Who took the call to drop Manusmriti from all Delhi University courses?
While DU Vice Chancellor says it was his decision, the order appears to have come from the Union government, which has been keen of late to woo Ambedkarites
There has been much debate on why Delhi University (DU) Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh overturned a decision on including Manusmriti in a Sanskrit course. It was, however, taken in line with the stand of the Union Education Ministry in previous cases.
Even though, in the past, Singh has maintained that it was an “autonomous” decision taken by DU, the decision to drop the texts in earlier instances came after intervention from the top.
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In July 2024, DU tried to include the Hindu text, known for its problematic stance on caste and gender, in the undergraduate law course as a suggested reading. A proposal in this regard was rejected before it could be tabled in the Academic Council (AC) meeting.
SDTF raises objection
Much of the uproar then was created by the Social Democratic Teachers’ Front (SDTF), an independent Ambedkarite teachers’ body that, sources told The Federal, is close to the RSS-backed National Democratic Teachers’ Front (NDTF) on several issues. The SDTF had said that teaching Manusmriti is “highly objectionable as the text is adverse to the progress and education of women and marginalised communities in India”.
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Soon after, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, while talking to reporters, said DU would not be including Manusmriti in the LLB course.
"Yesterday, some information came to us that Manusmriti will be part of the law course (in DU). I enquired and talked to Delhi University Vice Chancellor…There is no endorsement of any such proposal in the Academic Council. Yesterday itself, the Vice Chancellor rejected that proposal,” Pradhan had said on July 12, 2024.
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“We all are committed to our Constitution, to futuristic approach. The government is committed to upholding the true spirit and letter of Constitution. There is no question of including any controversial portion of any script,” he had added.
Sources said Singh also faced flak for the decision to include the text in the first place. “The Vice-Chancellor had to answer to the Education Ministry, which was not happy with the decision. It was decided then and there that Manusmriti would not be part of DU’s syllabus,” a former Executive Council (EC) member told The Federal.
Inclusion of Baburnama
Earlier this year, DU’s history department again tried to include Manusmriti as part of its course, along with the Baburnama, the memoir of the Mughal emperor Babur.
That too was shot down by the VC, in line with the policy. “There is no plan to study subjects like Manusmriti and Baburnama in DU…Baburnama is the autobiography of a tyrant anyway. There is no need to teach it,” said DU VC Singh then.
This time, however, the inclusion of Manusmriti in a four-credit course called ‘Dharmashastra Studies’, part of the Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF) in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, passed through all the statutory bodies – the Standing Committee, the AC and the EC.
The course also included texts such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and Arthashastra.
“The Vice-Chancellor had taken a stand during the law controversy that the Manusmriti would not be taught in DU. I don’t know the reasons behind the decision; probably he wanted to avoid controversy… Manusmriti has been part of the Sanskrit course for a very long time,” Sanskrit Head of Department (HoD) Bhartendu Pandey told The Federal.
Another Sanskrit professor said, “Dharmashastra is the core area of Sanskrit studies” and that text was being “taught for decades” at DU.
‘No Manusmriti in any subject’
DU VC Singh confirmed to The Federal that the move was part of a policy decision. “We have removed it from the Sanskrit course. We will not teach Manusmriti in any subject, in any form. We had decided this last year itself,” he said.
Asked why such a decision was taken, Singh just said, “It was a decision we took.”
He further said the administration was not aware that Manusmriti was part of the course when it was passed in statutory bodies. “We get such a lot of syllabi. It slipped our attention. Course committees and the Board of Studies keep track of what is happening in each subject. No one told us anything at that point. We didn’t know there was such a violation,” he said.
Widespread opposition
Manusmriti is seen as a regressive text by many rationalists, feminists and social justice activists. December 25 is celebrated as ‘Manusmriti Dahan Diwas’ by Ambedkarites to mark the public burning of the text by Dr BR Ambedkar.
In the past few years, in an attempt to broaden its support base, the BJP has tried to stake a claim on Ambedkar’s legacy.
Among other things, a massive statue of the leader – called the Statue of Equality – is currently under construction in Mumbai. In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Ambedkar Memorial, which is supposed to house the statue.
