Mahasweta Devi was an Indian fiction writer in Bengali and a socio-political activist. She had been honored with literary awards such as Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanpith Award, Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan. Her notable works include Hajar Churasir Maa, Rudali and Aranyer Adhikar. Her specialization lay in the areas of Dalit, Adivasi and Marginalized citizens. She mostly focuses on the state and position of a woman in the society and critiques the patriarchal society.
Draupadi was translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and she was heavily influenced by her writings on behalf of the poor subaltern woman. The themes include patriarchal society, class distinction , oppression against woman, police brutality, power tussle , mythical framework and others. It resembles a subaltern woman who uses her body to resist against the male authority and power.
Devi’s Draupadi uses a female body as a weapon to protest against the police brutality and male dominancy. Devi critiques the police abnoxious behaviour towards the helpless woman who is caught by the officers and was took in charge by Senanayak in participation of the Naxalite Movement. It is a resistance against the oppression towards the Santhals who were fighting for their land rights and Devi shows the body of a female as an act of resistance towards the oppressors where Dopdi fought against the male dominant power with her bare naked body.
However, it is also an attack towards the pseudo masculinity. Devi challenges the pseudo masculine power in the patriarchal society. Dopdi is a tribal woman who was captured by the police officers and she fights back against the male oppressors who raped her where “Her breasts are bitten raw, the nipples torn” and is “brought back to the tent and thrown on the straw”. Devi showcases the turn in the life of Dopdi when she refused to wear her clothes and asked Senanayak “Are you a man?”. This question of Dopdi attacks the pseudo masculinity of Senanayak who shows his masculine power to oppress the body of a woman and the “object of your search” becomes the weapon that challenge his masculinity power when she faces him with her naked body and “stand before “ him.
In addition to this, Devi draws a parallel comparison to the mythical story of “Draupadi” from “ Mahabharata”. The character Draupadi from the story of “Mahabharata” throw insights into the position of Draupadi who was stripped naked in front of her five husbands of Pandavas. She was eventually saved by Lord Krishna in the story. In contrast to it, Devi’s Draupadi is set in a world of reality where it is devoid of any external agency and divine power. Dopdi was helpless and unarmed who was raped and stripped naked and there were no external power to help her. Devi surfaces the lack of divine power to save a woman from the harsh reality of world in contrast to the story from “Mahabharata”.
Moreover, Devi shows a strong contrasting perception where the body of a woman is objectified for pleasure and desire is used as a weapon to strike back at the oppressors. Feminist such as Beauvoir in his book The Second Sex (1949) argues that the woman usually is the object toward which the male subject directs his gaze and his desire and Devi breaks the objectification of a woman through Dopdi who “spit a bloody gob at and says, there isn’t a man here that I should be ashamed. I will not let you put my cloth on me. What more can you do ?”. This statement is bold enough to showcase the object of desire as a source of weapon against the pseudo masculine power.
In addition to this , it also portrays the power tussle between two sexes. Devi depicts a woman who is unarmed and is brutally raped by the armed officers. The use of bare naked body is an attack against the armed institutional power structure who challenged Senanayak to “ Kounter me- come on , kounter me-?”. These words shows the power of a helpless and unarmed woman who is challenging the armed authority with her bare naked body who is “terribly afraid”.
Moreover, Devi is showcasing against the silency of a woman through her naked body. Dopdi’s statement and her language are bold and she resists the submission towards the police officer Senanayak and tells him “What’s the use of clothes? You can strip me, but how can you clothe me again?”. These words of Dopdi portrays the resistance against the male oppression and breaks the silence. Her refusal to wear the clothes and challenging the authority implies her resistance towards the submissive attitude and calls out the oppressor Senanayak for showing his pseudo masculinity towards her.
Lastly, Devi’s delineation of the use of a body can be look as a voice from the lens of a Post Colonialism theory. Spivak in her book Can the Subaltern Speak ? talks bout the oppressed classes and highlights that they cannot represent themselves and need someone to speak for. Draupadi shows that the bare bruised body of Dopdi is the vocal against the double marginalization of the third world individuals. Dopdi belonged to the subaltern category and one can observed the oppression against the third world where the body serves as the medium of voice to protest the brutality of the oppressors where “Draupadi pushes Senanayak with her two mangled breasts, and for the first time Senanayak is afraid to stand before an unarmed target, terribly afraid”.
Thus, in conclusion we can say that Devi showcases a layer of meanings with the use of body as a source of weapon to protest against injustice. The bare naked body of Dopdi challenges and questions the armed power structure of the first world. Further, it vocals against the oppression and serves as a bridge to resist against the suppression of the first world. Hence, it evokes the breaking of the silency of a subaltern woman whose body served as a mediator to voice out to resist the male oppression from the first world.
Mahasweta Devi The Hunt Summary
