Recation paper 8 9 and 16 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Recation paper 8 9 and 16 - Essay Example However, in the social sphere (i.e., in civil society), women are accorded an important status which is not ordinarily contemplated for them in the political sphere. The piece insightfully notes that there is a dualistic nature to women’s citizenship, that aside from women’s inclusion in the application of general legal precepts, there are likewise special statutes which pertain in particular to women, alluding to a specific ideological gender construct, whether favourable or discriminatory to women. While this differentiates women’s legal rights, provisions for benefits such as maternity leaves and similar privileges in labour legislation are not so much the state’s imposition on women, as the result of women’s initiative to fight for considerations that would enable them to exercise the same rights as men (e.g. the opportunity to have a career) as well as continue to perform their biological and social functions (such as bearing and raising childr en). Radhakrishnan (1992) has a slightly different concept of the interface between nationalism and sexuality. The author regards separately the politics of nationalism and the politics of women, and that an emphasis on one will normally overwhelm the impact of the other. A duality similar to that of Yuval-Davis is conceived by Radhakrishnan; the duality this time is not in regard to women in the legal system, but rather the polarities existing in state politics. These insights were drawn in the context of the Indian state which itself is caught in the duality of East and West, modern and traditional, the mystical and the progressive. While the author discusses this duality in relation to India specifically, it is undeniable that the constructs created may easily apply to nearly any developing country with a colonial past and on the threshold of accelerated growth. The discussion by Radhakrishnan began strongly with the premise of gender relations in the state; however, somewhere in the course of the discussion the topic veered exclusively into the realm of Indian politics and relegated the issue of sexuality and gender relations to the background. What one may deduce from this is that gender is but one of the details subsumed into the greater issue of nationality and statehood. Towards the end, the author concentrated on insights by Nehru and Gandhi, which, while valuable to the discussion on India, does not quite square with the discussion of nationalism and gender. It seems as if the treatment of gender is but incidental to the broader issue of the duality of a post-colonial state. Exploring the topic of duality and taking it further, the article by Kandiyoti (1991) comments on the outright contradictions that exist in former colonial societies. In this case, society’s control over women becomes the manifestation of a nation’s identity and cultural distinctiveness. In the emergent nation, as the people gain their status as individual citizens endowed with rights, their traditional regard for women will have to evolve in order to accommodate the extension of the benefits of citizenship to women. Women’s emergence as citizens is â€Å"predicated upon the transformation of institutions and customs† (Kandiyoti, 1991, 429) that had formerly bound the social