Dr. P. Nagaraj
Bharathiar University, Coimbatore- 641046, Tamilnadu
Email id:
[email protected]
Inter-Generational Bonded Slavery as Depicted in Douloti the Bountiful
Introduction
Mahasweta Devi's Douloti the Bountiful is one of the three stories in the collection named Imaginary Maps. This story brings out how the bonded labour system affects the tribal communities in India. Bonded labour system has several aspects to it. As Maitreya Ghatak says: "Under the bonded labour system, a person loses his status as free labour and virtually becomes serf labour under a person from whom he has taken a loan, the amount of which may appear to be ridiculously small" (Introduction: Dust on the Road. xxiii & xxiv). Here, the tribe forfeits the right to seek employment elsewhere and the right to sell his labour or the products of his labour in the open market at market value. He or a member of his family has to work under the creditor till the loan is repaid. But the wages are absurdly low and the rate of interest astronomically high. Bonded labourers are not in a position to bargain over their wages and must accept whatever is customary for the landlords to give them. So once someone gets into bondage, he remains so till he dies and very often his son or someone in the family has to continue as a bonded labourer. Inter-generational bondage is a common feature of the system. (Introduction: Dust on the Road. p. xxiii & xxiv)
The situation in Mahasweta Devi's Douloti, the Bountiful forms a striking instance of this phenomenon. The story falls into two parts. Part I deals with the sufferings of Ganori Nagesia and Part II with that of Douloti, his daughter. Mahasweta Devi is more digressive than progressive in this story as she is more obsessed with the national problem of bonded slavery remaining unattended, long after independence. Thanks to the initiative of voluntary organizations and NGOs, Government of India has enacted laws abolishing the bonded labour system. But our Government machinery's functioning at grass-roots being what it is, the laws are more honoured in the breach. Mahasweta Devi in her conversation with Gayatri Spivak condemns the Government of India as:
The present Government of India had to introduce, in 1976, the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act. In 1970, the Government of India had supposedly liberated a handful of bonded labourers in Seora village on top of a hill. And, on paper, had given them land. What land? Land on top of the hills, no water level, where nothing could grow. And the people who kept them as bonded slaves were low echelon government officials themselves. It was through their hands that the Government gave money to rehabilitate these people. Naturally nothing reached the tribals. They were in desperation. They said: we will now go back to bondage.(Imaginary Maps ii)
This is true in the case of both Ganori Nagesia and Douloti. Nagesia seems to say,
"call me by any name, I am a bonded labourer". (Imaginary Maps 45) Tribes in Seora are subjected to all tortures by the money lenders and cannot hope for a release from the weight of debts. Their lives are illustrative of what happens across India in the name of bonded labour.
Ganori Nagesia is living in Seora and he is the kamiya of Munabar Singh Chandela, a Rajput Chandela. He is the owner of Seora village and Ganori's job is to look after Munabar's plough steer. He has entered into this bonded labour system (kamyouti) when he borrowed three hundred rupees from Munabar. He borrowed money for two reasons
doing purification for returning from jail and
for the marriage of oldest daughter and eldest son.
Tribals, landless and penniless, are compelled to fall a prey to the money lenders as and when expenses beyond their expectations come in their life. Once one person is caught in the web of loans, he can never dream of coming out from it. He will become a bonded labourer forever.
Bono Nagesia's case is entirely different from this. Bono yearns to be free and goes to coal mines in Dhanbar in search of a job. But the vultures of money lending are waiting there also. Desperate about his slavish existence, Bono Nagesia kills a money lender who comes to sleep with tribal women in the shanties. He steals his money and flees to Seora. Bono yearns to build a home with that money and fulfills that wish. But Munabar doesn't allow him to live there and burns the house.
It is an age old law that Nagesias should not try to make money. If they violate this code and walks to prosperity, the boss will teach him a true lesson. Thus Bono is crushed down by Munabar for breaching convention. He becomes a bonded labourer under Munabar for twenty rupees. Bono foresees the chain of slavery expanding through his son (for marriage with Douloti) and wife (for marriage feast) and runs away to Calcutta. His wife and child are left out of slavery as they are weak. After many days of starvation, his family also disappears.
After Bono's flight, Munabar becomes extremely ruthless about his bonded workers. A census takes place after Bono's departure. But such governmental endeavors hold no value for the tribal. The attitude of tribals of Seora to governmental programmes brings out their true existence. Voting itself is a futile exercise as they vote for those whom their boss will point to. Naturally the voice of the tribals is unheard in the parliament also.
