CULTURAL STUDIES IN RUDALI- A PERSPECTIVE OF MAHASWETA DEVI

This paper analyses the culture of Ganju community and highlights social exclusion and oppression by the high-class people of the same village in the work of the social activist Mahasweta Devis, Rudali,. In this novella, Mahasweta Devi brings out how the marginalised community and economically down-trodden people are oppressed by the higher-class people in the same village. Through the female protagonist, she portrays the sufferings inflicted by the society on the down-trodden women who are abandoned by their families. She depicts the practise of a particular community which becomes her identity in society which subjugates her. Not only that, it also discusses about the subjugation of men by the zamindars in the village for their needs, which was also one of the reasons for the tragic life of women belonging to their family. The novella also focuses on the beliefs, practices and the culture of the Community and the social and economic aspects as well.