Decolonising The Language Of Law

The predominance of English as legal language disempowers the masses as there is a gap between folk and official language. It only enables the elite to expropriate the business of law. This is antithetical to the spirit of democracy

- Dr Chanchal Kr Singh, Dr Mritunjay Kumar, Aastha Naresh Kohli

A recent statement of Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has raised the question of access to law in India. English as the medium of law is unintelligible to the masses. The reason A may be attributed to the gap between folk and official language.

One of the most daunting challenges that the justice administration in India faces today is the alienation between law and its people. One reason for this is the language of law, which has not attracted enough attention in post-colonial India. However, Rijiju's question may be answered in the context of Indian legal history. This can be divided into three parts: pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods.

In pre-colonial India, multiple institutions existed for the maintenance of law and order. All of them, including the King, were responsible for upholding dharma. The legal administration was guided by precepts, norms and rules found in the fourfold sources of law—Sruti revelation), Smriti tradition), Sadacara good custom) and AtmaSantushti self-satisfaction).

Apart from these, custom was the chief source of law, practiced in the community life of cities and villages. Out of the fourfold sources of law, except the Vedas, none of the others was exterior to the human being. Three social sources, following the divine source, were ordained to be used in place of the Vedas, and testify that law had primarily social descent. Law and justice administration were largely autonomous in character. Social life organised through customary laws had historically a continuity until the displacement of law in the modern period.