The concept of Cultural Studies can be understood as a study of culture in order to understand a society and the politics that governs it. Having a sense of the same becomes extremely important when one embarks on a project of not only analysing but also understanding the shift and movement if any, has taken place over the course of history of what represents a nation (in my case- the image or symbol of Bharat Mata). In this article my focus has been on the building of a national imagery that provides the citizens a common shared experience which in turn helps one shape and form bonds to a piece of land that otherwise seems unhomely. Here I try to navigate my way through the course of the independence struggle of India and map out the way in which the image of Bharat Mata from the original sense of her conception to present day has changed and what have been the implications of such a change.
Barry Hindess in Tony Bennet’s “New Keywords†talks about ‘Nation’ through Benedict Anderson’s idea of viewing nations as “imagined communities†expanding the same by saying, “nations, like other large collectivises, must be imagined because they exist on too large a scale to be directly experienced by their members.†Thus, in a sense the idea of nation asks for a “the broad range of conditions which serve to promote a sense of shared national identity.†During the independence struggle this idea of ‘shared national identity’ was what was formed, spread and utilized in order to loop in the otherwise segregated masses of the Indian nation. The project of nationalism through which the leaders of independence struggle aimed to consolidate the masses in order to kick start the process of nation building required some form of national imagery that the people of the nation could relate to and fight for. A similar argument is made by Hindess when he writes about ‘national imagery’ saying, “If the nation is an imagined community, then nationalism is a project which aims to adapt the social and political order to the requirements of some preferred national imaginary through a process, often contested, of nation building.†In the struggle of India for attaining independence from the British Empire, this process of nation building through national imagery was achieved by the creation of the image of Bharat Mata.
The image of Bharat Mata provides a symbol in a sense for the people to understand and view the nation with something they can relate to. In a sense as mentioned previously, the image of Bharat Mata was the link to bring together the people of the nation for a common cause. This however would have been hard to visualize without the presence of the map of the nation. It is only through the mapped form of the nation that the entire country can be seen at one glance completely in turn allowing the citizens to take “visual and conceptual possessionâ€[1] of the entirety of the land and space that they inhabit as Anderson claims an “imagined collectiveâ€. If it was not the cartographed map form imagining the country as a unified whole would have been next to impossible. The abstract image of Bharat Mata would not be able to ground the feeling of attachment to the land that one lived in as visualizing it or being able to see the country wouldn’t have been possible.
Martin Ryder in his essay, “Semiotics: Language and Culture†upon talking about Semiotics says that, “The study of semiotics examines the signs and types of representation that humans use to express feelings, ideas, thoughts and ideologies.â€[2] Though the study of semiotics is usually assigned to examine the form of a text, semiotics also involves in it the study of representation. Here I would like to use Saussure’s Semiotics and try and read the image of ‘Bharat Mata’ to understand the numerous layers that exist within the representation of a woman figure in the mathematically cartographed geo-body of the nation. Sumathi Ramaswamy in her essay titled, “Maps, Mother/Goddesses, and Martyrdom†says, “The nation, we have been told, yearns for form.†The figure of a map with its hard lines, definite boundaries does not produce any form of sentimental value into the minds of the audience. James C. Scott in his book “Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed†while talking about the nature of maps says that “it [maps] might allow the state to make the country visually legible and controllable,†but at the same time the figure of the map spread across on a plane of impersonal cartographic grid renders the space of the nation unhomely, and struggles to produce any form of “affect†or local attachment. Similarly, the image of a female without any form of context does not bring in a similar form of sentiment and affect that would lead the people of the nation to go for the ultimate sacrifice of martyrdom if the need be.
