Introduction
It is this concern that leads Mahasweta Devi to write for the suffering people for not only she tries to justify violence where system fails to keep peace and do justice but also takes up cudgels against the social inequalities. Seeing the indifference of the contemporary writers towards the subalterns she puts on a Nero-like attitude for she is there to set the benchmark for the other writers who don’t have a social conscience and who have failed to perform their duty towards society. For a better understanding of the condition of the poor she even lives with them and this gives her the scope to find out their demands and grievances and all these she puts in her writings and thus she becomes the one in the movement for a better social order and equality in status against the coloured bureaucracy and establishment. She depicts the women subjugation and concurrently the class, caste and gender for she never fails to realise the demands of the situation.
Where Inhumanity Speaks: Water and the Plight of the Marginalised
Mahasweta Devi’s Water is one such play which shows man’s inhumanity to man and like Bayen and Aajir this play also focuses on the rural world. Here the dramatist shows how the class-clashes, utter poverty and exploitation create a hell for the innocent folk living in remote villages. Here apart from the nerve-breaking poverty and oppression, the rising of the subaltern men and women are shown and their sensibility, caring attitude, practicality, rational thinking along with an urge to protest prove that they begin to claim authority for themselves. Maghai Dom, a water-diviner, rises to the occasion and becomes the leader of his subaltern community. Santosh Pujari creates an artificial famine by hoarding the relief funds provided for the underprivileged sections and forbids the untouchables to draw water from public wells.
Way of Protest: When Myth is Satirised
Like Chandidasi in Bayen and Paatan in Aajir, Maghai belongs to a class which is deprived, marginalised, oppressed and kept as outcaste. He is gifted with an extraordinary skill of water divining and takes pride for gaining the secret knowledge from his mythological ancestors. Mahasweta Devi uses the existing myth of Bhagirath to create a new one with her own interpretation and message, making an ironic use of myth to show the plight of the untouchables who are victims of caste-discrimination.
Song of the Unsung: The Subalterns Fight Back
Santosh Pujari, an orthodox Brahmin, makes the life of the rustics miserable by hoarding the relief given by the government and creating artificial famine. He compels the untouchables to obey him and forbids them to draw water from wells. Dhura, Maghai’s son, is outspoken, rebellious and frank, deeply influenced by the Naxalites, and does not hesitate to raise his voice against the inhuman tortures, inequalities and humiliations.
From Margin to the Centre: The Rise of Phulmani
Not only Dhura but his mother Phulmani is also outspoken and aggressive. She takes the lead and represents the women of her community, demanding a well for them. Through Phulmani, Mahasweta Devi wants to break the traditional notion of women. She tries her best to liberate herself from conventional rules laid down by the feudal system.
Towards a Postmodern Ecocentric Approach: Maghai’s Love for River Charsa
Through Maghai, Devi shows not only determination but also her concerns for the Mother Earth and Nature. Maghai shows his love for nature and river Charsa and he somehow tries to assert his voice on behalf of nature. Phulmani says that Charsa is her co-wife, such is the love between Charsa and Maghai.
Voice of the Voiceless: Jiten, Dhura, Maghai and the Policies of Resistance
Jiten is a follower of Gandhi who is moved by seeing the condition of the untouchables. He not only lives with the Domes but also teaches their children and actively fights for their rights. The idea of building a dam across Charsa raises the spirit of Maghai and his people engage themselves to construct the dam. But Santosh brings police force and the subalterns are brutally attacked, with Jiten wounded and Maghai found heavily wounded with blood coming out from his chest.
Conclusion
Water is one such play of Mahasweta Devi where she challenges the very authority of the feudal system in a vivid way. Her Maghai emerges as one such character who not only fights against the establishment but also for his own people and Mother Nature. At the end of the play all these rebels march ahead with their will and self belief and finally embrace death, rather martyrdom, to ascertain their freedom, authority and identity.
Works Cited
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- Devi, Mahasweta. Five Plays. Trans. and Intro. Samik Bandyopadhyay. Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2008. Print.
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- Vanashree. “Hori and the Dynamics of Injustice: Mahasweta Devi’s Water.” Economic and Political Weekly, 45.41 (2010): 65-73. Print.