DELHI UNIVERSITY DROPS MANUSMRITI FROM LAW SYLLABUS FOLLOWING PUBLIC OUTCRY
Category: Legal News
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Singh exercised emergency powers to scrap the proposal during a pre-screening for the Academic Council meeting. The decision came after objections from teachers who deemed Manusmriti regressive. Students protested, calling it a move towards “saffronisation”
KEY ASPECTS
Consideration of Union Education Minister: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday that the Delhi University (DU) Vice-Chancellor had rejected the proposal to include the ancient Sanskrit text Manusmritiin its undergraduate law course. He added that the Education Ministry is committed to the Constitution and to a “futuristic approach.He also stated that there is no question of including any controversial portion of any script.
No endorsement of the proposal: The Vice chancellor of DU assured him(Union education minister)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.
Introduce National Education Policy 2020: The DU Academic Council for Academic Matters convenes on Friday, and readings on Manusmriti were proposed to be included in the course material as part of efforts to introduce Indian perspectives in line with National Education Policy 2020.
Statement of Prakash Ambedkar: Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Babasaheb B.R. Ambedkar stated that , He is very glad that the University of Delhi rejected the proposal to teach the casteist, anti-women Manusmriti to students of Law Faculty. If such a thing had not happened, he would have followed Babasaheb’s footsteps, gone to Delhi and burnt a copy of Manusmriti in front of Vice-Chancellor’s office.
CONCLUSION
In Our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day, his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti, excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.
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