Manusmriti set on fire to commemorate Ambedkar’s 1927 resistance to oppression and exploitation of people

Activists take out a mock funeral procession of a dead Manusmriti from SVP Circle to the Ambedkar statue at Jagat Circle in Kalaburagi

Dalit activists setting fire to Manusmriti in front of the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar statue at Jagat Circle in Kalaburagi on Monday. | Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI

Hundreds of activists belonging to Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Revolutionary) set fire to the Manusmriti, a Hindu religious text that upholds the discriminative Varnashrama and caste system, in front of the statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at Jagat Circle in Kalaburagi on Monday.

Earlier, the activists took out a mock funeral procession of Manusmriti from SVP Circle to the Ambedkar statue at Jagat Circle in the city raising slogans against the text and the discriminative and oppressive ideology that the right-wing forces ply for their political end.

Women carried an effigy of the dead Manusmriti on their shoulders and set it on fire at Jagat Circle.

The programme was organised to commemorate the event in which Dr. Ambedkar publicly set fire to the Manusmriti on December 25, 1927.

“Manusmriti institutionalises caste oppression. It justifies oppression and exploitation by a section of society against a vast majority of people. It justifies the so-called upper caste people discriminating against the majority of the people. It advocates treating Dalits like animals. It upholds the supremacy of a few over a vast majority of the masses,” leader of the DSS Arjun Bhadre said.

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“Dr. Ambedkar understood the designs of Manusmriti and publicly set fire to it to register his resistance and opposition to it on this same day in 1927. We too are burning it to commemorate his action and register our opposition to RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] and its frontal organisations such as the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party], the VHP [Vishwa Hindu Parishad] and the Bajrang Dal,” he said.

Dalit leader Raju Arekar termed Manusmriti anti-women as well as anti-human being.

“Manusmriti terms the native people of the country as villains. It views them as slaves of those who hold power. Dr. Ambedkar realised these designs and motives of Manusmriti and publicly burnt it to register his opposition. His action was aimed at sensitising the oppressed communities about the designs of Brahminism. We need to tread on Ambedkar’s path and realise his dream of egalitarian society where everybody lives with equality and dignity,” he said.