Writing Social History
The eight essays in this volume seek to combine an empirical study of themes in late-colonial Indian history with an intervention in current debates about the extent and nature of Western colonial domination. Sumit Sarkar makes a powerful case for the importance of richly-detailed, nuanced social history.
This book marks the break away of what was called the 'uneasy alliance' between Sumit Sarkar and the Subaltern studies group. The Book contains essays dealing extensively on the late colonial Indian history. The Idea of Bengal renaissance, concept of clock time is dealt brilliantly.The concept of Kaliyuga a recurrent theme in Colonial Bengal (as well as in Sarkar's essays) have also been depicted with extensive care. The two articles on E.P Thompson are also brilliant reads. 'The decline of the Subaltern in subaltern studies' provides a basic critique for the Subalternist historiography that had gained extreme importance in recent academic circles. The Critique though repetitive and even at times incoherent in some aspects is a must read to understand the criticisms that were later to be posed at the Subalternist group. Written from a Marxist perspective Sarkar shows immense skill in depicting these various aspects but a slight flaw would be that it somehow tends to be 'too' Marxist in certain cases. Nonetheless that wont take away anything from this book, a brilliant, fun and Must read.
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