Summary
The narrator, an older woman, sees the ten-year-old Moyna chasing a snake and calls out for her to stop. The girl indignantly asks why, and the old woman says it is a cobra, not a grass or rat snake. The girl replies that it is okay because her family eats snakes, but the narrator tells her to leave it alone.
The narrator takes Moyna back to the Samiti (learning center) office where she works and where Khiri, the girl’s mother, is weaving a basket. The narrator asks Moyna if she wants to rest and Moyna asks why, and who will bring the goats home and do the other chores. Khiri reminds Moyna to thank the Babu for the rice he sent them, but Moyna scoffs and asks why, when she does so many jobs for him and he never thanks her.
Moyna runs off and Khiri tells the narrator with a sigh that Moyna has so many questions and the postmaster calls her the “why-why girl.” The narrator says she likes her, but Khiri responds by saying her daughter is just obstinate.
Moyna and her family are Shabars, a “poor tribal group, and they owned no land. But nobody complained.” Moyna has to work because her mother has a bad leg and her father is far away looking for work, and her brother collects the firewood. She does her jobs but “[is] neither humble nor grateful.” She wonders why she has to eat others’ leftovers and always asks questions.
The narrator is staying in the village for a month and Moyna declares she will go live with her. Khiri does not agree initially, but Moyna stubbornly says she will still work and then go to the narrator’s hut afterwards. She brings with her a small mongoose.
The narrator has a marvelous time with Moyna. The questions remain—why she has to tend the Babu’s goats, and questions about the stars and fish. One evening Moyna asks why the narrator reads books and the narrator tells her the answers to all her questions are in them. Moyna decides she will learn to read so she can answer the questions for herself.
Moyna tells the other children what she learns. The narrator leaves and then returns a year later. She hears Moyna’s voice asking why the school is closed. The teacher, Maliti, explains that the hours are nine to eleven in the morning. Moyna stamps her foot and says she grazes goats at that time and the hours ought to be changed.
In the evening the narrator goes to Moyna’s house and hears her telling her little sister and elder brother about why you cut one tree but plant two, and why you wash your hands.
Moyna is the first girl to be admitted to the village primary school. Now she is 18 and a teacher at the Samiti and impatiently tells her students to always ask questions, to always ask why. If she knew that the narrator was writing her story, no doubt she’d say, “Writing about me? Why?”
Analysis
“The Why-Why Girl” is Devi’s first picture book, and as it is for children, it naturally does not possess the intensity of her short stories and novels for adults; however, it is far from simplistic, and it does allude to the position of the subaltern, to education, and to gender. R. Pavithra sums up the story thusly: “Moyna is burdened with the triple handicap of being a child, a female and a tribal. Not only does Mahasweta expose the extreme oppression of children in rural India but she shows the way out.” There are dichotomies at play, such as “urban life and life close to nature, the rich and the poor, the divide between the literate and the illiterate, between adult and child, and above all, the divide between those who ask ‘why’ and those who don’t.”
The narrator states that Moyna is a Shabar, a low-caste tribe. This is made clear in how she and her family “owned no land” and do work for the babu, the wealthy landowner, and how she feels unappreciated. She has to “bring the goats home . . . collect firewood and fetch water and lay traps for the birds” and the babu never thanks her. Even though the Shabars “did not usually send their daughters to work,” family circumstances dictate that this has to be the case for Moyna. The rest of the Shabars seem accustomed to their lot in life–“nobody complained”—but Moyna is keen-witted, observant, and restless. She does not understand nor reconcile herself to the inequities of her life.
Moyna is best known for her incessant asking of questions. This is something that her mother finds frustrating, as young girls should not be so vocal and critical, and she thus labels her daughter “obstinate.” This attitude dismisses and denigrates Moyna’s curiosity and trenchant mind. Questions are invaluable; Pavithra writes that “it is these questions that push the imaginary boundaries and bring about change, inspire inventions and make people discover new things.”
Thankfully, the narrator (a stand-in for Devi herself) seems to understand what motivates Moyna. She allows her to stay in her hut with her, has an excellent time with her, and, most importantly, introduces her to reading and books, which will be the conduit through which Moyna finally has her questions answered. Moyna learns to read and begins to share her knowledge with others, which makes her a good member of her community, but certain avenues are still closed to her because of her gender and caste: she is not easily able to attend school and finds it completely unjust. We do not know exactly how she fulfills her desire to learn, but she does and continues, as an eighteen-year-old teacher, to pass on what she learned and how she learned it to other young people. Devi demonstrates a profound respect for children in this story, subtly suggesting the difficulties young people in India face but asserting their “right to survival and protection and the right to develop to their full potential . . . [and] the right and responsibility to build a better world in partnership with adults.”
