Abstract
This chapter addresses the following question: how do we incorporate again a language and a sentiment of duty into legal discourse and the law without sacrificing the many gains and benefits of a robust rhetoric of rights? It proposes an answer to this question through comparison, by examining a legal tradition that emphasizes duties before rights. The culture of Hindu law in medieval India is examined for cues about how to rethink legal pluralism when a duties-based legal tradition forms the centre of legal thought and practice. Speaking of medieval Hindu law carries the distinct advantage of working in a basically prejudice-free zone of legal history, since few scholars come to it with either conception or preconception.
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