From Fire to Light: Rereading the Manusmrti

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In From Fire to Light, acclaimed academic Arvind Sharma argues that the present understanding of the Manusmrti - regarded as a text designed by the higher castes, especially the brahmanas, to oppress the lower castes and women - only tells one side of the story. As he demonstrates, this perception, when examined against textual, commentarial and historical evidence, is limited to the point of being misleading (and sometimes downright wrong).

Providing an alternative reading of the Manusmrti, From Fire to Light accepts some of the conclusions associated with the existing interpretation, but presents them in a new light, mitigating and at times contradicting some of its other features. In taking the pluralistic character of the Hindu tradition and the Manusmrti's historical context more deeply into account, it brings about a paradigm shift in our understanding of this ancient text. The Manusmrti emerges as an attempt at social engineering, but of a rather different kind than imagined until now.

To write on the Manusmrti is to play with fire! This statement is not merely metaphorical; the Manusmrti has a history of being literally torched. But where there is fire, there is also the possibility of light.

I encountered the Manusmrti in two distinct stages: during my early life in India, the land of my birth, and then later during my prolonged sojourn in the West as an academic. That I encountered it in India is nothing unusual; even Mahatma Gandhi refers to reading the Manusmrti during his early life in India, which curiously enough inclined him towards atheism. The general impression I formed about the book while in India was that it helped inculcate virtuous living. I remember one reference in particular, which was cited in a biographical account of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose; Netaji is the title by which he was and is popularly revered.³ A few words about him may not be out of place as modern Indian history, as it is currently written, has a way of passing him by. He formed the Indian National Army (INA) from among the almost 90,000 Indian prisoners captured by the Japanese in the Far Eastern theatre of the Second World War. About 45,000 of these prisoners quit the British army to join the INA.