Tag Archives: Manusmriti

Culture, Debates, Democracy, Law, Media politics, Politics, Right watch

Towards a ‘Suitable’ Ambedkar and a ‘New’ Dalit ! 

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How Ten Years of Modi Regime Has Undermined Constitutional Rights to Dalits

Image courtesy: Wikimedia commons

“If the fundamental rights are opposed by the community, no Law, no Parliament, no Judiciary can guarantee them in the real sense of the word”,..“What is the use of fundamental rights to the Negro in America, to the Jews in Germany and to the untouchables in India. As Burke said there is no method found for punishing the multitude’

– Ambedkar

Introduction

Within less than a fortnight we will have a new government in power.

Indian people normally make a judicious choice while electing their representatives, their government and this year won’t be different.

One can recall their wisdom when their united resistance helped unseat Indira Gandhi regime after the emergency (1977) or their concerted action could overthrow the Vajpayi government ( 2004) despite the much hyped ‘India Shining’ rhetoric pushed by it.

Today also ground currents definitely suggest change is in the air.

People’s desire to defeat the Republic of Hate which is pushed before them and regain their Republic of Hope seems overwhelming. 

As already expressed by scholars, political activists, concerned citizens, if the elections remain free and fair, if the various guardrails of democracy can remain true to their mandate , we will have real ‘Acche Din‘ waiting for us.

It is an opportune time to look back and see how this much trumpeted regime fared in the last decade in various aspects of India’s society and state.

It is opportune to see how the ‘New India’ – which we have supposedly ushered in – has fared via-v-vis Dalits. What follows is not an exhaustive picture of the last decade of Modi rule but a cursory glance at the issue at hand.

Perhaps it would be opportune to begin with RSS Supremo Mohan Bhagwat’s interview in the wee hours of Modi’s reign as PM. ( Read the full article here : https://countercurrents.org/2024/05/towards-a-suitable-ambedkar-and-a-new-dalit-how-ten-years-of-modi-regime-has-undermined-constitutional-rights-to-dalits/

Culture, Debates, Democracy, Politics, Religion, Right watch

The Unending Discomfort of RSS With the Constitution

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The Vajpayee government tried to change the Constitution, but lost in 2004. We must be vigilant, as a similar chorus is being raised again by Hindutva Supremacist forces.

..make India an independent sovereign republic and guarantee and secure for all the people of India social, economic and political justice; equality of status and  opportunities and equality before law; and fundamental freedoms—of speech,  expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action—subject to law and public morality;

and also ensure that

adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes.

(Excerpts of Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly, moved by Pandit Nehru on December 13, 1946 and adopted unanimously by the Constituent Assembly on January 22, 1947)

It was just another press conference in the national capital.

The only difference was that it was held at the house of a member of Parliament belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party then…

This was on December 25, 1992. Less than three weeks before India had witnessed one of its deeply troubling, disturbing moment in its history where a mosque, which stood for more than 500 years, had been demolished by a horde of people who had gathered there from different parts of the Country, mobilised by the forces of Hindutva supremacism.

..Swami Muktanand and Vamdeo Maharaj, who were closely associated with the Ram Mandir movement (India Today, January 31, 1993) addressed the press meet.

‘This Constitution is anti Hindu‘ and needs to be rejected.”We have no faith in country’s laws‘ and ‘Sadhus are above the law of the land‘.’

..The press meet ended rather abruptly.

Journalists, who had gathered there to hear something about the movement, felt cheated that what unfolded there was an anti-climax.

Little did they have a premonition that the press meet was just an opening shot and more was coming. ( Read the full text here : https://www.newsclick.in/unending-discomfort-rss-constitution)

Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Culture, Debates, Democracy

No It Is Not Hegde’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ It is BJP’s ‘Dil ki Baat ‘:  Goodbye Constitution, Enter ManuCracy !

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How BJP dreams to Usher In Hindu Rashtra Democratically ?

Representative image. Credit: iStock Photo( courtesy Deccan Herald)

Anantkumar Hegde, BJP MP from Uttari Karnataka, is again in the news.

Close on the heels of his controversial statement about demolition of a mosque and his invoking of Hindu community who would not rest ‘until more mosques are reclaimed ‘ (1) he has delivered another explosive statement.

This time the whole edifice of Constitution is under his attack, which according to him has ‘distortions introduced by the Congress to suppress Hindu society’. (2) ..

..Critics have rightly said how this suggestion exhibits real intentions of the saffron regime which wants to usher us into Hindu Rashtra, end reservation for scheduled and backward communities, reinforce caste system and also replace Constitution drafted by Dr Ambedkar with a worldview inspired by Manusmriti. The main opposition party Congress has expressed fear that all such statements, steps just go to vindicate how a ‘cloud of dictatorship’ now hovers over India. (3)

It is a different matter that neither BJP top guns nor PM Modi – who had famously declared way back in 2014 that for him ‘Constitution is the most sacred book’ deemed it important to condemn Hegde’s statements or ordered him to seek apology for his claim.

One learns that it has merely distanced itself from Hegde’s controversial statement to convey an impression that what he said was his ‘Mann ki Baat’ and not BJP’s Dil ki Baat’ .

