Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins

Shail Mayaram

Paper, 344 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12731-8
$30.00 / £17.50

November, 2003
Cloth, 344 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12730-1
$80.50 / £47.50

"Mayarams's work is a fascinating and important examination." — Jason Freitag, Journal of Asian Studies

"A welcome addition to the growing literature on the Meos, this book charts new ground." — Yoginder Sikand, JRAS

"Mayaram's work on the Muslim Meo is a significant contribution to studies of subaltern dissent. She focuses on the texts recited by professional bardists from another caste, permitting the Meo to affirm their own identity against the Other of the state and giving them a meaningful view of their own past. This work should interest scholars of subaltern studies and those interested in oral literature and the relation of myth to history." — Gananath Obeyesekere, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University

"Mayaram restores the undocumented history of the Meos by skillfully analyzing their oral tradition and cultural performances. Her book represents the voice of a people not otherwise visible in the written record. Her greatest achievement is constructing a subjective history of the State as it was experienced by those unwillingly incorporated into it. This volume is very rich, very smart, and extremely cosmopolitan in its mastery of recent theoretical traditions in history, anthropology, cultural studies, and postcolonial scholarship. Mayaram's careful, inventive, and meticulous scholarship is impressive." — Susanne Rudolph, William Benton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

Related Subjects

• South Asian Studies

Series

• Cultures of History

About the Author

Shail Mayaram is a visiting senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, India, and a fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in Jaipur, India. She is the author of Resisting Regimes: Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a Muslim Identity, the co-author of Creating a Nationality: The Ramjanambhumi Movement and the Fear of Self, and a member of the Subaltern Studies editorial collective.

top of page