“Do not say anything, Sajoni Kisku!”: Narratives of Adivasi Women Heroism between History and Poetry

Abstract

This paper explores new gender-based storytelling narratives, with a particular focus on the contemporary writings of Adivasi women from eastern India. It analyses the construction of female heroism in the works of Nirmala Putul (born 1972), Vasavi Kiro (born 1967) and Alma Grace Barla (born 1982). These contemporary writers construct the archetype of the Adivasi woman hero by drawing from two sources: on one hand, the memory of women heroes from colonial-era rebellions; on the other, the everyday experiences of Adivasi women confronting social constraints at the grassroots level. These narratives address women-related issues through the re-telling of historical facts and through the use of poetry, thus employing various forms of writing as platforms to claim their space within patriarchal structures. Women-related issues are addressed through narration, focusing not only on claiming women’s rights as a separate category but also on framing these rights as inherent to all human beings. However, these writings do not adopt a radical feminist approach. Instead, their primary aim is to maintain and preserve Adivasi cultural identity and collective cohesion. In doing so, this paper aims to show how the act of storytelling itself becomes a form of resistance.