Ch 3 democracy and diversity

1.What happened in 1968 during the Olympics held at Mexico city?

A Case Study — Mexico Olympics

2. Two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, won the gold and bronze medal
respectively in the 200 mt. race. For the medal ceremony, both of them wore no shoes and stood in their
black socks. They were representing Black poverty, and racial discrimination against them in the USA.
They also raised black-gloved clenched fists to symbolise Black Power. The athlete from Australia, Peter
Norman, who won the silver medal, wore a human rights badge to declare his support to the two
Americans.

3. Do you know what was the result of their actions? The Olympic Committee took back their medals for
making a political statement and thus violating the Olympic spirit.

4. When they returned to USA, they had to face public criticism.

5. Peter Norman was also penalised by not being included in the next Olympic.

6. Martin Luther King started a movement called Civil Rights Movement in the USA (1954-1968) to
abolish legal racial discrimination against the African Americans. They used a non-violent approach and
used civil disobedience as a method against discrimination.

7. Another movement, which started in 1966 and lasted till 1975, was called The Black Power movement.
It was a militant movement and even advocated violence to end racism in USA.

Origin of Social Differences

This incident shows how people respond to social divisions and inequalities

1. Social divisions can have many forms.

 Social divisions can be based on regional differences (as in Belgium and Sri Lanka — different
languages spoken in different regions).
 They can be based on different religions (Sri Lanka)
 They can be based on racial discrimination (USA, South Africa)
 Social divisions can lead to social inequalities.
 Two kinds of social divisions : (i) Based on accident of birth, (ii) Based on people's choices.
 All social differences do not result in social divisions. Some can unite people also.

Why social differences arouse?

(i) Most of the social differences are not of our own making, they are based on an accident of birth. Our
race, our colour, our religion, our gender or country of birth, are not chosen by us.
(ii) But some social differences are made by us only by choice. For example –
(i) Non-belief in God, or to follow a different religion, (ii) where and what to study, (iii) which profession
to follow (iv) also choose the games or cultural activities we want to follow, etc.
Our choices lead to the formation of social groups.
(iii) It is not necessary that all social differences should lead to social divisions. People belonging to
different social groups share differences and similarities, which cut across all political boundaries.

Important : If religion creates similarities, it can divide people over the issue of caste or sect (Catholic or
Protestant, Brahmin or Scheduled Caste).

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1. Rich and poor persons in the same family differ from each other and lack closeness to each other, for
they feel they are different.

Overlapping anti Cross-Cuitting Differences

Why was there a social division between

There was a division because the Blacks
the
were homeless and discriminated against. They were not
given justice and this created social differences and divisions.
Whites and Blacks in USA?

The same problem is faced by Dalits in

The Dalits face injustice and discrimination in India at
India.
the hands of the upper castes.
here. They are poor and landless.

2. The above is an example of one difference overlapping other differences, people of the same religion
feel they belong to different communities.

3. Take another example : In Ireland, a Christian country, the division is because of religion between the
Protestants and Catholics.

In Northern Ireland, if you are a Catholic you are bound to be poor and you may have been discriminated
against. There have been conflicts between the two.

CROSS-CUTTING DIFFERENCES

1. In Netherlands : Catholics and Protestants both can be either rich or poor, with the result they
have never had any trouble. Unlike Ireland, there has never been any trouble in the Netherlands.
There reason class and religion cut across each other.
2. Which kind of division is more dangerous?
3. Overlapping social differences. They can create deep social divisions. Examples : (i) Led to
ethnic war in Sri Lanka which has not yet ended.
(ii) Led to the Partition of India in 1947.
4. Cross-cutting social differences are easier to handle and accommodate.
5. It is important to note here that social divisions of one kind or another exist in every country. No
country, big or small, has a homogeneous society, i.e., a society with similar kind of people and
hardly any ethnic differences.
 6. There is another reason — People from one region or country shift to another region or country
(both within a country and another country) to seek better economic opportunities.
These migrants create social differences and divisions.

POLITICS OF SOCIAL DIVISIONS

Competition among
Democracy political parties

Leads to violence
conflicts and Turns them into Competition divides
disintegration political division society

RANGE OF OUTCOMES

1. (a) Violent Conflict

Example : Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
(b) Reason : Ethno-religious with political fallout.
Example : Republic predominantly Catholic. Northern Ireland 53% Protestant, 44% Catholics. The
Republic wanted them to unite.
(c) Parties : The Nationalists represented the Republic, the Unionists represented Northern Ireland and
wanted to remain within U.K.
Example : Violent war where hundreds were killed. Republic of Ireland fought with Northern Ireland as
well as with U.K.

Final Outcome : A peace treaty signed in 1998 which ended the armed struggle.

2. Yugoslavia also faced ethno-religious differences. They led to political competition. Civil war followed
and Yugoslavia has been broken up now into seven independent nations, namely;\ Bosnia, Macedonia
Croatia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro. Conclusion : Social divisions should not be
allowed to influence the politics of a country. We have seen the result in our own country — Partition into
India and Pakistan. In a democracy, how do social divisions affect the people?

(i) Social divisions will be reflected in politics (Example : India)

(ii) Political parties will refer to these divisions.

(iii) Political parties would try to redress the grievances of minorities.

(iv) Voting is affected in most countries. People from one community prefer some parties more than the
others.

