Cultural Inheritance and Subjugation in Mahasweta Devi’s Water

Abstract

This paper focuses on the cultural inheritance and the Subjugation of the oppressed in Mahasweta Devi’s play, Water (Jal), which was translated by Samik Bandyopadhyay. Mahasweta Devi, a Bengali writer, was a committed social activist, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and winner of many prestigious awards for her contribution to the field of literature and cultural studies. She has written several novels and short stories in her native language, almost half of which were later translated. Her works are based on the marginalised and the oppressed, projecting her concern for the downtrodden. In the play, the basic consent was denied for a particular group of people which in turn exploded into a rebellion.The use of characters, plot construction and structure paves way for the exploration of the conflict between the oppressor and the oppressed. This paper also focuses on the myth and the agrarian society of the post-colonial India in regard to the play.