The Quest For Truth: Secular Philosophy

Aroj Ali Matubbar's writings are a contribution to philosophy. An edition of Matubbar's select writings in his native tongue Bengali was very well received and Matubbar, in the last phase of his life, was regarded a high priest of free thinking, and a votary of science. Matubbar was seeking an answer to the questions that had exercised the minds of the people for ages. Some of these questions may well appear narrowly local, also temporal. But this objection can be met by reminding ourselves the circumstances of his life and his social milieu. Matubbar's was a relentless quest for truth. But he knew that in order to reach his goal he must first remove the garbage of superstitious beliefs piled on the way. In a backward and predominantly unlettered community, with a half-literate class of guardians of faith holding sway, with conformity enjoying a high premium in society and dissidence frowned upon, and often silenced through force, Matubbar's first job was to disabuse his reader's mind of the false beliefs, and then proceed to knowledge. The procedure is akin to Socrates', only the form is different.