The Constituent Assembly (CA) of India passed the Constitution on November 26, 1949, after almost three years of deliberation. This was an extraordinary contribution to the history of modern liberal democracies. Not only was it the lengthiest constitution in the world—reflecting the vast diversity of the polity it was meant to govern—but it also set out egalitarian, democratic and non-sectarian ideals rarely attempted before in the non-Western world.
“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this 26th day of November 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.”
RSS Demanded Manusmriti as the Constitution
The addition of the terms Socialist and Secular in 1977 only strengthened the Constituent Assembly’s original resolve that India would be a non-sectarian polity rooted in the collective will of its people.
It is therefore striking that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which today wields enormous influence over Indian politics through the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its cadre (including Prime Minister Narendra Modi), mourned the birth of the Indian Constitution. The RSS expressed deep anger when the Constituent Assembly adopted a democratic and secular Constitution under the chairmanship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
The RSS weekly Organizer, in its editorial dated November 30, 1949 titled “Constitution”, declared:
“The worst about the new Constitution of Bharat is that there is nothing Bhartiya about it… There is no trace of ancient Bhartiya constitutional laws, institutions, nomenclatures and phraseology in it… Manu's Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.”
The RSS’s disdain for the Constitution was further articulated by its most influential ideologue, M.S. Golwalkar:
“Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous piecing together of various articles from various Constitutions of the Western countries. It has absolutely nothing which can be called our own.”
— M.S. Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 238.
By advocating Manusmriti as India’s constitution, the RSS echoed the long-held views of its ideological icon V.D. Savarkar, who wrote:
“Manusmriti is that scripture which is most worship-able after Vedas for our Hindu Nation… Even today the rules which are followed by crores of Hindus… are based on Manusmriti. Today Manusmriti is Hindu Law.”
— V.D. Savarkar, “Women in Manusmriti,” in Savarkar Samagar, vol. 4.
Manusmriti, Casteism and the RSS Worldview
The Manusmriti’s hierarchical, caste-based worldview aligns with the RSS’s conception of Hindu nationalism. Golwalkar openly declared caste as integral to the Hindu nation:
“The Hindu People… is the Virat Purusha… Brahmin is the head, Kshatriya the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet… This is the very core of our concept of ‘nation’.”
— M.S. Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, pp. 36–37.
This worldview naturally legitimises caste hierarchy, including the practice of untouchability. Below is a selection of dehumanising provisions from the Laws of Manu, which demonstrate the kind of social order the RSS’s Manusmriti-based vision implies.
Selected Manusmriti Laws Targeting Dalits/Shudras
- “One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudras: to serve meekly even these (other) three castes.” (I/91)
- “Once-born man (a Sudra) who insults a twice-born man… shall have his tongue cut out.” (VIII/270)
- “If he mentions the names and castes of the twice-born with contumely, an iron nail… shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth.” (VIII/271)
- “If he arrogantly teaches Brahmanas their duty… hot oil shall be poured into his mouth and ears.” (VIII/272)
- “A low-caste man who tries to sit on the same seat as a high caste man shall be branded on his hip and banished.” (VIII/281)
In contrast, the Manusmriti prescribes extraordinary leniency for Brahmins:
- "Let him never slay a Brahmana, though he have committed all possible crimes.” (VIII/380)
Selected Manusmriti Laws Degrading Women
- “Day and night woman must be kept in dependence by the males of their families.” (IX/2)
- “A woman is never fit for independence.” (IX/3)
- “Women… give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly; ‘it is enough that he is a man.’” (IX/14)
- “Manu allotted to women impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct.” (IX/17)
These laws speak for themselves—patriarchal, casteist, deeply discriminatory. It is no surprise that Friedrich Nietzsche, whose thought shaped several totalitarian ideologies, admired the Manusmriti.
It was in protest against these very codes that a copy of the Manusmriti was burned at Mahad on December 25, 1927, in the presence of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who called the day Manusmriti Dahan Diwas.
RSS Hatred for Democracy
Although the RSS once criticised detention without trial when Sardar Patel was Home Minister, it abandoned those concerns once in power. The Organizer had written:
“Section 21 and 22 providing for detention without trial reduce all the wordy assurances about liberty, equality and fraternity to meaningless verbiage.”
— Organizer, November 30, 1949
Under the RSS-BJP government led by Prime Minister Modi, India has drifted toward a majoritarian, centralised, punitive order, where dissent is treated as anti-national. This mirrors the RSS’s long-standing hostility to democratic pluralism, epitomised in Golwalkar’s 1940 statement to 1,350 senior RSS cadres:
“RSS, inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology, is lighting the flame of Hindutva in every corner of this great land.”
— M.S. Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan, vol. 1, p. 11.
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*Formerly with Delhi University, click here for Prof Islam's to writings, interviews, and books. Facebook: https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332. Twitter: @shamsforjustice. Blog: http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com. Books: https://tinyurl.com/shams-books
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