As we called attention to in the chapter on Mohammedan law, there are four distinct systems of jurisprudence in India, all in full operation and effect. Two of these systems, the English law created by the British Parliament and Anglo-Indian law created by the legislative councils, are territorial in jurisdiction, while the others, namely, the Hindu law and the Mohammedan law, are purely personal. That is to say, the Hindu and Mohammedan systems of law apply respectively to Hindus and Mohammedans, and to no one else.
At the beginning of British rule in India the government of the East India Company gave the native inhabitants of the country the privilege of being governed by their own laws in matters relating to marriage, inheritance and religious usages.
In the regulations promulgated by Warren Hastings in 1772, and since in the various civil acts and charters establishing the law courts, the rule is expressed that in cases relating to marriage, inheritance, succession and religious usages the Hindu law shall apply to the Hindus.
The Privy Council decided in the leading case of Abraham v. Abraham that under the regulations and acts a Hindu is a man by both birth and religion a Hindu.
In the case of Raj Bahadur v. Bishen Dayal, Mr. Justice Straight said: “If we are correct in our view that the status of a Hindu or Mohammedan under the first paragraph of Section 24, Act VI., of 1871, to have the Hindu law made the ‘rule of decision,’ depends upon his being an orthodox believer in the Hindu or Mohammedan religion, the mere circumstance that he may call himself or be termed by others a Hindu or Mohammedan, as the case may be, is not enough.”
Caste.—The idea of caste or class distinction so completely permeates every religious and secular institution of India that one cannot understand Hindu law without having in mind the principal features of this social system.
The Vedas, upon which the whole structure of Hindu religion and ethics professes to be based, give no countenance to the present regulations of caste.
The Sanscrit word for caste is verna, meaning colour, and this leads us to the true origin of caste distinctions. The verna, or colour, of the light-complexioned Aryan invaders who entered India from the Northwest and the verna of the dark-skinned aborigines whom they subjugated established the first distinctions of caste.
There are four principal castes to-day among the Hindus, namely:
1. Brahmin, or priest caste.