Mario Klarer in his book “An Introduction to Literary Studies†defines the process of representation as “characterised by using signs that we recall mentally or phonetically to comprehend the world.†Thus, the image of ‘Bharat Mata’ is able to convey its intended meaning only when the image of the female who has been ‘re-presented’ by either being superimposed or confined within the boundaries of the map is viewed together. Upon viewing this picture, we don’t just see the picture as that of merely a woman or of the map of India. Due to a common set of meaning and concepts that we as the citizens of this nation share with each other, that is our learning of reading or recognising this image as that of ‘Bharat Mata’ which implies that the country is being re-presented as a woman. The picture then becomes a sign of something more than the amalgamation of the two sets of images, in a sense it becomes something larger or to use a term Saussure might have used- a sign. The picture of a woman superimposed on a map in itself is meaningless however it finds itself a meaning assigned to it due to its cultural context. The images in isolation do not hold any nationalistic value of their own, however when viewed together, the image (signifier) provides space or form to the idea of a nation through an abstract arbitrary concept of the nation being a motherland (signified) in turn producing the symbol or sign that is commonly seen as ‘Bharat Mata’. The connection between the map and the woman who is ‘re-presented’ in the image form a sign for the feeling of patriotism through an understanding of the image’s cultural and historical context which in turn grows, spreads and becomes powerful enough to rouse the citizens for the ultimate sacrifice for the nation- martyrdom.
Bharat Mata’s genealogy can be traced back to a satirical piece titled “Unabimsa Purana†(‘The Nineteenth Purana’) written by Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay which was first published anonymously in the year 1866. The play portrays ‘Bharat Mata’ as Adi-Bharti, who is a widow of Arya Swami- the embodiment of everything that can be termed ‘Aryan’. Considering this, one might see the infatuation that the right-wing politics of the country has with Indians being the descendants of Aryans falling into place. Not just that but the image of Bharat Mata holding the National flag, clad in a saffron sari with her persona similar, if not a reflection of a Hindu goddess reveals in a sense the roots of her production.
The symbol of Bharat Mata as a predominantly female, Hindu deity can be viewed through her re-presentation in Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s “Anandamathâ€. The figure of Bharat Mata in the novel has been illustrated as having three faces which are shown through the idols of three Hindu goddesses being worshipped in three adjacent rooms by a rebel leader to the protagonist. Such a representation brought in a sense of communalism due to the figure of Bharat Mata being as that of someone similar to a Hindu Goddess, in turn suggesting that only one religious group and section of society was an active agent for the struggle for freedom. Shoaib Daniyal in an article titled “History lesson: How 'Bharat Mata' became the code word for a theocratic Hindu state†states that the figure of Bharat Mata not only embodies “a Hindutva imagination of India, it categorises Muslims as a group who are unable to partake of this form of patriotism.†The image of Bharat Mata overshadows the involvement of any women and Muslim person in the independence struggle as most of the maps and bazaar art represents the nation through the image of Bharat Mata as seen and imagined by the upper class, Hindu Male, who have had a decent level of education, thus belonging to the category of an elite. He further notes that “During the Swadeshi movement and the agitation to annul the 1905 partition of Bengal, the idea of India and Bengal as a mother goddess was used widely in the popular realm. Bande Mataram, Praise the Mother, was the popular anthem of the time. Abanindranath Tagore, nephew of Rabindranath and father of modern Indian painting, created what was probably the first pictorial representation of Bharat Mata in 1905, which was widely reproduced and used in the Swadeshi movement.†It was thus the image of Bharat Mata found its way into the domain of commons from that of the elites but with a politics that mirrored the sentiments of the group that produced her image.
Hindess in the entry “Nation†within “New Keywords†notes that, “Nationalists frequently appeal to the long and distinguished past of their own nation.†A similar sentiment can be seen through Vinayak Savarkar’s work where he uses the image of Bharat Mata to bring in the idea of nationalism, however this nationalism was outlined using religiosity. In his 1923 seminal work, Savarkar furthers the idea of the nation to be as one that is home to the "Hindus". He based his definition of nationality on whichever religious groups had their prime places of worship within the Indian subcontinent in turn charging the Indian landmass with sacredness. This idea of ‘othering’ of other faiths coupled with the image of ‘Bharat Mata’ being modelled on the archetype of Hindu goddesses further strained the ties between the Hindu and Muslim communities in turn aiding communalism. Even now most of the bazaar art and calendar art when producing the image of Bharat Mata would more often than not have images of elite, Hindu male freedom fighters along with her while Muslim leaders who furthered the struggle of independence find no space either in the map or around the figure of Bharat Mata.
