The theme of subalternity in mahasweta devis Rudali

Mahaswetha Devi was born in 1926 in Dhaka, in a privileged middle-class

Bengali family. She is an extraordinary woman who has written and fought for
the marginalized tirelessly for the past six decades. she is a culmination of an
activist and a writer working for the betterment of subaltern in her own way of
protesting against the atrocities on down trodden by the main stream society.
Mahaswetha Devis literary oeuvre comprises stories around contemporary
social and political realities, a majority of which span a reasonably free time
range in independent India, and are located in fictitious or real. It has been the
point of argument and debate that only a Dalit writer can well understand the
afflictions of the Dalit community in which he or she is living. But Mahasweta
Devi presents a different story because despite being a non-dalit, she can very
well capture the essence of Dalit experience. So this writer with a humane
approach has proved the aforesaid notion wrong. All her short stories and novels
bear the testimony to the fact that she is the true representative of the voice of
the subalterns. All the major characters of her works
like Jashoda, Draupadi, Dhowli, Doulati, Gangor present a vulnerable picture of
the gendered subaltern and sometimes the human condition shown in these
literary works presents a very gloomy and cursed picture of the female Dalit
charac- ters. One of her short stories Douloti the Bountiful sums up the plight
of all the subaltern women who are sexually and economically exploited
Doulati is all over India
Rudali by Mahaswetha Devi is a powerful indictment of the socio-
economic system in India. It also comes as an attack on vestiges of feudalism in
rural India. It is ironical that in India, woman is regarded as a representation of
Goddess yet she is exploited and marginalized by the upper classes. Rudali
records the transformation of Sanichari and her empowerment. Sanichari, the
principal character on whom the story concords around is a ganju woman. she is
the representative of the gendered subaltern, the subject who is both low caste
and woman at the
same time. The life of sanichari is used by the writer as metonymy to represent
the life of community altogether which at the same time the reality in Indian
villages. Economical and social status of an individual depends on the caste and
family they are born in. They have their own limitations and are forced to abide
by the rules and regulation of the village
In Rudali she portrays the low cast women as victim and as a potentially
subversive agent in the phallogocentric brahmanical patriarchy and its values
sphere and epistemology. The de-sentimentalized and detached narrative of the
novel presents the hopeless predicament of sanichari and fellow low caste
women in a north Indian village of brahmanic verna and caste patriarchy in the
later half of the twentieth century the news between caste, phallocentrism and
feudalism is the hegemonic structure in this typical rural north Indian village,
that shockingly breaks the stereotypes and the romanticized images of the
village. Sanichari was a ganju by caste like the other villagers her life too was
lived in desperate poverty. Mahaswetha Devi with the help of the life of sanichari
makes the reader to get an idea of the picture of the whole community. How the
upper class Brahmins dominate the life of lower class people of the community.
The desperate poverty suffered by them makes sanichari as well as the
subalterns who are dominated by the ruling elite in every every aspect of their
life. Even her psychological aspect of grief is dominated by the upper class in the
modes of religion and rituals. Sanichari didnt cry when her mother-in- law died,
as her husband and brother- in-law were away in jail; the most important thing to
her at that night is to cremate her mother-in-law before dawn keeps her away of
wailing. Ramavatar Singhs callous nature is revealed in the very beginning of
the short story, as he locks up all the ganjus and dhushads for a meager loss of
wheat. It was a threat to the community altogether that they will be thrown out
of the village.
The same psychological subalternity keeps recurring in her life with the death of
her brother-in-law and his wife. Sanichari is afraid of religious rituals and
ceremonials to be under taken after their
cremation. This resists her to control her grief. Death becomes relief to sanichari
as at least their own stomachs would be full. Subaltern view of survival is
prevailing in every scene of the story. The most disastrous thing happens after
this which is the death of her own husband, her responsibility to bring up her son
and the religious rituals to be offer persists her stone heart to remain calm after
her husbands death. In order to appease Mohanlal, she was forced in to debt to
Ramavatar ; she received Rs.20 and put her thumb print on a paper stating that
she would repay Rs50 through bonded labour on his fields over the next five
years.(Rudali p.74,75) Capitalist ideology of dominating the lower class people
with debts is shown when Mahaswetha Devi writes that Ramavatar singh faced a
lot of criticism when he wipes out the debt of sanichari at his uncles death.
