• Newsletters
  • Gift Membership
Logo Logo
Take Scroll With You Download the app to read our award-winning journalism on the go and stay up-to-date with our notifications.
Get the app Get the app
ANDROID iOS
  • Home
  • Common Ground
  • The India Fix
  • Eco India
  • The Latest
  • The Reel
  • Magazine
  • Video
  • Trending
    • Bengaluru traffic: What’s really causing the bottleneck
    • How one man is battling to save the Dwarka forest in Delhi
    • Writer Rana Dasgupta wins $175,000 Windham-Campbell Prize
    • After mob attacks venue that hosted Kunal Kamra, social media pokes fun at thin-skinned politicians
    • ‘Grass lives next to grass’: Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Jnanpith winner Vinod Kumar Shukla’s poetry
    • India’s credit rating anomaly: Why the country’s economic, fiscal performance merit an upgrade
    • Food and the memories it evokes can help comfort dementia patients
    • Rajnikumar Pandya (1938-2025): A Gujarati writer fascinated by Hindi film music – and its creators
    • How the Valmiki Ramayana is almost an encyclopaedia of Indian civilisation
    • Diarrhoea is rising in Maharashtra. Are poorly built Swachh Bharat Mission toilets responsible?
    • Full text: I don’t fear the mob, says comedian Kunal Kamra amid row over joke about Eknath Shinde
    • Start the week with a film: ‘A Hard Day’ is a breathless, breathtaking thriller
  • Sections
    • Politics
    • Culture
    • India
    • World
    • Film and TV
    • Music
    • Books and Ideas
    • Business and Economy
    • Science and Technology
    • In Pictures
    • Announcements
    • Bookshop
    • The Field
    • Pulse
    • Elections 2024

Ad
OTHERS ARE

Reading icon icon

  • Bengaluru traffic: What’s really causing the bottleneck
    1

    Bengaluru traffic: What’s really causing the bottleneck
  • How one man is battling to save the Dwarka forest in Delhi
    2

    How one man is battling to save the Dwarka forest in Delhi
  • Writer Rana Dasgupta wins $175,000 Windham-Campbell Prize
    3

    Writer Rana Dasgupta wins $175,000 Windham-Campbell Prize
  • After mob attacks venue that hosted Kunal Kamra, social media pokes fun at thin-skinned politicians
    4

    After mob attacks venue that hosted Kunal Kamra, social media pokes fun at thin-skinned politicians
  • ‘Grass lives next to grass’: Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Jnanpith winner Vinod Kumar Shukla’s poetry
    5

    ‘Grass lives next to grass’: Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Jnanpith winner Vinod Kumar Shukla’s poetry
  • India’s credit rating anomaly: Why the country’s economic, fiscal performance merit an upgrade
    6

    India’s credit rating anomaly: Why the country’s economic, fiscal performance merit an upgrade
  • Food and the memories it evokes can help comfort dementia patients
    7

    Food and the memories it evokes can help comfort dementia patients
  • Rajnikumar Pandya (1938-2025): A Gujarati writer fascinated by Hindi film music – and its creators
    8

    Rajnikumar Pandya (1938-2025): A Gujarati writer fascinated by Hindi film music – and its creators
  • How the Valmiki Ramayana is almost an encyclopaedia of Indian civilisation
    9

    How the Valmiki Ramayana is almost an encyclopaedia of Indian civilisation
  • Diarrhoea is rising in Maharashtra. Are poorly built Swachh Bharat Mission toilets responsible?
    10

    Diarrhoea is rising in Maharashtra. Are poorly built Swachh Bharat Mission toilets responsible?
Scroll Explains

Video: Who is Bharat Mata and how did she become so popular?

Modern forms of equating a nation with a mother goddess first arose in Bengal in the 1800s.

Scroll Staff
Jun 30, 2017 · 09:00 am
Read in App
Get the app Get the app
ANDROID iOS
We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.
  • bharat mata
  • nationalism

Related

Video: Why the National Register of Citizens is being updated in Assam

Video: Why the National Register of Citizens is being updated in Assam

Trending

  1. Bengaluru traffic: What’s really causing the bottleneck

    Bengaluru traffic: What’s really causing the bottleneck
  2. How one man is battling to save the Dwarka forest in Delhi

    How one man is battling to save the Dwarka forest in Delhi
  3. Writer Rana Dasgupta wins $175,000 Windham-Campbell Prize

    Writer Rana Dasgupta wins $175,000 Windham-Campbell Prize
  4. After mob attacks venue that hosted Kunal Kamra, social media pokes fun at thin-skinned politicians

    After mob attacks venue that hosted Kunal Kamra, social media pokes fun at thin-skinned politicians
  5. ‘Grass lives next to grass’: Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Jnanpith winner Vinod Kumar Shukla’s poetry

    ‘Grass lives next to grass’: Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Jnanpith winner Vinod Kumar Shukla’s poetry
Ad