down as a system. The restructuring of roles in the new barbaric age had brought about a split and polarization of the basic, balanced and androgynous human personality. Women were now caricatured as epitomes of all the soft and submissive characteristics. Male models, on the other hand, exaggerated the harsh and the bellicose. Both the female and the male stood simultaneously perverted. In nature’s design a man could certainly possess some so-called feminine qualities and a woman could also easily posses some so-called masculine qualities. This was what Joshi meant by androgynous personality. The patriarchy which emerged from the wars of plunder, has survived for such a long time as to appear not only a natural system but even “the” system. The situation in this country of ours was graver than anywhere else. No other country on the globe carried so many scars of internal conflicts and successive invasions. Because of the prolonged warlike situation, the condition of the women here in the 19th century marked perhaps the lowest ever anywhere. Practices like Sati, tonsuring of the widows, total prohibition on education provided only a few glimpses of the inhuman injustice to women. With the exception of the few fortunate women from famous families, who were probably more privileged than even their male counterparts, the typical woman in the country was more harassed, oppressed, exploited than anywhere else. Fortunately, the armed conflicts had become rarer since Second World War and that offered some hope for the new thinking which could lead to the liberation of women because their earlier role, dictated by frequent armed conflicts, could now change. Joshi was also clear that the developments of modern technology, especially in the field of automation, would enable women to do almost all jobs that traditionally have been assigned to men. The importance of physical strength, which 224
Q
Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
