Customs and traditions suppress reason leading to obscurantism. Do you agree?
Approach · directive: “do you agree”
What it asks · Take a balanced position: where customs harden into blind belief and harm, where they carry social wisdom, and how reason and reform can coexist with tradition.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Take a position: do customs and traditions suppress reason and lead to obscurantism
- Justify it: where custom has suppressed reason, where tradition carries reason and wisdom, and how reform and the Constitution reconcile them
Open with · Customs give continuity and identity, but when questioning is forbidden they harden into dogma; India's reform tradition has long argued for reason within tradition.
Cover
- Where custom suppresses reason: sati, untouchability, child marriage, witch-hunting and belief in black magic or human sacrifice were defended as tradition against evidence.
- Reform: Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the abolition of sati (1829), Vidyasagar and the Widow Remarriage Act (1856), Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar challenged orthodoxy.
- Law: Article 17 abolished untouchability; Article 25 subjects religious freedom to public order, morality and health; courts tested practices in Shayara Bano and Sabarimala.
- Statutory action: Maharashtra's 2013 Act against human sacrifice, Aghori practices and black magic followed the murder of Narendra Dabholkar.
- Other side: many customs carry social capital and ecological wisdom, like sacred groves; Aryabhata, Charaka and Sushruta show reason and tradition are not opposites.
- Balance: reform should come from within communities, guided by constitutional morality, education and dialogue, not by rejecting all tradition.
Close with · Customs suppress reason only when placed beyond question; a constitutional, scientific and humane test lets India keep living tradition and discard obscurantist practice.
Add value (verified)
- Article 51A(h), part of the Fundamental Duties inserted in 1976, makes it a duty of every citizen to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2024), Article 51A(h) — Legislative Department ↗“(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 272 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Customs give a society continuity and identity, but placed beyond question they harden into dogma; I agree only in part, because Indian tradition has also carried reason and has repeatedly been reformed from within.
Where custom has suppressed reason
- Practices defended as tradition against evidence and humanity: sati, untouchability, child marriage, witch-hunting and belief in black magic and human sacrifice.
- They persisted because questioning them was itself treated as sacrilege, which is the essence of obscurantism.
- The murder of Narendra Dabholkar (2013) for campaigning against superstition led Maharashtra to enact its law against human sacrifice, Aghori practices and black magic.
Where tradition and reason coexist
- India's intellectual tradition includes Aryabhata's astronomy, the medicine of Charaka and Sushruta and the Nyaya school of logic; reason grew inside tradition, not against it.
- Customs often carry social and ecological wisdom: sacred groves conserve biodiversity, and community norms sustain water bodies and commons.
- Reform came from within: Raja Ram Mohan Roy's campaign led to the abolition of sati (1829), Vidyasagar's to the Widow Remarriage Act (1856), and Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar attacked caste orthodoxy with argument.
The constitutional test
- Article 17 abolished untouchability; Article 25 subjects religious freedom to public order, morality and health; Article 51A(h) asks every citizen to develop the scientific temper and the spirit of inquiry and reform.
- Courts have applied this test to custom in Shayara Bano (2017) on instant triple talaq and in the Sabarimala judgment (2018) on temple entry.
Customs breed obscurantism only when shielded from inquiry; a test of constitutional morality, science and compassion, applied through dialogue rather than contempt, lets India keep living traditions and shed harmful ones.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify). UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.