Feminism in India

Feminism in Indiais a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and support equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for Indian women.It is the pursuit ofwomens rights at bottom the society ofIndia. Like their feminist counter bits all over the world,feministsin India seek gender equality the right to work for equal w dates, the right to equal get at to health and education, and equal political rights. 1Indian feminists also turn in fought against refining-specific issues within Indias agedsociety, such asinheritance lawsand the practice of leave immolation known asSati.The history of feminism in India put forward be divided into three sorts the first phase, stemma in the mid-nineteenth century, initiated when male European colonists began to speak out against the social evils of Sati2the second phase, from 1915 to Indian independence, when Gandhi incorporated womens movements into theQuit India movementand independent womens organizati ons began to emerge3and finally, the third phase, post-independence, which has center on fair treatment of women in the work force and right to political parity. 3 Despite the progress make by Indian feminist movements, women musical accompaniment in modern India still face m either issues of discrimination. Indias patriarchal culture has made the process of gaining land-ownership rights and access to education challenging. 4In the past two decades, on that point has also emerged a disturbing trend ofsex-selective abortion. 5To Indian feminists, these ar seen as injustices worth struggling against. 6 As in theWest, there has been some criticism of feminist movements in India.They stool especially been criticized for focusing too much on women already privileged, and neglecting the needs and representation of poorer or pull downcastewomen. This has led to the foundation of caste-specific feminist organizations and movements. 7 Contentshide * 1Defining feminism in the Indian context * 2History * 2. 1First phase 18501915 * 2. 2 warrant conformation 19151947 * 2. 3Feminism Post-1947 * 3Issues * 3. 1Birth ratio * 3. 2Marriage * 4Theology * 4. 1 Hindi feminism * 4. Islamic feminism * 5Impact * 5. 1Employment * 5. 2Globalization * 5. 3Education * 5. 4Modernization * 6Notable Indian feminists * 7See also * 8References * 9Further reading * 10External links - editDefining feminism in the Indian context Tribal widow and single women protesting inJawhar,Maharashtra Womens role in Pre- colonial social structures reveals that feminism was theorized differently in India than in the West. 8In India, womens issues first began to be addressed when the landed e demesne commissioned a report on the status of women to a group of feminist researchers and activists. The report recognized the fact that in India, women were oppressed downstairs a system of structural hi geological erarchies and injustices. During this period, Indian feminists were influenced by the Wester n believes being conducted about violence against women. However, due to the difference in the historical and social culture of India, the debate in favor of Indian women had to be conducted creatively and certain Western ideas had to be rejected. 9Womens issues began to gain an global prominence when the decade of 1975-1985 was decl ared the coupled Nations Decade for Women. 2 Historical circumstances and values in India be possessed of caused feminists to develop afeminismthat differs from Western feminism. For example, the idea of women as powerful is accommodated into patriarchal culture through religion,10which has retained visibility in all sections of society. This has provided women with traditional cultural spaces. Further more than, in the West the nonion of self rests in competitiveindividualismwhere con logical argument are described as born free yet everywhere in chains. In India the individual is usually considered to be just one part of the larger socialcollecti ve. Survival of the individual is dependent uponcooperation, andself-denialfor the greater good is valued. 10 Indian women negotiate survival through an array of oppressive patriarchal family structures age, ordinal status, race to men through family of origin, marriage and procreation as intimately as patriarchal attri thoes.Examples of patriarchal attri justes implydowry, siring sons etc. ,kinship,caste, community, village, market and thestate. It should except be maintaind that several communities in India, such as theNairsof Kerala,Shettysof Mangalore, certainMarathaclans, andBengalifamilies exhibit matriarchal tendencies. In these communities, the head of the family is the oldest woman rather than the oldest man. Sikhculture is also regarded as relativelygender-neutral. 1011 The heterogeneity of the Indian experience reveals that there are multiple patriarchies, contributing to the existence of multiple feminisms. Hence, feminism in India is non a singular theoretical or ientation it has alternated over time in relation to historical and cultural realities, levels of spirit, perceptions and actions of individual women, and women as a group. The widely used definition is An awareness of womens oppression and exploitation in society, at work and within the family, and conscious action by women and men to change this situation. 11Acknowledgingsexismin daily life and attempting to challenge and eliminate it throughdeconstructingmutually exclusive notions offemininityandmasculinityasbiologically determinedcategories opens the way towards an honest society for both men and women. 11 The male and womanly dichotomy of polar opposites with the former oppressing the latter at all times is refuted in the Indian context because it was men who initiatedsocial reform movementsagainst divers(a)social evils. Patriarchy is just one of the hierarchies. Relational hierarchies amid women within the same family are more adverse.Here women are pitted against one a nother. Not all women are powerless at all times. 