Tortured bodies, rape, and disposability in Mahasweta Devi’s “Giribala,” “Dhowli” and “Douloti the Bountiful”

Abstract

This article offers a close reading of Mahasweta Devi’s ethnographic reportage in her short narratives “Giribala” and “Dhowli,” in Women, Outcastes, Peasants and Rebels and “Douloti the Bountiful” in Imaginary Maps to show how ecological marginalization, reproductive rape and unequal resource access have depleted Adivasi female reproductive spaces, disposing them to sexualized and commodified sites of exploitative ideological values. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, I argue that Devi’s cultural production provides an ethnographic venue for examining how power relations shape reproduction and reproductive decisions and how women struggle daily to reproduce their livelihoods under local levels of political duress.

Keywords

• ethnic literature
• gender
• adivasi
• tribals
• reproductive justice
• indigenous studies
• ecology
• mahasweta devi
• maria mies
• gayatri spivak