71 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Muslim daughters should inherit the same share as their brothers. I wonder how many ministers today would be able to make that statement. Akbar could say that in the Hindu attitude towards women there is male chauvinism. He says: 'What is the glory of the male if the male thinks that only by his wife undergoing suffering he would get salvation.' How many people would be able to make these kinds of statements today. So, while undoubtedly it had limitations, it was an elitist statement, its turning to science and culture were limited, it could not adopt western science and technology, it did not know of the Copernican revolution although its astronomy and geography were totally Ptolemaic—all these limitations were there, but still I think it was an important heritage in Indian culture. If one is trying to see the great things in India's past to build up some self confidence when one tries to build a nation, an independent nation of India, a politically and economically viable nation, a nation not rushing to the World Bank and the U.S. at every exchange crisis—if we are trying to build up a nation then we should have a proper concept of both the frailties, the weaknesses and the defects of our past culture which are very numerous, but also the achievements of that culture, the achievements of those people who challenged some of the essential particulars, some of the basic premises and superstitions of the culture ahd traditions of which, unfortunately, we are heirs. Let us then freely and without inhibition celebrate those figures.