Chapter – 3

Gender, Religion and Caste

In this post we have given the detailed notes of class 10 Social Science (Political Science) Chapter 3 Gender, Religion and Caste in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 10 board exams. Note: this chapter was numbered Chapter 4 in the older NCERT edition; in the current rationalised book (2026-27) it is Chapter 3.

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Chapter 3: Gender, Religion and Caste

Introduction

In a democracy, various social divisions — based on gender, religion, caste, language and region — get expressed in politics in different ways. This chapter examines three such social divisions: gender, religion and caste, and studies how each of these interacts with democratic politics in India. Social divisions of one kind or another exist in most countries, and the manner in which they get expressed in politics is a key theme of this chapter.

Gender and Politics

Gender: Gender refers not only to biological differences between men and women, but also to the roles, responsibilities and social expectations assigned to men and women by society.

Sexual Division of Labour

In most societies, work is divided between men and women along traditional lines. Men are usually expected to do outdoor, paid work, while women are expected to do household chores such as cooking, cleaning and caring for children — work that is unpaid and generally not recognised as “productive” labour. This division is known as the sexual division of labour, and it is a social construct rather than a natural or biological necessity.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy: A system in which men hold greater power than women and dominate social, economic, political and cultural life. Most societies across the world, including India, are patriarchal to varying degrees.

• Discrimination against girl children begins even before birth (female foeticide) and continues after birth in the form of unequal access to food, healthcare and education.
• The literacy rate among women is lower than among men, and girls are often withdrawn from school earlier than boys.
• Women are usually paid less than men for the same or similar work.
• Women’s ownership of property and other assets remains low in most parts of the country.
• Crimes against women — such as domestic violence, dowry harassment, sexual harassment and rape — remain widespread.

The Public-Private Divide

Society assumes that the private domain (the home and family) belongs to women, while the public domain (politics, the market and paid employment) belongs to men. Because of this divide, the work women do at home is not counted as “work” and has no economic value attached to it. This divide restricts women’s participation in public life, including politics, and reinforces the idea that political and economic decision-making is a “man’s domain.”

Women’s/Feminist Movements

Around the world, women have organised themselves to demand equal rights — the right to vote, legal equality, equal wages, property rights and access to higher education and professional careers. As a result of sustained women’s movements, women now have the right to vote in almost all countries and are gradually gaining greater access to higher education and professions. However, gender inequality has not been eliminated, and women continue to be under-represented in politics.

Women’s Political Representation

Women make up close to half of India’s population, but their representation in politics has remained very low.

Representation in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies

• The proportion of women members in the Lok Sabha has never crossed 15%.
• In the state assemblies, the situation is worse, with women legislators averaging only about 5%.
• India ranks below many countries, including several developing nations, in terms of women’s representation in the national legislature.
• The share of women in the Council of Ministers is also very small.

The Women’s Reservation Bill

A bill to reserve one-third (33%) of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies — known as the Women’s Reservation Bill — remained pending in Parliament for many years without political consensus. One point of contention was the demand by some parties for a sub-quota for women from backward castes and minorities within the proposed women’s quota. The prolonged debate over this bill shows how important — and how politically difficult — the demand for greater women’s representation has been.

Reservation for Women in Panchayati Raj Institutions

• The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution (1992) made it mandatory to reserve one-third (33%) of seats in local government bodies — Panchayati Raj institutions in rural areas and municipalities in urban areas — for women.
• Today, India has more than one million elected women representatives in panchayats and municipalities.
• Several states have since increased this reservation to 50% in Panchayati Raj institutions, further strengthening women’s participation at the grassroots level.
• This shows that constitutional provisions for reservation can effectively increase women’s representation when properly implemented.

Religion, Communalism and Politics

What is Communalism?

Communalism: Communalism is the belief that a religion (or a religious community) is the principal basis of social community — that people belonging to the same religion have common secular interests, that they have common political, economic and social interests, and that these interests are opposed to the interests of people belonging to other religions. In other words, communalism is the belief that religion is the primary identity of a person and the sole basis of social community.

Forms of Communalism

• Everyday religious prejudices: Common, everyday beliefs that involve religious prejudices, stereotypes about the members of other religious communities, and a sense that one’s own religion is superior to others.
• Desire for political dominance of one’s own religious community: A belief among the followers of a particular religion that they should hold a dominant position in the political system, sometimes leading to demands for a state that gives special status to one religion.
• Political mobilisation on religious lines: The use of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeals and plain fear to unite one community and to make it hostile to another community, for electoral or political gain.
• Communal violence and riots: The most extreme and dangerous form of communalism, where communal ideology leads to hostility, violent conflict and riots between religious communities, sometimes causing large-scale loss of life. The riots that took place during the Partition of India (1947) remain the most tragic example of communal violence in Indian history.

