How does the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Ac
How does the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 reflect shifts in historical perspectives and interpretations within the context of postcolonial and subaltern histories in India?
here is the essay brief : The aims of this assignment are much the same as the previous one. The only difference is that you will analyse a source, or small set of sources, from two historiographical perspectives. Be sure to re-read Mary Lynn Rampolla’s description of a primary source analysis. What we want to see is that you can
a) locate a primary source (or small set of sources) on your own
b) analyse it from ANY two different historiographical perspectives treated in the module. You may draw from the latter weeks of Historiography I if you wish. The source(s) must differ from those you used for your first 1500 word essay.
General tips
1. Identify the source(s): ‘The source that I have chosen is x’ (a letter, diary, report, law, speech, object, novel, newspaper article, piece of art… pretty much anything!).
2. Contextualise it:
Provide the background details of the source: who, what, where and when
3. Tease out the source’s meaning and historical significance: ‘I think this source is revealing because it tells us something about…x, y and z.
4. Refer principally to the primary source. Feel free to draw on the secondary literature related to the source(s) if it helps you understand or contextualise it. But keep the analysis focused on the primary source(s).
5. Be mindful about the quality of your writing and be sure to cite as need be! For guidance on these matters, see the webpage for Week 1 of the syllabus. For formatting footnotes, please use the MHRA Style Guide.
Be sure to use a source that you find interesting! If you’re fascinated with a source, your Intellectual curiosity and critical imagination will shine through. Your reader will become interested too!
another closer look on how to anaylse sources is here : Below is a very generic template. Feel free to riff on it as you see fit.
1. Identify the source: ‘The source that I have chosen is x (a letter, diary, report, law, speech, object, fiction, piece of art… pretty much anything!).’
2. Contextualise it:
Who, what, where and when?
3. Problematise it, teasing out its meaning/historical significance:
‘This source is interesting because it can tell us something about…’ – for example (depending on the year and the weekly topics-not all the below are taught every year):
– Imperial careering
– the European imperial imagination
– the ‘othering’ process between cultures
– gender or racial hierarchies and/or power relations
– sexual or ethnic identities and how they relate to processes of empowerment and disempowerment, inclusion and exclusion
– material culture and the objects a society deems valuable or not
– emotional ‘regimes’ and how societies structure emotional expression
– public memory and the political struggles to define it
– intellectual ideas and how they are constructed, diffused and imbibed
Be sure to refer to the source itself to tease out its historical meaning and/or significance, keeping the historiographical trends we are discussing in the module in mind.
4. If you were to relate your chosen primary source to other primary sources (you don’t have space to do so in this essay, of course), what other sources would you want to look at and what questions would you want to ask of them in your quest to tease out their historical significance? Just as a detective begins with a general question (Who dunnit?) then refines and expands upon it as they come across evidence (Where did the weapon come from? What was the motive?), the historian usually begins with a general question (e.g., how did this particular society structure its notions of gender?) then refines it as they come across primary sources (How are gender hierarchies and power relations revealed in this text?)
In short, try to think of yourself less as a student who answers question that the teacher provides and more like a historian who crafts their own questions depending on the sources they find. The weekly readings you are learning about will help you craft those questions.
We encourage you to find sources related to historical periods you have studied. Familiarity with the basic context will help you make sense of the source you choose.
the essay must also be written to the highest standard meaning the following : Compelling answer to the question, expertly supported by evidence
Comprehensive and precise knowledge of relevant topics and sources
Original and sophisticated understanding of relevant sources, theories, methods, and/or debates
Superb presentation, including elegant writing style, strong organisation, and flawless referencing
May achieve, or be close to, a publishable standard
In this essay please ensure to qoute from the source directly. You must read the act and directly follow the brief problematising it, ideas from it and both contexts of histography. PLS FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE ESSAYS I WILL ATTATCH. Be sure to qoute from a few of the following scholarly readings : Further Readings
Amin, Shahid, ‘Gandhi As Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern U.P. 1921-22’, Subaltern Studies III (1983), pp.1-61
Ashcroft, Bill; Gareth Griffiths; & Helen Tiffin, Postcolonial Studies: Key Concepts (London, 2013). See especially the entry on ‘discourse’ . 70-73) (Library Online Resources).
