Social Justice— Sundown or Dim Dawn?

Will Durant writes in The Pleasures of Philosophy that the Thrasymachus of [Plato’s] Republic proclaimed to the world that ‘might is right’, and justice is merely the interest of the stronger; the ‘unjust’ is the lord over the truly simple and the ‘just’ is always loser by comparison. Does this critique hold good also for the Indian Republic with its logo of justice; social, economic and political? Is social justice merely a soothing legal opium or an illusory war of words, which the political parties of today employ as their means to the vote-bank politics?

The answer, in light of our analysis, is that it is justice, equality, and rights of the ruling classes lie in the neocolonial enclaves who consciously collaborate with imperialism and neo-colonialism to protect the interests of the foreign capital upon which their existence and assistance hinges. The dominance of the capital in the neo-colonies, which is made possible through the dependence of the comprador bourgeoisie on, and their active collaboration with, foreign capital is further enriched by the most important superstructural institutions. Among such institutions are schools, colleges, and universities controlled by the conservative intellectuals whose activities are linked with and, to some extent determined by, the classes they serve or are in collusion with.

This group is of the ‘elites’, that cooperates directly with the exploiter classes in the neo-colonies to perpetuate capitalist and neocolonialist ideology through a faithful reproduction of Western ideas, concepts, and theories.

Is this demystifying criticism aimed at the social justice claptrap popular in a capitalist milieu with our judicial jurisprudents who attack the fringes with bursts of rhetoric but retreat artfully where the basic capitalist structure may fracture? In short, is “social justice” embroidery or cardiac surgery of the system which flourishes on profits for the corporate privateers dismissing man as but “the tail-end of a tapeworm”? Is it useful to examine what brand of justice — Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, farm-loan waver, LPG subsidy or mango juice is sold as “social justice” and what impact it makes on the raw life of the rural masses and the hedonistic style of the ruling classes? While the essence of justice is to give each man or group his or it’s due, what is due to each depends on the ethos of the political system, and the property relations governing a given society. Law itself is a means to an end, justice being the goal. In a democratic system with a socialist slant, afflicted by pervasive, poignant poverty and intent on planned development, social justice has a distinctive hue, “egalite” a militant quality and human rights a radical thrust. Paul Harrison, in his book, The Third World Tomorrow argues that there are three worlds in our One World and the Third World is under the de facto thralldom of the First World.

The Indian justice process, composed of the concept of the substantive social justice, the judicial class and culture and the rule of law whose parameters govern the court praxis, are all overarched by the neo-imperialist imperative: thou shall not maim class interests but shall make the domination of the Third World by the North Countries and the transnational companies (TNC’s) appear a necessary boon rather than a lethal embrace. The Economic policy of the establishment shapes the legal exercises of the judiciary and its interpretation of Constitution, the decision by the United States Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford and the Indian Supreme Court’s decision in RC Cooper v. Union of India is the classic example of the same. After all, in the words of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, the law has no value autonomy. Economic power, with its manipulative ability to make politics its ventriloquist sub-consciously controls lawmaking, law courts and the professions of Bar and Bench, so much so, democratic rhetoric, social justice eloquence, and developmental illusions enchant for a while but fade away rapidly and crash in frustration.

But this “discovery” of the invisible conspiracy of the three elite instrumentalities and their glittering publicity projecting mere flashes as meaningful mass action comes so late that real judicial radicalism or legislative creativity to undo fundamental socio-economic distortions fails to click or launch Operative Overthrow. The revolution with, “We the People” as the final masters and beneficiaries envisioned by the Constitution lies buried in the debris of rhetoric and gimmick that, “Restoration Constitution” desiderates a bitter struggle with avant-garde jurists, social scientists, and forward intellectuals speaking up and spearheading the second freedom movement, under the manifesto of the founding deed of the nation.

A critique of Indian social justice, as asserted in the opening remark, from the angle of the right to life of the least citizen, will reveal the python process of development. By this expression, I mean slow, silent, the treacherous operation of blowing up the balloons of national prosperity, while actually the national will is crushed, resource utilization is pressured to suit the private corporate appetites and the prospect of the humane social order, as articulated under Article 38 of The Indian Constitution, is hamstrung. This evaluative exercise is necessary now to make the course of constitutional navigation truly nationalistic. The dependencia syndrome has pathologically generated brand of politics, jurisprudence and social justice whereby our Swaraj, every Indian’s birthright, is insidiously and slowly swallowed by the Proprietariat, often with the center of gravity outside the country.

India has its cultural roots, political perspectives, constitutional pledges and tryst with destiny which together constitutes the nation’s founding faith of social justice with an egalitarian bias and participating accent. In this context, our legislatures and courts and our governments must be judged by fundamental evaluations of their performance, dismissing the propagandized plans of development and social justice litigation as misleading flares.

Now I would like to quote few lines from the poem, The Man with the Hoe, written by the American poet Edwin Markham, inspired by Jean-François Millet’s painting L’homme à la houe, a painting interpreted as a socialist protest about the peasant’s plight.

“Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans

Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,

The emptiness of ages in his face,

And on his back the burden of the world.”

Unfortunately, our conscience is coarsened and our sensitivity blunted. For instance, the plight of the bonded laborers — men held in bondage on account of debt which must have been discharged twice over the long back or we can see the slums of the metropolitans. We all have seen them — hundreds of them — living in hovels four feet high, under roofs of straw which afford them no protection against sun and rain, where they have to bend low in order to enter and where there is not enough space even to move. They don’t have unpolluted air to breathe or clean water to drink. Sitting in our privileged space(s), we can only glibly talk about growth and development and pay lip-sympathy to these unfortunate specimens of humanity. We have to go there and see for ourselves the most brutal denial of human rights.

If the rule of law and the rule of life run close together, a jurisprudence where man matters will bourgeon there. The springs of Social Justice will rise then — only then. The Constitution inscribes justice, as the first promise of the Republic. Social Justice is people’s justice where the tyranny of power is transformed into the democracy of social good.

Lastly, I shall quote linguistic philosopher Blaise Pascal, who says

“Justice without power is inefficient; power without justice is tyranny. Justice without power is opposed because there are always wicked men. Power without justice is soon questioned. Justice and power must, therefore, be brought together so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.”