Lesson 5- Debates on Representation in Parliament
The debate around the representation in Indian political
system is not neoteric but it has a long history. The phenomenon is not
gravitated around a solo entity but it is surrounded by numerous identities
like caste, gender, culture, religion, region etc. The idea of political
representation and its implementation in India is quite a complex task as the
concept has faced various challenges regarding what to represent, whom to
represent and in what perspective the representation shall be, therefore with
the changing time many new complexities have emerged for instance the demand of
Jaat Communities to be included in Other Backward Classes reservation.
Historical Narrative of Representation
The founding vision of India is intrinsically plural and
egalitarian in conception. While an egalitarian society seems to be utopia and
the utopia of egalitarianism was based on the idea of equality. According to
Buddhist philosophy “human beings are absolutely on equality with one another
and the concept of equality is not fragmentary and sectional but complete and
universal”. In the West ‘idea of equality’ became a universal phenomenon only
after the French revolution. Every existing society whether in past or present
has gone through some sorts of inequality in every sphere of life and that
inequality is natural and functional in character. Naturally, all human beings
are born equal but the practises of discrimination and inequality based on
caste, colour, race, creed etc. are socially constructed and it was accepted
all around the world.
The notion of superiority and inferiority among castes
resulted in injustice, inequality and backwardness of castes at lower end in
the hierarchy. The discrimination and inequality based on caste could be either
individual or society centric directly affecting the development of society.
Each caste group in the hierarchy was supposed to pursue their caste occupation
and had limited scope for the occupational mobility. The prevailing structure
of caste led to social backwardness of castes at lower end and simultaneously
led to social, economic and educational inequality.
To frame the law of the land, the Indian Constitution, in
December 1946 the Constituent Assembly was established. The main challenges
before the members of the Constituent Assembly were to established a society
based on equalitarianism and the basic features of it has been incorporated in
the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. After a hard work for three years of
the Constitution Assembly the world’s largest Constitution came into force on
January 26, 1950.
General Elections and Representation of SCs and STs in
Parliament: 1952-2019
The Constitution of India under the provision of Article 330
and Article 332, provides provision for reservation of seats in favour of
Schedules Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and in the Vidhan Sabha.
The representation of SCs and STs in this article has been discussed into two
phases i.e. before liberalisation (1952-1989) and the post liberalisation
(1991-2019).
The reservation of seats for the SCs and STs brought a
significate change in the compositions of the Lok Sabha. This was happening for
the first time the deprived classes were making laws for every citizen of India
and this was a high political and social emancipation for the SCs and STs
communities. From 1952 to 1967 the representation of the number of SCs Member
of Parliaments did not show significant change with the exception of 1957
election which reflects increment of 10 seats for SCs in comparison to the 1952
election, whereas for STs representative the number of Lok Sabha members
gradually increased like in 1952 it was only 29 seats which raised to 40 seats
in 1967. The changes in the seats shows that either of the community members
got elected from the general seats. For 1971 to 1989 the representation of the
members of SCs and STs communities remained stable with maintaining a very
small change in seats.
The politics in the post liberalization period was the era
of assertion of caste and identity. This was also the era of coalition
government at the centre and few political parties based on the identity of SCs
and STs had given a positive impact on the politics. The BSP was the newly
emerged political party which gained the status of National Party in this era.
For the period of 1991 to 1999 there is no significant changes marked in the
number of the elected Lok Sabha Members from the SCs and STs communities
however, from 2004 to 2019 collectively the total number of SCs and STs
representative was all time high like in 2004 and 2009 the number was 136, for
2014 it was 131 and 138 in 2019. The 2019 General Election was a new phase for
the SCs and the STs representation. In this election the SCs and STs won total
138 seats which is the highest since independence. In 2019 General Elections
total 33 STs candidates contested the elections on the general seats. But only
4 could manage to register their victory and all the 4 candidates were from
BJP.
Representation of Women
The practice of democracy has a long tradition and it has
been in transition from Platonic era to the contemporary times. In most of the
countries the right to vote was restricted to the men and in some states to the
privileged men but in India the right to vote was granted to everyone who has
attained the age of 18 years irrespective of castes, religion and gender etc.
and this process provided an opportunity to every citizen to feel like the part
of decision-making process. Through the elections the voters elect send their
representative to the Parliament and in the states assemblies who make policies
and make decisions on their behalf.
In most of the countries including India maximum number of
parliamentarians or the legislature belong to the male group and women are
inadequately represented in the apex decision making bodies. There has been old
demand of equal representation of women in the legislative bodies but this
demand took the serious note in the 20th century when the feminist political
scientists around the world brought these issues into the academia.
Women’s organizations like All India Women Conference, 1927;
Women’s India Association, 1917 and National Council of Women in India, 1925
gave a new momentum to the demand of the representation of the women to the
main stream politics. In 1917, Sarojini Naidu advocated that “when franchise
was extended to the people of India, women be recognized as people”. But when
the Montague’s scheme of reforms for India was published it completely ignored
women. In 1928, when Simon Commission came to India the women members requested
for reservation of four seats for women in the legislature so that they could table
the interest of women however the Commission left the decision to incorporate
women’s reservation on the will of provincial governments. The above discussed
incidences reflect that women have been kept out of the main stream politics
deliberately.
