RESEARCH PAPER, 2019

Denial becomes Demise: Denied

Dependency of Man over Woman, Nature
and Servant in Matrubhoomi movie
Women, nature and even servants (slaves) under certain state of affairs come under one umbrella

term “sub-ordinate other.” In a male-dominated society the position of woman is reduced to an

object. There are some specific functions and roles associated with woman like reproduction, care-

taker and an object for man to fulfill his intimate desires. Apart from that woman has no status.

Similarly if we come to other lesser things or the other sub-ordinate others it would not be wrong

to bring forth nature and slaves. Man’s response towards nature and slaves is quite similar to his

treatment with women. In this research paper I will explore the relationship between man and

woman on the nuts and bolts level and I will argue how this relationship is intermingled with nature

and slaves as well. I will also attempt to point out through the text that how man depends upon

woman, nature and slaves for his survival and wellbeing but shows complete denial and rejection

of this dependence. I will be pointing the reasons behind this denied dependency.

The focus of my study will chiefly be the female character Kalki who shares a host-parasite

relationship with the men of the house where she was married. Some of other characters will be

analyzed too mainly, the slave boy Raghu and the cattle and what commonality they share with

Kalki. Through a close study and analysis of the movie, I am trying to point how in the cycle of

life there is a triangular relationship of subsistence and dependency between man, woman and

nature. I aim to explore what societal and cultural factors lead to dehumanized treatment of woman,
nature and servants by man. How in the first place the idea of sub-ordinate other has been

associated with women and how can it lead to chaos and destabilization in the balance of the world

and familial relations. My study is significant because the triangular circle of marginality of

women, servants and nature against men has been less delved into. Apart from that there is minimal

research available on the movie I have taken (Matrubhoomi) to examine this relation of man and

woman. I am trying to work on an oxy-moronic idea, by challenging the general notion that woman

depends on man by proving through the text that man depends on woman and nature abundantly.

But this dependence of man is masked with the cultural, societal and patriarchal norms associated

with woman.

So basically what one sees in the light of the brief review of the story is that man actually needs

woman for his survival and depends a lot on her for almost everything. But the way man takes this

dependency is not in a manner which is neutral. Rather than accepting it man is dictatorial and

rigid towards woman. The same goes for nature (in which I have included cattle according to the

particular context) and servant. Men in the movie depend on nature and the servant boy from the

lower caste but they keeps using them and utilizing their labor to fulfill their necessities and desires

but never acknowledge that and always keep a hard-hand on him.

For the theoretical framework I have taken Val Plumwood’s concept of ‘sub-ordinate’
from her book Feminism and Mastery of Nature (2015) which she uses to describe woman and
nature and the oppressive and dominating position man takes against them. I will also make use of
Val Plumwood’s idea of dualism and difference to support my claim of how men actually depend
on women, nature and lower caste in the movie Matrubhoomi yet this dependence on the o-called
subordinate is denied and rejected. I will also connect Plumwood’s idea of Masculinity of
dominant model and androcentricism (man as the centre) and see how this misogynistic and
chauvinistic mindset leads to female oppression and denied dependency on female and nature.
Along with this I will also connect the ideas of other scholars where required.
Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women is an Indian movie which raises some serious and
extremely disturbing issues of the rural Indian society. If put in the fewest possible words it is a
story set-up in a small village of India in Bihar where not even a single woman can be seen because
female infanticide was practiced in the past times. The movie starts with a rather gruesome act of
a man who is celebrating because his wife is giving birth but on knowing it is a daughter he then
kills her by drowning her in a Calderon of milk. This practice continues on for a long time and as
a result, many years later there are men and boys everywhere and no women at all. A widowed
man, Ramsharan, ponders his plight and that of his two grown sons, who he is unable to get married
because of no woman. And because of this his elder son even indulges in sex with the cattle. In
that village, no marriage had taken place for 15 years, save for one, which was annulled as the
young 14-year old bride turned out to be a 14 year old boy. But there is hope when a friend informs
Ramsharan that he has found a bride for his eldest son, a beautiful young woman named Kalki,
who lives nearby, sheltered by her father. Ramsharan pays a substantial dowry for Kalki and gets
her married to his eldest in fact all his sons including his younger son, Sooraj. Each night of the
week, she is forced to sleep with one of the sons, and even the father gets his weekly night with
her. Of all the men in the boorish lot, only the youngest son Sooraj treats her with respect and
tenderness. When the youngest son is killed by his jealous brothers, Kalki asks her father's help
for escape. Blinded by the money given to him as dowry, he does not help her. One of the servant
boy of house (Raghu) helps her to escape but attempt goes fatally awry. The servant boy is brutally
murdered while Kalki gets captured by the brothers. They chain her to a post in a cow shed as she
becomes a pawn of revenge in an inter-community conflict. The lower caste community of the
village holds her responsible for the death of the servant-boy and avenges the murder by gang
raping her mercilessly night after night. Kalki then becomes pregnant and everybody rejoices. As
the news spreads, every man in the village claims for the fatherhood of unborn child which causes
violence to break out in the village. The men kill each other off over rights to Kalki and her child.
In the meanwhile, Kalki goes into labour. The film ends on a violent but hopeful note, as she bears
a baby girl.

