Translations of Antonio Gramsci’s works into English from the 1950s onwards drew the attention of Indian academics searching for alternative understandings of Marxism—especially the Subaltern Studies Group launched in 1982 by Ranajit Guha. The end of the 1977 Emergency saw the rapid spread of democratic mobilisations across India and contributed to a growing interest in exploring Marxist ideas outside the Soviet framework. Despite their differences, the parliamentary Left parties believed that the end of Congress’s dominance would bring a change in political power where the Left would be the decisive force.
Instead, there was an emergence of regional parties supported by dominant peasant castes and headed by authoritarian populist leaders, and the Hindu-nationalist BJP rose steadily to power as a national party. This betrayal of the Left’s expectations led a section of Marxist intellectuals towards Gramsci; they realised that an economic crisis may not push the masses towards the Left—the greater need was for a better understanding of mass peasant consciousness, and of the cultural, ideological dimensions of dominance and subordination.
This collection of essays by preeminent scholars introduces readers to the Gramscian ideas of hegemony, civil and political society, coercion and consent, wars of manoeuvre and position, the role of the party and intellectuals, and subaltern historiography in a Gramscian framework. Who constitutes the peasantry, how they can be mobilised, how they are shaped by the hegemony of dominant classes, how far they maintain a culture and a consciousness of their own—these Gramscian concerns remain pertinent to the analysis of Indian society today.
Scholars of Indian Marxism, Subaltern Studies, political science, history and philosophy will find this volume invaluable.