In his autobiography, titled “An Autobiographyâ€, Jawaharlal Nehru, the nation’s first prime minister, worrying over the mystifying corporeality that gave life and force or rather animated the patriotic common sense of his fellow citizens noted, “It is curious how one cannot resist the tendency to give an anthropomorphic form to a country. Such is the force of habit and early associations. India becomes Bharat Mata, Mother India, a beautiful lady, very old but ever youthful in appearance, sad- eyed and forlorn, cruelly treated by aliens and outsiders, and calling upon her children to protect her. Some such picture rouses the emotions of hundreds of thousands and drives them to action and sacrifice.â€[3] The figure of Bharat Mata devised in the time of a colonial hold over the country appears to be both divine and human. Her image is at once both “Indian†but at the same time reminiscent of female figurations of the nation from around the world, more specifically the Colonial West. Manu Goswami has noted in her study of the new discourses on territory that emerged in late colonial north India, “The resolutely ‘subject- centered’ language of possession was transposed from individuals (upper- caste, Hindu, male) in relation to land to Bharat [India] as a national territorial possession. Bharat Mata marks the historically significant reconstitution of colonial spatiality into national property.â€[4] The figure of Bharat Mata had started to undergo a change that would lead her from being an idea that was meant to bring the people of the Indian subcontinent together despite their differences through one common shared entity to later turn into a means of transferring the idea of control and possession from an individual to the entirety of the nation, mirroring in a sense the idea of colonialism.
A well-known feminist and human rights defender, Kamla Bhasin, famously once said that “Women are the last colony.†Their sexuality, bodies, labour capacity are still colonised. The symbol of Bharat Mata in that sense has only strengthened this colonial hold over women by her representation. In the numerous images of Bharat Mata that float around the internet, or as bazaar art or calendar art, similar to the representation of the Muslims, women too find their presence invisibilized. It was only during the time of the assassination of Indira Gandhi that an image of a woman could be found sharing the canvas with the image of Bharat Mata. Ramaswamy comments on the same as she writes, “When women appear at all in the company of the map of India, which is not all that frequently, they are invariably shadowy presences or pictured as honorary men; they are generally not the principal object of the barefoot mapmaker’s adulation. In striking contrast to much popular art in India, where women are hyper visible in incarnations ranging from the goddess to the vamp, it is men who are accorded prominence in patriotic pictures, thus reiterating the dominant truth about nationalism as a masculinist project, fantasy, and hope.†There is no doubt about the fact that acknowledgement of women representation in bazaar art during and after the freedom struggle has been almost negligible. In a complete contrast to the excessive production and popularisation of the figure of ‘Bharat Mata’ and other similar supernatural or metaphysical beings like Goddesses, women who were actually involved in the freedom struggle and the political landscape of the country during and after the colonial period is almost invisible.
Sumathi Ramaswamy in her book titled “The Goddess and The Nation: Mapping Mother India†notes that in contrast to the pictorial archives of the numerous images of Bharat Mata that had been produced during the time of the struggle of independence, the verbal archives are filled with allusions to violence perpetrated on Bharat Mata’s body. This form of invisibilization of “picturing a bloodied or wounded Bharat Mata and female martyrdom more generally†(p. 233) further led to the invisibilization of the actual women who took part in the political landscape that was shaping the country. Priya Shah, an American Anthropologist upon writing about Sumathi Ramaswamy’s book titled “The Goddess and The Nation: Mapping Mother India†notes that in chapter 6, titled “Daughters of India,†“the fetishization of Mother India resulted in the invisibility of real women in the political imagery of late colonial and early postcolonial India.†Ramaswamy upon drawing from Eve Sedgwick’s work “Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire†suggests that, “the nation is pre-eminently pictured as a male homosocial arena in which men jostle for power and privilege but also work out their mutual fascinations, anxieties, and hostilities through and around the exceptional figure of Bharat Mata.†Probably this is why the figure given to the nation is that of a female, as by doing that, the males of the nation can act out their fantasies and desires of being the saviour of a gender that is 'stereotypically' considered to be weak and needing male protection from threats.
