The dominant historiography, besides neglecting the role of women in the freedom struggle, always stresses the idea that nationalism is a male activity. The country is imagined as a mother who strengthens the bond among the children irrespective of their differences and thus fostering unity, fraternity, and a common identity among them. But through this, the discourse also emphasizes the subjugation of the helpless mother (country) who is dependent upon her brave male sons for protection. The paper makes an inquiry into the sources in Bengali literature where the country is represented as the mother, giving special reference to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath. Bankim conceives the idea of the mother in the form of a goddess and subsequently gives it a patriotic spirit. The country is no longer a mere geographical entity or emotional symbol but a complete statehood comprising territory and people. The paper aims at exploring how Bankim Chandra invented the “national culture” through the deification of the country by bestowing in it the images of the goddesses. The santans with their “self designating shared belief” form “the collective self-consciousness”, a necessary component for a nation. In this process, they were helped by their female counterparts. Shanti, through her action in the novel, becomes an embodiment of gender equality. The paper discusses how Bankim differs from his contemporaries in his representation of women characters. The symbolic association of the nation as a mother also traffics the patriarchal inequalities between men and women and reinforces the disempowering representation of women in nationalist causes. The most helpless character in the novel seems to be the country (the mother) itself. The paper mainly focuses on how, besides creating a Hindu identity during the initial phase of British rule, the novel constructs a discourse that simultaneously celebrates and limits women’s power.
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Bhairab Ganguly College, Belghoria, Kolkata
