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The burgeoning nationalism in colonial Bengal of the last quarter of the nineteenth century cau
the image of the mother to represent the nationalist aspiration. The ideology of motherhood was given a
importance in the cultural life of Bengal. Was the choice of the mothermerely an accidental one? O
something about the culture of the Bengalis that creaied the requisite precondition for such a choic
The great historical endeavour of man has duce children. Patriarchy, whether in its into an unmistakable indigenous sign that
been to reconquer the reproductive function more traditional or modern form constant- would mark a colonial Bengali man as
over woman and to fight off the incipient ly tries to glorify motherhood as the most distinct from the alien rulers. 'Bengali
power derived from the latter's procreative prized vocation for women. A survey of the mother' was such a sign, and its force
capacities. ideological content of popular literature increased as the experience of colonialism
Violence, war, education, law and ideology would have yielded interesting results, but began to make itself felt and Bengali society
have served this purpose... will not be attempted here as it falls outside entered its nationalist phase. Coming from
-Claude Meillasoux, 'The Pregnant Male' the purview of this study. What this paper the great 'moderniser' Michael Madhusudan
proposes to do is to focus on a specific phase Dutt, a living embodiment of the liberal-
of Indian history when in order to lend force radical phase of colonial Bengal usually
to nationalism, the ideology of motherhood referred to as 'Bengal renaissance, this
WOMEN'S exclusive confinement to was given an enormous importance in the description indicates the continuity in the
reproductive function and the attendant em- cultural life of Bengal. As a phenomenon line of thinking from the 'liberal' social
phasis on nurturance have rendered the do- it was quite unique-religious, cultural and reform era to the 'conservative' nationalists,
main of motherhood specially vulnerable to the aesthetic domain were politicised with who were supposed to have set the clock
patriarchal control. The idea of an original the help of the notion of motherhood. This back for women in colonial India [Murshid,
matriarchate conceived by Bachofen and was specially fa,cilitated by the ideological 1983, pp 175-198]. The principle of selecti-
Morgan that was taken up by Engels is no aspect of motherhood-it has served the vity in the use of ideology not merely from
longer acceptable as a historical reality. purpose of taking away real power from the west but from the east is evident in this
[Bachofen, 1861; Morgan, 1871; Engels, women and creating a myth about her particular cluster [Chatterji, 1989,
1884]. However, as Meillasoux has pointed strength and power. The glorification of pp 236-37]. Bengali mothers proverbially
out this myth of an original matriarchate is motherhood in colonial Bengal was merely stood for unstinting affection, manifested in
an acknowledgement of the power of the in the domain of ideology. Such an ideology an undying spirit of self-sacrifice for the
reproductive arena and its later appropria- was based on a philosophy of deprivation family. The social reform era, when there
tion by the patriarchy [1986: 15]. This ap- for women in the world of practice. were vigorous protests against overt oppres-
propriation has taken many different forms The burgeoning nationalism in colonial sion of women such as child marriage,
in different societies which display little Bengal of the last quarter of the nineteenth perpetual widowhood for the caste Hindu
similarities with the European model with century caught hold of the image of mother women, widow burning on the husband's
which Bachofen had originally conceived his to represent the nationalist aspiration. Was funeral pyre, considered motherhood in a
study of mother-right [1861]. Possibly it was the choice of the mother merely an acciden- very positive light. Vidyasagar was supposed
an acute sense of the controlling device of tal one? Or was there something about the to have swam across a turbulent river in
the patriarchal norms with which the Euro- culture of the Bengalis that created the re- order not to fail his appointment with his
pean society was being re-organised that quisite precondition for such a choice? mother. With the exception of Raja
prompted Bachofen to explore the idea of One obvious way of presenting the Rammohan Roy the hagiography of all
an original matriarchate. Engels certainly glorification of motherhood in the colonial social reformers contain eulogies of their
considered the origin of private property period is to interpret it as a retrograde step,a mothers. Mothers were justified by the
leading to the overthrow of the mother-rightbetrayal of the liberal package of the social greatness of their sons. Ramakrishna
as the great 'world historic defeat of the reform era of the first six decades of the Paramabansa suggested this with his graphic
female sex' [Engels: 231]. It fostered his uto- nineteenth century in colonial Bengal when expressive Bengali when he complimented
pian dream of freeing women by breaking there were attempts to improve,the lot of the mother of the great religious reformer
down thecapitalist mode of production. If women. According to such a reading, the Keshab Chunder Sen by pointing out that
private property had helped to enslave choice of the problematic in this paper may, 'people will celebrate her entrails' implying
women the abolition of it would help to therefore, be read as an exercise in reac- that her son has glorified her womb. This
emancipate women from the sphere of tionary social thought. Such a reading, is the kind of compensatory history of
reproduction into the sphere of social pro- however, turns a blind eye to the fact thatBengali womanhood that is sought to be ex-
duction. However, as Simone de Beauvoir motherhood was all along a culturally plored in this paper. This paper will lean a
pointed out, it is by denying the reproduc-privileged concept in Bengal. The early little heavily on the mythicising of the con-
tive power of women that this conception nationalists did not have to invent it in order cept of motherhood that nationalism bor-
of emancipation is made to stand [1949: 89]. to overthrow the social reformers. Michael rowed from the prevalence of mother cult
One of the most spectacular ploys of Madhusudan Dutt, the avant-garde poet of in Bengal both in the great and the little
capitalist patriarchy has been the simul- Bengal renaissance once described his close tradition. With the emphasis on ones
taneous privatisation and institutionalisation friend the great social reformer Iswar- selfhood and identity to be opposed to the
of motherhood. Loving nurturing mothers chandra Vidyasagar as a man 'with the western rulers, motherhood emerged as the
and healthy babies are the most prized show courage of a lion, the energy of an domain which the colonised could claim as
pieces in the world of advertisements, the Englishman and the heart of a Bengali their own. The empowering of the symbol
strong arm of capitalism. Science has mother'. This paradigmatic description of a of motherhoQd should not be seen as a mere
brought some possibility of women being in perfect gentleman redolent of renaissance victory of traditionalism over the modernis-
control over her own reproductive powers contains the seeds of a very real typology. ing tendency of the social reform era. In their
but this control is constantly vitiated by 'The colonial intelligentsia had to accom- search for something that was distinctly their
patriarchal norms within which women pro-modate the public image of the foreign rulers own, what better symbol of their nationalist