In the information age we only hear about how patriarchy is a massive social problem. Amplified by the power of the internet in the form of "outrage". Step on a woman's toe in a crowded public bus in Mumbai and the next moment the bitch is on Facebook telling everyone how the "evil patriarchy" won't even let her get to her paper shuffling HR "career" in peace. Never mind the fact that BEST buses now have upto 8 adult seats reserved for these cunts, who never miss a chance to have a seat, just tap the old man's (her father's age) shoulder and point to the saaree clad (outrageous?) graphic on the side of the seat with her index finger. Then Facebook: "Empowerment:1 | Patriarchy:0."
This post is an attempt to explain India's lack of individual freedoms, a precursor to others like economic freedom in terms of gender dynamics which shaped the psychologies of it's men and by extension it's culture.
Let's begin with the diet, India has always been blessed with abundant farming land which I now think was also a sort of curse. The farming land very soon created a society based on grain consumption and animal husbandry which rightly evolved into other vegetarian values, because killing the very animals who were so productive in the field and otherwise would not have served the people well. The Hindu religion created this system of values—which is what religions do, they cement the beneficial behaviors of society by claiming some superior authority to them as per the times.
We even see the after effects till today, a PM elected to reform the economy and break India free of socialism got busy banning cow meat thus minimizing the already scarce individual freedom.
These Hindu behaviors and values then spread to other sects and tribes eventually. In Maharashtra and probably other states, there are up to 3 days a week when the Marathis are not to eat meat.
Vegetarian diets have been linked to a decrease in testosterone, an important male hormone responsible for masculine behaviors like emotional resilience, aggression, physical strength, body fat handling etc. This probably had an adverse effect on the cognitive capabilities as well. Slower brain development is a fact of protein deficient diets. The IQ of the Indian public is said to be around 83 on average, which is extremely low and probably explains a lot of irrational behavior Indians exhibit on an whole.
As already discussed before on Men building civilizations, societies only grow when it's Men push the boundaries to find answers and gain power, the Indian males simply couldn't do a good job at this, given their lack of aggression (because of the veg diet and the resulting Hindu value system) men have always called upon to push the boundaries of economic, political, intellectual and military thought.
All curiosity and intellectualism vanished as well. For e.g. The sea which could have been a great mystery to be figured out and conquered became a god never to be "walked upon". Questioning one's own elders, even the village elders, the king became a big taboo, a blind respect to the authority became the norm. No wonder then that the country never escaped grinding poverty. Intellectual capital was never allowed to accumulate in such an environment of obedience.
Eventually even mothers took on the roles of an authoritative figure — even today it's a common sight to see adult men (mostly Hindu males) scared to marry against their mother's choice, much to the chagrin of their empowered partners who write to equally empowered agony aunts. This earned the Indian male the title of "mama's boys" internationally.
Masculinity was eventually brought down to a level of "service to society". A Man's biggest responsibility became to immediately get married upon coming of age and start a family to add more slaves to the system. This too is a common sight today. The number of Hindu men ruined by the weight of a family at 25 is almost tragic, of course in pop culture it is comical. Most choices of career, life partner and even their residence post marriage is already decided by the parental units. Some even dutifully handover the salaries to their fathers every month.
Easy to understand why men of such dispensation were not able to withstand or defend their societies to repeated foreign conquests. In fact as Will Durant notes, they rationalized it away as problems of another dimension.
The Hindus had allowed their strength to be wasted in internal division and war; they had adopted religions like Buddhism and Jainism, which unnerved them for the tasks of life; they had failed to organize their forces for the protection of their frontiers and their capitals, their wealth and their freedom, from the hordes of Scythians, Huns, Afghans and Turks hovering about India’s boundaries and waiting for national weakness to let them in. For four hundred years (600-1000 A.D.) India invited conquest; and at last it came. This is the secret of the political history of modern India. Weakened by division, it succumbed to invaders; impoverished by invaders, it lost all power of resistance, and took refuge in supernatural consolations; it argued that both mastery and slavery were superficial delusions, and concluded that freedom of the body or the nation was hardly worth defending in so brief a life. The bitter lesson that may be drawn from this tragedy is that eternal vigilance is the price of civilization. A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry.”
Also easy to explain why Indian society never figured out or tasted the spirit of individualism. Or of freedom for that matter. No man dared to declare himself an end unto himself but defined himself as a means for society to be used as it pleases.
Generations of such poor diet choices mostly dominated by rice and dairy led to values and genetic changes, Indian men are extremely prone to fat gain and respond very poorly to muscle building programs.
But the biggest price was paid in terms of freedom, our male ancestors never questioned the conventional wisdom of the day, critical thinking and rational thought was suppressed to keep the powers happy, in fact rational thought till today has not entered the Indian psyche. Such a people only feel safe among "their own", this tribal affiliation is visible in how people vote even today.
In other words the diet and the resulting value system led to the feminization of men. As we see today, women around the world are more prone to be left leaning liberals and vote for leftist policies as against the policies which promote free markets, because a free market system requires a level of aggression and individualism which is a distinctly male characteristic unless it's driven out of them by cultural values and reinforced by vegan diets. Women in Sweden for e.g. are increasingly putting their entire societies in danger by embracing leftist values.
Something similar has been happening India all along for thousands of years. The feminization of men due to factors as discussed above created and environment in which only left leaning political ideologies took root, then in terms of kings and today in terms of modern democracies.
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