Published Paper Details:

One of the most important ancient Hindu legal texts, the Manusmriti, has been at the center of arguments about gender, morals, and social order in India for a long time. Many people respect it as an important dharma??stra, but feminist research has shown that it is based on patriarchy and supports the idea that women should be subordinate to men. Using a feminist view, this paper looks at the misogynistic parts of Manusmriti by breaking down its rules on women's rights, behavior, and choice. It says that the text not only supports the idea that men should be in charge of women and women should rely on men, but it also makes it normal for women to be denied education, property rights, and independence. The study shows how the Manusmriti was used to make gender inequality official in religious and law systems by using feminist ideas about patriarchy, power, and resistance. At the same time, the paper looks at these rules in the context of their time and asks whether they were based on normative goals or social realities. The goal of this critical deconstruction is to show how the text has shaped gender discourse in South Asia for a long time and to make room for reinterpreting tradition in ways that question and break down misogynistic structures. In the end, the paper stresses how important it is to use feminist hermeneutics when reading classic texts again to question their authority and how they apply to current battles for gender justice.