Mother, Mother-Community and Mother-Politics in Tamil Nadu

C S Lakshmi This paper examines not only the concept of thet mother but the context of the mother. It attempts to locate the mother in the functional context of Tamil culture and politics and to understand the multiple ways in which meanings have been loaded on the term mother literally splitting mothers into mothers and non-mothers, pure mother's and whore mothers, mothers of sons and mothers of daughters. The effort is to problematise the term mother by contextualising it and revealing its multiple and constantly altering meanings and the kind of politics that accompanies essentialisation.
I Introduction
IN the early sixties, as young girls like me, brought up on Tamil classical literature were, growing up, there was no doubt in our minds that all women were essentially mothers. To be a mother was as natural and essential as the earth sprouting a tree or a tree bearing fruits. It was an effortless and natural act which came along with being a woman. A lullaby in a Tamil film set to a haunting melody was very popular in those days and it, in a way, summed up our idea of a mother. We were quite convinced that what the mother in the song felt all of us shared by virtue of being biologically women. The song went thus: Can a tree be a burden to the earth? Are the leaves a burden to the tree? Is the vegetable a burden to the creeper? A child she has given birth tocan it be a burden to the mother?1 The song is an extension of the notion that the need for begetting a child and emotions towards a child are naturally lodged in the body of a woman. This need exists as a biological adjunct, like a nail, hair or appendix. Those without these needs or unable to execute this need are defective in some way. The woman who does not bear a child is incomplete, unfulfilled. Not surprisingly, the most tragic folk songs or laments in Tamil are sung by barren women who compare themselves to barren trees, dry rivers and unfertile soil. In one such song the barren woman talks of herself as a coconut tree that has not borne fruits: In the wet soil was planted the coconut sapling you planted it to spread to bear four lakhs of fruits But it didn't grow nor bear four lakhs of fruits It turned barren! In the ploughed soil was planted a coconut sapling You said it'd grow with speed bear a lakh of fruits Neither speedy growth nor a lakh of fruits It's fa'llen down Your word went wrong! [Vanamamalai 1964: 37-71] The exultant mother far removed from the WS-72 physical world of pain, blood and excrement and the sorrowful barren woman caught up in the net of her own body are two dominant ideas of mother that Tamil girls and boys grow up with. The attempts to invest the maternal bodyas if it is one universal body with one meaningwith 'truths' about the meaning of women's existence have been fairly constant in the Tamil cultural ethics and practices and have proved to be a fertile ground for the flourishing of a certainkind of politics. ' The purpose of this paper is to examine not only the concept of the mother but the context of the mother. The attempt is to locate the mother in the functional context of Tamil culture and politics and to understand the multiple ways in which meanings have been loaded on the term mother literally splitting mothers into mothers and nonmothers, pure mothers and whore mothers, mothers of sons and mothers of daughters. The effort is to problematise the, term mother by contextualising it and revealing its multiple and constantly altering meanings and the kind of politics that accompanies essentialisation.2 quality of milk from the breasts of a woman. Where the son is a coward or a warrior, in classical poetry, the mother has considered it her own limitation or achievement. A cowardly son is because the mother's milk has failed and the first instinct is to slash those breasts off. Poems from Purananuru (Songs o" Valour) depict such mothers. Most of thes< poems on heroic mothers are by wome' poets: The old woman's shoulders were dry, unfleshed with outstanding veins: her low belly was like a lotus pad. When people said her son had taken fright, had turned his back on battle and died, she raged and shouted, "If he really broke down in the thick of battle, I'll slash these breasts that gave him suck" and went there, sword in hand Turning over body after fallen body, she rummaged through the blood-red field till she found her son, quartered in pieces, and she rejoiced more than on the day she gave him birth. Another heroic mother saw her warrior son dead in the battlefield and her milk : began to flow: There, in the very middle of battle camps that heaved like the seas, pointing at the enemy the tongues of lances, new forged and whetted, urging soldiers forward with himself at the head In a skirmish of arrow and spear, cleaving through an oncoming wave of foes, forcing a clearing, he had fallen in that space between armies, his body hacked to pieces: When she saw him there in all his greatness, mother's milk flowed again in the withered breasts October 20-29, 1990

II Goddesses, Mothers and Politics

The Tamil mothers in classical Tamil literature, have bodies which motherhood has tuned into sites of divinity, sanctity and purity. Their bodies are also sites where all societal notions of life and living seem to converge endowing their bodies with some mystical qualities which make them 'naturally' produce what is termed 'the milk of valour' for their sons to infuse in their blood bravery and courage to make them warriors. Their wombs become 'lairs of tigers' from which emerge sons, majestic like tigers, who can be found only i-n the battlefields. One does not know what kind of milk these mothers fed their daughters or for that matter whether these womb-lairs are meant for daughters at all. In keeping with the military needs of the period, the women's bodies, it. seems, become reservoirs from which 'naturally' flows endless stream of milk of valour to turn into blood of warriors in the bodies of their sons. The birth of valorous sons is decided by the quality of the womb and

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of this mother for her warrior son who had no thought of retreat. Yet another woman looks upon her womb as a lair of tigers:. You stand against the pillar of my hut and ask: "Where is your son? 1 don't really know This womb was once a lair for that tiger. You can see him now Only on battlefields. [Ramaniijan 1985: 182-84] Even in common parlance the mother's milk is seen as having special attributes 'nothing can quench thirst like mother's milk', says a Tamil proverb. It is quite common in an argument, to accuse a man of having drunk impure milk from his mother. A mother with breasts and womb to create only those sons who are warriors and fighters is an idea which the Tamil mothers think is their own internal, natural, biological power. It is a way of laying siege of their bodies from within. It is a co-option where they offer their breasts and wombs as implementing tools. The Tamil mother whose breasts and womb have supernatural powers has to be placed in the context of the functioning of the world in which she has been taken in as a mother. Her breasts and womb are seen as organs of 'naturally' superior succour through which lies her eventual and ultimate realisation of herself as a woman. Kannagi of Silapadhikaram, the Tamil epic, runs on the streets of Madurai with her breast cut offthe, ultimate disfigurementand it is generally seen as a gesture of anger. And yet it is really a rnasochistic gesture of inflicting punishment upon herself. Her breasts don't serve the purpose they are supposed to she never becomes a mother; nor have her breasts been caressed by Kovalan who dies leaving his marriage unconsummated and to that extent she is unfulfilled and incomplete in terms of the values of the world. Her breasts that have not suckled a child become her burden. They are the most visible parts of her body that she sees as having "gone to waste" not that her husband is dead. And caught in an unstabilising anger, she cuts off one of her breasts drawing blood, not milk. Endowed with a specific quality, her breasts become her punishment. In the ultimate analysis the breasts and the womb are put to what use is allowed to them in different conditions in the functional world. The epic-mothers occupy the positions they do with breasts that spew milk and wombs that are lairs of tigers, only as mothers of sons. The mother of a daughterwhat would her breasts and womb turn into? Even TirukkuraP only talks of a mother's feelings towards her sonthat she would feel happier than at the time of birth, when she hears her son praised [Tirukkumt 69th verse]. The epic mothers whose motherhood is seen as divine, miraculous and powerful are mothers of sons. Yasodha, mother of Krishna;

Kausalya, mother of Rama; Kunti, mother of Pandavas; Seetha, mother of Lava and Kusha. In order to understand the true nature of their motherhood one should place them in hypothetical situations of their being mothers of daughters. If Seetha had borne twin girls how would she have brought them up; what would she have taught them? Yashodha brings up a son not her own and she becomes a divine mother. King Janaka's wife brings up a girl-child not her own, which is Seetha, but one has to recall her name with effort. Epic women who have i given birth to daughters have not been particularly remembered for their motherhood. Madhavi of Silapadhikaram is a dancer. She gives birth to Manimekalai who becomes a saint and no special credit goes to Madhavi. Menaka gives birth to Shakuntala but has to abandon her. Shakuntala is for all purpose known as Rishi Kanva's daughter. Rishi Kanva's wife, like Janaka's wife, does not turn divine. Shakuntala herself has the chance to rebuild her life because she gives birth to Bharata, a son, who plays with tiger cubs. Running undercurrent to this idea of the essential mother who is the mother of sons, is the notion- of dysfunction or defective functioning. The mother who has daughters has brought it about by not functioning in a particular way giving wrong signals to her body. This was referred to at one time, in a discourse given by Shankaracharya, the head of the Hindu religious Mutt. He raised the question of why women delivered more sons in the past and were delivering more daughters in the present times. He explained the phenomenon by linking the gender of the child with the level of intelligence of the mother vis-a-vis the father. He elaborated that in the past men were superior in knowledge, spiritual achievements and mental growth.. In the present times men were busy eking out a living whereas women continued to preserve the arts, good customs and religion as they always did. Due to this superiority by default, more girls were being born. His explanation made a few things very obvious that women by the way they live and think decide the gender of the child; that the cultural expectation from them is for sons; that women who become more intelligent than what they ought to be are in the danger of producing daughters [Gugapriyai 1989: 21-22].

