Dr. Bishau Charan Dash (b. 1`9604 is at present Associara Professor and Head, Dept of English, Assent (Central), University, Si Char at Diphu Campus, A,ssant. He did his Ph.Din Comparative Literature as .I.R.F and SILT (1984-86) at Sambalpur University. After having served as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in English for more than two decades in:Assam since 1986, he-Joined the Dilate Campus of Assam: University as its founder teacher in October 2007. He has guided fourteen M.Phil Seholars, and eight PhD Scholars are at presentunder his active supervision. He has attended several International and National Seminars,and has published research papers in International and National journals like Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetic*. Transactions (Journal of the Institute of Inchhan-Geographers)s Annual. Research Journal of Folk-lore Society of Assam, Rock Pebbles and Transcript (Journal of Literature and Cultural Studir.$). Besides being associated with Journal of Comparative Literature andAesthrrics as its EditurialAssoci ate, he is al so. in the Editorial hoard of Rock Pebbles and Transcript and! also edits Indraprastha Review, an International Refereed Biannual Research. Joumalofllumanities and Multidisciplinary Studies(ISSIS-2394-563x) published by Abhishek Ptakashart New Delhi since 2014. His book Mystic Eros: Troubadburs and Vaishrtava Poets of Medieval India (ISBN: 97841-0390-061-14)u has been published by ,Abbishek Ptakas.hara New Delhi in 20.1:0, and five other books. titled (i) Negotiating Subaltern Consciousness: A North-East Perspective, (ill Troubadours and the Philosophy of Tantricism and Sahajiya Vaishnavism, (hi) Tryst with the Orient Essays in Comparativ• Literature and Culture, (iv) Sithityaratin Lakshmimult. Bezb.aroa and Sandialpuri Ethos and (vli Sabolturnity , Identity and Culture: A Study of rorbi Angling are in press. His area of research interest encompasses. American Lit :Comparative Lnerature,Religion and Philosophy, Medieval! Studies, Oriental Studies,. Shakespeare Stinfir5, Cultural Studies,DiesparaandSubabern, tudies.
Dynamics of Subaltern Consciousness edited by Dr. Bishnu Charan Dash is a welcome attempt to foreground some important issues related to the discipline now widely known as Subaltern Studies. This book promises to examine `Subaltern consciousness' in literary representations in the English language as well as in some Indian languages. The articles included in the volume deal with stories of people placed in various socio-cultural settings, fighting their own battles against hegemonic forces. They foreground `invisible' characters selected from world literatures and Indian bhasha literatures. In the process, the articles, on the whole, try to capture the dynamics of representations of 'Subaltern consciousness.' This is a difficult task mainly because the dynamics of socio-cultural and political reality do not remain static. Hence, any attempt to understand the ever-changing contexts requires an understanding of the historical consciousness to grasp the significance of the given situations. Interestingly, however, the status of subalternity' of some specific social groups seems to have remained unaltered. Issues like the Dalit question, suppression of the 'subalterns' of all hues, restrictions on legal immigrants in some countries or the relevance of 'minority studies' in institutions of higher studies are being hotly debated over everywhere. The consolidation of the 'subaltern consciousness,' sometimes in radical form, is inevitable in such contexts.
Resistance to denial of scope and opportunity to participate in the greater sphere of life has been much in evidence in the contemporary world scenario. It is to a large extent reflection of the ground reality at the social level embedded with strong class consciousness. Things have taken a unique dimension because of the availability of multiple kinds of technological equipment. Faster consolidation of ' Subaltern consciousness' results from faster means of spreading information and disseminating ideology. Throughout the world, binaries and conflicts in the lived experiences of marginalised people have been much in focus. The measuring yardsticks may be different in different social and political contexts-they may be caste, class, race, immigration, nativity or any similar consideration-but the end result is the same: creation of subalternity leading to marginality and social exclusion. Reading of subaltern consciousness is thus challenging in view of the fast changing situations. This book, I believe, will contribute to this act of 'reading' in a meaningful way.
We, however, need to be cautious about the meaning of the term 'subaltern' in view of the fact that it is being used indiscriminately. We need to know the history of the evolution of the term. Meanings of words, as we know, tend to travel and on their routes they often move away or deviate from their etymological roots to embrace new significations. The word 'subaltern' is one such word. The sixteenth century Latin word subalternus has its origin in early Latin sub (` next below') and alternus (` every other'). It generally referred to `a person of inferior rank' and later became more specific to mean a junior military officer' or, more specifically, ' a commissioned officer below the rank of captain in certain armies, esp. the British.' In a changed political climate during the Fascist regime, the word received a boost in the hands of the Italian Marxist thinker and activist Antonio Gramsci who, in his Prison Notebooks3l have consulted Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 1996) edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith-employed the term to refer to persons/social groups of low rank who are under hegemonic domination and are denied civil rights and access to participation in the activities of the State by the ruling elite class. He observes that "the fundamental historical unity, concretely, results from the organic relations between the State c r political society and ' civil society" (53). The subaltern classes, he says, "are not unified and cannot unite until they are able to become 'State" (52). Their exclusion from the activities of the State by the elitist classes makes the nation-building project an incomplete one. He had particularly in mind the peasants and workers in Italy under the Fascist rule. Gramsci feels that the members of the peasant class are acutely conscious of their subalternity and they need to be brought together for the purpose of resisting hegemonic forces. His ideas greatly influenced the Subaltern Studies Group led by Ranajit Guha. The members of the group, which included influential thinkers like Partha Chatterjee and Dipesh Chakraborty, stressed the need for applying subalternity' as an alternative historiography. But this group too, like many others, comprised thinkers with differing opinions and consequently generated interesting debates. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak contributed to this ongoing dialogue with her influential article "Can the Subaltern Speak?" All this is history now and need not be recapitulated here. We, however, need to ponder over how best to use the term in view of its complicated history of evolution and the register of its usage.
