JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit said that "anthropologically" gods do not belong to the upper caste and that even Lord Shiva could be from a scheduled caste or tribe.
New Delhi: At present, the country has been passing through a period of caste-related violence. JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit added fuel to the fire as she claimed that “anthropologically” gods do not belong to the upper caste and that even Lord Shiva could be from a scheduled caste or tribe.
She was talking about the recent caste violence in which a nine-year-old Dalit boy was involved. She said that “no god came from the upper caste.”
Most of you should be familiar with the anthropological beginnings of our gods. No, God is a brahmin. The highest god is from the Kshatriya clan. Lord Shiva must belong to a scheduled caste or a scheduled tribe because he sits in a cemetery with a snake and has very few clothes to wear. In my opinion, brahmans can’t sit in the cemetery, “she said.
Delivering the Dr B R Ambedkar Lecture Series titled “Dr B R Ambedkar’s Thoughts on Gender Justice: Decoding the Uniform Civil Code”, she also stated the “status of shudras assigned to women in Manusmriti” rendered it extraordinarily regressive in her speech.
Let me tell you that, as per the Manusmriti all women are shudras, so how can a woman claim that she is a brahmin or anything else, and after the marriage, you get the husband or father’s caste on you? “I think this is something that is extraordinarily regressive,” she said.
Additionally, she made it very obvious that “anthropologically” speaking, none of the gods, including Lakshmi, Shakti, or even Jagannath, are from the upper caste. In fact, she claimed, Jagannath is a tribal figure.
“So why do we still practise such extreme inhumane forms of discrimination? It is crucial that we reevaluate and refocus on Babasaheb’s ideas. There is no leader in contemporary India who was such a remarkable thinker. Hinduism is not a religion; it is a way of life. If it is a way of life, in that case, why are we afraid of criticism? She questioned
“Gautam Buddha was one of the first to make us aware of how deeply inequality is in our culture,” she added.
