Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa
Hajar Churashir Maa (Bengali: হাজার চুরাশির মা, lit. 'Mother of 1084'), commonly referred to in Hindi as Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, is a 1974 novel by Indian author and activist Mahasweta Devi that chronicles the grief of Sujata Chatterjee, an upper-middle-class mother in Calcutta confronting her son Brati's death as a Naxalite militant, identified solely by morgue number 1084.[1][2] Set against the backdrop of the Naxalbari uprising and ensuing Maoist insurgency in West Bengal during the late 1960s and 1970s, the narrative exposes the chasm between detached urban elites and the radical responses to entrenched rural poverty and caste oppression that fueled armed rebellion.[1][3] Devi's work, drawing from documented events of police encounters and revolutionary violence, underscores the personal devastation wrought by ideological fervor and state countermeasures, while critiquing societal indifference to systemic inequities.[4] In 1998, the novel was adapted into a Hindi film of the same name directed by Govind Nihalani, with Jaya Bachchan portraying Sujata, amplifying its examination of maternal awakening amid political turmoil.[5][3]Background
Original Novel
Hajar Churashir Maa (Bengali: হাজার চুরাশির মা, meaning "Mother of 1084"), a novel by Mahasweta Devi, was first published in Bengali in 1974. The work originated amid the violent suppression of the Naxalite movement in West Bengal, where state forces conducted operations resulting in hundreds of militant deaths, often documented only by sequential numbers rather than names. Devi, a Bengali writer and activist focused on marginalized communities including Adivasis, composed the narrative to highlight the human cost of ideological conflicts on familial bonds.[1][6] The novel's structure interweaves the protagonist's introspective journey with flashbacks to her son's radicalization, drawing from documented Naxalite activities between 1967 and the early 1970s, including armed uprisings against landlords and police encounters that claimed over 1,000 lives in West Bengal alone by 1972. Devi's portrayal avoids romanticizing violence, instead emphasizing societal detachment from revolutionary fervor among urban elites. An English translation titled Mother of 1084, rendered by Samik Bandyopadhyay, appeared in 1997 through Seagull Books, broadening access beyond Bengali readers and facilitating international discussions on Indian political literature.[1][7] Subsequent editions and analyses, including academic examinations, underscore the novel's role in critiquing bourgeois indifference to subaltern struggles, though some interpretations attribute Devi's perspective to her documented affiliations with left-leaning causes, potentially influencing the emphasis on state brutality over militant tactics. The text's concise length—approximately 130 pages in English—facilitates its study in postcolonial and feminist literary contexts, with no major revisions to the original Bengali edition reported.[6][7]Historical Context of Naxalism
The Naxalite movement originated as a radical peasant uprising in Naxalbari village, located in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, during May 1967. Triggered by longstanding agrarian grievances, including exploitative sharecropping systems and the failure of the ruling United Front government—comprising the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M)—to enforce effective land reforms, the revolt began when local tribal sharecroppers, led by figures such as Jangal Santhal, retaliated against landlords seizing crops and evicting tenants. On May 24, 1967, a police constable was killed in clashes following the death of a sharecropper's son, escalating into widespread attacks on landowners' properties and symbols of authority, which proponents framed as the inception of a Maoist-inspired armed agrarian revolution.[8][9] Ideologically rooted in Mao Zedong's doctrine of protracted people's war, the movement rejected electoral politics and parliamentary communism, advocating instead for the annihilation of class enemies through guerrilla tactics to seize power for landless peasants and workers. Charu Majumdar, a key ideologue and former CPI(M) member, played a pivotal role by authoring the "Historic Eight Documents" that outlined this strategy, emphasizing individual assassinations of landlords, police, and perceived bourgeoisie as a means to spark broader insurrection, drawing inspiration from China's Cultural Revolution and rejecting the CPI(M)'s gradualist approach. By late 1967, the uprising had spread to adjacent areas like Kharibari and Phansidewa, attracting radical intellectuals and students disillusioned with mainstream leftism, though the West Bengal government under CPI(M) influence swiftly deployed police forces, resulting in over 100 deaths by July 1967 and the temporary suppression of rural mobilization.[9][10] In the early 1970s, Naxalism urbanized in Calcutta (now Kolkata), evolving into a broader insurgency involving middle-class youth who formed squads for targeted killings of policemen, professors, and informants, amid escalating street violence that claimed hundreds of lives annually. The formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), or CPI(ML), in April 1969 under Majumdar's leadership formalized the split from CPI(M), but internal factionalism and the strategy's emphasis on spontaneous violence over organized bases weakened cohesion. The Indian government's response intensified with the imposition of President's Rule in West Bengal in February 1968, followed by Operation Steeplechase in 1971—a coordinated military-police offensive involving the Indian Army and Central Reserve Police Force that dismantled urban networks through mass arrests, torture, and extra-judicial killings, culminating in Majumdar's arrest and death in police custody on July 28, 1972. This phase marked the first decline of Naxalism, reducing its active presence in West Bengal by the mid-1970s, though agrarian inequities persisted as underlying causes.[10][9]Plot
The film Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, set in Calcutta during the Naxalite insurgency of the early 1970s, centers on Sujata Chatterjee, an upper-middle-class bank employee married to the retired Dibyanath Chatterjee. Their only son, Brati, a university student presumed by the family to be pursuing studies abroad, has secretly joined the radical Naxalite movement advocating armed struggle against perceived class oppression.[11][3] The story unfolds as Sujata receives a call from the police to identify an unidentified corpse numbered 1084 in the morgue, which she discovers is Brati, killed during a confrontation with authorities. Devastated and isolated from her indifferent husband, who prioritizes social appearances and dismisses political unrest, Sujata begins piecing together her son's hidden life through fragmented memories and encounters.[11][2] She connects with Brati's former comrade and romantic partner, Nandini, who elucidates the Naxalites' ideology, their operations against landowners and police, and the brutal crackdowns they faced, including mass arrests and extrajudicial killings in 1971–1972. These revelations force Sujata to confront her family's detachment from societal inequalities and her own role in Brati's alienation.[11][3] Amid familial tensions and societal judgment branding Brati a terrorist, Sujata's grief evolves into quiet defiance, culminating in a personal reckoning that bridges her bourgeois world with the revolutionary fervor that claimed her son.[11][2]Cast and Characters
Jaya Bachchan portrays Sujata Chatterjee, a middle-class housewife in Calcutta whose life unravels upon learning that her son Brati has been killed in police custody as the 1084th Naxalite detainee, prompting her confrontation with his hidden revolutionary life.[12] This role marked Bachchan's return to feature films after a 10-year hiatus.[13] Anupam Kher plays Dibyanath Chatterjee, Sujata's husband and a retired bank manager representing the apathetic bourgeois complacency critiqued in the narrative.[12] Joy Sengupta enacts Brati Chatterjee, the deceased son whose Naxalite involvement and ideological commitment drive the story's exploration of political extremism.[14] Seema Biswas appears as the mother of Somu, a fellow Naxalite, highlighting the human cost of the movement among the underprivileged.[12] Nandita Das makes her film debut in a supporting role as one of Brati's comrades, contributing to the depiction of the urban guerrilla network.[15] Milind Gunaji and other actors fill roles such as security personnel and activists, fleshing out the conflict between state forces and insurgents.[14]| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Jaya Bachchan | Sujata Chatterjee |
| Anupam Kher | Dibyanath Chatterjee |
| Joy Sengupta | Brati Chatterjee |
| Seema Biswas | Somu's mother |
| Nandita Das | Comrade |
| Milind Gunaji | Supporting role |