Character of Anandamoyi as Mother India personified.

Whenever we contemplate over the female characters of Tagore’s ‘magnum opus’ Gora, Anandamoyi, the
‘mother’ of the protagonist, who confined herself not only to home and yet with a liberated outlook ready to
break the shackles of dogma, begin to lurk in our mind. Anandamoyi appears in the novel right from the third
chapter to the last epilogue of the novel. The hero of the novel, Gora was very influenced by her mother,
Anandamoyi. At the end of the novel when he comes to know that he is not the real son of Anandamoyi, his
mind changes but never gives up his maternal love and affection for Anandamoyi. In the epilogue Tagore says
that Gora, even after revelation of his real identity regards Anandamoyi as his mother. He says, “Mother, you
are my mother, the mother whom I have been wandering about in search of was all the time sitting in my
room at home. You have no caste, you make no distinctions, and have no hatred – you are only the image of
our welfare! It is you who are India.”

Anandamoyi, the truly blissful one becomes the centre of humanity. She tries her best in every way to make
Gora’s life in that family, where he was merely on sufferance, as comfortable as possible. She felt that the
whole burden of love rested on her alone. It had always been her habit to adjust all her anxieties silently
within herself. But for Anandamoyi, love gave the strength to progress ahead. Binoy remains astonished when
he realizes that Anandamoyi was far off from his usual expectations. Boney gets shocked to hear the advanced
opinion of marriage from Anandamoyi, who feels that marriage is a matter of harts and that not of opinions.

Anandamoyi is not a docile woman. She is such an independent person and staunch individualist that she does
not follow any of her husband’s religious fads. She does not think it inconsistent to lead a life different from
that of her husband and at the same time serve him and her child. Annadamoyi shows the same love, affection
and concern for Binoy that she does for Gora. She understands like a mother all the subtle workings of Binoy’s
mind. She does not hesitate even to oppose Gora in her support for Binoy’s marriage. Binoy too has great
regard, love and devotion for Anandamoyi. He wishes to return to God all his learning and knowledge to take
refuge in her lap, and become a child once again. He tells Sucharita that he is prepared to die young if only
Anandamoyi, who knows his drawbacks and virtues, writes his biography. In short she is “the image of all the
mothers in the world” for Binoy. The fiery, dashing and rebellious Lolita, at her first meeting with Annadamoyi
is overwhelmed by the latter’s compassion and affection. Her troubled mind finds peace and solace in
Anandamoyi’s company. She confesses to Anandamoyi that on seeing her she learns.

Anandamoyi’s relationship with her son is not an ordinary one, commonly found between and mother and
son. Her faith that Gora is a consecrated child born to fulfill something great gives her strength to break away
from the traditions and oppose the whole society. Her great confidence in Gora’s mission in life makes her
believe that he is not a coward to allow any man-made laws to stand in the way of what he feels to be right.
Rationality in Anandamoyi saves her from becoming a blind mother who knows only to love the child, but
never to criticize. Her love is critical and therefore she is not blind to Gora’s drawbacks. She warns him about
his religious fanaticism, and never accepts his dogmatic religious view. A comparison of Anandamoyi with
Paresh Babu enables us to understand her better. Both have a secular and liberal outlook and sympathetic
understanding of the people they come into contact with in life. They have clear thinking, unperturbed minds
and are free from fanaticism. Both acts as philosopher and guide to their respective wards. Both are
humanists.

The difference between Paresh Babu and Anandamoyi lies in the way they realize the unity of humanity. The
former realizes it through his intellect and the latter by her heart. Anandamoyi’s liberal attitude is the result of
her adoption of Gora but Paresh Babu has no such emotional experience. Anandamoyi in contract to Paresh
Babu is ‘intensely alive’. Anandamoyi is unique and the noblest creation in the galaxy of Tagore’s women
characters. In her non-sectarian and liberal outlook, pervasive love and sympathetic understanding,
Anandamoyi is ‘nearer to Tagore’s vision of life’ and a unified symbol of humanity. No other character is
endowed with the same culture, enlightened mind and advanced views on life and marriage. Anandamoyi
discards the heritage of seven generations of tradition and chooses to be an outcaste only to adopt Gora. The
adoption of Gora of Gora is the crux of the novel and the soul shattering experience that shakes the
foundations of her beliefs and puts her in the realms of a new religion.
Anandamoyi, the daughter of a learned Benares scholar, discards "the traditions of seven generations" and
chooses to be an outcast in her on house for her love of Gora whom being childless, she regards as a God's gift
to her. Without succumbing to the blandishments of Gora, she assumes the responsibility for Binoy's marriage
to Lolita which is objected to by the rigidly sectarian Brahmas as well. Her defence of the marriage gives an
indication of her enlightened mind, free from all vestiges of communal bigotry and religious intolerance:
‘... Marriage is a matter of hearts coming together- if that happened, what matters it what mantras are recited?
.... There is no caste in men's hearts- there God brings men together and there He Himself comes to them. Will it
ever do to keep Him at a distance and leave the duty of uniting men to creeds and forms?’
Anandamoyi, an idealized character, stands isolated in her family and exemplifies the ideals which Gora comes
to cherish towards the end of novel, the distinction between the two being that the former has gained the
breadth of vision by his intellect and the latter through the warmth of her heart. Her husband is like many
"forward" thinking Bengali youth who catered their intellect and loyalty to the services of their English
masters. Although her transformation into the magnanimous human persona is not dealt with in much detail
in the novel, the change is something, modern feminists would praise. Normally the last name of the Indian
woman changes in a marriage, and she is bogged down further in the family matters. She has to satisfy herself
with the little man oblige her with. But in Gora, Anandamoyi is shown as raising an Irish-British orphan as her
own child. Even though she is not his biological mother, she holds herself strong amidst societal pressures and
shunning to raise Gora as a child as a part of her own family. This is one of the first individualistic traits
depicted in Anandamoyi. As Binoy discovers very early in the novel, Anandamoyi is the "face ... of his
motherland". He is able to differentiate between Sucharita, a girl he has affection for, and Anandamoyi who is
his "Ma" - for both of whom he has respect and admiration.

Anandamoyi is a noble hearted woman who did not want to get into verbose argumentation on which was the
right path, but one who desired to enhance and enrich our growth as 'human beings', without which religions,
societies, customs, ideologies- with all progressive or reactionary ideas - can become a terrible bondage. The
freedom that she had accorded to Gora, and the ease with which she was shown to be able to assimilate the
others who came in her life-story added to her weakness for the nobility and gentility in Binoy's approach. All
her actions bore testimony to this fact. In Tagore's depiction of Anandamoyi's womanhood, there is no
disrespect or denial of religion, but a profound and unspoken protest against what people themselves often
make out religions to be. Buddhadev Bose in Rabindra: katha Sahitya remarks that Anandamoyi’s character is
full of life and vitality and is not repeated by Tagore in any of his writings for second time. Thus, we can
conclude by saying that Tagore’s delineation of the character of Anandomoyi is truly a Mother India
personified.