In the movie, Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women one of the noticeable and crucial

observation is that, apart from being used as an object of pleasure and brutal desires Kalki is also

bought by Ramsharan to cook and clean and fulfill their all other requirements, whatsoever they
ask for. Before her all the household work was done by the servant boy Raghu (from Shoodar

caste) but now most of it was Kalki’s responsibility. In the start of the movie whr n Kalki got

married to the five brothers other then he physical abused she faced from the very next day she

had to cook and clean. Milk bucket was given to her by 2nd husband Lokesh and the only thing

said to her was “Dhood, aik bar saveray aur aik bar sham mae.” So from the very start all domestic

responsibility was given to her and there was no regard for her work.

Some of the rudimentary and pressing questions which rise in my mind in relation to the

story are:

What makes a man to act hostile towards woman when he needs her for survival? Apart

from this what is the whole idea behind sustenance and survival of man and woman and how

exactly it contributes and affects the world order? Also, how and why femininity is taken as a

degrading and derogatory term while masculinity is taken as a notion of domination and power? I

will be addressing all these questions in my paper.

So basically what one sees in the light of the brief review of the story is that man actually

needs woman for his survival and depends a lot on her for almost everything. In the start of the

movie the desperation to get a woman is so much that that when Ramsharan and his sons are having

dinner together one of his son finds dung in his food and then Rakesh says to his father “ Hum

logon ki Shadi wadi hogi ya nhi.” His father anwers with hopelessness “ Koshish tou kr rahay

haina Jagarnaath bhe Koshish mae lgay hain” and the son answers wo tou 10 saal sy koshish mae

lgay hain.” This shows the dependency man actually has over woman. But the way man takes this

dependency is not in a manner which is neutral. Rather than accepting it man is ignorant and rigid
towards woman. The same goes for nature (in which I have included cattle according to the

particular context) and servants who are more like slaves. The servant boy in the start mixes up

dung in the food of Ramsharan and his sons because of their ruthless attitude towards him but this

act of defiance bring in worse conditions for him. So what we see is that men in the text depend

on nature and the servant boy from the lower caste but they keep using them and utilizing their

labor to fulfill their necessities and desires.

In the very start of the movie when a female child was born and the home- nurse gave the

news in a rather gloomy manner that “larki hai” an air of anger and sorrow was created and later

on the child was drowned by her own father in a caldron of milk. I will be examining the reasons

behind this oppression and rigidity.

Val Plumwood in her book Feminism and Mastery of Nature quoted Mary Wollstonecraft who

talked about ecofeminism and feminism. Wollstonecraft said:

In what does man’s pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear

as that a half is less than a whole, in Reason. For what purpose were the passions implanted? That

man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes.

Consequently, the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness must be estimated by the

degree of reason, virtue and humanity that distinguish the individual and that from the exercise of

reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow.

