Jai Santoshi Maa as a Feminist Film in Indian Context

This paper critically analyzes the role of religion in the evolution of societal theories, analyzing an Indian religion-based film - Jai Santoshi Maa in the context of feminism.

RUNNING HEAD- CULTURE PAPER 1
NAME OF THE STUDENT
NAME OF THE COLLEGE
CULTURAL WRITING
TOPIC- JAI SANTOSHI MAA AS A FEMINIST FILM
(INDIAN CONTEXT)

CULTURE PAPER 2
ABSTRACT
Culture refers to the ideas, customs and beliefs of a particular country or a society. It
is not just confined to the practices done in a closed methodology but it is a way of life. The
following paper talks about a cultural outlook of religion in India. Talking about art and
culture, religion plays an important role in structuring the culture of the place to where it
belongs. It affects the lives of people on a daily basis and structures the society as a whole. It
is the social behaviour found in humans of the society, therefore making it the most integral
part of a country. Religion is a fundamental step towards the building of a society. And, being
a part of a society, it covers a large mass of people together, contributing to various social
theories.
This paper critically analyses the role of religion in the evolution of societal theories,
analysing an Indian religion based film -“Jai Santoshi Maa” in context of feminism.
INTRODUCTION
India is known for its diversity and this can be clearly seen by the number of religions
it carries in one single fraternity. Amongst them, Hinduism is the largest of all and followed
by the majority of people1. Not just being the majority, Hinduism is also the oldest of all of
them. It has formed the roots of Indian culture and carried it for so long that now; it shapes
the basic mental structure of all the people.
Apart from being a culture of numerous rites and rituals, Hinduism has shaped the
roots of Indian society. The mythologies taught in the religion cannot just be treated as
philosophies but they themselves are a way of life2. They have motivated people from history
and the future to respect all the forms of creation. All living organisms are considered equal
and are given utmost respect in the society. The religious history of India has given a lot of
importance to female gender and all aspects of feminism.
1 Parameswaran, Ambi. For God's Sake: An Adman on the Business of Religion. Penguin UK, 2015
2 White, Ethan Doyle. "Theoretical, Terminological, and Taxonomic Trouble in the Academic Study of
Contemporary Paganism: A Case for Reform." Pomegranate 18, no. 1 (2016).

CULTURE PAPER 3
ABOUT THE MOVIE – “JAI SANTOSHI MAA”
It is a low budget, religious Indian film, based on a female goddess –“Maa Santoshi”,
who is considered to be the mother of satisfaction and has a great importance in the Hindu
structure of religion3. The goddess has been given the place of a mother. The movie displays
the system of iconography and symbolism. It represents the power of worship and belief.
Goddess is remarked by a fast of 16 Fridays consecutively by the women. It is
considered that women will be blessed who fast with a true belief4. The movie shows a
number of families and female individuals who are going through tough phases of life, but
once they concentrate their prayers, the goddess is tending to help them and light their way
with happiness and blessings.
The prayers and the grievances are only connected to the females. This shows a
biased culture of female goddesses being a help for the women fraternity. All the cases shown
in the film are related to the females5. Being it the delay a women faced in the birth of a child,
a girl getting married, going through the various issues of family and marriage to stopping of
an unwanted divorce6.
The movie states itself to be a female centric script, mostly acknowledging the
problems faced by a woman in Indian society and that, their cure lies in offering prayers to
the female goddess.
CULTURE AND FEMINISM
Hinduism is a diverse religion in itself and has carried a number of philosophies of
numerous gods and goddesses in its lap. With all the mythology that has been created in the
religion, the holy writings and holy temples have given the female goddesses a lot of
3 Pintchman, Tracy. "Cosmological, Devotional, and Social Perspectives on the Hindu Goddess." The Oxford
History of Hinduism: The Goddess (2018): 17.
4 Sensoy, Ozlem, and Robin DiAngelo. Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in social
justice education. Teachers College Press, 2017
5 Ortegren, Jennifer D. "Hindu Ritual at the Margins: Innovations, Transformations, Reconsiderations. Edited by
Linda Penkower and Tracy Pintchman. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 978-1-61-
117389-5, pp. xiv+ 235. 49.90(hardbound),ISBN978-1-61117-390-1, 48.99 (e-book)." (2017): 363-365
6 Rao, Shakuntala, and Vipul Mudgal, eds. Journalism, Democracy and Civil Society in India. Routledge, 2018.

CULTURE PAPER 4
importance7. It cannot be traced whether the humans came first or the mythologies, but Indian
culture has grown with a domination of Indian goddesses in it8.
The way it has taken over the modern culture in India is also very interesting as,
Indian women reimaging self as a goddess figure and symbolise the picture of present
feminine structure with the image of an Indian goddesses9. This brings a marginalisation,
association and association feminism and divinity. Indian goddesses are considered to be the
mother of all humans with an icon of pristine motherhood, purity and fertility10. She is
burdened with the badge of honour that has to be carried along in life.
Not just Santoshi, there are many others like, Lakshmi, who is considered to bring
money or kali, whose Shakti is considered to be extra ordinary. These faces of Hindu
goddesses end up increasing the bar of expectations from all the women out there in the
society. This view of feminism when attached to Indian culture can have both positive and
negative effects11.
Positive is when there is a sense of equality presented in mythology. Feminism is
technically, a belief where women are to be taken equal as men and Indian culture has well
proved it with the kind of entertainment media that is directed. “Jai Santoshi Maa” is not just
one movie that has been made in Indian cinema, but there are various other television series
that have gained a lot of viewership in Indian society.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF FEMINISM IN “JAI SANTOSHI MAA”
Feminism is not just a word that a person needs to follow as the dictionary says. It
might have different meanings in different cultures12. Some places, it is complete autonomy
that a woman desires and other times, it is a collective thought and impression of a culture.
Complete autonomy is what women in USA desire; it is more connected to the achievement
7 Sen, Meheli. Haunting Bollywood: Gender, Genre, and the Supernatural in Hindi Commercial Cinema.
University of Texas Press, 2017
8 Sensoy, Ozlem, and Robin DiAngelo. Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in social
justice education. Teachers College Press, 2017
9 Herman, Arthur L. A brief introduction to Hinduism: Religion, philosophy, and ways of liberation. Routledge,
2018.
10 De Lauretis, Teresa. "Aesthetic and feminist theory: Rethinking women’s cinema." In Feminist Art Criticism,
pp. 143-162. Routledge, 2018.
11 Gluck, Sherna Berger, and Daphne Patai, eds. Women's words: The feminist practice of oral history.
Routledge, 2016
12 Dimitrakos, Nitsa M. Maiden of the Mer: An Imaginal Approach to Female Voice. Pacifica Graduate Institute,
2018

