Of Didacticism and Decapitations: The Mother-in-Law/Daughter-in-Law Relationship in North Indian Women's Folk Songs

Abstract This essay explores the representation of the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law (saas/bahu) relationship in women's folk songs from rural north India, focusing on songs in the Hindi vernacular from western Uttar Pradesh. The essay argues that these songs juxtapose conservative themes, emphasized in songs viewed from the mother-in-law character's perspective, with themes of liberation, highlighted in songs from the daughter-in-law character's perspective. Underlined by shared joviality, the performance of these songs by an undifferentiated collective of women signals a connection that is created by the performance itself.