Hello and welcome back.
This is our penultimate lecture in the series
of lectures that we have been doing on postcolonial
literature.
And as you will know, in our previous two
lectures, we had dwelt upon the theoretical
lens of the speechless subaltern through the
writings of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and
we have done so to approach Mahasweta Devi’s
story “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”.
In this lecture, we will take up the story
proper and see how what we have discussed
so far about the subaltern position plays
out in Devi’s narrative.
Now, the story that we have already started
discussing in our previous lecture, deals
with a journey.
It is a story about a journey.
A journey undertaken by a character named
Puran Sahay.
And, Puran Sahay is a journalist who travels
to the heart of a tribal area in Madhya Pradesh
called Pirtha.
Puran arrives in this region to investigate
a strange sighting that has taken place there
and an “unearthly terror” that has descended
upon the tribal population there because of
the sighting.
Puran has also learned about an epidemic that
is apparently going on in Pirtha and he has
also heard about people dying of starvation
there.
However, near the beginning of the story,
there is not much clarity about any of these
issues including the sighting and the unearthly
terror that it has apparently unleashed on
the local population.
Now, in a kind of a frame narrative which
perceives the actual journey to Pirtha, we
are told about the history of this character
Puran Sahay.
We come to know that his father has been a
member of the communist party and that he
was something of an idealist.
We also learn that some of this idealism of
his father has rubbed on to Puran and Puran,
in his turn, has chosen the career of an investigative
journalist and his effort, in fact, to bring
to the light the persecution of lower castes
and tribals in the newspaper have earned him
a lot of praise.
Thus, in Puran, we can recognise a representative
figure of the mainstream people who, just
like Mahasweta Devi herself or even like Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak, is guided by a sense of
ethical imperative to reach out to the disempowered
subaltern and to try to help them.
Here, however, the story also points out the
rarity of such sense of ethical obligation
within the mainstream.
So indeed, Puran and his ethical obligation
towards the disempowered sections of the society
is presented as somewhat of an anomaly within
the mainstream society.
The news publication group Patna Dibasjyoti,
for whom Puran works, also brings out a tabloid
magazine with Bollywood news and we are told
that it is this magazine, Kamini, that brings
in the most amount of money.
Clearly, the mainstream readership is less
interested in stories of massacre and oppression
of the marginalised sections of the society
than in interviews of bollywood film celebrities.
So, even in this frame narrative, we get a
clue as to why the marginalised sections of
the society remain voiceless.
One of the reasons why the subaltern cannot
speak is because the mainstream people lack
the will to listen to them.
We lack the will to listen to the subaltern.
And, this is of course, explained by the fact
that the gossip magazine the tabloid magazine
sells more than the newspaper which publishes
Puran’s articles on the persecution of the
lower caste and of the tribals.
But, a more complete answer to the question
as to why the subaltern cannot speak, emerges
during the course of Puran Sahay’s journey
to Pirtha and it is to this journey that we
now turn.
Much like Marlow’s journey in the Heart
of Darkness, Puran Sahay, in the story Pterodactyl,
also only gradually arrives at the location,
which is both the geographical destination
of the journey, as well as a site of a grave
physical and moral crisis.
In Heart of Darkness, of course, this site,
this location, was the inner station where
Kurtz was and in case of this story, in case
of Puran’s journey, it is Pirtha located
in Madhya Pradesh.
Again, like Marlow, Puran starts on his journey
to Pirtha with certain received ideas regarding
the area and the people that he is visiting.
And, in Marlow’s case, these ideas were
shaped by the colonial discourse on Africa
and in case of Puran, his notions are shaped
by various books, government reports and published
statistical data on the region of Madhya Pradesh
where Pirtha is located.
Thus, when Puran is on his way to the adivasi
area on a supplied truck, which carries government
munificence for the tribals in the form of
rice, molasses, and popcorn, he opens a book
which informs him about the government figures
on Madhya Pradesh and these figures are important.
The importance of these figures will become
evident to you as we proceed with the story.