needed a peg to hang all their ideas of purity and sanctity which validated the greatness and depth of their identity. The mother figure seemed the epitome of all that they were seeking in terms of identity, since all women were seen as potential mothers. In this reinterpretation and elaboration of Tamil culture, the Tamil mother became the central element as guarantor of purity of progeny and authenticator of historical continuity. In the motherin her bodyis vested the totality of an identity. Once the mother's body as a sacred site is established, all other elements of identity are rendered valid and hence necessary to revive and hold on to. The mother's body then becomes a metaphor for anything considered sacred and pure like land or language. Anything that is valued is. turned into a mother to validate its existence and continuity. The mother-metaphor is used as being congruent to purity and chastity ideals. Like Tamil language is virgin Tamil and Mother Tamil. Purity is the operative word for time and again in assessments of events and personalities, in perspectives, in evaluations where purity and ownership is a matter of debate or pursuit, the mother-metaphor is invoked sometimes as a yardstick of measure, sometimes as a goal, sometimes as a touchstone and sometimes as a tool of punishment. There is also another aspect to the mothermetaphor. A non-changing, static mothermetaphor as a historical continuity, necessitates no redefinitions or search of who the Tamil man is or what his actions ought to be. Everything decided in terms of the mother-metaphor becomes an historical inevitability. His areas of operation become clearly demarcated and he becomes the protecter, guide and indirect owner of what he venerates. The mother becomes the object of veneration but as a subject, in order to survive, she has to aid the continuation of the veneration by accepting and abiding by the deal of veneration. It is a double-bind. By feeling towards a language and nation as he would feel towards a mother, the Tamil man is comfortable in what he thinks is his manliness. His 'manliness' lies in protecting his women; he feels humiliateu when his women are oppressed or humiliated. Nation and language belong to him in the sense his women do. In other words, nation and language become his responsibility; his domain. The mother-metaphor thus becomes a metaphor of exclusion. Women are part of this activity as aids, assistants, supporters and perpetrators. But not as transforming elements. Whatever transformation is possible happens within the all-pervading influence of the mother-metaphor. Individual identities are erased and women are clubbed together as the mother-community with motherhood their natural vocation. In public speeches in Tamil Nadu, men are addressed as friends, elders or youths but women are always 'mothers'. The term thai (mother) and. thai-kulam (Mothercommunity) are used alternatively to refer to women. \

Ill Mother as Metaphor

In 1892, the first printed version of the entire Silapadhikaram came out through the efforts of U V Swaminatha Iyer. It coincided with efforts being made at this time to discover a 'pure' Tamil language as the beginning of establishing a pure Tamil identity. In the process of the discovery evolved the pure Tamil woman whose embodiment was the Mother. Tirukkural talks about children but does not have a special chapter on motherhood. But the neo-Tamilians

One intellectual whose writings consolidated all these ideas in a structured manner was Vi Kalyanasundaranar, Vi Ka as he was known. His Pennin Perumai (1927) was one book that was quoted .most after Tirukkural. Thiru Vi Ka was a social reformer and worshipped the divinity in each woman. He saw motherhood as the centrality of femininity. He wrote against oppression of women and wanted women as mothers to be given a high status in the society. He argued that man had used woman as the object of his lust and as his' maid. And that he had no right to take away the birthrights of women for women were procreators: He argued that women of our country had a high status in the past and that women's low status came about later. He spoke of the Purananuru mothers, of women poets and Kannagi and explained that these women were valorous and worshipped for their chastity because they were educated. Thiru Vi Ka was of the opinion that traditional education made these women what they were. He was against western education for women for he felt that western education was not liberating. He wanted women to learn about Indian culture and arts. As a nationalist, he was of .the view that western education did not infuse nationalist feelings in women, nor did it make them courageous like Kannagi or virtuous liVe Manimekalai. The kind of freedom women may get through western education will make them disrespectful towards men and indifferent to marriage; it will lead them to bad habits and make them lose their feminine qualities. If the nation had to rise to its ancient glory, then women must be given the education that women of ancient times had. The education must not destroy a woman's natural qualities and through that destroy man [Rajagopalan 1988: 288 ff]. "What leads to good conduct is education. All the rest is not education. Women who are mothers must value good conduct like their own life. A girl must grow up like an incarnation of good conduct. A woman who is not this way is not a woman. She is a ghoul. Hence a woman must from her childhood, receive that kind of education which will make her divine... What is the purpose of a woman's life? To become a mother. That is also the purpose of creation. Nature also has the same purpose. An education that goes against both and purports to help women's life, how can it be called education?" [Thiru Vik Ka, 1986 edition: 731. ^ > Household work like pounding and grinding and traditional dances were enough exercises and distractions for women, Thiru. Vi Ka thought, and was against convent schools where girls played games and where song and dance at the primary level were introduced. Thiru Vi Ka compared these schools intended for girls to hell. Songs and dance of the kindeven in elementary schools, he felt, was likely to create "evil excitement" in girls [Lakshmi, 1984: 18]. A woman must have varied knowledge; she
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must be the personification of university, for, how else can she become a mother and bring up children, Thiru Vi Ka asked [Thiru Vi Ka, 1986 edition: 76]. "What makes the woman great? It is motherhood which helps the world grow and is of service to the world, that makes it great. All that is great in woman is due to motherhood. There is divinity in motherhood. And divinity is the ultimate realisation of womanhood" he wrote in his book [Thiru Vi Ka 1986, edition: 299]. For his efforts to recreate for women, what he considered ancient glory, Thiru Vi Ka was known as a radical in his days. But in the process, very specific definitions and areas of functioning for women were being reestablished. Education, knowledge, expression and work were all to centre on the con, cept of motherhood with its implications of purity and sanctity. Even a radical poet like Bharatidasan who was closely associated with activities to assert the dignity of the Dravidian wrote: Women without education are unfertile soil Grass may grow there not good sons [Rajagopalan 1988: 274] As choices made in personal life motherhood, purity or chastity do not assume special prominence. It is when they become concepts utilised as yardsticks for a particular gender that they turn into a creed. Women become embodiments of what are considered the purest values in the culture and their dignitiy is maintained by constant assertion, and implementation in action of this fact. Those who deviate are not only considered violators of the 'truths' of the woman's body and traitors to a culture but also non-realised souls. For women's ultimate realisation, according to this view, lies within her own body; in utilising her body for what it is 'naturally' meant for motherhood. Not by transcendence but through immanence lay their realisation. There was a fear that once unbound from their bodies, there will be no site to situate control on them. This concept of ultimate realisation of divinity through their maternal bodies has created in the Tamil culture legends of women abandoning the bindings of their bodies in most unusual ways. Avvaiyar, the poet, opted to do away with a young body so as to remain single.4 Karaikal Ammaiyar, converted her body to that of a ghoul because her husband did not think he could* have conjugal relations with a saint. Her body that was of no use to her husband hence for procreationshe turned into a skeleton. While men transcend their bodies women have to circumvent their bodies. Renouncing and accepting the body has to be done in legitimised manners. Mysticism and miracle accompany a woman's action of rising above her body. In the process of establishing the burden of the overdetermined body one inevitably reaches the area of female sexuality. If why and how women become mothersa biological eventis not determined by anything

inherent in the bodysome essencebut because of the body in a context, how does one then view female sexuality and its expression? For an answer to this one has to understand the erotic tradition in Tamil culture. Who expressed this sexuality for what purpose and in what context and how pursuing this enquiry also leads to the good woman/bad woman split are details I shall not go into at this juncture. I am concerned here about female sexuality being perceived by women and men. Open acknowledgement of sexuality, in particular ways, is part of the Tamil culture in its literary tradition and it has not been seen as freedom or assertion of sexuality. Eroticism and passion stylised and structured is one aspect of its language tradition. Women and men have written about viraha (pangs of separation) of a woman is exactly the same way in Kurunthogai, a collection of poems of the Sangam period in Tamil history. What exactly is female sexuality is clearly defined in physical terms and women, and men have evoked the same images, idioms and language to portray passion, longing and love of a woman. A woman's expression of her sexuality is done within a certain tradition of woman's consciousness of her body. The Tamil women poets normally describe passion as it is experienced by another woman; as a narrator or reconteur. When it is her own passion she is talking of, like in the case of the saint-poet Andal, the physical description of her passionto be embraced crushing her breasts; wanting to be rid of her breasts which touched by passion have become weapons of tortureis done within the structure of eroticism in the Tamil literary tradition. There is a particular literary form in Tamil called the Ula where the hero of the poem a king or a man much admiredwalks or rides along the road and various women describe him and the erotic feelings he evokes in them. These women are of various age groups. Ula describes physical growth and awareness of the female body in various stagesas a girl, as a very young woman, etc, etc. Some Tamil scholars regard the Via as a description of female sexuality. It is to be noted that the person who wrote such a deeply erotic Ula, setting the tradition of Ula, was a man called Ottakoother. It should also be remembered that eroticism in the Tamil tradition of dance called the koothu contained in the mood of sringara or love is expressed expertly by both women and men in the same manner. Two important inferences emerge from this analysis. One is that if poetic imagination and depth of feeling can make awareness of female sexuality accessible to men, it is not exclusive or only experimental. In which case, motherhood, another realm of experience, need not be that of those biologically women. Making that exclusive and raising it to the level of veneration is a matter of functional convenience. It does not radically transform the functional world and ensures that there won't be any functional trespasses. The emphasis of October 20-29, 1990

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the mother-metaphor contains within it all these ramifications. The second, inference is that the mothermetaphor with connotations of purity, chastity and sanctity is for the continuity of a particular kind of Tamil woman. As a metaphor, the mother-metaphor not only depicts maternal feelings but is also a metaphor that legitimises woman's existence in the family and the world in a specifically prescribed manner.

