• DR PRIYANKA SHARMA

Mahasweta Devi, an astounding literary figure, worked hard for the upliftment of the tribals by projecting their glorious culture to the world. She dedicated her entire life for the welfare of tribals. Her works i.e. Chhoti Munda and His Arrow, Aranyar Adhikar, Mother 1084, The Queen of Jhansi, The Fire Within, and Prothom Path are the reflection of tribal people’s culture, their history and identity. Her fictional oeuvre attempts to overthrow the domination of mainstream society’s biased history writings and filled the gaps and absences which are the symbols of marginalization of tribals. Ranajit Guha precisely states, “History of Indian nationalism is a sort of spiritual biography of the Indian elite.” He opined that the history written by the mainstream society’s people is prejudiced as it failed to depict the struggle of tribal as well as other subaltern people These tribal societies were usually groups of people who had kinship bonds. These tribes were mostly involved in primary activities related to agriculture or animal husbandry. Some of them are also hunter-gatherers. Out of these tribal societies few tribes were also Nomadic. This meant that these tribes or groups of people move from one place to another and search for livelihood or other reasons. The settled tribal groups on the other hand had land and animals which they owned jointly as a tribe. The Tribe leader divided the animals and lands according to the needs and requirements of his people. These tribes were spread all across the country. Most of the tribes lived in forest Hills desert and far-fetched places. There are even shreds of evidence of tribal clashes amongst themselves as well as societies of other religions. The tribes continue to keep their freedom and culture separate from the rest of us. On one hand, they kept their societies separate from us but on the other hand, they were also dependent on us for their needs. We also traded in many handmade articles and wares from them. This led to a gradual change in both societies. Mahasweta’s narratives thus define the various socio-historic-political hegemonic structures that led to the tribals’ status as a marginalized class in all its discursive plurality. As Kumkum Yadav observes, Mahasweta’s concern is not just with setting the political and historical record straight, but also with “the human predicament involved”. (Narratives on Tribals in India 59) Her first published novel, The Queen of Jhansi, was about a royal queen and high caste widow who joins the ranks of “the other side of the people” as she displayed the courage to take on the powerful British army in defence of her kingdom and people. Characters like Maghai Dom in “Water”, Patan in “Ajir” or Dulan Ganju in “Seeds” are all characters from the lower castes who suffer the double yoke of class and caste exploitation. Women, for her, are an exploited class in themselves and the boundaries of caste and tribe often appear irrelevant in the larger picture of classexploitation portrayed in Mahasweta’s women-centric stories like “Rudali”, “Bayen”, “Jamunabati’s Mother”, “Dhouli”, “Sanichari”, “Statue”, “The Fairytale of Mohanpur” etc. In one of her most popular stories, “The Breast-Giver”, the protagonist Jasoda belongs to the Brahmin caste, but is exploited in the name of both class and gender. Her definition of the category of class therefore, brings into its ambit the concerns of all people oppressed on the basis of class, tribe, caste or gender. Even as she presents the realistic picture of the tribals’ economic and political marginalization within the larger discourse of class-exploitation, she shows the tribal negotiating with this marginalization and resisting it through the agency of their own unique ethnic cultural discourse. She adopts the innovative narrative techniques to weave the tribal’s story in their own voice, taking recourse to the various narrative strategies of story. Refrences:- 1-The Tribal Way of Life-Subha Rao 2-A Day in The Life of A Tribal- Venktesh Bhayya 3-Tribal Life in India-Harish Babu 4-Tribal Life in india: Defining, Structure & Other Details- Puja Mandal. 5-SIGNIFICANCE OF MAHASWETA DEVI'S LITERARY WORKS IN TRIBAL HISTORIOGRAPHY- Mr. Vaibhav D Masram 6-Devi,Mahasweta.The Book of the Hunter.trans.Sagaree 7-Inscribing Tribe and Class: Intersections in Mahasweta Devi’s Selected Works By Dr. Bindu Nair, 8-Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications Dr. Priyanka Sharma Assistant Professor (English) Govt. P.G. College Laxmangarh (Sikar) Raj.

"MAHASWETA DEVI’S LITERARY WORKS FOR TRIBAL HISTORIOGRAPHY", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 9, page no.a608-a611, September-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2209064.pdf

"MAHASWETA DEVI’S LITERARY WORKS FOR TRIBAL HISTORIOGRAPHY", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 9, page no. ppa608-a611, September-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2209064.pdf