What is it about?
Has India fulfilled its aims as a republic? Sections of people still suffer inequities, exploitation, oppression and denial of civil rights, stemming from economic differences based on caste, gender and class, that impact the access to basic amenities for sustenance of life like food and water. Water, especially, often becomes the leverage for power-play or hydro-politics. Texts by Bharati Sarabhai, Mahasweta Devi, Vinodini and Tagore exemplify this power struggle.
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Why is it important?
The issue of hydro-politics as reflected in literary texts, its multi-layered and debilitating effect on the life of the marginalised people in India has not been adequately discussed. The discussion here indicates the way a republic like India can fulfil its aim of being a rue welfare state.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a rewarding exercise to understand the social and political engagement every text invites by drawing attention to the values that must impact one's ethics and life.
Tutun Mukherjee
University of Hyderabad
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: How Fares the Well? A Study of the Interstices of the Welfare State: Bharati Sarabhai’s The Well of the People (1943), Mahasweta Devi’s Jal/Water (1976), and Vinodini’s Daaham/Thirst (2005), SAGE Open, July 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/2158244017723953.
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