Before Shaming Manu, Mr Gandhi, Examine Your Own Political Mindset
Rahul Gandhi has called the Manusmriti’s view of women “a shame.” Fair enough. But can secularism be selective? The real test is whether the same constitutional standard is applied to patriarchy in every religious tradition.
To condemn the “Manu mindset” is easy. The harder test is to condemn, with equal moral clarity, every religiously sanctioned attempt to deny women equal citizenship.
The Shah Bano episode remains the hardest question for the Congress tradition: when constitutional equality for a divorced Muslim woman collided with organised religious pressure, which side did it choose?
No ancient text need be banned. But no ancient text—Hindu, Muslim, Christian or otherwise—can be permitted to outrank the Constitution in determining a woman’s civil rights.