DEATH OF BHARAT MATA

Last year’s defining moments which will go down public memory are Obama’s historic win and the terror attack in Mumbai. Both events have been widely discussed and dissected. While Obama’s victory is celebrated, 11/26 which is touted by the media as India’s 9/11 has seen an upsurge in nationalism. Suddenly everyone feels Indian; patriotic songs are played on news channels as the martyrs are honoured, people are out on the streets expressing solidarity and constructing a new kind of unity. Nationalism is being formed again with the ‘other’ being Pakistan. The ‘imagined community’, to use Anderson’s phrase, of the victims is playing out images of war, and supported by the media, is urging everyone to rally around the event. Among the demonstrations of nationalism emerges the banner of allegiance to Bharat Mata, reminding one of the independence struggle.
Nationalism has been defined and redefined over the ages. Every time a new nationalism is born, the old one is rejected and termed inadequate. Is the use of the gendered Bharat Mata in today’s context necessary?
‘India’ was imagined during the colonial period as a woman, a beautiful mother who had to be saved by her sons, the men of the country. The image of the beautiful young mother gave rise to the erotics of nationalism and proved to be a rallying point for men. Imagining the body of the woman on the map was also necessary to enliven a dead space. It was necessary to attach the label of Bharat Mata to ‘India’ to fight the colonial power and form what we now know as India. The gendered image of land was a necessity of the moment.
In today’s world, with the political space of India formed for more than 60 years, it seems unnecessary to imagine India again as a gendered being. The label of Bharat Mata seems to be carrying forward an old nationalism no longer needed. New nationalisms are being formed. One no longer needs a gendered image of the country to form a rallying point. There are other centres of convergence today, like cricket and Bollywood, and new terms like cricket nationalism. One thus needs to move away from gendered notions of nationalism or gendered references to the country. India needs to be imagined differently, in accordance with the post-modern age, and a rethinking required in our demonstrations of nationalism.
01-01-2009