Brahmanical Patriarchy

Brahmanical Patriarchy

Opposite values are complementary to each other.

As the day holds no meaning without the night; happiness is insignificant without sorrow; just like that only, man is incomplete without his female counterpart, irrespective of the caste or religion.

But in India, this is just a statement.

Swami Vivekananda has once said and I quote, “the soul has neither sex, nor caste, nor imperfection.” Unfortunately, his vision is still a vision and has remained just as a quote only. Discrimination is still prevalent in a wide scaled range even in the 21^st century.

Discrimination is served to us on a platter. Especially when it is combined in the form of caste and gender hegemony which results in a lethal combination.

There’s been an age old link between the discrimination on the basis of caste and gender, but only recently many socialists have dared to put the cat out of the bag. The reason behind that much late demurral could be because of their age old linkages with the ancient Hindu texts. The Indian Caste System which divides Hindus into rigid hierarchical groups based on their Karma (work) and Dharma (duty) is generally accepted to be 3000 years old.

Although there’s a Genealogical skepticism expressed in Bhavisya Purana – ‘since members of all the four castes are children of god, they all belong to the same caste. All human beings have the same father, and children of same father cannot have different castes.’

But here at the current scenario Brahmanism has become a system which emphasizes the need for maintaining the ‘honor’ and ‘virtue’ of the upper castes and because of the fact that women’s reproductive capabilities are necessary for the reproduction of caste lines, Brahmanism has severe implications on the sorts of decisions that women are allowed to make. For instance, the chastity of women is ‘commonly’ related to the caste status; generally the women belonging to upper caste are expected to exhibit more sexual control. A Brahman bride should be a pious, highly reverend and especially a virgin till her marriage and celibate in her widowhood. In contrast, a dalit bride may or may not be a virgin, filthy and have to show reverence to upper caste by standing bare chested.

Apart from the caste system and some other glitches, Hinduism is much liberal. Hinduism is not patriarchal but is made into one by some of malignant people. In Manusmriti we are told that women are submissive to men; to her father, brother, husband and son. She has to obey them or in other words, has to accept everything they say unquestioningly. But the other texts may differ. Although the caste and gender based discrimination find their way back in ancient texts but rebellion against it finds its way back there too, as in Puranas, Sati and Parvati choose their own husbands, in Ramayana Sita insists that she will follow her husband even in the forest, despite his opposition. In Hinduism we worship The Shiva Linga in which the linga (basically the male reproductive organ) which represents the Parashiva and yoni (or in simpler terms vagina) that represents Parashakti; is a splendiferous example of gender interdependency.

Hinduism contains many feminist ideas that are often ignored, often deliberately, especially by some male Hindu leaders and activists who are generally uncomfortable with the religion.

Apart from mythical texts, great revolutionaries like Savitribai Phule who intrepidly fought against dominant caste system and worked towards the upliftment of the marginalized. She demanded dignity for all women for which she worked her entire life. Also the immense contribution of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar is a fabled story by itself. He has once said, “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women has achieved.”

Shackles in the form of gender roles and caste monopoly is the reason behind retardation of India in the modern world race. However, slowly but surely, brahmanical patriarchy is caving its way out of this modern era. Change is happening. Whether it’s women stepping out of homes to earn money, house-husbands and fathers taking caring of their children or inter caste marriages – Brahmanical patriarchy is slowly going away. That’s all because the change is inevitable, it has started to be seen in the little changes. I believe soon these little changes will form an enormous revolution to win this battle for the safety of not only women and lower castes but the whole humanity.