Challenge the unquestioned glorification of motherhood in India on Mother's day 2025 and advocate for the recognition of women's inherent worth and diverse roles beyond being a "mother.”
Motherhood has long been a definitive cultural identity for women in India, a role that stays in the background yet, when given credit, holds immense supernatural expectations and responsibilities. It lingers in the background of every female experience, often unspoken but always assumed. When praised, it is seen as sacred. When questioned, it is met with resistance. But underneath this glorification lies a crucial dilemma: Why must motherhood be considered the ultimate expression of womanhood?
Walk down any bustling Indian street during the day, and while you may find places dominated by men, in every corner you will come across the slogans of “Jai Mata Di”, (Hail the Mother Goddess), the nation itself is personified as Bharat Mata (Mother India), with her image immortalized in art and patriotic slogans. This juxtaposition is telling that while women can be absent from public spaces, the mother is omnipresent in India라이브 바카라 collective psyche.
To claim motherhood is “overhyped” may sound blasphemous, but the truth is stark: Society demands that women embody this role as their ultimate purpose. A woman라이브 바카라 identity—often her very destiny—is tied to her ability to bear and nurture children. She may, if fortunate, pursue other aspirations, but she must always be a mother first. As Swami Vivekananda once said, “The ideal woman in India is the mother, the mother first, and the mother last.”
In truth, the societal reverence for mothers often disguises an unspoken expectation: that caregiving, sacrifice, and quiet strength are not just attributes, but obligations. With a humane perspective, the very image of a working woman, a labourer, with two children in tow, bags slung over her shoulders, navigating crowded streets under the scorching sun, is maybe idealised as a portrait of maternal resilience. But look closer, and it라이브 바카라 also an image of exhaustion—one that society wraps in virtue to avoid reckoning with its costs.
India라이브 바카라 maternal labor force participation rate is just 24% (World Bank, 2022), a statistic that reveals the disproportionate burden of caregiving that often curtails women라이브 바카라 economic autonomy. Despite contributing immensely to the home and society, many mothers are unable to reclaim their personal agency or financial independence.
Historically, mothers have been celebrated as the transmitters of tradition, from passing down folklore to preserving rituals. Ancient texts like the Taittiriya Upanishad go so far as to declare, “Matru Devo Bhava” (the mother is divine). But this divine pedestal often becomes a cage. In praising motherhood so completely, we risk reducing women to a singular, all-consuming identity.
Yes, Indian mothers are resilient. They are patient. They sacrifice endlessly. But to attribute these traits solely to motherhood is to overlook their personhood.
Before they became mothers, they were thinkers, dreamers, rebels, and pioneers. Take 19th-century poet-saint Bahinabai Chaudhari, who wrote verses about female autonomy while managing the duties of domestic life. Or Savitribai Phule, India라이브 바카라 first female teacher, who transformed girls’ education while raising her children. Or Rani Lakshmi Bai, who led a rebellion against British rule with her son strapped to her back.
Yet, society selectively remembers these women as “mothers,” sidelining their broader contributions. Ancient codes like the Manusmriti narrowed women라이브 바카라 societal roles to those of obedient daughters, wives, and mothers. In contrast, medieval Bhakti poets like Akka Mahadevi rejected motherhood entirely to pursue spiritual liberation. This tension between glorification and restriction remains unresolved, even in today라이브 바카라 India.
India라이브 바카라 nationalism is steeped in maternal symbolism. In 1882, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay penned Vande Mataram, reimagining the nation as a benevolent mother goddess. The image of Bharat Mata became a rallying cry during the freedom movement, adorning posters, poems, and hearts. It united people under a sacred vision of motherhood, binding patriotism with reverence for the feminine.
But outside of poetry and political rhetoric, how do we truly treat the everyday mothers who walk among us?
The reality is sobering. One in three Indian women still faces domestic violence (NFHS-5, 2021), and nearly one in four girls is married off before the age of 18 (UNICEF, 2023). We chant “Mata ki Jai” with fervor, yet fail to offer real mothers the dignity, freedom, and safety they deserve in daily life. The gap between reverence and reality is wide and deeply troubling.
Even our pantheon of goddesses like Durga, Kali, and Parvati embodies rage, creation, and destruction. Yet society expects real mothers to be passive, ever-sacrificing, and demure. Pop culture echoes this narrow image, from Hindi Medium (2017), where mothers give up careers for their child라이브 바카라 schooling, to daily soaps that reduce them to tearful, self-erasing caregivers.
This isn’t reverence. It라이브 바카라 reduction.
We must challenge the idea that a woman라이브 바카라 greatest value lies in motherhood. A mother is not made by destiny. She is made by choice. And that choice should be hers alone, just like it is for any man deciding whether to become a father.
True honour doesn’t lie in forcing someone into a revered role. It lies in recognizing and respecting their freedom to choose.
Women should not have to be mothers to be admired. They should be celebrated for who they are: brave hearts, fierce minds, patient warriors, creators of art, agents of change. Whether or not they choose to bear children is irrelevant to their humanity and their greatness.
A mother is created the moment a child arrives, not before. A child makes a mother, not society. Let us stop measuring women라이브 바카라 worth by whether or not they fulfill this role. Let us acknowledge their power beyond roles, the power of choice, of voice, of identity.
As the Tamil poet Avvaiyar wrote 2,000 years ago: “A woman라이브 바카라 strength is not in her silence, but in her voice.”
It라이브 바카라 time we listened. Not just to the mother. But to the woman who might never become one, and still be complete.
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