Political Participation of Women in Tripura since Independence of India
Political Participation of Women
Introduction
Tripura kingdom was ruled by a
single royal dynasty for centuries. Due to the external aggression, attacks and
invasions the Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya prioritized to merge with
Indian Union. Political activities among
common people of Tripura were absent. When the Indian National Movement
gathered a momentum with the Swadeshi and
Boycott movement in Bengal since 1905, the people of Tripura reacted to the
people’s movement in India.
After the demise of Maharaja on 17th
May 1947, different troubles gathered fast, violent communal riots, partition
of India, influx Hindus from the Meghna Valley and the Chittagang Hill Tract
conspiracy to capture Tripura etc took place. These blows made the minor king’s
mother Maharani Kanchanprabha Devi to give up hope and sign the merger
agreement with Indian Union and joined the Indian federation in 1949.
Eighty years (1949-2020) have
passed since the historic passage from monarchy to democracy in Tripura. In terms of time, the period is
significant to evaluate the working democracy in general, and to examine the
magnitude of political participation of the voters in particular. The women
political participation was nil till 1967 in terms of casting their votes. Political
participation of the voters largely depend the destiny of a democratic nation.
An attempt at the identification of the diseases of political participation
(chicanery, sophistry, misappropriation of money etc.) may operate as warning
to the prosperity.
After
joining the Indian Union many elections have been contested one after another;
movement have been launched one after another; political parties have been
generating heat and dust; political participation has been varying from mild to
wild types. The political participation of women has increased and changed the
electoral map significantly in Tripura.. A political maelstrom has been
generated. The work abounds with challenges.
Literature Review
The
review of literature is spare for this research study and it is also a new
research area. The review of literature of
notable scholars and authors have mentioned related to women’s political
participation.
As gender interests are shaped by multiple factors and women in an electoral constituency have diverse interests as a social group, representation of these through gender quotas taking 'women as an independent category' is difficult. Menon (1999) argues that quotas lead to a large increase in women’s presence in one go and therefore help to overcome ‘their inhibitions’ leading, in turn, to effective participation. Stockemer (2009) argues that the state needs to provide its citizens the political freedom and promote self-development: “Ideally women should have both the right to equal involvement in decision making processes and right to take a stand on issue.” To be democratic a state must guarantee enduring political freedoms, individual liberty, third perspective, which argues that democracy doesn’t have significance in absence of all these. The increasing salience of women’s issues and the resurgence of women’s movements have raised popular consciousness and intense academic discourse on poor participation of women in politics. Though women’s low political participation is a universal phenomenon Waylen (1996) claims that the role of women in authoritarian administration is ‘traditional and limited’ to women. These perceptions discourage women in politics. Matland (1996) argues that economic advancement is one of the factors which can be enable women’s entering into politics. Economic independence empowers women to engage in politics. In this case women are not so good in socio-economic sector as compared to men. According to Skard (2015), women’s participation in politics is strongly and massively influenced by the family members: “When the parents are politically engaged and political issues are often discussed at home”. Several instances have worldwide can be mentioned to understand impacts, influences of the political engagement of parents. India’s first Prime Minister was Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister and same stories happened for Sheikh Hasina. Jalanzai and Krook (2010) state that leadership styles of female politician affect their political participation. They follow masculine policies instead of women-friendly policies. Research by Browne and Barret (1991) found a strong association between female education and socio-economic development at both the individual and societal level. Oduol (2008) found access to education and lack of quality education still remains a barrier for many women. That shows education ill-equips women for leadership.
From the above mentioned brief
review of literature, it may be concluded that the area
of study which has been proposed here has not been dealt by the researchers in
India, in general and for Tripura, in particular. Hope, this proposed study
shall attempt to fill up that caveat gap in the existing literature.
Basic
Understanding of Political Participation of Women in Tripura
The
recent participation levels of women in formalpolitics in India reveal two
positives that augur well. First, theupsurge among women voters that started in
the 1990s reached thehighest female turnout ever, so far, in the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections.Second, women’s participation in high-voltage election
campaignsduring the 2014 general elections also showed a substantialincrease.
