I have always believed that the real history is made by ordinary people. I constantly come across the reappearance, in various forms, of folklore, ballads, myths and legends, carried by ordinary people across generations....The reason and inspiration for my writing are those people who are exploited and used, and yet do not accept defeat. For me, the endless source of ingredients for writing is in these amazingly, noble, suffering human beings. Why should I look for my raw material elsewhere, once I have started knowing them? Sometimes it seems to me that my writing is really their doing.

This is truly the age where the Joota (shoe) is Japani (Japanese), Patloon (pants) is Englistani (British), the Topi (hat) is Roosi (Russian), But the Dil... Dil (heart) is always Hindustani (Indian)... My country, Torn, Tattered, Proud, Beautiful, Hot, Humid, Cold, Sandy, Shining India. My country.

• Hajar Churashir Ma (No. 1084's Mother, 1975)
• Aranyer Adhikar (The Occupation of the Forest, 1977)
• Agnigarbha (Womb of Fire, 1978)
• Bitter Soil tr, Ipsita Chandra. Seagull, 1998. Four stories.
• Choti Munda evam Tar Tir (Choti Munda and His Arrow, 1980)
• Imaginary Maps (translated by Gayatri Spivak London & New York. Routledge,1995)
• Dhowli (Short Story)
• Dust on the Road (Translated into English by Maitreya Ghatak. Seagull, Calcutta.)
• Our Non-Veg Cow (Seagull Books, Calcutta, 1998. Translated from Bengali by Paramita Banerjee.)
• Bashai Tudu (Translated into English by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak and Shamik Bandyopadhyay. Thima, Calcutta, 1993)
• Titu Mir
• Rudali
• Breast Stories (Translated into English by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak. Seagull, Calcutta, 1997)
• Of Women, Outcasts, Peasants, and Rebels (Translated into English By Kalpana Bardhan,University of California, 1990.) Six stories.
• Ek-kori's Dream (Translated into English by Lila Majumdar. N.B.T., 1976)
• The Book of the Hunter (Seagull India, 2002)
• Outcast (Seagull, India, 2002)
• In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (Translated into English by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak. Methuyen and Company, 1987. New York, London)
• Till Death Do Us Part
• Old Women
• Kulaputra (Translated into Kannada by Sreemathi H.S. CVG Publications, Bangalore)
• The Why-Why Girl (Tulika, Chennai.)
• Dakatey Kahini

Films based on Mahasweta Devi's works

• Sunghursh (1968), based on her story, which presented a fictionalized account of vendetta within a Thuggee cult in the city of Varanasi.
• Rudaali (1993)
• Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998)
• Maati Maay (2006) , based on short story, Daayen

• 1979: Sahitya Akademi Award (Bengali): — Aranyer Adhikar (novel)
• 1986: Padma Shri
• 1996: Jnanpith Award - the highest literary award from the Bharatiya Jnanpith
• 1997: Ramon Magsaysay Award - Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts
• 1999: Honoris causa - Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
• 2006: Padma Vibhushan - the second highest civilian award from the Government of India