First, the film
contains a defense of Indian culture and Indianness in response to Western attitudes
such as the ones propagated in the book Mother India by Katherine Mayo,
especially in the context of women's roles in society. Mayo writes about lower
class women, summarizing their situation as follows: "in total, you have
the half-blind, the aged, the crippled, the palsied and the diseased, drawn
from the dirtiest poor […] sweeper-girl or Brahman, outcaste or queen, there is
essentially little to choose between their lots." Mehboob Khan takes this stereotype
and turns it on its head; while Radha is a lower class woman, she is
characterized as strong, proactive, dutiful, and virtuous (elaborated on later
in this paper). Mayo also criticizes the fact that "ignorance and the purdah
system have brought the women of India to the level of animals," saying
that women are "unable to look after themselves, nor have they any will of
their own. They are slaves to their masculine owners." Radha's situation
responds to this critique. Yes, she is illiterate, and yes, she diligently
wears her purdah; however, she is
shown as the opposite of having any will of her own. For example, Radha takes
the initiative to start tilling the unused 5-acre land to solve their debt
problems. She, and later her daughter-in-law, work to the point of fatigue,
even right before giving birth to their children. This shows a passing of the tradition
of the hard work of mothers to the next generation that will live through the
next few decades of India's independent history. As for being a
"slave" to her "masculine owners," she emerges on the moral
high ground over her husband, Sukhilala, and Birju. Her husband abandons the
family, while she stays back and fights for her children's survival. Sukhilala propagates
society's expectation of womanhood (through the statement "a woman's duty
is motherhood") but Radha goes beyond this definition and takes on the
role of the head of the family and, as we see in the opening and closing
scenes, the symbolic head of the village. Finally, and most significantly, Radha
highlights the importance of preserving women's honor. She goes to the brink of
selling her honor but stops just in time, and at the end of the film, she
shoots Birju as he tries to kidnap and elope with Sukhilala's daughter, deeming
the fact that the girl is a daughter of the village more important than her son's life.
By emphasizing the importance of Radha's honor, Khan shows that she is
definitely not just a slave to other's commands but has a sense of self-worth
and dignity that is valued even above the cost of a man's (Birju's) life.
Radha also
visually reminds me of Rosie the Riveter, a nationalistic icon used to
encourage the women of the World War II era to work in the factories as the men
left to fight the war. During the first few scenes of the flashback, Radha works
tirelessly just two days after getting married – Khan presents several short
shots of her performing several stamina-heavy tasks around the house, such as
grinding the grains to make dough and sweeping the stables. Her visual
appearance also reflects some elements of Rosie the Riveter: for example, the
red and black sari that covers her head is similar to the red bandana on Rosie's
black hair. In the iconic scene that Rushdie passionately describes as "O
Nargis with your shovel over your shoulder and your strand of black hair
tumbling forward over your brow!" (qtd. in Prasad 62), Radha is shown in a
semi-profile view like Rosie. Her facial features and expression in the
grain-grinding scene are very similar visually to Rosie's quiet, determined
look. The character of Radha is also nationalistic like Rosie and is closely
linked with the representation of India and the Indian map as a female body.
For example, Mother India, or in our case, Radha, is "generally shown
modestly clad in a sari," which echoes the idea that the "reformed
sari […] has emerged as the key sartorial marker as the Hindu Indian woman's
difference, even as it indexes her appropriately authentic (and modest) femininity"
(Ramaswamy 12). This complicates the parallel between Radha and Rosie the
Riveter, since Radha is shown preserving traditional Indian garb even while carving
out a job for herself in the fields. While Rosie is shown to adopt more
masculine dress, Radha is taught to fight for womanhood while maintaining a
balance between old tradition and new economic necessity. Overall, the parallel
between Radha and Rosie depicts the "tendency within the Hindu culture
toward a 'West Asian code of female honour'" (Gupta qtd. in Rushdie 64).
However, Radha's drive, innovation, and determined labor – characteristics shared
by Rosie – are counterbalanced by her more traditional overtones.
