[18] ANNABHAU SATHE AS A CHRONICLER OF SUBALTERN HISTORY IN POST-INDEPENDENCE MAHARASHTRA

Abstract

Mainstream historiography in India has traditionally privileged elite political leadership, institutional developments, and dominant social groups, often marginalizing the lived experiences of oppressed communities. In the context of post-Independence Maharashtra, the histories of Dalits, landless laborers, nomadic tribes, and the urban working poor have largely remained outside formal historical narratives. This paper argues that the literary corpus of Annabhau Sathe functions as an alternative archive that documents subaltern history from within, rather than about, marginalized communities. Drawing upon Sathe’s novels, short stories, and folk compositions, the study situates his writings within the broader socio-political transformations of post-1947 Maharashtra, including urbanization, labor mobilization, caste assertion, and the formation of linguistic states. Sathe’s work is examined not merely as creative literature but as a historically grounded testimony of everyday life, resistance, and survival among subaltern groups. His narratives foreground themes of caste oppression, class exploitation, migration, and cultural assertion, offering insights into social realities often absent from official records. The paper employs a subaltern historiographical framework to analyze how Sathe reclaims agency for marginalized subjects and challenges dominant historical representations. Influenced by Marxist thought and progressive cultural movements, Sathe articulates a historical consciousness rooted in labor, dignity, and collective struggle. By integrating oral traditions, folk forms, and lived experience, his writings blur the boundaries between literature and history, thereby expanding the methodological scope of historical Inquiry.