Title of the play Mother Of 1084 - The Uncovered English

Mother of 1084

Novel by Mahasweta Devi

"I think a creative writer should have a social conscience. I have a duty towards society."

Discuss the play in the light of the above quoted remarks made by the playwright.

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How does Mother of 1084 explore the relationship between the personal amd the political?

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How does Mother of 1084 is a critique of science and complacence?

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Trace the growth of sujata from an apolitical stereotype into a politically aware entity.

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Title of the play.

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Mahasweta Devi is one of those dedicated writers who have denied to accept the existing ideals and have tried to reveal the reality of the downtrodden people. A major part of her carrier has been spent in documenting the misery of the oppressed people. Being an inhabitant of this society, Mahasweta Devi feels: "A writer should have a social conscience. I have a duty towards the society."

Compelled by this sense of duty, she in her play Mother of 1084, has not only revealed the darker corner of political and personal life but also shown the only possible way out of this scenario. This way is the political consciousness that can turn a man from a passive muted sufferer to an awakened critic and protestant. By exploring the relationship between the political facades, the play ezposes the fact that silence and complacence in the name of safe distance from active politics, corrupt even the private life of human being.

The theme of the play Mother of 1084, according to the protagonist herself is the "awakening of an apolitical mother". E. Satyanarayana has nicely explained this. According to him "Sujata, the protagonist has been a witness to the horrifying situation during the suppression of the Naxalite uprising in which her own son, Brati takes part and becomes a martyr. Unable to free herself from the clutches of male dominated society, Sujata fails to realise her own being. But after her discovery of Brati, through the confrontation with people outside her respectable existence, Sujata does not remain a passive sufferer." She feels punished for not knowing her son. She decides to carry out what he felt unfulfilled. So in the end, she exhorts the audience to be active and revolt against the establishment that aims at reducing the young rebels to the level of a mere number which is given to the dead only to be identified by their mother. Sujata says:

"Let this No of mine pierce
the heart of this city
rise to the skies, be
brone on the winds over the
Whole state to every hook
and corner. Let it set the
past, the presut, and the
future ashiver. Let it
tear down the happiness
of everyone cooped up in
his own happiness..." (36)

Sujata's ignorance is the consequence of her withdrawal from her surroundings. The symptons of political unawareness in Sujata can be traced out in all her drawbacks in the private life. Firstly she remains passive regarding the patriarch domination in her family. Secondly she is ignorant about the other world of the have-nots. Thirdly she has a communication gap with the new generation. She writes:

"I didn't know Brati well
enough, Somu's mother know
him better."

Sujata has been aware of her husband's illicit affair with the typist. But she has never raised ger voice against it. She has rather tried to escape the humiliation by taking the job in a bank. Even unlike her son, she has never stepped outside the world of her known circuit of acquaintance.

Her personal short coming get slowly repaired with the assistance of Nandini and her interaction with Sonu's mother. With the realisation of her personal or private rights as a wife, mother and woman, Sujata becomes conscious of her political role of demanding for the fulfillment if her rights. In this process she transforms from a passive complacent to an active critic of silence.

Nandini makes Sujata realise that her silence and detachment have enhanced the tragedy of Brati and thousand other youths. Nandini nourishes the hope of completing the unfulfilled task of Brati and thereby enables Sujata to come out of her muted, complacent solitary existence: 'Never Mind,' finally asserts Sujata, "I will find my way out." The interaction of Somu's mother has enabled Sujata to get a glimpse of elementary humanity of the poor, as contrasted with the inhumanity of the affluent set.

The self-realised and fully awakened Sujata is shown by the playwright, to have addressed the audience for she has understood now that by remaining silent has lost the most precious possession of her life.

Though Sujata collapses down at the end, she seems to have succeed in tearing off the mask of those cooped up in their own self-centered contentment. By her own evolution from ignorance to enlightenment. She also succeeds in giving tremendous blow to the self-confined upper-class people and also prompted the secluded class to rush closer to her at the ultimate emd of the play. Her physical fall upon the stage brings the hope for resurrection of the stagnant mass against whom she has cried furiously.

Mahasweta Devi has brilliantly shown in her play Mother of 1084, how the private concerns of everyman are invisibly related to politics. Without being conscious of the rights and responsibilities one can not be complete human being. And this awareness prompts the person to strive politically for the fulfillment of his/her demands. She/he comes out from silent confinement to give voice for own rights. Thus Mother of 1084 is a celebration of the outspoken demand for the innate dignity and nobility of man, triumphing over organised repression.

Like Kattrin of Bretch's Mother Courage and her children, Sujata emerges out as the mother of all the struggling youths. The moment she has been summoned to identify the corpse number 1084, she has began to attain a sort of rebirth from an ignorant apolitical stereotype to a conscious, self-realised woman. She got thoroughly intimate with the deeds and dreams of the thousand of the sons around her - the youth of the new generation. The title, therefore, is fully appropriate for it helps the reader to understand the cause and the course of this gradual evolution of Sujata which is also the motto of the playwright.