The Cultural Background

IT IS EXTREMELY difficult for a Westerner to understand the events of "Devi" without an introduction to the historical and cultural setting in which the events take place. The internal and external struggles which so profoundly affect the equilibrium and destiny of the characters intertwined in the story are determined by factors originating in the Hindu religion, in the India of that particular time in history, and in the winds of social change at that time.

The story takes place in Bengal about a century ago, when Romo Han Roy founded a movement of religious reform, based upon scientific enlightenment, that particularly opposed traditions by which a father wielded total, irrational authority over the family. The setting is a wealthy household, whose members live in striking contrast to thousands of hungry ill-clad poor who come to worship the new goddess. The story symbolizes the power of religion over rich and poor alike, owing to lack of education, submissiveness to tradition and superstition, and fear of divine reprisal for opposition to religious rules and traditions.

The film reveals the primitive state of medical care at the time in rural India, the local doctors' own sense of the inadequacy of the means at their disposal, and their fear of opposing the popular belief in the healing powers of the goddess Kali.

The lines of worshippers who come to see the new goddess include chronically ill of all types, blind, lame, amputated, infected, debilitated; obviously, they are inadequately cared for by local medical facilities. Like many rural populations under such conditions, they lived in dread of disease, and clung tenaciously to a religion that promised them some hope of cure or relief. The film not so subtly shows the inability of religion to deal with physical illness, which in this case appears to be the dreaded cholera.

At the time of the "Devi" story, English was regarded in Han Roy's reform circles as the essential tool for acquiring the new rational sci