Gender, Religion and Caste Notes

 

Class 10 Civics Chapter 4 Gender, Religion and Caste Notes
          Chapter = 4 
     Gender, Religion and                       Caste

 Gender division :-

 Gender division is a form of hierarchical social division seen everywhere, but rarely recognised in the study of politics. 

 It tends to be understood as natural and unchangeable. However, it is not based on biology but on social expectations and stereotypes.

 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 :-

 A woman or a man who believes in equal rights and opportunities for women and man.

 Feminist movements :-

 Feminist movements aim at equal rights and opportunities for women and men. More radical women’s movements aimed at equality, both in personal and family life.

 Patriarchy :-

 A system of society in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

 Patriarchal society :- 

 A patriarchal society is essentially male dominated. The line of descent is traced through the father. Men are valued more in terms of work they do and the place they hold in society. This gives them more power than women.

Women face disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways: :-

 Literacy Rate :- The literacy rate among women is 54% as compared to the 76% among men.

 Jobs :- A women works an hour more than a man on an average, yet her work is neither valued paid.

 Wages :- Though there is an Equal Wages Act which states that women should be paid equal wages for equal work, women are still paid less for the same work. 

 Sex Ratio :- Most parents prefer boy children to girl children. Female infanticide and feticide are common in our country. This has resulted in unfavourable sex ratio.

 Social Evil :- Society in general and urban centres in particular, is not safe for women. Dowry harassment, physical abuse, sexual harassment are routine tales.

Women’s political representation :-

The percentage of elected women members in Lok Sabha has touched 14.36 per cent of its total strength for the first time in 2019. 

Their share in the state assemblies is less than 5 per cent. 

 What can be done to improve the representation of women in legislature?

To improve the representation of women in legislature reservation of seats for women should be legally binding like panchayat. 

In panchayat 1/3 seats are reseved for women. 

some states where 50% seats are already reserved for women are Bihar, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

 Schemes and strategies have been taken up by the Govt of India for women empowerment :-

Act prohibiting the practice of sati.

The Hindu widow remarriage act. 

The married women’s property act.

Rajiv Gandhi National Creche scheme (for working women) 

Support to training and employment program for women. 

Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojna.

Kishori Shakti Yojna.

The Dowry prohibition Act. 

Protection of women from Domestic voilation Act, 2005.

The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act. 

The Equal Renumeration Act.

 Religion, Communalism and Politics :-
Religion Differences in Politics :-

 Human rights activists allege that people from minority religious community suffer a lot whenever there is communal violence. 

 Gandhi ji Said :- Religion can never be, seperated From politics. Buit meant , moral values that Form all Religions. 

 Human Rights Groups Says :- Most of the victims of communal riots in our country are people from Religious Minorities.

 women Movements :- Family Laws of all Religious discriminate against women.

 Statement :- Religion can never be separated from politics :-

 According to Gandhi ji religion was not related to any particular religion like Hinduism or Islam but moral values that informs all religions. Politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion.

 Family laws :-

 Those laws that deal with family related matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption etc.

 Communalism :-

 A belief in which the followers of a particular religion believe that their religion is superior over other religion

Communal Politics :-

 It is based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community. 

 How Communal Politics is preferred?

Communalism involves thinking that the followers of a particular religion must belong to one community. 

Their fundamental interests are the same. 

Any difference that they may have is irrelevant or trivial for community life. 

It also follows that people who follow different religions cannot belong to the same social community. 

If the followers of different religions have some commonalities, these are superficial and immaterial. 

Their interests are bound to be different and involve a conflict. 

 Communalism can take various forms in politics :-

* religious prejudices,stereotypes of religious communities and belief in the superiority of own’s religion over other religion. 

* A communal mind often leads to a quest for political dominance of one’s own religious community. 

* Political mobilisation on religious lines. This involves the use of sacred symbols, religious leaders and plain fear in order to bring the followers of one religion together in the political arena. 

* Most ugly form of communalism is communal violence,riots and massacre.

Effect of Communalism on Politics :-

* Religion rather than ability becomes the criteria to choose candidates for election. 

* People prefer to caste votes in favour of candidates of their own religion. 

* Communalism can turn ugly and lead to violence, massacre and riots. 

* Sometimes, the voters polarise on the communal line and caste their votes accordingly.

