Time to Change?
What is one thing that is common about this list of great men apart from the fact that all of them spent their lives fighting for our freedom?
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Motilal Nehru
- Pt Jawaharlal Nehru
- Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel
- C Ragopalachari
- Dr Rajendra Prasad
- Bhulabhai Desai
- Lala Lajpat Rai
- Gobind Ballabh Pant
- K M Munshi
- Chittaranjan Das
- Gopinath Bardoloi
- Madan Mohan Malvia
- Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar
- V K Krishna Menon
- Saifuddin Kitchlew.
- Mohammad Ali Jinnah
If you have not already guessed it… they were all Lawyers. During the early years of our struggle for independence large numbers of Indian lawyers gave up their lucrative law practice and luxurious lifestyles and joined the freedom struggle. The Indian National Congress, established in 1885, was leading the Indian freedom struggle.
The Indian National Congress, established in 1885, was leading the Indian freedom struggle. Out of the eight founding members of INC two - Womesh Chandra Banerjee (the first President of Indian National Congress) and Monomohun Ghose - were lawyers. Two founding members Mahadev Govind Ranade was a judge of the Bombay High Court and William Wedderburn served as District Judge and Judicial Commissioner in Sind. At one point, the Indian National Congress was full of lawyers. So much so that in his first speech to the Indian National Congress Mahatma Gandhi said, “This Congress tells the world it represents India. My brothers, India is seven hundred thousand "villages" not a few hundred lawyers in Delhi and Bombay. Until we stand in the fields with the millions who toil each day under the hot sun, we will not represent India – nor will we ever be able to challenge the British as one nation“.
This was one lawyer telling other lawyers that we do not represent India until we stand in the fields with millions. Even though Gandhiji strongly criticized the INC’s approach for freedom struggle, one has to acknowledge that our freedom struggle before Mahatma Gandhi’s arrival from South Africa in 1915 was primarily driven by the law community and they continued to work with Gandhiji not only for Independence but other social causes as well.
Studies in disciplines like Medicine, Civil Services and Engineering equip people with different skills and expertise and all of these skills can be utilized for social causes. However, due to the nature of legal education, lawyers are most equipped and rightly placed to influence policymaking and advocate social causes and change. They understand the importance of justice and rule of law and can ensure that the needy get access to justice and fairness.
The legal profession was once called a noble profession and lawyers prominently contributed to many causes for the betterment of society. There are a number of social issues that India’s lawyers contribute to today as well, but these stories are few and far between.
Legal education itself needs to change and should place high emphasis on public service. It is mandatory for medicine students to practice in rural areas for 6 months or a year before they get their formal degree. As Gandhiji said, to truly represent India one has to understand her better, why can’t it be made mandatory for lawyers to understand the plight of people by going to rural areas. The notion of true public service moves beyond religion, cast, ideological and professional barriers.
India is at a juncture where urban areas seem to be changing (not progressing) so fast that the law and order situation is not able to cope with it. On the other hand, rural areas are refusing to change at all. While in urban areas people are killed due to something very trivial like road rage, in rural areas couples are burnt alive by diktats of Khaps because they married in same gotras (caste) and it seems our politicians are agreeing to make same caste marriages illegal. It is time that the lawyers community takes a stand.
Why are lawyers not looked upon as social activists today? Why it is that after independence there are no prominent lawyers whom today’s youth can look up to and idolize?
Finally I end this post with what Mahatma Gandhi once said “Consciously or unconsciously, everyone of us does render some service or another. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and it will make not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large."
[The author of the post is Harish Agrawal. Harish is Director at Veda Informatics and oversees the business development and growth strategy for Veda Informatics.]
Beloved Harish Agrawal,
more and more i discover your qualities. My fight for justice in this country has found a voice.
Blessings and Love
George
Nice post by Harish. Those were different days. Lawyers had a passion and a goal. They wanted to use their education and training to give India its freedom. These days, the only goal for lawyers is to make money, overbill their clients, and stretch cases for at least 10 years. Can we look up to today's lawyers? No.
Of course there are exceptions. There are lawyers committed to their clients' cause, but sadly are outnumbered by the bunch of unscrupulous ones.
