May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India [Paperback]

Elisabeth Bumiller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1991

"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 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 powerlessness, and a universality that raises questions for women around the world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Before Elisabeth Bumiller lived in India in the mid-1980s, she had reported mainly on upper-crust Americans for the Washington Post. Her four-year stay turned her romantic image of India and largely unexamined feminist sentiments upside down and shook them hard. Although Indian women are guaranteed equality by their constitution, religious and cultural conceptions of their lowly role make this a hollow boast for many. Bumiller's well-spun book deals with admittedly sensational topics: a bride burning case; a rare death by sati, in which a young widow joined her husband on the funeral pyre; poor villages where girl babies are so unwelcome that some don't survive and cities where boy babies are given the edge by prenatal tests and the availability of abortion. Arranged marriages, the lives of village women, and the great histrionic appeal of the Indian film industry also catch her Western eye. Beneath the surface of each story several others bubble up, sometimes illuminating customs or obscuring easy outrage. Other times, though, they emphasize the limitations of being an outsider. --Francesca Coltrera

From Publishers Weekly

The overall powerlessness of Indian women is shown through a discussion of traditions and portraits of typical individuals. "Based on Bumiller's four-year residence in India, this perceptive, alert travelogue considers the prevalent custom of arranged marriage, India's scattered, budding feminist movement, population control, female infanticide and the legacy of Indira Gandhi, a nonfeminist," said PW. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449906140
• ISBN-13: 978-0449906149
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Insightful and Thought Provoking, December 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India (Paperback)

As a second generation Indian American, a true understanding of the Hindu culture my parents grew up with has not been easy to attain. Bumiller's book provided me with a key to some of the understanding I feel that I have always lacked. Reading her book took me back to my experiences travelling in India. It also provided me with great insights into the worldview of my own mother, grandmothers, aunts, and cousins that are women, although I was a little disappointed that the resilience of the women she studied was implied, but it was not explicitly stated and emphasized. Finally, her book was excellent at raising some very thought provoking questions about both the human condition and (especially) the condition of women in our world. I highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in exploring these avenues of thought.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sensitive, honest, well-researched report on the lives of Indian women, November 6, 2005

By 

David Graham (Shell, Ecuador) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India (Paperback)

Elisabeth Bumiller's account of the lives of women from various walks of life, accumulated during her time spent living in India in the 1980s via interviews and friendships and augmented by the extensive reading she did on the subject before, during, and after her time in India, proved to be a "good read". It was not merely a series of personal anecdotes (lacking in broader perspectives and studies) nor did it err on the other end by being little more than a dry, academic, emotionally detached account of bride burning, dowry murders, female infanticide, the film industry of Bollywood, overpopulation, arranged marriages, domestic hardships, and the like. Instead it was a passionate and thoughtful account by a Westerner living in India who grew to love the people she met and whose research reflected the respect and curiosity she had for the women of India.

Some of the reviews of this book have accused it of being "stereotypically western", "condescending", "shallow", "overgeneralized to the point of being trashy", exhibiting a "Western imperialism", "colonial mindset", or being a "stereotypical account with a liberal dose of sensationalism". I can only say that I found none of those things to be the case when I read the book. There is no doubt that the author's western background and mode of thinking provided the platform from which she observed and evaluated her experiences in India, but she went to a great deal of trouble to broaden her own impressions by consulting the people of India about the problems of India: through her friendships made in India, through numerous interviews (and follow-up interviews) with people from both city and rural areas and from different castes, through viewing of films and television, through reading various Indian magazines (e.g., India Today, Business India, etc.), various Indian newspapers (e.g., The Times of India, The Telegraph of Calcutta, Indian Express,etc.), through special reports (e.g., "Women in India: A Statistical Profile - 1988" put out by the Department of Women and Child Development via the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the Government of India), and through reading various books written by both Indian authors (e.g., Sudhir Kakir, Jawaharlal Nehru, Chidananda Das Gupta, et. al) and foreigners who had lived in India. The result is a balanced and broad view of some of the problems being faced by women in India, not a provincial, overgeneralized, condescending, stereotypical account of India.

Her account is certainly not a dry, emotionally detached one but rather one in which she is actively involved. Is she opinionated? Sure: that's what keeps the book from being boring. Yet it is important to note that the author is honest and fair enough to keep this book from degenerating into a one-sided polemic. Even when she disagrees with a practice she observes (such as female infanticide) she does more than present her own opinions: she also presents the opposing viewpoints and mitigating life circumstances that lead people to act as they do. Moreover, her disagreements are not made in a spirit of self-righteous condemnation but rather with a good deal of compassion. The reader is allowed to see the emotional and intellectual struggles the author goes through as she has her viewpoints challenged by what she sees and hears.

Having read about and traveled in India myself, I found this book to be enlightening. As I mentioned earler, it is a "good read", meaning that the book doesn't drag. Is it the "definitive" book about women in India? Of course not. Such a book doesn't exist. Moreoever, coming out as it did in 1990 (1991 for the paperback), it grows a little more dated each year. However, both as a valuable historical document and an anthropological tool for helping understand more of the Indian character, "May you be the Mother of a Hundred Sons" deserves a place alongside other books that are rightfully praised for their usefulness in throwing light on a fascinating country full of an immense diversity of peoples and practices.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars rereading bumiller, October 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India (Paperback)

I happened to read Bumiller's book after a gap of about 3 years and found it as interesting as when I read it first. I think her section on Nabaneeta Dev Sen remains the best. I don't think I am concerned too much about how 'true' it is to Indian life (which in any case is a subjective area) but I think Bumiller is one of few who writes with both affection and detachment about India. As an Indian woman, some of the things she writes about (e.g. the process of the arranged marriage) brought a jolt of realisation - being a part and parcel of Indian life they tend to remain unnoticed. All in all it was worth a second read.

Anuradha