The term ‘history from below’ refers to a historiographical approach that seeks to reconstruct and interpret the past from the perspective of ordinary people rather than elites. It challenges traditional narratives that privilege kings, statesmen, administrators, and dominant social groups, and instead emphasizes peasants, workers, tribals, women, lower castes, and other marginalized communities as active historical agents. The phrase gained currency in twentieth-century historiography, particularly through the works of British Marxist historians like E. P. Thompson, who argued that the working class was not merely shaped by structural forces but actively “made” itself through collective experience and struggle. Methodologically, history from below calls for a shift in sources, categories of analysis, and interpretive frameworks, seeking to democratize both the content and practice of historical writing. In terms of research method, history from below requires historians to move beyond conventional state archives and official documents. Since marginalized groups often left limited written records, historians rely on alternative sources such as oral traditions, folk songs, petitions, court records, missionary reports, vernacular literature, local archives, and material culture. These sources are read “against the grain,” meaning that even elite-produced documents are critically analyzed to extract the voices and experiences of subaltern actors embedded within them. This approach also involves interdisciplinary methods, drawing upon anthropology, sociology, and literary studies to interpret symbols, rituals, and everyday practices as historical evidence. In Indian historiography, the emergence of history from below must be understood against the background of colonial, nationalist, and early Marxist writings.