The Common Law in India - College of Social Sciences and ...

2 The Common Law in Indiathose of England in which they had their roots andfrom which they were nurtured. Yet they bear theunmistakable impress of their origin. The massivestructure of Indian law and jurisprudence resemblesthe height, the symmetry and the grandeur of thecommon and statute law of England. In it one seesEnglish law in the distant perspective of a newatmosphere and a strange clime.The growth of a jurisprudence so closely modelledon the English pattern would have caused no surprisehad the English settlements in India been in an uninhabitedor barbarous country. To such a country" they carry with them not only the laws, but thesovereignty of their own state; and those who liveamongst them and become members of their communitybecome also partakers of, and subject to thesame laws." 1 But this was not the nature of thefirst settlement made in India. That " was a settlementmade by a few foreigners for the purpose oftrade in a very populous and highly civilised country,under the Government of a powerful Mahomedanruler, with whose sovereignty the English Crown neverattempted nor pretended to interfere for some centuriesafterwards." 2 It will be the purpose of theselectures to unfold the fascinating story of what SirFrederick Pollock has called the Expansion of theCommon Law in India.An account of the development and growth of Indo-British jurisprudence would in a way be inextricably1 Advocate-General of Bengal v. Ranee Surnomoye Dossee (1863)9 Moore Ind.App. at 424.2 Ibid., at pp. 424-425.