To many Indians Bharatmata ki jai is an emotional way of expressing patriotism. It goes smooth with the Indian mind to consider all the loved entities from cow to river as Mother. So, to Indians and Hindus in particular the country is a mother. From time immemorial, the Indians always used the word mother land for their country and not fatherland as European do. But the kind of picture we draw today for Bharatmata is a goddess concept of Bengali origin. The word Bharatmata become an emotional shouting slogan and art work from the freedom struggle period onwards and not before.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1882 novel Anand Math contained the hymn to the motherland, promoted the Idea of Mother India with emotional fervor. Abanindranath Tagore painted his iconic Bharat Mata, a woman in saffron robes, with a serene face and halo around her head, beads and scriptures in her hands. Sri Aurobindo followed the footstep of Bakim Chandra and wrote emotional article on the ancient mother, that is “striving to be reborn, striving with agony and tears”.

A major enunciation of the Mother India concept came from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya when he wrote, “The foundation of our nationalism is Bharat Mata” . He further continue, “Remove Mata, Bharat will be reduced to just a piece of land”. He, then, paraphrased what Bankim Chandra had written nearly a century ago, and elaborated on the notion of Mother India as a woman having the characteristics of Sujala, Suphala (overflowing with water and laden with fruits) and Dashapraharana Dharini Durga (Goddess Durga with her 10 weapons), Lakshmi and Saraswati.