| Description |
As both historical and contemporary figures, South Asian women are expected to represent somewhat contradictory symbols. Modesty and virtue are held, above all, as characteristics of utmost importance in a wife, mother, and daughter, who can also be a powerful, nationalistic, goddess-like ideal. This ideal channels shakti: a sacred female energy which empowers women to defend tradition, family, and the nation. How do women in a rapidly developing India reconcile the expectations of the traditional ideal with modern standards? In Indian literature, film, and the media, we still see a confusion, for both men and women, of how women are to be defined - as individuals or symbols. We see this reflection as a widespread theme in modern Indian issues, not just as a question of women's rights, but as an interpretation of the construction of gender itself. In exploring three iconic representations of women across genres in the 20th century, I assert that continually re-examining particularly influential female symbols in India is essential to understanding the culture surrounding modern Indian women. The understanding of culture is constantly changing, evolving, and influencing new definitions of Indian femininity. The first, a fictional character in the novel The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore, is important for its depiction of a woman's journey from the conservative identity she had defined as a girl, to the radical identity of a powerful national figure. Second, the 1957 film Mother India, personifies the female ideal into the main character, reasserting Hindu values and traditional gender roles within the 20th century framework of nationalism. Finally, I will examine the controversy surrounding the death of Roop Kanwar, a young woman who died while burning on her husband's funeral pyre in an act known as sati: a striking example of past ideals colliding with the modern world. These iconic representations, fictional and nonfictional, from different periods of history, share themes of how female individuals can transform definitions of womanhood. In the context of these examples, we better understand how women in India today struggle to adapt to modern culture, while trying to defend Indian traditional values. |