But these are the figures that Puran reads
out from the book- 22.97% of the population
of Madhya Pradesh is tribal.
The economy of the state is mainly based on
agriculture.
The main crops of this region include jawar,
wheat and rice.
The region also grows some “lesser food
grains.”
These are referred to as lesser food grains,
not by Puran, but by the book that he is reading
and they include kodo, kutki, and soma.
And, in 1983-84, the book tells Puran, the
wave of Green Revolution, which have started
in Haryana, Punjab, and western Uttar Pradesh,
had also swept across Madhya Pradesh and now,
the state is on the verge of another revolution,
which is the Soya Bean Revolution.
Now, having introduced these data, which forms
the official discourse on Madhya Pradesh and
its inhabitants, Devi then masterfully interlaces
it with stories of rampant poverty stories
of exploitation, stories of deaths and suicide
among the tribal community.
The government data does nothing to explain
these stories, nor does it help Puran explain
the reality that he sees in front of him in
relief camps of Pirtha.
And this includes the reality of an emaciated
old woman holding a skeleton baby in her arms
waiting for some sort of food to come her
way.
This gap between the reality of Pirtha and
the government discourse brings us back to
the question of the voice of the subaltern
because the reason this gap exists is because
the old tribal woman carrying her malnourished
child and waiting for food in the relief camp
of Pirtha cannot speak about her condition.
Now, this absence of tribal discourse, as
we learn while we journey with Puran to the
heart of Pirtha, is caused by a number of
reasons.
The foremost among these is, of course, the
sheer apathy of the mainstream people, the
mainstream media and the government to listen
to the voice of the tribals.
The discourse on Madhya Pradesh that is ratified
by the government and that is apparently supported
by objective statistical data, builds up,
as we have just seen, a narrative of progress,
a narrative of growth.
Even to make an effort to listen to the tribal
would mean, therefore, to accommodate within
this discourse of progress and growth, a scandalous
counter-narrative of disposition and exploitation.
To hear the voice of the tribals would actually
mean acknowledging the disturbing fact that
in a state whose economic mainstay is agriculture
and which has undergone the green revolution,
the inhabitants of Pirtha suffers perennially
from drought and has to make do with the so-called
lesser food grains like kodo, kutki, and soma.
And, this too, is often siphoned out of this
region by black marketers.
As Puran comes to learn and I quote from the
text, “Nobody will allow you to say, that
an atom of the green revolutionary area of
the state of Madhya Pradesh is in the perpetual
famine zone of extreme backward tribals.”
This is a statement that the institutionally
ratified discourse won’t allow to be spoken,
won’t admit because, of course, it spoils
the narrative of progress, of growth, and
of development.
The tribals cannot speak because their speech
can potentially undercut the officially sanctioned
discourse of growth and of progress.
And, the voice of tribal is thus never accorded
agency or validity by the mainstream institutions.
Instead, his reality is papered over by officials
who visit the region of Pirtham for instance,
only during the months of rain and then refuse
to admit on paper that the region suffers
from severe drought and perennial starvation.
The reality of the tribal is also denied by
government regulations, for instance, which
stipulate that a certain number of people
need to die before an area can be declared
a famine zone.
In the sparsely populated tribal area of Pirtha
that magic number of dead bodies is never
achieved, can never be achieved, though death
surrounds Pirtha from all sides.
And because this magic number can never be
achieved, Pirtha never gets classified as
a famine zone.
Thus, though the old woman holding the emaciated
child sits before Puran’s eyes in the relief
camp, she is more of a mirage than a reality.
Why?
Because the government records, the official
data which tells the truth to the mainstream
people, not only denies her existence, but
indeed denies the entire reality of disposition
that frames this existence.
Apart from this reluctant to admit the tribal
voice and tribal reality within the institutionally
ratified mainstream discourse, there are other
more mundane reasons as to why the tribals
cannot speak.
For instance, centuries of deprivation has
ensured that the tribals remain mentally and
physically incapable to fight for their voices
to be heard, to fight for their rights.
