aneeshm
Deity
The Manu Smriti is a text which is the favourite of the Marxist historians who rule academia in India, because it contains six oppressive verses, which they love to quote to in criticism of Hinduism (by association with caste and oppression). The problem is, they do not state the authoritativeness with which these verses are to be taken, and what position they occupy, nor their origin. They also completely neglect the rest of the text, which is a jewel of jurisprudence.
Now I've come across this excellent series of articles about the Manu Smriti. They are interesting even for a non-Indian reader, because they provide insight into what is probably the oldest and yet contemporarily relevant legal code in the world. For the first time in human history, someone declared that justice did not consist of an eye for an eye.
It also provides a model for a welfare society which does not involve coercion - and which, in fact, actually worked until rigidity from within and barbarism from outside destroyed it - and may work again, though in a drastically modified form.
The Manu Smriti in a new light: Part One
It contains, at the bottom, the links to the remaining parts.
The last part is yet to come up (dealing with Brahminical hegemony). I will bump this thread when it does.
Now I've come across this excellent series of articles about the Manu Smriti. They are interesting even for a non-Indian reader, because they provide insight into what is probably the oldest and yet contemporarily relevant legal code in the world. For the first time in human history, someone declared that justice did not consist of an eye for an eye.
It also provides a model for a welfare society which does not involve coercion - and which, in fact, actually worked until rigidity from within and barbarism from outside destroyed it - and may work again, though in a drastically modified form.
The Manu Smriti in a new light: Part One
It contains, at the bottom, the links to the remaining parts.
The last part is yet to come up (dealing with Brahminical hegemony). I will bump this thread when it does.
