CHAPTER 4

GENDER, RELIGION AND CASTE

1. What are feminist movements?
The agitations organised by women at different parts of the world for equal rights,
enhancing the political and legal status, improving educational and career opportunities
and radical women’s demand for equality in personal and family life are called feminist
movements.
2. What is sexual division of labour?
Division of work among men and women, which women have to do all the household
works such as looking after children, cooking, washing, cleaning and men do work
outside to earn for the family, is known as sexual division of labour.
3. Explain how women are being discriminated in India.
Or
Briefly explain certain instances in which women are discriminated or exploited in India.
Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways
a. Literacy rate:- the literacy rate among women is 54% while that of men is 75%.
Similarly only a smaller proportion of girls go for higher studies. Number of drop outs
is also very high because parents are not ready to spend money for their girl children.
b. Highly paid and valued jobs:- The proportion of women in highly paid and valued jobs
are very few.
c. Less paid:- in spite of Acts like Equal Wages Act, in India women are paid less for
equal work. It is visible in all fields of work.
d. Preference for a male child:- In many parts of India parents prefer to have male
children and finds way to abort girl child. This ultimately leads to decline in the child
sex ratio.
e. Violence against women:- There are reports about harassment, exploitation and
violence against women. They are not even safe in their own houses.
4. State in brief the position of women in Indian legislature.
In India the proportion of women in legislature has been very low. For example, the
percentage of elected women in Lok Sabha has never reached 10%, except in 2019 it
crossed 14% and that of state assemblies it is less than 5%.
To ensure women representation the Panchayati Raj Act was passed in 1992. One-third
of the seats are reserved for women in local govt. bodies in Panchayats and
Municipalities.
5. Explain certain instances where religious differences are expressed in politics.
a. Gandhiji’s opinion:- Gandhiji used to say religion cannot be separated from politics.
He believed that politics should be guided by the ethics drawn from religion.
b. Reports of the human right groups:- The reports of human right groups states that in
all communal violence most of the victims are religious minorities. There is a demand
for special steps to protect the interest of the minorities.
c. Family Laws:- Family laws in India are discriminative for women. They demand govt.
to make laws more equitable for women.
6. What is communal politics?
 When one religion and its followers are pitted against another, when demands of one
religion are formed in opposition to another and when state power is used to establish
religious domination of one over the other, we call it communal politics.
7. Describe various forms that communalism takes in democratic politics.
Communalism can take various forms in politics.
a. Communalism in everyday life:- it involves religious prejudices and superiority of
one’s religion over the other.
b. Political dominance of one’s own religious community:- It happens when the majority
community dominates the minority. This creates a desire for the minority community
to form a separate political unit.
c. Political mobilization on religious grounds:- This involves the use of sacred symbols,
religious leaders and emotional appeal to bring the followers of one religion together
in the political arena.
d. Communal violence:- Sometimes communalism takes its ugly form of communal
violence and riots. India experienced such violence before and after independence.
8. What has been done in the constitution to face the challenge of communalism? How
does it face the challenge of communalism? Briefly explain.
The makers of our constitution were aware about the challenge of communalism. Thus
we choose the model of a secular state.
a. There is no official religion in India. Unlike Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Islam in
Pakistan, our constitution does not give a special status to any religion.
b. Constitution provides the right to freedom of religion, where individuals have the
freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion.
c. The constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
d. The constitution allows the state to intervene in religious matters to ensure equality
within religious communities.
9. Explain various reasons for the breakdown of caste hierarchy in India.
Caste hierarchy is not as strict as it was earlier. There are several factors that contributed
to the breakdown of caste hierarchy in India.
a. Work of social reformers: social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Gandhiji, Jotiba
Phule etc. advocated and worked to bring equality.
b. Urbanisation:- With economic development, large scale urbanisaton inequalities have
been reduced. We hardly care about who is travelling with us in a public transport or
who is sitting beside us in a restaurant.
c. Occupational mobility:- Works are no more caste based. Occupation is based on
education and skill.
10. In spite of all the changes caste hierarchy still exists in India. How do you think it exists
in our society?
Caste has not disappeared from India. It still exists in forms.
a. Most people marry within their own caste or tribe.
b. Untouchability has not ended completely, despite constitutional prohibition.
c. Effects of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt today. Those groups that
have access to education have done well and others lagged behind.
d. Caste continues to be closely linked to economic status.
11. Describe various forms caste can take in politics.
Caste can take various forms in politics.
 a. When parties choose candidates in elections, they keep in mind the caste composition
of the electorate. During the formation of govt. political parties choose
representatives of different castes.
b. During elections political parties and candidates make appeal to the caste sentiments.
c. Implementation of universal adult franchise forced political parties to gear up to the
task of mobilizing and securing political support of all castes.
12. Do you think election results in India are solely determined by the caste? What reasons
will you give to say it is not so?
Elections in India are not all about caste. Consider the following.
a. No parliamentary constituency in India has a clear majority of a particular caste.
Every party need to get support of more than one caste
b. No party wins an election only with the vote of a particular caste or community. When
people say vote bank it only mean that large part of a caste vote for a particular
party.
c. Many political parties may put up candidates from the same caste.
d. The ruling party and sitting MP and MLA frequently loose election in India. This
couldn’t have happened if all caste and community frozen to a particular party.
13. How does politics influence caste?
OR
Briefly explain how caste is politicized in India.
It is not politics that caste ridden but it is caste that get politicized in India. This takes
several forms.
a. Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating within its neighbouring
caste or sub-caste, which were earlier excluded from it.
b. Various caste groups enter in to a coalition with other castes or communities and
enter in to negotiations and dialogues.
c. New kinds of caste groups have come up in the political arena