ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the body politics of Mahashweta Devi's short story Draupadi, which was translated by Gayatri Spivak. It looks at the resisting body of the eponymous female protagonist and explores the nature of her resistance to the Senanayak, the apprehending authority. It examines the possible sources of subversion in the story and why its presence in the Delhi University syllabus became a particularly contentious issue. This chapter analyses the story to explore the possible reasons for its removal and views it as a very palpable hit against the various modes of domination by the modern state. Draupadi's defiance at a moment which should logically have constituted and witnessed the triumph of the Senanayak unnerves him and, by extension, state authority.
