Translating Marx in the Postcolony. the Case of Subaltern Studies’ Re-Conceptualisation of ‘Labour Under Capital'

Marx has been central to ‘think the Postcolony’, at different latitudes. At the same time, post- and decolonial perspectives have offered among the most interesting re-readings of Marx in recent decades. Marx's thought has emerged transformed and displaced from the postcolony, acquiring a new and often unexpected life. The notion of 'translation' in an expanded sense (political, conceptual) is among the most interesting concepts to account for this transformation process. Among the central experiences in this global operation of re-reading is certainly that of Indian Subaltern Studies, which here I consider as a collective and creative operation of Marxist translation (e.g. of Marx himself, Gramsci, History from Below).

In this paper I intend to consider the specific operation of Marxian translation put into practice by Subaltern Studies, focusing in particular on their reconceptualisation of ‘labour under capital’ in an expanded sense. The reconceptualisation of labour has always been central to the Subaltern Studies: rooted in specific case studies, it has involved a broader conceptual/theoretical reflection on the meaning of labour under capital in the postcolony. Some of the most interesting conceptualisations have concerned: a. the transformation of peasant labour (Guha 1983, 1998), and feminised peasant labour specifically (Spivak 1993, 1999, 2003) b. the transformation of labour in factories (Chakrabarty 1989, 2000); c. and informal labour (Chatterjee 2004, 2011, 2020). In this paper I want to explore this debate and collective theoretical operation as an interesting example of reconceptualisation /translation of Marx in the postcolony.

The paper is also the opportunity to present some ‘new’ reflections emerging from the in-person dialogue with some of the members of Subaltern Studies developed during a stay in India (January/February 2025), where I will dialogue with Chatterjee and Amin, and in the US (May/June 2025), where I will converse with Chakrabarty and Spivak.