Gender, Religion & Caste (Revn Note)
Gender and Politics
Gender Division refers to the
discrimination against women that considers women as inferior to men and
incapable of doing certain tasks considered to be the preserve of men.
A sexual division of labour is
experienced in human society. Very little contribution of women is seen in
public life, especially politics.
Political expression of gender division
and political mobilisation has helped improve women’s role in public life.
Women in India face disadvantage,
discrimination and oppression in various ways.
The literacy rate among women is only 54%
compared to 76% among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go
for higher studies.
The proportion of women among the highly
paid and valued jobs is still very small.
The Equal Wages Act provides that equal
wages should be paid for equal work. However, in most areas of work, women are
paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.
Sex-selective abortion in India has led to
a decline in child sex ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) in the
country to merely 927.
Various kinds of harassment, exploitation
and violence against women is reported in both the public and the private
sphere.
Women’s Political Representation
In India, the proportion of women in
legislature has been very low. The percentage of elected women members in the
Lok Sabha is 10 % of its total strength. Their share in the state assemblies is
less than 5 %.
Under the Panchayati Raj system,
one-third of seats in panchayats and municipalities are now reserved for
women.
Women organizations and activists have
been demanding a similar reservation of at least one-third seats in the Lok
Sabha and the State Assemblies for women. This proposal has been pending before
the government for more than a decade.
Religion and Politics
Religious differences are often
expressed in the field of politics.
Gandhi believed that religion can never
be separated from politics. Most victims of communal riots in our country are
people from religious minorities. They have demanded that the government take
special steps for protecting religious minorities.
Women’s movement demands that the family
laws of all religions should not discriminate against women.
People should be able to
express in politics their needs, interests and demands as a member of a
religious community.
Communalism
Is based on the idea that religion is
the principal basis of social community.
Followers of a particular religion must
belong to one community with the same fundamental interests.
Communalism can take many forms in
politics.
Religious prejudices, stereotypes of
religious communities and belief in the superiority of one’s religion over
other religions are commonly experienced.
Communalism demands dominance of one’s own
religious community. For those belonging to majority community, this takes the
form of majoritarian dominance. For those belonging to the minority community,
it can take the form of a desire to form a separate political unit.
Political mobilization on religious lines
that involves special appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one
religion in preference to others.
Communalism can take the form of communal
violence, riots and massacre.
Secular State
India is a secular state because:
There is no official religion of the
Indian State
The Constitution provides to all
individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any
religion, or not to follow any
The Constitution prohibits discrimination
on grounds of religion
The Constitution allows the state to
intervene in the matters of religion in order to ensure equality within
religious communities
Caste Inequalities
Caste division is special to India.
Caste system was based on exclusion of and discrimination against the
‘outcaste’ groups. They were subjected to the inhuman practice of
untouchability.
With economic development, large scale
urbanisation, growth of literacy and education, occupational mobility and the
weakening of the position of landlords in the villages, the old notions of
caste hierarchy are breaking down.
The Constitution of India prohibited any
caste-based discrimination and laid the foundations of policies for reversing
the injustices of the caste system.
Even now most people marry within their
own caste or tribe. Untouchability has not ended completely, despite
constitutional prohibition.
Caste in Politics
Caste can take various forms in
politics.
When parties choose candidates in
elections, they keep in mind the caste composition of the electorate and
nominate candidates from different castes so as to muster necessary support for
winning elections.
When governments are formed, political
parties usually take care about the representatives of different castes and
tribes to find a place in it.
During elections, political parties and
candidates make appeals to caste sentiment to muster support. Some political
parties are known to favour some castes and are seen as their representatives.
Universal adult franchise and the
principle of one-person-one-vote compelled political leaders to gear up for the
task of mobilising and securing political support. It also brought new
consciousness among the low caste people.
The Indian Constitution is however not
caste biased.
No parliamentary constituency in the
country has a clear majority of one single caste. Hence, every candidate and
party needs to win the confidence of more than one caste and community to win
elections.
No party wins the votes of all the voters
of a caste or community. Caste as a ‘vote bank’ of one party usually means that
a large proportion of the voters from that caste vote for that party.
Many political parties may put up
candidates from the same caste (if that caste is believed to dominate the
electorate in a particular constituency). Some voters have more than one
candidate from their caste, while many voters have no candidate from their
caste.
The ruling party and the sitting MP or MLA
frequently lose elections in our country. That could not have happened if all
castes and communities were frozen in their political preferences.
Politics in Caste
Each caste group tries to become bigger
by incorporating within it neighbouring castes or sub-castes which were earlier
excluded from it.
Various caste groups enter into
coalitions with other castes or communities and thus enter into a dialogue and
negotiation.
New kinds of caste groups have
come up in the political arena such as the ‘backward’ and forward caste group.
The data related to date is different from text book, so we have to prefer this or textbook
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