Politics of Resistance: Political Reservation for Women in Nagaland,India

Abstract

Gender quota opens politics to women and ensures full and equal participation of women in politics. However, the initiative is not an end itself to ensure the representation of women in politics. In 2017, Nagaland witnessed the protest against the thirty-three per cent reservation for women in the urban local body (ULB) after the government’s decision to conduct local election. The article seeks to understand the negligible presence of women representation in the political sphere despite having better gender indicators compared to national average in terms of education, literacy rate and employment in Nagaland, India. Based on the empirical research, it explores the various reasons for resisting the implementation of thirty-three per cent reservation for women in ULB elections. Since the formation of Nagaland as a state in 1963, nineteen women have stood in the assembly election. None of them have won in the election till the year 2022. Even though women are completely absent in the institutional forum, there is a resistance against the implementation of the policy. In its continued exploration, the article discusses the impact of group rights on the women in accessing liberty.

Keywords

Political reservation group rights and women political representation local election in Nagaland customary rights

Introduction

In a democracy, the representation of diverse groups and communities enriches the essence of democratic values. So, political representation of different groups in a society is required for an accommodative and inclusive society. In a democracy, the claim for basic rights becomes inaccessible when it comes to the minorities who are sharing a cultural membership. Literature of cultural recognition mentions these vulnerable groups as ‘internal minorities’ (Deveaux, 2006; Williams, 1998). The term minority not only refers to the numerically less in number within the population but also those who are marginalised and disadvantaged within the community.¹ Keeping such understanding at the backdrop, the article understands the issues of women representation in Naga society. The article focuses on the politics of resistance for the representation of Naga women in the local bodies as well as the legislative bodies. Based on the empirical data collected through in-depth interviews, the article explores the challenges behind the gender quota policy in Nagaland. In its continued exploration, the article highlights the involving actors in shaping the discourse of resistance. Lastly, it explicates the emergent policy issues and suggestions for the women reservation policy in Nagaland.

Framing the Debate

Granting group rights promotes equal rights to all members of the group irrespective of gender. So, how far is the idea of gender equality maintained in the legal constitutional framework while guaranteeing the right to preservation of culture and tradition? Reddy argues that granting group rights often contributes oppression and subordination to the female members (Reddy, 2008). Traditional elites reproduce the inegalitarian cultural practices for women by making use of state-provided group rights. Shachar mentions this phenomenon as ‘the paradox of multicultural vulnerability’, a situation where the state leaves members of minority groups vulnerable to severe injustice within the group. It may influence in reinforcing some of the most hierarchical elements of a culture (Shachar, 2001).

The discourse of resistance for women reservation is being created by reproducing the traditional and cultural practices. These practices reinforce the subordinate position to women and continue to violate the individual modern values. Further, it put challenges in achieving the gender justice to the society. Some of these cultural practices include non-extension of property rights to women, exclusion of women from the decision-making bodies and prohibition of women reservation in the political position. By emphasising on the preservation of cultural specificities, the tribal organisations put barrier on accommodating the modern progressive values to women. However, in exercising and claiming the entitlements, the Naga women face a lot of challenges which keeps them in a disadvantageous condition. The study addresses the vicious circle of resistance in claiming the rights of women with due presence of legal pluralism in Nagaland.

The study addresses the challenges of women in representing themselves in the political sphere specially the tensions within a liberal and multicultural jurisdiction. Legal pluralism or Article 371(A) poses a problem, where it states that no Act of Parliament can be implemented in the state of Nagaland which is related to Naga culture, tradition and social practices. The ownership of land as well as participation in the public decision-making bodies are strictly prohibited in the Naga society. From the above discussions, it can be seen that tribal bodies have referred consistently to the Article 371A when it comes to the implementation of the political reservation policy for women the urban local body (ULB) election in Nagaland. Under such conditions, the state is leaving members of the minority groups vulnerable to severe injustice within the group in the name of culture.

Phillips (1995) argues for an equitable representation, the politics of ideas should be complemented by politics of presence. Politics of presence demands for the inclusion of ethnic minorities and women in an elected assembly for legitimate democratic concern. It encourages the essentialist understanding of any group identity or interest. She mentions that women have their own experiences, and which would be inadequate to address in the political platform dominated by men. Therefore, it is necessary for women to be present in the politics to pursue their group interest. Moreover, she also mentions about gender quota for the adequate representation of women in politics.