Dr. Dash, as the editor, has done a wonderful job by bringing together a good number of articles some of which are on significant areas of Subaltern consciousness.
Subaltern Studies is foregrounded upon the Hegelian notion of master-slave dialectics and the concept of binary relationship between the `self' and the ` other' .The concept of the `other' has been a cardinal subject of engaging interest in postcolonial discourse. For the last several decades, post-colonial theorists/critics have dissected the manysided dimen-sions of colonial and neocolonial consciousness which is inseparably tagged to the propensity for territorial aggrandize-ment, cultural imperialism and hegemonic exercise of power and control over the land and economy of the colonized people. At the same time, postcolonial critics also bring to the fore the imposition of Eurocentric ideology and grand-narrative (s) by otherizing the colonial natives and their minor narratives, languages, history, identity and culture. It is the formidable imperialistic desire for subjugation and strangula-tion of the voice of the colonized natives that propelled countless otherized Calibans to clamour for freedom from the bondage of colonial hegemony epitomized by Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Following the footsteps of Hegelian master-slave dialectics, the Italian neo-marxist Antonio Gramsci used the term 'Subaltern' in his Selections from Prison Notebooks in the context of the revolt of the Italian peasantry agaist the hegemonic power structure. Significantly, Subaltern Studies incorporated various philosophical, historical, socio-political, economic, cultural and other allied issues, ideas and more predominantly the problems of the people languishing in the margin. And obviously then subaltern epistemology encompasses a wider canvas of multifaceted dynamics of history, politics, economics, ecology, environment, caste, community, religion, race, colour and culture.
Given the Indian socio-cultural condition, where caste and religion constitute two fundamental factors in dividing the society, Partha Chatterjee, a powerful member of the Subalter Studies Collective, emphatically observes that caste constitutes a moot point in Subaltern consciousness. Dipesh Chakrabarty and Ranajit Guha, two other stalwarts of the Subalter Studies Collective, tended to interrogate the elitist approach to the writing of history -an approach that has erased from the pages of history, the Identity, history, culture and contribution of the subalterns to the nation building. Chakrabarty makes a powerful plea for the study of the 'minority history' and the culture of the people languishing in the fringes and both of them forwarded the writing of 'history from below' by rejecting the idea of grand narrative, hero-worship and building/writing of Empire. Both Guha and Chakravarty were admittedly dissatisfied with the stereotypical elitist representation of the Nationalist Move-ment by neglecting the role and contributon of the peasants, tribals, workers in factories and mills and the marginalized rural masses at large. While combating bourgeois elitism and mainstream historiography, the Subalter scholars forwarded a new method of history writing by recognizing minor narratives, sufferings,problems and protests of the margina-lized section of the society such as Santals and Adivasi Politics of Medinapur (Swapan Dasgupta), Jitu Santal's Movement in Malda (Tanika Sarkar), Devi Movement, Bhils, Sahukars and the Adivasi assertion in South Gujarat (David Hardiman), Subaltern militancy during Swadeshi and Non-co-operation Movement (Sumit Sarkar), Trade Union of the jute workers of Bengal (Dipesh Chakrabarty), Bhojpuri Economy and Society (Ranajit Guha), Zamindars and subaltern mentality of peasant-tenants and wandering minstrels of Dinajpur in West Bengal (Gautam Bhadra), agricultural workers in Burdwan (N.K.Chandra), role of Dalitbahujans in Subaltern Mos ement (Kancha Ilaih), religious subalterns professing Mahima cult against Brahminical hegemony in Odisha (Dube), recognition of the voices of the social outcastes such as Chandalas, Hadis, Namasudras, Doms Widows, Fakirs ,Bauls and Sahajiyas (Partha Chatterjee) and literary representation of exploited women (Dropti and Jasoda of Mahasweta Devi) as gendered subalterns (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak).
Spivak argues that subalterns can not speak because they have no space and no history. But, Subaltern scholars and historiographers tend to strengthen the subaltern classes by following the footsteps of Gramsci. Gramsci very aptly holds that the subaltern classes can be united only when their history is intertwined with that of the civil society. At the same time, viewed from political perspective, the Subalterns need to create a solid base to stand on their awn by forming subaltern social groups In order to vindicate their rights and more significantly by keeping constant watch on the activities of the ruling class. The objective of Subal Studies is, therefore, to bridge the gap between the master and the slave, the dominant and the dominated finally securing justice to/for the exploited and otherized/marginalized people/section of the society.
This edited book Dynamics of Subaltern Consciousness: Critical Perspectives is a humble attempt in that direction wherein, within the canvas of twenty three papers, various dynamics of subaltern epistemology have been highlighted with the help of literary, historical, political, cultural and aesthetic representation(s) in postcolonial theoretical pers-pective.
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