THE CLASSIC CAGED CONDITION

THE CLASSIC CAGED CONDITION

An individual rises and responds to the challenges of the times. The flock follows. One man's thought and actions become the model for future emulation. Not really a wholesome practice for all time, for times change and the world moves on but the dated, nay, outdated practices hold vast numbers of people down to past prejudices, archaic arbitration and silly superstition.

What then is the way ahead? Growth of ideas, rejection of outdated ones, assimilation into modern cultures and braving the odds to bring about healthy change in backward society. Above all, the creation of a generation of children who shall be free from indoctrination of absolutist religious principles will help modernise the community.

But the relay of ideas from generation to generation by means of daily enforcement and rigorous indoctrination will not easily allow this transformation to take place. Add onto it the element of coercion, punishment and the instilling of fear and fanaticism till the faculties are suspended, and you have your picture perfect of what a monumental task the community faces in its bid to become a progressive polity of peoples.

There is much to sympathise about this caged condition where people, born free, to quote Rousseau, are, nonetheless, bound in chains. Social dynamics will eventually find its way out and force changes but right now the situation is grim with all its consequential fallout.

Written by Sugata Bose