Even though it is generally believed in a society that law is sacred and should be observed by people to maintain order and discipline; there is an imperative need to critically examine the law to determine exactly whose interest is it serving.
Is the law meant for protecting the property of the ruling classes and to preserve their privileges or is it meant to provide justice to the common man?
There are laws to cover the religious, political, commercial and social aspects of a society. Since religious law derives authority from divine power; these are usually observed without doubt or criticism.
Among the Hindus, for instance, the caste system determines the status of a person by birth, which he cannot change. The Brahmins belong to the upper caste, a privilege that cannot be challenged according to the codes of caste system as defined in Manu shastra. These laws cannot be altered and the lower castes have to abide by them for their salvation.
The social laws of ancient India were based on the caste system and different fines and punishment were applicable to the upper and lower castes; details of which are discussed by Kautilya in his book, Arthashastra.
In many other societies, the same rule was followed where the nobility was exempted from severe punishment. Whenever law favours the ruling elite, it fails to provide justice to common people and the rulers tend to be oppressive in order to maintain a legal system to check any resistance against it.
Throughout history, despite restriction and punishment, people resisted unjust and discriminating laws in order to achieve their fundamental rights. For example, the apartheid system of racial discrimination and separation which governed South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s, when it was abolished. The Europeans occupied the country by force and degraded the local population. The apartheid law was based on racism and injustice and its manifestations included ineligibility from voting, separate residential areas and schools, separate seating for white people and black people in parks and gardens, separate windows in post offices and separate travel compartments in trains. The black people would only be hired for menial jobs.
When members of the African National Council resisted these laws, leaders including Nelson Mandela were declared terrorists and jailed for violation of these laws. They refused to accept the unjust system and spent 27 years in prison where they also confronted discrimination — the white people had concessions while the black people were treated harshly. However, the resistance movement changed the whole system giving way to democracy which granted equal rights to the natives.
The American society was equally founded on brutal forms of domination, inequality and oppression which involved the absolute denial of freedom for slaves. Neither the Declaration of Independence, nor the constitution granted them their fundamental rights. Although the civil war ended slavery, the discriminatory laws against the slaves remained intact. In the Southern states, white people had exclusive hotels, schools and bus seats which the black people were denied access to by state law.
However, in 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African-American woman initiated a new era of freedom and equality, by refusing to give up her seat for a white man. This eventually mobilised African-American activists and mass protests began to demand fundamental rights. Martin Luther king emerged as the leader of this movement and the government was forced to repeal the discriminatory laws.
In India, Gandhi led a campaign to extract salt from sea water instead of buying it at high prices with taxes levied by the British. British laws made it a crime to produce one’s own salt in a region that had seen many famines in the past. The main message of this non-violent movement was to fight against unjust laws that did not serve the interest of the people.
In Pakistan, colonial laws that were made to protect colonial interests still exist. On the basis of the type of censorship that was imposed in the colonial era, the government today imposes restrictions on newspapers and books which criticise government policies.
Laws which control the freedom of expression are undemocratic. But our ruling classes retain these laws to protect their own vested interests, while anti-government demonstrations are crushed by the so-called law enforcement agencies. We cannot have justice in society unless anti-people laws are anulled and replaced with a legal system that treats all citizens equally.