The Goddess and the Nation

“The Goddess And The Nation is a well-documented pictorial historiography of the paradoxical emergence of the Mother Goddess, Bharat Mata, concurrently with the modern Indian nation state – it is a treasure-trove of images and arguments that will inspire artists and political commentators alike.” - Anjali D'Souza, Art India
“Sumathi Ramaswamy skillfully draws on visual studies, gender studies and the history of cartography to demonstrate that images do not merely reflect history; they actively make it.” - Vallari Gupte, India West
“The Goddess and the Nation is a masterpiece – panoramic and yet deep in content. . . . Going far beyond delivering only a formalistic catalogue
of this icon, Ramaswamy . . . presents challenging and thought-provoking discussions for scholars and students within and outside the realm of South Asia Studies.” - Christiane Brosius, Social Anthropology
“This is an engrossing, meticulously researched, beautifully presented
book, whose scholarly reach transcends South Asian historiography to embrace cartography, feminist studies, nationalist and colonial studies, and
politico-religious iconography. The Goddess and the Nation contributes a fresh perspective to discussions of imagined political and religious communities, to feminist discourse on gendered identities, to the study of Indian ‘bazaar’ images, to religious studies, and to visual studies.” - Zo Newell, Journal of Asian Studies
“Ramaswamy provides a lively pictorial history of Bharat Mata (Mother India), that ubiquitous figure of Indian nationalist culture. Ramaswamy has compiled a rich archive of over 150 imagistic representations of Bharat Mata that spans the late 19th century to the present.” - Priya Shah, American Anthropologist
“[Sumptuously illustrated. . . . This fascinating case study successfully synthesizes two important themes in the critical history of Indian nationalism: the relationship between religious and secular conceptions of power, and the appropriation of elite cartographical projects by popular groups. Ramaswamy shows that images are not mere reflections of
history but its active agents.” - Maria Misra, American Historical Review
“Filled with important and arresting observations, The Goddess and the Nation is a magnificent example of the possibilities of visual history. Guaranteed to have a substantial impact in South Asian cultural history, it also ought to be seen as a milestone for all historiography. Sumathi Ramaswamy situates a massively informed cultural history of India from the late nineteenth century onward in relation to broader literatures and debates on the history of cartography, iconographies of nationhood and motherhood, and a feminist dynamics of gendered identifications.”—Christopher Pinney, author of “Photos of the Gods”: The Printed Image and Political Struggle in India
“This deft and lively history of visual patriotism, evoked through both words and images, combines the pleasures of looking with the rigor of serious analysis. Sumathi Ramaswamy writes lucidly and wears her considerable erudition lightly, but there is no mistaking the striking ambition of her project. The book does nothing less than demonstrate by example the novel interpretive possibilities that only a pictorial history of nationalism based on a recognition of the constitutive impact of images can bring. The great success of this endeavor is that it makes us see the familiar pictorial juxtaposition of the female figure of Mother India with the territorial map of the country again, as if for the first time: such, indeed, is the revisionary contribution of this insightful study. The scholarship on the ubiquitous nationalist discourse of Mother India, or, indeed, on the impact of the modern cartographic project in India, will never again be the same.” —Mrinalini Sinha, author of Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire
“The Goddess and the Nation is a masterpiece – panoramic and yet deep in content. . . . Going far beyond delivering only a formalistic catalogue
of this icon, Ramaswamy . . . presents challenging and thought-provoking discussions for scholars and students within and outside the realm of South Asia Studies.” -- Christiane Brosius * Social Anthropology *
“The Goddess And The Nation is a well-documented pictorial historiography of the paradoxical emergence of the Mother Goddess, Bharat Mata, concurrently with the modern Indian nation state – it is a treasure-trove of images and arguments that will inspire artists and political commentators alike.” -- Anjali D'Souza * Art India *
“Sumptuously illustrated. . . . This fascinating case study successfully synthesizes two important themes in the critical history of Indian nationalism: the relationship between religious and secular conceptions of power, and the appropriation of elite cartographical projects by popular groups. Ramaswamy shows that images are not mere reflections of history but its active agents.” -- Maria Misra * American Historical Review *
“Ramaswamy provides a lively pictorial history of Bharat Mata (Mother India), that ubiquitous figure of Indian nationalist culture. Ramaswamy has compiled a rich archive of over 150 imagistic representations of Bharat Mata that spans the late 19th century to the present.” -- Priya Shah * American Anthropologist *
“Sumathi Ramaswamy skillfully draws on visual studies, gender studies and the history of cartography to demonstrate that images do not merely reflect history; they actively make it.” -- Vallari Gupte * India West *
“This is an engrossing, meticulously researched, beautifully presented book, whose scholarly reach transcends South Asian historiography to embrace cartography, feminist studies, nationalist and colonial studies, and politico-religious iconography. The Goddess and the Nation contributes a fresh perspective to discussions of imagined political and religious communities, to feminist discourse on gendered identities, to the study of Indian ‘bazaar’ images, to religious studies, and to visual studies.” -- Zo Newell * Journal of Asian Studies *