A subaltern is an old word for an?
Subaltern Subaltern A subaltern is a primarily British military term for a junior officer. Literally meaning "subordinate", subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant. Ensign and Fähnrich stand for standard or standard-bearer and were, therefore, the ranks given to the junior officer who carried, or was responsible for, the flag in battle. The Cornet carried the troop standard, known as a "cornet". These ranks have generally been replaced in Army ranks by Second lieutenant. Ensigns were generally the lowest ranking commissioned officer, except where the rank of subaltern
Subaltern (postcolonialism) rather than that of the colonizers. In the 1980s, the scope of enquiry of Subaltern Studies was applied as an "intervention in South Asian historiography". As a method of intellectual discourse, the concept of the "subaltern" is contentious because it originated as a Eurocentric method of historical enquiry for studying the non-Western people of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. From its inception as an historical-research model for studying the colonial experience of the peoples of the Indian Subcontinent, subaltern studies transformed from a model of intellectual discourse into a method of "vigorous post-colonial critique". The term "subaltern" is used