Dr. B.R.

Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Monday, 30/03/2020

Political Thought of George W. F. Hegel: Family and Civil Society

 Hegel had idealized view of the family. He considered it an arena of love based on sense
of fulfilment and unity.
 Family: where individuality grew as a part of a larger whole. He considered marriage as an
ethical union and upheld the traditional division of labor in family. He confined women to
the internal sphere of the household and man to the external.
 He considered women passive and subjective while men were active and powerful. The
arena of civil society was an exclusive male domain.
 Hegel regarded women as inferior with less reasoning abilities, in a way, reinforcing the
traditional view that natural difference between the sexes were basic not changeable to
provide them with equal status.
 He gave women a significant role within the family which was a bond based on intuitive
instincts of love and an ethical union between to individuals. Like Aristotle he regarded
family as a necessary institution for human race and for its sustenance.
 He regarded marriage as a union of mind instead of a sexual, moral and emotional contract.
Family symbolize reason and unity which were necessary attributes for the universal spirit
and state.
 Hegel regarded women as self-conscious lacking reason and reflection. Women status was
ethical due to the institution of marriage. Man became a representative of the family in the
civil society but a female had an ethical role within the family.
 Family, civil society and all the larger formations came out of the two principles: Needs
and reciprocity. Family was the ethical basis of life and as it grew and disintegrated into
the larger formations it captured the universal principles of life.
 Civil Society: It was an important formation between the state and family. For Hegel
basis of the civil society were different from those of the family and the state. Basis of
 family was love and affection. Basis of State was universal altruism (selfless concern
for the well-being of all) and to be governed by universal class (Impartial professional class
of people: civil society and civil service).
 Basis of civil society was a “system of needs” where individual pursued his interests
according to his needs, abilities and inclinations. It is the sphere of civic actions where
different professions exist which can be classified into three broad categories: Peasantry,
Business class, universal class of bureaucracy.
 These three classes perform the functions in civil society to support the system of needs,
administration of justice, need for police and cooperation.
 For Hegel, civil society was a modern times’ creation. Hegel’s civil society was different
from that of Aristotle where there was no difference between civil society and political
community.
 Civil society contains several associations based on convergence of various actions. These
promoted corporatism. And then the members of different associations get represented at
civil society.
 State is large and impersonal and family is a very close bond so civil society is where his
civic spirit comes to flourish.
 Hegel stressed upon the need for the freedom of association as it brought unity of interests
and therefore unity in the state.

Hegel on State, Law and Monarchy

 State represented universal altruism. It synthesized the dialectical elements of family and
civil society. Just like family state worked to enhance everyone’s interests and like civil
society had universal tendencies.
 State represented the substantive will of all the individuals. And state’s laws facilitated the
individual liberty in the true sense.
 Hegel treated state as an end in itself: it was mind realizing itself through history. It was
marching toward an ultimate perfect reality.
 Individual’s highest right is the realization of freedom. State being the real representation
of the collective individual will ensures that. The highest duty of the individual is to be a
member of the state.
 Law is not a hindrance to individual freedom rather it is a characteristic of the freedom.
 Law is an instrument to ensure social cohesion. Law is seen as a code by Hegel rather an
expression of ethical values which governed cultural life.
 Law is linked to positive legal justice. Laws were for universal application, and had to be
based on impersonal and universal values.
 Under such a system, every person was a legal entity who was entitled to dispose of the
objects which were his property. Legal system will acquire, use and exchange this property
with others without personal bias on the basis of “be a person and respect others as person”
principle.
 For Hegel law was not there to realize the ultimate virtue as it was the case with Aristotle,
for Hegel that was the matter of individual choice. Law was there to regulate one’s conduct
or behavior.
 Monarchy was the functional requirement of the modern constitution. Hegel rejected the
idea of separation of power where each legal entity was absolute/independent from another
in its functional sphere. He propagated the idea that all authorities shall be working towards
a universal agreed upon goal.
 Hegel’s chief concern was to ensure a unified state based on cohesive social interests of its
people. To ensure the unity and integrity of the state.
 He supported the interdependence of legislature, executive and judiciary under the
monarchy.
 Monarchy at apex was supposed to signify the unity among various organs of the state.
Monarch wasn’t supposed to be just a part of the constitution but shall embody the entire
constitution.
 Hegel’s monarch was the head of the state and a true sovereign. He did not support the idea
of de jure and de facto sovereignty being separate entities. His monarch isn’t elected. Hegel
rationalize existing systems therefore he wasn’t in favor of American style presidential
form of govt. with federal system and separation of power principle.
 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Friday, 27/03/2020

Political Thought of George W. F. Hegel: His Views on History

 Before Marx, Hegel applied dialectic method to the study of the history and
comprehensively dissected it to reason that history represented the march of human spirit
and reason towards progress.
 Kant had argued that human nature remained unchanged and it was permanent. Hegel
contradicted it by claiming that human nature like everything else changed from one epoch
of the history to another.
 Hegel developed his philosophy of history based on change and progress. He studied
ancient civilizations of Asia and Europe and applied dialectics to the progress of human
freedom towards expression of true spirit of self-expression and freedom.
 History represented the evolution of the ideas for Hegel than just the representation of facts
and events. He went to look into the meaning behind the rationality of such evolution.
 This rationality of world history was progress of consciousness of freedom. The concept
of freedom was at the center of the entire Hegelian political philosophy. History was the
progress of the idea of freedom through various stages of development.
 Dialectical Representation of History: Hegel started with the study of Ancient India, China
and Persia’s civilizations linking them to ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. He
stressed on the development of the modern period through feudalism, protestant
reformation and ending it with Enlightenment and French revolution.
 He called Indian and Chinese civilizations static where no change occurred for thousands
of years since their initial evolution in Ancient times. They were non-dialectical. Hence,
outside the framework of the world history. Their people could not comprehend the idea
of freedom.
 A single person was the ruler was supreme subordinating all others under the rule of
Oriental Despotism. According to Hegel, the oriental despotism survived not because
people didn’t question it out of cruelty or fear that would mean that the subjects were
conscious about the idea of freedom. But these subjects lacked consciousness. The law and
morality emanated from an external authority and people were subservient to the ruler. The
caste system naturally ordained the despotism.
 In Chinese civilization the despot ruled on the model of family where ruler was viewed as
a father of the state and subjects his children. India and China showed the signs of arrested
development.
 In Persia the situation was different even though their ruler was absolute as in China. But
the loyalty of Persian people was not to their state as Chinese peoples’, like family. It was
more general. The Zoroastrianism represented worshipping the light which touched
everything. So, people and the ruler were in a general relationship as both worshipped the
light. So, freedom existed in a rudimentary form there, though without realization. But their
expansionism brought them in contact with the Greeks.
 480 BC war between Persia and Greeks was won by the Greeks on the account of their
smaller ships. Hegel viewed as a contest between and oriental despot and the various Greek
city states who were committed to their ‘free individuality’.
 With this victory the world history’s focus shifted from the oriental despotism to the Greek
City States.
 But the Greek notion of freedom was only partial and not a complete one as slavery
prevailed there. Even though it was necessary for the states to function as citizens did
higher jobs and slaves made sure the lower manual jobs were taken care of while masters
devoted their times to higher things.
 The Greeks had habitual obedience towards their states unlike the oriental despotism where
obedience was ordained from external order. But this habitual obedience came in the way
of development of independent individual consciousness of the people. Socrates
challenged and was rightfully punished for it (as he challenged the state and its laws at the
time) but by that time his teachings had taken root and development of intellectual
dialectics had begun in Greek societies. Socrates became a hero and executioners became
the villains.
 This led to the downfall of Greek City States when they came into contact with Roman
Empire. Dialectics were between ‘essential homogeneity’ of Greek City States and
‘Heterogeneity and Diversity’ of the Roman Empire and the later won.
 Roman Empire gave the basic right to freedom but its brutal force prevented any real
evolution of freedom. The rise of Christianity challenged the Roman Empire and emerged
victorious.
 Christianity offered direct link between man and god. Thus eliminating middle men. The
faith was put in man’s capacity to achieve god which challenged the absolute force of any
other agency.
 But during the middle ages the Christianity was over taken by dogmatism and over
institutionalization which brought great suffering upon people. Hegel regarded the period
of Reformation which started in Germany as the greatest development towards true reason
and freedom of spirit.
 The French revolution was the outcome of such dialectics even though it survived for a
short time, it started the progress all over the world. The revolution itself tried to implement
abstract philosophical ideas on unprepared people which led to the rise of chaos.
 According Hegel assertion of free spirit was the destiny of humankind. The acceptance of
individual freedom based on human rationality and free choice was the crowning glory of
the modern times.

Hegelian Dialectical Representation of History would look something like this:

Thesis Anti-Thesis Synthesis

Oriental Despotism Greek City States Partial notion of freedom
within GCSs.
(Absolute Single Authority (Free Individuality of GCS)
of OD)
Essential Homogeneity of Heterogeneity and Diversity Roman Empire
GCSs of Roman Empire
Amidst the internal dialectics of Socrates’ revolution against (Basic individual freedom)
Essential Homogeneity
Brutal Force of Roman Christianity’s Individualism Fall of Roman Empire and
Empire rise of Christian states
Roman Catholism Protestant Movements and French Revolution and the
Reformation development free spirit and
expression of freedom
 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Thursday, 26/03/2020

Introduction to Idealism: Political Thought of George W. F. Hegel

Idealism: In general terms idealism means mind is the ultimate foundation of all reality. Even
though reality exists without mind but the only way we can perceive that reality is through mind.
Idealism has come to be identified as something which is no empirical or something which is might
never come into being but in the real sense idealism argues in favor of reason and mind. It only
through mind that we perceive the existence of things around us and then make sense of them.

 Idealism, in philosophy, any view that stresses the central role of the ideal or the spiritual
in the interpretation of experience.
 It may hold that the world or reality exists essentially as spirit or consciousness, that
abstractions and laws are more fundamental in reality than sensory things, or, at least, that
whatever exists is known in dimensions that are chiefly mental—through and as ideas.
 Hegel comes from the ‘Absolute Idealism’ branch of the idealism. Which means:
1. The common everyday world of things and embodied minds is not the world as it
really is but merely as it appears in terms of uncriticized categories.
2. The best reflection of the world is not found in physical and mathematical
categories but in terms of a self-conscious mind.
3. Thought is the expression of one’s experience of the world through senses.

Hegel: Life Sketch and Political Thought

 Born in 1770 in the princely state of Wurtenberg (Southern Germany), Hegel studied
theology because his father wanted him to become a clergyman. In 1793 he got the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Tubingon.
 In 1801 he got a job as lecturer at the University of Jena and later became a Professor. In
1816 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and in 1818
 he became Professor of Philosophy at the Berlin University. This position was held till then
by the renowned German philosopher Fichte. Along with this he also worked as the official
advisor of Emperor of Prussia (Germany). He held these two positions till his death in
1830.
 Hegel wrote extensively on various aspects of Political Philosophy. It was at Jena that he
wrote his first major work Phenomenology of Mind, which was published in 1807. This
was followed by publication of Science of Logic in 1811-12. After the publication of this
work Hegel earned the recognition as an outstanding philosopher of Germany. His third
work, Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, which he wrote during his stay at
Heidelberg, made him famous all over Europe.
 It was at Berlin that lie wrote his major work in political theory, Philosophy of Right. He
also delivered very scholarly and brilliant lectures, which were published by his son after
his death under, the title, Philosophy of History. His writings and lectures and his early
positions as Advisor of the emperor earned him international fame and won him many
followers. He became not only the King of philosophers but also the philosopher of kings.
 Hegel was immensely influenced by the dialectics of Socrates and teleology of Aristotle.
Teleology is a theory of knowledge according to which a thing is understood in terms of
its end or purpose. EXAMPLE: The end or purpose of a watch is to tell time. So telling
time is the true nature or the true end or purpose of watch.
 Hegel was a product of German Idealism, which drew considerable inspiration from
Rousseau and Kant and integrated it with contemporary popular desire for German
unification leading to the rise of the nation states in Europe. Hegel like Fichte echoed the
sentiment of idealism.
 His assertion that the real will of the individual is not in negation but an affirmation with
society meant that the rational will of the individual was expressed in the will of the state.
 The consciousness and moral authority of the state subordinated the individual will.
By the dialectical logic of a spirit (meaning an idea become dominant at one point of time
then another idea questions it and a synthesis emerges as a product. Over a period of time
this synthesis turns into a dominant idea of the time and the process goes on), the march of
history moves from the imperfect to the perfect stage rationally.
 History’s movement is facilitated by state. State represent the collective will of all the
individuals living in it.
 As history moves from irrationality to rationality it closes the gap between ‘is’ and ‘ought
to be’ meaning humans are moving towards a perfect rational which can only be perceived
today but eventually it will become a reality.
 Though the state is the most important institution of this present ideal, the other two
important components were civil society and the family.
 Freedom played an important role in Hegel but Hegelian version of freedom was associated
with rationality unlike the thrust of British liberalism, which associated freedom with
liberty and individuality
 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Wednesday, April 8, 2020.

Continuing: Integral Humanism by Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya

DDU is not against the cross-cultural contacts and cohabitation. However, he emphasizes
that

in this age of adulteration and manufacture of spurious goods, things should not be
judged

from their label but from their contents. “Let us be free from phobias as well as
manias."
 He stresses
Therefore, Pt. DDUto accept
wantsonly those things,
Indian culturewhich suit the Indian
to intermingle withethos, or conscience.
outside culture
while
 DDU believes that Indian nationalism is not aggressive as it is in the case of
the
maintaining its unique identity.

European nationalisms which are accompanied by imperial expansionism

and
 DeendayalUpadhyaya wanted India to be strong and prosperous. He emphasizes,
colonialism. Indian ideas shall be spread in the world as ideas of peace and
"Weharmony

shall
takingmake Mother
inspiration India
from sujala, suphala
its Ancient (laden with fruits and overflowing
civilization.
with

water) in the real sense of these words. As DashaprahanaDharaniDurga

(Goddess

Durga with her ten weapons) she would be able to vanquish evil: as Lakshmi,
she
 Deendayal's conscious Vedantic ideal of human unity does not consider patriotism
in would be able to disburse prosperity all over and as Saraswati she would dispel
the
a competitive and antagonistic way. The family, community, nation and
humanity
gloom of ignorance and spread the radiance of knowledge all around her. With
faith
according to him are the successive stages in the evolutionary push to universality.
in ultimate victory, let us dedicate ourselves to this task."
 Mutual cooperation is the fundamental tenet of Deendayal's philosophy.
According to
 The recognition of this element of mutual sustenance among different forms of
him, cooperation sustains life on earth. He says that we get oxygen supply with
life the

and
help taking that as whereas
of vegetation the basisweof an effortcarbon
provide to makedioxide
humansolife mutually
essential forsustaining
the growthis
 the
If conflict and enmity is made the basis of human relationships and if on this
of
basis
prime characteristic
vegetation. of civilization.
He asserts,"
history is analysed, then it would be futile to dream of world peace to result out
of
 such a course of action. Thus DeendayalUpadhyaya highlights the importance
of

mutual cooperation and harmonious relations in life. Such a perception does

not

 conceive national solidarity

DeendayalUpadhyaya in opinion
was of the contradiction
that thetopolitical
internationalism, instead,
and economic
brings
development

 harmony
of
Nation between
Indiaand
should be the
State: two. according
ensured
Deendayal to its
views the socio-cultural
nation conditions.
and the state as two different
entities.

Differentiating between the two, he says that nation is natural and self-begotten,
but

 the state isthat

He states artificially
state is created, which
temporary andcomes
nationinto existence toHe
is permanent. fulfil thethe
is of needs
viewof
thatthe
a

nation.
nation establishes various institutions in order to fulfil its economic, social
and
 According to him, "state is one of the several institutions, an important one, but is
not cultural needs.

above all others." The pluralists also regard state as one of the institutions of
society.

 He, however,
The state does
and its not devalue
mechanism the the
protect state and and
nation believes
make that its importance
it resilient and
is
puissant.

indisputable.
State comes forward to rectify the distortions, which appear in the people of
nation.

When some complexity appears in society, state solves it, and it protects the weak
and

 the poor from

According the powerful
to him, clutches
state is an of of
attorney thethe
prosperous
nation. Itspeople
powerinofthe society.is given
attorney
by
 State establishes relations with other states and also provides security by
protecting
the nation. If an attorney does not work well, the power of attorney can be
changed.
society from external aggression. Deendayal is of the view that state changes if it
 is
Deendayal emphasizes that the state is for nation and not the other way around.
The
incapable of fulfilling the necessities and functions entrusted upon it by the nation.
He
state is a means and the nation an end. Nation is a priority, as its interests are
primary.
says that if a distortion creeps into the state, and if it proves unsuccessful
in
The raison d'etre of state lies in the service of nation. If the state does not discharge
its
discharging its responsibilities, the nation changes such a state. The nation changes
its
responsibilities, its forms and arrangements will be changed. The rule is owned
and
representative.
disowned on the above parameter. It is acceptable only if it works for
the
 efflorescence of the nation. He is of the view that the politics, which weakens
the

nation is undesirable because it does not serve and foster the necessities of a nation.

 He emphasized swaraj, sarvodhya and swadeshi principles to strengthen the

nation.
 Deendayal is influenced by the concept of democracy. He says, "The people of
He was against the foreign rule, one nation’s domination of the other nation. To
thisensue

country
national have an abiding
strength faith
a country in nationalism
shall and democracy and they will not
be self-reliant.
tolerate
 He states, "Democracy has been defined as government by debate... Bharatiya
culture
elements who seek to subvert these values."
goes beyond this and looks at debate as a means for the realization of truth.
We

 believe that truth

He believes that isthe
not effectiveness
one-sided, andand
thatvibrancy
its various
offacets can be seen,
democracy depend
examined
upon

and experienced
consciousness of from various angles.
responsibility, discipline and the feeling for the nation in the life
of

 the people. an
He wanted If these
Indiansanskaras (spiritual values)
style of democracy. are to
According absent
him, in the citizen,
"Instead of trying
democracy
merely

degenerates
to imitate theinto
oneanorinstrument
the other, of
letindividual, class and
us try to evolve party interest.
democratic practices suited to
our
 He was not contented with majority rule or rule of people and therefore,
advocated
own genius.
Dharma-Rajya, having its basis in Dharma. He says, "Of the 45 million people
of

India, even if 449,999,999 opt for something which is against Dharma, even then
 this
Individual, family, kinship,Rule
society, nation and
DharamRajya: He favored by Dharma. Shallworld
not beare all thewith
confused extensions of
theocracy.
an
He does not become truth.On the other hand, even if a person stands for something
which
individual
meant by andthe an individual
ancient shares
concept an organic
of dharma of bond
every with all of them.
individual basedThey
on are
all
ethical
is according to Dharma, that constitutes truth because truth resides with Dharma.
integrally related
principles of to one another. India has all the qualities of extending itself
existence.
as a

leading light to the rest of the world and eventually become the vishawaguru.
DDU’s

integral humanism presents nation as a collective reflection of its citizens and

the

world as the collective reflection of its nations. Therefore, Indian values

internalized

by all Indians have the potential to lead the way for the rest of the world.
 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Tuesday, April 7, 2020.

Unit 1: Integral Humanism by PanditDeenDayalUpadhyaya

LIFE SKETCH: Born On: September 25, 1916 in Dhankia, Rajasthan, died on:
February 11,

1968. Served in RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh and Bharatiya Jana Sangh. He got

associated

with RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh (RSS) during his college times in Kanpur in 1937.

There

he interacted with RSS founder, Dr. Hedgewar and devoted himself totally towards
the
Bharatiya Jan Sangh was founded in 1951 by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee,
wherein
organization. After college in 1942, he did not look out for a job nor did he marry;
instead he
DeendayalUpadhyaya was appointed as the first General Secretary. He continued to hold
this
attended the 40-day summer RSS camp at Nagpur to undergo training in Sangh
Education.
position until the 14th Cabinet session in December 1967. His immense intelligence
and

perfectionism impressed Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee so much that he was honored
with a
He served
famous as the General
statement Secretary
"If I had for nearly I15could
two Deendayals, yearstransform
and raisedthe
thepolitical
organization with
face of
high
India".
spirits
However,andthe
enthusiasm, thereby
sudden and making
untimely it one
death of India's
of Dr. Syama strongest political parties.
Prasad Mookerjee in 1953By
left
1957,
the
Bharatiya Jan Sangh and
entire responsibilities hadburden
243 regional and 889 localoncommittees,
of the organization with membership
the young shoulders of
toll to
Deendayal.
During his tenure with RSS, he even started a weekly Panchjanya and a daily Swadesh.
He
74,863. At the 14th annual session of Bharatiya Jan Sangh in Calicut in December
1967,
sketched the drama "Chandragupta Maurya" and penned the biography of
Shankaracharya in
Deendayal was elected as the president.On 11 February 1968 in the wee hours of
morning,
Hindi. He translated the biography of RSS founder Dr. K.B. Hedgewar from
Marathi to
Deendayal's lifeless body was found at the Mughal Sarai railway station.
Hindi. His other renowned literary works include Samrat Chandragupta
(1946),

JagatguruSankaracharya (1947), Akhand Bharat Kyon? (1952), BharatiyaArthniti:

Vikas Ki

Disha (1958), The Two Plans: Promises, Performances, Prospects (1958), RashtraJivan
Ki
Samasyayen (1960), Devaluation: A Great Fall (1966), Political Diary
(1968),

RasthraChintan, Integral Humanism, and RashtraJivan Ki Disha.

Concept of Integral Humanism:Integral Humanism advocates the simultaneous
and

integrated program of the body, mind and intellect and soul of each human
being.According

to DeendayalUpadhyaya, a nation needs fourthings. Firstly, land and people, which we

call

country;secondly, collective will, comprising the desire of all;thirdly, a system, which can
be  He draws an analogybetween individual and nation as he writes that just as
manneeds
called as a set ofprinciples or constitution for which the concept of Dharmais invoked in
our body,
Deendayal
mind,draws a distinction
intellect betweenthea abovefour,
and soul, likewise country and nation.He
make is of the view
a nation.
that
culture; fourthly, ideals of life. Allthese four elements comprise a nation.
land and people constitute only acountry (Desh) . He stresses that though country
or

Desh andnation appear synonymous because the former is the basis ofthe
nation
 He opines that one cannot think of a nationwithout a piece of land and its
inhabitants,
manifestly," yet the two differ as the country isthe visible entity while the nation
is a
the people.Though both are closely related, but nation for him is
muchmore
subtle and unseenreality.
comprehensive and at the same time is an imperishableentity. A nation according
to

him is formed, "when a groupof people lives with a goal, an ideal, a mission,
and

 looksupon a particular
The colonizers piece ofhave
and exploiters landa as motherland,
relationship the groupconstitutes
ofexploitation with no a nation.
attachment to
 If either of the two - an ideal and amotherland - is not there, then there is no
nation.
the colonized land.Instead they desire to plunder it for wealth and to seektheir
selfish
People can only have one fundamental relation with their ‘janambhumi
and
 ends. Theyfurther
Deendayal may own land,
states thathouses, real estatesand
mere invocation property but
of Bharatwould not Deendayal
exhibit and
regards
express
karambhumi’ that is that of a mother and sons.
them as outsiders
the meaning andintruders,
of nation. Thename,andBharat
not inhabitants
makes one in the strict
think of sense.
only a territory,
but

theappellation, ''Bharat Mata' evokes a special, unifiedconsciousness that

establishes a

relationship between theland and the residents.

 Many Indian thinkerssuch as Sri Aurobindo, Swami
Vivekananda,

BankimChanderChaterji, etc. regard their country as motherland.