12 There have been intense debates within the Indian womens movements about the relationship between Western and Indian feminisms. Many Indian feminists simultaneously claim a specific Indian sensitivity as well as an international feminist solidarity with groups and individuals worldwide. 913The rise of liberal feminism in the West in the 1970s focused deeply on demands for equal opportunities in education and employment, as well as ending violence against women.To a large extent, the emerging feminist movement in India was influenced by Western ideals. These called for education and equal rights, but also adapted their appeals to local issues and concerns, such as dowry-related violence against women,Sati, sex selective abortion and custodial rape. Some Indian feminists have suggested that these issues are not specifically Indian in nature but rather a reflection of a wider trend of patriarchal oppression of women. 9 - editHistory Kamini Roy(poet and suffragette) became the first woman Honors fine-tune in India in 1886.Unlike the Western feminist movement, Indias movement was initiated by men, and posterior joined by women. The efforts of these men included abolishing sati, which was a widows death by burning on her husbands funeral pyre,214the custom of child marriage, abolishing the disfiguring of widows, banning the marriage of upper caste Hindoowidows, promoting womens education, obtaining profound rights for women to own property, and requiring the law to acknowledge womens status by granting them basic rights in matters such as adoption. 15 The 19th century was the period that saw a majority of womens issues come under the smudge and reforms began to be made. Much of the previous(predicate) reforms for Indian women were conducted by men. However, by the late 19th century they were joined in their efforts by their wives, sisters, daughters, protegees and other individuals directly touch on by camp aigns such as those carried out for womens education. By the late 20th century, women gained greater autonomy through the formation of independent womens own organizations.By the late thirties and forties a new narrative began to be constructed regarding womens activism. This was newly researched and expanded with the vision to create logical and organic links between feminism and Marxism, as well as with anti-communalism and anti-casteism, etc. The Constitution of India did guarantee equality between the sexes, which created a relative lull in womens movements until the 1970s. 3 During the formative years of womens rights movements, the difference between the sexes was more or less taken for granted in that their roles, functions, aims and desires were different.As a result, they were not only to be reared differently but treated differently also. Over the course of time, this difference itself became a major reason for initiating womens movements. Early 19th century reformers argu ed that the difference between men and women was no reason for the subjection of women in society. However, later reformers were of the opinion that indeed it was this particular difference that subjugated women to their roles in society, for example, as mothers. Therefore, there was a need for the proper care of womens rights.With the formation of womens organizations and their own exponentiation in campaigns, their roles as mothers was again stressed but in a different light this time the argument was for womens rights to speech, education and emancipation. However, the image of women with the mother as a symbol underwent changes over time from an emphasis on family to the creation of an archetypal mother figure, evoking deep, oftenatavisticimages. 3 editFirst phase 18501915 The colonial venture into modernitybrought concepts ofdemocracy,equalityand individualrights.The rise of the concept ofnationalismand introspection of discriminatory practices brought about social reform mov ements related to caste and gender relations. This first phase of feminism in India was initiated by men to uproot thesocial evilsofsati(widow immolation),16to allow widow remarriage, to forbid child marriage, and to reduce illiteracy, as well as to order the age of consent and to ensure property rights through legal intervention. In addition to this, some upper caste Hindu women rejected constraints they faced under Brahminical traditions. 3However, efforts for improving the status of women in Indian society were somewhat thwarted by the late nineteenth century, as nationalist movements emerged in India. These movements resisted colonial interventions in gender relations particularly in the areas of family relations. In the mid to late nineteenth century, there was a national form of resistance to any colonial efforts made to modernize the Hindu family. This included the Age of Consent controversy that erupted after the presidency tried to raise the age of marriage for women. 217 editSecond Phase 19151947 Womens procession during Quit India Movement in 1942 During this period the struggle against colonial rule intensified. caseism became the pre-eminent cause. Claiming Indian superiority became the tool of cultural revivalism resulting in an essentializing pretending of Indian womanhood similar to that ofVictorianwomanhood special yet recognized from public space. Gandhilegitimized and expanded Indian womens public activities by initiating them into the non-violent polished disobediencemovement against theBritish Raj.He exalted their feminine roles of caring, self-abnegation, sacrifice and tolerance and carved a niche for those in the public arena. Women-only organizations likeAll India Womens Conference(AIWC) and the depicted object Federation of Indian Women(NFIW) emerged. Women were grappling with issues relating to the scope of womens political participation,womens franchise, communal awards, and leaders roles inpolitical parties. 