BJP - Champions of Feminism?: A study of Bharatiya Janata Party politics on maternity leave and party affiliated Hindutva gender ideals.

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BJP – Champions of Feminism?

A study of Bharatiya Janata Party politics on maternity leave and party affiliated Hindutva gender ideals.

Linnea Greven

Bachelor’s Thesis in Development Studies, 15 ECTS Autumn Semester 2020

Department of Government, Uppsala University Supervisor: Hans Blomkvist

Page count: 37

Word count: 10 238

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Abstract

In contemporary politics it is argued there exists a friction and contradiction between the right-wing, conservative parties that are gaining prominence around the world, among them BJP in India, and the feminist movement; one movement striving for the preservation of traditions and the other for change. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and compare differences in how a political party with strong affiliation and background in a nationalistic ideology communicates laws which affect women’s opportunities for societal advancement, doing this by analysing the religious, cultural and symbolic aspects of Hindutva ideology. Do they contradict each other? Through qualitative discourse analysis a comparative case study is performed on the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017, BJP political manifestos, excerpts from books and statements made by BJP leaders and affiliated key persons. The thesis presents the argument that the two discourses present contradicting ideas of women’s societal participation when analysed through a theoretical framework based on gender ideals;

one set of material pointing to the importance of their economic and societal integration, and one on the importance of women’s role as mothers, and her protection. The study adds a different perspective on the friction between nationalistic Hindutva beliefs and contemporary, progressive legislation by analysing key concepts of gender ideals drawn from Hinduism and the Hindutva movement.

Key words: Hindutva, maternity leave, BJP, gender roles, religious ideals, women’s empowerment

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List of Abbreviations

BJP = Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party)

RSS = Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Organisation) WID = Women in Development

GAD = Gender and Development

MBAA 2017 = Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017

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1. Introduction

This introduction will provide background on aspects of the political situation in India and its incumbent reigning party BJP, an overview of the purpose of the thesis, a presentation of the research question, and the overarching research problem the thesis hopes to contribute to.

India is considered one of the most diverse and socially complex countries in the world with a population exceeding one billion, a myriad of ethnic groups and languages, and extreme class differences. The country is a prominent country both economically, socially and geo-

politically, and an important player on the world stage whose influence reaches far beyond its borders. Therefore, one can argue that how the world’s largest political party promotes women’s equality and opportunities is important, and is therefore important to analyse. Right- wing, conservative parties have for the past few years been gaining prominence not only in India, but the world, presenting ideas of nationalism and the conservation of tradition and culture. Simultaneously, the feminist movement is growing and promoting equal rights and opportunities for women. There is arguable friction and contradiction between the

movements, one movement striving for the preservation of traditions and the other striving for change.

The ideology of Hindutva, a nationalistic, right-wing ideology which strongly emphasises the importance of Hindu tradition, religion and culture, has gained prominence with the

Bharatiya Janata Party since their election win in 2014. Since then, there has been debate regarding what kind of politics the party promotes, a party often changing their politics.

American philosopher Martha Nussbaum is one of the scholars who most prominently has been involved in researching the Hindutva ideology and BJP politics, primarily focusing on the psychology behind the male-female positions in Indian society. Her 2007 book “The Clash Within” has become a staple in contemporary Hindutva research. This thesis hopes to use her research in combination with other prominent authors on Indian women’s

empowerment and the relationship to Hinduism to explore the relationship between Hindutva ideology and the incumbent political party.

1.1 Purpose, Problem and Research Question

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and compare differences in how a political party with strong affiliation and background in a nationalistic ideology communicates laws which affect women’s opportunities for societal advancement, doing this by analysing the religious,

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6 cultural and symbolic aspects concerning gender ideals of Hindutva ideology. Nussbaum’s research has primarily been focused on the psychology and philosophy behind Hindutva men’s contempt against Muslim women in India (Nussbaum, 2007), however this thesis wants to explore the religious ideas and constraints which is not limited to a certain ethnic or religious group. The thesis also aims to contribute to the debate Nussbaum touches upon in her book concerning the contradiction of the Hindutva movement represents, which promotes one unified culture and religion, in pluralistic and diverse India. The research questions allow for a specific legislation to be examined with the contradiction Nussbaum brings forth in mind.

The objective of the thesis is to through discourse analysis analyse and compare differences in what is communicated by BJP and affiliated key persons through official legislation documents with literature, statements reported by newspapers, and Tweets. In other words, compare BJP’s Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017 and the arguments made in favour of it, with text material and statements made by BJP and connected to BJP that touch upon gender roles and women’s role in society.

Through the comparison between the legislation and Hindutva ideology, guided by the hypothesis that BJP legislative rhetoric and rhetoric which supports the legislation differ from, or even contradicts, BJP and Hindutva rhetoric on women’s societal and workforce participation built on conservative Hindu religious and traditional connotations. The reason for focusing on religious and traditional indicators is the importance of Hindu religion, tradition and culture within Hindutva. The comparison will be made against a theoretical framework based on the religious and cultural connotations signifying the Hindutva ideology, which are drawn from Hinduism, contrasted with contemporary theories on women’s societal participation. Although the MBAA 2017 is focused on women's (author’s emphasis) societal and workforce participation, the thesis has chosen to include an analysis of Indian men's role in the domestic sphere since men and women's roles in society interact strongly with each other.

The research questions guiding the analysis are:

1. How does BJP address women’s workforce participation in The Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017?

2. How do BJP and party affiliated Hindutva ideologues construct gender ideals?

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7 First, context will be given to the reader about the Bharatiya Janata Party and the

implemented maternity leave legislation Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017. Second, previous research and theoretical framework will be presented where Hindu religion and the prominence of feminine ideal is presented alongside contemporary theories of women’s empowerment. This is followed by methodology, which is a comparative discourse analysis, and a presentation of results analysis. Lastly, a discussion of the results, alternative

interpretations of material and analysis, and a conclusion are presented.

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2. Contextualisation

This chapter will provide background relevant to understand the analysis and its components.

