Question

Explain the following concept. 

 Subaltern history. 

Answer 1

The term subaltern means ‘bottommost ranks.’ It was Antonio Gramsci who considered important that history should also include the bottommost rank of the society. Thus, subaltern school of historiography came into existence. Subaltern history became an important academic school of historiography after Ranjit Guha included this concept in his writings. Before this, this idea of including bottommost ranks in the history was taken into consideration by the scholars like Mahatma Phule. The term ‘shudras’ or the ‘atishudras’ is used for the bottommost rank. The writings of the BR Ambedkar also consider the subaltern school of historiography in his book entitled ‘who were called the shudras’ and ‘The Untouchables.’