Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday that the Delhi University (DU) Vice-Chancellor had rejected the proposal to include the ancient Sanskrit text Manusmritiin its undergraduate law course. He added that the Education Ministry is committed to the Constitution and to a โfuturistic approachโ.ย
โThere is no question of including any controversial portion of any scriptโฆ,โ Mr. Pradhan said.ย
On Thursday, after it came to the notice of the Ministry that Manusmriti has been proposed to be a part of the Law Faculty course in DU, Mr. Pradhan said he enquired about this and spoke with the Vice-Chancellor.
He added, โHe assured me that some law faculty member had proposed changes in the jurisprudence chapter and that such a proposal had been received by the DU administration. However in the Academic Council meeting, there was no endorsement of any such proposal. The V-C has rejected that proposal. The government is committed to upholding the true spirit and letter of the Constitution.โ
The DU Academic Council for Academic Matters convenes on Friday, and readings on Manusmriti were proposed to be included in the course material as part of efforts toย introduce Indian perspectives in line with National Education Policy 2020.ย
Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Babasaheb B.R. Ambedkar took to X and stated, โI am glad that the University of Delhi rejected the proposal to teach the casteist, anti-women Manusmriti to students of Law Faculty. If such a thing had not happened, I would have followed Babasahebโs footsteps, gone to Delhi and burnt a copy of Manusmriti in front of Vice-Chancellorโs office.โ
