About Us: http://www.the-criterion.

com/about/
Archive: http://www.the-criterion.com/archive/
Contact Us: http://www.the-criterion.com/contact/
Editorial Board: http://www.the-criterion.com/editorial-board/
Submission: http://www.the-criterion.com/submission/
FAQ: http://www.the-criterion.com/fa/

ISSN 2278-9529

Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

www.galaxyimrj.com

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

Indias Daughter: A Study of Sania Mirzas Iconicity in the Sphere of

Gendered Nationalism
Navchetan Benipal
Research Scholar,
Department of English& Cultural Studies,
Panjab University, Chandigarh
The story of an average Indian sportswoman often struggles to materialize into heroic
tales of achievement, rarely making its way into annals of history. Sport does not fit the cultural
role play, traditionally associated with Indian women and as a result, women sporting role
models are a rarity. Culturally, sport signifies agency, control over ones body and strength; the
traditional dynamics of masculinity, which help preserve the gender power relationship in favor
of men in the society. Thus, to keep social institutions such as sport, within the parameters of the
patriarchal world order, women are subaltern-ised.
The present paper explores the media narrativised iconicity i of Indian lawn tennis player Sania
Mirza which is mainly structured along the discourses of gendered nationalism. The iconicity
will be examined to bring forth elements of subordinate gender role play assigned to female
sports achievers in the realm of national sporting representation.
Nationalism is a way of thinking and speaking about the self in relation to the world, and in
the wake of an evidently globalised scenario, it is created through performances which invoke
references to the imaginary sentiment of belongingness to a nation. Sport offers the theatrics of
nationalism on everyday basis. Owing to the popularity of sporting events in the public spheres
of the society, exhibition/creation of nationalism in it, gains validity of an authentic tenor.
Different institutions of the society are bound and interconnected by the ideological thread that
makes them operate in the manner suited to the dominion. Most naturally, the dominant
ideologies all over the world are shaped and protected by the agencies controlling the political
representation of the masses i.e. the state, the government and which principally operate the
collective identification i.e. the nation.
Ranging from magnanimous military operations during wartime to watching ones countrymen
representing the nation in sports on the television, all contribute to creation and performing the
idea of nation-hood. In a fast shrinking world, where, All human beings are characterized by a
multiplicity of identities of which nationality is only one.(Barmier 185), the idea of nationalism
is brought out through simulated battle fields like the sports arenas. The world of sport, replete
with its characteristics of narrativising physical engagements, heroes and hero-worshipping and
history of record keeping, conjures affinity of the viewer not towards the sport, but rather
towards the practitioner who depicts the ideal associated with the sport and the society, in
general. Sporting heroes are idolized for being authentic performers. The authenticity of
performance resonates with the viewer in terms of the higher ideals of living, which find
expression on the field of sports. Thus sporting heroes are glorified on the societal podium. They
are inevitably termed as national heroes owing to the amount of sentimental value sport
occupies in the nation building discourse.

Vol. 6, Issue. V

076

October 2015

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

National heroes personify the spirit of a nation, but more precisely they represent the cultural
schema of a particular territory. The space called national heroes has traditionally been occupied
by men or as Anne Mclintok declares, nationalism is gendered (1). Indian women have always
been relegated to the private space of home in the process of nation building, throughout the
times of the freedom struggle of the country, the era when the notion of India as a nation,
germinated in the public sphere. The association of women with the metaphorical label of being
the mother of the nation exemplifies the degree of involvement allowed as an agent in the
workings of Indian society. This trend continues till date. Any exemplary achievement by a
woman in India is grounded in traditional markers defining women in relation to men and their
label as such in the cultural context. Contemporary global achievers in the field of sports like
Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom are often branded as daughters of the nation;
pointing towards the space they are allowed in accordance with patriarchy in the societal order.
The concept of nationalism in its acceptance and validation of the gender power relations
accords agency and ownership to men, while subordinating women in the patriarchal structure,
devoid of any freedom of identity. Anne McClintok articulates this relationship as, All nations
depend on powerful constructions of gender. Despite nationalisms ideological investment in the
idea of popular unity, nations have historically amounted to the sanctioned institutionalization of
gender difference. (61) Relegating the accomplishment of a woman athlete in the domain of
patriarchal label-ism, claims the cultural disassociation of gender inability connected with
woman as such.
The Indian sporting scenario has traditionally seen only male sporting heroes. This does not
imply that India never had women athletes. Owing to the ethos of a conservative patriarchal
society, women sporting icons were never portrayed as demi- goddesses invoking fan
following/worshipping. Back in 1959, Indian swimmer Aarti Saha became the first Indian and
Asian woman to swim across the English Channel. Kamaljit Sandhu became the first Indian
woman to win a gold medal in the 1970 Asian Games. P.T.Usha , often hailed as the best woman
track and field athlete of India, held several records during her career time was considered
Indias best bet at the 1984 Olympic games. Karnam Malleshwari was the first Indian woman to
win an Olympic Bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in weightlifting. Apart from these
women, Indian women sporting scenario has seen a galaxy of players such as Anju Bobby
George, Nirupama Vaidyanathan, Anjali Bhagwat, Aparna Popat, Neelam Jaswant Singh. None
of the above mentioned women have experienced such national/international recognition and
fame as the tennis player Sania Mirza, who is currently the most recognized woman sports
celebrity in India. How did Sania become a national asset, a media sensation with a pan Indian
identity, with a trajectory of iconic influence not experienced by any Indian woman athlete prior
to her? A good contrast can be drawn from how media inattention on athletes prior to Sania
Mirza speaks of their non-existence cultural space in the society.
The foremost reason considered for this unoccupied women sports icon space in the Indian
context is the highly conservative patriarchal philosophy which clearly places the position of
women outside any structural agency. Post World War 2, the rise of capitalism and growing
feminist movements for greater equity for women, resulted in greater participation and
representation of women in the public sphere, accompanied by shifting of labor oriented
industrial set up towards a more service oriented edifice(Messner 201). This resulted in more