Dominant class in the society want the subaltern to work like a cattle.
Through out the story her mind is occupied in finding a way to feed their
stomachs which dominates the sensitive feelings she has. Burning stomach
makes her to find means of feeding it not to find emotional
satisfaction by weeping before the corpse of her family. While hauling sacks of
wheat for Ramavatars son Lachman,Budhua,sanicharis son contracted the
wasting fever and hacking cough of tuberculosis.Though they are aware of the
impending danger by working in Lachman singhs godown,there is no other
means of employment to survive for the subaltern.Sanicharis dream of building
a life around Budhua are harshly thrashed by the death of her son Budhua and
her daughter in laws dispersal from her house makes her to take the
responsibility of bringing up her grandson Horoa.With the child in her arms,she
busied herself cremating Budhua and tending off queries about her daughter-in-
law.
Nor could she cry,she would sit ,stunned;then fell in to exhausted slumber.
(Rudali p.80) With the co-operation given by Dulans wife in bringing up Horoa by
letting him drink milk from Dhatuas wife and sharing means shows the way
subaltern shares the owes of other subaltern.The bondage and relationship
between subalterns in this community is shown better than the ruling elite.
Inorder to survive,the poor and oppressed need the support of the other poor
and oppressed.(Rudali p.82) Horoa when grown up is taken to Lachman singh to
work. Exploitation is hereditary to both the subaltern and the exploiter. Though
corporal punishment is banned,Horoa is kicked and beat by Lachman singh with
his slipper. Brutality and callous nature of ruling elite on subaltern who work for
their meager wages and food is unbearable to Horoas young blood and he flees
away with a music band. While searching for her grandson in a marketplace she
meets her childhood friend Bikhni, who becomes a companion to sanichari. From
then on the story undergoes a transformation where both the friends become
professional Rudalis.Though sanichari was against Rudalis profession in the
beginning, she is forced to become a Rudali because of material constraints.
Subalterns body, mind ,spirit are dominated by the ruling elite. Her tears which
must be used for her emotional satisfaction turn to a commodity to fill her
stomach. Here we need to discuss an interesting character Dulan,a knowledged
subaltern and his perception
towards the social system of the village and his capacity to guide his co-villagers
to find a means of livelihood makes him important in this story.
He empowers and enlightens Sanichari and Bikhni to find an easy means
of employment to feed them using the hypocratic social rituals of elite class,
Sanichari who was resisted to express her grief through out her life for her
familys collapse finally wails ,laments, roars before the corpses of rich man in
the society for her own survival. Subalterns forced grief is used by the ruling
elite to increase the reputation of their own family. slowly they prosper with
Rudali work. As she filled her stomach on chivda and gur,sanichari thought that
perhaps her tears had been reserved for the time when she would have to feed
herself by selling them.(Rudali p.No-93) The death of feudal lord is the for
establishing caste honor and supremacy. They couldnt get time to lament for
their own family members and appoint Rudalis for wailing before them but they
worry about their supremacy on lower castes. Subaltern perception towards their
relationship is, they are busy in finding the keys of dead man instead of
lamenting for his death. Amongst us, when someone dies, we all mourn.
Amongst rich, family members are too busy trying to find the keys to the safe.
they forget all about tears.(Rudali P.No.91) This system is used by Sanichari and
her friend Bikhni to survive. Her fate secludes her once again with the death of
Bikhni.Subaltern is not only dominated by the dominant class but also the nature
and fate deceives her.
