Brilliance or Madness?

Brilliance gone awry or a moment of blind rage, the FIFA World Cup final between France and Italy will be remembered for one moment of insanity: when Zinedine Zidane took matters into his own hands, or head, and butted Marco Matterazi full on in the gut. Since this was going to be Zidane's last stab at glory, he would have wanted a grand flourish before the exit. So, what propmted the gifted French wizard to throw it all away in a fit of blind rage? Did the Italian taunt his mother of having loose morals or make a racist comment while the two were jostling for the ball? We don't know, yet, but sledging is quite common in sports. But if it was indeed the slur about Zidane's mother that made him lose his rag it is to be understood in a certain cultural context.

The 'mother' is a venerated figure in certain cultures and you insult her at your own peril. I had my own 'zidane moment' four years ago, ironically on the eve of the FIFA World Cup 2002. I was backpacking with Sagar, a good but eccentric friend in Kerala. He was shooting a documentary and I was tagging along, being the spot boy, camera assistant, bag carrier, odd jobs man and dumping ground all rolled in one. One evening in Thrissur, we went to see a late night movie. It was a tamil language potboiler with racy dances and a steamy siren. Walking back to our hotel after the movie, me cheesed off and Sagar thoughfully animated, the two of us argued about the merits of the movie. The argument was along the lines of 'art' cinema Vs. kitsch. the conversation meandered dangerously to the personal and at some point I made a comment, I forget exactly I said, about Sagar's mother. It wasn't in an insulting vein, more like a matter of fact statement. Since Sagar was quite a radical I thought he would be able to take the comment. how wrong I was. The next instant I was hit by a verbal tirade with the intensity of a nuclear blast. That was the end of the fragile peace that had held since the trip started. The remaining days were spent in spiteful acrimony and we parted ways on a bad note.

It is a big deal in India to insult someone's mother. Specially considering the fact that most Indian males deify their mothers, the sacred space around the mother-figure is indeed to be carefully trod; one misstep could land you in some very hot water. The mother-figure is glorified in Indian popular culture. Think of films like Mother India (1951); then there is that cathartic scene in a Rajesh Khanna-Amitabh Bacchan movie (i forget which one) where khanna declares emotionally 'mere paas maa hai' in reply to Amitabh's taunts about his poverty.

The deification of the mother is in keeping with the 'virgin-whore' dichotomy that characterises gender norms. On the one hand women are elevated to perfect role models in the form of loving, caring mothers. But they are also cast as immoral sluts and voluptuous vamps with loose morals. This dichotomy is puzzling. There are cultural and religious traditions in India that celebrate both manifestations of the feminine: The grand durga pooja festivities of Bengal elevate the feminine to the status of benevolent protector. The malevolent form, in the shape of the dreaded kali with her voluptuous dance of death and garland of male skulls, is just out of the range of vision, but forever lurking at the back of the mind.