Social Justice in India: A Comparative Study of Rawls and Ambedkar

Abstract

Justice has always been central to political philosophy over a period of time. No doubt, throughout the ages, countless philosophers have understood justice in different ways. Nevertheless, they have consented that a good society is a just society. Moreover, justice is a distributive concept and is concerned with the distribution of wealth, leisure, liberty, friendship, love, etc. Twentieth century justice came to be discussed usually in relation to social life in general, and the distribution of material rewards in particular and usually came to be known as ‘Social Justice’. Social justice as such came to be accepted as the fair and just relation between the individual and society that could possibly be measured by unambiguous and unspoken conditions for the distribution of opportunities for social privileges and personal activities. Indeed, social justice is most significant in the context of a polarized Indian society which is divided into castes, religions, races, languages, and communities, posing threat to the democratic spirit. Consequently in India, social justice pertains to doing away with such inequalities, and finding ways for a better and just socio-economic order. In this backdrop, my paper endeavors to locate the significance of the resources conceived by both the figures in the development of political philosophy in India.