Gender, Religion and Caste Class 10 Social Science Notes and Questions

One third

A male dominated society

A feminist

Local self government bodies.

Local self government bodies

(a) The Right to Property Act.

(a) India

A movement to secure legal, economic and social equality for women.

In   our   country,   women   still  lag  much behind men despite some improvements since Independence. Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways :

(a)   The literacy rate among women is only 64.60 percent as compared with 80.90 percent among men (2011 data).

(b)  Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go  for  higher  studies.  Girls are  performing  as well as boys in school. But they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boy’s education rather than spending equally on their sons and daughters.

(c)   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.

(d)  The Equal Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid for equal work. However, in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema, to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.

(e)   In some 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 has led to a decline in child sex ratio.

(f )   Women often  face harassment, exploitation and violence on the domestic front.

In the Indian society gender division has proved to be hugely disadvantageous to women. The literacy among women is low compared to men. Percent of women in highly paid jobs is much  less then  men. For the same job women are paid less. Over all women spend more hours at work than men at most homes. Parents spend more resources on their male children. Political mobilization on gender basis has raised the awareness about discrimination against women and stereo types. Now more girl children go to school. There are reservations in job vacancies. One third seats are reserved in local government bodies. By the 2005 Right to property Act, now daughters and sons have the same inheritance rights.

(i)  Women should be given proper education, so that they are aware of their rights and duties and participate actively in politics.

(ii)  Every woman should be self reliant, so that she enjoys a respectable position in the society and is confident about her meaningful contribution in politics as well.

(iii) It should  be legally binding  to  have a fair proportion  of woman in the elected bodies. That is why 1/3rd of seats in local government bodies in panchayats and in municipalities are now reserved for women.

(i)  Gender division is a form of hierarchical social division based on social expectation and stereotypes.

(ii)  Boys and girls are brought up to believe that the main responsibilities of women is house work and bringing up children.

(iii) There is a sexual division of labour in most families where women do all the household chores and men work outside the home.

(iv) Majority of women may do some paid work in addition of domestic labour both in rural and Urban areas but their work is not valued and does not get recognition.

The  status of women’s representation in India’s legislative bodies are as follows  :

(i)   Central Legislature : Less than 10% of its total strength are women.

(ii)  State Legislature : Less than 5% of their total strength are women.

(iii) Panchayati Raj :  One-third  of the seats are reserved for women. There is a demand for similar reservation in the Parliament and assemblies.

Definition : Agitations or movements demanding enhancement in the political and legal status of women and improving their education and career opportunities is called Feminist Movement.

Main Objective : The main objective of Feminist Movement is to attain equality among men and women.

The  political  representation  of  women  in India can be improved by adopting a holistic approach. This would include :

(a)   By  improving  the  literacy  rate.  Presently the  literacy amongst  women is only 65.46% as compared to over 82% in men. This would improve the political awareness amongst women.

(b)  The percentage of women in highly paid jobs is still very small. At many workplaces, women are paid less than men for the same job. When equal pay comes the voice of women will get strengthened.

(c)   The  Hindu  Succession (Amendment)  Act, 2005 removes discriminatory gender practices. The daughters now have equal right of inheritance to their father’s estate as sons. This definitely has increased the political power of females.

(d)  The political representation of women had been very poor  in the Indian  legislatures. Even in the cabinet, the number  of women ministers is very low. The political parties must give more representation to female candidates in union and state elections. The Supreme court of India must intervene in this matter.

(e)   One-third of seats in local government bodies have been reserved for women candidates. This has helped in increasing women’s  representation in panchayats and municipalities. There is a need to enhance this to 50%.

A bill for providing one-third  reservation in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies has been pending in the Parliament for more than a decade. Political parties are yet to arrive at consensus on this issue.

In India, women still lag behind men in different fields despite some improvements since Independence. Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways :

(i)   The literacy rate among women is only 65 percent as compared with 82 percent among men.

(ii)  A smaller proportion  of girl students go for higher studies. Girls perform as well as boys in schools, but they drop out because parents prefer to spend their resources for their son’s education rather  than  spending equally on their sons and daughters.

(iii) The proportion  of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. On an average an Indian woman works many hours more than an average man but gets paid less than the male counterpart.

