Mother India Through the Ages: the Dilemma of Conflicting Subjectivities

Abstract

This conversation between Gora, the eponymous protagonist of Tagore’s novel, and Binoy, Gora’s closest friend, presents in a nutshell the two issues that animate the concerns of postcoloniality today. One, how do we negotiate the passage from being subjects of colonialism to becoming citizens of independent nation-states in the so-called ‘family of nations’? In other words what cultural influences, colonial or indigenous, do we accept or reject? And two, what will be the status and role of women in this new family?

‘The scriptures tell us,’ persisted Gora, ‘that Woman is deserving of worship because she gives light to the home, — the honour which is given her by English custom, because she sets fire to the hearts of men, had better not be termed worship.’

‘Would you contemptuously dismiss a great idea because it occasionally gets clouded over?’ asked Binoy.

‘Binu,’ answered Gora impatiently. ‘Now that you have clearly lost your own power of judgement you ought to be guided by me. I affirm that all the exaggerated language about women that you find in English books has at bottom merely desire. The altar at which Woman may be truly worshipped is her place as Mother, the seat of the pure, right-minded Lady of the House.’

(Tagore, Gora, 9)