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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONERS DIARY
ideals, the feudal-patriarchal society is an ugly ghost of the past. It lies in ruins, waiting to be cleared away. The ancient ideals have lost all force, their social foundation having been undermined by time and by the impact of modern civilization. They can be defended only with sophisticated arguments, if the defenders are reluctant to play the damaging role of rank reactionaries. The worm, however, is turning. In a rapidly growing number, young educated women are refusing to be deluded by fables, to be taken in by the sophistry of the "modern Rishis ". They live under changing social conditions, and consequently cannot escape the contagion of new ideals. The crisis created by the rise of modern women, inspired by the new ideals of a real freedom and partnership on the basis of equality, has been vividly depicted by one of them already quoted above. Let me quote her once again.
"Any woman, who dares to solve her personal problems outside the rigid framework of the feudalistic system in which she is born, runs the risk of not only being regarded as a rebel, but also labelled a woman militant. Any slight ruffling of the placid surface of Indian life looks to the diehard a portent of storm. The defenders of a system that has relied for its maintenance on the perpetuation of injustice to a large majority of its members, would naturally take fright at the faintest rattling of their prisoners' chains. And who have
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