• Dr Debopam Raha

Abstract: Mahasweta Devi’s fictional works focus on the Tribal communities within the nation-state that is actually excluded from the socio-political-economic activities of the nation. These communities, completely deprived of all the human rights, are pushed to the conditions of faceless anonymity by the so-called mainstream nation, which either rejects their existence or affixes derogatory links to them. The present paper will be a re-reading of a few stories written by Mahasweta Devi, (e.g. The Hunt and Douloti, the Bountiful) translated into English by Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak, from the perspective of human rights and the issues related to it, including development, particularly in the context of the tribal people of India. The study would evaluate the issues relating to human rights from social, cultural, political, economic and ethical standpoint. Mahasweta Devi, the champion of Human and Civil rights, condemns the inhuman, barbaric, anti-democratic value-system of the establishment of Independent India that continues the colonial legacy of treating hundreds and thousands of subaltern people as born criminals. Her tales try to overturn the subtle political processes of the Indian nation-state that alienates the subaltern from the mainstream nation. She shows, in these stories of varying length, like most of her other fictional works, how almost all the rights, of the tribal people in India, as recognised by The International Bill of Human Rights, are grossly violated in the name of development. It is actually the development with targeted beneficiaries of people who are close to the establishment, at the cost of the rights of the tribals.

Keywords: Development, Human rights, nation-state, Mahasweta Devi, mainstream, subaltern, tribal.

"Human Rights and Mahashweta Devi: A Study of her Short Stories ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.1009-1012, June-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907S61.pdf

"Human Rights and Mahashweta Devi: A Study of her Short Stories ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp1009-1012, June-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907S61.pdf