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Charting Hinduism's rules of armed conflict: Indian sacred texts and international humanitarian law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2022

Raj Balkaran  and
A. Walter Dorn
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Abstract

What does Hinduism have to say about the rules of armed conflict? How might Hinduism enrich the modern global discourse on international humanitarian law (IHL)? What convergences might be found, and what areas of divergence? This paper examines and contextualizes the rules of armed conflict advocated in classical Hindu texts, especially in the epic Mahābhārata, where important norms of Hinduism are established. It also examines the other major epic, the Rāmāyaṇa, and the Dharmaśāstras (Law Codes), as well as the Arthaśāstra, which takes an alternative (realpolitik) approach. This paper focuses on conduct during armed conflict (jus in bello), now synonymous for many with IHL, rather than considerations leading up to war (jus ad bellum). The paper seeks to illuminate both convergences and divergences with IHL and highlight particular Hindu approaches on the righteous (dharmic) application of violence. Like IHL, classical Hinduism values (1) proportionality of force during armed engagement; (2) the minimization of human suffering during combat; (3) care for survivors of war; (4) immunity towards non-combatants, especially civilians; and (5) balancing military necessity with humanity. With respect to divergences, classical Hinduism extols non-violence in ways that critique even the warrior's duty to engage in righteous war (dharma yuddha). In contrast to IHL, the Hindu epics have some different limitations; for instance, they limit the right to combat to a particular caste, the kṣatriyas, though this concept could be modernized to mean uniformed personnel of the State. The epics also disavow certain practices that are legal under IHL, such as ambushes and surprise attacks against legitimate targets. The Hindu proportionality provision goes beyond IHL by prescribing that only warriors of the same type should fight. With its many deeply ethical considerations, Hinduism enriches modern IHL through its heightened emphasis on fair and humane conduct in battle and its call towards compassion on behalf of both combatants and non-combatants.

Keywords

code of conductcombatdharma yuddhaHinduisminternational humanitarian lawjus in bello
Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 104 , Issue 920-921: How International Humanitarian Law Develops , August 2022 , pp. 1762 - 1797
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the ICRC

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Footnotes

*

This work was funded by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The authors thank the ICRC's Head of the Global Affairs Department in Asia, Andrew Bartles-Smith, and Daniel Ratheiser for administering the funding, for excellent coordination and for very useful feedback. Expert insights were also kindly provided by Dr Noel Maurer Trew of the International Law Department, British Red Cross, and Ted Ulrich of St Thomas University. Excellent research assistance was provided by Valters Negribs, Purushottam Pratik and Heeral Kahlon. Any errors in the text remain the authors’ alone.

References

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13 James L. Fitzgerald (ed. and trans.), The Mahābhārata: Volume 11: The Book of the Women; Volume 12: The Book of Peace, Part One, Vol. 7, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2004, p. 411.

14 Ibid., p. 411.

15 John D. Smith (ed. and trans.), The Mahābhārata, Penguin Classics, London, 2009, p. 402.

16 Justin Meiland (trans.), Mahābhārata: Book 9: Śalya, Volume 1, 1st ed., Clay Sanskrit Library, New York University Press, New York, 2005.

17 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, pp. 521–522.

18 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), The Mahābhārata: Book 4: The Book of Virāṭa; Book 5: The Book of The Effort), Vol. 3, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1978, p. 103.

19 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, pp. 428–429.

20 Ibid., pp. 447–448.

21 Ibid., pp. 448–449.

22 W. J. Johnson (trans.), The Sauptikaparvan of the Mahābhārata: The Massacre at Night, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1998, p. 22.

23 In the West, this would be called a tu quoque (“you too”) argument. The use of this argument by war crimes defendants has been expressly rejected by international courts, though they may have some power in public opinion. See, for example, Borrelli, Katerina, “Between Show-Trials and Utopia: A Study of the Tu Quoque Defence”, Leiden Journal of International Law, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2019CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 W. J. Johnson (trans.), above note 22, p. 22.

25 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, p. 760.

26 Ibid., p. 574.

27 Bibek Debroy (trans.), The Mahabharata, 10 vols, Penguin Books, Gurgaon, 2015. Dharmaraja is the God of death and justice.

28 Ibid.

29 ICRC, “Perfidy”, ICRC Casebook, available at: https://casebook.icrc.org/glossary/perfidy; Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck (eds), Customary International Humanitarian Law, Vol. 1: Rules, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005 (ICRC Customary Law Study), Rules 57, 65, available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1.

30 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, p. 553.

31 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rule 113.

32 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, p. 544.

33 Mani, V. S., “International Humanitarian Law: An Indo-Asian Perspective”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 83, No. 841, 2001, p. 63Google Scholar.

34 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, p. 472.

35 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), above note 18, p. 530.

36 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), The Mahābhārata: Book 2: The Book of the Assembly Hall; Book 3: The Book of the Forest, Vol. 2, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1975, pp. 553–554.

37 Ibid., p. 303.

38 W. J. Johnson (trans.), above note 22, p. 64.

39 N. Allen, above note 11, p. 139.

40 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, pp. 572–573.

41 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), above note 36, p. 259.

42 Ibid.

43 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rule 27.

