PREFACE. Ir commonly chances that the mind of the untutored English judge in India passes through three successive phases as touching evidence. In his early days he accepts without hesitation almost anything in the shape of evidence that may be set before him. Then comes a revelation. He learns the startling fact that a deal of evidence is not legally admissible, and for years he rejects, or regards with suspicion, almost everything that is offered. But, sooner or later, he will settle down comfortably in the middle course, accepting and rejecting with discrimination. Much the same sort of thing appears to have been going on in the matter of Hindû law. The earliest inquirers, and with them Jones and Colebrooke, seem to have believed whatever their Pandits (experts) chose to tell them. Then, after Colebrooke had left India, came what may be called the acute lawyer stage; strongly marked towards its close by the contemptuous snuffing out of the poor, misunderstood Pandit. And quite recently we have come to the third stage, in which wary Sanskritists like Goldstücker and Bühler have taught the student of Hindû law to take texts and Pandits (ancient and modern) for what they may be worth, and to seek everywhere for light. And now, with guides like Max Müller, Burnell, Mayr, Weber, Jolly, and others, explorers may hope to do much. In short, the scientific study of the Hindû law at last has become possible. But ignorance dies hard, and reform must needs encounter terrible opposition from judges and lawyers who have picked up their law from the scientifically worthless treatises of Strange, Macnaghten, Grady, and the rest; and have settled the principles of the Hindû law to their own entire satisfaction, if with little or no regard for the usages, ideas, wants, and aspirations of the so-called Hindoo. No man likes to be told that what he has been learning all his life is wrong, and of no account. And few love reform within their own households. In 1877 I ventured to publish a 'View of the Hindû Law as administered by the High Court of Judicature at Madras,' for the purpose of showing that the divorce of orientalism from the study of the Hindû law had led, and was leading, to grievous error and disastrous results. The venture was hazardous. And the misgivings of friends certainly were to some extent justified by the reception that my opuscule met with at the hands of a portion of the Indian press. But, from my point of view, the measure of success achieved, in arousing thought and disarming superstition, was so considerable that I have been emboldened to go a step farther. Having succeeded (as I hope and believe) in causing many to doubt whether the peculiar stuff at present administered as Hindû law to the non-Muhammadan part of the Indian population of the Madras Province is law properly applicable to any person, or should not rather be regarded as mere wild speculation, I have now gone on to endeavour to bring home to the public understanding the nature and extent of the difficulties that beset and complicate the whole question of the study of Hindû law in South India, and at the same time faintly to indicate the course that probably such study may most conveniently take. And in particular I have endeavoured to show that it is possible for Government at once to do much towards the reformation of the Hindû law. That Government may be induced to turn its attention to this important subject, and free the Indian from the oppressive servitude imposed on him by judge-made law, is my earnest hope, as it is my main object in writing this essay. If, in the excitement of doing my best to help to overturn an ill-built, unsubstantial edifice, I have written things that may seem to show too little regard for the feelings of worthy persons, I trust that my clumsiness may be forgiven, and malice may not be imputed to me. Assuredly offence has not been intended. In conclusion, I should state that the text of this book has already been published at Madras in the Indian Jurist, and I have to thank the proprietor of that journal for courteously permitting me to reproduce it in its present form. Nor must I omit to express my gratitude for most precious assistance given by Dr. Burnell. The value to me of his many hints and suggestions it were impossible to overestimate. J. H. NELSON. CUDDALORE: April 1881. |