Theconcept of

motherland also conceives the Hindu ideal ofpatriotism. BankimChandera's

vision of

 the mother inis thesong

A. Appadorai - BandeMataram,
of the opinion whichmotherland
that the conceptof means hailas to
the the
key idea
mother,
of

firstpublishedis inbrought
nationalism his Ananda Hatha
outby M.S.orGolwalkar
Abode of Bliss
in hisin work
1882shows
- Notthat
Socialism
nationalism
But
 EK JAN: According to Deendayal solidarity of the people withthe land in which
theyHinduRashtra
is the very spirit of the concept of motherland.
(1964).
reside, lays in the concept of Ekjan,one people and one nation. It cannot
be

manufacturedartificially. He states that it is not that fifty, hundred,five

hundred
 Just as a human is born, not made, likewise Ekjan is a self-begotten reality.
Deendayal
millions of people gather and decide to join to make a nation. According
to
believes that Ekjan,which is the basis of nation, evolves over a passage oftime,
which
 Deendayal,
Deendayal Ekjan is a livingorganism.
emphasizes that Ekjan, which shapes thedisposition of the
people,
is rooted in a long and unbroken traditionspanning generations.
establishes a specific nature andidentity of the nation. He is of the view that just
as

 aperson has aaccording

Chiti:Ekjan distinct nature, likewiseisthe
to Deendayal thenation too hasofadistinct
life-breath nature.
thepeople. It shapes
the Nature of

man varies from

consciousness individual
of the people toindividual.
residingin a specific territory. The unified
consciousness

exhibitedby the psycho-spiritual nature of people in unison is termedas Chiti by

 him.
Deendayal says that in the worldso many nations survive as only past memories.
The
 To Deendayal, the fundamental tenets andprinciples evolved on the basis of the
ancientEgypt, Persia and Greece are no more now. The landmasses andpeople
Chiti
still
(unifiedconsciousness) determine and maintain the nature andidentity of the
exist there, but their cultural reality andbasic self-nature stand destroyed.
nation.If

 archetypal
Therefore, tenets
he exhortsthat the identity
are destroyedthen of nation
nations resides
wither away.in its archetypal matrix.
This

viewpoint is also upheld by Swami Vivekanandawho proclaims that India

will

survive, so long as she isfaithful to spirituality.

 Every nation has itssoul its 'Chiti' . The strength and energy activising thenation
is its

'Virat' . It is channelised by 'Chiti' . Theplace of 'Virat' in the life of a-nation

is

similar to thatof 'Prana' in the body. Just as 'Prana' infuses strength invarious
organs of

the body, refreshes the intellect, andkeeps body and soul together, so also in a
nation,

with astrong 'Virat', alone can democracy succeed and thegovernment be effective.
 Historically,
According tothis idea was epitomized
Deendayal, identity of by the resides
India AryaSamaj
inher(1875)
past and the and
heritage
Ramakrishna
culture.
Mission (1880)
Therefore, in thesocial
he seeks and religious
tostrengthen them. Itspheres andanby
embodies men like
attitude of rejection of
BalgangadharTilak
thecraze
(1856-1920), LalaLaj
for alien culture. The Pat
aimRai (1865-1928),
is the revival of Bipinchander
ancientculturePal (1858-1932),
with andin
a firm belief
Sri
the
 According to him, “Let the past inspire us. But we mustbe forward - looking.
To Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950)in politics. DeendayalUpadhyaya wanted to
golden age of previousglory.
rejuvenate
preserve what has been bequeathedto us is no service to our forebears. Slavery
too
andvitalize the age-old Indian traditions through B.J.S.
 wasbequeathed to us.
Deendayal is also Man has striven
notopposed to the hard to get
modern rid of thatlegacy.
developments. There"We
He says,
did might be

hundred other
notremain legacies
always mereofpassive
the kind.Riddance of them is
witness to whatever the only way."situations
newchallenging
arose;

 nor did we merely

He adds,"While react
we do toevery
draw alien from
inspiration action.
theWe too,
past, wehave attempted
do notregard thetopast as
reshape
the

ourlife
highestas required
pinnacle of to
ourface the new situations.
achievement:while we"have a realistic approach to the
present,
 Therefore, he states,"both from national as well as human standpoint it
hasbecome
we do notfeel tied down even to the present."
essential that we think of the principles of theBharatiya culture. If with its help we
can

reconcile thevarious ideals of the western political thought then it willbe an

added

advantages for us."

 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Friday, April 10, 2020

Continuation …

Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Political Thought: National Education, Swadeshi,

Boycott and Passive Resistance

For longing about a radical national awakening. Tilak and his colleagues evolved
thefamous

four-point action programme, which was disliked by the existing leadership of the
Congress.

The Government was alarmed and became more and more impatient and resorted to
rigorous

repressive measures.Finally, at the Banaras Congress, the action programme was

formally

 The
adopted. programme
Thiswas of action
followed advocated
by Tilak's by who
arrest the extremists
was tried group
on theofcharge
the congress (of
of sedition.
On which

Tilak wasfrom
being released the leader) included:
the prison (a) NationalEducation,
he once againthrew himself(b)into
Boycott,
active(c)public
Swadeshi
life.
He and

(d) Passive
popularized Resistance.
the idea Tilak contributedimmensely to the development of each
of Home-Rule.
of Education: The objective of this scheme was to remove despondency
National
and
these programmes.
skepticism from and to inculcate self-respect in the minds of the people. This was to
be

achieved by presenting to them a picture of the greatness of their past. By depicting

their

ownpast achievements and glories, it was felt that people could be pulled out of
theirpresent
 The western system of education introduced in India aimed at creating a
class
defeatist mentality. This was expected to render them fit for the great rolethey were
expectedofpeople who were Indian by blood, but intellectually and culturally closer to
 the
to play Obviously the nationalists
in the shaping were dissatisfied
of India's glorious destiny. with this system of education.
Thiswanted
westwith an abiding loyalty to the British throne.
education to infuse among the people a sense of respect and affinity for
theirown

religion, culture and heritage. Hence, they drew a different scheme of

educationwhich

they called 'National Education'.

  Under the scheme of National Education, the sch0~1s and colleges were
to

beexclusively managed and run by Indians. Secular education alone was

not
 Religion has a salutary influence onhuman personality. It builds morality and
courage.
sufficientbecause it developed a one sided personality.
But at the same time, secular andpractical education was not to be neglected. This
was

necessary for preparing theyouth for their responsibilities in the present day
world.

 The load
Thus, of the
under theforeignlanguage study
scheme of National consumedthe
Education, nearly the scientific
modern entire energy of the
young
andtechnological

boys. It wasoftothe
knowledge bereduced
west wasunder
to .bethe new scheme.
combined with The
the new syllabi of
knowledge was also towas
allthat
include
best
Boycott:Another
technical plank in the extremists' action programme to pressurize the alien rulers
and worthand industrial
retaining education.
in our own heritage.
was

'boycott'. Tilak greatly, contributed to the development of the theory of boycott

and to
 Economic
popularize it. exploitation was one of the primary motives of British
imperialism.

Theirreckless policies were responsible for the total destruction of the

Indian
 Indian economy was forced to face unequal competition with the foreign
goods
industries,crafts, trade and commerce.
which were allowed a free flow into the country. It was meaningless to expect
the

 British
Boycottrulers
meant to protect
a firm our industry andon
determination commerce.
the partSelf-help
of the alone was not
Indians the to
use remedy.

The tools of this

foreigngoods. self-help
Besides, weremeant
it also 'boycott' and 'Swadeshi'.
determination not to assist alien bureaucracy
to
 Boycott was a negative tool. Nonetheless,it was expected to help the cause of
Indian
carryon the administration of the country.
1. Itwould
nationalism hit atways:
in three one of the primary motives of the imperialists i.e.
exploitation.

2. It would create determination among the Indian people to

sacrifice

theirimmediate interests for the good of the nation. This would help foster
the

feeling ofnationalism among them.

 3. It would help Indian industry, trade and craftto regain their place in the
Indian

life and economy and develop rapidly under thestimulating influence

of
Swadeshi: Swadeshi was the positive part of boycott which was only a negative
nationalism.
weapon.

TheSwadeshi movement exhorted the people to use indigenous products even if

theywere
 and
crude It also urged the educated Indians to enter the field ofproduction, instead of
costly.
pressing

for bureaucratic jobs. The swadeshi movement alsoincluded in it a plan to

train
 The success of the swadeshi movement depended upon the success of
boycott.
Indians in the art of industry and commerce.
Themore the people resolved to boycott foreign goods, the more would be
the
 Swadeshi was thus a positive program to reconstruct Indian industry, trade
andcraft
demandfor swadeshi goods.
and rescue it from its dilapidated condition. Besides, it was also a
powerfulpolitical
Passive Resistance: It insisted upon nonpayment of taxes and revenues to the
weapon to cripple imperial interests in the domination of the country.
alien

authorities. It also included a program to train people for self-rule. This training was
to be

provided to the people by organizing our own administrative units parallel to those
instituted
 Passive The
by theBritish. Resistance
villages,was a revolutionary
talukas program.
and districts were to Ithave
amounted
paralleltoinstitutions
a silentrevolt
against
likecourts,

 etc.
police In asense,
British it was an extension of boycott. Boycott implied a determination
imperialism.
not

useforeign products and not to assist alien bureaucracy in carrying

out
Tilak was an extremist of
theadministration (inthe
comparison to theresistance
country.Passive moderates in the
urged the INC).He
people to envisaged
go one
a step
significant role for religion in the national movement but opposed itsmisuse to divide
further.
the

society.Although his political philosophy was rooted in Indian traditions, he was not
opposed

to modernization. He adapted the best of the modern western thoughtcurrents and

institutions

to the Indian situation.

 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Friday, April 10, 2020

Continuation …

Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Political Thought: National Education, Swadeshi,

Boycott and Passive Resistance

For longing about a radical national awakening. Tilak and his colleagues evolved
thefamous

four-point action programme, which was disliked by the existing leadership of the
Congress.

The Government was alarmed and became more and more impatient and resorted to
rigorous

repressive measures.Finally, at the Banaras Congress, the action programme was

formally

 The
adopted. programme
Thiswas of action
followed advocated
by Tilak's by who
arrest the extremists
was tried group
on theofcharge
the congress (of
of sedition.
On which

Tilak wasfrom
being released the leader) included:
the prison (a) NationalEducation,
he once againthrew himself(b)into
Boycott,
active(c)public
Swadeshi
life.
He and

(d) Passive
popularized Resistance.
the idea Tilak contributedimmensely to the development of each
of Home-Rule.
of Education: The objective of this scheme was to remove despondency
National
and
these programmes.
skepticism from and to inculcate self-respect in the minds of the people. This was to
be

achieved by presenting to them a picture of the greatness of their past. By depicting

their

ownpast achievements and glories, it was felt that people could be pulled out of
theirpresent
 The western system of education introduced in India aimed at creating a
class
defeatist mentality. This was expected to render them fit for the great rolethey were
expectedofpeople who were Indian by blood, but intellectually and culturally closer to
 the
to play Obviously the nationalists
in the shaping were dissatisfied
of India's glorious destiny. with this system of education.
Thiswanted
westwith an abiding loyalty to the British throne.
education to infuse among the people a sense of respect and affinity for
theirown

religion, culture and heritage. Hence, they drew a different scheme of

educationwhich

they called 'National Education'.

  Under the scheme of National Education, the sch0~1s and colleges were
to

beexclusively managed and run by Indians. Secular education alone was

not
 Religion has a salutary influence onhuman personality. It builds morality and
courage.
sufficientbecause it developed a one sided personality.
But at the same time, secular andpractical education was not to be neglected. This
was

necessary for preparing theyouth for their responsibilities in the present day
world.

 The load
Thus, of the
under theforeignlanguage study
scheme of National consumedthe
Education, nearly the scientific
modern entire energy of the
young
andtechnological

boys. It wasoftothe
knowledge bereduced
west wasunder
to .bethe new scheme.
combined with The
the new syllabi of
knowledge was also towas
allthat
include
best
Boycott:Another
technical plank in the extremists' action programme to pressurize the alien rulers
and worthand industrial
retaining education.
in our own heritage.
was

'boycott'. Tilak greatly, contributed to the development of the theory of boycott

and to
 Economic
popularize it. exploitation was one of the primary motives of British
imperialism.

Theirreckless policies were responsible for the total destruction of the

Indian
 Indian economy was forced to face unequal competition with the foreign
goods
industries,crafts, trade and commerce.
which were allowed a free flow into the country. It was meaningless to expect
the

 British
Boycottrulers
meant to protect
a firm our industry andon
determination commerce.
the partSelf-help
of the alone was not
Indians the to
use remedy.

The tools of this

foreigngoods. self-help
Besides, weremeant
it also 'boycott' and 'Swadeshi'.
determination not to assist alien bureaucracy
to
 Boycott was a negative tool. Nonetheless,it was expected to help the cause of
Indian
carryon the administration of the country.
1. Itwould
nationalism hit atways:
in three one of the primary motives of the imperialists i.e.
exploitation.

2. It would create determination among the Indian people to

sacrifice

theirimmediate interests for the good of the nation. This would help foster
the

feeling ofnationalism among them.

 3. It would help Indian industry, trade and craftto regain their place in the
Indian

life and economy and develop rapidly under thestimulating influence

of
Swadeshi: Swadeshi was the positive part of boycott which was only a negative
nationalism.
weapon.

TheSwadeshi movement exhorted the people to use indigenous products even if

theywere
 and
crude It also urged the educated Indians to enter the field ofproduction, instead of
costly.
pressing

for bureaucratic jobs. The swadeshi movement alsoincluded in it a plan to

train
 The success of the swadeshi movement depended upon the success of
boycott.
Indians in the art of industry and commerce.
Themore the people resolved to boycott foreign goods, the more would be
the
 Swadeshi was thus a positive program to reconstruct Indian industry, trade
andcraft
demandfor swadeshi goods.
and rescue it from its dilapidated condition. Besides, it was also a
powerfulpolitical
Passive Resistance: It insisted upon nonpayment of taxes and revenues to the
weapon to cripple imperial interests in the domination of the country.
alien

authorities. It also included a program to train people for self-rule. This training was
to be

provided to the people by organizing our own administrative units parallel to those
instituted
 Passive The
by theBritish. Resistance
villages,was a revolutionary
talukas program.
and districts were to Ithave
amounted
paralleltoinstitutions
a silentrevolt
against
likecourts,

 etc.
police In asense,
British it was an extension of boycott. Boycott implied a determination
imperialism.
not

useforeign products and not to assist alien bureaucracy in carrying

out
Tilak was an extremist of
theadministration (inthe
comparison to theresistance
country.Passive moderates in the
urged the INC).He
people to envisaged
go one
a step
significant role for religion in the national movement but opposed itsmisuse to divide
further.
the

society.Although his political philosophy was rooted in Indian traditions, he was not
opposed

to modernization. He adapted the best of the modern western thoughtcurrents and

institutions

to the Indian situation.

 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Thursday, April 9, 2020

Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Life Sketch and Political Thought

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born in a middle class family of moderate means in the
Ratnagiri

district of Konkan on the west coast of India on 23rd July, 1856. Thefamily was noted for
its

piety, learning and adherence to ancient traditions andrituals. His father, Gangadhar
Pant was

a teacher by profession and a Sanskritscholar. Young Tilak was thus brought up in

an

atmosphere of orthodoxy andtraditions. This instilled in him a love for Sanskrit and
respect

for ancient
Believing that the best
Indianreligion andway to serve
culture. Histhe country
father was was to educate
transferred to the
Punepeople,
when he
he
andhis
was ten

friendThis
years ofage. Gopal Gancshhim
provided Agarkar decided
with an to-devote
opportunity their
to get lives to
higher the cause
education.
ofeducation.
Aftercompleting

his graduation
They
In 1881 in started
he 1876,
started he
the New studied
twoEnglish law. Butat instead
School
weeklies, of joining
PuneininEnglish
'Maratha' 1876 and the government
started service
theirMarathi.
and'Kesari'in career In
or asschool
1885

practising law,
set he
teachers.
they updecided to serve
the Deccan the country.
Education Society in order tostart a college which was
later
 Through his writings in the Kesari, he tried to make the people conscious of
their
named after the then Governor of Bombay as theFerguson College.
rights. In his writings, Tilak very often invoked the tradition andhistory
of

 Maharashtra. Theseas writings

Tilak was recognised made Sanskrit
one the leading him very popular
scholars among
in India. his
This enabled
people.
himto

Thathowever,antagonized the government

study the classical literature and he Religion,
on metaphysics. was imprisoned because
astronomy andof it
on
other

several occasions.
alliedfields. One of his most well6 known works is the "The Orions: Studies in
the

Antiquity of Vedas." In this book he propounded the thesis that Rigveda

was

composed as earlyas 4500 B.C. This book brought him recognition as a scholar
in

oriental studies.
  Hissecond book was "The Arctic Home of Vedas" On the basis of
astronomical

andgeological data he suggested in this book that the Aryans originally belonged
to

theArctic region. His another work was the "Gita-Rahasya." It is

aphilosophical

enquiry into the teachings of the Gita. While reinterpreting the Gita, helaid
stress on

the concept of Karma-Yoga,instead of renunciation (as its centralmessage).

Political Thought:Swaraj
 Tilak was arrested under sedition case for one of his articles in his journal kesari.
He
 Swaraj, according to him, wasfull self-government-political, social, economic
andspent 6 years in rigorous imprisonment. He wrote Gita Rahasya during that time.

 spiritual.
Tilak's political
He passes away inphilosophy
1920. was rooted in the lndian tradition but it did not
reject

allthat was western. He was inspired by the ancient lndian spiritual

and

philosophicalworks. Thus, he imparted a spiritual connotation to his notion of

Swaraj.

 In hisview,
Thus, Swaraj
Swaraj was more more
was something than athan
political
mere or economic
home concept.
rule. Home ruleSwaraj
simplywas
more
indicated

athana law and order mechanism.

politicalarrangement of self-ruleItwithout
was alsosevering
more than an economic
British order
connection. Beyond
providing
this,

 thenecessities
Swaraj thatofmaterialism
Tilak felt also life or theenlightened
implied luxuries
debases of a self-control
humanpleasurable
life and life.
of theit to
reduces individuals
an animal
inspiring
level.Tilak

detachedperformance
wanted of their
men to rise-above theduties.
level of animal pleasures through self-
disciplineand

self-efforts and attain true happiness by sublimating their desires. Hence,

heconceives
 Man needs the rights to perform his duties not for the selfishpursuit of animal
desires.
the fulfilment of human life not only in enjoying rights, but also
in
Man has duties to himself, to his family, to his kith andkin and also to his
fellow
selflessperformance of duties.
beings and countrymen. He has to work for the moral,spiritual and material well
being
 For the realisation of this Swaraj, Tilak accepted the suitability of the
western
of all of them. This is his duty. However, all thiswould be possible only if men
and
liberalinstitutions and concepts like constitutional government, rule of law,
individual
women were free from any kind of dominationand control.
 freedom, and dignity of the person and so on.Thus, Tilak's political
philosophy

represented an interesting mix of the ancientIndian value system and western

liberal

Nationalism
institutions.and Religion & Politics

 Nationalism basically refers to a feeling of unity, a sense of belonging

and

solidaritywithin a group of people. Of course, Tilak also accepted the

significance

of certainobjective factors like common language, habitation on common

territory,

in promoting and strengthening the subjective feeling of unity and solidarity.

 According to Tilak, a feeling of oneness and solidarity among a

people
 Besides, he felt that by developing a feeling of common interest, a
arisingmainly from their common heritage was the vital force of
common
nationalism.
destinywhich
Knowledge ofa cancommon
be realised by united
heritage political
and pride in action, thepsychological
it fosters feeling of unity.
nationalism
 ItThe psychological bond of unity may at times be dormant. In such a
situation
could
was tobestrengthened.
arouse thispride among the people that Tilak referred to Shivaji and
Akbar
peoplewould have to be mobilized. Both real and mythical factors were to play
an
in his speeches.
equallysignificant role in this process. Tilak believed that religion, which
had
 Tilak recognized the tremendous symbolic significance of historical
andpowerfulemotional appeal, should be harnessed for the dormant spirit
of
religiousfestivals, flags and slogans in arousing a spirit of nationalism. Tilak
made
nationalism.
veryeffective use of such symbols. He believed that these factors were
more
 According to the liberals, purity of ends or aims was as important as
effective thaneconomic factors when it came to mobilizing people. Thus,
purity
Tilak
ofmeans.
propagatedThey justified
the useof the in
symbols purity of means
the form on theoretical
of the Ganpati as well
and Shivaji
as
festivals
programmaticgrounds. Theoretically,
which subsequentlyacquired tremendoustheyemotional
held thatappeal.
noble means alone could
yield

fruit.Pragmatically, they feared that debasement of means would annoy the

British

rulersand spoil our cause.

 Tilak too did not deny that purity of means was important and desirable.
But, he

feltthat under certain circumstances this could not be a rigid rule. Means
had to

beadequate and appropriate according to circumstances. We should not

abandon

thegoal only because it could not be achieved by fair means. If

circumstances

sodemanded, we should not hesitate to use other or lesser means to achieve

the
 In the western tradition, the liberals regarded politics as a secular affair
anddesiredgoal. Such means too would be justified in the end. In such
circumstances,
 insistedon
Tilak's view on this
treating it aspoint
such.was
Theyalso
kepttotally different.
religion away fromHe,politics.
no doubt,
accepted
we shouldbe firm about the purity of the goal and not be fussy about the
means.
thedesirability of keeping politics separate from religion in general, but not
in
Tilak - supported this theory by references to ancient Indian scriptures and
epics
allcircumstances. Religion always had a powerful emotional appeal and Tilak
felt
like Gita and Mahabharata.

that this powerful appeal could and should be utilized in the service
of
 To Tilak, the ultimate goal of the national movement was Swaraj. In order
to politics,particularly under the circumstances prevailing in India in those days.

 involve people
He focused in the
on the movement,
constructive rolehethe
interpreted the goal
religion could of the
play in Swaraj
bodyinpolitics
by religious

terms
ignitingand insisted
deeply that Indian
religious Swarajpopulation’s
is our religious necessity. The religion and
self-confidence.
the

 philosophy ofVedanta
Tilak held that Swaraj emphasise equal
was a moral and spiritual
religious status andfordestiny
necessity of
every man
andeach

individual. Thismoral
group.For his isagainst bondage
fulfilment of for
and anythe
kind and Swarajofis religious
performance therefore,duties,
not
only
man a

 political
needs butfree.
tobe
Practically, natural
on the and
Withoutspiritual
mass level necessity.
political freedom
Tilak higherreligious
utilized freedom festivals
is impossible.
to
Thus
arouse

Swaraj is our Dharma.

massenthusiasm and to To endeavour
build courage to
andattain it is ouramong
self-respect Karma- Yoga.
them.
 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Thursday, April 23, 2020

Topic: Concept of Democracy: Indian Perspective

Today India is the largest democratic nation in terms of population. But history and
ancient

literature suggest that democracy and republic as ideas were implemented ever since the
‘Age

of Vedas and even before.The present Westminster style of democracy in India was
inherited
Since the British
from the ancient but
times,
thedemocratic
principle ofsystems haveinbeen
democracy existing
Vedas in India
existed in some
as a core valueform
in or
the
Ancient
other.
India. Its evidence is derived from ancient literature, coins, and various records.
Principles of

democracy have originated from the Vedas. The Sabha and Samiti are mentioned in both
Rig

 and
Veda Rig Atharva
Veda hadVeda.
madeScholars
democratic
haveprinciples and its
agreed upon the ideals a deitynature
democratic and called
of
these
it

institutions.
‘Samjnana’. This term means the collective consciousness of the people. The
hymns

of Rigveda addressed to Samjnana called upon the people to gather in their

assembly

i.e. Samgachchaddhvam and speak there in one voice i.e. Samvadaddhvam, in a

union
 After the Vedic Period, the description of small Republics is found in which
people
of minds (Sammanah), of hearts (Samachittam), of policy (Samanmantrah), and
of
participated together in the decision-making process related to the administration.
The
hopes and aspirations (akuti). This was due to the spiritual nature of Ancient
Indian
Republic was defined as a democratic system in ancient India. In the
Atreya
literature.

