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Basis of Social laws
- Prof. Narasimham Brahmandam

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Basis of Social laws Social laws, pronounced by prophets and religious heads, and also by custom and tradition, seem to have one object – asking people to be ‘good’. Good and bad, right and wrong, appear to be relative terms. It seems each person determines whether the conduct of the other person is good or bad by assessing its effect on his own person or society. Can good and bad be defined without the reference point of the person or the society? Is there a thing which can be called absolute good? A verse in the epilogue of Vishnu sahasranaama stotram says that custom precedes all codes. Dharma (religious code) is born out of custom (social values). But the protector of Dharma is God (i.e., the code is inviolable). Dharma is similar to our constitution. We have written the constitution ourselves building into it our political values. But once it is written, it can be violated only on pain of punishment. It is like grammar and language. Language comes into existence by the usage of the people. Grammar only codifies the usage. But once grammar is written, we have to observe it strictly if the language should serve its purpose. This also is the message of the famous adage ‘dharmo rakshati rakshitah’ It means that, if we protect dharma (by strict observance), dharma protects us (though it is we who evolved dharma). How do we determine what is right and what is wrong? Who is the authority to do it? There appear to be four agencies. 1. We may determine what is right behaviour by understanding and by an intelligent interpretation of the course of evolution. We have an innate sense of right and wrong endowed by nature (the conscience). Even the aggressor, exploiter or a robber knows that what he is doing is wrong. But he tends to ignore the inner direction because of greed or vengeance getting the better of his conscience. We also tend to give warped interpretations under the stupor of emotions. Therefore, our judgment is often not reliable where we have to judge ourselves or those related to us. 2. The approval of the society is also often adopted as a criterion of the right course. Social opinion may be construed as the consensus of the individual buddhis of its individual members (or the more dominant among them, or the majority of them). It is a sort of superimposition of democracy on the faith of its members. If the majority or the more aggressive of them (the leaders) are corrupt, they tend to warp the morals of the community, especially when it is a small isolated community. Therefore, social opinion is susceptible to wide departures from spiritual rectitude. 3. With the advent of democracy, even spiritual matters are tending to be determined by legislation. Unfortunately, few legislators have the stature to deal with matters of far reaching significance to humanity. They get elected by an arbitrary majority. Usually only 60 to 75 percent of voters participate in the voting. Depending on the number of candidates in the contest, the winning candidate gets far less than 50% of the polled votes (assuming that all eligible voters have been included in the voters list and no false votes have been polled). Over the whole population of the constituency, the percentage of people that favour the candidate will be much less. Still, he is supposed to represent the views of the entire constituency. Further, the voters can only choose from those who contest. Election is at best only choosing the best of the bad lot. Not all the chosen representatives will be present in the house at the time of voting, Usually a member has to vote not out of his own conviction but because of the party whip. Even ignoring all the malpractices, legislation is a process of placing the welfare of the people in unqualified hands. Democracy assumes that the majority is always right. There is always the risk of numbers hijacking Dharma. Even unjustified Acts thus passed have to be enforced by the police and judiciary whose duty it is to obey the Acts. Even assuming personal integrity among them, they are, often, under extraneous pressure. Surely it is an unwise arrangement which politics has imposed on mankind. It has incapacitated even the limited good that individual consciences could do. Further, it is not wise to entrust the business of rule making to the very persons who are to enforce them. 4. Scriptures are written by sages who dedicated their whole lives contemplating on the welfare of humanity. They mostly renounced the world and, surely, had no axe to grind. They did not crave for fame. We do not even know the names of some of them. What reason could they have to misguide coming generations? Their bonafides cannot be suspected. In India, it is a special feature that scriptures are not the handiwork of a single individual. They have been evolved over a long time by discussions, criticisms and amendments by the most brilliant men of the world like Shankara, Raamanuja and earlier sages like Patanjili, Gautama, and Manu. Another feature is that they present their arguments and leave the implementation to our discretion. There is no forced compliance. That should remove any reservations in some people that the ancients have imposed on us a steel frame in the form of religion. However, these great works were written millennia ago. The circumstances have changed very much with new knowledge and technology and life styles. Though the core of the scriptures is as relevant today as it was centuries ago, some minor modifications may be required to suit contemporary situations. Such modification, if entrusted to savants available today, a good guidance will result. Under no circumstances should it be done by legislatures. The ideal would be that great scientists and philosophers should suggest the changes, if any, that need to be made in the commands of religions drawing on the thoughts and experiences of the earlier generations of stalwarts. Religions should constantly update their rites and concepts in accordance to the guidance thus available from scientists and philosophers. The common people should implicitly comply with such pliable religious commands with faith in god. If religious heads insulate themselves from advances in science and philosophy, and attempt dogmatic enforcement of their tenets of olden days, they will face total neglect from coming generations. That would be a tragedy both for the religions and the people. The new flood will drown the valuable past traditions.

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