Review: Towards a Theory of 'Brahmanic Patriarchy'

Reviewed Work(s): Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai by Uma
Chakravarty
Review by: Gail Omvedt
Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Jan. 22-28, 2000, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Jan. 22-28,
2000), pp. 187-190
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

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 Reviews _______

and patriarchy in Indian society can

Towards a Theory of move ahead.

Patriarchy and the Rise of

'Brahmanic Patriarchy' Brahmanism

In the period of formation of brahmanic

ideology in the middle of the first millen-
used to justify their subordination - and
Rewriting History: The Life and nium BC, Vedic dharma was redefined to
Chakravarty shows clearly why full scale
Times of Pandita Ramabai by Uma rebellion and not simply upper caste link high caste status to a life of extreme
Chakravarty; Kali for Women Press, 'reform' was necessary. ritualism for men and extreme bondage for
New Delhi, 1998, The importance of Chakravarty's work women. This bondage included bans on
pp xiii + 370, widow remarriage, seclusion in the house-
needs to be emphasised. The Indian schol-
Rs 250. hold and treating devotion to their hus-
arly tradition in general, especially the
bands as god as the main form of religious
part of it influenced by Marxism, has been
adept at using the concept of 'class'salvation
as open to women. Chakravartv's
GAIL OMVEDT a structure of exploitation and seeing this
1993 study, 'Conceptualising Brahmanic
exploitation and the struggles around Patriarchy
it in Early India', notes that
There were contradictory statements as a major driving force in society. But
whereas for jatis the concept of an essen-
about almost everything...but there were both caste and the 'oppression' of women
tial caste-based 'nature' was linked to
two things on which all those books the have been viewed, from their perspective,
their assumed natural qualities (e g, it was
Dharmasastras, the sacred epics, the simply as part of the 'superstructure', part of the inherent being of the shudra
Puranas and modern poets, the popular to be a servant) in women there was a dis-
something influenced by but not causally
preachers of the present day and orthodox
influencing and shaping other social juncture:
in- their dharma was to be chaste
high caste men were agreed, that women
stitutions. Feminists for some time have and loyal, but their essential nature was
of the high and low caste, as a class were
one of disturbing, uncontrolled sexuality.
all bad, very bad, worse than demons, as been insisting on treating 'patriarchy' as
unholy as untruth and that they could notan autonomous structure of exploitation Women had a nature that itself ,was
get moksha like men. The only hope of and analysing gender conflicts - but theylibidinous, and thus required control
their getting this much desired liberation have not looked much at caste and have from without, by men who were their
protectors and guardians and whose
from karma and its results, that is count- not been ready, in turn, to see the caste
less millions of births and deaths and system as an autonomous social institu-
ritual and socio-economic life they sup-
tion in the way that the use of the term
untold suffering, was the worship of their ported. In Manu's words, women must
husbands [Pandita Ramabai, quoted 'brahmanism'
in signals. In turn, the dalit-never be independent.
Chakravarty 1998: 308-09]. bahujan intellectual tradition begun by However, a crucial aspect of brah-
rahmanic patriarchy' is a conceptPhule, Periyar and Ambedkar which in- manic patriarchy was linkage to caste
that has been used for the first sists on the central significance of hierarchy and differential impacts on
time in Indian scholarly literature by 'brahmanism'
the (whatever term is used women
forat different levels in the caste
historian Uma Chakravarty. After ini- it) in Indian society is still itself nearly hierarchy. Chakravarty, like most femi-
tial studies of the social history of untouchable
the in the scholarly worldnists - andtoday, emphasises the role of
Buddhist period,l she turned to larger it itself has not taken patriarchyManusmriti very and 'pativrata' ideology --
seriously.3 Chakravarty is thus thebut
scale investigations of gender, caste and this still leaves some important
first
class in ancient Indian history. It wasscholar to analyse Indian history inquestions a way to be answered. Pativrata
in her 1993 article analysing the articu-
that takes both 'brahmanism' and 'patri- symbolised the degree to which women
lation between restrictions against archy' seriously. internalised their subordination, but the
women and the caste hierarchy in the In this article I would like to examine acceptance of pativrata ideology was
period of formation of brahmanismChakravarty's
in historical contributionsnot simply a matter of psychological
the first millennium BC that she origi-for the two periods she has studied -conviction. As Chakravarty shows, there
nally used the term.2 Her most recent the first millennium BC, which can bewas a kind of 'caste-patriarchal bar-
book focuses on Pandita Ramabai but called the era of the founding of brah-gain': high caste women accepted a life
ranges over the social history of 19th manic patriarchy, and the 19th centuryof subordination and seclusion in ex-
century Maharashtra to deal with the colonial period which saw the recon- change for a share in the status and
reconstruction of brahmanic patriarchy struction of brahmanic patriarchy, aswealth of their husbands. But why did
in the colonial period. Pandita Ramabaipart of a larger scale 'construction of lower caste women accept the system?
was the most highly educated of the Hinduism'. I will also try to suggest What did the 'caste-patriarchal bargain'
some ways in which the emerging new mean for them? How do we analyse the
feminist rebels of the time, the only one
who really could read the sacred texts scholarship on the interlinkages of caste evidence of greater independence of

