Class 10 Political Science Chapter 4 Gender, Religion and Caste
HOTS, Important terms and key points of the chapter 4 Gender religion and caste
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| Source : NCERT 10 Political Science book |
A system in which all work inside the home is either done by the women of the family or organised by them through the labour of domestic workers.
Impact: Women constitutes half of the ben population but their role in public, economic and political life is limited.
2) Feminist-
A woman or a man who believes in equal rights and opportunities for women and men.
3) Patriarchy:
Literally, rule by father, this concept is used to refer to a system that values men more and gives them power over women.
4) Family laws-
Those laws that deal with family related matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, etc. In our country, different family laws apply to followers of different religions.
5) Urbanisation-
Shift of population from rural areas to urban areas in search of better employment and opportunities.
6) Occupational mobility-
Shift from one occupation to another, usually when a new generation takes up occupations other than those practised by their ancestors.
7) Caste hierarchy-
A ladder like formation in which all the caste groups are placed from the 'highest' to the 'lowest' castes.
8) Feminist movements-
The movements which aimed at equality of men and women in all spheres of life.
9) Sex ratio-
Number of girl children per thousand boys. The Sex ratio of India is 940 as per Census 2011.
10) Secular state-
A state in which the constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
11) Casteism
Organisation of people into social groups for the purpose of marriage, work and diet is known as the caste system.
12) Countries in which the participation of woman in public life is very high-
Sweden, Norway and Finland.
13) Equal Wages Act-
According to this Act equal wages should be paid to equal work.
14) "Religion can never be separated from politics"
quoted by- Gandhiji
15) Two provisions of Indian Constitution which makes India a secular state-
a. There is no official religion for the Indian state.
b. The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
16) Four social reformers who advocated and worked to establish a society in which caste inequalities are absent
Jotiba Phule, Gandhiji, B.R. Ambedkar and Periyar Ramaswami.
Q1 What were Gandhiji's views regarding religion and politics?
Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. What he meant by religion was not any religion like Hinduism or Islam but moral values that form the basis of all religions. He believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religions.
Q2. "There is an urgent need to combat communalism". Explain.
Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community.
(i) The followers of a particular religion must belong to one community. Their fundamental interests are the same. Any difference that they may have is irrelevant or trivial for community life. It also follows that people who follow different religions cannot belong to the same social community.
(ii) 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. For those belonging to the minority community, it can take the form of desire to form a separate political unit.
(iii) Sometimes communalism takes its most ugly form of communal violence riots and massacre. For example, communal riots in UP, Bihar, Gujarat etc.
(iv) communalism should not be seen as a threat to some people in India. It threatens the very idea of India. That is why communalism needs to be combated.
Q3- Besides caste, which other factors matter in electoral politics? Explain.
(i) Voting on the basis of community-
Political leaders pursue the voters to cast their vote on the basis of communal lines.
(ii) Political Mobilization on Religious lines-
Political mobilization on is another frequent form of communalism. This involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal and plain fear to bring the followers of one religion together in the political arena. In electoral politics this often involves special appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one religion in preference to others.
(iii) Performance of the government-
Along with caste and community people also check the performance of the political party or the agenda of the party.
Q4- Describe any five features of the caste system prevailing in India.
Main features of caste system are as follows-
(i) Organisation of people into social groups for the purpose of marriage, work and diet is known as the caste system.
(ii) The social structure of India is based upon the caste system. All societies have some kind of social inequality and some form of division of labour, but the Indian caste system is an extreme form of division of labour based on birth.
(iii) Although in most societies, occupations are passed on from one generation to another, but in India, it is different from other societies as in this system hereditary occupational division was sanctioned by rituals.
(iv) The Indian caste system was very rigid. Members of the same caste group were posed to form a social community that practised the same or similar occupation, married within the caste group, and did not eat with members from other caste groups.
(v) Indian caste system continues to be closely linked to economic status. Mention any positive role of caste in
Q5- Describe the positive and negative aspects of relationship between caste and politics.
Positive aspects-
(i) In some situations, expression of caste differences in politics gives many disadvantaged communities the space to demand their share of power.
(ii) In this sense, caste politics has helped people from the Dalits and the OBC castes to gain better access to decision making.
(iii) Several political and non-political organisations have been demanding and ops agitating for the end of discrimination against particular castes, for more dignity and more access to land, resources and opportunities.
Negative aspects-
(i) It disrupts social harmony.
(ii) It can divert attention from other pressing issues like poverty, corruption, etc.
Q.6. What are Feminist Movements? What were their major demands?
These are the movements which are organised by various women organisations to create equality for women in personal and family life.
(i) These feminist movements demand equal rights for women in all spheres of life.
(ii) There were agitations in different countries for the extension of voting rights to women.
(iii) The agitations demanded enhancing the political and legal status of women.
(iv) The movements also demanded in improving the educational and career opportunities for the women.
Q7- Explain the role of caste in Indian politics.
Role of caste in Indian politics can be described as under-
(1) While choosing candidates-
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 get necessary support to win elections.
(2) While forming a government-
When the governments are formed, political parties usually take care that representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it.
(3) While campaigning-
Political parties and candidates in elections make appeals to people to give them their votes based on caste. 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-
It has compelled the political leaders to raise the caste-based issues during elections. They do so to mobilise and secure political support. It also brought new consciousness among the people of castes that were hitherto treated as inferior and low.
NCERT solutions of EXERCISE QUESTIONS
Q1. Mention different aspects of life in which women are discriminated or disadvantaged in India.
In india, women are discriminated in following aspects-
(1) Literacy rate-
The literacy rate among women is only 65.46% (2011 census) as compared to 82.14% (2011 census) among men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girl students go for higher studies because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boys' education than spending equally on their daughters.