3 The 1920s was a n ew era for Indian women and is defined as feminism that was responsible for the creation of localized womens associations.These associations emphasized womens education issues, developed livelihood strategies for working bod women, and also organized national level womens associations such as the All India Womens Conference. AIWC was closely affiliated with the Indian National Congress. Under the leadership ofMahatma Gandhi, it worked within the nationalist and anti-colonialist freedom movements. This made the mass mobilization of women an integral part of Indian nationalism. Women therefore were a very important part of various nationalist and anti-colonial efforts, including the civil disobedience movements in the 1970s. 3 After independence, the All India Womens Conference continued to operate and in 1954 the Indian Communist Party form its own womens wing known as the National Federation of Indian Women. However, feminist agendas and movements became less active right after Ind ias 1947 independence, as the nationalist agendas on nation building took precedence over feminist issues. 18 Womens participation in the struggle for freedom developed their critical consciousness about their role and rights inindependent India. This resulted in the introduction of the franchise and civic rights of women in the Indian constitution.There was provision for womens upliftment throughaffirmative action, motherly health and child care provision (creches), equal pay for equal work etc. The state adopted a patronizing role towards women. For example, Indias constitution states that women are a weaker section of the population, and therefore need assistance to function as equals. 15Thus women in India did not have to struggle for basic rights as did women in the West. The utopia ended soon when the social and cultural ideologies and structures failed to honor the newly acquired concepts of fundamental rights and democracy. 3 editFeminism Post-1947 Post independence feminis ts began to redefine the extent to which women were allowed to engage in the workforce. Prior to independence, most feminists accepted the sexual divide within the labor force. However, feminists in the 1970s challenged the inequalities that had been established and fought to reverse them. These inequalities included unequal wages for women, deputation of women to unskilled spheres of work, and restricting women as a reserve army for labor.In other words, the feminists aim was to abolish the free religious service of women who were essentially being used as squalid capital. 3Feminist cast-consciousness also came into focus in the 1970s, with feminists recognizing the inequalities not just between men and women but also within power structures such as caste, tribe, language, religion, region, class etc. This also posed as a challenge for feminists while shaping their overreaching campaigns as there had to be a focus within efforts to ensure that fulfilling the demands of one grou p would not create further inequalities for another.Now, in the early twenty-first century, the focus of the Indian feminist movement has gone beyond treating women as useful members of society and a right to parity, but also having the power to decide the course of their personal lives and the right of self-determination. 3 - editIssues Despite on-paper progresss, many problems still remain which inhibit women from in force(p)y taking advantage of new rights and opportunities in India. There are many traditions and customs that have been an important part of Indian culture for hundreds of years.Religious laws and expectations, or personal laws enumerated by each specific religion, often conflict with the Indian Constitution, eliminating rights and powers women should legally have. Despite these crossovers in legality, the Indian government does not interfere with religion and the personal laws they hold. 19Religions, like Hinduism, call for women to be faithful servants to God an d their husbands. They have a term calledpativratathat describes a wife who has accepted service and devotion to her husband and her family as her ultimate religion and duty.Indian society is largely composed of hierarchical systems within families and communities. Thesehierarchiescan be broken down into age, sex, ordinal position, kinship relationships (within families), and caste, lineage, wealth, occupations, and relationship to ruling power (within the community). When hierarchies emerge within the family based on social convention and economic need, girls in poorer families suffer twice the encroachment of vulnerability and stability. From birth, girls are automatically entitled to less from playtime, to food, to education, girls can expect to always be entitled to less than their brothers.Girls also have less access to their familys income and assets, which is exacerbated among poor, rural Indian families. From the start, it is understood that females will be burdened with st renuous work and exhausting responsibilities for the rest of their lives, always with little to no earnings or recognition. 20 India is also apatriarchalsociety, which, by definition, describes cultures in which males as fathers or husbands are assumed to be in charge and the official heads of households.Apatrilinealsystem governs the society, where gunstock and inheritance are traced through the male line and men are generally in control of the distribution of family resources. 