Competing Inequalities: The Struggle over Reserved Legislative Seats for Women in India

International Review of Social History

Volumn 44, Issue 7, 1999, Pages 53-75

  Jenkins, Laura Dudley ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0033269739     PISSN: 00208590     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0020859000115196     Document Type: Review

References (68)

1. "RJD-SP Stall Introduction of Women's Quota Bill", Times of India, 14 July 1998.
2. For a more detailed description of these policies in comparison with other "affirmative action policies", see Laura D. Jenkins, "Preferential Policies for Disadvantaged Ethnic Groups: Employment and Education", in Crawford Young (ed.), Ethnic Diversity and Public Policy: A Comparative Inquiry (London, 1998).
3. Enrique Laraña, Hank Johnston, and Joseph R. Gusfield, New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity (Philadelphia, PA, 1994), p. 6.
4. Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Princeton, NJ, 1990).
5. Kenneth D. Wald, James W. Button and Barbara A. Rienzo, "The Politics of Gay Rights in American Communities: Explaining Antidiscrimination Ordinances and Policies", American Journal of Political Science, 40 (1996), p. 1169.
6. An example of classic "resource mobilization" scholarship is Craig J. Jenkins, The Politics of Insurgency: The Farm Worker Movement in the 1960s (New York, 1985). Doug McAdam's "political process" model builds on this tradition. See Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency 1930-1970 (Chicago, IL, 1982). Some have called for a bridge between the European and American approaches: Bert Klandermans and Sidney Tarrow, "Mobilization into Social Movements: Synthesizing European and American Approaches", in Bert Klandermans, Hanspeter Kriesi and Sidney Tarrow (eds), From Structure to Action: Comparing Social Movements Across Cultures (Greenwich, CT, 1988). Subsequent work creatively engaging in such a synthesis has, nevertheless, tended to remain primarily in one camp, as in Sidney Tarrow's tendency to reduce culture to a "cultural tool chest" exploited by political entrepreneurs: Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge, 1994).
7. An example of classic "resource mobilization" scholarship is Craig J. Jenkins, The Politics of Insurgency: The Farm Worker Movement in the 1960s (New York, 1985). Doug McAdam's "political process" model builds on this tradition. See Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency 1930-1970 (Chicago, IL, 1982). Some have called for a bridge between the European and American approaches: Bert Klandermans and Sidney Tarrow, "Mobilization into Social Movements: Synthesizing European and American Approaches", in Bert Klandermans, Hanspeter Kriesi and Sidney Tarrow (eds), From Structure to Action: Comparing Social Movements Across Cultures (Greenwich, CT, 1988). Subsequent work creatively engaging in such a synthesis has, nevertheless, tended to remain primarily in one camp, as in Sidney Tarrow's tendency to reduce culture to a "cultural tool chest" exploited by political entrepreneurs: Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge, 1994).
8. An example of classic "resource mobilization" scholarship is Craig J. Jenkins, The Politics of Insurgency: The Farm Worker Movement in the 1960s (New York, 1985). Doug McAdam's "political process" model builds on this tradition. See Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency 1930-1970 (Chicago, IL, 1982). Some have called for a bridge between the European and American approaches: Bert Klandermans and Sidney Tarrow, "Mobilization into Social Movements: Synthesizing European and American Approaches", in Bert Klandermans, Hanspeter Kriesi and Sidney Tarrow (eds), From Structure to Action: Comparing Social Movements Across Cultures (Greenwich, CT, 1988). Subsequent work creatively engaging in such a synthesis has, nevertheless, tended to remain primarily in one camp, as in Sidney Tarrow's tendency to reduce culture to a "cultural tool chest" exploited by political entrepreneurs: Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge, 1994).
9. An example of classic "resource mobilization" scholarship is Craig J. Jenkins, The Politics of Insurgency: The Farm Worker Movement in the 1960s (New York, 1985). Doug McAdam's "political process" model builds on this tradition. See Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency 1930-1970 (Chicago, IL, 1982). Some have called for a bridge between the European and American approaches: Bert Klandermans and Sidney Tarrow, "Mobilization into Social Movements: Synthesizing European and American Approaches", in Bert Klandermans, Hanspeter Kriesi and Sidney Tarrow (eds), From Structure to Action: Comparing Social Movements Across Cultures (Greenwich, CT, 1988). Subsequent work creatively engaging in such a synthesis has, nevertheless, tended to remain primarily in one camp, as in Sidney Tarrow's tendency to reduce culture to a "cultural tool chest" exploited by political entrepreneurs: Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge, 1994).
10. Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India (Armonk and London, 1993). See also Arturo Escobar and Sonia E. Alvarez (eds), The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy and Democracy (Boulder, CO, 1992) and Alfred Stepan (ed.), Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation (New York, 1989).
11. Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India (Armonk and London, 1993). See also Arturo Escobar and Sonia E. Alvarez (eds), The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy and Democracy (Boulder, CO, 1992) and Alfred Stepan (ed.), Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation (New York, 1989).
12. Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India (Armonk and London, 1993). See also Arturo Escobar and Sonia E. Alvarez (eds), The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy and Democracy (Boulder, CO, 1992) and Alfred Stepan (ed.), Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation (New York, 1989).
13. Catherine Hoskins and Shirin M. Rai, "Gender, Class and Representation: India and the European Union", European Journal of Women's Studies, 5 (1998), pp. 345-365. See in particular their discussion of Iris Marian Young's work on "unruly categories".
14. Madhu Kishwar, "Who Am I? Living Identities vs. Acquired Ones", Manushi, 94 (1996), p. 6.
15. Jane S. Jaquette, "Women in Power: from Tokenism to Critical Mass", Foreign Policy, 108 (1997), pp. 23-27.
16. Rosalind O'Hanlon and David Washbrook, "After Orientalism: Culture, Criticism, and Politics in the Third World", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 34 (1992), p. 154.
17. A.M. Shah, "The Judicial and Sociological View of the Other Backward Classes", in M.N. Srinivas (ed.), Caste: Its Twentieth Century Avatar (New Delhi, 1996), pp. 174-194.
18. Francine R. Frankel, "Middle Classes and Castes in India's Politics: Prospects for Political Accommodation", in Atul Kohli (ed.), India's Democracy: An Analysis of Changing State-Society Relations (Princeton, NJ, 1988), pp. 225-261.
19. For a detailed discussion of these categories and reservation policies for them see Marc Galanter, Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India (Delhi, 1991).
20. Barbara Ramusack, "Cultural Missionaries, Maternal Imperialists, Feminist Allies: British Women Activists in India, 1865-1945", Women's Studies International Forum, 13 (1990), p. 316.
21. Janaki Nair, Women and Law in Colonial India (New Delhi, 1996), p. 122.
22. Galanter, Competing Equalities; Thomas R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Delhi, 1995).
23. Galanter, Competing Equalities; Thomas R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Delhi, 1995).
24. Gail Pearson, "Reserved Seats - Women and the Vote in Bombay", in J. Krishnamurty (ed.), Women in Colonial India: Essays on Survival, Work and the State (Delhi, 1989), p. 205.
25. Pearson, "Reserved Seats - Women and the Vote", p. 207.
26. Ibid., p. 206. On the relationship between the nationalist and women's movements in India, see also Nair, Women and Law in Colonial India, and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question", in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (eds), Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick, NJ, 1989), pp. 233-253.
27. Ibid., p. 206. On the relationship between the nationalist and women's movements in India, see also Nair, Women and Law in Colonial India, and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question", in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (eds), Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick, NJ, 1989), pp. 233-253.
28. Ibid., p. 206. On the relationship between the nationalist and women's movements in India, see also Nair, Women and Law in Colonial India, and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question", in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (eds), Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick, NJ, 1989), pp. 233-253.
29. Pearson, "Reserved Seats - Women and the Vote", p. 208.
30. The proportion of women elected to the central legislature under this plan was only 3.4 per cent; Government of India, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Department of Social Welfare, Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on the Status of Women (New Delhi, 1974), p. 356.
31. Pearson, "Reserved Seats - Women and the Vote", p. 210.
32. Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India (Cambridge, 1996), p. 196.
33. Ibid., pp. 196-203.
34. Anglo-Indians also got a few nominated seats.
35. The Indian Constitution (1950) granted adult suffrage, so women were included in the electorate. Prior to this, the British Southborough Committee had left the issue of women's suffrage up to the provincial legislatures, after which "each of the Indian provincial legislatures voted to make it possible within a short span of time for women to be represented at par with men", writes Madhu Kishwar, "Women and Politics: Beyond Quotas", Economic and Political Weekly, 26 (1996), pp. 2867-2874.
