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Thus, the common source of classical Hindu law was the community and, therefore, laws on a whole were highly decentralized and diverse. [3] These laws were dictated by various corporate groups such as merchant leaders, heads of caste, and kings, and because of the diverse leadership, these laws were particular to a set place. [ 4 ]
Hindu law, as a historical term, refers to the code of laws applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in British India. [1] [2] [3] Hindu law, in modern scholarship, also refers to the legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophical reflections on the nature of law discovered in ancient and medieval era Indian texts. [4]
Customary law within the context of Hindu law is defined as akin to the community norm of a particular region. This form of law encompasses laws that are actually applied to daily life, as opposed to theological laws canonized in texts which are accessible for only a small proportion of the population. [3]
The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution for a country, containing 395 articles, 12 schedules, 105 amendments and 117,369 words.. Law in India primarily evolved from customary practices and religious prescriptions in the Indian subcontinent, to the modern well-codified acts and laws based on a constitution in the Republic of India.
The first three sources of law are rooted in the vedas, whereas atmatusti is not. It is because of this that atmatusti, as a fourth source, is not recognized by most scholars due to the lack of legitimacy. Only Manu and Yājñavalkya refer to atmatusti as the fourth source of dharma within the Hindu Law tradition.
Because of the social implication revolving around the importance of the household and the community in the creation and administration of law, Hindu law jurisprudentially subordinated state law to the law of castes and life-stages (varnasramadharma). [3] In this manner, each caste and life-stage was responsible for highly localized occupations.
Modern Hindu law is one of the personal law systems of India along with similar systems for Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, and Christians. This Hindu Personal Law or modern Hindu law is an extension of the Anglo-Hindu Law developed during the British colonial period in India, which is in turn related to the less well-defined tradition of Classical Hindu Law.
Dharmaśāstra became influential in modern colonial India history, when they were formulated by early British colonial administrators to be the law of the land for all non-Muslims (Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs) in the Indian subcontinent, after Sharia set by Emperor Aurangzeb, was already accepted as the law for Muslims in colonial India.