Vol. 6, Issue. V

077

October 2015

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

commercial visibility for film stars, sports stars and political leaders. While India had a taste of
national icons in the field of politics and cinema such as Indira Gandhi, the field of sport, with its
obvious disregard for traditional feminity, inherent in its form and content, had not seen an
acknowledged woman icon. It is only during the last decade of the 20th century, Indian socioeconomic edifice realizing the potential and requirement of women sports icons, decided to cheer
its sportswomen.
The era that followed the economic reforms and free trade period all over the world, led to a
post liberalization capitalistic age that demanded expansion in terms of markets for huger profits.
Naturally a need for women role models was created to draw the large section of society
comprising majority of women. Free trade and exorbitant expansion of media forms, led to
search for capitalistically untapped regions of the globe. Globalization squeezed the world
together, not just in terms of travel and communication; it also engulfed the entire world under
the capitalistic cloak. Traditionally, the iconicity of women in India was portrayed in the form
of sculptures, paintings, Sanskrit poetry, and in the invoking of Bharat Mata. Women were
idealized, eroticized, romanticized and nationalized intensely for the patriarchal gaze; denying
any agency to their bodies and lives. Post modern capitalism treats women icons as commercial
assets, who are to be celebrated and only allowed freedom within the patriarchal parameters. As
Messner cites, clearly, this emergent tendency of women attempting to control and define their
lives and bodies is being shaped within the existing hegemonic definitions of feminity. (204)
Thus, one sportswoman who can lay claim to the vacant woman sports icon space in the Indian
sporting scenario is Sania Mirza. She has purportedly been treated as hot property by the Indian
media ever since she first dived into the collective imagination of the nationalistic sentiments of
the country, by winning the junior doubles Wimbledon championship in the girls category in
2003. The media took upon itself the creation of the Sania Mania, ushering the media darling
phenomenon in the Indian fanfare order, even when she wasnt bringing home the desired
Grand Slams. Sania became the perfect poster girl for paparazzi storytelling, for here was a
woman playing sport while looking good doing that along with endorsing her middle class
Muslim dreams, above all musing to the omnipresent male gaze in terms of her appearance on
and off the field. This media devised iconicity pitches to sell the notion of a modern woman,
travelling the world, pursuing the career woman dream, dolled up to perfection where her Islamic
way of life, supposedly does not interfere with her status. This icon building exercise in Mirzas
case broadcasts the notion that sport is outside the caste, religion, race rigmarole and supersedes
any such division, which is not the case otherwise. Such simulations of the icon are created to
satiate the masses with the ideas of modernity and progress, where in the self and the other get
lost.
Blame it on more conventionalized patriarchy or described lack of interest in female sports,
Indian culture has never given space to a woman sporting hero. Like all other avenues of cultural
importance, the domain of sporting heroism was characteristically male dominated. Few names
such as P.T.Usha, Shiny Wilson, Kamajit Sandhu, Karnam Malleshwari, N. Kunjurani, Anju
Bobby George, have appeared in record books or newspapers primarily, but never occupied the
idolized figurine inside the nations consciousness, though their achievements rival that of their
male counterparts in terms of platonic comparisons, ranging from an Olympic Bronze medalist to
that of an Asian Games Gold medal winner. The post liberalization influx of mass media has in

