Explained | The context and import of Mahasweta Devi’s ‘Draupadi’
The Hindu
Powerful short story has been dropped from syllabus by Delhi University.
One of writer and activist Mahasweta Devi’s (1926-2016) most widely read books is Hajar Churashir Ma (Mother of 1084), which was adapted for theatre and film. Set in the backdrop of the violent Naxalite movement of 1970s Bengal, the novel begins with a mother waking up to the news that her son is dead and reduced to a number. In Sujata Chatterjee’s quest to understand the revolutionary movement that brutally took her son Brati away, she discovers other things, including her place in the feudal world. Devi set a short story too around the movement, Draupadi, which the from the BA (honours) syllabus on August 24. In a retelling of the powerful eponymous character from the Mahabharata, Mahasweta Devi’s Draupadi — or Dopdi as she is called — is a rebel who is cornered by the police trying to put down the forces she represents. “What’s this, a tribal called Dopdi?” asks a security personnel, at the beginning of the story. “The list of names I brought has nothing like it! How can anyone have an unlisted name?” The second officer responds: “Draupadi Mejhen. Born the year her mother threshed rice at Surja Sahu’s at Bakuli. Surja Sahu’s wife gave her the name.”More Related News