Vol. 17, Part II · pages 146–150

123THE RISE . . . . . . . . . FOR IT ? II. 213. It is the nature of women to seduce man in this (world). For that reason the wise are never unguarded in (the company of) females. II. 214. For women are able to lead astray in (this) world not only a fool, but even a learned man, and (to make) him a slave of desire and anger. II. 215. One should not sit in a lonely place with one’s mother, sister or daughter; for the senses are powerful, and master even a learned man. IX. 14. Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention fixed on age; (thinking), ‘(It is enough that) he is a man’, they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly. IX. 15. Through their passion for men, through their mutable temper, through natural heartlessness, they become disloyal towards their husbands, however, carefully they may be guarded in this (world). IX. 16. Knowing their disposition, which the Lord of creatures laid in them at the creation to be such, (every) man should most strenuously exert himself to guard them. IX. 17. (When creating them) Manu allotted to women (a love of their) seat and (of) ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice and bad conduct. This shows how low was woman in the opinion of Manu. The laws of Manu against women are of a piece with this view. Women are not to be free under any circumstances. In the opinion of Manu :— IX. 2. Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families), and if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control.

124 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES IX. 3. Her father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never for independence. IX. 5. Women must particularly be guarded against evil inclinations, however trifling (they may appear); if they are not guarded, they will bring sorrow on two families. IX. 6. Considering the higher duty of all castes, even weak husbands (must) strive to guard their wives. V. 147. By a girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house. V. 148. In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent. V. 149. She must not seek to separate herself from her father, husband, or sons; by leaving them she would make both (her own and her husband’s) families contemptible. Woman is not to have a right to divorce. IX. 45. The husband is declared to be one with wife, which means that there could be no seperation once a woman is married. Many Hindus stop here as though this is the whole story regarding Manu’s law of divorce and keep on idolizing it by comforting their conscience with the thought that Manu regarded marriage as sacrament and therefore did not allow divorce. This of course is far from the truth. His law against divorce had a very different motive. It was not to tie up a man to a woman but it was to tie up the woman to a man and to leave the man free.

125THE RISE . . . . . . . . . FOR IT ? For Manu does not prevent a man from giving up his wife. Indeed he not only allows him to abandon his wife but he also permits him to sell her. But what he does is to prevent the wife from becoming free. See what Manu says :— IX. 46. Neither by sale nor by repudiation is a wife released from her husband. The meaning is that a wife, sold or repudiated by her husband, can never become the legitimate wife of another who may have bought or received her after she was repudiated. If this is not monstrous, nothing can be. But Manu was not worried by considerations of justice or injustice in framing his law. He wanted to deprive women of the freedom they had under the Buddhistic regime. Manu was outraged by licence and in putting a stop to it he deprived her of her liberty. A wife was reduced by Manu to a level of a slave in the matter of property. IX. 416. A wife, a son and a slave, these three are declared to have no property; the wealth which they earn is (acquired) for him to whom they belong. When she becomes a widow Manu allows her maintenance, if her husband was joint, and a widow’s estate in the property of her husband, if she was separate from his family. But Manu never allows her to have any domination over property. A woman under the laws of Manu is subject to corporal punishment and Manu allows the husband the right to beat his wife. VIII. 299. A wife, a son, a slave, a pupil, and a younger brother of the full blood, who have committed faults, may be beaten with a rope or a split bamboo. Under Manu a woman had no right to knowledge. The study of the Veda was forbidden to her by Manu.

126 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES II. 66. Even for a woman the performance of the Sanskaras are necessary and they should be performed without uttering the Veda Mantras. Offering sacrifices according to Brahmanism formed the very soul of religion. Manu forbids women from performing sacrifices. Manu ordains that : XI 36-37. A woman shall not perform the daily sacrifices prescribed by the Vedas. If she does it, she will go to hell. To disable her from performing such sacrifices Manu prevents her from getting the aid and services of a Brahmin priest. I V . 205206. A Brahmin must never eat food given at a sacrifice performed by women. Sacrifices performed by women are inauspicious and not acceptable to God. They should, therefore, be avoided. Finally, a word regarding the ideal of life, Manu has sought to place before a woman. It had better be stated in his own words :V. 151. Him to whom her father may give her, or her brother with the father’s permission, she shall obey as long as he lives and when he is dead, she must not insult his memory. V. 154. Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure elsewhere, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must be constantly worshipped as a God by a faithful wife. V. 155. No sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by women, apart from their husbands; if a wife obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted in heaven. Then comes the choicest texts which form the pith and the marrow of this ideal which Manu prescribes for women : V . 153. The husband who wedded her with sacred Mantras, is always a source of happiness to

127THE RISE . . . . . . . . . FOR IT ? his wife, both in season and out of season, in this world and in the next. V . 150. She must always be cheerful, clever in the management of her household affairs, careful in cleaning her utensils, and economical in expenditure. This the Hindus regard as a very lofty ideal for a woman !!! As though to put a coping stone on his edifice of disabilities of women Manu declared a new rule that killing a woman was only an Upapataka i.e. it was a minor offence. XI. 67. Liquor, slaying women, Sudras, Vaishyas, or Kshatriyas, and a theists (are all) minor offences. One can quite understand why Manu should have said that the killing of a Sudras, Vaishya or a Kshatriya was only an Upapataka. He was trying to establish that the Brahmin was superior to all these and only the killing of a Brahmin was Mahapataka. But why did he not apply the same rule to women ? Only because a woman, in the eyes of Manu, was a thing of no value. In the face of these quotations can anybody doubt that it was Manu who was responsible for the degradation of women in India ? Most people are perhaps aware of this. But they do not seem to know two things. They do not know what is peculiar in Manu. There is nothing new or startling in the Laws of Manu about woman. They are the views of the Brahmins ever since Brahmanism was born in India. Before Manu they existed only as a matter of social theory. What Manu did was to convert what was a social theory into the law of the State. The second thing they do not know is the reason which led Manu to impose these disabilities upon women, Sudras and women were the two chief sections of the Aryan Society which were flocking to join the religion of the Buddha and thereby undermining the foundation of Brahmanic Religion. Manu wanted to stem the tide of women flowing in direction of Buddhism.