Paraja: A critical analysis of exploitation & loss of culture

In Indian English Literature, much attention has not been paid to the tribal life and culture by the writers. The present paper aims to study and explore the life, loss of culture and exploitation, as it has emerged in the post independence novel Paraja. Gopinath Mohanty’s novel Paraja (1945) documents the cultural history and heritage of ethnicity, myths, legends and socio-cultural representation of the Paraja tribe of the Koraput region in Odisha, simultaneously signifying their poverty and struggle and their exploitation by the non- tribes. The novel is unique in ways because it offers a study of tribal life and culture from anthropological, sociological and ecological perspectives.