Wollstonecraft here is raising a really important point of how man is actually distinguished

from the brutes and wild creatures. When a man has his passions and desires under-control and he

operates with his other-half or in Plumwood’s term ‘sub-ordinate other’ in a balanced and

reasonable way only then he can stand out from a brute. Contrary to Wollstonecraft’s view what
one witnesses in this movie and to specify it more, in the rural Indian setting is that most of the

men in the text try to dehumanize and brutalize women and nature and in doing so they actually

debase themselves and become brutes. Also this disturbance in the equilibrium of life drags the

men to their doom. Men in the movie have reached the point that they are raping cows, enjoying a

male performer’s performance dressed like a prostitute, marrying a fake woman but when they

actually get a woman they keep on continuing their brute like ways. The first act which proved

their brutality was that Kalki was married to all five brothers. After the marriage the elder brother

Rakesh said “hum 5 bhaiyon ko din divide krny hungy aur bray bhai hony k naathy mae phela

hunga” this reflects the level of frustration and brutality the men of that village had and how much

they depended on the presence of a woman.

Basically the point I am trying to raise here is of sustenance and dependence. Even if the

idea behind gender and sociological roles is brought to the table, the whole universe operates on

certain rules and regulations and if these set of rubrics is disturbed the balance will be destroyed

and it will leave devastating impact on the world as a whole. Same goes for the interaction of

humans with each other and the interaction of humans with nature. If we move to a basic level we

can bring in the relation between man, woman and nature. Woman and nature are mostly taken as

the feminized category and are given the roles quite different from that of man. ‘Feminized’ here

in relation to a stereotypical Indian society can mean a lot of things. Submissiveness, passiveness,

physical charm and voiceless animal like attributes are often attached to woman at times. The

history behind creating such pejorative and bread and butter image of woman and nature is the

tradition, the culture and the social system which backs patriarchy and makes man believe that he

is the Al-Mighty and benevolent ruler of the house and the Earth while woman, nature and servant

is beneath his feet. Another thing which has strengthened the barbarism and oppression towards
woman at times is, permanently forming a connection of woman with nature and taking her as an

object. Marcus Porcius Cato said:

‘Woman is a violent and uncontrolled animal’ (Cato 193)

These lines can be related to the movie Matrubhoomi where men have degraded the woman (Kalki)

to the level of animals. But this degradation starts from the degradation of the animals first. When

there is no single woman in the village men of that place sexually used cows and buffaloes. In the

start of the movie when there is no woman in the village Ramsharan’s elder son Rakesh after

watching pornographic content with half of the village silently goes to the cowshed and closes the

door and sexually abuses the cow. Later on when they had Kalki, all the sons of Ramsharan

including himself (excluding Sooraj, the youngest son) used her exactly in the same manner as

they were using the cow because no willingness was shown by Kalki in the physical relation neither

was she resisting. In the start of the movie the father Ramsharan rapes Kalki, although it was

marital rape. The next day Rakesh did the same and the cycle kept going on. So basically what we

see here is extremely problematic. Men find a close connection between cattle and Kalki as both

have a feminine body structure, both are voiceless and show no resistance. So woman is more and

more related to animals. Edmund Burke has very rightly put it:

‘A woman is but an animal and an animal not of the highest order’ (Burke 187)

So for men, woman and even the helper boy (the servant boy from shoodar caste) are

creatures of lower order. Especially when a woman is considered she is taken as an animal which

can be used, re-used, tortured, replaced and even killed. This close connection of nature and
woman becomes as a ‘whole and part’ thing phenomena for man. But the ways he perceives it is

quite different from the way it actually is. As in that whole he is also the part somewhere.

