Abstract
In this chapter1 I examine several concepts that are important to un- derstanding the impact that the rise of the Religious Right has had on women’s human rights in contemporary India. In particular, I discuss the ways in which equality and secularism, the cornerstones of a liberal de- mocratic state, have been deployed by the Hindu Right, and to some ex- tent, validated by the Indian Supreme Court. I also address how the Hindu Right’s agenda for women is related to its secular project.
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Notes
See Asgar Ali Engineer, Secularism in India—Theory and Practice, in SECULARISM AND LIBERATION: PERSPECTIVES AND STRATEGIES FOR INDIA TODAY 38, 39–41 (Rudolf C. Heredia & Edward Mathias, eds.) (New Delhi: Indian Social Institute, 1995).
See VINAYAK DAMODAR SAVARKAR, HINDUTVA:WHO IS A HINDU? 115–16 (Savarkar Sadan, Bombay:Veer Savarkar Prakasha, 5th ed. 1969); M.S. GOL-WALKAR, WE OR OUR NATIONHOOD DEFINED 26 (Mahal, Nagpur: M.N. Kale, 3d ed. 1945).
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© 1999 Courtney W. Howland
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Kapur, R. (1999). The Two Faces of Secularism and Women’s Rights in India. In: Howland, C.W. (eds) Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230107380_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230107380_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-0-312-29306-2
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