These
traditional overtones are drawn out not just through Radha's sari and
conservative traditions like purdah,
but also through religious analogies. Radha is likened to many Hindu goddesses
and characters from Hindu epic stories; these parallels endow her with the ancient
feminine virtues valued traditionally in India. As Prasad puts it, "she
became, until Indira-Mata supplanted her, the living mother-goddess" (62).
First, the most apparent comparison is between Radha and her namesake in
mythology – Krishna's primary gopi who maintains her hope and devotion to
Krishna even as he engages in leela
with thousands of other women. In the same way, Radha waits dutifully for her
husband; her patience is not depicted as weakness but instead as her determination
to not give up hope. After her husband leaves, she walks through the city
searching for him, reminiscent of Meera Bai wandering through India in search
of union with Krishna; in this way, Radha is associated with the highest level of
devotion and willingness to follow her individual will regardless of what
other's deem right – which is also seen in her stubborn desire to stay in the
village even after the flood ruins the fields. Another significant comparison
is seen through "the construction of Nargis's body as the modern national
goddess (Sita incarnate, so to speak)" (Prasad). There are several scenes
in which the positioning and postures of Radha, Ramu, and Birju's bodies
reminds me of the way Sita is portrayed with Lord Rama and his brother
Lakshmana in the Ramayan. For example, in the scene right before the map is
depicted in the fields of India, the three stand in ascending order of height,
with the boys holding what is reminiscent of bows and arrows strung over their
back. Just as Sita patiently endured fourteen years of exile in the forest,
Radha patiently toils for decades, rebuilding the village and taking it to a
new level of prosperity. Next, Radha is directly compared through dialogue with
goddess Lakshmi, who symbolizes wealth and prosperity. Finally, in the
climactic closing scene of the flashback, Radha "triumphs (in the form of
Mother as Durga) and upholds dharma as law" (Prasad 14). This is portrayed
through the short, direct dialogue right before Radha shoots Birju: he says "You
are my mother," to which Radha responds, "I am a woman […] I can give
a son, but not my honor." The image of Durga Devi as the slayer of all
evil is modernized in Radha, who holds a smoking gun instead of a trident and succeeds
in protecting a woman's laj. In fact,
the words laj and izzat are repeated throughout the film –
"words so culturally specific that the English gloss fails to capture
their cultural resonances" (Prasad 70). Even the poignant song
"Duniya mein hum aaye hain" contains a line that reaffirms this
message, roughly translating to "a woman's dharma in this world is honor."
By linking Radha to religious concepts like dharma and showing traces of religious
figures like Sita, Radha, Meera, Lakshmi, and Durga in her, Radha is
characterized with the virtues Khan believes were necessary for women of the
time, even as they transformed into "Riveters" to boost India's
growing economy.
Radha's
characterization makes a direct statement about the value of women from lower
social classes in India. In addition, her characterization is also interesting
when considering Radha as a symbol of India as a whole. Radha is presented with
several alternate options at trying points in her life – becoming dependent on
the moneylender Sukhilala by selling her honor, and getting rid of the problem
if Birju kills Sukhilala. But Radha's preservation of her honor and her
maintenance that a shortcut (the murder of Sukhilala) will not solve all the
problems in the long run, shows that honor must be won by hard work alone.
India, as a newborn nation, was similarly faced with many choices as it tackled
its "first priority" – setting up a strong central government to
unite "at least fourteen major linguistic groups" (Bose and Jalal
173). Many states and cities in the early 1950s, including Andhra, Punjab, Tamil
Nadu and Bombay, demanded more bloody solutions – division along linguistic
lines and even secession, but Nehru was firm in maintaining India's central
unity (175). At the same time, Congress was "making a virtue out of
pragmatism," (174) which echoes Radha's constant adaptation to the
circumstances, doing whatever is necessary to preserve her central goal. In
this way, the film values both Radha and Nehru's focus and determination to
value honor and unity respectively.
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