In his article, "Let's kill Socrates" (Herald, Voice of Opinion, October 8, 2017), Peter Fernandes rightly said, "In every generation since Socrates, the enemies of truth have sought to kill Socrates, but ironically Socrates lives on." Indeed, whenever some people start questioning retrograde mores, those who have vested interest in regressive practices and prejudices try to silence them and kill them. But what should we do in a such a situation? Should we support Socrates or his killers? Unfortunately, those who have a vested interest, brainwash us into believing that the past was always very good - Satyayug (age of truth) and the present is very very bad - Kaliyug (age of anarchy). So, we need to cling to our past and march backwards. This makes us quite apprehensive about our evolutionary progress. We tend to believe that old is gold and thus willy-nilly support the act of silencing Socrates. But when the logic of Socrates penetrates deep into the hard skin of status quo defence, then the evolutionary progress of humankind again gets going.
We know that discriminatory practices like the sati had been defended by the logic that Hindu women did it "voluntarily and respectfully". Now, it is argued that innumerable women in the Muslim community still believe in polygamy and in the system of triple talaq. Therefore, those practices must not be dismantled for the sake of some women who are fighting against those age-old religious customs. And in defence of wearing of a sacred thread and other casteist mores, it is said those customs are as innocent practices as that of going to a temple/ mosque/ church!
There is nothing to worry about as evolutionary progress keeps on giving us Socrates in every age. Thus, we got Socrates in Raja Ram Mohan Roy to stop women from "voluntarily and respectfully" killing themselves in the name of sati; in Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar to stop "honouring" widows by allowing their re-marriage and in Kemal Atatürk to deny Muslim women their "right" to wear burqa. Indeed, burqa has become a liability for Muslim women in India’s tropical weather as girls are coming out more and more to get higher education and job. Yet, religious pressure makes many women in the Muslim community accept this liability. On the other hand, religious practice of wearing a sacred thread by Brahmin Hindu community gives Dalits a non-sacred identity.
