DISCLOSING THE PARTICULARS OF RAPE: ILA MITRA’S DEFIANCE AGAINST HEGEMONY

In the history of Tebhaga Movement, Ila Mitra is a prominent figure. Like a true leader, she has planned and initiated an armed rebellion against the tyrannical landlords. She is arrested and gang-raped inside the police station. But as a brave warrior, she fights back to normal life. Her story does not end here. Breaking the hegemony, she narrates the minute details of her rape publicly and discloses how the state exercises violence upon its subjects to mute rebellions. Despite being a rape victim, she denies to feel ashamed and it stands in sharp contrast to the society’s “structure of feeling”. This article puts focus on her struggle and her radical defiance against male hegemony.