In Mary Oraon, protagonist in Mahasweta Devi’s ‘The Hunt,’ we find the concrete alternative to capably resist not only the injustice of gender politics but also the incursion upon tribal land and forests by feudalism, colonialism, and global capitalism.
There is a reason why Australia figures in the story. Mary and the trees planted on her tribal land are both products of Australian colonization in her region. The powerful land developer has not only transgressed into female dignity as a symbol of gender patriarchy, but also transgressed into tribal patrimony as a symbol of colonial patriarchy.
Mary’s act of killing her ardent suitor and sexual harasser, a wealthy developer from the city, is a clear statement of killing both patriarchies that are totally corrupt. Deforestation is no less different from the stripping away of human dignity and honor. Just as the wealthy developer has no right to cut down the trees in the forest for the sake of a sizable profit, so does he not have the right to cutting down the dignity of a woman. Both are social and ethical transgressions.
The writer Mahasweta Devi, as Mary Oraon, sends out a powerful statement that women are capable of actualizing the reversal of fortune in a colonial world. Devi empowers the woman who is a definitive marginalized minority in India. India is a painfully patriarchal society. It also comes complete with clear social divisions where women are a presumed inferior group to males. ‘The Hunt’ is Devi’s tool to tell the readers of the world that women do not take it sitting down when oppressed, as much as tribal societies do not tolerate the incursion of outsiders and landgrabbers into their territory.
Devi’s ‘The Hunt’ is an accurate perspective on the modernity that has been sweeping the entirety of India. Global multinational capitalism, aided by a corrupt national bureaucracy, is gaining ground in India. Devi comes from West Bengal whose remote areas have been attractive to foreign capitalists who wave the seemingly attractive flag of development.
Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal are two impoverished places that have been hotbeds of revolts. Farmers have been repelling the incursion of corporate mafias who are actually grabbing land from the peasants for the sake of establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs), known locations of global capitalism and globalization. Violent attacks have been unleashed in the rural hinterlands of West Bengal, Devi’s provincial state, to neutralize the farmers. These attacks have been undertaken by the police and local hoodlums hired to kill the peasants. West Bengal is a showcase of the uglier facet of globalization. Devi knows this.
“Shining India” is shining no more. But if Devi the political activist would have her way, the evil giants of colonization, bureaucracy, corruption, capitalism, and globalization can very well be targets of revolution. These evils have continued to plague the Indian subcontinent for decades. It will take capable resistance to repel the tides of negative change. For Devi, that revolution is not only achievable, it is also possible to be undertaken by the females of society. Men and women alike can reverse their oppression.
The hunt is on.
Via SINHAS
