New Delhi: The Delhi University vice-chancellor has rejected a proposal to teach the Manusmriti to undergraduate law students.
Speaking to news agency PTI, V-C Yogesh Singh said the proposal was rejected because a pre-screening committee did not find it appropriate.
The V-C’s decision was also announced by the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday. The Hindu reported that Pradhan had added that the education ministry is committed to the constitution and to a “futuristic approach”.
Manusmriti or the Manavadharmashastra is an ancient Sanskrit text containing tenets of law, along with a justification of the caste system. It has been called a text that “extols every form of birth-based inequality – social, economic and gender.”
“There is no question of including any controversial portion of any script…,” Pradhan said.
Pradhan said that the question of its inclusion came to his ministry’s attention on July 11. Pradhan purportedly spoke to V-C Singh right afterwards.
“He assured me that some law faculty member had proposed changes in the jurisprudence chapter and that such a proposal had been received by the DU administration. However in the Academic Council meeting, there was no endorsement of any such proposal. The V-C has rejected that proposal. The government is committed to upholding the true spirit and letter of the Constitution,” Pradhan said.
The initial proposal had led to indignation and uproar.
MANUSMRITI should be taught in law colleges.
To teach how ancient cultures had separate laws for Brahmins and their patrons and separate laws for Shudras.
How Brahmins were protected and patronised by books written by Brahmins.
How women were seen as inferior.Advertisement— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) July 12, 2024
Here are some verses from the Manusmriti about women. Why you want to waste the time of students? pic.twitter.com/EdoN8ZqEWQ
— Siddharth Singh (@siddharth3) July 12, 2024
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After initially creating a buzz in favour of changes to the constitution, the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the latter leg of campaigns in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls had said that its opponents planned to change the constitution to grant reservations to Muslims.
A day ago, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi founder and the grandson of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Prakash Ambedkar, asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to burn copies of the Manusmriti if they “love and respect” the constitution.