With the death of Bikhni she is forced to go to the Tohri market to find co-
rudalis where she accepts her daughter-in-law who became a whore after leaving
home. The author narrating the story of sanichari reveals the life of other women
who succumb to the temptation of becoming whores to malik mahajans to enjoy
the comforts of life when they are young like her daughter-in-law. These
subalterns and their children are thrown away to the whore market when they
become old. Gayathri chakravarthy spivak in her essay A literary representation
of the subaltern writes In the case of class- manipulation, poverty[ is]the fault
of the individuals,not an intrinsic part of a class society;in the case of caste
manipulation,the implicit assumption is the reverse:the Brahmin is systemically
excellent not necessarily so as an individual.(p.352) Subalterns in Rudali silently
bares the brutality of elite class in no way they think of a better world for
themselves.They lead life according to the wish of elite class and struggle for
their survival. Its the malik-mahajans whove turned them into whores,ruined
them, then kicked them out,isnt that so?( Rudali P.no-115) Its the malik-
mahajans whove turned them into whores,ruined them, then kicked them
out,isnt that
so?( Rudali P.no-115) By the end of the story sanichari leads the team of Rudalis
to wail before the corpse of Gambir singh turning more empowered in sustaining
in a dominant society.
Rudali as an Epitome of Caste, Class and Gender Subalternity: Analysis
Mahasweta Devi, documents the economic, social and religious oppression
experienced by the Dalit women in her short fiction Rudali. The women in this
story suffer from the triple oppression that is of caste, class and gender. The text
glorifies the death of the feudal lords to establish their caste supremacy. In the
past, in case of upper-castes, if any of the members die, the dominant
community expressed remorse not over the dead but the fact that his or her
death came as a major blow to their dominance on lower classes: Hai, Chacha!
As long as you were alive, the lower castes never dared raise their heads. For
fear of you the sons of dushads and ganjus never dared attend govt. Schools.
Now who will take care of all these things? (88). The tradition is still preva-lent in
some remote parts of the country.In the text under analysis, the dead man,
Bhairav Singh the chacha was the source of nuisance for the lower caste ganjus
and dushads of the village. His nephew Lachman Singh made every possible
effort to make burial a grand occasion just to show his caste superiority. It is the
Brahmanic patriarchy that snatches the honour of gendered subaltern by making
them wail over the dead body of high caste lords. On this occasion, Sanichari
and Bikhni, for the first time enter the wailing profession that both humiliating
and lucrative not for them but for the whole dalit female community.
This short narrative is the saga of two Dalit women, Sanichari and Bikhni who
adopt the various strategies of survival to emphasize the fact that their problems
are common to their class, caste and gender. Sanichari and Bikhni represent the
whole dalit community around them. Anjum Katyal states The individual is
historicised, not highlighted to the exclusion of context (3).The problems of
Sanichri are perpetuated by the socio-religious set-up and her own poverty
where the
idea of her empowerment seems to be ridiculous and even utopian. The religious
system controls these women through subtle, unreligious methods where empty
rituals provide comforts to the pot-bellied priests and poor are left to fend for
themselves. When Sanicharis mother-in-law dies, she can not even cry because
she was busy in doing empty rituals. Her husband dies of cholera after drinking
the contaminated milk donated to the Shiva idol by the rich. Her son Budhua
dies of tuberculosis while he was working in the fields of Ramavatars son
Lachman Singh. Later she is deserted by her daughter-in-law Parbatia and her
grandson Harao because they can not cope up with the hard conditions. Bikhni,
another Dalit female character shares the same fate like that of
Sanichari and starts living with her in Tahad village. The turning point in their life
comes when Dulan the male member of their community inspires them to take
up the profession of rudalis. Dulan is the symbol of the community support that
is very important to sustain life in the trying circumstances. He helps them in
learning the philosophy of optimism that there is hope against hope even in the
worst circumstances. The strategy of struggle for survival is the main argument
of the writer. When the poor Dalit women, especially Sanichari and Bikhni find no
other way to survive, they opt for the profession of mourning through the able
guidance of Dulan in which they seek their social and economic renaissance.
