All people in the society are never alike. Even if you look at your own town, what do you find? Some people are living in the town since last two generations, while some others have settled here only during the last ten or twenty years.
People from different regions, speaking different languages and following different sects and religions inhabit in any town and city. Such difference nature of language, region, religion, culture etc. is called diversity.
Diversity in Society:
No society is uniform in all respects. Some differences are determined by birth. The other type of distinct character is based on the characteristics that we ourselves acquire. Differences based on language may be an example of first type of difference. Similarly, our place of birth decides our regional character. Difference determined by hobbies, occupation or skills is the other type of distinct nature.
When we say that we are Bengali speaking people, it means that we are born in a Bengali speaking family. Similarly, when someone says that we are from Kolkata, it means that that family has been traditional resident of that district. Language, region, country, are thus factors depending upon birth and leading to differences. The division between men and women is another such biological division.
Often, we belong to the religion of the family in which we are born in. But when we grow up, we are free to adopt a religion of our own choice. Or, someone can say that he or she is an Atheist (i.e., a person who does not believe in God). In this sense, religion and faith are factors that depend on a person’s own choice.
In this way, we find that people around us belong to different groups. They speak different languages. They belong to different regions. Their religions and religious practices are different. Their occupations are also different. That is why we classify people as farmers, traders, shop-keepers, white collar employees, etc. This fact that in one society, people having different characteristics live together is understood as diversity.
Normally, we do not find any society that is completely homogeneous. Some societies are diverse and others comparatively less diverse
Diversity of Languages in India:
When the census is conducted in India after every ten years, every person is asked his or her religion and language. At the time of 1961 census, a list was made listing all languages that were reported by people as mother-tongues. It listed more than 1652 languages! Even after classifying these languages into groups of major languages, we still have more than a hundred languages. In our Constitution, 22 languages are listed. You will find these languages in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.
Unity and Diversity:
In olden days, it was believed that unity can be created and maintained easily, if the society is homogenous. For the small and less diverse societies of Europe, this idea was indeed applicable. But in the 20th Century, intermixing has increased across the world. Now, most societies are more diverse than in the past. As a result of this, people now live along with people, who are different from each other. This experience shows that diversity does not necessarily obstruct unity.
In our society, we have always experienced diversity of languages, regions, religions and sects. India’s freedom struggle has shown that unity can be shaped in spite of such diversity. That is why India is known as ‘Land of Diversity’
Diversity and Democratic Politics:
It was believed in the past that democracy may be successful if society is homogeneous. Therefore, homogeneity was almost treated as a necessary condition for successful democracy. Now, in the last 60 to 70 years, democracy is established in many countries that have diversity. Countries like India have practiced democracy successfully. Instead, now it is believed that democracy helps in protecting diversity and that a democratic society can handle diversity better.
You know that democracy allows people to come together and pursue their demands. Therefore, in a democracy, when there is diversity, it leads to formation of different groups making political demands based on that diversity. In this manner, democracy always gives rise to political groups based on religion, language, or region.
There is one difficulty in organizing people on any single social basis. Suppose, we decided to organize people only on the basis of the language they speak, but people speaking that language will have considerable internal diversity. Imagine that someone is trying to organize all Bengali speaking people. They may come together on the basis of Bengali language and culture. But some among them would be city dwellers and some would be living in villages. Bengali women will say that we are surely interested in the issue of Bengali language, but our main concerns are about women’s labor. How about that? They will then organize both as Bengali and as women and the women’s organization may be all- India organization.
Diversity and Inequality:
One question emerges when people of different languages, religions and regions are living together. This question relates to their interrelations. Many times, one particular group aspires to be more powerful and dominant. It claims that, it is superior to others. This produces not only competition among different groups, such claims also produce inequality. Main concern of democracy is to ensure that in spite of diversity, relations among groups have to be cordial and equal.
Caste Diversity:
The most important example of inequality in India is that of caste system. Indian society consists of castes. This feature is more about inequality than diversity. Caste system is like a hierarchy. In this hierarchy, some castes are supposed to be upper and some lower. Traditional caste system even treated some castes as untouchables. Among the castes treated as lower castes traditionally, there is a high proportion of persons engaged in lower occupations and low incomes. These castes also have lower proportion of the well-educated persons. This makes the concern of caste as a central concern.
In the last hundred years or more. India has witnessed many anti-caste movements. These movements aimed at the abolition of caste system. In modern times, Mahatma Phule was the first to emphasize that the true measure for ending caste inequality is to end caste. Shahu Maharaj also tried for the development of backward castes. This same view was expressed in Southern India by Periyar Ramswami Naicker was also against cast system. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar also constantly disputed and worked for the abolition of untouchability and caste system.
However, both Mahatma Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar insisted that so far as caste exists, backward castes must get just share in education and in government service through policies of the government. This thought has been the main basis of independent India’s policy towards caste.
So, how did democracy deal with caste discrimination and inequality?
