Self-consciousness of the Dalits as "subalterns". Reflections on Gramsci in South Asia.

Abstract

In this chapter I reflect on Gramsci’s category of the “subaltern”, taking into consideration recent contributions to this topic, particularly those offered by Joseph Buttigieg, Giorgio Baratta and Marcus Green. The latter, besides presenting an eloquent critique of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s article Can the Subaltern Speak?, allows me to return to Gramscian sources so as to carry out a radicalisation of Gramsci’s positions with reference to the experience of “Untouchables”/Dalits in South Asia. There is little doubt that the enquiry into the “Subaltern Question” in India today cannot ignore the “Dalit Question” as “the political unconscious of India society” (Rao 2009, xiii). The case study referring to the Rishi-Dalits of Bangladesh accentuates still further the precarious position of these groups as subalterns, but also their aspiration to overcome subalternity.