''Manuvāda'' (also ''Manuvād'', ''Manuwād'',

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

मनुवाद) is a political philosophy based on

Manusmṛti The ''Manusmṛti'' (), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or the Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitutions among the many ' of Hinduism. Over fifty manuscripts of the ''Manusmriti'' are now known, but the earli ...

, the foundational legal text of ancient India. Proponents of this worldview are called ''Manuvādi''s. The Manusmrti provides extensive instruction on the obligations of an individual throughout their life, and how these vary based on

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

. While the Manusmrti was followed by Hindus for centuries, it has become controversial in the modern era due to its justification of the caste system and its treatment of women. In contemporary politics, these terms are often used to distinguish one's beliefs from those advanced by ''Manuvāda'', particularly with respect to

. The term came to the fore in the

politics of India The Politics and Government of India works within the framework of the country's Constitution, which was adopted in 1950. India is a parliamentary secular democratic republic, described as a “sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republ ...

in the early 2000s, during the government of the nationalist

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

. The term came to be used for the allegation of a hidden agenda of the nationalist parties by their opponents, for example, in 2003,

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

Chief Minister

Mayawati Kumari Mayawati (born Kumari Mayawati Das; 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician who served as the 18th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1995 to 1995, 1997 to 1997, 2002 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2012. She is the national president of t ...

remarked that "the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

had been taken over by Manuvadi forces".

References

*Shashi Shekhar Sharma, ''Imagined Manuvād: the Dharmaśāstras and their interpreters'', Rupa & Co., 2005

References

See also