An Indian exam board has withdrawn a passage from a nationwide English exam that appeared to promote the subservience of wives, after an outcry over “blatant misogyny”.

All students have been awarded full marks for the comprehension section of the exam covering the passage, which appeared to explicitly state that women’s independence was undermining discipline and parenting in the home. The passage appeared in an English language and literature exam taken by 14 and 15-year-olds on Saturday.

The offending passage contained lines such as the “emancipation of the wife destroyed the parent’s authority over the children” and “in bringing the man down from his pedestal, the wife and mother deprived herself, in fact, of the means of discipline”.