First, a brief country profile of India will be presented, followed by a summary of the Hindutva political tradition, and lastly a history and presentation of the reception of the MBAA 2017.

2.1 Country profile

The second most populous country in the world, the Republic of India is one of the oldest civilisations in the world with varying empires, dynasties and conquerors in power reaching back millennia. During the 19^th century, the country was considered the “crown jewel” of colonies of the British Empire. Attributed to significant financial reforms during the 1990s, a strategic geographical location and large population, the country has become a significant global power (Central Intelligence Agency, 2020). India’s economic landscape is

characterised by intense growth and contrasts. The country is labelled a ‘developing

economy’ with a large industry and service sector and fast-growing IT sector, paralleled with half of the population making a living off farming (Landguiden, 2020).

India is considered the most ethnically, religiously and culturally diverse country in the world (Government of India, Ministry of Home affairs, 2001) and is a country characterised by pluralism, diversity and contrasts, both of religions, ethnic groups and languages.

2.2 The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Ideology that Drives it

Hindutva is a political philosophy and ideology of the Hindu right, developed from the conservative cultural body and organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) (Sharma, 2002: 24-26). The politics promoted by the incumbent party, Bharatiya Janata Party (abb.

BJP), or Indian People’s Party, is of strong conservative and Hindu nationalist characteristics, known to emphasise and amplify certain aspects of Hindu religion and culture¹ (The Times of India, 2016). Indian Hindutva-conservatism has grown in force over the past decades,

1It is important for the reader to bear in mind that Hinduism and Hindutva are not the same and the two must be separated to an extent. Hindutva is a right-wing political ideology and Hinduism a religion. However, the Hindutva ideology claims to “defend thepure core of Hinduism” (Greven, 2020b: 5; Nussbaum, 2007: 187) and it is that aspect of Hinduism that the thesis focuses on.

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9 reaching popularity and strength with current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and follows a trend of conservative forces experiencing a revival around the world today (Merelli, 2019).

The reverence of culture, religion and tradition in BJP rhetoric is a central component of the party’s rhetoric. The party’s political manifesto of 2014 states “Hindutva awakened the Hindus to the new world order where nations represented the aspirations of people united in history, culture, philosophy, and heroes” (Bharatiya Janata Party, 2014: 2). The valued traditions and culture are often based on strong historical narratives and often presents a glorification of Hindu civilisation and the creation of a unified ideal of which to gravitate (Nussbaum, 2007: 213). One of those ideals is the reverence of the woman. K. N.

Govindacharya, a political right-wing activist and outspoken Hindutva ideologue, writes in a compilation of debate articles in India Today that one of the five pillars of Hindutva is “a recognition of the special place of women in society, given the unexceptional human dependence on mothering and motherhood” (India Today, 2018: 42). PM Narendra Modi himself released a book in 2020 named “Letters to Mother”, containing excerpts from his diary in the 1980’s in which he writes each letter addressed to Mother Goddess (Harper Collins India, 2020).

Just like the sentiment of the mother are highlighted by contemporary Hindutva ideologues, Prime Minister Modi himself and others, so is the mother and motherland revered by the RSS, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or National Volunteer Organisation. RSS is not a political party but “portrays itself as a social movement dedicated to unifying the nation under the idea of Hindu purity” (Nussbaum, 2007: 156). It is labelled a paramilitary

organisation and the head of the body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (“family of the RSS”) (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, 2012) with a mission to promote Hindutva (Jaffrelot, 2010: 46). The ideology promoted by RSS inspires many organisations in India, including the political party BJP, a political arm of the Sangh Parivar (Bhatt, 2001: 113).

2.3 History and Public Reception of the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017

As previously mentioned, the reason for focusing on the MBAA 2017 is the seemingly contradictory creation of this legislation; a law designed with the written purpose of strengthening women of India through the ability of pursuing both a career and family life (Government of India, 2017), and on the other hand, the law has been constructed and

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10 implemented by a political party known for its conservative and restrictive views on women (Nussbaum, 2007: 153-154).

“The MBAA 2017 was passed to grant working women 26 weeks of paid maternity leave, an increase from the previous 12 weeks. The bill has gained attention of being one of the most generous legislations in a developing country concerning maternity leave and it has been praised for working towards gender equality by helping to ensure women’s possibilities to enter and stay on the job market whilst also wanting to start a family” (Kapur, 2019; Greven, 2020a: 1). The main changes from and additions to the original Maternity Benefit Bill of 1961 are the following:

- An increase of maternity benefit pay from 12 to 26 weeks for women working in the organized sector

- The inclusion of ‘commissioning mother’ (a women using a surrogate) and ‘adopting mother’ to benefit from 12 weeks maternity leave

- The facilitation of ‘work from home’ options

- The mandatory provision of crèche facilities (nurseries) in establishments with 50 or more employees

- The amendment is applicable to establishments employing ten or more employees, and the benefits are provided only for the first two children. When caring for a third child, the woman is entitled to the original 12 weeks maternity leave (Government of India, 2017: 1-2).

The amendment to the 1961 legislation has been praised by BJP party leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, writing on Twitter at the time of approval “Employment of women is protected thanks to Maternity Benefit Amendment Bill. Mandatory provision of crèche in offices is laudable” (Modi, 2017). The amendment act has also been praised by Financial Express, deemed a right-centered news outlet often in favor of the conservative BJP

government (Media bias/fact check, 2020) for surpassing Germany and Japan in the amount of maternity leave available to women, placing India third globally after Canada and Norway (FE Online, 2017).

The bill has been spearheaded by Women and Development Minister Maneka Gandhi and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Ms. Gandhi receiving praise for the bill by fellow BJP members, among them BJP Mumbai President Ashish Shelar (Shelar, 2016; Express Web Desk, 2016).

