‘No god is a Brahmin,’ declares JNU Vice Chancellor, pointing out ‘gender bias’ in Manusmriti

Hindu Gods do not anthropologically come from the upper caste, according to JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, who delivered the keynote address at the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment’s B R Ambedkar Lecture Series.

“Anthropologically, scientifically… please look at the origins of our gods,” Pandit said on the topic “Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s Thought on Gender Justice: Decoding the Uniform Civil Code.” A Brahmin is not a god. A Kshatriya is the highest level.

Lord Shiva must be a member of a Scheduled Caste or Tribe. Because he is sitting in a cemetery with a snake… they have also given him very few clothes to wear. I don’t believe Brahmins are permitted to sit in the cemetery. As you can see, the gods are not anthropologically from the upper caste. All the gods, including Lakshmi and Shakti. Or, if you take Jagannath, he is very tribal. So, why are we still allowing this inhumane discrimination to continue?”

“Unfortunately, many people believe that caste was not based on birth, but it is now.” Is a Brahmin or any other caste automatically a Dalit if he works as a cobbler? He doesn’t…. I say this because, recently in Rajasthan, a young Dalit boy was beaten to death simply because he touched the water of an upper caste, not even drinking it. Please understand that this is a human rights issue. “How can we treat another human being in this manner?” She stated.

She said of Ambedkar’s seminal “Annihilation of Caste,” “If Indian society wants to do well, annihilation of caste is extraordinarily important… I don’t understand why we are so emotional about this identity that is so discriminatory and unequal. And we are willing to kill someone to protect this so-called artificially constructed identity.”

“If you are a woman and you come from the reserved categories, you are doubly marginalised,” she said, referring to the intersection of caste and gender. First, you are marginalised because you are a woman, and then you are marginalised because you belong to a so-called caste, which is subjected to various stereotypes.”

Buddhism, she claims, demonstrates the acceptance of dissent in “Indic civilisation.”
“I consider Buddhism to be one of the greatest religions because it demonstrates that the Indic civilisation accepts dissent, diversity, and difference.” Gautama the Buddha was the first to oppose what we now call Brahminical Hinduism. Please keep in mind that he was also the first rationalist in history… we have a tradition that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar revived,” Pandit said.

Pandit, who speaks Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit, and English, previously taught at the Savitri Phule Pune University’s Department of Politics and Public Administration. She was appointed as JNU’s first female VC in February for a five-year term. International relations, Asian studies, culture and foreign policy, conflict, violence, and gender are among her research interests.