History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.535

v4.c62.535

It may be asked: What in these days is the use of the study of the theory and practice of Government in ancient India? It may be argued that the world is now hoping, as promised by the great leaders of the United Nations, to enjoy several freedoms, that great expectations are created in the minds of millions of down-trodden peoples, and that all peoples including Indians will be faced in the near future with democracy and great problems of reconstruction and that knowledge of the past cannot throw much light on the pressing needs of the present or the serious questions that will confront all in the latter half of the 20th century. It may be conceded that the situation in which we find ourselves now and in which we shall be placed in the near future is unique and much light cannot be thrown by a study of the past on the solution of the problems that will have to be tackled by us. But that study has certain useful purposes to serve. Millions of people in India as well as in the world are hardly better than hewers of wood and drawers of water in their own countries. They intensely desire to be masters in their own countries and of their own destinies. The iron has entered deep in their souls that for countries as well as individuals freedom of action spells happiness and dependence on the will of others is misery (as Manu laconically puts in IV. 160), that men who have no independence are hardly human beings (as the Mārkaṇḍeya 125-29 says).³¹⁵ The study of the past will give us hope and convey the assurance that we have in the past conducted governments and administrations of vast empires, that we evolved theories and practices which were not inferior to those of some of the most advanced nations of the world, that, allowed opportunities and scope, we may rise equal to what the circumstances may demand of us. On the other hand, such a study will stimulate thought, focus our attention on our mistakes and short-comings, make us be careful to avoid pitfalls and give us indications of the directions in which we must make a new orientation in our ideals and practices.