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11 The primary doubts about the amendment bill voiced by external persons outside BJP have been concerning the efficiency of granting all Indian women the possibility to benefit from the bill, some reports stating that a mere 1% of Indian women qualify for the full 26 weeks of paid maternity leave (Kapur, 2019). This critique is based on the exclusion from the benefits for women working in the non-formal and unorganised sector (e.g., farming), women with more than two children and women working for smaller companies and establishments. Some consider the bill to be a symbolic instead of substantial measure from the government

towards women’s increased opportunities (Jayakumar, 2018: 178-179). By highlighting the amendment bill’s weaknesses and thereby opening up for further scrutiny, Kapur and Jayakumar’s articles have served as inspiration for the choice to analyse this specific bill for the thesis.

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3. Previous Research and Theoretical Framework

The following section will outline previous research on the idealised image of Indian

womanhood drawn from Hinduism, incorporating theories of Indian male ideals. This will be connected to the debate regarding whether Hinduism as religion and women’s empowerment are compatible, incorporating ideas of goddess worship. The theories of womanhood drawn from Hinduism will be contrasted with contemporary ideas of women’s societal

empowerment and participation. Lastly, the hypothesis and contribution of the thesis will be presented.

3.1 Hinduism and Gender Roles

Three authors and their research on women’s empowerment and Hindu religion and culture form the theoretical framework of a woman’s role in Hindu society. All three share the common denominator of a feminine ideal, but differ in starting points.

The idealised concept of Indian womanhood and male and female gender roles has been researched for many years by American philosopher Martha Nussbaum. As mentioned on page 8 under the section ‘contextualisation’, Nussbaum writes in “The Clash Within”, a philosophical analysis about democracy in India, about the glorification of Hindu civilisation by the right-wing political parties and the creation of a unified ideal of which to gravitate. A significant part of this unified ideal is a cultural framework in which women are expected to live, based on religious traditions and goddess worship, and within this framework dominates the role of women as mothers and ‘pure’ beings (Nussbaum, 2007: 213). She writes that “part of nationalism is a sharply etched conception of the proper (aggressive) male, and that male must be sharply contrasted with the (ideally pure) female” (ibid: 242). Nussbaum presents a theory which attempts to discern from where the male aggressiveness, often demonstrated as male domination over the female within Hindutva, comes from. She writes that years of historical colonialism “has created a deep-seated feeling of shame and loss of masculinity amongst the right-wing male population” (Nussbaum, 2007: 187; Greven, 2020b: 4).

Domination over women therefore represents a reclaiming of power and dignity, the male over the female (Nussbaum, 2007: 187).

In the same book, Nussbaum also connects the ideal of a woman’s purity to the strive towards Hindu purity (for Hindutva followers). Hindu purity, she writes, is often written and spoken

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13 of with the use of the term ‘motherland’, and the respect and devotion the term demands (2007: 158-159).

Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, an Indian scholar on gender and culture addresses the female and male gender roles in India from a different perspective. She has written on the instrumentality of religion in post-colonial nations such in her essay “Is the Hindu Goddess a Feminist?”, in which she problematizes the connection between the tradition of worshipping Hindu

goddesses and women’s empowerment. She writes that there are empirical findings that overwhelmingly point to nations which practice goddess worshipping often falling short on the indicators of women’s status in society such as life expectancy, literacy, income and legal equality. She explains this phenomenon by writing that the goddesses are seen as symbolic images to look up to but are rarely referred to as explicit role-models, thereby failing in contributing to substantial social empowerment of girls and women. Hindu goddesses are based on idealised concepts, not reality (1998: 37).

To develop on the concept of the idealised image of women, the thesis also utilizes the work of K.A. Kunjakkan, who writes in her book “Feminism and Indian Realities” about the image of Indian womanhood in Hindu religion and culture, claiming that the relationship between men and women as being viewed as a natural order by many believing Hindus, especially the more conservative. This natural order contains the need to protect the woman against

anything that might risk defiling her ritual purity, just like Sunder Rajan referring to the connection between the image of women and otherworldly beings. She writes:

“So much is at stake, she should be protected even at the expense of her personal freedom and autonomy” (Kunjakkan, 2002: 21).

3.2 Women’s Societal Participation Empowerment; WID and GAD

As a counterweight to the idealistic image of women in Hindu society promoted by Hindutva, this thesis has chosen to contrast that ideal with contemporary perspectives in women’s societal participation. The motivation for using the theories of WID and GAD as part of the theoretical framework is that they represent and illustrate the contrast between the ideological ideal behind BJP as a party and the progressive maternity leave legislation. The theories of women’s societal participation also represent the cultural and societal change religiously conservative ideologies like Hindutva opposes (Nussbaum, 2007: 153-156). The two

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14 perspectives have been combined to nuance the discussion on women’s empowerment and analysing different aspects of the legislation and Hindutva rhetoric.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s, two approaches to women and development in India were established. The first, the instrumentalist approach, was focused on women’s economic participation, their efficiency and productivity, and what economic empowerment could do for their opportunities in life. The second approach focuses more on women’s quality of life, real opportunities and the capabilities women actually possess for substantial societal

participation (Patel and Khajuria, 2016: 17). Indian economist Amartya Sen is considered the forefather of the opportunities and capabilities approach and is critical towards the sole focus on women’s inclusion in a country’s economy without considering the socially constructed roles a woman is expected to inhabit that might hinder her possibilities to do so (Sen, 2001:

17-21).

The thesis has chosen to connect the two dominating discourses described above to the theories ‘women in development’ (WID) and ‘gender and development’ (GAD). This connection is made based on the specific characteristics described of the approaches developed in the 1980’s. The two perspectives on women’s workforce participation have been deemed important to include in the outlining of the theoretical framework in order to nuance the analysis and the utilization of both is to highlight different characteristics of the legislation and BJP rhetoric on maternity leave.

Connected to the instrumentalist approach to women’s societal participation is the theory of women in development, WID. It was first introduced by Ester Boserup in the 1970’s and was a term first used in policy by liberal feminists who advocated legal and administrative

changes to ensure that women could be better integrated into the economic system. WID is closely linked to modernization and the “trickle-down effect” and institutionalizes and recognizes the difference in women and men’s experience of development and societal

change (Rathgeber, 1990: 491). The focus lies on the productive, and not reproductive, aspect of women’s societal participation (ibid). Productive work refers to work performed on the job market, is not connected to domestic work, and is often paid work. Reproductive work refers mainly to domestic work such as child rearing, cleaning and the management of chores meant to sustain the household (e.g., domestic farming), and is often unpaid. The main idea of the WID approach is the increase of women’s quality of life by giving them the same resources and technology as men to achieve economic success (ibid: 492).

