Religion, Communal Identities and the Women’s Movement

A vigorous although uneven women's movement has taken shape in India after independence. Women from diverse castes, classes and communities have participated in the movement making it highly heterogeneous. But emphasizing women's common oppression as a fundamental basis for unity in the women's movement does not address reality. Feminism is not about gender alone, but about understanding how gender is complicated by religion and other identities. The differences emerging out of race, caste, religion and so on cannot be underestimated and based on these differences there has been a resurgence of identities. The new challenges that the women's movement is facing are emerging out of these vast diversities within India. The question of the entanglement of 'gender' with religious identities is giving rise to numerous debates within the Indian women's movement revolving round the questions of Uniform Civil Code and Personal laws and these religious identities are posing a challenge to the movement. It is in this context the present paper attempts to analyze such debates and how such religious identities are acting as a challenge to the mainstream feminist movement.