Abstract
The grand narratives of Mother India posit women’s emancipation as the central concern, insisting on her public participation in the educational and economic sectors. The relegation of the archetypal motherhood to the national periphery is strictly rooted in the Hindu traditional culture. The schisms of caste, class, and religion in contemporary society are normalised whilst the gendered undercurrents of domestic violence, chauvinism and religious sensibilities are ignored. Such polished idealisms are, in fact, far from the living reality of most women and girls across all spheres in the country. By reviewing notable texts from past and present, this research problematises the position of Muslim women in India, specifically during the nationalistic discourse and post-independent era. The national freedom struggle movement assured a democratic constitution, which primed Mother India as the figurative Indian woman encrypting ideologies from socio-religious discourses. The grand narratives often become instrumental in politicising the vested interest of the hegemonic class. The struggles of Muslim women were foregrounded not only in the gendered disparity of the religious domain but also in the socio-cultural disparities which excluded them from the domain of Indian womanhood. Mainstream history, literature and even women development organisations deliberately typified Muslim women along with the religious discourse. Briefly, in this paper, we infer that Muslim women were rendered invisible in the limelight of the archetypal Mother India, denying their social, political, cultural and literary participation. They were thus subjected to constitutional othering by the mainstream socio-political entities (who subjected them) at the onset of nationalism, which continues to exist in post-colonial discourses where women are expected to constantly negotiate their religious identity over their national identity.
Highlights
It is timely to investigate the role and position of Indian Muslim women in the national context of Mother India, in a world where the perception of Islam and its pluralistic ideas are constantly debated
Commenting on the saffron wave in Indian nationalism and democracy, Hansen (1999) argues that the secular ideologies in India did not entail the removal of religion from the sociopolitical and cultural realms
This resonates the politics of nationalists whereby the gender hierarchies of socio-political, economic and cultural realms were transmitted to the discourse of nationalism
Summary
It is timely to investigate the role and position of Indian Muslim women in the national context of Mother India, in a world where the perception of Islam and its pluralistic ideas are constantly debated. In the context of India, Sikata Banerjee (2005) problematises the conceptualisation of motherland or nation as figurative Mother India, the spiritual cult of the mother goddess, encrypted from the Hindu traditional religion, as a symbol of masculine nationalism, which positions women in a divine or spiritual realm whose protection becomes the responsibility of the brave guards of the nation, the men This resonates the politics of nationalists whereby the gender hierarchies of socio-political, economic and cultural realms were transmitted to the discourse of nationalism. At the onset of Indian nationalism, Mother India became the personified national character which was impelled into the social psyche as the cultural symbol of India, and its protection became one of the prime concern of the nationalists This implication was vested on the majoritarian scale mainly rooted in the socioreligious discourse, distancing women from other minority classes and religions as the invisible other. We inquest the visibility of Muslim women during and after Nationalism, a socio-political discourse that assured a democratic constitution, while the priming of Mother India encrypted ideologies from the socio-religious discourses
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