CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Hindu Law.
For every person in the world whose rule of civil conduct is based upon the English system of jurisprudence there are two others to whom Hindu law is both binding by political authority and the rule of conscience.
The student of law and world politics will note with interest two impressive facts concerning Hindu jurisprudence in India. The first is that until the accession of British rule in that country the Hindu law was not law in the sense in which the term is understood by lawyers. The second fact is that the acknowledged jurisconsults and commentators upon the Hindu law of to-day are not Hindus, but British and Anglo-Indian jurists.
Prof. Golapchandra Sarkar, in his admirable treatise, says: “The administration of the Hindu law by the English judges shows forth in clear light the administrative capacity, the indomitable energy, the scrupulous care and the strong common sense of the English nation.”
In treating of the marriage and divorce laws of over two hundred and twenty-five millions of human beings who are Hindus by race and religion, the first question to be answered is: What is Hindu law? Hindu law is the whole body of rules regulating the life of a Hindu in relation to his civil conduct and the performance of his religious duties grouped together under the general name of Dharma Sastra, or religious ordinances.
The ultimate source of this wonderful system is the Veda, but the Hindu also accepts an immemorial custom as transcendant law, contending that such acceptance is approved in the sacred scripture and in the codes of divine legislators.
In the Mahabharat we read: “Reasoning is not reliable; the Vedas differ from one another; and there is no sage whose doctrine can be safely accepted; the true rule of law is not easy to be known; the ways of venerable persons are, therefore, the best to follow.”
The Hindus have for centuries been governed by their own laws, which they regard not as the edicts of a political sovereign, nor as the enactments of a human legislature, but as the immutable commands of the Supreme Being of the universe. With such reverence have these laws been regarded that no Hindu king of whom we have any historical record ever dared to repeal, alter or modify one of them. For the past century such progress as Hindu law has made is due entirely to the action of the British courts in India.