Legislative Quotas for Women: A global and ... - Aurat Foundation

3 Reserved seats in PakistanHistorical backgroundIn the Indian sub-continent the issue of separate political reservation forwomen was raised during the course of the Nationalist Movement in the1920s. However the nationalist forces opposed the idea for the principalreason that it deflected from the demand for universal adult franchise andto stand for elections on the same terms as men. It was also felt that thereshould be no hint of succumbing to the British strategy of ‘divide andrule’ by referring to divisions within the national movement. The coreargument was that public, official language of politics, especially before acolonial government, had to be a language of equality and forfundamental rights of citizenship irrespective of sex, caste, religion orcreed. This argument was supported by the leading women’sorganizations of the time including All-India Women’s Conference(AIWC), the Women’s Indian Association and National Council ofWomen in India. The Home Rule League, the Indian National Congressand the Muslim League also supported it. 21In 1932 the all-India women’s organizations sent a Joint Memorandum onthe Status of Indian Women to the Franchise Committee set up at the endof the Second Round Table Conference 22 in which they expressed theirdemand for universal adult franchise ‘irrespective of any property orliteracy qualification, with no expedients such as nomination orreservation of seats’. The women’s organizations also endorsed thedeclaration of the Fundamental Rights to Citizenship in India adopted atthe Karachi session of the Indian National Congress in 1931, which calledfor equality before the law, irrespective of religion, caste, creed or sexand also universal adult franchise as well as women’s right to vote,represent and hold public office. However, the British did not agree withit and finally the women’s organizations agreed to a compromise that21 Raman, Vasanthi. The Implementation of Quotas for Women: The Indian Experience,International IDEA, Stockholm, 200322 The three Round Table Conferences, held between 1930 and 1932, were a series ofconferences organised by the British government to discuss constitutional reforms inIndia. The Second Round Table Conference was held in Sep-Dec 1931.27