thesis draft 3

Sita’s Renaissance: A Cultural Emblem Re-Imagined
by
Georgia Hoagland
Presented to Department of Religious Studies in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
of Bachelor of Arts with Distinction
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
March 31, 2016

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Introduction
From its very beginnings as a nation-state in 1947, India has faced the immense challenge
of uniting the interests and needs of a hugely diverse population under one inclusive structure of
rule. Beyond the pluralistic array of different religions found within India, the dominant religion
itself, Hinduism, has been characterized by anthropologists like T.N. Madan as more of a
“federation of faiths” than one singular and identifiable system of beliefs and practices.1 Those
who identify as Hindu come from a variety of backgrounds and worldviews, making the religion
most realistically characterized by its complex heterogeneity. Furthermore, in the words of
Indian social theorist Ashis Nandy, India’s uniqueness lies not in one essential cultural ideology,
but its “traditional ability to live with cultural ambiguities.”2 Nandy’s theory on Indian culture is
proven by the constant addition of new interpretations of traditional Indian tales of cultural
significance. The plethora of perspectives within the country has led to constant reconstructions
and rethinkings of a certain traditional stories, constantly reforming the themes, characters and
messages of ancient epics. The oral basis of many of these Indian narratives has assured a
flexibility to them that allows for their understanding and relevance across generations. As time
passes, India has gained more versions of its commonly known stories through new forms of
transmission and changing social and cultural opinions.
Upon independence, in order to bring unity to a nation characterized by these many
distinctive communities, the first leadership of autonomous India wrestled with the challenge of
bridging its people through common beliefs, practices, or traditions. During this first era of the
1 T.N. Madan, introduction to India’s Religions: Perspectives from Sociology and History, ed. by
T.N. Madan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 1.
2 Ashis Nandy, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1988), 107

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Indian state, authority figures within the government such as Jawaharlal Nehru believed
secularism to be the key to creating and ensuring national cohesion. If the many faith groups
were held on equal footing through the government’s official religious neutrality, there would be
less reason for the communal strife that plagued the nation based on differing religious values.3
Furthermore, by embracing secularism, the nation of India would become less defined by its
religious traditions and able to assert itself as a rightful and promising player in the global field
in the eyes of their Western counterparts. Moreover, with the promotion of secularism in the
political sphere, the ancient epics of the past were able to continue and develop even wider
variety in the cultural sphere, as no particular perspective was officially accepted and
disseminated as the national truth. As cultural relics, the stories were malleable, impressionable,
and available to all Indians who wished to learn and transmit them, and an ostensibly religiously
neutral state allowed for this.
The Hindu Right: Manipulating a “National Unity” for Secular India
However, in the modern day, the many differing belief systems even within the Hindu
faith has been recognized by the modern Hindu Right as a potential advantage for their own
political and cultural domination. Although it can be a blanket term for many types of
conservative Hindu discourse, in this essay I define the “Hindu Right” as a political sect of the
Indian population that shares an ideological commitment to the constructed cultural hegemony of
Hindutva, or Hinduness, and subsequently uses it as a tool for its own power. This ideology was
introduced and politically vitalized in the book Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? by Vinayak Damodar
3 T.N. Madan, “Whither Indian Secularism?” Modern Asian Studies 27.3 (1993): 684, accessed
March 28, 2016, http://www.jstor.org/stable/312965.

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Savarkar, a traditional Hindu pro-independence politician who inspired the likes of Nathuram
Godse, the assassin of Mohandas Gandhi, through his anti-Muslim stance and devotion to the
ultimate realization of not just an independent India, but a Hindu India.4 To Savarkar, the
essentials of Hindutva, and thereby Indian nationality, were common nation, race, and
civilization.5 Never directly identifying shared religion as necessary to being Hindu, these
strategically chosen entities all related members of religions of Indian origin like Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, while excluding other religions practiced within India, such as
Islam and Christianity.
Throughout India’s history, the many different groups that identify with revitalized forms
of Hindutva, including the Bharatriya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh
(RSS), and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), have further formed and reinforced a specific
common identity for Indian nationality through their strategic choices of new shared myths,
symbols, and collective rituals to construct a singular Hindu tradition.6 The new nationalism of
India as defined by the Hindu Right glorifies India’s ancient cultural relics that come directly
from the Hindu faith. While this has brought many Hindu Indians together, it has also
distinguished those Indians who do not share a devotion to these cultural emblems as
fundamentally un-Indian. More recent figures in the Hindu Right such as Guru Golwalkar and
Balraj Madhok associated the progress of the Hindutva movement today increasingly to the
“Indianization” of the Muslims and Christians of India, condemning their religious views as
4 Arvind Sharma, "On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva," Numen 49 (2002): 21.
5 V.D. Savarkar, Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? (Bombay: Savarkar Sadan, 1923), 116.
6 Brenda Cossman and Ratna Kapur, "Secularism's Last Sigh: The Hindu Right, the Courts, and
India's Stuggle for Democracy," Harvard International Law Journal 38 (1997): 115-116.

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unable to be accommodated in “proper” Indian culture.7 By constructing a uniform and singular
authentic India, the Hindu Right has alienated those who do not fit the mold and attempted to
simplify a uniquely diverse nation.8 The strategic construction of one version of India’s culture
by the Hindu Right has granted power to some through self-identification while inhibiting others
that do not adhere to a monolithic version of Indian belief, endangering both these minorities and
India’s exceptional diversity in thought and practice.
A crucial theoretical weapon in the Hindu Right’s cultural takeover has been the ancient
epic the Ramayana, a centuries-old Hindu oral and textual saga that has been characterized more
by its region-specific diversity in plot than its uniformity. The story of the Ramayana has held a
prominent position in India’s cultural consciousness for centuries, considered by some to be the
national epic of India. As such, it holds historical significance to the Indian population.
Furthermore, it acts as a hegemonic doctrine of “normative and prescriptive behavior,”
influencing how the typical Indian understands their lifelong pursuit of dharma.9 As a portrait of
the highest ideals of Hindu culture and civilization, the story wields considerable hegemonic
authority. It is not simply a past relic, but a constantly revived narrative, a living resource of
some of the highest ideals of Hindu tradition. By looking specifically at the diverse and
widespread interpretations of the Ramayana’s characters, plot, and essential themes over its long
history of oral and written retellings, one can ask if the Hindu Right realistically can have hold
over determining a “valid” form of Indian culture.
7 Sharma, “On Hindu, Hindustan, and Hindutva,” 26.
8
Brenda Cossman and Ratna Kapur, “Secularism: Bench-marked by Hindu Right,” Economic
and Political Weekly 31 (1996): 2619, accessed March 29, 2016,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4404599.
9 Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy, “Matrilineal and Patrilineal,” in In Search of Sita: Revisiting
Mythology, ed. Malashri Lal and Namita Gokhale (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2009), 72.

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The Ramayana: A Rough Sketch of a Complex Story
While there are many different versions of the original story depending on the region and
language of the local community, the Ramayana associated with the author Valmiki, a well-
known and widely accepted form, depicts the marriage of Rama and Sita and the trials and
tribulations they face.10 Rama is a human avatar of the god Vishnu whose destiny is to become
king of the city of Ayodhya. After stringing the bow of Shiva, Rama alone proves to be qualified
to marry Sita, the Mithila king Janaka’s adopted daughter who was born from the earth and is the
avatar of Vishnu’s wife, Lakshmi. Soon after Rama and Sita’s wedding, Rama’s mother-in-law
Kaikeyi takes advantage of a boon she had been granted by Dasaratha, Rama’s father, exiling
Rama to the forest rather than allowing him to take the kingdom and establishing her own son
Bharata as her husband’s successor. Rama, Sita, and his brother Lakshmana move to the forest
until Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, a rakshasa, or demon, who rules Lanka. Most of the story
describes Rama’s valiant efforts to find Sita, his collaborations with the vanaras, or monkey
armies, along with other beings, and the violent final battle with Ravana and his demon army to
retrieve the loyal Sita. Upon victory, Rama hears the concerns of the people regarding Sita’s
fidelity to him during the period of capture by Ravana, and therefore forces her to undergo an
agnipariksha, or trial by fire. Sita enters the fire and proves her purity, but her loyalty is soon
questioned once again after Rama takes control of his kingdom, bringing him to banish her. Sita
retreats to the forest once again and gives birth to twin boys who ultimately battle Rama and,
after a poignant recognition of their relationships, ascend to the throne of Ayodhya. Rather than
undergoing another test of her well-established purity as requested by Rama’s kingdom, Sita
10 Vālmīki, Ramayana, trans. Arshia Sattar (London: Penguin Books, 2010).

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chooses to return to the earth and release herself from the world that has been so cruel to her.
While there have been many variations on the classic story, this basic structure of the plot of the
Ramayana remains popularly known throughout India and the world at large.
Sita: The Ideal Hindu Woman
For many Indians, Sita has become a figure of monumental importance and social
prevalence. In a study on Sita’s popularity today, Rashmi Goel found that around 90% of her
Indian interviewees, both male and female and across multiple generations, considered Sita to be
their favorite mythological ideal woman.11 Furthermore, her imagery is ubiquitous throughout
India. She can be found in homes, stores, and government offices, while major movie stars are
cast to play her in films.12 Sita has assumed the status given to the gods and goddesses of
Hinduism, yet she also acts as a bridge between the human and the divine due to her essential
human nature. According to Leela Prasad in her analysis of goddesses in Hinduism, Sita
occupies a unique space within the Hindu faith, constantly shifting between the positions of
“epic heroine” and “goddess.”13 The divine power of the feminine that is so fundamental to
Hindu theology is softened by Sita’s loving and tender mortal persona as a devoted wife and
daughter-in-law. For many Indians, today’s morally corrupt age is countered by the image of
Sita, an exemplar of proper behavior and morality. Whether accepted or rejected, Sita is almost
11 Rasmi Goel, “Sita’s Trousseau: Restorative Justice, Domestic Violence, and South Asian
Culture,” Violence Against Women 11.5 (2005): 648.
12 Susan S. Wadley, "Women and the Hindu Tradition," Signs 3.1 (1977): 118.
13 Leela Prasad, “Hindu Goddesses,” in South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, ed. M Mills et
al., (New York: Routledge, 2002), 254.

