Barin’s many mothers

The gender duality is at the heart of umpteen socio-political problems faced by the humanity. Biologically wired for divergent evolutionary roles, their difference far supersedes the commonality or complementarity. City-based societies pretend to establish some kind of equality through role-reversal in relatively polite environments but such a scenario often hides gargantuan hypocrisy and double-speak. Academic scrutiny, unfortunately, follows an imagined status as the standard instead of the given. Consequently, warped inferences galore the otherwise vibrant feminist debate. Thus, if the present is not a safe guide, the past happens to be still more perilous. Mythological norms and superstitious pretexts rule the group-thinking and any deviation is looked upon as either subversive or adversarial. Be that as it may, an ontological certainty governing this fundamental divide is definitely not to be had.  

Barin’s semi-journalistic accounts transport us to a wealth of anthropological concerns including gender. Judged juxtaposed the integrality of Sri Aurobindo’s literature, they offer countless intersections for introspection which implicitly demand integrity. Heehs imbroglio, perhaps, has prepared us for bolder probes and honest assessments in the realm of the socio-political. [TNM]