इस लेख में कविता कृष्णन ने रक्षा बंधन के त्यौहार के पीछे पितृसत्ता के सामने मातृसत्ता के समर्पण और बहिन को भाई के संरक्षण में रखने की परम्परा के प्रतीक के रूप में इंगित किया है जैसा कि मनुसमृति में स्त्री को कभी भी स्वतंत्र न होने देने का प्रावधान है. Thoughts on Raksha Bandhan - kavita Krishnan

S.r. Darapuri

इस लेख में कविता कृष्णन ने रक्षा बंधन के त्यौहार के पीछे पितृसत्ता के सामने मातृसत्ता के समर्पण और बहिन को भाई के संरक्षण में रखने की परम्परा के प्रतीक के रूप में इंगित किया है जैसा कि मनुसमृति में स्त्री को कभी भी स्वतंत्र न होने देने का प्रावधान है. 
Thoughts on Raksha Bandhan
- kavita Krishnan

"The ideology of masculine protectiveness of their women-folk, especially sisters, has deep cultural roots and emotive power. Take the North Indian festival of 'raksha bandhan,' where the sister ties a 'rakhi' (a band or string signifying the bond between sister and brother) to her brother, who in return for her sacred gesture of sisterly love, pledges to protect her. Brotherly protectiveness of sisters, invariably, involves avenging her sexual violation – a notion that stretches to include 'protecting' her from unwanted emotional and sexual entanglements. The brother derives status, prestige and 'honour' from his ability to protect his sister. This 'honour' is both personal and also shared and reinforced by the family/community. And the sister owes her brother a duty to safeguard her own chastity, on which rests his honour. If she compromises her chastity (and his honour, which in turn is linked to the collective masculine honour of the family/community) by exercising her autonomous choice of husband, or marrying outside prescribed caste/community norms, he is socially sanctioned, even expected, to forcibly prevent or avenge this loss of honour.

The bond between brothers and sisters, or the filial duties of daughters towards fathers, are not always experienced as coercive. The 'raksha bandhan' ceremony is one in which many women take great pride. The brother 'needs' a sister to protect, as much as the sister needs his protection. This bond of benign patriarchy is strained only when the sister exercises sexual and/or economic autonomy: making self-choice marriages or marrying outside prescribed norms, or demanding her legal share in land and ancestral property. In most Indian cultures, across castes and communities, the young adult woman is viewed as a ward, an asset (paraya dhan – wealth that belongs to another) kept in trust for a future owner, that must be handed over sexually un-violated and 'innocent' to her husband. Therefore the daughter/sister is loved, adored, in her natal family, but hedged about by anxiety about her chastity, innocence, and sexual purity."