Focusing on concepts that have been central to investigation of the history and politics of marginalized and disenfranchised populations, this book asks how discourses of 'subalternity' and 'difference' simultaneously constitute and interrupt each other. The authors explore the historical production of conditions of marginality and minority, and challenge simplistic notions of difference as emanating from culture rather than politics.

Gyanendra Pandey is Distinguished Professor of History at Emory University, USA, and is the series editor of the Intersections: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories book series at Routledge. He is one of the leading theorists and originators of the subaltern studies approach and has published widely in the field of colonial and postcolonial studies.

1. Introduction: The Difference of Subalternity Gyanendra Pandey Part 1: Gender, sexuality and the regime of modernity 2. 'At Risk': Gender, Sexuality and Epidemic Logic Dilip K. Das 3. 'Homosexuals from Haystacks': Gay Liberation and the Specter of a Queer Majority in Rural California, circa 1970 Colin Johnson 4. Different Speakers, Different Loves: Female Urbanity in Rekhti Poetry Ruth VanitaPart 2: The politics of belonging 5. Roots of the Oriental Quarter in early 19th Century London Michael H. Fisher 6. Indigenous Immigrants, Religion and the Struggle for Belonging in the United States Mary E. Odem7. All Strom's Children: Gender, Race, and Memory in the 20th Century American South Joseph Crespino Part 3: Revisiting liberalism 8. Thinking Equality: debates in Bengal, c.1870-1940 Prathama Banerjee9. Mestizo Mainstream: Reaffirmations of Natural Citizenship in Ecuador Christopher Krupa10. Viola's Story: Re-locating Difference Gyanendra Pandey