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DHARMA AND

CHANGING
CONCEPTS OF
JUSTICE
Made By- Rahul chopra
Pranjal Jain
&
Rishab Kumar

Meaning Of
Dharma
Hinduism describes dharma as the natural universal laws whose
observance enables humans to be contented and happy, and to save
himself from degradation and suffering.
Dharma is a path to righteousness and living ones live according to
code of conduct as described by Hindu scriptures.
Dharma is the moral law combined with spiritual discipline that guides
one's life. Dharma is the law of being without which things cannot
exist. Dharma has multiple meanings. Some examples are Sannayas and
stages of life, Duties such as learning from teacher, Law and Justice,
Virtues such as Ahimsa, rituals and rites of passage, Yoga and
personal behaviors.

Dharma
Dharma is the nature of things and the gods are only its
guardians
(though
notably
the
Sakyamunis
original
interpretation excluded the bit about the gods).
Dharma is conceived as the course of action which if followed
by any person would lead to both physical and spiritual gain in
this world and the next and the failure to follow which would
result in Adharma or a spiritual fall and therefore a person
was obligated to follow the norms of Dharma (therefore the
tendency to equate Dharma incorrectly with duty / obligation
to the exclusion of all else ).
The Dharma is therefore an ideal which is to be followed for
physical and spiritual benefit of each person and every society
through its entire life cycle under various circumstances.

SOURCE OF DHARMA
Dharma and related words are found in the oldest Vedic literature of
Hinduism, in later Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, and the Epics; the word
dharma also plays a central role in the literature of other Indian
religions founded later, such as Buddhism and Jainism.
According to Brereton, Dharman occurs 63 times in Rig-veda; in
addition, words related to Dharman also appear in Rig-veda, for example
once as dharmakrt, 6 times as satyadharman, and once as dharmavant, 4
times as dharman and twice as dhariman. In other texts, three sources
and means to discover Dharma in Hinduism are described. These,
according to Paul Hacker, are: First, learning historical knowledge such
as Vedas, Upanishads, the Epics and other Sanskrit literature with the
help of ones teacher. Second, observing the behavior and example of
good
People. The third source applies when neither ones education nor
example exemplary conduct is known.

THE ROLE OF DANDA IN DHARMA


Danda is the methodology whereby a sovereign inculcates Dharma in his
subject/s and assists them in the path of Dharma by exercising their self
control.
Danda means scepter / mace that is pure force to be used to keep
persons on the path of Dharma through a method of assisted self control.
In other words it assists the sovereign to discharge his Dharma to keep
his subjects on the path of Dharma.
Danda if applied properly protects the sovereign and if applied unjustly
turns against him. This is more so since the sovereign is necessarily
subject to Dharma and injustice would be a failure of the sovereign to
follow its Dharma.

THE SUBJECTIVITY OF DHARMA : SVADHARMA


The Dharmic system is predicated on a world view of the Varna-Ashrama system which
decides the Dharma of every person that is each persons Svadharma.
The entire Dharmic society is divided into the chatur varna system consisting of, the
brahmana, the kshatriya (the wariors), the vaisya (the commoners & business
community) and the shudra (the servers) based on their actions or day to day activities.
Every person is situated somewhere in the above matrix and therefore has a specific
dharma dependant upon the position which he holds in the varna matrix. Therefore the
Khsatriya commits Adharma by not fighting a Dharmayuddha (a war for Dharma )
while a Vaisya and Shudra does not

DHARMA RELATED TO DUTIES OF A


PERSON
The life of a person in a Dharmic society is also divided into four stages,
the first is the Brahmacharya (the student life), the second is the Grihasta (the family life),
the third is the Vanaprastha (the forest dweller or to be independent of the society) and the
fourth is the Sanyas (the world renouncer to attain moksha or salvation). The Dharma of a
person in every stage is different and what is the Dharma for one is not the Dharma for the other.
The interaction of these matrices and webs create the Dharma of the individual within society, his
Svadharma. The Svadharma is the basis of each persons Dharmic ideal in society.

DHARMA AND SOCIETAL NORMS AND THE


SOCIAL WEB
Dharma is sometimes compared to the Greco-Roman conception of Natural Law though in
conception they are fundamentally different.
Dharma though universal is established through customary and societal practice and reiterated by
the Dharmashastras (the treatises on Dharma )
Dharma is completely unlike an objective black letter code of law in that it represents an
idealized compendium of tradition and sadachara ( good customs) and sila ( established conduct)
which must be tested on the touchstone of prudence.
Dharma is clearly an evolving system of norms, changing all the time yet
retaining its essence permanently.

DHARMA AND LAW


The notion of Dharma as duty or propriety is found in India's ancient legal and religious
texts. In Hindu philosophy, justice, social harmony, and happiness requires that people
live per dharma. The Dharmashastra is a record of these guidelines and rules. The
available evidence suggest India once had a large collection of dharma related literature
(sutras, shastras); four of the sutras survive and these are now referred to as
Dharmasutras. Along with laws of Manu in Dharmasutras, exist parallel and different
compendium of laws, such as the laws of Narada and other ancient scholars. These
different and conflicting law books are neither exclusive, nor do they supersede other
sources of Dharma in Hinduism. These Dharmasutras include instructions on education
of the young, their rites of passage, customs, religious rites and rituals, marital rights
and obligations, death and ancestral rites, laws and administration of justice, crimes,
punishments, rules and types of evidence, duties of a king, as well as morality.

