Unit I - Introduction to Ethics: Ethics of Select Indian Faith Communities (Hindu,

Buddhist, Muslim, Dalits)

Introduction:
The Ethics or Moral Philosophy is not belonged to a particular religion. Many saints and
scholars gave a set of methods to live in peace and wellbeing (eudaimonia). The Socrates
teaching sometimes raised question against the Religion authorities. The Hellenistic
philosophers says that standing far from the religion is the way for happiness. “Every
religious tradition offers guidance for living a moral life. At the most basic level, this
guidance is simply woven into the fabric of observances, beliefs, and expectations that shape
a way of life we identify as Hindu, or Christian, or Ibo, or Confucian.”1 Sometimes Traditions
also makes a person to give moral teaching to the human for their better being. Aristotle is
one such person who the Greek people believed. The Hebrew prophets were also expected a
Law for the people to follow the Justice and Mercy.
The western ethics can be divided into two groups Normative and Non-normative. The Non-
normative ethics can be segregate as Descriptive ethics and Meta ethics. The Metaethics
might be cognitive and non-cognitive. The cognitive ethics is either naturalistic or non-
naturalistic. The Normative ethics divided into Deontological and Teleological theories.
Hindu Ethics:
The doctrine of karma deduced from the principle of compensation for previous deeds of the
world, not only explained the caste organization but the rank order of divine, human and
animal beings of all degrees. Hence it provided for the coexistence of different ethical codes
for different status groups which not only differed widely but were often in sharp conflict
were as unlike as men and animal.2 The Hindu Ethics has the anti-theoretical and
particularistic. The Hindu ethics avoided the western ethics. Even though they avoided
universal ethics but they are well developed in their own ethics, for example, (pramanavada).
The Hindu ethics also gives importance to the universal ethics dharmasastrins which tells the
different works of human kind and also differentiates. A human must to do his/her caste-
based duty (varnasrama dharma) and also to do the normal work (sadharan dharma) which
all the human must do. There are issues with approach of expressing Hindu moral doctrine. It
is makes a to think that Hindu moral theory is merely an awkward and potentially unstable
patchwork of components from several, more well-known Western moral theories and the
idea that the corpus of Indian writings on ethics, which are dispersed over a range of sources
and genres, constitutes a single synthetic moral theory, is exegetically untenable. The Hindu
ethics doesn’t have any recognition in the western ethics.
The Vedas is a text of “knowledge” which has myth, poetry and sacrificial rituals. The oral
tradition of Rigveda is surrounding for many millennia. The Rigveda can be written in 8th to
6th century BCE and it is divided into upanishads. All the texts said as sruti because it is heard

1
William Scheweiker, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Religious Ethics (Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2008),
19.
2
M. Weber, The Religion of India (New York: Free Press, 1958), 144

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through nature from the saints and sages due to that it also said as the authorless. The Priestly
sects in the Hindu society preserves the Vedas. The women, low class people and marginal
were treated as the second-class citizens till the modern age.
According to Hindu, the life is designed to follow the rules of vedas which is well arranged
and tabulated. The main duty of the Brahmanical man to make a human being to stick on to
their position in this hierarchical world. The word Dharma which means “to uphold” comes
sixty times in Rigveda.
The sacrifice is done for Dharma in the vedic period. The sacrifice is done for the better
cosmos. It also done to maintain the Brahmanical order. The sacrificial acts of Brahman have
not survived. The Dharma in the olden days was to sacrifice but at these days it has converted
to living according to the class (Brahman to perform sacrifice, warrior to rule, merchant to do
trade and the servant class to labour). The Dharma is a relation between the Cosmogony and
ethics. The Hindus not disciplined to follow the Vedas and also followed the epics of Sanskrit
and in other languages.
Dharma is a source which humans need to act. The Reason is made nothing by the Revelation
and Memory to learn Dharma. The revelation and memory are conferred to in general textual
to form Sastra which educated the people what to do and what not to do. Sastra which tells
about the human behaviour is called Dharmasastra. The Dharmasastra gives the rules and
regulations for the human behaviour (Acara). The Acara is the human conduct and custom.
The Acara can be corrected by text, revelation and practice. It also said that the human can
get clear knowledge from their previous generation.
Dharma is not same for all and it differs place to place. The Hindus are so emotional on their
geographical and moral differentiation. The morality develops the people’s customs. So, there
is tolerance amidst of difference. The Dharma avoids the universal rules. The western ethics
speaks about equality rather the Hindu ethics is about differentiation. According to Hindus,
the human beings are different with respect to the locations and social order. The morals were
designed according to the social order. The Hindu ethics teaches to stay in the social order
which is called Karma. The Brahmanical system very keen in estab5610lishing the
environment of social differences.
The Yajnavalkya gives rules which common to all sects of people. Which are, non-violence,
truth, not to steal, purity, control of sense, generosity, self-control, compassion, and patience.
Manu gives non-violence, honesty, non-steal, purity and sense control are common to all
division of people.
Buddhist Ethics:
The Budhhsim is founded by Siddhartha Gautama (490 - 410) in Northeast India. He attained
enlightenment at his age of 35. His followers formed the Buddhism. A search for
understanding the beginning level of understanding is called as Buddhist ethics. Buddhist
teaching is to become genuinely human. There are two Buddhist tradition namely Teravada
and Jodo Shinshu.The Buddhist ethics can be called as the “Intuitional Pluralistic Virtue
Ethics”.
The Teravada tradition makes one to know to understand, to realize, to perceive, to “come
upon”. The Jodo Shinshu uses a term Shinjin which means faith. It says, a person must have
mind without impurity and dishonest. Any action can be interpreted in the light of Dharma.
The Deontological rule exist here, that a Buddhist must obey rule which called Vinaya. The

