A Subaltern Study of Mahasweta Devi's Water

The subaltern study gained momentum in the twentieth century. This term was adopted by Antonio Gramsci to refer to the low-rank people of the Soviet Union who suffered from the hegemony of the ruling class. Inspired by Gramsci, a Subaltern Study Group emerged in India in the 1980s. Mahasweta Devi was an Indian writer in Bengali and an activist. She was a renowned woman author who worked for the rights of Adivasi, Dalits, and tribal people (Lodha and Shabar) of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh states of India. Her predominant concern was to mirror the exploitation of tribals, backwaters, Adivasis, bounded labour, sexually tortured women, ill-treated wives. She took the responsibility to represent subaltern history, experience, and voice in an actual way fighting against all the hegemonic socio-political ideologies. The major aim of the play Water is to explore the suffering of the socially, economically, and politically oppressed tribal community. It is a documentary to show how the village govenment, gram panchayat, education System, health, and other public institutions are ensured to maintain class and caste dominance even at the stake of the water problem, drought, poverty, disease, and death of tribals.