IV Politics of Dignity and Degradation

In the late twenties began a movement whose mission was to articulate and recreate Tamil origins of dignity and existence as opposed to Sanskritised origins of the members of the major political factions in Madras at that time. It was known-as the Self-Respect Movement. Its leader was^E V Ramaswami Naicker or E Ve Ra or Thandai Periyar as he was known. The Justice Party which called itself a non-Brahman party was already there but the Self-Respect Movement's mission was to revolt against rituals and superstitions that perpetuated the caste system of differentiation. It was against discrimination and degradation of human beings, an attitude associated with Brahminism. Philosophers against established religious practices had existed even earlier. Siddars of the medieval period and the nineteenth century saint Ramalingaswamy had written several Tamil verses questioning the sanctity of Vedas and Shastras and the authority of the caste system. Some nineteenth century Tamil scholars like Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai who popularised the worship of Siva, as a deity who belonged to the Tamil region and the Saiva Siddanta Samajam that was reviving religion that was for the common man irrespective of his caste, had already laid the ground' for questioning established religious and social customs. The Self Respect Movement drew a lot of inspiration from these earlier philosophical attempts and made specific plans to bring about a society of true equality by encouraging inter-caste marriages, widow re-marriages, doing away with the Brahmin priests during marriage ceremonies and working against religion and blind beliefs. [Irschick 1986: 79 ffl The Siddars looked upon all women as mothers stressing their procreative abilities and Saivism brought with it the emphasis on Shakti, the mother-energy. At the time the Self Respect Movement was spreading its influence, Bharati known as a revolutionary poet, was writing impassioned poems on the "new woman" who was personification of Shakti. Bharati was inspired by the rhythm, momentum and vitality of the Shakti image and many of his poems were addressed to itali, the destroyer of evil. The "new woman", he wrote about was a woman energised by education and new awareness of her culture but her major task Economic and Political Weekly

was to create a new race of human beings to destroy political and social enslavement. His "new woman" sang thus: ...to rule the realms and make the laws we've arisen; Nor shall it be said that woman lags behind man in the knowledge that he attaineth Dance the kummi, beat the measure To know the truth and do the right willing we come Food we'll give you, we'll also give you a race of immortals Dance the kummi, beat the measure [Swaminathan, 1984: 49]. In 1906, when Bharati edited a journal for women, he wrote that what women needed was to save themselves from humiliation at the hands of uncultured men. Political rights were not important for them. In fact, he claimed that women in England and America who were fighting for political rights were unmarried women who could not get married because of ugliness and other reasons. "A woman", he wrote, "who is eager to see her children come up in life, who is immensely happy to train them in education and manliness from within the home as housewife, will not bother much about being a parliament member!' [ Viswanathan and Mani, 1979: 82- 83] The mother-woman of the Self .Respect Mbvement was erected on this foundation. Passionate poems appeared in Vidudalai, a journal propagating the views of the Self Respect Movement, which were inspiredby Bharati. One of them elaborated their plan of action: ...women's rights to increase we'll remove their ignorance we'll find homes for all women, on this soil who have no companions we'll act with courage we know to succeed with no mistakes we'll remove the wrath of caste that is ruining us. [ Vidudalai, 1937: 1] In their rhetoric and vitriolic speeches against degradation of women, the Self Respecters often quoted Bharati. A radical poet Bharati Dasan, from their own ranks, perhaps was able to visualise this new Tamil woman culled out of a glorious heritage who nurses a passion for Tamil and Tamil fine arts and whose company inspires and soothes the Tamil man. One of his poems written like a plea of a lover was used in a Tamil film Ore Iravu (One Night). It went thus: When there is sorrow won't you take up your Yaz5 and bring happiness to me; bring happiness The pain of a heart that knows no love won't you take it away with a song in Tamil, dear won't you take it away? To bring feelings to life in a nation of strength and simplicity, won't you dance and demonstrate

in the ancient Tamil tradition? When there is doubt what is virtuous and what is valorous when there is doubt, won't you quote a word from the Tamil god's 'Tirukkural? won't you quote? The women cadre of the Self Respect Movement gave fiery speeches against religion and men who enslave women in conferences organised for women in the movement. All these conferences were referred to as 'Mothers' Conferences' and 'Mothers' Meetings' by the movement. When women went on a procession protesting against Hindi in the thirties, it was referred to as 'Mothers' Procession'. In some of these mothers' meetings, the topics discussed were 'Women's education'; 'Mothers who helped Tamil grow'; 'Women in Sangam age'; 'Mothers and compulsory Hindi', etc. One particular advertisement of one such mothers' meetings invited all mothers to attend and made a special note that men were not allowed. [Vidudalai 1939:3]. Having sworn torecreateTamil culture of the past, all actions and activities, were presented as activities of warriors preparing for a battle. The protest against Hindi became a battle like the Purananuru battles where Tamil warriors were being sent to battlefields and jail by their women and where the women themselves entered the battle as supporters of their men. Many of these women went to jail with their children in 1^39 protesting against Hindi. Not all the children were breast-fed babies. The mothers took them obviously because they were considered responsible for them and also possibly because there was a constant need to prove to themselves and others, whatever activities, their roles as mothers would not suffer. The photographs of mothers going to jail with their children in the 1939 antiHindi agitation were prominently printed in Vidudalai. One of them, Salem Sevaki Ammal, went to jail with three kids. And the movement immediately announced an anti-Hindi calendar which was known as Calendar of Valorous Tamil Mothers who went to* jail protesting against Hindi [Vidudalai, 1939[. To carry out its programme against Brahminism, caste-discrimination and inequality, the Self Respect Movement worked out a plan of action at several levels which covered a Vide range of issues from language to lifestyle. One of the most interesting aspects of this concerted effort had to do with the ideology of Tamil mothers instilling ideas, of culture and courage in their children. New lullabies talking of the greatness of Tamil culture and the need to fjght casteism and rituals were written for the Tamil child. Bharati Dasan wrote some lullabies which became very popular. In his lullaby for a girl-child he wrote: They put the vermillion mark on a lump of cowdung WS-75

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and call it a god Feel the shame-of this and sleep , Laugh at this and sleep A lullaby for a boy talks of him as the warrior come to save this situation: Religion is presented like an epidemic by the orthodox Warrior, young warrior, you've come to fight to axe this at the root no flowers, no fruits will it bear (Iamizhavan, 1971:66].6 With Tamil language, Tamil music and Tamil lifestyle to fortify its spirit the movement began to propagate certain reforms. One of them was the popular Self Respect marriage that did away with rituals and the Brahmin priest and the tali, the sacred thread tied around the neck of the bride. The tali was termed a chain of slavery. The Self Respect marriages were seen as business contracts. Another aspect of these marriages was that they were referred to as lovemarriages since they were inter-caste marriages, even if arranged by party elders or the families. Photographs of the couples holding hands or with the husband's arm around the wife's shoulder standing close appeared often in Vidudalai. These photographs were different from conventional marriage photos of those days with the husband seated on a chair and the wife standing beside. These photographs asserted an equal relationship. Another social reform that the Self Respecters-spoke about and encouraged was widow remarriage. Bharati Dasan wrote moving poems on widows, and widow remarriages were boldly advertised and notices about the marriages stressed the fact that the bride was a widow. In Karaikudi, Maragathavalli Ammaiyar brought out a journal entirely devoted to widow-remarriage called Madar Marumanam. After a flurry of activities, with detailed news of self-respect marriages, widowremarriage and news of women going to jail to protest against Hindi, women practically go out of news apart from occasional references. It was as if a non-ritualised marriage was the only solution to the question of granting self-respect to women. Once the door to Tamil education and a Tamil warrior husband was opend to her she had nothing left to aspire for. After the death of Nagammaiyar, Periyar's first wife, in 1939, who kept up the familial quality of the movement, by being mother to all,the followers calling some women her daughters and some others her daughters-in-law, the women in the movement did not figure so prominently in the news. After Periyar's marriage in 1949 to one of his followers who was much younger than him, much against the reform he himself undertook to stop old men marrying young girls, news about the women-cadre of the Self Respect Movement became practically nil. Maniammai, his . second wife, regarded herself as someone WS-76

dedicated to serve him. "I have dedicated myself totally to serve him and to take care of his welfare, I have assumed myself to be his mother and I have placed him in my heart as a child, and I have found happiness in protecting that child from harm," she remarked. She worked along with Periyar. The next we hear of 'mothers' going on a protest procession representing the movement is only in 1974, after Periyar's death, when a general protest was organised against degradation. Maniammai was jailed during Emergency and her final protest was in 1977 when she organised a black-flag protest against Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister, who was visiting Madras [Iraiyan, 1981: 5-14]. Maniammai personally continued Periyar's struggle but she did not utilise her position to strengthen or train for leadership, women supporters of the movement. The movement split into two at the time of Periyar's second marriage and the Dravida Munnetra Kazagam under the leadership of C N Annadurai was born. The Dravida Munnetra Kazagam was like an extended family and it was almost an allmale party with members who thought of themselves as warriors fighting battles of a different nature in the Purananuru tradition. Ensconced in self-respect marriages, the women were now the real glorified mothers, sending their sons and husbands to 'battles', feeding them and their friends, bringing Up sons with 'valorous milk' with as much ease as Maltova-mothers.

