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Justices and Paṇḍitas: Some Ironies in Contemporary Readings of the Hindu Legal Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Richard W. Lariviere
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Extract

India's history provides one of the best documented examples of colonialism. The British kept meticulous records of their attempts to improve, govern, and even exploit the people and institutions of the subcontinent. Improvement and government often occurred at the expense of traditional institutions, especially in the area of the legal tradition. The British are responsible for the decline and eventual demise of the living dharmaśāstra (science of orthodox behavior) tradition. The tradition has not been resuscitated in independent India. Nevertheless, even though the office of Paṇḍita (traditional expert) has long been abolished from the courts and the very training of modern Paṇḍitas has become rare, the texts of the dharmaśāstra tradition continue to be used in a very “paṇḍitic” fashion by the courts of modern India. The justices function as Paṇḍitas, and the texts they cite are mere window dressing for the interpretations of Hindu law they seek to promulgate.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , November 1989 , pp. 757 - 769
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1989

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