A Civilizational Shift: Tracing the Decline of Women’s Status in Indian Society
An evidence-based exploration of how invasion and colonization reshaped Indian gender dynamics.
This image shows an Indian woman from the 1st century. Compare it with depictions from the 3rd and 17th centuries, and a clear pattern emerges: in all three, the upper body is left uncovered. Now contrast that with photographs from the 19th century or of women today, the shift is unmistakable. The term “blouse” did not even exist in earlier centuries. Sarees were traditionally draped without a blouse, and that was the accepted norm.
This raises an important question: how did such a significant cultural transformation take place?
At first glance, the question may seem provocative. But it leads us to a deeper paradox. In contemporary India, conversations around sexuality are often met with discomfort or moral panic. Reading ancient texts with erotic content is frowned upon, and adult content is condemned. Yet, we find intricate and explicit depictions of human intimacy on the walls of sacred temples, places open to elders and children alike.
In today’s world, concepts like live-in relationships or even love marriages are still considered unacceptable in many families. In some cases, tragically, parents have committed acts of violence against their own daughters for such choices, even in major urban centres like Mumbai. And yet, our ancient scriptures, like the Dharmashastras, mention forms of union such as Gandharva Vivaha, a marriage based on mutual attraction, without any societal or parental approval.
Similarly, while prostitution is criminalized in modern law, ancient texts like the Arthashastra (Chapter 27) and Kamasutra (Book 6) discuss sex work in a surprisingly structured and respectful manner. These works outline how sex workers were to be treated, how they were to manage clients and finances, and how they were regarded as part of the broader social and economic framework.
So, why is it that these themes, once addressed openly and integrated into cultural life, have become taboo in modern Indian society? Why are they now seen as shameful or "Western," when in fact they were part of our own cultural and religious literature for centuries?
The real question is this: have we collectively forgotten our own civilizational history? Or was this amnesia cultivated deliberately, a consequence of centuries of colonial influence that portrayed our traditions as backward or indecent, and sought to replace them with imported moral frameworks?
Understanding this cultural drift isn’t just about revisiting the past, it’s about reclaiming an authentic view of our history that was once far more nuanced, accepting, and progressive than we’re often led to believe.
Cultural Sabotage: How Academia & Policy Distorted Indian Society
About 150 years ago, a man named Max Müller, a British Indologist and Sanskrit scholar (or so he was claimed to be), was entrusted by the British government with a mission: to distort Indian history.
He wrote, “We have conquered India once. And now we must conquer it again, this time through education.” And he did. The consequences of that colonial strategy are still being felt today, especially by Indian women.
Even now, in the 21st century, millions of girls in India are forced into child marriages. Each year, around 40 lakh girls are pulled out of school before they turn 18. Dowry, a deeply regressive custom, still prevails. In Mumbai, a woman was burned alive by her brother-in-law and his wife because her family couldn’t meet dowry demands. In other cases, husbands burn their wives, or women take their own lives, broken by harassment from their in-laws.
In a horrific incident last year, a girl’s family invited her and her husband to Mumbai under the pretext of a city tour. What followed was gruesome, they murdered the couple and chopped their bodies into pieces. Why? Simply because the girl had married someone of her own choosing.
Honor killings are still a serious issue in India.
In most such cases, these crimes are justified using religion or tradition, people claim that such acts are committed to uphold “culture” or “honor.” But does our religion truly say that? Absolutely not.
In fact, Max Müller himself admitted in a letter to his wife that he had translated the 3,000-year-old Vedas in a deliberately distorted way, one that would permanently alter Indian history and create generations of Indians who would view their own heritage as inferior and view Western civilization as superior, modern, and progressive.
And even after 165 years, his strategy has worked shockingly well. Today, hating one’s own culture is considered "cool". We’re taught that our traditions were flawed, our thinking was backward, and especially, that Indian women had no dignity or status. We’re led to believe women were seen merely as child-bearing machines, with no respect or identity in society.
Then, the British came, so we’re told, and they “civilized” us, “educated” us, and gave our women “dignity.”
