Culture of Resistance : Mahasveta Devi ::
Grievances of the Subaltern reflected in Mahasveta Devi’s Novels
J. Hanumantha Rao
Associate Professor,
Bomma Institute of Technology and Science,
Allipuram :: Khammam
98482 08007
chaatur varnam, mayaa srustam,
guna, karma, vibhagasha: {Bhagavat Gita]
India is a land of castes, languages, cultures, and religions. Caste system is so deep rooted, it spread out in its own way in all directions, branching above favourism, ours feeling, disregarding others, suppressing talent, and so on. The people too, instead of coming out of those clutches, are sinking into that mire of caste system. Caste unions, caste politics, caste promotions, etc have become a common thing in India, even today in 2011.
Who are subaltern? Literally, it refers to any person or group of inferior rank and station, whether because of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religion. The term, subaltern, was coined by the Marxist theorist, Antonio Gramsci. In the 1970s, the term began to be used as a reference to colonized people in the South Asian subcontinent. "Subaltern Studies" began in the early 1980s as an "intervention in South Asian historiography." While "subaltern" began as a model for the Subcontinent, it quickly developed into a "vigorous postcolonial critique." Subaltern is now regularly used as a term in history, anthropology, sociology, human geography, and literature. Subaltern are, the oppressed, the working classes, the financially poor, those who do not have means to earn their livelihood, the exploited ones, etc. Today it is a thousand hooded monster. The corporate world is transforming most of the weaker sections, subaltern.
The exact meaning of the term in current philosophical and critical usage is disputed. Some thinkers use it in a general sense to refer to marginalized groups and the lower classes, dalits, or those who struggle for mere existence, who lead hand to mouth life —a person rendered without agency by his or her social status.
Others, such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak use it in a more specific sense. She argues that subaltern is not just a classy word for oppressed, for other, for somebody who's not getting a piece of the pie....In postcolonial terms, everything that has limited or no access to the cultural imperialism, is subaltern-—a space of difference.
Today it has become a fashion to declare themselves, subaltern. Many people want to claim subalternity. Many castes want to admit their castes as one in subaltern system. Actually the term subaltern is used to denote marginalized and oppressed people(s) specifically struggling against hegemonic globalization. Through their actions as a way to protest against mainstream development and create their own visions for development.
In this money mongering world the voice of the subaltern needs to be heard. The subaltern must adopt Western thought, reasoning and language. If their entire struggle is only for two times meals, the subalterns can never express their own reasoning, forms of knowledge or logic. They must instead form their knowledge to Western ways of knowing.
Many –isms have come. All those –isms are not elevating them, but using them as political baits. The world is fast changing. Their mental constitution to compete to survive in this world is not good. Today one needs to run, even to stay in the same place. That is not understood by them. As the world is characterized by free trade, open markets and capitalist systems as the way to development. Mainstream development discourse focuses on applying universal policies at a national level.
If we consider regional, class, ethnic, gender, differences between places; continuing to treat the subjects of development as subordinate and lacking knowledge; and by not including the subjects' voices and opinions in development policies and practices, a lot of injustice is being done to them. Their voices are silenced.
II
An umbrella cannot stop the rain but it enables us to stand or move in the rain. That type of small umbrella is Mahasveta Devi. Mahasveta Devi is one of the greatest contemporary Indian writers. With many short stories, novels to her credit, she has emerged as a major force to reckon with in the realms of social-political activism and literature. There are very few writers in India who write with more authenticity and commitment. There are few writers in the world who want to be sure of their information and art. To be more authentic in her information she personally visits places, and gathers information.
