ABSTRACT
Mahasweta Devi’s cultural production acts as a resistance campaign against the ecological devastation caused by extractivist capitalist projects, predatory politics, and neoliberal globalising forces that have annihilated indigenous peoples throughout the world. Devi invites readers to witness firsthand how neoliberal institutions operate with impunity and collude on a daily basis to exterminate India’s tribal communities. I argue that Mahasweta Devi’s essays ‘A Countryside Slowly Dying’, ‘Eucalyptus: Why?’, ‘Land Grabbing among Tribals in West Bengal’ as well as the short stories ‘The Hunt’ and ‘The Paddy Seeds’ transcend geographical and cultural boundaries to testify to the brutal severance of Indigenous rights to land, water, and resources. Devi admonishes humanity to listen to the ghosts that inhabit the landscape and assume responsibility for the frightful wreckage of human activity.
