Feminism in India

I. Background and Rationale

India

India is officially known as “Republic of India” (Hindi Bharat), a country in southern Asia, located on the subcontinent of India. It is bounded on the north by China, Nepal, and Bhutan; on the east by Bangladesh, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and the Bay of Bengal; on the south by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mann??r (which separates it from Sri Lanka) and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan.

India is divided into 28 states and 7 union territories (including the National Capital Territory of Delhi). New Delhi is the country’s capital.

The world’s seventh largest country in area, India occupies more than 3 million sq. km (1 million sq mi), encompassing a varied landscape rich in natural resources. With more than 1 billion inhabitants, India ranks second only to China among the world’s most populous countries. Its people are culturally diverse, and religion plays an important role in the life of the country. About 81 percent of the people practice Hinduism, a religion that originated in India. Another 13 percent are Muslims, and millions of others are Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains. Eighteen major languages and more than 1,000 minor languages and dialects are spoken in India.

Presented below are basic facts about India such as area, whose data are from the statistical bureaus of individual countries. Population, population growth rate, and population projections are from the United States Census Bureau, International Programs Center, International Data Base (IDB). Urban and rural population data are from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), FAOSTAT database. Largest cities population data and political divisions data are from the statistical bureaus of individual countries. Ethnic divisions and religion data are largely from the latest Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook and from various country censuses and reports. Language data are largely from the Ethnologue, Languages of the World, Summer Institute of Linguistics International.

India Facts and Figures

Languages

1 million people in India speak 24; numerous other languages and dialects are also spoken. The official national language is Hindi and the primary language for 40 percent of the population. Other official languages include Assamese, Bangla, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithali, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu and is spoken widely throughout northern India. English has associate status as the official working language and is important for national, political, and commercial matters.

Sources

Basic Facts and People sections

Area data are from the statistical bureaus of individual countries. Population, population growth rate, and population projections are from the United States Census Bureau, International Programs Center, International Data Base (IDB) (www.census.gov). Urban and rural population data are from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), FAOSTAT database (www.fao.org). Largest cities population data and political divisions data are from the statistical bureaus of individual countries. Ethnic divisions and religion data are largely from the latest Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook and from various country censuses and reports. Language data are largely from the Ethnologue, Languages of the World, Summer Institute of Linguistics International (www.sil.org).

Health and Education section

Life expectancy and infant mortality data are from the United States Census Bureau, International Programs Center, International database (IDB) (www.census.gov). Population per physician and population per hospital bed data are from the World Health Organization (WHO) (www.who.int). Education data are from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) database (www.unesco.org).

Government section

Government, independence, legislature, constitution, highest court, and voting qualifications data are largely from various government Web sites, the latest Europa World Yearbook, and the latest Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook. The armed forces data is from Military Balance.

Economy section

Gross domestic product (GDP), GDP per capita, GDP by economic sectors, employment, and national budget data are from the World Bank database (www.worldbank.org). Monetary unit, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, exports, imports, and major trade partner information is from the statistical bureaus of individual countries, latest Europa World Yearbook, and various United Nations and International Monetary Fund (IMF) publications.

Energy, Communication, and Transportation section

Electricity information is from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) database (www.eia.doe.gov). Radio, telephone, television, and newspaper information is from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) database (www.unesco.org). Internet hosts, motor vehicles, and road data are from the World Bank database (www.worldbank.org).

Note

Figures may not total 100 percent due to rounding.

(Microsoft Encarta 2009)

II. Result and Discussion

What is feminism in India?

The concept of feminism as a political ideology is very closely associated with women’s studies and women’s movement in various part of the world. The four folds focus of feminism in I general are, a) an effort to make women a self-conscious category; b) a force to generate a rational sensible attitude towards women; c) an approach to view the women in their own position and; d) an approach to view the women in their own perspectives (Ghosal, S. G. 2005).