Vol. 6, Issue. V

078

October 2015

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

its varied-ness, also given a-hard-to-miss representation to women athletes, who might not hog
the front page, but ooze out of the cracks of one social media platform or the other. This process
of oozing out of varied media platforms has one distinct advantage in terms of the positioning of
these icons- they may not get the depth of coverage, but they certainly get expansive exposure .
Icons like Sania Mirza have been celebrated and promoted by the commercialized media under
terms and conditions of patriarchal feminity suiting the institutional hegemony, i.e. the nation.
Any attempt to rebel against such circumstances is met with warnings from the patriarchal
institutions. Sania Mirza was reprimanded by India Muslim clerics and duly issued a fatwa
(an Islamic legal pronouncement), for wearing inappropriate costume, i.e. a short skirt, while
playing Tennis matches. Clerics termed her outfit as indecent and suggested that she wear long
tunics to cover herself, else she would not be allowed to play. These commandments reek of
typical hegemony that men exercise over the life and body of a woman. A sportswoman clearly
is no exception to this rule.
Sania Mirzas rise towards stardom has had many nonchalant elements pointing towards the
shrewdness of ideological agencies at ploy, which include both capitalism and the nation at the
helm of affairs. The relationship between icons and nationhood actually absorbs the cultural
merits and affiliations held in esteem by any particular society, and project the same as a market
value. Thus sportswomen endorsing brands typically associated with the common woman in
India signifies the patriarchal value placed upon women achievers, by methodically planting
them in the ambit of traditionalism. Sania Mirza is an icon by her projected upliftment out of the
ordinary heap, coronating her to be the effectual head of the masses, but only through a method,
still putrid of her traditional patriarchal roots. She is spoken of highly in terms of imagery of an
Indian woman, panning over all the multi-layered structure of her identity, which superficially
creates iconism that, reaches out and in theory affects all other women in India. The actuality of
her identity bears various layers which complicate and problematise the understanding of her
iconicity from a research point of view. What role does her being a Muslim woman play in her
representation? What is the repercussion of being an Indian Muslim woman in the arena of
iconicity of sportswoman? How does an elitist sport like Lawn Tennis, utilize the representation
of an Indian Muslim woman as means of brand building and to whom does this brand cater to?
All these threads of Sanias identity lead to the understanding of her iconicity in the
particularities of her individuality embedded in the discourse of the nation.
The nation, through the State makes an investment in icons like Sania Mirza to bear its idolized
cultural codes, upheld through soft hegemony, which is translated through capitalistic practices.
The investment made in a state sponsored icon in terms of cultural codes and practices, such that
they bear secured returns in the future to the investors is what Pierre Bourdieu called as the
cultural capital(n.pag.). The sports icons are primarily carriers of dominant ideologies in our
society, though they are presented in a commoditized set up, more so as brands, keeping in mind
the capitalistic mode of production, where profit making is the cornerstone of every bargain. The
practice of iconisation hereby implies the process of politics of capitalism in the
commercialization of ethics, values, virtues, material goods, labor, and codes of cultural
identities suiting the agenda of the dominant, which are consumed by the populace. Thus
national icons like Mirza create the need of identification of the populace with the dominant
thinking and way to life, making them mediators of cultural exchange. They are the grounds on

Vol. 6, Issue. V

079

October 2015

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

which the cultural bargaining takes place, whether it is directly through the products they
endorse in the commercial set up by becoming ambassadors of various market products or
through giving support to the various policies and programs of the government- state agenda.
Sania Mirza symbolizes the coming of age of the developing nation woman consumerism. The
concept of the nation obliges to the economic mode of production of its society, drawing upon
a conflux of these two value systems. Modern icons, such as Sania represent this merged value
system in their inception which includes ideologies of institutions such as the media, the nation
and capitalism. The overlooked sections of the society all over the world are the new
representatives of post structural capitalism, massi-fying the marginalized through the bubble
of globalization. This massification also involved opening up or shifting of cultural locations
from traditional bastions of operations a.k.a the first world countries, to newer and relatively less
explored markets of the third world/marginalized nations. The others, so as to say, were readied
to work up their way to the centre. The idea of this incorporation-al shift was purely capitalistic,
opening up markets for expansion of profit margins. The opening up of larger avenues for
capitalistic investments coerced the media to play a more localized role, incorporating local
human resources as well. Thus the media has been manipulated-from a medium of
communication, a tool for dissemination of information, it turned into an instrument of coercive
cultural politics. Post 90s, the invasion of media into every household of India, resulted in
proliferation of capitalistic ideals profoundly into the societys representational and
identification-al structure. Thus, it was predominant upon the media to create, sell, circulate and
sustain the self and the other.
So how does a nation capitalize on its sporting icons, and more pointedly female sporting
icons? Do they become beacons of emancipation of women in the society or does their
empowerment behold any importance and effect on the woman populace in general? Most
importantly does this emancipation (if at all, there is any) signify the way women are looked at
and represented in and by the society? Keeping these questions in view, the case study of Sania
Mirza reveals certain viewpoints and counter viewpoints in creation of women sporting icon as a
political/national pursuit.
Sania Mirzas iconicity embodies the attitude of the two most significant and powerful social
institutions i.e. the state and the media, have towards the representation of women athletes in
general. Sanias case is also relevant to the study of the position of sportswomen at the nexus of
multiplicity of identities in the wake of globalised capitalism. (Barmier 185) Often, in a nation as
diverse as India, the representation of icons is made to acquire a pan-Indian appeal, which
actually points towards the pursuit of political interests of the capitalistic-state collaboration
towards preserving the dregs of nationalism in the effect of globalization. Thus the investigation
of the particularity of Sanias representational grid, will lead to a better understanding of
situation of women sports icons in the context of modern world order, especially in nations
situated on the lower rungs of this hierarchy.
Sania Mirzas iconicity is manifested in the various roles she performs at the behest of being a
public figure. The majority of her off court appearances being those of a brand ambassador for
various commercial products, pointing unabashedly towards the commercial angle of her status
in selling products and through them advertising, commercial ideologies. Speaking of utilizing

