When a pharaoh in ancient Egypt died, his queens, who may have numbered in the hundreds, were burned to death on his pyre or buried alive in his tomb. People of those days accepted it as a normal practice. That custom is now no longer in existence. Just like the colourful pageantry of Egypt, it has become a thing of the past.

In Greece and Rome, slaves were thrown into the same arena as a lion and, terrorized, forced to fight it. The spectators fiendishly relished those bloody fights. Those unfortunates, shrieking in terror, would end up in the lion’s belly. That custom has disappeared; and the positive side of Greek civilization has also disappeared, according to the march of time. People could not preserve that civilization.

The practice of sati went on from the Vedic age until the British period. It was perpetuated sometimes in the guise of religiosity and sometimes for the widow’s husband’s property, the brothers-in-law coercing them to commit sati out of greed. That custom has died out now. Officially, the last sati was committed at a cremation ground near Barh in Patna District. All of these customs are dead and gone; they were all gradually abolished.

The social and religious rights of women were curtailed in numerous ways so that they would be kept forever in thrall to the men. They were even forbidden walking in the open space under the open sky. Covered in burkas and veils, they were reduced to the status of caged birds living on seeds and water. It was decreed that they were not entitled to their ancestral property. The girls were given much less than the boys. It was categorically declared that they were not entitled to mukti or mokśa; that women go to heaven, it’s true, but the men get all sorts of privileges there that women cannot get. These rubbish ideas have died out due to various circumstances. In some places they are in the process of extinction, and in other places they are totally extinct.

Similarly, the inheritance laws and the marriage customs were all framed in this inhuman way. A woman was never entitled to full freedom in marriage, and the few freedoms that were granted her were in the context of her subordinated cooperation [with] males. In some places a woman was given away placed on a wooden seat like a goat, cow or sheep – this was called kanyádán [“giving away a daughter”]. In some places a woman has no security for her future. If a man desires, he can divorce a woman by paying a nominal amount of money. The women had to tolerate all these injustices with bowed heads because they were physically weaker and lacking education.

Today the clattering chariot wheels are turning. That din is making the hearts of the opportunists quake. This is the decree of fate. The pace of change is fast accelerating. Women in many communities of the world still do the household chores, but the men are earning the money. That is why the men are in an advantageous position. The women are still subservient to the men and the men want to keep them in that state of servitude. But when the situation changes, this cheap slave labour will escape from men’s control. Today in most communities of the world a girl’s marriage is a strain for the parents. It is a great burden… it is kanyádáya. But their son’s marriage is not a strain for them at all. Rather they organize victory celebrations, with joyous sounds, lights and music.