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Toward a Feminist Politics?The Indian Women’s Movementin Historical Perspective

Samita Sen

April 2000The World Bank Development Research Group/ Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network POLICY RESEARCH REPORT ON

GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

Working Paper Series No. 9

The PRR on Gender and Development Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage theexchange of ideas about the Policy Research Report. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly.The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, itsBoard of Directors, or any of its member countries.Copies are available online at http: //www.worldbank.org/gender/prr.

Despite a longstanding and vigorous women’s movementwith many achievements, patriarchy remains deeplyentrenched in India, influencing political and social institutions and determining opportunities available to women and men. To better understand the challenges facing the women’s movement, this paper explores two debates that have rocked the movement and Indian society more broadly- over the Uniform Civil Code and the proposed reservation forwomen of seats in legislative bodies.

Toward a Feminist Politics?The Indian Women’s Movement in HistoricalPerspective

Samita Sen

Department of HistoryCalcutta University

Abstract

The women’s movement in India took off in the 1920s, building on the 19th centurysocial reform movement. The women’s movement progressed during the period of high nationalism and the freedom struggle, both of which shaped its contours.Among the many achievements of the movement, the most significant were theconstitutional guarantees of equal rights for women and universal adult suffrage inindependent India. However, these guarantees did little to bring about social andmaterial change in the lives of most Indian women. A New Women’s movement,articulated to mass and popular politics, emerged in the 1970s.Despite the longstanding and vigorous women’s movement, patriarchy remainsdeeply entrenched in India, influencing the structure of its political and socialinstitutions and determining the opportunities open to women and men. Thenegotiation and conflict between patriarchy and the women’s movement are centralto the constitution of the nation-state.This paper explores these issues by examining two debates that have rocked thewomen’s movement and Indian society: over the Uniform Civil Code and theproposed reservation for women of seats in legislative bodies. These controversieshave contributed to and bear the mark of deep cleavages within the women’smovement—cleavages that reflect divisions of caste, class, and community amongwomen. To understand the full implications of these controversies and their divisiveconsequences, it is essential to understand their long-term historical roots. Thediscussion here draws out various positions within the women’s movement andarguments advanced by the government, the media, and others. The significance of asecular political constituency of women, as represented by the women’s movement,is also considered.

For: The World Bank Policy Research Report on Gender and Development: Engendering Development Backgroundpaper on the women’s movement as a contribution to:

Contesting Patriarchy Women’s Organizations, Civil Society,and Grassroots Change in India.

An Introduction to India’s Women’s Movement

The term

Indian women’s movement

is highly contested. The appellation of “Indian,” when usedfor the women’s movement, implies a political and cultural singularity that obscures the movement’sdiversity, differences, and conflicts. The problem is not simply one of disunities but rather has to do withintractable conflicts involving the word “women” that derive from the central position of gender in post-colonial Indian culture and politics. Indeed, processes of gender—the construction of identities, roles, andrelations based on sexual differences—played a key role in the historical formation of the Indian nation-state. But gender cannot be separated from other, conflicting political identities, all of which play a crucialrole in the life of the nation.

The Emergence of Gender Issues

Gender has been a central ‘issue’ in India since the colonial encounter. An overwhelmingpreoccupation with the “woman’s question” arose from the 19

century social reform movement, cruciallyinformed anti-colonial nationalism, and remains a point of crisis in India’s cultural, social, and politicalspace. The recognition of gender as an issue forms the basis for India’s women’s movement.One prominent gender concern was status—that is, the rewards and benefits that accrued to womenon India’s journey to self-determination, statehood, democracy, progress, modernity, and development. In1974 the Indian government published a report,

Towards Equality

, that put status of women forcefully onthe national agenda by arguing that the position of Indian women had declined, not improved, since 1911(Committee on the Status of Women 1974). As a result development and progress became gender issues.Data on gender discrimination in employment, education, land distribution, inheritance, nutrition, andhealth became impossible to overlook.At the same time violence against women was on the rise and widely reported in the media. Therewere cases of rape in police custody, wife murder (usually called bride-burning or dowry deaths) on a large