ECHOES IN THE MATRIX: LOCATING THE PARAJA VOICE AT THE NEXUS OF MOHANTY'S TEXT, TRIBAL TONGUE, AND A DISINTEGRATING TRIBE

Abstract [English]

This paper employs the postcolonial metaphor of "the Matrix" to locate the voice of the
Paraja, an indigenous tribe from Odisha, India. This "Matrix" represents the inescapable
system of colonial and post-colonial law, capital, and state power that has overwritten the
tribe's reality. The Paraja voice, it is argued, is not a clear cry of resistance but a series of faint
"echoes" resonating from three distinct but interconnected sources: the profound literary
testimony of Gopinath Mohanty's 1945 novel, Paraja; the fading cadence of the endangered
Parji tribal tongue; and the scarred corporeal reality of the disintegrating tribe itself. Through
an interdisciplinary analysis that weaves together literary criticism, linguistics, and
anthropology, this paper traces these echoes to construct a composite portrait of a people
trapped in a system they cannot comprehend. The study reveals how the loss of land,
language, and culture are not separate tragedies but integrated functions of a single,
all-consuming machine, positioning the Paraja's story as a universal allegory for the plight of
indigenous communities confronting a globalized, materialistic civilization.