The Relevance of the Past to the Present

The study of India's past assumes special significance in the context of the problems we currently face. Some people clamour for the restoration of ancient culture and civilization, and a substantial number are sentimentally swayed by what they consider to be the past glories of India. This is different from a concern for the preservation of ancient heritage in art and architecture. What they really want to bring back is the old pattern of society and culture. This demands a clear and correct understanding of the past. There is no doubt that Indians of old made remarkable progress in a variety of fields, but this advances alone cannot enable us to compete with the achievements of modern science and technology. We cannot ignore the fact that ancient Indian society was marked by gross social injustice. The lower orders, particularly the shudras and untouchables, were encumbered with disabilities which are shocking to modern mind. Similarly, law and custom diacriminate against women in favour of men. The restoration of the old way of life will naturally revive and strengthen all these inequities. The success of the ancients in surmounting the difficulties all these inequities. The success of the ancients in surmounting the difficulties presented by nature and human factor can build our hope and confidence in the future but any attempt to bring back the past will mean a perpetuation of the social inequality that afflicted India. All this makes it essential for us to understand what a past means. 

      We have many survivals of ancient, medieval, and later times persisting in the present. The old norms, values, social customs, and ritualistic practices are so deeply ingrained in the minds of the people that they cannot easily themselves get rid of them. Unfortunately, these survivals inhibit the development of the individual and the country, and were deliberately fostered in colonial times. India cannot develop rapidly unless such vestiges of the past are eradicated from its society. The caste system and sectarianism hinder the democractic integration and development of India. Caste barriers and prejudices do not allow even educated individuals to appreciate the dignity of manual labour and hamper our unification for a common cause. Though women have been enfranchised, their age-old social subordination prevents them from playing their due role in society, and this is true too of the lower orders of study. Studying the ancient past helps us to deeply examine the roots of these prejudices and discover the causes that sustain the caste system, subordinate women, and promote narrow religious sectarianism. The study of ancient Indian history is, therefore, relevant not only to those who want to underatand the true nature of the past but also to those who seek to understand the nature of the obstacles that hamper India's progress as a nation.