British administrators imposed Manusmriti as India’s legal code.

Evidence

A contemporary scholar, J.L. Brockington (1996, 92) arrives at a similar conclusion. Many editions of the Manusmriti have been published in Sanskrit since its first edition in 1813. The first translation was Institutes of Hindu law, or, The ordinances of Menu [sic], according to the gloss of Cullúca: comprising the Indian system of duties, religious and civil: verbally translated from the original Sanscrit: with a preface, by Sir William Jones (1796). One of the best-known translations is George Bühler’s Laws of Manu (1886/2004), which contains an exhaustive introduction and extracts from seven commentaries. … As C.J. Fuller (2003, 484) notes, British administrators depended on Dharmashastras such as the Manusmriti to develop a legal system for India, thus subjecting the Hindu population as a whole to a Brahminical legal code. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1119

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to arguments about colonial codification of Hindu law reinforcing Brahminical caste order.

Related

• The Manusmriti attained its current form around the second century CE (similarity 0.87)

Broader Connections

• British rule deliberately fanned caste and communal divisions in India #expands (0.50) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 155
• Ambedkar’s followers publicly burned the Manusmriti at the second Mahad conference #responds-to (0.40) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 325