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JAINISM AND WORLD PROBLEMS
William McDougall, the distinguished psychologist, scientist and philosopher also says :
“Do not believe those false guides who tell you that there are no differences between men and women other than those of gross anatomy. The differences are so subtle as to escape all easy definition; but they are profound and profoundly important .... The double standard may be regrettable ; but it is rooted in the differences, mental and physical, which will endure in spite of all protests." (see Character and The Conduct of Life by Wm. McDougall, page 205).
Probably the learned author of “ Istri Mukti” had not these important words of two of the acutest thinkers of our race in his mind when he set out to show that women were equal to men in all respects, including the obtainment of salvation. Strictly speaking the controversy is futile, and has entirely an academical interest, like that about the ability of sudras to attain nirvana, since no one can now obtain salvation from our part of the world for the next 81,510 years to come. At the end of this period an Omniscient Teacher shall arise and re-instruct mankind in the Science of Religion, and will settle all their doubts and disputes. A controversy like this is, therefore, only calculated to intensify the feeling of disunion between rival creeds unnecessarily, and should, as far as possible, be avoided in the interest of amity and love of mankind.
As for the merits of the book under review, its author is undoubtedly a clever reasoner and a subtle advocate, but the work before us is not characterised by that degree of unbiassed intellectual vigour which we are accustomed to look for in the weighty pronouncements of efficient judges. It is not that the author holds the brief for some rival creed ; he is merely a victim to a delusion of his own that the acharyas have introduced a conception or rather a misconception of their own in this instance in the Scriptures. He gives no cogent reason why the acharyas should have done so. I
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