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Mother India (book)
Mother India (1927) is a polemical book by American journalist Katherine Mayo on the status of women and girls in Indian society as well as her perception of Hindu culture. The book was translated into more than a dozen languages and reprinted many times in the US.
Written in opposition to the movement for Indian independence, the book criticized India's treatment of women, the untouchables in the caste system in India, animals, the countryside, and the character of its nationalistic politicians. A large part of the book dealt with the problems resulting from the marriage of young girls. This was considered to be one of the main causes that led to an uproar across India after many Indian newspapers declared the book "scurrilous libel" against Hindus and Hinduism.
Mayo's book created outrage across India, and it was burned along with effigies of her. Mayo’s book also sparked controversy among American liberal scholars, who were also critical of Mayo. A major opponent to Mother India was Jabez Sunderland, a longtime pro-India activist. Sunderland made comparisons between Indian leaders and American revolutionaries who played a part in the fight for American freedom to counteract Mayo’s racial nationalism. In his book India, America and World Brotherhood, Sunderland asserted that imperialistic rule over India was unjustifiable, parasitic, and destructive. His book included personal testimonies and statistics mainly gathered from the Indian government to counteract Mayo’s claims about Indian society. Instead, Sunderland attributed the problems that Mayo blamed as intrinsic to Indian society, as symptoms “rooted in centuries of colonial oppression.”
Mayo's book was criticized by Indian independence activist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a "report of a drain inspector sent out with the one purpose of opening and examining the drains of the country to be reported upon." Gandhi reminded Western readers of the shortcomings of their own societies, as did Sunderland who stated, “India knows nothing so bad as our American lynching and burning of Negroes.” Sunderland drew on how at one time Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw had used the example of lynching as justification for why America was not civilized enough for self-governance and commented that “the United States is not fit to rule itself and ought forthwith to be taken in hand and civilized by some foreign nation say England or France or Japan.”
The book prompted over fifty critical books and pamphlets to be published, which highlighted Mayo's incorrect assertions and distorted perception of Indian society, which had become a powerful influence on the American public's view of India. The controversy caused by Mayo's work was helpful to aid nationalist India in the reversal of Western colonial propaganda. The outrage caused led to a new school of liberal Indian feminism and a new vision for Indian women. This new ideal of an Indian woman was viewed as the model embodiment of what it meant to be Indian in an independent nation state.
Annie Besant called Mother India "a remarkably wicked book slandering the whole Indian people". The book was cited as an example of imperial feminism by American historian Liz Wilson, who wrote that Mayo employed feminist rhetoric to support her criticisms of the Indian independence movement. Wilson also explored alternative conclusions that some Western reviewers had come to after reading Mayo’s book. For example, one anonymous 1927 review in the New Statesman claimed that the Indian vices supposedly detailed in Mayo's book were exclusive to Hindus, and Muslims in India were "comparatively free of these sub-human vices". The review provoked a furious response from Bengali intellectual Rabindranath Tagore, who accused Western commentators of hypocrisy.
Mayo's initial inspiration for her assertions against India came from a British intelligence agent working for the Indian Political Intelligence Office (IPIO), which was based in London. The IPIO was formed in response to the dissemination of anarchist and revolutionary elements of Indian nationalism in Europe during the First World War.
In 1929, Harry H. Field, whom Mayo had acknowledged in the foreword of Mother India, wrote a book called After Mother India in which he responded to the criticisms levelled against Mayo's work, added more commentaries and wrote a brief biography of Katherine. A chapter was dedicated to the most notable critique, which was the one written by Gandhi.
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Mother India (book)
Mother India (1927) is a polemical book by American journalist Katherine Mayo on the status of women and girls in Indian society as well as her perception of Hindu culture. The book was translated into more than a dozen languages and reprinted many times in the US.
Written in opposition to the movement for Indian independence, the book criticized India's treatment of women, the untouchables in the caste system in India, animals, the countryside, and the character of its nationalistic politicians. A large part of the book dealt with the problems resulting from the marriage of young girls. This was considered to be one of the main causes that led to an uproar across India after many Indian newspapers declared the book "scurrilous libel" against Hindus and Hinduism.
Mayo's book created outrage across India, and it was burned along with effigies of her. Mayo’s book also sparked controversy among American liberal scholars, who were also critical of Mayo. A major opponent to Mother India was Jabez Sunderland, a longtime pro-India activist. Sunderland made comparisons between Indian leaders and American revolutionaries who played a part in the fight for American freedom to counteract Mayo’s racial nationalism. In his book India, America and World Brotherhood, Sunderland asserted that imperialistic rule over India was unjustifiable, parasitic, and destructive. His book included personal testimonies and statistics mainly gathered from the Indian government to counteract Mayo’s claims about Indian society. Instead, Sunderland attributed the problems that Mayo blamed as intrinsic to Indian society, as symptoms “rooted in centuries of colonial oppression.”
Mayo's book was criticized by Indian independence activist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a "report of a drain inspector sent out with the one purpose of opening and examining the drains of the country to be reported upon." Gandhi reminded Western readers of the shortcomings of their own societies, as did Sunderland who stated, “India knows nothing so bad as our American lynching and burning of Negroes.” Sunderland drew on how at one time Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw had used the example of lynching as justification for why America was not civilized enough for self-governance and commented that “the United States is not fit to rule itself and ought forthwith to be taken in hand and civilized by some foreign nation say England or France or Japan.”
The book prompted over fifty critical books and pamphlets to be published, which highlighted Mayo's incorrect assertions and distorted perception of Indian society, which had become a powerful influence on the American public's view of India. The controversy caused by Mayo's work was helpful to aid nationalist India in the reversal of Western colonial propaganda. The outrage caused led to a new school of liberal Indian feminism and a new vision for Indian women. This new ideal of an Indian woman was viewed as the model embodiment of what it meant to be Indian in an independent nation state.
Annie Besant called Mother India "a remarkably wicked book slandering the whole Indian people". The book was cited as an example of imperial feminism by American historian Liz Wilson, who wrote that Mayo employed feminist rhetoric to support her criticisms of the Indian independence movement. Wilson also explored alternative conclusions that some Western reviewers had come to after reading Mayo’s book. For example, one anonymous 1927 review in the New Statesman claimed that the Indian vices supposedly detailed in Mayo's book were exclusive to Hindus, and Muslims in India were "comparatively free of these sub-human vices". The review provoked a furious response from Bengali intellectual Rabindranath Tagore, who accused Western commentators of hypocrisy.
Mayo's initial inspiration for her assertions against India came from a British intelligence agent working for the Indian Political Intelligence Office (IPIO), which was based in London. The IPIO was formed in response to the dissemination of anarchist and revolutionary elements of Indian nationalism in Europe during the First World War.
In 1929, Harry H. Field, whom Mayo had acknowledged in the foreword of Mother India, wrote a book called After Mother India in which he responded to the criticisms levelled against Mayo's work, added more commentaries and wrote a brief biography of Katherine. A chapter was dedicated to the most notable critique, which was the one written by Gandhi.