"This book is on the political subject, the conditions of its emergence, and the theoretical implications of this emergence, particularly the implications for our history. It seeks to change the way in which we understand our modern political history and the way in which it inquires into life, truth, and collective existence. The book not only marks by dense contentions different and varying histories of turbulent political moments in modern Indian history, but also presents a startling picture of the emergence of the political subject, which has been repeatedly sought to be brought under submission, but has repeatedly emerged as a mark of autonomy and agency in life." "Emergence of the Political discusses substantial philosophical interventions to demonstrate why we do not need western political theories and philosophies to understand colonial and post-colonial political life. Instead, we need appreciation of political actions and a different way of analyzing them. Against power it is resistance; against domination it is desire; against rule it is friendship; against sovereign authority it is bare body; against the 'culture of self' it is subject-hood - one can find in the story of the emergence of the political subject the overturning of the established world of knowledge. The work contains some fascinating accounts of dialogic practices which it weaves into a critical theory of politics."--BOOK JACKET.