Bharat Mata : The Mother India

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Bharat Mata, that is, the Mother India (Bharat – India, Mata – Mother) is a personification of India, and relatively seen by some as a mother goddess of fertility.  Bharat Mata is an amalgam of all the goddesses of Indian culture and more significantly of goddess Durga. She is usually depicted as a woman clad in a saffron sari holding the Indian national flag, and sometimes accompanied by a lion.

Behind Bharat Mata, a map of Akhand Bharat, stretching across Afghanistan, Myanmar, Tibet and of course, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The depiction of India as a Hindu goddess implies that it is not just the patriotic but also the religious duty of all Indians to participate in the nationalist struggle to defend the nation.

Bharat Mata ki Jai’ (“Victory for Mother India”) is used by the Indian Patriot.

Bharat mata: The nation as a Goddess

Bharat Mata A Nation

Face Of Bharat Mata

Bharat Mata : Maa Tujhe Salaam

Akhand Bharat

Bharat Mata Latest Image

Bharat Mata Gif

 

A 1937 print of a PS Ramachandra Rao paintingA 1937 print of a PS Ramachandra Rao painting

This was not an iconography that would sit easy with those who began to question this jingoistic, populist and mythic invocation of the nation. This was precisely the kind of figuration of the motherland from which Rabindranath Tagore began to recoil. It was an icon his anti-hero Sandip had willed into being without realising the emotional catharsis of a form of worship of the nation that could easily turn into a politics of fanaticism and hatred.

Reclaiming Bharat Mata

Bharat Mata Images for Facebook, Bharat Mata Picture Collection, Bharat Mata Images And Wallpapers Collection

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