Art. VIII.—Hindû Law at Madras

Extract

Several books lately published at Madras show that in the opinion of their authors there is something very wrong in the mode in which suits between so-called Hindûs, involving questions of so-called Hindû law, are now dealt with by the High Court of Judicature at Madras and the courts subordinate thereto. And a perusal of some of the reports of High Courts in other parts of India will lead many to suppose that a not inconsiderable part of the law made by those courts, not by the legislature, for the benefit of so-called Hindûs, is not less open to objection than are many of the doctrines promulgated in Madras. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to show that, whereas the High Court of Judicature at Madras professes, and doubtless desires to keep up, as required by the Civil Courts Act, the laws and customs of the tribes and castes subjected to its jurisdiction, it in fact imposes on them laws of its own making, and which until quite recently have not had force in any part of Jndia. To this end I shall endeavour to prove, as fully as may be possible in the little space at my command, (1) that in ancient times law, in any ordinary acceptation of the term, never was administered to Hindus by Hindûs or others; (2) that if law was administered to Hindûs in ancient times, at all events it never was administered in the kingdoms lying south of the Vindhya mountains; and (3) that if it was, it was not the law contained in the Mitâxarâ, and other books of the kind.