2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
obtain the support of both while staving off 'unmanageable' peasant militancy.
Anshu Malhotra takes up Dayanand Saraswati's Satyartha Prakash to explore the construction of the 'new traditional-moral' woman—the 'Mother India'—in the 1890s. Focusing on Punjabi society she delineates how this reinforced patriarchal control, though at the same time offering a limited space for women's education, their politicisation and an improvement of the condition of widows. The Arya Samaj movement drew upon this imagery. Moreover, this role model served as a counter to the 'western woman', and became a symbol of a community and the 'nation'.