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Against the Madness of Manu: B.R. Ambedkar's Writings on Brahmanical Patriarchy
A Brahman mega convention in contemporary Pune reasserts faith in endogamy for national interest , and imposes new codes on Brahman women. A Brahman Congress leader suggests that a Dalit chief minister be raped and paid compensation. In his 1916 paper Castes in India , the 25-year-old Ambedkar offered the insight that the caste system thrives by its control of women, and that caste is a product of sustained endogamy. Since then, till the time he piloted the Hindu Code Bill, seeking to radicalise women s rights in the 1950s, Ambedkar deployed a range of arguments to make his case against Brahmanism and its twin, patriarchy.
While Ambedkar s original insights have been neglected by sociologists, political theorists and even feminists, they have been kept alive, celebrated and memorialised by Dalit musical troupes and booklets in Maharashtra. Sharmila Rege, in this compelling selection of Ambedkar s writings on the theme of Brahmanical patriarchy, illuminates for us his unprecedented sociological observations. Rege demonstrates how and why Ambedkar laid the base for what was, properly speaking, a feminist take on caste.
While Ambedkar s original insights have been neglected by sociologists, political theorists and even feminists, they have been kept alive, celebrated and memorialised by Dalit musical troupes and booklets in Maharashtra. Sharmila Rege, in this compelling selection of Ambedkar s writings on the theme of Brahmanical patriarchy, illuminates for us his unprecedented sociological observations. Rege demonstrates how and why Ambedkar laid the base for what was, properly speaking, a feminist take on caste.
266 pages, Paperback
Published February 14, 2013
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About the author
B.R. Ambedkar
326 books1,114 followersBhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in 1891 into an “Untouchable” family of modest means. One of India’s most radical thinkers, he transformed the social and political landscape in the struggle against British colonialism. He was a prolific writer who oversaw the drafting of the Indian Constitution and served as India’s first Law Minister. In 1935, he publicly declared that though he was born a Hindu, he would not die as one. Ambedkar eventually embraced Buddhism, a few months before his death in 1956.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 9, 2015
In this book of selected work from Ambedkar's essays, Sharmila Rege expresses her dismay at the feminist movement's silence about Ambedkar's contribution to women's rights in India. By the time I finished the book, I was convinced of her argument. There are three sections in this book.
In the first section, Rege introduces two of Ambedkar's essays: 1) Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development 2) The Rise and Fall of the Hindu Woman. In the first essay, Ambedkar explains the mechanism of the caste structure in India. He argues that endogamy is the foundation of maintaining caste. Castes are not the division of labor rather they are division of laborers. Initially there were classes and people could be mobile across those classes. But at some point, some castes (Brahminical class) began to close doors to others and others found doors closed at them. The only caste that was able to close doors was the Brahmin class and therefore he names the Brahminical class as the "father of the caste structure". Yet, Ambedkar also argues that there is no caste in the singular term. There are only castes. The caste structure is a graded inequality system. Every caste has someone below them and they emulate the upper caste to maintain their status.
The only way to maintain the caste structure was to ensure endogamous marriages. If everyone is to marry into their own caste, what happens to the surplus man and surplus woman? How do you ensure that they do not marry outside the caste. Ambedkar argues that rituals such as child marriage and sati were introduced for that purpose. Surplus men would be allowed to marry young girls and surplus women would engage in sati. For those women who could not engage in sati, they were subjected to oppressive, degraded widowhood. In any case, women's sexuality had to be controlled. In order to control women's sexuality, it was essential to have an ideological basis and Manu Smriti was indeed critical for that purpose. According to Ambedkar, Manu was able to convert Brahmanical patriarchal ideals into state law.
