Challenging the Tyranny of Social Customs

TYRANNY OF CUSTOM
Customs, traditions and usages are the result of long experience of people living at a particular period. When certain things are found to be useful for a certain society, these things are being adopted by the people of that time. Later on those practices are transmitted to the posterity, and then they take the form of the customs and traditions. Customs an therefore, the expression of the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors Our ancestors in all walk of life setup.

Customs and traditions. Thus, we have social customs, political customs, racial customs etc. Customs of the earlier stages of their operation were not tyrannical They were wholesome and salutary. They regulated the life and the habit; of the people of a particular time. Acting in accordance or in conformity with the customs and traditions set up by experienced people, human beings could easily follow the path of progress and advancement.

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Custom; became the torchbearers and beacons of hope to the people of those times Customs continues to exercise their healthy effect on human society, long as the condition, in which they operated, continued to prevail.

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The tyranny of customs began to be experienced or felt by the people where customs began to be applied blindly even when the social conditions had undergone a change. Customs really proved to be tyrannical when they were followed or pursued even when they had become out-of-date. Certain social customs began to show their tyranny and cruelty with the passage of time.

For example, the custom of Sati which was once a good one when devoted wives voluntarily chose to die with their dead husbands began to be tyrannical when women were forced, much against their will to embrace flames which consumed the dead-bodies of their husbands.

Similarly, the custom of keeping the widows in their widowhood without allowing them to remarry became extremely tyrannical and the Bengali widows had been the worst victim of this tyranny of customs. Let us take the practice of Purdah, which is a feature among ladies of high social status in certain countries of Asia and Africa. Ladies, accustomed to Purdah cannot dream of playing the role of Chand Bibi or Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. Like a bird, kept in the cage they feel ill at ease outside the confines of their dwelling houses. Being deprived of opportunities for studying life at various levels, they remain poor in worldly wisdom and their outlook remains narrow. Instead of making their due contribution to the cause of their community's progress they constitute a drag on it. The custom of putting women's feet in a pair of tight wooden shoes all the time and for long periods, was universally observed in China and Japan till recent past and has not, perhaps, wholly disappeared even now. The purpose of this custom is alleged to be to prevent women from growing their feet to the usual normal size which may help them to walk and run like men and elope with a paramount at the first available opportunity.

This artificial check on the growth of a limb, locked up in a hard wooden case at an early age, causes an extreme—rather unbearable—pain in the imprisoned organ and the victim has to bear the nerve splitting agony weeping in silence, as moaning or crying would he considered a shameless and immodest act. From the few examples, cited above, we can realize the tyranny or baneful influence of customs in our social life. Customs check progress and advancement, and adherence to the old customs mars the growth and development of healthy life. Customs prove to be impediments in the free will of a person and make him a slave in his outlook; under the force of custom it becomes impossible for a person to have his own way and act according to his own free will. Many reformers from time to time raised their voice to throw off the yoke of baneful customs. Mahatima Gandhi, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Swami Dayanand, were some of the great social reformers who waged war against many social evils and tyrannical customs, like child marriage, untouchability, Purdah, feast for the dead etc. To a great extent they did succeed in their noble missions. In the modern age every democratic government is doing its bit to purge the people of the evil customs.

For doing away with the evil and tyrannical customs, it is essential for the new generations to evolve a broad and cosmopolitan outlook. Our government, with the help of legislation not be able to tackle this crucial problem, which has its roots in the and moral soil. We need a new type of social and ethical education which is to create a new orientation of our social and moral outlook and develop in us an enlightened and reformative attitude towards our society at the country. Tyranny of social customs must be done away with or and for the good or else our new India will not take her place in at community of great nations of the world.

