The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s3.t7.2

c10.s3.t7.2

But in the present epoch students of political science, used as they are to daily law-making and legal reforms, are apt to forget the comparative absence of “legislation” in ancient and mediæval European polity and to ignore the long ages during which the “despotism of custom” held its sway in the West.² When, therefore, they come in touch with the institutions of the Old Orient they are easily tempted to dwell on the “primitive” character of Asia’s achievements and mark them down as distinctively “oriental”. They are, moreover, misled by the paucity of reliable data into taking for granted that law-making was not practised by Hindu states at all.³