Gender Discourses and the Making of the Indian Constitution

2021 ◽  
pp. 097152152110567
Author(s):  
Alisha Dhingra
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Freedom Struggle ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Final Text ◽  
Gender Discourses

Indian democracy was constituted after a long struggle for self- determination, which ultimately culminated in the making of a constitution for independent India. This article seeks to revisit gender discourses during the constituent assembly debates when women members were seeking for complete gender equality to be written into the constitution. The nationalist discourses on ‘Indian womanhood’ prevalent during the years of the freedom struggle were articulated and reflected in the debates and impacted the writing of the text of the constitution. The final text contains gender progressive provisions on which consensus had been achieved during the nationalist struggle but excludes explicit provisions that would have challenged the roots of patriarchal structures. Thus, while the nationalist movement provided a platform for women to organise for their rights, it also constrained the agenda of transformation.

Arab Self-Determination and the Rise of the Modern State

The Hijaz ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 71-98
Author(s):  
Malik R. Dahlan
Keyword(s):  
International Order ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Paris Peace Conference ◽  
Mandate System

This chapter covers Arab self-determination: as a wide Arab national self-determination movement that engages a worldview with the new international order imposed by WW1. It covers Arab Nationalism: The Great Arab Revolt of 1916; The British Alliance with the Arab Nationalist Movement; The Kingdom of Hijaz declaration of Arab independence; French and German outlook on Arab statehood; The era of the League of Nations; The Mandate System and Its Legal Challenges; Arab Representation in the Paris Peace Conference; San Remo conference and finally; the collapse of the Hijazi–British alliance.

A Civil Servant’s Adieu

2019 ◽  
pp. 193-236
Author(s):  
Arvind Elangovan
Keyword(s):  
Political History ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Postcolonial State ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come

Contrary to Rau’s ideas, the framers of the Indian constitution, however, were deeply influenced by the political history that preceded the meeting of the Constituent Assembly. As a result, the framers privileged not only Fundamental Rights but also the postcolonial State and the latter’s right to intervene for the cause of social justice. Interestingly, the idea that mainly underscored this act of privileging was not so much to come together to create a state by submitting individual wills (as theorized by social contract theorists, for instance) but rather there was a deep mistrust between the different political interests that were at work in the Constituent Assembly. Thus, by the time of the drafting of the Indian constitution, political history played a dominant role, with norms giving way to a history of politics.

scholarly journals Gender, gestation and ectogenesis: self-determination for pregnant people ahead of artificial wombs

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 787-788
Author(s):  
Claire Horn
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
The Body ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Biological Approach ◽  
Political Perspective ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
And Gender

AbstractIn this short response, I agree with Cavaliere’s recent invitation to consider ectogenesis, the process of gestation occurring outside the body, as a political perspective and provocation to building a world in which reproductive and care labour are more justly distributed. But I argue that much of the literature Cavaliere addresses in which scholars argue that artificial wombs may produce greater gender equality has the limitation of taking a fixed, binary and biological approach to sex and gender. I argue that in taking steps toward the possibility of more just practices of caregiving and family making, we must look first not to artificial womb technologies but to addressing the ways that contemporary legal and social practices that enforce essentialising, binary ways of thinking about reproductive bodies inhibit this goal.

The Need for ‘Nudges’ by the Supreme Court of India: The Case of the Appointment and Removal of the Governors in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 390-408
Author(s):  
Siddharth Peter de Souza ◽  
Aayush Agarwala
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Intractable Problem ◽  
Exercise Of Discretion

Recent instances of improper exercise of discretion by governors of Indian states have once again underscored the need for a critical appraisal of the manner in which such governors are appointed and removed under the Indian Constitution. The gulf between what the role of a governor was envisaged to be by the Constituent Assembly and what has actually played out in reality is a matter of grave concern. It would not be wise for us to expect the legislature to provide any solution to this problem, since the prevailing scenario plays to the advantage of whichever party holds the reins at the Centre. The judgement of the Supreme Court of India in the B. P. Singhal case made some important interventions as far as this vexed issue is concerned. However, the much-needed panacea to the ills of the process of appointment and removal of governors is still eagerly awaited. In this article, we recommend that the Supreme Court of India adopts a more contextualised approach to solving this intractable problem and considers adopting the ‘nudge theory’ to provide a framework to encourage important actors in this context to take more responsible and fair decisions in order to protect and preserve the democratic structures.