 In
Brahmins, Ashtadhyayi
Mahabharata, of Panini,
there was inscriptions
a gathering of Mahabharata,
of common people in the Ashoka pillars,
Shanti Parv
the
which
historical
was knownwritings
as Jan of contemporary
Sadan. historians,
Democracy was also Buddhist
prevalentand JainBuddhist
in the scholars,
various
period.
historical evidence are found.
 Licchavi, Vaishali, Malak, Madak, Kamboj, etc. are the examples of the
democratic

 Vaishali's
systems of first
that era.
king Vishal was chosen via election. In Kautilya’sArthashashtra
the

Republic has been described in two categories first, the Ayudh Republic, in which
the

only king makes decisions and the second is Republic only in which everyone
can

 Vedic Period
participate in the(Democratic Principles
decision making process. Inin Rigveda
Panini, and
Janpad Atharveda):
word is also
mentioned
There is distinctive evidence from Rig Veda (10/191/2), which mentions a
in which the representative was elected by the people and he took care of
thriving
the
republican form of Government in India. It talks about a shaloka which is to be
administration.
sung

at the beginning of the assembly every year: “We pray for a spirit of unity; may
we

discuss and resolve all issues amicably,may we reflect on all matters (of state)
without

rancor,may we distribute all resources (of the state) to all stakeholders

equitably,may

 we
Samiti andour
accept Sabha:
shareAlthough the earlyHowever,
with humility”. Aryans had
the the
lackinstitution of evidence
of material monarchyto
andback
ii

up existence
had of aitself
established big democratic institution had
on firm foundations, lednot
it was theabsolute
foreign historians and
but limited in
political
several

scholars
ways.
1) to believe
TheCertain
people's that
democratic
voice there wasn’t
elements
in choosing aking,
big democratic
curtailed
their polity
the absolute existing
power during
of the king the
in
time
many
2) The oath that the king had to take at the coronation,
andrigveda, rather various small institutions might have had some
of
ways.
3) TheThese were : of the people. It was the last institution that played a
Assemblies
democratic
predominant

 elements.
The in
part Vedic Assemblies
curbing consisted
the power of two « Houses » - the twin daughters of
of the king.
Lord

Prajaprati, the Creator - the Samiti and the Sabha. There is a great deal of
controversy

among scholars about the precise duties and functions of the two Assemblies. It
is
l. Election of the King
now more or less unanimously agreed that the Samiti, among other things, had
the

following functions:
 2. Re-election of a king who had been banished
and
3. Discussion of the State matters.
 The king attended the Samiti it was thought necessary that he should do so. The
Rig

 Veda
In discussions,
has a truethe speakers
king were
going to the to make speeches agreeable to the assembled
Samiti.
Samiti.

The speaker wanted to prove himself not to be contradicted. The Samiti had its
Pati or

Ishana (President). He is referred to as the « lord » (Isana) of this assembly - a

man

 insuperable
Sabha: The in his power.
other The Samiti
noteworthy had a very
constitutional long life. in
organisation Itsthe
continuous existence
Vedic Age and
lateris

attestedwas
period by the
the Sabha.
Rig Veda and
The later
exact by the Chandogya
relations between theUpanishad
Sabha and(800 to 700 B.
the Samiti
C.). It
cannot be
 It is just possible that while the Samiti was probably the national assembly, the
Sabha
disappears
deduced frombefore the time of
the available the Jatakas (600 B. C.).
evidence.
was its standing body. Prayer for co-operation in the Sabha shows that discord in
the

 Sabha was as Veda

The Atherva much says,
dreaded
« We as know
in the thy
Samiti.
name,TheO,Sabha is called
Assembly, narishtaa
Narishta verily is
thy resolution
 Republic: The Sabha and Samiti of the Vedic Age did not disappear without
of many
name.
leaving thatallcannot
May those be broken.
that sit assembled in thee utter speech in harmony with
me.»Free
their successors in the politic body of the later period. Along with the monarchies
discussion
in was thus held in the Sabha and a resolution of the Sabha was
considered
India, the Republics also seem to have thrived. Mahabharata refers to the Gana
binding
Raja on all and inviolable. The Sabha had its President called the SabhaPati. It
also
or the rule of the Republics. Panini, the celebrated author of the Sanskrit
acted as the national judicature.
Grammar

(600 B. C.), mentions a number of republics that existed in his time.

 The whole of Buddhist literature abounds with references to the republics

then

existing. The Buddha himself was born in a republican people. He called

the

community which he founded « BhikkhuSangha », or the Republic of Bikkhus.

2)
ThetheBullis of Allahappa,

following Republics are mentioned in some of the oldest Pali and Jaina records :

I) Sakiyas of Kapilavatthu,
 3) theKalamas of Kesaputta,
4) theBhaggas of Sumsumara Hills,
5) theMallas of Pava,
6) theMallas of Kusinara , and so on.
 There are a number of instances recorded in the Buddhist literature where the
main

features of the republics have been described. When the Chancellor of

Magadha,

deputed by the King of Magadha wanted to know the opinion of the Buddha on
behalf

of his master as to the advisibility of invading the three Republics of the Vajjis ,
the
1) To hold full and frequent public
Assemblies;
Lichchhavis and Videhas, the answer
2) To meet together in concord, rise inofconcord
the Master
andwas that as
to carry long
out as these
their
republics
undertakings in

hadTothese
concord;
3) strong
enact points
nothing notthe King established,
already could not suppress them.
abrogate He enumerates
nothing the
that has been
strong
already

points as and
enacted follows:
act in accordance with the ancient institutions of the Vajjians
as
4) To honour, esteem, revere, and support the Vajjian elders and hold it a
point of
established in former days;
duty
5) Toto harkenthe
support to their words;in town or
old shrines
country;
6) To honour women and not detain them by force or abduction

 This, thuspoints out that the requisites for the success of a republic in those days
were:

the respect of its members for their Parliament, which should meet often and be
fully
 The administration of laws in the republican states of India was unanimously
attended, for their ancient laws, customs and institutions, for seniority and
praised
experience
by
andthe
its Greek
internalobservers,
harmony and theirand
in policy praise was confirmed by the Mahabhaiatha.
administration.
Even
 The other virtues recorded of a republic are equality and discipline. The wealth of
the Republics’ critic Kautilya says that « the Republican chief... his state has
the
Hindu Republics was a matter of admiration both in home and foreign records.
beneficial
The propensity of justice » .

art of peace and the art or war, discipline and perseverance, habits of ruling and
being

ruled, thought and action, home and state, went hand in hand.The matters of
State
 were discussed in the Assembly of the Republics. There are number of
direct

 references to this in theAssemblies:

SEATS in Republic’s Buddhist literature.
All the members who had the right to attend
were

present in the Assembly on seats arranged under the direction of a special

officer

appointed for the purpose. This officer was called Asanapannapaka. The
deliberations

were initiated with a motion in these words; « Let the Venerable Sangha hear me.
»«

 If the time seems,

QUORUM: meet
The rule oftoquorum
the Sangha, let the observed.
was strictly Sangha do...
In This
smallislocal
the motion.
societies» of
the After

this the mover

Buddhist monksmoved themembers
twenty matter informed
the form
theofquorum.
a resolution (Pratijna)
If any businesstowas
be carried
adopted
on by

the Sangha.
without All those quorum,
the required who approved ofwas
the act the resolution
regarded aswere asked
invalid to inoperative.
and remain silent,«
and
If an
those
officialwho
actwould not approve
OBukkshus, were to speak.
is performed unlawfully by an incomplete congregation, it
is

no real act and ought not to be performed » was the advice given by the
Buddha. It

was the duty of the Ganapuraka, or the whip, to gather the minimum
number of
 Decentralization: VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION: Village government was
usually
members. There was the system of voting. If there was a difference of opinion
among
carried under the supervision and direction of the village headman. He was
called
the members about a particular matter, then the procedure of majority was
observed.
grammani in the Vedic literature, gramika or grameyaka in northern India,
and
The voting was carried on with the help of voting-tickets, which were colored.
The
mununda in the Eastern Deccan in the early centuries of the Christian era.
The
tickets were called Salakas or pins, and the voting was called Salaka-grahana,
 His duties included the defence of the village and the collection of the
pin-
Governmental
headman was the most important officer of the village administration. He
was
taking.
revenue. According to the Sukraniti, he was like the father and the mother to
the
represented on the council of Ratnins in the Vedic period and appears like a
village
villagers. Even though the village headman enjoyed a great number of powers, at
no
king in the Jatakas.
stage in the administration could his powers become arbitrary.
 The Village Assembly: There was the Primary Assembly of the village. The
primary

village assembly consisted of all the householders in western and southern India.
All

villagers were invited by beat of drum for the meeting of the village assemblies
in

Tamil country. The members of the primary village assembly, it is interesting to

note,

were known by different terms in different places. For instance, they were
called

Mahattamas in U. P., Mahataras in Maharashtra, Mahajanas in Karnatik,

and
 The village to have evolved into regular bodies in the Gupta period. They were
known
Perumakkal in Tamil country; all meant the same thing: great men of the village.

 asThePanchamandalis in Central
Panchayat: Perhaps India
the most and Gramajanapadas
important in Bihar.
institution which It seems all
has weathered
the almost

certain thattime
storms of the and
village councils
survived in Bihar
more had
or less developed
intact is the into formal
Village bodies,
Council called
meeting
the
 Inscription of the Chola dynasty (c. 900-1300 A.D.) give a more detailed picture
of regularly to transact administrative business and communicating their decisions to
Panchayat. It was the executive committee or council of the Primary Assembly
out
in
the constitution and functions of the village assemblies and their executive
committee
siders in formal and while
sealedincommunications.
some parts of India, others it formed the main assembly.
in Tamil country. » The Primary Assembly of the village was known as Ur in the
case
 The functions of the village council or the Panchayats can be summed up as follow:
of ordinary villages and Sabha in the case of Agrahara villages, mostly tenanted
1.
by The ultimate responsibility for collecting the land revenue was fixed upon
the
learned Brahmins.
village council. It was this body which negotiated with government
for
2. The council in
concessions hadthealso the power
normal to exempt
land revenue a pieceinofthe
demand land from
case the taxation
of famine and of
the similar

central government, if its owner deposited with it the capitalized value of

calamities.
the
3. The Panchayats also tried smaller criminal cases of the village. There
was,annual tax.

however, no limit to the jurisdiction of the village council as far as civil

cases

were concerned: disputes involving properties of large value could be settled

by

the Panchayats.
4. South Indian inscriptions show that the village councils used to transact
business

as bankers
5. They used as
to well.
receive perpetual deposits and guarantee the utilization of
their

interest
6. The according
village toused
councils the desires of theseveral
to organize donors.works of public utility. Efforts
were

made to bring forests and waste lands under cultivation in order to increase
the
7. Construction, maintenance and repairs of irrigation tanks and canals engaged
the wealth of the village.

serious attention of the village councils of the Chola, and probably the same
was
8. We also find the village panchayats taking steps to promote cultural
andthe case in other provinces and centuries as well.

intellectual interest. In one instance the village sabha of Uttaramerur gave

three

endowments at different occasions to promote the study of grammar,

the
The functions and duties of the Panchayats in the Indián village continue
today
Bhavishya-purana and the Yajurveda. Vedavrittis or grants for Vedic studies
were
more or less the same as they were in ancient times. Foreign invasions or the
rule
given or procured by numerous village councils of South India.
of the British for about three centuries has not brought about any
substantial

change either in their constitution or their functions. In the 20th century the
British

tried to regularize the constitution and the duties of the village Panchayats,
and a

number of laws were passed to that effect. The national governments, after
the

independence, are also trying to improve the Panchayats. Most of the

Panchayats

are doing the same work for the village as the Municipalities for cities and
towns.

The utility and importance of the village Panchayats are fast being
recognized,

and a great deal of autonomy is allowed to these bodies in settling local

cases,

both civil and criminal, within certain limits.

 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Topic: Democracy: Meaning, Concept, Types and Systems

Meaning and Concept: Democracy, literally, rule by the people. The term is derived
from

the Greek dēmokratiā, which was coined from dēmos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”) in
the

middle of the 5th century BCE to denote the political systems then existing in some
Greek
 Democracy in its broader sense denotes not only a political concept but also way
of
city-states, notably Athens.
life in the society in which each individual is believed to be entitled to equality
as

 regards
Democracyhis denotes
participating freely in of
the opportunity thethestructures
members and
of theinstitutions of the
society to participate
society
freely is

concerned.
in decisions in all realms of life which affect their lives individually and
collectively.

In its most restricted sense, the term (democracy) de-notes the opportunity of
the
 Political, Social, Economic and Moral Democracy:Political democracy is delimited
citizens of a state to participate freely in political decisions. Democracy, thus, seeks
to
to adult franchise and elections for the choice of political leadership.
Social
set up an equalitarian society.
democracy aims at c-eating a classless and casteless society and breaking down
the

social stratifications and prejudices. Economic democracy lays emphasis on a

welfare

state and revolts against concentration of wealth and economic disparities.

 Moral
Types of Democracy: (a) Direct democracy places all power in the hands of the
democracy is directed
individual. When towards
political orientation
decisions of the
must be popu-lar
made, attitudeofand
all members thinking
a polity
with
gather
the concepts
together and of right and cast
individuals wrong conduct.
a vote. The philosophy
In theory, underlying
this sounds democracy
like the ideal form
is
of
fellow-feeling, brotherhood
government. There and good conduct.
are no intermediaries. Each person is treated as an equal, and
each

person is given a chance to directly influence the policymaking process.

 . In practice, however, this system is hard to implement. Historically,
small

political communities tend to use direct democracy. In small towns

or

indigenousonce
. However, communities
there is anwhere everyone
expansion in theknows
size of one another and
the electorate and the
the
issues
scope

under
of debate
policy directly
areas, directaffect them, such
democracy can an arrangement
become is ideal.
unwieldy. In America
today,

thousands of laws are implemented and repealed on a daily basis.

Applying a
. (b) Representative Democracy: As political communities change and evolve,
direct democracy framework in this type of political environment would
so
be does our understanding of how democracy should be implemented.
The
quite difficult.
second major type of democracy is referred to as representative
democracy.

This political arrangement establishes an intermediary political actor

between

the individual and the policy outputs of the state. Through the
electoral

 Contemporary Democratic
process, one person orSystems:Differences
a group of people areamong
electeddemocratic
and assignedcountries
with the
in task

historical experience,
of making size, ethnic
decisions and of
on behalf religious composition,
the group and
of citizens other
that theyfactors
have represent.

resultedIndia
in significant differencestype
has representative in their political institutions.
of democracy. Someofofdemocracy
Indian System the
featuresis

with respect to which these institutions have differed are the following:
parliamentary.

1. Presidential and parliamentary systems: Presidential Form of Government:

a
. Whereas
system versions
of government of the the
in which American
powers presidential system
of the president arewere
frequently
constitutionally

separateadopted
from in Latin
those of America, Africa, and
the legislature. elsewhere inForm
Parliamentary the developing
of
world
Government:
. as European countries democratized they adopted versions of the
(where the military sometimes converted the office into a
Government
English by a body of cabinet ministers who are chosen from and
dictatorship
responsible
parliamentary system, which made use of both a prime
through a and
to the legislature coupact
d’état),
as advisers to a nominal chief of state.
minister

responsible to parliament and a ceremonial head of state (who might

be
 either a hereditary monarch, as in the Scandinavian countries,
the

Netherlands,
. or a presidentand Spain,
chosen by parliament or by another body convoked
specially

for the purpose). A notable exception is France, which in its

fifth

2. Unitaryconstitution,
and federal adopted
systems: in 1958, state,
Unitary combined its parliamentary
a system system with
of political organization in
a
which most or all of the governing power resides in a centralized government,
in presidential one.
. Federal
contrast State:state.
to a federal Federalism, mode of political organization that
unites

separate states or other polities within an overarching political system

in a
. Federal systems do this by requiring that basic policies be made
andway that allows each to maintain its own integrity.

implemented through negotiation in some form, so that all the

members
. The political principles that animate federal systems emphasize
the can share in making and executing decisions.

primacy of bargaining and negotiated coordination among several

power

. Incenters; they
most of thestress
older the virtuesand
European of dispersed power centers
English-speaking as a means
democracies,
for
political

safeguarding
authority individual
inheres andcentral
in the local liberties.
government, which is
constitutionally

authorized to determine the limited powers, as well as the

geographic

boundaries, of subnational associations such as states and regions.

Such
. Democratic countries that have adopted federal systems include—
in unitary systems contrast markedly with federal systems, in which
authority
addition to the United States—Switzerland, Germany, Austria,
Spain,
is constitutionally divided between the central government and
the
Canada,and
3. Proportional and winner-take-all
Australia. The world’s
systems:most populous
Electoral democratic
arrangements
vary country,
governments of relatively autonomous subnational entities.
India, also
enormously. Somehasdemocratic
a federal system.
countries divide their territories into
electoral

districts, each of which is entitled to a single seat in the legislature, the seat
being
 won by the candidate who gains the most votes—hence the terms first past
the

post in Britain and India and winner take all in the United States.

. As critics of this system point out, in districts contested by more than

two

candidates, it is possible to gain the seat with less than a strict majority
of
. Systems
votes (50ofpercent
proportional representation
plus one). area designed
As a result, to receives
party that ensure aonly
closer
a
correspondence
minority of votesbetween the proportion
in the entire of votes
country could win acast for a of
majority party
seatsand
in
the
the
. With few exceptions, continental European countries have adopted
some
proportion
legislature. of seats it receives.
form of proportional representation, as have Ireland, Australia,
New

Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. Winner-take-all systems remain in

the
4. Majoritarian and consensual systems: Because of differences in electoral
United States, Canada, and, for parliamentary elections, in Britain
systemsand
and other factors, democratic countries differ with respect to
whether
India.
laws and policies can be enacted by a single, relatively cohesive party with
a

legislative majority, as is ordinarily the case in Britain, India and Japan,or

instead
. Political scientists and others disagree about which of the two types
of
require consensus among several parties with diverse views, as in Switzerland,
the system, majoritarian or consensual, is more desirable. Critics of
consensual
Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, and elsewhere.
systems argue that they allow a minority of citizens to veto policies
they
. Supporters contend that consensual arrangements produce
comparatively
dislike and that they make the tasks of forming governments and
. Here again, it appears that a country’s basic political institutions need to
passing
be wider public support for government policies and even help to increase
the
legislation excessively difficult.
tailored to its particular conditions and historical experience. The
legitimacy and perceived value of democracy itself.
strongly

majoritarian system of Britain would probably be inappropriate

in

Switzerland, whereas the consensual arrangements of Switzerland or

the

Netherlands might be less satisfactory in Britain.

 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Friday, April 24, 2020

Topic: Political Institutions: Rashtriye Samridhi (National Prosperity)

Rashtriye Samridhi (National Development/Prosperity): The term ‘National

Development’ is very broad and comprehensive. It includes all aspects of the development of
a nation namely, political, social, economic etc. So, it is a dynamic and revolutionary
development of the society. Moreover, it is both qualitative and quantitative.

 According to John Vaizey, “National development is the total effect of all citizens,
forces and addition to stock of physical, human resources, knowledge and skill.”
 According to UN Decade report, “National development is growth plus change in turn
is social, cultural as well as economic and qualitative as well as quantitative.”
 National development is the change in growth and development, which includes
social, cultural and economic change. It is the ability of a country to improve the
social welfare of the people. It would be the expansion and growth of people in a
defined territory or government.
 In 1971, UNO gave the factors for National Development:-
1. Equal living standard for all.
2. Equal share of all in profit.
3. Similarly, Equal distribution of income and capital.
4. Expansion of facilities regarding education, health, shelter and social welfare.
5. Preservation of environment.
 Scope of National Development: National Development seeks to remove poverty.It
improves the National Income as well as per-capita income.It develops quality in
Education.In addition, it brings revolutionary change in the field of Agriculture.It
develops Transport and Communication.Development of Medical facilities.
 On the contrary it controls pollution and environmental hazard.Use of Science and
Technology.Preservation and development of nature and environment.Development
of the economic condition of the people living in the particular country.Development
of the socio-economic condition of the people.Introduction of welfare scheme of
people for the betterment of their life and standard of living.Development of an
 impartial and well-organized political system.It encompasses the preservation,
enrichment and development of culture.Moreover, it promotes the concept of
sustainable development.
 Factors affecting National Development:
 Economic: Economic development is the one of the major factor affecting national
development. In an economy where the working population of the nation produces
goods and services at higher rate would develop more rapidly than others.
 Political: The political system of a nation also determines the rate of national
development. In democratic government it is easier to achieve the desired goal
because it is represented by its own people.
 Social: The society and its stratification also influence the national development. In
orthodox societies it become hard to take a decision unanimously which would benefit
the nation. Instead caste, class, creed, color etc. creates biases.
 Increasing population: Population of a nation also influence national development of a
nation. In countries like China, India, Bangladesh people were often deprived of the
basic needs due to its massive population explosion.
 Socio-cultural: The cultural traits persisted in different societies determines the way
of national development.
 Modernization: Modernization of societies helps for a faster growth in national
development.
 Psychological condition: Mental status of people of a nation, their mental health and
hygiene also gives directions to national development.
 The term national development at the beginning of the 20th century largely meant
economic development of a country. Moreover, economic development was also
equated with the growth of the economy only; in a strict/narrow sense. It took another
few decades for the world to come to terms with the holistic definition of the term
going beyond the economy and numbers and looking into people’s quality of life.
 On the contrary there are strong evidences that suggest that the Ancient Indian
civilization had looked at national development in the term of ‘samridhi’ which
loosely translates into ‘fuller, holistic and improvement in the overall quality of life of
the people.
 The concept of RashtriyeSamridhi goes beyond the economics and delves deeper into
the quality of a nation’s life. It talks about the development of people in economic,
 political, social, cultural and educational sense.It includes the environmental
improvement as well. Ancient Indian civilization viewed man as a part/extension of
the nature itself; therefore, embedding the welfare of nature in man’s idea of
development, in modern sense we call it sustainable development.
 Ancient Indian the concept of development was well balanced with principles of
sustainable development. The whole idea of living was based on the harmonious
coexistence with the nature. “Ma hinsyahsarvabhutani is a lesson of the Rig Veda,
meaning, ‘Do not harm anything’. Elements of nature were respected to the extent
that they were personified as gods and worshipped.
 Nearly all the higher gods of the Rig Veda are personifications of natural phenomena,
such as the sun, dawn, fire, wind and rain. Religion was the guiding force of the
behavior of people in almost every area of life of ancient India. State policies were
also guided by the religious principles. Two of the core beliefs of that time’s dharma
were that of tolerance and pluralism.
 By accepting the divinity in all beings, living and non-living, Indian civilization views
the universe as a family or, in Sanskrit, VasudhaivaKutumbakam. All beings, from the
smallest organism to man, areconsidered manifestations of God. Mankind carries a
special responsibility,as it is believed to be the most spiritually evolved with the
capacity to notonly tolerate, but honor the underlying equality and unity of all beings.
 The dharma of protecting the environment was to sustainand ensure progress and
welfare of all. The effort was not just to punish the culprit, but to balance the eco-
system as well. In this attempt, the ancienttexts acted as cementing factors between
the rights to exploit theenvironment included a fine (akin to polluter pays principle),
etc. The earthor soil also equally had the same importance and ancient literature
providedthe means to purify the polluted soil and a duty to conserve it - which isnow
internationally recognized as the concept of ‘sustainabledevelopment’.
 Another important source which throws light on the Ancient Indian concept of
‘samridhi’ in the context of holistic development is Kautaliya’sArthasastra.
Arthashastra is divided into 14 books thatdiscuss a wide range of subjects including
administration, law, industry,commerce and foreign policy. Principle provisions
relating to theenvironment are in Book II. The Duties of Government Superintendents
hasbeen defined in Chapter I. Formation of Villages. The King has beenordained to
 set up new forests. It says as: Thus the king shall not only keepin good repair timber
and elephant forests, buildings, and mines created inthe past, but also set up new ones.
 Wildlife was regarded as very important in the Mauryan Empire.Concept of reserve
forests and the separate pathways for the wildlife wasthere. Animal doctors were also
employed by the state. Chapter II. Division of Land describes the abovementioned
facts as: “On the extreme limit ofthe country or in any other suitable locality, another
game-forest withgame-beasts; open to all, shall also be made. In view of procuring all
kindsof forest-produce described elsewhere, one or several forests shall beespecially
reserved.
 Manufactories to prepare commodities from forestproduce shall also be set up. Wild
tracts shall be separated from timberforests. In the extreme limit of the country,
elephant forests, separated fromwild tracts, shall be formed. The superintendent of
forests with his retinueof forest guards shall not only maintain the up-keep of the
forests, but alsoacquaint himself with all passages for entrance into, or exit from such
ofthem as are mountainous or boggy or contain rivers or lakes.
 Whoever killsan elephant shall be put to death. Whoever brings in the pair of tusks of
anelephant, dead from natural causes, shall receive a reward of four-and-ahalf panas.
Guards of elephant forests, assisted by those who rear elephants, those who enchain
the legs of elephants, those who guard the boundaries,those who live in forests, as
well as by those who nurse elephants, shall,with the help of five or seven female
elephants to help in tethering wildones, trace the whereabouts of herds of elephants by
following the courseof urine and dungs left by elephants and along forest-tracts
covered overwith branches of Bhallátaki (SemicarpusAnacardium), and by
observingthe spots where elephants slept or sat before or left dungs, or where theyhad
just destroyed the banks of rivers or lakes.
 They shall also preciselyascertain whether any mark is due to the movements of
elephants in herds,of an elephant roaming single, of a stray elephant, of a leader of
herds, of atusker, of a rogue elephant, of an elephant in rut, of a young elephant, or
ofan elephant that has escaped from the cage. Experts in catching elephantsshall
follow the instructions given to them by the elephant doctor(aníkastha) and catch such
elephants as are possessed of auspiciouscharacteristics and good character.
 In Chapter XXVI various punishments has also been provided forthe person who kills
the animal under state-protection. Chapter XXVI. The Superintendent of Slaughter-
 House says so as: “WHEN a person entraps,kills, or molests deer, bison, birds, and
fish which are declared to be underState protection or which live in forests under
State-protection(abhayáranya), he shall be punished with the highest degree of
punishment.
 Social, economic and environmental all the three components ofmodern day concept
of sustainable development were adequatelyrepresented in the ancient Indian life.
 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Monday, April 13, 2020

Political Institutions: Introduction & Indian Perspective

Political institutions are the organizations in a government that create, enforce, and apply
laws. They often mediate conflict, make (governmental) policy on the economy and social
systems, and otherwise provide representation for the population.

