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She was born on 14 January, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is none other than Mahasweta Devi, one of the greatest luminaries of Bengal. A scholar from Viswa-Bharati first and then at Calcutta University, Mahasweta Devi pursued her career in English literature, started teaching in a college but later shifted to journalism. The disempowered position of the subaltern, addressed by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her famous essay Can the Subaltern Speak is triggered by Mahasweta Devi through her agency and recognisable speech dealing with the lower-caste tribals in different parts of Bengal in general and India in particular.

The desire to speak for someone else is the regular exercise she had pursued throughout her life. Mahasweta Devi navigated to social activism and had a strong commitment towards the tribal population in India. As per Census , about tribal and indigenous people form about 8. The position of this population has been more precarious than the others in many ways.

Mahasweta Devi played a significant role in eliminating and minimising their exploitation. Under the Criminal Tribes Act, , many tribal people were branded as criminals by the British government during the colonial period and their rights to forest were curtailed. The tribal person emerges as an archetypal subaltern whose voice has been gagged through centuries.

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She pointed out how the privileged communities never tried to know and respect the tribal communities and as a result, the former have often tried to destroy and obstruct the life and living of the latter. Throughout her life, she was closely associated with the common people. Her line of action followed a pattern which begins and ends with the poor, downtrodden and deprived communities.

She has exposed repeatedly the brutal oppression of the untouchable tribal communities by the upper-caste landlords. They are deprived of the dignity to live and Mahasweta Devi provided constant support to them.