State and Government in Ancient India c9.26

c9.26

It is now generally recognised that the contract theory of the origin of government is bad history and worse logic; it can no doubt explain the origin of a particular form of state among people who have already developed governmental institutions, but it cannot explain how the first agreement took place among the members of a community, which was still in the state of nature. Contract is possible only in a society where mutual rights and obligations are respected, and this is obviously impossible in a society where the law of the jungle prevails.