self-respect they had to change themselves in terms of their attitude towards language, religion and lifestyle. To the male selfrespecter, self-respect meant not being denied his rights in the society whatever his caste, not being bound by religious superstitions, not tolerating any insult to Tamil language and Tamil culture. To the female self-respecter self-respect meant supportive actions and acceptance of whatever was meant for them as mother-community. For the man, self-respect was for relating with the world whereas for the woman, selfrespect was for relating to the family. A woman who held on to her views of god and rituals, often lost a self-respecter husband to another woman who was a self-respecter. Many of, the Self-Respect marriages, termed love-marriages, happened to be of self-respecters who were already conventionally married. Periyar was questioned in one of the marriages where speeches were normally given by a leader, if bigamy was the policy of the Self-Respect Movement. Periyar replied that his movement advocated equality based on rationality and that every self-respecter has the freedom to choose a wife who supports his views. He said that a self-respecter offered the same freedom to his wife [Ramasubramaniam 1983: 19-21], But no instance of a wife wanting to leave a self-respecter was ever reported. In a Self-Respect marriage the bride and the groom took oaths saying "I accept you today as my companion in life. From today you have a share in all the happiness and sorrow of my life. Whatever rights I demand from you, I am willing to give you the same!' As an oath this was probably a very precise and effective one. And in the- initial years these marriages became tools of propaganda for Periyar and other leaders came and gave speeches on these occasions. Periyar used these marriages as platforms to speak about self-respecters as individuals. "..A woman has no freedom. She lives as a slave under her in-laws and husband. A woman is told that a husband is to be respected even if he is a stone or a blade of grass. A woman's valour and human qualities have been destroyed. Women are told that they must live like Nalayini, Seetha, Chandramati, etc. If she has to live like Chandramati, it means the husband can sell his wife for a loan taken. What' can be more harmful to women's self-respect than the fact that a husband has the right to sell his wife? Seetha's story is very vulgar. Imagine how foolish it is to ^rive a wife away to the jungles when she is pregnant. Nalayini's story is similarly obscene. The husband wants to go to a prostitute's house and the wife takes him there in a basket. This is like giving him licence to go to a prostitute. Taking a husband to a prostitute's house, is this woman's . chastity? A self-respecting woman would push him out and close the door..!', he said in one of his addresses in a marriage [Ramasubramaniam].. _ All this was powerful rhetoric But these became as meanigless as the 'mantras' they objected to for in later years the self-respect

Self Respect and Tamil Mothers

In the twenties, self respect was a word that everyone recognised and used. It was a catch-word to sell any idea or object. A strange advertisement for a book on hypnotism and mesmerism appeared in Kudi Arasu, a voice of the Self-Respect Movement. It read, "If you want to learn hypnotism and mesmerism, if you want to gain self-respect read this book..!' The advertisement was accompanied by a drawing of a woman reading the book [Kudi Arasu 1928]. It looked as if the word self-respect could entice women into doing anything, even reading a book on hypnotism! The programme for granting self-respect to women, in its emotional outpourings in the print media and in its public speeches seemed like a revolutionary programme with an earth-shattering impact after which a Tamil woman would not be the same. 3ut once the hyperbolic speeches and priesfless marriages become a common occurrence, it becomes clear that the term self-respect for women has come with qualifications and in its theoretical content, apart from the antigod and anti-ritual slant, it was not very different from the clamour for social reform like education- and widow remarriage that had started at the end of the nineteenth century. The women self-respecters took up actions that were supportive of the men and to a large extent believed that in order to gain Economic and Political Weektv

marriages themselves became empty rituals and even the tali as a symbol, was reintroduced. Periyar himself could only exhort women to be self-respecting individuals and not give in to their husbands, but this did not reconcile with the idea of a Tamil mother that was being encouraged as a part of the movement. His own wife Nagammai had put up with his womanising ways in his youth. Periyar openly acknowledged it and got absolved but Nagammai continued to stay with him. The self-respecting woman, while she fought against symbolic chains like the tali initially, was not very different from the ritual-bound wife a self-respecter sometimes left behind to marry her. Some of them wrote against craze for jewellery and blindbeliefs as concepts that bound women. They , spoke of visible bindings but left unsaid what was supposed to be inherent in their nature as women. This was obviouVki some of their speeches. In a particular speech a woman spoke of what education ought to do for women: If it is a boy an educated girl would bring him up to be intelligent, healthy and to be a warrior in the world. If it is a girl, apart from education, humility, sobriety, patience and chastity which are womanly qualities, as future mothers and as those who have to obey their husbands and bear children who would have good qualities and indulge in good activities; as those who would bring a good name to their families and let their husband's clans flourish the mother would train them, accordingly... An educated woman would know how to sense her husband's needs...She would run the household without bothering her husband in any way [Vidudalai 1939:2]. Speeches such as these have to be set in the context of issues that Periyar himself was raising regarding enslavement of women. Apart from explaining how issues of property, divorce, love, marriage, etc, can enslave women, Periyar, in a set of very powerful essays located the site of enslavement of women as their wombs. He wrote that for ' a true women's liberation, women must be rid of the problem of bearing children which made them dependent on men and the laws of men. "Pregnancy acts as a hurdle in the path of women's freedom. Women dont^ have property, income or a profession. And hence they are dependent on others to raise their childrenMoreover, among^nen there are celibates, saints, Sankaracharyas and other saints attached toreligiousinstitutions. What prevents women to be saints and Sankaracharyas, to live with freedom, to own property, to be revered by others, is this pregnancy. It is because of this that I say women must stop bearing children in order to progress, to be liberated and free..!'[Periyar 1932:86 ff]. In his eagerness to confront issues directly, Periyar glossed over the real issue of motherhood. The crux of the issue was not women getting pregnant but the manipulation of pregnancy and the prejudgment of the woman's body, with the womb as a house of valorous Tamil sons. Where a woman's WS-77

