SUBALTERN VOICES IN MAHASWETA DEVI’S 'RUDALI' (Pages 131-141) by Ms. Nasreen Noor* and Dr. V. B. Chitra** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Mahasweta Devi’s short fiction ‘Rudali’ is a pathetic tale of ‘Sanichari’, a low-class, low caste (‘ganju’) woman in Tahad village, who, through the various stages of her life gets exploited by the system around her. This paper presents Rudali from the Subaltern perspective. The term ‘Subaltern’, as used by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci refers to any person or group of inferior rank and status, whether because of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or religion. Sanichari could not cry when her mother-in-law died as she was preoccupied by the contingency of arranging a funeral by herself on a day when her husband and her brother-in-law were imprisoned. Her husband too dies of cholera by drinking the stored, stinking milk by which the Shiva idol was bathed. She could not even cry then as the officers in charge of control of communicable diseases dragged her and her son Budhua off and got them inoculated. Sanichari’s abject poverty which always compelled her to think about the ways and means of arranging a funeral coupled with the exploitation of the priests in the name of fulfilling the last rites and rituals, the hectic work as a bonded labour on the field of Ramavatar Singh, the varied forms of suffering made her a stoic. She was made to become immune to pain and pleasure; something of that of ‘stoic’. In a way, she is like Maurya of J.M.Synge’s Riders to the Sea. It is ironical that she, who could not cry over the death of her own family members undertakes the ‘profession’ of a ‘rudali’, a ‘mourner’ who is ‘hired’ and who cries over the death of the rich people as their own family members feel it below their dignity to weep openly in the public. The paper also dwells into the forays of socio-economic and religious systems and the nexus between them. The hypocrisy, litigations, ill-will that is harboured, superstitions, conspiracies, cruelty of the higher classes, the oppressors towards the lower classes, the oppressed are all highlighted. However, Sanichari is not portrayed entirely as a weak, frail woman ready to be subdued though she is ‘marginalised’. She has that indomitable spirit to combat the insistent adversities, the reason for which Anjum Katyal, in the seminal essay, ‘Metamorphosis of Rudali’ compares her to Bertolt Brecht’s’ Mother Courage.’. Key Words: Rudali, Subaltern, Stoic, Marginalised, Metamorphosis