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Fiffin (eds.), The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London and New York: Routledge, 1989. (In many ways this publication kicks off the postcolonial enthusiasm in history writing)
Baxi, Upendra “‘The State’s Emissary’: The Place of Law in Subaltern Studies”, in Subaltern Studies VII, pp. 247-264
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, ‘Conditions for Knowledge of Working-Class Conditions: Employers, Government and the Jute Workers of Calcutta, 1890-1940’, in Selected Subaltern Studies.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, ‘Provincialising Europe: Postcolonial thought and historical difference (Princeton, 2007).
Dipesh Chakrabarty, ‘Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History: Who Speaks for ‘Indian’ Pasts?’ Representations, 37 (1992): 1-26.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, ‘A Small History of Subaltern Studies, in ibid., Habitations of Modernity (Chicago, 2002), pp. 3-19.
Chatterjee, Partha , ‘The Nationalist Resolution of the Women’s Question’, in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds., Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1990), pp. 233-253.
Chatterjee, Partha, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? (1986)
Guha, Ranajit, ‘Discipline and Mobilize’, in Subaltern Studies VII, pp. 69-120.
Guha, Ranajit, ‘Chandra’s Death’, Subaltern Studies V (1987), pp.135-165
Guha, Ranajit, ‘The prose of counter-insurgency’ , Subaltern Studies II (1983), pp. 159-220.
Guha, Ranajit, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (1982)
Hardiman, David, ‘Adivasi Assertion in South Gujarat: The Devi Movement of 1922-23’, in R.Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies III (1984).
Hardiman, David, ‘The Bhils and Shahukars of Eastern Gujarat’, Subaltern Studies V (1987), pp.1-54
Huggan, Graham (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Iggers, Georg G., A Global History of Modern Historiography (London, 2008), pp. 284-90.
Majumdar, Rochona, Writing Postcolonial History (London, 2010).
Moore-Gilbert, Bart, ‘Postcolonial Theory Contexts, Practices, Politics’ (London, 1997), Chapter 2: Edward Said, Orientalism and Beyond, pp. 34-73.
Pandey, Gyanendra, ‘The Colonial Construction of ‘Communalism’: British Writings on Banaras in the Nineteenth Century’, in Subaltern Studies VI, pp. 132-68.
Pandey, Gyanendra, ‘Rallying Around The Cow: Sectarian Strife in the Bhojpuri Region, c.1888-1917’, Subaltern Studies II (1983), pp.60-129
Rodriguez, Iliana, The Latin American Subaltern Studies Reader (2001)
Schwarz, Henry, and Ray,Sangeeta (eds.), A Companion to Postcolonial Studies (2000).
Sarkar, Sumit, ‘The Kalki-Avatar of Bikrampur: A Village Scandal in Early Twentieth Century Bengal’, Subaltern Studies VI (1989), pp.1-53
Spivak, Gayatri C., ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, eds., Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (Urbana & Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1988), pp. 271-313.
Stephens, Julie, ‘Feminist Fictions: A Critique of the Category ‘Non-Western Woman’ in Feminist Writings on India”, in Subaltern Studies VI, pp. 92-125; Tharu, Susie, ‘Response to Julie Stephens”, in Subaltern Studies VI, pp. 126-31.
Young, Robert, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2016) – BOTH chapter 1 (pp. 1-11) and chapter 5 (pp. 57-69). (e-book)
be sure to also send drafts along the way. Long flowing paragraph and argument not breakaways following the structure of the exemplar. 3000 words very max. refercing – Use a recognised style for citations rather than inventing your own style – the MHRA and Chicago style guides are examples. also be sure to update me with drafts