Coding ‘woman’: Patanjali and the problem of modernity

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Coding ‘Woman’
Patanjali and the Problem of
Modernity
Dr. Harmony Siganporia
MICA-India

Why Patanjali?
“Revenues at Patanjali Ayurveda multiplied fifteen times from Rs. 317
crore at the end of 2010–2011 to. . ....

This means that men like Ramdev have a say in defining who the
‘modern’ Indian woman is.

“Modernity becomes a big deal because we are desperate to be, and to be
acknowledged as, modern; but at the same time we d...

‘Woman' has long been coded by her other: think about the Nationalist movement; Parsi
theatre; the beginnings of Indian ci...

Women were taken to the theatre to watch and learn from Bal Gandharva and Jaishankar ‘Sundari’ how to
perform the best ver...

But what does modern/modernization mean to us, in a specifically Indian
context?
“In India, as in most of the non-Western ...

Semiotically speaking, meaning is constructed at three levels
(Scolari, 2008) :
- the deep or axiological level, where a ‘...

Swadeshi/Patriotic
National (a)
Local (not b) Anti-National (Not A)
International (b)
Cosmopolitan/Rootless
Getting at one...

Natural Vs Chemical, developed as a semiotic square, would yield
‘Inorganic’ (or ‘Synthesised’) and ‘Organic’ (or ‘unadult...

Guess which of these two ‘sisters’ (Saundarya and Aishwarya) makes the cut.

Worry not: Baba to the rescue.

These two are meant to be Mother and Daughter. The daughter is about to take over as General
Manager for a company, so no,...

At the semio-narrative level we find the ‘Indian woman’ as, primarily, mother
and incipient mother (the conduit for paramp...

So whether she goes to a university which looks like it belongs in a Karan Johar movie, or
lounges around preoccupied abou...

Which is why this new/old Indian woman feeds and cares (and
sweeps her floors with the very “scientific” GoNyle):

She can even be a manager or a working professional (as long as
the profession is always left hazy):
What? Manager bhi kab...

And she’ll do it wearing make-up and salwar-kurtas even:
*Please notice the nifty bath-robes the men are
in. Decidedly vis...

- But she’ll still be told that all that is in her power to do is decide what ghee and atta enters her
home (this is how s...

Disclaimer: No parampara was violated in the making of this woman.

References
-Anand, S. 2017. “Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali TV Advertisements Up 34% This Year.” The Economic Times,
June 27.
-Na...

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