ABSTRACT
Referring to some of the writings of Pandey, Sarkar is critical of the positivistic glorification of the ‘fragment’ in the interests of epistemological uncertainty, with a consequent loss to going into causes and contexts as part of a desirable holism of analysis. Studies on subaltern consciousness are not only narratives about or even on behalf of the subaltern as the former appears to focus attention, notwithstanding the quality of the article. His analysis of the attitude of the nationalist elite to the conditions of sweepers of rationalizing the procrastination of reformist policies and taking recourse to Gandhian palliatives of hand spinning and weaving as a solution, as seen in articles in Harijan, suggests a useful approach of approximating subaltern conditions and consciousness through a critique of dominant mentalities and scripted policies. Resistance as well as the conception of breakdown takes on a ‘magico-religious character’ in popular imagination.
