Ranajit Guha

Ranajit Guha (23 May 1923 – 28 April 2023) was an Indian historian and the founder of the Subaltern Studies Collective. Guha's scholarship challenged traditional elite-centered narratives, emphasising the agency of peasants and subaltern communities in shaping historical processes. His influential works, including Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in independent India, have left a lasting impact on the fields of South Asian history, postcolonial studies, and historiography. Guha was nominated an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1996.

Early life and career Born on 23 May 1923 in Siddhakatti, Backergunge District of British India (present-day Bangladesh), Guha hailed from a lineage of khas taluqdars. His grandfather was a revenue official, and his father, Radhika Ranjan Guha, was an advocate, who later became a judge of the Dacca High Court. Guha's elder brother, Deba Prasad, was a notable scholar of Pali in Rangoon and Banaras.

Engaging in political activism during the 1940s, Guha affiliated with the Communist Party of India, represented the party at the World Federation of Democratic Youth in London. Following his return to India in 1953, he distanced himself from political engagements after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.

Commencing his teaching career at Chandernagore Government College in 1953, Guha faced suspension from the Bengal Educational Services due to scrutiny of his political history. Subsequently, he was employed by Jadavpur University. In 1962, he assumed the position of a Reader in history at the University of Sussex. Noteworthy is his departure from Sussex in 1981, when he accepted a position at the Australian National University, where he concluded his distinguished career, retiring in 1988.

Guha's Elementary Aspects is considered a seminal work in the field. The Subaltern Studies framework encouraged scholars to examine the roles of class, caste, and gender in shaping historical narratives.

Guha influenced a generation of scholars, including Partha Chatterjee, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Dipesh Chakrabarty. Guha died at home on 28 April 2023 at the age of 99.

Select bibliography

Author A rule of property for Bengal: an essay on the idea of permanent settlement, Paris [etc.]: Mouton & Co., 1963; new edition, Duke University Press, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1983; new edition, Duke University Press, 1999, "History at the Limit of World-History" (Italian Academy Lectures), Columbia University Press, 2002 An Indian Historiography of India: A Nineteenth Century Agenda & Its Implications. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Company. 1988. Dominance without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India, Harvard University Press, 1998 The Small Voice of History, Permanent Black, 2009, (Collection of essays, edited by Partha Chatterjee).

Editor Subaltern Studies I: Writings on South Asian History and Society. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1982. Subaltern Studies II: Writings on South Asian History and Society. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1983. Subaltern Studies III: Writings on South Asian History and Society. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1984. Subaltern Studies IV: Writings on South Asian History and Society. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1985. Subaltern Studies V: Writings on South Asian History and Society. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1987. Selected Subaltern Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, (co-edited with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak). Subaltern Studies VI: Writings on South Asian History and Society. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1989. A Subaltern Studies Reader,1986–1995. University of Minnesota Press, 1997,

Select works about Guha Sathyamurthy, T. V. (1990). "Indian peasant historiography: A critical perspective on Ranajit Guha's work". The Journal of Peasant Studies, 18(1), 92–144. doi:10.1080/03066159008438445 Arnold, David; Hardiman, David. (1994). Subaltern Studies VIII: Essays in Honour of Ranajit Guha. Delhi: Oxford University Press.