Mother India

by Katherine Mayo

Classic 1927 book of conditions of the poor in India

Genres: India, History, Nonfiction, Politics

440 pages

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Katherine Mayo was an American white nationalist, researcher and historian. Mayo entered public life as a political writer advocating White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Nativism, opposition to non-white and Catholic immigration to the United States, and opposition to recently emancipated African slave laborers. She became known for denouncing the Philippine Declaration of Independence on racialist and religious grounds, then went on to publish and promote her best-known work, Mother India (1927), wherein she opposed Indian Independence from British rule. Her work was well-received in British government circles and among American Anglophile racialists, but was criticized by others for notorious racism and Indophobia.

Reviews

[Jayesh Shah · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Pushpam Singh · Rating 1 out of 5]

One sided, badly researched, full of lies and written to self-glorify 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.

[Divya Pal · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 narrow-chested, near-sighted, anaemic young Bengali students, in native dress, brood over piles of fly-blown 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.

[Satyabrata Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

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

[Eschargot · Rating 3 out of 5]

She was a racist - absolutely no doubt about that - that comes out loud and clear in her writing.
'...fine-cut faces of the northern Persian-Muhammadan 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 some 90 years 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'"

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 self-assurance (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 proto-feminism (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!

[Andrew Suskins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and well researched and written. Much as been said about Mayo being racist but it is unfair to call her that for merely "saying the unsaid". India was a deeply divided society and still is today by some standards but that change in dynamics cannot be understood without its historical context. Mayo provides a fairly balanced historical (from today's perspective) background of India.

Was India a racist Country? Or the author a Racist for depicting it so?
Until a few years back, from advertisement to Indian movies fairer people were always depicted as righteous and desirable and people with darker skin in traditional Indian movies were villain (with hidden dis-honorable motives) in movies and primarily from southern part of India. Almost all movies had rape scenes depicting a darker skin person raping a fairer skin person. The point is understand the background instead of condemning India as a whole in an unfavorable light.

To ignore such is to subjugate and perpetuate stereotypes about Indian population. Perhaps one should read the book with an open mind without a pre-conceived conception on the author being a racist.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not an easy read, especially the descriptions of socio-economic mores regarding young girls and women in pre-Independence India. Dr Mayo's book was hard-hitting and graphic for the time (published late 1920s-30s) 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

[Pramod Pant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly , at this distance of time . It was written almost a hundred years ago ( 1927 AD )

But she had good, crisp writing skills . And a preconceived pugnacity against the Nation she visited ! From a woman coming over from the butchering and lawlessness of Uncle Sam to hector Indians (of the East) , it’s understandable 😊😊😊

As Gandhi ji had said about this book that it shouldn’t be read by any foreigners and every Indian should read it !

[Debashish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book of 1925 in 2020. I felt it is written about my times though with some unimportant changes in the surface. I am sad that Gandhi, Tagore and Annie Besant found it so outrageous. Every Indian should read it for knowing how India is perceived by an honest outsider. It becomes our duty as Indians to make corrections where necessary and go ahead. Human beings are at the end of the day members of the unversal homo sapiens family and not, as we tend to believe, bound to racial, geographical, religious segments Katherine Mayo observed that our " educated middle class and moneyed class " talked of noble religious theories while practicing false, corrupt, destructive actions. She said the Hindu leadership wanted Swaraj but did not work on reforming our religious superstitions, abuse of women, abuse of cattle, development of healthy agriculture and trade. I find this 100% true in post colonial India which would sure replicate in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well. Bangladesh army killed its " father of nation" soon after they gained independence after a bloody Muktijuddho.

[Kunal · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 1927, but India of 2014 still 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 well-being of women on a nugatory position.

[Michelle Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great historical record of India at the time of the British Raj with arguments drawn from pre history.

[Gopal Vijayaraghavan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, which was published more than 90 years ago, created a storm of protest in India. The book extensively deals with the experience of the author in India - her brushes with child marriages in India, caste oppression, insanitary habits of the Hindus prevailing prevailing at one point of time. To be fair to the author, she had travelled many parts of the country and had met many people for writing this book. She had extensively quoted from various sources. But the way sweeping and generalised statements are made about the people of a religion is what makes this book revolting. Many of these quotes are official or supporting the official line of the then Govt. with their biased view of the Hindu religion. This representative sample of the quote from the Census of India Report, 1921 which had been adopted with approval by the author clearly brings out that the materials for the book have been fed by the then British Government officials :

"This( meaning here the increased population of India or more properly the Hindus), again, is a result of freedom from wars and disorders and from killing famines; of the checking of epidemics; and of the multiplied production of food - all elements bound to produce ever greater effect as essential features of an established government. And the prospect it unfolds, of sheer volume of humanity piling up as decades pass, is staggering. For, deprived of infanticide, of sutee, and of her other native escape-valves, yet clinging to early marriage and unlimited propagation, India stands today at that point of social development where population is controlled by disease, and disease only.”(p. 408)

Once again the racial arrogance of the author is exhibited herein : A reply is thus couched by one of the most eminent of European International Public Health Authorities - “ It(the continued existence of the Hindus) is a question of adaptation and of the evolution of a sub-grade of existence on which they now survive. The British are to blame for the world threat they constitute. If the British had not protected them(here it refers to the Hindus), the virile races of the North would have wiped them out.” (Pp 379-380). It is apparent that the author’s visit to India and recording of her experiences is based on a preexisting bias against a community and all her sermons about the country are based on a racial superiority of having ‘a White Man’s burden’ of enlightening inferior races like the Hindus. Here it is to be stressed that the use of the word ‘the Indians’ mostly refer to ‘the Hindus’ in the book.