12 These traditions and ways of Indian life have been in effect for so long that this type of lifestyle is what women have become accustomed to and expect. Indian women often do not take full advantage of their constitutional rights because they are not properly aware or informed of them. Women also tend to have poor utilization of voting rights because they make low levels of political awareness and sense of political efficacy.Women are not often encouraged to become informed about issues. Due to this, p olitical parties do not invest much time in female candidates because there is a perception that they are a wasted investment. 15 The female-to-male ratio in India is 933 to 1000, present that there are numerically fewer women in the country than men. This is due to several factors, includinginfanticides, most commonly among female infants, and the poor care of female infants and vaginal birth women. Although outlawed, infanticides are still highly popular in rural India, and are continuing to become even more prominent.This is due to the fact, most especially in rural areas, that families cannot afford female children because of thedowrythey must pay when their daughter gets married. Like infanticide, the payment of dowry is alsoillegal, but is still a customary and prevalent occurrence in rural India. 21Women are considered to be worthless by their husbands if they are not able to produce a male child, and can often face much abuse if this is the case. 22 editBirth ratio Between the years of 1991 to 2001, the female-male ratio of the population of India fell from 94. 5 girls per 100 boys to 92. girls per 100 boys. 5Some split of the country, such asKerala, did not experience such a decline, but in the richer Indian states ofPunjab,Haryana,Gujarat, andMaharashtra, the female-male ratio fell very sharply (the female-male ratios in these states were between 79. 3 and 87. 8). 5This is evidence of natality inequality, and an indication thatsex-selective abortionhas become more pervasive. The Indian parliament has banned the use of sex determination techniques for fetuses due to this, but enforcement of this law has been largely ignored. 23 editMarriageMost of the average Indian womans life is spent in marriage many women are still married before the legal age of 18, and the incidence of non-marriage is low in India. Childbearing and raising children are the priorities of early adulthood for Indian women. Thus, if they enter the workforce at all, it is far late r than Indian men. Urban Indian men reach the peak of their labor force participation between the ages of 25 and 29, while urban Indian women do so between the ages of 40 and 44. 4Because of this, women have less time for the acquisition of skills and fewer opportunities for job improvements.There is a poor representation of women in the Indian workforce. Females have a ten percent higher drop-out rate than males from middle and primary schools, as well as lower levels of literacy than men. Since unemployment is also high in India, it is easy for employers to curb the law, especially when it comes to women, because it is part of Indian culture for women not to argue with men. Additionally, labor unions are insensitive to womens needs. Women also have to settle for jobs that comply with their obligations as wives, mothers, and homemakers. 421 - editTheology editHindu feminism In theHindureligion, there has been partial success in terms of gender equality reform laws and family law. While this is a major advancement relative to other religions in India, it is still not a complete triumph in terms of feminism and relieving oppression. 19Gandhicame up with the termstree shakti(women power) for the concept of womanhood. In the Hindu religion, Gods are not exclusively male. Hinduism sheds a positive light on femininity females are considered to compliment and complete their male counterparts.It is important to note that the deities of both knowledge and wealth are female. 15 There has been some criticism fromDalitgroups that Indian feminism tends to represent upper caste and upper class Hindu women, while ignoring and marginalizing the interests of Dalit women. Debates on caste and gender oppression have been furthered byOther Backward Class(OBC) members of different political parties, arguing in state assemblies that lower caste womens interests are best represented by women from these castes. 7Working towards this end, women within Dalit castes have formed organi zations such as the All India Dalit Womens Forum and the National Federation of Dalit Women and Dalit Solidarity, which focus on the gendered implications of caste based violence and oppression, such as the ways in which Dalit women suffer from urban poverty and displacement. 7 editIslamic feminism The Hindu and Moslem communities in India were treated differently by the government in that separate types of concessions were made for each community in order to accommodate their separate religious laws and regulations.The case ofShah Banobegun in 1985 was one such example ofRajiv Gandhiattempting to make concessions for the Muslim community to in turn secure support for the Congress. Shah Bano, a 73-year-old Muslim woman, was divorced by her husband after forty-three years of marriage. According to the Sharia or Muslim Law, her husband was not required to pay her alimony. Shah Bano challenged this stopping point in the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled in her favor and ordered h er husband to pay her a monthly maintenance allowance.This caused chaos amongst the Muslim clerics who denounced the perspicacity and suggested that their religion, Islam was under attack in the country. In a fear of losing overall Muslim support, Rajiv succumbed to the pressures of the Muslim community and his own party and backed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill that overruled the Supreme Courts decision. This caused an outcry from Hindu nationalists who found the appeasement of minorities by the Congress for political purposes wrong and opportunistic. 