 In general, democratic political regimes are divided into two types: presidential
(headed by a president) and parliamentary (headed by a parliament). Legislatures built
to support the regimes are unicameral (only one house) or bicameral (two houses—for
example, a senate and a house of representatives or a house of commons and a house
of lords).
 Party systems can be two-party or multiparty and the parties can be strong or weak
depending on their level of internal cohesion. The political institutions are those
bodies—parties, legislatures, and heads of state—that make up the whole mechanism
of modern governments.
 It goes without saying that different political systems are likely to have different types
of political institutions. For example: A democratic form of government will empower
the institutional autonomy among different institutions like courts, educational
institutions, financial institutions (Banks and markets) etc. And inclusive political
culture will foster a diversity of ideas to enrich a country’s intellectual environment.
Some types of political systems are listed below (Keep in mind the nature of different
political institutions will depend upon the nature of a political system):
1. Democracy: A system of government by the whole population or all the
eligible members of a state, typically through elected representativesi. e. US,
UK, Austrailia, India etc.
2. Republic: A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their
elected representatives and that has an elected or nominated president rather
than a monarch.i. e. US, India, Sri Lanka etc
3. Monarchy: A form of government in which one person reigns, typically a king
or a queen. The authority, also known as a crown, is typically inherited.
 4. Communism: A system of government in which the state plans and controls
the economy. Often, an authoritarian party holds power and state controls are
imposed.
5. Dictatorship: A form of government where one person makes the main rules
and decisions with absolute power, disregarding input from others.
 In 1960, Gabriel Abraham Almond and James Smoot Coleman gathered three core
functions of a political system, which include:

- To maintain the integration of society by determining norms. (Societal order)

- To adapt and change elements of social, economic, and religious systems

necessary for achieving collective (political) goals. (Inclusive growth and
development)

- To protect the integrity of the political system from outside threats. (Protect and
enhance national interest through foreign policy)
 Therefore, political institutions in each political system are the product of that systems
context, nature, needs, and general political culture. For example: India developed a
federal structure with a strong unitary bias given the circumstances of partition and
the leadership’s focus on keeping India united under a strong central government.
 Every government seeks stability, and without institutions, a democratic political
system simply cannot work. Systems need rules to be able to select political actors in
the nomination process. The leaders must have fundamental skills about how the
political institutions work and there must be rules about how authoritative decisions
are to be made.
 The institutions constrain political actors by punishing deviations from institutionally-
prescribed behaviors and rewarding appropriate behavior.
 Institutions can resolve collection action dilemmas(where a collective action is
needed but the individual actors are not willing because it won’t benefit them actually
cause them a short term loss)—for example, all governments have a collective interest
in reducing carbon emissions, but for individual actors, making a choice for the
greater good makes no good sense from an economic standpoint. So, it must be up to
the federal governments to establish enforceable sanctions against companies and
minor political actors who don’t adhere.
  But the main purpose of a political institution is to create and maintain stability. That
purpose is made viable by what American political scientist George Tsebelis calls
"veto players." Tsebelis argues that the number of veto players—people who must
agree on a change before it can go forward—makes a significant difference in how
easily changes are made.
 Significant departures from the status quo are impossible when there are too many
veto players, with specific ideological distances among them.

THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA: FROM ANCIENT

INDIA TO MODERN INDIA

The oldest written record of the political institutions can be found in the archeological
discoveries about the Indus Valley Civilization and later the Vedas. But the comprehensively
written record of specific duties of the various political institutions can be seen in the ancient
text of ‘Manusamriti’. Manusmriti, translated as "The Laws of Manu" or "The Institutions of
Manu," is the most important and authoritative Hindu Law Book (Dharmashastra), which
served as a foundational work on Hindu law and jurisprudence in ancient India at least 1500
years.

The people of ancient India believed in the order and regularity of the world as the
manifestation of Universal will and intent, and the clear victory of the dharma over the
adharma. Hence, the laws governing the conduct of individuals and the order and regularity
of ancient society were formulated by many scholars and sages in ancient India since the
earliest times.

Their works are today available to us as 18 Dharmashastras, of which the work of Manu
(Manusmriti) is considered the most important and widely used. Unlike the Vedas, the Law
Books fall into the category of intellectual or scholarly works (smritis). They are distilled and
codified through observation, experience, analysis, and the study of the Vedas, keeping in
view the best interests of the humanity and society at a specific time. Hence, they are not
entirely without the flaws of humans. They are also not free from caste or racial bias just like
the works of the other ancient scholars from the different civilizations who defended slavery
and subjugation of women.

Ancient works on political theory and systems from different parts of the world help us
understand the nature of their respective political institution/polities and their evolution.
First of the political institutions of Ancient India are Rashtraand Shashak.

Rashtra/Nation:Rashtra is the word for "state" or "nation" in several Indo-Aryan languages,

derived from a Sanskrit root. Rashtriya is the adjectival form for Rashtra.The use of the term
has undergone change since its inception.Rashtra word was used to refer to the territory of a
kingdom during the ancient times and due to the overlap in the concepts nation and state,
rashtra also referred to nation. Following are a few contextual definitions of the word
Rashtra:

 Rāṣṭra (रा ) refers to a name-ending for place-names mentioned in the Mahābhārata

I.2-8, according to which, “a place must be named after any of its peculiar features”.
Rāṣṭra is definitely a political term, denoting “whatever fell under the jurisdiction of
the sovereignty”. We find Rāṣṭra as the oldest right from the Ṛgveda, and used for the
biggest unit. Its equivalent Janapada came into being in the Brāhmaṇa-period.

 Rāṣṭra is the oldest and biggest territorial term. In the Ṛgveda and later Saṃhitās, it
denotes “kingdom” or “royal territory”. It is considered to be one of the Prakṛtis
(constituents) and refers to a country. It was the name of a Commissioner\'s division
under the Rāṣṭrakūṭas. In South India, under the Pallavas, Kadambas, and
Sālaṅkāyanas also it denotes only a district, if not a tehsil.

 The Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra says that “all the rāṣṭra including nagara is called deśa or
mandate while nagara is excluded in janapada”. It divides rāṣṭras into three kinds:

1. Big: It consists of nine thousand and ninety villages,

2. Middle: It consists of five thousand, three hundred and eighty-four villages,
3. Small: It consists of one thousand, five hundred and forty eight villages.

(To be continued)
 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Political Institutions: Indian Perspective: Rashtra/Nation

Indian nation has undergone changes since the ancient times in terms of territory and an
evolution of psychological and socio-cultural values which constitute a modern nation. The
revival of Indian political thought and philosophy is linked to the British rule in India which
was justified by the colonial power as a favor to India as it was supposed to usher an era on
modernism and scientific thinking. Indians pushed back at such perspective by highlighting
the brazen suppression of inherent Indian society and excessive economic plunder by the
British.

 Then followed the birth of a modern concept of nation with its roots in the Ancient
concept of Rashtra.
 Formation of the idea of a united India against the foreign rulers was accompanied by
a sustained struggle against the British rule. In more than 200 years of history Indian
National Movement built an inclusive and vibrant ‘Idea of India’ which was referred
to as Indian Nation.
 Indian history isreplete with instances of conquests and invasions resulting in loot and
plunderand in some cases, in the establishment of foreign rule in this country butnever
before in our history, not even during the days of Ashok, Samudragupta and Akbar,
the country had come under one common administration.
 Under the British for the first time such administrative unity was established and
contact among people increased as an unintended outcome of English as the medium
of administrative interactions, introduction of modern education and railways.
 Indian social reform movements started to infuse Indians with the sense of self
confidence and challenge the British narrative of ‘white man’s burden’.
 The first stage of struggle for freedom, therefore, is characterised by the opposition of
the Indian rulers to the expansion of British domination. Beginning with the fight by
Sirajuddaulah, the resistance offered by Mir Qasim, Shujauddaulah and Shah Alam,
all Muslim rulers of northern India, marks the first phase of hostile reaction of the
northern states to the establishment of British supremacy in Bengal.
 The battle was subsequently taken up by the two muslim Sultans of Mysore in the
south and the Hindu Confederacy of the Marathas in the west, which struggle
continued for nearly half a century. Later, it was not without war that either the Sikh
Kingdom of Panjab or the Amirs of Sind lost their independence. Thus the first
century of British rule witnessed continuous struggle by the states of India, singly or
in alliance occasionally, which prevented a facile or unopposed extension of British
sovereignty over the whole country.
 The failure of such resistance by the organised political units opened the stage for a
different variety of opposition to British rule. The new administrative system, with its
emphasis on colonial eoonomy, higher revenue realisations, financial drain and
dislocation of indigenous industry and trade, and its growing inclination towards
Christian proselytisation and socio-cultural transformation on the western utilitarian
principles, with its emphasis on materialism and individualism, excited the hostility of
the people; wedded to their traditional social and moral values, which burst forth in
recurring local uprisings and serious disaffection.
 Even before 1857, the new intellectual class, deeply inspired by the thought of the
West and having genuine faith in the sense of justice and love of liberty of the
Englishman, had advocated a dual program of social reform and English education, on
the one hand, and gradual association of the Indians with the administration of the
country, on the other.
 After 1857, in the period of political frustration and social humiliation but cultural
renaissance and socio-religious reform, the craving for freedom assumed a non-
violent constitutional aspect. Representative government of the colonial type and
admission of Indians to higher civil and military services became the main political
objectives. Local associations and the press, which had evolved into prominence,
ventilated the grievances of the people and formulated schemes of administrative
reform. The problem of admission of Indians into the Indian Civil Service soon
stimulated agitation and revealed the need for a national, all-India political
organisation, in addition to and above them and embracing the local associations, to
voice the sentiments of the people and to lay down the programme of action and act as
a parliament of the people. The foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885
filled the Gap.
 This body in its infancy and adolescence manifested the third stage in the
development of the struggle for freedom. Its leadership belonged to the intellectual
middle class, and constitutional agitation was its chief political activity, it expressed,
in this stage, the aspirations of the educated middle class, and demanded greater
representation of Indians in the Legislative Councils which were to function as the
watchdogs of administration.
 Alongside such political efflorescence merged a deep-based cultural reawakening
which disclosed evils and defects in social customs and religious practices. A cry for
social reform and rationalism in religion broke forth from the intellectual classes who
believed that political progress was not practicable without social regeneration and
adoption of western norms of behaviour. This view found expression in the social
conferences held simultaneously by the Indian National Congress and the liberal
Press. But a different type of revolution held the people in its grip. The earlier
reaction against Westernism found a new venue in the revival of the sense of glory in
the ancient culture and magnificent achievements of the Indian people in every sphere
of life.
 This reverence for the past heritage and sense of history inspired confidence and
generated a feeling of self-reliance. The popular literature of the period, the preaching
and writings of religious reformers like Dayanand and Vivekanand and the studies of
history and ancient learning, produced a sense of pride in the past and determination
to achieve social reform, religious regeneration and political progress, not by the
imitation of the West but by drawing inspiration from history and depending on the
exertion of the people and their self - help. These two trends, one deriving strength
from the liberal thought of the West and the other seeking inspiration from the
indigenous cultural heritage, mark the period of the early growth of the Indian
National Congress.
 Indian nationalism attained maturity at the turn of the century helped by the new spirit
which was nourished by Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal and LajpatRai and a host of other
leaders.
 Their contribution was in effect, as Aurobindo Ghosh put it, "the union of the new
political spirit with the tradition and sentiment of the historic past and of both with the
ineradicable religious temperament of the people. The Congress movement was for a
long time purely occidental in its mind, character and methods, confined to the
 English-educated few, founded on the political rights and interests of the people read
in the light of English history and European ideals, but with no roots either in the past
of the country or in the inner spirit of the nation.Tilak was the first political leader to
break though the routine of its somewhat academical methods, to bridge the gulf
between the present and the past and to restore continuity to the political life of the
nation.”
 Result was the indianisation of the movement and bringing into it of the masses. This
school did not believe in the gradual process towards liberty. To them the subject
nation "opens by liberty its way to progress'. For that liberty, it was necessary to
"awaken the national spirit" and create the will to be free and the will to adopt the
necessary means and bear the necessary sacrifices for liberty." The greatest
contribution of the new leaders, called nationalists or extremists, was the creation of
this will to be free, and for that the programme adopted as a sequence to Bengal
Partition, namely that of Swaraj ,Swadeshi , National Education and Boycott,
operated as a mighty stimulant. Swaraj was the objective and Swadeshi the method of
achieving it.
 Indian national movement was thereby transformed into an active force which
galvanised the nation and stirred it to undergo suffering and sacrifice for the cause of
freedom.
 Bipin Chandra Pal who expounded the bases of Indian nationalism and gave form to
it, called the national or New Movement "essentially a spiritual movement", for it was
not a merely political movement, nor a mere economic movement. The word Sawaraj,
used by DadabaiNaoroji, expressed this ideal precisely.
 In a condition of Swaraj only could there be full scope for the development of the
Indian people, a state in which, as Gokhale put it, they would attain "the highest that
was in them in their intellectual, in their industrial, in their moral and in their spiritual
life."
 To Dadabhai and Gokhale this vision might have been a distant goal. But to the
Nationalists it was a practicable aim, easy of realisation, and their emphasis was on
drawing the masses into the movement and adopting the method of passive resistance
or the path of suffering and self- sacrifice.
 The entry of Gandhi in the politics brought masses into the main stream due to his
non- violent methods women and downtrodden people gained confidence to join the
National movement.
 Ultimately, India was collectively perceived as an Ancient civilization which was
home to all who come and stayed here. The imperialist nature of British rule and
united opposition to such blatant plunder by all Indians resulted in the success of
Indian National Movement.
 The concept of nation underwent changes with communalization of politics in the
early 20th century which resulted into the partition of India.
 The idea of a nation evolves with the people. The Indian constitution stroke a balance
between the Indian values and the modern liberal principles to establish the modern
Indian state.

(Students are requested to look into the ideas on nation by the Indian thinkers covered in
the Unit 1: Sri Aurobindo, M. K. Gandhi, Tilak, DDUpadhyaya and incorporate them in
the topic Indian perspective on Rashtra/Nation)
Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Tuesday, 17/03/2020

Topic: Renaissance in Europe: Machiavelli: Views on State, Functions of the State: Financial &
Judicial

(Discussion and pointers on ‘The Prince’)

Renaissance: French word, denotes ‘Rebirth’, ‘revival’, ‘renewal’ and ‘advancement’.

 In the European history Renaissance period demarcates the beginning of modernity from
the middle ages. It refers to a period in European civilization that was marked by a revival
of Classical learning and wisdom. The Renaissance saw many contributions to different
fields, including new scientific laws, new forms of art and architecture, and new religious
and political ideas.
 A wave of socio-economic and political changes engulfed Europe from 1300 AD to1600s;
the period of Renaissance.
 Renaissance started the age of humanism in the social sciences. The idea of a Renaissance
man developed in Italy and derived from Leon Battista Alberti’s notion that “a man can
do all things if he will.” The ideal embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism,
which considered man the Centre of the universe and led to the belief that people should
try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own abilities as fully as possible. This
revolutionized the intellectual streams and took the focus away from the extreme religiosity
in the middle ages. Leonardo da Vinci is a leading example of a Renaissance man, noted
for his achievements in art, science, music, invention, and writing.
 Changes at the end of 12th century AD included the failure of the Roman Catholic Church
and the Holy Roman Empire to provide a stable and unifying framework for the
organization of spiritual and material life, the rise in importance of city-states and national
monarchies, the development of national languages, and the breakup of the old feudal
structures.
 Many forces shattered the ideal of a monolithic united Christian order. The growth of
commerce made possible by economic development, the growth of cities, the rise of the
printing press, the changeover from a barter economy to money and banking, new scientific
and geographical discoveries, emergence of centralized states with a distinctive national
 language, a new respect for scientific explorations, crystallization of humanistic
philosophy, demographic changes and the rise of a secular order were some of the key
determining forces.
 The emergence of universities ended the monopoly of the church over education and with
increasing literacy and the revival of human spirit during the Renaissance, individualist
and humanism came to the forefront.
 According to Harold J. Laski, “The entire Renaissance was in the writings of Machiavelli
who portrayed the new character of the state by comprehending the intricacies of
statecraft in which decisions reflected the political compulsions rather than religious-
precepts and what ought to be.
 Machiavelli is the father of the western political realism with the primacy to the real world
of politics.

Did anything like Renaissance happened in India? Or In the Indian political discourses?

Yes. “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the grandmother of
legends and the great grandmother of tradition.” _Mark Twain

In the 19th century, the socio-cultural reform movements started intellectual awakening in India.
Scholars have termed it as Modern Indian Renaissance. Ideas of I. C. Vidyasagar, Raja Ram
Mohan Roy, Dada Bhai Narozi, R. C. Dutt, Dayanand Saraswati, Rama Krishna Parmahansa, and
Swami Vivekananda revolutionized the Indian intellectual stream and paved the way for the
national awakening and modern Indian Nationalism which finally succeeded in 1947.

Coming back to the Renaissance and the political ideas of Machiavelli;

MACHIAVELLI

 Born in the year 1469 in Florence (Italy) Machiavelli belonged to an affluent family and
was well educated for a public career. At a young age he attained one of the higher posts
in the government of Florence.
 Later he was sent on a diplomatic mission to several foreign countries where he acquired
firsthand experience of political and diplomatic matters. However, political upheavals in
 the Florence Republic caused the fall in the career of Machiavelli in 1513, and he was even
put to a year's imprisonment.
 He was released from prison by the influence of his political friends on condition that he
would retire from political life and refrain from all political activities.
 It was during this period of forced retirement that he introduced his most memorable
literary works out of which the "Prince" and the "Discourses on the First Ten Books of
Titus Livitus" stand out most prominently.
 Their contents spelt out his political thought and earned him notoriety such as indifference
to the use of immoral means to achieve political purposes and the belief that government
depended largely on force and Craft.

Context: His writings are mainly influenced by the then prevailing situation which half the time
was the battle ground of conspirators and ambitious politicians-local as well as foreign.

 The public leaders were activated more by selfish motive than by public interest. Public
morality was very low, the Papal authority in Italy constituted greatly towards political
degradation.
 Popes were opposed to the Unification of Italy, which was divided into five states viz.
1. The Kingdom of Naples (south)
2. The Duchy of Milan (north-west)
3. The aristocratic Republic of Venice (north-east)
4. The Republic of Florence
5. Papal state in the Centre
 The Catholic Church and the clergy of Machiavelli's time wanted to maintain a shadow of
their spiritual power over whole of Italy, which left Italy in a state of arrested development.
 There was no power which appeared great enough to unite the whole of Italian peninsula.
Italians suffered all the degradation and oppression of the worst type of tyranny and the
land became a prey to the French, Spanish and the Germans.
 Unlike other European countries none of the rulers of Italian states was able to consolidate
the whole of Italy under their sway. The political situation in Italy was embarrassingly
 complex and depressing; and Machiavelli as a patriotic Italian could not help being
overwhelmingly moved by that.
 Securing the independence of Italy and restoring prosperity of its cities became a master
passion with him. The unification of the entire country under one national monarch on the
model of France and Spain was the ideal for Machiavelli which particularly inspired him.
 If the politics of Italy affected his thought, he was also influenced by the growing spirit of
Renaissance which compelled men to re-examine things from other than the clerical point
of view.
 Being the chief exponent of this school of thought, Machiavelli, according to Dunning,
"stood on the borderline between the Middle Ages and the Modern Ages. He ushered in
the Modern Age by ridding politics of the vassalage of religion."

Sources:

 IGNOU’s e-gyankosh notes

 Mukherjee and Ramaswami’s book on ‘A history of Political Thought: Plato to Marx’
pages 136-142.
 Encyclopedia of Britannica
 Article titled “Three phases of the Indian Renaissance” by K. N. Pannikar from the
Frontline.

Note: Students are required to contact the Political Science teacher (b/w 9 am to 5 pm) in the case
of any query and further explanation on the topic.

Students can post their subject related question on the ‘Political Science’ whatsapp group.
Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Saturday, 21/03/2020

J. S. Mill

Introduction: Born May 20, 1806, London, England—died May 8, 1873, Avignon, France.
English philosopher, economist, and exponent of Utilitarianism.

 Utilitarianism: A tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English
philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill according to which an
action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse
of happiness—not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone
affected by it.

Mill was the eldest son of the British historian, economist, and philosopher James Mill. He
was educated exclusively by his father, who was a strict disciplinarian. James Mill wrote one
of the seminal books on the history of British India published in 1818. India influenced the
young Mill’s life due to his father’s work on India. He was home schooled by his father.

 By the age of eight, JS Mill had already read many of the Ancient Greek texts on political
philosophy. He was great at algebra and geometry, by the age of twelve he was introduced
to the political economy and the books of Adam Smith and Ricardo.
 He was influenced by the works of Thomas Carlyle, Taylor Coleridge, Comte, Goethe,
Wordsworth, and Tocqueville.
 In Mill’s political theory liberalism makes a transition from Laissez Faire () to an active
role for the state, from negative liberty to positive liberty, from over emphasis on
individualism to a more social conception of individuality.
 Mill was a liberal, a pluralist, a cooperative socialist, and a feminist.
 He criticized Jeremy Bentham’s conception of utilitarianism (‘greatest happiness of the
greatest numbers’) by distinguishing between happiness and pleasure. He invoked
Socrates’ analogy that it was better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied to justify
 the qualitative argument for the law’s purpose of maximizing qualitative happiness to
ensure maximum liberty. He replaced Bentham’s quantitative approach with the qualitative
one.
 Important works of Mill include his essays ‘On Liberty’ (1859), ‘The Subjection of
Women’ (1869) which were classic elaborations of liberal thought on important issues like
law, rights and liberty.
 In ‘The Considerations on the Representative Government’ 1861, he talks about his ideal
form of government based on proportional representation, protection of minorities and
institutions of self-government.

Critique of Bentham’s Utilitarianism/Mill’s concept of Utilitarianism

 Bentham’s Utilitarianism central premise was that human being by nature sought
happiness, that pleasure alone was good, therefore, the only right action/law was that which
worked towards greatest happiness of the greatest number (of people). Human beings are
creatures of pleasure and utility of any law to enhance that pleasure is the yardstick.
 Mill distinguished between pleasure and happiness. He viewed happiness as ‘dignity of
man’ rather than a principle of pleasure. He defined happiness to mean perfection of human
nature based on the factors like building of character and dignity of life.
 Mill agreed with Bentham on the basic premise of the utilitarianism but distinguished
between higher and lower forms of pleasure. According to him greater human pleasure
meant the quality of the goods enjoyed by man not just the quantity. Human beings are
capable of enjoying intellectual as well as moral pleasure which are superior to the mere
physical pleasures.
 According to Mill every human action has three aspects:
1. The moral aspect (of right and wrong): On the basis of which someone approves or
disapproves of something.
2. The aesthetic aspect (of its beauty): causes someone to admire or despise
something.
3. The sympathetic aspect (of its loveliness): enabled one to love, pity or dislike.
He regarded individual self-development and diversity as ultimate goals, imp. Components of
human happiness and social progress.

 He used the principle of utility to support his principle of liberty of the individual as a
progressive being. He tried to reconcile man and society by talking about the nobility of
character. According to him, individual’s want to good for society (altruism) out weight
the self-indulgence in individuals.
 Mill believed that state could play an imp. Role in shaping individual goals through
education. Mill is the bridge between Bentham’s utilitarianism and T. H. Green’s idealism
about state.

