HUMAN RIGHTS AND SUBALTERN: A STUDY OF MAHASWETA DEVI’S 'BREAST STORIES' (Pages 01-10) by in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Human rights are moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behavior, and are regularly protected as legal rights in national and international law. They are commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights "to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being," and which are "inherent in all human beings" regardless of their nation, location, language, religion, ethnic origin or any other status. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.—Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In the light of the above declaration, this research paper discusses Mahasweta Devi’s Breast Stories (A collection of three stories – Draupadi, Breast-Giver and Behind the Bodice) which depict the lives of three women- Dopdi Mejhen, Jashoda, Gangor respectively who are rooted in different milieu but are all ‘subaltern’ in their own way and their very basic human rights are trampled upon. This paper makes an attempt to delineate their predicamancies and show the way their human rights- their dignity, their equality, liberty privacy, safety, justice are all crushed upon and seriously violated. In the story Draupadi, Dopdi Mejhen belonging to Santhal tribe of West Bengal is ‘the most notorious female’ according to Police records and is on the ‘Wanted’ list of the State as she and her husband Dulna Majhi were the chief instigators and prime accused in the killing of Surja Sahu, an atrocious landlord at Bakuli who thrived at the expense of the poor labourers even when they were in dire circumstances. The couple had escaped in Operation Bakuli led by Captain Arjun Singh. However, he is succeeded by the brutal, strategist Senanayak who succeeds in entrapping Dopdi. He orders his subordinates to ‘make her’ and she is tied and brutally ravished and gang raped. In Breast-Giver (Sthanadhayani), Jashoda, a poor Brahmin lady is compelled by circumstances to undertake the ‘profession’ of ‘motherhood’ and becomes a ‘wet nurse’ in the household of Mr.Haldar allowing several of his children and grand-children to suckle her breasts for which labour of hers, the sustenance is provided for her and for her family. In order to see that the milk flows incessantly from her breast, she, in a way, is forced to conceive again and again (a violation of woman’s basic human right to see that the health does not get dwindled in the process of pro-creation ) till she becomes wretched and is left uncared. Cancer affects her ‘breasts’ and she dies in a pitiable condition in the hospital. In Behind the Bodice, Gangor is a rural woman, who, along with her people had migrated to Jharao in search of work. Upin, an itinerant ace-photographer has a peculiar aesthetic sense and feels that Gangor’s breasts are so natural that they should be preserved and safeguarded from becoming extinct as they are endangered. He takes photographs of her breasts and publishes them in the newspapers and magazines. Incidentally, the nation is on a tumult, is in a high hysteria to find out what is that which is present behind the bodice? (‘Choli ke Pechhe kya hai? – a popular score, number from the hindi movie ‘Khalnayak’ released that year). Gangor’s published photographs coincide with the frenzied state of the nation. It is as if her photographs provide answer to the obscene question asked in the song. Gangor is perpetually teased, haunted by hooligans and the police alike as if to explore day and night the secret behind the bodice. Mahasweta Devi’s Breast Stories revolve around the ‘Breast’, which unfortunately becomes an object of torture and revenge in Draupadi, a commodity to survive, a labour commodity exploited in Breast-Giver and an Erotic object to be lusted after and destroyed as in Behind the Bodice. Key Words: Human Rights, Subaltern, pluralist aesthetes, mainstream, bodice, kaamadhenu