24 Feminism was challenged by various minority groups for not entirely addressing the needs of minority populations. It was suggested that mainstream feminism was upper caste and Hindu in its orientation and did not address the concerns of minority women. This led to the formation of the Awaaz-e-Niswaan (The role of Women) in 1987 in Mumbai in largely Muslim part of the city. The Muslim community has been su bjected to personal laws that often were considered harmful to the rights of Muslim women. 25 - editImpactWestern-educated Indians introducedequalityin the early nineteenth century. However, the term did not gain meaning or become an operational principle in Indian life until the country gained independence in 1947 and adopted a democratic government. 15TheIndian Constitutionthen granted equality, freedom from discrimination based on gender or religion, and guaranteed religious freedoms. 19Also, viifive-year planswere developed to provide health, education, employment, and welfare to women. The sixth five-year plan even declared women partners in development. 15 editEmployment In general in the uneducated and rural section of the Indian society, which forms a major percentage of the total population, women are seen as economic burdens. Their contributions to productivity are mostly invisible as their familial and domestic contributions are unfairly overlooked. Indian women were con tributing nearly 36 percent of total employment in agriculture and related activities, nearly 19 percent in the service sector, and nearly 12. 5 in the industry sector as of the year 2000.The unfortunate reality is that the high illiteracy rate among women confines them to lower paying, unskilled jobs with less job security than men. Even in agricultural jobs where the work of men and women are highly similar, women are still more possible to be paid less for the same amount and type of work as men. 26However in the urban section of Indian society, women are empower with laws such as IPC 498a which are heavily biased against the men in the society. Educated women are sometimes accused of using such laws to unleash legal terrorism on husbands by disgruntled wives. 24 editGlobalization Feminists are also concerned about the impact of globalisation on women in India. Some feminists argue that globalization has led to economic changes that have raised more social and economical chall enges for women, particularly for working class and lower caste women. Multinational companies in India have been seen to exploit the labor of young, underpaid and disadvantaged women in free trade zones and sweat shops, and use Young lower middle class, educated women, in call centers.These women have few effective labor rights, or rights to collective action. 2728 In addition to this, multinational corporations are seen to advertise a homogenous image of ideal women crossways the country is argued to cause an increase in the commodification of womens bodies. This is also manifested in the form of nationalist pride exhibited through Indian women winning international dish aerial pageants. According to some feminists, such developments have offered women greater sexual autonomy and more control over their bodies.However, many other feminists feel that such commodification of female bodies has only served the purpose of feeding to male fantasies. 27 editEducation Girls in Kalleda R ural School,Andhra Pradesh. Some of the main reasons that girls are less likely to reach optimal levels of education include the fact that girls are needed to assist their mothers at home, have been raised to believe that a life of domestic work is their destined occupation, have functionally illiterate mothers who cannot educate their children, have an economic dependency on men, and are sometimes subject to child-marriage. 26 In 1986, theNational Policy on Education(NPE) was created in India, and the government launched the program calledMahila Samakhya, whose focus was on the empowerment of women. The programs goal is to create a learning environment for women to realize their potential, learn to demand nurture and find the knowledge to take charge of their own lives. In certain areas of India, progress is being made and an increase in the enrollment of girls in schools and as teachers has begun to increase.By 2001 literacy for women had exceeded 50% of the overall female popul ation, though these statistics were still very low compared to world standards and even male literacy within India. 29Efforts are still being made to improve the level of education that females receive to match that of male students. 26 editModernization Modern influences are affecting the younger generations in parts of India, where girls are beginning to renounce the more traditional ways of Indian life and break gender stereotypes.In more flourishing parts of the country, the idea of dating, or more specificallyopenlydating, has come into play, and the terms girlfriend and boyfriend are being used. Some women have landed highly respectable careers, and can be seen acrossBollywoodbillboards and advertisements. However, this is not the norm throughout the country such modernizations and the women behind them face serious resistance from anti-liberalists. The country is still severely male-dominant and unwelcoming to such movements that go against sex and gender traditions in India . Hasselrlis, Kaj. Making a Statement. Herizons23. 2 (2009) 33-35.