PRESENTATION ONGENDER, RELIGION AND

CASTE

By-Rohan MathurX A

INTRODUCTION

In this presentation, we look at three kinds of social differences that can take the form of social divisions and inequalities.

In each case, we look at the nature of the division in India and how it gets expressed in politics.

GENDER AND POLITICS

Let us begin with Gender Division. This is a form of hierarchical social division seen everywhere, but is rarely recognised in the study of politics.

The gender division tends to be understood as natural and unchangeable.

PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVISION

This is reflected by Sexual Division Labour.

The result of this division is that although women constitute half of the humanity, their role in public life, especially public politics, is minimal in most societies.

PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVISION

Earlier men were allowed to participate in public affairs. Gradually, women also organized and agitated their rights throughout the world.

In countries like Sweden, Norway and Finland, the participation of women in public life is very high.

PUBLIC/PRIVATE DIVISION IN INDIA

In our country, women still lag much behind men despite some improvement has been made since Independence. Ours is still a patriarchal society.

The literacy rate is 54% among women and 76% among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girls go for higher studies.

WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

In India, the proportion of women in legislature has been very low.

India is among the bottom group of nations in the world. India is behind several developing countries .

WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION

One way to solve this problem is to make it legally binding to have fair proportion of women in the elected bodies.

This is what the Panchayati Raj has done in India. One-third of its seats are reserved for women.

Same is being planned for the Lok Sabha.

RELIGION AND POLITICS

This division is not as universal as gender, but religious diversity is spread across the world.

Unlike gender differences, the religious differences are often expressed in the field of politics.

RELIGION AND POLITICS

Human Rights groups in our country have argued that most of the victims of communal riots in our country are people from religious minorities.

Women’s movement has argued that Family Laws of all religious discriminate against women.

RELIGION AND POLITICS

All these instances involve a relationship between religion and politics.

Ideas, ideals and values drawn from religions can and perhaps play a role in politics.

Political acts are not wrong as long as they treat every religion equally.

COMMUNALISM

Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community.

It follows that people belonging to a particular religion cannot belong to the same social community. Their interests are bound to be different and involve a conflict.

SECULAR STATE

Communalism is still a big challenge to democracy in our country. Hence, the constitution makers chose the model of a secular state.

SECULARISM IN INDIA

There is no official religion in India. The constitution prohibits

discrimination on grounds of religion. At the same time, the Constitution

allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion in order to ensure equality within religious commmunities.

CASTE INEQUALITIES

Unlike gender and religion, caste division is special to India.

In the Caste System in India, hereditary occupational division was sanctioned by rituals.

It was based on exclusion of and discrimination against the ‘outcaste’ groups.

CASTE SYSTEM

The caste system has greatly changed in modern India.

With the growth of literacy and education, the old notion of the caste hierarchy are slowly breaking down.

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 to win elections.

OVERVIEW

Thus, Caste plays different kinds of roles in politics.

Exclusive attention to caste can produce negative results. As in the case of religion, politics based on caste identity alone is not very healthy in democracy.

It can divert attention from other pressing issues like poverty or corruption.