Abstract

Not only in the laymen's view but even within the critical domain the notion of violence for a long period has been demeaned and debunked. Recent studies and investigations on the various forms of violence have revealed its certain unexplored dimensions as the idea undergoes various stages of evolution. This paper attempts to explore the popular connotations of violence considering its dynamic and multidimensional nature by providing a suitable theoretical ground concerning the two major works of Mahasweta Devi: “Draupadi” and Mother of 1084. The paper not only foregrounds the violence inherent in the statecraft in terms of the state dealing with the subaltern and marginalized classes but simultaneously attempts to revisualize the discourse of violence in a different form from what is prescribed by the Foucauldian analyses of power and relook at it from the ideology of Fanon. The paper thus argues for delivering the agency from an objective centrality of truth to a subjective interpretation of violence. With this, the idea gets further problematized questioning the degree of legitimacy of revolutionary violence and thus keeps the debate open.