Policies of Survival: Where Happiness Epitomises Freedom: A Study of Mahasweta Devi’s Urvashi O Johnny

The post-independent era of Indian English literature witnesses the emergence of feminine sensibility, and women writers like Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Kamala Das, Manju Kapur, Shashi Deshpande, Mamta Kalia, Gauri Deshpande, Nayantara Sahgal, Bharati Mukherjee, Arundhati Roy, Anita Nair, Eunice De Souza, Sujata Bhatt, Shobha De, Mahasweta Devi and many others try their best for the literary emancipation of not only women but also the marginalized and exploited sections of the society. Among these writers, Mahasweta Devi is one such who recreates a span of history which contains the mechanics of exploitation, depressed communities of India, politico-economical policies of the upper class and social evils and maladies, and for showing all these, she falls in the category of those writers writing in their native languages whose writings are translated regularly into English. An essentially human vision rooted in her imparts a grand encroachment on the contemporary literary scenario. She sings for those whose songs of suffering, prayer, despair, protest and disillusionment are unheard. In her works she tries to give voice to the voiceless and shows the ways to survive and protest. Her Urvashi O Johnny is one such play that deals with survival policies through the character of non-living Urvashi and her owner Johnny, a ventriloquist. The play is written at the time of emergency and in this circumstance Johnny's death because of his throat cancer shows how the democratic rights have been suppressed under establishment. But Johnny attempts to find his own petty way out to survive and for him survival means to stay happy. This paper makes an attempt to show how people, like Johnny, try to survive by searching happiness which symbolises his freedom – freedom from all kinds of oppression in dehumanised human condition.