THE TYRANNY OF INDIAN SOCIAL CUSTOMS
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Man is by nature a social being. Every society is bound by certain costoms. Men follow their social customs blindly or at least want to follow the path of least resistance. In India we have a social life dominated by customs. Indian social customs are deep-rooted and supposed to be age-old. Faithful observance of customs is based on the spirit of conservatism. A custom bound society sticks to traditional ideas and opposes everything that is against the established order. The reason for such a mighty hold of customs on society is that they have the sanction of public opinion. No one dares to violate social customs because of the fear of public ridicule and criticism resultant on their violation. There is no doubt that Indian social customs owe their existence to the hoary past. It is no use disputing the fact that they were evolved and established by wise men of experience and were meant for the good of the society as a whole.

They served the objective of common good and were very well suited to the needs of the times. Wisdom and expediency underlying the customs, at least in the context of the times of their evolution, cannot be minimised and challenged because they enjoyed general approval of the community. This is amply proved by their strong hold on us and their existence for such a long time. The utility and acceptability of social customs is neither universal nor perpetual. The gradual evolution of social customs has witnessed birth and death of many of them. The acceptance or rejection of a social custom by the society is generally a result of its utility. The moment a custom loses its utility it loses its currency. But a cursory survey of the history of the evolution of social customs will reveal that many cruel and irrational customs have survived even the general disapproval of society. It is so because these customs create vested interests, that thrive on their continued observance.

Social reformers and great thinkers have tried from time to time to explain to people the irrationality and unsuitability of some of the social customs. Christ, Socrates, Galileo, Buddha, Kabir and Gandhi taught us to break the shackles of meaningless customs and evolve new ones based on reason. But their teachings were ignored by the people. Whatever might have been the merits, advantages and suitability, and virtue of these social customs in meeting the needs of the community life at some particular point of time, it can be asserted without any fear of contradiction from even the staunch conservatives that some of these are not only irrational, outdated and hopelessly meaningless, but merciless and tyrannical as well and require to be changed and modified, if not completely given up, in the context of present day life. Tales of the tyranny of Indian social customs are innumerable. Dowry system, taboo attached to inter-caste, and widow remarriage, practice of untouchability and purdah system are a few convincing examples. It is because of the dowry sytem that girls are considered economic liability, unwanted and inferior.

Many families have been ruined and many young girls have committed suicide because of this cruel and evil custom of dowry. It has played havoc with the lives of young girls and boys. Many young girls were forced to remain unmarried, because their parents were unable to pay dowry for their marriage. There are instances where Man is by nature a social being. Every society is bound by certain costoms. Men follow their social customs blindly or at least want to follow the path of least resistance. In India we have a social life dominated by customs. Indian social customs are deep-rooted and supposed to be age-old. Faithful observance of customs is based on the spirit of conservatism. A custom bound society sticks to traditional ideas and opposes everything that is against the established order. The reason for such a mighty hold of customs on society is that they have the sanction of public opinion. No one dares to violate social customs because of the fear of public ridicule and criticism resultant on their violation.

There is no doubt that Indian social customs owe their existence to the hoary past. It is no use disputing the fact that they were evolved and established by wise men of experience and were meant for the good of the society as a whole. They served the objective of common good and were verywell suited to the needs of the times. Wisdom and expediency underlying the customs, at least in the context of the times of their evolution, cannot be minimised and challenged because they enjoyed general approval of the community. This is amply proved by their strong hold on us and their existence for such a long time.The utility and acceptability of social customs is neither universal nor perpetual. The gradual evolution of social customs has witnessed birth and death of many of them. The acceptance or rejection of a social custom by the society is generally a result of its utility. The moment a custom loses its utility it loses its currency.

But a cursory survey of the history of the evolution of social customs will reveal that many cruel and irrational customs have survived even the general disapproval of society. It is so because these customs create vested interests, that thrive on their continued observance.Social reformers and great thinkers have tried from time to time to explain to people the irrationality and unsuitability of some of the social customs. Christ, Socrates, Galileo, Buddha, Kabir and Gandhi taught us to break the shackles of meaningless customs and evolve new ones based on reason. But their teachings were ignored by the people.Whatever might have been the merits, advantages and suitability, and virtue of these social customs in meeting the needs of the community life at some particular point of time, it can be asserted without any fear of contradiction from even the staunch conservatives that some of these are not only irrational, outdated and hopelessly meaningless, but merciless and tyrannical as well and require to be changed and modified, if not completely given up, in the context of present day life.Tales of the tyranny of Indian social customs are innumerable.

