Epistemic Justice By Decolonising Legal Education: Justice Mittal’s Call To Reclaim India’s Jurisprudential Heritage
|Justice Pankaj Mittal, while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the law conclave, on April 12th, 2025 commemorating the 75th year of the Supreme Court of India at National Law Institute University, Bhopal (NLIU), opined that ancient Indian legal and philosophical traditions should be formally incorporated into the curriculum of law schools. Justice Mittal also stated, "We must now turn to the deeper roots of our legal tradition to understand how the modern constitution draws from a moral reservoir far older than its text… ... The concept of Justice in Indian tradition is not a recent invention. Long before the language of modern jurisprudence took form, the sub-continent had developed a rich moral vocabulary around justice, duty, righteousness and governance." The speech sparked a social-media controversy.
Recently, on April 14th, we celebrated the Jayanti of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Had not Babasaheb meant the same when in his book posthumously published ‘Riddles of Hinduism’, he had used the term ‘fraternity’ (in the preamble) to mean ‘Maitri’? Stating that the proper word for this latter phrase was not what the French revolutionaries termed ‘fraternity’ but ‘what the Buddha called ‘metta’, (Maitri in Sanskrit), meaning loving-kindness, "friendliness," or "goodwill".
The proposition laid down by Justice Pankaj Mittal is not merely an appeal to cultural nostalgia but rather a profound academic imperative. Indian legal education, though based on colonial edifices, is deeply rooted in Indigenous philosophical-legal roots. A rigorous academic engagement with Indian philosophical and legal texts is quintessential for a holistic understanding of Indian legal, philosophical, cultural and civilizational ethos. This would offer insights into the concepts of justice, equity, and governance through the Indian value system, making it compatible with the students and easy to contextualize.
The critics of the age-old text Smritis, consider it regressive and unworthy to be taught without contextualizing its historical role. Some provisions of the smritis are incompatible with modern constitutional values, but those were the realities of the past. The malicious attempt to discard the entire knowledge corpus from academic discourse deprives the students of understanding the structural contributions of ancient texts in the form of legal disputes (vyavahāra), evidence (pramāṇa), and judicial procedure (nyāya-vicāra). Every legal system evolves. Roman law or the philosophy of Greek philosophers included slavery and patriarchy, yet are studied, discussed and debated for their juristic innovations. Similarly, any knowledge corpus shouldn't be shunted aside but rather should be subjected to academic discourse.
Kautilya’s Arthashastra is barely discussed in law schools, whereas it is the most sophisticated ancient Indian text on economics, governance and law. It discusses ‘samvidha’ (Contract law), criminal justice, forensic investigation, and administrative and international law. Kautilya’s Arthashastra is of the Classical Antiquity period, and the Smritis are of the Pre-Classical period. The knowledge is a byproduct of its time, context and place. Examining the ancient Indian text as per the Western morality rooted in Judeo-Christian traditions and classical philosophy, considering realities of the present day would cause nothing less than epistemic violence to the Indian Knowledge Corpus.
The Western legal system involves Roman Law, Greek philosophy, thinkers of the Renaissance period and the Enlightenment age. Yet, the politico-legal and socio-legal thinkers of ancient India remain marginalised even within India. Being colonised for so long has subjected India and Indian Knowledge Tradition to Indiscriminate behaviour perpetuating coloniality in legal thoughts. This epistemic asymmetry is a byproduct of coloniality that has to be answered with decolonised pedagogy.
The integration of ancient Indian legal texts would provide students insights into India's indigenous legal system, vis-a-vis providing a sense of continuity in the development of the legal system in India. This integration will open new avenues of primary text-orientated, original research relating to principles of governance (Rajdharma), ethics, statecraft, diplomacy, etc. This will also help in pursuing comparative legal studies and understanding comparative jurisprudence, making legal education rooted, holistic, and culturally relevant. Curricula containing Indian legal tradition would Decolonize Legal Education vis-a-vis Strengthen Constitutional Interpretation with dharmic concepts of welfare and duty.
A colonial relic has been grafted onto an ancient civilisation with its profound jurisprudential tradition. For a long time, academia has trained lawyers, judges and scholars under the shadow of Machiavelli, Blackstone, Bentham, and Austin, disparaging Kautilya, Yajnavalkya, etc. The scholars of ancient Greek, Roman, and English traditions reflect the reality of their time and tradition.
The man of Thomas Hobbes is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short', reflecting the reality of his time. The English Civil War (1642-1651) broke out in England and Wales during the time of Thomas Hobbes, causing him to flee to France for his safety. This has had a major influence on his political philosophy. The other prominent Enlightenment thinker, John Locke's men, are rational and capable of living peacefully and being cooperative. The philosophy of John Locke is reflective of the establishment of constitutional monarchy in England through the Glorious Revolution of 1688, broadening the powers of parliament vis-a-vis changing the nature of the monarch. The English Bill of Rights, 1689, also came in the lifetime of Locke. The Indian masses should live with their reality. The realisation lies beneath the reality. The realisation of alien jurisdiction can be for us to draw the inference but can't be our reality.
The clarion call by Justice Pankaj Mittal to integrate ancient Indian legal text into the legal curriculum is both timely and intellectually vital. The ancient Indian legal texts are not relics of the past but rather have the potential to inform contemporary jurisprudence of the modern world. A balanced engagement with the ancient Indian legal corpus will foster a deeply-rooted understanding of law in light of Indian intellectual heritage and civilisational ethos.
If the Indian academia aspires to produce scholars/jurists who understand the civilizational context of the Indian legal system, vis-à-vis developing novel legal thoughts to address the concerns of the Indian masses, the study of Vedas, Upanishads, Smritis, and Arthashastra must cease to be optional. It must become foundational. Decolonising legal education in India is not about rejecting Western law, rather it is about restoring the balance. Now, it’s high time for us to re-visit course curricula and rather than guarding knowledge the focus should be on the dissemination of knowledge and left open for the students to analyse, evaluate and interpret.
Authors are Doctoral Research Fellows at Bennett University (Times of India Group).
[The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors. Verdictum does not assume any responsibility or liability for the contents of the article.]