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always used as a frame of reference for Hindu men and women.14 Like the Ramayana narrative
in general, Sita has played a major role in how Hindu Indians view their responsibility to each
other and the nation due to the wide span of representations of her throughout India.
The original image of Sita is first and foremost a self-sacrificing and faithful wife who
constantly honors the vows of her marriage. She demonstrates a set of qualities that set her apart
as a moral exemplar who is key to the survival of the Indian nation. Sita is the perfect pativrata,
or the ideal Hindu wife who constantly identifies her own needs with those of her family, thereby
honoring the concept of familial devotion above everything else. Four major aspects of Sita’s
identity across most versions of the text are her suffering, her wifely devotion, her dependence
on others for her own sense of being, and her ultimate virtuous chastity.
Firstly, Sita is the emblem of selfless suffering for the benefit of others. She consistently
chooses self-sacrifice over self-preservation, subordinating her own welfare to that of the other
characters.15 Sita takes the responsibility for demonstrating her own chastity, taking the burden
onto her own shoulders to prove her own purity. Submissive, patient, and, many times, silent,
Sita garners the power allotted only to women who prioritize these selfless qualities over self-
expression in the Hindu faith.
Next, with all of her thoughts throughout her capture revolving exclusively around him,
Sita is entirely committed to Rama as her husband and partner. An ancient law code of
Hinduism, the Manusmriti, delineates women’s role as wives to be worshippers of their
14 Linda Hess, "Rejecting Sita: Indian Responses to the Ideal Man's Cruel Treatment of His Ideal
Wife," Journal of the American Academy of Religion (1999): 25.
15 David R. Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious
Tradition, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988), 77.

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husbands, no matter his own flaws in virtue or fidelity.16 Following this, as the ideal pativrata,
Sita’s constant loyalty to Rama grants her an immense moral power that problematizes the theory
of Rama’s total control over her, as she proves to be capable of anything due to her inherently
good and devoted nature.17 Sita’s dedication to Rama therefore reinforces her own personal
moral strength.
Furthermore, the character of Sita can only be constructed in relation to others,
demonstrating a fundamental dependence on those around her to form her own sense of identity.
Sita’s destiny is tied up inextricably with Rama’s, making them incomprehensible as singular
entities. A relational character, Sita not only is responsible for serving Rama, but additionally the
rest of society in order to have a sense of self. She is connected closely to others, sacrificing her
ego and personal needs for the benefit of the greater good.
Finally, the end of the epic exhibits Sita on a high pedestal of internal purity. Her many
separations from Rama causes her to become a higher and purer being, illuminating the virtue
gained through chastity.18 When she chooses to descend back into the earth rather than deal with
the real world any longer, Sita proves the great power that comes from her choice to defy societal
expectations and unite with the purer natural realm where she belongs. Depicted as a devoted and
self-sacrificing Hindu wife committed to serving others before herself, Sita is the ideal pativrata
and this form of her has been accommodated into much of the rhetoric of the Hindu Right.
In the past, these elements of Sita’s persona as eulogized through stories, songs, and
festivals, have been criticized by Indian female activists who find her to be the icon of
16 Ibid., 70.
17 Velcheru Narayana Rao, "When Does Sita Cease to be Sita? Notes Toward a Cultural
Grammar of Indian Narrative," in The Ramayana Revisited, ed. Mandrakranta Bose (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2004), 235.
18 Imhasly-Gandhy, “Matrilineal and Patrilineal,” 73.

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patriarchal injustice. Her silent suffering and the social value attributed to it are both causes for
concern for these women’s rights advocates, as these qualities normalize and reinforce women’s
lack of agency in the male-dominated society. To this group, Sita is a clear example of women’s
coerced surrender to men’s whims. By undergoing the agnipariksha, Sita demonstrates her lack
of selfhood under the harsh constraints of patriarchy. The masochism of the male-dominated
society brings about her immense suffering, leaving her to feel no choice but to give up on her
human existence.19 Furthermore, Indian feminists have taken issue with her representation as a
motherly and nurturing figure. This is interpreted as a patriarchal conspiracy to limit women’s
notions of what they can or should do with their lives. By emphasizing images of women who
commit themselves to serving others, Indian society maintains the gendered hierarchy of
opportunities. Overall, many Indian feminists have found problems with Sita’s prominence as the
ideal Indian woman as they find she represents a one-dimensional oppressive standard for
women’s behavior.
Colonial Legacies on Indian Women and Subaltern Self-Concept
In order to understand the roots of this repudiation of the character of Sita by many
Indian women’s advocates, it becomes important to understand the historical underpinnings
behind the movement that have fundamentally influenced its development. The concept of Indian
feminism has developed alongside the constant cultural monitoring of Western feminism, as the
colonial influence of the West has played a part in almost all areas of Indian life. The British
imperialists physically departed from India upon its independence, yet, as critical thinkers like
Ashis Nandy argue, the colonial Western conceptualizations of India still hold substantial effects
19 Madhu Kishwar, “The Power of Mother Sita in Modern India,” Hinduism Today,
October/November/December 2004, accessed January 25, 2016,
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1303.

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on India’s self-concept.20 More specifically, the cultural reductionism of the Western interveners
has left long-lasting impacts on how Indians view themselves. During the colonial period,
Catherine Mayo’s infamous cultural ethnography Mother India, published in 1927 during the
ascent of Mohandas Gandhi as a leader in the Indian independence movement, maintained a
version of Indian society that was hugely critical, identifying it to an international audience as
degenerate and backwards solely due to Hindu “traditional” values. Mayo focused most
specifically on the victimization of Indian women, reporting that India’s characterizing religious
fervor directly caused the suffering of its women. This colonial discourse, pervasive in many
colonial tracts and anthropologies of that period, simplified the experience of Indians through the
assumption of the hegemony of Brahmanical religious texts and the submission of all Hindus to
them. Substantiating colonialism, Mayo found that, because of their social backwardness,
Indians were fundamentally incapable of self-government and needed British occupation.21
Rather than drawing the connection between India’s supposed degeneration to British
imperialism and its oppressive intervention tactics, Mother India enforced the Western
understanding of India as an antiquated and inferior country on the global scale based
specifically on the problematic position of women.
The biased colonial view of the Indian woman’s degradation in her society was further
echoed by many of the female missionaries who entered India in order to convert the population
to Christianity alongside broader social reform. Religious-minded European women entered
India and criticized what they saw, reinforcing the colonial hierarchy of religious belief that
20 Nandy, The Intimate Enemy, 84.
21 Mrinalini Sinha, Specters of Mother India: the Global Restructuring of an Empire, (Durham,
NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 5.

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consistently supported the domination of Christianity. Rather than simply promoting their own
religion as superior, the female missionaries applied a harsh critique to Indian societal norms
overall and advocated for a social rescue of the subordinated Indian women. In an example from
Britain in 1839, Priscilla Chapman wrote a book entitled Hindoo Female Education that pushed
for the consideration of women’s rights in Hindu society. Chapman noted the “poor idolatrous
females in bondage,” emphasizing the image of the Indian woman as a consistently controlled
and regulated body without agency.22 Therefore, it was the responsibility of the Western
missionaries to intervene and end this injustice. In her own words, Chapman described the
“necessity of an avowed Christian direction” in order to elevate “Hindoo females from their
present degradation to their proper level.”23 Through an illustration of the subjugation of women
that was allegedly based on the spiritual precepts of Hinduism, female colonial missionaries
further justified British intervention and asserted Western social superiority through their
“objective” judgment without fully understanding the culture and traditions they critiqued.
With the images and arguments of outside-perspective writings such as Mother India and
Hindoo Female Education playing an important role not only in the agenda of elite reform-
oriented Hindus, but in the more modern collective memory of Indians, Hindu men and women
dedicated to the struggle for women’s rights have had to distinguish themselves from Western
feminists to prove that the religious beliefs of Hindus do not directly enforce patriarchal values.
While I will utilize the term “Hindu feminists” to define these Hindu women’s rights activists of
both genders for simplicity, many within this group take issue with an association with feminism,
22 Priscilla Chapman, Hindoo Female Education (London: R.B. Seeley, 1839), 74.
23 Ibid., 175.

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a modern Western concept.24 Western feminist standards have been created to benefit Western
women, and therefore cannot be considered universal and empowering on the international scale.
In her essay on why she has not embraced the term “feminist,” Madhu Kishwar, the editor of the
Indian women’s magazine Manushi, argues that simply incorporating the term within Indian
discourse on gender equality both “inhibit[s] and stunt[s] the process of understanding the reality
of women’s lives in India” as “feminist scholarship has often failed to provide an appropriate
means of analysis.”25 In a critique of all “isms,” anything that had once been distinctive or
exceptional becomes dictated by the interpretation of this specific ideological perspective,
leaving solely the “ism” as the final truth rather than the experience itself. Furthermore, while
she is entirely committed to pro-women politics, Kishwar finds that the “over-close association”
between feminism and the Western women’s movement problematizes its use for similar
activism in Eastern countries.26 Hindu scholars like Kishwar are more qualified to examine the
set of life conditions that are uniquely experienced by Hindu women, and West-originated
feminist conceptualizations do not do these specific perspectives justice.
Furthermore, Mayo and Chapman’s erroneous criticisms of Hindu societal norms proved
that the Western perspective is not only far from appropriate for understanding the position of
Indian women, but it also alludes to further complexities of historical power relations. These
accounts and their legacies on the collective understanding of India’s culture support the
hierarchy of ideologies that grants Western belief systems social dominance. By utilizing the
Western feminist point of view as the only method of asserting belief in gender equality, self-
24 Sharada Sugirtharajah, “Hinduism and Feminism: Some Concerns,” Journal of Feminist
Studies in Religion 18.2 (2002): 98.
25 Madhu Kishwar, “Why I do not Call Myself a Feminist,” Manushi 61.3 (1990): 6.
26 Ibid., 3.

