Inconsistent Allies: Women’s Issues, Feminism and Religious Nationalism in India

• In Event: Gender and Political Representation in Asia

Abstract

The alarming rise of conservative populist movements in democracies around the world raises critically important theoretical and policy questions for scholars of women and politics. Gender scholars have much to contribute to our theoretical and empirical understanding of these dynamics in both global and domestic contexts. Because the participation of women lends an air of legitimacy to such movements—and an air of empowerment to women—it is urgent to understand the role of women and gender in populist movements. The role of gender and elections in Asia remains underexplored as a lens through which to understand these global political trends.

Focusing on India as a case study, this paper examines women’s descriptive and substantive representation in the religious nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (“Indian People’s Party,” or BJP). Religious nationalism in India is a form of conservative populism: Hindu nationalism is a majoritarian ethnic nationalism that virtually equates being Indian with being Hindu. The BJP’s stunning and largely unpredicted 2014 electoral victory preceded similar election results in many advanced western liberal democracies.

In India, the growing participation of women in the BJP has correlated with increasing electoral success of the party. But as the descriptive representation of women in the party has grown over time, we do not know how if at all the party’s stances on women’s issues (substantive representation of women) have changed, and how they have aligned (or not aligned) with the priorities of feminist scholars and activists in India. A key part of the BJP’s strategy to incorporate women involves challenging feminist claims to represent Indian women and their interests. This paper thus seeks to explore whether and how the descriptive representation of women in religious nationalist politics in India corresponds to changes in the substantive representation of women, and to feminist positions on the substantive representation of women. Have the BJP’s stances on women’s issues changed as women have become increasingly incorporated into the party? How do the BJP’s positions on women’s issues differ from or correspond to feminist positions?

The first part of the paper traces the growing incorporation of women into the BJP from 1980 to the present day. The second part of the paper gauges how party’s stance on substantive women’s issues has changed (or not) over time through a quantitative content analysis (QCA) of BJP party platforms in the nine national elections from 1980 to 2014. Finally, the third part of the paper examines the extent to which the BJP’s agendas for women align, or don’t align, with the Indian feminist movement through a qualitative, historical “deep dive” into two critical policy areas: national gender quotas for women, and the implementation of uniform, secular family laws (a “uniform civil code”) to replace the current system of religious laws. The BJP has advocated both of these policies to advance the status of women; Indian feminists have advocated gender quotas, while they have opposed a uniform civil code.

I find that the range of issues relating to women in BJP party platforms has expanded over time, from an almost exclusive focus on advocating a uniform civil code to greater focus on violence against women, education, healthcare, and women as economic actors. There is some evidence of increasing attention to intersectional issues—addressing unique needs of lower caste, lower income, rural, and illiterate women, with a sense that women of disadvantaged and marginalized groups need additional levels of support and assistance. But in power, the BJP has not consistently implemented either policy agendas that Indian feminists favor (such as gender quotas), or those that they oppose (such as a uniform civil code). My findings suggest that the BJP has not moved significantly from descriptive to substantive representation of Indian women, who—whether feminist or not—will find in the BJP only an inconsistent ally.

Author

• Rina Verma Williams, University of Cincinnati