Abstract

By analyzing the work of the Indian political thinker Ranabir Samaddar, the essay explores the theme of the political subject in contemporary political philosophy. Samaddar's recent book Emergence of Political Subject, by relating how the subject has been theorized in Western political thought with Indian classical texts such as the Mahabharata, discusses the importance of the colonial political experience for the re-conceptualization of the political subject. Samaddar's innovative approach suggests that, within the colonial dimension and in the postcolonial context, the political subject does not emerge through the conception of the self, but as a result of actions and situations. As a consequence, politics needs to be reconceived through an anti-colonial philosophy of practice and action.