The row continued on Friday, growing more intense, and both Houses eventually had to adjourn till August 1.
The matter has also triggered an old debate on how to address a woman President, particularly in Hindi.
When India’s first woman President, Pratibha Patil, took over the post in 2007, a similar debate had ensued. Some had suggested ‘Rashtrapatni’ but it was rejected at the time. Eventually, Patil was referred to as Rashtrapati (Hindi for President).
Women’s rights activists have, however, lashed out at the term Rashtrapati as they say it is gender biased and patriarchal (Pati means husband in Hindi).
A debate since 1947
During a Constituent Assembly debate in July 1947, an amendment called for replacing the word ‘Rashtrapati’ with ‘Neta’ or ‘Karandhar (Captain)’, but it was not pursued further as a committee was to look into it. Later, it was decided to continue with ‘Rashtrapati’ as the Hindi word for President of India.
As the debate resurfaced in December 1948, B R Ambedkar referred to various terms used in the draft Constitution in different languages.
While the English draft proposed the word ‘President’, the Hindustani draft talked about ‘Hind ka ek President’, using ‘Hind’ for the name of the country and ‘President’ for the top-most post.
The Hindi draft, interestingly, used the word ‘Pradhan’ and not Rashtrapati, while the Urdu draft used ‘Sardar‘, Ambedkar had said.
Constituent Assembly member from Bihar K T Shah, during the debate, had called for referring to the President of India as “the Chief Executive and Head of the State’. Shah’s amendment was rejected after some members vehemently opposed it.
Rashtrapradhan?
Some women’s rights activists have pointed out that many words and phrases have been replaced with more gender-neutral terms in various spheres (spokesman has made way for spokesperson, chairman for chairperson, and in cricket, batsman for batter) and that it is now time to do the same for India’s top Constitutional post.
Social activist and human rights campaigner Shabnam Hashmi said there should be a gender-neutral term for president like that of chairperson. “Mantri also doesn’t reflect gender but the moment you say ‘pati’ and ‘patni’ there are other connotations too,” she said.
However, some activists believe that since president is a constitutional post it is already gender neutral.
Ranjana Kumari, a social activist and the director of the Centre for Social Research, said whether male or female, the president has similar power, and authority and it is a constitutional position. “So I don’t understand why people are confused.”
“But if at all the government wants a gender-neutral term they can call it ‘Rashtrapradhan’. But I don’t see why we should look at Rashtrapati as a gender-loaded term because ‘pati’ is not really anyone’s husband here so I don’t see the reason for controversy. I see it as a very silly thing to call her ‘Rashtrapatni’ and it was very insulting. Rashtrapati should not be changed, making it gender neutral. I consider it a gender-neutral term already,” she said.
Akancha Srivastava, social activist and the founder of Akancha Srivastava Foundation, a non-profit organisation that works towards cyber safety knowledge said, “I think we have bigger issues to focus on and if there was something that brings down the person by this term then we could have looked into it but there is nothing as such.”
(With inputs from agencies)
