M6 T3 Hindu Law I

Question 1

From which three perspectives can Hindu law be studied?

Answer 1

1. Religious law
2. Common Law legal family
3. Mixed or hybrid system of Hindu religious traditions and English law

Question 2

To whom does Hindu law apply?

Answer 2

All those who profess the Hindu religion

Question 3

Rather than sharing the same concept of God, what do the Hindus share?

Answer 3

The same conception of the world

Question 4

What are the main philosophical and religious basis of Hinduism?

Answer 4

migration of the soul and karma

Question 5

Are the norms of the cast systems set in a positive legal code?

Answer 5

No, they have a binding characteristic that are obeyed without the need for a positive legal code.

Question 6

What is the main source of classical Hindu law?

Answer 6

the Dharmasastra

compilations or religious and social precepts that are derived from the sacred Veda with doctrines as to proper behavior.

Question 7

Who decide which customs deserve juridical recognition?

Answer 7

Priests and lawyers

Question 8

Was was described in the smritis that were drawn up by private scholars from the 2nd century?

Answer 8

Hindu customs and usage

Question 9

What is the most famous smriti?

Answer 9

The Code of Manu.

It represents the summit of Brahmanical law.

Gradual distancing from Vedic texts.

Greater consideration for human law

Question 10

How were smritis applied in practice, and what did this lead to?

Answer 10

It was obligatory to follow them, but the application and interpretation could vary for adaption to local circumstances.

It led to the creation of various juridical schools.

Question 11

What where the various juridical schools consolidated in?

Answer 11

a large number of doctrinal commentaries and in digests known as nibandhas

Question 12

In additional to textual sources, what are the further sources of law that Hindu scholars cite?

Answer 12

1. traditional customs and usage associated with a particular region or cast
2. Edicts issued by the monarch were definitive judgements

Question 13

Which two concepts of law are within the Hindu law?

Answer 13

1. Dharma “law as it should be”
2. Vyavahara “law as it is”
   Juridical procedures and the administartion of justice

Question 14

What happened to the Hindu law at the invasion of the Muslims?

Answer 14

Civil law: non-believers were allowed to keep their own jurisdiction to a certain degree

Criminal law: The criminal penalties of Muslim law applied

Question 15

What is seen as the reason to the peaceful coexistence between Hindu and Islamic law?

Answer 15

the combined religious and social concepts of the two systems, as well as certain correspondents within their juridical sources

Question 16

What happened to the Hindu and the Muslim law at the British colonisation?

Answer 16

The British largely maintained the juridical traditions of the Muslims and the Hindus.

They added legislation applicable to the commercial interests of the British empire and its administrative officials in India

Question 17

How was the British legal system in India?

Answer 17

1. Religious institution
   - Islamic law
   - Hindu law
2. Non-religious institution
   - Common law

Question 18

How did British judges develop lines of precedent and case law to resolve disputes that were based on various different sources?

Answer 18

Institutions subject to religious influence were regulated by the religion of the person concerned.

Juridical institutions that lacked any religious connotations were governed by the principles of English common law “justice, equity and good conscience.”

Question 19

How did the Anglo-Hindu law come to be?

Answer 19

In issues that the Hindu law did not cover, the course used Common law. This created a hybrid system where Hindu precepts were intermingled with Common law ones

Question 20

What did the Indian Law Commission set up by the British in 1835 do?

Answer 20

They compiled principles of positive law which resulted in a number of procedural codes of law contracts, property etc

Question 21

What happened in 1858 after the Sepoy Rebellion?

Answer 21

justice passed from the hands of the East India Company to the British Crown. Courts absorbed Hindu and Muslim law into the English law

Question 22

What happened after India gained its independence from the British Empire in 1947?

Answer 22

In 1949, justice was transferred from the British crown to the Indian Supreme Court.

Question 23

What did the British colonialists contribute with in India?

Answer 23

the homogeneity of the legal system, and the creation of a constitutional state.

Question 24

3 historical influences of the Hindu law

Answer 24

1. Brahmanical law
2. Muslim invasion
3. British colonisation