Resurrecting Subaltern through Female Body-In Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi”

Abstract

Indian literature is abundant in the projection of consignment of women’s servitude and inhuman treatment of men. It raises the voice of resistance against patriarchal oppression in society in order to emancipate women with dignity and identity. It also focuses in the reconstruction of womanhood which emphasizes on the reordering of social and family relationship with financial undependability of women. Mahasweta Devi’s text makes great areas of feminist research and also involves with the lives and struggles of the unprivileged tribal women. The present paper aims to analyze the contours of Mahasweta Devi’s short story “Draupadi” where a tribal woman Draupadi is subjected to third degree in sexual violence. Mahasweta Devi alleges that women should be judged from the point of view of a human and not from the point of view of gender, race, caste and class She portrays the true face of feminist assertion where Draupadi use her wholeness of mind and body to fight against her marginalized identity.