Economic and Political Weekly January 22. 2000 187

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dalit-bahujan women in India - as con- the family was only one of the interestson prostitution. Prostitution is not only
trasted, for instance, with Islam? of the state. regulated by the state. it is in many cases
What we might suggest, to carry The Arthashastra state is of course managed as a state enterprise. Crimes
Chakravarty's analysis forward, is the concerned to control family and against sexual prostitutes, as well as crimes of
necessity of treating theArthashastra along relations, but it does so in the interests of
prostitutes, are forbidden and punished.
with the Malnusmriti as a 'core text' for the state for maximising population and of brothels are appointed by the
The heads
the subordination of women. production: "The aim of a wife is to beget
state; the state takes responsibility for the
The Manlusmriti, the main text of ortho- training
sons" is the way the chapter on marital life of courtesans, dancers, singers,
dox brahmanism, emphasises control over begins (394). Marriage and the family are apparently also for their dress and
etc, and
women and their laviscivious, sexually very much concerns of the state, but jewellery,
the which prostitutes are forbidden
aggressive nature: "Drinking, associating state is more interested in seeing that to sell (pp 351-54). These sections on
young
with bad people, being separated from women marry and produce children prostitution
than and 'entertainers' show that
their husbands, wandering about, sleeping that they be testaments to their family's
the glorious temiple carvings found in places
and living in other people's houses are the purity. Thus bans on widow remarriage suchare
as Konarak and Khajuraho (and in
six things that corrupt women...By run- a privilege of the upper caste, and fact the
in many other temples) do not neces-
ning after men like whores, by their fickle opposite line is taken with lower caste
sarily give evidence for a free eroticism.
minds and by their natural lack of affection women who are expected to be available They show women who are servants of the
women are unfaithful to their husbands to men. There are, for instance, strict state and upper caste men. They depict
even when they are zealously guardedregulations against men leaving the re- various types of (low caste) serving women
here. Knowing that their very own naturesponsibility of their families to become -- the erotic couples are shown along with
is like this, as it was born at the creation ascetics. Perhaps the most ironic and various singers, dancers, etc. All of this
by the Lord of Creatures, a man shouldtelling evidence of this graded patriarchy represents the control of eroticism by the
make the utmost effort to guard them. Theis that the 'right' of women to remarry is state, both within the family and outside
bed and the seat, jewellery, lust, anger.linked both to their caste status and to of it, for the pleasure of men and for the
crookedness, a malicious nature and bad the time their husbands have been away reproduction of the population.
conduct are what Manu has assigned to from home as measured in menstrual In this way, graded and controlled
women" (Manusmriti, p 198).4 Here theperiods (pp 402-03). patriarchy was the unique feature of
brahman ideologue shows his fear of The Arthashastra shows us a strongly brahmlanism. (Here we might note, in regard
independent women. emphasised graded marriage system. to current debates, that a brahmanic pa-
There
Thus the Manusmriti insists that "men are different kinds of marriages (Sharad triarchy can very well legalise and even