Nicely put together & really never knew of all the above mentioned leaders were lawyers except 3 of the list.
But, there is much more to look at if one has to judge the transformation of Lawyers from social workers to what they are today & it will also reflect how humanity is heading towards darkness.
Thanks!
It's a fantastic piece, Harish. Please try to write at least one blog per month. If ime not asking for more!! Very true, my ma says, Vakil aur police se na dosti acchi na dishmani. So strange, isn't it. Arn't these people are the ones, who are responsible for protecting and saving our lives and integrity?? Unfortunately, we have miserably failed to provide iconic leaders, like we had in our pasts. Today we have Abhishek Manu Singhvi,Mayawati, Arun Jaitly. These are major leaders??? Most of them have amassed huge wealth and personal property. We need more people like for instance Agatha Sangma, I am sure there are many more people like her, but I personally prefer approachable leaders and certainly not like the CM of the state Ime writing this comment from. They have used their knowledge only to dodge the law and of course for personal benefits.
Valid points raised. Though, it is unfortunate that such a positive shift in the attitude of lawyers' community seems improbable in near future.
In the late nineteenth century, the Indian lawyers were looking forward to a change because British rule was authoritative and the Indian legal community had no role in the law-making.
Today, lawyers aspire to be a part of the elite class that enjoys political power (direct role in policy-making). They aren't really looking forward to a change as status quo is more luxurious. Their support is distant from people and has become the privilege of businesses.
The situation is miserable, but as you suggested, a change in the legal education system can be the beginning of that change which can add responsibility to the profession of law.
@Harish Wow...a brilliant post and very timely too. It's not only the lawyers but the entire judicial system's integrity that is under scanner at the moment. The current case of illegal withdrawal of funds from court's treasury, in which several judges including judges from several high courts and one from the apex court have been accused for benefit, is enough to point that there is widespread corruption in the legal system.
I don't believe in not making money if the person has the ability and skills to do that and if that is done without compromising on values and integrity. In fact, looking at the list of lawyers that you have mentioned anyone can make out that majority of them had prosperous legal practice.
So, if making money is not the problem then what the problem really is. Can making it mandatory for the lawyers to work in rural areas solve the problem? It may, to an extent, or may not do that even.
In my view, the problem is much deep rooted. In current times the main problem is the quality of lawyers that we produce and involvement of criminals in the legal system. The reason are:
- lack of good colleges,
- poor admission process,
- no check on the background of the lawyers before giving them the license to practice
For engineering we have IITs, for management we have IIMs, for Medical we have AIIMS, AFMC, CMC, JIPMER etc. Do we have any equivalent for law; yes, we have National Law School Bangalore and that's it. Only one reputed law college in a country as big as India.
Do we have a competitive selection process as stringent as IITs & IIMs, no. It is not present in most of the law colleges across the country.
Today, any person joining a reputed private brand goes through a strict verification process that includes criminal background check, educational check etc. Do we have a similar process for someone who is going to practice law? No! How can we let anyone become a part of the legal system of the country without a background check?
@Harish One correction for your post - A gotra is not same as caste. Gotra is the lineage, most often paternal lineage, of a person.
@Harish - We are getting too used to you as the man with the brilliant ideas! Such posts raise the bar of blog writing. Informative, interesting, educative and thought provoking... What more can I say?
@Vikrant - The gotra-caste thing was actually my fault. All I have to say is... same difference!
@Vikrant - Thanks for taking this discussion forward. You raised an interesting point about the admission process.
@Priya - I am glad you liked the post. I must say you are too generous and kind with your words. Without your help this post could not have been what it is.
@Harish I would say reform in the education system will take care of the future generation of lawyers. However, the system of registration of lawyers needs to be corrected to be able to take care of the current generation of lawyers. Today, anyone with a law degree is eligible to be registered in a court as a lawyer. This is a major loophole in the system as the educational qualification, in isolation, doesn't truly reflect the overall background of the person.
@Priya Without getting into the details and without being judgmental, I would like to say that Gotra and Caste are two different things; for eg: All Sharmas do not belong to the same Gotra but they all belong to the same caste i.e. Brahmins.