From Progressive to Regressive: The Civilizational Collapse Begins
How did we, once a highly progressive and open society, become narrow-minded and regressive?
To understand the answer, we must go back thousands of years, specifically to around the 12th century, because the India that existed before that was drastically different from what we see today.
Take the Kamasutra, perhaps the most misunderstood book in Indian history. Globally, it's seen as an erotic manual, like an “Indian version of Playboy.” This is a shallow and distorted interpretation, merely a marketing gimmick.
In reality, the Kamasutra was never just a sex manual, it was a life manual.
According to the Vedas, every human life has three fundamental goals:
- Dharma – duties toward family and society
- Artha – the pursuit of wealth
- Kama – the pursuit of pleasure
The Kamasutra guides a person on how to achieve these three goals and how to live a balanced life. Its chapters offer detailed insights into:
- Choosing the right life partner
- Qualities to look for in a spouse
- How to marry
- Running a household
- Managing relationship challenges
- Even personal grooming and natural treatments for sexual health issues (in Chapter 7)
Yes, Chapter 2 discusses 64 different types of sexual acts, but even here, the emphasis is on mutual pleasure and consent. It clearly states that a woman's consent is essential, and unlike modern depictions, it gives equal importance to female pleasure.
This proves that in our ancient culture, sex was not treated as taboo, but as an integral aspect of life, something to be respected and educated about. That’s why even our sacred temples are adorned with sexual sculptures, because the act itself was normalized and spiritualized.
And the Kamasutra isn’t alone. Many other Indian texts like Rati Rahasya, Ananga Ranga, and Nagara Sarvasvam also discussed kama (pleasure) with nuance and sophistication.
Even the ideas around marriage were progressive. The Dharmashastras describe the concept of Gandharva Vivaha, marriage based on mutual love and consent. It’s praised as an ideal form of union. Kamasutra supports it too, stating that such marriages have a higher chance of success.
The Kamasutra even says that if a couple elopes and takes sacred vows by circling a burning kusa grass, their marriage is to be considered legally valid.
Our Vedas also mention stories of love marriages, like Urvashi and Pururava (Chapter 10), or King Dushyanta and Shakuntala. Even Manusmriti, often labeled ultra-conservative and anti-women, accepts Gandharva Vivaha as legitimate, where both bride and groom choose each other freely.
Then there’s the tradition of Swayamvara, where a woman had the right to choose her own husband, with no coercion involved.
But sadly, today, very few Indian women enjoy such autonomy. Despite all our technological and societal advancement, divorced women are still treated as burdens. In many families, women aren't even "allowed" to get a divorce, they're expected to suffer silently.
Yet, ancient India had solutions for these situations.
Arthashastra, Chapter 3, outlines circumstances for divorce, recognizing two types:
- Mutual Divorce called Paraspara Dvesha Moksha, agreed upon by both partners
- Unilateral Divorce by the woman, allowed in cases like:
- The husband being of bad character
- The husband being missing for more than 10 months
- The husband being medically unfit for procreation
Today, we’re told that ancient Hindu society, especially during the Vedic period, was regressive. But this narrative is deeply manipulated. During British rule, many translators deliberately distorted ancient Sanskrit texts while translating them into English, because most people knew only English, not Sanskrit (a language still not widely understood today).
This distortion of our texts and values has fueled a false narrative, one that continues to misrepresent the dignity, freedom, and importance once accorded to women in our civilization.
The Forgotten Power: Women as Scholars, Warriors, and Rulers
How did Indian society evolve, and how crucial was the role of women in that transformation?
Today’s version of feminism, largely copied from the West, has unfortunately become increasingly toxic. We’ve reached a point where many call themselves “feminists,” yet very few understand what true women empowerment looked like, especially in Ancient India, where women played a powerful and visible role in shaping society. Sadly, their contributions have either been erased from history, or deliberately hidden.
That is exactly the point.
Why were these stories never included in our textbooks?
If we had been taught these stories in school, maybe we wouldn’t grow up thinking Indian society was always regressive. Maybe we wouldn’t need Western feminism at all.
