B.R.Ambedkar's Writings on Brahmanical Patriarchy

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Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. Some patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage. Patriarchy is associated with a set of ideas, a patriarchal ideology that acts to explain and justify this dominance and attributes it to inherent natural differences between men and women. Women folk internalised the norms pointed by Manu that, "a woman who controlling her thoughts, speech and acts violates not her duty toward her lord, dwell with him after death in heaven and is called 'sadhvi', a chaste woman, a faithful wife "(Ibid: 584). Acceptance of these norms by upper castes women create a form of false consciousness about their subordination in the larger class-caste structure where they themselves invests complete reliance on this purity-pollution belief. They fail to conceptualise, how they are victimised in this endogamous and close end caste structured society, which give them explicit reward of caste and class position but implicitly they are subordinated in patriarchy. This book is a brilliant and timely intervention in feminist scholarship in India, Dalit studies, legal sociology, and the sociology of caste.

Sunita Mukharjee is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bangabasi Morning College, Kolkata, West Bangal. He has attended many national and international seminars. His several research papers have been published in reputed journals.

Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. Some patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage. Patriarchy is associated with a set of ideas, a patriarchal ideology that acts to explain and justify this dominance and attributes it to inherent natural differences between men and women. Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, religious, and economic organization of a range of different cultures. Even if not explicitly defined to be by their own constitutions and laws, most contemporary societies are, in practice, patriarchal. Brahmanism, also known as Proto- Hinduism, was an early religion in the Indian sub-continent that was based on Vedic writing. It is considered an early form of Hinduism. Vedic writing refers to the Vedas, the hymns of the Aryans, who if they actually did so, invaded in the second millennium B.C. Otherwise, they were the resident nobles. In Brahmanism, the Brahmins, who included priests, performed the sacred offices required in the Vedas. Apparently it seems Hindu women per se Indian women perform very dignified roles. Majority of the Indian population have a belief that traditional India or Vedic society was a Golden Age, where Indian women enjoyed high dignity. All the evils of the nineteenth century- purdah (seclusion), sat/, female infanticide, and child marriage were explained as outcome of fears for women, which originated in Muslim 'invasions. This is a Bramhanical concept, which most Indians seem to argue, is the product of a mythical past, which forms a 'false consciousness'. In this context false consciousness is used to interpret gender discrimination, where women cannot realise their oppression and domination within patriarchal social structure as a 'class'.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages