Chapter Notes

Gender and politics

Gender division is a form of social division that is present everywhere but often goes unrecognized in politics. This division is not based on biology but on social expectations and stereotypes about the roles of men and women.

Sexual division of labour

This refers to a system where work is divided based on gender. Typically, it involves women being responsible for all work inside the home, or organizing it through domestic helpers.

• Social Construction: Society teaches boys and girls that the main responsibility of women is housework and raising children. This creates a sexual division of labour.
• Inside vs. Outside: Women are expected to handle all domestic chores like cooking, cleaning, and childcare, while men are expected to work outside the home.
• Perception, Not Ability: This division is not because men are incapable of housework. Rather, it's a social belief that such tasks are meant for women. When these same jobs are paid, like being a professional cook or tailor, men are often willing to do them.
• Women's Unvalued Work: Many women, especially in rural and poor urban families, work outside the home in addition to their domestic duties. However, because much of their household labour is unpaid, their overall contribution is often not valued or recognized.

Public/private division

The result of the sexual division of labour is that women's role in public life, especially politics, has been very small in most societies.

• Historical Exclusion: In the past, only men were allowed to vote, participate in public affairs, or run for office.
• Feminist Movements: Over time, women organized and agitated for equal rights. These movements, known as feminist movements, demanded voting rights, better educational and career opportunities, and equality in personal and family life. A feminist is any person, man or woman, who believes in equal rights and opportunities for men and women.
• Positive Outcomes: Because these issues were raised in politics, women's roles have improved. Today, women work as scientists, doctors, lawyers, and teachers—professions previously not considered suitable for them. In Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway, and Finland, women's participation in public life is very high.

Women's Disadvantage in India

Despite improvements since independence, India is still a male-dominated, or patriarchal, society. This means it is a system that values men more and gives them power over women. Women in India face discrimination and oppression in many ways:

• Education: The literacy rate for women (54%) is much lower than for men (76%). Parents often prefer to spend resources on their sons' education, causing girls to drop out even when they perform well in school.
• Work and Wages: A very small proportion of women are in highly paid and valued jobs. The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, mandates equal wages for equal work, but in practice, women are paid less than men in almost all fields, from sports to factories. On average, an Indian woman works one hour more per day than a man, but much of her work is unpaid and unvalued.
• Sex-Selective Abortion: A preference for sons has led to sex-selective abortions, causing the child sex ratio (number of girl children per thousand boys) to fall to a low of 919 in the country, and even below 850 in some states.
• Harassment and Violence: Women face various forms of harassment, exploitation, and violence. Urban areas can be particularly unsafe, and women are often not safe even within their own homes from domestic violence.

Women's Political Representation

Many feminists and women's movements believe that until women control power, their problems will not get adequate attention. A key way to achieve this is to have more women as elected representatives.

• Low Representation: In India, the proportion of women in legislatures is very low. In 2019, women members in the Lok Sabha reached 14.36% for the first time, while their share in state assemblies is less than 5%. This places India among the bottom group of nations globally.
• Reservation in Local Government: To address this, India has made it legally mandatory to reserve one-third of seats in local government bodies (panchayats and municipalities) for women. This has resulted in more than 10 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban areas.
• Reservation in Parliament: For decades, women's organizations demanded similar reservation in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. In 2023, the Nari shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (Womens' Reservation Act, 2023) was passed. This act will provide 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.

Religion, communalism and politics

Religious differences are another form of social division that is often expressed in politics. India, like many countries, has followers of different religions, and these differences can become a source of political conflict.

The relationship between religion and politics is not always negative.

• Gandhiji believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion, meaning moral values, not a specific faith.
• Human rights groups demand that the government protect religious minorities.
• Women's movements have argued that the family laws of all religions (laws dealing with marriage, divorce, and inheritance) discriminate against women and need to be changed.

These examples show that ideas and values from religion can play a constructive role in politics, as long as every religion is treated equally.

Communalism

The problem arises when religion is used in exclusive and partisan terms in politics. This is known as communal politics.

