Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Examining Subaltern Theme in Indian English Literature

Abstract

The origin of the subaltern theme became an extremely important critical concept in literature and postcolonial theory. Subaltern Studies is a discipline in itself. It is also an interdisciplinary subject. The term "subaltern" was first used by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. In Latin, "sub" means "under" and "change" means "different". So it literally refers to any pserson or group of people of low status. They may belong to any class, sex, gender, caste or even religion. Below refers to a specific marginal position in a specific cultural or social context. The subconscious is one of the characteristics of the following. Antonio Gramsci highlighted the term's meaning in terms of social class, gender, caste, marginalization, race and culture, while Gayatri Spivak used it to silence the voices of the colonized and oppressed, the working class, gender and women . Ranjit Guha also pointed out that the word says something about class, caste, age and gender. The concept of primacy in grassroots studies has its roots in Marxism and poststructuralism. One of the newest branches of substratum theory is substratum research. Of course the theme of subaltern has been examined from various points of view but the present study largely differ from the perspectives studied previously in content and form. . This paper reveal the suboptimal issues such as oppression, caste, religion, gender discrimination, marginalization, exploitation, migration, class difference, racial sentiments, diasporic elements and ethnicity as reflected in Indo-Anglic writings.