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identifying “Indian feminists” distinguish themselves as victims of “intellectual slavery”27 and
thereby reinforce the myth of Indian social inferiority. They subjugate themselves to the long-
lasting effects of Western colonialism all over again. Even more problematically, the blind
endorsement and promotion of Western feminism does nothing to bring an end to the oppression
of Indian women in the country, as it solely points fingers at potential causes without offering
valid solutions.
In an essay focused on the alleged voicelessness of the subaltern in international critiques
of colonial hegemony, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak observes that Indian women are further
oppressed by Western vocalizations of their gender-based discrimination, as the ideological
underpinnings of the debate take precedence and “the figure of the woman disappears,” leaving
only the “’third-world woman.’”28 The Indian woman becomes a subject once again, with her
personality and meaning of her experience determined solely by the Western perspective. In
Western circles of feminist dialogue, the third-world woman is never allowed to speak, only to
be spoken about. This has subsequently prompted feminists like Margaret A. Mills to ask if the
question ought to be whether the dominating group is capable of hearing the voices of the
subaltern, further proving the disconnect between these two communities as they face their own
personal gender-based conflicts and discriminations.29 Therefore, Hindu feminists have worked
to construct their own gender-supportive ideology that overcomes the standardization of Western
27 Madhu Kishwar, “Trial By Fire,” in In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology, ed. Malashri Lal
and Namita Gokhale (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2009), 107.
28 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and the Interpretation of
Culture, ed. C. Nelson and L. Grossberg, (London: Macmillan Education, 1988), 102.
29 Margaret A. Mills, “Feminist Theory and the Study of Folklore: A Twenty-Year Trajectory
Toward Theory,” Western Folklore 52.2/4 (1993): 174, accessed March 26, 2016,
doi:10.2307/1500085.

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values and grants them the authority to empower themselves with their religious beliefs. In order
to fully hear the struggles of Hindu women, we must appreciate and respect their unique voices
and perspectives rather than expect adherence to characteristically Western feminist standards of
thought. Overall, it must be noted that the “Hindu feminism” I reference is not the direct
incorporation of the particularities of Western women’s movements; instead, it has its own set of
symbols, beliefs and customs that are distinctively Indian in their construction and significance.
Sita: The Hindu Feminist Icon
As a brief summary, Hindu feminism is characterized by its promotion of the feminine
shakti as a source of independent strength, the power of passivity in asserting virtue and courage,
and the direct association between women and the nation itself. Each of these are strongly
supported as tools of empowerment for the typical Indian woman. First and foremost, Hindu
feminism finds that the concept of the feminine as shakti grants women a natural power that
cannot possibly be negated by the physical domination of men.30 Women’s fertility and inherent
purity makes them all physical manifestations of the divine feminine, providing each and every
woman with her personal and independent sense and share of sacredness. These concepts of
shakti and the divine feminine are unique to Hinduism, forming one clear distinction between
Western and Hindu feminist discourse. Furthermore, women’s power can also come from her
actions as a pativrata, as her social and moral authority is highlighted through a
reconceptualization of the submissive and self-sacrificing role as courageous and virtuous.31 In
contrast with to the stereotype of the promiscuous and loud Western woman, Hindu feminists
30 Tracy Pintchman and Rita DasGupta Sherma, Women and Goddess in Hinduism:
Reinterpretations and Re-envisionings (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 80.
31 Rao, "When Does Sita Cease to be Sita? Notes Toward a Cultural Grammar of Indian
Narrative," 220.

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support an ideal woman who is passive and generous in a manner that asserts her superiority.32
Her personal acts of selflessness and care for others grants her great strength, benefiting society
as a whole rather than narrowly focusing on her own desires and promote her as the virtuous
ideal. Finally, the Indian woman is related inextricably with the nation as a whole, meaning her
situation has significant implications on India itself. The home is the symbolic realm where the
spiritual greatness of India is maintained, and women therefore perform a “sacred duty” through
their daily routines.33 While the kitchen is imagined by many Western feminists as an area of
social banishment for women, Indian feminists grant it major significance as a key location of
the continuation and prosperity of the nation as a whole. Therefore, Hindu feminism is able to
empower women in the areas that Western feminism cannot.34 The normal everyday actions of
Indian women are promoted by Hindu feminists as being monumentally important to the nation,
asserting a unique power of these women. Though much of its basic discourse differs highly
from Western feminist standards, this sort of Hindu feminism is suited specifically for the
empowerment of the Indian woman and therefore equally legitimate as female-supportive.
Following these distinctly Hindu feminist conceptualizations, the character of Sita has
been reimagined and promoted as a figure of female empowerment and agency. While she is not
considered an open figure to the entire Indian population due to the Ramayana’s essential
connection to the Hindu faith, Sita has been reconsidered as a distinctly Hindu feminist icon. No
longer a static figure of India’s past, Sita has developed a new persona in the current day. Rather
than being interpreted slavish or servile, she is seen as an individual who makes her own
32 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993) 127.
33 Pintchman and Sherma, Women and Goddess in Hinduism, 92.
34 Ibid., 91.

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decisions throughout the Ramayana. Feminist retellings see her as a consistently strong and
courageous female model that never accepts injustice without protest.35 Firstly, her resilience to
Ravana and his formidable advances during her capture illuminates an innate bravery. The
strength of her purity and the challenges she faces in order to retain it are applauded and
regarded as demonstrative of her might. While Ravana holds great physical might, Sita is easily
able to hold her own under the pressure of his sexual perversion and maintain her dignity.
Furthermore, the episode of the agnipariksha has been interpreted as an act of “supreme
defiance” by Sita, as Rama is proven to be the mistrustful and petty wrongdoer in the situation.36
Rama’s personal character and judgment is criticized and questioned, as he chooses political
expediency over his duty as a husband to trust his wife and defend her honor unconditionally.37
He is the weak slave to social opinion, while Sita’s spiritual goodness is verified by her decision,
creating an imbalance in the relative moralities of the couple with Sita coming out on top.38 For a
man that has been consistently pointed to as the emblem of commitment to dharma, Rama has
been reconsidered as a superficial man oblivious to his duty to his wife.
Finally, Sita’s ultimate return to the earth is a clear example of her rejection of the
patriarchal world she inhabits. While Rama’s rejection of Sita has been largely condemned,
35 Mandakranta Bose, Women in the Hindu Tradition: Rules, roles and exceptions (London:
Routledge, 2011), 39.
36 Madhu Kishwar, “Yes to Sita, No to Ram: The Continuing Hold of Sita on Popular
Imagination in India,” in Questioning Ramayanas: A South Asian Tradition, ed. Paula Richman
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001), 25.
37 Robert P. Goldman, “Resisting Rama: Dharmic Debates on Gender and Hierarchy and the
Work of the Valmiki Ramayana,” in The Ramayana Revisited, ed. Mandakranta Bose (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2004) 37.
38 Kishwar, “Yes to Sita, No to Ram: The Continuing Hold of Sita on Popular Imagination in
India,” 23.

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Sita’s final act of the story is held up by Indian readers as dignified.39 By rejecting Rama as
dishonorable in the end, Sita effectively humbles “man’s bloated ego” by publically signifying
his dispensability to her.40 Choosing her final destiny as a single female martyr and agent of her
own fate, Sita empowers Indian women to see beyond their socially determined obligations to
their husbands and act in their own interests. As the moral exemplar of the Ramayana through
her morally pure and self-asserting actions, Sita is not an object of pity, but one deserving of
worship by both men and women.
This reformed image of Sita has made the ancient character a modern icon for female
empowerment. Sita has been revitalized as an autonomous and dignified figure that is both
humanized and deified, making her approachable yet worshipped and thereby especially
effective in the Indian feminist movement. Her suffering in the Ramayana proves the issues that
come from a patriarchal culture, bringing voice to other women who still must endure these
injustices today. Therefore, through specific interpretations of the text and its characters, readers
of the Ramayana are able to understand the classic work as a living document, capable of being
reimagined constantly. While the Hindu Right has tried to take over the Ramayana and provide a
monolithic reading as an assertion of its power, examples of diversity in the portrayal of cultural
icons like Sita challenge their attempt. Furthermore, by recognizing the manifold ways in which
Sita has been reinterpreted over the centuries, we can better understand both the most prominent
form of the “feminine ideal” in Hindu terms, as well as a broader feminine subjectivity that is
constructed by Indians alone. As a national icon of Indian culture and moral exceptionalness,
Sita has been utilized as a flexible vehicle by many subjugated groups inside of the Hindu
39 Ibid., 24.
40 Kishwar, “Trial By Fire,” 109.

19
majority to promote the strength of femininity, grant voices to subaltern communities, and
destabilize cultural norms that are perceived to be unjust or unrepresentative. Depictions of her
self-sacrificing nature and wifely devotion have muddied her reputation according to Western
feminist standards. Yet, she has emerged as an emblem of feminine power and individual agency
that is consonant with Hindu imaginations of feminism.