must make their own women dependentPatil has defined these, with some'respect' justi- prostitution - prostitutes had a
day and night and keep under their controlfication, as 'brahmanic' and 'non- role and have their place: but it was for
those who are attached to sensory objects"brahmanic' marriages) and in the four 'non- women of shudra castes).6 Many kinds of
(p 197). "A virtuous wife should con- brahmanic' types (their very names space were left for bahujan-shudra women,
stantly serve her husband like a god, even'gandharva', 'asura', 'rakshasa' and including a certain access to bhakti devo-
if he behaves badly, freely indulges his'paisacha' indicate a non-Aryan origin) tion, justified by the themes that in the
lust, and is devoid of any good qualities.women are allowed the right of divorce. 'Kali Yuga' shudras and women could
Apart (from their husbands), women can-However, patrilineal inheritance and male easily attain salvation. But these spaces
not sacrifice or undertake a vow or fast;control remain, in villages also, and are should not be overestimated; they did
it is because a wife obeys her husband that enforced by the state. Women's property not translate into power and equality.
she is exalted in heaven" (p 1 i5). In other ('stridhana') consists only of jewellery and Brahmanism may well have been forced
words, a woman's religious life (espe- amount for support. to accept this graded and differentiated
cially for upper caste women) is only Many common women are also allowed patriarchy (along with religious outlets for
through her husband. rights of travel and other forms of inde- the lower castes) as the price of its hege-
In contrast, the Arthash.astra is not pendence (e g, "Accompanying man onmony. a It was achieved in the face of a con-
concerned to emphasise the libidinous journey shall not be an offence (i) for the siderable challenge from the 'shramanic'
nature of women to subordinate them to woman who customarily enjoy greater traditions of Buddhism, Jainism and
their husbands, but to use it in the interestsfreedom of movement, and (ii) for the Lokayata materialism at the time, which
of the state.5 Whereas the Manustmriti urges wives of dancers. minstrels, fishermen, accorded greater, if not fully equal, status
control of women by the men of their hunters, cowherds and vitners...' (402). to wolren.7
families, the Arthashastra emphasisesLower class women had more indepen- The result was a considerable difference
control by the state, while endorsing and dence because it was assumed as a sign in the position of the masses of women
regulating differential control of women of inferiority and it was necessary for under Hinduism in contrast to those under
in the family. Kautilya is ready to grant the socially productive work with which more universalistic religions like Islam.
greater independence and some 'rights' to the state was concerned; their indepen- Whereas Islam created a more equalitarian
bahujan women. This is because the dence, however, was at the cost of their community but kept women subordinate
Arthashastra was concerned with the status; it was a sign of the inferiority of within it and tended to withdraw them
majority of bahujan women and thetheir jatis.
main- from labour,8 brahmanism supported a
tenance of state power and wealth That more greater sexual expression does not hierarchical structure with community
than with 'religious' ideals. The concern necessarily mean genuine freedom for limited to jatis and with a differentiated
for the strict subordination of women in women is shown by the A rthashastra policy patriarchal repression of women: high-

