Mother India

by Mayo, Katherine

• ISBN13: 9780472067152
• ISBN10: 047206715X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-31
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Pr

Summary

Mother India, a polemical attack against Indian self-rule written by U.S. historian Katherine Mayo, was met with a storm of controversy when it was published in 1927. The controversy generated still reverberates and thus is still worth revisiting, some fifty years after Indian independence. In responding to Mayo's argument laid out inMother India, the leaders of the national movement and the independent women's movement in India laid the foundations of an alliance that gave modern Indian nationalism its distinctive character. Mrinalini's Sinha's edition provides selections of this controversial book and commentary on theMother Indiaphenomenon. It also reprints a range of responses from Mayo's contemporaries. Sinha's edition works to locate the book and the controversy it incited in the context of U.S. domestic, British Imperial, and Indian nationalist politics. Unlike previous editions, Sinha's examines the history of cultural feminisms and the relations between women's movements in the United States, Britain, and India; the examination of these different movements reveals intriguing insights into the nature of the varied reactions to Mayo's book. The edition includes several formerly obscure contemporary responses toMother Indiafrom representatives of the women's movement and of the anti-caste movement in India. Intended as a tool for students and teachers alike, this book will be an important text in the field of women's studies, cultural studies, political science, history, and religion, among others. Mrinalini Sinha is Associate Professor of History, Southern Illinois University. She is the author ofColonial Masculinity: The 'Manly Englishman' and the 'Effeminate Bengali' in the Late Nineteenth Century.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(62)
Mrinalini Sinha
Mother India	63	(2)
Katherine Mayo
Foreword	65	(4)
PART I
Introduction: The Bus to Mandalay	69	(6)
The Argument	75	(6)
``Slave Mentality''	81	(12)
Marbles and Tops	93	(7)
Early to Marry and Early to Die	100	(7)
Spades are Spades	107	(14)
PART II
Interlude: The Grand Trunk Road	119	(2)
The Earthly God	121	(9)
Wages of Sin	130	(7)
Mother India	137	(15)
Behind the Veil	152	(9)
Woman the Spinster	161	(19)
PART III
Interlude: The Brahman	177	(3)
Less than Men	180	(7)
Behold, a Light!	187	(7)
Give Me Office or Give Me Death	194	(4)
We Both Meant Well	198	(2)
``Why Is Light Denied?''	200	(7)
A Counsel of Perfection	207	(9)
PART IV
Interlude: Mr. Gandhi	215	(1)
The Sin of the Salvation Army	216	(3)
The Sacred Cow	219	(2)
The Quality of Mercy	221	(2)
In the House of Her Friends	223	(1)
Home of Stark Want	224	(2)
The Reforms	226	(7)
The Princes of India	233	(7)
PART V
Interlude: Into the North	239	(1)
Firebrands to Straw	240	(7)
Sons of the Prophet	247	(4)
The Holy City	251	(4)
The World-Menace	255	(4)
``Quacks Whom We Know''	259	(4)
Psychological Glimpses through the Economic Lens	263	(4)
Conclusion	267	(8)
Appendix I: Medical Evidence	269	(2)
Appendix II: Enfranchisement of Women	271	(4)
Select Contemporary Responses to Mother India	275	(1)
1. Miss Mayo Answered---	276	(11)
Muthulakshmi Reddi
2. Correspondence---Women's Indian Association	287	(3)
3. Extracts from Mother India Ka Jawab---	290	(3)
Chandravati Lakhanpal
4. Extracts from Meyo Kutru Moyya Poyya---	293
Kovai A. Ayyamuthu