Mahasveta Devi has a spirited and abled personality. There are six million Adivasis. She has done extensive field work and research in tribal areas of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and then transformed her field work into stories, novels and journalistic writings. Her writings, and her activism, have particular appeal to activist intellectuals, writers, and people with sensitivity and commitment. Every time she writes, her voice and the voice of the tribals become inseparable. One does not know whether a tribal of India is writing a big novel or Mahasveta Devi is writing a novel or a story about the tribals. Mahasveta Devi says,
I see my countrymen without food, water and land, and reeling under debts and bonded labour. Anger, luminous and burning like the sun, directed against a system that cannot free my people from these inhuman constraints is the only source of inspiration for all my writing. All parties, those to the Left and those to the Right alike, have failed to keep their promises to the common people. There is little prospect of any significant change in these things, at least in my life time. Hence I have to go on writing to the best of my ability in defence of the dispossessed and the disinherited, so that I may never have reason to feel ashamed to face myself.1
Mahasveta Devi’s well researched and expounded facts are considered dangerously authentic and real, as the documented inhuman miseries make the readers awestruck. In an interview to Enakshi Chatterjee she said,
All my work, in varying degrees, is based on research.2
She says when independence comes, it is not reflected in the tribal region, leaving the tribals untouched by the historic change that has overtaken the country. Nothing changes for them. Tribal zones exist as ‘islands of slavery’ in the ‘vast ocean of independence’. Opportunities for expansion and growth are offered by the new economic-political scenario, but only to the well-off; they do not Mahasveta Devi’s well researched and expounded facts are considered dangerously authentic and real, as the documented inhuman miseries make the readers awestruck. In an interview to Enakshi Chatterjee she said,
Come the tribals’ way. The questions of land, drinking water, proper wage-payment, education, health-care, as if for them are eternal ones, with no solutions being looked for, and therefore, not in sight.3
Mahasveta writes voluminously as her field word is extensive. She records and articulates with profound understanding the misery and destitution, victories and defeats, suffering and the indomitable spirit of the tribals who have been oppressed and exploited all along.
Mahasveta Devi argues that a radical change in the existing social system is the need of the hour. She also says that even after so many years of independence, she still finds people landless, indebted, starving, and not having minimum needs essential for survival. Even after six decades after independence, the tribals do not know what is independence? She writes,
Ten per cent of the agricultural labourers said that they did not know that India was independent. They thought that the Englishmen had been given a new name, the Indian government. One hundred per cent of them said that they had never heard of the minimum wages for the agricultural labourers.4
Poverty has not been eliminated and the plight of the tribals remained the same in India. The Indian government provided a special Schedule in the Constitution to the tribals not implemented in letter and spirit. She says,
This ocean of money that flows for the removal of poverty among the tribals and the other deprived groups does not show up in the tribal quotas are another hoax, for how many tribal PR officers, computer scientists, oceanographers, and particle physicists have been produced in forty years?5
In her writings, Mahasveta Devi gives a message of hope to the dejected lot. Besides bonded labour, oppression, indebtedness, starvation, she concentrates on forced prostitution, sexual exploitation of women thus focusing on gender politics. Mahasveta says,
They force these young girls to sleep with the owners, the supervising staff, the truck drivers, khalasis and local mastans. Anyone who refuses to co-operate is first locked up in a room, beaten and then seared with a hot iron. It is usual to make a girl drink heavily and then send her for the master’s pleasure.6
Mahasveta Devi is a writer with purpose. She wants that the purpose should be made known to the public and justice denied to them must be restored to them. That is her ambition. In her own words,
To build it you must love beyond reason for a long time. For a few thousand years we haven’t loved them, respected them. Where is the time now, at the last gasp of the century? Parallel ways, their world and our world are different, we have never had a real exchange with hem, it could have enriched us.7
Mahasveta has a single-minded mission in her life. She strives for the emanicipation of the tribals from the clutches of oppressive forces. Behind every line of hers, there is irony and pathos born out of her interaction with the tribals. Mahasveta writes,
And when independence comes, it is not reflected in the tribal region, leaving the tribals untouched by the historic change that has overtaken the country. Nothing changes for them. Tribal zones exist as ‘islands of slavery’ in the ‘vast ocean of independence’. Opportunities for expansion and growth are offered by the new economic-political scenario, but only to the well-off; they do not come the tribals’ way. The questions of land, drinking water, proper wage-payment, education, health-care, as if for them are eternal ones, with no solutions being looked for, and therefore, not in sight.8
Their innocence, lack of knowledge of the world, illiteracy, orthodoxy, are investment to others. They have to go for miles even for small benefits. They cannot fight. If they fight Mahasveta says,
Who else was there to lend them paddy and money during the lean months? Who was there to support them if they ever demanded the minimum wages fixed by the government? You, Officer-babu? There was none to stand by them. None, none, there was none.9
One aspect of subaltern is Dalits.