Relating to woman and how she is, where she stands, what her place is in the society we

do witness some very biased and condensed opinions of some of our great scholars. Sigmund Freud

the greatest Neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis also created two binaries and distinguished

the roles of both man and women. Freud said:

‘Women represent the interests of the family and sexual life; the work of civilization has become

more and more men’s business’ (Freud 80)

This statement of Freud in accordance to the movie Matrubhoomi reflects bias but may

have some positive implications. Freud had clearly identified two separate lines for both men and

women. The more serious and concrete roles and functions are attached to man while family and

sex is related to woman. Now this is exactly what we see in Matrubhoomi movie, Kalki was like

an open piece of meat for men to use for pleasure and her other role was to manage the house,

while the men of the house brought money and managed the money. This seems like a rather

degrading way of representing a woman and showing what her value is and what she is. But at the

same time even this distinction between the roles of men and women reflects how man does depend

on woman for sustenance and survival. After Kalki’s arrival the family started getting proper food,

the house was cleaner and even there was a fulfilment of their biological needs but the father and

brothers except Sooraj kept abusing her body and mind.

Although man never accepts the importance of woman but even an intense and thorough

person like Freud (in a very biased tone) accepted and realized the essentiality and vitality of

woman in a man’s life. In the movie, Matrubhoomi the entire village is going deranged and un-
balanced because there is not even a single woman. The men of that village are craving to have a

woman, for the sake of a better life and for the sake of kids. And for this they are ready to pay

huge amounts of money and give away their property. So if this is not dependence, what else can

it be? Man depends on woman in a very obvious and overt manner but never accepts it and covers

it up with his so called masculine wrath and brutality. Val Plumwood called it the masculinity of

dominant model. Plumwood talked about the factors which made masculinity strong and a

dominating thing. She talked about how rationality, intelligence and bravery were only attached

with maleness and how it further led to the dehumanizing of woman and the people from the lower

orders. (Plumwood 25) So another thing which is making man to deny the fact that he does depend

on woman is ‘androcentrism.’ He believes that he exists as the supreme center while everything

else is there and no matter what, needs to be there for him, at his disposal. So here is where the

problem comes and it does take man to his own destruction.

Plumwood talked about The Feminism of Uncritical Reversal in which she brings forth the

idea of dualism where she talks about the contrasting concepts of masculine and feminine gender

identities. She then tells how through this very concept of domination and subordination are

formed and then they are linked to men and women. This is exactly what we witness in the movie;

Plumwood says male-dominant culture defines men as active agents while women as passive ones

and men are strong while women are weak and submissive. Then Plumwood took on to Jaggar and

says:

The concepts of femininity and masculinity force both men and women to overdevelop

certain of their capacities at the expense of others. For instance, men become excessively
competitive and detached from others; women become excessively nurturant and altruistic. (Jaggar

316)

This statement by Alison Jaggar holds a strong answer to why man develops a selfish and

grandstanding attitude and starts taking others especially women as inferiors. This very concept of

masculinity and male centrality makes the man to train his mind as if he is a demigod and this

extreme absorption makes him believe that wife, cattle and the helper servant were and have to be

there at his disposal no matter what. He thinks that as thousands of people worship the Al-Mighty

sometimes for reward and sometimes without expectations. He also is like a god and has to be

worshipped no matter if he is a ruthless one or a gracious one. On the other hand the concept of

femininity attached with Kalki defined her path and directed her way to be an entirely submissive

and voiceless creature and to never ask for the status you deserve because maybe this is the status

of woman on the basis of the norms associated with femininity. So what we see is that certain

biased rules brought from our culture, traditions and society also define the position and agency

of man, woman and nature. Also the linkage, the interaction and the attitude towards each other is

at times formulated by the social norms. Time and again in the movie Ramsharan’s sons told Kalki

that “Paisy dae k laai hain” and as they were paying the servant boy Raghu they kept treating her

and him worse than an animal. Here we see that how the idea of man as a centre or demi-god is

propounded.

While talking about Dualism in connection with man, Plumwood said that in Dualism the

more highly valued side (men) are taken as some divine beings or some sort of ‘aliens.’ But the

inferiorised side (women, nature, slave) can never have the attributes or qualities which the high-

side has. On the basis of this demarcation women are put into the ‘other or sub-ordinate other’
category while man is put in the category of ‘primary or upper-model.’ (Plumwood 32-35) So

what we see from this inference is that our society contributes a lot in the normalization of male

domination and the rejection of male dependence on female.

