Gandhian view on Humanity, women in particular

Gandhian view on Humanity

Mahatma Gandhi had expressed his views  on numerous issues that concerned the Indian Society in particular and humanity in general.  The perception of the self is a matter of conditioning.  The way men and women perceive themselves is also a matter of conditioning that had and is taking place since the dawn of human race on earth.  Given the biological differences, can woman be psychologically different from man?  Can women be cerebrally inferior to man?  I am sure that the answer would be clear ‘No’.  Yet, differential conditioning over many a millennia have contributed to the perception that both men and women are different, both psychologically and cerebrally.  Religion, customs and laws from times immemorial had relegated women to the backyards of human civilization.  When you fear the power of the other and when you have no means to equal the other, you connive and lay traps for the subjugation of the other.  This is what the history of hitherto existing man’s civilization has done to women, save exceptions like the Mahatma.

Unlike many other noble souls who wrote and worked with the principle of sexual equality in mind, Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, sought to bring about a revolutionary change in the status of women in the first half of the 20th century.  The views expressed by the Mahatma and the actions undertaken by him may not go entirely with the current times because the times have irreversibly changed but the honesty of the Mahatma, the love and respect he had for women can never be doubted.

The Mahatma said that women have been suppressed under custom and law for which man was responsible and in the shaping of which she had no hand.   Rules of social conduct must be framed by mutual co-operation and consultation.   Women have been taught to regard themselves as slaves of men.  Women must realize their full status and play their part as equals of men.

Women must not suffer any legal disability which is not suffered by men.  Both are perfectly equal. Sexual equality does not translate into occupational equality in spite of the absence of a legal bar.  Women instinctively recoil from a function that belongs to men.  Nature has created sexes as complements of each other.  Their functions are defined as are their forms.

The Mahatma’s view on sexual equality will not be taken kindly either by the modern man or the woman.  The instinctive recoiling of women from a function that belongs to men is a consequence of historical indoctrination.  What belongs to men and what belongs to women is deeply embedded in the psyche of men and women.  The question is therefore who should complement whom.  It should be matter of choice both for the man and the woman as husband and wife as to what vocation they should take up.  It is unjust to expect the women to complement as a matter of an unwritten rule. To say that their functions are defined as are their forms is to emphasize on the sexual division of labor.  The theory of sexual division of labor has been set aside by the developments since the departure of the Mahatma.   Today men and women, compete and co-operate, complement and even supplant each other.  However, the Mahatma’s view on women being a complement of man should be looked at from the point of view of his intention.  The Mahatma’s intention was honest.  He wanted to protect the institution of family and at the same time exalt women with equal status.

Marriage is a sacrament.   It is a natural thing in life Thinking of the state of affairs in our country, very few Indians need marry at the present time.  The purpose of marriage is to get progeny but all progeny that is born now is the issue of passion, mean and faithless.   Gandhi advised young men not to marry till twenty five or thirty.  He preferred arranged marriages but the young man needs to be consulted by the parents if he is more than  twenty five Marriage has become a contract between consenting individuals.  It is an artificial fact of life.  His views on the age at marriage for young men are however relevant to this day.  His view that marriages should be arranged by parents and that a young man of more than  twenty five  should be consulted by the parents reflects upon the fact that the Mahatma had a traditional view of life and that he wanted reforms within the tradition.
Equality of men and women is the need of the hour. They made to compliment each other. if so they should have equal status

Courtesy

www.sacredtext.com
www.mkgandhi.org