Since its publication in 2013, Vivek Chibber’s book Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital (PTSC) has generated a lot of scholarly discussion. A new volume, The Debate on Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital, captures this sometimes ornery debate.

PTSC primarily aims to uncover the conceptual and empirical flaws within subaltern studies, an important strand of postcolonial theory. In doing so, Chibber challenges the broader postcolonial claim that the West and East are so radically different that theories with European origins, such as Marxism, don’t have universal currency.

Chibber finds at least three arguments in the Subalternist literature that support this larger claim. The first concerns the ostensibly different strategies that the ruling classes, namely the bourgeoisie, used to gain and consolidate power. In Europe, they argue, the emergent bourgeoisie ruled by consent, while in India it depended on coercion.