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May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India
"The most stimulating and thought-provoking book on India in a long time..Bumiller has made India new and immediate again."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
In a chronicle rich in diversity, detail, and empathy, Elisabeth Bumiller illuminates the many women's lives she shared--from wealthy sophisticates in New Delhi, to villagers in the dusty northern plains, to movie stars in ...more
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
In a chronicle rich in diversity, detail, and empathy, Elisabeth Bumiller illuminates the many women's lives she shared--from wealthy sophisticates in New Delhi, to villagers in the dusty northern plains, to movie stars in ...more
Paperback, 328 pages
Published
April 30th 1991
by Ballantine Books
(first published 1990)
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There is a typical Indian reaction to a woman accomplishing something remarkable. "Yeh kis mitti ki bani hai?" (What soil is this women made of?). I was forced to ask myself the same trite question when I finished reading Ms. Bumiller's incredible account. It is incredible for not just being a work of great patience and physical hardship accomplished in an India 25 years ago, a much excruciating place than what it is now but its empathetic and humane narrative. It is one of the few accounts of m
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This is not really a book about Indian women, it's a book about a European American woman who goes to India with her husband and wants to do real reporting instead of writing fluff pieces for the Washington Post's 'Style' magazine. Bumiller is a self-confessed liberal feminist and it's pretty clear that much of Indian life appalls her. I gave her two stars because to her credit she really does try to open her mind and she does slog about India talking to a great many people.
I think the worst par ...more
I think the worst par ...more
May you be the Mother of a Hundred Sons is a documentary about the women of India. E Bumiller is a journal who follows her husband to the heart of India to see how women from different social-economic backgrounds live and work. The undereducated maid is contrasted with the police chief, the prime minister with village house wife, the artist with the mid-wife and poor young mother with the billionaire movie star. Taboo subjects such as wife burnings, sati, infanticides, feticides, are dowries are
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What a joyless book! Way to go to a country that has one billion people in it and report the saddest stories and try to persuade us that this is what India is all about.
Take a social phenomenon. Criticize it through your holier then thou western attitude. Ask an Indian woman about it. She gives a honest answer. Discredit it her answer by writing a ten page monologue about the dangers to western feminism. Rinse, repeat. Is it that hard to accept a different culture and not try to impose your bel ...more
Take a social phenomenon. Criticize it through your holier then thou western attitude. Ask an Indian woman about it. She gives a honest answer. Discredit it her answer by writing a ten page monologue about the dangers to western feminism. Rinse, repeat. Is it that hard to accept a different culture and not try to impose your bel ...more
I suppose this is understandably somewhat dated at this point. But several sections are still relevant because of some topics in the news. It drags a bit in some places, and sometimes Bumiller puts herself into the book too much, but I found the sections on abortion to be rather interesting.
Забележителен журналистически поглед върху "незабележимия" живот на индийската жена!
This is a study of the roles, conditions and lives in general of women of all walks of life in India. Throughout the world and throughout history, women have frequently been discriminated against, victimised and abused by men and the social system in place in their world. In many places they are still routinely bought and sold, denied education, jobs and even healthcare, hidden from the world and defined as essentially evil (although used happily enough by men for pleasure and to produce (prefer
...more
This was an extremely interesting book about the lives of women from various classes in India, from the poor villagers to upper-middle-class women. It gave me a bit more perspective on the lives of my MIL and SsIL. However, the book was written based on the author's experiences living in India in the 1980s, and I think things have changed so much since then, at least for the middle class. It would be interesting if the author did a follow-up.
I picked up this book because it was lying in my bookshelf. First few pages turned me off. Yet another holier-than-thou commentary on the sad Indian women, I said when a colleague asked me how I'm liking my current read. And he said that maybe we need an outsider's perspective sometimes, for our perspective might get skewed and narrow over time. So give it a chance. And give it a chance, I did.
Almost every sentence was laced with a sweeping condescension, benchmarking the 'Indian feminism' with ...more
Almost every sentence was laced with a sweeping condescension, benchmarking the 'Indian feminism' with ...more
erhm, just another white-washed Orientalist lens.