Even today, in 2024, 40% of Indian girls aged between 15 and 18 are pulled out of school before they complete Class 12. But in ancient India, young girls underwent the Upanayana (sacred thread) ceremony, just like boys, a formal initiation into Vedic education through the Gurukul system.
Women who studied the Vedas were known as Brahmavadinis, and were seen as beacons of knowledge. The Devi Mahatmya and other scriptures mention many verses praising women for their wisdom. In fact, the Vedas refer to 30 prominent female sages (rishikas).
One such figure was Gargi Vachaknavi, whose story is recorded in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. She challenged the renowned sage Yajnavalkya in the court of King Janaka during an intellectual debate, and silenced him with her philosophical questions.
Similarly, the Rigveda mentions Lopamudra, another highly learned rishika. These women were not exceptions, their intellectual standing came from a strong and inclusive education system.
In ancient India, there was no age restriction for acquiring knowledge. Women could study during any stage of life:
- Gargi studied as a child during the Brahmacharya phase
- Choda pursued education after marriage
- Maitreyi studied during the Vanaprastha (middle-age) stage
- Sulabha Yogini continued her learning even as a Sanyasini (renunciate)
Female literacy wasn’t a modern idea, it was a civilizational foundation of ancient India.
Yet today, we still need slogans like “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”. That itself shows how far we’ve drifted.
Today, there's a heated debate about the lack of women’s representation in India’s economy. But the question is: how will women contribute to the workforce if they aren’t even allowed to complete their education?
In ancient India, women were financially independent. Terms like “karisani” were used for women traders, and “dhatis” referred to female nurses. Women even held roles in male-dominated fields, they served as bodyguards and assassins for kings.
Take the example of the Vishkanya, legendary women trained to become immune to poison by ingesting it in tiny doses from a young age. As adults, they were sent as spies to seduce and eliminate enemy kings, their lips laced with deadly toxins. Think of them as ancient India’s elite secret agents.
Many Indian rulers maintained entire armies of Vishkanyas, so well known that Aristotle himself warned Alexander the Great to beware of such Indian agents!
Women didn’t just educate and serve, they ruled.
One shining example is Prabhavati Gupta, a princess of the Gupta dynasty. After her husband’s death, she ruled the Vakataka kingdom for 20 years, during which she helped the Guptas defeat powerful invaders, enabling them to expand their empire across North India.
There are many such queens and warrior women in our history who not only ruled for years but defended their realms with courage and wisdom.
Consider Naiki Devi, the queen who defeated Muhammad Ghori. Or Rani Durgavati, who bravely resisted Asaf Khan and, when cornered by Mughal forces, chose death over surrender, taking her own life with a dagger, dying with honor.
The women of South India too have a rich legacy. Because southern regions weren’t colonized or invaded as heavily, their records of women rulers and warriors are even more preserved. In fact, the Greek historian Megasthenes wrote that in South India, village and provincial administration was often run by women.
This is why it is baffling that so many Western, and even Indian, feminists continue to argue that ancient Indian society did not empower women. That simply is not true.
The Downfall: Invasions, Colonialism & the Veil of Silence
A turning point came in Indian history around the 12th century, an era that can be rightly called the "Dark Age" for Indian women.
Until then, Indian women enjoyed freedom, respect, and autonomy. But everything began to change with the Islamic invasions, which weren’t just about looting wealth, they also involved widespread sexual abuse of Indian women. These women were often kidnapped, enslaved, or sold in foreign markets.
It was during this brutal period that the Jauhar & Sati tradition began in North India, a tragic practice where women would burn themselves alive after their kingdom fell, rather than be captured and violated by invaders. You can read more about this in my other article: “The Fabricated History of Sati Pratha: A Civilizational Perspective.”
By 1206, these invaders stopped returning to their homelands. They began settling and ruling over India. This marked the beginning of the Delhi Sultanate, and soon after, the veil (purdah) system emerged. Women had to cover their faces to protect themselves from being noticed or taken away by Sultanate soldiers.
Hindu women started wearing ghoonghat, and from there began the notion that men must "protect" women at all costs.
In the mid-1300s, Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq passed an order that no woman could leave her house without a male companion.