(See the notes sent to you people through email along with this lecture)
 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Wednesday, 25/03/2020

J. S. Mill: Views on Equality of Sexes

Or

J. S. Mill views on Women/Gender Equality

Mill’s thought can be distinguished from his predecessors within the liberal tradition because he
applied the principles of liberalism to the question of women. For Mill the improvement in
women’s conditions was necessary for a liberal and progressive state.

 In his essay ‘The Subjection of Women’ he advocated for equal status for women in three
key areas:
1. Suffrage: Women should have the right to vote in a liberal society. Mill’s prime
focus areas were liberty and self-determination. Women’s political rights were
important for their self-development.
2. Right to Equal Opportunities in Education: Women were the subjugated sex,
denied the opportunities to access their own potential therefore state shall make all
the avenues of self-development equally available for the women who were roughly
50% of the population.
3. Right to Equal Opportunities in Employment: Mill questioned the basis of
subservient status of the women of the19th century England. He advocated for
equal opportunity of women in the employment as a way for their liberty from the
unequal structure of family.
 Equality as a legal right between men and women was Mill’s main concern. He criticized
the inferior legal status of women of Victorian England. He firmly believed that liberty was
 an absolute value and once one had tasted it he/she would not give it up. He criticized those
who claimed that such status for women was there for their own good and security.
 Mill claimed that women’s capacities were spent in seeking happiness not in their own
lives but exclusively for the favor and affection of the other sex, which was only given to
them on the condition of their dependence.
 He used the parallel between the condition of 19th century English women and slaves to
highlight their subjection. He deplored the lack of choice for women. In a marriage a
woman was not free. Their inferior status in property rendered them powerless as compared
to their male counterparts.
 He pointed out that opposition to sexual equality was not grounded in reason. The alleged
argument that men were physically stronger than women had originated from the
generalization of a practice at a time during the human history.
 Gradually, uncustomary was started to be believed as unnatural and physical strength came
to become a virtue in men and the opposite qualities of patience, resignation, renunciation
and submission to power came to be the qualities associated with a graceful woman.
 Mill pointed out that the rule of men over women was not entirely based on force women
also accepted it and became a voluntary party to their subordination. Men, therefore, not
only expected obedience but also affection from women. This was ensured through
education, training and socialization.
 Women were taught to be submissive, yielding and accommodating rather than become
independent, self-willed and self-control.
 Mill contradicted the idea that the nature of women was different from the men by claiming
that no one had seen an independent and free woman in a free society. He was of the view
that women needed men to support them in their quest for equality.
 In the marriage equality could be brought through mutual respect and ensuring each other’s
freedom. Marriage had to be an equal contract for both the sexes.
 Women shall have the right to be considered a free and rational being in a free society.
 Women got lesser wage than men not due to their lesser capacity but due to the prevailing
prejudice in the society.
 Mill believed in social, economic, political and personal equality for women as
independent members of a free society.
Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Tuesday, 24/03/2020

J. S. Mill: Views on Liberty/Freedom

 Mill defended the right to individual freedom. Society had no right to coerce an unwilling
individual except for self-defense.
 He favored positive liberty of the individual in a sense that meant the grant of greatest and
largest amount of freedom for the pursuit of the individual’s creative impulses and energies
and for self-development.
 Justifiable interference: Mill laid ground for the justifiable societal interference in an
individual’s actions based on the following distinction (originally made by Bentham):
1. Self-regarding actions: The sphere of action which directly pertained to the personal
sphere of an individual. Here, an individual has full sovereignty over himself. No
coercive interference from society and other individuals can be tolerated here. This
included basic liberties needed for an individual for self-development.
2. Other-regarding actions: The realm of individual action which pertained to the
society at large or regarding other individuals. Here, the individual will have to
conform to the accepted standards of behavior.
 Mill defended the right to individuality, which meant right to choice. In self -regarding
actions, coercion would mean detrimental as individual was the best judge of his interests
therefore, he had the incentives and information to achieve them.
 Individuals shall have positive liberty i. e. autonomy to develop its diverse self-style and
self-interest. The over reliance on coercive power of the society in individual action will
render an individual as a conformist.
 Society could limit individual liberty to prevent harm to other people. He fiercely defended
the liberty of thought and expression on two grounds; first, the dissenting opinion could be
true and its suppression would rob humankind of useful knowledge. Second, even if the
opinion was false, it would strengthen the correct view by challenging it.
  He agreed with Tocqueville that modern industrialist societies were becoming more
egalitarian and socially conformist threatening individual creativity.
 Mill applied the principle of liberty to the mature individuals: educated, aware, moral
citizens. He excluded children, mentally challenged and barbarian societies from his
conception of individual liberty.

Views on State and Democracy

 Mill tried to accommodate gender equality and socialism in the stream of liberalism by
advocating women’s rights and supporting socialist ideas like limited work hours, state
control of monopolies and factory legislations for children.
 He supported laissez faire but around 1840s a shift occurred in his thought given the rise
of socialist movements in Europe so he accommodated the pressing issues within the
framework of the market principles of the classical liberalism.
 Mill visualized a society of free, equal, independent and virtuous individuals who
contributed their best towards the common good and would in turn receive fair reward for
their contributions.
 He rejected the hereditary class system as inefficient. He criticized old aristocracy and in
the same way the conspicuous consumption by the middle classes. He was opposed to big
bourgeoisie. He tried to strike a balance between the need for the increase in production
with better system for the redistribution.
 Mill regarded the representative democracy as necessary for the progress as it permitted its
citizens to fully develop their faculties.
 It promoted virtue, intelligent and excellence, by providing educational opportunities.
 Mill tried to reconcile the principle of political equality with individual freedom. He
believed that all citizens irrespective of their status shall be equal and only popular
sovereignty could provide the legitimacy to the government.
 Mill looked upon equal voting rights, universal suffrage, democracy and liberty as
conditionally good. They are to be conferred only on those who had the character for self-
control and the ability and interest in using them for public good.
 Citizens developed intellectual qualities, reason and judgment through political
participation. He advocated for open ballot as he treated voting as public trust exercise and
should be performed under the eye and criticism.
 He advocated for equal political rights for women and an equal treatment to them under
the contract of marriage. Mill’s citizens were independent, reasonable and intellectual who
chose their representatives by exercising their best logic and keeping their best interests in
minds.
Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Thursday, 19/03/2020

Liberalism: Introduction on Western and Indian Liberalism

John Locke’s political thought

Liberalism: What it is?

 Political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual to be
the central problem of politics. Liberals typically believe that government is necessary to
protect individuals from being harmed by others, but they also recognize that government
itself can pose a threat to liberty. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
 Liberalism treats liberty as primary political value.
 Negative Liberty: The absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints. One has negative
liberty to the extent that actions are available to one in this negative sense. Absence of
restraints.
 Positive Liberty: Positive liberty is the possibility of acting — or the fact of acting — in
such a way as to take control of one's life and realize one's fundamental purposes. Presence
of reasonable restraints.
 Negative liberty is usually attributed to individual agents, positive liberty is sometimes
attributed to collectivities, or to individuals considered primarily as members of given
collectivities.
 Liberalism is derived from two related features of Western culture. The first is the West’s
preoccupation with individuality, as compared to the emphasis in other civilizations on
status, caste, and tradition. Throughout much of history, the individual has been submerged
in and subordinate to his clan, tribe, ethnic group, or kingdom.
 Liberalism is the culmination of developments in Western society that produced a sense of
the importance of human individuality, a liberation of the individual from complete
subservience to the group, and a relaxation of the tight hold of custom, law, and authority.
In this respect, liberalism stands for the emancipation of the individual.
  The ambitions of national rulers and the requirements of expanding industry and commerce
led gradually to the adoption of economic policies based on mercantilism, a school of
thought that advocated government intervention in a country’s economy to increase state
wealth and power.
 However, as such intervention increasingly served established interests and inhibited
enterprise, it was challenged by members of the newly emerging middle class. This
challenge was a significant factor in the great revolutions that rocked England and France
in the 17th and 18th centuries—most notably the English Civil Wars (1642–51), the
Glorious Revolution (1688), the American Revolution (1775–83), and the French
Revolution (1789). Classical liberalism as an articulated creed is a result of those great
collisions.
 In the English Civil Wars, the absolutist king Charles I was defeated by the forces of
Parliament and eventually executed. The Glorious Revolution resulted in the abdication
and exile of James II and the establishment of a complex form of balanced government in
which power was divided between the king, his ministers, and Parliament. In time this
system would become a model for liberal political movements in other countries.
 The political ideas that helped to inspire these revolts were given formal expression in the
work of the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), who developed a theory of political authority based
on natural individual rights and the consent of the governed is one of the earliest proponents of the
modern western liberalism.

 It was a period of the Glorious Revolution of 1689 with which Locke was closely
associated along with Lord Ashley, the first Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke's friend and patron,
who was charged with conspiracy to exclude Charles I from acceding to the throne.
 Locke, suspecting persecution, went into voluntary exile in Holland and remained there till
the final overthrow of the Stuart despotism in 1689. He welcomed William of Orange, as
the 'Great Restorer' and lawful ruler.
 Locke published his Two Treatises of Government in 1690. The same year saw the
publication of his famous philosophical work The Essay Concerning human
 Understanding. Locke's other important writings were the Letters Concerning Toleration
(1689, 1690 and 1692) and Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693). Locke's early
essays on the Law's Nature were published with an English translation by W. von Leyden
in 1959 (Oxford University Press).
 In his works he defended the Glorious Revolution.

Note: Please consult the reading material sent to your mail inboxes.

 This lecture shall be consulted along with the recommended book chapter Page No.: 189-
212 (A History of Political Thought: Plato to Marx)
Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Wednesday, 18/03/2020

Continuing Machiavelli….

Machiavelli’s Political Theory

 Two requirement for social cohesion and moral regeneration are:

1. Stable Political Authority
2. Order

To ensure that a state requires unified polity, a republican and free government committed to the
liberty of its people.

 Machiavelli understood the realities of politics: lust for power, admiration of success,
carefreeness of the means/methods to achieve power, rejection of medieval bonds,
conviction that national unity means national strength and pragmatism.

Despite his admittance to the above realities he essentially remained an idealist; who
understood the importance of liberty, dangers of tyranny. Prince presents a realist to us where
as the focus of ‘discourses’ is liberty and republicanism.

 Human Nature: The individual is wicked, selfish, egoistic, fundamentally weak,

ungrateful, exhibitionist and artificial.
 Lacking honesty and justice man was ready to act in a manner detrimental to his
community. It was only under compulsion or for his own personal gain that a man
would act well.
 Man lived a chaotic life with limitless desires and limited resources.
 Like Aristotle, Machiavelli believed man to be a political animal. He recognized
the legitimacy of the conflict of interest in men which can redefine their political
association.
  According to Machiavelli a stable unified political authority could satisfy a man’s
need to be admired, respected and remembered and ensure the prevalence of the
civic virtue.
 Views on Morality and Religion: His views on morality and religion distinguished
Machiavelli from his predecessors.
 He made a scathing attack on the Church and the Italian clergy for keeping the
country divided and have forgotten their moral duty.
 Machiavelli was not anti-religion. His attitude towards religion was utilitarian.
Religion was necessary not only for a man’s social life but also for the health of
the state as it wielded great influence on the political life.
 As an indispensable part of the civic life, Princes could utilize it as an effective
political tool in their power struggles but with extreme caution.
 Religion was good only if it produced order and peace to usher fortune and
success. Religion was a social force without ant spiritual connotations.
 Religion appeased a man’s selfishness through its doctrine of reward and
punishment, therefore, it could be used to usher a better state
 Morality: For Machiavelli end was important and means could be moral or
immoral.
 Machiavelli separated the private and public spheres of morality. For him, state
had a morality of its own and private individuals at times had to display the highest
moral standards.
 In politics fair was foul and foul was fair depending upon circumstances and
situation. No general rule was valid, for everything became the matter of political
expediency.
 A Prince has to be compassionate, honest, humane and loyal while always being
ready to use force, fraud, deception and treachery.
 He was aware that civilization and a good society meant high moral standards but
he was realistic enough to accept that a society’s moral fabric was made or
destroyed by its people. Immorality applied to specific situations.
 Machiavelli separated religion from the politics and set a tone for the secularization
of thought and life.
Theory of State (Nature of Machiavelli’s state in The Prince and Discourses)

 State is a secular entity having nothing to do with the Church. It was morally isolated with
no obligation to anything outside itself.
 State was necessary as it existed to fulfill a human being’s desire for security and order,
for the protection of his possessions.
 A well-ordered state needed a strong government at centre, an integrated public authority
recognized by all and a citizen army.
 Good laws, religion and citizen army are the pillars of a strong state. It was the duty of the
ruler to create, maintain and efficient, loyal and disciplined citizen army to ward of the
potential outside threats.
 Citizen Army: 17-40 age group, well trained in arms and military skills, and
psychologically prepared to go to war if necessary. A citizen unwilling to fight for his state
lacked civic virtue.
 He cautioned the Prince to use the mercenaries as they could not be relied upon and they
could exhaust the treasury.
 Machiavelli was against hereditary monarchy and feudal nobility and established church
and clergy as they were the enemies of a stable state. The aristocracy ganged and looted
common people. These could be restrained with all powerful non- hereditary monarch.
 Machiavelli’s ideal state was a republic where rich didn’t buy the offices of political
importance and where nobles didn’t loot the commoners by recycling power among
themselves.
 He was against the use of force for private reasons.
 Machiavelli’s classification of the forms of government is rather unsystematic. The
treatment of government in his two major works is significantly different; rather
inconsistent and contradictory to each other. The 'Prince7 deals with monarchies or
absolute governments, while in the ‘discourses’ he showed his admiration for expanded
Roman Republic. There was nothing in Machiavelli's account of the absolute monarchy
corresponding to his obviously sincere enthusiasm for the liberty and self-government of
Roman Republic.
 In both forms his emphasis is on the cardinal principle of the preservation of the state as
distinct from its founding, depends upon the excellence of its law, for this is the source of
all civic virtues of its citizens. Even in a monarchy the prime condition or stable
government is that it should be regulated by law. Thus, Machiavelli insisted upon the need
for legal remedies against official abuses in order to prevent illegal violence.

Note: Sources for this lecture are IGNOU notes and Mukherjee and Ramaswami’s book page
no. 143-164.
St. Augustine Political Thought

 Augustine is a fourth century philosopher who infused his Christian religious doctrine with
Plato (ideas of ideal state) and Neo-Platonism.
- Neo – Platonism: believes in the pre-existence, and immortality of the soul. The human
soul consists of a lower irrational soul and a higher rational soul (mind), both of which
can be regarded as different powers of the one soul.
 He is also famous for his contributions to Western philosophy along with Plato, Aristotle,
and Aquinas.
 There were two doctrines: 1. Pelagian doctrine: By an English monk of that name: it
upholds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable
of choosing good or evil without special divine aid or assistance. 2. Manichaeism: a
dualistic religious system with Christian, Gnostic, and pagan elements, founded in Persia
in the 3rd century by Manes (c. 216– c. 276) and based on a supposed primeval conflict
between light and darkness. It was widespread in the Roman Empire and in Asia, and
survived in eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) until the 13th century.
 Augustine's doctrine stood between the extremes of Pelagianism and Manichaeism.
Against Pelagian doctrine, he held that human spiritual disobedience had resulted in a state
of sin that human nature was powerless to change. For him, human beings are dependent
on divine grace; against Manichaeism he vigorously defended the place of free will in
cooperation with grace.
 Life: Augustine, also known as Aurelius Augustine was born at Thagaste in North Africa.
He was one of the key figures in the transition from classical antiquity to the middle Ages.
 He lived nearly eighty years of the social transformation, political upheavals, and military
disasters that are often referred to as the “decline of the Roman Empire.”
 Augustine was a confirmed Manichaean during his early years as a student and teacher of
rhetoric at Carthage and Rome. But in Milan, during his early thirties, he began to study
Neo- Platonic Philosophy under the guidance of Ambrose. An account of his early life and
conversion, together with a reasoned defense of his Neo-platonic principles, may be found
in the confessiones (confessions). He was named the Bishop of Hippo (Annaba, Algeria)
 in 396, and devoted the remaining decades of his life to the formation of an ascetic religious
community.
 In the theology of Augustine, God becomes the creator of the saved and the sinner at least
because of His decree. They belong to either of two cities. The elect, the saved belong to
the kingdom of God and the sinner and the damned belong to the kingdom of Satan or
Devil.
 The elect are the chosen people for living in communion with Him, and, the sinner is left
to be condemned to the hell-torment forever. On this earth there is nothing to distinguish
the one from the other, but internally in their inner spiritual constitution. They are two
kinds of people far apart, the community of the elect does not belong to this earth. Thus
the kingdom of god and that of devil are sharply divided.
 To the kingdom of god belong the faithful angels and the elect chosen to be so by His
Grace. To the kingdom of Devil belong the devils and the damned, not predestined to
redemption. The community of the elect has no home on this earth, but they remain united
through his Grace, giving fight against the kingdom of the devil.
 In contrast, the damned people keep on fighting amongst themselves. For Augustine, the
human world belongs to this worldly history is born the savior of the world called Jesus.
Again, on this earth stands the church, which may be called the semblance of the heavenly
kingdom on this earth
 According to Augustine knowledge is certain and attainable. One should believe in order
that one may understand. God is the source of all truth. It is he who illumines our mind to
attain knowledge. God created the world out of nothing by His free will. His existence is
essential condition of the moral and intellect life. Speaking of evil he says God is not the
author of evil bur he permits in order that good may take place. The goal of man should be
supreme good/ God. It is lasting and the rest are temporary.
 Divine Illumination: For Augustine, it is in the light of God, by which the mind is said to
be able to discern the objects of intellectual vision.
 Two Swords: Born of the dilemma of reconciling political authority with religious
doctrines. It was developed in the time period from the birth of Christ to 6th century. The
theory supported the argument that Church and under her control there are two swords, the
spiritual and the temporal . . . both of these, i.e., the spiritual and the temporal swords, are
 under the control of the Church. The first is wielded by the Church; the second is wielded
on behalf of the church. The first is wielded by the hands of the priest, the second by the
hands of kings and soldiers, but at the wish and by the permission of the priests. Sword
must be subordinate to sword, and it is only fitting that the temporal authority should be
subject to the spiritual. St. Augustine was a supporter of this theory.
 Doctrines of Christianity subordinated the temporal to the spiritual, showed commitment
to the faith over reason, believed that the Greco-Roman institutions had failed, emphasized
that next world was more important than the this one therefore, ascribing lesser status to
the government and gave less important to the affairs of the governance, believed in the
divine kingdom under the fatherhood of the God, no secular politics was preferred until the
times of Renaissance.
 The period of development of Christianity was of hardship for the Christians. They weren’t
given citizenship or right to property. Refusal to worship the gods of the state was
considered treason. Their Churches were destroyed. Finally, Emperor Theodosious (379-
395) made Christianity the official religion of the state.
 Church grew large and powerful, united Christians inside and outside Italy, Christianity
warned the state against the evil of revolution, with increased membership problems of
administration emerged.
 4th century, Church and state were merged. Church now became the part of political
establishment. Problems rose to reconcile state and church while Christianity aimed for a
Christian commonwealth.
 St. Augustine came to scene when the rise of Christianity was being blamed for the fall of
Roman Empire. He defended Christianity.
 Nature of Human beings: Because of the fall from the grace (Eve eating the forbidden fruit
story), humans are not naturally sociable. They are self-interested and need state to ensure
order and stability. Without state anarchy will prevail.
 The original Sin: From there emerges the creation and separation of two cities, each with
its own political and moral values with love holding the together. State’s origin was located
at a certain point in God’s plan.
  Theory of two cities: Man has a two-fold nature: good and evil and history is the
culmination of the struggle between good and evil where good will win in the end
culminating into a Christian commonwealth.
 Man's nature is twofold-he is spirit and body. By virtue of this dual nature lie is a citizen
of two cities, the Divine City representing heavenly peace and spiritual salvation and the
earthly city centred on appetite and inclinations directed towards mundane objects and
material happiness.
 Humans can move from evil/earthly city/material to good/heavenly/spiritual city under the
Christian doctrines by establishing Christian commonwealth.

Justice and the State: An important question closely related to the distinction between the two
cities is the relationship between justice and commonwealth. Justice is an important function of
the state. People without justice are nothing but a band of robbers.

 He also contends that only a Christian state can be just, for one cannot give to a man his
due without giving to God what is due to Him. Love of man cannot be real without love of
God.
 The past states lacked justice because they didn’t have Christian doctrines to guide them.
All pagan empires were supposed to fall in the history. What is important is learn to live
the way god prescribed it by following his word.
 When god is obeyed, perfection of ruling will be achieved and justice will prevail.
 Man’s sinful nature is responsible for the institutions like slavery, property and
government.
 In a Christian commonwealth state’s main role is to provide stability and order so that man
can live in peace to achieve his spiritual goals.
 Political obligation must exist for the prevalence of peace.
 Government’s job is not just to preserve rights but also to ensure order. For his a stable
tyranny is better than a disorderly democracy.
 Freedom, justice and equality are the goals only attainable in the heavenly city.
 If man wasn’t sinful he wouldn’t be disorderly and need government. So, the existence of
government is necessitated by man’s sinful nature.
 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Law University

Political Science II

Lecture: Wednesday, 1 April, 2020

Concept of Sovereignty

Meaning and Concept: The term 'sovereignty' is derived from the Latin word superanus meaning
supreme.

- Essential element of the State (Population, territory, government and sovereignty)

- Sovereignty denotes supremacy or supreme power of the state.
- Sovereignty is primarily a legal concept. It denotes supremacy of the state primarily in the
legal sphere.
- The basic idea is that the sovereign—be it a monarch, chief executive or an assembly—is
able to declare law, issue commands and take political decisions (i.e. determining public
goals and their priorities) which are binding on all individuals and associations within his
jurisdiction.
- Sovereignty arms the state with supreme legal authority in both internal and external
spheres. Internally, it establishes supremacy of the state over all individuals and
associations; externally it upholds independence of the state from the control or
interference of any other state in the conduct of its international relations.
- Theoretically, each sovereign state is equal to every other in international law, regardless
of its population, area or economic wealth.
- The United Nations Charter states that the United Nations 'is based on the principle of the
sovereign equality of all its Members' and recognizes a sphere of 'domestic jurisdiction'
which is to be reserved to each member state.
- Since the concept of sovereignty attributes supreme power to the will of the sovereign, it
is by nature an absolute, unlimited and perpetual power. This may, however, not be
interpreted as an arbitrary power.
- The absolute power implied by sovereignty is not intended to be exercised without reason
and public interest.
- Jean Bodin, a French writer of the sixteenth century, was the first to formulate the concept
of sovereignty systematically.
- During ancient times scholars talked about a supreme power but it was systematically
developed in the context of modern state system in the 16th century.
- In ancient India states achieved certain unification especially under the rule of
Mauriyan kings but the source of supreme power lay in the concept of Dharma, a
universal rule for the society.
- Aristotle also talked about a supreme power exercised by various authorities in
different types of political systems.
- During the medieval times the allegiance towards Pope made various kings
subservient to the institution of the Pope. Later the kings of England and France
declared their independence from the Pope and their countries achieved some sort of
unification. So, the ground was fertile for the development of a systematic
development of the concept; which was done by Bodin.
- Bodin defined sovereignty as 'the absolute and perpetual power of commanding in a state',
as the 'supreme power over citizens and subjects unrestrained by law'. Thus, Bodin places
the sovereign above law, because he himself is the source of law. This view marked a
significant departure from the medieval outlook. The medievel world conceived law as part
of the universal and eternal order.
- Kings, councils and judges who enforced law were themselves under law. They were not
empowered to create it. It could only be discovered by a study of custom and precedent.
The idea of the state as a source of law was alien to medieval thought.
- Bodin treated the sovereign above law but not above duty and moral responsibility. He
imposed two important limitations on the powers of the sovereign:
1. There are some fundamental laws (such as, the Salic law of France, which excluded
females from dynastic succession) and the sovereign could not lawfully abrogate
such laws.
2. Private property, being granted by the law of nature, was inviolable; therefore, the
sovereign could not tax his subjects without their consent.
- Hugo Grotius (1583-1645): Grotius, a Dutch jurist, widely known as the father of
international law, made an important contribution to the concept of sovereignty.
- He brought out the implications of sovereignty of the state in the international sphere, i.e.
independence of the sovereign state from foreign control. Grotius sought to build a system
of international law on two distinct foundations:
1. Nations are subject to natural law or 'the dictate of right reason' in the same manner
as citizens because the society of nations is formed on the same fundamental moral
principles which guide the behavior of men in society.
2. Grotius recognized a 'voluntary' law of nations based upon their free consent,
whether explicit as expressed in treaties and conventions, or implicit as expressed
in usages and customs.
- Grotius, like Bodin, attributed moral responsibility to sovereignty, but he extended it to the
external sphere also.
- Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): Hobbes's chief contribution to the theory of sovereignty
consists in adding an element of legitimacy to authority of the sovereign, because be held:
1. The sovereign is the product of the will of the people.
2. The sovereign enjoys his supreme authority for its functional value, that is by virtue
of providing order, peace and security in the place of anarchy and oppression.
- John Locke (1632-1704): Another English exponent of the theory of the social contract,
did not concede absolute sovereignty of the state.
- He thought that the supreme power in society was held by the people which came into
existence before the formation of the state. The natural rights of life, liberty and property
were retained by the people and the state was created for the protection of these vital rights.
Ruler or government could not possess supreme power.
- Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78): Rousseau brought the concept of ‘Popular Sovereignty’.
- Hobbes had created a sovereign apart from the people, Rousseau made the people
themselves sovereign. In his opinion, the social contract was concluded between the people
in their individual capacity on the one hand, and the people in their corporate capacity on
the other.
- Rousseau, therefore, suggested that sovereignty belongs to the people; it could be exercised
only in an assembly of the whole people. Government is but an agent of the general will
which reigns supreme. In other words, a government cannot logically claim to hold
sovereignty. Rousseau also maintained that sovereignty is absolute and unlimited because
 the supreme direction and control of the general will is accepted by the people
unconditionally in the interests of their freedom.
- Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): Bentham, the famous English Utilitarian, argued that
sovereignty was not limited by law, but was subject to moral limitations. Bentham
maintained that sovereignty was limited by the possibility of resistance, and there were
conditions under which resistance was morally justified. He, therefore, insisted that the
sovereign should justify his authority by useful legislation with the object of promoting the
greatest happiness of the greatest numbers.