I quit it after 150 pages. Wordy. Self-conscious. Dated. (Hana's review below nails it.)
I read this many years ago. It was very good, very educational, and very sad.
[Note: I wrote this review for SAWNET (South Asian Women's Network) in 2001 or so.]
I remember reading "May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons" by Elisabeth Bumiller when it was first published more than 10 years ago and thinking that it was a refreshing look at Indian women and that it did NOT stereotype Indians in the way that other western writers did before. In fact I was very impressed with the fact that she met with and described women from all strata of society from village women to Ela B ...more
I remember reading "May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons" by Elisabeth Bumiller when it was first published more than 10 years ago and thinking that it was a refreshing look at Indian women and that it did NOT stereotype Indians in the way that other western writers did before. In fact I was very impressed with the fact that she met with and described women from all strata of society from village women to Ela B ...more
An "outsider" look at issues women face in the Indian context. A series of articles providing women's perspective and problems they face. Articles written by a US journalist, from her experiences, and "on-field-research" during her 3+ years in India. The topics are wide ranging from population control, to arranged marriages, role of women in the household, change in women's awareness of their own rights, female infanticide, feminist movements in the country, and the like.
The good:
1. Wide ranging ...more
The good:
1. Wide ranging ...more
updated below. June 09.
an interesting book about women in india by the woman who later became (starting sep 10, 2001) the white house correspondent for the new york times. she should have stuck to writing books about india, because she was fairly good at that and in her incarnation as a national affairs correspondent in washington she was a total failure.
as she said of her role in the press conference leading up to the war: "I think we were very deferential because ... it's live, it's very inte ...more
an interesting book about women in india by the woman who later became (starting sep 10, 2001) the white house correspondent for the new york times. she should have stuck to writing books about india, because she was fairly good at that and in her incarnation as a national affairs correspondent in washington she was a total failure.
as she said of her role in the press conference leading up to the war: "I think we were very deferential because ... it's live, it's very inte ...more
'In a chronicle rich in diversity, detail, and empathy, Elisabeth Bumiller illuminates the many women's lives she shared--from wealthy sophisticates in New Delhi, to villagers in the dusty northern plains, to movie stars in Bombay, intellectuals in Calcutta, and health workers in the south--and the contradictions she encountered, during her three and a half years in India as a reporter for THE WASHINGTON POST. In their fascinating, and often tragic stories, Bumiller found a strength even in powe
...more
*Content warning: this review does not contain spoilers, but it does mention some of the tougher topics in this book. Read at your own risk.*
Loved this book. It is probably one of the most even-handed and respectful books on the topic of the many and horrible situations of the women in India. I have many friends who are first or second-generation Indian immigrants, and because of my interest in British history, at some point I stumbled sideways into a fascination with Indian history, tradition a ...more
Loved this book. It is probably one of the most even-handed and respectful books on the topic of the many and horrible situations of the women in India. I have many friends who are first or second-generation Indian immigrants, and because of my interest in British history, at some point I stumbled sideways into a fascination with Indian history, tradition a ...more
Rarely have I been so moved by a book. Ms. Bumiller captures my experience perfectly when she says: "As alien as their lives were to the lives in the world from which I had come...when life is pared down to its essence, there is a universality to each woman's experience. In the end, I did not feel so very different from them. As the Indian journalist, Anees Jung wrote in 'Unveiling India': "In the macrocosm of a vast land I find the microcosm of my own experience repeated and reaffirmed.""
Bumiller, who now writes for the New York Times, spent three years in India in the 80's working for The Washington Post. This book is a compilation of her study of the lives of Indian women - research and hundreds of interviews. Topics range from Sati (a woman killing herself by throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre) to actresses of Bollywood. Her writing is engaging and reflective. I learned about India while reading this book and reflected on the lives of women in general.