20
“An Army of Sitas”: Gandhi, Women, and the Struggle for Indian Independence
A cultural icon in his own right, Mohandas Gandhi inspired generations of Indians to rid
themselves of the physical and ideological chains of British colonialism, recognize and perform
Indian self-sufficiency, and construct a new nation-state based off of religious ideals and
morality. Key to Gandhi’s message were both his Hindu and his Western educational
backgrounds, as these brought him to publically interpret ancient literature intentionally to
further the Indian cause. Gandhi utilized particularly strong images from Hindu traditional
culture and refuted what he viewed as regressive elements of the ancient faith, creating a
powerful selective nationalist ideology. However, this is not to say Gandhi was irreligious or
only strategically politically-minded. Quite the opposite, Gandhi was enraptured by Hindu
literature like the Ramayana as a boy as narrated to him by his mother, and maintained that this
was his favorite book as an adult. This brought him to draw connections between the political
situation in India and the Hindu classics.41 In his own words, Gandhi claimed that, while the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata were “products of poets’ imagination,” these authors were not
“mere rhymsters” but “seers.”42 Identifying the nationalist conflict between the British and native
Indians with well-known characters and themes from Hindu literature, Gandhi applied a religious
perspective to the battle and granted it a higher meaning. There was no better way to surge
national pride and undermine British hegemony than to utilize ancient Hindu examples of
strength and victory. Furthermore, the national knowledge of the Ramayana made the nationalist
movement more broadly reaching, as the story is commonly told across classes and genders.
Gandhi was astute in his choice of the Ramayana as a political device, as this made him able to
41 Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, trans.
Mahadev Desai (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1927) 48.
42 Mohandas K. Gandhi, Women and Social Injustice (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1947) 188.

21
reach and mobilize a wide-ranging audience. Gandhi’s use of religion in the nationalist
movement was deliberate, politically savvy, and rooted in his personal convictions, as he
substantiated and grounded his aspirations in the Hindu tradition in order to bring pride to the
people in their native culture. While it can be debated whether this political stance excluded the
non-Hindu Indians, for the purpose of this essay, I can say that Gandhi constructed a certain view
of Indian womanhood that minimized woman’s subservience and emphasized her innate capacity
to empathize and serve beyond herself, a powerful virtue that had to be cultivated by all Indians
in order to free India from colonial chains.
With this religious footing, Gandhi utilized gendered language in order to subvert the
supposed inferiority of the Indian people due to their so-called effeminization by the British
colonial authorities, promoting the feminine as the superior spiritual state when compared to the
superficially strong masculine British. Attempting to undermine the Indian right to self-rule,
British colonialists represented Indian males as weak, submissive, and feminine and thereby
questioned their capacity to retain control and be successful as an autonomous nation. However,
in his counter-cultural approach to conceptualizing British domination, Gandhi associated this
feminine essence of India as radical and intrinsically powerful relative to the British masculine
symbols of status and prestige.43 The British were assumed to have the material superiority that
came from masculine characteristics, while the Indians, though lacking in material progress,
were much more spiritually advanced.44 This attempt to boost the national ego relied on
describing and emphasizing the special contributions of the Indians to the realm of moral values.
The stronger material culture of the British had allowed them to dominate over India and its
43Anup Taneja, Gandhi, Women, and the National Movement, 1920-47 (New Delhi: Har-Anand
Publications, 2005) 52.
44 Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories, 121.

22
people, but colonization had not reached the internal dimension of India, the essential identity of
the nation.45 Therefore, the Indians had the easier task of cultivating their material culture, as
“the distinctive spiritual essence of the national culture” was naturally strong and pure.46 The
essence of the India was feminized by Gandhi in order to bolster support and practice of passive
resistance. In her essay on his political use of passive resistance and its philosophical
implications, Leela Gandhi writes that Gandhi “feminiz[ed] the activity of resistance” and
thereby applied an “implicit critique or repudiation of masculinity.”47 The masculine tendency of
the West to apply brute force was a sign of spiritual backwardness, while feminine actions of
suffering and self-sacrifice were two key elements of Gandhi’s dream form of resistance.
Therefore, Indian women had an early advantage in their capacity to contribute to the nationalist
cause as dictated by Gandhi’s terms. By standing up to British masculine aggression and force
with feminine passivity and civil disobedience as symbolized through Hindu characters like Sita,
the Indian people would prove their internal might and spiritual greatness and overcome colonial
domination.
In order for his message of women’s power and subsequent responsibility to serve their
nation, Gandhi utilized Sita as the prime example to which women should aspire to be. As the
utmost popular and well-known moral force in society, Sita embodied the feminine qualities of
sacrifice, fidelity, suffering, and moral strength that were so fundamental to his message. Crucial
to the universality of his message to the many different levels of caste within India, Sita was an
approachable and accessible icon who the Indian female could easily use as a model for her
45 Ibid., 121.
46 Ibid., 120.
47 Leela Gandhi, “Concerning Violence: The Limits and Circulations of Gandhian ‘Ahimsa’ or
Passive Resistance,” Cultural Critique 35 (1996-1997): 110.

23
behavior. While not all Indian women could imagine attempting to act as female rebel warriors
like Rani of Jhansi, a ferocious and violent Indian warrior queen who battled against the British
Raj in the 19th century, they could envision emulating Sita’s example of selflessness and
devotion.48 While her significance to the Ramayana was by no means passive, Sita was able to
emerge as a moral force because of her spiritual strength, a concept that could easily be adapted
into a normal Indian woman’s day-to-day behavior through personal sacrifice for the benefit of
the movement.
In order to understand Gandhi’s idealized interpretation of Sita, it is necessary for us first
to understand his broader views on women and their discrimination within Indian society.
Empowering the feminine elements of Indians in their struggle for independence could not mask
the true lived experience of Indian women during this period. Gandhi did not shy away from
critiquing the denigrated state of Indian women in domestic life, noting their subjugation and
harshly criticizing injustice. Throughout his early and political career, Gandhi had been
cognizant of the Western perspectives on Indian women’s disempowerment. The Western
concept of the subjection of women as being a sign of lack of civilization in India inspired
Gandhi to offer his own opinion on the position of women in Indian society, both historically and
during his time. Gandhi argued that, in the past, Indian women had experienced a golden age in
their treatment and glorification, as exemplified in the Ramayana. He therefore identified this as
the “age of Sati and Sita,” as she represented the highest possible ideal for women’s status in
Indian society.49 However, over time and with increased materiality in place of spirituality,
women had undergone “excessive subordination” by men who had grown obsessed with power
48 Gandhi, Women and Social Injustice, 200.
49 Pushpa Joshi, ed., Gandhi on Women (Collection of Mahatma Gandhi’s Writings and
Speeches on Women) (Ahmehdabad: Navjivan Press, 1988), 174.

24
and exercised baseless domination over women, thereby reducing themselves to “the level of the
brute.”50 Therefore, when men chose to assert their unsubstantiated superiority through violating
the rights of women, they were not only subjugating these women to be valued solely as sexual
tools but also causing a “degeneration of the society” overall.51 In one speech titled “Wrong
Apotheosis of Women,” Gandhi noted the false image presented by “lustful” men of Indian
women caused by the “vulgar way” in which they solely “dwell[ed] on [women’s] physical
form,” rather than representing and respecting women’s strength and beauty in full.52 The alleged
lack of civilization in India stemmed directly from the mistreatment and objectification of
women, as the domestic slavery of the woman became proof of India’s barbarity in Gandhi’s
mind.53
Gandhi applied this to his ideal environment, as in his ashram he taught women that the
social customs that they had been raised on were “wrong and irreligious.”54 Distancing gender-
based injustice from the Hindu religion and instead associating it with man’s yearning for
superficial power, Gandhi hoped to pave the way for a future of gender collaboration in India
through his ashram. There, immediately upon arrival, the woman could finally “breath the air of
freedom and cast out all fear from her mind” that came from societal expectations and pressures
on her behavior.55 The social transformation of India could not occur without the emancipation
50 Ibid., 85.
51 Taneja, Gandhi, Women, and the National Movement, 1920-47, 65.
52 Mohandas K. Gandhi, Self Restraint V. Self Indulgence, (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1928)
227.
54 Mohandas K. Gandhi, Ashram Observances in Action, trans. Valji Govindji Desai
(Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1998) 59.
55 Ibid.

25
of the marginalized groups like women, a step that would lead to the uplift of the nation overall
and a return to a purer state of being.
Gandhi’s integral message regarding the nature of gender was that the two genders are
fundamentally equal, and any belittling of women as the “weaker sex” was entirely unacceptable
to his message.56 In his own words, “just as fundamentally man and woman are one, their
problem must be one in essence. The soul in both is the same. The two live the same life, have
the same feelings.”57 Gender was therefore more of an illusion than a truth of the self, removing
any basis of male domination. Furthermore, in the important relationship of a husband and wife,
the man and the woman must complement each other and contribute equally. Discussing the
concept of wifely devotion, Gandhi argued, “If the wife has to prove her loyalty and undivided
devotion to her husband, so has the husband to prove his allegiance and devotion to her
husband.”58 He further stated, “she is the co-sharer with him of equal rights and of equal duties.
Their obligations towards each other and towards the world must…be the same and
reciprocal.”59 Both genders cannot live without the other, and they are both equally responsible
to serve and fulfill the needs of the other. This broke the cultural norm of the gendered hierarchy,
as men were held accountable for respecting the natural equal rights of women as their partners.
Finally, Gandhi attempted to utilize the joining of the responsibilities of the Indian people
regardless of sex in order to unify the nation. A “regenerate India” would only be possible in a
society in which all learned “to respect our women as we respect our mother, sisters and
58 Ibid., 128.
59 Ibid.

