.jpg)
The patriarchal landscape of North India, interwoven with the ideological currents of Hindutva, thrives on deeply rooted cultural practices that devalue women and perpetuate gender-based violence. Central to this matrix is the preference for the male child, a cultural artifact that intersects with Hindutva’s nationalist agenda to amplify misogyny and justify systemic oppression.
In the North Indian states from Bihar to Rajasthan, where these dynamics are acutely visible, the triad of sexual violence, family violence, and alcoholism sustains a cycle of harm, exacerbated by disinformation and propaganda that falsely attribute the determination of a child’s sex to the mother. North Indian upper caste men thrive on this disinformation, playing the victim while perpetuating systemic sexual, physical, and family violence. The relentless capacity of caste privileged Hindi-Hindutva men to manufacture the oppressed male victim forms the infrastructure of moral degeneracy and violence, disproportionately targeted at minorities and women.
This blog examines how narratives like “My father won’t give me property because I have a daughter” "My father won't give me decision-making roles in the family business because I have a daughter," "My wife never understands my stresses at home and work," weaponize immoral North Indian male victimhood, while disinformation blaming mothers for the absence of male heirs fuels violence and entrenches patriarchal control.
The Male Child Preference: A Patriarchal Anchor Amplified by Disinformation
In North Indian society, particularly in states and union territories like Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, the preference for a male child is a structural pillar of patriarchy, rooted in economic, social, and religious frameworks. Sons are seen as carriers of lineage, inheritors of property, and providers of security, while daughters are often framed as liabilities tied to dowry and marriage obligations.
This preference manifests in alarming sex ratio declines: Bihar’s sex ratio at birth dropped to 882 females per 1,000 males in 2023-24, down from 914 in 2021-22, signaling a persistent crisis of female feticide driven by son preference. In 2022, Bihar recorded the lowest sex ratio at birth in India at 891 girls per 1,000 boys, reflecting weak enforcement of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act. Bihar also demonstrated the most aggressive decline in the sex ratio over the five-year period from 2020 to 2025. In 2025, Haryana is the Indian state with the lowest girl-to-boy ratio, reported at roughly 877–926 females per 1,000 males, depending on source and age group. The child sex ratio in Haryana is also very low, under 830 girls per 1,000 boys for ages 0–6.
This cultural bias manifests as violence and is perpetuated by disinformation that wrongly attributes the determination of a child’s sex to the mother. Despite scientific evidence that the father’s sperm determines the sex of the child (through the presence of X or Y chromosomes), a pervasive myth in North India, including in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, holds mothers responsible for failing to produce a male heir.
This misinformation, often spread through community gossip, religious teachings, and even misguided health advice, frames women as biologically deficient, reinforcing their subordination and upholding culturally ingrained misogyny. In rural Bihar, where literacy rates are low (61.8% overall, 51.5% for women per the 2011 Census), such myths thrive unchecked, with 37% of women and 30% of men expressing a preference for sons, fueling sex-selective practices. This disinformation is not accidental but a form of propaganda that sustains patriarchal power by scapegoating women for systemic failures.
Hindutva and Misogyny: Propaganda as a Tool of Control
Hindutva, with its vision of a homogenous Hindu nation, amplifies this misogyny by embedding it within a nationalist framework. The ideology glorifies hyper-masculine ideals, positioning men as protectors of faith and family, while women are relegated to roles as bearers of cultural purity.
This narrative dovetails with disinformation about sex determination, as Hindutva’s emphasis on traditional gender roles casts the birth of a son as a divine mandate. Religious leaders and cultural influencers often propagate myths that mothers are “cursed” or spiritually lacking for producing daughters, aligning with Hindutva’s broader agenda of controlling women’s bodies to preserve a patriarchal vision of the nation.
In Bihar, where Hindutva’s influence is growing through political rhetoric and cultural campaigns, this propaganda finds fertile ground. Social media platforms like X amplify these narratives, with posts and campaigns framing women’s “failure” to bear sons as a threat to family honor and Hindu legacy.
Such disinformation not only justifies female feticide but also normalizes family violence against women who “fail” to deliver male heirs, from verbal abuse to physical assault. The narrative of maternal blame becomes a tool to maintain male dominance, obscuring the biological reality that men determine the child’s sex.
Male Victimhood Narratives: Grooming Violence Through Disinformation
The narrative of male victimhood—exemplified by claims like “My father won’t give me property because I have a daughter” or "I am marginalized by my father in his business decisions because I have a daughter"—is a strategic performance that thrives on disinformation.
