ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on whether the acknowledgement of what some postcolonialists call the subaltern–the traces of peoples 'without history' within the evidence record of the coloniser–implies the need to walk away from historiography as we know it and towards an aesthetic 'historicality' (aitihasikata) in which the possibility of adbhuta, vismaya or camatkara (wonder) is reclaimed. It notes that Jacques Derrida's writings refer to, and are intertwined with, the trace of others who acknowledge the burden of learning to live. Romila Thapar navigates to a sense of historicality via very different means: her idea of a Western 'scientific' idea of history. The renewal of Indian historiography is therefore a renewal of Western historiography as well. Guha's History at the Limit of World-History is an argument for an appreciation of abhutarasa and everyday historicality. In arguing for this, Guha takes his cue from Tagore, India's first Nobel Laureate for literature.
