Self-reclamation as Epistemic Resistance: Forwarding Svaraj as Manumission Through Professor K. C. Bhattacharyya

Abstract

This article reinterprets Professor Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya’s (KCB) idea of svaraj as an act of epistemic manumission. Manumission, etymologically from Latin manus (hand) and mittere (send), means to set free. It is introduced in the article as a decolonial metaphor that reframes svaraj as a self-authorized freedom. In this context, it is a wilful repossession of self-knowledge as resistance to colonial epistemic domination. The article argues that KCB’s distinction between secular and spiritual realms enables a dual decolonial strategy, through a critical reading of his two treatises, Svaraj in Ideas and Subject as Freedom. In the secular realm, assimilation is encouraged as an epistemic engagement with the West. In the spiritual, self-realization anchors an indigenous reclaiming of agency. Rather than dwelling on colonial domination, KCB redirects attention to the subjective power of liberation and ontological freedom. The article also engages with recent scholarship to examine the philosophical promise and socio-political limitations of KCB’s svaraj, particularly about caste and gender-based epistemic exclusions.