Vol. 6, Issue. V

080

October 2015

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

her iconic status as a sportswomen, Sania sells products, services and through them, dominant
global capitalist ideologies. Tracing this development back to the 1920s, Messner, quoting
Twin, says,
The commercialization of womens bodies provided a cultural opening for competitive
athletes, as industry and ambitious individuals used women to sell sports. Leo Seltzer included women in
his 1935 invention, roller derby, with one eye to beauty and other on gate receipts, according to one
writer. While womens physical marketability profited industry, it also allowed females to do more with
their bodies than before. (1979)

The venturing out of the visibility and plurality of participation of the athlete provides
buoyancy to the idea of contemporary hyperlinked iconicity. Thus the iconicity is multi
dimensional, founding on the field of merit, but not depending entirely upon it for recognition
and progress. The generation and re-generation of visibility, accounts for the most specific part
of contemporary iconicity, making the icon identifiable to the masses in their most basic terms of
involvement with the world around them i.e. through the imagery in television print media and of
late, the digital media. This also points towards the personal economics of the icon. The money
that endorsements and social appearances brings in, serves as a sponsorship for the lifestyle these
icons afford, as well as taking care of the expenses of training and travelling, equipment and
gears in an elite sport like Lawn Tennis. Sania Mirzas iconicity has indeed brought an assured
economic independence and made her a suitable spokesperson on social issues. Her iconicity is
exclusive to her own identity, such that its effects do not penetrate the causes or condition of
Indian women or even women from the Muslim community. This exclusive iconicity does not
make her a rallying point for any change in terms of the social, economic, or political condition
of the women, who need breaking of stereotypes associated with their capacity in the society.
Sania Mirzas iconicity is undeniably weaved along the fabric of national, patriotism and
heroism (all components of global capitalism) grandeur with persistent yet subtle undercurrents
of capitalism. The political economy backing the creation of Sanias icon status, involves a close
coordinated working of the state and the media echelons enmeshed in capitalistic ventures.
Nationalism and capitalism operate under the same hegemonic structure, exercising control
through similar ethos of gender relations, evidently upholding the edifice of patriarchy. Women
sporting icons are treated along the set ideals of feminity to make them appear less threatening to
the ideology of hyper masculinity in the field of sports, but the only silver lining which comes
along as representation in the domain of capitalism is, these icons can boast of a sense of
economic freedom, but only in the garb of structured representation.
To conclude, Sania Mirza as a brand owes its creation and sustenance to the media interest in
floating her iconicity in the tabloids and the advertising world. In the sphere of any
acknowledgment in terms of being a meritorious sportswoman, Sania Mirza is time and again
superseded by attribution to her gender that ascribes patriarchal leanings to her identity in the
representational politics of the nation.

Vol. 6, Issue. V

081

October 2015

www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

Works Cited:
Barmier, Alan. Sports, Nationalism and Globalisation. New York: New York Press, 2001. Print.
Bourdieu, P. (1977a). 'Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction'. In Karabel, 1. and
Halsey, A. H., eds, Power and Ideology in Education. OUP, Oxford.
McClintock, Anne. 1993. Family feuds: Gender, nationalism and the family. Feminist
Review 44, (Summer): 61.
Messner, M., Duncan, M., & Cooky, C. Silence, Sports Bras, and Wrestling Porn: Women in
Televised Sports News and Highlights Shows. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 2003.Print.
i

Iconicity here refers to the process of icon making, collectively shaped by the media and capitalist ideogies.

Vol. 6, Issue. V

082

October 2015