How did rape become a feature of Indian society, like caste?

One of the most unsettling arguments about sexual violence in India is that it functions less as a series of isolated crimes and more as a structural feature of society, as deeply woven into its fabric as caste. Seen this way, rape is not only an individual act but a mechanism of power, used to enforce hierarchies of gender and caste and sustained by a system that too often shields those who commit it.

Violence as a weapon of hierarchy

At the centre of this argument is the idea of male entitlement, the assumption by some men that they hold ownership over women's bodies. When that entitlement combines with caste dominance, sexual violence can become a tool of social control, used to humiliate and subordinate those lower in the hierarchy and to remind them of their place. In this framing, the assault is not random but purposeful, reinforcing structures of supremacy rather than merely breaking the law.

This helps explain why women from marginalised communities, particularly Dalit women, are so disproportionately targeted. Their vulnerability is not incidental. It reflects the way caste and gender oppression intersect, leaving them exposed to violence that also carries a message about the wider social order.

The machinery of impunity

What makes the pattern durable, the argument goes, is impunity. Cases exist in which police were reluctant to register complaints, evidence appeared to be mishandled, and prosecutions collapsed, so that few or none of the accused were ultimately held to account. When institutions repeatedly fail survivors from the least powerful groups, the message is that certain lives, and certain bodies, matter less.

The essay also challenges a comfortable assumption among educated Indians: that sexual violence is the work of a few deviant individuals, separate from mainstream society. Instead, it locates the problem in a shared, often unspoken belief system that treats inequality between sexes and castes as natural. On this reading, the real driver is not a handful of monsters but a widely held set of attitudes that most people never examine.

Why it matters

Framing rape as structural rather than merely criminal changes what a solution must look like. If the violence is rooted in entrenched hierarchies and sustained by institutional failure, then tougher headlines and occasional convictions will not be enough. The harder task is to confront the underlying beliefs about who is entitled to what, to reform institutions so that justice does not depend on a victim's caste or gender, and to insist that no social order is worth preserving if it rests on the subjugation of the vulnerable. Understanding the problem at this depth is the first step toward addressing it honestly.