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salvation lies through her womb, in order to to live and accept the purity versus impurity VI become a saint she has to transcend her body conflict and the moral judgment of 'good' Mothers, Marauders and Prostitutes at two levelsat the physical level and at the women and 'bad' women. Not intelligent or notional level. Not having childrenas in dull, tall or short, fat or thin, dark or fair At the time the DMK entered the cinema the case of barren womendid not liberate but pure and impure. Bound to the body. medium, it was not a party in power.' The them to relate to the world differently. Governed by the body. Womb-centred. previous decades had used the print-media Wombs that are lairs of tiger-sons whom the No discussion or debate was generated and drama and discs for propagating Tamil mothers send to battlefields. The batamong the women, self-respecters on issues ideas of nationalism and social reform tle image and the image of the valorous that Periyar spoke about. Some of the ques[STBaskaran 1981]. The Self-Respect mothers was such a dominant one that it tions he raised were probably considered part Movement had effectively used the printcontinued to persist in the language of politiof the excesses Periyar often indulged in media and social occasions like marriages cians who had been nurtured by the Selfwhen he spoke and his women followers to propagate its views. Apart from propagaRespect Movement. In 1953, the Dravida regarded him chiefly as someone who had tion, the DMK needed to be in the public Munnetra Kazagam (DMK) chose three overthrown the mythical superiority of the eye, giving the illusion of participating in its reasons to launch a protestto protest Aryans. In his own life-time Periyar sat every day struggle with familial and social against the then Congress government's through meetings where women addressed problems. It chose historical and social education policy; to condemn Nehru saying him as "the sun of knowledge, the Buddha" themes to portray the superiority of the 'nonsense* to the Tamilians; to change the who had removed the darkness engulfing Dravidian culture and its own views of the name of the station Dalmiapuram to their minds which used to make them think political situation of the Tamil region. Kallakudi. Referring to the incident in his it was a sin to talk of the deeds done in the Apart from its rational and antiautobiography, M Karunanidhi calls it a name of god, religion, shastras and rituals "righteous war with three battle-fields". exploitation themes, these films constructed by the Aryan marauders [Vidudalai 1939:3]. particular meanings of what women were in In one such meeting, in 1939, where a por- ' C N Annadurai, fondly called Anna, announced, "I am sending a brother to the war the emerging political climate. Mothers, trait of Nagammai was unveiled by Tamaraisisters, educated women, vamps and widows against the educational programme. kanni, one of the important writers and Another brother I am sending to the were presented in stark bad yersus good, speakers of the movement, she made it clear Kailakudi battlefield..!' Karunanidhi writes pure versus impure contrasts through that his ideas of enslavement of women were that the clapping of the hands following the dialogues, songs and picturisation. The not taken seriously by women. Nagammai Tamil mothers as controllers of their sons was a cousin of Periyar. At a young age, she announcement sounded like lances hitting lances and swords touching swords. He and as sobering presences in the lives of their had insisted on marrying him. The period warrior sons, as beloveds who loved Tamil refers to Anna as the Tamil commander who of courting in Tamil literature is referred to commanded the brothers to go to the war and Tamil culture happy to lay their heads as the code of morals where stealth is the on the valorous shoulders of the warrior, front [Karunanidhi 1989: 180 if]. practice, (Kalavu Neri) because the lovers poet or self-righteous husbands were meet in secrecy. The married life is referred presented in a cleverly woven pattern of to as the Karpu Neri. Referring to this, Within such familial addresses and sequences that gave them the illusion of cenTamaraikanni said that Nagammai had (in . elaborately built up imaginary battlefields, trality while really being marginal. The fact the true Tamil tradition) entered Karpu Neri, it is natural to refer to women in specific that two men emerged as the all-Tamil male which was married life, through Kalavu Neri. ways. The songs go to the battlefleld and the heroes while no single heroine emerged as She further elaborated upon Nagammai's wives and mothers stand by them. The Tamil an essential Tamil woman is a pointer that way of life: language itself is the mother, humiliated, what was firm, steady, rock-like and active insulted and violated, who is sending her was the male, the female was the element of She took up the sacred fast of not living for sons to the battlefield to avenge her. secondary importance, manipulated, herself. She considered herself as living only Karunanidhi personifies Tamil as the angry venerated and set aside. The Tamil woman for her husband's welfare...Without exaggeraKali who nurtures her sons and demands of these films spoke alliterative dialogues, tion one can say that she thought of herself their blood to purify her. Writing about called her lover by his name, sang songs as a slave created for the pleasure of those who died in the 1953 protest he says: recreating the kalavuneri but she was conRamasami Periyar. Women should not be slaves to men; they Mother! Mother Tamil!... Look at this stantly in danger of losing her karpu, had should be free; if necessary, they should wage . corpse that has stained your body with to deal with wayward husbands and wait for a war against men who degrade themall blood, Mother! Mother! Cry! Cry! Weep bit- their return and bring up her sons and terly! Only if you cry, only if you shed tears daughters preparing them for battles and these propaganda that Ramasami Periyar did can an army be prepared to overthrow the marriages respectively. outside his house, was of no use in his own rule of these lowly men... [Karunanidhi 1989: house. The Mother versus the whore contrast was 204]. My dear sisters! There is a great moral that first presented in Manohara with the we have to learn from this. Nowadays, there Autobiographies of participants in these screenplay and dialogues written by are some women who talk of all kinds of and other protests of the DMK refer to Karunanidhi.Afano/wra was a successful things in the name of freedom. Their women as Tamil mothers who fed their col- play of Sambanda Mudaliar, known as the thoughts stray to undesirable paths. They say leagues, and wives who went through Self- father of Tamil drama. It is the story of a women must compete with men in every Respect marriage with them and waited at king enticed by a woman who plots to take field. Do you know what is the consequence home in the true Tamil tradition, while their over the country by alienating him from his of this? Women who are tender, instead of husbands fought their political battles. The wife and son, who is the.c:own prince. The being protected by men, are being roughly only female colleague referred to is Satyavani real queen and prince succeed and the temptreated by men. In the field of cinema, Muthu but since she does not fit into the tress gets punished.. In his screen-play femininity and chastity have become a rarity Purananuru picture, she is sparingly refer- Karunanidhi introduced elements that these days [Vidudalai 1939: 2-7]. red to. characterised the queen as the true Tamil Tamaraikanni's speech made it clear that the women self-respecters would be exactly The most active expression of this politics woman. The temptress has a son and he is where the men wanted thembehind them. came through the medium of cinema and the a coward, implying that an impure woman It was obvious that by essentialising the most prominent idiom was the mother- cannot have a warrior as a son. The humour woman as mother the Self-Respect Movewoman as opposed to the prostitute who was of the film centered around this coward. In ment converted begetting children into a not seen as someone with legitimate pro- a particular scene, the son is pretending to 7 political act invested with power. Not only creative possibilities. She was the mother go to war as Manoharan has gone to war that. The entire debate about karpu was to to retrieve the sword and the throne of his gone awry. be carried on. As Tamil mothers, women had WS-78 Economic and Political Weekly October 20-29,/1990

grandfather from an enemy king. The temptress-mother enters and the son says he wants to go to the battlefield. She tells him not to go as his health would get affected. In contrast is the 'good' lamil woman, the mother of the warrior: He enters her quarters: Mother! Son! (She applies vermillion mark on his forehead) Manohara, come back a victorious warrior who would bring joy to his mother and to the nation he has taken birth in. Mother! If victorious the precious stonestudded throne would arrive. Or else, my sword soaked in blood would reach you to give-you the news! Manoharan wins the war. His enemy's daughter comes to kill him but falls in love with him. Now Manoharan is the Tamil lover as he parries with her. "Warriors have never won against lance-eyed women", he says. He refers to her as a fruit'My sword acts only in the battlefield. It does not hurt fruits." Later he saves her from suicide'From the storm of death, I have saved a creeper!' Manoharan returns with a sword, throne and a woman. Manoharan's mother, the queen, commands him never to hurt his father and his mistress. Manoharan abides by his mother's command. His motherthe personification of a true Tamil womanworships her husband and puts up with everythingeven being called a whore by her own husband. But the task of protecting her and proving her purity lies with her son. In a dramatic court scene Manoharan declares: ...My mother is one from whom love arises; virtuosity resides in her; she is the image of kindness; she is the personification of chastity, she is a precious stone with no defects; she is as pure as gold... The queen also has to prove that apart from all this, she is also patient/ She stops Manoharan from killing his father. She comes and holds his sword and it is followed by a passionate exchange of words: I will not let a person get away after insulting my mother. Manohara, if it is true that you are my son listen to me. Mother! Pierce the sword into this stomach first, where you grew and then go to the king! Stand on your mother's corpse and fight with your father! ' -Mother, are we to be patient still? -Now is the time to be patient. After a series of dramatic events, Manoharan is in chains and his mother commands him to now fight. She speaks against the temptress and her gang and swears by the purity of her motherhood and the chains break: .. jf it is true that the tears of mothers born in valorous clans have power, if it is true that Manoharan, who has never bowed before others is my son, let the chains break... Not just by these overt assertions of the Tamil woman, but by subtle signs the Economic, and .Political Weekly

screenplay reveals its true spirit. Manoharan is caught on the one hand in the powerpolitics of being the crown prince and on the other as a warrior, his major effort is to assert his mother's purity. The mother's purity and his courage have a one to one equation just as the temptress's impurity and her son's cowardice are equated. What is constantly being put to test is the mother's character. The Tamil mother has not only to prove constantly that she is not a whore but she also has to prove that her mother was not a whore for otherwise her tears have no effect. The queen swears by the purity of her clan that gives power to her tears. This need to assert clan-purity makes it' clear that the Tamjlians are going to assert their superiority by the purity of their race and their actions are going to be placed in the context of this racial superiority. This is not very different from a street brawl where a man tells another, "You are wrong! Your mother is a whore!" In other words, this obsession with purity is inverted casteism, a concept the movement initially wanted to eradicate. And putting all the women of a particular racial group together and attributing specific qualities to them as a mother-clan, is in effect creating a new casteism. Moreover, in wars to win swords and thrones women are collaborators Manoharan has to fight a war not only for his nation but also to please his mother. In the course of the story Manoharan's wife gives birth to a child. This event is packed with cultural connotationsit is bora in the jail on hay stack and it is a boy. Although Murugan is considered the Tamil god, this event has all the elements of Krishna's birth. And the child being a boy is another sign to prove Manoharan's wife's womb's character. If a child is born in a jail, on a hay stack and its mother is from a clan of warriors, the child cannot but be a boy. No such dramatic build-up is associated with the birth of girls. The temptress is . the outsiderthe language and rule from the northand Mother Tamil is being insulted when the queen is insulted. Language-nationalism, mother-morality and national purity all these get combined as the queen mother. When requesting his mother's permission to fight, Manoharan says: ...My Tamil Mother! Won't you grant me permission at this point when these cunning foxes who have entered the country through a pass have decided to rule? No need for swords, mother's words would do. No need for an army, it is enough if mother's binding oath is removed. No need for armours, a signal from mother's eyes would do... Personifying an outsider as an enemy is not unusual but the conflict here is not nation versus the enemy but purity versus impurity and both concepts are characterised as women and the entire film is built on these two women physically embodying these two notions. Parasakthi was another film which was a kind of manifesto of the DMK party and as such images of women and memories of

