Patriarchal Violence in India: How Social Structures Enable Abuse

Violence against women in India is rarely an isolated incident. It is the visible surface of something much deeper – a social architecture that has been built, reinforced, and normalized over centuries. India’s enduring gender inequalities, rooted in patriarchal norms, play a significant role in perpetuating gender-based violence, producing forms of abuse that range from female foeticide and dowry harassment to caste-based rape and honor killings. Understanding patriarchal violence means looking beyond individual perpetrators. It means examining the system that produces, justifies, and sustains this violence as a feature – not a flaw – of social order.

Defining patriarchal violence: more than individual acts 🔗

Patriarchal violence is not simply violence committed by men. It is violence that is institutionalized within patriarchy – embedded in social structures, cultural practices, legal frameworks, and everyday norms that place women in a subordinate position relative to men. Feminist sociologist Sylvia Walby argued that male violence against women is sufficiently common and repetitive to constitute a social structure in itself – not a series of individual aberrations, but a patterned system of control.

In India, this structural character of patriarchal violence is visible at every level. Patriarchal attitudes and beliefs, social and cultural norms – such as dowry – and the justification of violence against women when they deviate from gender-inequitable norms are identified as societal-level correlates of domestic violence. In this framework, violence is not an excess of individual anger; it is a mechanism of enforcement. It disciplines women who step out of prescribed roles and rewards those who comply.

How law encodes patriarchy 🔗

The structural nature of patriarchal violence becomes especially clear when we examine legislation. Patriarchy is well-reflected in the language of the laws that govern Indian society. The focus on the gender binary – where criminal codes address only men and women, institutionally refusing to acknowledge violence faced by people elsewhere on the gender spectrum – perpetuates patriarchal gender roles that put women in positions of disadvantage. Until its decriminalization in 2018, a provision of the Indian Penal Code on adultery allowed a husband to bring charges against a man who had an affair with his wife, but not vice versa – treating the woman as the legal property of her husband. Marital rape, meanwhile, still lacks full criminalization in India, with the Supreme Court as recently as October 2024 postponing a hearing on the issue.

This legal encoding of patriarchy tells us something important: the violence women experience is not simply tolerated by the state. In many ways, it is sanctioned by it. Existing laws have structural and systemic flaws because they are influenced by and run with a very patriarchal mindset, as advocates working on the ground have repeatedly pointed out.

The spectrum of patriarchal violence 🔗

Women in India have been victims of infanticide, selective abortions, sex trafficking, stalking, dowry demands, child marriages, acid attacks, and honour killings – each of these forms of violence tied directly to patriarchal control over women’s bodies, choices, and economic lives. The data is stark: according to the National Family Health Survey-5, nearly one-third of women in India have experienced physical or sexual violence. These are not random acts. They form a coherent pattern of subordination.

Caste and gender-based violence: the double burden on Dalit women 🔗

If patriarchal violence is the framework, caste is the intensifier. For Dalit women – those who belong to communities historically placed outside the four-fold Hindu varna system and designated as “untouchable” – violence is not simply gendered. It is simultaneously gendered and caste-based, operating on two overlapping axes of oppression. Scholars describe this as a “double burden”: the subordination that comes from being a woman, compounded by the exclusion that comes from being Dalit.

Dalit women’s problems are unique and distinct in many ways as they suffer gender bias, caste discrimination, and class deprivation simultaneously. They are considered vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation due to their gender and caste, and face a higher degree of violence most prominently in rural areas by upper-caste men. This is not incidental. It is structural. Violence against Dalit women often functions as a tool to reinforce caste hierarchy – punishing those who resist, assert their rights, or transgress caste boundaries.

Violence as a caste weapon 🔗

The use of sexual violence as a caste weapon is well-documented. According to the Swabhiman Society, “Violence, including rape and gang rape, has been systematically utilized as a weapon by dominant castes to oppress Dalit women and girls and reinforce structural gender and caste hierarchies.” A 2020 report examining rape cases in Haryana from 2009 to 2020 found that 80% of sexual violence cases against Dalit women and girls were committed by upper-caste dominant men.

The NCRB data tells a disturbing story of both frequency and impunity. There has been an 89.9% increase in rape cases against Dalit women and minor girls recorded under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act from 2014 to 2022, while the overall acquittal rate in special courts for these crimes stands at around 61.7%. In cases specifically involving rape of Dalit women, under 2% of rape cases end in conviction when the victim is Dalit, compared to a national conviction rate of 25% – a gap that reflects not only systemic bias but active obstruction.

Intersectionality and the failure of the justice system 🔗

The concept of intersectionality is essential here. In India, where caste is the oldest form of oppression, violence perpetrated because of caste coupled with gender culminates into an atrocious form of violence. The Indian society, deeply seated in ‘Brahmanical patriarchy’, orders society into a stricter caste system that defines individual social status – availing privilege at the upper strata while subjecting those at the bottom to exploitation and stigma.

Access to justice is systematically blocked for Dalit women. Police create barriers for Dalit women in accessing justice through the non-registration of FIRs, undue delays, manipulation of evidence in favor of upper-caste perpetrators, and the deliberate removal of caste dimensions from cases by prosecuting only under the IPC rather than the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The result is a justice system that mirrors the social hierarchy it is supposed to challenge. Dalit women are often blamed, disbelieved, or asked to settle matters privately; perpetrators enjoy large-scale immunity; and courts have often failed to convict those who violate Dalit women.

The 2020 Hathras gang rape and murder case brought this systemic failure into national focus. The brutal details of the Hathras case brought attention to the duality of pervasive misogyny and deep-rooted casteism patterns and practices in India. The victim – a 19-year-old Dalit woman from Uttar Pradesh – was allegedly assaulted by upper-caste men, and the subsequent handling of the case by police, including the hurried overnight cremation of her body before her family could participate, was widely condemned as an attempt to suppress evidence and protect the accused.

