Mar 31, 2009

Aparajita

In our country lakhs of women sell themselves everyday in brothels, thousands of girl children are killed because they are girls. Domestic servitude, violence, sexual abuse, rape are social evils soul of woman is indefatigably struggling against for past few centuries. Even in the “democratic and free” capitalism these evils loom over society. The “end of history” capitalism has not able to untie this knot because this knot and several other intricate knots compose this self strangled system, and yes it is not possible to eradicate these practices in this system unless the bourgeoisie machinery is not smashed and replaced with a better social system. Although the subjugation of women by men arose when private property came to existence, but capitalism is not birth place of supremacy of men. We must look historical development of family and its transformation as history moves so as to understand the polarization of power between two sexes.
The course of history does not transverse linearly but spirally evolves along the axis of class struggle. But this spiral itself is very intricate, fabricated of various interwoven spiral, circular and complex developments which keep melting and thawing as the contradictions governing them change. The family evolves as the relations between its constituent atoms, men and women, change. Whole development of family in most scientific way is explained by Engels in his book “The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State”. The transition of human from ape, for achievement of greatest advance nature can show, an animal as defenseless as evolving man required united strength and co-operation of herd to survive, mutual toleration among adult males, freedom from jealousy, was the first condition for formation of large herds. Thus came into existence the most primitive form of family-Group marriage, the primitive communistic household , the form of family in which whole groups of men and women mutually posses each other. The kind of marriage existed for whole savagery and lower stage of barbarism, and with time different forms of group marriages gradually arose. First one reported to have existed was Consanguine family, where practice of promiscuous intercourse gives way to sexual intercourse between women and men of same generations, and this to finally Punaluan family, form in which brother and sister were excluded from sexual intercourse. On account of greater nearness in age, this second advance was infinitely more important but also more difficult. It was effected gradually, beginning with exclusion from sexual intercourse of own brothers and sisters first and then ending with prohibition of marriage even between first, second and third cousins. Here it can be seen this change affords the operation of principle of natural selection but which acted unconsciously. In all forms of group family it is uncertain who is the father of a child; but it is certain who its mother is, the recognition of descent was exclusively through mother, or the family was matriarchal family. “This communistic household, in which most or all of the women belong to one and same clan [gens], while men come from various gens, is the material foundation of supremacy of women”. (Engels) But still there was no subjugation of one sex by other. In transition from savagery to barbarism with the practice of prohibition of marriage between relatives which include several hundred degrees of kinship, complications of these prohibitions made group marriages more and more impossible; and finally they were displaced with pairing family in which one man lives with one woman. Other very important reason for this transition was the increased oppression on women. “The more the traditional sexual relations lost the native primitive character of forest life, owing to development of economic conditions with consequent undermining of the old communism and growing density of population, the more oppressive and humiliating must the women have felt them to be, and greater their longing for right for chastity, of temporary or permanent marriage with one man only, as a way of release”. (Engels)
In this stage, in barbarism with domestication of animals and breeding of herds humans found hitherto unsuspected source of wealth. And as instruments of labour belonged to men and household goods to women, the increase in wealth strengthened the position of men in family. This strength is quite reflected in the social decrees, although one man lives with one woman but polygamy and occasional infidelity remain the right of men, while for woman strictest fidelity is demanded and adultery on her part is cruelly punished. And still according to custom of that society mother-right was followed; his children could not inherit from him. In proportions wealth increased it made men’s position in family more strong, which finally led to overthrow of mother-right, “the overthrow of mother-right was world historic defeat of female sex. The men took command in home also; the women were degraded and reduced to servitude, she became slave of his lust and mere instrument for production of children”. (Engels) This also served the development of monogamous family which men affected to develop, to strengthen his position strong ever. The period of transition from barbarism to civilization comes out with development of monogamous family. It was first form of family to be based, not on natural, but on economic conditions. It differentiates itself from pairing marriage on basis of much stronger marriage tie, as it was only men who could dissolve it. Monogamous marriage comes as subjugation of one sex by other; it announces a struggle between the sexes unknown throughout the whole previous prehistoric period. Along with the supremacy men enjoy over in the house, the old comparative sexual freedom has yet not disappeared but this develops in favour of men. Co-existent with monogamous marriage, sexual intercourse between men and unmarried women flourishes throughout the period of civilization and develops more and more into open prostitution. With rise of private property which distributes unequally wage labour appears sporadically side by side with slave labour, as appears the open prostitution of free women side by side with forced surrender of slave. “The heritage which group marriage has bequeathed to civilization is double edged, double tongued, divided against to itself, here monogamy there prostitution.” (Engels) Along with this a second contradiction on the part of women arises, as opposition must have other side the reaction, adultery on the part of women became an unavoidable social institution-denounced, severely penalized but impossible to suppress.
With entering into civilization and till now monogamous marriage has not change much of its character, only change being in the bourgeoisie law which gives equal rights to both sexes and both can now call off the marriage if required, but what happens inside the household is not a matter of concern to law, and supremacy of men domestic servitude of women, prostitution and adultery have remained intact. From savagery to civilization human society evolved a lot and the cell of this society, family also evolved from group marriage to monogamy. Should a new family arise out of the monogamous family, it did but the change is not evolution but a metamorphosis, proletarian class possess no private property, for preservation and inheritance of which monogamy and male supremacy were established, here there is no incentive to make this male supremacy effective. Also there is no means to do so. “Bourgeois law, which protects this supremacy exist only for possessing class and their dealings with the proletarians. Large scale industry has taken the proletarian wife out of the home onto the labour market and into industry, and made her often the bread-winner of family, no basis for any male supremacy is left in the proletarian household – except, perhaps, for something of the brutality towards women that has spread since the introduction of monogamy. The proletarian family is therefore no longer monogamous in the strict sense, even where there is passionate love and firmest loyalty on both sides and may be all the blessings of religious and civil authority. Here, therefore eternal attendants of monogamy, hetaerism and adultery, play only an almost vanishing part. The wife has in fact regained the right to dissolve the marriage, and if two people cannot get with one another, they prefer to separate. In short, proletarian marriage is monogamous in the etymological sense of the word, but not at all in its historical sense”. (Engels)
The most advanced class of our time, proletarian class shows the society a sight of our future, the futuristic relations and the futuristic society which in coming time will replace the present crisis-ridden, filthy, parasitic capitalist system. Then only women will again participate into social production, which was excluded for her in historical monogamous marriage, both women and men will come on level of equal economic and political freedom. The only way to do this is in understanding our historical duty, to guide the proletarian men and women to the way of socialism, by ruthlessly smashing the faulty bourgeois machinery. So called evils will slowly wither away as new social relations will slowly crystallize. Then only the struggle of Aparajita will finally be destined.

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