Subalternity, exclusion and social change in India

Summary:
This book emphasizes the need for adopting an integrated approach to understand the concepts of subalternity, exclusion and social change in India. It also explores the dynamic relations between these three concepts, instead of treating them as unconnected and discrete social facts. The contributors address some important questions of political economy: Why are subalterns, subalterns, and how does a society produce and reproduce them? Are subalterns a historical construction, and, if so, what are those historical forces and how have they produced subalterns? Also, are there any contemporary forces of subaltern reproduction? What are those forces and how do they operate? How do we place the differentially positioned social groups within the larger subaltern category? The essays in this volume capture ideology, knowledge and power as forces of subaltern reproduction in Indian society, and map the dominant trajectories of emancipation and assertion adopted by different subaltern social groups. Contributors show how subalterns are negotiating emancipation amidst continued oppression, subjugation and atrocities.