Thus, agitating for a socio-political agency
remains an unaffordable luxury for the old
tribal woman sitting in the relief camp, who
has to rely on the largest of NGO’s and
some well-meaning government officials to
stave off death.
As one of these well-meaning government officials
point out to Puran, the tribals of Pirtha
suffering from perennial starvation and scarcity
of resources have become resigned to their
subalternity.
In his own words, and I quote “A few thousand
people have now accepted despair.
They don’t know how to ask, don't ask but
they take, if given".
Apart from this lack of basic resources like
food, what also curtails the ability of the
tribals to find their voice within the mainstream
is the language barrier.”
Now, in any society, the hegemonic discourse
privileges certain languages and by doing
so, establishes a hierarchy among the various
language speakers within the society.
Those who speak the privileged languages of
the hegemonic discourse, they get greater
access to socio-political agency than others.
And, within the Indian context too, we can
see such privileging at work and, of course,
within the Indian context, languages like
English and Hindi enjoy the most amount of
privilege.
And this, in turn, ensures that speakers of
tribal languages like Ho, for instance, or
Mundari or Santali, remain almost completely
cut off from social and political agency.
This situation, in fact, is imagined in the
story through the metaphor of an asymptote.
Now, some of you will know that, in an asymptote,
a line perpetually approaches a curve without
ever touching it.
There is no point of contact in an asymptote
just like there is no point of communication
between the mainstream people and the subalternised
tribal.
In the story, therefore, the tribals that
we meet either have enormous difficulty in
speaking to Puran, and here I am thinking
of this figure of Shankar who can only speak
in a trancelike state, or they do not speak
at all like, for instance, the child Bikhia.
This theme of tribal speechlessness is most
powerfully brought to the fore in the story
through Puran’s encounter with what the
title refers to as the Pterodactyl.
So, while staying in an abandoned hut in Pirtha,
Puran hears, in a room next to his, the soft
breathing of a large birdlike creature and
since Puran is accustomed to understanding
the reality that is in front of his eyes with
reference to books, he reads and identifies
this creature as a Pterodactyl- a flying reptile
of the Mesozoic era.
But such bookish knowledge makes the Pterodactyl
an impossible reality just as the government
records and official data makes the old tribal
woman in the relief camp an impossible reality.
This is in spite of the fact that for Puran,
both the birdlike creature, as well as the
old woman, exists in front of his very eyes.
They both exist in front of Puran as almost
tactile reality.
Yet, the other reality that is constructed
through books, through government records,
through documents, denies this reality that
Puran can touch, smell and see before him.
So, one of the questions that really come
up when we read this story and, as you can
see, I have not actually summarise this story
like I have not summarised any of the texts
that we have read so far in this course and,
as usual, I would really encourage you to
go to this story and read this very powerful
narrative by Mahasweta Devi.
You will really like it, I am quite sure.
But when we read the story, one of the questions
that we are confronted with is that- is this
pterodactyl some kind of a symbol which symbolises
the tribals, for instance?
Now, there are indeed points of similarity
which connects the pterodactyl with the tribals.
Just like Puran finds it impossible to communicate
with the tribals, for instance, he also finds
it impossible to communicate with the pterodactyl
whose silence, in the face of Puran’s questioning
gaze, echoes the speechlessness of the subaltern
tribals.
Yet, the story does not really allow us to
embrace this interpretation of the pterodactyl
as the symbolic equivalent of the tribal reality.
The creature presents itself as different
things to different people.
So, for the tribals, who have seen it hovering
in the night sky and who had described it
as unearthly terror, the creature is the incarnation
of their ancestors' soul.
It has come to them as a warning.
This is what the tribals feel.
The pterodactyl, which is an incarnation of
their ancestors’ soul, has come to them
as a warning, as a messenger, announcing the
impending doom of the entire tribal community
under the exploitation of the mainstream civilisation.
