Right to Pray and Gender Debate in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.417.3683Keywords:
Gender, Religion, India, Equality, HistoryAbstract
The article apprises about the historical and contemporary debate on Right to equality from a Gendered perspective in India. The recent and ongoing turmoil surrounding right to pray and its link with the larger question of women's emanicipation as the central theme of the article. The paper notes that the clamour for Temple Entry is a refreshing trend in the Women's movement in India as it replaces the State with Civil Society as the arbiter of Change.
An attempt has been made in the paper to offer a historical survey of the women's movement in India and place competing narratives of the Gender debate.
Religion, Female Bpdy, and Women's movement in India are three key interfaces encompassing this paper.
References
Beteille, Andre (2005). The two sources of Inequality in Anti-Utopia, Essential writings of Andre Beteille. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Sen, Samita (2000). Toward a Feminist Politics? The Indian Women’s Movement in Historical Perspective. Policy Research Report On Gender And Development. Department of History, Calcutta University: The World Bank Development Research Group/ Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network
Roy, Anupama (2010). The Women’s movement in the Oxford Companion to Politics in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Chatterje, Partha (1994). The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Susie Tharu and Lalita. K, eds., (1991). Women Writing in India: 600 B.C to the Present. Volume 1: 600 B.C to the Early Twentieth Century. New York: Feminist Press.
Roy, Anupama. Ibid
Chakravarty, Uma (2012) How Autonomous Is Women’s Autonomous Movement Samyukta: A Journal of Women’s Studies, V(2), pp 40-60
Roy, Anupama. ibid.
Vasanthi,Raman (1999). The women’s question in Contemporary Indian Politics. New Delhi: Lokayan.
Butler, Judith (2004). Undoing Gender. New York and London Routledge.
Sarkar, Tanika. (1996). ‘Hindu Women: Politicisation through Communalisation’ in Kumar Rupesinghe and Khawar Mumtaz (eds) Internal Conflict in South Asia. London: Sage Publications.
Mill, James (1817). History Of British India. London: Baldwin, Cradrock and Joy.
Mary Lea Cox freedom of Worship, Carnegie Council http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/education/001/four_freedoms/5224.html (Last accessed on January 4, 2017)
Sneha Mary Koshy and Sanyal Anandita “No right time to enter Sabarimala temple. Women say #Happy to Bleed” , November 24, 2015. http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/no-right-time-to-enter-sabarimala-temple-women-say-happytobleed-1246681 (Last accessed on January 7, 2017)
Dworkin, Ronald (1997). Reverse Discrimination in Taking Rights Seriously. London: Duckworth.
The classic formulation of this linkage is in Tocqueville A. De, 1956, Democracy in America, 2 Vols. New York: Knopf, but see also A. Beteille, 1986, “Individualism and Equality”, Current Anthropology, Vol. 27, no.2, April pp. 121-34
Zee Media Bureau (March 30, 2016)“Bombay High Court backs entry of women in Shani Shinganapur temple”
http://zeenews.india.com/news/maharashtra/bombay-hc-lifts-ban-on-womens-entry-in-shani-shinganapur-temple_1870657.html (Last accessed on January 2, 2017)
OpIndia editor (January 26, 2016) “Right to worship: The good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of the ‘debate’.
http://www.opindia.com/2016/01/right-to-worship-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-aspects-of-the-debate/ (Last accessed on January 13, 2017)
Temple Entry Proclamation (1936) Maharaja of Travancore.
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/27845/7/07_chapter%202.pdf (Last accessed on January 11, 2017)
Manicka Sundara Bhattar And Ors. vs R.S. Nayudu, Executive Officer ... on 15 December, 1944 https://indiankanoon.org/docfragment/1116061/?formInput=temple%20entry%20act (Last accessed on January 5, 2017)
Gallanter, Marc (1960). Temple entry and The Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955. The Indian Law Institute.
http://14.139.60.114:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/15101/1/018_TempleEntry%20and%20the%20Untouchability%20(Offences)%20Act,%201955%20(185-195).pdf (Last accessed on December 21, 2016)
Prasanna Kumar, Alok (April 12, 2016) “Women in Shani Shingnapur temple: A brief history of entry laws and how times are changing” http://www.firstpost.com/india/women-in-shani-shingnapur-brief-history-of-temple-entry-laws-and-how-times-are-changing-2723582.html (Last accessed on January 12, 2017)
Rajaratnam, S. “Law and Religion: Will the Twain never meet”? February, 2016) http://new.modernrationalist.com/2016/02/law-and-religon-will-the-twain-nwver-meet/ also (Last accessed on December 29, 2016)
Prasanna Kumar, Alok (April 12, 2016) “Women in Shani Shingnapur temple: A brief history of entry laws and how times are changing” http://www.firstpost.com/india/women-in-shani-shingnapur-brief-history-of-temple-entry-laws-and-how-times-are-changing-2723582.html (Last accessed on January 12, 2017)
Mann, Bonnie (2006). The stakes of Feminism and Postmodernism in Women’s Liberation and the Sublime: Feminism Postmodernism and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Flax Jane(1987). Postmodernism and Gender Relations in Feminist Theory, Signs, Vol. 12, No. 4, Within and Without: Women, Gender, and Theory. pp. 621-643.
Benhabib, Seyla (1995). Feminist Contestations: A philosophical Exchange. Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, Nancy Fraser New York: Routledge.
First Post staff (August 28, 2016) “Trupti Desai offers prayer at Haji Ali Dargah but keeps away from the inner sanctum” http://www.firstpost.com/india/trupti-desai-offers-prayer-at-haji-ali-dargah-but-keeps-away-from-the-inner-sanctum-2980400.html (Last accessed on Jan 12, 2017)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
