Power, Resistance, and Subaltern Voices in Mahasweta Devi’s Short Stories

Abstract

This paper examines the interrelated dynamics of power, resistance, and subaltern voices in the short stories of Mahasweta Devi, foregrounding her literary engagement with marginalised communities, particularly tribal, Dalit, and oppressed women subjects. Drawing on postcolonial, subaltern, and feminist theoretical frameworks, the study analyses how institutional power—manifested through the state, feudal authority, capitalism, and patriarchy—systematically produces exploitation, silencing, and dispossession. At the same time, the paper argues that Mahasweta Devi redefines resistance not merely as organised revolt but as everyday acts of defiance, bodily assertion, silence, and survival. Through stark realism, testimonial narration, and the strategic use of indigenous cultural idioms, her short stories function as counter-histories that challenge dominant narratives of nation, progress, and development. The study highlights how subaltern voices in her fiction are not passively represented but actively articulated, transforming literature into a space of ethical witnessing and political intervention within postcolonial Indian society.