Version classiqueVersion mobile

The Asian side of the world - II

 | 
Jean-François Sabouret

Part Two. National challenges and strategies

Feminising and “modernising” political life: Comments on cases in India and Pakistan

Virginie Dutoya

Texte intégral

1August 2013

2“Paradox” is a word that is often used when it comes to qualifying the position of women in public life in countries in south Asia. For instance, many find it surprising that India was led by a woman in the 1960s, as was Pakistan in the 1980s, ahead of many European countries. It is considered a paradox because gender equality still appears as a distant objective in these countries, as shown by the declining gender ratio (in favour of men) or cases of violence against women. Obviously, such “surprise” is fuelled by stereotypes. Yet, it remains intriguing that Indira Gandhi in India or Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan were able to lead their party and their country. The paradox can be understood by emphasising the exceptionality of such women, who were the respective daughters of former Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and who owe their access to power only through ties to their family and background.

3However, since the 1990s, women have been actively encouraged to engage in politics. In India, a quota of 33% of women in local government bodies was introduced in 1992. A similar step was taken in Pakistan in 2000, followed two years later by a quota of 17% in legislative assemblies. The possibility of adopting a quota of women in legislative assemblies in India has also been under discussion since 1996, but which had yet to be passed. Even without quotas, the number of female Members of Parliament is regularly increasing, and had furthermore exceeded the 10% bar in the last elections in 2009. The increased participation of women in politics is generally presented as a positive fact and as a sign of social modernisation and democratisation. However, caution should be taken when interpreting a recent “discovery” of the importance of gender equality. The concern for the political representation of women in the sub-continent dates back to a long time ago, and as exceptional as they are, the rise of Benazir Bhutto and Indira Gandhi might not be as paradoxical as they seem. Similarly, the politics of quotas that exist in the two countries are the result British practices in colonial times that overtook the egalitarian ideal. The history of the feminisation of politics as a step towards democracy and “modernity” therefore needs to be rethought.

Women’s representation within the parliaments of India and Pakistan

4Women were major actresses of the Indian political life during the first half of the 20th century and they engaged themselves both in nationalist and feminist movements. In the 1920s, following an intense lobbying by feminist organisations, women obtained political rights that were similar to those of men in most provinces of colonial India. However, since the vote was by consensus, very few actually had the right to vote. In 1947, British India became independent and was divided. In both India and Pakistan, the post-independence period was marked by the withdrawal of women from politics. In India, the percentage of women in parliament decreased in the 1960s and 1970s (figure 1), and they were more poorly represented in Pakistan, in spite of quotas (figure 2). The level of quotas was low (approximately 5% of seats until the beginning of the 1980s), being more of a ceiling than a trampoline. It was not until 1977 that a woman was elected at the National Assembly for the first time, winning a non-permanent seat. Moreover, after the elections in 1988, the quotas, which were only a temporary measure, were abandoned and no longer applied.

Women in the Indian Parliament (1952-2009).
Source: Indian Election Commission data.

Women in the Pakistani Parliament (1954-2008).
Source: Pakistani Election Commission data

5With the exception of the Pakistani elections in 1988, there were never more than 10% of female Members of Parliament in India or Pakistan before the 21st century. The reasoning behind the political inclusion and exclusion of women is, however, more complex than these figures suggest. Women do not form a homogeneous group, with some having been marginalised, notably women from religious minorities (Muslims in India, and Christians and Hindus in Pakistan) and low-caste women in India (in the Other Backward Classes category). These graphs/figures, furthermore, hint to a rupture at the end of the 1990s and beginning of 2000, which could be related to the international context. The Platform for Action issued from the World Conference on Women, organised by the United Nations in Beijing in 1995, called for quotas, and in 1990 and 2000, almost 100 countries had adopted such measures. However, in south Asia, the issue of women’s participation in politics was addressed much earlier and considered not only as a matter of gender equality, but also as a matter of modernity and national identity.