188 Economic and Political Weekly January 22, 2000

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caste women were dominated by family the sections of what was now seen as a
Prabhus), by forbidding them as 'shudras'
patriarchy, bahujan women were domi- 'Hindu' community.
to ban widow remarriage: this was a privi-
nated more by state patriarchy which was lege of the twice-born. The Peshwa regimeThus, even as castes were homogenised
concerned to maintain them as exploited was petitioned to support this, and the
into a larger Hindu legal structure, and
labourers. From a feminist point of view, state did so. even as there was an apparent de-
Islam is therefore faced with the task of Under the British, however, this feudal sanskritising move in lifting the ban on
including women in the male-dominated form of brahmanism gave way to the widow remarriage, British administraItors
community; but Hinduism has to also createmodernised, updated, 'reformist' brah- and their Indian counterparts ensured the
the community - and the research ofmanism which constructed an image of maintenance of brahmanic ideology and
brahmanised patriarchy and at the same,
Chakravarty, along with others, indicates'Hindu woman' transcending caste differ-
time made these the basis of the norms for
that this is not possible within the frame-ences but drawing to a considerable degree
everybody else. In effect. this meant that
work of brahmanism. And so we come to from the patriarchy of traditional brah-
the lower-caste woman was required to
Pandita Ramabai and the 19th century.manism. This is one of the most interesting conform to the norms for the upper-caste
themes ofChakravarty's study. Both upper woman (p 133).
Reconstruction of Brahmanic caste social reformers and the British rulers In other words, whereas earlier brahman
Patriarchy in the Colonial Period
were complicit in the process. It might woman had in the 'caste-patriarchal bar-
even be called, for those who like the ter- gain' traded prestige and status for greater
minology, an ideal example of a 'alliance confinement and bondage. now low caste
'Sanskritisation' is a process by which
between feudalism and imperialism' in men were offered a chance to trade the
originally lower groups seek to increase
which feudalism became 'semi-feudalism'.
their status in the hierarchy by emulating relatively greater independence of 'their'
the lifestyles and 'dharma' of the upper
A new brahmanism was being constructed, women for some of the status of the twice-
castes. Chakravarty's analysis of the co- saw brahmans as the elite represen-
which born castes. Perhaps this greater generalis-
tatives of a broader 'Hindu community'
lonial period in Rewriting History shows ation of patriarchal controls and pativrata
us that once this becomes possiblewhose
it characteristics included the exten- ideals throughout the caste hierarchy was
sion of the devoted wife, the pativrata,the
happens at the cost of women. One crucial to major factor in the increasing nulnber
element of 'sanskritisation' is the extreme all castes. Its creators were not the ortho-
of widows seeln in the colonial period, not
restrictions levied on upper caste women,dox like Tilak, but even more the reform-to mention the gradually declining sex
their seclusion in the home, bans on widowists. (Chakravariy is in many ways at her
ratio - the decline in the number of wonmen
remarriage, child marriage, etc. Just as best in describing the relationship between
to men in the society which has gone
women everywhere have been symbols ofthe reformer Ranade and Ramabai, the on continuously from the time we have
group identity, so here also: only in thechild-wife lie married instead of a widow available statistics in the earliest British
fragmented and hierarchised form of iden- and tried to 'modernise' as an updated, census to the present. and leaves India
tity embodied in 'chaturvarnya', the veryeducated but still younger and subordinateas one of the most patriarchal societies in
differentiation of women's position 'companion'). This new hindu community the word by the stiark measurements of
showed caste identity. In this sense, thecontinued to identify with the Vedas, as'missing women' - an estimated 35-40
inability of the low castes to sufficicntlythe fountainhead of religion and philoso-
million women who would be alive
repress their women was their shame. Oncephy and with the 'Aryan' identity they today were it not for the systematic an
they were able to do so, they were readyrepresented; but the Vedic tradition and deadly discrimination.9
to adopt brahmanic customs in thebrahmanism were to be reinterpreted so
sanskritising process. The 'constructionthat now-embarrassing aspects of ortho-Women's Rebellion
of Hinduism' in the colonial period both doxy could be seen as simply excrescences,
made some types of sanskritising possiblesuitable for their time and especially for the Pandita Ramabai's significance conies
and redefined, slightly, the formr ofera when Hindu women had to be hidden here, as a focal point of women' s rebellion.
sanskritisation, modifying some of theand protected from Muslim invaders, but
At first slie was lionised and feted by the