This commodification of grief turns out to be the blessing in disguise for these
two disgruntled old but bold ladies and hence this profession of wailing has been
enlivened by the duo of Sanichri and Bikhni who put heart and soul in this
otherwise heartless profession. When Bhairav Singh died, his family members
got the chance to show their prestige off. The first performance of Sanichri and
Bikhni as wailors made them famous in the area. They left no stone unturned in
out-performing randis. They wail and sang songs in praise of Bhairav Singh. Their
wailing was so strong and domineering that even the randis had to admit defeat.
It was after Bhairav Singhs funeral that their demand increased and hence it
had become a war of prestige for the rich of the area to invite the duo of Sanichri
and Bikhni as wailors.
This short story also propounds the idea that resistance does not bring any
major changes in the lives of the subalterns and gendered subalterns are all the
more on the periphery. The characters like Sanichari and Bikhni represent all the
dalit women whose pattern of living has been almost the same for a long time. If
there are any changes, they are mere the travesty of human existence. Hence
their evolutionary development does not promise any big-bang reforms in their
lives. The women described in the text Rudali, do not fall in the category of pure
subaltern rather they are the women of vision. However, they can not progress
fast because they are cornered by multiple forms of oppression. Although India is
the fourth biggest economy of the world, but the distribution of resources is not
equally distributed. It is ironical that a handful of dalit women compete for top
posts in the executive and political arena while others fight for bare survival.
In twenty first century India, women have come out of their stereotypical images
but as far as the dalit women of back-ward areas are concerned they live in an
unjust world order who still lag behind because of the dominant factors of caste
and gender that have always been instrumental in impeding their progress.
Sanichari and Bikhni take the extreme steps of doing the job of rudali for their
bare survival that can be termed as the travesty of human existence. These two
characters can be clubbed in the category of Jashoda who figures in the short
story The Breast Giver, who for her survival though belonging to a Brahmin
family takes the extreme step of breastfeeding the children of the Haider family.
She conceives every year so that she may breastfeed the children of the Haider
family. For women like these Considerations of the stomach are more important
than anything else
The author devotes much of the text to trace their evolution into a professional
team of wailers. Sanichri joins the profession after a lot of mental debate
whereas Bikhni feels no qualms about joining this lucrative profession. It is Dulan
who helps them in becoming rudalis but Sanichri raises
some doubts about the adaptability and respectability of this promising
profession. She demurs Wont there be talk in the village (92). Bikhni seems to
have adopted this profession more ardently and religiously because it is she who
brings news of the death of some rich landlord or Mahajan. They also dont feel
shy in striking the bargain and their presence can be felt on all the occasions.
Dulan acted as a true mentor to Sanichri even after Bikhnis death. He pleaded
like a
lawyer and exhorted her not to give up her profession at any cost. He states
...Your profession of funeral wailing is like your land. (114). He even exhorts
Sanichri to bring back her daughter-in-law in the business of wailing, who is a
prostitute at the Tohri village but Sanichri frowns at the idea. He has the firm
belief that the abstract words like fate have nothing to do with the sad state of
affairs of Sanichri and Bikhni.So it wont be wrong to comment here that
Sanichari and Bikhni, true matriarchs in patriarchal set-up, try to defy cardboard
stereotypes. They are the women who show more agency and independence and
hence set healthy precedents for others to follow. If there had been no agency in
their lives, it would have been like a war without purpose. So whatever the
circumstances, they become the captains of their own fate, though they know
that there is no hope of social and economic renaissance in their standard of
living, they believe in making an effort to steer themselves to the ever
expanding path of struggle and perseverance without much hope of economic
and social renaissance in their standard of living