Rosemary Radford Ruether said:

To ‘naturalise domination’, to make it part of the very natures or identities of both the dominant

and subordinated items and thus to appear to be inevitable, ‘natural’ (Ruether 189)

Ruether actually pointed out that how the model of this form of dualism operates. It tries

to naturalize or normalize the male domination in such a way that it becomes an essential part of

the system or mechanism of universe. It tries to amalgamate and inculcate male authority and

domination among the subordinate or oppressed others in a manner so sleek that it will appear as

if it is something unavoidable and had been there for ages. The reflection of Ruether’s dualism can

be seen in the form of the character of Ramsharan (father), his sons, Kalki’s father and other male

villagers. In that particular village of Bihar male domination was at its peak in such a manner as if

it was the word of God or some divine thing. Male domination could not be questioned, challenged

or criticized there and the subordinated ones existed as if they existed only to submit themselves

to men and suffer. Male domination has appeared to be like a universal truth or a dark prophetic

rule or message which was there from the start till the end. To exert their male masculinity the

ruthless brothers even killed their younger brother Sooraj because he was nice and caring towards

Kalki. The brothers and father shot him down and covered up his death by saying that it was

suicide. The father Ramsharan and eldest son Rakesh denied the post-mortem.
Plumwood while talking about man as centre, said this problem of male centrality lies in the

problem of dualism. And to dispel the fog of wrong assumptions about men and women, first of

all the wrong assumptions should be considered. The wrong assumptions include how woman is

related to physical material and nature, the assumed inferiority of woman as well as nature and the

third assumption is of taking women and nature on the basis of dualistic contrasts and then

opposing nature. (Plumwood 41-42)

These different assumptions reflect how actually the status of woman is determined in a

society and how her connection with nature is dehumanized or considered dehumanized. In the

movie Matrubhoomi, Kalki (the heroine) according to Plumwood’s assumption is taken as a

commodity or material thing by her four husbands and father in law. Also her relation to cattle is

very symbolic; she and the cows both feed the men of that house but this commercial and bodily

connection of Kalki with the cow degrades her even more. However, if we bring Marti Kheel’s

idea about animal rights then one could say that why is it even degrading at all? Why cattle and

Kalki both are devalued when the men, the dominating figures depended for their food, children

and for various other things on them. Kheel’s eco-feminist Holist philosophy reflects how man,

nature and woman are actually part of one whole. (Kheel 713-715) And when there is one complete

whole then the balance of universe is maintained. But what we see in Matrubhoomi is that this

balance is shaken and greatly disturbed by men and the result of this is their own demise.

Sherry B. Ortner in her article “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” talked about

the universality of female sub-ordination. This is much similar to the universality of male

dominance which has already been discussed. Ortner brought forth the cultural thinking which

actually shapes such wrong and faulty stereotypical views about woman. Ortner said that the

secondary-status of woman has become like a universal fact, the other thing which contributes in
demeaning woman is certain ideologies and social structures and the third thing which shows

woman as a sub-ordinate secondary being is the power and influence she has, the types of activities

related to her and also her visible contribution to the society. (Ortner 5-8) Ortner said that such a

setting is created that woman is excluded from all the serious affairs of life and even the woman

has no right to take decision for herself at times as seen through Kalki’s character. Kalki was

married off to five brothers by her father only for the sake of 5 lac and some cows, the man sold

his daughter and did not care when she asked for his help after s

Sooraj’s (youngest brother) death. So what we see is that familial relations and cultural ideologies

play the greatest part in devaluing woman and it can be seen almost in every society. Almost in

every society women are subordinated to men. This is quite relatable to Kalki from Matrubhoomi.

As the male characters’ act like the dominating bigger fish, dualism clearly shows that Kalki is

Ortner’s universal sub-ordinate and the norms and rigid Hindu culture of that particular state has

defined positions both for those Hawkish men and Kalki.

Susan Griffin in her book Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her also showed

sympathy towards both woman and nature and reflected on how actually man depends on both but

denies it completely. Griffin however said connection of woman with nature is not dehumanizing.

