Producing Knowledge(s): The University and the Postcolonial Subject

Abstract

[I]nsofar as the academic discourse of history – that is, ‘history’ produced in the institutional site of the university – is concerned, Europe remains the sovereign theoretical subject of all histories, including the ones we call ‘Indian,’ ‘Chinese,’ ‘Kenyan,’ and so on. There is a peculiar way in which all these other histories tend to become variations on a master narrative that could be called ‘the history of Europe.’ (Chakrabarty, 1992:1)