Is Manusmriti that bad?

Jagdish Batra is Professor Emeritus of English, SRM University in Haryana. He has nearly four decades of teaching and research experience. His area of specialization is Indian English Fiction on which he has presented papers at many international conferences in Europe and South East Asia. A Rotary Study Exchange Scholar to USA, Dr Batra has published eight books besides some sixty research papers and a number of general articles/blogs etc. LESS ... MORE
That the Indian politics is caste-based goes without saying. The projected caste census is the culmination of such politics. With each passing day, the casteist discourse will become shriller, for sure. However, it is a matter of regret that even the academia has willy nilly become involved in this political slugfest. Recent flip-flop over the inclusion of Manusmriti as part of the study of Dharmashastra in the Delhi University's UG syllabus has once again brought the text into public discourse.
It would be pertinent to recall the take of politicians on Manusmriti from the days of independence of the country. The first adverse comment on this text came from Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who is venerated as the messiah of the depressed classes in India for the provision of the reservation clause in the constitution prepared under his chairmanship of the drafting committee. The issue of implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations in the 1990s brought the focus back on to the caste-based politics. The Bahujan Samaj Party, under late Kanshi Ram and then under Mayawati took up the Manusmriti castigating it as responsible for the discrimination in Hindu society against the so-called lower castes.
We know that Manusmriti locates in the ancient society four varnas. There is difference between varna and caste. According to latest research as mentioned in the book Varna, Jati, Caste (2023) authored by Indologists Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Vishwanathan, the castes were the result of intermingling of varnas which shows there was no discrimination. It was only during the oppressive Muslim period that the jatis degenerated into a rigid hierarchical structure due to various constrains put on the Hindu society. Now the jatis were declared based on birth. This continued during the English period because the colonizers could pit one caste against the other in keeping with their policy of 'divide and rule'. However, there are several verses in Manusmriti which prohibit intermixing of varnas and lay down punishment in some cases for flouting this injunction. The contradiction can be resolved if we believe the verses to be more of prescription than description of reality.
There is no doubt that such discrimination goes against the very ethos of Hinduism that believes that God created and indeed lives in every body. Such practices have done much harm to Hinduism. Times have changed and people belonging to different castes do adopt different professions than those prescribed for their varnas in ancient times. As such, any kind of discrimination is certainly not acceptable.
Another objection against Manusmriti is regarding status of women in society. A woman, according to Manusmriti must treat her husband as god. Also, it says that a woman is under the watchful eyes of father as an unmarried girl; under the protection of husband as a married woman; and under the care of son in old age. On the other hand, no difference between male and female with regard to various samskaras like yagyopavit, and the inheritance of property is found in the book. Women's position in society is exalted by the assertion that gods reside where women are worshipped. The paradox can probably be resolved by taking into account the differential in calibre and status of the woman in various situations. While a weak woman may need protection from others, a scholar is worshipped for her intellectual acumen and there is no dearth of hallowed female scholars in our history.
There is need to ask if Manusmriti is all about discrimination and has no historical or social value. Without paying much attention to the East India Company people who took it as the base to understand and formulate certain laws to govern the Hindu community, a dispassionate study shows that it deals with a number of important subjects, starting with the theme of creation, explaining the geography of Brahmavarta and Aryavarta, social structure, duties and rights of people in all stations and ashrams or phases of life, etc. The text also takes up the emergence of Dharma or the law governing day-to-day conduct of people, explaining in minute detail various issues related to personal and social life. The book is rightly known all over the world as the Law of Manu.
The minute details go to the extent of describing what would be called table manners in our times — prohibition to wear one cloth while taking food, maintenance of cleanliness of a place, protection of environment, performance of various rituals from birth to shraadh, rules for copulation; manners like respecting the aged, not laughing at the handicapped, etc. All of these are quite relevant to our times.
All said and done, there is need to place Manusmriti in proper context. It is a valuable historical document that describes the society of a particular time. Surely, not all that is there in it is relevant today. It may be mentioned here that of the two categories of classical Sanskrit texts — Shruti and Smriti, the former is believed to have been conveyed by the Almighty in the beginning of the creation to certain rishis through intuition. These are sacrosanct and not amenable to change. But the Smriti texts were created by humans even though these explain and illustrate the Shruti and relate to us what is practically relevant in the day-to-day life, and so these are subject to revisions and recensions. No religious injunction is violated in Hinduism if Manusmriti is not followed in toto. In fact, as opposed to Manusmriti, in some regions, Yajnavalkya Smriti — another of the 18 Smriti texts — which is more liberal in treatment of women and lower classes is preferred. Another approach is how Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj accepted the text: he rejected those parts of Manusmriti which are contradictory in sense to the Vedas.
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