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    Society’s caste system: a philosophical analysis from Swami vivekananda’s vedāntic ideal of equality
    (University of North Bengal, 2024-03) Chowdhury, Arun Kumar
    Caste or varṇa system is still a live issue in the present era. Many socialists and philosophers try to explain the caste system in their own ways. Swami-Vivekananda is one of them. He accepts the caste system based on qualities. To him, we are created with three qualities or guṇas. That is why we are different from each other by nature. So, we should act according to our nature. These three guṇas make someone a brᾱhmaṇa or a kṣatriya or a vaiśya, or a śūdra. We should not treat the caste system as hereditary. For a long time, it has been interpreted in the wrong way. That is why there is more dissimilarity in our society. According to him, we differ from each other only in manifestations not in essence. We are the same in essence as Sat-Cit-Ᾱnanda Brahman. Through this paper, I will show how Swami-Vivekananda explains society’s caste system from the Vedᾱntic ideal of equality.
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    Justice and punishment: a critical study on the ethics of kautilyan daṇḍanīti
    (University of North Bengal, 2024-03) Ghosh, Swagata
    In Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra, the third and the fourth adhikaraṇa deal specifically with the law and order of his administrative theory. The third adhikaraṇa is known as dharmasthīya, concerning the judiciary and the officials, while the fourth adhikaraṇa is referred to as kantakasodhana, that is, repression of criminals. Kautilya subscribed to a theory of the maintenance of law and order by the government through punishment, referred to as daṇḍanīti. His penal system is based on a complex interplay between monetary and physical punishments. The combination of monetary penalties and corporeal punishments speak of a certain balance that is much necessary to execute convicts of various forms and strata. The implementation of exemplary punishments, including capital punishment speak of the fact that justice has to be restored by any means, even it be by instilling fear in the minds of the people. This might raise the issue of using the offender as the means to keep the society disciplined. Further, and the most important feature of Kautilya’s system of justice is that the King and the concerned officials are trained in ānvīkṣikī (the science of logic and enquiries into truth), based on dharma, that is, righteousness. Thus, Kautilya, one of the greatest visionary of statecraft and politics of all times, successfully establishes a code of law for the commoners, as well as the powerholders, that ensure the repression of crime as far as practicable, and accordingly, the maintenance of a just state.