Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c15.12

c15.12

It is through the idea of caste that Hindu theory sought to rescue society from the dispersion which private interest constantly occasions. It gave the individual a definite standard of life and of work. Through caste he fell into line with his fellows. Through caste his particular interest became the common one. The theory of caste distributes the power, prestige, privileges and goods of this world according to functions. The idea of duty which lies behind the functional concept implies that the individual does not live for himself. He exists for a greater whole to which his own ambitions must be subordinated. Thus, organised society becomes something more than the individuals who compose it. In Hindu theory, as in modern idealism, "righteousness consists for each man in the fulfilment of his appointed function in the life and action of the community.¹ The Bhagavad Gîtâ, which represents the highest level of Hindu thought, lays down that "one's own duty, though defective is better than another's duty well-performed. Death in performing one's own duty is preferable; the performance of the duties of others is dangerous." ¹ The whole discourse of the Gītā was uttered by Kṛiṣṇa to persuade Arjuna to perform a task from which he shrank but to which he must bend himself as a Kṣatriya. The Gītā gives a message of Niṣkāma Karma, desireless action,—action without an eye on consequences to oneself.² Personality is thus taught to transcend itself by giving its devotion to something beyond itself. Thanks to this philosophy, Hindu theory has no ideal of liberty or rights independently of those which arise from the necessity and desirability of performing social functions.