The second essay was a response to the critique that Buddha also consisdered women as secondary. He argues that the Buddha and his disciples interacted with women and the critiques were invalid. If there was an essay that I found not so convincing, it would be this one. Perhaps the specific critique about the Buddha himself may not have been valid but that does not mean the Buddhist religion is free of patriarchy. As Ambedkar himself says, the monks who came later could have interpreted the Buddha differently. Isn't the danger in the interpretation? If one takes this line of argument, wouldn't there may be similar arguments made regarding the Hindu religion as well? Of course Manu Smriti, is unbelievable misogynistic. Perhaps that was another reason that this essay was too much to handle. Ambedkar does not have to say much but just a glimpse of the Manu Smriti is enough to know how much misogyny is built into the Brahminical patriarchal text.
In the second section, Ambedkar dwelves deep into Manu Smriti and explains various mixed castes and the rules that were developed to pass on caste in the case of children born out of inter-caste relationships. This was also a slightly difficult chapter to keep track with.
The last section was very interesting. In this section, Rege describes how Ambedkar was deeply involved in the enactment of the Hindu Code Bill. After reading this section, I was amazed at the huge role Ambedkar had played in improving the lives of all women. Equally amazing was to see the amount of resistance to women's rights. As mentioned in the first section, Ambedkar was very clear that without women's liberation, caste structure will not be break. Through the Hindu code, he introduces legislation regarding intercaste marriage, divorce, property rights, maintainance, guardianship and inheritance. Reading about his struggle to pass this law, gave me goosebumps. Rege(p.201) says it best when she says, "Ambedkar's resignation - a protest against the suspension of the democratic social contract - becomes a landmark in the history of women's rights in India. Ambedkar's statements in Parliament in defence of the Hindu Code Bill and his statement in explanation of his resignation from the cabinet need to be given their due recognition in the history of democratic struggles for women's rights against the Brahmanical patriarchy of the state." This book certainly recognizes Ambedkar's contribution to women's history. Gender scholars interested in India would miss a lot if they miss out on reading Ambedkar. However, I had read the first essay independently and that had been enlightening by itself. However, Rege does a good job of intergrating some thematic essays together. One could read those essays separately as well. Recommended!
In the first section, Rege introduces two of Ambedkar's essays: 1) Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development 2) The Rise and Fall of the Hindu Woman. In the first essay, Ambedkar explains the mechanism of the caste structure in India. He argues that endogamy is the foundation of maintaining caste. Castes are not the division of labor rather they are division of laborers. Initially there were classes and people could be mobile across those classes. But at some point, some castes (Brahminical class) began to close doors to others and others found doors closed at them. The only caste that was able to close doors was the Brahmin class and therefore he names the Brahminical class as the "father of the caste structure". Yet, Ambedkar also argues that there is no caste in the singular term. There are only castes. The caste structure is a graded inequality system. Every caste has someone below them and they emulate the upper caste to maintain their status.
The only way to maintain the caste structure was to ensure endogamous marriages. If everyone is to marry into their own caste, what happens to the surplus man and surplus woman? How do you ensure that they do not marry outside the caste. Ambedkar argues that rituals such as child marriage and sati were introduced for that purpose. Surplus men would be allowed to marry young girls and surplus women would engage in sati. For those women who could not engage in sati, they were subjected to oppressive, degraded widowhood. In any case, women's sexuality had to be controlled. In order to control women's sexuality, it was essential to have an ideological basis and Manu Smriti was indeed critical for that purpose. According to Ambedkar, Manu was able to convert Brahmanical patriarchal ideals into state law.
The second essay was a response to the critique that Buddha also consisdered women as secondary. He argues that the Buddha and his disciples interacted with women and the critiques were invalid. If there was an essay that I found not so convincing, it would be this one. Perhaps the specific critique about the Buddha himself may not have been valid but that does not mean the Buddhist religion is free of patriarchy. As Ambedkar himself says, the monks who came later could have interpreted the Buddha differently. Isn't the danger in the interpretation? If one takes this line of argument, wouldn't there may be similar arguments made regarding the Hindu religion as well? Of course Manu Smriti, is unbelievable misogynistic. Perhaps that was another reason that this essay was too much to handle. Ambedkar does not have to say much but just a glimpse of the Manu Smriti is enough to know how much misogyny is built into the Brahminical patriarchal text.
