Introspecting The Life of Tribal Women in Mahasweta Devi’s Rudali and The Hunt

ABSTRACT Mahasweta Devi is a distinguished Indian writer and an esteemed activist who worked hard to uplift the tribal communities. She has a deep knowledge of the socio-political condition of India. She is an iconoclast who, in her works focussed on the miserable condition of depressed and neglected classes and tribes. Her different stories and novels shower light on the day to day happenings in the interiors of our nation. She has also talked about the quest for equal rights for each and every individual, especially for females in terms of education, health facilities, employment opportunities and social well-being. The present paper discusses “’Rudali’ and ‘The Hunt’” in the light of atrocities done to the women in their tribes and the racist response given to them. Mahasweta Devi has portrayed the protagonists Sanichari and Mary Oraon, as the representatives of modern women searching for their own identity in the modern society. She presents the pitiable and pathetic condition of tribal women with their sorrows and sufferings and, more importantly, their infuriated inner self, which worked constructively to bring them to the level of mainstream individuals by injecting the sense of respect and appreciation for them.