Mahasweta Devi’s Chotti Munda and His Arrow expose the tribal history of the Munda community and others with colonial and post-colonial history. Devi attempts to highlight tribal history to emphasize their social lifestyle and their struggles for their rights and livelihood. Additionally, she also unfolds how they were treated and taken advantage of by others. Devi says in her interview with Gayatri C Spivak, I have seen with my eyes what the Emergency meant, what was done. The criminalization of politics, letting the lumpen loose in the lower caste and tribal belts. Inhuman torture and oppression (p. ix, Translators Foreword). The bonded labor system limits them to practice farming on their own, resulting in the loss of individuals rights and displaying their inability to raise their voices against suppressors which depict the voiceless prevalence of Munda society. This is clearly shown as the land they rarely possessed was small and uneconomical. Their crop yielding was very insignificant. The scarcity of banking facilities in the tribal areas forced them to the moneylenders owing to their
extreme economic liability. Consequently, they remain regularly indebted. The colonial policies have resulted in the brutal exploitation of the tribal in different ways as the landlords favored, money lenders and the forest contractors. Thus displaying their inability to raise their voices against the suppressor. Devi brilliantly portrays the subjugation of tribal communities not only by the landlords of their community but also by those who work for the government in the interest of their benefit. She shows a huge gap between the rich oppressor and the poor oppressed. Thus, by projecting such a scenario, Devi brings pictures of exploitation, corruption, and hypocritical plans and laws. The novel, Chotti Munda and His Arrow, also presents the religious conversion among this ethnic group besides highlighting political and historical background. While the historical references expose the benefits of the Mission offered to the Mundas community, Chottis disapproval registers the threat Christianity poses to adivasis cultural identity which is the primordial existence and backbone of their community.