Studies On The Transformation Of Indian Law Secularization

According to whether law is associated with religion as distinction, the evolvement of law could be divided into religionization and secularization. When the law is merged into the dharma sufficiently and abided by severely, then it is called religionization. On the contrary, if the law eliminates the dharma element apparently, at the same time it breaks away from dharma completely, it is secularization.India, one of the four ancient civilization countries, formed its brilliant Ganges culture early in the 2000 BC, also made a splendid past in the legal evolvement. From the earliest and most representative Hindu laws of Manu, to the Constitution of the Republic of India, 1950, which symbolizes the great progress made in Indian law, the evolvement of Indian law lasts for thousands of years. Based on the classification method mentioned in the former paragraph, the evolvement of Indian law could be simply generalized as the transformation from religionization to secularization. Studying the secularization of Indian law, not only reveal its secularization experience, but also disclose its flaw, and predict the secularization prospect of Indian law. By using the transformation experience of Indian law as reference, it is beneficial to the legal construction of our country.The article expatiates the secularization process of Indian law from four aspects:In the exordium, the article outspreads from the definition of religionization and secularization, comes to the conclusion that there is a great difference between the orient and the occident countries in both religionisation and secularization. As far as the religionisation is concerned, the religionisation degree between the orient and the occident is quite different. The orient law is religionized thoroughly, while the occident law is a little secularized, though the law is tight associated with religion. As the secularization goes, the secularization way differs between the orient and the occident. Use initiative and passiveness as the distinction, the secularization process of the occident is initiative, and the secularization is thorough, while that of the orient belongs to passiveness, and the secularization degree is not so thorough.In the first and the second chapter, the article mainly expatiate the transformation from religionisation to secularization of Indian law. It starts with the analysis of its religious origin, comes to the conclusion that the ancient Indian law belongs to the course of secularization, according to the following two aspects: On one hand, most of the legal criterion exists in the ancient religion books. On the other, the difference between the legal criterion and the religious criterion is small. And the study of the process could be divided into the"sutra"law period, the"rock"law period and the"code"law period. As far as the magnum opus Hindu laws of Manu is concerned, the core of law is the maintenance of caste system, through the establishment of Brahman,Kshatriya,Vaishya,Shudra these four different but changeless legal status, and makes the status sacred, which apparently extrudes the religionization of the law. Even under the large-scale aggression of other races, the Indian law still follows the characteristics of religionization. As the invaders are Moslems, while suppressing militarily, they pushed their Islamic law, and Alcoran was considered canon. Especially when it came to the Mughal Dynasty, when the Moslems acquired the national religious status, the national law and religion became one, whereas the indigenous Indian law exist only as regional unwritten law.After the aggression of the British, the religionization condition was completely broken. Although the British allowed the existence and the applicability of Indian law, Islamic law and other religion law to each religion follower, yet it didn't last long. With large numbers of Indian religionization law were translated into English, the British used them to the cognizance of concrete cases after they fully understood those laws. Afterwards, the British enacted law directly, which to a great extent replaced the religious Indian law, and the course is regarded as the start to the secularization of Indian law. Therein, the reform of constitutionalism influenced the secularization more, and established a stable basis for the ordination of the Indian constitution, the most representative Indian law of secularization after its independence.In the third chapter, the article analyzes the secularization process after the independence of India, and labors the most representative Indian constitution and Indian religion law. In the analysis of the secularization of the Indian constitution, the article mainly opens out from the following aspects: the ordination background, the material content, the characteristics, and the limitation. In the author's opinion, though the word non-church was added to the preface of the Indian constitution through the 42nd edit in 1976 to establish the truth that India was a non-church country, yet no one had doubted the fact that The People's Republic of India was a secularization country from that time, and the non-church regime established by the Indian constitution, in which the most basal factor is the nonexistence of religion advocated by the country. As far as the content of the Indian constitution is concerned, the Indian constitution is one of the world's constitutions that emphasize equality most. It is advisable for a constitution to regard the enactment and protection of equality for all the citizens, especially in nation like India which consider inequality as its tradition for a long time. Therefore, it's a historical leap and an epoch-making progress, which gives prominence to the basic pattern of the secularization.Take the Indian canon into consideration, it is not exaggerated at all to say that the most in-depth law on the relation between India and religion origin is the Indian canon. To carry out the secularization of law, and arrange for the life of the religion followers, not make the religion conflict become the main social conflict, the chief goal made by the Indian government is the ordination of a unitive law to supervise its citizens, which aims to secularize law that supervise people furthest. The Hindu Code, officially passed by the Indian parliament in the 1956, is the same with the generalized Indian religion law. Hindu law in India was codified during the period between May, 1995, and December, 1956, in four statutes, namely the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, The Hindu Succession Act. Among these laws, the common characters are the elimination of caste system, the emphasis of sexual equality, the discretion given to the religion followers to deal with their possessions, and the clear up of bad religion habits. These characters, according to the author, boil down to the important act of secularization.In the fourth chapter, the article analyzes the secularization accomplishments applicable to all the Indians in both the civil and the criminal field. From the angle of the actual Indian law, both the criminal law and the civil law are based on the law enacted in the colonial era of Britain, while have been edited for many times, and the secularization evidence is clear. As far as the criminal law is concerned, some advanced secularization ideas which reflect the age could be found easily in the Indian criminal law, such as the idea of crime decided by law, and all are equal in the presence of law. As the Indian civil law goes, the main laws which have the feature of secularization are the civil main body law and the contract law, such as the Indian Adult Law enacted in 1875 and the Indian Contract Law enacted in 1872. Today, those two laws, with the content break away from the religion factor thoroughly, are still in use all over India, and they are the great achievements made on the secularization way.In the fifth chapter, the article mainly summarizes the transform made in the secularization way, also brings forward expectation. For over half a century, on the lawmaking layer of the fundamental law, India gets rid of religion entirely, and establishes democracy system, which has been pushed for sure. In the lawmaking of the crime law and the civil law, on the whole, fulfill the construction of amending or reenacting law system, according to the modern criterion of the occident law system. In the lawmaking of personal relation, though still take on myriad tint of religion, yet by comparison with the Indian society before independent, it has made a huge progress, which is the successful part of the secularization. However, still some deficiency, such as a majority of Indian citizens have dotty law ideas, in the political and legal system can't get rid of religion thoroughly, the legal applicability of the judicial branch is still at the mercy of the religious power, which incarnate the bugs of the secularization. But then, these bugs become the direction of the legal secularization. In the author's opinion, whether the secularization come true, in the final analysis, distinguish from whether the goal of the secularization country set by the Indian constitution come true or not. Reflecting on the various influential factors in the secularization course, the primary of which are the adverse effect that restrict or even stop the exertion of the secularization tenet. The author believes that when the Indian constitutionalism outlined by the Indian constitution comes true, then it is the goal of the secularization, and must be the perfect unite of democracy and equality.