International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR)

Women’s Rights in the Postcolonial Constitution: Gandhi’s Moral Regeneration versus Ambedkar’s Legal Intervention

Women's Rights in the Postcolonial Constitution: Gandhi's Moral Regeneration versus Ambedkar's Legal Intervention Daksh¹ and Shubham² ¹Department of Political Science, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India Email: dakshdahiya360@gmail.com | Mobile: +91 9518008303 ²Department of Political Science, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India Email: shubhamjcrp77@gmail.com | Mobile: +91 9050294663 Abstract The expression of women rights in postcolonial India came in two different within intersection normative systems propounded by Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar. Gandhi model laid stress on moral revival based on satyagraha, moral self-reform and reconstitution of social relationship, whereas the model made by Ambedkar depended on constitutional-legal model whose emphasis was on rights and reform of the institutions and social democracy. This paper reviews the theoretical antagonism and potential intersection of these paradigms to know how the conceptualisation of gender equality was developed at the constitutional moment in India. The research uses qualitative textual approach and evaluates primary sources to study Mahatma Gandhi, Hind swaraj, Young India, Harijan, the constituent assembly debates, and some of the classic texts of Ambedkar, like, Annihilation of caste and Who were the shudras? The comparative study shows that the Gandhian ethics system acted as mobilisers of the feminine as a kind of moral power but stayed bound with its dependence on spiritualised conceptual notions of femininity, whereas the legal action of the Ambedkar entrenched enforceable clauses of equality into the constitutional system. According to my argument in the paper, the discussion of personal law reform, gender-based violence, and Democratic representation carried out nowadays still bears this two-fold heritage. A critical revaluation of their work provides the important understanding of postcolonial feminist ideas and the transforming concept of gender justice in India. Keywords: Gandhian ethics, Ambedkarite constitutionalism, women’s rights, postcolonial feminism, gender justice.