Study on Indigenous Culture in Mahasweta Devi’s Novel AranyerAdhikar

Abstract

Indigenous people are the relatives of the conventional proprietors and occupiers of a nation or locale. They show decent variety in culture, religion, and financial association, both historically and presently. In India, the Northeast region Tribals have with an incredible cultural diversity which traces their ancestry to distant lands in Mongolia and Southeast Asia, it feels important to bring awareness about these indigenous cultures. Mahasweta Devi’s writings focuson the lives of tribal poor and indigenous Indians. Her work exposes the ignorance of the richness of the tribal culture and civilization. The tribals have traditionally enjoyed a close kinship with the forest. In the novel AranyerAdhikar (The Rights of the forest), Devi talks about how the Munda culture has been a forest related one for hundreds of years. The forest gives these tribals food in the form of roots, seeds, grass seeds, tubers, flowers, and fruits. They trade in forest products like honey, leaves, and tussar cocoons. They dance and drink their handia (country liquor) in the forest clearing. Devi claims that the forests near Domabari and the Sailarekab mountains hear the Chotanagpur plateau once enjoyed a bio-diverse environment. She emphasizes that for the tribals to find the full meaning of his ethnic existence, he must understand each stratum of that mixed vegetation of trees, plants, creepers, shrubs, bushes, and undergrowth of grass and lesser plants.