Both play a rather important role to keep the world, keep the life going. Sadly both are victimized

by man and are subjected to male rage. What Griffin said can be seen through the character of

Kalki, even the servant boy Raghu and the cow. All of them were contributing in the betterment

of the life of the men of that house but what they got in return was torture, pain and sexual/physical

abuse. Griffin also upraised a rather interesting aspect she said that man does feel insecure because

of his large dependence on woman and to try to overcome his insecurities and inadequacies man

uses language, science and money to exert his power on the whole world but actually he is trying
to oppress woman and nature. (Griffin 48-57) This can be related to Matrubhoomi movie in the

form of education, money and male employment. All the five brothers married to Kalki did some

kind of work. Some of them were educated aswell but actually they were extremely illiterate with

that education as well, also they had money. So all these men were aware of the fact that they did

not deserve a woman like Kalki and they had been craving for ages only for the sight of a woman.

Also Ramsharan kept giving Kalki’s father money to keep her and her father kept cashing on her.

So basically they did know how much they depended on her and internally knew her worth, to

fight this dependence and submission for balance they started to oppress Kalki even more because

they knew they had jobs and had money and were men so they sort of had an upper hand on her.

The linkage between Kalki and cattle can be taken in terms of ecofeminism. Karren J.

Warren in her article Ecofeminism and Social Justice talked about how both are inter-connected

and how ecological feminism shows a lot of diversity. Warren said that ecofeminism also includes

in its gendered analysis non-human animals (Earth-Others) and nature. Warren also talked about

how eco-feminists trace connection between woman and other (Others) which in accordance to the

movie is nature. She also talked about the relation of woman and nature with patriarchal

domination. (Warren 141) Warren also brought in a very important point, she said many

ecofeminist scholars try to focus on an objective truth or proof that women, people of color, lower

class and colonized group of people are placed under one particular category of the oppressed and

the others and this results in environmental destruction. (Warren 142) If we relate this idea with

Matrubhoomi movie, this is actually what we see in the movie. The extreme suppression of Kalki,

Raghu and the cattle brought the destruction of men and the destruction of environment. Kalki told

the servant boy Raghu when she was beaten up by the brothers that “ mujhe yhn sy le chalo, maeny

ghar jana hai.” The boy tried to help her run but in turn the boy was mercilessly butchered and
Kalki was brought back to the hell-house. Later on an endless fight started between the Shoodar

caste and the brothers over the cold-blood murder of Raghu. This happened because the

environmental balance was greatly disturbed and this imbalance led to demolition of man and

environment.

Warren also brings in another perspective of ecofeminism in relation to woman and nature

at the same time. Here Warren talked about the ‘capitalist patriarchy’ through which men exploit

the bodies and labor of women and likewise that of nature- animals. (Warren 142) Both women

and nature are treated as exploitable resources by man and are kind of recycled or re-used like

objects. This inference of Warren can be related with the example of Ramsharan and his sons, how

they were using Kalki’s body for their desire and her effort and labour for their comfort and peace

and this is what was done to the cows and Raghu as well. Raghu was paid very less amount for his

labour and later killed, while Kalki and cattle were like free flesh and blood at their disposal which

was ready to be devoured, beaten and treated like a laborer who had no voice. Warren’s capitalist

patriarchy can be clearly witnessed in Matrubhoomi. There was no one who could actually

criticize men in that Indian village and these men were more like barbaric rulers or beasts

controlling the flow of nature and its products around them. So in the destruction of man and

universal order this capitalist patriarchy can also be taken as a point of flaw or error.

Greta Gaard in her book Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature also presented another

view point about ecofeminism and how and in what ways it defines and shows a connection with

the oppression of women as well as animals. Gaard stated:

Ecofeminism's basic premise is that the ideology which authorizes oppressions such as those based

on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology which

sanctions the oppression of nature. Gaard says that women can only be liberated if the nature is

also liberated from the oppression of man. (Gaard 1) This idea of Gaard can be related to the

connection and commonality between Kalki and the cows in Ramsharan’s house. Cow could be

taken as a form or a product of nature. Kalki and cows both were utilized for feeding and strenuous

physical labour and apart from this although one is human other is non-human still both of them

were subjected to sexual abuse. If one moves to the climax of the story Kalki is also tied in the

corral to a pole exactly in the same manner as the cows were and to add to the irony, with the cows.

