Jessica Weiss on Mayo's Mother India, Kahn's Mother India, and Mehta's Fire

     Reading about Mayo's criticisms of women in India and watching films like Mother India and Fire further expanded my ideas that feminism has meant different things at different times throughout history. Although the span is only from the 1950's to mid 1990's it is clear from these three forms of media that feminism can mean a variety of things. While Mayo wasn't a true feminist of her time, as she claimed to be, she did disclose some worthy ideas, like the idea of child marriages. While this inspired Western feminists in North America like the Broadway play about a child bride called Madame Nazimova's India ( Introduction by Mrinalini Sinha pg 2), it mostly just created a lot of opposition in India and later in North America, because Mayo's real motive was to justify India's need for British rule. The point here is that under the hat of feminism, Mayo tried to show the injustices of the dirty, disease ridden India.

      In response to the negative representation of Mayo's book, an Indian film artist, Kahn made the film Mother India which depicts the power women in India have and the good they do for their children, their fellow women, and for their village. In the film, the main character is glamorous and beautiful, an overall happy and seemingly satisfied mother and wife. During difficult times, after her husbands death, she struggles yet succeeds in providing for her family. Ultimately, she chooses saving the village's prized daughter over the life of her son. This kind of representation is as problematic to me as Mayo's book because it still keeps Indian women, and more globally, all women into the subservient role. Her whole life is in response to her husband, her male landowner, and her son. Feminist ideas in Mother India are only as relevant as the time period it was made in.

      As for Fire, this film was the most radical of the three as it portrayed women denying their traditional gendered role as wives, as well as played on the idea of female pleasure – both controversial topics in India, and throughout the world by different degrees. I found that this film brought forth the most emotion for me, more than likely because it was made during a more recent time period, so it had relateable dialogue and subject matter that suited me as a consumer. As entertaining as it was, in analyzing the film the major problem I have is that both women come to terms with their lesbianism while dealing with sexual issues with their husbands. Many of the conversations between Radha and Sita are about their husbands. While the book Mother India the film Mother India and the film Fire show some examples of injustices done to women, I'm not convinced they are a good feminist examples.