The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c15.30

c15.30

John Stuart Mill in his *Representative Government* has discussed the characteristics which make a race fit for the popular institutions of self-government. One of his criteria is that the people must be able not only to appreciate and profit by such institutions but must have to be actively interested in all that relates to public life. Śukra also is strongly of opinion that it is the duty of the *prakriti*, the people, not only not to commit certain wrongs, but also to hand over to the police, or otherwise disclose to the state the existence of, the men who are in any way undesirable to the society. The whole community is thus enjoined to be an information-and-vigilance committee and an association for public safety. The demands of the state on the *prakriti* are necessarily manifold in Hindu thought.