What Went Wrong with 'History from Below'

Recent academic debates on theoretical dichotomies obscured several crucial issues such as emancipation and social justice. For those writing history from below, new dilemmas present themselves, as conservatism, feeding on such reinterpretation, presents itself with a new legitimacy while spontaneous efforts to empower people have ended up being co-opted within the prevailing political system. To bring back emancipatory politics and social justice to the concept of the �history from below� it is important that prevailing assumptions see a fundamental transformation.