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15 The second approach more focused on women’s real capabilities, and an evolution of WID, is gender and development (GAD). This theory instead identifies the social construction of production and reproduction as the basis of women’s inequality and focuses on the social construction of gender and how gender affects the roles, responsibilities and expectations of men and women. It emphasizes the state’s role in promoting women’s emancipation and requires a structural change in society and identifies the oppression between all classes. The main aspect of this trend in women’s empowerment is that our gender influences our

capabilities, and the current oppressive construction of ‘women’ has led to the de- prioritization of women’s societal participation (Rathgeber, 1990: 493-494).

3.3 Hypothesis and Contribution

The hypothesis of the thesis is that BJP legislative rhetoric and rhetoric which supports the legislation differ, or even contradicts, BJP and Hindutva rhetoric on women’s societal and workforce participation built on conservative Hindu religious and traditional connotations.

Martha Nussbaum’s research on the Hindu right’s male and female ideals has been instrumental in the crafting of the thesis, along with Rajeswari Sunder Rajan’s

problematisation of Hindu goddess worship and women’s empowerment, Kunjakkan’s research on Indian womanhood, and Eva Rathgeber’s summation of theories of women’s empowerment.

This thesis hopes to expand on the authors’ research and theory and relate it to real legislation being implemented today. The thesis aims to do so by connecting the phenomenon of Hindu goddesses, the female ideal, purity and a woman’s need for protection and the male ideal, and contrasting it with contemporary theories of women’s empowerment.

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4. Methodology and Material

This chapter will present the design, methodology and material selected for the analysis, giving particular space to the outlining of the analytical framework and how it connects to the theoretical framework. The validity and reliability of the study will also be discussed and reviewed.

4.1 Design

The thesis is designed as a comparative case study, analysing a specific amendment to a law concerning maternity leave in India; the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017, with the discourse on women’s societal participation made by the same governing party and key persons affiliated with the party. The motivation behind choosing to conduct a case study is the possibility for a more detailed study of maternity leave legislation in India and the party who has developed and implemented said law. The choice of India as country is an interest in the rise of a nationalistic ideology in a diverse and pluralistic country. The choice to analyse the MBAA 2017 is based on two articles which express doubt concerning the legislation’s ability to improve the lives of all Indian women, expressing special concern for the

conditions attached which limits the eligibility (Kapur, 2019; Jayakumar, 2018).

The comparison between the maternity leave legislation (and the arguments for it made by BJP) and the content of material expressing a different discourse is however the focal point of the thesis and is conducted to explore if there is a difference between BJP enforced

legislation and discourses connected to BJP concerning women’s role in society.

The analysis has been structured around the research question, the analytical questions posed to the material, and the operationalisation of concepts derived from the theoretical

framework.

4.2 Methodology

The technique used for the gathering of data for this thesis is a qualitative discourse analysis, based on the ambition of the thesis to analyse written legislation, party manifests, literature and statements made by BJP party members and affiliated key persons in different contexts.

Since the ambition of the thesis is to not only analyse explicit content but also more

complicated implicit content along with interpretations, a qualitative discourse analysis was deemed most appropriate. The material has been read through before formulating the

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17 operationalisations, making it a more inductive analysis (Boréus, 2011: 164-166).

Interpretations will be made of both the details of the material and context.

Vocabulary such as certain key words, expressions and metaphors, arguments and claims are the main content units that will be analysed. Attention will also be paid to who says what.

The choice of discourse analysis is also based on the thesis’ objective of analysing a limited amount of material and the research question requiring a deeper analysis.

The following questions will be posed to the material and will guide the analysis:

1. What category of people is the material referring to?

2. What are the criteria for this categorisation?

a. How are the people within said criteria described?

b. What attributes are they ascribed?

3. What practices are being portrayed as normal and justified by the group?

4. How are they portrayed in relation to other groups?

4.2.1 Operationalisations

²

In addition to the analytical questions above, the thesis has chosen to define and

operationalise the central concepts described below. The operationalisations will be used to measure the content in relation to the analytical questions. The concept of mother has been given more space due to the judgement of its significance for the analysis.

The concept of ‘mother’, or ‘motherland’ is defined as an entity to be idealised, respected and protected. A woman’s role in a traditional and literal interpretation of Hinduism is based on the notion that she is revered as an embodiment of the Universal Mother Shakti and

considered created with the primary purpose to provide support for the man and whose duties in life are procreation and the nurturing of family. The emphasis on the woman’s importance in society lies in her role as a nurturer and mother (India Today, 2018: 42). Martha Nussbaum writes that the domination over Hindu women that according to her lies “deep in the Hindu right’s political consciousness” is connected to the idea of a goddesses, and a woman’s, purity (2007: 187).

The concept of ‘mother’ will be measured and analysed using the textual indicators of

references to a woman’s importance as a mother, references to the motherland, and references

2 See Appendix 1 for coding scheme

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18 to a woman’s fertility. The concept will be interpreted as gender ideals derived from religious and cultural conservatism, aimed at keeping the status quo.

The second concept is that of ‘purity’ and is defined as a person’s, entity’s or deity’s virtue, chastity or cleanliness. The concept will be measured and analysed using the textual

indicators of references to virtue or chastity, comparisons between women and the divine, references to a natural order, and references to male protection and male assertiveness. The concept will be interpreted along the same lines as ‘mother’.

The third concept is women’s empowerment and is defined in this thesis as women’s societal participation and workforce participation. The concept will be measured using the textual indicators of references to the integration of women in the economic system, reference to opportunities, roles and responsibilities, and references to production and reproduction. This concept has been interpreted as progressive perspectives on women’s societal participation and the problematisation and applicability of those perspectives in combination with religious and cultural gender ideals.

