Assault on Scholarship

A BELATED response to S Dube's article 'Peasant Insurgency and Peasant Consciousness' (March 16, 1985) becomes necessary in view of the fact that (a) it was published in the 'Perspectives' column and perspectives at least for a student of history have a long-term durability and (b) research students are still reading and commenting on the piece. For example, Rajiv Lochan sees it as a part of the euphoria generated by questions opened up by the subaltern studies project (Rajiv Lochan, Contributions to Indian Sociology, ns 21, 1, 1987), The article is supposed to "join a debate with social historians" through a discussion of Ranajit Guha's Elementary Aspects of feasant Insurgency in Colonial India, The focal point of the article