Secure Your Copy Mother India Authored By Katherine Mayo Available Through Volume

didn't agree with all of Ms, Mayo's points, but her descriptions of the treatment of women, especially young girls, were especially provocative, She made an excellent argument for the idea that the society that does not treat its women with respect creates huge problems for itself.
The book provides a harrowing tale of an enslaved India at the start of century, . . looted for a thousand year, its spirit all but broken, The author was a bigoted American journalist who blamed all the ills suffered by Indians on its poor inhabitants, conveniently giving clean chit to its rapacious colonisers.
She seemed to have special hatred for Hindus as repeatedly in her narrative she concludes that Mohammedans were better than their Hindu brethren in their conduct and outlook.
She seemed to favour the partition at a time when the talk of the separate state for Indian muslims was not in vogue yet.
Her observation of the Indian Milieu of that time though skewed does provide important insights into Indian society, its shortcomings like child marriage, state of women of that time.
In particular her documented contact with different Indian leaders of that time does provide us a glimpse into the direction, Indian politics was heading to at that time.
A worthwhile read! Definitely not an easy read, especially the descriptions of socioeconomic mores regarding young girls and women in preIndependence India, Dr Mayo's book was hardhitting and graphic for the time published latess I can see why many have objected to its content.


That said, it was of its time and the author was, I feel, trying to get the world to take notice of a situation which was largely ignored by the West The only reason I picked this book up was to understand what the hype around it was.


Mother India is a narration of the conditions in India during the pre independence period from the P, O. V of a foreigner.

I agree some words and passages feel very prejudiced, but the sign of a mature nation is to accept criticism in whatever form and work for it.


All in all, it's very detailed and well narrated, Some parts may open your eyes or close them with the same prejudice you are complaining about, I still don't understand why it was banned, This is a much criticized book by all Indians, People have condemned the book for showing India in a very negative way, I believe the book does portray India negatively and as Mahatma Gandhi claimed, it is a gutter inspector's report, But, it is not the fault of Ms, Katherine Mayo that the whole country is like a gutter, People can read the book and easily find out what is wrong in India rather than what is wrong with the book,

The Indians should rightly be offended by the content of the book but instead of blaming the author, they should fix the situation.
India is sadly one of the dirtiest places in the world, Classicbook of conditions of the poor in India Her scurrilous writing displays her blatant antipathy towards all things Indian the country, the religion, the culture, the natives.
So why did she set out to write this misandrous and sanctimonious piece of garbage, I struggled through it in the hope of finding something redeeming in her research, Indians in her perception are a teeming mass of scrawny, malnourished, lascivious pedophiles,

In the courts and alleys and bazaars many little bookstalls, where narrowchested, nearsighted, anaemic young Bengali students, in native dress, brood over piles of flyblown Russian pamphlets.

How this seething mass of sweaty stunted skeletal scarecrows managed to overthrow the mighty British Empire, she cannot explain, One gets the impression that, but for the benevolent British, Indians would have still been in the Stone Age, Did Indians really justify suttee through this convoluted logic

"We husbands so often make our wives unhappy," said this frank witness, "that we might well fear they would poison us.
Therefore did our wise ancestors make the penalty of widowhood so frightful in order that the woman may not be tempted, "

Were famines so bad

pounded bones of the dead were mixed with flour and sold, . . Destitution at length reached such a pitch that men began to devour each other and the flesh of a son was preferred to his love.

or again

Weomen were scene to rost their Children, . . A man or woman noe sooner dead but they were Cutt in pieces to be eaten,

Great historical record of India at the time of the British Raj with arguments drawn from pre history, She was a racist absolutely no doubt about that that comes out loud and clear in her writing,
' finecut faces of the northern PersianMuhammadan strain, coarse faces of the South, . ' etc. , etc.
Her dislike for Hindus as a people is blatant,
But if you can pick out some of the issues she writes about she was probably not too far off, in spite of her hyperbole.
The treatment of women, child marriage, caste system, filth, Brahmin elitist attitudes, all get the required scathing treatment,
It is not an easy read, in the sense it does rile one up a bit, I almost wanted to throw the book out of the window a few times but realized it was on my kindle :, Takes some swallowing of anger too, But read it anyway it gives you a look into a deeply flawed, patriarchal society set someyears ago, . . and then look up and see the changes that have been made, We have come a long way and have a long way to go,


Here is Gandhi's quote on the book from Wikipedia:
"This book is cleverly and powerfully written, The carefully chosen quotations give it the false appearance of a truthful book, But the impression it leaves on my mind is that it is the report of a drain inspector sent out with the one purpose of opening and examining the drains of the country to be reported upon, or to give a graphic description of the stench exuded by the opened drains.
If Miss Mayo had confessed that she had come to India merely to open out and examine the drains of India, there would perhaps be little to complain about her compilation.
But she declared her abominable and patently wrong conclusion with a certain amount of triumph: 'the drains are India'" This book is obviously highly controversial, even today.


