58 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
Indian women, the vast majority of them remain oppressed and at best play only an inferior or subordinate role. This is in direct contrast to the socialist countries where women have made significant strides towards liberation, and to some other Asian and Latin American countries where, uniting with men, they are liberating themselves in the process of common struggle against the class oppressors.
History teaches the lesson of participation in revolutionary struggle as the most potent liberator of women. Dead weights of religious fanaticism, traditionalism, caste and other irrationalities have been known to disappear in the thick of revolutionary upheavals.
ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION
Though the oppression of women in a variety of forms is manifest in the economic, political and socio-cultural spheres, its basis lies in economic inequality and consequent dependence. Emancipation from the bonds of oppressive institutions, customs and inhibitions has therefore to begin with the end of economic exploitation. As long as women are regarded as only 'supplementary' or 'marginal' workers, they will continue to be 'expendable assets9, and their rights and needs persistently ignored in the Indian society now facing a development crisis.
In a complex and stratified society like ours, the nature and forms of oppression and the impact of socio-economic change on women's economic position differ widely at different social levels under the added weight of regional and cultural diversities. Consequently even women's own perception of their condition varies although the overall picture is one of domination and discrimination.
Particular forms of oppression that on the surface appear to be directed solely against women are closely related to the general exploitation of the working people and intensify each other. The liberation of women therefore cannot be achieved in isolation but must form part of the liberation of everybody in a society free from exploitation and inequality.
It is necessary to study specific problems that affect women's participation in different sectors of the Indian economy, and to examine their relationships with the general problems of working people in each sector. Understanding of this interrelationship is vital for placing the struggle for women's liberation in its proper perspective, and equally for meaningfully defining its place in the democratic movement as a whole.
In Farms and Fields
Twenty-five million, or 81 per cent of all women workers and their families are dependent on agriculture. Of this group, the largest proportion is constituted by poor peasants and agricultural labourers. Exploitation ©f the peasantry and their pauperization during the British period need no elaboration. Since independence, new factors have emerged:
pauperization has increased due to eviction by landlords and growing concentration of land in the hands of a tiny minority of rural households;