Topic summary
Manu Smriti
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Manusmriti.
In British India
...whatever its historical status, however, most scholars today agree that it (Manu Smriti) took on unprecedented status as an "applied" legal document only under early British rule' (Dirks, 2001: 34). when Sir William Jones, who was a judge of the Supreme Court of Bengal appointed by the Crown, threw his weight behind Manu Smriti as the Institutes of Hindu Law (Rocher, 2010), Manu smriti acquired a status disproportionate to its actual stature in India in terms of people's awareness and acceptance of it in contrast to customs.