FAMILY LAW

IS HINDU LAW A DIVINE LAW OR MAN MADE LAW?

Law itself is made by humans ,for ruling the land. It is been changed according to
the necessities of the human beings . law as understood by Hindus is a branch of
Dharma which signifies duty . according to many Scholars , there is still an
question which is been unanswered till now, It is about the Existence of God . So,
if the ques itself asks about the Existence of God , then How do people say about
the divine origin of law ? it is said that ,Hindu law has not been made by
Legislature but by the divine being and which has been built by vedas. Hindu law
as understood in the ancient times was not the command of political sovereign of
community . Rather it was the command of the supreme being applicable to both ,
the kings and his subjects , the ruler and the ruled .The king and his subjects were
equally subjected to the law . It can be said that , previously , from time
immemorial , the kings who ruled India had the power to make laws and thus as
the time passed , it was then changed according to the human’s comfort .
Manusmriti , Laws of Manu is the most important and authorative Hindu law book
.The people of Ancient India believed in the order and regularity of the world as
the Manifestation of god’s will and intent , and the clear victory and divine forces
over the demonic . Hence , through this , we can come to a Conclusion that , the
laws governing the conduct of indiviuals and the order and regularity of hindu
society were formulated by many Scholars and Sages . If hindu law was an divine
law , then , according to me , first of all , there shouldn’t be any other religion
apart from Hindu ,because if at all , if God exists , his laws must be applicable to
all the humans in the world . the main purpose of this is to inculcate discipline ,
provide a basis for the rulers to enforce lawful conduct , and to ensure orderly
progression of the world through righteous conduct and observation of obligatory
duties by indiviuals who have chosen for themselves the life of a householder , or
that of an renunciant . There is no such thing called Divine law . Everything in this
world is man made ,including the religions . and moreover , we don’t exactly have
an valid evidence of existence of god as I have mentioned before . Hindu
comprises of many gods . and islam comprise of Allah and Christian consists of
Jesus . if there are different gods for different people , then ,where does the word
divine comes from? Hindus are governed by their personal law as modified by
statute law and customs in all matters relating to inheritance , succession , marriage
,adoption ,partition of joint family property , guardianship and so on . It is said that
all Hindu law originated from Vedas , it emanated from books called smritis .
These smritis were not laws made by parliament or some legislature ,it was written
by certain Sanskrit scholars in ancient times who had specialized in law . Later
commentaries were written on these smritis . .All law was originally customary
law , and there was no statutory law in ancient India , for simple reason , there was
parliament or legislature at those times . This can also be proved by an example , in
the case of roman laws ,most of the laws were not made by legislature , it was
written by Eminent jurists . so this doesn’t mean it was created by the divine or
god . the same thing applies to the hindu law in India .

When we go into the deeper sections of who exactly made the laws , was Manu ,
he propagated many ideas , some of which led to serious criminal charges being
laid against him in Modern Day India . In 1980s Stark , who examined the
formation and growth of world’s greatest Religion , he says that God itself was an
mere invention . Stark appears open to the plausibility of a spiritual element to
explain an otherwise inexplicable series of events occurring within such an short
time period . He believes that it was at this moment , the concept of ‘sin’ became
widely apparent and made an significant impact in linking religion with morality
and thus becoming an major social mechanism.

According to his three criteria : that god actually reveals himself , that he is
consistent and not contradictory in that revelation , and that there is a progressive
complexity and sophistication in the nature of revelation . Based on his first criteria
, he fairly easily removes the earliest forms of Hinduism , Buddhism
,Confucianism ,Jainism and Taoism given that their founders claim no sense of
revelation themselves . He involves mainly Hinduism in his theory , since he says
there can’t be many gods . Hinduism , being a single religion has many gods ,
which is pathetic , people blindly believe in all those things since they are forced to
believe so . Hence , it cannot be an divine law , it can only be Man made .

When we consider , both divine and man made laws , it is actually , are the two
ways in which law has been approached . there is also third way to approach ,ie;
where we have man made law which to all intents and purposes is based on sound
divine law ,and instances where divine law is implemented in an unjust manner to
corrupt people .Man made law seen in its best light , is with some sincerity trying
to do justice .the laws are pragmatic and encourage positive action . some people
go for the divine law since they think God is the best and whatever he does it’s for
the good of the people , and source from which it comes is from the best , but the
main contrary is the existence of god , so where does this divine law comes from?
One area of criticism of divine law is in regards to the possibility of injustice ,
given the tough punishment . It is true that it is men who implement divine laws ,
men , who can either be good or awful . Sacred law formulates a space for human
choices and judicial discretion in the articulation of a celestial divine order . the
concept of divine sovereignty , an earthly sacred religious ruling authority , was
replaced by an concept of secular state sovereignty . Hindu law have been more
attentive to governmental purposes and have enabled the state to rule through
national codification and a greater emphasis on administrative and criminal law .