We wvere al taken with awe .a-d

most extreme forms of restrictions on aspects that even genuine Hindus couldreformist elite, largely because she ap-
women and brahmanic exclusiveness drop while maintaining the core of their
peared to be the very essence of a womian
culture.
while retaining pativrata ideals for the new (However, this required either learned in and respectful of the tradition.
'model Hindu woman'. an embarrassed silence about what that
Her rejection of it came as a shock:
core actually was, or openly accepting
Rewriting Histo-y takes Pandita Ramabai
as a focal figure but covers a wide range of
its patriarchal and casteist character. The
wonderstruck by her charms of ap earance
dilemma was to be seen with Pandita
19th century events in the tumultuous and the fluent tongue wielding the lan-
region of Maharashtra. The study begins Ramabai, who had independent access
guage; her modest and intelto
igent spe ches.
the core itself.)
with the traditional form of caste patriarchy, al so swe t and juicy, al now gone and
showing how Peshwa rule in western What the colonial period meant for wasted. Oh, Pandita Bai. You are after all
India sought to maintain brahman supe-women, in other words, was that beneath a woman whatever your culture and
achievement be - you are thus rendered
riority through controlling women's such superficial reforms as the sponsor-
a woman helpless... You have disappointed
behaviour. Brahmans sought to emphasiseship of widow remarriage was the spread
a numberof friends and admirers, be assured
their superiority over castes who wereof some of the most important high caste
(quoted in Chakravarty, p 319).
attempting to claim a higher status in norms of pativrata - the sanctity of mar-
the hierarchy, for instance the Prabhusriage, bans on widow remarriage and Itthescems that Pandita Ramabai's reading
(CKPs, or Chandraseniya Kayastha authority of husbands in the home oftothe
all sacred texts surprised her mentors.

Economic and Political Weekly January 22, 2000 189

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She had been urged to read them while in it was itself the enemy. Pandita Ramabai and class revolution, so Patil sees it as an
Calcutta by Keshab Chandra Sen himself turned to Christianity - towards her own, outcome of caste-caste oppression and caste-
class revolution. Discussion of the issues
- at first against her own disinclination to independently held and rationalised Chris-
around the interlinkage of 'brahmanism' and
break the taboo against women studying tianity - as an alternative. But it was
'patriarchy' is going on, especially in Marathi,
the Vedas. As she did so, she found it precisely during this period that the dalit-
with the emergence of a self-conscious dalit
impossible to simply gloss over the per-bahujan alternative was also being con- and bahujan women's movement, but
vasive religious sanction given to and the structed, pioneered by Phule. Later social Chakravarty remains perhaps the first scholar
depiction of the 'low' nature of women revolutionaries would look to the tradi- to attempt the combination.
and shudras as did the men or those few tions of Buddhism and the entire shramanic 4 The Laws of Manu, translated and with an
women who came to the texts under con- tradition. Ramabai, though, seems to haveintroduction by Wendy Doniger with Brian K
trol of their mentors. She was already, had only limited contact with this streamSmith, Penguin Books India, 1991.
5 Kautilya, The Arthashastra, edited,
perhaps, alienated from the social life ofof thought though Phule was one of those
Rearranged, translated and introduced by
the reformist upper castes through her who vigorously wrote in her defence at
L N Rangarajan, Penguin Books India, 1992.
marriage to a 'shudra', now her very the time, he did not have access to the 6 In a notorious incident related to the founding
scholarship made it impossible for her to major newspapers. of the Dalit Panthers, the Marathi writer Durga
accept a reformist Hinduism or an updated Chakravarty also questions the kind of Bhagwat had stated at the inauguration of
caste patriarchy. 'nationalism' that rules out of consider- Namdev Dhasal's book Golpitha that
Ramabai returned to Pune, where the ation the issues raised by Christian con-prostitution was a necessary function of society
Arya Mahila Samaj she founded was the verts who were taken to be pro-British forand those who did it deserved respect; to
first autonomous feminist organisation.leaving their 'ancestral religion'. Whetherwhich Dhasal replied, "If Durgabai thinks the
profession is so honourable, why does not she
According to Chakravarty it was "regardedthis ancestral religion was in fact the kind
of brahmanic Hinduism that the elite take it up?" This caused a storm, but the dalits
as an institution set up to do away with
were simply responding to a situation in which
the domination of men...It was believed was reconstructing is in fact doubtful their sisters were the ones most liable to fall
that the Pandita only exhorted womenfor to most of the converts to Christianity, into the profession, and they were concerned
free themselves from the tyranny of men who were dalits. But the hypocrisy of to escape from their caste-proscribed 'place',
in these meetings" (p 313). Eventually elite
she nationalism is shown not only by not to glorify it.
converted to Christianity, where she con- the fact that supposedly secular or re- 7 The concept of 'brahmanic patriarchy' also
tinued to battle the church establishment formist Hindu scholars have also ignored implies that there is a 'non-brahmanic
and attempted to become financially inde- people like Ramabai, but most recently patriarchy' (or other forms of patriarchy). In
fact as Chakravarty herself shows, Buddhism
pendent through her own writings, speeches by Arun Shourie's diatribe against
and contacts. Ambedkar in which Buddhism itself is was also patriarchal in differential treatment
of women who tried to enter the Bhikku
Colonialism, as Chakravarty shows, had implicitly seen as anti-national in contrast
Sangh. But it gave more scope for women
to the Vedantism of Kerala's Shree
a mixed impact: it set the conditions, with than brahmanism, and it fostered equal-
Narayana Guru.
active support of the British, for an up- itarianism in daily life. Societies influenced
dated and in many ways more dangerous The issues raised in the discussion of by Buddhist culture are today much more
caste patriarchy. But it also provided,brahmanic patriarchy are thus immense.equalitarian.
Hopefully the discussion will pave the 8way
through education, new idea and some This is clearly shown in Richard Eaton,
for a more fruitful interaction of two of
material opportunities, limited spaces for The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier,

