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COMMUNALISM AND WOMEN
Anil Dutta Mishra
It is the purpose of this paper to analyse the issue involved in communalism and the way fundamentalism is increasing in India after independence. Communalism is no more only a political phenomenon, Directly or indirectly it has entered in every aspect of Indian social life and posing a great threat to democracy, sovereignty and integration of the nation.
The following hypotheses are posited here for the purposes of critical discussion :
a) Communal organisations by raising women issucs curtail the women's fundamental rights;
b) By reinforcing religious traditions and fundamentalism they curb women's rights;
c) The communal tensions, riots and violence suppress women's survival and freedom;
d) By raising the bogey of religion and communalism it divided the women and weaker gender as a category.
Communalism is perhaps the most intractable problem of the Indian society, fast taking on an explosive form that threatens to blow up the very foundations of our national life. Communalism becomes a means to achieve the political goal. In fact, communalism has been a feature of Indian political culture throughout this century. Communalism directly or indirectly casts shadow on development of the society in general and women in particular. Communalism always curtails the women's rights and keeps them away from the mainstream. But the introduction of women's issues in communalism is a recent phenomenon,
Communalism becomes a means of exploitation Recent history has shown that every time there is a return to the so-called 'fundamentalism' of religion-any religion-there is, at the same time, a fundamentalist assault on women's freedom and identity. Through fundamentalism women are twice victimised- first on account of their gender and then on account of religion It is here that debate on communalism, fundamentalism and religious revivalism links up with the question of women's issues,
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