The research question, the operationalisations based on the theoretical framework, and the analytical questions guiding the discourse analysis, together form the analytical framework.

The result of the analysis will be presented thematically to produce a thorough analysis of the contradicting perspectives.

4.3 Validity and Reliability

The validity of the method and analysis is determined by the consistency between theoretical definition and operational indicators (Esaiasson et al, 2017: 58). The thesis is deemed to have good validity as the operationalisations of the concepts analysed are derived directly from the theoretical framework and have been developed with the theories as anchor. Examples of this is the operationalisation of the concept of ‘mother’, where the textual indicators either

directly use the word ‘mother’ or reference is made to the woman’s fertility.

The reliability however is judged to be in need of improvement. Reliability is determined based on the absence of systematic or random errors, and to ensure good reliability, the use of empirical measuring tools (operationalisations) needs to be consistent, methodical and the same for all units of analysis (Esaiasson et al, 2017: 58-59). Some of the operationalisations are only used on some of the material due to the content of said material, therefore the reliability is lacking.

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4.4 Material

The primary material selected for this thesis is divided into two main parts to demonstrate the different discourses and the comparison. The first section consists of government official legislative material describing the MBAA 2017 combined with excerpts from BJP’s political manifestos. The second section consists primarily of the texts “A bunch of thoughts”, a collection of M.S. Golwalkar’s expressed thoughts during his 33 years in charge of the RSS, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biography of M.S. Golwalkar named ‘Jyotipunj’ (Beams of Light), significant statements made by elected BJP leaders and members, and PM Modi’s Twitter account. The reported statements and Twitter posts have been used to expand on and demonstrate the ideas presented in M.S. Golwalkar’s book, highly revered by PM Modi. This material has been chosen with the purpose of going beyond the official material produced by the party.

The purpose of this material is to compare the progressive legislation against material which displays more conservative ideas. The material has also been chosen strategically in order to connect key figures within BJP and RSS.

4.5 Material Selection Bias

The material has been chosen with the thesis’ hypothesis of a contradiction existing between BJP’s maternity leave legislation and the ideology behind the political party in mind.

However, it is important to mention that using a hypothesis in the thesis risks directing the selection of material in order to appropriate said hypothesis, and selection bias of material is a common problem amongst comparative studies (Hug, 2003: 255). This has been considered whilst selecting the material. For the sake of material pointing to more conservative opinions on women, material has been selected in which prominent, primarily people-elected key persons have written said material, has been reported saying or writing something, or material that is a direct reflection of key persons.

Due to distrust for Western scholars, the Hindutva movement is known to “wash” the material on BJP and Hindutva available for outside scholars which risks contradicting their official political stance (Redden, 2016). Therefore, the material chosen to counterweigh the MBAA 2017 has been chosen based on its more symbolic weight.

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5. Results and Analysis

The analysis will be performed thematically, first analysing the MBAA 2017 and the BJP manifestos using the analytical framework to analyse why the maternity leave legislation is stated by BJP to be progressive and aimed to empower women, in addition to problematizing the legislation. Second, an analysis will be performed on key texts and statements from BJP and RSS expressing contradictory sentiments on a woman’s role in society. The comparison between the two types of material will be present throughout the analysis, as will the

hypothesis.

5.1 Women’s Empowerment through Work-life Balance

The MBAA 2017 was drafted and passed through the Parliament of India, Lok Sabha, in 2017. The document containing the legislative amendment is two pages long and contain information about the changes and additions made to the original legislation of 1961. The document presents the amendments made in a concise and to-the-point manner, only presenting the amendments and not the original legislation (Government of India, 2017).

At first glance, the amendments seem generous, the most notable ones being the increase from 12 to 26 weeks paid maternity leave, the facilitation of work-from-home options and mandatory provision of childcare facilities in the work establishment (ibid: 1-2). From a WID perspective, this legislation seems to be able to achieve what it is intended to; to make it easier for women with children to enter the labour market and for women who want to start a family to remain on the labour market. However, the legislation also includes conditions for what women are eligible for these amendments. Only women employed at establishments in the organized sector (author’s emphasis) who employs 10 or more employees are eligible for the benefits. Additionally, the benefits only apply for women who have had two or less children. The benefit which requires women to have access to childcare facilities only applies to establishments with 50 or more employees (ibid: 2). In a country in which a large part of the female population is either self-employed or work in the unorganised sector (Landguiden, 2020), the result of these conditions is the inevitable exclusion of many women from the benefits.

The BJP election manifesto of 2019 mentions the changes made by the legislation under the section ‘Women Empowerment’ where it is written that the aim of the government is to expand on the maternity leave legislation by 2022, by increasing the childcare facilities in

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21 offices for working mothers to ensure women’s further empowerment on the labour market (Bharatiya Janata Party, 2019: 31). The 2019 manifesto also explicitly mentions that the party aims to “work towards increasing female workforce participation rate”, however not referring to what is needed for such a change to be possible (ibid: 43).

The reference to women’s integration into the economic system aligns well with the WID perspective of working towards women’s empowerment and development through their access to more economic means (Rathgeber, 1990: 419). Women are being referred to as one group in both legislation and manifesto, implying that individual circumstances of different groups of women have not been considered.

Further analysis of the legislation from a GAD perspective, we find that the legislation is lacking in several areas. The GAD perspective focuses more on the social constructions in society that dictate the opportunities people have in life. For women, the social constructions of production and reproduction determine her opportunities, role, responsibility and the expectations on her from society (Rathgeber, 1990: 493). Here the thesis looks closer at what is missing from the legislation. Although the bill is clear on what benefits are given to

eligible women, there is no mention on how to ensure that more women are actually eligible (author’s emphasis). When speaking of, and implementing legislation aimed at, women as one homogenous group without a presented analysis or consideration for the different and very drastic social classes existent in India, the risk for the legislation being aimed at the more socioeconomically powerful group is significant, risking further disadvantage for the lower social classes.

