The Women's Question in Contemporary Indian Politics

Abstract

This paper deals with the articulation and manifestation of the women's question in Indian politics during the last two to three decades and the problems that have been consequently thrown up. The issues addressed here illustrate the complexity of the women's question and its embeddedness in the wider social and political matrix. They include questions about the Uniform Civil Code, reservations for the Other Backward Classes and political reservation for women. It is argued that the women's question has never been a women s question alone, but more than any other, reveals the intractability and intransigence of structures, both traditional and modern. And, simultaneously, it opens up possibilities for addressing the question of democratization of the social order.