CBSE Class 10 Social Science Gender Religion and Caste Assignment Set B

Objective Questions

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, we will study about the major three kinds of social differences that can take the forms of social divisions and inequalities. These are social difference based on gender, religion and caste.

16.1 GENDER AND POLITICS

(a) Sexual division of labour :
(i) The sexual division of labour has been under practice for time immemorial.
(ii) The result of this division of labour is that women have been confined to a private domain of family, while the public domain has been monopolised by the men.
(iii) Although women constitute half of the population of the world, their role in public life especially in politics is minimum in most of the societies.
(iv) Though the role of women in world politics is increasing but still it is male-dominating.

(b) Feminist Movements :
Movements which are organised by various women organisations to create equality for women in personal and family life have been termed as Feminist Movement.
(i) They demanded 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) They demanded enhancing the political and legal status of women.
(iv) They demanded improvement in the educational and career opportunities for the women.

(c) Different aspects of life in which women are discriminated :
(i) Literacy rate : The literacy rate among women is only 54 percent as compared to 76 percent 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.
(ii) Unpaid work : The proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very small. Though on an average Indian woman works one hour more than an average man everyday but most of them are not paid equally and therefore, their work is often not valued. 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.
(iii) 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 child sex-ratio, mere 940 girl child per thousand boys. 
(iv) 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 home from beating and other forms of domestic violence.

(d) Women’s Political Representation :
“In India, the proportion of women in
legislature has been very low.”
The percentage of elected women members in Lok Sabha has never reached even 10 percent of its total strength. Their share in the state assemblies is less than 5 percent. In this respect, India is among the bottom group of nations in the world. In the government, cabinets are largely all male even when a woman becomes the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister.
One way to solve this problem is to make it legally binding to have a fair proportion of women in the elected bodies. This is what the Panchayati Raj has done in India. One-third of seats in local government bodies–in Panchayats and Municipalities– are now reserved for women. Now there are more than 10 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies. At least one–third of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies should be reserved for Women. A bill with this proposal has been pending before the Parliament for more than a decade.

16.2 RELIGION, COMMUNALISM AND POLITICS

(a) Different considerations about religion and politics :
(i) Gandhiji’s view regarding Religion and Politics : Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. What he meant by religion was not any particular religion like Hinduism or Islam, but moral values that form all religions. He believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion.
(ii) Humanist, Religion and Politics : Human rights groups in our country have argued that most of the victims of communal riots in our country are people from religious minorities. They have demanded that the government should take special steps to protect religious minorities.
(iii) Women, Religion and Politics : Women’s movement has argued that family laws of all religions discriminate against women. So they have demanded that government should change these laws to make them more equitable.

Conclusion :
(A) All these instances involve a relationship between religion and politics. But they do not seem very wrong or dangerous. Ideas, ideals and values drawn from different religions can and perhaps should play a role in politics. People should be able to express in politics their needs, interests and demands as a member of a religious community.
(B) Those who hold political power should sometimes be able to regulate the practice of religion so as to prevent discrimination and oppression. These political acts are not wrong as long as they treat every religion equally.

(b) Communalism :
Communalism is a situation when a particular community tries to promote its own interest at the cost of other communities.
The communalism problem becomes acute when :
(i) Religion is seen as the basis of the nation.
(ii) When one religion and its followers are discriminated against by another.
(iii) When people start believing that beliefs of one religion are superior to those of other religion.
(iv) When the demands of one religious group are formed in opposition to another. 
(v) When state power is used to establish domination of one religious group over the rest.

(c) Communal Politics :
Religion is used in politics in exclusive and partisan terms. This manner of using religion in politics is communal politics.
Communal politics is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community.
Communalism involves thinking along the following lines :
(i) The followers of a particular religion must belong to one community.
(ii) Their fundamental interests should be the same. Any difference that they may have is irrelevant or trivial for community life.
(iii) Communalism also follows that people who follow different religions cannot belong to the same social community. If the followers of different religions have some commonalities, these are superficial and immaterial. Their interests are bound to be different and involve a conflict.
(iv) Sometime 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 nations.

