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Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for Indian women. It is the pursuit of women's rights within the society of India. Like their feminist counterparts all over the world, feminists in India seek gender equality: the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health and education, and equal political rights.〔Ray, Raka. ''(Fields of Protest: Women's Movements in India )''. University of Minnesota Press; Minneapolis, MN. 1999. Page 13.〕 Indian feminists also have fought against culture-specific issues within India's patriarchal society, such as inheritance laws and the practice of widow immolation known as Sati. The history of feminism in India can be divided into three phases: the first phase, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, initiated when male European colonists began to speak out against the social evils of Sati;〔 the second phase, from 1915 to Indian independence, when Gandhi incorporated women's movements into the Quit India movement and independent women's organisations began to emerge;〔 and finally, the third phase, post-independence, which has focused on fair treatment of women at home after marriage, in the work force and right to political parity.〔 Despite the progress made by Indian feminist movements, women living in modern India still face many issues of discrimination. India's patriarchal culture has made the process of gaining land-ownership rights and access to education challenging.〔 In the past two decades, there has also emerged a disturbing trend of sex-selective abortion.〔 To Indian feminists, these are seen as injustices worth struggling against.〔Gangoli (2007), page 2.〕 As in the West, there has been some criticism of feminist movements in India. They have especially been criticised for focusing too much on women already privileged, and neglecting the needs and representation of poorer or lower caste women. This has led to the creation of caste-specific feminist organisations and movements.〔Gangoli, Geetanjali. ''(Indian Feminisms – Law, Patriarchies and Violence in India )''. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2007. Print; pages 10–12.〕 ==Definition in the Indian context== Women's role in Pre-colonial social structures reveals that feminism was theorised differently in India than in the West.〔Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question," in ''(Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History ),'' Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.〕 In India, women's issues first began to be addressed when the state commissioned a report on the status of women to a group of feminist researchers and activists. The report recognised the fact that in India, women were oppressed under a system of structural hierarchies and injustices. During this period, Indian feminists were influenced by the Western debates being conducted about violence against women. However, due to the difference in the historical and social culture of India, the debate in favor of Indian women had to be conducted creatively and certain Western ideas had to be rejected.〔Gangoli (2007), page 6.〕 Women's issues began to gain an international prominence when the decade of 1975–1985 was declared the United Nations Decade for Women.〔Gangoli (2007), page 16.〕 Historical circumstances and values in India have caused feminists to develop a feminism that differs from Western feminism. For example, the idea of women as "powerful" is accommodated into patriarchal culture through religion,〔Singh, S. 2010. "Examining the Dharma Driven Identity of Women: Mahabharata's Kunti" – As part of an Anthology titled ''The Woman Question in the Contemporary Indian English Women Writings,'' Ed. Indu Swami Publishers Sarup: Delhi.〕 which has retained visibility in all sections of society. This has provided women with traditional "cultural spaces." Furthermore, in the West the notion of "self" rests in competitive individualism where people are described as "born free yet everywhere in chains." In India the individual is usually considered to be just one part of the larger social collective. Survival of the individual is dependent upon cooperation, and self-denial for the greater good is valued.〔 Indian women negotiate survival through an array of oppressive patriarchal family structures: age, ordinal status, relationship to men through family of origin, marriage and procreation as well as patriarchal attributes. Examples of patriarchal attributes include: dowry, siring sons etc., kinship, caste, community, village, market and the state. It should however be noted that several communities in India, such as the Nairs of Kerala, Shettys of Mangalore, certain Maratha clans, and Bengali families exhibit matriarchal tendencies. In these communities, the head of the family is the oldest woman rather than the oldest man. Sikh culture is also regarded as relatively gender-neutral.〔〔〔The last Sikh Guru Guru Gobind Singh, gave all Sikh females regardless of their age or marital status the name of Kaur meaning that they would not have to take their husband’s name if they married.〕 In India, of communities recognized in the national Constitution as Scheduled Tribes, "some ... () matriarchal and matrilineal"〔Mukherjee, Sucharita Sinha, ''Women's Empowerment and Gender Bias in the Birth and Survival of Girls in Urban India'', in ''Feminist Economics'', vol. 19, no. 1 (January, 2013) (), p. 9, citing Srinivas, Mysore Narasimhachar, ''The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization and Other Essays'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), & Agarwal, Bina, ''A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia'' (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994).〕 "and thus have been known to be more egalitarian."〔Mukherjee, Sucharita Sinha, ''Women's Empowerment and Gender Bias in the Birth and Survival of Girls in Urban India'', ''op. cit.'', p. 9.〕 According to interviewer Anuj Kumar, Manipur, "has a matriarchal society",〔(Kumar, Anuj, ''Let's Anger Her!'' (''sic''), in ''The Hindu'', July 25, 2012 ), as accessed September 29, 2012 (whether statement was by Kumar or Kom is unknown).〕 but this may not be a scholarly assessment.〔A few people consider any non-patriarchal system to be matriarchal, thus including genderally equalitarian systems, but most academics exclude them from matriarchies strictly defined.〕 This is because though mothers there are in forefront of most of the social activism, the society has always been patriarchal. Their women power is visible because of historical reasons. Manipur was ruled by strong dynasties and the need for expansions of borders, crushing any outsider threats, etc. engaged the men. So, women had to take charge of home-front. In Muslim families, women and men are considered equal, but not in the westernized sense. The Quran teaches that the minds of males and females work differently and are generally different biologically.〔("And the male is not like the female." )〕 Therefore, Islam grants different rights to the husband and wife. One such right which the wife owes to her husband is being head of the household. The heterogeneity of the Indian experience reveals that there are multiple patriarchies, contributing to the existence of multiple feminisms. Hence, feminism in India is not a singular theoretical orientation; it has changed over time in relation to historical and cultural realities, levels of consciousness, perceptions and actions of individual women, and women as a group. The widely used definition is "An awareness of women's oppression and exploitation in society, at work and within the family, and conscious action by women and men to change this situation."〔Bhasin, Kamala and Khan, Nighat Said. "Some Questions on Feminism and Its Relevance in South Asia", ''Kali for Women'', New Delhi, 1986.〕 Acknowledging sexism in daily life and attempting to challenge and eliminate it through deconstructing mutually exclusive notions of femininity and masculinity as biologically determined categories opens the way towards an equitable society for both men and women.〔 The male and female dichotomy of polar opposites with the former oppressing the latter at all times is refuted in the Indian context because it was men who initiated social reform movements against various social evils. Patriarchy is just one of the hierarchies. Relational hierarchies between women within the same family are more adverse. Here women are pitted against one another. Not all women are powerless at all times.〔Singh, S. & Singh, P. (2011). "Shobha De: Deconstructed for Maverick Feminism." In ''Contemporary Indian Women Novelists in English,'' Ed. Indu Swami, Sarup: Delhi〕 There have been intense debates within the Indian women's movements about the relationship between Western and Indian feminisms. Many Indian feminists simultaneously claim a specific "Indian" sensitivity as well as an international feminist solidarity with groups and individuals worldwide.〔〔Ray (1999), page 14.〕 The rise of liberal feminism in the West in the 1970s focused deeply on demands for equal opportunities in education and employment, as well as ending violence against women. To a large extent, the emerging feminist movement in India was influenced by Western ideals. These called for education and equal rights, but also adapted their appeals to local issues and concerns, such as dowry-related violence against women, Sati, sex selective abortion and custodial rape. Some Indian feminists have suggested that these issues are not specifically "Indian" in nature but rather a reflexion of a wider trend of patriarchal oppression of women.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Feminism in India」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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