Drawing generalizations about the life of the average Indian
is difficult because of ethnic, religious, and caste differences,
which are compounded by the vast gulf between
town and country.
Although the constitution of 1950 guaranteed equal
treatment and opportunity for all, regardless of caste, and
prohibited discrimination based on untouchability, prejudice
is hard to eliminate. Untouchability persists, particularly
in the villages, where harijans, now called dalits,
still perform menial tasks and are often denied fundamental
human rights.
In general, urban Indians appear less conscious of caste
distinctions. Material wealth rather than caste identity is
increasingly defining status. Still, color consciousness
based on the age-old distinctions between upper-class
Aryans and lower-class Dravidians remains strong. Classconscious
Hindus still express a distinct preference for
light-skinned marital partners.
In recent years, low-caste Indians (who represent more
than 80 percent of the voting public) have begun to demand
affirmative action to relieve their disabilities and
give them a more equal share in the national wealth.
Officials at U.S. consulates in India have noticed a rise in
visa applications from members of the brahmin caste, who
claim that they have “no future” in the new India. But opponents
of such measures are often not reluctant to fight
back. Phoolan Devi, known as the “bandit queen,” spent
several years in jail for taking part in the murder of twenty
men from a landowning caste who had allegedly gangraped
her when she was an adolescent. Her campaign for
office during the 1996 elections was the occasion of violent
arguments between supporters and opponents, and
she was assassinated by an unknown assailant in 2001.
In few societies was the life of women more restricted
than in traditional India. Hindu favoritism toward men
was compounded by the Muslim custom of purdah to create
a society in which males were dominant in virtually
all aspects of life. Females received no education and had
no inheritance rights. They were restricted to the home
and tied to their husbands for life. Widows were expected
to shave their heads and engage in a life of religious meditation
or even to immolate themselves on their husband’s
funeral pyre.
After independence, India’s leaders sought to equalize
treatment of the sexes. The constitution expressly forbade
discrimination based on sex and called for equal pay
for equal work. Laws prohibited child marriage and the
payment of a dowry by the bride’s family. Women were
encouraged to attend school and enter the labor market.
Such laws, along with the dynamics of economic and
social change, have had a major impact on the lives of
many Indian women. Middle-class women in urban areas
are much more likely to seek employment outside the
home, and many hold managerial and professional positions.
Some Indian women, however, choose to play a
dual role—a modern one in their work and in the marketplace
and a more submissive, traditional one at home
(see the box on p. 282).
Such attitudes are also reflected in the Indian movie
industry, where aspiring actresses must often brave family
disapproval to enter the entertainment world. Before
World War II, female actors were routinely viewed as
prostitutes or “loose women,” and such views are still
prevalent among conservative Indian families. Even Karisma
Kapoor, one of India’s current film stars and a
member of the Kapoor clan, which has produced several
generations of actors, had to defy her family’s ban on its
women’s entering show business.
Nothing more strikingly indicates the changing role of
women in South Asia than the fact that in recent years,
three of the major countries in the area—India, Pakistan,
and Sri Lanka—have had women prime ministers.
It is worthy of mention, however, that all three—Indira
Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, and Srimivao Bandaranaike—
came from prominent political families and owed their
initial success to a husband or a father who had served as
prime minister before them.
Like other aspects of life, the role of women has
changed much less in rural areas. In the early 1960s,
many villagers still practiced the institution of purdah. A
woman who went about freely in society would get a bad
reputation. Female children are still much less likely to
receive an education. The overall literacy rate in India
today is less than 40 percent, but it is undoubtedly much
lower among women. Laws relating to dowry, child marriage,
and inheritance are routinely ignored in the countryside.
There have been a few highly publicized cases of
sati (the immolation of widows on their deceased husband’s
funeral pyre) although undoubtedly more women
die of mistreatment at the hands of their husband or of
other members of his family.
Perhaps the most tragic aspect of continued sexual discrimination
in India is the high mortality rate among
girls. One-quarter of the female children born in India die
before the age of fifteen as a result of neglect or even infanticide.
Others are aborted before birth after genderdetection
examinations. The results are striking. In most
societies, the number of women equals or exceeds that of
men; in India, according to one estimate, the ratio is only
933 females to 1,000 males.
World History