@Vikrant - I think i will rephrase that statement. I know the difference between Gotra and Caste. Some communities in Haryana and Rajesthan does not allow same gotra marriage. People from same gotra are considered to be relatives by blood. However, when it comes to caste marriage out of caste is what angers the khaps.
@Harish The currently ongoing issue of Khap's anger and honor killing is related to marriages within the same Gotra and not intercaste marriages. Again, to clarify my stand, I am not supportive of Khaps.
Dear Harish sir, Brilliant post! I liked the fact that you took us back to the pages of history to illustrate the role of lawyers in the making of India. That was so meaningful. I also liked the way you spoke of legal education in India and about lawyers too. You have maintaind the right balance in respecting what the profession represents and lacks at one go! From what I read, I felt that you have a balanced, realistic view of the legal fraternity and not a biased or judgmental attitude towards lawyers.
Hope its fine if I share my thoughts on comments from readers because I just can't help defending my clan of lawyers and I can't help representing their side of things.
Vikrant talked about the quality of legal education in India. I agree that it is necessary but let me also speak of what I know personally. In Kerala, with all its limited resources, the govt provides the best opportunities for law students to learn at very subsidized rates. It's unfortunate that students go on strikes and teachers take turns to be absent or not bothered about growing the skills of the students but that should not make us look down on the legal education system because a lot of it has to be developed on one's own. The govt has tried to provide and if students are not willing to make use of the opportunities, it is their decision and their loss.
I agree that Legal education needs a lot of improvement and I am not debating that here but I believe that it is not so bad as we believe it is. I believe the selection process followed in Kerala is very strict but I cannot speak the same for other States. Uniformity in legal education is a must-have otherwise it defeats the very purpose of grooming lawyers-to-be.
Also, there is a mistaken and popular perception among many people that NLS is the ultimate word in law. NLS represents the elite, influential and highly knowledgeable strata of law students and that's it. The students have high caliber and amazing potential but a poor Indian student with high caliber and great potential is unlikely to get admission there. Law students from other govt colleges are trained as part of the curriculum to be socially conscious throughout their years of study. In comparison, students from NLS get the best technological advantages besides global exposure but they lack the kind of direction and passion that will enable India to develop a generation of responsible, socially committed lawyers. In this context, it becomes important for the govt to regulate these inequalities in the legal education system.
Not trying to attack Ankit's statement but I just have to disagree - that today lawyers aspire to be a part of the elite class that enjoys political power - seems highly generalized and not accurate. C'mon, every successful professional aspires to have a direct role in policy-making of the organization he/she represents and I do not see the harm in it if the person is able to bring positive change. Writers aspire, so do muscians, artists, politicians, doctors, businessmen and professionals across domains. We all seek good, decent standards of living and luxury. So, why single out lawyers? Or is it general bias?
I feel its unfair to assume the worst about lawyers without having any inkling about what their lives or skills are really like and I strongly object to that popular perception about lawyers. As long as we work hard to grow our skills and that of others with us, pay our taxes as responsible citizens and feel deeply about taking community service initiatives for others, professionals should not be made to feel ashamed about leading luxurious lives.
LIG, for example, believes that the people should have direct access to policy making and policy makers because we want change for a good reason. We want to make policy makers aware of legal changes and issues that people want. Does that make our endeavor a bad one? I don't think so. It's no different for most lawyers either.
Across the world, the best known lawyers are always close to the established sources of power and authority because they can influence policy making not for themselves but for the system at large. Typically, these prominent lawyers are already so wealthy that their aspiration is more towards being part of policy making. I don’t see anything wrong in lawyers having access to policy makers. If they can reflect change for the betterment of the society, I welcome it. It is unfair and untrue to say that lawyers are distant from the people. This is something that applies to all professions irrespective of domain.
Let me take myself as an example. My passion is to remain a good writer, but I hardly get time to be close to people or to understand their problems. That is not because I made that choice voluntarily but my writing work follows a process in order to give meaningful outcomes in my domain. Does following that process make me distant from people deliberately? So, the issue of being distant from people depends on the acutal scope of a professional's work and this is not exclusive to lawyers alone.
