Philosophical view of Social Justice in Ancient India

Social justice is essentially a modern concept dealing with the philosophical discourse of the human population during their survival in a defined social system and environment which is widely used both in an ordinary language and social sciences. By synthesizing the common element of various philosophical treatments, it is possible to offer a general definition of social justice as a state of affair either in actual or indisputable ideological aspect in which benefits and burdens in a society are dispersed in accordance with some allocation of principles, procedures, norms, rules, rights, liberties, etc., for the entitlements of individual or group of human beings. In Indian context social justice stands for the very nature of mindset of people since ancient times bound by certain set of principles forming part of Indian culture defined with several factors like socio-cultural, economic, religious, philosophical phenomenon governed by rules and regulations which can be traced since Vedic period as a recurrent attitude of Indian population that justice and righteousness among them became reflections of microcosmic natural order but harmonious macrocosmic universe as it demonstrates three major appearances namely moral justice, social justice and legal justice, the second being a functional pattern of entire human society for attaining normative balance in a historical point of view as a general principle that makes Indian society unique through centuries of its well defined experiences in which religion and social structure were the major contributors in the manifest of social justice of each and every individual. The present paper discusses how the above-mentioned principle and nature of social justice in ancient India would explain in its broader sense of inner core and subject matter and also its place in view of an important parameter of Indian society, i.e., religion in defining its place.