Imaginary Maps: Three Stories PDF
Preview Imaginary Maps: Three Stories
IMAGINARY MAPS I lA Three Stories by IMAGINARY Translated and introduced by Mahasweta Devi MAPS Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Routledge • New York • London FOR ALL THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE WORLD Published in 1995 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE Copyright © 1995 by Routledge This edition published by arrangement with Thema Publications. er. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or repro duced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photo copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Devi, Mahasweta. Imaginary maps I by Mahasweta Devi ; translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. p. cm. ISBN 0-415-90462-5 (HB). - ISBN 0-415-90463-3 (PB) 1. Devi, Mahasweta-Interviews. 2. Authors, Bengali -20th century-Interviews. 3. Short stories, Indic-Trans lations into English. 4. Indic literature-20th century-History and criticism. 5. India in literature. I. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. II. Title. PK1718.D4737Z465 1993 891'.4437-dc20 93-1284 CIP Contents THE AUTHOR IN CONVERSATION IX TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE XXIII TRANSLATOR'S NOTE XXXI THE HUNT 1 DOULOTI THE BOUNTIFUL 19 PTERODACTYL, PURAN SAHAY, AND PIRTHA 95 AFTERWORD 197 vii The Author in Conversation The following is a lightly edited version of a conversation, originally in English, taped in Calcutta in December, 1991. The questions are mine, the answers hers. -GCS History and fact first. The tribal population of India is about one-sixth of the total population of the country. The tribes are divided into many groups. India belonged to these tribals long before the incursion of the Aryan-speaking peoples. The Ramayana, one of India's two ancient epics, seems to contain evidence of how they were op pressed, evicted from their homeland, and then forced to occupy the lower reaches of the mainstream culture. Bits of their old cul ture can still be glimpsed. In the nineteenth century, for example, mainstream Indian reformers had to struggle to pass a Widow Remarriage Act in caste-Hindu society, the society that is generally called "Indian." Among the Austric and Dravidian tribes of India, on the other hand-in the states of West Bengal and Bihar alone there are Oraons, Mundas, Santals, Lodhas, Kherias, Mahalis, Gonds, and more-widow remarriage has always been the custom. In tribal society, there is no dowry system, only bride-price. It is difficult to discern at this late date who borrowed from whom, especially since the tribals relied upon an oral tradition. Their word for Hindu is Diku-outsider. Remember, Draupadi in the Mahabharata is a black woman. She must have been a tribal. In the State of Himachal Pradesh we still find the sort of fraternal polyandry that Draupadi was supposed to have practiced in the Mahabharata. The polyandrous tribal women of Himachal Pradesh are said to belong to the Draupadi Gotra or clan. Among the South Indian tribals, Sita, the Queen of King Rama in the Ramayana, is not a human being. She is the wind in the grass, she is the flowing river, the fruit-yielding trees, the harvest to be gath ered. She is Nature. Glimpses of their history remain in their songs and ballads. They were advanced in agriculture, though some groups were forest dwelling hunters: the Sobors. 1 The modern ix
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