However, in the liberal democratic state, there exists a tension in claiming representation. The cultural membership in a community challenges the basic rights of minority of that community. Scholarships suggest that in case of the groups rights, group autonomy can harm women (Okin, 1999; Spinner-Halev, 2001). Cultural minorities require special rights because their cultures may otherwise be threatened with extinction and cultural extinction would be likely to undermine the dignity and freedom of group members. Therefore, special rights keep minorities on an equal footing with the majority.

Okin argues that in providing group rights, the inequalities within the groups should be given special concern, especially inequalities between the sexes, which are less visible than other inequalities (Okin, 1999: 23, 1998: 634-4). The policies responding to the needs and claims of more patriarchal minority cultural groups in less patriarchal liberal majority society must ensure the representation of less powerful members of such group including the women in such negotiation. Okin and Friedman are of similar view that the women of cultural groups need to be consulted when any group rights are negotiated between minority group/cultural groups and the liberal state.

Devaux argues for a democratic, pluralist and political approach to mediating conflicts of culture in liberal democracies. Mediating disputes between liberal values and traditional cultural practices requires. Deveaux argues that women members of cultural groups have a direct say in these matters, through the expansion of sites of democratic contestation and inclusion of women in formal decision-making process. She prefers more democracy, specially democratic deliberation of political kind rather than an ideal and ethical model so that the various voices within a cultural minority are heard (Deveaux, 2006). To her, non-domination and political equality are the two components of this model.

The existing theoretical frameworks advocate for the representation of women, and the others cannot represent for them. In doing so, some of them have argued that the women of cultural group should be given special attention while the group rights are negotiated between the cultural groups and the state. Without a democratic dialogue, the voices of women will be remained silent. Representation in a democracy is a meaningful presence; it refers not only to a simple presence (Urbinati, 2000). Fraser has framed the relationship between representation and justice. For him, representation is justice from the political dimension along with the economic dimension of redistribution and the cultural dimension of redistribution. It is a stage where the negotiations of distribution and recognition are played out (Fraser, 2005).

Setting the Context

In Nagaland, the ULB elections were not conducted for the last sixteen years.² Though the Nagaland Legislative Assembly since 2006, by inserting Section 23A to the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001 attempted to give thirty-three per cent reservation to women in ULBs by bringing an amendment to the act (Agarwal, 2022). However, the election could not be conducted due to the resistance from the tribal apex bodies of Naga society. The Naga Mothers’ Association and the Joint Action Committee for Women Reservation and the other stakeholders of the Act, argued for conducting the ULB elections and implementing the thirty-three per cent reservation to bring about women’s empowerment and development (Changkija, 2017).

In response to the PIL filed by the civil society organisations, the state government decided to conduct the election in the year 2017. However, the tribal representative bodies of Nagaland in the state protested the government’s decision to have thirty-three per cent reservation of seats for women in the ULB elections in 2017. The protests were organised under the leadership of Naga tribal bodies. They argued that reservations for women are against their customary tribal beliefs and practices and the society is allowed to follow its own customary rules and laws, as guaranteed by Article 371(A) of the Constitution. The protest had reached to that stage where two protesters were killed in police firing in Dimapur and the mob set on fire several government offices including the CM’s residence in Kohima (Kashyap, 2017, February 4).

Consequently, the State Government decided to postpone these elections due to the protest from the larger sections of society. The 140 of the 535 candidates both men and women have withdrawn their nominations under pressure (Acharya, 2017; Kashyap, 2017, January 17). Some of them have been either ex-communicated or boycotted by the respective tribal bodies. So, how can a society be called democratic where half of the population of the state is not given the opportunity to represent themselves?

Political Representation and Women

Globally, the importance of women leadership was taken forward by the Fourth World Women Conference held in Beijing in the year 1995. The issue was outlined to ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making and leadership equally.

After two decades, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasised the necessity to reach the gender equity in leadership through SDG target 5.5. The target mentions about the women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life.

