Gender, Religion and Caste — Notes

Differences between girls and boys in roles and expectations are made by society (through customs and expectations), not fixed by nature, so they can change.

Sexual division of labour: housework and care of children are treated as women's work and paid work outside the home as men's. Men do cook or sew, but usually for pay outside the home; the unpaid version at home is left to women. Women also work in fields and fetch water and fuel, yet much of this is unpaid and not counted; on average women work longer hours than men.

Public and private: the division pushes women towards the private sphere of the home and keeps public life, including politics, mostly to men.

Women's movements made gender a political issue: first the vote, then better education, careers and legal and political status, and later equality in personal and family life. A feminist is a woman or man who believes in women and men having the same rights and chances in life. Where women organised, their role in public life grew; in Sweden, Norway and Finland their participation is very high.

Patriarchy: a system that treats men as more important and gives them authority over women. Evidence of disadvantage in India:

• Education: in the 2011 Census, literacy was about 65% for women and 82% for men; fewer girls continue to higher studies, often because families invest more in sons.
• Work and pay: few women reach high-paid jobs; the law requires equal pay for equal work (first laid down in 1976), yet unequal pay persists in many workplaces.
• Son preference: the 2011 Census recorded about 919 girls per 1,000 boys aged 0–6; sex-selective abortion and neglect of girls lie behind such ratios.
• Safety: harassment and violence at home and in public places.

Political representation

• Lok Sabha: women have never reached 15% of members; in most state assemblies the share is lower.
• Local bodies: since 1992, at least one-third of seats in panchayats and municipalities are reserved for women; many states have raised it to half.
• 2023 amendment: reserves one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, to take effect after the next census and delimitation.

The debate: supporters point to decades of very low representation and the success of local reservation. Concerns raised include rotation of reserved seats, proxy control by male relatives, and the need for parties to train and support women candidates.

Religion and politics need not be a problem. Gandhiji held that religion can never be separated from politics; by religion he meant the ethical teachings common to every faith. People may raise concerns as members of a religious community, and the state may act to end discrimination, so long as the equal rights of others are respected. Women's organisations have also asked that family laws give women equal rights.

Communalism begins when religion is treated as the identity that matters above all others, when all followers of a religion are assumed to share the same interests, opposed to those of others, and when people of different religions are thought unable to live as equal citizens. These assumptions are false: every religion has many voices, and people share class, region, language and gender across faiths.

Forms of communalism

1. Everyday beliefs: fixed images of other faiths, prejudice, and the idea that one's own faith is better.
2. Political dominance: a majority seeking to dominate, or a minority seeking a separate political unit.
3. Political mobilisation on religious lines: holy symbols and religious figures, and playing on emotions and fear.
4. Communal violence: riots and killings, as at the time of Partition.

A democratic government must protect every citizen equally and take special care that minorities are safe.

The makers of the Constitution chose secularism for a land of many faiths:

1. There is no official religion (contrast Sri Lanka, whose constitution gives Buddhism a special place).
2. Every citizen is free to profess, practise and propagate any religion, or none.
3. Discrimination on grounds of religion is prohibited.
4. The state may intervene in religious matters to ensure equality, for example by abolishing untouchability.

Secularism is a foundation of the Constitution, not the view of one party; it lets all faiths live as equal citizens and guards against communal conflict.

The old order: hereditary occupations backed by ritual; marriage within the caste; ranking of groups; untouchability and exclusion. Reformers Jotiba Phule, Gandhiji, B.R. Ambedkar and Periyar E.V. Ramaswami Naicker campaigned against caste discrimination.

What has changed: the Constitution prohibits caste discrimination and abolishes untouchability; urbanisation, education, occupational mobility and landlords losing their hold over villages have loosened caste hierarchy.

What continues: most people marry within their caste; untouchability persists in some places; the effects of centuries of advantage and disadvantage remain, so groups once denied education tend to have lower schooling and higher poverty.

Caste in politics: parties choose candidates after looking at which castes live in a constituency; some appeal to caste feelings; universal adult franchise (one person, one vote) made leaders seek every group's support and brought new political awareness among castes once treated as inferior.

Limits: most constituencies have voters of many castes; no party wins all the votes of a caste; voters face several candidates of the same caste; sitting members and ruling parties often lose.

Politics in caste: castes enlarge by bringing in neighbouring sub-castes, form coalitions, and new categories such as "backward" and "forward" appear.

Effects: Dalit and OBC groups have gained a far bigger say in decisions; but politics based only on caste can push aside shared problems such as poverty, development and corruption and create tension.