DHARMA AND DISOBEDIENCE: ETHICAL SOVEREIGNTY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE LIGHT OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA FRAMEWORK, SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR, AND MAHASWETA DEVI’S MOTHER OF 1084

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the idea of dharma by reading the ethical philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita alongside William Shakespeare’s King Lear and Mahasweta Devi’s Mother of 1084. In the Gita, duty is not passive obedience but thoughtful, self-aware action aligned with a larger moral order. When this framework is brought to Shakespeare’s tragedy, Lear’s downfall appears less as fate and more as an ethical misjudgement. His abdication of responsibility in exchange for emotional affirmation reveals what A. C. Bradley identifies as the inward fracture at the heart of tragic greatness. Lear’s authority collapses because it is severed from discernment and care. In contrast, Sujata’s trajectory in Devi’s novel unfolds as a movement toward ethical clarity. Initially confined within domestic roles, she gradually transforms her private grief into a public questioning of state violence. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s insights into subaltern agency help illuminate how Sujata’s mourning becomes a political gesture, refusing erasure and silence. Seen through the Gita’s principle of nishkama karma, her actions embody a form of responsibility unmotivated by personal gain. The paper argues that both texts challenge simplistic notions of obedience and rebellion, suggesting instead that true sovereignty rests on accountability, moral courage, and a willingness to confront injustice without attachment to power.