Created Crimes On Dalits:
Mahasveta Devi published a series of articles about the tribals ( Lodhas, Kheria Shabars of Purulia ) in the Economic and Political Weekly focusing on the sub-human level of existence they had been reduced to.
Those tribals were killed for petty offences – real or imaginary. These articles made the plight of the poor tribals known to the world. The government too started thinking in different way. Till these articles are published, even the government was in the dark about such incidents. Mahasveta says,
I say, there is crime all over the state of Bihar. All over India. All over the world. Do these tribes commit all these crimes? They are your easy victims, they are your prey, and you hunt them. The system hunts them. And wants to brand them. The system which hunts them and uses them as target is the criminal.10
Mahasveta Devi realized that there is nobody who bothers about the tribals. Nobody to guide them properly towards what is right and what is wrong. If proper attention is given and guidance is shown to the tribals, there would have been improvement in their lives. She feels it her duty to tell the world the miserable living conditions of the tribals. So she says,
Wherever there is exploitation, I report it immediately. I write directly to the pertinent ministerial department. I send a copy to the area, they make a mass-signature effort and go to the local authority. Each minister has one or two hundred of my letters. I think a creative writer should have a social conscience. I have a duty toward society. Yet I don’t really know why I do these things. This sense of duty is an obsession, and I must remain accountable to myself. I ask myself this question a thousand times: have I done what I could have done?11
Mahasveta explains how the innocence and poverty of the tribals is exploited. She writes,
They have apparently abolished the bonded labour system. But the bonded labour system is no longer confined to the agricultural sector. …….Women after or before marriage are taken away when husband or father has borrowed money from the money-lending upper caste. They are taken straight to brothels in the big cities to work out that sum. And the sum is never repaid because the account is calculated on compound interest.12
CASE STUDY
The coolie jhopris are within the towns and cities, yet the tribals stay imprisoned there, closely guarded by the musclemen of the owners. Theirs is a medieval existence far beyond the reach of statutory labour law benefits and democratic rights.. 13
Grievances in General:
Dalits faced religious, occupational and even, territorial discrimination. They were traditionally excluded from receiving education, using public resources, and had no rights to own land
The situation of Dalits especially before 1951 can best be explained by a patron-client dependency in which landed patrons (high-caste households) provided them with access to small pieces of land and other basic requirements for subsistence living and in return to that, they are bound to provide their services to their patron.
Traditional religious justification combined with poverty and landlessness substantially contributes to social ostracism of Dalits. This religious injustice has made them to convert into other religions. During Muslims rule into Islam and during the British rule into Christianity. After independence Dr. Ambedkar and his followers took Buddhism. Their main pleading is to treat them as human beings.
With the establishment of democracy, in 1956, after the abolition of Zamindari system, dalits’ movement gained momentum. Dalits organizations demand land reform and want the share of land to be in proportion to their population size and to get equal access to good quality land. It is because for hundreds of years they have been the tillers and the fruits are enjoyed by others.
Grievances in Agriculture:-
Land-to-the-tiller has become a common feature for fighting. Even after independence, where our own people are ruling, still for everything they have to fight.
Caste discrimination, though outlawed now, still has impacts on the distribution of economic resources such as land.
Inequality in asset holding along with labor market discrimination, especially in regular off-farm employment, may have efficiency implications because market imperfections are the common feature in rural areas.
Low-caste households have lower land endowment, poor access to skilled off-farm
employment, and are more likely to rent in additional land and work as agricultural labourers.
Land productivity is higher on the land operated by low-caste households as
compared to high-caste households as they put heart and soul in their work. But by the time they go to sell their produce in the market, the rates go down.
Low-caste households are rationed in the land rental market restricting their access to land. They are thrown to a part of outskirts of village.
There is an inverse relationship between land productivity and farm size caused by
caste discrimination, causing low-caste households to face high transaction costs in labor
and land rental markets.
Low-caste households are too poor to invest on their land. They have land but not seed, fertilisers, buffalos, ploughs etc.
Grievances in Education:
Day by day the cost of education is on the rise. Education is privatized and commercialized. Attendance in Govt. schools is going down. The Govt. is planning to close down the schools. So the downtrodden will not have minimum education.