36. Radha Kumar, "From Chipko to Sati: The Contemporary Indian Women's Movement", in Amrita Basu (ed.), The Challenges of Local Feminisms: Women's Movements in Global Perspective (Boulder, CO, 1995), p. 60.
37. Elisabeth Bumiller, May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India (New York, 1990), p. 126. Another example of the rising UN interest in women's rights during the seventies is the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
38. Bumiller, May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, pp. 125-127.
39. Government of India, Towards Equality, p. 301.
40. Ibid., p. 355.
41. Ibid., p. 304. Examples in this report of the arguments for legislative reservations include the need for political empowerment of women to precede socio-economic empowerment in the Indian context, the need to compel political parties to shift strategies in candidate selection, and the value of "a body of spokesmen of the women's cause" in legislatures. See pp. 302-303.
42. Ibid., p. 304.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid., p. 354. This quotation is from Phulrenu Guha's "Political Status: Note of Dissent".
45. Ibid., p. 354. This quotation is from Phulrenu Guha's "Political Status: Note of Dissent".
46. Ibid., p. 357. This quotation is from Lotika Sarkar and Vina Mazumdar's "Political Status: Note of Dissent".
47. Ibid., p. 357. This quotation is from Lotika Sarkar and Vina Mazumdar's "Political Status: Note of Dissent".
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid., p. 3.
50. Kumar, "From Chipko to Sati", p. 63.
51. Hoshiar Singh, "Constitutional Base for Panchayati Raj in India: The 73rd Amendment Act", Asian Survey, 34 (1994), pp. 824-825; P.M. Bakshi. The Constitution of India: With Selective Comments by P.M. Bakshi (Delhi, 1996), pp. 182-183.
52. Hoshiar Singh, "Constitutional Base for Panchayati Raj in India: The 73rd Amendment Act", Asian Survey, 34 (1994), pp. 824-825; P.M. Bakshi. The Constitution of India: With Selective Comments by P.M. Bakshi (Delhi, 1996), pp. 182-183.
53. Author's interview with Margaret Alva, former government minister, 19 December 1996, New Delhi. Alva was appointed to the upper house of Parliament by Indira Gandhi in 1974. She later was appointed by Rajiv Gandhi as head of the women's department within the Ministry of Human Resource Development. She has also served as Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Sports and Women.
54. Author's interview with Margaret Alva, 19 December 1996, New Delhi.
55. Author's interview with Brinda Karat, women's movement leader (AIDWA), CPM (Communist Party-Marxist) political activist, 10 December 1996, New Delhi.
56. The Constitution (Eighty-First Amendment) Bill, 1996. See debates in the Lok Sabha of 13 September 1996, when MP Madhukar Sarpotdar argued as follows: "Would the skies have fallen on the nation if it [the Eighty-First Amendment Bill] had been kept pending or had been referred to a Select or Standing Committee and then, once and for all, a comprehensive Bill in this regard was brought forward? [...] It should have been brought after involving every section and after proper deliberations. Today the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes have been involved but what about the people from the Other Backward Classes who have not been included in this bill?"
57. Congress MP and former government minister Margaret Alva, quoted in Meenakshi Nath, "Cutting Across Party Lines: Women Members of Parliament Explain Their Stand on Reservation Quotas", Manushi, 96 (1996), p. 11.
58. Author's interview with Jotsna Chatterjee, women's movement leader and YWCA activist, New Delhi, 22 November 1996, New Delhi.
59. Author's interview with Margaret Alva, 19 December 1996, New Delhi.
60. Author's interview with activists, Miss Gangoli of the YWCA in Delhi, 3 December 1996, and Jotsna Chatterjee, 22 November 1996.
61. Maneka Gandhi, "And the One Who Differs [...] Maneka Gandhi on the Women's Reservation Bill", Manushi, 96 (1996), p. 18.
62. BJP MP Uma Bharati, quoted in Meenakshi Nath, "Cutting Across Party Lines: Women Members of Parliament Explain Their Stand on Reservation Quotas", Manushi, 96 (1996), p. 11.
63. Author's interview with Vimla Farooqui, Delhi, 2 December 1996.
64. Author's interview with former prime minister of India, V.P. Singh, New Delhi, 20 November 1996.
65. Dana Dunn, "Gender Inequality in Education and Employment of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of India", Population Research and Policy Review, 12 (1993), pp. 53-70.
66. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London, 1991).
67. Author's interview with Ram Vilas Paswan, General Secretary of the SC/ST MPs Forum, Minister of Railways, MP from Bihar, Hindu dalit Leader, Delhi, 20 December 1996.
68. Shane Phelan, "The Space of Justice", in Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman (eds), Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics (New York, 1995), pp. 338-339.