Hajar Churashir Ma is a major literary masterpiece by a veteran Bengali literary figure and brave social activist,
Mahasweta Devi. This widely read and translated novel displays Devi’s in-depth social
awareness and an unsurpassed literary maturity which enabled her to experiment aptly and freely with the condensed plot and the narrative technique. Written during 1973-1974, the novel attempts to probe into the Naxalite movement of the early 1970’s from a feminist and humanist point of view.
The novel aptly mirrors a mother’s attempt to interpret her youngest son’s association with the Naxalite movement, a rebellion which found its roots in a small village of Naxalbari, North Bengal. The limited fire of violent rebellion spread rapidly in and around its place of origin, bringing the peasants and the intellectuals together and engulfing too many young lives and dauntless hearts.
Inside the parameter of the events of a single day, through the reminiscence of the mother of the spirited boy who is killed in police firing for the
political cause of the movement the entire plot of the novel slowly unfolds. Sujata Chatterjee, an urban woman and a demure wife, has for so long accepted the hypocritical norms of the patriarchal society by all odds. It is only after her son Brati’s death, which compels her to visit the police morgue to see her son’s lifeless corpse no.1084, that she begins her personal journey from an illusioned ignorance, submission, compromise into the realm of awakening and knowledge. Not only does she understand the ideology that snatched her son’s life, but also rediscovers her own suppressed self-esteem and learns to assert it. Visiting Brati’s political comrades who survived the struggle and their families, she uncovers the face of her own alienation. The hypocrisy of the hierarchical societal orders her son violently protested against, both ideologically and politically, seem to be void, baseless, futile to her, enough to be questioned and challenged.
The bitter mockery of the legal and political system is such that the mother of 1084 can not even claim his body to perform the last rites. Brati Chatterje’s whole identity is reduced to a mere number-no.1084. The suddenness and stinging agony of her son’s untimely end acts as a catalyst to cudgel her numb conscience. She arises out of mediocrity, complacence, and ignorance. The story unfolds how the mother of 1084 turns politically, morally, socially, ideologically conscious to usher social changes.
The novel is significant for several reasons. First, it faithfully documents the troubled time of Bengal’s political history; second, it is important for it is autobiographical shadows. During the period this novel is written, Devi engaged herself passionately with the cause of the neglected and oppressed tribal communities. Her personal social awareness and egalitarian values find an echo in the novel. Third, it is a deep psychological portrait of a bereaved mother who instead of drowning her son’s memory in tears keeps his zealous ideal alive through her social work. She never lets the memory fade out. Her personal tragedy is translated into political awareness and philosophical understanding.
The novel, Hajar Churashhir Ma is adopted for a film version in Hindi by Govind Nihalni which is titled Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma. The film presentation of the novel too remains a serious watchable one to satisfy the patrons of cerebral cinema. Mahasweta Devi’s famous masterpiece has not lost its relevance even in today’s disturbed times though so many years after the political struggle.