Subaltern Voice and the Colonial Archive
Collective Petitions from the Indigo Rebellion
Keywords:
Subaltern, Indigo Rebellion, Colonial archive, petitions, peasant, ruralAbstract
This essay explores petitions as a crucial genre of response to colonial authority, emphasizing their role in articulating grievances without direct confrontation. Focusing on petitions submitted by villagers from the Bengal countryside during the Indigo Rebellion, it relocates the practice of petitioning beyond urban spaces and elite actors. This analysis engages with the methodological framework of Subaltern Studies to interrogate whether traces of the subaltern voice can be retrieved from the colonial archive. Central to this inquiry is a close examination of a petition submitted by ryots (peasants) of a village against an indigo planter over a land dispute. This case study sheds light on the intricate processes of mediation, appropriation, and reinterpretation that shape archival documents. Through a critical reading of the colonial archive, the essay highlights how petitions operated both as tools of resistance and as subjects of bureaucratic manipulation. Ultimately, this study reveals the inherent challenges of recovering subaltern perspectives from archival sources.
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