Why India's legal and political systems 1,000 years ago were better

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) on August 15 told us that "during British rule, a case could be settled in 10 years. Now, that is not happening. Now, the number of cases has mounted so much, as have people's hopes that it's becoming very difficult".

The total pendency is 2.24 crore cases in various courts, as of August 12, 2016.

In comparing the current situation to the British era, the CJI has in a way pointed to one of the root causes of the problem.

Read our debates in the constituent assembly, every speaker impresses us with their erudition, their shining intent to do the country good. Sadly, they made the mistake of assuming that a British, uniform system will work in a diverse society.

We should have gone for our own law books, for creating our democracy and judiciary.

But that won't do, for after all, didn't the likes of Manu and Chanakya speak in favour of the caste system and the disenfranchisement of women?

Yes their texts can be interpreted that way but we have more powerful evidence that unequivocally tells the CJI, how law and justice was handled in the past - well before the 300-year-old British system was copied, ignoring our 1,000-year-old system.

Sadly, seldom do we look at the "writing on the wall". Tamil Nadu's temples are only a pilgrim trail today. If pilgrims cared to look at the wall, they will find writing, none of which is religious or mythological.

Every letter engraved in stone deals with civil and criminal rulings of local judicial bodies and other records of a socio-political and economic nature.

The 1,000-year-old system worked as a legislature and judiciary, so expect overlap.

Legislature productivity

Today in 2016: This session has been the most productive, with Lok Sabha productivity at 110.84 per cent and Rajya Sabha's at 99.54 per cent. However, for the last few sessions and indeed most of them for this government, the score has been abysmally low, even a mere 6%.

The most important cause has been various legislators, for various reasons, not having debates but deliberately stalling propositions. None of them are punished in any meaningful way.

Earlier in 898 ACE (1,118 years ago): An inscription at Manur (Tirunelveli district) Ambalanatha Swami temple mentions a resolution passed by the local committee of the town.

The resolution was passed in a late night meeting called by the beat of a drum and (people) having assembled at a sacred place, a resolution (vyavasta) was passed. It had seven important rules.

One of them was that those who obstructed and frequently said "no" were to be fined five copper coins each. A few copper coins could buy a few large pieces of land so imagine how much our legislators would have to pay for these delays!

They also agreed that every member of the committee not only had to own land in the community so that he had a stake in the village but had to be fully conversant with one Veda and a Dharmashastra.

For the Dharmashastra, he actually had to be examined by a panel of experts. Imagine our MPs going through an examination on our Constitution. Are we a democracy or an oligarchy?

Today in 2016: We love to call India a democracy, but the data of our elected representatives show that family connection has accounted for 28.6 per cent of MPs.

Parties such as the Congress and RJD are of course notorious for this; sadly the trend is creeping into the judiciary as well.

One of the key reasons for Parliament opposing the list of judges is that it is believed that some of those being appointed are relatives of existing judges/senior advocates.

Earlier in 920 ACE (1096 years ago): Uttiramerur is a village near Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. On the west wall of the local Perumal temple are a series of inscriptions on the constitution of local governing committees.

One of the regulations is around qualifications for standing for the committee. It lists that relatives of an existing member cannot stand for elections and, to make it clear, lists the types of relatives. Just to get a flavour of the depth of thought:

Sons of the younger and elder sisters of his mother

Sons of his paternal aunt and maternal uncle

Uterine brother of his mother

Uterine brother of his father

His uterine brother

His father-in-law

Uterine brother of his wife

Husband of his uterine sister

Sons of his uterine sister

His sons-in-law

His father

His son

Apply even half of these conditions on our current representatives and let's see how many continue to be on the list.

Dealing with corruption

Today in 2016: Closure of cases of corruption has become a travesty. Justice delayed is justice denied and we are yet to know the progress on the many scams that have mildly rocked the careers of politicians. Compare this with how corruption was dealt with in the past.

Earlier in the 14th century (600 years ago): A regular audit from the king discovered that the committee that was responsible for testing the firmness of gold that had been deposited had not performed correctly.

There was a discrepancy in what should have been there instead of what was actually there. Legal proceedings were instituted in the temple, and the convicted people's land was confiscated with the amount and interest given to the temple.

We don't have dates of the progress but the word choice and sentence structure lead us to believe that this must have happened in a few months, perhaps even less.

Compare this with the speed and efficiency with which we resolve such issues today.

Why was democracy in India 1,000 years ago better than today?

There are many records which reveal that governance in the past, till even 600 years ago, was more inclusive and responsive to people's interests than today.

Two reasons contributed to this - one, local people had maximum say in local affairs with only tax collection and contributions to the king's army retained at the centre. Secondly, an invisible thread that bound people together was a reverence for the deity in the temple and a strong sense of faith that was measured by upright conduct and speaking the truth.

Religion seems to have been more a measure to ensure abiding by law and contributing to the community than as a set of rituals performed for one's own selfish benefit.

Also read: The murky truth behind appointment of judges

We cannot turn the clock back on the British system we wrongly force-fitted but we can at least start by pushing power to local communities and becoming more impartial in our choice of representatives. Most importantly, we can start by putting the well-being of others before our selfish interests.

Sadly, the black matter that held the community together was religion and faith in god, not transactions and vulgar displays of wealth and power we see today.

Our secularism has taken away this faith and has not yet substituted it with something else - perhaps national pride is an option if we can link it more cohesively to thought and behaviour that is focused on one's own development through that of others.