1. Mahasweta Devi b. 1926 Writer, journalist and activist

2. The storyteller

3. Writing from the margins Narrating the stories of the most downcast sections of Indian society, the subalterns--Among the most marginalised, along with dalits/lower castes (former untouchables) Tribals/adivasis in India: 8% of India’s population Considered outside the caste structure and social mainstream; political marginalization (in spite of affirmative action) Long history from the colonial period: both exotic and savage, unassimilable—British fascination Postcolonial India: attempts to assimilate them in the nation, while prejudices remain

4. “The Hunt” Social composition: A village of subalterns—tribal, in an impoverished ravaged area of timber plantations “outsiders” luring tribals into wage labour traces of imperial capitalism: white contractors, the Dixons national capitalism: in the name of development and progress, agricultural land converted for surplus profit; dams displacing people; profound ecological catastrophes local, national and global articulated

5. The gendered subaltern Mary as gendered subaltern: doesn’t quite fit the mould Mixed blood, in love with a Muslim A “free” agent: stereotype and reality of tribal women’s lives Mary’s will and agency is the question “an individual activating ritual into contemporary resistance” (Spivak in Afterword, 202) the community of women: songs—retaining memories of struggles and calamities the question of justice: gender justice Exhaustion of the possibility of justice from the state (police and the law in liberal democracies) Tremendous social violence: Mary herself the product of violence, sexually coded; postcolonial state violence

6. “Douloti” (the rich one) Set on the eve of the Naxalite movement Naxalism: a Maoist movement that was sparked off in the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal in the late 1960s. A militant peasant movement consisting of landless farmers, tribals, urban rebels, cadre Maoists that aims to overthrow the state. Peasant/tribal rebellion against landlords, moneylenders, police, state, all exploiters.

7. Role of intellectuals Role of intellectuals: “the bespectacled town gentlemen will never understand these things” (R. p. 27) Limits of sociological/disciplinary knowledge (p. 49 bottom) Narrative of rescue: p. 75 Read Arundhati Roy, “Walking with the Comrades” for an elite intellectual’s alliance with the Maoists

8. Limits of solidarity

9. The nation: real and imagined Indian nation: imaginary, unreal The state: corrupt, instrument of elites; the diseased body politic Last para: Douloti/India Abstract citizenship versus the body of the citizen Question of who decolonizes? Gendering as the foundation of postcolonial exploitation (Spivak)—exchange of women as merchandise

10. Violence of all types Douloti the innocent victim: “the violated, naked harijan woman’s helpless body” (58): re-enacting the daily social violence enacted on the bodies of subaltern women Sexual labour:bonded labour:wage labour

11. Draupadi/Dopdi Draupadi Character from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata Married to the Pandavas (5 brothers) who stake her in a game of dice and lose her The opponents try to dishonour her by disrobing her in open court Her devotion to Lord Krishna saves her honour— it remains intact Dopdi Modern tribal woman, a militant The postcolonial state attempts to dishonour her— she is raped multiple times by policemen and state officials Dopdi reverses the stakes of the game—in looking back at the officer, she redirects shame in his direction, away from her mutilated body

12. The story continues…

13. Women insurgents