26
daughters.”60 Against the background of colonial discourse and action of divide and conquer,
Gandhi emphasized equality to unite the Indian people as fellow fighters in the struggle for
India’s autonomy. Gender egalitarianism worked in both social and political ways for Gandhi, as
he hoped to reform society and thereby ease the process of political revolution.
While her devotion to Rama was laudable, Sita was never a mere tool of her husband in
the context of the story, and, to Gandhi, should be considered Rama’s equal. As Rama’s wife,
Sita did not lose her own agency or become a faceless stereotype of wifely subservience. Gandhi
asserted, “Sita was no slave of Rama…”61 and later continuing, “I cannot imagine Sita ever
wasting a single moment on pleasing Rama by physical charms.”62 Sita exemplified the fact that
women were not solely meant to please and satisfy their men, as this simplified and undermined
their personal share of immense spiritual authority that gave them the opportunity to be the
guardians of their husbands’ characters. Gandhi argued that those who simply considered Sita to
be Rama’s loyal servant neither understood the “loftiness of her independence” nor “Rama’s
consideration for her in everything.”63 She was not a helpless or weak victim, but a powerful and
autonomous protagonist on whom Rama relied. While he may have rescued her from Ravana,
Gandhi asserted that it was Sita’s purity that acted as her “sole shield and protection,”
minimizing her true need for Rama’s assistance.64 Gandhi insisted Sita’s superior moral courage
and bravery throughout the Ramayana made her a tour-de-force that could not be monopolized
by any one man, and Rama could not have existed as a moral paradigm without her example.65
60 Ibid., 129.
61 Ibid., 82.
62 Ibid., 133.
63 Gandhi, Self Restraint V. Self Indulgence, 123.
64 Joshi, Gandhi on Women, 175.
65 Madhu Kishwar, Gandhi and Women (Delhi: Manushi Prakashan, 1986) 3.

27
The natural equality of the sexes inspired Gandhi to promote women’s emancipation and
human rights in a society that had been recognized for its horrible treatment of women. Gandhi
fundamentally believed in fact that the betterment of India could only come after the
improvement of women’s lives. First, women should be entirely free to involve herself in any
part of Indian daily life. Speaking for the benefit of Indian women, Gandhi exclaimed, “she has
the right to participate in the minutest detail of the activities of man, and she has the same right
of freedom and liberty as he.”66 Women could not be discriminated against for their gender, as
they were granted the same personal liberties. Furthermore, this brought Gandhi to assert
women’s rights overall through a negation of particular sexist social norms of Indian domestic
life. He argued for an end to child marriage and the practice of sati, as these both took away from
women’s unequivocal right to personal dignity and autonomy. Gandhi argued, “every Indian
girl…is not born to marry,”67granting a woman the choice usually limited to men of what she
intended to offer her service to, whether it be a man, her faith, or her nation. Finally, Gandhi
strongly believed in equal education opportunities for both men and women. In the ashram,
women were granted the same facilities as men and even special facilities where necessary.68
Women too should be able to expand their material knowledge alongside their natural feminine
spiritual awareness in order to reach cultural refinement. The ashram served as a perfect testing
ground for Gandhi’s theory of the benefit of women’s equality in opportunity, as members of
both genders worked alongside one another on “a footing of absolute equality.”69Gandhi found
that this special social experience imbibed the ashram women with “the spirit of free and self-
66 Ibid., 4.
67 Ibid., 181.
68 Ibid., 58.
69 Gandhi, Ashram Observances in Action, 59.

28
confidence,” advancing the community overall.70Gandhi was adamant in his belief of the
potential societal progress that comes from equal prospects for both men and women, fully
committing himself to bettering women’s position in the nation through their emancipation from
the unfair constraints of domestic slavery by man.
While he insisted upon the equality of the genders, Gandhi also found there to be
distinctive roles for men and women that are proper even with their overall oneness. The
essential division between men and women and their expected roles supported both their inherent
equality and social difference at the same time. Though they were considered capable of
anything men could accomplish, women, as conceptualized by Gandhi, should fulfill specific
roles in life. Pointing at motherhood as the most crucial task of women and fundamentally
important to the continuation and cultivation of the developing Indian race, Gandhi maintained,
“equality of the sexes does not mean equality of the occupations.”71 The qualities required by
motherhood were unique to women, making them specifically poised to fulfill the colossal duty
of raising children to become “true servants of their country”.72 Furthermore, as the master and
helpmate of the other, the man and the woman must contribute separately towards the same
essential goal. To Gandhi, this meant man was meant to be the “bread-winner” while the woman
was the “keeper and distributor of the bread.”73 Both roles were equally important to the
nationalist cause, but the man played the active role and the woman the more passive due to
differing internal natures. Less radical to his major message of gender equality was his insistence
upon the role of the wife and mother in the home. The household became a mythic realm of
70 Ibid., 59.
72 Ibid., 128.
73 Ibid., 27.

29
spiritual purity and strength, and it was the woman’s main responsibility to cultivate and nurture
this crucial zone of national culture.74 In order for the movement to succeed, the home had to
“remain unaffected by the profane activities of the material world,” and with the woman as the
home’s human representation, Indian women had a particularly significant role in the battle.75 As
the home was such a significant area in the struggle for independence, Gandhi asserted that
women exhibited bravery equal to that of a soldier through maintaining it. Gandhi had a complex
understanding of the nature of gender, insisting upon the essential equality between the sexes but
also affirming more typical social roles of men and women as fundamental to Indian progress.
Gandhi’s belief in gender equality did not restrain him from wholeheartedly embracing
the woman as being the ideal figure of religious devotion and civil disobedience. In his
statements intended to mobilize the oppressed female population, Gandhi asserted directly and
unequivocally, “she is...the better half of mankind.”76 Firstly, women were uniquely able to
utilize their purity as a shield to resist foreign temptations and to suffer non-violently. The virtue
of women was the most powerful defense mechanism, as they were capable of shielding this
inner spirituality that could be translated into the strongest of power. Speaking of the morally
pure woman, Gandhi proclaimed “when she does a thing in the right spirit, she moves
mountains.”77 Like the goddesses of Hindu liturgy, women held an inherent might from their
moral goodness that could dominate over the strongest of earthly warriors. Furthermore, Gandhi
found women to be less riddled with material obsessions such as greed and lust and instead more
naturally inclined to self-sacrifice. Women’s infinite capacity for suffering and existence as the
75 Ibid., 120.
77 Ibid., 163.

30
“embodiment of sacrifice” provided her with the means to purify public life by “restraining
unbridled ambition and accumulation of property.”78 With this sacrificing nature came a great
responsibility to teach men peace and harmony, as women were uniquely positioned to observe
and reform men’s material fixations. Finally, the female Indian was characterized by a high level
of ideological, moral, and cultural goodness that made her more capable of attempting and
succeeding in non-violent passive resistance.79 In the specific methods of peaceful protest as
dictated by Gandhi, women were well-practiced and therefore able to “outdistance man by many
a mile.”80 To Gandhi, the basic nature of the woman made her an ideal role model for spiritual
strength, passive resistance, and therefore the nationalist movement itself.
Not only were women the superior representations of the nationalist cause, but they also
embodied the nation of India as a whole. India was essentially feminized, and the women of
India became implicated as the images of the past, present, and future of the nation. This entailed
two important obligations of women; they must act as the defenders of the motherland and they
must remain uninfluenced by Western contamination. As the manifestation of feminine power,
women had a major responsibility to internalize this strength in order to bring the betterment and
progress of the nation. As a woman fighting for “Mother India,” the Indian female became “the
heroic woman, goddess and national spirit all at once.”81 Her individual concerns were
superseded by her personal connection to the land that she occupied, making her obligated to
protect India as an indirect means of self-preservation. The woman became the human face of the
78 Ibid., 12.
81 Sucheta Mazumdar, “Moving Away from a Secular Vision? Women, Nation, and the Cultural
Construction of Hindu India,” in Identity Politics and Women: Cultural Reassertions and
Feminisms in International Perspective, ed. Valentine M. Moghadam (Boulder, CO: Westview
Press, Inc., 1994), 256.

31
nation and therefore held a huge stake in the outcome of the war for independence. Moreover,
the woman could only protect the greater entity of the nation through her preservation of her
innate purity. The “goddess” of the Indian consciousness could never be tainted by
Westernization; she had to remain pure and guard the essential national culture housed within
her.82 Women were therefore responsible for maintaining the unpolluted greatness of India’s past
and assuring the future of the nation through nurturing the next generation as mothers. Overall,
Gandhi promoted the concept of a feminine India that brought a unique responsibility to Indian
women, intimately connecting their gender to the land they were being asked to fight for.
Utilizing Sita as a symbol of the nation, Gandhi related the Indian struggle for
independence to the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, as the evil and physically dominant British
had entered India and subjugated its people to oppressive regulations without their consent.
However, this was not the end of the Ramayana story, as Gandhi expressed by saying that
physically Sita “was a weakling before Ravana, but her purity was more than a match even for
his giant might…he could not carnally touch her without her consent.”83 While, like Ravana, the
British could oppress Indians physically, the spiritual core of the nation could not be harmed by
their domination. Throughout her multiple trials in the narrative, Sita was proved herself
uniquely capable of keeping both her “heart as well as body pure,” something Gandhi envisioned
for his country as a whole during their own struggle for their liberty.84 Furthermore, like Sita,
Indians must not cooperate with the established British order and resist this outside antagonist in
order to reach the same conclusion as the story. In her ability to protect herself from Ravana’s
advances, Sita proved her purity, her firmness, and her self-control, three of the ideal
82 Ibid., 257, 260.

