The Manu Smriti, the Bible of brahminism, was publicly burnt at the Jhelum lawns of India’s most prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University here. This epoch-making event of Dec.25, 1990 was witnessed by a large crowd of cheering students and others. The public burning of the “holiest constitution” of the Brahminical social order was made in memory of Babasaheb Ambedkar, the messiah of the oppressed, who worked ceaselessly throughout his life to destroy the menace of brahminism that derives legitimacy from the laws of Manu. As the pamphlet brought out on the occasion by us — the pro-reservation Forum (JNU) stated, “on Dec.25, 1927, Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti. In his birth centenary year, we pay tribute to this great leader, philosopher and teacher. As a mark of respect to him, we will burn the Manusmriti today.
This event stands as a landmark in the history of the JNU which is regarded as the veritable haunt of the Indian intelligentsia. JNU has always been considered to be the bastion of revolutionary ideas though, for the most part, much of what passes off as “revolutionary thought of JNU intellectuals” are but the ramblings of frustrated armchair pseudo- intellectuals. Blindly accepting Western Marxism without relating it to the peculiar racist social context of India, the “JNU intelligentsia” hardly cares to take up the crucial issues of caste and untouchability. One cannot really expect them to do so, as the vast majority of them and nearly all the teaching staff hail from the upper castes only.
Reaction to Mandal Mania: Yet the Dec.25 public burning of the Manu Smriti has taken the process of JNU’s intellectual development and maturation miles ahead. Perhaps this development could be traced to the furore created on the campus during the anti- Mandal agitation. A reign of terror was unleashed by the upper caste students from Bihar against the SC/ ST/BC/Muslim students who are a majority in JNU. This, however, had a positive side to it as the SC/BC/ minority progressive’s alliance began to take root and the “Pro-Reservation Forum (PRF) JNU” was formed as a result. The culmination of this development was, of course, the decision by the PRF to burn the Manu Smriti. The PRF had put up a large number of posters all over the campus with quotations from the Manu Smriti revealing its cruelly inhuman nature and inviting students to join the funeral ceremony of the corpse of Manu. Two pamphlets were also released on the occasion. One pamphlet said: “Caste as an institution is there. In every house, in every village, in every town … the countryside upper caste gentry feels extremely uncomfortable if an erstwhile Shudra acquires a little prosperity. Or else, why should 14 Dalits have met with death when their marriage party hired a mare and a band at Kalpatha village in Almora district (UP)? In metrocities, when an erstwhile Dalit acquires a good house, a whisper campaign begins … or else, why should Delhi University have only 2 Dalit teachers out of a total strength of 691? To deny the existence of caste as the most decisive social institution is to deny Indian social reality itself.”
Threat to Burn Quran: It goes on to speak about the hypocrisy of the upper caste press. It says “Why don’t newspapers report oppression of Dalits? Their death and destruction …. is based on upper caste hegemony. For how long will this continue? The institution of caste should be demolished. It should be fought at every level. The very ideology of caste should be fought. Its material basis should be eliminated. Burning of Manu Smriti is only a small beginning. The values “enshrined” in the Manu Smriti are practiced even today. On a mass scale. Demystify the “religiosity” of the Manu Smriti. Reject it. Come and participate (in its public burning).
After the Manu Smriti was burnt posters prepared by some upper caste students appeared on the university walls denouncing the burning of their Manu Smriti. According to these upper caste students threatened to burn the Quran in retaliation. As Himakar Gowda, a BC student who actually set the Manu Smriti ablaze, remarked, “we are not Muslims, so why did they threaten to burn the Quran? I think that what they wanted was to communalise the issue”. One finds parallels between this and the anti-Muslim violence in. Gujarat when reservations for the BCs of Gujarat were announced. Then the upper castes had attacked innocent Muslims so as to communalise the backward castes so that their attention would be diverted from the issue of reservations. As Himakar asks, “If they felt so strongly about our burning the Manu Smriti, why don’t they threaten to burn Babasaheb’s books instead of Quran? The Quran had nothing to do with our action.”
Himakar states that he was threatened by some upper caste students for having led the PRF stir. He said that for having burnt the Manu Smriti he was threatened that “even his dead body would not find its way back to Kamataka (from where he hails)”.