Tamil culture it evoked are of great significance. The film begins with a song praising the Dravidian countryit is a country that has the ancient Tamil language and other languages like Telugu born out of Tamil; it has been made great by the action of courageous men and the beauty and chastity of its women. With that song, the stage is set. There are three women characters in the film around whom the story revolves. Two women in the film are like two aspects of Kannagi and one who appears for a short while is the Madhavi or the harlot. The heroine who becomes a widow vith a child and a young girl who is portrayed like an early woman self-respecter are two sides of the same coin. The widow has three brothers who are abroad who don't recognise her. Burdened with a child and left to fend for herself she opens an idli shop. "Isn't this the top job this country can offer a widow?" she asks bitterly. One of her brothers comes to India but loses his m .iey t" a dancer (shades of Kovalan) and he meets a young girl who finally tells him to act politically not just for the sake of his sister but for several like her. The sister tries to kill her child a A is arrested for murder. She and her brother (whom she does not still recognise) come out with a long indictment against the society. The child is saveJ by theradicalgirl. Everyone recognises everyone else and the film ends. The film constructs its picture of the Tamil lifestyle and women's place in it in a layered manner. The obvious story moves in a particular way. The dialogues, songs and the visual presentation add several layers of meaning to the story. The widowed sister before she becomes a x widow sings a song with her husband. He calls her the lamp that lights his married life and goes on to call her a fruit and virgin Tamil. The word fruit and virgin are similar but for one additional middle letter in 'virgin' and they are often used together in alliteration. It is rather convenient for those who look upon women as edible virgins. Once widowed, the heroine's honour is constantly threatened. Local goondas, a . religious person and a temple priest try to rape her. Unprotected by a man, she is open to the danger of losing her chastity. Her throwing the child into the water is similar to the 18th century Nallathangal legend where Nallathangal pushes her seven children into the well.' In the legend, the children come alive by divine grace. But here the child is saved. The heroine is one aspect of the Tamil mother. Several visual metaphors are used to evoke certain connotations that go with her widowhood. There is a long shot of her sitting under a tree. It is a barren tree.. And as if her fate is foretold, in a previous scene another woman jumps into the well with a child. The heroine's helplessness is constantly stressed showing her in dark streets with street lamps shedding their dull light on her. The heroine has a male child, and sings a lullaby to the child. This lullaby is the picWS.-79

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ture of the ideal Tamil family. She tells the child about its three uncles who would take care of him. Maternal uncles are considered closest relatives of a child. The brother's status and high gifts are the pride of a sister. The song recalls this custom of maternal uncles giving gifts: ...You have three maternal uncles little boy They'll come to give you a good life They'll come to kiss you on your cheeks fleshy like a mango A milk-feeder made of precious stones A cradle of emerald Even a white elephant for you to ride Your uncle will offer as stridharfi With silver slate and a diamond pen, your uncle will come to put you in school to learn pure Tamil The radical heroine calls the hero by his name and addresses him in the singular and she is presented as the 'new' Tamil woman. She talks to him about social revolution. But lest the audience think that she is intelligent by her own thinking, she is provided with a self-respecter type of brother. Her ideals come from him. Her talk with the hero is counter-posed to the lullaby. The lullaby tells the hero what his familial duties are and the talk tells him what his political action ought to be. Both are provided by two different types of Tamil women. Two instigators and agents of inspiration who let men do the action and are dependent on them. In essence, they are not different at all. The first woman wants three loving brothers to observe social customs and the second one needs a self-respecter brother to tell her not to observe some of them. The third character is the 'impure* woman. She cheats the hero of his money. The male characters in the film are of several typesthe toughs, the stupid, the timid, the rapist and the idealistbut the women fall into definite categories of purity and impurity. At the end of the film the hero is shown following the radical girl in an exaggerated fashion assuring the audience it is all a joke. One literal symbol of the film Parasakthi, the goddess, as being used by the unscrupulous to cheat the gullible is presented to give the DMK views on religious exploitation. But in a figurative way, it forms the right symbol for the entire film, for the women characters in the film are used to present a particular view of life and to act in particular ways and to restrain from particular actions. There is an illusion of care and reverence, but they are really Parasakthis, to be glorified and manipulated. ' , >, In 1949 a film for which C N Annadurai wrote the story and dialogues was released containing a lot of comments on caste and class. The solution fpr both, according to the film, was marriage. The film was Velaikari. The film presented two directly contrasted images of women in the good woman-bad woman category. The 'good' woman is poor, beautiful and the epitome of Tamil culture. She is' the servant of the family. The 'bad' woman is rich, EnglishWS-80

educated, interested in social work and insolent. Every now and then the main story is interspersed with people worshipping Kali, with no obvious benefits and telling her she is goddess of the rich. The rich woman talks of women's freedom and she is part of a. women's association. She plays tennis and' wears pants. She is rude to the servant girl. Her brother who is in love with the^servant says, "Wonder which man is going to come to control this girl" The rich woman is finally 'controlled' by marrying a poor boy pretending to be rich who reveals he did it to take revenge for the death of his father by her father. The poor girl marries the rich boy and there is general declaration that there is only one community and one god.

at one point she also thinks of starting a new life with another man. In a particular scene, she tells her husband's friend to take her to the dancer's house: -Chandra, you are expecting tenderness from a stone. A whore's heart is harder than iron.
-A pattini's10 tears are

stronger than fire itself. When she reaches the dancer's place and pleads with her husband, he calls her a whore. Who is apattini and who is a whore is a matter to be pronounced by someone else and the greatest insult to a Tamil woman is to invoke the exact opposite image and call her a whore. From Manohara days, whether a woman is a pattini or a whore has been the crux of all debates. The rich girl is a comment on the various A song in the film which talks of women's women's organisations in the Tamil region exploitation by men is virtually the women's at that time. The members of these organisaprogramme of the Self-Respect Movement. tions were not considered Tamil mothers But how exactly women must respond to this although their concept of a woman was not exploitation is actually to be guided and really different. These women were condecided by men. The film makes several sidered part-time charity workers who did points clear. One is that a woman oppressnot have finer human qualities which the ed by her husband must make a new life for real Tamil mothers were nurtured in. Their herself. But this new life can only come from qualities were made obvious by the clothes a good-hearted man. If not she should take they wore and finally they were brought back up a life of service for others. Another aspect to the fold by a true Tamil man. These Obthe film is careful to guard is the virginity viously contrasted women have continued to of the woman. The husband never sleeps appear in Tamil films and true Tamil heroes with her and even at the end, he literally like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan in the earlier forces her to marry the good guy as she is days and younger heroes of the present times have been at the task of turning them into unable to take the decision. Tamil mothers metaphorically. In a film The film also makes several allusions to directed and produced by Murasoli Maran, the fact that what she is really yearning for Karunanidhi's nephew and one of the is physical intimacy. In the classical leading figures of the DMK, called Valiba style she blames the moon for torturing her. Virundu there is a song describing the kind At one point, she requests the husband's of bride needed. friend to start a new life with her but he being a true Tamil man cannot accede to this Wanted a bride request. This is shown as her moment of a good bride... falteringdriven by her own sexual needs Even if she gallents freely when a man saves her from making a like the temple bull9 mistake. This particular sequence shown as romping around with no one to check her a sympathetic gesture towards women acI shall put a string around her nose and tually reveals a lot of doubts about a drag her and control her woman's capacity to remain 'pure', if not I shall make her as patient as a buffalo aided by a man by situating her in marriage. * Wanted a bride a good bride. The moment the guiding spirit of a man* is removed, her sexual needs overcome her and Another film that was a distorted SUapadhikaram was Rathakkanneer. One of she is on the path to 'impurity'. The sequence also is to assure the audience that her virginithe staunchest supporters of the Self-Respect ty is intact and even if married again her Movement, M R Radha, acted as the hero. Rathakkanneertears of bloodwas about purity cannot be doubted and her pattini status won't be harmed. The movement ena man educated abroad who had forgotten many elements of the Tamil culture. But one couraged widows to remarry and several notices used to appear in Vidudalai about aspect of the culture he remembered and women with children and women separated followed was womanising. He becomes a from their husbands marrying. But the Tamil gruesome-looking leper and requests his wife need to generally abide by the purity-concept to marry his friend Balu, who works for the uplift of workers and is a social worker. The expressed in the film. Her request and the friend's reply form the crux of this conflict tears of blood are supposed to be those of and resolution: the oppressed wife. The film's dominant motif is the purity versus impurity ones The Chandra attempts suicide and her conscience wife is the pure one and the dancer, who enteUsher tices him is the impure one. The wife is used ...surrender yourself to a young man and as not only a symbol of purity but also live if you want. Why should you give up change. She has her pride and dignity and what the world has given you? Announce to while she believes that as a wife she has to the world that to withdraw within like a torbe totally faithful and loyal to her husband, toise and begging men is the task of lowly Economic and Political Weekly October 20-29, 1990

persons. Marry a young man suited to you and be happy. See a new world. Women like you can take new path. (Balu arrives) What is this Chandra? I want to remarry Balu. You belong to the women's clan that looks upon joy and sorrow equally. When your heart is full of worries, teach blind children; love orphaned children. I did show love that way. But I need a companion to take care of my loneliness. Companion? Nature has provided us so many companions. Look at the creeper there. Look at the bird. And there is the mullai flower blooming I saw the creeper. It is shaking looking for a support. I saw the bird. It told me about happiness and flew away. I asked this mullai and it told me there is no happiness. ...What can I do about it? Give me support. If you will it, there can be a way. Let a new chapter begin in our lives... Before Balu can reply and let the audience know how the issue is resolved, the husband enters accusing her of infidelity and adultery. At the end of the film, the husband allows her to marry and thus the question of her purity is resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned. Contrary to rational theories of the movement the film incorporated the idea of punishment for evil/sin, and reward for goodness/purity. The man who womanises becomes a leper; the 'impure* woman who entices him dies in a plane-crash. In her case, it is also a dual punishment because she is trying to get into a relationship with a Hindispeaking gentleman from Bombay. The wife who waits overcoming her loneliness and need for a companion is rewarded with marriage and a husband who is a social worker.

