Voices of the Marginal: Comparative Analysis of Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi” and Asit Rai’s Yantrana

Abstract

Postcolonialism has ushered in creating possibilities to locate the voices of the marginalized. In this light Mahasweta Devi is one of the prolific writers who has championed the cause of the suppressed and the marginalized sections of the society. Her works seek to rewrite and represent their history and reality as they are the ones who actually contribute towards history writing. “Draupadi” (1981) is about individual courage, determination and resilience. The protagonist of the story cuts across class, caste and gender barriers and protests against the brutality of state-sponsored violence, atrocity and inhumanity. She breaks the shackles of confinement of patriarchy and state-aided cruelty as it specifically decides the punishment for her because she is an ‘insurgent’, ‘culprit’ and above all a woman. Similar echoes are found in a Nepali novel Yantrana (1980) by Asit Rai. It brings out the plight and torture of Chandrabahadur, a tea garden worker, who dares to speak against the inhuman system of the ‘maliks’ who have usurped all the power to keep the workers subordinated. It is about his fight against the inhuman treatment and management in the tea garden. The plantation system in the tea garden on the other hand has the indirect support of the government to crush any voice of dissent and discord. Both in Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi” and Asit Rai’s Yantrana the marginalized voices spring out of the intended and extended exclusion and suppression.