Equality

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Political Science Class XI (Political Theory), Chapter 3.

A ramp at the school gate: unfair or fair?

Your school builds a ramp beside the stairs so that a student in a wheelchair can enter. Another student says, "Why should one person get a special entrance? Everyone should be treated the same." Is he right? This is the central puzzle of the chapter. If equality means identical treatment, a ramp is a violation. If equality means giving everyone a real chance, a ramp is exactly what equality demands. The chapter walks you from the first reading to the second, and gives you the vocabulary to defend it.

Equality as an ideal

Equality is a moral and political ideal that has guided societies for centuries. It is moral because every human being deserves equal consideration and respect simply because of common humanity. It is political because that claim has been used to demand equal rights for excluded groups. It stands behind many faiths that hold all human beings to be creations of one God, behind the modern idea of crimes against humanity and behind the human rights project.

Historically, equality was a rallying cry of the French Revolution, along with liberty and fraternity, directed against the landed aristocracy and monarchy. It also drove anti-colonial struggles in Asia and Africa and the struggles of women and dalits against social discrimination.

But inequality is easier to see than equality. The chapter's fact sheets make the point.

What is equality?

Equal respect does not make everyone identical. Every society needs a division of work, and people receive different status and rewards. A prime minister or an army general enjoys facilities an ordinary citizen does not. What equality asks is that these differences should not harden into entrenched privilege, and that no one should be treated worse because of birth into a particular religion, race, caste or gender.

Equality of opportunity. The demand is for the absence of privilege and for adequate opportunities for everyone to develop themselves. The real objection is not to inequality of personal property but to unequal access to basic goods such as education, health care and safe housing.

Natural and social inequalities. Natural inequalities are differences in capabilities and talents that people are born with. Socially produced inequalities are created by society, through unequal opportunity or the exploitation of some groups by others. The line between them is not fixed. Women were once called the "weaker sex" so that they could be denied education, and Black Africans were called less intelligent to justify slavery. Modern medicine and technology have shown that a difference once treated as a natural limit can be accommodated by society. So the modern distinction is not natural against social but inequalities arising from our choices against those arising from birth or family circumstances; the second kind is what egalitarians want to reduce.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: natural inequalities come from birth, while social ones are created by society, and the line between them keeps shifting. In reality: sociologists and economists make a related point when they speak of "conversion" of resources into opportunity: the same income or talent produces different results depending on health, environment and support. Stephen Hawking's career is often cited as showing how technology and social support can change what a disability means. Why it matters: it helps you reject any option that treats the natural-versus-social line as fixed.

Three dimensions of equality

Political equality is necessary but may not be sufficient by itself to build a just and egalitarian society. In India, customs have denied women inheritance rights, closed many activities to them and discouraged higher education. The chapter's table from a national survey (NSSO, 1999-2000) shows how unevenly higher education is spread in urban India.

Entrenched inequality is the kind left untouched across generations. The chapter calls it the most dangerous, because it can breed resentment and violence.

How do thinkers explain inequality?

The chapter presents four positions side by side.

Feminist vocabulary. Sex is the biological difference between men and women. Gender means the social roles assigned to each. Only women bear children (sex), but it does not follow that only women should rear them (gender). The double burden describes women who work outside the home and are still solely responsible for housework.

Sapta Kranti. Rammanohar Lohia named five inequalities to be fought together and two further revolutions.

Pause and predict: a student says the list has "five revolutions". Is he right?

Check your answer: No. It has five inequalities plus two further revolutions, civil liberties and non-violence, making seven in all. Counting traps are very common in this topic.

Two views. For the exam: liberals hold that competition is the efficient and fair way to distribute resources and that the three dimensions are not necessarily linked; Marxists hold that private ownership is the root of entrenched inequality and that the dimensions are connected. Another reading: later scholars, such as supporters of what is called the capability approach, argue that neither focus on property nor on competition alone is enough, and that what matters is whether people can actually achieve valued ways of living. The textbook compares the first two positions only.

How can we promote equality?

The chapter proposes two steps and a third, more debated, measure.

The chapter insists that differential treatment is an enhancement of equality, not an infringement. It also distinguishes between treating everyone in an identical manner and treating everyone as equal. The second may sometimes need differential treatment, but it should be used carefully to avoid creating new structures of dominance.

Pause and predict: a law gives working women paid maternity leave. A colleague argues this treats men unequally. What is the chapter's reply?

Check your answer: Maternity leave treats people differently in order to ensure they enjoy equal rights at work. It enhances equality instead of infringing it.

Affirmative action is meant to be a temporary, time-bound measure. The chapter presents the reservation debate fairly.

Two views. For the exam: supporters say groups that were historically excluded cannot compete on equal terms straight away, so special measures are justified. Another reading: critics call reservations "reverse discrimination", arguing that they deny other sections equal treatment and may reinforce the very caste or racial categories society is trying to move beyond. The chapter asks you to understand both arguments, not to take sides.

The women's movement shows how demands change. In the nineteenth century, women demanded the vote, college degrees and the right to work. In the twentieth century, they added demands such as maternity leave and crèches.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Freedom showed how formal liberty can coexist with social and economic constraints.
• Next: Social Justice turns the same ideas into principles for distributing goods and opportunities fairly.
• Related: Rights in the Indian Constitution covers the right to equality, and Citizenship deals with equal membership of the political community.