By blaming mothers for the absence of a male heir, these narratives shift responsibility onto women, framing them as the source of familial and economic disadvantage. In Bihar, where inheritance disputes are common due to fragmented landholdings, such claims are particularly potent.
Men cast themselves as victims of a system that denies them resources because of their daughters, deflecting accountability for their role in perpetuating patriarchal norms and upholding misogynist structures.
This disinformation-driven victimhood serves as a grooming mechanism, socializing men to view women as liabilities and to equate masculinity with entitlement.
In Bihar, where 42% of women report intimate partner violence (IPV), including 39% physical, 21% emotional, and 14% sexual violence per NFHS-5, these narratives often escalate into family violence. The National Commission for Women recorded 1,233 domestic violence complaints from Bihar in 2024, highlighting the state’s high burden of family violence.
Mothers blamed for producing daughters face heightened abuse, as husbands and in-laws weaponize disinformation to justify control, dowry demands, or even abandonment.
Moreover, the cultural of violence is marked by sexual violence outside the family, with such men playing the victim narrative as predatory tactics, cultivating sympathy to recruit victims. Many such predatory men skillfully position themselves as misunderstood or persecuted in order to justify manipulating women’s empathy for their own gain. By constructing narratives of marginalization or victimhood, they obscure patterns of deliberate predation and normalize betrayal within personal and family relationships. This tactic is not only a means of deflecting accountability but also serves to exploit women’s socialization toward care and loyalty. What gets framed as clandestine romance or secret affairs is in fact a calculated form of domestic and sexual violence, destabilizing families and reinforcing broader misogynistic systems. Ultimately, the performance of victimhood by these men becomes a potent recruiting tool, binding women into cycles of harm and upholding male-dominated infrastructures of abuse.
The Infrastructure of Violence: Sexual Assault, Family Abuse, and Alcoholism
The cycle of violence in states like Bihar, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh is intensified by disinformation, with sexual violence, family violence, extramarital affairs as a form of violence, and alcoholism forming a toxic infrastructure.
Sexual violence remains a critical issue, with Bihar’s reported rape rate of 1.3 per 100,000 in 2019 masking significant underreporting due to stigma. Cases like the 2025 rape and death of a 10-year-old Dalit girl highlight systemic failures in healthcare and justice, compounded by caste and gender biases.
Disinformation blaming women for “inviting” violence through their perceived failures (including in childbirth) further silences survivors, discouraging them from seeking justice.
Family violence is fueled by the same narratives, as men internalize their “victimhood” and lash out at women for failing to produce sons. This is exacerbated by alcoholism, a significant driver of IPV in Bihar, where 83% of women report abuse occurring only when their husbands are drunk. Similarly, alcohol forms a key feature in rape and in acts of sexual violence.
Despite the 2016 prohibition, illicit liquor sustains a black market, undermining efforts to curb violence. The ban reduced male alcohol use by 41.78% and prevented 2.1 million IPV cases, lowering emotional violence by 4.6 percentage points and sexual violence by 3.6 points. However, the persistence of bootleg liquor, coupled with disinformation that normalizes male frustration, perpetuates a culture of violence.
Disrupting the Cycle: Countering Disinformation and Building Care
Breaking this cycle requires dismantling the disinformation and propaganda that sustain patriarchal violence.
First, we must launch targeted campaigns to educate communities about the biological reality of sex determination, leveraging schools, healthcare systems, and media to debunk myths blaming mothers. In Bihar, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where low literacy amplifies misinformation, community-based programs like self-help groups can empower women to challenge these narratives. Building community-led literacy and education for women on feminist methods, analyzing predatory practices and plays of victimhood by misogynist men, is critical.
Second, stricter enforcement of the PC-PNDT Act and anti-dowry laws is essential to address female feticide and economic coercion.
Third, we must confront Hindutva’s role in perpetuating misogyny, exposing how its propaganda aligns with patriarchal disinformation to control women. This includes regulating social media platforms like X, where divisive narratives thrive, and promoting counter-narratives that celebrate gender equity.
Finally, addressing alcoholism through sustained prohibition enforcement and rehabilitation programs can reduce IPV, while fostering critical reflection on masculinity to disrupt male victimhood narratives.
It is critical to advocate for a radical reimagining of our social fabric, centered on the voices of women and girls.
The lament of “My father won’t give me property because I have a daughter” is a symptom of a deeper malaise, fueled by disinformation that blames mothers for biological outcomes they cannot control. By dismantling these myths and challenging the structures—familial, cultural, and ideological—that sustain them, we can start interrogating patriarchy and holding the misogyny among Hindi-Hindu men to account. Finally, build a culture of radical feminist care where every child is valued, and every voice is heard is critical to the journey of transformation.