(iv) The Equal Wages Act provides  that  equal wages should be paid to equal work. However, in almost all areas of work, from sports and cinema, to factories and fields, women are paid less than men, even when both do exactly the same work.

(v)  In many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born.

(vi) Woman face harassment, exploitation and violence in their domestic life.

(i)  In Indian society, gender division tends to be understood as natural and unchangeable. It is based on social expectations and stereotypes.

(ii)  This attitude leads to sexual division of labour i.e., boys and girls are brought up to believe that, the main responsibility of women is house work and bringing up children whereas all the outside works are to be done by men.

(iii) The result of this division of labour is that though the women constitute almost half the population, their role in public life in minimal.

(iv) Political mobilization on this issue has helped to improve women’s role in public life. We now find women working as scientists, doctors engineers, teachers, etc. (v)  Now 33% seats are reserved for women in local government bodies and a similar demand has been made for Assemblies and the Parliament.

The status of women’s representation in India’s legislative bodies is as follows  :

(i) Central Legislature  : Less than 10% of its total strength are women.

(ii) State Legislature :  Less than  5% of its total strength are women.

(iii) Panchayati Raj :  One-third  of the seats are reserved for women.

(iv) India is among the bottom group of nations in the world, in this aspect.

(v)  Women’s  organizations  and  activists  have been demanding a reservation of at least one third of seats in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. But the bill to this effect has not been passed.

Feminist Movement was a radical movement which demanded equality for women in personal and family life and also in politics, society and education field.

The political demands of the Feminist Movements in India were :

(i) More women representatives in local government.

(ii) More political representatives for women by having elected women representatives.

(iii) Reserving at least one-third  of the seats in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies for women.

(iv) They demanded equal pay as men for same work done.

(v) They demanded same inheritance rights for daughters as given to sons.

There is no  official religion for the  Indian states. 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.

Communalism was and to an extent continues to be one of the major challenges to democracy in our country. The makers of our Constitution were aware of this challenge. That is why they chose the model of a secular state. The important provisions that makes India a secular state are :

(i)   There is no  official religion for the  Indian states. 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.

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

(iii) The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.

(iv) 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 : 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, we call it as communalism.

Communalism is a hindrance in the functioning of our democracy because :

(i) Communalism leads to the belief that people belonging to different religions cannot live as equal citizens within one nation. Either, one of them has to dominate the rest or they have to form different nation.

(ii) Any attempt to bring all followers of one religion together is bound to suppress the voices of others.

His act is against the spirit of democracy as the said politician is not working as per the Constitution.

(i)   It also exploits the social difference.

(ii)  It may create social discord and may lead to social division.

(iii) It is also biased attitude and neglects the principle of equality.

India is a secular country. With 29 states and 7 union  territories   there is a large diversity of culture, religion and language.

India does not have a state or official religion.

It gives fundamental right to its citizens to practice, propagate, profess any religion.

The Indian constitution does not discriminate against any religion. The above reasons justify the statement.

(i)  Communal prejudices and proganda need to be countered in everyday life.

(ii)  Religion based mobilisation to meet political must be needs countered.

Communalism can pose a great threat to Indian democracy as :

(i)   It leads to the dangerous  belief that  people belonging to different religion cannot live as equal citizens within one nation. Either group has to dominate the rest or they have to form a different nation.

(ii)  Any attempt to bring followers of one religion together in the context of politics bound to suppress many voices within that society.

It is so because :

(i)   India is a secular state, there is no official religion in our country.

(ii) The Constitution provides us freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion or not to follow any.

(iii) The Constitution prohibits discrimination on the ground of religion.

Secularism in India means equal treatment for all religions by the state. The term ‘Secular’  was added  along  with  the  term  “Socialist’  through the  42 Amendment  in  the  Preamble  of  the Constitution  of India in 1976. The Preamble of Constitution of India asserts that India is a secular country.

The Indian  Constitution  does  not  profess  any state religion. The state recognizes and accepts all religions. It enforces parliamentary laws and not religious laws, and respects pluralism.

The framers of constitution  chose the model of secular state because of the following reasons :

(i)  India emerged as an independent country amidst heavy turmoil and faced many problems like partition based on religion. The constitution makers did not want to give importance  to any religion as it could again divide the country.

