Deepa Mehta Film - Water

Alex Wallace

Women’s and Gender Studies

Dr. Fischer

April 6, 2016

Analysis Worksheet 2

“Water”

A film by Deepa Mehta

The moving Deepa Mehta film, Water, is entwined with meaningful characters who accurately depict the struggles of Indian widows in 1938. The film begins with a quote from the Laws of Manu, a sacred Hindu text. Part of that quote reads, “A widow should be long suffering until death, self-restrained and chaste” (Mehta 2005). The norms that govern the lives of the widows were not assigned to Indians at birth. They were socially constructed and then policed by gender-appropriate behavior standards. In societies like India’s, women are seen as the “other.” In the film Water, the non-widows living in the village used the Hindu religion to silence the widows and disguise their blatant sexism. Some characters in the story resisted and sought to change the norms that governed the lives of the widows. Most notably was the main character, Chuyia. She is only 7 years old so she’s had minimal exposure to Indian social norms, which is why she kicks and screams upon being dragged into the ashram by two older widows. An important scene in the movie is when Chuyia interrupts a preacher to ask, “Where is the house for widowed men? (Mehta 2005)” She is met with scolding and ridicule from the other widows. It is sad that the widows verbally attacked Chuyia for asking that question because it shows how social norms, disguised as religion, have sucked the spirit out of the widows, so much so that the mere idea of their own liberation is viewed as a sin.

        Another brave woman who resists the norms that govern the lives of the widows is Kalyani. By keeping her hair long and owning a dog, something that is forbidden in the ashram, Kalyani showed Chuyia that she too can fight back against the rules of Madhu Didi and India as a whole. By agreeing to meet Narayan by the Ganges River at night, Kalyani also showed that she still believes in love even though the Hindu religion and members of Indian society tell her that her heart must die with her husband. The last main character who sought to change the norms that govern the lives of the widows was Narayan. Although he is from a prominent family in India with his father being a Brahmin, when he fell in love with Kalyani his only wish was to help her escape the ashram. When speaking with his friend Rabindra, Narayan says, “Say you had a wife, and she died, and everything you’ve ever cared for is taken away from you. (Mehta 2005)” Although he’s friends with Narayan, Rabindra is one of the characters who maintains the current Indian social norms, because he mocks Narayan instead of really trying to understand him.

        Of course, the most obvious person guilty of maintaining the current social norms is Madhu Didi. When Chuyia first arrives at the ashram, Madhu Didi says, “You poor child, I feel for you, I too was young when my bastard husband died. (Mehta 2005)” This leads me to believe there was a time long ago when Madhu Didi wanted to break free of the ashram. Unfortunately, many years of sexism and cruel treatment from the townspeople has made her a willing participant in her own oppression. By selling her widows as prostitutes to wealthy men, she robs the widows of their humanity thus making them easier to control. Another way Madhu Didi keeps the current norms in place is by cutting the hair of the widows very short, which she did to Kalyani when she learned of her plans to be married. The act of cutting the widows hair is a way to separate them from the outside world in which the women have long hair. Once again the goal is to dehumanize the widows so that they don’t fight back.

        India in 1938 was ravaged with class, religious, and gendered norms that govern its culture. The group who benefits most from these norms is the Brahmins. Brahmins are members of the highest caste in Hinduism and they are treated like royalty in India. As I mentioned before, Narayan’s father is a Brahmin and he greatly benefits from his privileged position in Indian society. After learning that his father was one of Kalyani’s clients, Narayan confronted his father, to which his father replied, “Brahmins can sleep with whomever they want, and the women they sleep with are blessed. (Mehta 2005)” This disgusting notion is the reason why the power dynamics in India are so skewed in favor of the Brahmins. Narayan’s father was married, yet he’s still allowed to sleep with women and the women are somehow supposed to feel “blessed” because of it. The fact that Narayan’s father and possibly other Brahmins believe that the Hindu religion gives them the right to any woman they choose is sickening and wrong. It’s just like biblical literalism except this time we are dealing with Hindu literalism, in which people interpret religious texts for their own selfish benefit.

Renowned feminist scholar Judith Butler first popularized the term “viable life” in her essay called Undoing Gender (Shaw 2012). According to Butler, in contemporary society there are two main groups of people, human and less-than-human. The Indian society depicted in the film Water illustrates this concept quite well because of the hair-cutting, forced prostitution, and plain white robes of the widows. The ones who are in the “human” category enjoy what Butler refers to as “sheltering norms” which are the privileges and advantages that lead to someone being able to live a viable life (Shaw 2012). Examples of sheltering norms in India are the ability to wear colorful clothing, go off to school and get an education like Narayan, or even just not being required to live in a decrepit ashram for your whole life. According to Judith Butler, imprisonment is one of the most effective forms of “social death,” in which an individual more or less becomes stuck in the less-than-human designation (Shaw 2012). The older widows, especially Madhu Didi have all already undergone social death which is why they seek to maintain the very social norms that imprison them.

In chapter two of the book Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, Iris Young, distinguished political theorist and feminist, has identified what she calls the Five Faces of Oppression. These “five faces” are actually five main categories that underlie all systems of oppression, and in the next couple paragraphs I will apply them to the film Water which will illustrate how the Indian people were able to oppress the widows. The first of the five faces is Exploitation. According to Young, Exploitation exists when the energies of the subordinate group are continuously expended to maintain the power of the dominant group (Shaw 2012). An example of this in Water is how the Brahmins, with the help of Madhu Didi, exploited the widows by forcing them into prostitution. The second face is Marginalization. According to Young, Marginalization is the expulsion of entire groups of people from useful participation in social life (Shaw 2012). By forcing the widows to live in crumbling, cramped ashram for the remainder of their lives, it reinforces the belief that they are less-than-human, and eventually results in social death. This is made even harder by the fact that the widows have to look across the Ganges River every day at the lavish mansions owned by the Brahmin. This is a daily reminder for the widows of the horrible injustices in Indian society.

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