A quote fro ...more
A quote fro ...more
Когато прочетох ревюто на книгата си помислих, че е просто сборник от разкази за живота на няколко индийски жени. Книгата е нещо много повече от това, бих казала едно огромно проучване на живота на тези жени - от най-бедните до звездите на Боливуд. Традиции, история и много авториски размисли за представите, които имаме и действителността. Чрез разказите за жените в Индия, авторката представя цялата индийска култура, общество и най-вече проблемите, с които се бори тази огромна държава. Романтичн
...more
This is an excellent book. Slightly dated from the mid eighties it holds up from what I've seen in India with my own eyes. This is an excellent book for woman studies if you have no desire to read about it .
A good account of lives of Indian women and society...
I couldnt see any outrageous western bias or narrow view of things as one might expect.
Candid and truthfulness at its best
Worth reading !!
I couldnt see any outrageous western bias or narrow view of things as one might expect.
Candid and truthfulness at its best
Worth reading !!
Enjoyable, startling, but without too much of the gore or histrioniocs one has come to expect of the genre. A pretty balanced and fair assessment.
Here is a heartbreaking work of non-fiction. In a clear, journalistic style, Bumiller looks into several issues in Indian society by way of specific women's stories. She deals with wife-burnings because of dowry greed, abortion of female fetuses, routine snuffing out of female babies, forced sterilization and other frightening issues affecting the lives of Indian women.
I read this in preparation for a trip to India and handed over to another woman on my trip when I was done, who launched into i ...more
I read this in preparation for a trip to India and handed over to another woman on my trip when I was done, who launched into i ...more
Could have been a much better book in the event that a professional journalist didn't write it. It's a well-researched book, but you never get a sense of how the western author actually merges with the Indian culture -- she seems to be a reporter on the outside. Still a great read (in terms of being informative) however, and it goes quickly. The 9th chapter on the poet/the director/the painter really give a sense of what I'd want out of the book, as I really felt as though I saw India. While I c
...more
I discovered and bought this book in a cozy, little bookstore in Goa while travelling in India a few years ago. Once I began reading, I could not stop. Bumiller captures the complex dynamic of what it is like to be an Indian woman as a wife, a mother, or a member of your caste. You will probably learn more than you would like to know particularly when the knowing about a group of women is a painful one, an odyssey of hardship, discrimination and lack of opportunity. But in the end, and if you ar
...more
A little dated, but learned about the beginnings of some incredible organizations helping women and initiating the micro-finance movement;
The author seemed a bit out of her element and interjected many unnecessary and somewhat naive personal opinions throughout - not what you would expect from a reporter - have since learned she was a social reporter before her time in India so this may explain some of her distorted perspective.
This book was a gift from Pete from his last trip this summer. I wi ...more
The author seemed a bit out of her element and interjected many unnecessary and somewhat naive personal opinions throughout - not what you would expect from a reporter - have since learned she was a social reporter before her time in India so this may explain some of her distorted perspective.
This book was a gift from Pete from his last trip this summer. I wi ...more
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This book was published in 1991 and was researched in 1987-89. It is slightly over 20 years and yet it remains relevant today. I think the biggest change has been in technology..cell phones and mini loans and those are recent vehicles which will eventually release woman from the servitude.The recent media coverage of rape in India is perhaps good as wife beating and drunkenness has been cloaked in secrecy in this patriarchal and misogynistic society.The caste system continues to dominate this co
...more
A really interesting look at the lives of women in India
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Elisabeth Bumiller (born May 15, 1956) is an American author and journalist who is the Pentagon correspondent for the New York Times.
Born in Aalborg, Denmark, to a Danish mother and American father, Bumiller moved to the U.S. when she was three years old. She moved to Cincinnati, where she graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1974, and was inducted into their Alumni Hall of Fame on April 30, ...more
More about Elisabeth Bumiller...
Born in Aalborg, Denmark, to a Danish mother and American father, Bumiller moved to the U.S. when she was three years old. She moved to Cincinnati, where she graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1974, and was inducted into their Alumni Hall of Fame on April 30, ...more
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