In the second section, Ambedkar dwelves deep into Manu Smriti and explains various mixed castes and the rules that were developed to pass on caste in the case of children born out of inter-caste relationships. This was also a slightly difficult chapter to keep track with.
The last section was very interesting. In this section, Rege describes how Ambedkar was deeply involved in the enactment of the Hindu Code Bill. After reading this section, I was amazed at the huge role Ambedkar had played in improving the lives of all women. Equally amazing was to see the amount of resistance to women's rights. As mentioned in the first section, Ambedkar was very clear that without women's liberation, caste structure will not be break. Through the Hindu code, he introduces legislation regarding intercaste marriage, divorce, property rights, maintainance, guardianship and inheritance. Reading about his struggle to pass this law, gave me goosebumps. Rege(p.201) says it best when she says, "Ambedkar's resignation - a protest against the suspension of the democratic social contract - becomes a landmark in the history of women's rights in India. Ambedkar's statements in Parliament in defence of the Hindu Code Bill and his statement in explanation of his resignation from the cabinet need to be given their due recognition in the history of democratic struggles for women's rights against the Brahmanical patriarchy of the state." This book certainly recognizes Ambedkar's contribution to women's history. Gender scholars interested in India would miss a lot if they miss out on reading Ambedkar. However, I had read the first essay independently and that had been enlightening by itself. However, Rege does a good job of intergrating some thematic essays together. One could read those essays separately as well. Recommended!
December 15, 2015
It may be because I am new to academic writing out of coursework, but I really had to struggle through Shalini Rege's introductory stuff. Not that it's bad I am grateful for all the context. It's probably my fault but I still think the introduction could have been a bit shorter maybe. The essays were really good, and I am going to read them again. Partly because I have to haha
I read this book in two days in different airports and I am so in awe of Babasaheb right now. I can't believe we went through like 12 years of learning history and civics and all that stuff without knowing all of this? It seems like a conspiracy because it probably is.
Jai Bhim! and also Thank you for doing all these things
I read this book in two days in different airports and I am so in awe of Babasaheb right now. I can't believe we went through like 12 years of learning history and civics and all that stuff without knowing all of this? It seems like a conspiracy because it probably is.
Jai Bhim! and also Thank you for doing all these things
May 21, 2023
A thought-provoking and systematic dismantling of the ideas proposed in Manusmriti, a text that has been used to justify the caste system and the subjugation of women. Using various examples from mythology, Rege puts forth Ambedkar's ideas in an organized manner.
What stands out the most is the personification of Manusmriti, allowing the reader to objectively interpret a sacred text and realize its shortcomings.
One of the key strengths of this book is Rege's ability to draw connections between the past and the present. She demonstrates how the ideas put forth by Manu continue to influence contemporary Indian society and shape the ways in which caste and gender are understood and practiced. Her essays on the impact of Manu's ideas on modern-day debates around reservation policies and affirmative action are particularly insightful. Rege's essays offer a refreshing perspective on Manusmriti, which has long been considered sacrosanct in Indian society, shaping societal values in various ways.
What stands out the most is the personification of Manusmriti, allowing the reader to objectively interpret a sacred text and realize its shortcomings.
One of the key strengths of this book is Rege's ability to draw connections between the past and the present. She demonstrates how the ideas put forth by Manu continue to influence contemporary Indian society and shape the ways in which caste and gender are understood and practiced. Her essays on the impact of Manu's ideas on modern-day debates around reservation policies and affirmative action are particularly insightful. Rege's essays offer a refreshing perspective on Manusmriti, which has long been considered sacrosanct in Indian society, shaping societal values in various ways.
