Dominance maintained largely through consent and accepted ideas rather than through force alone.

Who developed the concept of cultural hegemony?

Antonio Gramsci, in the 1930s, to explain how a ruling group's worldview becomes willingly accepted by the wider population.

Hegemony

noun (uncountable and countable)

/hɪˈɡɛməni/

The dominance of one group, class, state, or ideology over others — achieved not merely through force but through the manufacture of consent, whereby the dominated groups internalise the values of the dominant. Antonio Gramsci's Marxist theory of hegemony, developed in his Prison Notebooks (1929–35), is widely applied in Indian sociology to explain upper-caste cultural dominance and the persistence of Brahminical ideology even among lower castes. In international relations, US hegemony refers to its post-Cold War structural dominance.

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

Gramsci's concept of cultural hegemony helps explain why Dalit communities historically reproduced Brahminical ritual practices — the dominant group's worldview had been naturalized as common sense through centuries of ideological saturation.

Synonyms

dominancesupremacyascendancypreponderanceleadershippredominancesuzerainty

Antonyms

subordinationsubjugationequalitycounter-hegemonyresistance

🌱 Word Family

hegemon (noun), hegemonic (adjective), hegemonize (verb), hegemonism (noun), hegemonist (noun)

🔡 Root

Greek hēgemonia = leadership, dominance, from hēgemon = leader, guide (from hēgeisthai = to lead)

📜 Etymology

From Greek hēgemonia (leadership, supremacy), from hēgemōn (leader, guide), related to hēgeisthai (to lead). Used in classical Greek to describe Athenian or Spartan leadership of the city-state leagues. Entered modern political discourse primarily through Antonio Gramsci's reinterpretation in the 1930s, which shifted its meaning from simple military-political dominance to cultural and ideological leadership achieved through consensus.

🧠 Memory Hook

HEGEMON = LEADER in Greek. Think of a MEGA-LEADER: HEGE-MONY sounds like 'HEY, IT'S MY MONEY' — the one who controls resources and culture controls everything. Gramsci's insight: hegemony is dominance so complete that the dominated don't even question it.

🎯 How This Word Works in UPSC Writing

Dominance exercised through consent rather than force alone. Antonio Gramsci formulated cultural hegemony in the 1930s to explain how a ruling group's worldview comes to be willingly accepted by the majority even where it mainly serves an elite minority, ruling through a combination of coercion and consent. That framing is valuable across GS1 and GS2 for questions on dominant culture, language policy and media, and in international relations for describing a leading power.

⚖️ Don’t Confuse It With

Hegemony is leadership sustained substantially through consent. Domination rests on coercion. Imperialism is direct control over the territory or policy of another. Influence is the weakest of the four and carries no implication of a settled hierarchy.

🇮🇳 Hindi Meaning

आधिपत्य (ādhipatya); सांस्कृतिक आधिपत्य is cultural hegemony.

❓ Common Questions

What is hegemony?: Dominance maintained largely through consent and accepted ideas rather than through force alone.
Who developed the concept of cultural hegemony?: Antonio Gramsci, in the 1930s, to explain how a ruling group's worldview becomes willingly accepted by the wider population.

👥 Society 📖 Seen in: Salient Features of Indian Society — D...

Relevant across:GS1 · History, Geography & Society

Same term, other paper:Hegemony (International Relations)

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