Politics of identity and the project of writing history in postcolonial India a dalit critique

Abstract

The central orientation of this article is organised around Dalit identity politics and their implications on the project of writing history in postcolonial India. It critically engages with the Subaltern Studies project as a school of postcolonial historiography that claims to represent the voice of the marginalised and yet stops short of acknowledging caste and caste-based oppression as worthy of historical analysis. In particular, it engages with Dipesh Chakrabarty's reflections on Dalit identity politics in postcolonial India and argues that Dalits, while demanding sociopolitical equality and a dignified identity, also challenge the epistemologies of the nation and demand its historical narratives to be egalitarian and inclusive