 Measures to Combat Communalism in India :- 

 Communalism can be combated through the following methods :- 

* Law should ban parties using religion in politics. 

* Socio-economic backwardness of the country should be removed so that people are not used as vote banks.

* Political parties should rise above narrow gains and stop fanning communal passions. 

* Educational institutions should inculcate secular values among students. 

* The Election Commission should prepare a code of conduct for parties so that religion is not used in politics. 

* Mass media, TV, radio, NGOS and people themselves should launch an enlightenment movement so that public opinion is created against communal riots.

 Secular state :-

 A state that has no official religion and ensures equal status to all religious is called secular state. 

 Constitutional provisions that make Indian a secular state :-

Constitutional provisions that make India a secular state are :- 

* There is no official religion for the Indian state. Unlike the status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and that of Islam in Pakistan. 

* The constitution provides freedom to all individuals and communities to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any particular religion. 

* The constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion. 

* Our constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters of religions in order to ensure quality within religious communities.

Main features of secular state in India :-

* No official religions in India. 

* Freedom of religion in India means the freedom of religion to both individuals and coomunities. 

* The constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religions.

 Urbanisation :-

 Shift of population from rural areas to urban areas.

 Occupational mobility :-

 Shift from one occupation to another, usually when a new generation takes up occupations other than those practiced by their ancestors.

 Caste hierarchy :-

 A ladder like formation in which all the caste groups are placed from the highest’ to the lowest’ castes.

 Reason behind change in caste and caste system in modern India :-

 Caste and caste system in modern India have undergone great changes became of :- 

* Economic development 

* Large scale urbanisation 

* Growth of Literacy and education

* Ocupational Mobility.

* Weakning of the position of landlords in the village.

 Reasons which have contributed to changes in caste and caste system in India :-

 The following reasons have contributed to changes in the caste system :-

* Efforts of political leaders and social reformers like Gandhi Ji and B. R. Ambedkar who advocated and worked to establish a society in which caste inequalities are absent. 

* Socio-economic reasons like urbanisation, growth of literacy and education. Occupational mobility, weakening of landlord’s position in the village have led to the breaking down of caste hierarchy. .

* The constitution of India prohibits any caste-based discrimination that lays down the foundations of policies to end the injustices of the caste system.

Positive impact of casteism with regard to political expression :-

With the economic development, large scale urbanisation growth of literacy and education, occupational mobility and the weakening of the position of landlords in the village, the old notions of caste hierarchy are breaking down. 

The constitution has prohibited any caste based discrimination and laid the foundation of policies to reverse the injustices of the caste system. 

 Negative impacts of Casteism with regard to political expression :-

When parties choose candidates in election, they keep in mind the caste imposition of the electorate and nominate candidates from different castes so as to get necessary support win elections. 

Political parties and candidates in elections make appeal to caste sentiments to muster support.

 Caste in politics :-

 As in the case of communalism, casteism is rooted in the belief that caste is the sole basis of social community. 

 Caste is one aspect of our experience but it is not the only relevant or the most important aspect. 

 Caste can take various form in politics :-

 The caste can take following forms in politics :-

Sometimes candidates are chosen on the basis of their caste. When political parties choose candidates, they keep in mind the caste composition of their voters.

In many places, voters on the basis of caste and fail to choose suitable candidates. 

When a government is formed after elections, political parties take care that different castes are represented in the government.

Political parties appeal to caste sentiments during election. 

To gain support political parties, raise caste based issues during elections. 

The castes considered inferior or low until now have been made conscious of their rights by the political parties.

 Other factors than the caste which play a decisive role at the time of the election :-

 Other than caste some factors which play a decisive role at the time of election :- 

Money 

Power 

Prestige 

Religion 

Policies of the political parties etc.

Politics influences the caste system and caste identities :-

Each caste group tries to become bigger by incorporating within it neighbouring castes or sub castes which were earlier excluded from it. 

Castes group are required to enter into a coalition with other castes. 

Newkind of castes group have come up in the political arena like backward and forward caste groups.

 How exclusive attention to caste can produce negative results in politics? 

Politics based on caste identity alone is not very healthy in a democracy. 

can divert attention from other pressing issues like poverty, development and corruption. 

