Research Paper on:
Mahasweta Devi's Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and nationalism help mainstream India dominate and enslave marginalized tribal groups" (Thapa). These are illustrations which present the reader with unique and vivid understanding of conditions, history, and a possible  future seen, perhaps, through the eyes of Devi. In the following paper we examine this work. Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha In the beginning of the work we  are provided with an "interview of Devi by Spivak, which introduces readers to the authors concerns about the treatment of tribal communities after the decolonization of India, and to her  own activist work helping such communities gain control of their lives, lands, resources, and identities. Interestingly, Devi makes little distinction between her fictional accounts and the places and people who  correspond to them, and she repeatedly mentions that most events narrated within her stories are true" (Thapa). This provides us with the necessary information to more readily access the truthfulness  of her fictional work, offering the reader a more powerful and impacting set of stories. Through giving us a sense of the fictional, combined with the painfully real, the reader  is more likely to truly feel what Devi is trying to convey in terms of political power and control, and the need for the cultures to grasp and hold onto  their nature. Thapa notes that, In "Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha, the characters ethical positions typify the usual mainstream responses to the problems facing tribal societies. Pirtha  is a tribal village whose population is dying in large numbers." Sahay is a journalist who sets out to uncover the reasons for the deaths which have occurred. He discovers  that "the governments work in Pirtha has enriched only a handful of officials, contractors, and businessmen, while the tribals who live off arid, unproductive land have died from entering into