figure of the rising sun outside their doorstep as a part of the kolams they drew every morning. In 1975, the secretary of the women's wing of the head office of the party, could only list opening of orphanages and building of marriage choultries as active programmes for women. This is the logical outcome of the place assigned to women in the party from the beginning. Thirukkural classes were conducted for women stressing their family duties. The women went along with the decisions of the party and when they staged plays, they were full of foamy, bubbling dialogues of social change not very different from the dialogues and screenplays their own party leaders wrote. For example, when women staged a play called Porattam or Struggle for the district meeting of the party in 1951, the theme was similar to that of films which M G Ramachandran was going to make popularthe factory owner's daughter falls in love with a worker's son in the play. The DMK was familial in structure ana women in the party occupied the same position they did in families. When Satyavani Muthu left the party after disagreement with Karunanidhi, it was seen as an act of defiance head of the family. The secretary of the Women's wing put the situation in an analogy that was very expressive. She said that the party was like a family and that a wife must not leave the family if the husband, in a fit of temper, asks her to leave. In a very succinct way, this analogy expressed where women stood as far as the party was concerned [Lakshmi 1984: 31-32]. There were no more figurative battlefields left for the lamil mothers to send their sons to. The DMK government now needed a different kind of support from the lamil mothers. For the sake of the economy and for the sake of women's own health, it wanted women to control their procreative abilities. The government stepped up intensive mass-contact programmes through plays, folk songs and folk-theatre and incentive-programme for family-planning propagation. Much of this was aimed at women. Until then vasectomy camps had been organised in what had been termed 'crash programmes' to popularise surgical method. But with the coming of the DMK government, the emphasis was on tubectomy." This trend has continued and the family planning hoardings and captions on the walls often appeal to the women. "Women who beget only two children are as precious as eyes to lamil Nadu" is a popular hoarding. Journals of the family planning department have poems written by men on women telling their husbands about family planning.12 It looked as if women had taken control of their own bodies helped by the government, but in effect it was not very different from women believing that they were capable of producing the milk of -valour. In 1977, when M<> Ramachandran, the popular actor and the leader of, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, . bacame the chief minister, he devised an en-

tirely different way of making the women feel that their welfare was constantly on his mind personally and that he venerated them. He went about this task in a more organised manner than what has been recognised. Even before he became the chief minister, MGR had been projected by the DMK for its own propaganda purposes, while he was associated with them, as a spokesman of their populist political views in his films and these films became so popular that the character he playedrikshawala, worker, fisherman, peasantand the mannerisms he adopted made him one among the masses.13 Without having to organise a real strike or doing union work or dirtying his hands with soil MGR was able to make a majority of his audience feel that he was one among them and part of their everyday life, accessible to them and sympathetic to their causes. As a studied strategy, DMK had used the mother-metaphor in their films and to this MGR added his own personal idiosyncracieshis own house was called Annai Warn (Mother's House) and his studio was named after his mother Satyaand he was projected as a saviour of women. The mothers in his film commanded, sacrificed and died for their sons. And.often MGR swore by them arid the Tamil language lending them both each other's qualities and values. "I swear by Mother! I swear by Tamil!" is one of his famous songs (Nan Aanaittal). Almost all his films had one song on a mother or one allusion to a mother and gestures and dialogues revealing his tenderness towards them. The films he has made with mother in the title are quite a few. (Thayin Madiyil (In Mother's Lap); Thai Chollai Thattadhe (Don't Go against Mother's Words); Thaikupin Tharam (After Mother the Wife); Deiva Thai (Divine Mother); ThayaiKatha Thanayan (Son who Protected the Mother) to cite a few.) In Thayin Madiyil he sang a song that projected the mother as the only refuge of a son and as a perfect human being: Whatever wealth one gains Whatever joy one gets Can it equal a mother?, Mother...Mother....Mother Can anything replace you? If I put my head on mother's lap sorrows are forgotten When I see god in mother there is no other god She is more patient than the earth v she bore me for ten months In the cradle of her pure mind she cuddles her child The miracles of love are mother's deeds It's mother's deeds , It's mother's lullaby that sets the mind at rest... Through his films MGR was projecting himself as the true Tamil manhe was brave, courageous, a devoted son and a virile lover. He combined all these elements in the character of the hero and in emphasising the macho-quality he also played the class card.
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VII Goddesses, Mothers and Politics

In 1967, DMK Party formed its first government in Tamil Nadu. In the years of its stabilisation preceding this it had avoided extreme stands on issues. The radical social reform programme of atheism, abolition of the caste system and destruction of Hindu religion had, in these glowing years, been replaced by an emphasis on reform within the existing system by promoting rationality and the 'One God, One Clan' idea of theology. The focus of attack in these years was Hindi that was imposed and the northern leadership [Barnett 1976: 86; Karunanidhi 1987,1989; Arangannal 1988]. ' In these years of stabilisation, in keeping with the pattern of their films which at a surface level gave the impression of taking up issues of women's exploitation but in intent were only trying to establish the invincibility of the true Tamil mother-woman, the DMK Party functioned in a way that put women in specific roles where they did not play a prominent role in making decisions or generating debates. Women's support for the party was expressed in ways considered 'womanly'. When the rising sun emblem was, granted to the party many women drew the Ebonomic and Political Weekly

October 20-29, 1990

Like in Velaikari of Annadurai, educated, rich girls in MGR's films were shown as being shallow and heartless till he appeared and reformed them or often controlled them if they were shrews. MGR used his young heroines to project his own virility and manhood. It was difficult to tell MGR apart from the characters he played and his own biographers while elaborating his political philosophy quoted his film songs [Lakshmanan 1986]. MGR had all these films behind him as testimony of his political philosophy, and work when he became chief minister. Having proven his commitment to the cause of womenthat his heroines were emptyheaded shadows looking up to him for guidance and emancipation no one really minded for this got blurred by the stressing of the mother-metaphorthrough his films, MGR wanted to stabilise the support of women. He began a blitzkrieg of wellcalculated assaults that generated an euphoria that in whatever he did women were his central concern. He appointed women ministers and before one could point out exactly when it all happened, the word thai-kulam (mother-community) was in everyday use to refer to women. In his whirlwind tours around the villages, he remembered to embrace old women and be blessed by them. At another level, he set into motion a revival of the worship of goddesses./<faj>am, a popular magazine owned by a close friend, began an ongoing column on various goddesses, some of whom had been long forgotten.H Dilapidated temples of goddesses at places like Mangadu were repaired and gained a new status when special buses began to ply to these places. New verses on these goddesses began to be written and sold in the shops around various temples. Drama troupes that had government contracts to do propaganda plays for family planning now also began to perform plays on goddesses.ls A general impression was created that MGR worshipped goddesses because to him mothers were goddesses and goddess were mothers. How effective this mother-goddesses revival and how deeply it had penetrated became obvious when women's associations in smaller localities took up group-learning of verses on mother-goddesses as one of their major activities. Along with the revival of mothergoddesses, was also revived the woman who stayed at home and contributed to the country by being a good mother. The skits and plays that more than ninety women's organisations put up in a conference in 1983 at Madras harped upon this theme.16 In this well-calculated game he had one more trump card to deal, which he did in 1982. 1982 was the Bharati centenary year. Keeping in view Bharati's 'new woman' he organised a women's rally and a procession of thousands of women in a two-hour long procession around the streets of Madras to culminate in Valluvar Kottam, a gigantic stone-structure which in design, is a combination of an ancient temple and a palace. Although it was dubbed a non-party rally, WS-82

it was mainly an AIADMK affair and the women were mostly government employees and school girls. This women's rally served two purposes. Firstly, it asserted that the mainstay of his support came from women and secondly, it served as a launching pad to launch the political career of Jayalalitha, the 'new woman' of Bharati who was to be the propaganda secretary of the party. A gigantic goddess-woman became a kind of accompanying symbol of the MGR government. But when this gigantic creature was turned over, its underbelly was full of scarsscars of callosity left by many' allegorised maternal years; scars of marginalisation in politics and scars of still having to deal with certain general issues as women's 'special' problems. Price rise of essential commodities and water scarcity, etc, were still considered problems which affected women most and women's organisations like the Penn Urimai Iyakkam and the Democratic Women's Front in their publications and interviews referred to these problems as those for which women have a special concern for they directly affected the home and home was still women's special responsibility.17 On the day of the rally itself, DMK the then opposition party, indulged in a gesture that emphasised this specific aspect. It organised a rally of women, no doubt self-respecting, who carried mud pots and broke them to symbolise water-scarcity. The mother-goddess publications that poured into the market and the thai-kulam idiom and MGR's own films of the virile, valorous Tamil man led to a series of films, some of them rural-based, which began a trend of an earnest hero, macho in a less pronounced and almost bumbling style and heroines who were Tamil-mothers with what is referred to in Tamil as the 'Tamilfragrance', pure, simple, righteous with controlled anger and subservient to men. These films were by K Bagyaraj whom MGR termed as his protege in the cinema-world. The clever manipulation of the mothermetaphor was revealed when recently, Bagyaraj advertised his latest film: "My leader lived because of his loving mothercommunity. The same mother-community is helping me to survive. Tb honour that mother-community, I have been careful to handle the theme and screenplay of this film..:"8 That this politics where the mothercommunity became a pawn, did not really contribute in a positive way to the lives women lived or in the values with which women were assessed became obvious in the noisy scene in the Tamil Nadu assembly sometime back. It seemed that the mother versus the whore was still the yardstick for Jayalalitha who was known as anni (sisterin-law) at the time of MGR and who, eager to prove her purity declared that she really wanted to commit sati when MGR passed away, was called, according to her, a whore in the assembly by the chief minister Karunanidhi.19 While Jayalalitha had to legitimise her status as a 'pattini', as a Tamil-

mother, by evoking memories of sati, those who wanted to question her claim to political leadership, had to evoke the totally contrasted image of the whore to tielegitimise her claims. Her political claims had to be made and denied on the basis of purity. This yardstick, deliberately nurtured and cultivated for the political advancement of a particular group of politicians and 'glory* of a culture has now been turned into a 'truth' of a culturesomething inherent, natural and unalterable. Like the time Madras was facing one more of its rainless drought periods. I was travelling in a taxi and struck up a conversation with the driver about the drought. "It cannot rain", he said with a lot of conviction. "There are no more chaste women!'

