Who Is Santishree Dhulipudi? JNU Vice Chancellor's Remarks On Hindu Gods Draw Flak

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has come under fire for her remarks on Hindu Gods. While delivering the keynote address at the BR Ambedkar Lecture Series organised by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Pandit said that the Hindu Gods do not anthropologically come from the upper caste.

Speaking on the topic “Dr BR Ambedkar’s Thought on Gender Justice: Decoding the Uniform Civil Code”, Pandit said, “Anthropologically, scientifically… please look at the origins of our gods. No god is a Brahmin. The highest is a Kshatriya. Lord Shiva must be a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe. Because he sits in a cemetery with a snake… they have given him very little clothes also to wear. I don’t think Brahmins can sit in the cemetery. So if you see, clearly, the gods anthropologically do not come from the upper caste. Including Lakshmi, Shakti, all the gods. Or if you take Jagannath, very much a tribal. So, why are we still continuing with this discrimination, which is very, very unhuman.”

The JNU VC also said that the manusmriti has categorised all women as “shudras”, which is “extraordinarily regressive”.

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

Who is Santishree Dhulipudi?

Pandit, 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. Her areas of research include international relations, Asian studies, culture and foreign policy, conflict, violence and gender.

Pandit was born in Russia, as per her profile, and is the daughter of professor and journalist parents. Her bio says she was a topper during her undergraduation at Presidency College, Madras. She completed her masters from the same institution.

At JNU, she did her M.Phil in International Relations writing her thesis on ‘Parliament and Foreign Policy in India – The Nehru Years.’ She then began lecturing at Goa University and also completed a course at Uppsala University in Sweden.

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