(2) Unpaid work-
The proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. Though on an average, the Indian woman works one hour more than an average man every day, but most of them are not paid equally and therefore, their work is often not valued.
(3) Sex ratio-
In many parts of India, parents prefer to have sons, and find ways to have the girl child aborted before she is born. This has led to a decline in the child sex ratio in the country is merely 940.
(4) Domestic violence-
There are reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation and violence against women. Both urban as well as rural areas have become unsafe for women. They are not safe even within their own homes from beating and other forms of domestic violence.
Q2. State different forms of communal politics with one example each.
Communalism can take several forms in politics in everyday beliefs, formation of parties based on communities, campaigning or asking for votes, formation of government, etc.
(1) Communalism in daily beliefs-
The most common expression of communalism is in everyday life. These routinely involve religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and the beliefs in the superiority of one religion over the other religions. This is so common that we often fail to notice it, even when we believe in it.
(2) Formation of political parties based on communities-
All the communities of the world have a quest for political dominance of one's own religious community. For those belonging to the majority community, this takes the form of majoritarian dominance. For those belonging to the minority community, it can take the form of a desire to form a separate political unit.
(3) Political mobilisation on communal lines-
It is another frequent form of communalism. Parties based on a particular community make use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal and create fear to bring the followers of one religion together in the political arena. In electoral politics, this often involves a special appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one religion in preference to others.
(4) Communal riots-
Sometimes, communalism takes the ugliest form of communal violence, riots and massacre. India has suffered some of the worst communal riots at the time of partition. The post-independence period has also seen large scale communal violence.
Q3. State how caste inequalities are still continuing in India.
i) Even now, most people marry within their own case or tribe.
ii) Untouchability has not ended completely, despite constitutional prohibition.
iii) Effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt today.
iv) People are judged on their caste at job places.
Q4. State two reasons to say that caste alone cannot determine election results in India.
(i) Constituencies are people belonging to different castes
No parliamentary constituency in the country has a clear majority of one single caste. So, every candidate and party need to win the confidence of more than one caste and community to win elections.
(ii) Different choices even within caste-
No party wins the votes of all the voters of a caste or community because even within the community, people have different choices. When people say that a caste is a 'vote bank' of one party, it usually means that about two-thirds of the voters of that community.
(iii) Hunt for a dominating caste-
Most of the political parties may put up candidates from the majority caste. But even this cannot guarantee their victory because some voters have more than one candidate from their castes, while many voters have no candidate from their castes.
(iv) History of elections-
According to history of Indian elections, the ruling party and the sitting Member of the Parliament (MP) or Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) frequently lose elections in our country. This proves that though casteism and communalism play a major role in politics, but elections are not about caste and communalism.
Q5. What is the status of women's representation in India's legislative bodies?
(i) In India, the women's participation in the political area is very low.
(ii) The women's strength in the Lok Sabha is not even 10%.
(iii) Their share in state assemblies is as low as 5%. The share of women in India is behind those of several developing countries of Latin America and Africa.
One probable solution to increase the women's, participation in the political system is to make legal laws for the minimum number of seats to be filled by the women candidates. In the panchayats and municipalities, it is legally binding to fill one third of the seats by women candidates. This has resulted in 10 lakh elected women representatives in the local government bodies.
Q6. Mention any two constitutional provisions that make India a secular state.
A state in which the constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
(1) No official religion-
There is no official religion of the Indian state. Unlike the status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Islam in Pakistan and Hinduism in Nepal, our Constitution does not give a special status to any religion.
(2) Fundamental Rights
Under the Right to Freedom of Religion, our Constitution provides to all citizens freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any. Under the Cultural and Educational Right, our Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
(3) Equality-
The Constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion to ensure equality within religious communities. To ensure equality, untouchability has been banned.
(4) Intervention of the state within religious communities-
The Constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion in order to ensure equality within the different religious communities.
Q7. When we speak of gender divisions, we usually refer to:
(a) Biological difference between men and women
(b) Unequal roles assigned by the society to men and women
(c) Unequal child sex ratio
(d) Absence of voting rights for women in democracies
Ans. (b)
Q8. In India seats are reserved for women in-
(a) Lok Sabha
(b) State legislative assemblies
(c) Cabinets
(d) Panchayati Raj bodies
Ans. (d)
Q9. Consider the following statements on the meaning of communal politics. Communal politics is based on the belief that:
A. One religion is superior to that of others.
B. People belonging to different religions can live together happily as equal citizens.
C. Followers of a particular religion constitute one community.
D. State power cannot be used to establish the domination of one religious group over others.
Which of the statements is/are correct?
(a) A, B, C, and D (b) A, B, and D (c) A and C (d) B and D
Ans. (c) A and C
Q10. Which among the following statements about India's Constitution is wrong? It-
(a) prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
(b) gives official status to one religion.
(c) provides to all individuals freedom to profess any religion.
(d) ensure equality of citizens within religious communities.
Ans. (b) gives official status to one religion.
Q11. Social divisions based on _____________ are peculiar to India.
Ans. Caste
Q12. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the Lists:
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List I |
List II |
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A person who believes in equal rights and opportunities for women and men |
A. Communalist
|
|
A person who says that religion is the principal basis of community |
B. Feminist
|
|
A person who thinks that caste is the principal basis of community |
C. Secularist
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|
A person who does not discriminate others on the basis of religious beliefs |
D. Castiest
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
(a) |
B |
C |
A |
D |
|
(b) |
B |
A |
D |
C |
|
(c) |
D |
C |
A |
B |
|
(d) |
C |
A |
B |
D |
Ans. (b)
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