For Puran, on the other hand, who draws his
categories of understanding from books and
from documents, this creature is an extinct
species of the Pterosauria class, of the Mesozoic
era.
Now, the story doesn't decide either way but
nearly gives the expression to the sense of
frustration that we feel when we encounter
something that we neither know nor we can
communicate with.
And this is precisely the sense of frustration
that the elite, guided by an ethical imperative,
experiences when facing the speechless subaltern.
And here, the frustration is not simply because
one cannot reach out and help the subaltern,
but also, because one cannot know what crucial
wisdom the subaltern might hold yet cannot
communicate to the mainstream people.
So, what ethical action is really possible
in this asymptotic situation where there is
no point of communication?
Because, as you know, from the past lecture,
we have been trying to think through this
problem of ethics.
So, we again come back to this ethical question-
what ethical action is possible in this situation
of crisis?
Well, Devi in her story, clearly rules out
any attempt to bring “development” to
the tribals.
Though this has been the usual government
attitude to develop the tribals, to bring
development to them and much like the elite
trying to speak for the subaltern, these actions
of development, too, presume what the tribals
need and desire, without ever consulting the
tribals themselves.
The patronising gesture of development, thus,
merely results in the imposition of things
on the tribal society which intensifies their
exploitation rather than helping them in any
which way.
For instance, the story mentions the government
project of building roads from the tribal
welfare money without any consultative process
and these roads, as the story explains, connect
the tribals with the mainstream in disastrous
ways.
As a text says, and I quote, “These roads
have been built with the money sanctioned
for tribal welfare.”
So the owners of bonded labour, the moneylender,
the touts and pimps, the abductors and the
bestial alcoholic young men lusting after
tribal women, can enter directly into the
tribal habitations.
So, in a way, the story says that the tribals
were better off cut off from the mainstream
rather than having roads built which connect
them with the mainstream and which, in turn,
intensifies their exploitation.
The epidemic that Puran finds raging in Pirtha
also results from such misguided government
munificence.
To implement the government scheme of Farm
Aid Week, the story mentions such a government
scheme, people descends upon Pirtha and sprays
insecticide all over the dusty fields of the
tribals lying barren because of drought.
A sudden flash of rain in the midst of this
drought, washes the insecticide into the wells
the tribals had dug to store their drinking
water.
Thus, the Farm Aid initiative actually ends
up poisoning whatever little source of water
the tribals of Pirtha had been able to collect
for their survival, and thereby, it leads
to an epidemic.
And, the story really gives a number of such
instances where well-meaning government projects,
which are implemented without taking the tribals
on board, without having any consultation
process, they backfire, they lead to disastrous
consequences.
Mahasweta Devi, in her interview with Spivak,
and I have already referred to this interview
in my previous lecture, thus insists that
our first task should be to stop such misguided
development of the tribals in which they themselves
do not have any stake.
But is there any alternative, then?
Well, Puran, near the end of the story, presents
a report based on whatever he has seen and
experienced.
And, in this report he talks about creating
enabling conditions by reforming the laws,
by reforesting the tribal areas and by building
schools and centres for basket weaving, hand
loom, and animal husbandry, so that the tribals
can regain agency and finally be able to speak
for themselves.
And this is, in fact, the kind of work that
we see activists like Mahasweta Devi and Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak engage in.
However, we need to remember, that even this
solution might be an imposition of the elites
on the tribals.
Indeed, the only solution that Shankar, who
is a lone tribal voice who can speak to the
mainstream society in the story Pterodactyl
offers, comes in form of this question- and
I quote from the text, “Can you move far
away?
Very far?
Very very far?”
Hence, the only ethical gesture, that might
end the subalternization of the tribals, may
actually involve stopping all forms of interventions,
ethical or otherwise.
But are we, the people who form the mainstream,
are we willing to pay heed to this request?
Are we willing to listen to the subaltern?
Are we ready to allow the tribals to speak?
I will leave you to ponder over these questions
and we will meet later, in the last lecture
of this series, to discuss the future of postcolonial
studies.
Thank you.
