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Gender, Religion and Caste is Chapter 3 of the NCERT Class 10 textbook Democratic Politics (NCERT, Chapter 3 PDF). Its argument: social diversity does not threaten democracy, but the political expression of social differences can be healthy or harmful. It calls gender in politics largely positive, communalism largely negative, and caste both.
What are the key terms in gender, religion and caste?
Definitions from the NCERT chapter:
Sexual division of labour: a system in which all work inside the home is either done by the women of the family or organised by them through domestic helpers.
Patriarchy: literally ‘rule by father’, a system that values men more and gives them power over women.
Feminist: a woman or a man who believes in equal rights and opportunities for women and men.
Communal politics: politics based on the idea that religion is the principal basis of social community, in which one religion and its followers are pitted against another.
Secular state: a state with no official religion that gives everyone freedom to profess, practise and propagate any religion, or none, and bans discrimination on grounds of religion.
Casteism: the belief that caste is the sole basis of social community.
Caste hierarchy: a ladder-like formation in which all caste groups are placed from the ‘highest’ to the ‘lowest’.
How does gender appear in politics?
The chapter says gender division is based not on biology but on social expectations and stereotypes. Women's movements turned that division into political demands: voting rights, a better political and legal status, and more women as elected representatives. One remedy the chapter offers is to make a fair proportion of women in elected bodies legally binding, and it notes that one-third of seats in panchayats and municipalities are reserved for women, with more than 10 lakh elected women representatives in rural and urban local bodies (NCERT, Chapter 3).
Parliament is a different picture. PRS Legislative Research reports that 74 MPs, about 14%, elected to the 18th Lok Sabha in 2024 are women, compared with 78 in 2019 (PRS, Profile of the 18th Lok Sabha). The women's reservation bill, passed by both Houses in September 2023, reserves as nearly as may be one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and the Delhi assembly, and takes effect only after the next census is published and seats are delimited (PRS Bill Track). Your textbook gives the 2019 share as 14.36 per cent of the Lok Sabha.
How does religion appear in politics?
NCERT says people should be able to express their needs, interests and demands as members of a religious community, and that state action on religion is not wrong as long as it treats every religion equally. The problem is communalism, and the chapter lists four forms it takes:
Everyday beliefs: prejudice, stereotypes and belief in the superiority of one's own religion.
A quest for political dominance: majoritarian dominance for a majority community, or a desire for a separate political unit for a minority.
Political mobilisation on religious lines: sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal and fear used to win votes.
Communal violence, riots and massacre.
The Constitution's response is the secular state, and the chapter calls secularism one of the foundations of our country.
How does caste appear in politics?
Caste works in both directions. Caste in politics: parties pick candidates by the electorate's caste make-up and appeal to caste sentiment. Politics in caste: caste groups absorb neighbouring sub-castes, form coalitions, and new groups such as ‘backward’ and ‘forward’ appear.
Elections are not only about caste, the chapter adds: no parliamentary constituency has a clear majority of one single caste, no party wins all the votes of a caste, and ruling parties and sitting MPs or MLAs frequently lose. The chapter's Census 2011 box puts Scheduled Castes at 16.6% and Scheduled Tribes at 8.6% of India's population (NCERT, Chapter 3).
How do you write a 5-mark answer on this chapter?
Take a common question: ‘Is caste in politics good or bad for democracy?’ Plan five lines first.
Verdict: caste plays both positive and negative roles in Indian politics.
Positive: it has helped Dalits and OBC castes gain better access to decision making.
Positive: organisations have agitated for an end to discrimination, more dignity and more access to land, resources and opportunities.
Negative: it can divert attention from poverty, development and corruption, and lead to tension, conflict and violence.
Balance: caste matters in elections, but so do other factors; politics based on caste identity alone is not very healthy in a democracy.
The same shape works for gender and religion. If the question arrives as a passage, use our guide to answering case-based questions in CBSE boards.
Three days cover the chapter: gender and its numbers; communalism and the secular state; caste plus one timed answer. Fit them into our week-by-week plan for Class 10 boards, alongside the Nationalism in India notes. When you switch back to science, Fermi's AI tutor can work out what you already know and build a plan for the session.
