Ch 3Gender, Religion and Caste

Chapter 3: Gender, Religion and Caste

This chapter applies what we learnt about power-sharing and social differences to three kinds of social divisions in Indian politics — gender, religion and caste. It asks how each division is expressed in politics, and whether such expression is healthy or harmful for democracy.

1. Gender and Politics

The Sexual Division of Labour

Gender division is a form of hierarchical social division seen everywhere, but rarely recognised in the study of politics. It is based not on biology but on social expectations and stereotypes. The sexual division of labour is a system in which all work inside the home (cooking, cleaning, washing, tailoring, looking after children) is either done by the women of the family or organised by them through domestic helpers. Men do this work only when they are paid for it — most tailors and cooks in hotels are men. The majority of women do some paid work outside the home in addition to domestic labour, but their work is not valued and does not get recognition.

The Feminist Movement

Agitations demanding equal rights for women — voting rights, improvement in political and legal status, better educational and career opportunities — grew into the feminist movement. A feminist is a woman or a man who believes in equal rights and opportunities for women and men. These movements have helped improve women's role in public life, yet India remains a patriarchal society — a society that values men more and gives them power over women.

Evidence of Discrimination Against Women in India

• Literacy: the literacy rate among women is only 54% compared with 76% among men; a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies because parents prefer to spend on sons.
• Work and wages: on average an Indian woman works one hour more per day than a man, but much of her work is unpaid. The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 provides for equal wages for equal work, yet in almost all areas — sports, cinema, factories, farms — women are paid less than men for the same work.
• Sex ratio: in many parts of India parents prefer sons and find ways to abort girl children, so the child sex ratio (girls per thousand boys) has declined to 919 nationally, and to below 850 in some places.
• Safety: reports of harassment, exploitation and domestic violence show that women are not safe even within their own homes.

Women's Political Representation

Feminists argue that these problems get attention only when women control power. But the proportion of women in the Lok Sabha touched 14.36% (2019) for the first time, and in state assemblies it is less than 5% — behind the averages of several developing countries of Africa and Latin America. One legal solution has worked: one-third of seats in local government bodies — panchayats and municipalities — are reserved for women, so there are more than 10 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies. A bill reserving one-third of Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats for women was pending for over a decade; the Women's Reservation Act (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) was passed in 2023. Gender division is thus an example of how some expression of social division in politics can be healthy — it strengthened the disadvantaged.

2. Religion, Communalism and Politics

Religious differences too are expressed in politics. Gandhiji said that religion can never be separated from politics — by religion he meant not a particular faith but moral values that ought to guide politics. Human-rights groups demand protection of religious minorities; women's movements ask that family laws of all religions be non-discriminatory. Such involvement of religion in politics — as ethics and equal rights — is not necessarily dangerous.

Communalism

The problem begins when religion is seen as the basis of the nation, and when it is expressed in politics in exclusive and partisan terms — when one religion is set against another and state power is used to establish the domination of one religious group. This is communalism. Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community — that followers of one religion form one community with common interests, and that people of different religions cannot belong to the same social community.

Secular State — the Indian Model

Communalism was and remains a major challenge, so the makers of our Constitution chose a secular state:

1. There is no official religion of the Indian state (unlike Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Islam in Pakistan or Christianity in England).
2. The Constitution gives every individual and community the freedom to profess, practise and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
3. It prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
4. It allows the state to intervene in religious matters to ensure equality within religious communities — for example, the ban on untouchability.

3. Caste and Politics

Caste Inequalities

Unlike gender and religion, caste division is special to India. In the caste system, hereditary occupational division was sanctioned by rituals; members of a caste group were expected to marry within the group and not eat with members of other groups. It was based on exclusion of and discrimination against 'outcaste' groups, who suffered the inhuman practice of untouchability. Reformers like Jotiba Phule, Gandhiji, B.R. Ambedkar and Periyar Ramaswami Naicker worked to establish a society without caste inequalities. With urbanisation, occupational mobility, growth of literacy and education, and the weakening of the landlords' position in villages, the old notions of caste hierarchy are breaking down — yet caste has not disappeared: most people still marry within their caste, untouchability has not fully ended despite the constitutional ban, and centuries of disadvantage mean caste groups that had access to education earlier still lead, while Dalits and Adivasis remain heavily represented among the poor.

Caste in Politics

• Parties keep the caste composition of the electorate in mind while choosing candidates and forming governments.
• Parties appeal to caste sentiment; some are seen as representatives of particular castes. 'One man one vote' compelled leaders to mobilise caste groups — bringing new consciousness among castes treated as inferior.
• But politics is not all about caste: no constituency has a clear majority of one caste; no party wins all votes of a caste ('vote bank' means only a large share); many constituencies elect different parties in successive elections; and voters weigh governments' performance and leaders' popularity, not caste alone.

Politics in Caste

Politics too influences the caste system — castes get 'politicised': each caste tries to grow bigger by incorporating neighbouring sub-castes; caste groups enter into coalitions with other castes and thus dialogue and negotiation; new caste groups like 'backward' and 'forward' have emerged in the political arena. Exclusive attention to caste can be harmful — it can divert attention from poverty, development and corruption, and lead to tension and even violence — but caste-based politics has also helped Dalits and OBCs gain a better share in decision-making and demand social justice.