GENDER, RELIGION AND CASTE

SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR ( Gender division of  labour)

In most families women do all works inside the home such as cooking,  cleaning,  washing clothes, tailoring, looking after children, etc., and men do all the works outside the home.

FEMINIST MOVEMENTS

More radical women’s movements aimed at equality between men and women in personal and family life.. These movements are called Feminist movements.

PATRIARCHY

It is a system in which men exercise more power over women.

MATRIARCHY

It is a system in which women exercise more power over men.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT WAYS THROUGH WHICH WOMEN FACE DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT AND SUPPRESSION in India ?

1.      Female literacy rate is very low than male literacy in India. The proportion of girl students go for higher studies is very less.

2.      No wonder the proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small.

3.      The Equal Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work. In all areas of work women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.

4.      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

5.      There are reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation and violence against women. Urban areas have become particularly unsafe for women.

ROLE OF WOMEN IN POLITICAL/ PUBLIC LIFE

1.      In India, the proportion of women in legislature has been very low. For example, the percentage of elected women members in Lok Sabha has never reached even 10 % and in the state assemblies less than 5 %.

2.      One-third of seats in panchayats and municipalities – are now reserved for women. Now there are more than10 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies.

3.      Women organizations and activists have been demanding reservation of at least one-third of seats in the LokSabha and State Assemblies for women. A bill with this proposal has been pending before the Parliament for more than a decade.

COMMUNALISM

It is a system in which beliefs of one religion are presented as superior to those of other religions.

COMMUNAL POLITICS

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. This manner of using religion in politics is communal politics.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND POLITICS

1.      Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. He believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion.

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

3.      Women’s movement has argued that family Laws of all religions discriminate against women.

COMMUNALISM CAN TAKE VARIOUS FORMS IN POLITICS

1.     The most common expression of communalism is in religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and belief in the superiority of one’s religion over other religions.

2.      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.

3.      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.

4.       In electoral politics this often involves special appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one religion in preference to others.

5.      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.

WHAT WERE THE SEVERAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS TAKEN TO SOLVE COMMUNALISM IN INDIA?

1.      India is a secular state. There is no official religion and our Constitution does not give special status to any religion.

2.      The Constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any religion

3.      The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.

4.      At the same time, the Constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion in order to ensure quality within religious communities.

5.      For example, it bans untouchability.  Secularism is not just an ideology of some parties or persons. This idea constitutes one of the foundations of our country.

CASTE SYSTEM

Caste system is a social division based on occupation but later turned into based on birth. Those who had taken over low paid jobs were termed as low castes. The so called lower castes face exclusion and discrimination in the hands of other caste groups.

POLITICAL LEADERS AND SOCIAL REFORMERS WHO FOUGHT AGAINST CASTE SYSTEM

Political leaders and social reformers like Jotiba Phule, Gandhiji, B.R. Ambedkar and Periyar Ramaswami Naicker advocated and worked to establish a society in which caste inequalities are absent.

CASTES AND CASTE SYSTEM IN MODERN INDIA HAVE UNDERGONE GREAT CHANGES.

1.      With economic development and large scale Urbanization large number of villagers have migrated to cities and employed in various fields without disclosing their caste identity.

2.      Occupational mobility and the weakening of the position of landlords in the villages, the old notions of Caste hierarchy are breaking down.

3.      Growth of literacy and education brought some awareness in the minds of the people.

CASTE HAS NOT DISAPPEARED FROM CONTEMPORARY INDIA- Justify.

1.       Even now most people marry within their own caste or tribe.

2.      Untouchability has not ended completely, despite constitutional prohibition.

3.      The higher caste groups that had access to education under the old system have acquired modern education and economically strong.

4.       Those groups that belong to lower caste did not have access to education or they were prohibited from acquiring wealth have naturally lagged behind.

5.      That is why there is a disproportionately large presence of‘ upper caste  people among the urban middle classes in our country.

CASTE CAN TAKE VARIOUS FORMS IN POLITICS

1.    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.

2.    When governments are formed, political parties usually take care that representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it.

3.    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.

4.    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 by forming Political Parties.

CASTE CAN NOT TAKE VARIOUS FORMS IN POLITICS

(The focus on caste in politics can sometimes give an impression that elections are all about caste and nothing else. That is far from true- How?)

1.      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.

2.      No party wins the votes of all the voters of a caste or community.

3.      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.

4.      The ruling party and the sitting MP and MLA frequently lose elections in our country. That could not have happened if all castes and communities were frozen in their political preferences.

5.      The voters have strong attachment to political parties which is often stronger than their attachment to their caste or community. People within the same caste or community have different interests depending on their economic condition.

HOW DO POLITICS INFLUENCE THE CASTE SYSTEM?(CASTE PLAYS DIFFERENT KINDS OF ROLES IN POLITICS)

1.    Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating within its neighbouring castes or sub-castes which were earlier excluded from it.

2.    Various caste groups are required to enter into a coalition with other castes or communities and thus enter into a dialogue and negotiation.

3.    New kinds of caste groups have come up in the political arena like ‘backward’ and ‘forward’ caste groups.

Assignment for Gender, religion and caste

1. what is SEXUAL DIVISION or gender division  OF LABOUR?

2. What is FEMINIST MOVEMENT?

3. what is PATRIARCHY?

4. what is MATRIARCHY

5. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT WAYS THROUGH WHICH WOMEN FACE DISCRIMINATION in India ?

6/ explain the ROLE OF WOMEN IN POLITICAL/ PUBLIC LIFE in five points.

7. what is COMMUNALISM?                      

8. what is COMMUNAL POLITICS?

9. explain the RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND POLITICS in three points.

10. how can COMMUNALISM  TAKE VARIOUS FORMS IN POLITICS?

11. WHAT WERE THE SEVERAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS TAKEN TO SOLVE

COMMUNALISM  IN INDIA?

12. what is CASTE SYSTEM?

13. name any 4 SOCIAL REFORMERS WHO FOUGHT AGAINST CASTE SYSTEM.

14. CASTES AND CASTE SYSTEM IN MODERN INDIA HAVE UNDERGONE GREAT CHANGES- explain the statement.

15. CASTE HAS NOT DISAPPEARED FROM CONTEMPORARY INDIA- Justify.

16. CASTE CAN TAKE VARIOUS FORMS IN POLITICS- justify.

17. CASTE CAN NOT TAKE VARIOUS FORMS IN POLITICS- support it.

18. HOW DO POLITICS INFLUENCE THE CASTE SYSTEM?

19. CASTE PLAYS DIFFERENT KINDS OF ROLES IN POLITICS- support the statement.