Coming back to the post, I believe there are many lawyers who are social activists and for the same reason, refused to become prominent in visual media. They do service for the community without ever wanting to be in the public limelight, which is perhaps a mistake because we tend to equate success with how much is visible to us and we make that connection at once.
It's a fact that the more one is mentioned in media, the more people connect with that person. A lot of socially committed lawyers do keep away from the public limelight because they have causes to work for and those who want to convert causes into returns, yes, they are in the limelight because they aim to be prominent. There are lawyers who call journalists, give them parties and gifts so that they write about them. There are lawyers who give tip offs against their own clients to the Press to get attention in media! In the middle of such strategic chaos, there are the lawyers who work 24X&7 for their clients, get paid well and grow their potential without wanting to get into the chaos of limelight because they have careers to build.
Sorry for making this such a long comment but I just had so many thoughts to convey and hope everyone sees the comments in good spirit as I spoke from the lawyer's perspective.
Thank you, Harish, for this very interesting, brilliantly written post. Please, please write more for LIG.
@Swapna An informative comment and I agree that if any lawyer wants influence and limelight he will not have to go too far for that.
I have some different thoughts on your opinion about NLS and its students. I would like to differ on the point that NLS students lack the direction and passion for becoming a responsible and socially committed lawyer. If this is true then it stands true for every premier educational institution in India, the IITs, IIMs etc. They all are elite, influential and highly knowledgeable people. Does that mean people studying at IIMs and IITs are not socially responsible? Does than mean a poor student can not get admission there? I don't think so. I haven't heard of anyone who got selected in these premier institutes and was unable to join due to financial constraints.
The social responsibility and passion are personal attributes, notwithstanding the financial or social strata of the person.
While you have given the example of Kerala, which itself is class apart from majority of the Indian states when it comes to literacy and awareness, I can give you an example of U.P. where I have had an opportunity to interact with several law students. It will not be an exaggeration to say that, in Lucknow University, the most notorious and antisocial elements study in the Law College. The students there had their hands in almost everything, illegal arms, drugs, kidnapping, eve teasing and what not. I don't know the current situation there; however, contrary to its name, the Law College was the hub of all illegal activities few years back. Any reason why a college principal would need police protection? Many of the most powerful gangsters that the city which I live in has seen were lawyers. And, that's what my point was. Do we check the background of the person before registering him as a lawyer, to be able to practice in the court, to ensure that we are not letting people with criminal backgrounds inside the legal system?
@Swapna - I had no intentions of attacking the Law professionals or generalizing that all lawyers are bad. I know some very good Lawyers personally and I know how passionate they are about making a change. I know how passionate you are about your profession and causing a social change through LIG. The point that I wanted to make was
a) At some point in history Lawyers looked at their own profession differently. People looked at Lawyers differently (with trust, with respect). Somewhere in last few decades that trust and respect has chanegd into suspicion and Skepticism.
b) Having discussed the problem, I expressed my opinion about the solution and I believe that such widespread change in perspective can only be caused if we change the system that creates Lawyers i.e. 'Education'.
Recently a friend who lives in U.S. got into some legal issue with his previous employer. His Lawyer flatly asked him to do an out of court settlement. His lawyer said that even if you are innocent it will take you at least $150,000 to $250,000(legal fee) to prove your innocence; of course there is no guarantee that even after spending that money he will win the case. I am a capitalist at heart and I have no issues with people making money. The point isn't about money. The point is that legal system is a major component of any democratic country.
Some changes in the system are now necessary otherwise we will be heading where United States already is and it is not a good place to be in.
@Vikrant: From the points that you stated I think its really important to ensure uniform quality in imparting legal education so that law students in UP or any part of the country are able to be part of the same process and not two different proceses. Law students in Kerala and UP should have the same quality of legal education as disparities will affect the quality of education throughout the country. About NLS, I have yet to meet an NLS student who feels socially responsible and committed about contributing to positive changes in the system as it functions today but I sure would be happy to meet those feel that way and are willing to take initiatives accordingly.
