by B. R. GOWANI
Maharaja Chhappan Singh lost in a deep thought planning a strategy to gain absolute authority PHOTO/Uncyclopedia
Times have changed. About eighteen hundred years ago, Manu (who, according to Hindu mythology, is considered to be the first man) gave a legal text called Manu Smriti or The Laws of Manu. Manu’s co-author is believed to be his disciple Maharishi Bhrigu. The book is in verse form and most verses are attributed to Bhrigu. Manu’s aim was to provide the society with rules favorable to upper castes with the goal of keeping the shudras (the lowest caste) in their place, that is, at the bottom, with lots of horrible punishments for breaking the caste-based rules. (Many sections of Manusmriti are also nasty and repugnant to women.)
(On December 25, 1927, social reformer Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, independent India’s first Law and Justice Minister and chairman of the constitution drafting committee, burnt a copy of Manusmriti as a mark of protest because it justified the caste system. Ambedkar once wrote:
“Even though I was born in the Hindu religion, I will not die in the Hindu religion“
Years later, in a public ce