Caste division leads to tensions,conflicts and even violence

The Making of a Global World Notes

 The Making of a Global world 

Globalisation is generally associated with economy as the free movement of capital, goods, technology, ideas and people across the globe. Globalisation in a broader sense also includes cultural exchanges between different countries of the world.

 Ancient times :-

Travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for knowledge, opportunity and spiritual fulfilment, or to escape persecution. 

They carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas,  inventions, and even germs and diseases. 

As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia. 

Silk route linked China with West. 

Food travels from America to Europe to Asia. 

Noodles travels from China to Itly and became Spaghetti. 

European conquerors carried germs of smallpox in America. Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent.

 Silk routes :-

 The Silk Route was a historic trade route that dated from the second century B.C. The ‘silk routes’ points to the importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes along this route. until the 14th century A.D. 

 It stretched from Asia to the Mediterranean, traversing China, India, Persia, Arabia, Greece, and Italy .It was dubbed the Silk Route because of the heavy silk trading that took place during that period.

 Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato :-

 Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands that they travelled.

 Spaghetti :- noodles travelled west from China to become spaghetti. Or, perhaps Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily, an island now in italy

 Food Many of our common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes, and so on were not known to our ancestors until about five centuries ago.

 Potato :- Europe’s poor began better and live longer with introduction the humble Potato. 

 Ireland’s poorest peasants became so dependent on potatoes that when disease destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands died of starvation.

 Conquest, Disease and Trade :-

 America’s Discover and Precious Metals :-

 European sailors found a sea route to Asia and also successfully crossed the western ocean to America.

 Before its ‘discovery’, America had been cut off from regular contact with the rest of the world for millions of years.

 Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in present day Peru and Mexico also enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia. 
Use of smallpox germs by conquerors (for victory)

 The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and Colonisation of America was decisively underway by the mid- sixteenth century.

 The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried on their person. 

 Due to their long isolation, America’s original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox, in particular proved to be fatal. 

  Problems in europe :-

 Until the 19th century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread. 

 India and China till the eighteenth century :-

 In the 18th century, China and India were among the world’s richest countries. They were also pre-eminent in Asian trade.

 However, from the 15th century, China is said to have restricted overseas contacts and retreated into isolation. 

 China’s reduced role and the rising importance of the America gradually moved the centre of world trade Westwards. 

 Europe now emerged as the centre of world trade.

The Nineteenth Century (1815-1914) 

 The Nineteenth Century :-

 Economic, political, social, cultural and technological factors interacted in complex ways to transform societies and reshape external relations. 

 Economists identify three types of movement or ‘flows’ within International Economic Exchanges. 

The flow of Trade :- Trade in goods such as grain and cloth.

The flow of Labour :- Migration of people to new areas in search of work.

The Movement of capital :- Investment of capital for a short and long period in far off areas.

 Let’s look at the UK economy to understand all three.

  A World Economy Takes Shape :-

Due to increase in population from the late 18th century, the demand for food grains in Britain had increased. 

Since, there was pressure from landed groups, the government also restricted the import of corn. 

The laws allowing the government to do this were commonly known as the ‘Corn Laws’. 

Railways were needed to link the agricultural regions to the ports. 

New harbours had to be built and people had to settle on the lands which meant building homes and settlements.

All these activities in turn required capital and labour. Capital flowed from financial centres such as London. 

The demand for labour in places where labour was in short supply-as in America and Australia, led to more migration. 

By 1890, Global Agricultural Economy had taken shape.

 Corn Law :-

 The laws allowing the government (U.K.) to restrict the import of corn were commonly known as the Corn Laws.

Role of Technology :-

 The railways, steamships, the telegraph were important inventions without which we cannot imagine the transformed nineteenth-century world.

 Colonisation stimulated new investments and improvements in transport.

 The trade in meat offers a good example of this connected process. Till the 1870s, animals were shipped live from America to Europe and then slaughtered when they arrived there. 

 Better living conditions promoted social peace within the country and support for imperialism abroad. 

 Trade flourished and markets expanded in the late nineteenth century.

 Late nineteenth-century Colonialism :-

 Britain and France made vast additions to their overseas territories in the late nineteenth century. Belgium and Germany became new Colonial Powers.

 The US also became a colonial power in the late 1890s by taking over some colonies earlier held by Spain.

 Rinderpest Plague :-

 Rinderpest is a fast spreading cattle plague which hit Africa in the late 1880s.

 Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague :-

 In the 1880s, a fast-spreading disease of Cattle Plague or Rinderpest had a terrifying impact on the African local economy. It was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in East Africa. 

 Entering Africa in the East, Rinderpest moved west ‘like forest fire’. The loss of cattle destroyed African livelihoods.

 Indentured labour :-

 A bonded labourer under contract to work for an employer for a specific amount of time, to pay off his passage to a new country home.

Indentured Labour Migration from India :-

 In the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of Indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and in road and railway construction projects around the world.

 In India, indentured labourers were bonded labourers who were transferable to any country on contract for a specific amount of wage and time. Most of the labourers were from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Central India and certain districts of Tamil Nadu.

 The 19th century indenture has been described as a ‘New System of Slavery’. 

 From the 1900s, India’s nationalist leaders began opposing the system of Indentured Labour Migration as abusive and cruel. It was abolished in 1921.

 New slave system in 19th century :-

Agents provided false information to misguide the labourers. 

Labourers were also kidnapped by the agents. 

The living and working conditions of new place were very hard. 

Wages were very low. The wages were deducted in terms of work was not done properly. 

There were no legal rights for labourers.

 Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad :-

 Shikaripuri Shrott and Nattukottai Chettiyars were amongst the many groups of bankers and traders who Financed Export Agriculture in Central and South-east Asia. 

 Indian Traders and Moneylenders also followed European colonisers into Africa. From the 1860s they established flourishing emporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.
Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System :-

 With the advent of industrialisation, British cotton manufacture began to expand and industrialists pressurised the government to restrict cotton imports and protect local industries.

 Tariffs were imposed on cloth imports into Britain. Consequently, the inflow of fine Indian cotton began to decline.

 Indigo used for dyeing cloth was another important export for many decades. British manufactures flooded the Indian Market.

 The value of British Exports to India was much higher than the value of British imports from India. Thus, Britain had a “Trade Surplus’ with India. 

 Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries that is, with countries from which Britain was importing more than it was selling to.

 The Inter-War and Post-War Economy 

 The Inter War Economy :-

 The First World War (1914-18) was mainly fought in Europe but its impact was felt around the world due to widespread economic and political instability. 

 Wartime Transformations :-

 The First World War was fought between two power blocs. On the one side were the Allies Britain, France and Russia (later joined by the US); and on the opposite side were the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey. 

 This war was thus, the First Modern Industrial War. It saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc., on a massive scale. 

 Most of the killed and maimed were men of working age and these deaths and injuries reduced the able-bodied workforce in Europe. 

 Britain borrowed large sums of money from the US Banks as well as the US public which transformed the US from being an “International Debtor to an International Creditor”.

the impact of first world war on the economy of Britain :-

Hard to maintain the top position of Britain in Indian market. 

After first world war Britain had to compete with Japan. 

Debt taken by America during First world war. 

Fall in demand of goods due to the end of war caused fall in production and increase in unemployment. 

The heavy taxes imposed by the government to fulfill the losses of war which causes great fall in employment.

 Post-war Recovery :-

 After the war, Britain found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in the Indian Market and to compete with Japan internationally. 

 The war had led to an economic boom, that is, to a large increase in demand, production and employment. 

 Before the war, Eastern Europe was a major supplier of wheat in the world market but during the war its supply disrupted and wheat production in Canada, America and Australia expanded immensely.

 But after the war, production in Eastern Europe revived and created a glut in wheat output. Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined and Farmers fell deeper into debt.

 Rise of Mass Production and Consumption :-

 One important feature of the US economy of the 1920s was Mass Production. A well-known pioneer of mass production was the Car Manufacturer, Henry Ford. 

 The T-Model Ford was the world’s first mass-produced car. 

 Mass production lowered costs and prices of engineered goods and there was an increase in the purchase of refrigerators, washing machines, radios, gramophone players, all through a system of ‘hire purchase’. 

 Large investments in housing and household goods seemed to create a cycle of higher employment and incomes, rising consumption demand, more investment and yet, more employment and incomes.

The Great Depression :-

 By 1929 the world plunged into a depression called -The Great Depression of 1929. 

 During this period most parts of the world experienced catastrophic declines in production, employment, incomes and trade. 

 The depression was caused by a combination of several facts of agricultural overproduction. 

 Many countries financed their investments through loans from the US. The withdrawal of the US loans affected much of the rest of the world. 

