Mother Indian and Feminine Discourse

Released in 1957 to critical and public acclaim, Mother India by Mehboob Khan accomplished feats unparalleled by any Hindi film up till that time. The film engaged the audience in a complicated discourse about femininity in post-colonial India, and portrayed a complex female heroine who experienced transformative change onscreen to become an allegorical symbol for nationalism, morality, and femininity in modern India. “Mother India is most usefully seen as an arena within which a number of discourses around female chastity, modern nationalism, and, more broadly, morality intersect and feed on each other, with significant political effects.” (Thomas, 1989) Radha’s traditional female Indianness in reinforced from the opening scenes of the film. An elderly Radha is first depicted seated on the ground clutching a clod of dirt to her face. This shot immediately establishes her as stature as a metaphor for Mother Earth. In the ensuing marriage sequence her chasteness is well established; she wears a veil that cover her face, and in Ramu’s symbolic lifting of the veil her purity is reinforced. She and other women in the film are frequently filmed hiding their faces with the bangles on their wrists, which serve as a metaphor for preserving honor, or izzat. These and other instances of physical symbolism confirm Radha’s status as the quintessential Indian woman, one who is demure and chaste.

Khan and Nargis beautifully elevate the politics of Radha’s femininity throughout the film. “As Wadley has pointed out, in the Hindu tradition not only does femaleness embody a fundamental duality – woman as bestower and as destroyer – but female sexual energy is always potentially dangerous but can become beneficent (to men) if controlled through marriage or otherwise subjugated to male authority.” (Thomas, 1989) At the start of marriage, Radha massages her husband Ramu’s feet, denoting her service to his needs. She lets her sons drink from her cup, eat from her plate, and sleep in bed with their father while she sleeps on the floor below them further adding credibility to the theory of marriage as a mechanism for female control. However, when Ramu loses the use of his arms after a boulder crushes him, Radha begins to take on the role of the provider for the family. When her husband leaves the family due to his unbearable shame the transformation of Radha from human mother to Earth mother is complete; she loses her sindoor, signifying the end of her marriage to Ramu, and instead she becomes married to the land. Rather than her physical body being a symbol for fertility her metaphorical body – the land around her – becomes the medium for fertility. When her fellow villagers make to abandon the land – the symbol for national pride – it is Radha who convinces them to renew their metaphorical vows to the land. In doing so, Radha unites the families together through the spirit of hard work and ownership of the land, which culminates in the overtly nationalistic shot of pre-division India, enforcing the theory of woman as a metaphor for the nation and nation building.

In one of the most memorable scenes from the film, Radha confronts the moneylender Sukhilal in his home. While the moneylender is clean and well dressed, Radha wears a filthy sari and is covered in mud. This shot challenges the viewer to separate the characters from their appearance and see them for what they represent; Sukhilal, a devious leech who preys on the weak and ignorant, and Radha, the noble martyr who devotes her life to her family and, ultimately, her nation.

“Radha’s defiant refusals of Sukhilal’s advances thus is constructed less as a stand against male sexual oppression of women than as evidence of faith in Lakshmi and as a refusal to dishonor her husband and hence her suhaag.” (Thomas, 1989) At first glance it is easy to agree with Thomas’s assessment. Radha grips the Sukhilal’s shrine, which could be construed as her clinging to traditions, and beseeching help from the gods. Yet immediately after this Radha throws caution to the wind and beats Sukhilal with her bare hands till he falls prostrate at her feet. This use of violence clearly uses fire to fight fire by using archetypal male violence to counter Sukhilal’s villainy. Throughout the film, Radha is seen as being pulled in conflicting directions; she is pulled by Ramu and Birju in the fight over the stolen bangles and the gun, and between feeding her family and retaining her own personal honor. In each instance she performs how best she sees fit, in accordance with how she believes she should act according to her own moral code and the laws of society.

The relationship between Birju and Radha becomes an intricate landscape where masculinity and femininity are navigated with increasing intersexuality. From the get go Birju is set up to become a dacoit, or armed outlaw. He is an aggressive and disobedient child whose first answer to any problem is always violence. As an adult Birju’s overt masculinity and violent behavior becomes magnified. He is frequently pictured wearing a red turban at a cockish angle, a sign of his rakishness. On multiple occasions Birju throws stones at the water pots carried by the unmarried village women, which is his way of blindly lashing out at an unjust world regardless of the consequences. Despite all Birju’s bad behavior he is also seen to be interested in learning to read, a symbol that one villager sagely warns can make men weak. He also refuses to violate Chandra’s chastity when he raids her wedding caravan; he lifts up her veil, but lets it immediately fall, keeping her purity intact. Throughout it all, Birju remains Radha’s favored son; she admires his strength and passion, and in many ways he takes the place of her late husband. Birju returns her pawned wedding jewelry to her, signifying the restoration of her lost honor, and he fights the battle against Sukhilal that no one else is willing to fight. In the end it is only Birju’s attempted rape of Rupa that drives him away from his beloved mother; this most grievous breach of honor and morality is intolerable by Radha, who by the end of the film has become symbol for all the women of the village. She becomes the embodiment of the female God and destroyer Kali when she confronts and kills Birju, restoring the delicate balance that Birju has upset. Just as Birju was once the protector of his mother’s honor, Radha becomes the protector of female chasteness and honor.