(ii) After getting independence, the important leaders of India made it clear that India has to be a secular state as they could not afford any disturbance in the country based on religion.

(iii) The framers of constitution knew that if any particular religion was promoted then there would be a chance of conflict among people of various religions and  that  would harm  the  progress of the country. This would also brings a feeling of insecurity among the people who follow other religions.

There is no discrimination among people based on the religious grounds in India. No religion is given superiority over any other religion.

Secularism means no special status is given to any religion.

(i)   There is no official religion for India unlike the status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, or that of Islam is Pakistan.

(ii)  The constitution provides freedom to practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.

(iii) The Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion.

(iv) The Constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion to ensure equality within religious communities. For example, it bans untouchability.

(i)  Communalism is a situation 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.

(ii)  Various forms of communalism in politics :

(a)   The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs and practices.

(b)  Practice of political dominance of one’s own religious community over others.

(c)  Political mobilisation on religious lines is another frequent form of communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols by religious leaders, emotional appeals to spread fear.

Communalism can take various forms in politics :

(i)   The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs. These involve spread of religious prejudices, stereotype of religious 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 do not believe in it.

(ii)  It often leads to a quest for political dominance of  one’s  own  religious  community,  this  takes the form of majoritarian dominance. For those belonging to the minority community, it leads to formation of a separate political unit.

(iii) Political mobilisation on religious lines is another frequent form of communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols by religious leaders. Emotional appeals are made to bring the followers of one religion together in the political arena.

(iv) Sometimes   communalism   can   lead   to communal violence, riots and massacre.

Beneficial  :

(i)   Influence of religion can make politics value based.

(ii)  Religious communities can politically express their needs and interests.

(iii) Political authorities can monitor and control religious discrimination and oppression.

Problematic :

(i) Religion can become the base for the development of nationalist sentiments which can lead to conflicts between religious groups.

(ii)  Political parties can try to make political gains by pitting one religious group against the other.

(iii) State power  may  be  used  to  establish the domination  of one religions religious group over another.

It is absolutely correct to say that politics and social divisions should not be allowed to mix. This is because :

(i)  It can make social divisions into political division and lead to conflict, violence or even disintegration of a country.

(ii)  In Northern Ireland, there has been a violent and bitter ethno-political conflict for many years.

(iii) It  caused disintegration  of Yugoslavia into six  independent  countries.In  Sri  Lanka,  when the ethno-social difference between Sinhalas and Tamils were politicized, the result was the Civil War in the country.

Factors that decide the outcome of the politics of social divisions are

(i)  When  the people’s perception  of their identities is strict, the accommodation of other identities becomes difficult in the group.

(ii)  Representation of a community  by political leaders  :   While  representing  a  community,  if politicians raise demands that are constitutional, then, it is easier to accommodate those demands.

(iii) The government’s reaction : If the reasonable demands of a  community are suppressed by the government,  then  it  leads to  social divisions, which  in  turns  threatens  the  integrity  of  the country.

Advantages of the political expression of caste differences are :

(i)   It gives disadvantaged groups the opportunity to demand a share in power and decision-making.

(ii)  Many political parties have taken up the issue of ending caste discrimination.

(iii) Measures  for  uplifting  the  status  of  the backward castes has also been undertaken.

(i)  The caste system is very old in India and was also very rigid at one point of time but due to rise in literacy and economic development the caste barriers are breaking down. People in urban areas who are literate mostly do not  believe in inequality based on caste. It is accepted that all are equal. Rising economic status of backward castes has helped in eroding the caste barriers.

(ii)  The problem of communalism has decreased and there is less violence in the name of religion. People who are literate mostly do not get swayed by appeal to religious emotions. Economic progress and urbanisation has greatly helped in spread of in spread of secularism.

(iii) The position  of women  too  has  improved with the spread of literacy among women. Now they can earn and be economically independent. This helps to increase self-esteem and decreases dependence on male members of society.

(iv) The system of dowry at the time of marriage is getting diluted due to literacy and  economic development of women.

(v)  The practice of child marriage is decreasing due to spread of literacy.

(vi) There is occupational mobility due to spread of urbanisation and literacy and people are free to follow the profession of their choice rather than follow hereditary professions.

