International Journal of Gender & Women's Studies

Evaluating the Evolution of Patriarchy in India and the West
Neeta Khurana

Abstract
Through this paper I wish to highlight the earnest contribution that self-narratives have made in the study of Patriarchal institutions. The organization of Patriarchy requires the appropriation of identities at various levels. Its sustenance depends on how widely these appropriated identities are made viable at various sites of culture such as cinema, arts and literature. The co-opting of these sites results in signifying the gendered binary upon which Patriarchy rests. It was long held that modernity was an exclusive product of the historical processes in industrial Europe of the 18th century. Such a proposition allowed institutions like Patriarchy to sustain within colonized societies like India as an anti-thesis of modernity. Self-narratives constitute an unsung part of literature. Patriarchal representation in Indian cinema has been studied before but Cinema centering on self-narrativist accounts is seldom recognized separately. However their value is immeasurable in learning about people and their societies. This paper views Patriarchy as a cross-cultural institution that permeates national and loosely bound historical boundaries. The paper makes two major arguments: One modernization does not end up in the society evolving out of Patriarchal institution. Two, it may end up creating newer domains of Patriarchy as has been witnessed in the Indian scenario. The paper follows a historical method of analysis.

Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijgws.v6n2a12