Dowry system, taboo attached to inter-caste, and widow remarriage, practice of untouchability and purdah system are a few convincing examples. It is because of the dowry sytem that girls are considered economic liability, unwanted and inferior. Many families have been ruined and many young girls have committed suicide because of this cruel and evil custom of dowry. It has played havoc with the lives of young girls and boys. Many young girls were forced to remain unmarried, because their parents were unable to pay dowry for their marriage. There are instances where newly married girls were murdered by their husbands and in-laws as they had not brought enough dowry with them. Instances are many to show that young boys and girls have been forced to commit suicide as a result of the taboo against intercaste marriages that attract strong social disapproval. Our social custom does not permit widow remarriage.

Lakhs of young widows are forced to live a life of appalling poverty, abject misery, destitution and acute suffering. So much so that in their own houses they are treated with utter disregard and contempt. Instead of having a compassionate attitude toward them in view of their misfortune and miserable condition, they are considered as ominous. They are often exploited by unscrupulous persons and anti-social elements. The practice of untouchability is inhuman and cruel. Instances of horrible atrocities committed on and murders of the untouchables are reported every now and then. The Harijans are treated as untouchables. Their fault is that they have been born in a particular family. Even if they are learned, virtuous and of high moral, the stigma of untouchability assigns them to the lowest rung in the social hierarchy. These unfortunate people are not allowed to mix with high caste people. They are segregated and not permitted to draw water from the common well. They are forced to work without adequate wages. Many of them live as bonded labourers. Their very sight is considered to have polluting effect. Treatment meted out to them is worse than that to animals. This practice is a black spot or slur on the fair name of humanity.

The purdah system is another customary evil that has prevented the women folk from coming into active social and political life with men on the basis of equality. This has resulted in their utter ignorance and worst form of exploitation. The purdah system is a great hindrance to their education. It also inhibits their free movement. All these factors increase their dependence on men folk, who treat them as their personal possessions. Sati is another inhuman and barbaric custom. Though it is now almost a thing of the past, yet at one time it used to take a heavy toll of life of young widows. Child-marriage is another bane of the lives of those who do not understand the purpose of marriage. Then, there is a long list of customs connected with Sanskaras that are performed from the birth of A man till he dies. These have generally been associated with religion. These disgusting social customs are so deeply and firmly entrenched in the minds of Indians that even the enlightened erws follow them religiously for fear of social condemnation reuniting from their violation.

They involve huge waste of money. Tn certain cases poor people are compelled to incur huge debts to enable them to comply with the formalities of those tyrannical customs, devoid of all rationality and usefulness. It requires extraordinary courage and indomitable will to refuse to follow the beaten path and adopt rational and scientific view of the matters in total disregard of social, sanctions behind these outworn and obsolete customs, which have since long inflicted untold misery on the ignorant masses. The tyranny of social customs has done incalculable hnrm to the Indian society and nation. They have divided the society into many hostile groups. They have deprived the Harijans of a decent human life. They have reduced the I tutus of women to that of a domestic slave or servant. They have ruined the lives of many young, bright boys and girls.

Their effect on our economic life is not insignificant. They are the root cause of our poverty, ignorance, unhappiness, back-Wirdness, strife, disunity and what not. They have prevented the people from marching ahead and have kept them poor, Ignorant and exploited. It is high time we refused to yield to these stupid, illogical and ridiculous customs and listen to the voice of reason. The tyrannical social customs have impeded and hampered the onward march of Indian society. Countless persons have undergone woeful sufferings because Of these. Let us break the fetters of the irrational customs that have brought shame to us. They have outlived their utility. In this age of science and reason, we must free ourselves from the clutches of these inhuman customs.