the laugh of dopdi mehjen- on Mahashweta Devi's controversial 'draupadi'

She is the namesake of Mahabharata's Draupadi but is entirely different on the faith ultimately allotted to her. Mahashweta Devi's Dopdi Mehjen has now become one of the most censored characters in the syllabus of English Literrature of University of Delhi. What actually makes this tribal narrative so controversial and problematic which leads to exclusion from the syllabus. Once you hear Dopdi's sardonic laugh and the anger behind her tears, you would know why. Trigger Warning: Sexual Violence.

The traitor tear of Dopdi Mehjen, Source: Pinterest

A young woman roams the forest of Bengal, she is alive and hungry, haunted by the death of her husband, fearful yet unfazed at the same time. Her unwashed ebony black skin stinks of grief and tiredness. Petty food bites are tied on her side but she staggers aimlessly around the forest, her fiery eyes tearful. She is a runaway, convicted along with other members of her community for killing a high-caste landlord. She is alone and she is a woman, more so, she is a tribal woman.

She is Dopdi Mehjen, from Mahashweta Devi’s short story ‘Draupadi’, the censored story which created headlines and was ultimately uprooted from the English Literature syllabus of the University Of Delhi last year. The University never cites actual reasons for kicking out works that had previously gained critical yet compulsory reception from the previous generation, the only invisible, elephant-in-the-room sort of reason could be the indication and matching political unrest present in today’s scenario which has been precisely depicted by Devi in her tribal narrative ‘Draupadi’, published as a part of Devi’s short story collection ‘Breast Stories’.

‘FIRST LIVERY: What’s this, a tribal called Dopdi? The list of names I brought has nothing like it! How can anyone have an unlisted name?’

The above excerpt is from the story, the opening scene depicts the invalidation of Dopdi’s name because it doesn’t meet the criteria of ‘tribal names’ from the list of names composed by the State government. It is an absolute critique of society, especially the government’s infamous opinion and stereotypes associated with tribal communities in India.

The officials called Dopdi and her husband Dulna a ‘black-skinned couple’ who speak a ‘savage tongue’. Devi through her revolutionary story unravels the reality of the marginalized and tribal communities in the country, and how the government perceives them, as pure evil and alien, mere savage creatures who should not be called humans.

Draupadi was one of the stories from this collection, Source: Google Images

Those who are aware of Mahashweta Devi’s oeuvre and ideologies can easily understand the message behind painting this gruesome and blood-curdling violence evoked on a tribal woman who along with other people of her community, mustered enough courage to stand against upper-caste ruffians who oppress and harass them, for no reason at all, but for that, they are tribal, out of the scope of normal people who should be treated with equality and respect.

Devi wrote immensely about violence inflicted on people who find themselves beyond the ribbon of privilege. Through her writing, she put forward the moral point and worked actively as a Social Worker to bring real-life change by helping those who were silenced by the government, their screams muffled by the force of law. Devi had seen reality and decided to satirize the government through the skill of her pen. She couldn’t risk everything and just barge into government offices to prove her point, she needed the aid of fiction to portray the brutal reality of tribal people in India.

Dopdi Mehjen, the Bengali namesake of Mahabharata’s Draupadi, laughs the laugh of utter triumphant, even though physically she is the very image of a broken woman who had been violated and victimized in the cruelest and dehumanized way possible, at the hand of the state forest officials who represent the unfair law.

Mahashweta Devi, Source: Google Images

Her mad laugh at the end of the story as she challenges the official to disrobe her further when there is no cloth on her bleeding body resembles the laugh of Medusa, a woman broken brutally, but her mind stands strong to wreak havoc on those who destroyed her world. Dopdi’s laugh echoes her rage, her strength, her anger at herself for shedding tears, for appearing to be weak. She is a woman alone, among savage men who alienated her because she is tribal, her laugh is directed at those evil men, the fickle-minded, the hypocrisy of the government who forbids notice of the plight of tribal communities in India.

Devi has now passed away and her torrential story has been uprooted from the English syllabus, a move on the part of decision-makers to play safe, after all, Delhi University is a government institution, to play safe is the best move. Yet in today’s digital world, Dopdi’s laugh cant is muffled, it will reach those who are meant to drift in the direction of a revolution, to bring the plight of real Dopdis forward, to rage and fight, to scream and laugh, on the nuisance and absurdity, created by so-called rational beings.