Communalism can take various forms — the political dominance of one community, the desire for a separate political unit based on religion, or everyday communal prejudices and stereotypes that shape how communities see one another.

Secularism

To respond to the challenge of communalism, India adopted the principle of secularism. Under the Constitution, India is a secular state, and this is reflected in the following constitutional provisions:

• India has no official religion. The Constitution does not give a special or preferential status to any one religion.
• The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion to all individuals and communities — every person is free to profess, practise and propagate the religion they believe in, or to choose not to follow any religion at all.
• The Constitution provides safeguards against the domination of any one religious group by the majority religious community, protecting the rights of religious minorities.
• The state generally does not interfere in the internal affairs of any religion — for example, religious communities are free to set up their own schools and educational institutions.
• At the same time, the Constitution gives the state room to intervene in matters of religion in order to end social discrimination — for example, the abolition of untouchability, a social evil that had religious sanction in traditional practice.

Thus, Indian secularism does not mean being anti-religion; it means treating all religions with equal respect while maintaining a “principled distance” from religion, so that the state can step in to protect equality and end discrimination whenever necessary.

Caste and Politics

The Caste System

Caste system: A traditional Indian social institution in which society is divided into groups based on birth, with each caste traditionally associated with a particular occupation, and marriage generally restricted within the same caste (endogamy).

Caste and Economic Status

• Historically, the caste system was closely linked to a division of labour where “higher” castes (such as priests, landowners and traders) occupied privileged social and economic positions, while “lower” castes were assigned occupations considered menial or “impure” (such as sanitation work and leatherwork).
• Because of this, there has traditionally been a close connection between caste and poverty — castes placed low in the social hierarchy have also tended to be economically disadvantaged.
• However, this link is not absolute today. Education, urbanisation, the growth of new occupations and reservation policies have led to greater occupational mobility — people are increasingly moving away from their traditional caste-based occupations into a wide range of other jobs and professions.
• There is now considerable economic inequality within the same caste group — some members of a caste may be very rich while others remain very poor.

Role of Caste in Politics

• Political parties, while selecting candidates in elections, keep in mind the caste composition of the constituency to improve their chances of winning.
• When governments are formed, political parties usually try to give representation to different castes and communities in order to make the government socially inclusive.
• Political parties and candidates often make appeals to caste sentiments to gather support during elections.
• Since no single caste forms a majority in most constituencies, political parties need to gain the support of several castes and communities to win elections; this leads to coalitions and alliances being formed among different castes and groups.

Is Caste the Only Factor in Elections?

No. While caste is one of the many factors that influence voting behaviour, it is not the sole determining factor:

• No political party wins the votes of all the voters of a caste or community it seeks to represent.
• Several candidates usually contest from any given caste or community, so voters within the same caste often end up voting for different parties.
• The performance and popularity of the ruling party or government, the personal image and popularity of the candidate, and local issues also strongly influence the outcome.
• If caste alone decided elections, then the winning candidate in every constituency would always belong to the majority caste of that area, and the ruling party would never lose elections — but this is not what actually happens in practice.

Social Divisions and Politics: A Balanced View

Looking at examples of how gender, religion and caste shape political outcomes, it would be wrong to conclude that Indian politics is simply “communal” or “obsessed with identity.” In reality:

• Social divisions appear in politics because inequalities and discrimination genuinely exist in society — politics only provides an expression for those existing social divisions.
• When disadvantaged and marginalised groups (such as women, Dalits and religious minorities) use the political process to raise their demands, this is a sign of a healthy, functioning democracy — not a problem with democracy itself.
• Politics does not simply reflect existing social divisions; it also reshapes them by creating new social and political alignments — for example, alliances formed across castes for electoral purposes often create new social groupings that did not exist before.
• Thus, the presence of gender, religion and caste in politics shows a two-way relationship: social divisions get expressed in politics, and politics, in turn, also shapes how social divisions evolve over time.

Key Points to Remember

• The sexual division of labour and patriarchy restrict women’s participation in public life, including politics.
• Women’s representation has never crossed 15% in the Lok Sabha and is around 5% in state assemblies.
• The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments reserve 33% of seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies; several states have raised this to 50%.
• The Women’s Reservation Bill proposes to reserve 33% of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
• Communalism is the belief that religion is the principal basis of social community; its forms include everyday prejudice, the desire for political dominance, political mobilisation on religious lines, and communal violence.
• India is a secular state — it has no official religion, guarantees freedom of religion to all, and the state can intervene to end religiously sanctioned social discrimination such as untouchability.
• The caste system has traditionally been linked to occupation and economic status, but occupational mobility has increased over time.
• Political parties take caste into account while selecting candidates and forming alliances, but caste alone does not determine election outcomes.
• The expression of social divisions in politics is a sign of democracy at work, not a weakness of democracy — politics and social divisions shape each other.

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