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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
this idcal means endorscinent of the subordinatio: of woman to man. For, in a patriarchal joint family, as the Maharani of Baroda aptly puts it. women are not co-partners, but mere dependents. No amount of lyrical legends and mystic doctrines abou fictitious iccals of spiritual partnership cair lriile the fact of actual subordination which, excopt in rare cases, amounts to veritable slavery: The ideal of Indian womanhood, then, is self abnegation for the preservation of the patriarchal family which tolcrates no individual right, 116! freciom, even in the case of man.
The animus against individualism shows thai the glorification of the ideal of Indian woma.?. hood is dictated by a reactionary social philosophy. How can the aspirations of the modern woman be countenancul by those whose sentiments were expressed by Dr. Bhagwan Das, when he declared. “as an Indian I do not believe in individualism”: With all its apparent bollness, it is rather a danaging declaration to cone from people who pretend to be fighting for the political liberation of India. It reveals the nature of their ideal of political freedom. indiviilualisin is the philosophical foundation of political democracy. Representative Government, government responsiblc to the people, popular sovereignty-all these forms of political freedom derive their legal and moral sanction from the doctrine that the function of the State is to protect the rights and liberties of the indivi.
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