Indian Feminist Jurisprudence; Gender Equality and Secularist Challenges

Abstract

The various dimensions of the Indian judicial system and multiple interpretations of the core constitutional concepts like secularism, equality, and fundamental rights became effective political tools in the hands of Hindu fundamentalists over the years. Their struggle to become an ideologically dominant force in historical, cultural, political, social, and economic areas will remain incomplete without the dominance in law, specifically while dealing with the interpretation of the law. The contradictory relationships between secularism and minority rights, gender equality, and the right to religion became a major area of intervention for the Hindutva forces. So the major question that this paper tries to explore is how the evolving contradictions and conflicts in the legal discourse of secularism became political propaganda tools for Hindutva fundamentalists in the public domain for their struggle for ideological dominance in the country, specifically in the area of gender equality and minority rights and this study also tries to find out the possibilities and challenges of feminist jurisprudence in India in developing an alternative legal discourse which can accommodate both struggles to challenge the normative conceptualizations of gender in law and the promotion of democratic secularism. This paper is divided into different parts which discuss the different ideological debates regarding the idea of secularism in Indian society, Hindutva’s construction of positive secularism, discussions about some of the recent judgments related to gender equality, Personal laws, and minority rights, and in the final section I will discuss the possibilities and challenges of Feminist jurisprudence in creating an anti-communal and secularist legal discourse to address gender questions in the Indian context.