Culture, Debates, Government, Law, Politics, Religion, Right watch

Treacherous Road to Make Manu History

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Even today the attempt is to whitewash Manusmriti, not shun it. But all is not lost as the ripples of Black Lives Matter have reached Indian shores.

manusmiriti ambedkar hindutva

It was 1927, the second phase of the historic Mahad Satyagrah was on, and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar led thousands of people in burning the Manusmriti, an act he compared with the French Revolution of 1789. Time and again, in speeches and writings, he categorically opposed the world-view of Manu, the legendary figure to whom are attributed the tenets of the Manusmriti, said to be dated to around 100 CE.

In the book written by scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde, Mahad: The Making of the First Dalit Revolt, published by Navayana in 2017, is recorded the resolution which was proposed by the social activist Gangadhar Sahasrabuddhe, and then read out at the Mahad Satyagrah. It states that the firm opinion of this conference is that the Manusmriti, “taking into consideration its verses which undermined the Shudra caste, thwarted their progress, and made their social, political and economic slavery permanent…is not worthy of becoming a religious or a sacred book. And in order to give expression to this opinion, this conference is performing the cremation rites of such a religious book which has been divisive of people and destroyer of humanity.”

Twenty three years later, Dr Ambedkar marked the promulgation of the Constitution of India as the “end of the rule by Manu”. And yet, 70 years thereafter, a significant section of Indians are still fascinated by Manu and have no qualms in venerating him. Even the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and large parts of Europe, in which statues of slave-owners and colonialists are being knocked down or disfigured, the Indian followers of Manu have no regrets about deifying him.

( Read the full article here)

Culture, Debates, Movements, Politics, Right watch

Gujarat Today Could be What ‘Hindu Rashtra’ Will Look Like for Dalits

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The recent spate of attacks on dalits in the state is an indicator of the fact that the unfolding project of RSS’s Hindu Rashtra has entered a new phase where the community is being construed as the ‘new other’.

Hindu Rashtra

When I was born, I was not a child

I was a dream, a dream of revolt

that my mother, oppressed for thousands of years,

dreamt.

Still it is untouched in my eyes

Covered with wrinkles of thousand years, her face

her eyes, two lakes overflowing with tears

have watered my body….

– Sahil Parmar (Noted Gujarati Poet)

 

‘You are Welcome to Enter … Village of Hindu Rashtra’!

It was around two decades ago that headlines in a few national newspapers reported the ‘arrival’ of Hindu Rashtra in parts of Gujarat. A few inquisitive journalists had even displayed photographs detailing the nascent phenomenon then.

The shock generated by the news died down in a short while.

Hardly anybody then could have a premonition that it won’t take much time for the idea of Hindu Rashtra to gain wider acceptability across India with a commonsense gaining ground rather getting consolidated where religious minorities were increasingly understood as ‘the other’.

Could it be said that the recent spate of attacks on dalits — leading to at least three deaths in the past one month in the same state, coupled with growing instances of life of insecurity of many concerning their lives or their continued deprivation by the dominant castes, is an indicator of the fact that the unfolding project of Hindu Rashtra has entered a new phase where dalits are being construed as the ‘new other’, one who could wreck the project of ‘Hindu Unity’ from within.

Perhaps it is too early to draw any such conclusion, but portents are there for everyone to see.

( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/Hindu-Rashtra-Gujarat-BJP-RSS-Dalits)

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Government, Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Fascinating Manu

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It is easy to see the linkages between Manu, Nietzsche, Hitler and the worldview of Hindutva supremacism

RSS and Fascism

Manu and his ‘magnum opus’ Manusmriti keeps hogging headlines in the 21st century as well.

Thanks to the fascination it still holds among the Hindutva supremacists of various kinds even around seventy years after the promulgation of Constitution, which in the words of Dr Ambedkar, had “ended the rule by Manu”.

The latest to join the ‘mission glorification’ of Manusmritihappens to be another stalwart from the Hindutva brigade, called Sambhaji Bhide, the leader of Shivpratishthan Sangathan, who also happens to be an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Addressing his followers known as dharkaris (believers of violence) – as opposed to varkaris(who go to Pandharpur from Pune on foot), he exhorted them to disseminate Hindu religion and form Hindu Nation. He also added how ‘Manusmriti was superior to the teachings of saints Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram’. 

( Read the full article here : https://newsclick.in/fascinating-manu)

Culture, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Feminism, Identities, Images, Language, Law, Violence/Conflict

Do Not Rest in Peace, Jisha: Shehla Rashid

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Guest Post by Shehla Rashid

(Pictures by Biju Ibrahim)

Dear Jisha, I never knew you, nor did you know me.

You were probably a “usual” student, pursuing your studies, dreaming of a better future for yourself and your country. You were probably someone like Rohith Vemula, who dreamed of stars and skies. I learnt that you were a Law student, but I regret to tell you that the Law of this country fails us miserably.

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It is because a Bhanwari Devi does not get justice that Bhagana happens. It’s because no one in Bhagana gets justice that a Delta Meghwal happens. It is because a Delta Meghwal does not get justice that a Jisha happens. And most painfully, I can predict that you may not get justice either.

This is because the Law that you studied is not the law that actually runs this country- this country runs according to a parallel law which is called Manusmriti. It is routinely quoted by judges in their judgments, but perhaps you wouldn’t have studied that in Law school. It is the law of Manusmriti that prescribes limits for women and limits for Dalits.

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