Communalism is based on the belief that religion is the main basis of a social community. This thinking involves several key ideas:

• Followers of a particular religion belong to one community with the same fundamental interests.
• People who follow different religions cannot belong to the same social community.
• In its extreme form, it leads to the belief that people of different religions cannot live as equal citizens in one nation and must either dominate others or form a separate nation.

This belief is flawed because people have multiple identities and interests. Trying to unite all followers of one religion in politics suppresses the diverse voices within that community.

Communalism can take various forms in politics:

1. Everyday Beliefs: This includes religious prejudices, stereotypes of other communities, and believing one's own religion is superior.
2. Political Dominance: A person with a communal mindset may seek political dominance for their own religious community. For a majority community, this takes the form of majoritarian dominance. For a minority, it might be a desire to form a separate political unit.
3. Political Mobilisation: This involves using sacred symbols, religious leaders, and emotional appeals to unite followers of one religion in the political arena, often by stoking fear.
4. Communal Violence: The most extreme form includes riots and massacres. India experienced some of the worst communal riots during the Partition.

Secular state

The makers of India's Constitution were aware of the challenge of communalism and chose the model of a secular state. This is reflected in several constitutional provisions:

• No Official Religion: The Indian state does not have an official religion, unlike Sri Lanka (Buddhism) or Pakistan (Islam).
• Freedom of Religion: The Constitution gives all individuals and communities the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate any religion, or to not follow any.
• Prohibition of Discrimination: The Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion.
• State Intervention for Equality: The Constitution allows the state to intervene in religious matters to ensure equality within religious communities. For example, it bans untouchability.

Caste and politics

Unlike gender and religion, caste division is a feature special to India. It is an extreme form of a hereditary occupational division that was sanctioned by rituals.

Caste inequalities

The traditional caste system was based on exclusion and discrimination against 'outcaste' groups, who were subjected to the practice of untouchability.

• Social Reformers: Leaders like Jotiba Phule, Gandhiji, B.R. Ambedkar, and Periyar Ramaswami Naicker worked to establish a society free from caste inequalities.
• Changes in Modern India: Due to their efforts and socio-economic changes like economic development, large-scale urbanisation (shift of population to cities), growth in literacy, and occupational mobility (people taking up occupations different from their ancestors), the old notions of caste hierarchy are breaking down.
• Caste Persists: However, caste has not disappeared. Most people still marry within their own caste. The effects of centuries of advantage and disadvantage persist, which is why there is a disproportionately large presence of 'upper castes' among the urban middle classes. Caste continues to be closely linked to economic status, with Dalit and Adivasi groups being the worst off.

Caste in politics

Just as communalism is rooted in religion, casteism is rooted in the belief that caste is the sole basis of social community. Caste can take various forms in politics:

• Candidate Selection: When choosing candidates, parties consider the caste composition of the electorate to gather support.
• Appeals to Caste Sentiment: Political parties and candidates often appeal to caste sentiment to get votes. Some parties are known to favor certain castes.
• New Consciousness: Universal adult franchise and the principle of 'one person, one vote' forced political leaders to mobilize support and brought new consciousness to castes that were previously considered inferior.

However, it is not true that elections are only about caste. Several factors show its limitations:

• No parliamentary constituency has a clear majority of a single caste.
• No party wins all the votes from a particular caste or community.
• Often, many parties put up candidates from the same dominant caste.
• The ruling party or sitting MLA/MP frequently loses elections, which wouldn't happen if political preferences were frozen along caste lines.

Other factors like attachment to political parties, economic conditions, and the government's performance are also crucial in elections.

Politics in caste

The relationship between caste and politics is not one-way. Politics also influences the caste system by bringing it into the political arena. In this sense, caste gets politicised.

This happens in several ways:

• Each caste group tries to become larger by including neighboring castes or sub-castes.
• Various caste groups form coalitions with other castes to enter into dialogue and negotiation.
• New caste groups, like 'backward' and 'forward' caste groups, have emerged in politics.