@Harish: To me, your post was a true classic and it was informative, giving a true picture of what was and what is. Whatever you have written in ths post is true and accurate.
Your post traced how lawyers helped the making of India and somewhere along the way lost that focus, which is totally accurate when looking at the professionals in the legal sphere today. There's no reason for me to disagree with anything in the post as it gave a very balanced view on lawyers from past and till the present.
I also agree with the part where you've stated that we need changes in the legal system. Like you said, we need changes in the system with a thorough appraisal of what is today. We defintely do. My reference to lawyers of today making money was not in relation to the post but related to readers' comments.
The only part where I came back by referring to the post to discuss a point was at the end of my comment, mentioning how some advocates are socially committed to the society function and some who are not tend to hog the limelight.
Just to clarify - my comments were, right from the start, only to point out my thoughts on readers' comments and my inputs were towards the points that readers had raised.
Harish sir, there are different layers of interpretation that readers brought to your post and my endeavor was to share a lawyer's inside perspective to those layers of interpretations shared by the readers.
Regarding the post, it was brilliant and I agree with the opinions you've expressed coz its valid and relevant to the current legal system and yes, we need to change some of those things which is why your post becomes more and more relevant to the times we live in.
An introspective and a wonderfully well-elucidated post! And some very interesting discussions in the comments section too.
Thank you, Noufel, for the comment. Glad to hear that you liked the post and the comments section too. Keep visiting us for more.
@Swapna Your comment about bringing uniformity in the education system made me think again. Is there such a huge difference between what is taught in UP and Kerala? It shouldn't be. I don't think what they teach in UP is leading the students in the direction of crime and corruption.
The more I think about it more I get convinced that it depends on the aptitude, attitude and background of each individual. Keeping individual attributes in mind, I think the key question to ask here is that in the current times, who aspires to become a lawyer or study law and how do we ensure that people without clean background, in spite of having necessary educational qualification, don't get entry into the legal system of the country?
It is not meant to attack your personal thoughts about NLS students; however, the comment seems to be generalizing the entire NLS population as non-responsible citizens of India who go on becoming a lawyer without any interest in or commitment for bringing meaningful changes. I don't think an institution as big as NLS hasn't produced at least a few people, if not a lot of them, who are interested in changing things the way they are. Probably you and I don't know about them, never heard of them but that doesn't mean they don't exist. May be they don't want to come in limelight and choose to stay away from public attention.
You are right sir that all of they r lawyers that is just bcoz in India lawyers are the only one who knows their rights and duties about society, Now in this time it's a need of the society to teach general law and this kind of education to each and every student bcoz we are so afr from our morals now and this pushes us in a dark hole. lawyers are the only catagory who having the powers to fight against wrong but its is also neccessary to take kind attention to the law students bcoz law study is just a joke for now in these days for the legal students.thnks
@Vikrant: Thank you for sharing your thoughts on my inputs. You have a different perspective and for me, its always new learning to share new perspectives and debate or have a discussion around it.
From my experience in Kerala and your experience of the situation in UP, there does seem to be a huge difference not between what is taught in UP and Kerala but the quality and the manner in which it is taught. In some colleges in UP, law subjects are taught in Hindi which seems impractical considering that the High Courts and Supreme Court will entertain procedures mostly in English, including arguments, hearings and so on. It seems odd to me that the process for admission is different from state to state but fact is this is true because the education segment falls in the Concurrent list and states can regulate and modify laws based on regional requirements with the consent of the Center. The process or manner in which legal education is being imparted across different states requires to be corrected. Having two tier entrance exams for aspiring students right at the admission entry level like the law colleges in Kerala may be a good way to ensure quality in the selection process.
Also, in Kerala during the academic years when I studied there, before any law student is enrolled as an advocate, it is checked whether the student got into any trouble for offences with the cops and whether any FIRs have even been filed in the said person's name. If yes, the law student will not be permitted to enroll as an advocate unless he is able to prove otherwise and get a clean character certificate from the cops.
About NLS students, I am sure there is always the possibility of hidden gems and they will shine through hopefully in the coming years. Students, after all, represent the future thought leaders of this country and one would always aspire them to be better than the best across generations.
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