CULTURE PAPER 5
of complete independence where women want to be extremely equal to the men in society. In
that case, women don’t want any other person to be a solver of their problems. Feminism as a
western thought is an idea to be valued equally in all the terms and this expectation doesn’t
come with the idea of acceptance.
Whereas, looking at the lead character of the film “jai Santoshi Maa”, Satyavati
chooses to go to the goddess for all the problems. It shows her desperate attempts to be
accepted by the family. Relying on any source for getting your problem solved is not a way
of showing feminist thought or equal energy.
India’s culture is such that a feminist woman does not exactly aspire to lead a
complete independent life, but a collectivist kind of life where the woman can see her as a
part of the family and attain a certain kind of social status.
Satyavati completely relies on the goddess and that sums up a negative side of
feminism that is portrayed in the movie. And this negative aspect creates the most interesting
part of the film, as the movie has portrayed Santoshi Maa as a strong, self reliant and the most
powerful form of feminity. The character, Santoshi Maa, is not an external factor that helps
Satyavati with all the problems, but instead, it is a manifestation of feminine power i.e.
Shakti.
The character is the power which each and every woman carries inside and it is
present as a belief. It is represented by different character in the film but altogether it is the
inner strength that Satyavati carries as a self.
This is a Hindu way of showing the character of goddesses. Indian culture has always
portrayed the goddesses as a helper and a strong personality13. The culture on its own is a
type of feminism which keeps the male and the female deities equal. In Indian culture, there
are fasts kept for impressing the female gods, which is then followed by a food serving ritual
to girl children, known as ‘kanya’. The rites and rituals have maintained the idea of respect
for women in Indian society. The idea of feminism has been a bit different from the western
idea of feminism, but Indian culture carries an altogether different definition of feminism.
This idea, not just applies on the women in Indian society but also to the mythological
character of feminism.
13 Sriraman, T., and Raj Swaraj. "Block-6 Literature and Culture: Exchanges and Negotiations-1." (2018

CULTURE PAPER 6
CONCLUSION
The film might not be an autonomous feminist movie according to the women of
western thought but if given an Indian thought, the film portrays a scenario of feminism,
where the lead character, Satyavati, goes for the most practical decision of taking help of a
male for saving herself from the rape situation.
The idea of feminism is not just conveyed through the lead character but also the Indian
goddess and the mythology of strong female character. The idea is to understand that
Satyavati thought Maa Santoshi as an external character of strength whereas it was the
internal power carried by each and every woman coated with the belief on mythology
depictions.

CULTURE PAPER 7
REFERENCES
De Lauretis, Teresa. "Aesthetic and feminist theory: Rethinking women’s cinema." In
Feminist Art Criticism, pp. 143-162. Routledge, 2018.
Dimitrakos, Nitsa M. Maiden of the Mer: An Imaginal Approach to Female Voice. Pacifica
Graduate Institute, 2018.
Gluck, Sherna Berger, and Daphne Patai, eds. Women's words: The feminist practice of oral
history. Routledge, 2016.
Herman, Arthur L. A brief introduction to Hinduism: Religion, philosophy, and ways of
liberation. Routledge, 2018.
Ortegren, Jennifer D. "Hindu Ritual at the Margins: Innovations, Transformations,
Reconsiderations. Edited by Linda Penkower and Tracy Pintchman. Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 978-1-61-117389-5, pp. xiv+ 235.
49.90(hardbound),ISBN978-1-61117-390-1, 48.99 (e-book)." (2017): 363-365.
Parameswaran, Ambi. For God's Sake: An Adman on the Business of Religion. Penguin UK,
2015.
Pintchman, Tracy. "Cosmological, Devotional, and Social Perspectives on the Hindu
Goddess." The Oxford History of Hinduism: The Goddess (2018): 17.
Rao, Shakuntala, and Vipul Mudgal, eds. Journalism, Democracy and Civil Society in India.
Routledge, 2018.
Sen, Meheli. Haunting Bollywood: Gender, Genre, and the Supernatural in Hindi
Commercial Cinema. University of Texas Press, 2017.
Sensoy, Ozlem, and Robin DiAngelo. Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key
concepts in social justice education. Teachers College Press, 2017.
Sriraman, T., and Raj Swaraj. "Block-6 Literature and Culture: Exchanges and Negotiations-
1." (2018).
White, Ethan Doyle. "Theoretical, Terminological, and Taxonomic Trouble in the Academic
Study of Contemporary Paganism: A Case for Reform." Pomegranate 18, no. 1
(2016).