The Subaltern Speaks: Truth and Ethics in Mahasweta Devi's Fiction in Tribals

A study and postmodern critique of Mahasweta Devi’s major fictional writings on tribals, The Subaltern Speaks addresses some primary concerns of Subaltern Studies historians and explores the representation of tribal people as ‘subaltern’. Adivasis today are caught between an aggressive and seemingly benevolent version of capitalism, although the lines between the two have increasingly blurred. British India created formal property rights to replace customary ones; neoliberal India chased them off their land in pursuit of development, dubbed them ‘terrorists’ and unleashed the army’s might against them. Adivasis have only seemed to appear in recorded history when resisting the state, and their ‘consciousness’ has been reduced to this identity along with their politics.