32
characteristics of Indian women that would help them too remain untainted by British
contamination.
Beyond symbolizing the nation itself, the woman had a particular role in the struggle for
independence that positioned her as a warrior in her own right. Gandhi believed that women
were uniquely connected to the battle, as only women would be willing to commit so fully to the
war against war, and therefore they should be recognized for their equal stake in the outcome. He
asserted that the women of India should “know how to be fearless” and needed to demonstrate
their great courage in independent ventures for the good of the nation.85 In a radical step that
could shake the patriarchal foundations of society, Gandhi explored a plethora of roles the
woman could play outside of the home in order to benefit her nation. She was capable of
bringing substantial change and progress, and to do so, she was not to be held back by her
expected subservience to a husband. In his speech “Wrong Apotheosis of Women,” Gandhi
questioned why women should be considered “meek, submissive,” and only reserved “all the
menial tasks of the household.”86 Instead, Gandhi preached liberation of the wife who supported
the nationalist cause but was restricted in her commitment because of her husband’s concerns. In
this situation, Gandhi called for home civil disobedience and stated, “the wife has the perfect
right to take her own course and…brave the consequences when she knows herself to be in the
right and when her resistance is for a nobler purpose.”87 The politically conscious Indian woman
was not meant to be a “mere tool or a doll in her husband’s hands,” but instead she should be
well-versed in “the art of saying no even to her husband.”88 Women had both the right and the

33
responsibility to dedicate herself to the nationalist movement, no matter the response of the male
figures in her life.
Overall, this debasement of patriarchal norms was not the full picture of women’s
potential pro-India action. Gandhi focused closely on the impact the woman could have from her
own home, as he believed that the Indian woman should play her part in the struggle “not
manfully…but womanfully” in order to be most effective.89 This meant that their personal
victories in the movement could not come from “vying with man” in destroying human life, as,
to Gandhi, this served no purpose and would merely bring the morally superior women to the
level of the “erring man.”90 The internalization of the political fight was a unique form of
sacrifice for women, who were asked to extend and augment their traditional and familial roles
for the benefit of the cause. This played out most strongly through swadeshi, or the
decolonization of India’s economy through a reliance on Indian-made textiles for clothing.
Women were asked to devote their time and attention to home-spinning their cloth. Men were
expected to learn this essential skill as well, but less pressure was placed on them to perform it.
The image of Sita was channeled powerfully in this venture, as Gandhi maintained, “Sitaji used
to wear cloth made in India. In her day not a bit of foreign cloth was imported to India.”91
Therefore, in order to be the “ideal of absolute purity” like her, the Indian woman must commit
herself to making and wearing her own home-spun cloth.92 With Gandhi domesticating certain
key actions, the nationalist movement could thereby make its way into every Indian home and
Indian women could become increasingly involved, supporting the fight while “purifying” the
89 Ibid., 186.
90 Ibid.
92 Ibid.

34
process with their morality.93 Overall, Gandhi saw a unique position for women in the nationalist
struggle, as they were capable of furthering and maintaining the movement as powerful
individuals with the capability of serving the nation in unique ways.
While his message fundamentally revolved around the uplift of women, Gandhi’s use of
Sita, the importance of the home, and feminine moral power did not ask for social revolution.
Instead, it offered small but, at the time, radical changes within an established patriarchal system
in order to bring about the political upheaval of the British. As maintainers of the struggle within
the bounds of the home, women played an auxiliary role in the fight. Though some were asked to
actively join the civil protests, many more women were encouraged to remain in their homes as
necessary background supporters of the struggle. In Leela Gandhi’s analysis of Gandhi’s use of
women in his movement, she found that, while Gandhi was able to bring women into the
political realm of civil action, he could not entirely subvert patriarchal belittling of their status in
the nationalist movement overall.94 Though their domestic lives were granted greater importance,
Indian women were still limited to a supplementary position in passively ensuring the
continuation of the movement, rather than actively spearheading it on their own. Moreover,
Indian women alone were held to a standard of purity that had major implications on the nation.
Female emancipation was closely connected to the sovereignty of the nation, constraining the
“new women” of modern India within a renewed type of subordination by tying her personal
moral actions to the future of India.95 Indian women were considered the “last unpolluted
sanctuary” of early Indian civilization, and they therefore were personally responsible for the
94 Gandhi, “Concerning Violence: The Limits and Circulations of Gandhian ‘Ahimsa’ or Passive
Resistance,” 113.

35
continuation and prosperity of India.96 Finally, the patriarchal and classist underpinnings of
Indian society were maintained through the reinforcement of male-dominated social norms.
Gandhi’s insistence upon better and more widespread forms of education for women revolved
specifically around the duties of motherhood and household maintenance, such as orderliness,
cleanliness, and thrift.97 Women were taught that they would only fully empower themselves
through ascetic celibacy or bountiful motherhood; there was no middle ground. Though he
encouraged both men and women to contribute to the movement with powerfully feminine
imagery of the nation, Gandhi could not offer reforms that fully freed women from their
subjugation under the patriarchal constraints of Indian society.
During the nationalist movement, Gandhi asserted the rights of Indians for their own
independence by creating a counter-culture to the colonial British hegemonic sociopolitical
structure of oppression, reinvigorating distinctively Indian imagery in order to increase national
pride and appeal to the Hindu majority. Subverting the British effeminization of the Indian
people, Gandhi pointed to the feminine essence of India as a sign of spiritual superiority through
Hindu symbols of passive resistance. With her fundamental characteristics of self-sacrifice,
suffering, and devotion to the wider moral good, Sita was the perfect image for Gandhi’s ideal
movement, both for men and women. Through his constant references to her character in the
Ramayana, Gandhi was able to secure a strong constituency of female supporters, as both urban
and rural women were well-aware of Sita’s struggle and could base their own actions around her
example. Nevertheless, hidden in this empowerment was the continuation and reinforcement of
many sexist social norms, as a new patriarchy that bolstered the concept of women’s
96 Mazumdar, “Moving Away from a Secular Vision? Women, Nation, and the Cultural
Construction of Hindu India,” 259.

36
responsibility of consistent self-sacrifice for the good of the nation would take over. Moreover,
Gandhi was fairly unique within the Indian National Congress in his insistence upon the full
emancipation of women, and his death left much more to be desired for the lived experience and
human rights granted to the typical Indian woman. However, overall, Gandhi’s ideological
empowerment of the feminine led to a strengthening of the communal consciousness of the
struggle and a unity for the Hindu majority under the commonly venerated moral exemplar of
Sita.

37
Songs of Sita: Women’s Folk Music in Andhra Pradesh
Oral transmission of the Ramayana has predated and carried on throughout the many
centuries of its existence as a text. The retellings of the ancient story have granted many different
types of perspectives to repurpose the language, themes, and even the plotline in order to appeal
to and represent the diverse lifestyles found in India. This section will highlight the women’s
folk songs of the Ramayana as performed by women in Andhra Pradesh, a state in south India.
Here, women of two very distinctive castes sing their personalized versions of the Ramayana in
order to express their troubled experiences as women in a patriarchal and classist society. Their
narratives speak to the everyday, somewhat mundane problems faced by female characters like
Sita, such as pregnancy cravings and the pains of childbirth. Further, by adding these particular
details of her life, Sita sheds her elite status and becomes a “figure closer to home” and “the girl
next door,” as she faces the very same personal and familial issues as the Andhra Pradesh
women themselves.98 She is to be looked up to for her hardworking nature and her ability to put
with her in-laws ill-suffering behaviors and the neglect of her husband, Rama. Humanizing her
by dramatizing her day-to-day chores as a wife and daughter-in-law, the Andhra Pradesh women
detract from the religious meaning of the original text and add a dimension of contemporary
social critique. Through Sita, the women are able to express common sorrows, fears, desires, and
hopes for the future in the usually male-restricted sphere of public discourse.
The Valmiki text, considered the oldest composite telling of the story, delves very little
into the female characters within the story, saving the most grandiose descriptions and vivid
imagery to the valiant and violent actions of the men at war. While Sita has become well-
recognized, much of her personal story has had to be embellished and developed over time, as
98 Nabaneeta Dev Sen, “When Women Retell the Ramayan,” Manushi 108 (2013) 27.

38
Valmiki left much to be desired in terms of the details of female characters. In the Valmiki
Ramayana, the development of Sita as a multi-faceted character is very limited. She has very
little complexity when compared to other major protagonists, such as Rama or Hanuman.
Furthermore, there is little opportunity granted to the female characters to voice their gender-
specific concerns, as most of the action places a unique interest in the male’s version of the
events.99 In fact, the very written form of an epic does not usually voice many female-focused
concerns or themes.100 The ideals of the epic do not share many traits with the lifestyles of an
everyday Indian female, and the women of these stories lack the masculine-oriented heroic
values such as physical strength and war-time vigor. All in all, it must be noted that Valmiki, the
narrator and supposed author of the chronicle of the events, is male. Therefore, his account of the
story could be entirely swayed by this element of his identity, making the Ramayana as so much
of the Hindu population knows it possibly one-sided and biased, putting into question whether
poetic empathy can fully evoke daily female environments and experiences.101 Valmiki’s version
of the Ramayana, like most epics, is limited in its exploration of the female characters and
therefore provides only a partial history of the events.
According to the ethnographer Velcheru Narayana Rao in his study in Paula Richman’s
anthology Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, the Brahmin
women of Andhra Pradesh occupy both a privileged and oppressed position in the region’s social
order, making their interpretation of the Ramayana very unique and complex. Narayana Rao
99 Sally J. Sutherland Goldman, “The Voice of Sita in Valmiki’s Sundarakanda,” in Questioning
Ramayanas: A South Asian Tradition, ed. Paula Richman (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2001) 224.
100 Dev Sen, “When Women Retell the Ramayan,” 18.
101 Velcheru Narayana Rao, “A Ramayana of Their Own: Women’s Oral Tradition in Telugu,” in
Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, ed. Paula Richman
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) 115.

39
finds that these women have grown up within a patriarchal system that has limited their behavior
and isolated them within their society. As Brahmin women, they are expected to be socially cut-
off from the Brahmin men. This means that they do not receive the same opportunities in life,
including a lack of formal education. Their oppression is not limited to inequities in schooling, as
they also deal with consistent reproach due to their sexuality. Sex is considered solely as a means
of producing offspring, and the women’s modesty in appearance and behavior is strictly
enforced. This is their version of education, as it prescribes how exactly they should act in their
society in order to be most pleasing, leaving the men to aspire for more concrete world
knowledge.
However, the women’s strict obedience can also be power-granting, as they play a
significant role in the daily functioning of the community. Rao argues that, when “creatively
manipulated,” the subservience of the Brahmin women functions as a means of guiding the men
of their society in their day-to-day actions.102 Therefore, the nature of their social oppression
both limits and bolsters their authority in the context of a social system that restricts their
personal agency. The patriarchal foundations of the Brahmin community in Andhra Pradesh
influenced the way that the women viewed themselves and their importance, having major
consequences on their behavior.
The context of the oral retellings of the Ramayana in this area is also important in its
implications on the cultural norms of the region, especially regarding gender. Their gendered
community is created and reinforced through the experience of reiterating the ancient story. The
women meet together in private gatherings in the backyard of their homes during the late
afternoon, immediately following the midday meal. While the men stay in the front area of the
102 Rao, “A Ramayana of Their Own,” 117.

