Bodies of Water: Hydrofeminist Perspectives on Gender, Religion, and Social Exclusion in Deepa Mehta’s Water

This paper adopts hydrofeminist theory to analyze Deepa Mehta’s film Water (2005), exploring the intersection of gender, religion, and social exclusion. Embedded in Astrida Neimanis’ concept of hydrofeminism, it positions water as both a material and metaphorical concept that structures and designs social identities and cultural structures. The film portrays the predicament of Hindu widows in 1930s India, presenting how water signifies both life-giving and oppressive elements. It presents itself both as a juncture of purification, and salvation, and a framework of socio-religious control, interacting with boundaries of purity and power that restrict women’s agency. The Ganges River embodies and exhibits these dualities, demonstrating Neimanis’ idea that water holds both redemption and regulatory potential. By emphasizing the relationship between water, gender, caste, and religion, this paper critiques cultural dictates and ideologies that impose female subjugation and explicates water as a metaphor for resilience and social change, advocating for feminist and ecological approaches to address deeply stratified contexts.