So it could be said that the connection between animals and women is stronger than one perceives

in certain cases. Apart from this women and animals both carry the secondary status and this status

can be dissolved only if women liberation movements with animal liberation movements are

strengthened.

Gaard has also created two binaries to distinguish man from woman and nature. These

binaries can be strongly traced out in Matrubhoomi. Gaard brings forth the ‘developed’ male and

the ‘undeveloped’ nature and female. She says on the basis of these binaries the oppressor and

oppressed relationship is built. In the category of developed male she brings in factors like

employment, money and power which further strengthens the position of male in a particular

setting and if taken in accordance with my story, in Hindu setting. (Gaard 2-3)

Judith Plant in her book Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism brought forth

some interesting aspects related to nature, women and ecology. She talked about how planetary
survival depends upon the existence of woman and nature. (Plant 118) What we see in

Matrubhoomi is a constant denial of this dependence by men and the outcome as expected was

drastic and devastating for men. Plant says that ‘patriarchal mess’ can only be cleaned up by

putting a fight and this can be done by environmentalists. She says (as we also witness in the

Hindustani setting of the movie) women are traditionally confined and this confinement becomes

an asset for men. So basically Plant has advocated and wants to see radicalization in women rather

than showing their feminine virtue of compassion. Kalki’s character in Matrubhoomi is a picture-

perfect example of the feminine submissiveness and compassion and because of this she suffered

even more. But, perhaps there are other material factors which also contribute to her kneeling down

and submitting herself. However radical behavior of a woman can still spark some energy and give

a push-back to the male-oppressors who in fighting their inner fear and in ruling women lose their

very existence.

If we move to Vandana Shiva’s concept of ‘feminine principle’ we can also relate and

identify it with the connection of Kalki, cattle and the servant boy. Shiva said that the femininity

principle is related to nature and this also links nature with females. Apart from this nature and

women both are producers of life. Shiva stated that the feminist principle is of holistic nature.

(Shiva 292) So she said that it not only takes account of nature and woman only but it addresses

the issues of ethnicity, the struggles of minorities or marginalized communities.

Vandana Shiva’s feminine principle visibly shows to what extent women, nature and other

minorities are oppressed. The killing of Raghu, the extreme physical and mental torture of Kalki

and the continuous consumption of cattle by men shows man’s merciless and unthankful attitude

towards the sub-ordinate other and this calls for a resistance which can be seen in the movie when
Raghu secretly sends a letter to Kalki’s father on her request and later on when Raghu tries to help

Kalki run away from the tyrants in her life but he loses his life in doing so. Before Kalki Raghu

also used to show resistance towards his ruthless masters by mixing dung and rubbish in their food,

it was basically a way to provide an outlet to his emotion. What we see here on the basis of whole

scenario that a strong, strange and a wholesome connection between Kalki and Raghu exist, this

connection can also be traced in the feminine principle. Kalki is a female and Raghu is from the

minority or the underprivileged sect of the Indian society. Both share some common experiences

and both can fall into the same category. So Raghu, Kalki and even cattle could be put under

Shiva’s principle of resistance, feminine principle. (Shiva 179)

Vandana Shiva has also compared woman with forests and waters. So what we see here is

how waters and forests are destroyed by man and in the similar way he is destroying woman.

(Shiva 194) Chinua Achebe said that waters, lands and trees are the support systems of our lives

and in the similar manner woman is a support system in man’s life. Men kept on oppressing and

torturing woman, and as in the beginning of the movie, kept killing all the female children born.

Kalki was used by her father for money, by Ramsharan and his sons for domestic and sexual

purpose and by Shoodar community for revenge. So what one sees is constant abuse of woman at

the hands of man.