Moreover, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women clearly points out the women’s political equality (Article 7-9) and discusses women’s equal participation at all levels. It further mentions the role of the state to take the initiative to remove discrimination against women in the political and public life. Thus, it ensures the women participation in the policy formulation, its execution and to perform all the functions to the level of government (ESCAP, 2019).

Therefore, all these global commitments express the concern for women’s equal access to political office is a significant step towards achieving a gender just society. There are several positive outcomes of women’s presence in the decision-making bodies. It positively influences the female voter turn-out, female political participation and public services responsiveness towards women with the presence of women in decision-making positions across the public and private sectors (Burns et al., 2001).

Globally, the countries are using the fast track quota to include more women to the public offices. The countries are trying to negotiate with the historical injustice done with the women as they were underrepresented in the President’s office, Parliament or other local electoral offices. Stories of quotas are inspiring from different parts of the world. In the 1990s, women occupied on average eighteen per cent of Parliamentary seats in Rwanda. In 2003, the quota was implemented and by 2008 women occupied more than half of the Rwanda’s Parliament and in 2013 election it went up to two-thirds. It has 61.3 per cent of female representation as per a list compiled by Inter-Parliamentary Union. At the same time, Cuba is having 53.2 per cent and Bolivia with 53.1 per cent also have a large number of women Parliamentarians compared to men (IPU, 2015). However, India is having only twelve per cent representation which does not even cover the global average of 24.1 per cent of the lower houses’ seats won by women.

India is still struggling with the women reservation bill which proposes the thirty-three per cent reservation for women in the state assemblies and the parliament. However, the country made a road for women to enter in the decision-making process at local government through the 73rd and 74th amendment of the Indian constitution. The women have been performing well in managing the task of the local government in both panchayats and the urban councils.

Nagaland is state of India situated in the North Eastern part. It is one of the smallest states of India having 1,980,602 population as per the 2011 census. The literacy rate of Nagaland is 80.11 per cent as per the 2011 census. Nagaland is one of the most progressive states of India in terms of gender indicators. According to the 2011 census data, the female literacy rate of Nagaland is 76.11 per cent whereas the national average in literacy rate among females is 65.5 per cent.³ In terms of participation in the economy the female workers of Nagaland are quite active. As per census 2011 report, female main workers constitutes 67.8 per cent to total population which is higher than national level of 59.6 per cent.⁴ Naga women have made significant societal and educational progress which is evident from the fact that out of the top fifty-nine bureaucrats currently listed in Nagaland from and above the level of secretary, fourteen are women.⁵ It can be seen there is a higher level of socio-economic and educational development of women. Despite having good gender indicators in terms of literacy rate, participation in the economy and educational status, Nagaland has a negligence presence of women representation in the legislative assembly. In the state of Nagaland first, the women have a negligence presence in the legislative body or institutional platform. There is no women member in the state legislative assembly since the formation of the state. However, one women member was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha in the year 1977 and one recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha in this year, 2022. Second, despite women’s favourable attitude towards having reservation in the ULB, women are not in a position to influence the state to implement the policy. These paradoxes reflect the position of women in the decision-making process of the state.

Methodology

The article has used multi-sited ethnography under qualitative approach to conduct the study under in Nagaland. Under the study, Dimapur, Kohima and Mokokchung towns were selected to collect data. The protest and mobilisation against the women reservation policy occurred in the entire state of Nagaland in 2017, but these three places have experienced the protest in a vulnerable form. Two protesters were killed in Dimapur during the time of protest. Kohima and Dimapur have Municipal council and the Mokokchung area has town councils. Therefore, these locations were selected as a part of research. The data were collected from August 2021 to July 2022. Thirty in-depth interviews were conducted with the women candidates who had filed nomination for the election, the women who had to withdraw their nomination due to the pressure from the tribal bodies, women party workers of Nagaland and the stakeholders of the civil society organisations.

Reasons for Resistance Against the Women Reservation

Empirical evidence suggests a variety of reasons why women are discouraged from entering politics. The narrative depicts cultural practices and the naive state intervention towards the participation of women in the politics of Nagaland. The following are some of the themes that emerged from empirical data:

Individual Rights Versus Cultural Rights

There is a tension in claiming rights for women because the constitutional cultural rights are violating the individual political rights of women. During the fieldwork, I met the stakeholders of the tribal bodies who were against the women reservation in the Urban Body elections in Nagaland. One of the respondents who was the former President of a Tribal Apex Body said, ‘we are against of women reservation because it is violating our customary laws and beliefs and going against Article 371A of the Indian Constitution which protects the Naga way of life’.⁶

The Article 371A says that no Act of Parliament which speaks about the religious and social practices of the Nagas, Naga customary law and procedure, administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law, ownership and transfer of land and its resources shall apply to the state of Nagaland unless the legislature of Nagaland by a resolution decides.