Third-Wave Feminism and the Defense of “Choice”

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Claire Snyder-Hall
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Third Wave Feminism ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Gender Oppression ◽  
The Right ◽  
Second Wave

How should feminist theorists respond when women who claim to be feminists make “choices” that seemingly prop up patriarchy, like posing for Playboy, eroticizing male dominance, or advocating wifely submission? This article argues that the conflict between the quest for gender equality and the desire for sexual pleasure has long been a challenge for feminism. In fact, the second-wave of the American feminist movement split over issues related to sexuality. Feminists found themselves on opposite sides of a series of contentious debates about issues such as pornography, sex work, and heterosexuality, with one side seeing evidence of gender oppression and the other opportunities for sexual pleasure and empowerment. Since the mid-1990s, however, a third wave of feminism has developed that seeks to reunite the ideals of gender equality and sexual freedom. Inclusive, pluralistic, and non-judgmental, third-wave feminism respects the right of women to decide for themselves how to negotiate the often contradictory desires for both gender equality and sexual pleasure. While this approach is sometimes caricatured as uncritically endorsing whatever a woman chooses to do as feminist, this essay argues that third-wave feminism actually exhibits not a thoughtless endorsement of “choice,” but rather a deep respect for pluralism and self-determination.

The Inclusion-Moderation Thesis: India’s BJP

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Tore Flåten
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
National Level ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Freedom Struggle ◽  
High Caste ◽  
Bharatiya Janata Party ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alliance Partners ◽  
Religiously Based ◽  
The Temple

In 1925, the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded. The main aim of the RSS was to make India into a nation state defined according to Hindu cultural and religious values, which in the RSS version reflected a distinct high-caste outlook. Internal enemies, namely Muslims, Christians, and Marxists, had no place in such a state. This ideology goes under the name Hindutva, which can be translated as Hinduness. Due to the large-scale and religiously based violence experienced in the final stages of its freedom struggle, independent India adopted democracy and secularism as its foundational values. Hindu nationalist parties were present, but never influential in the first decades after independence. This circumstance was about to change in the 1980s, as the newly founded Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with strong links to the RSS, decided to mobilize on the Ayodhya issue. According to the BJP, the Ayodhya temple had been demolished by the Muslim ruler, Babur, and replaced with a mosque. The time had come to rebuild the temple. This campaign catapulted the BJP onto the political scene in India. The strategy, however, was not without its flaws, and the weaknesses connected to the BJP’s Ayodhya campaign summed up the party’s main challenges. It has been difficult for the BJP to promote the existence of a nationwide Hindu identity in heterogeneous India, characterized by religious pluralism, different regional political cultures, and caste divisions. Particularly caste has proved difficult for the BJP, since the party is associated with high-caste values. Moreover, the way in which the BJP has utilized anti-Muslim rhetoric and campaigns has alienated potential alliance partners. The BJP has managed to overcome most of these challenges and was elected to power at the national level in 1998 and then again in 2014. In addition, the party governs many different states. During several national election campaigns, the BJP has actually chosen to background the most contentious issues in order to attract alliance partners. Instead, the party has conveyed its message of Hindu cultural unity in more subtle ways, most prominently through educational reforms. The BJP has also managed to adapt to regional variations and conveys its ideology in different ways throughout India. The landslide victory of Narendra Modi and the BJP in the 2014 elections represents a new phase in the history of the party. With a majority of its own, one could expect that the BJP would implement its Hindu nationalist agenda. For the most part, Modi has kept some degree of distance from Hindutva. However, through a division of labor, it appears that Modi has left the Hindutva agenda to the states governed by the BJP as well to the well-organized and influential Hindu nationalist movement.

Part I History, Ch.4 The Indian Founding: a comparative perspective

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lerner Hanna
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
World War ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
The Face

This chapter examines the making of the Indian Constitution from a comparative perspective, with particular emphasis on some of the significant and innovative aspects of the drafting process. After discussing constitution drafting in the post-colonial/post-World War II period, it considers the debate in the Indian Constituent Assembly over what it means to be an Indian and how the Constitution should facilitate political unity in the face of immense cultural, religious, and national diversity. It then explores some of the innovative constitutional strategies developed by the Indian framers to reconcile the deep disagreements among the Indian public regarding the religious, national, and linguistic identity of the State with the principles of democracy. These strategies include constitutional incrementalism, the deferral of controversial decisions, ambiguity, and non-justiciability.

Part III Constituting Democracy, Ch.11 Language

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Choudhry Sujit
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Politics ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Regional Language ◽  
Language Status ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the constitutional politics of official language status in India. It gives an overview of the debates in the Indian Constituent Assembly over issues such as the official language of the Central Government and the Indian Constitution’s distinction between the language of parliamentary deliberations and the language of legislation. It considers the disaggregation of official language status into different linguistic states within the context of the relationship between federalism and language. It also discusses the implications of linguistic federalism for linguistic minorities in India and the legal controversy regarding the extent to which Article 30(1) of the Indian Constitution grants linguistic minorities the right to exclude instruction in the regional language.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document