The Tone of Subaltern in Selected Stories of Mahasweta Devi

Mahasweta Devi was a discriminate writer in Bengali language. She was born on 14 January 1926 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her father was a remarkable poet and novelist whereas her mother was a writer and social worker. Mahasweta Devi showed her interest in social and political activity in an early age. She was graduated from Santiniketan in  1946  later  she  did  her  Masters  in  English  from  Santiniketan  in 1967.  Devi’s  work  represents  two  hundred  years  struggle  of  tribal people for human dignity is seen through her various fiction and non- fictional  works.  Her  works  such  fiction,  essays,  plays,  Journalistic writings showed the themes of caste inequalities, class contradictions, and  gender  discrimination.  Mahasweta  Devi  writes  in  The  Hindu “There is so much unrest in India because so many millions below the poverty line, including the tribal have been cruelly neglected”. The  term  subaltern  was  first  used  by  an  Italian  essential  thinker, Antonio  Gramsci.  The  word  subaltern  means  the  groups  who  are subjected to the domination of the ruling classes. They do not have political power and therefore no voice. “The only subalterns of this country  are  the  tribals.  (G.  N.  Devy  )  The  word  was  taken  up  by postcolonial studies from the subaltern studies group of histories who discussed to promote a subaltern themes in  South Asian studies.  The group consists of  Ranajit Guha and  Shaheed Amin, David Arnold, Partha Chatterjee, David Hardiman and Gyan Pandey.