Parthiban Ramesh
Independent Researcher
Tamil Nadu, India
Abstract
This study interrogates the profound yet often overlooked impact of regional language scholarship on the decolonization of Indian historiography and its shaping of national movements between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Colonial historiography in India was dominated by English-language narratives that privileged metropolitan elite perspectives, marginalized subaltern voices, and perpetuated Eurocentric frameworks of political legitimacy and social change. Against this epistemic backdrop, vernacular scholars and grassroots chroniclers working in Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, and other Indian languages compiled newspapers, memoirs, folk ballads, temple inscriptions, pamphlets, and local histories that narrated anti-colonial resistance from the vantage point of rural, caste-based, gendered, and tribal communities. These vernacular archives not only documented popular uprisings, agrarian unrest, and social reform movements but also theorized the very concepts of freedom, citizenship, and nationhood in distinctly indigenous registers. Through a sequential mixed-methods design—first mapping key vernacular contributions via literature review, then surveying 100 historians, teachers, and graduate students nationwide—this paper uncovers prevailing attitudes toward regional language sources. Quantitative findings reveal that 82% of respondents acknowledge vernacular scholarship as essential yet under-utilized in mainstream curricula; only 28% incorporate these sources regularly in research or teaching. Qualitative themes highlight barriers—language proficiency, lack of translations, and institutional neglect—as well as opportunities in digitization and bilingual critical editions. The study concludes by recommending concrete measures: enhanced translation initiatives, open-access digitization of vernacular archives, curricular mandates for regional historiography, and academic incentives for vernacular research. These steps can foster a genuinely pluralistic historiography that honors the multiple voices instrumental to India’s freedom struggles.
Keywords
Decolonization, Regional Languages, Indian Historiography, National Movements, Vernacular Archives
References
- Banerjee, S. (2012). Voices of Freedom: Bengali Periodicals and the National Movement. Kolkata: Bengal Press.
- Bayly, C. A. (1999). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Chakrabarty, D. (2000). Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Deshpande, R. (2020). Digitizing the Vernacular: Challenges and Prospects. Indian Historical Review, 47(2), 210–228.
- Guha, R. (1983). Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
- Jaffrelot, C. (2007). Language, Caste, and Politics in India. New Delhi: Permanent Black.
- Kapadia, H. (2015). Devotional Literature as Resistance: Gujarat’s Bhakti Traditions. Journal of South Asian Studies, 38(1), 45–67.
- Mukherjee, A., & Singh, P. (2021). Vernacular Historiography in Indian Academia: A Survey of Trends and Barriers. History Compass, 19(4), e12789.
- Ramaswamy, V. (2010). Tamil Prison Literature and the Imagination of Freedom. Modern Asian Studies, 44(3), 543–575.
- Udayakumar, K. (2018). Temple Chronicles and Mobility: Malayalam Inscriptions in Anti-colonial Discourse. Economic and Political Weekly, 53(12), 31–39.
- Viswanathan, G. (2014). Archival Silences: The Case for Vernacular Sources. Studies in History, 30(1), 1–20.
- Ahmad, I. (2016). Rewriting the Nation: Regional Histories and National Memory. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan.
- Chatterjee, P. (1993). The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Desai, M. (2019). Marathi Newspapers and Social Reform, 1910–1935. South Asia Research, 39(2), 150–167.
- Gandhi, L. (2006). Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
- Gopal, S. (2014). Punjabi Folk Ballads and the Making of a Political Culture. Indian Folklife, 7(3), 99–114.
- Nair, S. (2017). Sounding Resistance: Malayalam Oral Traditions and Anti-colonial Song. Kochi: Malabar Publishing.
- Prasad, N. (2018). Translation as Intervention: Hindi Editions of Colonial Texts. Translation Studies, 11(4), 379–397.
- Sengupta, S. (2021). Digital Archives of Regional Historiography: The Odisha Model. International Journal of Digital Humanities, 2(1), 67–83.
- Varma, R. (2015). Grassroots Nationalism: Regional Press and the Indian Freedom Movement. Mumbai: Sahitya Akademi.