Subaltern Agency and resistance in Mahasweta Devi's The Queen of Jhansi and Mother of 1084

Abstract

This research examines struggle and resistance of subaltern people in hegemonized Indian society during colonial era and the historical Naxalite breakthrough of Bengal during 1960s through 1970s. The subaltern people allow them to attain their autonomy and identity via agency to resist through consciousness. This study examines why and how Mahasweta Devi’s characters Lakshmibai, Sujata and Brati undergo active internalization of consciousness as a catalyst to subaltern agency, and Devi portrays such experiences of characters in her novels The Queen of Jhansi (1956) and Mother of 1084 (1974) respectively. As a researcher, I have employed the theoretical perspectives of gender subaltern of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak amd resistance paradigm of Michael Garnett. By experiencing subaltern consciousness- an awareness of hegemonic experience in terms of gender, class, caste, and age or in any other ways, the characters acquire the agency to oppose injustice. They preserve their identity and dignity while establishing their own agency. Devi's Mother of 1084 (1974) and The Queen of Jhansi (1956) depict the protagonists Lakshmibai, Sujata, and her son Brati as the subaltern characters resisting against imperial hegemony, , gender and caste based exploitation and discrimination in the contemporary society. Through the protagonist's awareness from a state of powerlessness to an empowered quest for agency and autonomy dismantles the notion that the subalterns cannot speak. Keywords: Subaltern, subaltern consciousness, Resistance, Agency