However, it has been alleged by the respondents that the Naga customary laws being unwritten, men used to interpret them to their own advantage. In the Naga society, due to the customary belief and practices, the women have a lower position than men. Empirical data also suggests that women have a less say in the decisions of a Naga family and the community. One of the respondents said, ‘My brother used to take all the decisions what is necessary for my family, and this is very common in our society’. She further added, ‘We are engaged to kitchen and in the paddy field’.⁷ Since the traditional practices have been going on for so long, it appears that the women have internalised the patriarchal values.

Literature suggests that the Nagas by tradition follow patriarchal social norms (Amer, 2012; Hausing, 2017; Shimray, 2002; Wouters, 2017). Most of the respondents said, ‘We Nagas are Patriarchal in nature. We don’t allow women to be a part of our public meetings and decision-making bodies’.⁸ Zehol (cited in Hausing, 1998) argues that women across the fourteen Naga tribes in Nagaland have unequal rights and access to property, compared to men. They are entitled to acquire property and not inherited property. Women did not have equal rights for the ownership of land. Naga society has deeply penetrated patriarchal values, for example, the feast of merit could be performed only by a male (Hausing, 2017). In the ancient time, men took initiative in hunting and hunting had a matter of pride in Naga villages. Therefore, men had a superior status than women and women were left behind household activities.

The empirical data suggests that traditional practice and culture are taken as the source of legitimate power for men in the society. Through customary law, respondents are strengthening their position to be in power. Violating women’s rights has been normalised by the respondents.

Power Contestation

Power at the hands of women can mobilise and empower other women. Studies highlighted that greater descriptive representation can help as a way to empower the historically disadvantaged and excluded groups (Dovi, 2002; Mansbridge, 2009; Phillips, 1995; Williams, 1998). However, instead of giving opportunity to Naga women in the ULB election, there is a growing insecurity among the men of losing the seats as the government has identified the reserved wards for women. One of the female respondents, who is also a prominent activist, said, ‘Most of the tribes feel that town, ward and committee are the ancestral words of men because in the traditional self-governing institutions, women were not given the chance to take part. Therefore, they just refused to accept it and that is the real problem’.⁹

Further, she was citing some examples of seat calculation in the Kohima Municipal council. Suppose initially six seats are reserved for women, which implies men will not get opportunity to contest in those seats. After five years, another six seats will be reserved for women. Moreover, women with their hard work and better performance will capture the the votes in unreserved seats which were once captured by them as reserved seats. So, in total twelve men will lose out. And the process goes on. She claimed that after calculating the seats in the Municipal Council, the Naga man realised that they would have a less chance of getting elected once woman come to power. Therefore, she said,

Naga man wants to discuss every issue related to women except the reservation. Hohos are really very vocal in raising issues related to violence and crime against women. But whenever it comes to election or reservation of seats in the council for women, they are not willing to discuss.¹⁰

This kind of arrangement generates a fear of being outnumbered from politics among the male political aspirants against women. Therefore, there is a strong resistance which contains the hegemonic masculine discourse over political language and male dominance in the political seats works as an instrument of kicking out the women from local elections. This kind of power domination excludes the women from entering the political institutions which otherwise would have helped women in encouraging political engagement at the citizen level.

Financial Burden

There was a huge protest from the common villagers and the other sections of the society. Youths and women were coming in a large number for the protest against the women reservation in the ULB election of Nagaland. During the fieldwork in Kohima, one of female activists who was engaged in the legal battle of the Supreme Court for implementation of the women reservation explained the reasons of women joining more in number for the protest as,

There was a misinformation got spread during the protest that if the Municipal Act gets implemented, the villagers will have to pay tax on land, for their pigs, cows and other belongingness. Such a kind of misinterpretation was circulated during that period. As a result, a lot of people came and join in the protest.¹¹

Under Section 10(26) of Income Tax Act, 1961, a member of ST category residing in tribal area under para 20 of 6th schedule areas of the Northeast are exempted from paying tax (Income Tax Act, 1961).