In the end of the movie, the survival of men becomes endangered and this ignorance

towards the essentiality of woman leads to their doom. This ignorance and masculine ego and

arrogance led to the death and downfall of hundreds of men in the Matrubhoomi movie.
 Freya Mathews in her article “Relating to Nature: Deep Ecology or Ecofeminism?” also

gave the concept of whole and part. She gave a holist outlook of the natural world and says man

and woman both are two parts of the natural system which actually is a whole. Freya said that deep

ecology presents this idea of wholeness and harmonizes the balance of universe. (Mathews 35-55)

If related to Matrubhoomi we can see the short-sightedness of man’s self-absorption. In torturing

Kalki, Rakesh and his other brothers did not give a thought that they were actually calling upon

their own destruction. They are only one part of the whole and the whole can only remain intact if

all the parts are in perfect harmony and a proper balance exists between all of them. Rakesh and

Ramsharan’s brute like nature was a free call to their own destruction and by the end of the movie

all those men slaughtered one another and only Kalki survived with a baby girl. So what we see in

this movie is strong shaking and breaking of the universal whole which in turn led to death and

destruction of the oppressors, of the dominating half.

Rosemary Radford Ruether connected beliefs and ethics to create a relationship of

organisms with each other and the earth. Ruether also brought in the concept of universal healing

and universal justice in relation to the marginalized and the suppressed ones. Ruether drew in the

principles of spirituality and religion to define ecological justice. Ruether talked about the creation

and destruction of life. Like Freya Mathews the idea of healing and whole is associated with deep

ecology by Ruether also. In talking about religion Ruether tells about the ambiguity and biasness

of Christianity towards woman and how even the religion gave a higher position to man over

woman. She presented the idea of reconstruction of the relation between man and woman in the

core society as well as the larger society. (Ruether, p. 171) Ruether has used the concept of

metanoia time and again. By this she meant that a changing of consciousness should take place in
relation to a patriarchal society. Man should show flexibility by accepting that dependence exists

from both sides.

The tragic flaw or maybe just the flaw of Matrubhoomi movie was that even till the end of

the movie men do not realize of all the wrong they were doing and always followed the path of

wrong or in religious terms the path of sin. And this flaw of men led to their devastation and a

great deal of disturbance in the social order. What happened in the end of the movie is a clear

indicator of ecological and environmental justice. So if a man disturbs the universal order by

suppressing, torturing and killing females, slave and products of nature he himself cannot survive

for long.

Near the end of the movie, all the men in the village fight over the un-born child of Kalki

which they were supposedly calling larka. Men from the shoodar caste, Ramsharan and his sons

all claimed the unborn boy was theirs. This started endless war frenzy and they killed one another.

In the end only the servant boy Sukha, Kalki and Kalki’s new born child survived. The last dialog

by Sukha was very symboli in which he said “larki hai?” and Kalki happily nodded her head. This

reflected that females were survivor, compassionate and probably a lot better than majority of the

men at that time.

It would not be wrong to say that man directly relies on woman and nature for survival and

this dependence needs to be accepted on open terms by removing fears of facing woman at equal

terms and without the dread of losing centrality in the universe. Men need to lose their universal

model of male dominance and women need to fight to get rid of the universal model of

submissiveness and passivity. Apart from these cultural values which support and promote

masculinity as the driving force needs to be demolished. Besides this the very idea of the binaries
showing woman as weak and man as strong need to be rewritten and revised. Man needs to identify

and relate with woman as she like him is an essential part of the universal whole. Also man should

develop empathy towards woman and sympathy towards nature and slaves then and only he can

lead a complete and satisfactory life. Man and woman both need to push their boundaries in a

positive way and need to expand their selves in the right ways. All I have mentioned is very

important for the balance of life and relations but the most important thing as Val Plumwood said

is that man needs to change or completely get rid of this Master story. Man should never think of

his relation with woman and nature as a relation of master and servant. Man needs to realize how

much the androcentric notion is flawed and he needs to lose it completely for his prosperity and

for the well-being of woman and other beings and creations of Al-Mighty.

Simone Weil’s lines beautifully sum up my conclusion:

Let us Love the Land of Here Below: It is Real-It offers A lot to Love

If this simple pattern is adopted wonders can be done and a hundred Kalki’s and Raghu’s will have

nothing more to offer but love. As the land of here below is only love and heart!!

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