ABSTRACT
Here, the book is placed into the context of well-researched analyses of the Santal rebellion that have been published over the years. The main investigations – from the first analytical article published during the rebellion to the recent discussions – are presented in the chapter. A special emphasis is placed on the postcolonial critique of the colonial historians: later Indian historians saw the rebellion through the eyes of the East India Company and, even later, through the eyes of the colonial power directly under the English crown. The work on the Santal rebellion by Ranajit Guha, one of the central founding actors of the Indian school of subaltern studies, is seen in this light and placed among the postcolonial critiques. The methodological argument is that each earlier approach to the Santal rebellion has blind spots and suppresses the voice of one or the other social group. The current book, by contrast, creates an analytical space wherein all voices are equal.