The socioeconomic gaps between social classes in India means that some women are more likely to be later be employed in the formal sector due to educational opportunities. A girl growing up in a lower socioeconomic class is likely to be required to work in the informal sector, e.g., agricultural farming, to sustain the family (UNICEF, 2020). Such roles and responsibilities which are formed due to the socioeconomic situation severely limits the opportunities she will have access to later in life. The conclusion of this argument is that for a large part of the Indian female population, the benefits of this legislation promoted by BJP is unavailable to many and can therefore be deemed ineffective.

According to the GAD perspective, gender is a social construct that dictates our opportunities, roles and responsibilities, including the construction of who performs productive work and who performs reproductive work (e.g., child rearing and household

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22 work) (Rathgeber, 1990: 493). From this perspective, the legislation can be interpreted to be enforcing a double standard when not mentioning the role a father is supposed to take. The legislation assumes the mother to be responsible for child rearing by not mentioning a father figure, as well as a responsibility to bring in income. This suggests a double burden being placed on the woman. A double burden implies a measure aimed or formulated to relieve the burden of a group through the implementation of certain measures failing in doing so and instead adding the existing workload (Chant & Sweetman, 2012: 524). The thesis connects the social construction of the woman as responsible for the child rearing to the valuing of women as mothers within Hindu faith, but more specifically within Hindutva.

When further connecting religious ideals of idealised gender roles and the GAD perspective, the thesis has used the theory on the assertive, or aggressive, male ideal developed by

Nussbaum to explain the lack of mentioning of a father figure in the legislation. The analysis is here primarily focused on what is missing from the legislation.

The legislation only addresses maternity leave (author’s emphasis) and is directed solely towards the mothers. The lack of a father figure or partner in child rearing from both legislation and manifestos is concluded to express, based on Nussbaum’s theory, an

unwillingness to revert back to images of the Hindu man as soft and nurturing, traits typically prescribed women and in stark contrast to the aggressive and strong male promoted by Hindutva. The importance of distancing and contrasting the male ideals from the female is analysed to be evident in the legislation.

5.2 Mothers, Goddesses and Protection

The second set of material analysed are texts and statements made by elected BJP members and officials who all maintain positions of power within the party, in addition to key persons affiliated with BJP.

One such statement was made by BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj in 2015 when he urged all Hindu women to give birth to at least four children each in order to protect the Hindu religion (India Today, 2015). This sentiment was reinforced by BJP leader Shaymal Goswami when he raised this number to five (Times of India, 2015). These statements directly contradict the rhetoric of the MBAA 2017 which states that the paid maternity leave increase to 26 weeks only applies to women who have 2 or less children (Government of India, 2017). This points to rhetoric on women fertility that in practice would result in the women not qualifying for

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23 the maternity leave benefits, rhetoric voiced by leaders of the same party which drafted and implemented the law.

RSS, the head organisation to which BJP, and PM Modi specifically, is strongly ideologically affiliated, have a history of expressing views on women that seem contradictory to the

progressive maternity leave law. The book “Bunch of thoughts”, written by M.S. Golwalkar and edited and published by V.V. Rampal in 2013 is a collection of Golwalkar’s thoughts and discussions during his 33 years (1940-1973) as leader of the RSS. Golwalkar is considered the most influential chief of RSS and widely considered the most prominent Hindutva ideologue (Nussbaum, 2007: 160). The book contains countless references to the mother and motherland, two concepts often used interchangeably. A word search shows 265 references to the word mother whilst ‘woman’ produces 27 matches and ‘women’ 22. The majority of the mentionings of ‘women’/’woman’ is written in the context of ‘womenfolk’ (Golwalkar (eds.), 2013), speaking of the women as one homogenous group. The sentiment of valuing the women Golkwalkar speaks of as mothers is evident. On page 96 Golwalkar makes reference to “our culture of matruvat paradareshu”, which literally means “look upon women as mothers” (2013: 96). This is a statement of wherein the respect for women lies, according to Golwalkar. He also refers to a woman’s chastity, saying “I for one never had any doubt about the supreme quality of our men. How can they be otherwise, being the children of those chaste and death-defying women?” (Golwalkar (eds.), 2013: 231). The respect for the woman seems to be directly tied to her role as mother as well as her chasteness.

The sentiment and importance of ‘the mother’ is also demonstrated by PM Modi himself. In June 2020, he published a book called “Letters to Mother” which are excerpts from one of his diaries. He has explained that the choice of the name “Letters to Mother” comes from him imagining writing in this diary addressed to Mother Goddess. ‘Mother’ to Modi is an entity to which he reveals his deepest thoughts and feelings (Harper Collins, 2020), implying a deep respect and devotion.

PM Modi’s reverence to ‘Mother Goddess’ in modern day India can be examined using Sunder Rajan’s theory of the incompatibility between goddess worship and women’s empowerment. She writes that the deeply entrenched love for the goddesses and the respect demanded by that love is not based on the real status of women in India today, but on idealised images constructed thousands of years ago (2002: 19-20). The disconnect between respect based on worship and respect based on reality was demonstrated in 2013 when the

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24 Gujarat BJP government was accused of illegally following a woman. The accusation was accepted by BJP with the explanation that the woman’s father had asked PM Modi to do so for the woman’s own protection (Chaudry, 2013). What is notable about this incident is that the order of surveillance came from Modi himself, requested by the woman’s father with whom Modi has a previous affiliation. As well as being Prime Minister, Modi is the Chief Minister of the region Gujarat (Jain, 2013). The reason for including this incident in the analysis is to demonstrate how the idea of an Indian woman’s purity and protection may result in the restriction of a woman’s freedom and autonomy, arguably based on a disconnect between idealised and real woman. Like Kunjakkan writes in her essay, “So much is at stake, she should be protected even at the expense of her personal freedom and autonomy” (2002:

21). PM Modi’s personal involvement in the incident, and BJP’s defence of it, points to the influence Modi has in the party, and how his sentiments are demonstrated in real life events through the power of the party.

To echo the argument, Nussbaum writes that the importance of a distinct conception of the

“proper (aggressive) male, and that male must be sharply contrasted with the (ideally pure) female” (2007: 242) within Hindutva, a kind of natural order. Kunjakkan also writes about the value of a natural order between men and women and the danger toward Hindu culture that the disruption of this natural order represents. Within this natural order, the need to protect the woman against what risks tarnishing her purity needs to be avoided (2002: 21).

