Anthropologically, gods don't belong to upper caste: JNU VC

New Delhi, August 22

Amid incidents of caste violence, JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit on Monday said “anthropologically”, gods did not belong to the upper caste and even Lord Shiva could be from a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.

Delivering Dr BR Ambedkar Lecture Series titled “Dr BR Ambedkar’s Thoughts on Gender Justice: Decoding the Uniform Civil Code,” she said the woman’s status of shudra in the Manusmriti made it extraordinarily regressive.

“All women, according to Manusmriti, are shudra. So, no woman can claim she is a Brahmin or anything else. It is only by marriage that you get the husband or father’s caste. I think this is extraordinarily regressive,” she said.