Thread by @shrikanth_krish

For those who think "brahminism" is somehow linked to "patriarchy" (which is universal), some data points might be in order -

Let's compare UK of 1500 with India of 1931 - both fairly poor pre-industrial societies with similar per-capita incomes

(Contd..)

Literacy rates in UK (1500)
Male : ~10%
Female ~2%

So that's a multiple of 5

1931 Literacy rates in India
Male : 15.6%
Female : 2.9%

Multiple of 5!

So in what respect was Indian culture less willing to educate women than similar societies elsewhere?

Now let's look at the literacy of Brahman varna in 1931

Male : 43.7%
Female: 9.6%
Multiple of < 5

The multiple is actually better than all India multiple of a little over 5

Let's look at select Brahman castes in 1931

Madras Brahman : Male - 80%, Female : 29% (Multiple of 2.75)

Mysore Brahman : Male - 78%, Female : 34% (Multiple of 2.3)

Bengal Brahman : Male - 64%, Female : 22%, (Multiple of 2.9)

All these multiples way better than average

Now let's pick castes that are ideologically anything but "Brahminical"

Lingayats - Male (30.1%), Female (2.2%) (Multiple : 14)

Vokkaliga - Male (12.2%), Female (0.5%) (Multiple : 24)

Maratha - Male (22.3%), Female (2.8%) (Multiple : 8)

Multiples way worse than average!

What these numbers show is that the the gap between men and women in terms of basic education was no greater in India than in pre-industrial societies elsewhere - (which is why I picked England in 1500)

And that gap if anything was much lower among "upper castes" than in the population at large

So the so-called "inter-sectionality" between patriarchy and "upper caste hegemony" as claimed by commentators (@bdutt most recently in a tweet) is bogus in my view

Postscript:

Some may baulk at the use of literacy rates to make statements on "patriarchy". But it is the best proxy we have. It is always good to use some data as opposed to engaging in a purely rhetorical data-free discussion

References : The UK literacy rates for 1500 come from this source -
www1.umassd.edu/ir/resources/l…

The rest of the numbers come from 1931 census. A more detailed piece of mine on the census is here -

swarajyamag.com/ideas/census-1…