Depiction Of Tribal’s Migration Experience In Gopinath Mohanty Paraja.

Abstract

Gopinath Mohanty is a contemporary Indian tribal writer who deals with the life and experience of tribal people and their culture. His novel  Paraja highlights the importance of community and solidarity in adversity. The present study explores how Gopinath Mohanty delves into the lives of the Paraja tribe, an indigenous community in Odisha, India, and how they migrated from one place to another place for survival. It also traces how the tribal community is forced to migrate in search of livelihood as they fall into the trap of debt and exploitation by landlords and moneylenders. This migration represents a physical displacement and a loss of identity and cultural heritage. This group of tribals moved away from their ancestral lands and settled in a new land. In the new land, they are facing alienation and struggle to adapt to the unfamiliar and often hostile environments, symbolizing the broader impact of modernization on Indigenous populations. Their family's debt mounts in the new land; they work as bonded laborers (known as gothis) for the landlord exploiting them. The novel offers a deep exploration of the intersection between tradition and modernity through the characters.