Mother India: Anshuman Didwania

Mother India as one of the most iconic movies in Indian cinema explores various themes that would go on to define and project national identity after India’s independence from British colonialism in 1947. It not only captured and portrayed nationalistic sentiments, Mother India also consolidated the viewers’ understanding and perspective on what womanhood meant to modern India as it sought to rebuild itself from the ground up. Thus, the key themes that I would like to highlight from the movie are:

·       Portrayal of Nationalism

·       Womanhood in Modern India

PORTRAYAL OF NATIONALISM

Mother India by Mehboob Khan was released in 1955, soon after India’s independence and allegedly in response to Katherine Mayo’s controversial namesake book, that took a very aggressively negative perspective on India’s culture and its ability to govern as an independent entity – the heart of the argument being firmly planted in the Indian psyche towards women and the role of women in society. Mother India was meant to provide a contrarian view and dispute the claims made by Katherine Mayo – it was meant to highlight not just a nationalistic sentiment that arose as a result of post-colonial fervor, but also India’s respect and honor for womanhood, so much so that the country was viewed as a “mother”. However, Mehboob Khan’s Mother India did not stop at stirring nationalism through centralizing womanhood as the core essence of the new nation – Mother India also represented the trials and tribulations of independence which India, defined by its mass peasant class, would battle against with sheer determination and hard work, and against all odds, to redeem themselves in the end. Nargis’ progress, from an impoverished mother who has perennially struggled to make ends meet, to a respected village elder seemed to be a major personification of the aspirational success grounded in tenacity and perseverance.

Another point of note was how Muslims, in the wake of the Partition of 1947, would integrate within India, and begin to play such an important part in Bollywood (highlighted by Vijay Prasad in “The Texts of Mother India”) – Mehboob Khan would set the stage for the Khans, the Rahmans and the Akhtars of the future.

WOMANHOOD IN MODERN INDIA

            While motherhood is an obvious motif evident in the very name of the movie, womanhood much more broadly was subtly portrayed as the driving force behind the reconstruction of modern India – starting at the very fundamentals with the individual family units in the millions of Indian villages. Through the role of Radha, Nargis would embody the roles of the hardworking, sincere and loyal villager, wife, mother, and citizen – she would serve as the nucleus of her family first, and then the larger community, never fatiguing, but always maintaining honor and dignity. The imagery – from Radha’s iconic scene with the plough to her scene where she shoots Birju – represents all that the Indian woman would stand for in the reconstruction of the nation, holding virtues that were not very different from the numerous goddesses that pervade Hindu sentiments and faith. What is interesting to note that in the elevation of womanhood, manhood is emaciated – through the lecherous and usurious Sukhilala, the uncontrollable Birju, the illiterate Shamu, and the powerless Ramu – all of whom either abandon their responsibilities, or fall short when called upon, unlike Radha.