This is the fifth talk in the Prof. Avadhesh Kumar Singh Memorial Lecture Series delivered by  Dr. Rajshree Trivedi on "Whose Rights Over Forests? Re-Reading". Mahasweta Devi’s Tribal Discourses. Mahsweta Devi’s tribal discourses include short stories, novels and activist prose. She visits the past, repeats her/hi(s)tories and captures the present with a remarkable ease in her writings. Devi's works are driven by a cause: to sensitize her readers about the miserable conditions of the tribal people during the pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence times. Rendered landless, jobless, marginalized and hence sometimes forced into criminal acts, the indigenous communities have had a long history of either being exploited or forgotten. In the present talk - incorporating Devi's techniques of weaving mythology, history and socio-political realities in her works - Dr. Trivedi discusses them in the light of Devi's literary activism for the rights of the tribals over their own (generations-dwelled) forests.

The following is the link for the YouTube lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCVHZOZt_aA