Priyanka Sekhar -- Mother India

The Balance of Male and Female Divinity

To counter Western beliefs of barbaric practices, Mother India portrays the struggles of a strong female peasant who wins the respect of the entire village. Although most of her struggles are caused by the actions of men, her gender itself has little effect on her status or treatment. Despite her socioeconomic status, men, women, and children alike look to her as a borderline divine, and the filmmakers repeatedly allude to Hindu deities when portraying Radha. As a result, Mother India accomplishes its goal of paying tribute to the strength and reverence of Indian women by comparing Radha to both male and female Hindu mythological symbols of honor and power.

The Texts of Mother India notes the prominent comparison of Radha to Krishna’s consort of the same name. RadhaKrishna is generally spoken one word, since together Krishna and Radha are said to represent the feminine and masculine aspects of God. However, Radha in Mother India has no Krishna. As a result, she must serve as the mother to village without the help of a father figure. While she manages to bear the burden, we see her sadness throughout the film, and through this comparison to RadhaKrishna, Mother India alludes to the missing masculine divinity within India that leads to the struggles of women. While the female divinity is enough to save the village from self-implosion, Radha without Krishna remains incomplete and unsatisfied.

Because the village lacks an obvious Krishna or masculine divine figure, Radha in Mother India also takes on the role of many male deities. As our readings note, Radha is represented as both “preserver and destroyer” (Texts of Mother India, 78). In Hindu mythology Vishnu the preserver is male, as is Shiva the destroyer. For example, when Radha shoots her own son Birju, we see her standing in dark light with a traditionally masculine stance. In this scene, Radha is transformed into the angry protector who must eliminate the threat to harmony. Radha is also very clearly a creator, which we see through her creation of crops, harmony, and three children. While the job of creation is often attributed to female figures, Brahma the creator is often depicted with either red skin or red clothing. In many scenes iconic scenes, such as the wedding scene, Radha wears a red dress which symbolizes her connection to Brahma and the male side of creation as well. As a result, Radha manages to serve as a masculine divinity to the people of her village despite the fact that she is female.

Radha thus represents the balanced male and female divine within a female body. She is both Vishnu the preserver and Sita the symbol of self sacrifice. She is both the strong protector and the caring mother. She sacrifices her own happiness to save the honor of a young women at the hands of her corrupted son, but she is self-sufficient and independent. In this way, Mother India paints the picture of a person respected for her spirit whose soul transcends gender barriers. Because Radha is simply a peasant woman, the film seems to indicate that most Indian woman poses a similar balanced divinity, and that even an uneducated village can recognize and honor her moral fortitude. The film candidly shows the hardships of the uneducated poor, and it deftly manages to make social commentary and simultaneously counter Western perceptions through divine imagery. Radha manages to fill the role of an absent Krishna, and while the film does not claim that men shoulder no blame for the protagonists hardships, it leaves viewers with no question that women have great strength, honor, and respect even in the fields of India.