It is not uncommon for many western writers to highlight evils of the Hinduism, which of course existed at a point of time, to berate it. But in this book, a new standard of offensive writing against the religion is visible. The author’s prejudices are not hidden and is open to see for all.

Catherine Mayo died in the year 1940 - 7 years before India attained freedom and 12 years before First General Elections to the Lower House of the Indian Parliament was conducted with full adult franchise. Thus, she did not live to see the the enduring democracy of a country she so reviled. She would have been shocked to see that the country did not disintegrate after the British left or the predictions of one race wiping out one race by another was her mere wishful thinking.

Before completing, it is necessary to reproduce these words quoted in page 217 since it shows how the biased assessments of self styled experts based on incomplete data can be proven wrong.
“After twenty-odd years of experience in India,” said an American educator at the head of a large college, “I have come to the conclusion that the whole system here is wrong. These people should have had two generations of primary schools all over the land, before ever they saw a Grammar School before the creation of the first high school; two generations of grammar school before the creation of the first high school; and certainly not before seventh or eighth generation should a single Indian university have opened its doors.”(p.217). How high sounding these words are. Nearly five generations after, Indian students in the USA number 27% of all foreign students enrolled. Had Mayo lived to see this day, she would have been horrified to find American Universities swamped by so many foreigners.

In short, the book is just a propaganda for the Britishers ruling in India at that time and contains so much racial hatred based on misinformed facts.

[Dhruti Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up from a dusty shelf in a pub. It looked old and interesting and being of Indian heritage myself I decided to pick it up. I now know that it is a controversial book and perhaps some would think it better if I had left it on that shelf never to be read again.

It has been said that whatever is said about India is true and also the opposite is true too. And this should be born in mind when reading this book. I do not doubt anything the author has said is untrue and indeed she references her sources a lot in the book.

However this book is very much focused on suffering and this makes it a difficult read. The author shines a light on issues such as child marriage and women’s rights including self immolation and confinement in the home, the treatment of cattle in gaushala and pinjirapole (this was absolutely heartbreaking and I cried reading this), agricultural development and government structure.

Of course a lot of progress has been made since this book was written and India has come a long long way on many of these issuers. I’m not so sure about the treatment of cattle though because I am interested in animal rights and some things I have seen come from India are soul destroying.

I would love the author to be alive today to write a similar book about her findings in the west and the US (where the author is from). Especially the bit about cattle where she is extolling the virtues of the US using three fifths of land to raising food for cattle - and the agricultural improvements. Time has shown how this kind of improvements have not been kind to the planet or environment. Hindsight is a great thing. What appeared to be progress was in fact unsustainable and devastating ecologically.

The part where she makes sex symbols of religious marks on forehead, shiva lings etc was so funny to me. She thinks the society was sex preoccupied. What would the author think of today’s society?

The book is clearly somewhat biased as she writes as if Britain was a friendly benefactor, and whilst no doubt there were a lot of good people like then nurses and doctors trying to help the people who needed it we mustn’t forget that Britain as a nation was in India purely for its own interests!

All in all a difficult but interesting read providing a snapshot in time. The author attempts to delve into the psychology of a nation and understand its problems from this perspective. I appreciated her efforts even if at times perhaps misguided. I think we do need to call out suffering where we see it even if it upsets people and the author cared enough about her subjects to do this.

[Ben Merton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is obviously highly controversial, even today.

I have never interpreted Gandhi’s comment on Mother India as being a “gutter inspector’s” 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 Mayo’s 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 inspector’s report is not to discredit the inspector.

Regardless, it remains an incredible insight into one of the viewpoints about India’s independence in the 1920s and, to a large extent, is a marker for how far the country has progressed since then.

[Tarun Rattan · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[chandrakant · Rating 3 out of 5]

True picture of india its mother's pre independence

India as it is at 1930 , condition of girls and early marriages , toll of caste system on women . Sanitary habits and other realities

[Arunesh Pratap]

https://bit.ly/3IQ0rKx

[Vandana Saxena · Rating 1 out of 5]

A classic text to teach how colonial discourse and racism worked.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Tapas Mohanty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine Mayo's Mother India definitely is a difficult read, at least for the Indians. She describes India being a poor, decrepit country , inhabited by scrawny, weak citizens. There are streaks of racism, some sort of bias against the people and sometimes over the top but at many places she has quoted sources and they can't be refuted. Her observations have been corroborated by other authors. It's just that so much of it is written at one place and so it becomes unpalatable. I have read books by Odia authors of 1930s and even 40s when the condition was deplorable. If someone compiles a book about the society and the evil practices of that time then definitely that book will be difficult to read.Anyways, of one approaches this book without any bias then definitely he or she will be forced to think about what we were and what we are now.

[Anna B · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why is Katherine Mayo so obsessed with India's sex life?

Absolute vitriolic racist trash that influenced perceptions of India heavily in the West after its publication in 1927. Genuinely hard to read. This book makes me think anthropological codes of conduct exist for a reason. Hinduism is described as a "phallic cult" parents are described as sending their son to the temple to get sodomized, references to men's "small vitalities," descriptions of babies "venereally poisoned." All that and more in this book!

To be fair, it did really influence Indian nationalism and is important to read and understand the rhetoric.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I 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.