Feminism was also defined as a campaign for social and political rights relating to women’s issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence and sexual assault (Ditch The Label).

Feminism in India is asset of movements aimed at defining, establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for Indian women. It is their way of attaining women’s right within their society of India to seek gender equality like the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health and education, and equal political rights. They also fought against cultural-specification such as inheritance laws and the practice of widow immolation known as Sati (Dankar, A.). Feminism history in India is divide into three phases: first phase begins in the mid-eighteenth century where male European colonists speak out against the social evil sati; second phase was 1915 to Indian Independence where Gandhi incorporated women’s movements into the Quit Indian movement and independent women’s organization began to emerge; then finally, the third phase was during post-independence which focuses on unfair treatment of women at home after marriage, in the work force and right to political parity (Wikipedia).*Sati or Suttee – an obsolete funeral custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband’s pyre or takes her own life in another fashion shortly after her husband’s death (Wikipedia).

In September 1987, an incident of sati (widow immolation) in a village in Rajasthan sparked off a campaign which gave rise to a furious debate which spanned not only the rights and wrongs of Hindu women, but questions of religious identity, communal autonomy and the immolation, private family album, Sitapur, date not known role of the law and the State in a society as complex and as diverse as India’s. While some of the arguments used in the debate were not new, its form and structure were illuminating, as much for what they obscured as for what they revealed of the intricate web of social change in India (including the current state of the feminist movement).

Contemporary Islamic reform movements are of course many and varied, both ideologically and in the speci?¬?c practices that they endeavour to promote. But insofar as their discourse on women is concerned, they all tend to share a preoccupation with the need for women to conform to Islamically prescribed norms (however these may be de?¬?ned) of modest’ behaviour and appearance. Traditional maternal and domestic roles are usually valorized as well; if, due to economic or other exigencies of modern life, women must also assume other roles, their priorities are supposed to remain with home and family. Islamist women’s movements also strongly emphasize the importance of self-disciplining the mind and body through regular prayer, the study of the Qur’an and other religious texts and the conscious emulation of ideal feminine models from the Islamic past ( Vatok 2007).

III. Conclusion and Recommendation

The movement feminism has a strong impact to the women not only in India but all over the world. Now, women are more dominated than men in terms work because they are now exposed to the outside world. According to Banerjee P. (2012), as she was about to attend a rally in titled “Take Back the Night” that speaks against sexual and domestic violence in India a friend talk to her saying ” men are not allowed to participate at many rallies.” And she noticed that male to female ratio in the streets of India is startlingly high. She was pleased to see that the feminist in India is just as strong as in any other part of the world.

For me, there is no need for feminism as long as we know how to respect each other, male and female are alike maybe different physically but equal in rights- the human rights. Feminism is a movement that want to eliminate the discrimination against them or hurt them. Let us respect each other, by that we can live a better and happy life.

References:

1. Dankar, A. (n.d).Chapter 5: History of Feminism in India. Retrieved
2. November 25, 2018 from www.google.com.ph
3. Ghosal, S. G. (2005). The Indian Journal of Political Science : Major Trends of Feminism in India. Retrieved November 4, 2018, from www.jstor.org
4. Wikipedia. Sati practice. (n.d.).Retrieved September 28, 2018, from en.m.wikipedia.org
5. Wikipedia. Feminism in India. (n.d). Retrived November 25, 2018 from en.m.wikipedia.org
6. Ditch The Label. (n.d). 10 Reasons Why Feminism Exists. Retrieved
7. September 18, 2018 from www.ditchthe label.org
8. India Facts and Figures: BASIC FACTS. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2018, from Microsoft ?® Encarta ?® 2009. ?© 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
9. Oldenburg, Philip. “India.” Microsoft?® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.
10. Vatuk, S. (2007). Islamic Feminism in India: Indian Muslim Women Activists and the
11. Reform of Muslim Personal Law. Department of Anthropology (m/c 027), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 West Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60607 Email: [email protected]

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