Our Non-veg Cow
Mahasweta Devi
Our Non-veg Cow reveals Mahasweta Devi’s whimsical and funny children stories of reality – Discuss.
Or,
How does Devi show her point of view upon the British ruled India through her story, ‘Our Non-Veg Cow’?
Answer: Mahasweta Devi is popular for her astonishing versatility as the guardian of the conscience of the poor and the downtrodden. The reform of two parallel explorations - one related to the fun and imagination of the children's world and the other to the more deadly and complex, adult world where violence and bloodshed, anarchy and class domination – is emphasized by the few selected stories. Simultaneously Devi tried her creative to demonstrate the process.
In this story, Our Non-Veg Cow, Mahasweta Devi happily reveals a fresh face as the author of the disguised and funny children’s story. This is an aspect of his personality that the young readers of Bengal have enjoyed and saved for over thirty years. These irresistible stories abound with improbable and colorful characters: an intensely meatless vegetarian cow, domesticated pets, who give fried fish to wolves and get drunk on local spirits; The indomitable mocker of a brother who gets himself and everyone else into trouble by his naughty tactics; A father who thinks nothing of filling the whole house with chickens and chicks while running the economy; And a fun repertoire of others like the cheetah, the little creature that arbitrarily transforms into pebbles or mongooses.
The story, Our Non-Veg Cow, brilliantly presents the children's reality agenda and inspires the Devi’s to move forward, much like Rushdie in the tradition of magic realists who paralyzed Gabriel without his parachute in his controversial novel The Satanic Verses (1988). He took refuge in the captivating descriptions that came down from heaven. According to the same, the Devi also adopted the cow, the most faithful and sacred domestic animal in Hindu mythology; He has achieved what seems incredible but in hindsight he is well aware that there is still a lot of social inconsistency to liberate this kind of older society from society. Crop problems occur when cows become a danger to the children of the family by eating their school books. No one can feel the humorous and ridiculous story of eating a book with a guru: “This is the fastest way to study, look! He is going to eat the book with determination! That's what his father reveals.
Mahasweta Devi here seems to have shown two faults usually related to children; they don’t take care of their books and show them their way on how to get access to knowledge from cow books by consuming books. Ironically, he challenged the conventional method of collecting knowledge by heart. The cow became addicted to vegetarian food and became very strong in its complexity with its broken body frame food; all attempts to test his strength by placing him in a secure cow-shed would fail as he would jump from just above his waist, from the ankles of the cows.
However, the most striking aspect of her character is her bitter words to the British Raj: “Fighting against the British police was no joke! Nyadosh (the name of the cow) is probably the only cow in British-ruled India against which a police case has been filed. The revolt against the British rule was well publicized by her mouthpiece. And the story of his reformation as a domesticated animal holds even more significance in the context of the story.
In the insightful eyes of Anish and Abu, “The cow is like a scientist. She wants to dive deeper in search of factual truth. She doesn’t like the straw in her shed; He wants to get the source of it. "The cow is known for its uniqueness and became a type of dreamer; he never protested against any kind of rebellion, but he fought against all adversities like true patriotism which was a major theme for Indians during British rule. Colonial writers were also in favor of the concept of "alternative modernity" for self-presentation.
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