Chapter - 4
" Gender Religion and Caste "
🔹 In the previous chapter, we noted that the existence of social diversity does not threaten democracy.
🔹 In this chapter, we apply this idea to the practice of democracy in India.
🔹 We look at three kinds of social differences that can take the form of social divisions and inequalities.
🔹 These are social differences based on gender, religion and caste.
❇️ Gender Division :-
✴️ Sexual Division of Labour :-
🔹 A system in which all work inside the home is either done by the women of the family while men are expected to work outside to earn money.
🔹 This belief is not based on biology but on social and expectations and stereotypes.
❇️ Public / Private Division :-
🔹 In fact the majority of women do some sort of paid work in addition to domestic labour. But their work is not valued and does not get recognition.
🔹 Although women constitute half of the humanity, their role in public life especially politics, is minimal in most societies.
🔹 Women in different parts of the world organised and agitated for equal rights. There were agitation demanded enhancing the political and legal status of women and improving their educational and other opportunities.
🔹 More radical women movements aimed at equality in personal and family life as well. These movements are called feminist movements.
❇️ Feminist :-
🔹 A woman or a man, who believes in equal rights and opportunities for women and men, is called a feminist.
❇️ Feminist Movements :-
🔹 Feminist Movements are radical women's movements aiming at attaining equality for women in personal and family life and public affairs. These movements have organized and agitated to raise channels for enhancing the political and legal status of women and improving their educational and career opportunities.
❇️ Patriarchal society :-
🔹 A patriarchal society is essentially male dominated. The line of descent is traced through the father. Men are valued more in terms of work they do and the place they hold in society. This gives them more power than women.
❇️ Women's Oppression in various ways :-
✴️ Literacy Rate :- The literacy rate among women is only 65.46% compared with 82.14% among men.
✴️ Jobs :- There is very low percentage of women in the high paid and high value jobs as just a few girls are encouraged to take up higher education.
✴️ Wages :- Despite the Equal Wages Act, women in all areas are paid lesser than men, be it sports, cinema, agriculture or construction works.
✴️ Sex Ratio :- Most parents prefer boy children to girl children. Female infanticide and feticide are common in our country. This has resulted in unfavourable sex ratio.
✴️ Social Evil :- Society in general and urban centres in particular, is not safe for women. Dowry harassment, physical abuse, sexual harassment are routine tales.
❇️ Women's political representation :-
🔹 Political representation of women in India is very low. It has never crossed 5% in any of the Vidhan Sabha and never crossed 12% in Lok Sabha.
❇️ Religion, Communalism and Politics :-
✴️ Religion Differences in Politics :-
🔹 Human rights activists allege that people from minority religious community suffer a lot whenever there is communal violence.
✴️ Gandhi ji Said :- Religion can never be, seperated From politics. Buit meant , moral values that Form all Religions.
✴️ Human Rights Groups Says :- Most of the victims of communal riots in our country are people from Religious Minorities.
✴️ women Movements :- Family Laws of all Religious discriminate against women
❇️ Communalism :-
🔹 The problem begins when religion is seen as the basis of the nation.
🔹 Communal politics is based on the ideas that religion is the principal basis of social community.
❇️ Communalism can take various forms in politics :-
🔹 The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs.
🔹 A communal mind often leads to a quest for political dominance of one's own religious community.
🔹 Political mobilization on religious lines is another frequent form of communalism.
🔹 Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence, riots, and massacre.
❇️ Secular state :-
🔹 Communalism was and continues to be one of the major challenges to democracy in our country.
🔹 Secularism is not just an ideology of some parties or persons. Castes and politics We have seen two instances of the expression of social divisions in the arena of politics, one largely positive and other largely negative.
❇️ Caste inequalities :-
🔹 Unlike gender and religion, caste division is special to India.
🔹 In most societies, occupations are passed on from one generation to another.
🔹 Caste system was based on the exclusion of and discrimination against the 'outcaste' groups.
🔹 Partly due to their efforts and partly due to other socioeconomic changes, castes and the caste system in modern India have undergone great changes.
🔹 Large scale URBANISATION, the growth of literacy and education, OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY and old notions of CASTE HIERARCHY are breaking down.
🔹 Now, most of the times, in urban areas it does not matter much who is walking along the next to us on a street or eating at the next table in a restaurant.
🔹 Yet caste has not disappeared from contemporary India. Some of the older aspects of caste have persisted.
🔹 Effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt today.
❇️ Caste in politics :-
🔹 As in the case of communalism, casteism is rooted in the belief that caste is the sole basis of social community.
🔹 Caste is one aspect of our experience but it is not the only relevant or the most important aspect.
❇️ Caste can take various forms in politics :-
🔹When governments are formed, political parties usually take care that representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it.
🔹Thus, it is not politics that gets caste-ridden; it is the caste that gets politicized.
❇️ This takes several forms :-
🔹 Each group tries to become bigger by incorporating within it neighboring castes or sub- castes which were earlier excluded from it.
🔹 Various caste groups are required to enter into a dialogue and negotiation.
🔹 New kinds of castes groups have come up in the political arena like 'backward' and 'forward' caste group.