- As we saw above, anti-caste views were expressed and movements took place against caste system. This created awareness about the ill effects of caste discrimination.
- After independence of India, some legal provisions came into existence. For example, Constitution considered untouchability as illegal. Constitution also provided that government should not discriminate among citizens on the basis of caste.
- Besides this, special provisions were made for backward castes in constitution.
Inequality between Men and Women:
The division of human society into males and females is in fact based only on biological differences. But actual social relations are always based on unequal relations between men and women. All societies in the world witness secondary treatment given to women, as compared to men. Even in the family, women have less power and most often, family property is in the name of the male persons from the household. Whether it is about wages or about opportunities for promotions, many times we see that injustice is done on women by giving favorable treatment to men. In addition to this, women also have to face violence, harassment and violence both in public places and at the domestic level.
Tarabai Shinde (1850-1910) wrote a book called ‘Street-Purush Tulana’ (Comparison of women and men). This book, published in 1882 is seen as an important writing, expressing the issues of women inequality. Tarabai Shinde hails from a family residing at Buldhana in Vidarbh, Maharashtra. Her family belonged to the Satya Shodhak ideology and was follower of Mahatma Phule.
Jyoti Savitribai Phule (1831-1897) wife of Mahatama Jyotiba Phule was renowned as Pioneer of women’s education and served as first Lady teacher headmistress in the State of Maharashtra. Her role in widow-remarriage is most noteworthy. Her birth anniversary i.e. 3rd January is observed as ‘Stree-Mukti Din’ in Maharashtra.
During last hundred years or more, many organizations of women raised their voice against this injustice done against women. This led to women’s movements. Many democratic countries made laws for reducing the inequality between men and women.
In many countries, even after the introduction of democracy, women did not have the right to vote in elections. Due to the pressure of the women’s movements in the 20th century, many countries granted the right to vote to women. New Zealand is the first country in the world to give the women the right to vote. In the case of India, after independence, our Constitution granted to all citizens, irrespective of gender, right to vote right from the first election itself. Though women got the right to vote, the number of elected women representatives is very low in most countries even today.
In India too, for the last two decades, discussions are going on for increasing the political participation of women. Efforts are also going on to provide reserved seats for women in Lok Sabha and State Legislatures. There is already a provision for women’s representation in Gram Panchayats, Municipal Councils, Municipal Corporations and Zilla Parishads. The government of India has increased the reservation for women representatives’ local government level to the extent of 1/3rd percent recently.
Efforts are also made for bringing about gender equality in matters other than political rights. In many countries, there is a legal provision that there will be no gender discrimination while giving government jobs. Constitution of India has also guaranteed that there will be no such discrimination. Government also implements various programmes and schemes for the all-round development of women.
Following ways are followed for resolving the issue of gender inequality:
- Women’s organization and social awareness.
- Legal provisions protecting women.
- Implementation of welfare schemes.
- Special provisions for ensuring share in power for women.
Religious Diversity and Democracy:
It is necessary that there are cordial relations among different religions when people of different religions are living together. Otherwise, diversity may lead to inequality and conflict. People of different religions such as Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddha, Jain, Christian, Zoroastrian and Jew live in India. So, India has adopted policy of secularism from beginning. These people celebrate their respective festivals and follow religious rituals.
There are economic and trade relations across religions. Many a times, people also participate in each other’s religious functions. But sometimes, people of different religions experience situations of difference of opinion, competition and even tension. In such situations, government has to intervene and regulate the situation. In other words, religious diversity leads to different types of relations such as tolerance, co-operation, competition and conflict.
Some measures are adopted to ensure peaceful co-existence of people of different religions:
- The most important measure is to allow every person to adopt a religion of his or her choice and faith and follow the religion in worship and prayers. This is called ‘Freedom of Religion.’
- The second measure is that government must treat persons of all religions equally. Equal respect for all religions is a part of this measure. Equal treatment is important because, if one religion is treated as superior to another, this leads to competition among different religious groups.
- The third measure for handling religious diversity is protecting minority religious groups and taking special care for their development. If this does not happen, it would lead to backwardness among some religious communities. Economic and educational backwardness among one community produces an atmosphere of mutual distrust among religious communities. Therefore, it is necessary to take every caution about equal development of people belonging to all religions.
Also Read |
What is Democracy? : https://testyourgk.in/what-is-democracy/
Distribution of power in a federation:
There are different methods of distributing power among different groups. A decision about these methods is taken by considering the situation in the country concerned. When there is linguistic and regional diversity, a method of distributing power among the regions within the country is often adopted. This is known as the Federal System of government. Under this form, the constitution itself creates governments at the regional level and decides the powers of the regional level governments. This makes it possible for people from each region to take decisions as per their needs. Decisions regarding the region’s language, culture or local practices are not imposed on any region.
The decision about the extent of the powers of the regional governments is made by the constitution of the concerned country. Such distribution of power is an important way of maintaining democracy and diversity simultaneously. India has adopted such federal system.
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