Imagery of Goddesses: Devi-Mahatmya, Hindu Nationalism and Women's Oral Narratives from West Bengal, India

Abstract

The research focuses on the imagery of Hindu goddesses in the current socio-political scenario in India under Hindu nationalism. The Hindutva or Hindu nationalist framework believes in a monolithic Hindu identity that supports Brahmanical Hinduism and Brahmanical patriarchal models. Central to Hindutva politics are the bodies of Hindu women and Hindu goddesses. The goddess imagery in Hindutva is drawn from Devi Mahatmya, a 6th-century text dedicated to Hindu goddesses in India (Bacchetta, 1993), which is then refashioned to align with Hindutva's model of Hindu womanhood. Hindutva framework creates a dominant, North Indian, upper-caste, upper-class narrative of the Hindu goddess that erases the plurality in terms of gender, caste, class, ethnicity, and region. The Hindutva narrative also marginalises ordinary Hindu women's understanding of goddesses, which can challenge the homogenous lens of the Hindutva politics. There is a dearth of literature that explores this issue through an intersectional feminist framework that takes into consideration different social categories in the imagination of goddesses. The primary objective of my thesis is to examine goddess representations in Hindutva discourse, Devi Mahatmya, and oral stories of ordinary Hindu women to discover whether/to what extent various types of goddess imagery can reinforce stereotypical and patriarchal gender roles or empower women. The question that guided my analysis is: how do ordinary Hindu women's accounts of goddesses differ from the representation of goddesses in Hindu nationalist politics? My research shows the diversity in goddess imagery, both in the text Devi Mahatmya and in women's oral narratives of goddesses, which presents a counter-narrative to the Hindutva framework of goddesses. The findings point to the empowering, ambiguous, and regional variations in the divine feminine imagination, in contrast to the patriarchal, homogenous, and casteist portrayal of goddesses in Hindutva discourse.