WOMAN ON THE MARCH ... 1
Man is not superior to woman nor is woman superior to man. Both are manifestations of an underlying essential existence which the Upanishads declare as Brahman. It is, thus, puerile and perverse to affirm irrational gender differences citing scriptural texts that have outlived their significance in being effective guides to humanity in the context of modern living.
Patriarchy reduced the status of woman to being inferior to that of man and many a religion drove deep this idea of feminine inferiority into the mindset of womanhood across the world. But times have changed and these assertions have been proven to be unfounded in reason and in point of scientific fact. As such, they are being rejected the world over but not without significant opposition from men who stand to lose their age-old domination over their womenfolk. Consequently, a battle of the genders is being fought in both the ideological plane and in the practical plane for the last one hundred years or so which is commonly dubbed the 'feminist movement'.
Women are on the march everywhere. The rise of science and technology are freeing them from being merely the bearers of babies and the carriers of the cares and chores of the household. Increasingly they are being visible in every sphere of social activity despite discrimination galore that they face everywhere including in that of the payment they receive vis-a-vis the men for the same work done. But the movement irresistibly is on and women are unshackling themselves to emerge into life and freedom.
The past ever forges its inertial links on man and binds him in blind adherence to archaic absolutist injunctions of religion which today remain as its remnants in the form of lingering social trappings in an emergent modern society. Religion reinforces such blind social practices by lending them divine sanction. Progress in any line of life-improvement is, thus, slow and laborious. But the forces of social evolution, nonetheless, relentlessly keep advancing the cause of human freedom from the chains of past prejudice and practices thereof. Now the liberation of woman is, thus, a fait accompli and nothing can resist its onward march.
And nothing ought to resist it as well, for, if mothers and sisters and daughters are not free, where lies the possibility of mass human freedom when men are born of the womb of woman?
End of Part 1
To be continued ...
Written by Sugata Bose
Man is not superior to woman nor is woman superior to man. Both are manifestations of an underlying essential existence which the Upanishads declare as Brahman. It is, thus, puerile and perverse to affirm irrational gender differences citing scriptural texts that have outlived their significance in being effective guides to humanity in the context of modern living.
Patriarchy reduced the status of woman to being inferior to that of man and many a religion drove deep this idea of feminine inferiority into the mindset of womanhood across the world. But times have changed and these assertions have been proven to be unfounded in reason and in point of scientific fact. As such, they are being rejected the world over but not without significant opposition from men who stand to lose their age-old domination over their womenfolk. Consequently, a battle of the genders is being fought in both the ideological plane and in the practical plane for the last one hundred years or so which is commonly dubbed the 'feminist movement'.
Women are on the march everywhere. The rise of science and technology are freeing them from being merely the bearers of babies and the carriers of the cares and chores of the household. Increasingly they are being visible in every sphere of social activity despite discrimination galore that they face everywhere including in that of the payment they receive vis-a-vis the men for the same work done. But the movement irresistibly is on and women are unshackling themselves to emerge into life and freedom.
The past ever forges its inertial links on man and binds him in blind adherence to archaic absolutist injunctions of religion which today remain as its remnants in the form of lingering social trappings in an emergent modern society. Religion reinforces such blind social practices by lending them divine sanction. Progress in any line of life-improvement is, thus, slow and laborious. But the forces of social evolution, nonetheless, relentlessly keep advancing the cause of human freedom from the chains of past prejudice and practices thereof. Now the liberation of woman is, thus, a fait accompli and nothing can resist its onward march.
And nothing ought to resist it as well, for, if mothers and sisters and daughters are not free, where lies the possibility of mass human freedom when men are born of the womb of woman?
End of Part 1
To be continued ...
Written by Sugata Bose
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