The social acceptance of patriarchal violence 🔗

Perhaps the most insidious dimension of patriarchal violence is how thoroughly it is normalized. When violence becomes woven into the everyday fabric of social life – accepted, rationalized, and even expected – it becomes extremely difficult to challenge. Violence normalized as an everyday occurrence is part of patriarchal ideology prominent in Indian society, which impacts women’s willingness to address abuse in their lives.

Internalized acceptance: when victims justify violence 🔗

Normalization operates most powerfully when it is internalized – when those subjected to violence come to see it as deserved or inevitable. Research found that 42% of men and 52% of women believed a husband is justified in beating his wife if she goes outside without telling him, neglects the house, argues with him, refuses to have sex, does not cook properly, is suspected of being unfaithful, or is disrespectful. The fact that more women than men endorsed these justifications points to a deeply troubling dynamic: patriarchal ideology is reproduced not just by perpetrators, but by its own victims, as a survival strategy in a system that offers them no alternative.

Being raised in a society with strict gender norms means that abuse becomes normalized within families. Some women do not seek help for abuse or try to help other women facing abuse because of their justification of wife beating – citing reasons such as a woman “answering back,” “not managing the household,” or “spending money” without permission. This is not a personal failing. It is the outcome of socialization within a system that has consistently told women that their subordination is natural.

Family honor and the pressure of silence 🔗

In India, in a collectivist society, the norms and ideals surrounding appropriate behaviors and roles of women are often associated with the honor and reputation of the entire family. Many women continue experiencing abuse in the name of protecting family honor, or Izzat. Marriage is treated as a union of families, not individuals, and a woman who seeks legal redress for abuse is often seen as bringing shame upon her natal family as much as her marital one.

Once a woman is married, societal notions of shame and family honor dictate that she cannot return to her parents’ home. In a majority of cases, even after dowry-related abuse escalates, a woman in India is made aware that her father’s home has been forever closed to her once she enters her marriage. This effectively traps women in abusive households with no socially sanctioned escape route.

Dowry violence and the commodification of women 🔗

Dowry harassment and dowry deaths are among the most devastating expressions of patriarchal violence as a social institution. It is estimated that on average, five women face dowry-related torture and cruelty every hour in India. The practice commodifies women’s bodies – turning marriage into a transaction and a woman’s failure to deliver sufficient payment into grounds for violence or death. Patriarchal norms place women in a powerless status, whereas men are deemed to have “superior rights, privileges, authority, and power.” This rigid assignment of gender roles makes it possible for women to be easily abused in the name of “disciplining” them when they fail to meet their gender role expectations.

Honor killings: violence enforced by community 🔗

At the extreme end of normalized patriarchal violence are honor killings – murders carried out, often by a woman’s own family, to restore family honor that is perceived to have been compromised by her choices. A killing in the name of honor inculcates torture and the rejection of egalitarianism, which is a cornerstone of the Indian Constitution. It manifests how deeply the values of feudalism and patriarchy are rooted in the social system. Khap panchayats – traditional assemblies of village elders, prevalent in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana – have historically issued edicts sanctioning violence against women who marry outside their caste or community, exercising an extra-judicial authority that overrides both constitutional rights and criminal law.

In the name of honor and the preservation of caste or class integrity, crimes are often perpetuated and condoned. Since women are regarded as objects of protection, the fear of losing this honor makes men rationalize and justify masculine aggression. Honor killings, despite legal prohibition, persist because the social communities that sanction them believe they are defending a natural law – that women’s autonomy is a threat to social order.

The cycle of normalization starts early 🔗

This normalization is not something that happens suddenly in adulthood. The cycle begins in early childhood, where young girls face unequal access to education. Girls are informed about the inequities they will face in life, whereas boys remain uninformed and unprepared to treat women as equals. As women progress into adulthood, the social climate continues to reinforce inequality, contributing to the prevalence of violence. Indian culture, in its various segmentations, holds different sets of beliefs about women, but all are inextricably linked to patriarchy and its various manifestations through different forms of violence.

Within the context of marriage, many women in India come to perceive violence as a routine aspect of their married lives. Those subjected to gender-based violence often face victim-shaming, being told that their safety is solely their responsibility and that any harm they endure is their own fault. Social and cultural beliefs, such as the importance of family honor, exert immense pressure on women to remain complicit in the face of abuse. This is not a private matter or a personal failing. It is a social system functioning exactly as it was designed to.

The path forward: challenging the structure, not just the symptoms 🔗

Legal reform, while necessary, is not sufficient on its own. India serves as a telling reminder that addressing a deeply rooted, nuanced social issue of this magnitude requires more than institutional reform. It requires investing in transformative solutions that address the issue directly from the ground up – tackling entrenched patriarchal norms through women’s empowerment at the community level. Grassroots organizations led by women, particularly those from Dalit communities, are at the forefront of this work – not only providing resources to survivors, but challenging the norms that make violence possible in the first place.

Importantly, public and private patriarchies work hand in hand to disenfranchise women in both spheres, pushing women into lower-paying, lower-status roles with heavier workloads, while men take on high-status, decision-making positions. Dismantling patriarchal violence, therefore, requires addressing economic inequality, educational access, political representation, and legal accountability simultaneously – with particular attention to the most marginalized, including Dalit and Adivasi women whose voices are least heard in mainstream feminist and policy discourse.

What do you think? If patriarchal violence is a structural feature of society rather than a series of individual acts, what does that mean for how we hold perpetrators accountable – and how we design legal and social systems to prevent harm? And given that both men and women often internalize and reproduce patriarchal norms, where should the work of change begin?

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