the major social movements of modern 1204-1760, Oxford University Press, 1997,
women that allowed their resistance to
pp 297-301.
India,
emerge. Challenges to reconstructed the women's movement and the
9 Amartya Sen has pioneered the concept of
brahmanic 'Hinduism' were not lacking
dalit-bahujan anti-caste movement. [im 'missing women' for the most recent discussion
from the women of the 19th century. Among see Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, India:
the women who sought to use and expand Notes Economic Development and Social
the spaces that did open up to them with Opportunity. Oxford University Press, New
education and some access to legal re- 1 The Social Characteristics of Early Indian Delhi, 1995.
course were those such as Tarabai Shinde, Buddhism; see also Chakravarty, 1981, 'The10 Rakhmabai, whose case is described by
Rise of Buddhism as Experienced by Women', Chakravarty, is the subject of a full-length
author of the long-neglected tract Stri-
MAanushi, No 8; and 'What Ever Happened to study by Sudhir Chandra.
Purush ?ldna; Rakhmabai, raised in a
the Vedic Dasi?' and 'Pativrata', Seminar, No
reformist Sutar household, defied the 318, 1986.
husband she had been married to as a child
2 Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in
and refused to live with him even underEarly India', Economic and Political Weekly, POST-REVOLUTIONARY
the threat of imprisonment in a famous April 3, 1993. I SOCIETY I V)
cn
legal case of the time.10 Pandita Ramabai 3 For instance, Sharad Patil has written Issays by Paul MIV. Sweezy
was the main threat to the reconstruction extensively about women in the two volumes
ISBN: 81-901060-2-3
of brahmanic Hinduism because she at- of his Das-Shudra Slavery and even describes
Rs.
the first stage of Indian society as one of 'stri- 100 [HB] (Postage Free)
tacked the very foundation for it in the
.4 1 payments may be made by
sattak' (he considers the term 'matriarchy'
traditional scriptures, challenging the fun- I AO/DD paable to:
incorrect) - but he does not conceptualise
damental theme that the 'excesses' of the
patriarchy in a way equivalent to his CORNERSTONE PUBLICATIONS
present could be remedied by returning to conceptualisation of caste; just as Marxists P.O. HIJLI CO-OPERATIVE
an idealist past. The reconstructed Aryan- see women's oppression and women's
KHARAGPUR-721306, W.B.
Vedic past, she argued, was far from ideal; emancipation as an outcome of class oppression

190 Economic and Political Weekly January 22, 2000

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