Anthropologically, no God is from an upper caste, says JNU VC in talk on gender justice

Delivering a lecture series in Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit said that Hindu Gods could not be from the upper castes, "anthropologically," adding that Lord Shiva was probably from a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, taking into consideration he "he sits in a cemetery with a snake and has very little clothes to wear."

"Most of you should know the origins of our gods anthropologically. No god is a brahmin, the highest is a kshatriya," the Vice Chancellor said.

As part of her delivery of the Dr B R Ambedkar Lecture Series titled 'Dr B R Ambedkar's Thoughts on Gender Justice: Decoding the Uniform Civil Code', Pandit also said that the Manusmriti's stand on women is "extremely regressive."


"Let me tell all women that all women according to Manusmriti are shudras so no woman can claim she is a brahmin or anything else and it is only by marriage that you get the husband or father's caste on you. I think this is something which is extraordinarily regressive," she said.

Her comments come in the wake of multiple caste atrocities in the country, with the latest being the killing of a nine-year-old Dalit boy.

In addition, Pandit also extolled Dr Ambedkar's views, while also advocating for the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code.

"So why are we still continuing with this discrimination which is very very inhuman. It is very important that we are rethinking, reorienting the thoughts of Babasaheb. We do not have any leader of modern India who was such a great thinker," Pandit asked.