Golwalkar in turn makes reference to this natural order in one section of “Bunch of thoughts”. He is quoted saying that the thousands of years of Hindu civilisation has

constructed a social order “to meet the needs of various kinds of individuals” (2013: 96) and the social order is in place to protect and upkeep “the orderly evolution of society” (ibid).

The thesis connects such references of the natural order to Nussbaum’s theory of the Hindu right’s concern with making distinct the pure female by emphasising the aggressive or assertive male, the protector. As previously mentioned, The MBAA 2017 or BJP manifestos which mentions strides taken to ensure women’s workforce participation in higher numbers do not mention the role of the father in regard to childrearing and parental leave (source:

Bharatiya Janata Party 2014; 2019; Government of India, 2017). The theory of a male figure which is portrayed as being the opposite of the female, can be interpreted as not being appropriate for such a role, again assuming that the majority responsibility of childrearing should fall on the woman, maintaining her important and pure role as mother in the home.

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25 A demonstration of the assertive and aggressive male ideal is visible in PM Modi’s ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ (‘I too am a watchman’) Twitter campaign launched in 2019. On Modi’s Twitter account in March 2019, he wrote

“Your Chowkidar is standing form & serving the nation. But, I am not alone. Everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt, social evils is a Chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar.” (Modi, 2019).

The campaign and the tweets portray ideals of a male protector, and the thesis pays specific attention to the word watchman (author’s emphasis) fighting “dirt and social evils”. For a protector to exist, its counterpart, the one being protected, also needs to exist. The masculine ideal portrayed by PM Modi can be analysed using Nussbaum’s theory of Hindu male domination over Hindu women. In order for the women to be the pure being she is portrayed to be, the man needs to be aggressive and strong to protect them. Nussbaum traces this back to years of colonisation and conquering by outsiders, resulting in what she calls the Hindu man’s shame-filled anxiety over his own masculinity. Within the Hindutva movement, this shame and anxiety takes the form of different expressions of aggression towards certain groups, women amongst them (2007: 189). Ultimately, a statement that promotes the assertive and aggressive male protector further instils and embeds the ideal of the more passive female, in need of protection. The ideal of protection, in combination with the natural order, valued by the Hindutva movement, suggests a desire to ensure the woman remains at home, where she can be protected from anything that risks compromising her purity.

Conservative ideologies, Hindutva included, “are often about defining borders; to define what is inside you have to define what is outside” (Greven, 2020b: 1). The importance of borders does not only apply to larger groups, e.g., ethnic groups or groups defined by national borders, but also within said groups (Christman, 2002: 127). The referenced natural order points to ‘border definition’ being important even between genders within Hindutva.

5.3 The Connection between BJP and RSS

Although some of the material used for the analysis is based on PM Modi himself, a significant part the material comes from M.S. Golwalkar, not a member of BJP (whose legislation the thesis sets out to analyse). The reason for giving Golwalkar space in this thesis is not only the structural and historical affiliation RSS has to BJP, but more prominently, the ideological connection (Noorani & Gafoor, 2000: 2; Nussbaum, 2007: 158-159).

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26 This ideological connection is demonstrated by Prime Minister Modi’s 2008 book

“Jyotipunj” (“Beams of Light”). The book is a compilation of the life stories of 16 men who Modi says has inspired him and his political career, and all 16 men were leaders or members of RSS. Chapters of the book has been translated by Aakar Patel in 2014 (Patel, 2014). The longest text, titled ‘Pujniya Shri Guruji, or “Guru worthy of worship”, is a tribute to

Golwalkar and his thoughts and ideology. In the text Modi refers to Golwalkar as “Pa Pu Guruji”, pointing to the sentiment of viewing Golwalkar as a both a father figure and spiritual leader. He writes:

“If he had one desire it was – “complete Swayamsevak”. “Swayamsevak” means the surrender of the self, the devotion of one’s life to principles. Pa Pu Guruji’s life radiated as one who was a total and complete Swayamsevak. He had given up all rest and recreation to achieve this.” (Patel, 2014).

In this chapter, Modi especially praises Golwalkar’s spirituality, his writings on the importance of family, and sacrifice for the motherland (ibid). Below are excerpts from Modi’s biography describing his sentiments towards Golwalkar.

“This is a humble attempt to recount those beautiful moments of his life and I hope it makes your moments joyous.”

“…and indeed he was amazing”

”The kind, great man” (Patel, 2014).

This text is included in the analysis to demonstrate the affiliation between Modi, the leader of BJP, and RSS, head organisation for Hindutva ideology. Martha Nussbaum also comments on the connection between BJP and RSS, writing that although there may be a division of labour between the two entities, there is however no division of policy (2007: 178), indicating that the assumption of ideological connection between organisation and party is fair to make.

5.4 Summary and Reflection of Analysis

When analysing the rhetoric of the legislation from a WID perspective, the legislation is formulated in a way that in theory would allow for increased integration of women in the workforce by the more generous amendments allowing for longer paid maternity leave and childcare facilities in the workplace. Applying the theoretical perspective and

operationalisations of GAD, we find the MBAA 2017 is problematic due to the legislation and the arguments for it lacking in the consideration of the real opportunities different groups

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27 of Indian women have to enter the formal/organized workforce in the first place constructed by religious and cultural traditions of women’s role as mothers and wives.

When further analysing material and statements from BJP and RSS members using

operationalisations based on theories of female and male ideals based in Hindu religion, the female role of mother and nurturer aligns with the GAD perspective of socially constructed roles limiting a woman’s opportunities to join to workforce. The analysis also showed the socially constructed role of women as mothers connected to the need of them being protected in her home.

