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Mother India (book)

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Mother India (1927) is a polemical book by American historian Katherine Mayo which attacks Indian society, religion and culture.[1]

Content

Written in opposition to the movement for Indian independence, the book criticized India's treatment of women, the untouchables, animals, the countryside, and the character of its nationalistic politicians. A large part of the book dealt with the problems resulting from the marriage of young girls. This was considered to be one of the main causes that led to an uproar across India after many Indian newspapers declared the book "scurrilous libel" against Hindus and Hinduism.[2]

Reception

Mayo's book created outrage across India, and it was burned along with effigies of her.[3] Mayo's book was criticized by Indian independence activist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a "report of a drain inspector sent out with the one purpose of opening and examining the drains of the country to be reported upon".[4] The book prompted over fifty critical books and pamphlets to be published, which highlighted Mayo's incorrect assertions and distorted perception of Indian society, which had become a powerful influence on the American public's view of India.[5] The controversy caused by Mayo's work was a helpful tool to aid nationalist India in the reversal of Western colonial propaganda.[6] The outrage caused by the book helped form a new school of liberal Indian feminism and a new vision was birthed for Indian women.[6] This new ideal of an Indian woman was seen to be the model embodiment of what it meant to be Indian in an independent nation state.[6]

[7][8] Annie Besant called Mother India "a remarkably wicked book slandering the whole Indian people".[9] The book was cited as an example of imperial feminism by American historian Liz Wilson, who wrote that Mayo employed feminist rhetoric to support her criticisms of the Indian independence movement.[10] Mayo's initial idea for the assertions against India were inspired by a British officer for the Indian Political Intelligence department in London. The objective of this department was to deliberately combat nationalist resistance against the Raj.[6]

In 1929, Harry H. Field, whom Mayo had acknowledged in the foreword of Mother India wrote a book called After Mother India in which he responded to the criticisms levelled against Mayo's work, added more commentaries and wrote a brief biography of Katherine. A chapter was dedicated to the most notable critique, which was the one written by Gandhi.[11]

After its publication Dalip Singh Saund (who later became a U.S. Congressman) wrote My Mother India (c. 1930) to counter Mayo's assertions.[12][13] Another response to Mayo's book was written by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, in his A Son of Mother India Answers (1928).[14]

The title of Mehboob Khan's 1957 Hindi epic film Mother India is a deliberate rebuke to Mayo's book.[15]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Sinha 2006, p. 248.
  2. ^ Sinha, Mrinalini (2006). Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3795-9.
  3. ^ Frick 2006.
  4. ^ Gandhi 2002, p. 214.
  5. ^ Jayawardena 1995, p. 99.
  6. ^ a b c d Sinha, Mrinalini (Autumn 2000). "Refashioning Mother India: Feminism and Nationalism in Late-Colonial India". Feminist Studies. Vol. 26 No. 3: 623–631 – via JSTOR. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  7. ^ Paul Teed (2003). "Race Against Memory: Katherine Mayo, Jabez Sunderland, and Indian Independence". American Studies. 44 (1–2): 35–57. JSTOR 40643432.
  8. ^ Sinha 2006, p. 68.
  9. ^ Natarajan, K (1928). Mother India: A Rejoinder. G.A. Natesan.
  10. ^ Wilson, Liz (April 1997). "Who is Authorized to Speak? Katherine Mayo and the Politics of Imperial Feminism in British India". Journal of Indian Philosophy. 25 (2): 139–151. doi:10.1023/A:1004204900425. JSTOR 23448577. S2CID 150695766.
  11. ^ Field 1929, p. 3.
  12. ^ Saund, Dalip Singh (c. 1930). My Mother India. Stockton, California: Pacific coast Khalsa Diwan society (Sikh temple). p. 218. LCCN 30013748. OCLC 3401226. LCC DS421 .S25 OCLC 253315388
  13. ^ Tisdale, Sara (19 December 2008). "Breaking Barriers: Congressman Dalip Singh Saund". Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Pew Research Center. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  14. ^ Mukerji, Dhan Gopal (1928). A Son of Mother India Answers. E. P. Dutton & company, 1928. ISBN 9788171676507. Retrieved 16 January 2014. Reprint 1928 by Rupa & Company, ISBN 978-81-7167-650-7
  15. ^ Sinha, Mrinalini (2006). Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3795-9.

References

  • Sinha, Mrinalini (2006). Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3795-9.
  • Frick, Katherine (2006). "Mayo, Katherine". Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  • Gandhi, Mahatma (12 November 2002). The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas. Random House Digital. ISBN 978-1-4000-3050-7.
  • Jayawardena, Kumari (1995). The White Woman's Other Burden: Western Women and South Asia During British Colonial Rule. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-91104-7.
  • Field, Harry Hubert (1929). After Mother India. Jonathan Cape.
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