Mahasweta Devi's Mother of 1084: The Traumatic Journey of a Mother in Search of Self-Identity

Abstract

Many writers in post-colonial India come forward with an aim to represent the oppressed in their writings. Arundhuti Roy, Shobha Dey, Amitava Ghosh, Bharati Mukherjee and many others tried their hands in different way to uplift the marginalized people. But it is only Mahasweta Devi who becomes successfully able to write the subaltern history from below by enabling them to articulate strong voice proper to an alternative history where the true documents of their suffering, deprivation and humiliation are inscribed with a hint to fight back. Mahasweta Devi’s Mother of 1084 (1974) was one of such rare documents which would not only retrieve political history of the period but also reconstruct the true identity of a mother, a wife, Sujata in contemporary patriarchal society. This article will intend to unveil the iron curtain of disguised history written by the institutionalized Organization along with construction of self-identity of a bereaved mother, Sujata through her traumatic journey from ignorance to experience of reality.