Gender, Caste and Religion Flashcards
How are religious differences expressed in the field of politics
• Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. What he meant by religion was not any particular religion like Hinduism or Islam but moral values that inform all religions.
He believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion.
• Human rights groups in our country have argued that most of the victims of communal riots in our country are people from religious minorities. They have demanded that the government take special steps to protect religious minorities.
• Women’s movement has argued that FAMILY LAWS of all religions discriminate against women. So they have demanded that government should change these laws to make them more equitable.
All these instances involve a relationship between religion and politics.
Sexual division of labour
A system in which all work inside the house is either done but the women of the family or organised by them through the domestic helpers
What are the provisions in the Indian constitution that made India secular
•There is no official religion for the Indian state. Unlike the status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, that of Islam in Pakistan and that of Christianity in England, our Constitution does not give a special status to any religion.
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• The Constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
• 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 communities.
For example, it bans untouchability.
Communalism can take various forms in politics
• The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs.
These routinely involve religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and belief in the superiority of one’s religion over other religions. This is so common that we often fail to notice it, even when we believe in it.
• A communal mind often leads to a quest for political dominance of one’s own religious community. For those belonging to majority community, this takes the form of majoritarian dominance. For those belonging to the minority community, it can take the form of a desire to form a separate political unit.
• Political mobilisation on religious lines is another frequent form of communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal and plain fear in order to bring the followers of one religion together in the political arena. In electoral politics this often involves special appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one religion in preference to others.
•Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence, riots and massacre. India and Pakistan suffered some of the worst communal riots at the time of the Partition. The post-Independence period has also seen large scale communal violence.
Should we have religions in politics?
•Ideas, ideals and values drawn from different religions can and perhaps should play a role in politics.
•People should be able to express in politics their needs, interests and demands as a member of a religious community.
•Those who hold political power should sometimes be able to regulate the practice of religion so as to prevent discrimination and oppression.
•These political acts are not wrong as long as they treat every religion equally.
What are the ways in which women are discriminated, disadvantaged and oppressed in India?
•The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per cent among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies. When we look at school results, girls perform as well as boys, if not better in some places. But they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boys’ education rather than spending equally on their sons and daughters.
•The proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On an average an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued.
•The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work. However in almost all areas of work, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.
•In many parts of India parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to a decline in child sex ratio in the country to merely 914.
What is communalism?
when religion is expressed in politics in exclusive and partisan terms, when one religion and its followers are pitted against another. This happens when beliefs of one religion are presented as superior to those of other religions, when the demands of one religious group are formed in opposition to another and when state power is used to establish domination of one religious group over the rest. It is known as communalism
What are feminist movements?
Agitations or movements demanding enhancement in the political and legal status of women and improving their education and career opportunities are called Feminist Movement.
How are old notions of caste hierarchy breaking down?
With large economic development, large scale urbanisation, growth of literacy and education, occupational mobility, and the weakening of the position of landlords in the villages
Caste 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. When governments are formed, political parties usually take care that representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it.
•Political parties and candidates in elections make appeals to caste sentiment to muster support. Some political parties are known to favour some castes and are seen as their representatives.
• Universal adult franchise and the principle of one-person-one-vote compelled political leaders to gear up to the task of mobilising and securing political support.
“Politics is not about caste”. Justify.
• No parliamentary constituency in the country has a clear majority of one single caste. So, every candidate and party needs to win the confidence of more than one caste and community to win elections.
• No party wins the votes of all the voters of a caste or community. When people say that a caste is a ‘vote bank’ of one party, it usually means that a large proportion of the voters from that caste vote for that party.
• Many political parties may put up candidates from the same caste. Some voters have more than one candidate from their caste while many voters have no candidate from their caste.
• The ruling party and the sitting MP or MLA frequently lose elections in our country. ‘That could not have happened if all castes and communities were frozen in their political preferences.
Politics in caste
• Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating within it neighbouring castes or sub-castes which were earlier excluded from it.
• Various caste groups are required to enter into a coalition with other castes or communities and thus enter into a dialogue and negotiation.
• New kinds of caste groups have come up in the political arena like backward’ and ‘forward’ caste groups.
