Masculinity and Nationalism in Auro

bindo's Perseus the Deliverer

The IUP Journal of English Studies, Vol. VIII, No. 4,
December 2013, pp. 47-56
Posted: 11 Aug 2014
Uttam Jadhav
Satara College of Engineering and Management
Tripti Karekatti
Shivaji University
Date Written: July 24, 2014

Abstract

Masculinity often gets attached

to nationalism when nationalism is linked with the
struggle for freedom. Nationalist leaders of most of
the countries in the world equate manhood or
masculinity with warriorhood to persuade masses to
fight against the colonizers. Sri Aurobindo, a staunch
follower of nationalism, advocates
militant nationalism in the works produced
during the early phase of his
life. In Perseus theDeliverer, Aurobindo
connects masculinity with nationalism to revive the lost
spirit of the countrymen. He strongly connects India
with mother and appeals to the sons of thecountry to
deliver their motherland from the shackles
of the colonizers. Aurobindo intertwined religion
with nationalism and regarded it as a divine act. In pre-
colonial social ordering of India, kshatriyahood or
militant masculinity had a limited space.
Under theimpact of the British
(and Victorian masculinity), Aurobindo, like other
nationalists (M M Dutt and Bankimchandra Chatterjee),
preferred hyper-masculine Kshatriyahood to
Brahminhood. This change in the colonial ordering of
Indian social system is recorded in this play. Traditional
Brahminical hegemonic masculinity is shown under
crisis under theimpact of the new order
of the day in which Kshatriyahood was gaining
increasing importance.