Adverse effects of caste in politics in India :

(i)    Political parties try to use caste to gain votes.

(ii)   Promise to take care of interests and demands of particular caste.

(iii) It leads to conflicts and tensions among various caste groups as some castes get discriminated against.

Caste barriers are breaking down in India due to the following reasons :

(i)   With the economic development, large scale urbanisation, growth of literacy and education, occupational   mobility  and   the   weakening  of the position of landlords in the villages, the old notions of caste hierarchy are breaking down.

(ii)  Due  to  socio-economic  changes,  i.e. now, most of the times, in urban areas it does not matter much who is walking along next to us on street or eating at the next table in a restaurant.

(iii) The Constitution of India prohibits any caste based discrimination  and lays the foundation  of policies to reverse the injustices of the caste system.

(i)  Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating  within it neighboring castes or sub-castes which were earlier excluded from it.

(ii)  Various caste groups enter  into  a coalition with other castes or communities and thus enter into a dialogue and negotiation.

(iii) New kinds of caste groups have come up in the political area like ‘backward’ and forward’ caste groups.

It is true the caste factor has still not disappeared from our society  :

(i)   Most people marry within their own caste or tribe.

(ii) Untouchability  has  not  ended  despite provisions in the constitution.

(iii) Effects of centuries of advantages to upper cast and disadvantages to lower castes continue to be felt today.

(iv) Large number of low caste people still do not have access to education.

(v)  Caste is still linked to economic and social status.

No, I do not agree. The focus on caste in politics can sometimes give an impression  that elections are all about caste and nothing else is not correct because–

(i)   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.

(ii)  No party wins the votes of all voters of a caste or community. When people say that a cast is a ‘vote bank’ of one party, it usually means that a large proportion of the voters from the caste vote for the party, not all.

(iii) Many political parties may put up candidates from  the  same  caste (if  that  caste is  believed to dominate the electorate in a particular constituency). Some voters may have more than one candidate from their caste while many voters may have no candidate from their caste.

(iv) The ruling party or the sitting M.P. or M.L.A. frequently lose elections in our country. That could not  have happened  if all castes or communities were frozen in their political preferences.

Decline of the caste system in India :

(i)   Efforts of social reformers like Jyotiba Phule, Gandhiji, Ambedkar against caste system have helped to promote a casteless society.

(ii) Economic development has reduced the emphasis on caste.

(iii) Large scale urbanisation has diminished the awareness of caste, as people rub shoulders in buses, trains and offices.

(iv) Growth of literacy and education has helped to decrease the belief in caste.

(v)  Occupational   mobility   is   possible   now and children are not compelled to continue the profession of the family or father.

Casteism is rooted in the belief that caste is the sole basis of social community. Caste  takes various forms in Indian politics.

(i)   When parties choose candidates in elections, they keep in mind the caste composition of the electorate and nominate candidates from the caste so as to get necessary support to win elections.

(ii)  When governments are formed, the political party takes care that representatives of different castes and tribes get a place in the ministry.

(iii) During the campaigning, political parties and candidates make appeals to people to give their votes on the basis of caste. Some political parties are known to favor some castes and are seen as their representatives.

However, Universal Adult Franchise and the principle of one-person-one-vote has compelled political leaders to gear up to the task of mobilizing and securing political support. It has brought new consciousness among the people who were so far treated as inferior and low.

Positive aspects :

(i) It gives the disadvantaged group the opportunity to demand a share in power and decision-making.

(ii)  Many political parties take up the issue of ending caste discrimination.

(iii) Measures  for  uplifting  the  status  of  the backward castes can be undertaken seriously.

Negative aspects :

(i)  Caste-based politics diverts attention from main issues such as poverty, corruption, etc.

(ii)  Caste based politics leads to tensions, conflicts and violence amongst caste segments.

Influence of politics on caste system :

(i)   Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating within its sub-castes.

(ii)  Various   caste   groups   are   required    to enter into a coalition with other castes of same community.

(iii) New kinds  of caste groups  have entered politics like ‘backward’ and ‘forward’ castes.

(iv) Politics   in   caste   has   allowed   many disadvantaged caste groups to demand their share of power.

(v)  Caste politics has helped the dalits and OBC to gain better access to decision-making and political power.