In the context of opposition against women reservation, Naga writers Charles Chaise (2017) mentioned about the comprehension of Naga people regarding the taxes. He also referred to the incident where the first British political officer was killed in 1879 and followed by the war against the British. Therefore, along with the other reasons, the taxation again another factor of mobilising the crowd to the protest in a huge number (cited on 5 February, The Morung Express, 2017).

Wouters (2017) were of the view that rather than opposing the women reservation, the Naga people have apprehension for modern institutions like ULB to encroach Naga’s land and other resources.

Wouters (2017: 21) elegantly put it:

For A Z Phizo, who captained the Naga National Council (NNC) into its struggle for independence, the idea of sovereignty itself was always less about state, courts, and a Weberian monopoly on violence, but crucially hinged on Naga’s unconditional ownership over their land and its resources, cattle and other possessions, and communitarian ethics.

Resistance from Political Party

Political parties are the key institutions in the public deliberations and policy-making process in Indian democracy. There is a hidden resistance for women entering in politics. The political parties practice some informal masculine cultures which traditionally limit the women to develop the leadership quality and also keep subordinating the position of women. During the visits to different party offices in Kohima and campaigning meetings, it has been observed that the women party workers are engaged in traditional women’s role. Empirical data suggests women are quite active in arranging party meetings and in door-to-door campaign and other programs initiated by political parties. However, the party nominates the women as candidate from a very smaller number of constituencies in Nagaland. One of the aspiring women candidates said, ‘I went to the office of three political parties to get the ticket from my constituency. But no political party was willing to give me a ticket. Finally, I fought as an independent candidate’.¹²

Women possess less economic resources in Nagaland compared to men. As per the customary laws of different tribes in Nagaland, women traditionally do not have the ancestral land rights which make them economically dependent on the male members of the household. Most of the respondents alleged that elections in Nagaland are very expensive and it requires a lot of money. Therefore, a women candidate who does not have enough resources is unable to afford the expenses without the support of any political party. Even the political parties are not willing to give ticket to women candidate as they have less chances of winning because of their vulnerable economic position. In that context, one of the candidates expresses her view, ‘In Nagaland, there is no political party to spend money and back the women candidate in election and without money there is zero chance of winning in elections in Nagaland’.¹³ Hillman (2018) argues that along with the cultural challenges, institutional factors such as voting system and party funding make hindrances to women’s entry in the party as well as in the Parliamentary politics of Indonesia. However, in the context of Nagaland, except the voting system both the cultural challenges and party funding put a barrier for women in entering into politics.

Way Forward

From the above discussion, it is observed that the challenges faced by the women reservation policy in Nagaland are due to the involvement of the multiple factors. It has been alleged by the respondents that giving political rights to women will violate the customary law of the Naga people which is also going against the Article 371A of the Indian constitution. There is on-going battle of tradition versus accommodating the modern values which is going against the accessing the rights of women. Absence of gender equality in constitutionally protected cultural rights has created an environment where women are denied any meaningful right to voice their concerns in the political platforms resulting in the acceptance of male dominance in the grass root level. However, in that scenario, customary law should not be a static one. Rather the customary law should be a living law of any society. Ndulo in reference to the customs and women’s rights in Africa argues that when it comes to the legislation of customary laws, court should play a role to ensure in promotion of equality between men and women. As the customary laws are living principle, it must be implemented by taking care of the lived experiences of the people (Ndulo, 2011). She also mentions the Zambia constitution where there is a provision which limits the implementing the provisions speaks about discrimination in the personal laws (ibid). With time, customary law should incorporate the progressive changes in society. Mutual respect and non-discrimination should be the core of customary law before it gets constitutional protection.

