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@article{190211,
        author = {Dr. Ruby Kumari},
        title = {Literature as Political Intervention: A Comparative Analysis of Mahasweta Devi and Arundhati Roy},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {8},
        pages = {3925-3932},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=190211},
        abstract = {Indian English literature has long functioned as a powerful medium of political intervention, interrogating structures of power, marginalization, and resistance. This article undertakes a comparative analysis of Mahasweta Devi and Arundhati Roy, two seminal writers whose literary and activist engagements foreground subaltern struggles and challenge dominant political discourses in postcolonial India. Drawing upon selected fictional and non-fictional works of both authors, the study examines how literature becomes a site of political consciousness, ethical resistance, and social critique. Mahasweta Devi’s narratives emerge from grassroots realities, giving voice to tribal, Dalit, and dispossessed communities silenced by state violence and capitalist exploitation. In contrast, Arundhati Roy’s writings combine literary imagination with overt political polemic, critiquing neo-liberalism, militarization, and democratic erosion from both national and global perspectives. While Devi’s politics is rooted in lived experience and collective resistance, Roy’s approach reflects a more discursive and transnational mode of dissent. The article argues that despite differences in narrative strategies, ideological positioning, and literary form, both writers deploy literature as an instrument of political awakening and moral urgency. By juxtaposing Devi’s subaltern realism with Roy’s activist cosmopolitanism, the study highlights literature’s transformative role in confronting injustice and reimagining democratic possibilities. Ultimately, the paper asserts that their works reaffirm literature’s enduring capacity to intervene in political discourse and inspire critical engagement with power and resistance in contemporary India.},
        keywords = {Mahasweta Devi; Arundhati Roy; Political Literature; Subaltern Studies; Indian Writing in English; Resistance Narratives; Literature and Power; Social Justice; State Violence; Literary Activism.},
        month = {January},
        }