ABSTRACT
Part 2 examines public opinion within a citizen’s social universe. While persons of different castes, religions, and genders have to co-exist within a larger spatial universe, the actual social universe of these persons can be quite narrow. Social lives tend to remain homogenous and exclusive. Such exclusion reinforces stereotypes about the so-called “others” and the stereotypes, in turn, discourage people from forging closer ties with those others. Thus, there is co-existence with an emotional distance; just as there is a formal approval of gender equality starkly marked by predominance of gendered roles. These characteristics of India’s social universe pose a challenge for any discourse of unity with fraternity.
