Mama's boy is strong, muscular, not weak

The idea of mother is anything but weak. It has been a source of muscular worldview and can by no means be a trigger for suicidal thoughts.

He is a mama's boy. Is characterising someone like that offensive? Yes, it could be if a colleague's quick and angry reaction to it is any indication.
The characterisation was with reference to rookie Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput, whose death by alleged suicide is a subject of endless recriminations and investigations amid mindless, mind-numbing chatter of TV debates. Calling him a mother's boy diminished the actor's character and glossed over the circumstances leading to his death was the essence of the argument. Mama's boys are said to be emotionally dependent and weak, hence vulnerable to suicidal tendencies.
The great Bollywood suicide mystery is not going to be solved anytime soon as it is mired in murky political sludge. The death has spawned many theories, some of which traced the troubles to the actor losing his mother when he was in 11th class. That apparently left him impaired psychologically, making him dependent on others emotionally. His umpteen trips to psychiatrists and his drug joints failed to help him, if some of the media reports are to be believed. It is surmised that he was mama's boy and hence could not cope with the pressures of demanding and cut-throat world of Bollywood.
But the idea of mama's boy being weak does not accord with popular notions in Indian culture. Mother has always been portrayed as a source of strength and masculinity, rather than weakness in mythology, literature, and arts. The ferocious Kali and Durga, the Hindu female deities, always wore an angry and energetic look and were symbols of strength.  
Motherhood enjoys a pride of place in the world view of ordinary Indians and is invoked in their daily battles of life. In school yard fights back home in villages, students used to dare rivals for a fight, boasting they grew on mother's milk and cannot take things lying down. 'Mother promise' is often the refrain when it comes to honouring a word or pledge. 
Mother-fixation has been a subject of study ever since Sigmund Freud floated his theory of Oedipal complex. Son's attraction to mother and daughter's attraction to father is what Oedipal complex is all about - named after a Greek mythical character who killed his father and married his mother. Though Freud's formulations are not accepted universally, what is certain is early relationships with father and mother will have lasting impact on the lives of children.
The Indian Matchmaking, the much-talked-about Netflix show, refuses to go away from our life much as we like to. Akshay, a prospective groom and one of the many exotic guys featured in the show, has this mother fixation and wanted his future wife to be compatible with his mother. He earned much derision for his dependence on his mother and the match, which resulted in a lone engagement ceremony on the show, was eventually called off because the girl had better ideas about her life, than risking a journey with this mother-dependent lad.
Motherhood enjoyed an exalted status in the thinking of many Indian nationalist leaders. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the most prominent early ideologue of Indian nationalism, had this strong motherhood notion embedded in his thought. His song Vandematram, which became the rallying cry of the independence movement, personified India as mother. The song till this day remains controversial as it is strongly rooted in Hindu thought and does not sit well with notions of other religions. Minorities off and on expressed their reservations about accepting this Sanskrit hymn as Indian national song. 
The notion of India as a mother is a strong favourite of the present ruling dispensation in New Delhi run by Hindu nationalists. But the radical and liberal thinkers viewed deification of mother with suspicion. In our student days in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) dominated by left-wingers, a passionate student leader, who is presently in this part of the world, compared motherhood ideology to fascism. Some of our recent experiences in India appear to confirm this prognosis. The targeted violence and attempts to revise the idea of citizenship are some of the outcomes of the narrow-minded ideology circumscribed by the singular religious view. 
The idea of mother is anything but weak. It has been a source of muscular worldview and can by no means be a trigger for suicidal thoughts. 
-sreenivasa@khaleejtimes.com