Fighting over a nation: theorizing a Filipino historiography

Abstract

The 1980s witnessed two important developments in Asian historiography. One was the rise of Subaltern Studies. Although in theory concerned with Indian historiography, its attack on nationalist and Marxist histories and its accessibility obtained it great prominence in European and American academies. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, an indigenization of historiography movement also grew apace, but its influence was confined to the national sphere by its choice to prioritize writing in the Filipino language. Called Pantayong Pananaw (PP/ for-us-from-us perspective), this intellectual project, whose roots date to the 1970s, proposes the reevaluation of written histories and Filipinization of historical discourse. This essay interrogates PP and its implications in the decolonization and production of historical knowledge. It analyses the idea of PP to illustrate its propositions in rethinking history and history-writing. Similar to Subaltern Studies, PP began as a critique on both colonial and left-leaning nationalist historiographies. Influential proponents of PP are identified, as its development into a school of thought in history is charted; a history of the struggles and internal contradictions of a historian's quest to provide, however problematic, a uniquely Filipino voice in the face of a growing homogenization of knowledge production in the ‘global’ academy. Controversies and debates color this ongoing process. PP thrives on these tensions, however. Ultimately, PP embodies an historiographical project, a political fault line and a signifant cleavage in nationalist discourse that continues to arouse heightened sentiments among Filipino scholars.