July 1, 2023
Whether you agree with Ambedkar and venerate him or you disagree with him and resent his cult status, one thing you must agree - Ambedkar's writings are sharp, structured and clear. The erudite Ambedkar didn't play with words to make his points. Incisive and pointed - he made his stand clear to the reader every time.
He did have lot to say. As a law minister, as constitution maker, as social reformer, and as the most prominent voice of the voiceless, Ambedkar took every opportunity to put forth his views for his contemporary and posterity. This book contains some of his essays/speeches on the origin and evil of caste system in India, feminism, criticism on Hindu mythology, Hindu code etc. Needless to say all his writings are immensely thought provoking and , could I go to the extent to say, paradigm altering.
Ms. Rege's introductions were lengthy and too academic. Could have been shorter or reduced to footnotes only.
He did have lot to say. As a law minister, as constitution maker, as social reformer, and as the most prominent voice of the voiceless, Ambedkar took every opportunity to put forth his views for his contemporary and posterity. This book contains some of his essays/speeches on the origin and evil of caste system in India, feminism, criticism on Hindu mythology, Hindu code etc. Needless to say all his writings are immensely thought provoking and , could I go to the extent to say, paradigm altering.
Ms. Rege's introductions were lengthy and too academic. Could have been shorter or reduced to footnotes only.
Read
March 28, 2017couldn't get to the point fast enough - but let me know if i should skip to some chapter/page or sth i shouldn't miss
April 21, 2024
Ms Sharmila Rege's book Against the Madness of Manu is an essential contribution to many fields of study as well as to India's and the World's past and present history. The present wave of ordered rapes makes this sadly clear albeit in a caricatural fashion. For Westerners now faced with the cynical strategy of their leading classes (the infamous 1 % and their allies and servi in camera) to implement a « return » to inequalities and obscurantism based on « reference to Authority » and on the barbaric use of the Nietzschean Hammer, Ms Rege's presentation of Ambedkar’s thesis on castes, studied violence and endogamy will act as a revelation.
Those who already know Nietzsche and his current philo-Semite Nietzschean unearthing will immediately appreciate the crucial important of this book. Of course, Ambedkar's analysis of endogamy precedes that of Germaine’s Tillion: Both are essential for social sciences as well as for the development of a modern non-Freudian and non-Jungian psychoanalysis. This will be occultated by academics only at the cost of transforming themselves into servi in camera as is proven in my Pour Marx, contre le nihilisme.
Ambedkar's pioneering periodisation of endogamy and castes origins remains vital. It does not concern India's only. Of course as Paul Lafargue, the great student of G. Vico, showed, this question involves the transition from pre-patriarchal societies to patriarchal ones. Thus, Prehistory must now be brought to task, in particular the analysis of fecundity rituals. This is often oculted by a calculated Western and generally academic conformist Puritanism, as much as Pompeii’s frescoes which are but a pale Roman echo of the earlier Neolithic and Protohistoric pictograms. These fecundity rituals provide the main transition between « primitive exogamy » and hierarchical endogamy. The façades of many old temples in Southern India are also speaking to a later stage of this transition.
Because this touches upon the understanding of sexualized reproduction, one must also look at the behavior of higher primates, something which has already started. This will illuminate with a new light the various lineage structures analyzed by Lévi-Strauss and others as well as their social and psychological consequences. In the end, the simple arithmetic of sexualized reproduction illustrates in an irrefutable way the difference between inequality and difference, male and female contributing equally to the renewal of the human species. This equality supposes the wide and unfettered circulation of women and thus a new exogamy founded in gender parity and equal access to employment with equal pay. When this realization of human emancipation is negated, more or less unfortunate social and cultural mediations are invented to deal with the ensuing problems: Ms Rege's rightly points to sati and enforced widowhood as well as to institutionalized violence. When the negation of human equality rests on a strict and reinforced endogamy (Manu, Nietzsche and his teachers etc.) the human species is endangered (consanguinity, cultural closure, obscurantism and structural violence against the people.)
