Mother courage

Mahasweta Devi is perhaps the most committed among Indian writers today. For a long time now she has taken up the cause of the tribals in Bengal, living and working with them apart from writing fiction and non-fiction about them.

Much of it has been translated into English and other Indian languages. There are, however, other aspects of her writing that have perhaps not been equally publicised, maybe because they have not been translated so far.

In the Name of the Mother is a collection of four stories that take up the theme of motherhood in India, especially in Bengal, and look at it from different angles. Radha Chakravarty has translated the stories and attempted to put them in the context of prevalent notions of motherhood in India and Mahasweta Devi's representations.

According to Chakravarty there is "a deep ambivalence" in her representation. To quote, "While seeking to expose the hypocrisy latent in discourses of maternity, she does not reject the values of love, care and responsibility that are traditionally associated with the maternal role. Instead, she reappropriates these values for her radical project, locating in them a moral 'core' that contains the possibility of female self-empowerment."

Can one be a mother from dusk to dawn and a thakurni, a goddess to be worshipped, for the rest of the time? Incredible, but that is how Jati makes two ends meet and manages to feed her mentally challenged son Sadhan who is physically a fully-grown man.

Her's is the story of a woman who dared to marry outside the tribe and dreamed of a better life. When her husband died, her dreams were shattered but she did not give up. Her metamorphosis into a part-time thakurni took place after a lot of deliberation.

"Jati realised that without donning the armour of the supernatural, she would have nothing to protect her." Empowerment need not always take conventional forms. In a patriarchal society such roles are conveniently thrust on women (as in Satyajit Ray's Devi ), but here it is the woman who takes it on to survive.

While Jati uses her wits to survive, Sindhubala is a simple woman, abandoned by her husband. Since she entered this world feet-first, her feet are considered auspicious and their touch supposed to cure ailments.

So she has to suppress her normal feelings and continue playing a role till she rebels. Ironically, she had been acceptable as a devangshi woman and her refusal to carry on makes everyone cry shame. The message is that a woman is acceptable only as long as she is ready to play a role, to comply with what is expected of her.

The moment she tries to assert herself as an individual everyone condemns her. But Sindhu does not listen to any of them, determined to be her own self and not live a life of self-denial even though it means economic prosperity. A modern reader might wonder why she does not use her enhanced status as an instrument of power, but one should remember that she is basically simple and does not crave for power.

From the woman to the girl child, Chakravarty is to be complimented on the selection of stories that make up this book. Jamunabati and her parents belong to the poorest of the poor, struggling hard to survive in a city where they are expendable.

Ironically, one remembers the political slogan "Garibi Hatao" which many referred to as "Garib Hatao" as slum clusters in Delhi were methodically razed in the name of the beautification of the city.

Being born a girl is bad enough, being born a girl in a poor family is worse. A girl might be sold to pimps by her own father for a few rupees, in the name of marriage, and the writer highlights this ultimate tragedy with sensitivity.

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IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER

Mahasweta Devi
Introduced and translated by Radha Chakravarty
Seagull Books
Price: Rs 275