[Assam] From Tehelka---Manu's Memorial

[Mohan R. Palleti]

You are right! A government office should not be putting up a idol
pertaining to a particular religion.

As regards to Manu. I believe he is not one person, but many. There has
been many manu's who contributed to the manu shastra.

A manu is a person who is supposed to be casteless. He is supposed to be a
offspring of a manov and danov. In today's parlance he is the product of a
intercaste or inter-state/community marriage. He was vested with the job
of writing the hindu laws, because he was thought to be impartial, not
belonging to any particular caste or creed.

But like any humane person, he too was falible. If a Manu was to rewrite
the manu smriti, he would definitely have written it differently..... -:)

Mohan R. Palleti





> Is there not a separation of State and Religion in the seculiar Indian
> Constitution which prohibits such display of Hindu religeous figures in
> public place? How can the symbol of Manu harmless?
> I think he is the cause of the overall deteriation of the Indian
> civilization.
> RB
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chan Mahanta" <cmahanta at charter.net>
> To: <assam at assamnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 2:01 PM
> Subject: [Assam] From Tehelka---Manu's Memorial
>
>
>> **** Is it a simple, harmless symbol of  cultural heritage? Or is
>> there a whole lot more to it?
>>
>> cm
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS
>>
>> http://www.tehelka.com/story_main31.asp?filename=Cr070707shadow_lines.asp
>>
>> When a new building was constructed in Jaipur for the state High
>> Court, the local Bar Association put forward a proposal for the
>> installation of a statue of Manu to beautify the premises. From
>> proposal to completion, the entire plan was kept a close secret,
>> never made public until the statue was in place. Manu was the creator
>> of the varna system under which Hindu society for centuries denied
>> all basic human rights and dignity to Dalits. For us, a statue of
>> Manu can only symbolise the unjust social structure imposed on us
>> from time immemorial. All the oppression we continue to suffer is
>> because of Manu and his treatise, the Manudharma Sastra.
>>
>>
>> We turn to the courts when we are in trouble. Can we ever expect
>> justice from a court which we enter looking at Manu's idol?
>> The Constitution has attempted to improve the condition of Dalits
>> through law, but Manu's words have been an unwritten stricture the
>> law cannot touch. Had Manu's statue been installed anywhere else,
>> perhaps we would not have cared to react. But to see such homage paid
>> to a figure who represents all that is unjust in this society, and
>> that too standing proud in the premises of the Rajasthan High Court,
>> is shocking. It is beyond acceptance. We turn to the courts when we
>> are in trouble, which for us is almost perennial. What worse message
>> could we receive? Can we ever expect justice from a court which we
>> enter looking at Manu's idol? It only tells us that even the High
>> Court subscribes to Manu's ideology. On the other hand, the statue of
>> Dr BR Ambedkar, the father of our Constitution, has been shunted to
>> an invisible corner. It says a lot about the mentality of the
>> judiciary and the government in Rajasthan. How is such a system to
>> contribute to the constitutional ideal of a casteless society?
>>
>> The statue was installed on June 28, 1989, and we have been fighting
>> it ever since. There were huge protests all over the state soon after
>> it was put up, and a full bench of the High Court ordered that it be
>> removed within 48 hours. We were all happy, but soon after that the
>> Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Acharya Dharmendra filed a writ petition in
>> the court of Justice Mahender Bhushan, who passed a stay order on
>> July 27, 1989 - as a result the statue is there till date. There are
>> many cases dating back to 1989 that have seen their final hearings,
>> but not this one. Each time this case comes to a final hearing, the
>> bench postpones it on the grounds that it is a very sensitive issue.
>> But we will not give up easily - we haven't so far, and we will not
>> in the future. We will continue to file applications asking for a
>> final hearing in this case. We want to see how they will justify
>> their deliberate delays.
>>
>> We install statues of Ambedkar because that's our way of reclaiming
>> our lost dignity. But why is the government installing a statue of
>> Manu? The very government which is supposed to have no biases towards
>> any religion or caste. Let there be Manu statues wherever anyone
>> pleases, but the government should not be a party to it.
>>
>> Mimroth is a Jaipur-based advocate
>> As told to Praveen Donthi
>>
>>
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