I have never interpreted Gandhis comment on Mother India as being a “gutter inspectors” report as an indication he disagreed with the findings of this book.


I believe he was deeply aware and embarrassed by most if not all Mayos observations, and was actively and openly doing everything he could to change the realities of India at that time.
To be horrified at the receipt of a gutter inspectors report is not to discredit the inspector,

Regardless, it remains an incredible insight into one of the viewpoints about Indias independence in thes and, to a large extent, is a marker for how far the country has progressed since then.
Some books need to be chucked in the bin this derogatory piece is worth just that, Filled with lies and racist taunts, this book is no wonder banned in India One sided, badly researched, full of lies and written to selfglorify one's actions.


This book tells us only one thing that most of the things we see around ourselves MAY BE FULL OF LIES.
While the issues raised by Katherine were genuine, the intent wasn't, She had an agenda in mind to justify everything that the British Empire was doing in India at that time and to prove by sometimes employing silly, illogical and dumb arguments.
I would have appreciated if she had just shown the problems and not given her irrational commentary on top of that,
The trouble begins when she starts generalising and stereotyping Indians, As an author, that is the first thing you SHOULDN'T DO,
Further ahead, her basis of making an argument is lame, She just comes up with a random figure and writes her version of the story and presents it to the world, Bear in mind, it is an academic book, and hence we need evidence not your cock and bull dirty mind's version on everything.

Every time you present a case in isolation, it shows how immature and incapable you are of handling such a topic, which definitely demands a certain level of maturity.

There is a very thin between criticising someone and trying to humiliate, degrade and attack their self respect, Katherine is trying to do attack people with her words, Would it be fair to say that, she might be suffering from inferiority complex disorder, Grow up. Act like a respectable author,

On several occasions, she has presented facts which sound like a kindergarten comic book, Silly and lame examples. Clearly, she hasn't done a great deal of research, which comes out in her writing,

Definitely not a literary piece of work, not because it criticizes, but because it is badly researched, and handled, and presented and backed by data and it is certainly full of lies.
A very controversial read. K. Mayo highlights from her perspective the harsh cultural norms of India specifically looking at the relation of older men to younger females in what is considered forced child marriages.


This book is frowned upon in India and deemed as racist because it deals with very sensitive issues in India, this is coupled with the fact that the book is written by a Western woman in her perspective.
Ghandi who was a humanitarian frowned upon the writings of Mayo,

I shall not focus my review on the way the book is viewed in the light of the Mother India's critics but the way I personally perceived K.
Mayo's writings.

The book is very well written in terms of richness of text and the flow, However in terms of context: the book sheds light on the failings of India to address the fact that very young children are married off to much older men.
This is then compounded by the way in which these young women are treated by their husbands, Women are portrayed to have no voice or no sort of human rights,

A chilling read when considering the conditions a young women is made to endure, in marriage, society and in medical need.
Mayo highlights that there is a high death rate amongst these young women which often goes ignored by officials and even worse so by society.


Very eye opening and very controversial, As many here have said, a hard read, It cannot be denied that Ms, Mayo would be, by the standards of our time, considered a bigoted woman, and a racist, She writes with the selfassurance some would say smugness of someone who is absolutely sure of the broad superiority of her own ways over those of others.
That said, this is not a bad book, For the sociologist, Ms. Mayo's protofeminism in deed if not in words contrasting with her strongly orthodox views makes for a fascinating bit of subtext for the modern reader to consider.
For the historian: While the author obviously feels very strongly about the subject, she cites wherever possible sources Indian sources to back up that yes, much of the awful words she puts in the mouths of Indians did in fact issue from their mouths as she said it did.
Read it as a historical curio, That said, many Indians here note that Mayo was not entirely wrong, and that many of the complaints she levels against what was then the Hindustan still hold true today.
It's quite the book if it can make you feel simultaneously uncomfortable for its tone as well as for the accuracy of some of its content! Of course Miss mayo is a deeply racist woman.
Idea, here is not to behave as jury of a tribunal set up to judge the author, Books such as these give an insight to the society of those times "as the author saw it", NOT as it was, That, in fact would be true for any societal or anthropological account,
Mayo quotes and shares testimonies of practicing doctors, high ranking "Baboos" and Priests, She talks about India of, but India ofstill is cursed with a lot of issues she brings put, . . IN THE SAME INTENSITY.
Efforts the author puts in are clearly visible, The deep rooted ideology is not hidden, The author is honest about her expressions and thought processes, I think it was a valuable insight into the era and makes me more sensitive to the issues of women, not just in India but all nations where poverty and ancient customs put the wellbeing of women on a nugatory position.

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