This provocative volume presents the most wide-ranging essays from the first five volumes of
Subaltern Studies
, along with an introductory essay by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak—the translator of Derrida's
Of Grammatology
into English—and a foreword by eminent critic Edward W. Said. Addressed to students and scholars throughout the humanities, these essays address what Antonio Gramsci—the founder of the Italian communist party—called the subaltern classes, reexamining well-known historical and political events, such as Gandhi's role in India, from a Marxist perspective. Together, the essays examine aspects of the analysis of domination, with special reference to the critique of imperialism, in an attempt to rectify the elitist bias characteristic of much academic work on India. A ground-breaking work of considerable pedagogical relevance for courses dealing with colonialism and imperialism in literature, sociology, anthropology, politics, and history,
also features a comprehensive glossary of Indian terms for readers not familiar with Indian history.