The symbol of Bharat Mata today has found a complete reversal from being one that brought the masses of the nation together to fight the unjust British rule over India to one that has become in a sense a fitting reply to anything and everything in today’s political landscape. In a video of the sitting MP from West Delhi that went viral recently saw him responding by sloganeering "Bharat Mata ki Jai!" when faced with a voter questioning his record. Another similar instance of replying by the same slogan “Bharat Mata ki Jai†was observed when BJP mascot Anupam Kher was asked by reporters regarding his wife's record as MP in Chandigarh. Charles De Gaulle once said, "Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first." The figure of ‘Bharat Mata’ has been roped into the politics of the present time as a reply to end any form of debate or dialogue as nothing seems to be superior to her invocation. Her image has turned from being seen as one that unified the nation during the independence struggle to one that now appears to bring in fissures within various communities and sections of the society. The image of ‘Bharat Mata’ has given way to a toxic form of nationalism and a fake sense of patriotism that needs to be both justified and proved to find a space for oneself in the current political atmosphere of the country. Historian Eric Hobswam shows that there have been other countries too that have had female personifications of nations such as Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe and Catalonia's Virgin of Montserrat. These “holy icons†he says imagined the nation visually and emotionally helping forge a sense of unity, a function similar to that what the image of Bharat Mata was supposed to perform. However, considering the present-day state of affairs in the realm of politics governed by an extremely volatile sense of nationalism and patriotism the image of Bharat Mata has actually produced more communal divisions, than a sense of unity. During the freedom struggle, the map of India was necessary to Bharat Mata's "visual persona because it establish[ed], along with the flag of the nation, the distinctiveness of Bharat Mata as a territorial deity of the country."[5] However as soon as the freedom movement came to a close and India’s independence from colonial rule got secured, the map of the nation "relegated to the background"[6]. It became "a shadowy prop" into which Bharat Mata could "move in times of national crisis or threat."[7]
Bibliography
1. Ryder, M, Semiotics: Language and Culture, 2004
2. James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 11–52.
3. Klarer, M, An Introduction to Literary Studies, Routledge, London, 1998.
4. Daniyal, Shoaib. 2016. "History Lesson: How 'Bharat Mata' Became The Code Word For A Theocratic Hindu State". Scroll.In. Accessed May 5 2019. https://scroll.in/article/805247/history-lessons-how-bharat-mata-became-the-code-word-for-a-theocratic-hindu-state.
5. Ramaswamy, S. “The Goddess and The Nation: Mapping Mother Indiaâ€.
6. Ramaswamy, S. “Maps, Mother/Goddesses, and Martyrdom in Modern Indiaâ€.
7. Bennet, T. “New Keywordsâ€, ‘Nation’.
8. Shah, Priya. 2011. "The Goddess And The Nation: Mapping Mother India By Sumathi Ramaswamy". American Anthropologist 113 (3): 529-530. Wiley. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01365_19.x.
Endnotes
[1] Richard Helgerson, “The Land Speaks: Cartography, Chorography, and Subversion in Renaissance England,†Representations 16 (1986): 51.
[2] Martin Ryder, “Semiotics: Language and Cultureâ€, 2004
[3] Jawaharlal Nehru, “An Autobiography†(1936; Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1980), 431; emphasis added
[4] Manu Goswami, “Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space†(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 203.
[5] Sumathi Ramaswamy, “Maps, Mother/Goddesses, and Martyrdom in Modern Indiaâ€, 428.
[6] Sumathi Ramaswamy, “Maps, Mother/Goddesses, and Martyrdom in Modern Indiaâ€, 428.
[7] Sumathi Ramaswamy, “Maps, Mother/Goddesses, and Martyrdom in Modern Indiaâ€, 428.