John Austin (1790-1859)

In the nineteenth century, the theory of sovereignty as a legal concept was perfected by Austin, an
English jurist. He is regarded as the greatest exponent of the monistic theory of sovereignty.

- Austin's theory of sovereignty was influenced by the then prevailing conditions in England.
The early Utilitarians had sought to remove the anomalies of common law by subordinating
it to a superior law which consisted in the universal and permanent dictates of natural
reason; the state could neither ignore nor abrogate that superior law.
- Repudiating these arguments, Austin advanced his theory of positive law which expressed
the will of the legal sovereign of the state and hence not bound by the dictates of natural
law or any other superior law. Austin sought to define law as the command of the sovereign,
obliging the subject to do or refrain from doing, certain acts, failure to obey the law being
visited by penalty.
- Law had following characteristics:
1. It must emanate from a determinate source that is the sovereign, to be clearly
located in the state.
2. It must be the expression of the command of the sovereign.
3. It must be backed by sanctions, meaning violation must invite punishment.
- These characteristics are peculiar to the positive law of the state, not to be found in natural
law, custom or religious commandments. Thus, natural law, or for that matter any superior
law, is not law in the proper sense of the term.
 - Accordingly, in case a positive law enforced by the state comes into conflict with the
natural law or religious commandments, etc., the former must prevail. In this way Austin
established supremacy of the power, authority and commands of the sovereign beyond
doubt. He maintained that any rights of the citizens, including the right to property, were
nothing but concessions granted by the sovereign.
- By establishing a single source of all positive law Austin put forward a monistic view of
law, state and sovereignty. It is significant that Austin's theory solely dwells on the legal
character of sovereignty; it does not repudiate moral or social limitations on the power of
the state. He does not declare the state as a 'perfect embodiment of reason' as the idealist
theory had maintained.

Characteristics of Sovereignty:

1. ABSOLUTENESS: Sovereignty is regarded as absolute because it cannot be limited or

restricted by any superior power or authority. The will of the sovereign reigns supreme in
the state.
2. PERMANANCE: Theoretically, sovereignty belongs to the state. Governments may be
formed and dissolved according to established procedure, but the continuity of the state
will not be affected by such changes.
3. UNIVERSALITY: Sovereignty is a universal, all-pervasive or all-comprehensive quality
in the sense that it extends to all individuals, groups, areas and things within the jurisdiction
of the state.
4. INALIENABILITY: As an essential element of the state, sovereignty cannot be transferred
or given away without destroying the state itself.
5. INDIVISIBILITY: As sovereignty is an absolute power, it cannot be divided between or
shared by different sets of individuals or groups. In every state, sovereignty must be vested
in a single body, legally competent to issue the final commands.
 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Topic: Continuing State: Indian Perspective

Evolutionary Theory: This is the oldest theory of the origin of the state in India and has
been mentioned in the Atharva Veda. According to this theory the state is the result of

evolutionary progress and it didn’t originate at a fixed time. The supports of this theory are:

A.S. Altekar, N.N. Law and H.C. Raychaudhuri.

 The tenth hymn of the eighth chapter of the Atharva Veda gives a picture of the

evolutionary origin of the state. On the basis of Atharva Veda several stages of the

evolution of the state can be traced.

 The hymns of the Atharva Veda state that the earliest phase of human life was the

stage of vairājya or stateless state. It was a state of complete anarchy. But

subsequently, with the emergence of agriculture, stable life became possible. To fulfil

the needs of agricultural society the family emerged and the head of the family
 Further, the
became thefirst
need of co-operation
wielder of authority. in the different realms of society led to the
emergence of sabhā and samiti. Sabhā was the organisation of elderly people and

samiti was the general assembly of common people. With the emergence of sabhā and

samitiorganised political life began which finally culminated in the emergence of the
 Altekar opines that as with other Indo-Aryan communities, the state also evolved in
state.
India in pre-historic times out of the institution of the joint family.
 R. Shamasastry also favours the evolutionary theory but in his opinion the earliest

form of family in ancient India was matriarchal which after the invasion of Aryans

became patriarchal.
 Among contemporary historians, Ram Sharan Sharma focuses on the role of family,

varna and property in the evolution of the state, citing examples from ShāntiParva,

DīghaNikāya, and AyodhyāKānda of Rāmāyana.

 According toSharma, there was a vital connection between the existence of these

institutions and the rise of the state. The basis of political obligation and the functions
 of state show the role of these institutions. What would happen if the state did not

exist? The one recurrent theme in the ShāntiParva, the AyodhyāKānda and the Vishnu

DharmottaraPurāna which contain the long description of arājaka (kingless) state is

 that family
Shanti andsuggests
Parva propertythat
would
thenot be safe
kingly in such
office a state.
arose to protect the weak against the

strong. Sharma opines that possibly it may not be correct to interpret the weak as poor

and strong as rich but there are certain references which give the impression that the

kingly office was meant to support the haves against the combined attacks of have-

nots. The chief preference was to maintain order and stability in the society.

 The chief functions of the king also throw light on the purpose for which his office

was created. One of the main duties of the king was the protection of private property

by punishing the thief and that of the family by punishing the adulterers. So great was
 Preservation of the varna system was another great responsibility of the king.
the responsibility for protecting property that it was incumbent on the king to restore
Generally the maintenance of the caste system was considered an indispensable
to a subject the stolen wealth at any cost.
element of dharma, for according to Kamandaka if dharma is violated by the members

of the state, there is bound to be pralaya or dissolution of the whole social order.

 The dominant ideal that moved the king in ancient India was the attainment of

dharma, artha and kāma. If the artha is taken in the sense of enjoyment of property,

the kāma in the sense of enjoyment of family life and dharma in the sense of

maintenance of the legal system, it would be clear that in the trivarga ideal also,
Force Theory: Though ancient Indian political thinkers did not propound force theory in a
principles of property, family and caste dominated.
systematic way, force was considered to be an important factor in the evolution of the state in

India.
 Earliest Aryan clans fought among themselves for pet animals (specially for the cow),

pastureland, settlements and sources of drinking water. Only a strong and able

warrior could lead the clan in such wars. So he was given special status and the

 members of clan
This tendency started obeying
continued him.of peace also and subsequently the leader became
in the days

king.
  Citing examples from the Vedas (Rig Veda and Sāma Veda) and the Brahmanas

(Aitareya, Shatapatha) John Spellman also opines that the king in ancient India was

primarily a military leader.

 But it should be clearly mentioned that none of the political commentators give a

systematic and well knitted explanation of the role of force in the emergence of the

state in ancient India.

Theory of Mystical Origin: According to this theory, Kingship was given divine
sanction and the king was considered not to be the representative of God but himself a God

who contained the powers of important Gods like Indra, Varuna and Agni. According to A.L.

Basham the doctrine of royal divinity was explicitly proclaimed. It appears first in the epics

and the law books of Manu.

According to Manu, “When the world was without a king. And dispersed in fear in all

directions, The lord created a king. For protection of all. He made him of eternal particles.

Of Indra and the wind, Yama, the Sun and fire, Varuna, the moon and the lord of wealth.”
 Even before the days of Buddha, the king was exalted far above ordinary mortals,

through the magical powers of the great royal sacrifices. The royal consecration

(Rājasūya) which in its full form comprised a series of sacrifices lasting for over a

 year
In theimbued
course the kingceremonies
of the with divinehepower.
was identified with Indra “because he is a kshatriya

and because he is a sacrificer” and even with the high God Prajāpati himself.16He

took three steps on a tiger skin and was thus magically identified with the God Vishnu

whose three paces covered earth and heaven. The king was evidently the fellow of the
 The magical power which pervaded the king at his consecration was restored and
God.
strengthened in the course of his reign by further rites, such as the ceremonial

rejuvenation of the Vājapeya and the horse-sacrifice (Asvamedha) which not only

ministered to his ambition and arrogance but also ensured the prosperity and fertility
 Thethebrahmanic
of kingdom. rituals such as horse sacrifice were not used under the Mauryas, but
were revived by the Sungas and was performed by many later kings both in North and
 South. After the period of the Guptas these sacrifices became rare, however, the last

we have been able to trace took place in the Chola Empire in the eleventh century.

 But the tradition of royal divinity continued. Kings referred to their divine status in

their titles and panegyrics, and they were regularly addressed by their courtiers as

deva, or God. The Chola kings and some others were even worshipped as God in the
 Regarding divine origin of kingship, a story repeatedly appears in the Mahābhārata
temples.
and other texts. This is the very ancient story of the first man, Manu, who combined

the characteristics of Adam and Noah in the Hebrew tradition.

 The story tells that at the beginning of this period of cosmic time, when greed and

wrath had disturbed human relations, men inflicted untold misery upon one another.

As in the Buddhist legend, they agreed to respect each other’s life and property, but

they had no confidence in their contracts, and so they approached the high God,

Brahmā, to help them, He nominated Manu, herethought of not as a man, but as a

 Variants of this story occur in other parts of the Mahābhārata and elsewhere, some
God, to be their first king.
making the first king Virājas, the son of the God Vishnu. All adopt the earlier legends

to stress the divine status of the king, and his divine appointment to the kingly office.

 With the exception of a few Rajput families who claimed descent from the fire-God

Agni, nearly all medieval Indian kings traced their genealogies back to Manu, either

through his son Iksvāku or his daughter Ilā. Descendants of Iksvāku are referred to as
 In thought, if not in practice, it was the mystical theory of kingship which carried
of the solar and those of Ilā as of the lunar line.
most weight with succeeding generations. Kautalia while writingArthashāstra had no

illusions about the king’s human nature, and seems to have had little time for

mysticism, but he recognised that legends about the origin of kingship had
 In the Arthashāstra
propaganda value. he states that the people should be told that, the king fulfils the
functions of the God Indra (the king of Gods) and Yama (the God of death) upon

earth, all who slight him will be punished not only by the secular arm, but also by

heaven. Ashoka and other Mauryan kings took the title “Beloved of the Gods”

(devānāmpiya), and, though they seem not to have claimed wholly divine status, they

were no doubt looked upon as superior semi-divine beings.

  John Spellman also favors the view that the theory of divine origin was the dominant

and popularly accepted theory regarding the origin of the state in ancient India.

According to Spellman “The king was appointed by the God and ruled through divine

 grace.”
The viewpoint which supports the theory of divine origin of state in ancient India has

been widely criticised by Western as well as Indian scholars. According to Charles

Drekmeierthe notion of divinity was used as a metaphor in ancient India. Only those

kings could claim a divine status who fulfilled the aspirations of their subjects.

 Basham maintains “the Buddhists and Jainas explicitly denied the king’s Godhood,

and one court poet at least, Bana, who was patronised by the great Harsha, has the

temerity to reject the whole rigmarole of royal divinity as the work of sycophants who

befuddled the minds of weak and stupid monarchs, but did not fool the strong and the

wise”.
Contract R. Shamasastry
Theory: Contractalso denies
theory in emphatic
is the terms thediscussed
most extensively notion of theory
royal divinity in the
of the origin
Vedic
of the state in age and India.
ancient in the The
age of Kautilya.
reference to contract theory can be seen in the Buddhist texts

like DīghaNikāya and Mahāvastu and brahmanical texts like ShāntiParva and Arthashāstra of

Kautilya.
 John Spellman and U.N. Ghoshal accept only the Buddhist sources as the authentic

source of contract theory because according to them the brahmanical texts have a

mixture of contract and divine origin whereas Buddhist sources give a clear cut

 account of contract
On the other hand theory.
K.P. Jayasawal and D.R. Bhandarkar, citing examples from the

Vedas and Brāhmanas advocate that the contractual origin of the state can be traced to

brahmanical texts as well, along with the Buddhist texts.

 Although the contract theory of the origin of the state is anticipated by early

brahmanical literature, the first clear and developed exposition of this theory is found

in the Buddhist canonical text DīghaNikāya where the story of creation reminds us of

the ideal state of Rousseau followed by the state of nature asdepicted by Hobbes. We

may summarize the main stages in this story, which is stated by the Buddha to refute

the brahmins claim for precedence over members of all the other social classes.
 It is said that there was a time when people were perfect, and lived in a state of

happiness and tranquility. This perfect state lasted for ages, but at last the pristine

purity declined and there set in rottenness. Differences of sex manifested themselves,

and there appeared distinctions of colour. In a word, heavenly life degenerated into
 Now shelter,
earthly life. food and drink were required. People gradually entered into a series of
agreements among themselves and set up the institutions of the family and private

property. But this gave rise to a new set of problems, for there appeared theft and

other forms of unsocial conduct. Therefore, people assembled and agreed to choose as

chief a person who was the best favoured, the most attractive and the most capable. In
 The individual, who was thus elected, came to hold in serial order three titles: a)
return they agreed to contribute to him a portion of their paddy.
Mahāsammata b) Khattiya and c) Rājā
 According to the text the first title means one chosen by the whole people, the second

title means the lord of the fields, the third title means one who charms the people by

means of dharma.
 The speculation made in the DīghaNikāya is the product of an advanced stage of

social development when tribal society had broken up giving rise to clash of interests

between man and woman, between people of different races and colours and between

people of unequal wealth. This idea was adumbrated in the middle Ganga plains,
 (Pleasepaddy
where see thewas
previous lecture
the basis of theoneconomy
Rashtra for further
of the detail on this theory.)
people.
 For the comparative perspective: check out the chapter on different perspectives on

state from O. P. Gauba’s book.

 A link to Altaker’s book has already been shared with all of you. Read the chapter on

state for Indian perspective.

 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Monday, April 20, 2020

Topic: State: Indian Perspective

It is significant that though some sort of political organization has existed since ancient times,

such as Greek city-states, ancient Indian kingdoms and republics and the Roman empire, yet

the concept of the 'state' as such is comparatively modern. The contemporary concept of the

state owes its origin to Machiavelli (1469-1527) who expressed this idea in early sixteenth

century as 'the power which has authority over men' (The Prince; 1513). This was an

important idea because it describes the nature of the state, not the end of the state which was
 Elements
a question of aphilosophy
of political modern rather
State: than
1. political
Population. 2. Territory.
sociology 3. science.
or political Government. 4.

Sovereignty
 STATE AND SOCIETY: State differs from society. It can be called as politically

organized society. Society is an association of human beings which fulfils all their

needs of life—from cradle to grave. The state fulfils their particular need of political

organization—it subjects them to binding laws and decisions to provide for order and

security, and common services.The state is formed out of society. So society is a

primary association. It is society which chooses the pattern of its political grouping.

States may be created, altered or dissolved, but society goes on forever.

 STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Distinction between the state and civil society must

be maintained in order to prevent authoritarianism. In the contemporary discourse, the

term 'civil society' is also used to describe the 'intermediate' associations between

individual (or family) and the state. It is the product of 'freedom of association'. It is
 Civil Liberties:Legal instruments of protection of the individual from arbitrary acts of
the bedrock of civil liberties. It serves as a channel of communication between
government. These include personal freedom, freedom of movement, freedom of
individuals and the state and functions as a shock-absorber in the event of mounting
thought and expression, faith and worship, freedom of association, right to fair trial,
tension between individuals and the state.
equality before the law, etc.
 STATE AND GOVERNMENT: Government is regarded as an essential element of

the state. In actual practice, the state is represented by the government. Governments

exercise all authority and functions on behalf of the state. However, the terms 'state'

and 'government' should not be used synonymously. 'State' represents a wider and

more stable entity than 'government'.A state maintains its identity and independence,

governments may be formed and dissolved according to the established procedure

 STATE AND NATION: The modern state usually takes the form of a nation-state.
without affecting the character of the state.
The frontiers of the state are called national frontiers; the interest of the state is

described as national interest; the character of the people of a state is called its

national character. Relations between different states are known as international

 At the outset, a nation may be distinguished from nationality. Nationality usually
relations.
denotes a set of people inspired by a feeling of unity based on common race,

language, religion, culture, geographical compactness, common political aspirations

 and
Mosthistorical
of thesedevelopment.
factors are based on birth and provide little scope for expanding the

horizons of social relationships. Feelings of nationality separate one set of people

from other such sets. Sometimes this is accompanied by a sense of one's own

superiority, or a sense of disdain for others which may lead to tensions, wars and

other disastrous consequences. In any case, the feeling of nationality grows from a
 Some writers define nation on the same basis as nationality and then advocate a
relatively narrow base.
separate state for each nationality. This view is no longer held valid. A nation grows

on a much wider base. It refers to people living in a defined territory, inspired by a

sense of unity, common political aspirations, common interests, common history and
 In other words,
common destinygroups
thoughofthey
people
mayofbelong
different races, with
to different different religions, languages
nationalities.
and cultures, etc. may live together and feel united as citizensof the same state, owing

their undivided allegiance to that state. Thus, nationhood transcends the conditions of

 birth and extends

Members to the
of a nation ofpermanent residentsthemselves
course distinguish of a state. from other nations. They may

sometimes be prejudiced against other peoples. Yet a logical outcome of the idea of a

nation postulates equality among nations, their co-existence and cooperation. Since
 1920, the principle of national self-determination has been almost universally

accepted which has led to the establishment of nation-states, and rapid development

of international law to regulate relations between nation-states.

Indian Perspective: In Ancient India State was looked upon as a positive institution for

the welfare of the people. The state in ancient India was considered necessary, for it

ensures peace, order and happiness. It was a social organization with political power. The

institution of state is studied in relation to its origin, nature, aims and functions of the

state in ancient India. The dawn of civilization was stated to have marked the beginning

of the origin of state.However, ancient scholars were not unanimous in their opinion with

regard to the origin of the state.According to some, state was the outcome of a contract
 They opine that prior to the origin of state there was something called a golden
mainly political in nature between the rulers and the ruled.
age, wherein the people enjoyed a life of peace, order, self-discipline and

happiness. Similarly, several theories like force theory, patriarchal theory,

matriarchal theory, divine origin theory and finally the evolutionary theory
 The Saptanga
advanced theoryofpropounded
the origin the state. by ancient Indian thinkers discusses the forms
and functions of the state. It discusses the organic theory of the state. Promotion of

Dharma was considered the primary concern of the state.

 Monarchy was considered as the ideal form of government by a majority of the

ancient Indian thinkers such as Manu, Kautalia, Shatiparva.

 The origin of state has remained a controversial subject since olden days. It was

one of the Vedic textbooks titled AitreyaBrahmana that provided an earliest

record of the origin of state and kingship. The work is a description of a legend

that explains the war between the Gods and the demons and the defeat of the

 This defeat, as described by the book, made Gods unite and appoint Soma as their
former.

King who was expected to serve the human needs and save the country from

military attacks. With the establishment of the kingship, the state gradually

 evolved.
Though India had no formal political philosophy, the science of statecraftwas

much cultivated and a number of important textbooks on this topic havesurvived.

Dandanīti, the administration of force, or rājanīti, the conduct of kings,was a

 severely practical science, and the texts curiously dismiss the morephilosophical

aspect of politics, but give comparatively detailed advice on the organization of

the state and the conduct of governmental affairs.

 The earlier text with details of statecraft and monarchical form of government is

Manusamriti (Students shall read Manu’s theory of origin of state and theory of

statecraft from the notes provided to them in the class during the discussions on

 Manu’s political
The next most thought)
important textbook specifically devoted to statecraft is the

Arthashāstra, which is attributed to Kautilya or Chanakya, the famousminister of

Chandragupta Maurya. The Arthashāstra gives very detailedinstructions on

various issues like the management of the state, the organization ofthe national

economy and the conduct of war and it is the most precious sourcebook for many
 The other important sources, inchronological order, are the great epics, the
aspects of ancient Indian life.
Mahābhārata, and the Rāmāyana.The great body of literature generally called

smriti, giving instruction in thesacred law, is very important in this

connection.From the Gupta period and the Middle Ages a number of political

textssurvive, the most important of which are the Nītisāra (Essence of Politics)

ofKamandaka which was written during the Gupta period, the

Nītivākyāmrta(Nectar of Aphorisms of Politics) of SomadevaSuri, a Jaina writer

of tenthcentury, and the Nītisāra (Treatise on Politics) attributed to the ancient

sageShukra, but evidently of later medieval origin. Besides these sources, there is
 In ancient India thinkers like Bhisma, Narada, Brihaspati, Kautilya, Kamandaka
atremendous amount of Brahmin, Jaina and Buddhist literature which deals
have looked at theproblem. On the basis of the writings of these thinkers we can
onoccasions with the politics of the time.
detect fourimportant theories regarding the origin of the state in ancient India,

namely—
1. Evolutionary Theory
2. Force Theory
3. Mystical Theory
4. Contract Theory

(To be continued …)
 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Tuesday, 31/03/2020

Political Thought of T. H. Green

 Thomas Hill Green (1836–1882), political philosopher and radical, temperance reformer,
and the leading member of the British Idealist movement.
 His principal writings are: Essay on Christian Dogma, The Conversion of Paul, Different
Senses of “Freedom” as Applied to Will and the Moral Progress of Man (DSF), Faith,
Lecture on Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract, Incarnation, ‘Immortality’,
Justification by Faith, ‘Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation’, Metaphysic of
Ethics, Moral Psychology, Sociology or the Science of Sittlichkeit, Prolegomena to Ethics,
Witness of God, and Word is Nigh Thee.
 Philosophical influence on Green were of German idealists like Fichte and Hegel more
than that of the English empirical tradition of George Berkeley, John Locke, David Hume
and John Stuart Mill.