That single decree changed everything.
Women were locked inside their homes, denied education, and cut off from economic activities. They became completely dependent on men, reduced to burdens, and eventually, their consent in life decisions no longer mattered.
This was the beginning of the toxic patriarchy we still talk about today, not born of Indian tradition, but from forced dependency created by invaders.
The destruction wasn’t limited to women’s rights, invaders also burned temples, vandalized sculptures, and destroyed ancient texts. Entire libraries and universities were set ablaze.
As a result, generations that followed had no idea of their real history, their civilizational values, or the once powerful role of women. That’s when Indian society began to regress, and started being falsely seen as "conservative."
Then came the British, who completed the cultural erasure.
Under British rule:
- Even what women wore became a point of control.
According to the Virtual Museum of Images and Sound, in ancient India, women didn’t traditionally wear blouses, instead, they adorned themselves with heavy gold jewelry and draped fabric like sarees. - The British saw this as "uncivilized", and denied Indian women entry into elite spaces.
A famous incident involved Rabindranath Tagore’s sister-in-law, Jnanadanandini Devi. She was refused entry at a British club in Bengal for being “inappropriately dressed.”
In response, she designed India’s first blouse, and only then was she accepted.
But the next attack was on women’s economic freedom.
Historically, women dominated India’s textile industry, especially handloom work done at home. Indian textiles were in high global demand. But with the Industrial Revolution, British manufacturers used Indian raw materials like silk and cotton to produce machine-made fabrics, and then imposed heavy tariffs on Indian textiles, destroying their global competitiveness.
Suddenly, the women who earned from home lost their livelihoods.
And the final blow?
The British passed the Anglo-Hindu Inheritance Act in the late 19th century, declaring that Indian women could not inherit property from their parents or husbands. This legalized their financial disempowerment.
Yet, the cruellest act was how the British rewrote our history.
Much of India’s ancient literature had already been burned by invaders like the Khiljis and Mughals. But the British took it a step further:
- In 1849, Max Müller mistranslated the Vedas, deliberately altering their meaning.
- In 1835, Lord Macaulay pushed for the destruction of the Gurukul system, replacing it with Western education designed to produce Indians who were “Indian in blood but English in thought.”
They introduced falsehoods like the Aryan Invasion Theory, shaping the narrative that India only became progressive after the British arrived.
Before that, we were apparently “barbaric and backward.”
And since their attack was on our education system, the backbone of our civilization, the damage has lasted generations.
Even today, in our colleges, offices, and friend circles, there are people who mock Indian culture, consider it primitive, and blindly idolize Western ideals.
Respecting other cultures is admirable. But many religions or sects, like Abrahamic religion, evolved with deep gender hierarchies, rigid moral dogmas, and institutionalized control over women. In contrast, ancient Indian civilization was founded on harmony, consent, equality, and dharma, a moral compass that balanced duty, desire, and freedom. The real tragedy is not in learning from others, but in forgetting the wisdom of our own roots.
Conclusion: What Really Happened to Us and Why It Still Matters
So the real question is, how did we, once a society that celebrated knowledge, choice, love, dignity, and freedom, turn into one where shame and silence dictate our values? How did a civilization that empowered women, respected sexual agency, and upheld mutual consent become one that hides behind taboos and distorted morality?
This wasn’t a natural evolution. It was a calculated dismantling: first through violent invasions, then through cultural erasure, and finally through an education system designed to make us forget who we were.
We were progressive to begin with. But over time, alien and often immoral frameworks seeped into our society, introduced by foreign invaders, colonial rulers, and cultural intermediaries. Values rooted in freedom and dignity were replaced by imported notions of shame, control, and patriarchy. Slowly, we were pushed into a psychological conflict, where we began to question our own traditions, our own stories, and even our sense of self.
What remains today is a civilization disconnected from its own roots, ashamed of its own past, and glorifying borrowed definitions of progress.
It's time we ask: Are we truly modern, or are we simply colonized minds in modern clothes?
Because the truth is, reclaiming our past is not regression. It is resistance. It is remembrance. It is a revolution.