Gender, Religion and Caste

GENDER AND POLITICS

Sexual division of labour – A system in which all the work inside the home (domestic work) is done
by the women of the family or organized by them through social helpers.

Feminist – A man or a woman who believes in equal rights and opportunities for both men and
women.

Patriarchy – Rule by father, a system that values men more and gives them power over women.

54:76; men: women

Equal Remuneration Act 1976

Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways:

 Education (literacy rates, access to higher education)

 Economical (jobs, pay, women work hours)
 Equal Remuneration Act 1976 (women are paid less for same work)
 Sex-selective abortion (prefer to have a male child, female aborted before birth, child sex
ration decline to 919; some states it has fallen down to 850 or even 800)
 Domestic violence and harassment (urban areas, home not safe domestic violence beating)

Women’s representation in politics:

 Issues related to women’s well-being is not given adequate attention

 Feminists believe that this would be possible only if they are given representation in politics
to take decisions on their behalf
 Low representation in legislature
 Lok Sabha – first time touches 14.36% in 2019
 State assemblies – less than 5%
 India is among the bottom nations in women representation in politics, behind several
developing countries of Africa and Latin America
 PM or CM is female the cabinet is male dominated
 Fair proportion only in Panchayati Raj
 1/3rd reservation for women, 10 lakh women are elected representatives in rural and urban
local bodies
 This reservation is in demand by feminists in Lok Sabha and State Legislatives
 Bill has been pending for more than a decade, no consensus among political parties.
 Bill has not yet been passed

Religious differences is not as universal as gender

India’s population follow a variety of religions unlike Northern Ireland

People belonging to the same religion have different ways in which they practice it
RELIGION IN POLITICS
 Gandhiji’s view: “Religion can never  Ideas, ideals and values drawn
be separated from Politics” , he did from religions can be represented in
not mean any specific religion like politics
Hinduism or Islam, he meant the
ethics and moral values that inform
all religion, politics guided from
ethics from religion

 Human rights groups in our  People should be able to express

countries have argued that most of their needs and demands as a member of
the victims from communal riots that religion
are from religious minorities.
Demanded that government take
steps to protect them

 Women’s movements have argued  Those who hold political power

that all family laws discriminate should be able to regulate the practice of
against women, these laws should religion so as to prevent discrimination and
be changed and be made more oppression
equitable

COMMUNALISM – Religion becomes base of society in politics

 When religion is expressed in exclusive or partisan terms

 Followers of one religion are pitied against the other
 Beliefs of one religion are presented as superior
 Demands of one religion is formed in opposition to the other
 State power is used to establish domination of one religion4

All followers belong to one religious community, their fundamental interests are the same, any
differences that they may have is irrelevant or trivial

People belonging to different religious communities cannot agree on the same ideas, if they have
any commonalities it is regarded as superficial or immaterial

Extreme form, people belonging to different religions cannot co-exist in a country, majority
domination or different nations

This belief is fundamentally flawed as people belonging to the same religion do not always have the
same opinions in every context, there are different voices in one community and all these voices
deserve to be heard, therefore any attempt to bring all followers of a religion together suppress
many voices within it.

COMMUNALISM IN POLITICS:

 Everyday beliefs
 Political Domination
 Political Mobilization
 Communal riots
SECULAR STATE

 There is no official religion, constitution does not give special status to any religion
 The constitution allows all religions to profess, practice and propagate their own religion or
not follow any
 Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion
 Constitution interferes in matters of religion to ensure equality (untouchability)

Secularism constitutes the foundation of our nation

Communalism is a threat to the nation

We should combat communalism, secular constitution is necessary but not sufficient, communal
prejudices and propaganda need to be countered in everyday life and religion based mobilization
should be countered in politics

CASTE AND POLITICS

Unlike other social divisions, caste division is unique to India.

Every society has some sort of social division bases on occupation, where occupations are passed
down from one generation to another

In India the extreme form of this is the Caste System, based on hereditary occupational divisions
sanctioned by rituals

 Members of same occupation or similar occupation are required to form a social community
 Marry within the same group
 Did not eat with other caste groups

CASTE SYSTEM ‘Exclusion or Discrimination’ of OUTCASTE groups who were subjected to the
inhuman practice of untouchability

1. Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
2. Periyar Ramaswami Naicker
3. Jotiba Phule
4. Ghandhiji

Wanted to establish a society with no caste inequalities

CASTE SYSTEM HAS DISAPPEARED

 Economic Development
 Large scale Urbanisation
 Growth of literacy and education
 Occupational Mobility
 Weakening of landlords in villages

Urbanisation – Shift of population from rural areas to urban areas

Occupational Mobility – Shift from one occupation to another, usually when a new generation takes
up an occupation other than that practiced by their ancestors

Caste Hierarchy – A ladder like formation where all groups are placed from highest to lowest castes
The constitution of India has prohibited many caste based inequalities and laid foundations of
policies to reverse the caste system

Yet, caste inequalities have not disappeared from contemporary India

 People marry within their own castes

 Untouchability has not ended completely

Those caste groups that has access to educational resources since the olden times have done
well in acquiring modern educational resources as well; those groups that did not have access to
education or were prohibited from acquiring it have naturally lagged behind

 Reason for large ‘upper caste’ population

CASTE IN POLITICS

Casteism – Caste is the sole basis of social community

People of same caste have same interests which they do not share with any other caste

Caste can take various forms in politics

 When parties choose candidates they keep in mind the caste composition of the electorate
and nominate candidates from different castes to gain popular support, when government
is formed political parties take care that representatives of all castes and tribal groups have
equal importance
 Political parties make caste based appeal to gain popular support, some parties are seen as
representatives of that particular caste
 Universal Adult Franchise and One Person One Vote compelled political leaders to mobilize
support from groups that were hitherto considered low and inferior

Elections are not always about caste

Positive aspects

 No parliamentary constituency has a clear majority of one caste, so every party has to win
the confidence of more than one caste
 No party wins all the votes of the members of the caste, if that caste is considered as the
vote bank it means that a large proportion of voters are from that caste
 Many political parties may put members from the same caste as their candidates, some
voters have more than one candidate from their caste and others have no candidates
 The ruling party and the sitting MLA or MP keep changing and lose, this will not happen if
the people were frozen with caste preferences

While caste matters there are also other factors that matter in electoral politics

 Attachment to political party

 Economic conditions
 Performance of the government and popularity

POLITICS IN CASTE

 Each caste tries to become bigger by incorporating sub castes within it

 Caste coalition; enter into negotiation
 New kinds of caste groups ‘forward and backward’

Expression of caste in politics gives disadvantaged communities their space to demand their fair
share of power

 Dalits and OBCs gain better access to decision making

 Several political and non-political organisations have been demanding and agitating for
an end to discrimination against particular castes

 At the same time exclusive attention given to castes can also cause political tension

 Too much attention to caste can divert attention from more pressing issues like poverty,
development and corruption

 In some cases caste division leads to tensions, conflicts and violence