(v) In some countries, there are parties that focus on one community only.
Factors that decide the outcomes of social divisions

(i) How do people see

their identities? If people
think they are Indians first,
and then they are Bengali,
Punjabi etc. or a religious or
language group, then there
will be no conflict. Trouble in
Ireland was because
they thought that first they
were Catholics or Protestants
and then Irish.
In Belgium, it was the
opposite.
First Belgians, then Dutch
or French-speaking.
(ii) Peace remains if one community
does not try to dominate the others. For
example, in Sri Lanka, the demands
of "only Sinhala ’ was at the cost of
Tamil-speaking community'. In
Yutos via, each ethnv group made
demands fm itself only, with the lesult
that the country was divided into six
nations.
(iii) Depends on how
the government reacts to the
demands. If the riders are
willing to share power (as
in Belgium) there is no threat
to the unity' of the country.
But if suppressed in the name
of national unity (as in Sri
Lanka), it leads to violence.
Ch 4 gender ,religion and caste

Sexual Division of Labour:

A system in which all work inside the home is either done by the women of the family, or
organised by them through the domestic helpers.

Feminist Movements: Various movements which are aimed at ensuring equal rights for women
are called feminist movement.

Political expression of gender question helped a lot to improve women’s role in public life.
Although the Indian society is still a patriarchal society, yet women are now working in many
fields.

Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways:

 The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per cent among
men.
 The percentage of women in highly paid jobs is still very small. At many workplaces,
women are paid less than men for the same job. An Indian woman usually works more
hour than an average man on a daily basis.
 Many Indian parents prefer to have a male child. A girl child is killed before her birth in
many cases. This has led to an eschewed sex ratio in India.
 There are many reports of harassment against women; both on the domestic front and
outside the home.

Women’s political representation:

The political representation of women had been very poor in the Indian legislatures. Even in the
cabinet, the number of women ministers is very low.

One-third of seats in local government bodies have been reserved for women candidates. This
has helped in increasing women’s representation in panchayats and municipalities.
A bill for providing one-third reservation in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies has been
pending in the Parliament for more than a decade. Political parties are yet to arrive at consensus
on this issue.

Women in national parliaments in diffrent regions of the world

Religion & Politics:

Religion also plays an important role in politics. In some countries, politicians promote the cause
of the majority religious group at the cost of the minorities. This produces a dangerous trend of
majority tyranny.

Communalism: When one religion is pitted against another; by the political class, this is called
communalism or communal politics.

Communalism can take various forms in politics:

 Many people think of their religion as superior to all other religions. Such people often
try to dominate the people from other communities. This can result in people from the
minority community to form a separate political unit.
 Sometimes, sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal, etc. are used to instill a
sense of fear among people of a particular community. This is done with an attempt to
polarize people on communal lines.
 Communalism can also take the ugly form of communal violence, riots and massacre.

Percentage of Different Religions in Indian Population (REF: census India)

Secular state
  The Constitution of India declares that India is a secular state. Unlike some of the
neighbouring countries, there is no official religion for the Indian state.
 The constitution gives the people the freedom to practice a religion of their choice. The
Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
 The Indian constitution, however, allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion
whenever there is a need to ensure equality within religious communities.

Caste and politics

Social division on the lines of caste is unique to India. The caste system of the present has
evolved from the varna system which was based on occupations and on the principle that an
occupation passed from one generation to another. Members of a particular caste usually have a
sense of belonging to their own community. Some castes are accorded a higher status compared
to many other castes.

Current Status of Caste Related Prejudice:

 Due to various socio-economic changes, social division on the basis of caste has been
blurring in recent times. Economic development, large scale urbanization, literacy,
occupational mobility and weakening of the position of landlords in villages have helped
in blurring the caste-based divisions.
 Caste is still an important parameter when it comes to finalizing marriages. But in most
of the other spheres of life, caste effect is apparently waning in India.
 People from the upper caste had traditionally better access to the education and hence
they have done well in economic development. People from the oppressed castes are still
lagging behind in socio-economic development.

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.

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.

Universal adult franchise and the principle of one-person-one-vote compelled political leaders to gear
upto 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.
The focus on caste in politics can sometimes give an impression that elections are all about caste and
nothing else. That is far from true. Just consider these:
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.

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.

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.

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

Politics in caste
 Most of the political parties keep the caste calculation in mind while fielding a candidate
from a particular constituency.
 Each caste group is trying to get a bigger pie of the political power by asserting its
identity in various ways.
 Since there are so many castes, hence various caste groups have also evolved their own
coalition to get leverage in political bargaining.
 The caste groups can be broadly divided into ‘backward’ and ‘forward’.
 Exclusive attention to caste can produce negative results. Caste divisions often lead to
social conflict and even violence.

Caste inequality today

 Economic inequalities exist on the basis of caste. The upper caste people are usually well
off, the backward classes come in between and the dalits and adivasis are at the bottom.
 The percentage of people below poverty line is much higher among the lowest castes.

Percentage of Population Living Below Poverty Line

Caste Rural Urban
Scheduled tribes 45.8% 35.6%
Shceduled castes 35.9% 38.3%
Other backward castes 27% 29.3%
Muslim upper castes 26.8% 34.2%
Hindu upper castes 11.7% 9.9%
Christian upper castes 9.6% 5.4%
Sikh upper castes 0% 4.9%
Other upper castes 16% 2.7%
All 27% 23.4%