The Subaltern writer of this proposed volume expanded the range of their inquiry, exploration, directions and issues beyond the discipline of history. By this effort they tackled the issue of contemporary politics and politics of knowledge. Thapar (2000) suggested that in the modern writing of Indian history, there is a continuous dialogue and debate with colonial interpretations, with nationalist interpretations and with the development of theoretical formulations in the post-colonial period. It modified the Indian view of history even after the use of theoretical interpretations. This process broadened the debate and evaluation of understanding the past of Indian history which can help to understand the present. On the basis of hundred years of discussion of Indian Sociology, Kumar (2016) said that Indian society is still dominated by the upper castes. For this reason Indian sociology is inegalitarian and exclusionary in nature.

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