Thread: Last evening, our house owner, whom we had over for dinner, was narrating an anecdote about our villa complex’s watchman from UP. He had gone back home only to find that his brother had sold one of their ancestral lands to someone. The sale was technically “legal” (1/n)
The watchman then appealed to the Panchayat. Not just the Panchayat elders, but even the buyer of the land, on hearing of the fact that the seller had not consulted his own brother before selling their ancestral land, saw that as a violation of “Dharam” (2/n)
The buyer returned the land and got back his money. Everyone involved was convinced that was the right thing to do. We were then musing- how much does our *law* reflect our own customary practices and shared moral intuitions? (3/n)
What is the role of traditional dispute resolution mechanisms that have that sense of shared moral intuition (such as a Panchayat), but how then do we prevent toxic coercive practices as well? (4/n)
How important is the concept of something that outlasts your own life (as opposed to YOLO driven self maximisation) to have a sense of moral obligations to uphold? How much have we retained our own sense of “right conduct”? (5/n)
In its own way, this conversation itself was a continuation of a new tradition! Apparently the house we live in used to be the hub where everyone (pre COVID) would congregate, and while there would be fun and games, there would also be debates on economics, philosophy etc. (6/6)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
