We know how late and complicated the reception of "postcolonial" studies was in France, and how there is still some confusion about them. One of the main merits of this book by Vivek Chibber is to start from a meticulous analysis of the texts of several Indian theorists from Subaltern Studies who have become key figures of the "postcolonial" - such as Dipesh Chakrabarty or Partha Chatterjee - to radically dismantle not only the excesses of this movement, but above all what they stem from, that is to say several of its founding theses.

The profound originality of Chibber's approach lies both in the central challenge he poses to postcolonial "deconstructions" and "essentializations" and in the plural and open use he makes of Marxist theory, thus demonstrating - both in form and substance - its validity and universality. This book and the very many debates that accompanied it mark a decisive turning point in the understanding of North-South issues and in the development of a global theory of capitalism and its overcoming.