Bitter Soil

Four of Mahasweta Devi's most powerful stories–'Salt', 'Seed', 'The Witch' and 'Little Ones'–all set in Palamau, the tribal intensive region she has travelled extensively. As she says in her introduction, 'My Palamau is a mirror of India.' These harsh, hard-hitting pieces are, in her own words, among the most important of her prolific writing career. Written in the 1980s, they resonate with anger against the exploitation she witnessed first hand, and the complacent hypocrisy of the upper castes and classes.