On December 25, 1927, Dr BR Ambedkar burned the Manusmriti as part of Mahad Satyagraha to symbolically reject the ideological roots of caste discrimination and untouchability. Since then burning Manusmriti was a chosen mode of protest by anti-caste activists in India. When the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) kicked off a campaign by distributing booklets containing select verses from the Manusmriti and other Hindu religious texts across Tamil Nadu on November 6, a change in tactic was evident.
The 32-page booklet published by the VCK has a foreword explaining the reasons why the Manusmriti, a text considered both misogynistic and casteist, must be read. “Some people may ask where the Manusmriti is being implemented,” the foreword reads, adding that, “a few may truly not understand, but there are those who deliberately ask the question, with full knowledge.”
The foreword goes on to say that the foundation of Hindu society is built on Manusmriti. “Even after the Indian Constitution drafted by the revolutionary leader Ambedkar was passed on January 26, 1950, except in politics, in the social and in cultural spheres, Manu’s laws function as governing laws,” says the foreword. Even in the sphere of politics, the effect of the Manusmriti can be felt to a great extent, it adds.
The publication contains excerpts from Tamil translation of the Manusmriti, the vedas and other Hindu texts as well as commentaries by Dr Ambedkar on the subject of women and shudra communities.
For reference, the VCK say they have used the Manudharma Sasthiram translated by Ramjunaasariyar (1865), Manuneedhi Ennum Dharam Sasthiram (2011 edition) and Manu Dhar Sasthiram (1961). Apart from this the booklet includes portions from a 1957 text called Streegallukkuriya Paththathi, published by SR Krishnamurthy Iyer, which draws on various Hindu texts' rules for women.
On the conduct of women it says: A woman should sleep only after the husband has slept and wake up before him and must desire no other man, only then is she considered chaste. It also says such a wife must clean the house with cow urine before the sun rises.
Another verse, highlighted in the publication, says that a wife should consider the food, fruits and drinks leftover by her husband as ‘mahaprasadam’ (food blessed by the gods).
The booklet has verses from Manusmriti which says a woman cannot eat or sleep before touching her husband’s feet in obeisance. Even if a household has domestic help, a woman must wait upon her husband and in-laws.
One verse dictates that a woman should not leave the house without cloth over her upper body and that she cannot speak to anyone except merchants, sages, mediciners and elderly men. The same verse also says that women should not smile brightly.
Yet another verse says, “A woman who does not have sexual relations with her husband after she has attained puberty will be re-born as a dog or pig.”
According to the Manusmriti, shudras may not amass wealth more than is required to maintain their families’ requirement, otherwise, “He will not know dharma and cause problems to the Brahmins.”
One excerpt from the Manusmriti, quoted in the VCK booklet, underscores how caste, gender and endogamy are interlinking means of oppression. The text says that marriage between men and women of the same varna is preferable. It also says, “There is no way for atonement for a man who kisses a shudra woman, or is exposed to her breath or has children with her.”
Another verse says that a non-brahmin man who desires a brahmin woman is punishable by death. The following verse goes on to say that it is permissible for women to marry a man from a caste higher than hers. But if she wants to marry a man of a caste lower to hers, “she must be restrained within the house.”
A female child, young woman, elderly woman or women of any age should not make independent decisions even in her own home.
Verses concerning education from Manusmriti quoted in the booklet says a teacher cannot have shudra students nor can a person have a teacher who is shudra. If either of these rules are broken, the non-shudra will lose their social stature. By extension, another verse says that if a king, so wishes, even a brahmin who has never read the vedas can be a judge in the king’s court. But even a qualified shudra, under any situation, cannot occupy the same position of judge. The same verse also goes on to say that a kingdom with a shudra judge is “like a cow trapped in a marshland.”
The booklet contains nearly 150 verses from eleven different chapters of the Manusmriti alone. In Chennai, the VCK distributed copies of this booklet at the busy Koyambedu market, after MP and party president Thol Thirumavalavan garlanded the statue of Dr Ambedkar close by.
It also speaks about why the VCK opposes the RSS, describing them as “a terrorist organisation” that divides society on the basis of “religion, varna and caste.”
VCK says it chose November 6 for the event to coincide with the date on which Madras High Court had permitted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to take out a route march in locations across the state. Even though the RSS did not carry out the march, except in three locations, as they chose to appeal the court’s restrictions, the VCK went ahead with their campaign to distribute booklets containing the text that codifies the roles of lowered-caste people and women in Hindu society.