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ENGAGED CIRCLE PL MIMROTH SHADOW LINES THE DALIT VOICE THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS When a new building was constructed in Jaipur for the state High Court, the local Bar Association put forward a proposal for the installation of a statue of Manu to beautify the premises. From proposal to completion, the entire plan was kept a close secret, never made public until the statue was in place. Manu was the creator of the varna system under which Hindu society for centuries denied all basic human rights and dignity to Dalits. For us, a statue of Manu can only symbolise the unjust social structure imposed on us from time immemorial. All the oppression we continue to suffer is because of Manu and his treatise, the Manudharma Sastra. The Constitution has attempted to improve the condition of Dalits through law, but Manu's words have been an unwritten stricture the law cannot touch. Had Manu's statue been installed anywhere else, perhaps we would not have cared to react. But to see such homage paid to a figure who represents all that is unjust in this society, and that too standing proud in the premises of the Rajasthan High Court, is shocking. It is beyond acceptance. We turn to the courts when we are in trouble, which for us is almost perennial. What worse message could we receive? Can we ever expect justice from a court which we enter looking at Manu's idol? It only tells us that even the High Court subscribes to Manu's ideology. On the other hand, the statue of Dr BR Ambedkar, the father of our Constitution, has been shunted to an invisible corner. It says a lot about the mentality of the judiciary and the government in Rajasthan. How is such a system to contribute to the constitutional ideal of a casteless society? The statue was installed on June 28, 1989, and we have been fighting it ever since. There were huge protests all over the state soon after it was put up, and a full bench of the High Court ordered that it be removed within 48 hours. We were all happy, but soon after that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Acharya Dharmendra filed a writ petition in the court of Justice Mahender Bhushan, who passed a stay order on July 27, 1989 — as a result the statue is there till date. There are many cases dating back to 1989 that have seen their final hearings, but not this one. Each time this case comes to a final hearing, the bench postpones it on the grounds that it is a very sensitive issue. But we will not give up easily — we haven't so far, and we will not in the future. We will continue to file applications asking for a final hearing in this case. We want to see how they will justify their deliberate delays. We install statues of Ambedkar because that's our way of reclaiming our lost dignity. But why is the government installing a statue of Manu? The very government which is supposed to have no biases towards any religion or caste. Let there be Manu statues wherever anyone pleases, but the government should not be a party to it. Mimroth is a Jaipur-based advocate As told to Praveen Donthi July 07 , 2007 -- Subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a BLANK email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