The natural order mentioned by both Kunjakkan and Nussbaum, and emphasised by Golwalkar’s text and Modi’s Twitter campaign, is concluded to be one of the primary indicators for the MBAA 2017 to be formulated and implemented with different values of women’s empowerment in mind than contemporary perspectives on women’s empowerment represent, especially GAD. One way of analysing it is viewing the MBAA 2017 as an actual threat to the natural order between men and women by encouraging more women to enter the labour market. The thesis speculates that the conditions for who is eligible for the benefits under the legislation could be a way of maintaining the natural order and ‘protecting’ the women by keeping them in the domestic sphere.

Furthermore, the male role in childcare can seemingly be interpreted in two ways. On one hand, we can interpret the collected material as saying that the male should distance himself from childcare to establish and maintain his role as the opposite of the nurturer and the female. On the other hand, we conclude from the analysis that the female ideal of the mother and her purity needs to be protected against anything that might tarnish that purity by the male, which still indicates a clear and engaged involvement in family life.

5.5 Discussion

The results from the comparison show that the religious and cultural sentiments on women’s role in society made by key Hindutva ideologues and key BJP leaders differ from the stated aim of their maternity leave legislation of empowering India’s women to join the workforce.

BJP’s strive for the conservation and growth of Hindu religion and culture, and the

worshipping of goddesses that follows, should not be assumed to equate to higher status for girls and women. However, this conclusion is drawn by the thesis from a Western liberal perspective. Who are we to claim that what Hindutva sees as the empowerment of women is

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28 not? Is it perhaps a different kind of feminism, a conservative feminism based on religious and cultural reverence for the woman’s role as mother and nurturer? The statements and expressions presented in the selected material can alternatively be interpreted as such.

However, this perspective assumes that all Indian women are religious within the Hindu faith and share the same reverence for Hindu culture and tradition, which is not the case. India is a vast country with countless ethnicities, social groups, and religions. The Hindutva goal of a unified Hindu ideal, and the specific empowerment connected to that specific ideal, seems impossible in a country like India. The result would be women being left behind, something the MBAA 2017 has already been criticised for.

An alternative interpretation of the implementation of the MBAA 2017 and the more conservative opinions expressed is that the importance of nurturing of family (as seen expressed in the more conservative material) is a demonstration of the willingness of BJP to increase women’s ability to raise a family whilst also being able to work. However, the thesis means that although a difference in what is said in legislation and what is said by an ideology not necessarily indicates ingenuine legislation, the demonstration of the difference made by this study points to the larger danger of a conservative, right-wing party implementing legislation that, without further scrutinizing, seems progressive. When it however leaves many of the country’s women behind, it needs to be addressed.

Hindutva and BJP’s arguable goal is to convert hundreds of millions of Hindus to a

monotheistic Hindu faith in the organic unity of the Hindu nation in order to make it strong.

From this point of view, sticking to some (author’s emphasis) traditional/conservative views of the place of women in society, while introducing new ideas and legislative regulations which enhance the political potential of women is not necessarily contradictory. Additionally, one could even question the significance of potential friction between claims put forward by the Hindutva ideologues and progressive politics. For a right-wing ideology as Hindutva, known for its selective portrayal of history for the purpose of the promotion of the ideology, truth and coherence is not necessarily what matters most. The two discourses that have been compared can be argued to exist to appeal to different audiences. The Hindutva movement, and BJP, have very different groups they are trying to appeal to. On one hand, they are a nationalistic, right-wing ideology, which has garnered them a large following. Conservative and traditional values are therefore important to communicate in order to maintain that following. On the other hand, the party and ideology want to grow and gain more followers.

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29 This desire could motivate the implementation of legislation that appeals to groups not

typically associated with the Hindutva movement, e.g., feminists.

The scholarly debate on Hindutva has been stifled by well-organised PR that puts pressure on scholars critical of the Hindutva movement (Redden, 2016) and as discussed in the section

‘methodology’, the access to material only (author’s emphasis) from BJP leaders and members has been complemented by material produced by RSS, and demonstrating the connection between RSS and BJP. This is a limitation of the study, and for future research, the need for more direct material, e.g., interviews, would open up the possibilities for a deeper and more reliable analysis.

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6. Conclusion

The aim of the thesis has been to compare how BJP, a political party with strong affiliation and background with right-wing, nationalistic Hindutva ideology, drafts and argue in favour of maternity leave laws which affect women’s opportunities for societal advancement, with religious, cultural and symbolic aspects of gender roles within Hindutva ideology. This has been done by analysing the content of the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017 and BJP manifestos which write about the promotion of women’s empowerment, and

publications, statements and Tweets by key BJP and affiliated Hindutva ideologues. This material has been analysed using a theoretical framework based on the previous studies of the religious and cultural ideals of women drawn from Hinduism and contemporary theories on women’s societal participation.

The hypothesis of the thesis was that BJP legislative rhetoric and rhetoric which supports the legislation differ from, even contradicts, BJP and Hindutva rhetoric on women’s societal participation built on conservative Hindu religious and traditional connotations. The analysis suggests that there is a difference in the content communicated, the content of the discourses present differing, sometimes contradictive, views on women’s societal participation. One set of material points to the importance of their integration and sustainability in the workforce, and one pointing to the importance of women as mothers whose purity needs protecting from outside sway.

Through the study and analysis, the thesis can conclude that one way to interpret the results is that a higher number of women entering the workforce would potentially mean women

“leaving” the revered role of mother and domestic being, which in turn translates to being a pure being and symbolic replications of goddess, to pursue a career. A speculation of the thesis is that the contradictive nature of MBAA 2017 could be a result of an underlying ambition to “protect” women from anything that would inflict damage on their purity.

However, the material analysed has been limited and merely points to a contrast in maternity leave legislation and traditional views of Hindutva ideology. A conclusion that this difference in content implies an insincerity of progressive legislation can therefore not be drawn.

Nevertheless, the purpose of the study was to compare and analyse content and discourse between legislation and ideology and explore the theoretical foundation for the content, which it is concluded that the thesis has succeeded in.

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31 The discussion of the study highlights alternative interpretations of the material and the significance of the comparison, pointing to the caution that should be taken when assuming hypotheses and outcomes from a Western liberal perspective on women’s societal

participation.

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