40
household to nap, chat, or play cards, the women separate themselves into their designated safe
space near the kitchen. Here, the women are free from the watchful gaze of the men and able to
exist without the pervasive obligations of their marriages and families. They are given privacy,
allowing their exploration of topics that may not be received well by their male counterparts. The
singers themselves are average members of the group of women who are relatively well-
acquainted with the written texts of the Ramayana, and are chosen to sing based on their
knowledge of specific songs but not required to know every song. Some of the most admired
singers include the older widows, who are appreciated and looked up to as sources of family
prosperity in this context. The women share their interpretations only with each other, rather than
offering the public performances that are exclusively allowed to male singers. This sets them
apart from the usual displays of the Ramayana, as they “sing for themselves” while the
customary male bard “sings for the public.”103 The personal and intimate nature of their
performances grants them the opportunity to offer their own version of the Ramayana narrative
in a safe, judgment-free space.
Furthermore, the songs are diverse and distinctive in nature, but performed similarly in
tone and language. Coming mostly from the memory of the singers and rarely written down, they
have existed throughout generations of subtle changes and no one can be entirely certain of their
true age. Their original sources seem to be females, but it is not known. Therefore, over time,
these songs have developed to remain relevant for the Brahmin female population by differing
emphases and additional details. While the specific stories may be subject to change, the tone of
the singers throughout the telling of the story remains the same. Though they are isolated, the
women still sing with innocent and gentle voices and never speak provocatively or with blatantly

41
radical intentions. They rarely utilize Sanskrit, singing with Dravidian words that are more calm-
sounding and approachable, giving the songs an accessible informality. Overall, the two major
effects of this strategic use of more neutral language and tonality are the understating of the
radical nature of the women’s songs and the approachability of their group sessions. The women
are able to explore personally challenging topics in an informal setting, covering up any hints of
rebellious subversion of the original narrative through gentle language and tones.
However, the content of the songs has a female focus that obscures the message of the
dominant story in order to grant the women a closer connection to the characters themselves. By
engaging personally with the plot through their songs, the women grant themselves a power
reminiscent of that of the ancient authors. Mostly ignoring the excessive detailing of the war as
reported by Valmiki, the women emphasize and elaborate on the experiences of the female
characters in the story. These include Kausalya’s pregnancy and the graphically painful birth of
Rama, Sita’s wedding and her entrusting to the care of her parents-in-law, Sita’s descriptions of
life with Rama, Sita’s fire ordeal, and Surpanakha’s decision-making for her revenge.104 The
detailed attention granted to elements of the story mostly ignored by Valmiki gives women’s
issues a greater importance for their productive participation in domestic affairs. The women of
the Ramayana are given credit for their personal strife in the development of the story, and
certain pains are emphasized in order to increase the admiration given to them. By hearing these
strategically detailed versions of the Ramayana events, the Andhra Pradesh women are able to
grant more appreciation to the everyday activities that usually go unnoticed or underappreciated.
The dominant female themes of the women’s folk songs provides the female listeners with a safe
space for them to explore the world in which they contribute so much but receive so little

42
recognition, aligning themselves with the most important examples of moral conduct in Indian
society to demonstrate women’s vital position in their society.
Furthermore, Rama becomes a figure of moral questionability in their songs, as his flaws
are put on display in a manner that obscures his position as an example of proper behavior and
complete devotion to dharma. Instead, through his total detachment from Sita’s suffering,
Rama’s character is removed from a position of dominance in the story and becomes less
powerful of an ethical icon. First, he is described most commonly as a harsh and morally weak
husband. While they appreciate Rama for his greatness as a talented child and as Sita’s lover,
they see him as a “tyrant and an unjust husband,” problematizing his usual position as the
dharma-focused perfect ideal of a king and partner.105 Only problems with his decision-making
are mentioned, and his most questionable behaviors in the story are emphasized, such as the
agnipariksha and his abandonment of Sita. Most of the songs are devoted to the plot of the
Uttarakanda, the final book of the Ramayana that includes the story of Sita’s abandonment by
Rama and her sons’ eventual battle against him, giving Rama a more secondary presence as the
opponent. Furthermore, Rama’s total dependence upon Sita is emphasized. After abandoning
her, Rama portrayed as lamenting, “’Sita is the life of my life. I cannot live without Sita.’”106
Reversing the power dynamic of this infamous couple, the women assert the necessary role of
Sita in Rama’s existence while reframing her banishment as an independent move to the woods.
Finally, through these plot-expanding devices, the women make Rama’s widely understood
heroism as less certain. To them, Rama “will always be less than a perfect man, and a far cry
106 Ibid., 23.

43
from a hero.”107 By challenging the commonly held beliefs regarding his position as the ideal
man, the women hold Rama accountable for his morally questionable decisions and enforce
another ethical standard that recognizes the treatment of women as equally as important than
one’s devotion to dharma.
In one early episode of the plot, the Brahmin women use their song to focus on the
institution of arranged marriage from the perspective of the prospective bride, arguing for a
stronger emphasis on the gifts that the woman brings to the table in these relationships. Through
Rama and Sita’s example, the women attempt to demonstrate that a marriage can only be
successful if it implies the mutual joining of two equals, rather than being the simple byproduct
of a set of negotiations. In the women’s song, before Rama enters the bow-stringing competition
to win her hand, a child Sita independently lifts Siva’s bow, an extraordinary accomplishment in
physical strength for a mortal woman.108 Therefore, the competition to string the bow comes
directly as a consequence of this event, as Sita’s parents must search for the man who can be her
equal in such amazing power. This may not seem radical, but the additional detail of Sita’s
personal might balances the scale of the relationship from its very beginning, as it implies that
the man must appropriately match the woman in a suitable relationship. Furthermore, it also
symbolizes a greater theme of Sita and Rama’s romance; Sita truly loves Rama, and vice versa.
In arranged marriages, this mutual respect and love is considered somewhat secondary to the
hopes of the families. In his understanding of the Brahmin women’s notions of their
relationships, Rao argues, “women in this community find that there is little real love between
107 Ibid., 20.

44
them and the husband who has been chosen for them.”109 Therefore, the women are able to
experience a more ideal union of mutual support and desire through their emphasis on the loving
marriage of Rama and Sita. Their compatibility allows them to be fully committed to each other
as equals in the partnership, providing the women with a means of reflecting on their own
deficient relationships and implicitly critiquing the unpleasant reality of many arranged
marriages.
A key relationship in the marriage of an Indian man and woman in this Brahmin
community is the one between the new daughter-in-law and her parents-in-law. Many of the
songs express the trials and tribulations of this sometimes volatile connection, as the Brahmin
women project their own experiences with newly formed families onto the characters of the
story. In one important episode entitled “Sita Locked Out”, Rama angrily shuts Sita out of their
bedroom because she is too busy to tend to his lustful desires when she performs the household
chores expected of a new daughter-in-law. The singer states, “She serves her in-laws with
devotion” as she privileges these tasks over her obligation to Rama.110 After finishing her duties
and still not being let into the room with the man who unreasonably cries, “If you stand out there,
what do I care!”, Sita calls to her mother-in-law Kausalya who, in turn, scolds Rama with the
strong assertion of her affectionate power over him. Once Rama allows Sita back into the room,
both of their angers soon dissipate, as Sita compares a woman’s ability to hold a grudge to butter
near a fire. They soon engage in lovemaking, and both lose their frustration with the other. This
moment in the story grants the women in the story the authority to supersede men’s immature
109 Ibid., 121.
110 Velcheru Narayana Rao, “A Mother-In-Law’s Support: Sita Locked Out,” in Ramayana
Stories in Modern South India: An Anthology, ed. Paula Richman (Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press, 2008) 51.

45
and baseless rage. Both Sita and Kausalya assert their dominance over Rama in separate ways.
By initially committing herself to her work for her parents-in-law rather than submitting to her
carnal desires, Sita demonstrates her moral decision-making and familial obedience in a difficult
situation, two essential traits of a good Indian daughter-in-law.111 Though Rama becomes angry
for a short period of time, he cannot remain furious with the woman that provides for him and his
family equally. Kausalya also displays her dominance in this version of the narrative, as she
disciplines Rama for being in the wrong. Her own word in the matter means much more than his,
making him accept her decision as the only acceptable one. Therefore, Rama is entirely
“controlled by and subservient to the demands of the women surrounding him,”112 as he learns of
his own moral misgivings through the instruction of female authority figures. Furthermore, he
only assumes a secondary role in this account of events, granting the women with their first
chance to personally dictate the plot and how it progresses.113 By demonstrating Rama in a
negative light and empowering the female characters’ ability to protect themselves from his
unjust behavior and even change his actions, the song of Sita and Kausalya teaming up denotes
the importance of family and grants the women a position on the higher moral ground.
However, as focused as these folk songs are on the plight of the Brahmin women, they do
not attempt to break down the patriarchal system of widespread injustice in which they live. Each
song, though seemingly radical in some content, reinforces the expected behavior of the Brahmin
women. Firstly, the manner in which they sing gives insight into their lack of intention of
substantial societal change. Working within the male-dominated structure where only men’s
voices should be heard, the women sing lightly and innocently to discourage too much attention
112 Ibid., 119.
113 Ibid., 121.

