Human Dignity, Justice, Fairness, Youth - Eubios Ethics Institute

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Macer, DRJ and Saad-Zoy, S. eds., Asia-Arab Interregional Philosophical Dialogues:
Human Dignity, Justice, Fairness, Youth, Democracy and Public Policy (UNESCO, 2011)
Unfolding Conceptualization of Justice in India
Parag Kadam,
Graduate Diploma in Arts, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland
Email: paragplk@gmail.com, pkad310@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Every day the streams from the mountains branch out to create new ones, the new streams attach
themselves to other waters which ultimately blossom into something different. They change the
vast oceans every day. We people are a product of our pasts; not just in a personal day to day
manner of behavior, but more so in a social and cultural setting. The history of a region gives it a
flavor. It also makes the people think of where they came from, their heritages and the past ways
of life, thus influencing their present sense of morality. Our oceans are and will always be
invisible and complex. But that’s what makes the bonds between two human beings so beautiful.
For us it is very important to hold onto the roots, studying them not just for mistakes of the past
but for an inspiration to solve today’s problems. In India, the ways of life have changed on a
continuous basis from the ancient period of Hindu predominance with the introduction of
countless foreign powers ranging from Middle East to Western Europe. All of their philosophies
and ways of thinking are incorporated in the making of today’s Indian person. Justice is one of
those concepts. Present moral and social justice flash this fact more vehemently than legal justice
which is, for most of the part, a result of its nearest contemporary system in time.
Ancient & Early Medieval India (c. 1700 BC-800 AD)
Ancient Indian concept of justice is very intricate and very contradictory to the modern judicial
ethos. This concept underlines a journey of falling from a perfectly just society and includes the
social codes to follow in the current Kali Yuga, the age of decadence. An individual’s spiritual
enhancement was the aim of society as well as of the state. The system was based upon a very
instinctive and natural philosophy: do good and good will be done to you. This karmic system of
justice entailed an inequality which was again seen to be natural. If one had tried to instigate the
concept of equality it’d been received as very unjust, which is actually true because every person
is different. To explain this, it is necessary to first delve into Indian idea of origin of society and
its different stages: phase of hunter- gatherers, the time when domestication of rice began
leading people not only to develop a proprietary interest but also the concept of family, division
of rice fields as private property followed by its violation and theft and ultimately, the formation
of a new system of justice incorporating the individual, the family and the private property. The
functional division of labor that followed morphed into the birth of Varna system of social
classes. This is explained in details in the Pali text of Agganna Sutta, wherein Buddha, pointing
to Hymn X, 90 of Rigveda, tells this story to the two novices of Buddhist order who are of
Brahmin origin.
The Varna system consisted of four social classes with Khshatriyas, the ones responsible for
protection and order who with a short lived democratic process became the government evolving
into monarchy, Bramhins, the ones devoted for academics and education in general who later
automatically became in charge of all the religious affairs, Vaishyas, the ones responsible for
society’s economy through being agriculturalists, cattle rearers, traders and Shudras, the artisans
and laborers. The exact time of solidification of this system is unknown but first description is
found in the Bramhanical text of Purusha Sutta from Rigveda belonging to the early Vedic period
of 1700-1100 BC. Each class had its share of rights and duties. The social law was a very well