Introduction:
Enabling Subaltern agency and subjectivity:
1. Meaning of the term Subaltern:
The word Subaltern refers to people of inferior rank and it is often use to refer to the general
attribute of subordination in south Asia society whether this is expressed in terms of class, cast,
age, gender and office or any other way. The Subaltern people of late, hate begum receiving
much attention in the field of history. Subaltern methodologies the recognition and restoration of
the people who were either silenced or ignored by elitist discourses. The may be Dalits, forgotten
women leaders etc. Therefore, by Subaltern perspectives, we mean an attempt to bring about the
subjectivity of the subaltern in developing their history.
Subaltern history is the history of a suffering people. It is the history of the oppressed and the
marginalized, it is the history of the sons/daughters of the soil; However, as their history is being
given attention, they moving from the people periphery to the Centre. Subaltern studied is an
effort to hear the people and their voices which have been silenced in the dominant discourses.
1. Subaltern Agency and Subjectivity:
Reading of historical text, in order for us to given subjectivity to the subaltern, we must re-read
the text and construct history from the perspective of the subaltern. Every text therefore is a
product of a given time, and as an agenda, it evolves in the context of politics and affiliation to
circumstances. The subaltern school has thus produced tools for critical reading of the text in
favor of the subaltern even if the sources of the information are almost entirely the creation of
the elite. As an example, the different perspectives can be seen by comparing tribal own self-
perception of themselves with that of the governments perception of the tribal. Tribal are one of
the most misinterpreted group of people in India and this misunderstanding continues even now.
They are often regarded as unsophisticated, backward and illiterate and even uncivilized,
although today the tribal challenge such perceptions. The following table is a good example to
show how the people who write about the tribal, project the tribal and how the tribal understand
themselves.
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Dalit movements and Dalit women.
Dalit liberation will be complete only when Dalit are liberated. But the dalit movements see
empowerment of Dalit women as a non-issue or as an appendix or corolly in their struggle for
dalit liberation. They have the mentality of our women which can lead to futher marginalization
of Dalit women in their own houses. The above historical, social and conceptual arguments will
suffice to prove the need for Dalit Feminism. We can reiterate them briefly as follows.
-Dalit women, being at the lowest rank in the ladder, can break the cast system since they are
outside of it and they suffer because of it.
-Dalit feminism surely and clearly opposes the brahminical, Hindutva ideology and caste
supremacy over Dalit.
-It envisages a new social order where there is no form of oppression (especially in the name
of caste and male domination including the oppression by the Dalit men over them)
-It dreams of a situation, where women are valued and respected for their personhood. It will
have a distinct identity because it envisages alt ernative value system.
- Dalit feminism will also respect nature and live in harmony with the nature and conserve it
for the future society.
About the tribal history
To general public in India the word tribe suggests primitive people inhabiting hills and forest,
The original but not highly developed cultures. The tribal people are backward, primitive and
uncivilized, oppressed and exploited. The tribals are mostly culturally alienated, socially
stigmatized, economically exploited, politically powerless. Their voice and participation do not
find much space in the history. Even some of the subaltern historians neglected the history of the
tribals. Their experiences of oppressions and hardships make them to re-read and rewrite their
own history. In the light of these various form of injustice, exploitation, oppression, hardships,
etc. the tribal historiography has emerged to celebrate the trilbals and to restore their identity.
Tribal histirigraphy has to challenge all the previous and existing histories including the subaltern
history and historiography.
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2. Public witnessing in pluralistic and subjectivity:
(1). Christian witness in the Adivasi context of central India: Centre India is home many
Adivasi communities such as Bhil, Gond, Munda, Oraon etc. as the term suggests, Adivasi
world to be expected culturally very different from the dominant Hindu or Islamic culture.
Their unique socio-religious traditions together with their political organizations provide
them a distinguished identity. To re-vision mission amidst changing situation of these
communities is to engage in critical reflection and constructive critique according to the
context of the place and the plight of the people. A church or a community without serious
critical analysis might develop complacency. Each generation of Gods people is called and
Privileged to witness the light of the world Jesus Christ. In this essay, while upholding the
idea of the Body of Christ, the Church is to be the light of the world, which for the Adivasi
people of Centre India indicates three things: -
(a). First, in order to be the light, the present day church of Jesus Christ in the Adivasi region
of certral India should allow itself to be defind by outward orientation in spite of
maintenance-demanding institutionalization.
(b). Second, the resources for the continuing relevance and meaningful witness of the Adivasi
church is to be found and articulated in churchs theological understanding and missiological
commitment in spite of rigidity of long held traditions and rituals.
(c). Third, to be the authentic light to the Adivasi world and beyond the Adivasi leadership
of the church is to remain genuinely Adivasi in spite of the onslaught of the modernity and
dominant culture.
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