THE BRITISH AND THE DHARMA


ILLUSION
The British were the ones who in the name of noninterference with customary law damaged and interfered with the concept of Dharmic law the
most.
The western conception of law necessarily believes that any justice system must be based on a system of definite rules.
The Islamic rule for eight hundred years in India had completely superimposed the Sharia on the criminal justice system, but had not interfered
with the Hindu dispute resolution systems in civil matters.
The British in the attempt of disbursing equal justice instituted British judges to judge on Indian matters of civil dispute, assisted by Quadis or
Pandits.
Inspite of various dissenting voices within the British administration, the attempt of the British judges was to codify the Dharmic codes and treat
them as exhaustive and then interpret them through the methodology of starre decicis something completely against the grain of Dharmic justice.
This was because the British judge operated completely outside the social milieu which was the most crucial component for dispensing Dharmic
justice,and therefore it was not possible for him to either interpret the Dharmic norms or to decide the svadharma of any person.
In the process the British created a justice system which was completely alien to the Dharmic system.
The British ended up creating a peculiar system of justice called the Anglo-Hindu law, which was neither Anglo nor Hindu and the worst of both.

Transitional period of law and legal system


With the passage of time and changes in the socio-political conditions of India due to
influence of Moghul and later British rule, the ancient Hindu law which at one time
governed the entire human activity civil, criminal and miscellaneous, was modified,
supplemented and finally moved by various legislative enactments. During the Mughal
rule in India, Islam was used to function as a political entity rather than a legal system.
Thus the Hindu law which was at one time revealed to have a divine origin being a part
of dharma, has now become man-made law and therefore has lost its divinity which
the religion still retains. Dharma, which is as old as humanity itself and of which law
proper has been only a part and parcel, has lost all its truth and glory and it is now
being increasingly used as a means to accomplish the selfish ends of those who are in
power rather than as an instrument to secure even-handed justice to the people of
India.

INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM


In India, the judiciary is very respected and is uniquely powerful.
Some say it is the most powerful judiciary in the world.
It can only happen in a country where the culture holds the
interpreters of laws to be even higher than the formulators of laws
and those that execute them.
Dharma in India still reigns supreme.

MODERN INDIAN LAW DISTINGUISHED FROM THE


ANCIENT DHARMASHASTRIC CONCEPTION OF LAW
The modern law does not touch the moral or religious aspect of ancient dharma.
Law in modern time is confined to rights, legal obligations, duties etc. It is in sense that law is different
from dharma. Law confines itself to only such obligations as are created by the sovereign or the State
but dharma has much wider idea and includes religious, moral, social, and legal activities of mankind.
Again every improper or undesirable conduct is opposed to dharma, but not by modern law unless it is
specifically a prohibited conduct.

The study of evolution of ancient Indian law and jurisprudential philosophy would reveal that the
conception of justice in the form of Dharma governed the communal life with a view to safeguarding the
common interests of the people.

As rightly pointed by Max Muller the life of the people under the ancient
Indian law was motivated by Dharma, Artha, Karma and Moksha. Of these Dharma and Moksha which
referred to the spiritual and moral values of life gradually lost their hold due to impact of social transition
of the Indian society due to the Mughal and the subsequent British rule. The Artha, i.e., the wealth and
Karma(action), however, still hold the field which is clearly reflected in the peoples materialistic approach
to life in the modern time.
With the increasing role of State, it is now requires to adopt measures, policies and action oriented scheme
for welfare of the people. The British rule adopted a new model of governance in India assigning distinctive
functions to the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary for the administration of the country, to suit
their own selfish interest for retaining colonial rule rather than for the welfare of the Indian masses

CONCLUSION
We in India are living in the modern age. In ancient India the concept of Dharma was the synthesis of law,
religion and morality. It represented the reality it self and the whole of Right and Truth of human life. It was
the spirit of Justice and the Victory of good over evil. Now we live in multi- religious, multi lingual plural society.
The word Dharma as Justice may seem not so representative of all the people of India due to its modern
meaning as religion only. But we need some other concept like Dharma which can represent Justice as a whole.
In ancient India Dharma was considered as the complete constitution of our ancient Indian Society. Now our
Constitutionalism represents our Dharma and justice which balances and harmonizes parliamentary democracy
with presidential form of Government, preambular declaration of liberty, equality and fraternity with emergency
powers, and fundamental rights of individuals with economic and social goals of Directive Principles of State
Policy. Thus Indian Constitution makes India a welfare state to enforce socio economic justice progressively. Our
constitutionalism is the new idea of our old concept of Dharma which expresses our will and determination to
uphold justice in every walk of life of the Indian people.

THANK YOU

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