Revision summary
Patriarchy dominates by controlling descent, property, and women’s sexuality. Seed and Earth is the Indian kinship code of that dominance. Brahmanical patriarchy ties it to caste honour. Law can proclaim equality while the household still ranks the father. It is structural dominance, not only prejudice.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Patriarchy is dominance through the organisation of kinship, sexuality, and labour so that men command line and surplus. In India it is a caste form of dominance, not a free-standing male culture.
Body
As dominance
- Leela Dube’s Seed and Earth makes men the seed and women the field; dominance is the right to name the child and guard the body.
- Uma Chakravarti’s Brahmanical patriarchy shows honour as caste power over women.
- Property, vote by household head, and unpaid care are material dominance, which Walby would split into structures.
Not only the home
- The state, temple, and informal labour market extend it. Informal women workers meet patriarchy as wage theft plus honour.
- Beteille’s disharmony: the Constitution names equality while the lineage names the father.
Variation
- Class and some matrilineal pockets change the mix. Dominance remains the pattern in much of the North Indian belt.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD P[Patriarchy] --> S[Seed line property] P --> H[Honour sexuality] C[Caste] --> P
Conclusion
Patriarchy is a form of dominance because it allocates voice, land, and body. Indian sociology must treat it as kinship-caste power, not as private attitude.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Elucidate the concepts of 'majoritarianism' and 'minoritarianism' in accentuating communal tensions in India.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q3(b)). View answer →
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Is patriarchy the same as men ruling women always?
Senior women can enforce it. The structure still privileges the male line.
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Does paid work end it?
Wages help. Without title and honour change, dominance relocates to the double shift.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2024 · Q1(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Is patriarchy a key to understanding different forms of inequalities in Indian society? Elaborate. -
2022 · Q3(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Discuss the material basis of patriarchy as an ideological system.
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