Fundamentals of Jurisprudence (The Indian Approach)

Description

The idea of undertaking the work on Fundamentals of Jurisprudence-The Indian Approach rooted in the mind of the author at Karnataka University, Dharwad which had organised the All India Workshop on Jurisprudence sponsored by the U.G.C. in June 1979. The theme and thrust of the Workshop had laid great emphasis on the need of indigenous orientation of Indian legal theory which truly inform and reflect the ethos and spirit of India’s ancient legal heritage and contemporary goals, values and needs enshrined in the Constitution.
Hitherto the Indian legal scholars excelled and viewed in following and mechanically applying the principles of English Jurisprudence with all its status quo-oriented and anti-people slant on Indian soil. Blackstone, Bentham, Austin, Salmond, etc. were the last word of their juristic scholarship and refulgence on Indian jurisprudence which was a carbon copy of English jurisprudence.
English educated Indians aping western mores and morals had been anathematic to every thing that was Indian, be its law, language or culture. Accordingly, the obscession of English jural ideals was so great among Indian legal fraternity that it did not bother to look back or around to find out its own indigenous traditional values, ideals and aspirations. The study of legal theory in India till today is merely a pedantic exercise. Indian law whether substantive or processual designed by our colonial rulers acted as a brake in the way of social change and economic justice. Therefore, in free India especially there is an imperative need of reorienting Indian legal values and ideals according to the genesis and needs of our society.
This work, therefore, is a small effort in that direction. It is a
re-discovery and re-examination of the basic features and
perceptions of Indian legal theory and developments in twentieth century. From the pedagogical point of view the course and cross currents of the mainstreams of western legal thought have been thoroughly discussed and are followed by corresponding developments in Indian legal theory. The approach throughout is structural, evolutionary and functional and therefore, is a useful study on comparative jurisprudence. The evident marked feature of this work is that it is also a study of complex contemporary social, moral and constitutional issues in Indian context with the help of Indian cases reflecting sensitivity of new awareness to spun home made jurisprudence to meet our needs.