CHAPTER 16
Shudras and the Counter Revolution
This is a 21-page foolscap typed manuscript. The cover page is having a title ‘Shudras and the Counter-Revolution’ and the text on next page starts with the same title. All these pages were loose and tagged together. Unfortunately, only 21 pages are available and the latter pages seem to be lost. — Editors.
The laws of Manu relating to the Status of the Shudra make a very interesting reading for the simple reason that they have moulded thed psychology of the Hindus and determined their attitude towards the Shudras who forms at the present and at all times the most numerous part of Hindu society. They are set out below under separate heads so that it may be possible for the reader to have a complete idea of the status given by Manu to the Community of Shudras.
Manu asks the householders of the Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya Class:
IV. 61. Let him not dwell in a country where the rulers are Shudra. A Shudra is not to be deemed as a respectable person. For Manu enacts that:
XI. 24. A Brahmin shall never beg from a Shudra property for (performing) a sacrifice i.e. for religious purpose. All marriage ties with the Shudra were proscribed. Marriage with a woman belonging to any of the three other classes was forbidden. A Shudra was not to have any connection with a woman of the higher classes and an act of adultery committed by a Shudra with her was declared by manu to be an offence involving capital punishment.
VIII. 374. A Shudra who has an intercourse with a woman of the higher caste guarded [1] or unguarded, shall be punished in the following manner:
If she was unguarded, he loses the offending part. If she was guarded then he should be put to death and his property confiscated.
As to office Manu prescribes.
1 Guarded means under the protection of some relation. Unguarded means living alone.