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Fathers in a Motherland


 Fathers in a Motherland weaves stories of fathers and children into the history of gender, family, and nation in colonial India. Focusing on the reformist Bengali Hindu and Brahmo communities, Banerjee contends that fatherhood assumed new meanings and significance in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century India. During this time of social and political change, fathers extended their roles beyond breadwinning to take an active part in rearing their children. But there were differences in fathers’ attitude towards boy- and girl-children, so fatherhood differed depending on the gender of the child. Utilizing pedagogic literature, children’s magazines, scientific journals, autobiographies, correspondences, and essays, the book documents the different ways the authority and power of the father were invoked and constituted both metaphorically and in everyday experiences. Exploring specific moments when educated men, as biological fathers, literary activists, and educators, assumed guardianship and became crucial agents of change, the book interrogates the connections between fatherhood and masculinity. The last chapter of the book moves beyond Bengal and draws on the lives of Gandhi and Nehru to provide a broader salience to its argument. Reclaiming two missing links in Indian history—fathers and children—the book argues that these biological and imaginary “fathers” assumed the moral guardianship of an incipient nation and rested their hopes on the future generation. While much has been written about the “effeminate Bengali” and colonial masculinity, this study underscores how an s alternate pedagogy outside of school curriculum advocated by the male intelligentsia challenged colonial notions of manliness and masculinity.