Mapping the Odia Milieu: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of the Selected Short Stories of Gopinath Mohanty

In the realm of Odia literature, invincible is the name of the Jnanpith awardee Gopinath Mohanty. The way he vibrantly captures the raw realities of Odia’s rural life with an acute depiction of the underprivileged and their unabashed hunger amidst a world that is indifferent to their existence speaks a lot of his craftsmanship. In the struggle for survival, man is very similar to the other creatures of this universe and there is hardly any differentiation when one seeks shelter in the lap of nature. This struggle is where all the communities bereft of their distinct tribal identities appear as an undivided mass and are presented in sheer contrast to the subtleties that prevail in the higher echelons of society. However, in such fleeting instances of spine-chilling hunger, humanity lingers around. This paper aims to analyse Mohanty’s portrayal of the quest for survival in his manoeuvre of short stories and throw light on what essentially could be learned from these predicaments of the marginalized of which most of the population is unaware.