A Philosophical Critique of Manu’s Code: Confronting Hegel and Nietzsche on Indian Thought

Naveen Kanalu proposes that Hegel’s and Nietzsche’s readings of the ancient Indian text Manu’s Code stand in stark contrast with that of German Romantic philologists. The essay explores Hegel’s diagnosis of Indian philosophy in terms of modernity, or more specifically, the development of human subjectivity, in contrast to Nietzsche’s analysis as a product of his critique of Christianity. Kanalu thus provides new insights that critics of Hegel’s and Nietzsche’s view of India have disregarded. Kanalu’s essay then briefly explores the later readings of Manu by the twentieth-century political thinker, Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891–1956) and the scholar of art, Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877–1947), to illustrate a critical contrast in the interpretation and application of this text across time as well as geopolitical space. This essay expertly attests from multiple perspectives to how these thinkers transposed these texts onto their own attempt to understand European and Indian reality.