INDIA'S GENDER (IN)EQUALITY: RELIGION VS. WOMEN
India’s economy is the world’s
tenth-largest by nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Since 1999 when India
became a part of G20 or the group of 20 major economies, its GDP grew by nearly
300%. During the same period, the Human Development Index (HDI) of United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for India has seen a growth of about 18%.
India ranks 134 among 187 countries in the most recent human development report (HDR).
Clearly, India’s national income
has not translated into betterment of the lives of its citizens in any
significant way or bridged the gender gap. In fact, in the recent HDR, India is
placed at 132 among 186 countries on the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index (GII)
list. Additionally, India ranks as the fourth most dangerous country in the world
for women and is the worst among the G20 nations.
Gender
equality or equal treatment or
perceptions of individuals irrespective of their gender is part of the United
Nations Declaration of Human Rights and is guaranteed in the Constitutions of
most countries around the world, including India’s. However, different nations
who uphold gender equality as part of their guiding principles actually
practice this basic human right quite differently.
So, what are the major roadblocks
to achieving gender equality in India?
The sources of inequality are
rooted in the interplay of religion and society that are interwoven into the
basic fabric of India’s national character. Except for a few isolated regions,
such as in the southern state of Kerala and in the Northeastern states of
Manipur and Mizoram, the Indian society has remained patriarchal throughout its
history. Patriarchy and gender relations, which are dynamic and complex, have
changed over the periods of history. The nature of control and subjugation of
women varies from one society to the other, however, certain characteristics
such as control over women’s sexuality and her reproductive power cuts across class, caste, ethnicity, religions
and regions and are common to all patriarchies.
Religion is an important part of
India’s culture with over 93% of Indians associating themselves with one
religion or other. Hinduism is the dominant religion, adhered to by 80% of the
Indians; Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and
Judaism make up the rest.
Among the ‘33 million deities’
worshiped by the Hindus, a significant percentage are females. These female
deities range from subservient types, embodying female virtues, to fierce ones
combining the powers of all deities. On the other hand, Hindu religious
scriptures often express condescending views about women. One of the most
widely known of the Dharmashastras, the Manu Smirti (or
Laws of Manu), depicts women as being entirely subservient to men: a girl is
governed by her father, a married woman by her
husband, a widow by her sons. The trait is seen in every other religion: women
are men’s belongings; they do not have any authority over men.
Sikhism was among the first major world religions to proclaim equality of women and men. Guru
Nanak and his successors allowed women to take full part in all the activities
of Sikh worship and practice. Sikhs have had an obligation to treat women as
equals, and gender discrimination in Sikh society has not been allowed.
However, gender equality has been difficult to achieve. Reformatory movements
such as Jainism had also allowed women to be admitted to the religious order.
By and large, women, irrespective of their faiths, have faced confinement and
restrictions throughout India’s history.
Religions derive their power and
popularity in part from the ethical compass they offer. So why do so many
faiths help perpetuate something that most of us regard as profoundly
unethical: the oppression
of women? As it turns out, abuses arise
out of a social context in which women are, often, second-class citizens.
That’s a context that religions have helped shape, and not pushed hard to change.
Marginalization of women is
universal in nature. “Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in
many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are
justified,” former U.S. President Jimmy Carter noted in a speech in December
2009 to the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Australia.
“The belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God,”
Mr. Carter continued, “gives excuses to the brutal husband who beats his wife,
the soldier who rapes a woman, the employer who has a lower pay scale for women
employees, or parents who decide to abort a female embryo.” Mr. Carter sees
religion as one of the “basic causes of the violation of women’s rights.”
Religious leaders sanctified
existing social structures, instead of pushing for justice. Through these
practitioners of faith, religious patriarchy works as a vehicle for coercing
women to accept gender oppression through religion, in order to maintain the
cohesion of the male-dominated social system in India. Today, when religious institutions exclude women from their hierarchies and
rituals, the inevitable implication is that females are inferior.
Subjugation of women belonging to
lower castes and other religions is even more severe. During the Partition of India, it is estimated that between 75,000 and
100,000 women were kidnapped and raped in the name of religion. Hindus, Muslims
and Sikhs participated in equal force in an overt assertion of their identity
and a simultaneous humiliation of the other by ‘dishonoring’ their women. Each
community considered women and girls to be the weakest part of the other
community and continues to do so even today.
The riots of 1984 targeting the
Sikh community led to rape and murder of hundreds of Sikh women. That carnage
was instigated by the then-ruling Congress Party. The communal riots of Gujarat
in 2002 saw the prevalence of rape and sexual torture of Muslim women, in hundreds, of grotesque nature — similar
to the Delhi rape incident of December 16, 2012. Often, following the rape and
torture, the women would be set on fire. The leaders of the Hindu right, the
political party in power during the riots, fashioned an image of Indian
masculinity as aggressive and warrior-like, and even refashioned the images of
the gods to support the ideology of domination. Such became the linchpin of
their program for youth education. Domination
over Hindu women and violence against Muslim women are at the core of the Hindu
right’s political consciousness. On average, three Dalit women are raped daily
in some part of the country; while the conviction rate in rape cases is about
26%, it is virtually nil in cases involving Dalit and Muslim women.
Modern liberal democracies hold
religious liberty with high esteem, and that its protection is among the most
important functions of the government. These democracies also typically defend
as central a wide range of other human interests, liberties, and opportunities.
Sometimes, however, the religions do not support these other liberties.
Sometimes, indeed, they deny such liberties to classes of people in accordance
with a morally irrelevant characteristic, such as race or cast or sex. In the
largest democracy, that is India, religions run large parts of the legal system
and such denials are fundamental determinants of many lives. Although Hindu
religion and Indian cultural practice does not strictly dictate the status of
women, many conservative leaders and gurus continue to hold and espouse deeply
misogynistic views publicly. This attitude prevailed in the aftermath of the
Delhi rape incident.
The interference of religion
creates a dilemma for the liberal state. On the one hand, to interfere with the
freedom of religious expression is to deeply affect the citizens in an area of
intimate self-definition and basic liberty. Not to interfere, however, permits
other abridgements of self-definition and liberty. It is not surprising that
like many modern democracies, India should find herself torn in this area – its
Constitution enumerates equality of sexes and nondiscrimination of the basis of
sex in the list of Fundamental Rights – alongside commitments to religious
liberty and nondiscrimination on the basis of religion.
India has largely condescended to
religious and social forces originating from the male-dominated upper strata of
the Hindu society. These forces have exploited religion to divide people and to
perpetuate the class structure. Consequently, everybody outside the ranks of
the echelon has been marginalized and India has postponed making gender
equality a reality.
[TO BE CONCLUDED]
Subhodev Das
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