The number of women parliamentarians from 1952 to 2019 has
increased but the number in comparison to male parliamentarians is not
adequate. The above figure reveals that in comparison to the first general
elections 1952 the number of women parliamentarians increased by three times in
2019. The presence of women in the first two Lok Sabha was the same. The
politics of India before liberalisation of the Indian Economy was under the
dominance of the Congress System, except the 1977 elections. In 1975 country faced
the largest attack on the democratic ethos by imposing emergency provision in
India. From 1971 onwards a dramatic increment in the proportion of electorate
from the deprived sections like SCs, STs, OBCs, Muslims and women were marked
in comparison to the general electorate.
The Janata Party always presented itself as the biggest
supporter of the marginalized groups including women but in 1971 when Janata
Party voted to power the total number of women parliamentarians was only 21
which was the lowest since 1952. The number increased to 45 during Rajiv Gandhi
regime. In 2014 and 2019 under the leadership of Narendra Modi the number of
women parliamentarians have reached to the highest level since 1952 i.e. 68 and
78 respectively and many of them hold the important ministry of the government
of India like late Sushma Swaraj was a dynamic foreign minister; Nirmala
Sitaraman hold the ministries like the defense and finance in 2014 and 2019
respectively; Smriti Irani had the important ministry of Human and Resource
Development etc. There are a few countries in which the number of women
representatives are higher or comparatively equal than the men like (according
to 2010 data) Rawanda 56.3%; Sweden 46.4 %; South Africa 44.5%, Iceland 42.9 %
etc. The presence of women parliamentarians and the policy enacted by them give
a positive impact on the young women and simultaneously incorporate the
gendered idea to the policy so that it can impact positively the lives of the
women.
5.B.A Political Science Hons. History Lesson 4th Important Notes Part 2
Representation of Other Backward Classes and Muslims
A. Other Backward Classes:
The implementation of Mandal Commission and the rise of the
political parties based on caste identities forced many main stream political
parties to realise the strength of the Other Backward Classes as a result many
political parties started incorporative OBCs candidates in their parties and
BJP which is said to be the party of upper caste gave major seats to the OBCs
in the 1990s general elections. The assertion of OBCs caste identities in 1990s
was on its peak.
However, the presence of Other Backward Classes in the
parliamentary politics had very less impact on the presence of Upper Castes.
The presence of OBCs and the SCs and STs in the 1990s in the Lok Sabha changed
the social demography of the Parliament, increased in the number of OBCs in the
apex legislative bodies has been defined as ‘second democratic upsurge’ by
Yogendra Yadav. Yogendra Yadav, in his idea of second upsurge says that the
social composition of the legislatures at the centre has gone through
significant change and there has been participatory upsurge among the
underprivileged castes and groups like women.
In 1952 total number lower caste Lok Sabha members were 59
which went to 70 in 1957. The number became 69, 87, 84, 107, 91, in 1962, 1967,
1971, 1977, and 1980, respectively. The major changes in the presence of OBCs
Lok Sabha Members was registered after 1991 elections. In 1991 the total number
of OBCs Lok Sabha Member was 128 which came to 125 in 1996 and 128 in 2004. In
2019 election the presence of Other Backward Classes was lowest since 1991. In
this election only 120 OBCs registered their victory.
In comparison to 2010 Assembly election the number of MLAs
from Yadav community increased from 39 to 61 in 2015, Kurmi representation
declined from 18 to 16 but there was marked an increase of an MLA of Koeri from
19 to 20.1 In 2015 State Assembly elections the Mahagathbandhan provided 134
seats out of 243 seats to backward classes in which 35% were from Yadav-Kurmi
communities, 39 and 40 seats were provided to upper castes and SCs-STs
respectively.
B. Muslims Representation
Being the second largest population in India according to
the religious identity Muslims have inadequate representation in the
Parliament. The Muslims demanded separate electorates in the Constituent
Assembly however it was not granted on the ground that it might create more
social divides in India on the basis of religious identity. After partition
approximately more than 35 million Muslims choose India as their motherland.
The Muslim population in India is mostly concentrated in the Northern part of
India like in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Since the first general elections 1952 the number of Muslim
representatives was static and it varies between 11 to 34. However, a major
rise in the number of Muslim representatives could be marked in the seventh
general election in which the total number of representation of Muslims raised
to 49 which was more than 4 times to the 1952 elections and it declined by 7 seats
in 1984 as the total number of Muslim representations dropped to 42. The Mandal
and the Mandir politics in the early phase of the 1990s takes Indian political
system to a new turn and since then the number of Muslim representatives did
not rise above 34 seats.
The Muslim representatives claim that the number of their
representation is not in accordance with their population for instances the
presence of Muslims in 2014 Lok Sabha should have been 66 but only 23 got the
place in the Lower House of the Parliament. They also see the rise of BJP as
the major reason for their decline in the Lok Sabha because of politics of
Hinduism and the Hindu culture.
This fact cannot be denied that the representational
politics provides an opportunity to the law makers to make impactful policies
for the betterment of the marginalized and the backwards. The politics of
representation has been successful to some extent to bring changes in the
demography of the Lok Sabha but it has failed to bring inclusiveness among
their own fellow communities. The era of 1990s was the period of upsurge of the
OBCs but the upper backwards like Yadavs, Koiri, Kurmi etc. were the most
beneficiary of the upsurge. The extremely backward castes like Nai, Teli,
Kumhar, Badhai, Dhanuk etc. are still looking for their representation. The
number of Women members has also increased but they are still lacking the
recognition and the main stream media does not provide much space to the women
members.
The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are in better
position in comparison to the other backwards, Muslims and Women registering
victory on the unreserved seats and that signals about the political
empowerment of the SCs and the STs.
Read More
1.B.A Political Science 1st Lesson Important Notes
2. B.A Political Science 3rd Lesson Important Notes
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