It does not come as a surprise to see the confluence between women’s liberation movement and general human emancipation: One beautiful example is Diderot’s understanding of the liberating impact of Polynesian lineage structures which he lays out in his Suppléments au Voyage de Bougainville. The best revolutionaries understood this immediately, including many pioneering women. The Declaration of Human Rights remains a Declaration of Man Rights without it.
Ambedkar's lesson on castes and emancipation remains essential for all, not only for India. It is only sad that life did not grant Ms Rege's more time to offer her own essential contributions. She is clearly right in stating that the celebration of December 25, 1927 is not in opposition to the March 8 celebration, quite the opposite.
Paul De Marco.
Those who already know Nietzsche and his current philo-Semite Nietzschean unearthing will immediately appreciate the crucial important of this book. Of course, Ambedkar's analysis of endogamy precedes that of Germaine’s Tillion: Both are essential for social sciences as well as for the development of a modern non-Freudian and non-Jungian psychoanalysis. This will be occultated by academics only at the cost of transforming themselves into servi in camera as is proven in my Pour Marx, contre le nihilisme.
Ambedkar's pioneering periodisation of endogamy and castes origins remains vital. It does not concern India's only. Of course as Paul Lafargue, the great student of G. Vico, showed, this question involves the transition from pre-patriarchal societies to patriarchal ones. Thus, Prehistory must now be brought to task, in particular the analysis of fecundity rituals. This is often oculted by a calculated Western and generally academic conformist Puritanism, as much as Pompeii’s frescoes which are but a pale Roman echo of the earlier Neolithic and Protohistoric pictograms. These fecundity rituals provide the main transition between « primitive exogamy » and hierarchical endogamy. The façades of many old temples in Southern India are also speaking to a later stage of this transition.
Because this touches upon the understanding of sexualized reproduction, one must also look at the behavior of higher primates, something which has already started. This will illuminate with a new light the various lineage structures analyzed by Lévi-Strauss and others as well as their social and psychological consequences. In the end, the simple arithmetic of sexualized reproduction illustrates in an irrefutable way the difference between inequality and difference, male and female contributing equally to the renewal of the human species. This equality supposes the wide and unfettered circulation of women and thus a new exogamy founded in gender parity and equal access to employment with equal pay. When this realization of human emancipation is negated, more or less unfortunate social and cultural mediations are invented to deal with the ensuing problems: Ms Rege's rightly points to sati and enforced widowhood as well as to institutionalized violence. When the negation of human equality rests on a strict and reinforced endogamy (Manu, Nietzsche and his teachers etc.) the human species is endangered (consanguinity, cultural closure, obscurantism and structural violence against the people.)
It does not come as a surprise to see the confluence between women’s liberation movement and general human emancipation: One beautiful example is Diderot’s understanding of the liberating impact of Polynesian lineage structures which he lays out in his Suppléments au Voyage de Bougainville. The best revolutionaries understood this immediately, including many pioneering women. The Declaration of Human Rights remains a Declaration of Man Rights without it.
Ambedkar's lesson on castes and emancipation remains essential for all, not only for India. It is only sad that life did not grant Ms Rege's more time to offer her own essential contributions. She is clearly right in stating that the celebration of December 25, 1927 is not in opposition to the March 8 celebration, quite the opposite.
Paul De Marco.
February 21, 2025
Hindu Code Bill being a sensitive nerve back then and even today as it becomes "Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita", just shows how deeply misogynistic our society has always been. A feminist reading of Ambedkar is so essential...
January 29, 2014
should read this again.
July 20, 2024
One of the best books on freedom of Indian women. It also highlights the attitude and resistance that prevails against the liberty of women in India even today.
February 11, 2015
a clear and poignant explanation of the hypocrisies of the brahmanical patriarchy .
June 29, 2023
Insightful! Had to underline several lines and re-read some. Full of learning and perspective.
February 4, 2017
Foundational and (in)formative. Does exactly what it says on the cover.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews