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>Several academics have contested the claim of the Centre and the BJP that the controversial contents of the Manusmriti that seek to perpetuate deep-seated caste and gender biases may not be part of the original text and that the versions in circulation cannot be relied upon.

>The academics said all versions of the Manusmriti, which is part of a collection of ancient treatises known as the dharmashastras that discuss socio-structural, legal and ethical norms, are unanimous on the denial of educational and economic rights to Shudras and Ati-Shudras, who have been placed at the bottom of the caste hierarchy prescribed by the text.

>The government’s defence of the Manusmriti came up in the Rajya Sabha on July 30 during a discussion on a bill that seeks to enhance the punishment for exam paper leaks when leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge cited a copy of the book and wanted to read from it.

>House leader and health minister J.P. Nadda said the book was not based on the original manuscript of the Manusmriti, and asked Kharge to authenticate it.

>“The speech made by LoP Kharge creates disharmony in society. This is not the original text. He should authenticate from the original text. I want the original text of the Manusmriti, the original text before British time,” Nadda said.

>BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said William Jones, who was a Calcutta High Court judge, first translated the Manusmriti in 1790. He tried to defend the text by citing Babasaheb B.R. Ambedkar’s book Who Are Shudras that says “there is no connection between modern-day Scheduled Castes and the Vedic-age Shudras”.

>“In the book The Untouchables, Ambedkar has written there was no untouchability in Manu’s era. The original text is not available. This (referring to the book cited by Kharge) has been prepared by the British,” Trivedi said.