Mother India - Rajat Gupta

Mother India – Educating a Politically Independent Nation about Economic Independence

Much has been written about the national allegory depicted in Mehboob Khan’s 1957 film, Mother India, where Nargis, the protagonist, is depicted as a hard-working woman who remained morally upright while guiding her family and loved ones through a series of trials and tribulations. Similarly, the hints to Hindu mythology, beginning with the film’s title referencing the colloquial notion of India being a “goddess” (early references to mother goddess can be traced to the Indus Valley Civilization), and the in-film characterization of Sukhilala’s attempted assault on Radha in the presence of Goddess Lakshmi, ironically, the goddess of wealth, are well explored. In my analysis of the movie, I’d like to explore my impression of the filmmaker exhorting a young India to focus on education as a way to guide itself to economic independence and individual liberty.

The movie revolves around the cycle of poverty that Radha’s family is condemned to, on account of a document unknowingly and unwittingly signed by Radha’s mother-in-law, granting a village moneylender three-quarters of their crop as interest on a 500 rupee loan. An illiterate lady, she had no way of realizing that the moneylender, Sukhilal, had deviously changed their verbal agreement, in which she had agreed to pay one-fourth of her crop as interest. I commiserated with her sense of helplessness as she beseeched her village brethren to read the deed; all of them being illiterate, none could help.

The second time education is directly addressed in when Radha takes her young sons, Birju and Ramu, to the village teacher, requesting him to take them as students, as education makes “men’s hearts softer.” The movie doesn’t directly address why the children didn’t complete their education—I assumed that the need for them to help farm their land interfered with their studying.

The theme reappears—next when an adult Birju arrogantly demands to read Sukhilala’s statement of accounts, but realizes that being illiterate, he couldn’t even understand the written words, let alone the accounting. This time, an adult Birju goes to school, and sits with children as they recite the alphabet. Here, the most important scene related to education comes—the teacher’s daughter patiently explains to Birju that an increasing portion of their crop is used to pay interest, while their arrears compound—implying that only a stark upheaval would reverse their fortunes.

Why did this theme impact me hard? It is important to remember that this movie was released ten years after partition. With India having been rendered economically deficient due to decades of damaging policies under the British, the public could identify with Radha’s plight of continuous indebtedness. While it is unlikely that even a film as popular as Mother India was screened extensively in villages where loan sharks were common, Mehboob Khan’s effort was admirable—not only repeatedly showing the importance of sending children to school (it must be appreciated how difficult it must be for uneducated parents to foster a learning environment at home), but painstakingly explaining to the public how arrears compound.

Mother India touches on numerous other socio-political issues—another theme I identified with was the film sided with the working labor over capital providers (in particular, a quote by Birju implying that if Sukhilala never worked on the farm, what right did he have to any produce?). And while the film will undoubtedly be remembered for its strong female protagonist, simultaneously lauding and exhorting India’s women, I was touched by the film’s efforts to tackle issues like poverty and illiteracy head-on without making simplistic abstractions to move the plotline forward.