Modern liberals While establishing democratic systems; A concrete concept of citizenship is also believed to materialize within the constitutional framework. In reality, however, as the practice of democracy takes many turns; Similarly, the concept of citizenship also moves through many legal processes, compromises and manipulations. A dark chapter in these compromises is the secondary citizenship of women in post-independence India, which is realized through many contradictions and contradictions, unfortunately.

In independent India, the Indian Constitution recognized in principle women’s gender-neutral citizenship and political agency; This is a matter of great pride. Especially in the advanced democratic countries of the North, women had to struggle for decades to get this formal citizenship. Against this backdrop, the formal recognition of women’s empowerment and rights by the Indian Constitution stands out. But has this conceptual acceptance been transformed into actual political-social practices? Recalling the long ago declaration by Baba Nyasa on behalf of the underprivileged, women got one vote in the constitutional framework but did they get equal credit? If we look at the daily reports of physical violence against women in India (and never in the media), we get a glimpse of the multifaceted rabbit hole of women’s lives we have run. But this rabbit hole is purely about physical abuse of women; Not limited to just rape news. Unfortunately, as formal democracy has expanded in post-independence India, the lives of women have become more complex and women have to navigate through many contradictions to achieve their rights to equal citizenship.

The most salient aspect of these contradictions is a universal consensus on the empowerment of women in post-independence Indian society. This consensus operates on many levels and yet is contradictory. Because it is unfortunately a tacit agreement. The main point is that in the face of this contradictory consensus women’s effective political participation in Indian democracy is distorted by their ‘genuine’ citizenship; It has become easy for our national democratic civil society (as we perceive it to be mainly composed of men) to cheat it.

The most serious of these is the selective and convenient inclusion of women in the democratic process through the above-mentioned paradoxical consensus. In a liberal democracy this possibility of convenient inclusion of citizens is always open. Communitarian and feminist scholars particularly highlight this inadequacy in their critique of liberal democracy and its concept of citizenship. Her criticism (despite objections to that criticism) would be relevant in the context of the selective, convenient political inclusion of women in India. The issue of formal equality in the purely political sphere is central to the concept of liberal citizenship. But this formal equality is overshadowed by social, economic and cultural disparities; However, the concept of citizenship does not comment on it, does not take any concrete stand.

To address this inadequacy in the concept of liberal democratic citizenship; The Constitution of India has given the responsibility of making the Gela market somewhat benign mainly to the (welfare) government and the ruling class. The main reason for this was that there was a lingering doubt in the minds of the members of the Constitutional Committee about the contribution of civil society in India in expanding the content of citizenship. As democracy has expanded in the post-independence era, the imperative to include women (and other disadvantaged citizens) in the democratic process has grown. But at the same time, their inclusion in the democracy is purely formal (for the ruling class) and their citizenship remains secondary, remaining on the periphery.

This contradiction of citizenship comes up starkly, indeed unbearably, in discussions of women’s political participation. This is because an artificial consensus is being formed about women’s political and social participation; The overall discourse of democratic political affairs, however, is overwhelmingly male-dominated—viewing women’s lives through men’s lenses; There has been a strict scrutiny of their daily lives. It not only denies the inherent political agency of women as citizens, but also affords their lives under the elegant guise of empowerment; Their rabbit hole is neatly covered.

We have now taken the issue of sexual violence against (mainly) women into public discussion. In this regard, the (rare) important observations made by the committee headed by Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma in 2013 are not even a trace in the discussion about the sexual assault cases that have come to light (and thousands remain in the dark) like Kolkata, Badlapur. Instead, incidents such as rape are analyzed within a male-dominated framework that remains central to social practice today; Against that, demands such as immediate execution of the rapists are raised, not only useless but dangerous demands. As the rape of women is a brutal invention of hegemonic relations within a patriarchal framework, so is (pure) rape; Incidents of sexual violence against women are dangerously opposed in our male-dominated discourse because the dramatization of rape incidents threatens ‘their’ evangelism (see Lok Satta, 18 April 2014). The women’s empowerment discussion around the central statement of ‘immediate public execution of rapists’ is harmful to the self-reliant social behavior of women on many levels. It not only connects the holistic existence of women with their mere physical existence, the concept of vagina; But apart from that, we do not even think of taking any far-reaching measures regarding the unbearable insecurities that they constantly face in their day-to-day activities.

As mentioned earlier, the Constitution entrusts these far-reaching measures to political parties and representatives of the people. Behind it is the belief that the possibilities of creating a truly inclusive society can be opened only through democratic politics by overcoming established social inequalities. But unfortunately, even in democratic political affairs, while women are being accommodated; In reality, our efforts are to highlight their secondary citizenship by keeping their position on the periphery.

If you want to go far back, in the nineteen nineties, but if you refer to the recent ones, the discussion about the decisive role of women voters in politics started ahead of the Lok Sabha elections held in 2019. Nitishkumar’s liquor ban – distribution of bicycles – Lakhpati Didi – Congress’s free bus ride – free education – Madhya Pradesh’s beloved sister – Ujjwala, this discussion has now reached our beloved sisters. All these discussions have made some simple assumptions about women’s voting. One is that all women will vote in a certain way. Secondly, there is no reason to see them as beneficiaries rather than as discerning voters, and thirdly, as women’s activities are confined to the domestic sphere, they should help their (accomplished in the public sector – politics) brothers as sisters. Do not try to gain power by entering politics yourself. As the discussion about the empowerment of women voters is based on such simplistic, contradictory, male-dominated assumptions, it also underlines the secondary citizenship of women.