44 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), above note 18, p. 493. The mighty warrior Bhīṣma refuses to shoot arrows at Arjuna because the latter is standing behind Śikhaṇḍin, whom Bhīṣma recognizes as a reincarnation of a woman. Respectful treatment of women is emphasized across the Mahābhārata. When women's rights and dignity are disrespected, as in the case of the attempted disrobing (a form of sexual violence) of the Pāṇḍava's wife, Draupadī, there is enormous criticism and shame. Indeed, this is one of the causes of the war.

45 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), The Mahābhārata: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning, Vol. 1, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1973, p. 306.

46 Ibid.

47 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), above note 18, p. 366.

48 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rules 66–68.

49 See, for instance, Robert N. Minor (ed.), Modern Indian Interpreters of the Bhagavad Gita, SUNY Religious Studies, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1986, p. 3.

50 W. J. Johnson (trans.), The Bhagavad Gītā, Oxford University Press, New York, 1994, p. 16.

51 Ibid., p. 18.

52 Ibid., p. 57.

53 BhG 10.5, 10.45, 13.8–12, 16.1–3, 17.14.

54 A. W. Dorn et al., above note 8, pp. 46–55.

55 A passage from the Gītā (11:32) was even quoted by Robert Oppenheimer, the chief atomic scientist of the Manhattan Project, after he witnessed the first nuclear explosion.

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58 Barend A. van Nooten (trans.), The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India. Volume VI: Yuddhakāṇḍa, ed. Robert P. Goldman, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2009, p. 256.

59 Ibid., p. 372.

60 Ibid., p. 420.

61 Ibid., p. 340.

62 Ibid., p. 149.

63 Sally J. Sutherland Goldman (trans.), The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India. Volume V: Sundarakāṇḍa, ed. Robert P. Goldman, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2005, p. 253.

64 Ibid., p. 274.

65 Robert P. Goldman (ed. and trans.), The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume I: Balakāṇḍa, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1985, p. 173. The verse actually suggests that killing a woman can be justified if a greater good results, but it implies that the act of killing a woman is itself a sin.

66 Sheldon Pollock (trans.), The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India. Volume III: Araṇyakāṇḍa, ed. Robert P. Goldman, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1991, p. 154.

67 B. A. van Nooten (trans.), above note 58, p. 230.

68 Ibid., p. 351.

69 Sheldon Pollock (trans.), The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India. Volume II: Ayodhyākāṇḍa, ed. Robert P. Goldman, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1986, p. 557.

70 S. Pollock (trans.), above note 66, pp. 100–101.

71 Ibid.

72 Ibid.

73 Ibid.

74 R. Lefeber (trans.), above note 57, pp. 88–89.

75 Balkaran, Raj, “The Sarus’ Sorrow: Voicing Nonviolence in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa”, Journal of Vaishnava Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2018Google Scholar.

76 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rule 131.

77 Julius Jolly (trans.), The Institutes of Vishnu, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1880, p.18.

78 Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Dharmasūtras: The Law Codes of Ancient India, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999, p. 94.

79 Ibid., p. 159.

80 Ibid., p. 53.

81 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rules 77, 78 and 70 respectively.

82 Ibid., Rule 72, and also the Chemical Weapons Convention.

83 Wendy Doniger and Brian K. Smith (trans.), The Laws of Manu: With an Introduction and Notes, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth and New York, 1991, p. xvii.

84 Patrick Olivelle (ed. and trans.), Manu's Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra, Oxford University Press, New York, 2005, p. 159.

85 Geneva Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 31 (entered into force 21 October 1950).

86 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rule 85.

87 P. Olivelle (trans.), above note 78, p. 324.

88 Torkel Brekke, “Between Prudence and Heroism”, in Torkel Brekke (ed.), The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations, Routledge, London, 2006, pp. 137–138.

89 In its earliest iterations, artha means aim or purpose. Over the course of its usage, it has come to also connote advantage, gain, material security and wealth.

90 Ibid.

91 Patrick Olivelle (trans.), King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra, Oxford University Press, New York, 2013, p. 401.

92 Ibid., p. 433.

93 Ibid., p.68.

94 Ibid., p. 378.

95 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rule 20.

96 Protocol Additional (I) to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, 1125 UNTS 3, 8 June 1977 (entered into force 7 December 1978), Art. 13.

97 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rule 38.

98 Bimal N. Patel, “India”, in Bardo Fassbender et al., (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012, p. 514.

99 Jeffery D. Long, “Religion and Violence in Hindu Traditions”, in Andrew R. Murphy (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence, John Wiley & Sons, Malden, MA, 2011, p. 204.

100 Ibid.

101 W. J. Johnson (trans.), above note 50, p. 51.

102 N. Allen, above note 11, p. 146.

103 J. L. Fitzgerald (ed. and trans.), above note 13, p. 412.

104 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), above note 36, p. 256.

105 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), above note 45, p. 322.

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108 P. Olivelle (ed. and trans.), above note 84, p. 164. This directly parallels Rule 159 of the ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, on “Amnesty”.

109 J. A. B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), above note 36, p. 119.

110 J. D. Smith (ed. and trans.), above note 15, p. 593.

111 ICRC Customary Law Study, above note 29, Rules 113–116.

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