Where Have All The Natives Gone By Gayatri Spivak Analysis

Rey Chow in her essay Where Have all the Natives Gone?(Chow,1993), reminds us that, for Gayatri Spivak, the subaltern discourse is ultimately not translatable to the dominant episteme, the power- knowledge is unable to hear the actual voice of the subaltern–that is what Spivak’s “silent” subaltern means. According to Spivak the subaltern cannot speak because they do not “speak” in a “language” that is already recognized by the dominant culture or power regime. The subaltern who cannot speak is not a dumb creature, but one whose voice, or whose gesture, is not counted as speech in the dominant episteme of power. Subaltern is always condemned to a shallow representation, sometimes becoming the ‘object’ of representation, and at times the ‘subject’
The novel is set in sixteenth-century medieval Bengal, drawing the life of Mukundaram Chakrabarti, whose epic poem Abhayamangal contains three sections: ‘Devkhanda’, ‘Byadhkhanda/ Akhyatickhanda’ and ‘Banikkhanda’. It is in ‘Byadhkhanda’-‘Book of the Hunter’ section of the epic where Mukundaram describes the lives of hunter tribes-the Shabars, who lived in the forests.( This section of the epic poem is mentioned in sections on page numbers 138, 141, 325, 333 in Ancient Pali History book). Mahashweta Devi referring ‘Byadhkhanda’ as a source fabricates the fictional world of The Book of the Hunter. The Shabar origin myth and the glory of Abhaya Chandi is narrated to Mukundaram by Tejota, the Shabar Community head, who possess the secret knowledge of the tribe, that has been passed to her by her father Danko Shabir. She narrates him how in Abhaya’s forest, the Mother kept all her wild creatures, trees and forest children- the Shabars, safe and protected. Gradually, they come to know that a town has sprung up and a king has established his capital there. The king desired to construct a temple to Abhayachandi. A young Brahmin, the priest’s son in his thirst for seven kahans of gold, steals the
This case of differend arises in the novel when the voices of the subaltern shabar go unnoticed by the civilized people. Mahashweta Devi, through the novel throws light on various challenges faced by them due to the intrusion of the civilized culture in their way of life. The impact of the urban culture and the depletion of the natural resources rob the Shabars of their environment. The advancement in the town of Ararha pose a threat over the Shabars, who’s life depends upon the natural resources provided by the forests. Their endangered existence is aptly reflected in the novel, “there was no stopping the times from changing! A Shabar understood that the more others encroached, the more his existence would be threatened. Then, that was it. He’d pick up camp, sticks and all, and calling ‘Ma, Ma! go off into the shelter of some virgin forest” (106). In the light of urbanization and modernization the dominant forces exploit the forest and its resources, which are the dwelling place of these native tribes and also the source of their livelihood. In the novel Kalya repeatedly express that the Shabars are not allowed to cultivate but live as hunters and gatherers in the forest. “Whatever comes out