However, the continued under-representation of womenin legislative bodies and
within the rank and file of political partiesoffsets the momentousgains made in
the people-driven feminisationof electoral politics in India.
Within a brief historical context
identifying the beginnings ofwomen’s electoral participation in India, the
article presents a timeseries analysis of women’s voting patterns, showing that
there havenever been concerted efforts by political parties to mobilise
femalevoters on any issue concerning women in either national or statelevel
elections. Promises by political parties in their manifestos ongender issues
remain clichéd and are conveniently forgotten afterthe hustings. India’s
failure to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill ispresented as the most telling
testimony about lack of seriousnessamong political parties in taking better
account of women’sincreasing electoral participation
Research
Questions
This proposed research work seeks
to address the following research questions:
·
What are the provisions
undertaken by the Constitution of India in exercising political rights by the
women?
·
What are the legal
provisions taken by the Government of India to empower in the political
participation?
·
What are the special
initiatives taken for the women to escalate political participation in order to
decrease gender gap in the Indian politics?
Aims
and Objectives of the study:
The
aim of the present study is to investigate into the dearth of law relating to
political participation of women in the present scenario and then try to develop
the concept of empowerment of women through the achievement of the following
objectives.
1. To
briefly recollect the role of women in the development of democracy in Tripura.
2. To
outline the trend of political participation of women in Tripura.
3. To
assess the political status of women in comparison to man in Tripura.
4. To
suggest few measures for escalating women’s political participation.
Political
Participation of women in Tripura in Pre-independence period:
Tripura was a native state ruled by
the Tripuri dynasty for several centuries, before independence of India. The Maharaja of Tripura did not allow any
political activity in the state. As the people of Tripura state were not
directly under the British rule; the anti-British attitude was not so much
prevalent among the people of Tripura. So, Political activities among common
people of Tripura were almost absent during monarchy.
But,
it does not mean that Tripura state was always free from political activities.
Some political activities were started in Tripura against the British rule. The
Indian National movement which gathered a momentum with the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal since 1905
had its influence in distant Tripura too. The people of Tripura reacted to the
people’s movements in India. The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal since 1905 was
perhaps the first occasion when Tripura was brought into the arena of people’s
movements against the British imperialist power. From this time onwards, the
people of Tripura despite domestic constrains essayed to play their due role in
successive phases of National movement outside their geographical boundary.
Along-with the rise of freedom fighter Surya Sen (1893-1934), the rejuvenation
of the youths found a sudden spurt and spread over an extensive area including
Tripura. Some students of Tripura had been residing at Comilla district of
Bengal, for higher studies, come into contact with the revolutionaries of
Comilla. They were instrumental in channelizing these ideas into Tripura. Under
Surya Sen’s influence a student organisation, called ‘Chatra Sangha’ came into
existence in Tripura in 1927. It had the real aim of preparing themselves for
armed revolution against the authorities. It provided open encouragement to
reading books and plays on the theme of Bengal revolutionaries. In 1928,
‘Bhratri Sangha’ a similar organisation was formed in Tripura, led by sri
Shachindralal Sinha and sri Pravat Roy.2
Following the ideology of Jugantar group in Bengal. Similar organisations were
set-up at Brahmanbaria and also at Agartala.
Political participation of Indian women, though in a miniature
form, started with the freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi was mostly instrumental
for arousing political consciousness in the poor, illiterate women and making
them take part in the freedom movement.
In the galaxy great women freedom fighters of
Tripura, the names of three very young women (Santi, Sunity, and Pritilata) stood
out prominently for extraordinary bravery. The Chattagong Armoury raid by Surya
Sen (1893-1934) on 18.4.1930 was followed by the murder of the Comilla
Magistrate C.G.B. Stvens on 14.12.1931 by Santi and Sunity; and Pahartali
European Club attack on 23 September 1932 by Pritilata. Next in the order comes
the name of Lilabati Nag (=Lila Roy). She confidently opened and managed
several schools, girl’s boarding houses, temples and associations; she was
imprisoned since 1931 to 1938 and 1942 to 1946. Prafullanandini Brahma was
jailed in Steven’s murder case. 3
Political
Participation of women in Tripura in Post-independence period:
After independence, the
Constitution of India guarantees adult franchise and provides the framework for
women to participate actively in politics. Article 15 of the Constitution
prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place
of birth. It is a pity that women have not substantially availed of the
constitutional provisions.