Green on Freedom, Rights and State:

 Green’s concept of freedom is not negative. He says freedom does not consist in the
absence of restraint or compulsion. It is not the unlimited freedom of one and no freedom
or very little or another. Green does not accept the situation where the freedom of one
depends upon the activities or enjoyment of freedom of others.
 In his theory, everybody will have the oppor-tunity to enjoy freedom. Green was in favor
of state intervention in the realization of freedom and he stated it clearly.
 Freedom/liberty is a positive power of doing or enjoying something north doing or
enjoying. Individuals will enjoy freedom in cooperation with other fellow-citizens.
Whenever a man demands freedom and after getting it proceeds to enjoy it, he must
consider that other people can claim the same thing. So freedom is something which is to
be enjoyed in common with others.
 Public spirit and state are vital for the enjoyment of freedom. Freedom demands rights and
rights can only be enjoyed in a state.
 Man must be conscious of what he should not do. He must also be conscious of the idea of
common good or interest. He will enjoy his freedom only in a way that will help the
progress of common good.
 Pursuance of interest at the cost of others’ interest is no freedom, Green’s theory of freedom
is, therefore, determinate. Man is permitted to do only those things that will come to the
benefit of the whole society, not any part of it. This determinate character makes freedom
more idealistic and moral.
 Green’s idea of freedom was humanitarian if not socialist. He did not explicitly advocated
for economic equality like the socialist thinkers but he realized that poverty was the cause
of moral degradation and state should focus on the economic upliftment of the people. The
freedom of one influential person or economically dominant class does not indicate the
freedom of the whole society.
 All the people must have the opportunity to enjoy freedom and from this condition there
can arise morality. Again though Green did not talk about the equitable distribution of
wealth he was the believer of the idea that proper distribution of wealth among people can
ensure freedom.
 Freedom of contract is a part of Green’s concept of freedom as it enables people to pursue
their interests in an independent manner and in the end helps the state to realize the positive
end of freedom.
 According to Green, the concept of common good is the supreme guide for all persons. It
may also be called the supreme authority. Every individual must conform to the idea of
common good. Freedom lies in the obedience to it.
 Green doesn’t talk about the legal perspective of freedom as according to him state can
play a role to facilitate the individual who is already aware about positive freedom and not
enforce the ‘genereal will’ on the reluctant individuals.
 Rights: For the proper development of human personality both freedom and right are
essential. Again, he has viewed these two in the light of idealism.
 The development of human consciousness is the foundation of both liberty and rights. But
the self must be interpreted in a broader and idealistic perspective.
 The self must know itself. It is the first phase of achieving consciousness. Again, the will
of the self must conform to the common interests of society. That is, the will of one will
not be at variance with the general will of the society. Green’s self-consciousness,
therefore, means the consciousness of others.
 The consciousness implies that individual is not alone in the society and, therefore, he has
no right to pursue his own good. He has every right to seek his own good. But it is his duty
to remember that his goodness depends upon the goodness of others.
 The society is a complete whole and the pursuance of exclusive self interest has no place.
While a person makes claims he must remember that these claims must not stand on the
way of raising and realizing claims by other fellow citizens.
 Rights have two aspects. One is it is claim and the claim is made by individual guided by
self- consciousness. Another aspect is claim must be recognized by the society or state as
the case may be.
 A man can claim certain things and the claims have no conflict with the common good.
But if the society does not recognize the claims it will never be translated into reality.
 So the intervention of the state is important. A man may claim right to work and it is a
right. But if the state does not recognize the right, the claim remains unfulfilled or useless.
There are many states where right to work is not yet recognized. It’s another implication is
men can claim rights only as members of society.
 The word recognition requires clarification. When Green speaks of recognition he does not
mean legal recognition. His rights are not legal but ideal rights. If the citizen does not
fulfills moral conditions, if he does not identify his interests with the general interests, then
he cannot claim rights. Hence the validity of rights comes from the self-consciousness of
the individuals.
 The duty of the state is to provide safeguards, that is, men will not face any hindrances in
enjoying rights. Common moral consciousness recognizes rights. Green, by recognition,
does not mean legis-lature or executive.
 State: The state does not create rights, but gives fuller reality to rights already existing.
 The chief function of state is to remove the hindrances which stand on the way of
implemen-tation or enjoyment of rights. Green felt that any other association could perform
the job. But he had doubt about the capacity or eligibility of those associations.
 Only a society having supreme coercive power can resist the aggression or disturbance
from within or without which may intensify the assault upon the rights. The state has the
supreme coercive power and it exercises that power whenever necessary. Green says – “It
is not a state unless it does so”.
 A state presupposes other forms of community, with the rights that arise with them, and
exists as sustaining securing and completing them. In order to make a state there must have
been families of which the members recognized rights in each other.
 The members of the family recognized rights of each and all those rights aimed at the
common good of the family. But the relationships were not confined to small families.
They grew bigger and out of them more and more families were created. Commu-nities or
tribes were formed.
 Relationship between the tribes was established and this was a natural development.
Different tribes or communities recognized rights for them. But the definition,
reconciliation and also recognition required a general law.
 State is there to enforce that general law. General law guards the rights and freedoms of
all.
 He believed that the law of the state must be general in the sense that it is to be applied for
all categories of persons. The state must free itself from all types of sectarian behavior.
 Origin of the State: When such a general law has been arrived at, regulating the position of
members of a family towards each other and the dealings of families or tribes with each
other; when it is voluntarily recognized by a community of families or tribes and
maintained by a power strong enough at one to enforce it within the community and to
defend the integrity of the community against attack from without, then the elementary
state has been formed.
 He draws a distinction between natural rights acknowledged by common social
consciousness and the rights not acquired in this status. The natural right is the necessary
condition of full general welfare of the society.
 Now if a state makes and enforces any law towards the implementation or preservation of
natural right, it is the duty of every citizen to obey that law simply on the ground that
interest of the whole cannot be sacrificed for the part only.
 State maintains a good relation with all the groups and associations which exist within its
boundary. There may be small and insignificant groups like families or bigger groups
aiming at universal brotherhood. The state makes no discrimination.
 It makes adjustment with them all and creates an atmosphere for their proper development.
In the words of Green the state is a society of societies. Although the state represents the
highest good, the realization of this passes through all the groups and tribes. Green’s state
is not Leviathan. It aims at the general welfare and seeks the help of all.
 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Saturday, April 18, 2020

Topic: Political Institutions: Vidhi/Injunction/Law

Vidhi/Injunction/Law:The literal meaning of the word Vidhi is ‘injunction’.

Injunction means (in the modern sense a judicial order restraining a person to do something

or otherwise invite a punitive action against the person). The word vidhi has been used to

denote various meanings; according to the context, in the Ancient Indian scriptures. For

example in Ayurveda vidhi means ‘the way of making or mixing various ingredients to turn

them into a medicine/aushidi. Vidhi is one of the names of the Lord Brahma. For the purpose

of this class we are to study the concept of vidhi as a source of veda and dharma; from

where the Ancient system of laws and codes originated. For this purpose it is imperative to
 In the philosophical school of Mimamsa (one of the six schools of Ancient Indian
look into the Indian schools of philosophy:
Philosophy): Vidhi (िविध, “injunction”) refers to “precepts” or “injunctions” and is

one of the five divisions of subject-matter of the Vedic, Puranic and Tantric

literature according to Mīmāṃsā philosophy.—A vidhi is a statement that induces

one to act. All actions (karma), according to Mīmāṃsa are said to have two effects:

one external, manifest and gross (dṛṣṭārtha); the other internal, potential and subtle

(adṛṣṭārtha). The internal aspect is regarded as being long-lasting, while the external
 The inducement to act consists of three parts—What? Through what? & How? These
effect is transitory.
three aspects of the vidhi are technically known as:—
1. Utpatti-vidhi—Primary Injunction to perform aaction,
2. Viniyoga-vidhi—Injunction of Application,
3. Prayoga-vidhi—Injunction of Employment,
 The variable is the:—
1. Adhikāra-vidhi—Injunction of Qualification.
There are another 3 sub-vidhis:— a. Apūrva-vidhi—Original injunction,
 b. Niyama-vidhi—Restrictive injunction,

c. Parisaṅkhya-vidhi—Preclusive injunction.
 The Injunctions (vidhi) constitute Dharma and are therefore the essence of the śabda

Revelation.
 Vedanta School of Philosophy throws further light on the concept: Vidhi (िविध).—In

the Vedānta the vidhi are also those statements regarding the Ultimate Reality—

Brahman, the Ātman and purpose of life (puruṣārtha)—all matters which cannot be

comprehended by the either perception or reason. According to Vedānta knowledge

must have a practical application, so therefore Brahman, jīvaetc are always

 According to Vyakarna (Sanskrit grammer): The term Vidhi (िविध) denotes—
mentioned in the context of “doing” something i.e. meditation.
Injunction, that is, inducing or commanding a subordinate person to do something.

Vidhi as the denotation of liṅ is pravartanā qualified by the absence of an inhibitory

 factor.
The Ancient concept of law was philosophical and spiritual as Dharma was not a

legal concept. It was at par with the universal order of the things and by following

dharma a person was required to live his/her life in accordance with the universal

order. Man was not considered separate from his surrounding environment and law
 As the
was an later kingdoms
integral part of rose these scholarly
a person’s day to daytreaties
life. and philosophical schools became
guiding principle for the law makers. However, the essence of laws was context

specific for each king or leader. As in Manusmriti we come across a well-developed

system of laws prescribing dharma to various Varnas. Indian schools of philosophy

went in depth to define the concept of vidhi and fit in the universal scheme of things.

 Jaimini, the founder of PurvaMimansa, has classified the texts of the Vedas into (1)
 A Vidhi is an obligatory text. It is positive in character.
 Vidhi, (2)Nishedha,
Vidhi and (3)ofArthavada,
the element (4) Namadheya, in
duty and sanction:Jaimini, andthe
(5)very
Mantra.
first two verses of his

work, tells us that the object of hiswork is the study of duty (Dharma). And he

explains that duty is a purpose whichis inculcated by the command.

 The "command" spoken of, is intended to refer to the passage of the scripture in

which it is mentioned.
 The "duty" spoken of here, necessarily leads us to thequestion of sanctions.To stress

the element of sanction (which is not explicit, though it is implicit ina command),

writers onMtmansa have adopted a definition of Vidhi in these terms.

 "ApraptaparpakoVidhi": Translated into English, it means, "A Vidhi is that which

puts one in a positionwhich ordinarily one is not apt to get into". What is meant is,

that the commandindicates the necessity of a compelling power. The command -

"Maintain yourforsaken wife", - for example - urges the doing of something which
 Theman
the reason why scholars
wouldnot otherwiseofdo.
Mimansa concentrated on Vidhi (injunction) maybe

explained at this stage. The main object of the persons engaged in this discipline was

to interpret the Vedic texts. For this purpose, it became necessary to

distinguishbetween what was mandatory and what was not. The object was to secure
 Since the content
thecorrect of these
performance ceremoniesis
of sacrificial fixed by the injunctions (Vidhi) of the Veda,
ceremonies.
the Mimansa propounds rules whichenable the scholar to recognise a true injunction

and to determine its sense andsignificance. It has been pointed out that one reason

why these rules were extendedto the interpretation of legal doctrines was that the

regulation of disputes waspresented by the authors of the Dharmashastra as if it were

a sacrificial act andhence the rules thereof must be scrupulously observed under pain
 Classification of Vidhi: For practical purposes, it became necessary to think of
of sin.
various classificationsof Vidhis. Some of the modern studies of ancient Hindu Law,

in fact, offer detailed discussion of such classifications.

 This became necessary because theprimary object of the Mimansa system was the

study of the injunction and thesystem had to determine and examine the different

forms under which theinjunction could present itself in the Vedic texts; and,

 accordingly, it the
Thus, "beside undertook
primarytodefine their respective
injunctionpure scopes
and simple of application.
(utpatti-vidhi), it distinguished

also the injunction of application (viniyoga-vidhiwhich fixes the relation between the

principal rite and a subsidiaryaction; the injunction of employment (prayoga-vidhi)

which fixes the order in which the different parts of the rite should be performed; the

injunction ofqualification (adhikara-vidhi) which fixes the conditions required if the

doer of theaction is to obtain the fruits of the ritual he has put into effect; the
 restrictiveinjunction (niyama-vidhi) which submits the doing of the act to

determinedconditions, excluding others which are equally possible; and the

injunction ofexclusive specification (parisankhaya- vidhi) which operates as a

 prohibition,
"These subtleandso forth. furnish the shastric interpreter with readyformed means to
distinctions

analyse and classify the precepts of the smriti and to define theirnature and

significance rigorously.
 Two main bases of classification of Vidhis are met within the Mimansaliterature.

The first is on the basis of the degree of obligatory force of the Vidhi,while the

second is on the basis of the purpose thereof.

 With reference to the degree of the obligatory force (in regard to

positiveinjunctions), Jaimini classifies them into Vidhi proper, Niyama and

Parisankhya.
 If a benefit to be derived from a Vidhi is not at all possible of beingattained by

othermeans, then it is mandatory. If such benefit can be partly attained by

complyingwith the Vidhi and partly by other means, then it is imperfect and not

absolute. Ifthe benefit can be wholly attained by other means (though it can also be

attainedby following the Vidhi), then the Vidhi is a mere recital or statement of the
 The later commentator KumarilaBhat explainsthe distinction in these words:-
benefitwithout any real obligatory force.

- "A Vidhi tends to secure what is otherwise not attainable at all."

-
"ANiyama tends to secure what is partially otherwise attainable."
-
"A Parisankhya consists in a statement or recital as to a benefit which

iscommonly attainable in its entirety, either by acting according to the statement

 Sarkar hasother
orby expressed the effect of the above, in the language of the modern law,in the
means."
following form:-
1. A Vidhi is a perfect (imperative) command.
2. ANiyama is an imperfect (directory) rule.
3. A Parisankhya is a monitory precept."
 Thus, the direction "Take a goodly meal after the fasting on the 11th day of themoon",

is regarded as a Niyama, implying that the meal is to be taken unless onehas a good
 reason for abstaining from it. In contrast, the direction 'The flesh ofanimals whose feet

are divided into five nails is eatable", is an example ofParisankhya. It only means that

one may eat such flesh and not that one shall eatit.
 Comparison with Modern rules of Interpretation: The above distinction, based on the

degree of force to be attributed to aparticular direction, has obvious comparable

situations in modern rules of interpretation.

 Rules of law which are mandatory and rules of law which are notmandatory but only

directory, are well known in modern legal systems. Courts donot regard every

statutory direction as nullifying action taken in contraventionthereof. The use of the

verb "shall" can still be regarded as directory. In the UnitedStates, where the

legislative history is more frequently used than in other countries,there may be more
 In the ultimate analysis,the problem willpresent itself as a problemof choice between
occasions for adopting this approach.
literal interpretationand non-literal interpretation.
 Examples from modern cases as to statutory requirementsModern Acts often confer

powers on law enforcement officers to interfere withliberty of the citizens, subject to

certain formalities being observed. The questionmay arise whether non-compliance

with statutory requirement nullifies theexercise of the statutory powers. In dealing

with this question, the court examines the policy of the Act as against desirability of

safeguarding liberty. The courtstrives to strike a balance and may reject technicalities.
Lecture: Political Science II

Day: Friday, 20/03/2020

Continuing John Lock…

Views on State, Law and the Natural Rights

 Natural Law constitutes an integral part of Locke's moral and political theory. It is central
to his conception of the state of nature as well as of civil society. The state of nature, as we
know, is the stock-in-trade of all contract theories of the state. It is conceived as a state
prior to the establishment of political society.
 In Locke's version it is pre-political, though not pre-social, for men are essentially social
by nature.
 The state of nature, far from being a war of all is a state of "peace, goodwill, mutual
assistance and self-preservation." It has law of nature to govern it.
 In the state of nature men have natural right to life, liberty and property. These rights are
inalienable and inviolable for they are derived from the Law of Nature which is God's
reason.
 In the state of nature men have natural right to life, liberty and property. These rights are
inalienable and inviolable for they are derived from the Law of Nature which is God's
reason.
 Everyone is bound by reason not only to preserve oneself but to preserve all mankind,
insofar as his ow11 preservation does not come in conflict with it. Again, men are free and
equal and there is no commonly acknowledged superior whose orders they are obliged to
obey. Everybody is the judge of his own actions.
 But though the natural condition is a state of liberty, it is not a state of license.
 Nobody has a right to destroy oneself and destroy the life of any other men, "but where
some nobler use than its bare preservation calls for it."
 Because there is no common judge to punish the violation of natural law in the state of
nature, every individual is his own judge and has the executive power of punishing the
violators of the law of nature.
 There are three lacunas or inconveniences' in the state of nature:
1. Lack of a legislature authority to declare law.
2. Lack of an impartial judge to decide cases of violation of law.
3. Lack of an impersonal executioner of the law.
 Therefore, the state of nature, while it is not a state of war, is also not an idyllic condition
and, therefore, it has to be superseded sooner or later. Conflicts and uncertainties are bound
to arise on account of the selfish tendencies in human nature. The state of nature is always
in danger of being transformed into a state of war.
 The natural law sanctions the rights to life, liberty and property and limits them. The
creation of state and civil society is necessary to protect and enhance these rights.
 The end of law is not to abolish or to restrain, but to preserve or enlarge freedom, for in all
the states of created beings, where there is no law, there is no freedom.
 Right to property is intimately connected to the rights of life and liberty. Man uses his
reason to mix his labor with the natural resources to make property.
 Property: In the beginning, all things were held in common, But common ownership is not
sufficient to provide men with mans of life and satisfy their needs. Man mix his labor with
the resources provided by nature to enable him to make use of them in a more efficacious
and profitable way. Since man owns his own person, his body and limbs, the object with
which he mixes his labor becomes his own property by right.
 This is the origin of the famous labor theory of value common to both in the classical and
the Marxian economics.
 Locke does not believe that man has an unlimited right of appropriation. There are three
important limitations on the ownership of property:
1. Labor Limitation: is that, one can appropriate only that much of common resources
with which he has mixed his labor.
2. Sufficiency Limitation: that a man should appropriate only as much as is required
by him and leave "enough and as good for others."
 3. Spoilage limitation: Requires that a man should acquire a thing only if he can make
good use of it, since nothing was made by God for man to spoil or destroy. If one
takes more, he "invades his neighbor's share" which is prohibited by the law of
nature.
 Since men are by nature, free, equal and independent, no one can be subjected to political
power of another without his own consent. Thus common consent is required to form civil
society after which a government or legislative has to be established to execute natural law.
 This authority or the legislative is the supreme authority. Besides this, there are two other
powers of the commonwealth, the executive (includes judicial power) and the federative
concerned with foreign affairs. The executive is answerable to the legislative.
 The legislative cannot rule by arbitrary decrees but only through promulgated and
established laws. On sovereignty, Locke states that behind the authority of the legislature,
there is an ultimate sovereignty of the people which was later termed as popular
sovereignty.

Note: Please consult the reading material sent to your mail inboxes. This lecture shall be consulted
along with the recommended book chapter Page No.: 189-212 (A History of Political Thought:
Plato to Marx)
 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Wednesday, April 17, 2020

Topic: Continuing Shashak/Ruler/Government

• In the western perspective: The earliest analytical use of the term monarchy, for
example, occurred in ancient Athens, in the dialogues of Plato (c. 428–c. 348 BCE), but even

in Plato’s time the term was not self-explanatory. There was a king in Macedonia and a king

in Persia, but the two societies, and therefore their institutions, were radically different.
• To give real meaning to the word monarchy in those two cases, it would be necessary
to investigate their actual political and historical contexts. Any general account of monarchy

required then, and requires today, an inquiry as to what circumstances have predisposed

societies to adopt monarchy and what have led them to reject it. So it is with all political

terms.
• So long as humans were few, there was hardly any government. The division of
function between ruler and ruled occurred only, if at all, within the family. The largest social

groups, whether tribes or villages, were little more than loose associations of families, in

which every elder or family head had an equal voice. Chieftains, if any, had strictly limited

powers; some tribes did without chieftains altogether. This prepolitical form of social

organization may still be found in some regions of the world, such as the Amazonian jungle

•in SouthThe
America
rise oforagriculture
the upper Nile
beganRiver valley that
to change in Africa.
state of affairs. In the land of Sumer (in
what is now Iraq) the invention of irrigation necessitated grander arrangements. Control of

the flow of water down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers had to be coordinated by a central

authority, so that fields could be watered downstream as well as farther up. It became

necessary also to devise a calendar, so as to know when the spring floods might be expected.

As those skills evolved, society evolved with them.

• In early Sumer, it is reasonable to assume, the heads of the first cities, which were
little more than enlarged villages, only gradually assumed the special attributes of

monarchy—the rule of one—and the village council only gradually undertook a division of
labour, so that some specialized as priests and others as warriors, farmers, or tax gatherers

(key figures in every civilized society).

• As organization grew more complex, so did religion: an elaborate system of worship

seemed necessary to propitiate the quite elaborate family of gods who, it was hoped, would

protect the city from attack, from natural disaster, and from any questioning of the political

arrangements deemed necessary by the ruler group.

• Eventually, as human civilization prospered the complex system of governance
emerged in the form of bureaucratic monarchies. To attain legitimacy and ensure order and

loyalty among the masses a complex matrix of King’s divine rights and superior powers

emerged.
• The history of Old World monarchy, and indeed of civilization, was to consist largely
of variations on the patterns mentioned above for four or five millennia. Trade contacts

carried the principles of civilization to Egypt and to India (China, like the pre-Columbian

societies of the Americas, seems to have evolved independently).

• And everywhere, once the social order was established, the problem of defending it
became paramount. Although the broad zone of civilization spread steadily, so that by the

reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98–117 CE) there was a continuous band of civilized

societies from Britain to the China Sea, it was always at risk from the barbarian nomads who

roamed the great steppelands of central Eurasia.

• Large bureaucratic monarchies with huge armies became the order of the day.

•
Greek City States: In the Greek world (which by c. 600 BCE stretched from the coasts
of Asia Minor to what is now southern France) there were dozens of centres of government.

The term city-state expresses the double aspect of those small settlements.

• Each city-state was, on the one hand, an economic, cultural, and religious
organization; on the other hand, each was a self-governing community capable, in theory, of

maintaining absolute independence by enlisting all its adult male inhabitants as soldiers. It

was like a business association and also like an encamped army. (In many respects, the city of

Sparta actually was an encamped army.) Freedom was defined as the right and ability of
every city to govern itself. What freedom meant for the internal order of such cities was

fiercely and often bloodily debated for more than two centuries.

• Monarchy, oligarchy, democracy:Was Greek freedom best preserved and defined by

the rule of the few or by that of the many? On the whole, the great names favoured

aristocracy, understood as the rule of the best. Plato believed that the object of politics was

virtue and that only a few would ever thoroughly understand the science by which virtue

could be attained and that those trained few should rule as “philosopher kings.” Aristotle, his

pupil, seems to have put the cultivation of the intellect among the highest human goods, and

he believed—quite reasonably, given the limited economic resources then available—that

this fruit of civilization could be gathered only among a leisure class supported by the labours
In return for their leisure, the gentry should agree to sacrifice some of their time to the tedious
of the many.
business of governing, which only they would be sufficiently disinterested and well-informed

to do successfully. Neither of these apologies for oligarchy had any success in practice. The

champions of democracy carried the day, at least in Athens and its allied cities. In return for

playing their parts as soldiers or sailors, ordinary Athenians insisted on controlling the

government.
The development of the concept of governance or the modern forms of governments went

through an evolution from the above discussed Greek City-States to the modern state systems

as per the evolutionary steps discussed below:

 Rome (Republic)  Rome (Empire)  Middle Ages (Instability)- Feudalism-

Rise of the Nation states.

 Modern World: Rise and fall of the absolute Monarchy:The development of the

nation-state was not easy, for the monarchs or anyone else. The legacy of the Middle

Ages was so intractable that the emergence of nation-states was very slow. It may be

argued, however, that the modern period was born during the reign of Henry VIII of

England (reigned 1509–47), when that king more or less simultaneously declared

himself head of the national church and his realm an empire—sovereign and
 The rise in power of Henry VIII and other early modern kings may be attributed in
unanswerable to any foreign potentate, particularly the pope.
part to the use of gunpowder, which had enabled the kings to overbear their turbulent
 nobles—cannons were extremely effective at demolishing the castles in which

rebellious barons had formerly been quite safe. But artillery was exceedingly

expensive. A sufficient revenue had always been one of the chief necessities of

monarchy, but none of the great European kingdoms, in their autocratic phase, ever
 The complexities
succeeded of medieval
in securing society had permitted very little coercion of taxpayers.
one permanently.
For the rest, money could only be secured by chicanery; by selling offices or crown

lands (at the price of a long-term weakening of the monarch); by robbing the church;

by a lucky chance, such as the acquisition of the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru

by the king of Spain; or by dealing, on a semi-equal footing, with parliaments (or

 Yet the monarchs did all they could to resist the rise of such representative
estates, as they were most generally known).
institutions—except in England, where Henry VIII and the other Tudor monarchs

worked with Parliament to make laws and where the folly of the Stuart kings

ultimately ensured Parliament’s supremacy. On the whole, however, the monarchs of

Europe—especially in France, Spain, Prussia, and Austria—had great success at

 Their style of rule, known as absolute monarchy or absolutism, was a system in which
ruling autocratically.
the monarch was supposed to be supreme, in both lawmaking and policy making. In

practice it was really a system of perpetual negotiation between the king and his most

powerful subjects that could not, in the long run, meet the challenges of modern war
 Well before that time, though, three great occurrences—the Renaissance, the
and social change.It lasted till 18th century.
Reformation, and the European exploration and colonization of the Americas—had

transformed Europe.Those events contributed to the eventual failure of absolute

monarchy and profoundly influenced the development of future governments.

