Devoir 1 oral d'anglais

Behind the consensual images of India "the world's greatest democracy", the Indian "economic miracle" and the "emerging superpower", there appears a structurally unequal and conflictual society whose current, geopolitical and economic performances (internally and on the global market), are accompanied by highly problematic social and environmental "externalities".

India, if intriguing and fascinating, is particularly challenging because of the ambiguities that cross it. Cataloged just two decades ago as one of the poorest countries in the world, long marginalized on the international scene, it is now emerging as a "brilliant" and unmissable power, to the point that the American business bank Goldman Sachs expects it to be the world's third largest economy by 2025.

The situation of women in India is questionable in many respects. The weight of religion and tradition, as well as a considerable imbalance in the sex ratio, endanger their fundamental rights. Practicing dowry, infanticide, rape, prostitution ... The Indian woman suffers from discrimination and sees her freedoms reached daily. The 2011 Thompson Reuters Foundation survey shows that India is the fourth most dangerous place in the world for women. In this extremely difficult context, however, feminist movements have emerged that work day after day to defend the position of women and to evolve a society still rooted in dangerous patriarchal traditions.

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    Kachchh, Gujarat, India - Photo: Rajesh Pamnani 2014

Historically, Indian women have not always suffered so much from this male domination. Many authors report that women enjoyed an important status, especially during the Vedic period. India today, however, is dominated by Hindu traditions, which, despite some texts promoting femininity and motherhood, advocate an almost total subordination of women to men. Actress Shabana Azmi (a journalist and former popular actress) said in 1988 that "the glorification of the Indian woman can be an eminently dangerous trap that closes on her. (...) By idolizing him, he is robbed of any opportunity to defend himself, to fight or to enforce his rights ". The girls are thus raised in the idea that they have the duty to serve and to satisfy the man. The Laws of Manu, the founding legal text of the Hindu tradition of dharma, states that "in childhood, a woman must be submitted to her father, in her youth to her husband and when her master dies, to her sons; a woman must never be independent (...) a woman is not made to be free. This is a major pillar of Hindu traditions that are still prevalent in Indian society, which partly explains women's place in it.

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