Manusmriti line of thought influencing contemporary judiciary, say activists

BENGALURU: At a session organised by the Alternative Law Forum on decoding the prevalence of gender stereotypes in the Indian justice system, a group of thinkers, lawyers, activists and writers felt there is a “rising influence” of the Hindu legal text Manusmriti on the contemporary working of Indian judiciary.
Ashna Singh, assistant professor at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, presented before the group judgments from various cases across the country on gender-based violence and a translated verse from the Manusmriti that embodies the same line of thought.
Manusmriti’s advice that a widow must stay loyal to her husband’s memory until her death was compared with “biased judgments” made in family courts that require women to lead asexual lives after their divorces in order to claim alimony.
“The judiciary must be an intellectual, rational and neutral body,” Singh said, adding that in failing to do so, they fall back on stereotypes and orthodox teachings to gain perspective into laws and the Indian Constitution.
Singh shared a judgment that spoke about a woman’s duty to stay at home and serve her family. As the judges in the case pointed out that “preserving culture” is part of the Constitution and hence their judgment is sound, Singh said such a reading of the Articles of the Constitution is “misleading” and lines up with how the Manusmriti speaks about the woman’s duty to not leave or abandon the house of her father and then her husband’s and then that of her son.
Some of the controversial lines spoken by members of the judiciary while hearing gender-specific cases were also studied.
BR Ambedkar, the father of Indian Constitution, was very critical of the Manusmriti and his act of burning this orthodox text has become a ritual for many in the fight to egalitarian justice. However, some in the group noted that quoting from the Manusmriti has increased now.