Women’s political representation and modernity: from James Mill to Pervez Musharraf

6One of the many arguments used to justify the colonisation of the Indian sub-continent was the superiority of the British civilization. This argument was based on the idea that women would be better protected by the British than by Indian men. This idea was portrayed by James Mill in his History of British India, published in 1817. Women’s rights thus became a major public issue in the colonial society, involving many actors, from the government to social reformists, and from the early 20th century, feminists and nationalist movements. By the end of the 1920s, the British were defending women’s participation in politics and their representation in assemblies through the seats reserved to them. Certain nationalists challenged the political rights of women in the name of the “Indian culture”, but the main nationalist movements (the Congress Party and the Muslim League) supported women’s right to vote. Leaders of independent movements, such as Jawaharlal Nehru (for the Congress Party) and Muhammad Ali Jinnah (for the Muslim League) justified their position by arguing that women’s equality was a fundamental step in the process of modernisation that would lead to independence. Following independence and the division in 1947 in India and Pakistan, gender discrimination was prohibited by the Constitution. The consensus of these (brief) discussions on women’s equality supported the importance of this measure. An important argument was that by giving all political rights to women, India and Pakistan were demonstrating their greatness to the world. In addition, in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, gender equality was seen as a way to counter those who criticised Islam for the status it gave to women.

7In the 1950s and 1960s, the issue of political representation was less discussed in public. The issue resurfaced in the 1970s, in the context of the internationalisation of women’s rights. In 1975, India and Pakistan participated in the World Conference on Women, organised by the United Nations in Mexico. Following this, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations against Women was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1979. The Convention introduced the principle of positive discrimination for women, paving the way for quotas. This shift of paradigm in the representation of women political representation led to the conference in Beijing in 1995. The Platform for Action, issued from this conference, affirmed that women’s participation in politics is not only important for equality, but also for strengthening democracy, improving governance and social peace.

8This rhetoric reappeared in India in the early 1990s. The adoption of quotas for women in local political institutions in 1992 was part of a broader plan designed to deepen democracy. Similarly, an important argument supporting the adoption of quotas in assemblies was that India would show the world how modern it was. One of the outcomes from this argument was that those who opposed the law were labelled “archaic”. Therefore, the status of women is not only used to signify modernity vis-à-vis the rest of the world, but also within the Indian society. This was similarly the case in Pakistan, where the quotas of 33% of women in local institutions, and 17% in legislative assemblies, were established at the beginning of 2000. Pervez Musharraf had brought this into effect, following his rise to power as result of a military coup in 1999. After his coup d’état and the attacks of September 11 in 2001, Musharraf wished to embody “enlightened moderation” and was eager to distinguish himself from “radical Islam” by defending women’s rights in politics.

9Thus, in both India and Pakistan, despite the political misrepresentation of women, the association between the idea of modernity and women’s participation in politics is one that dates back to a long time ago. It is nevertheless important to remember that quotas, as they were conceived by the British, were part of a vast identification programme of social groups, defined by their “cultural specificity” or “vulnerability”. Quotas were initially a tool to respond to social diversity, but also to essentialise the differences between groups. The fact that quotas are still the main answer to the political mis-representation of women in the two countries highlights the persistence of differentialist representations of political roles political misrepresentation is thus telling; it shows the persistence of a representation of political roles, with women continuing to embody a form of “otherness” in society.

Bibliographie

Bibliographical information

Dutoya, V. 2012. “Féminisation des parlements, quotas et transformation de la représentation au Pakistan et en Inde”, in Critique Internationale, no. 55, pp. 137-158.

Forbes, G. 1996. Women in Modern India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Roy, A. 2002. “The “Womanly vote” and Women Citizens: Debates on Women’s Franchise in Late Colonial India”, in Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 469-493.

Table des illustrations

Légende Women in the Indian Parliament (1952-2009).Source: Indian Election Commission data.
URL http://books.openedition.org/editionscnrs/docannexe/image/13080/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 90k
Légende Women in the Pakistani Parliament (1954-2008).Source: Pakistani Election Commission data
URL http://books.openedition.org/editionscnrs/docannexe/image/13080/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 80k

Le texte et les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont sous Licence OpenEdition Books, sauf mention contraire.

Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search