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Abstract
In India, the concept of “equality” was completely alien until liberally exposed Western- educated Indians introduced it in the early nineteenth century. However, the term did not gain meaning or became an operational principle in Indian life until the country gained independence in 1947 and adopted a democratic government. The Indian constitution then granted equality and freedom from discrimination based on gender or religion, and guaranteed religious freedom. Also, seven Five Year Plans were developed to provide health, education, employment and welfare to women. The sixth Five Year Plan even declares women “partners in development”. The history of feminism in India is regarded as mainly a practical effort and very limited in scope. Pre-colonial social structures and women’s role in them reveal that feminism was theorised differently in India than in the west. Colonial essentialization of “Indian culture” and reconstruction of Indian womanhood as the epitome of that culture through social reform movements resulted in political theorization in the form of nationalism rather than as feminism alone. Historical circumstances and values in India make women’s issues different from the western feminist rhetoric. The idea of women as “powerful” is accommodated into patriarchal culture through religion. This has retained visibility in all sections of society; by providing women with traditional cultural spaces. This paper focuses on the institutions and social practices of capitalism as these affect women, and attempts to understand the relations of gender and class in the course of social change in India down the ages. The paper also studies how socialist feminism serves as a discourse of desire expressing the female interest.