 Renaissance started the printing press and that changed the rules of the game. Laws,

for instance, could be circulated far more widely and more accurately than ever

before. More important still was the fact that the printing press increased the size of

the educated and literate classes. Renaissance civilization thus became something

unprecedented: it acquired deeper foundations than any of its predecessors or

contemporaries on any continent by calling into play the intelligence of more

individuals than ever before.

 But the catch (from a ruler’s point of view) was that this development also brought

public opinion into being for the first time. Not for much longer would it be enough

for kings to win the acquiescence of their nobles and the upper clergy. A new force

was at work, as was acknowledged by the frantic attempts of all the monarchies to
 The Reformation
control waspress.
and censor the the eldest child of the press. It, too, had diffuse and

innumerable consequences, the most important of which was the destruction of the

Roman Catholic Church’s effective claim to universality. It had always been a

somewhat fraudulent assertion—the pope’s claim to supreme authority had never

been accepted by all the Christian bodies, particularly the Orthodox churches of the

Greeks and Slavs—but after Martin Luther and John Calvin the scope of his

commands was radically reduced. In the long run the consequence was the

secularization of politics and administration and the introduction of some measure of

 Conquest of the Americas by the European powers changed the path of history. Globe
religious toleration. Gradually the way became clear for rational, utilitarian
was circumnavigated and expansion of the European powers along with their
considerations to shape government.
competition for new territories started in Asia, Africa and Americas.
 Meanwhile, the republican tradition had never quite died out. The Dutch had emerged

from their long struggle against Spain clinging triumphantly to their new religion and

their ancient constitution, a somewhat ramshackle federation known as the United

Provinces. Switzerland was another medieval confederation. Venice and Genoa were
 In England
rigidly the rise
oligarchical of Parliament introduced a republican, if not a democratic,
republics.
element into the workings of one of Europe’s oldest kingdoms. The tradition of

representative estates was first exploited by the Renaissance monarchy of Henry VIII

and his children, the Tudors, and then unsuccessfully challenged by their successors,

the Stuarts. The English Civil Wars (1642–51) remade all institutions and climaxed in

the execution of King Charles I. In the long period of aftershocks, opponents of King

James II called in a new king and queen, William III and Mary II. William was a

Dutchman who was quite content to let Parliament take an unprecedentedly large

share in government so long as it voted money for war against Louis XIV of France.

He conceded, in short, full power of the purse to the House of Commons, and before
 long it became a maxim of the dominant Whig party that people could not be legally

taxed without their own consent or that of their representatives. A radically new age

had dawned.
 The Whig system was called constitutional monarchy.
 The increasingly rationalist temper of the times, exemplified in the works of the

philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), finally buried some of the more blatantly

mythological theories of government, such as the divine right of kings, and Parliament

finally settled the issues that had so vexed the country by passing a series of measures

that gave England a written fundamental law for the first time. Henceforth the country

was to be ruled by a partnership between king and Parliament (in practice, between

the king and the oligarchy of country gentlemen who controlled most parliamentary

elections); if many Englishmen looked with distaste on the squabbles of party politics,

which were the sordid result of that arrangement, few could propose a plausible
 American Revolution:The limited British monarchy found it little easier to govern a
alternative. Tories drank toasts in private to the Stuart kings in exile across the water;
seaborne empire than did the kings of France and Spain. If Britain’s North American
republicans published eloquent pamphlets; and Sir Robert Walpole ruled for 21 years
colonies were to grow in population and riches—so as to become sources of strength
(1721–42) as the first prime minister of Great Britain (as the country was called after
to the empire, not military and financial liabilities—they had to be given a substantial
the merger of England and Scotland in 1707).
measure of religious, economic, and political autonomy. However, that gift could not

be revoked. Once British policy had created a chain of more or less self-governing

communities along the Atlantic seaboard—communities much like the city-states of

old—it could not undo its own work, even when it found its clients unreasonable,

small-minded, and recalcitrant. Thus, when the British government attempted to

impose tighter rule from London, the old empire broke down in bickering about

taxation and in rioting, rebellion, and civil war—in short, the American Revolution.

 French Revolution: The American example might have had little effect on Europe but

for the French Revolution of 1789. The French had helped the Americans defeat the

British, but the effort had been too much in the end for the monarchy’s finances. To

avert state bankruptcy the Estates-General were summoned for the first time in 175

years, and soon the whole government had been turned upside down. The French
 repudiated the divine right of kings, the ascendancy of the nobility, the privileges of

the Roman Catholic Church, and the regional structure of old France. Finally, they set

up a republic and cut off the king’s head.

 In all this the French Revolution was giving expression to a general longing for

government to be devoted to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. But there

was also considerable resistance, which increased as time went on, to receiving the

benefits of modern government at the hands of the French. So the wars of Napoleon,

which opened the 19th century with the victories of Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena,

ended in the defeat of Waterloo. After further revolutions and wars, the century ended

with the French Third Republic nervously on the defensive, for the facts of

demography had tilted against France as population growth in Britain and Germany
 Overall the fruits of the revolution survived and the European countries started to
accelerated and French growth slowed down. Moreover, French society was still
rationalize their governments.
 bitterly
Their newat odds with itself.were of a great diversity from constitutional monarchy to
governments

Fascist regimes of 20thth century.

 After a long struggle among themselves and with their people and a phase of

colonization and imperialism, finally the world wars ushered a new hope for people

centric governments.
 The debate, on the best form of governments, however, still ongoing.
 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Wednesday, April 16, 2020

Topic: Political Institutions: Shashak/Ruler/Government

Government is the political system by which a country or community is administered and

regulated.Most of the key words commonly used to describe governments—words such as

monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy—are of Greek or Roman origin. Such forms of

govenments or the systems of governance existed in all the Ancient civilizations during the

Ancient times. These words have been current for more than 2,000 years and have not yet

exhausted their usefulness.This suggests that humankind has not altered very much since they

were coined. However, such verbal and psychological uniformity must not be allowed to hide
This lecture introduces the concept of government and its evolution through ages in the world
the enormous changes in society and politics that have occurred.
while focusing on the Indian experience. Therefore, the first part traces the evolution of

‘government’ in the Indian context and the second presents the Western context.
 Indian Context: Evolution of Government: From Ancient Shashak to present

parliamentary form of government: The science of polity was well known to the

people in ancient India. It was known by several names like Rajadharma, Rajyasastra,

 Dandaniti,
The earliestNitisastra,
literature and Arthasastra.
on the science of polity can be dated back to 500 B C. But even

before that lot of literature on polity was produced. The Hindu religious texts like the

Vedas and the Brahmanas and the Buddhist and Jain canonical works contain valuable

information about the political theories and contemporary political problems.

 Manusmriti and Arthashastra throw substantial light on the art of governance. (Refer

to Manu’s King, His functions and duties from your notes).They both talk about the

monarchical form of government. Manu emphasized on the ‘Dharma’ of the King and

his subjects. Kutaliya talks about secularization of politics by separating it from the

ethics. However, he advised the monarch to follow Dharma vis a vies his people in

the real sense. The institution of monarchy had been a part of the social fabric of the

subcontinent for nearly 3,000 years in its various forms.

 The Santiparva, the Adiparva and the Vanaparva of Mahabharata deal at length with

the duties and ideals of kings and government, the origin of the state and monarchy,

and the various problems connected with diplomacy, war and peace.
 For example the Santiparva of the Mahabharata has brought out the importance of the

science of polity thus: “Politics is the refuge of the whole world: virtue and wealth

and desire, and salvation itself, depend upon it, O son of Kuru: like the rein unto the

 steed,
ThetermlikeNitisastra.
the goad unto
Niti the elephant,from
is derived is Politics
the rootunto
ni the people.”
meaning to lead; Niti therefore

means properguidance or direction. It was held that this would become possible by

following ethicalcourse of conduct and therefore one connotation of the term

Nitishastra was the science ofethics. Even though the political philosophy wasn’t

developed in an independent sense. Ancient Indian literature is full of the theories of

 It can be said that in the early stages of the development of the science of polity,it was
state and governance.
known as Rajadharma; Dandaniti became a more popular term later and

Arthasastrawas suggested as an alternative to it. In course of time, however, the word

 Rajniti-
The othersastra,abridged
important into Nitisastra
sources, and became most
inchronological order,popular.
are the great epics, the

Mahabharata, and the Ramayana. The great body of literature generally called smriti,

giving instruction in the sacred law, is very important inthis connection. From the

Gupta period and the Middle Ages a number of political textssurvive, the most

important of which are the Nitisara (Essence of Politics) of Kamandakawhich was

written during the Gupta period, the Nitivakyamrta (Nectar of Aphorisms ofPolitics)

of SomadevaSuri, a Jaina writer of tenth century, and the Nitisara (Treatise onPolitics)

attributed to the ancient sage Shukra, but evidently of later medieval origin.
 The Ancient Indian Government System went through six stages of
 There is a tremendous amount of Brahmin, Jaina and Buddhist literature whichdeals
transformation/evolution:
on
1. occasions with
The earliest the politics
stagewas that of
of the time.
tribal military democracy in which tribal assemblies,

which had some place forwomen were mainly pre-occupied with war. The age of

Rig Veda was primarily a period ofassemblies.

 2. The second stage saw the break-up of the tribal polity under the stress of

constantconflicts between the rajanyakshatriya and the ordinary businessman

called the vis. Thechiefs were helped by the priesthood called the brahmins. This

stage saw the beginning oftaxes and classes or varnas which came to be firmly
3. The thirdstage
established wasthird
in the marked
stage.by the formation of the full-fledged state. There arose
large territorialmonarchies of Kosala and Magadha and tribal oligarchies in North-

Western India and at thefoot of the Himalayas. For the first time we hear of large

standing armies and organized machinery for the collection of land revenue.

4. The fourth or the Maurya phase saw bureaucratic centralization based on the

expanding economic activities of the state. The statewith the help of its
5. The fifthstage was marked by the process of decentralized administration in which
bureaucracy controlled various aspects of the life of its subjects.
towns, feudatoriesand military elements came to the forefront in both the Deccan

and North India. This was partly neutralized by the emphasis on the divinity of the

king.last stage, identical withthe Gupta period, may be called the period of proto-
6. The

feudal polity. Land grants now played animportant part in the formation of the

political structure and those made by the Guptafeudatories conferred fiscal and

 Theadministrative
sixth centuryprivileges
BC wasonnot
priestly
only beneficiaries.
a period of socio-economic and religious

development but it also witnessed new political developments. In the later Vedic

period, people had started agriculture, which made them settle down at a particular

 place.
These permanent settlements led to foundation of janapadas or territorial states under

the control of the king. In the sixth century BC the main area of political activity

gradually shifted from Western UP to Eastern UP and Bihar.

 This region was not only fertile on account of better rainfall and river systems but was

also closer to iron production centres. The use of better iron tools and weapons

enabled some territorial states to become very large and they came to be called

mahajanapadas. Most of them were situated north of Vindhyas, between Bihar in the

east to the northwest frontier of the subcontinent.

 The Mahajanpadas Most of these states weremonarchical in nature but some of them,

called ganasangha, had an oligarcharical system of governance. In this system unlike

monarchies, where a hereditary king rules, administration was run by an elected king

with the help of a large council or assemblies comprising heads of all important clans
 Thisfamilies.
and system was certainly more democratic than monarchy, though the common man

had no participation in the administration. The most important of these states was that

of Vajjis with their capital at Vaishali, which was ruled by the Lichchhavis. These

 oligarchies mainly existed

They were gradually in the
defeated foothills
and of the
conquered byHimalayas.
the Magadhan Empire. The political

fight among these mahajanapadas led ultimately to one of them namely Magadh to

emerge as the most powerful state and the centre of a vast empire. He pursued a three-

pronged policy, namely, matrimonial alliances, friendship with strong rulers and
 Under theofpolicy
conquest weak of matrimonial
neighbours alliances,
to expand the he married the sister of Prasenjit, the king
empire.
of Kosala. She brought in dowry the territory of Kashi, The control over Kasi and

 Buddhist Concept
friendship of Stateallowed
with Prasenajit and governance
Magadh to(Social Contract):
concentrate Buddhist
on other areas. canonical
His other

text
wivesDighaNikaya where
were daughters thechiefs
of the storyofofother
creation
nearbyis territory.
said that there was a time when

people were perfect, and lived in a state of happiness and tranquility. This perfect

state lasted for ages, but at last the pristine purity declined and there set in rottenness.

Differences of sex manifested themselves, and there appeared distinctions of colour.

In a word, heavenly life degenerated into earthly life. Now shelter, food and drink

were required. People gradually entered into a series of agreements among themselves

and set up the institutions of the family and private property. But this gave rise to a

new set of problems, for there appeared theft and other forms of unsocial conduct.

Therefore, people assembled and agreed to choose as chief a person who was the best

favored, the most attractive and the most capable. In return they agreed to contribute

to him a portion of their paddy. The individual, who was thus elected, came to hold in

serial order three titles: a) Mahasammata b) Khattiya and c) Raja. According to the

text the first title means one chosen by the whole people, the second title means the

lord of the fields, the third title means one who charms the people by means of
dharma. The speculation made in the DighaNikaya is the product of an advanced

stage of social development when tribal society had broken up giving rise to clash of

interests between man and woman, between people of different races and colours and

between people of unequal wealth. This idea was adumbrated in the middle Ganga

plains, where paddy was the basis of the economy of the people. Political compact as

developed in the DighaNikaya not only lays a different type of emphasis on

qualifications for election as king but also clearly states the obligations of the two
Thus,
parties.onThe
the king
whole,
hasthebeen
obligation of the
assigned the head of the
task to statethe
punish is negative. He steps
wicked people. in only
The only
when people
definite form break the established
of punishment laws. The khattiya
is the banishment which means the lord of fields,
of the guilty.
suggests that the primary duty of the king is to protect the plots of one against being

encroached upon by the other. The interpretation of the title raja imposes on the king

the positive obligation of charming or pleasing the people. In contrast to the several

obligations of the king, the people are assigned only one duty, namely, to pay a part of

their paddy as contribution to the king. The rate of taxation is not prescribed but the

contemporary law-book of Baudhayana lays down that the king should protect the

people in return for onesixth of the produce. Originally the agreement takes place

between a single kshatriya on the one hand and the people on the other, but at later

stage it is extended to the kshatriya as a class. Towards the end of the story of creation

in the DighaNikaya it is stated that thus took place the origin of the social circles of

the nobles, Khattiya Mandala

 Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Friday, April 6, 2020

Sovereignty: Challenges to the absolute sovereignty

The classical concept of sovereignty which was purely legal and upheld the absolute sovereignty

of the state was questioned by pluralists and moral consideration of the legitimacy of the state’s

actions.
Externally, neo liberalism, globalization and neo-colonialism have thrown various challenges

upon the traditional sovereignty of the state. As the world is becoming more interconnected and

interdependent the exercise of political sovereignty on the part of states has become complex

area of research among scholars of international relations and international law. Challenges to

sovereignty are listed in following pointers:

 Internal challenges to sovereignty came from the growing authority of various groups

and associations who claimed allegiance from their members within the state. This was

brought out by the pluralist theory of sovereignty.

 External challenges to sovereignty came from international environment which

threatened autonomy of the nation-state. The process of globalization further aggravated

the situation.
 Imperialism and its modern expressions (neo colonialism): Originally imperialism meant

the formation of an empire that is bringing several countries under the control of one

supreme authority.
 Modern forms of imperialism are the product of expansion of trade and industry in

several countries of Europe. For example, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, among others, sought to set

up their colonies in a number of countries in Africa, Asia and America for the expansion
 They
of started
their trade exploiting theafter
and industry natural
theirand
ownhuman resources
national of those countries to strengthen
consolidation.
their own economies. The champions of imperialism usually argue that they seek to
 extend the benefit of civilization to the 'uncivilized' people. Indeed it is an attempt to

attribute moral dignity to the pursuit of their self-interest.

 V.I. Lenin (Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism; 1916) argued that

imperialism was an economic necessity of capitalist economy. Accordingly, when

capital accumulates to such an extent that it cannot at all find profitable use in the main

 capitalist countries,
Lenin identified theydriving
three are forced to look
forces abroad
behind for profitable
the imperialist outlets. search for new
expansion:

spheres of investment, new markets and new sources of raw materials. Foreign trade

allows capitalists to secure a higher rate of return than that available at home. Overseas

investment opens up new sources of labour and markets, and allows access to raw
 Lenin described
materials the 'division
at extremely cheaperofrates.
nations into oppressor and oppressed' as the 'essence of

imperialism'. Although Lenin exhorted all oppressed nations to unite.

 ADVENT OF NEO-COLONIALISM: However, the exploitation of the former colonies

of Asia, Africa and Latin America did not stop with the achievement of their

independence. The former imperialist powers acquired new, subtle means of exploiting

 the former colonies

Neo-colonialism whichthe
denotes are strategy
describedofasa 'neo-colonialism'.
colonial power which does not maintain its

political domination in a foreign territory, but continues its economic exploitation by

using it as a source of cheap labour and raw materials as well as a big market for its
 Neo Marxists like Immanuel Wallerstein (World System Analysis theory) and Andre
industrial products.
Guner Frank’s Dependency theory shed extensive light on the subject. The core

countries (rich industrial developed countries) use the rich resources of the periphery

countries (developing world) which keeping the relationship limited to goods trade and

retaining the technology and superior methods to themselves which reduces the

periphery countries to mere providers of raw materials, cheap labor and markets.

 Globalization: Classical liberals have hailed globalization as a positive force which is

turning the world into a global village with free flow of capital, goods and services. But

the unequal distribution of power and economic resources and technology has exposed

the neo colonial tendencies which globalization has only embolden.

 Some scholars have highlighted the integration of the world capitalist class which means

that rich MNCs do not care about the borders and have aligned their interests in such a

way that states operate for their interests without any exclusive domain reserved for the

 state itself.
Another challenge which came to fore front was the unilateral American intervention in

Iraq where Saddam Hussein was overthrown and the country was pushed into instability

on the basis of unverifiable claims of the US that Hussein regime possessed the weapons

of mass destruction. Many countries of the world cried foul as the intervention was not

sanctioned the UN and it was the clear violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

Internally and externally the absolutist view of sovereignty is facing several challenges but

the recent re-surfacing of the nationalist forces across globe and various right wing or

conservative government coming to power has shown the trend of re enforcing the

traditional absolutist view of sovereignty.

Dr B. R. Ambedkar National Law University, Rai, Sonipat, Haryana

Political Science II, Friday, April 3, 2020.

Sovereignty: Types, Pluralist Theory of Sovereignty

Titular Sovereignty: In constitutional monarchies, such as England and Japan, the queen, the king
or the emperor is officially referred to as the sovereign. Such a ruler is only a nominal or titular
head of state, without any real powers which are vested in different organs of the government
according to the constitution of the state. This form of sovereignty is, therefore, called titular
sovereignty.

De jure and De facto Sovereignty: If in a Country, due to some revolution (an unconstitutional
mean to overthrow power. Unconstitutional meaning the procedures for which are not there in the
existing constitution) power has been successfully overthrown, but the head of the state is still
technically the sovereign, we use the term de jure sovereign for him because in such case the actual
exercise of his power is done by the new leaders who are referred to as de facto rulers.

- Such situation represent transitional period in a country as such situation isn’t sustainable
for long.
- For example: Bolsheviks became the de facto rulers for some time after the 1917 Russian
revolution. (Try finding more such examples from history)

Note: Some scholars like John Austin, refuse to draw a distinction between de jure and de facto
sovereignty. They argue that adjectives like 'lawful' and 'unlawful' cannot be applied to the term
sovereignty as it becomes meaningless without legal sanction. It would, therefore, be more logical
if the terms de facto and de jure are applied only to government, not to sovereignty. The dejure
sovereignty alone is sovereignty in the real sense of the term. The so-called de facto sovereignty
remains inconsequential until it achieves the status of de jure sovereignty.
Pluralist Theory of Sovereignty: POLITICAL PLURALISM: MEANING, Political pluralism
refers to those doctrines which assert that certain groups in society (e.g. family, church, union,
local government) embody important social values prior to and independent of their authorization
or approval by the state. Pluralist theory of sovereignty talks about this. The exponents of the
pluralist theory include Leon Duguit—a French thinker, Hugo Krabbe—a Dutch writer, Harold J.
Laski, Ernest Barker, and A.D. Lindsay— English political thinkers, and Robert M. Maclver—an
American sociologist.

- The Classical Theory of sovereignty, as enunciated by various thinkers from Jean Bodin
(1530-96) to John Austin (1790-1859), gave the best description of the legal character of
sovereignty.
- It held sovereignty as absolute, perpetual, universal, inalienable and indivisible. It
envisaged a single sovereign in the state—a person or a body of persons. It is, therefore,
described as the monistic theory of sovereignty.
- When this monistic theory is applied to the political field, it gives rise to many problems.
- In the political sphere, the state is represented by government which claims sovereignty on
behalf of the state.
- When the relationship between individual and the state is defined in terms of sovereignty,
it postulates the unlimited authority of the state over individual which implies unlimited
political obligation.
- In other words, the idea of the supreme, absolute and unlimited authority of the state
reduces individuals to the status of dumb-driven cattle who have to follow the dictates of
the state.
- In actual practice, these dictates are issued by the government consisting of human beings
who may be wise or foolish, benevolent or selfish, virtuous or vicious—but in no case
perfect, divine and infallible.
- Thus, the theory of sovereignty in the political sphere implies complete subordination of
one set of individuals to another set of similar individuals. The pluralist theory of
sovereignty seeks to resolve this dilemma.
- The pluralist theory sought to redefine the nature of the state as one of the several
associations of human beings operating in society to secure the multifarious interests of
individuals.
- In view of this, it envisaged a new role for the state as an arbiter over conflicting claims of
different associations. It also repudiated the exclusive and absolute claim of the state to
individual's allegiance.
- It is significant that the pluralist challenge to state-sovereignty coincided with the
conditions created by the First World War (1914-18).
- During war-time the state required its citizens to sacrifice everything—including their near
and dear ones, even their own lives—for the sake of the state. The people did make untold
sacrifices, yet this state of affairs prompted an inquiry into whether the state was logically
entitled to make such enormous demands.
- There were men, known as 'conscientious objectors', who claimed that their conscience
urged them to oppose bloody war as a means of settling human disputes.
- Moreover the policy of war was determined by the men in power who were as imperfect
and fallible as any other human beings.
- A little folly on their part could escalate war and bring untold suffering to the citizens of
the state. How, then, could the absolute authority of the state be taken for granted?
- Harold J. Laski (A Grammar of Politics; 1938) enumerated two important factors which
prompted the pluralist attack on sovereignty of the state:
1. The state claimed legal omnipotence; and it claimed the allegiance of its citizens on the
ground that it represented the total interest of the society within its territorial
jurisdiction. The pluralists pointed out that legal omnipotence was a purely formal
concept often invalid in fact; and they argued that however majestic and powerful, the
state, in fact, was only one of many associations in society, that, in experience, there
were always limits to powers, and these were set by the relation between the purpose
the state sought to fulfil and the judgment made by men of that purpose.
2. The pluralist doctrine was derived from the realization that the state's claim to pre-
eminence always means, in fact, the sovereignty of a government composed of fallible
men whose intentions alone are not a sufficient justification for so vast a claim. There
went into the making of pluralism an historic analysis derived from the conflict between
 churches and the state, between trade unions and the state, between, as in the case of
the conscientious objector to military service, the individual and the state.
- The state, as an association of associations, is required to secure the 'common interest' or
the 'public interest' by harmonizing the interests of all associations operating in society.
- Theoretically, the state is expected to ensure that all interests are given due weightage while
seeking their coordination in pursuance of the common interest. The state, as an arbiter of
conflicting claims, must demonstrate that it is not dominated by any special interest or
'vested interests' while exercising its authority; otherwise it would betray the confidence
reposed in it.
- Pluralists hold that it is morally preferable for individuals to be associated politically with
a wide range of associations in pursuance of their interests. These groups provide them
with an opportunity to make use of their creative abilities and to seek self-fulfilment in
various spheres of life. No outside agency, not least the state, should interfere in their
functioning unless their activities are required to be regulated in the interest of public order,
public safety or public morality.
- The state must justify exercise of its social authority by ensuring an effective coordination
of functions of other human associations in the best public interest. Its claim to the
allegiance of individuals will rest on the efficient performance of its functions.
- Pluralists focus on democratization of exercise of power. There shall be decentralization
of power and state shall not represent the interests of only the powerful or a certain type of
association or a group of associations.
- State shall draw legitimacy for its actions from the common people.