46
for their changes to the original plotline. They may challenge the common narrative, but they do
so in a manner that gives them a sense of internal freedom only within the strict bounds of the
system, undermining any genuine rebellion. Furthermore, the female characters in the songs still
exhibit ideal female behavior through their obedience and patience. Sita remains coy and
innocent, acting as the ideal woman who bears the unfair patriarchal values silently through
never transgressing her husband or parents-in-law. The women remain conditioned to “emulate
the ideal Indian woman who suffers in silence and doesn’t complain” through Sita’s example in
these songs, though they now at least get to hear her voice as she offers her perspective of the
injustices she faces. Sita still acts as the example figure of female suffering, a victim who never
attempts to defy the system. The women’s songs create a Sita that “suffers in grandeur,” adding a
degree of dignity and even glamour to a woman’s suffering in patriarchal conditions.114 Again
and again she simply accepts the lack of fairness in her situation, providing the women with an
example of passivity towards their unfortunate life conditions.
At the same time, the very act of singing these songs and reconstructing a historically
male-dominated text through the perspective of a woman delineates an underlying feminism. The
women are able to subvert a well-known traditional story in order to protest against the
domination of culture and society by men. Firstly, the women exhibit intense feelings of tension,
hidden sexuality, and frustration in these accounts. These personal issues usually left unheard
due to their taboo nature in the Brahmin women’s social scene are put on display as necessary
truths to the female experience. The female population is equally capable of having passionate
internal sensations towards certain elements of their world, and the characters in their version of
the Ramayana express that. Furthermore, Sita’s eventual descent back into the Earth after

47
Rama’s unkindness and rejection is bolstered by the women as a sign of her individual choice of
freedom. Sita was the final agent in her own life, assuming her liberation from the constraints of
her society and awaiting her sons’ victory over Rama. In the end, it was Sita who decided the
way she wanted her story to end. Finally, and most importantly, the increase in female
participation within the story allows the women their own voice in the discussion of societal
injustice. For the women, “Sita is their voice, for they like Sita have been programmed not to
resist.”115 When even the most basic of equal rights are denied to them, such as education, the
women are at least able to speak of their own sorrows through a powerful cultural figure that
brings them together in unity. While she may not be an obvious revolutionary, Sita provides the
Brahmin women with a medium in which they can express their personal feelings and
frustrations and thereby assert their experiences as women to be true and meaningful.
The use of the Ramayana by female interpreters is not limited to the Brahmin caste.
Rao’s study also examined the folk songs of the female members of the Untouchable working
caste of Malas in Andhra Pradesh who also utilize the story as a means for personal
empowerment and assertion of self. This class of women is made up of agricultural workers who
must make their own money through manual labor and be financially independent, working
alongside their male counterparts. Therefore, this class in much less gender-segregated, yet it still
adheres to the common standards of female behavior, such as promoting women as being good
and faithful wives and daughters-in-law. Once again, these women emphasize female-focused
parts of the story, such as Sita’s life in the forest and her kidnapping. However, they are less
centered around the inner conflicts of being a woman in a patriarchal society and instead hint at a
protest against the dominant upper-caste version of the story. Their folk songs display less of an
115 Ibid., 25.

48
interest in Rama, but much more of an emphasis on the usually secondary character of Ravana
and his perspective on the events. By subtly and subversively changing the dynamic of the
characters involved, the women criticize the established order in an understated manner. The
injustices they face are caused more specifically by their caste, rather than their gender, making
them offer an oppositional take on the Ramayana in order to make their specific voices heard and
more understood. Much like the Brahmin women, the lower-caste Indian Malas utilize the
historically well-known story in order to subvert elements of the plot subtly through varying
emphases, ending their silence and voicing their personal strife.
Overall, both versions of women’s folk songs similarly examine societal issues through
the lens of a text that, without much elaboration, mostly promotes the hegemonic norm. The
women who sing are able to assert their own struggles through assigning the same problems to
the female characters in the Ramayana. The dignity and publicity of this ancient story provides
the women with a strong foundation on which they can develop their own accounts of the story
as they could imagine it in reality. For the women who take on the story-telling and listen to the
personalized songs, when they cry for Sita’s suffering, they also “cry for themselves” by
association.116 Nevertheless, the difference between the two caste’s versions of the songs is also
worth noting, as class plays an important role in discussions of feminism and how women are
able to seek and find empowerment. Another major point of difference with Western feminism,
caste injustice adds another dimension to women’s rights in India. Overall, both castes illuminate
the fact that, for women in this society, “justice remains a dream, equality an absurdity and
suffering an everyday reality.”117 While they don’t feel personally capable of overcoming the
116 Ibid., 22.
117 Ibid. 27.

49
pressures of being a consistently self-sacrificing woman and fulfilling all of the responsibilities
expected of them, they work from within the constraints of their patriarchal society to voice their
pain and sorrow. As these women’s songs demonstrate, there’s no better character to embody the
concept of morally baseless suffering than Sita.

50
Sita on the Silver Screen: Two Representations of Sita in Contemporary Indian Film
In recent decades, India has become a burgeoning center of cinema. Through Bollywood
film and its monumental financial prosperity, India’s population has become increasingly
devoted to the influence of the moving picture on popular culture and tradition. In this section, I
will highlight two films that are not from Bollywood, but have created an uproar within India
due to their adoption of the name “Sita” and the complex implications that this brings to a
modern, publically accessible work. The films Fire and Sita Sings the Blues have been especially
controversial for the increasingly influential Hindu Right, the political faction mentioned in the
introduction of this essay that has taken on the role of the “moral policemen of Indian culture”
through their constant surveillance of Indian citizens’ maintenance of Indians traditions and
incorporation of Western ways of life.118 Their violent suppression of whatever they believe to
be unnatural to India has led to much weighted discussion about these films, as both utilize Sita’s
status as an easily recognizable figure in order to alter or undermine the common discourse. With
Fire, the director Deepa Mehta was met with a harsh criticism of everything she attempted to
expose in her film by the Hindu Right. Many from this group argued that she was promoting
lesbianism as a universally human phenomenon, when it is truly a foreign concept that is
fundamentally antithetical to Indian family values. Fearing the connection between depictions of
sex and sexuality and corruption of India’s imagined essential purity, the Hindu Right identified
the lesbianism of the film as a Western contaminant and alien to India. Furthermore, Sita Sings
the Blues explicitly demonstrated the Ramayana through the lens of a Western female and
brought many of its key elements into question, debasing it as a uniformly told and understood
118 Ratna Kapur, “Too Hot to Handle: The Cultural Politics of ‘Fire,’” Feminist Review 64
(2000): 54.

51
doctrine of Indian conduct. Again, the Hindu Right took issue with this adaptation of the ancient
Hindu text, as it offered an alternative picture of the traditional scheme of events.119 However,
both films have proven that the characters of the Ramayana, like culture in itself, are subject to
modification due to their flexibility to the influences of differing perspectives.
I will begin with the film Fire, an Indian-Canadian drama written and directed by Deepa
Mehta that was hugely controversial upon its publicity and opening in India. The uproar
regarding this film was caused by a combination of its plot and its major themes, as it addressed
and portrayed female desire as natural. The film focuses on two key female characters that share
names with famous Indian literature icons, Sita and Radha. Sita, the younger of the two and the
instigator of the lesbian relationship, marries Jatin, a man entirely enamored with his foreigner
mistress, through an arranged marriage between the families. Sita must then live and work with
her new extended family, including Jatin’s brother Ashok, Ashok’s wife Radha, and his invalid
mother Biji. Ashok and Radha have an unusual relationship of their own, as he has committed
himself to serving Swamiji, a Hindu preacher, through patronage and celibacy. Furthermore,
Radha has an illness that causes infertility, an issue that brings her much guilt as a woman. Both
facing a deficiency in the fulfillment of their sexual desires, Sita and Radha secretly turn to each
other for carnal passion and loving support. They soon dream of a life exclusively with each
other, far from the expectations and shaming of their self-fulfilling actions from their patriarchal
society. At the end of the film, Radha is caught in the act of lovemaking with Sita by Ashok, and
Sita escapes the household with the hope of Radha joining her. In the midst of the ensuing
argument in the kitchen between Radha and Ashok, Radha’s sari catches fire, subjecting her to a
Ramayana-like trial by fire before she finally departs from the house and reunites with Sita. Fire
119 Shohini Ghosh, Fire: A Queer Film Classic (Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010), 23.

52
dramatically progresses through a series of usually silenced topics in Indian cinema, displaying a
homosexual female relationship that develops as a response to the grievances of Indian men.
Sita’s metamorphosis throughout the film highlights the possibility of female
independence through selfish decision-making, upending the traditional values of self-sacrifice
and wifely devotion. Progressing from total dependence on Jatin to a self-motivated escape, Sita
grants herself the agency to overcome the strict restraints of an Indian female’s standard of
behavior as determined by society. In the beginning, Sita is desperate for the love and acceptance
of her new husband. In an early scene, she cries, “Don’t you like me?” to the husband who is all
but ignoring her in the setting of a visit to the Taj Mahal, a legendary symbol of eternal marital
love. Furthermore, she is ashamed of her desire. When she bleeds after her first sexual encounter
with Jatin, she is visibly concerned and quickly cleans the bed. Her embarrassment from the
moment, along with her early assumption of her husband being a “saint,” demonstrates her
implicit acceptance and perpetuation of the patriarchal hierarchy. In her earliest years, her
mother taught her that “a woman without a husband is like boiled rice. Bland, unappetizing,
useless,” making Sita entirely devoted to her husband and allowing his wants supersede her own.
The early Sita is much like the character in the Ramayana, as she commits herself to serving her
husband as a saintly figure in her life, no matter his earthly transgressions.
However, this traditional form of Sita does not last, as the film Sita undergoes a
transformation in her valuation of her personal wants and desires, privileging herself above the
man that has provided her with very little opportunity to explore her sexuality. Defying societal
expectations, she becomes a successful rebel against the bounds of patriarchal oppression. Her
first act of undermining the established order comes through her cross-dressing. In two scenes,
Sita dresses as a man, both on her own and in the presence of Radha as they dance together. This

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