Santishree Dhulipudi Clarifies 'Caste Of God' Remark, Says 'Was Paraphrasing Ambedkar'

A day after her remarks on the 'caste of Gods,' JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has come out with a clarification. She said it is to the credit of Hinduism that great dissenters from Gautam Buddha to BR Ambedkar are celebrated. Pandit, who was delivering a keynote address BR Ambedkar Lecture Series organised by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, said that the Hindu Gods do not anthropologically come from the upper caste.

In her clarification to the Asian News International, Dhulipudi said "I was speaking on Dr BR Ambedkar and gender justice, decoding uniform civil code so I had to analyse what was his thought so I was paraphrasing what he said in his books these are not my ideas. I also said that Hinduism is the only religion and a way of life. Sanatan Dharma accepts dissent, diversity and difference" she said.

Santishree Dhulipudi Clarifies 'Caste Of God' Remark

Dhulipudi insisted that she was only analysing Ambdekar's point of view and that these were not her thoughts. She further added, "It is extremely important for modern India especially when we are going to the Amrit Kal and looking into some of our great nationalists who have written a lot. These were not my thoughts. I am not as great and original as Dr Ambedkar. As a good academician, I was just analysing his views on gender and justice,"

Referring to her remarks that all women, according to the ManuSmriti, "are Shudras", she said that she was analysing the work of Ambedkar.

"He wrote a lot on ManuSmriti and it is he who said all this. I was only analysing his viewpoint and he being the father of the Indian constitution and the chairman of the drafting committee- it is extremely important to understand his philosophy. When I was talking about gender justice it was very important for me to even analyse this point of view," she said.

Dhulipudi, who knows Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit and English, was earlier a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the Savitri Phule Pune University. This February, she was appointed as the first woman VC of JNU for a period of five years.

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