The Backstage of Faith: Dr. Amrita Nandy on Religious Norms, Motherhood, and Justice

• Dr. Amrita Nandy, a distinguished author and academic focusing on gender, spirituality, human rights, and culture, discusses how gender and religion can together offer inner and outer liberation.
• She explains how religious norms shape motherhood, among much else, and uphold patriarchal structures within society.
• Dr. Nandy emphasises the need for participatory, non-judgemental feminist approaches to engage critically with faith and spirituality.

Introduction

In this conversation with Disha Arora, founder of Faith Futures Collective, Dr. Amrita Nandy, a distinguished scholar, writer, and activist focusing on gender, spirituality, human rights, and culture, reflects on how lived experiences shaped her understanding of justice and the spiritual, how faith became both a site of questioning and resolution, and how feminism offers a powerful lens to unpack the deeply embedded patriarchal structures within religious institutions.

Dr. Nandy, your work bridges academic research, grassroots activism, and writing. How has your personal journey influenced the way you approach questions of faith, gender, and justice?

My personal journey has opened – rather, broken open – a door or two to a richer understanding of gender. Gender led me to justice, not just theoretically, though theory is shaped by our experiences and surroundings, but through first-hand encounters with discrimination and violations. One does not need to go far to witness gender injustice; it is evident in our own lives, in the lives of women around us, in daily news, and in historical and legal critiques.

While academia helped me understand the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of gender, it did not necessarily help me navigate my own suffering or uncertainties. Despite working within progressive human rights spaces, I, like many others, continued to seek resolution. That search led me to faith. Faith (spirituality), for me, is experiential, rational, and scientific and not a supernatural dogma. I like how someone defined faith as a bridge between the smaller self and the higher self, and that crossing from the smaller to the higher self is faith. This understanding of faith eventually led me to Buddhism. It became my gateway into a spiritual space, a place where I sought answers about myself and the world.

In spiritual traditions, gender may not be seen as an obstacle on the path to realisation or awakening. However, these journeys are often shaped by institutions, gurus, or teachers who inevitably perceive individuals through the lens of gender and its associated norms. As a result, gender remains a relevant and sometimes challenging aspect of the experience.

Although your question was about my personal journey, the personal is always deeply intertwined with what is considered impersonal or public. We are continuously influenced by the voices of writers, intellectuals, artists, stand-up comedians, and those who speak with love, kindness, compassion, and even humour.

Much of your work has focused on motherhood. We have seen how religious norms around motherhood influence women’s reproductive choices for centuries. In your work, what kind of influence have you seen of religious norms around motherhood? Beyond the binary of choosing or not choosing motherhood, how do these norms shape the experience of motherhood itself?

Religion wields immense moral authority, shaping multiple aspects of believers’ lives. Gender is the pillar of religious projects. It is very central to the social unit, the family. Family is the key to religion and its propagation. 

What would happen if women freed themselves from traditional caregiving roles that societies and religion have assigned to them? 

What if men and women from across faiths marry? 

These shifts would take apart the foundations of religious institutions, and this is how, for example, religious norms around motherhood influence women’s reproductive choices. Religion and motherhood are deeply embedded in each other.

One of the most powerful norms that shapes women’s reproductive choices is procreation, and this explains why religious leaders today want women to have more children and to uphold their religious identity. The eugenic undertones of such rhetoric are deeply troubling, as history has shown us with Nazi Germany. The Hindu right-wing continues to base these eugenic arguments supposedly on sacred texts. Women are then co-opted into this xenophobic agenda, in India and elsewhere.

Religion and its interlocutors ask women to multiply, and they also endorse heteronormativity. For example, the only acceptable route to procreation and good motherhood must take place within the ‘right’ marriage, in the ‘right’ caste and faith of the partners. You see how marriage, and therefore motherhood, and therefore the family, uphold deeply sexist, patriarchal, oppressive, and deeply divisive markers of our lives. It upholds the sexual division of labour, and caste-based societies and so on.

Motherhood can be an instrument in the toolbox of patriarchal, divisive religion. Religion has been accorded such a high moral stature by its guardians and gatekeepers that those of us who do not walk its talk are censured publicly. 

The central task of feminism is to take us backstage of social structures and systems such as religion and gender. It exposes the organising principles and norms of religion, the entire playbook of religion, caste and the gender hierarchy. Once you see through the religious and gender protocol, once you have seen the screen behind the movie, you cannot unsee it. You cannot unsee the difference between the movie and the screen, and then you realise that the movie’s picture and the screen are not the same. This is how feminism can help you to come to a position of wisdom, a position of greater control and less vulnerability.

I love the idea of the ‘backstage of religion’. It creates such a powerful visual.

Absolutely. All sorts of constructs, be it gender, religion or even our personal identities, have a backstage. Right now, I am projecting certain perceptions and beliefs to you, and you are doing the same. But there is always a foreground and a background to every phenomenon, including the self and or institution. We tend to make human lives so complex with our own delusions.

Such a wonderful insight! In my documentary Women and Religion in India, I explored how different religious traditions impact women’s constitutional rights. One thing I realised is that, as patriarchal as religious systems are, it is very hard to say that completely breaking the system would be the ultimate liberation. For example, in the Sabarimala ban, there was an argument that if women stopped trying to go to the temple, their income would reduce, and they would let anybody in if there was economic pressure. Is there room for us to look at religious scriptures through a feminist lens, especially in traditions that uphold patriarchal structures? What methodologies would you recommend for studying religious texts from a feminist perspective?

Yes, of course, religious scripture can be and has been successfully studied via the feminist lens. There is much learning to be had there. Reading feminist critics of religion, conventions, and traditions has sparked discussions and insights on gender, sexuality, and power vis-à-vis religion and spirituality and the institutions connected to both. At the same time, we need a feminism that is engaging, open to all, and non-judgmental of people of faith.

You mentioned feminist critics. Would you recommend any references for readers interested in exploring these intersections further?

Feminist scholars have made valuable contributions to the critical study of faith and spirituality. Much of this work has emerged from the West, focusing on the history, political economy and gendered hierarchies of religion. Within the subcontinent, scholars like Uma Chakravarti and Tanika Sarkar have been instrumental. One of the most compelling voices is Lata Mani. Her work seamlessly bridges feminism and spirituality without compromising progressive ideals.

In today’s polarised world, feminist engagement with faith is difficult. Many feminists with spiritual leanings remain closeted, fearing rejection from both progressive and religious circles. The conflation of religion and spirituality only exacerbates this. It is critical that we create spaces where such conversations can unfold without fear.

Beautiful thought, Amrita. We live in a polarised world where the moment we see a difference, we judge and shut people out. The ‘us versus them’ narrative is everywhere.

Absolutely. People get labelled and boxed into silos. One side will say, ‘You are not religious enough.’ The other side will say, ‘You are not really Hindu, you are left-leaning.’ Meanwhile, left-leaning circles might say, ‘I thought you were one of us, but you seem to have right-leaning views.’ Just like that, you get pushed out from both sides.

Religion and spirituality are not the same. Spirituality aligns so naturally with progressive ideas, but people are conditioned to see it otherwise.

I was raised by a father who was a Marxist, deeply sceptical of anything religious. I grew up seeing religion as ‘the opium of the masses.’ Over time, I met people who found meaning in Hindu beliefs and practices. They would discuss their faith in private but never go on record about it, fearing they would be cancelled by friends and colleagues.

Honestly, who has the time and energy to constantly explain themselves? Who will understand that we do not have to fit into these binaries, these artificial polarities?

Thank you so much for this conversation, Amrita.

Thank you, Disha.