, Notes
[The Tamil word for mother-community is thaikulam, the literal translation of which is mother-clan. But since the term clan has connotations other than what is intended by the Tamil word I am using the word mothercommunity. The word kulam (clan) is used in ways that go beyond the circumscription of the word clan. For example, at times, all Tamils are grouped together and referred to as Tamil kulam (The Tamil clan)]. 1 From the film Thei Pirandal Vazhi Pirakkum (A way will be shown in the month of Thei (January). Thei is the auspicious month for marriages and other occasions. The title is a Tamil proverb. 2 Kamala Ganesh and Prabha Krishnan offered useful comments on an initial draft of this paper. 1 thank them both for their suggestions. 1 also thank Maithreyi Krishna Raj for her support and indulgence. 3 Due to constraints of space and the need to elaborate in great detail the specific subject I have taken up, 1 have not considered here the various theoretical views of the western feminist scholarship on identity and aspects of the maternal which can be Very broadly classified under the heads of cultural feminism and post-structuralism. The debates involved have been summarised and reviewed in numerous books and articles. Of particular interest to me were: Lynda Birke, Women, Feminism and Biology: The Feminist Challenge (Sussex, Harvester Press, 1986); Ann Rosalind Jones, 'Julia Kristeva in Femininity: The Limits of Semiotic Polities', Feminist Review, No: 18, November 1984, pp 56-73; Bev Thiele, 'Dissolving Dualisms: O'Brien, Embodiment and Social Construction', RFR/DRF, No 3, pp 7-12; Linda Alcoff, 'Cultural Feminism versus Post-Structuralism: The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory', Signs, No 3, Spring 1988, pp 405-36; Sabina Lovibond, 'Feminism and Post-Modernism',, New Left Review, No 178, NovemberDecember 1989, pp 5-28. 3 Tirukkural is a book of aphorisms based on moral codes and ethics written by Tiruvalluvar two thousand years ago. It has . become something like a bible of the Tkmils as it is supposed to elaborate the true* Tamil life.

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4 Awaiyar is a poetess who lived during the Sangam period who was a wandering bard like many other bards of her period: Having chosen to remain single she wanted to do away with her youth and the associated encumbrances of marriage and family. She prayed to god Ganesha and was transformed into an old woman. For more details of miracles surrounding the body of female devotees see Uma Chakravarty, 'The World of the Bhaktin in South Indian Traditions1 The Body and Beyond', Manushi, > Nos 50-51-52, 1989, pp 18-29. 5 Yazan ancient Tamil musical instrument. 6 The lullaby-form closely associated with the mother, in fact, became a very effective propaganda material in Tamil politics. Vanidasan who wrote during the time of Annadurai used the lullaby-form to talk about the battle against domination by the north: Raging tiger, is the cradle the place where you learn to save your mother-country? You cry aloud You kick your legs Are you thinkinghow long this slavery? Rest in sleep. There are eight thousand brothers, male-lions, following the path of Anna. Anna means elder brother but here it refers to C N Annadurai, the Tamil leader. Kannadasan wrote a lullaby stressing the Tamil identity: Brave child, accept You are a Tamilian. Being an Indian comes second [Tamizhavan 1971: 66-67]. The kind of politics that has followed essentialisation elsewhere like in Germany that made staying at home a political act has been analysed by Frigga Haug in her note on 'National Socialism'. She says that total productive labour was divided into genderspecific sphereshousehold, culture, childrearing, psychology and social work on the side of women and politics, military matters and science on that of men. See Frigga Haug, 'Review of "Mothers in Fatherland', New Left Review, No 172,1988, pp 105-14. Stridhan here refers to the gifts given by the uncle to the child as a part of the continuing gifts in cash and kind that the mother receives from her paternal home on all important occasions throughout her life. The bull that belongs to the temple wanders about freely and no one controls it. A pattini is a woman loyal and faithful to her husband. Family Planning Activities as gleaned from indices of Health and Family Planning Department, G O No: 2320 (Ms) November 4, 1964; G O No: 1612 (Ms) July 21, 1965; G O No: 1010 (Ms) SM June 2 4 / 1967; No: 1020 (Ms) CBC July 1, 1968. Kudumba Nala Saidi Kadir (Journal of Family Welfare" Department, Tamil Nadu), July 1981, p 17. See M S S Pandian, 'Culture and Subaltern Consciousness: An Aspect of MGR Phenomenon', Economic and Political Weekly, July 29, 1989, pp 62-68.

14 These articles were printed into books later from 1981 onwards. 15 Interview with Kanchi Rangamani, secretary, Azagiri Nataka Mandram, April 24, 1984; Interview with Mariamman Temple priest at Salem, Tamil Nadu, April 29, 1984. 16 I attended the conference as an observer and spoke to members of the various suburban ladies associations. 17 Issues such as these where women positioned themselves as essential caretakers of the home are not very different from the demand for' a feminine sphere for mother and child raised by women in the Green Party in their manifesto called the Mothers' Manifesto, which has been seen as a "withdrawal into a feminine motherly sphere in which mothers seek to cultivate a sheltered public zone* [see Frigga Haug, n 7]. In the functional life at present, most women do manage the household but pricerise and water-scarcity affect the household in general. By turning them into a 'special' problem of women, its methods of solution also become specially geared to women at home; (For example, in Madras in 1982, water was supplied in various streets during the day when most working women were not at home. They had to employ someone to collect the water or seek the co-operation of a friendly neighbour) and the division of particular responsibilities between women and men get further confirmed. This acts in ways that increase the burden on women at times, shifting the responsibility away from men thus strengthening and sustaining a politics based on difference; Penn Vidudalai, April 1981, p 21; Uzaikum Magalir Mada Edu, October-November 1983, p 14. 18 Dinamani Kadir (Madras), December 3, 1989. 19 Indian Post (Bombay), March 26, 1989.

References
Arangannal, Irama (1988), Ninaivugal, Madras: . Nakkiran Padipagam. Barnett, Margueritte Ross (1976), The Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South India, ' New Jersey. Baskaran, S Theodore (1981), The Message Bearers: The Nationalist Politics and the Entertainment Media in South 1880-1945,. Madras: Cfe-A. Chidambaranar, Sami (1983; 8th edition),

Tamizhar Talaivar, Madras: Periyar SelfRespect Propaganda Organisation. Gugapriyai (1989), Pengalukku, Madras: Alliance Company. Iraiyan, A (1981), Suya Mariyadai Chudaroligal, Madras: Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Organisation. Irschik, Eugene F (1986), Tamil Revivalism in the 1930s, Madras: Cre-A. Kalyanasundaranar, V (1986; later edition), , Pennin Perumai, Madras: Poompuhar Padipagam. Karunanidhi, M (1987, 1989), Nenjukku Needhi,- (2 vols), Madras: Tirumagal Nilayam. Kudi Arasu (1928), Madras, August 12. . (1932), Madras, May 29. Lakshmanan, Vidwan (1986), Makkal Thilagam MGR, Madras: Vanadhi Padipagam. Lakshmi, C S (1984), Face Behind the Mask: Women in Tamil Literature, Delhi: Vikas Publishing House. Pandian Jacob (1982), 'The Goddess Kannagi: A Dominant Symbol of South Indian Tamil Society* in Preston, James J (ed\ Mother Worship, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Periyar, Thandai (1932), Penn En Adimaianal, Madras: Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Organisation. Pillai Vaiyaburi S (1955), Divya Prabandham Mudalayiram, -Madras: S Rajam. Rajagopalan, Sarla (1988), Thamizh Tendralum Penmaiyum, Madras: Oli Padipagam. Ramanujan, A K (1985), Poems of Love and War, Delhi: Oxford University Press. Ramasubramaniam, Neelavathi (1983), Vazkai ' Varalarul Kumbakonam: S A K K Raju. Sanjivi, N (1975), Perunthamiz, Madras: Madras University. Swaminathan, K (ed) (1984), Subramania Bharati: Chosen Poems and Prose, Delhi: The AH India Subramania Bharati Centenary Celebrations Committee. Tamizhavan (1974), Irubadil Kavidai, Nagercoil: n p. Vanamamalai, N (1964), Thamizar Nattu Padalgal .Madras: New Century Book House. Vidudalai (Madras) (1937), July 29, (1939) January 26, (1939) January 10, (1939) March 18, (1939) April 19, (1939) Agust 14, Viswanathan, Cheeni and Mani, T V S (1979), Chakravartini Katturaigal, Madras: Vanavil Prasuram.

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