 With the fall in prices and the prospect of a depression the US Banks had also slashed domestic lending and called back loans. 

 The Great Depression’s wider effects on society, politics and international relations, and on peoples’ minds, proved more enduring. 

 Causes of Great Depression :-

 Post-World War, economy of the world was fragile. Agricultural over production was a problem. As prices slumped, farm produce rotted. 

 Many countries financed loans from the US. 

 US overseas lenders panicked at the sign of financial crisis.

 Thus, banks were bankrupt and were forced to close down in Europe and in the US because they were unable to recover investments, collect loans and repay depositors. 

 American capitalists stopped all loans.

 India and the Great Depression :-

 Since Colonial India had become an exporter of agricultural goods and importer of manufactures, the depression immediately affected Indian trade. 

 Peasants and farmers suffered more than urban dwellers though agricultural prices fell sharply, the Colonial Government refused to reduce revenue demands.

 This resulted in the increase of indebtedness of the Indian peasants who used up their savings, mortgaged lands, and sold whatever jewellery and precious metals they had to meet their expenses. 

 The famous economist John Maynard Keynes thought that Indian gold exports promoted global economic recovery.

Rebuilding a World Economy: The Post-war Era 

 The Post War Era :-

 The Second World War broke out merely after two decades of the First World War and brought enormous death and destruction.

 It was fought between the Axis powers (mainly Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy) and the Allies (Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the US). 

 The war caused an immense amount of economic devastation and social disruption.

 There were two impacts that influenced post-war reconstruction. The first was the US’s Emergence as the dominant economic, political and military power in the Western world and the second was the dominance of the Soviet Union.

  The Bretton Woods institutions :- 

 The International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank were created to bring about orderly development of the world economy in the post-World War Il era. 

 Bretton Woods agreement :-

 Bretton Woods :-

 Bretton Woods is the name of Hotel in USA where the National Monetary and Financial conference held in 1944 to ensure the stable economy. 

Establishment of IMF and World Bank. 

Bretton Woods system was based on fixed exchange rate.

 Decolonisation and Independence :-

 Most developing countries did not benefit from the fast growth that the Western economies experienced in 1950s and 1960s therefore, they organized themselves as a group-the Group of 77 (or G-77)-to demand a New International Economic Order (NIEO).

 By the NIEO they meant a system that would give them real control over their natural resources, more development assistance, fairer prices for raw materials and better access for their manufactured goods in developed countries’ markets.

End of Bretton Woods and the Beginning of “Globalisation’ :-

 The Industrial World was hit by unemployment that began rising from the mid-1970s and remained high until the early 1990s. 

 From the late 1970s., MNCS also began to shift production operations to low-wage Asian countries, China being one of them.

 China became an attractive destination for investment by foreign MNCS, competing to capture world markets. 

 The relocation of industries to low-wage countries stimulated world trade and capital flows.

 Exchange Rates :-

 They link national currencies for the purposes of International trade. There are broadly two kinds of exchange rates, namely, fixed exchange rate and floating exchange rate. 

 Fixed Exchange Rates :-

 The rates which are officially fixed by the government and do not vary with change in demand and supply of Foreign Currency.

 Flexible or Floating Exchange Rates :-

 These rates fluctuate depending on demand and supply of Foreign Currencies in Foreign Exchanges Markets, in principle without interference by governments. 

 Tariff :-

 Tax imposed on a country’s imports from the rest of the world. Tariffs are levied at the point of entry, i.e., at the Border or at the Airport. 

Hosay :-

 A riotous carnival in Trinidad (for Imam Hussain) where workers of all races and religions joined to celebrate.

 Plantation :-

 Estate for cultivation of cash crops such as tea, coffee, cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, etc. 

 MNCS :- 

 Multinational Corporations (MNCS) are large companies that operate in several countries at the same time.

 IMF :-

 It is also termed as International Monetary Fund, The Bretton Woods Institution. It was established to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations. 

 IBRD :-

 It is abbreviated as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (popularly known as the World Bank). It was set up to finance Post-war reconstruction. 

 G-77 :-

 G-77 or Group of 77 refers to the seventy seven developing countries that did not benefit from the fast growth western economies experienced in 1950s and 1960s.

 Veto :-

 A constitutional right to reject a decision or proposal made by a law making body.