V3I1P68

Postcolonial Motherhood as Crisis: Compulsory Care and Feminist Ethics in Indian Narratives

Dr. Devashish Kumar^1*

Abstract

This paper examines motherhood in Indian feminist narratives as a site of crisis rather than natural fulfilment, arguing that maternal identity is frequently produced through cultural enforcement and the extraction of emotional labour. The paper ideationalizes motherhood as a patriarchal moral economy that disciplines women through duty, guilt, and obligatory care in opposition to these reigning idealisations of women’s destiny. Based on feminist ethics, postcolonial feminist theory, and feminist narrative ethics, this paper elaborates how maternal roles often function not as choices but rather as obligations sustained through respectability politics and community surveillance in Indian narratives. It furthers the argument that maternal suffering, as etched in exhaustion, silence, and ethically compromised agency, is indicative of care as structurally required and unevenly rewarded. Rather than framing maternal endurance as empowerment, the study foregrounds refusal and detachment as feminist strategies that expose the coercive foundations of “ideal motherhood.” By examining motherhood as an ideological institution and a narrative burden, this paper expands Indian feminist literary discourse beyond celebratory frameworks. It demonstrates how resistance frequently emerges through survival, boundary-making, and the right to reject compulsory maternal virtue. Ultimately, the article argues that postcolonial motherhood in Indian writing is a contested terrain where feminist ethics must confront not only patriarchy but also nationalism, tradition, and moral expectations that convert women’s lives into compulsory care-work.

Keywords:

Compulsory motherhood, Feminist ethics, Care labour, Maternal guilt, Postcolonial feminism, Indian narratives, Refusal