(d) Various forms of communalism in politics :
The most common expression of communalism is in everyday beliefs. These routinely involve religious prejudices, stereotypes of religious communities and belief in the superiority of one’s religion over other religions.
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 a desire to form a separate political unit.
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. In electoral politics this often involves special appeal to the interests or emotions of voters of one religion in preference to others.
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. The post- Independence period also saw large scale communal violence.

(e) Secular state :
There is no official religion for the Indian state. 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.
(i) The Constitution provides to all individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
(ii) The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
(iii) 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. Understood in this sense, secularism is not just an ideology of some parties or persons. This idea constitutes one of the foundations of our country.

16.3 CASTE AND POLITICS

(a) Reasons for the decline of the caste system :
Under the caste system, work is divided among people on the basis of their caste. Occupations are passed from generation to generation. Every caste group has exclusive hereditary occupations.
Members of the same caste are believed to be from the same community. They are allowed to marry only within their community and cannot even eat with the members of other castes.
However, the caste system is declining in India. Many political leaders and social reformers like Mahatama Gandhi, Jyotiba Phule worked to end the caste system in India. They worked to establish a society where caste inequalities are absent.
Due to such measures and due to increase in education and awareness, the caste system is on a decline in India. With economic development, urbanization and growth in literacy, the old ideas of the caste system are breaking down. The capability of a person is more important now, than his caste. The opportunities available to people do not differentiate on the basis of caste anymore.

(b) Caste has not disappeared from contemporary India :
Some of the older aspects of caste have persisted. Even now most people marry within their own caste or tribe. Untouchability has not ended completely, despite constitutional prohibition. Effects of centuries of advantages and disadvantages continue to be felt today. There is a disproportionately large presence of ‘upper caste’ among the urban middle classes in our country. Caste continues to be closely linked to economic status.

(c) Various forms of Caste in Politics :
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. When governments are formed, political parties usually take care that representatives of different castes and tribes find a place in it.
(i) 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.
(ii) 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. It also brought new consciousness among the people of castes that were hitherto treated as inferior and low.

(d) Caste alone cannot determine election results in India :
(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 the voters of a caste or community. When people say that a caste is a ‘vote bank’ of one party, it usually means that a large proportion of the voters from that caste vote for that party.
(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 have more than one candidate from their caste while many voters have no candidate from their caste.
(iv) The ruling party and the sitting MP or MLA frequently lose elections in our country. That could not have happened if all castes and communities were frozen in their political preferences.
(v) The voters have strong attachment to political parties which is often stronger than their attachment to their caste or community.
(vi) People within the same caste or community have different interests depending on their economic condition.
(vii) Rich and poor or men and women from the same caste often vote very differently.
(viii) People’s assessment of the performance of the government and the popularity rating of the leaders matter and are often decisive in elections.

(e) Caste system a great threat to Indian democracy :
Most of the politicians and scholars accept that the caste system has become very complicated resently. It has become a great threat to Indian democracy. Caste system implies denial of equality and freedom, and hence in contrary to the principles of equality. As such it is passing a big threat to our democratic policy.
(i) The politics of caste as its worst is being practiced now-a-days.
(ii) This type of politics is responsible for creating social tension, violence and fear psychosis.
(iii) It has given rise to instability in the political system of our country.
(f) Steps taken by the government to do away with casteism :
(i) Untouchability has been abolished by Indian Constitution and it has been made a criminal offence.
(ii) The fundamental rights guaranteed in our Constitution provide equality and freedom to all citizens.
(iii) Reservation has been provided to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and people of the other backward castes in educational institutions, jobs and legislatures.
(iv) As per Directive Principles, State is duty-bound to promote and protect the interest of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
(v) Education is provided to more and more people. Inter-caste marriages are being welcomed by most of the state governments, progressive parties and leaders.

Choose the Correct Option

Question : Suggest any three measures to enhance the participation of woman in politics.
Answer : (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.

Question : What was the Feminist Movement? Explain the political demands of the Feminist Movement in India.
Answer : 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.

Question : How can communalism pose a great threat to Indian democracy?
Answer : 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.

Question : Describe the three factors which determine the outcome of the politics of social divisions.
Answer : 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.

Question : The focus on caste in politics can sometimes give an impression that elections are all about caste and nothing else. Do you agree? Explain.
Answer : 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.

Question : Describe the positive and negative aspects of relationship between caste and politics.
Answer : 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.