Further, the respondents of tribal bodies try to link the issue of reservation for women with the violation of culture-specific group rights. But when it comes to the basic liberty of women, there is a severe injustice going on in the name of protecting Naga culture. Literature suggests that Article 371(A) tries to put hyper masculine interpretation of customary laws to reinforce Naga patriarchy and exclude women from positions of decision-making processes (Amer, 2012; Kikon, 2017). In that context, it can be said in the line of Okin (1998) regarding protecting the rights of the women of a cultural group. She mentioned that while providing group rights, inequalities should be given special attention because inequalities between sexes are less visible in nature. Therefore, through the representation in the political forum, women should be given the chance of participation as well deliberations in the political negotiations. However, there is an urgent need of deconstruction of sociocultural masculine attitudes so that the political marginalisation of women can be discouraged to some extent. To bring a change in the attitude among the upcoming generations, an initiative can be taken through the development of curriculum for building new insights on gender relations.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Prof. Jagannath Ambagudia, Campus Director, TISS Guwahati for providing suggestions and comments on the article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes

ORCID iD

Sujata Buragohain

References

Acharya

(2017, January 18). Nagaland civic polls: 140 candidates withdraw from ULB election fearing persecution. Firstpost .

Agarwal

(2022, April 9). Explained: The significance of Nagaland govt’s green signal for thirty-three per cent reservation for women in civic bodies. Indian Express .

Amer

(2012). Women’s political status and engagement: A study of Nagaland . Akansha Publishing House.

Burns

, Schlozman

K. L.

,. & Verba

(2001). The private roots of public action: Gender, equality, and political participation . Harvard University Press.

Changkija

(2017, February 7). Equality’s time has come. Indian Express .

Deveaux

(2006). Gender and justice in multicultural liberal states . OUP.

Dovi

(2002). Preferable descriptive representatives: Will just any woman, black, or Latino do? American Political Science Review , 96(4), 729–743.

ESCAP

(2019). Women’s political participation and leadership .

Fraser

(2005). Reframing justice: The 2004 Spinoza lectures . Van Gorcum.

10.

Hausing

K. K. S.

(2017). ‘Equality as tradition’ and women’s reservation in Nagaland. Economic & Political Weekly , 45, 36–45.

11.

Hillman

(2018). The limits of gender quotas: Women’s parliamentary representation in Indonesia. Journal of Contemporary Asia , 48(2), 322–338.

12.

IPU. (2015). Proportion of seats held by women in National Parliaments . The World Bank. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS

13.

Kashyap

S. G.

(2017, January 17). India’s Nagaland civic polls: 72 more withdraw as boycott threat continues. Indian Express .

14.

Kashyap

S. G.

(2017, February 4). Nagaland violence: Why the anger? Tribals allege quota rule hits tradition, state’s status. Indian Express .

15.

Kikon

(2017). The myth of the empowered Naga woman. Why Naga women are demanding a chair at the tribal Assembly? Indian Express . https://indianexpress.com/article/gender/the-myth-of-the-empowered-naga-woman-why-naga-women-are-demanding-a-chair-at-the-tribal-assembly-4994021

16.

Mansbridge

(2009). A “selection model” of political representation. Journal of Political Philosophy , 17(4), 369–398.

17.

Ndulo

(2011). African customary law, customs, and women’s rights. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies , 18(1), 87–120.

18.

Okin

S. M.

(1998). Feminism and multiculturalism: Some tensions. Ethics , 108(4), 661–684.

19.

Okin

S. M.

(1999). Is multiculturalism bad for women? Princeton University Press.

20.

Phillips

(1995). The politics of presence . Clarendon Press.

21.

Reddy

(2008). Gender, culture and the law: Approaches to ‘honour crimes’ in the UK. Feminist Legal Studies , 108(3), 305–321.

22.

Shachar

(2001). Multicultural jurisdictions: Cultural differences and women’s rights . Cambridge University Press.

23.

Shimray

U. A.

(2002). Equality as tradition: Women’s role in Naga society. Economic & Political Weekly , 37(5), 375–377.

24.

Spinner-Halev

(2001). Feminism, multiculturalism, oppression, and the state. Ethics , 112(1), 84–113.

25.

Urbinati

(2000). Representation as advocacy: A study of democratic deliberation. Political Theory , 28, 258–786.

26.

Williams

(1998). Voice, trust and memory: Marginalised groups and the failure of liberal representation . Princeton University Press.

27.

Wouters

(2017). Land tax, reservation for women and customary law in Nagaland. Economic & Political Weekly , 52(9), 20–23.