Political participation of
women requires that they would be involved in active decision making in
political arena. Two important political activities reflect to some extent, the
status of women in terms of their political awareness and empowerment: a)
Participation of female voters in the election process; and b) The number of
female contestants and winners in the Loksabha, Vidhan Sabha and Panchayat
elections.
The
successive election statistics shows that the number of women who exercise
their franchise has increased from election to election. For the last two
decades almost equal numbers of men and women have gone to the polling booths
to cast their votes.
But,
the number of women submitting their nomination papers in any election,
national or State, is only a fraction of the corresponding number of men. Some
withdrawals at the last moment make contesting candidates to become fewer in
number. Ultimately the number of women winning elections is so small that their
percentage in the legislative body and State Assembly is nominal.
Significances
of the Study
Whereas in some other regions of
India Political systems were often violently altered by the foreign hordes, in
Tripura a long and living tradition of monarchy government survived for
centuries.
The Tripura merger agreement of 1949
marked the end of the monarchy to democracy and was the beginning of democracy.
Henceforth, the monarchy and hereditary principle have retreated, giving place
to democracy and adult suffrage. Election is a major means to participate in
politics in a democracy, a passage to power. Over the years, the scope of the
voting institution has been expanded here to cover three level of voting:
national, state and local for actual political participation of people.
Nevertheless, no democracy can
afford to leave this passage unexamined. It can do so only at its peril. A
rational inquiry can save democracy: an irrational behaviour can lose it.
Moreover, it is logical and legitimate curiosity to know something of the
working of this serious political institution. Herein lies the rationale for
undertaking this research.
The admirable works of some local
scholars are now out of date. The present work has been intended to fill the
gap. Even the results of Tripura Legislative Assembly Election 2018 have
incorporated.
Research
Methodology and Data Collection
According to the nature of the
topic, historical and empirical method constitutes the two major planks. The
historical method has been adopted to explore the political history of Tripura
from very beginning. The empirical method demands to travel in different parts
of the state Tripura. A symmetric filed survey is necessary to observe and
measure the political phenomena.
Scope of the Work
The changes in Tripura politics
from monarchy to democracy seem to have been inadequately dealt with till now.
So, there is an ample scope in this area of research. The scopes of this work
obviously will include the political process from the beginning of national
history of Tripura to contemporary period. The political outlook of the electorate
can treated carefully. Political participation on gender perspective can be
analysed.
Conclusion
It is observed that 33 percent
reservation of seats in Three-tire Panchayat institutions has made Indian women
active participants in political arena. So, certain measures for effective
participation of women in the arena of state and national level politics may be
suggested in this connection: At least one-third of the Tripura Legislative
Assembly seats may be reserved for women; among two Loksabha seats in Tripura,
one seat may be reserved for women; Periodical training for newly elected women
representatives may be conducted; training-cum awareness building programmes
may be initiated for greater impact on male mentality towards their counterparts,
so that women are given enough space to exercise their role in political
institutions; economic independence is a pre-condition for political
empowerment of women. Elected women representatives have to depend on their
husbands or other male members of the family for their living. In such a
situation it is difficult for women, mostly coming from the marginalized
sections of the society, to perform their responsibilities effectively. Hence,
means of livelihood should be ensured for them. Honorarium and sitting
allowance of elective representatives in grass-root level may be increased.
Table
of Contents
1.
Section
1: Introduction
2.
Section
2: Literature Review
3.
Section
3: Basics-- Aim and Objectives
4.
Section
4: Depth Discussion--Political Participation: A Conceptual Analysis
5.
Section
5: Conclusion
6.
Section
6: References
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