Secondly those teachers who are posted to remote areas where these people are more, do not go to schools. Even if they go, they once in a while and sign for all the days, get their salaries.
Thirdly minimum amenities are not available even if there is strength in the schools. They say that it is due to lack of funds.
Second aspect of subalternism is marginalisation.
The homeless are often viewed as marginalized from "mainstream" society. In sociology, marginalisation is the social process of becoming or being made marginal or relegated to the fringe of society e.g.;
"the marginalization of the underclass", "marginalisation of intellect", etc. "The marginal man...is one whom fate has condemned to live in two societies and in two, not merely different but antagonistic cultures....his mind is the crucible in which two different and refractory cultures may be said to melt and, either wholly or in part, fuse."
Another example of individual marginalization is the exclusion of individuals with disabilities from the labor force. An employer's viewpoint about hiring individuals living with disabilities as jeopardizing productivity, increasing the rate of absenteeism, and creating more accidents in the workplace. Employer concerns about the excessively high cost of accommodating people with disabilities. The marginalization of individuals with disabilities is prevalent today, despite the legislation intended to prevent it in most western countries, and the academic achievements, skills and training of many disabled people.
The worker must begin to understand oppression and marginalization as a systemic problem, not the fault of the individual. The worker should recognize the individual as political in the process of becoming a valuable member of society and the structural factors that contribute to oppression and marginalization.
Third aspect of subalternism is negligent look on the minorities.
Unequal opportunities for political participation and frequently lack adequate employment and income generating opportunities, social and financial capital, and basic social services. Women are also commonly discriminated against with respect to ownership and inheritance of property. In situations of armed conflict, the vulnerability of women to exploitation and abuse is greatly increased and minority women are often disproportionately affected. For this reason, a gender perspective is of particular relevance while addressing the situation of minorities in a given country, including in their own communities.
Fourth aspect of subalternism is child labour.
Children are the future citizens of this country. They are employed everywhere and their future is taken away. They are condemned education. They are ill-treated. They are to be educated. They are to be treated as human beings though they are asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children. We all should remember that there will be this nation even after our departure.
CONCLUSION
Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Bose, like leaders fought against the British, hoping that if India would get independence we could rule ourselves in a systematic way. The Government which should play the role of parents failed to meet the needs of its own children. It is doing business with its own children. Everything is commoditized. How can a common man, weak in nature, ignorant of the fast changing norms of the world, illiterate, courage less, etc., can compete with highly educated, well trained, systematic looting etc., of the urban people.
The Government which was promulgating welfare policies, implementing welfare economics, ended with Smt. Indira Gandhi. Whoever came after her started liberalization, globalisation, market economics etc. Maximum percentage of the downtrodden people remained in poverty.
It is high time to the government to see that things are implemented to meet the requirements of those fateless people not as an individual but on the whole.
If there are uplifted families, privileges should be cut to them and the chance should be given to others who need such governments’ help.
Dr. Ambedkar thought that if one generation is provided with all the amenities of life, it becomes the responsibility of that generation to uplift the next coming generation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2. CITATION for Mahasveta Devi. Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies Manila, Philippines [Internet]1
3. CITATION for Mahasveta Devi. Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies Manila, Philippines [internet]1
4. [CITATION for Mahasveta Devi. Internet Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies Manila, Philippines]1
5. Devi, Mahasveta. “Untapped Resources”, Seminar, literature and Society 359 [July, 1998]19
6. Sen Nivedita & Yadav Nikhil. Mahasweta Devi, An Anthology of Recent Criticism, [Pencraft International, New Delhi] 6
7. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Imaginary Maps(Calcutta: Thema, 1993) 197
8. Arya, Sachi. Tribal Activism – Voices of Protest [Rawat Publications, Jaipur 1998]102
9. Devi, Mahasveta Bashai Tudu Translated from Bengali by Samik Bandyhopad hyay and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, [THEMA, Calcutta 1990]64
10. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Imaginary Maps(Calcutta: Thema, 1993) x
11. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty . Imaginary Maps(Calcutta: Tema, 1993) ix
12. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Imaginary Maps(Calcutta: Thema, 1993) xii
13. Devi, Mahasveta. Land Alienation among Tribals in West Bengal, dust on the road (Seagull, Calcutta, 1997) 34
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