Ganori Nagesia's carelessness sends Munabar's plough steer into a tiger's belly. This infuriates Munabar and he orders Ganori to take the yoke on his shoulders and plough the field. This hard labour crushes Ganori. The axle sits hard on him and he is injured severely. He is hospitalized and comes back as Crooked Nagesia. This plight of Ganori throws light on the inhuman way in which tribals are treated in bonded labour system. Once the tribal man gets injured, his family is abandoned. The same happens to Ganori's wife and child, Douloti. They are forsaken and take refuge in prayers. Another curse of subalternity is that the tribals are always under the constant vigil of exploiters. When Ganori's wife and child become helpless, Paramananda comes to make use of that situation. He flatters ignorant Douloti with his gifts like saris and she falls a prey to his treachery. Paramananda is a crooked person who will release men from bonded labour in order to get hold of their women. The same way, Paramananda releases Ganori from the debt to Munabar and in return asks for the hand of Douloti. At first, Ganori resents but he is made to leave his daughter with him.
The situation of tribals like Ganori becomes worse as they do not get any support from the government. On the other hand, the government closes its eyes to all the atrocities performed on tribals for getting the support of the Kulak and the agri-capitalist. Douloti, unaware of the pit into which she is falling, follows Paramananda. They reach Madhpura where Douloti gets good food and clothes which she has never dreamt of in her life. But these are all just the start of a grave exploitation. Later on, reader comes to know that Douloti is taken to Madhpura as a kamiya whore. Paramananda sold her to Latia and Latia kept her for three long years. For Latia woman is a land which he ploughs so ruthlessly. Just as he conquers lands and forests and exploits it blindly, Douloti also becomes a subject of his exploitation.
For those three years, she was not given any wages but was subjected to many sexual tortures. Moreover, whatever she gets as the expense of food and clothes are added to the principal debt his father got from Paramananda. After three years, Latia loses interest in Douloti and Douloti is made to take new customers. A good hearted Singhji comes in the place of Latia. s and is concerned about her sad plight. By that time, Paramananda dies and his son Baijnath take over. He is cruel and greedy. Singh gets another contract and leaves the place. Douloti's good days are over by that time and what follows are days of toil. More clients and no rest. It is during that time, Douloti meets Bono again. He is working with a missionary which tries to report the evils of bonded labour to the central government. Though Bono assures her that good days are ahead, Douloti cannot trust his words. She calls Uncle Bono a story teller who gives fanciful promises. Days of toil make Douloti wither and she is infected with Tuberculosis.
During that time missionaries come to take witness from kamiya whores. But when Prasad informs that the report made by Bornfuller is still caught in red tapes, the futility of such governmental surveys and endeavors are clear. Douloti becomes so tired that she can no longer cater to the customers. When Douloti is of no use sexually, Baijnath forsakes her and asks her to go to hospital. She staggers on the road and catches the bus to Tohri. But the doctors abandon her and asked her to go to Mandar. Douloti, tired to the core, lies before a large hut. On the day of Independence, Mohan Srivastava finds her lying dead on the map of India in front of the school. Here, Douloti becomes the symbol of all those tribals across the nations who are dying under the tyranny of bonded labour system.
As Mahasweta Devi writes, "Filling the entire Indian peninsula from the oceans to the Himalayas, here lies bonded labour spread eagled, Kamiya – whore Douloti Nagesia's tormented corpse, putrefied with venereal disease, having vomited up all the blood in its desiccated lungs." Today, on the fifteenth of August, Douloti has left no room at all in the India of people like Mohan for planting the standard of the Independence flag. What will Mohan do now? Douloti is all over India". (Imaginary Maps 94) The story moves from the particular to the general. The agony of rook Nagesia and Douloti not only represents the bonded labourer/prostitute systems of Seora village but also voices concern for such systems across India. As Mahasweta Devi says in her conversation with Spivak, "Douloti is still true and true for the rest of India". (Imaginary Maps xiii & xiv)
Reference
Ghatak, Maitreya. "Introduction". Dust on the Road. Trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1997. Print.
Devi, Mahaswetha. Imaginary Maps. Trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Calcutta:
Thema, 2001. Print.
Gadgil, Madhav, and Ramachandra Guha. Ecology and Equity: the Use and Abuse of
Nature in Contemporary India. London: Routledge, 1995. Print.
