Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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 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