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Teleological laws also there which asks a human to take action which ends in good
(kammavipaka). The Buddhist ethics tells a human to live in two ways,
A. To live a Budhha who given a paradigm
B. To live in earth in virtuous quality
In Buddhism there is no single authority and one body governing but there is country wise
association due to the many communities in Buddhism. All the Buddhist all over the world
seeking same destination nirvana, a spiritual and moral perfection life which a human could
attain in the light of Buddha. The Buddhism doesn’t believe in “Supreme power” or “One
God” ideology. Its teaching mostly related to Aristotle teaching (eudemonia).
Dharma: In Buddhism every factor of life is guided by Dharma, the sun rising, the season
changed so on. Living according to Dharma makes one to live in happiness, fulfilment and
salvation and neglecting the rebirth(samsara). Dharma is not designed by God and even the
God is subjected to the Laws. The Dharma is called as “Natural Law”. In Buddhist one must
have the morality in order to attain Nirvana.
Karma: Not only in Buddhism, many Indian tradition have the belief in Karma which is, one
must harvest what they sow both in action and in deeds. It has two results, Soteriologically
changes one who doing it and it gives the good and bad results to whom performing it.
Budhha said that the life must be moral to attain salvation.
Rebirth: There is belief in rebirth that a human will born again in this world as a result of
deeds which they did in their past lives. The vedic religion also had the same belief. But the
Buddhism rejected the both the orthodox and unorthodox branches of Hinduism like,
i) The Buddhism rejected the animal sacrifice
ii) Rejected all the Brahminic rituals
iii) Rejected the Caste system
There is a Golden rule in Buddhism which tells a human to not to force to accept which is
already unpleasant to one self. This rule related to Christian teaching “one must love others as
he\she loves themselves”.
Islamic Ethics:
It is a part of Abrahamic tradition and its ethics varies from the Christianity and Judaism. The
ethics of Islam can be divided as “science if innate disposition”, “the science of
comportment”, “science of mysticism”. Two terms are significant in the ethics,
character(khuluq) and civility(adab). Khuluq means noble in character. The adab means right
conduct. Any neat advice that benefits in making of ethics is called Right conduct. Ethics can
be attained through education and practice. In Islam, the law and ethics is inseparable. The
fiqh and Sharia is called as Law. The fiqh means discernment. The acts of muslim must serve
salvation.
The ethics of pre-Islamic is the earlier Islamic teachings. A person must be thankful to whom
provide life. The Quran claims that the giver and receiver is moral conduct. The pre-Islamic
tradition goes to the post-Islamic and acts like a glue to make all the community together.
The Quran ethics says that the human have a moral agency. The Quran says that the Adam is
not fallen but it is his failure to obey God. The failure has consequences. Adam reconciled
with God. So, a Muslim also must incline and obedient to God. Quran says that the human
can get God’s claims on them by reasoning and thinking. The Islamic ethics frames rules for
individuals like, the one will be held accountable for both good and bad deeds. The picture of

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the Last Day in the Qur’an is centred on experience: anxiety, joy, satisfaction, and ease are all
feelings that can be felt on their own. It makes no sense to assume that simply being a part of
any group, including the Muslim community, will ensure moral behaviour and a favourable
outcome on the Day of Judgment. The Quran imagines a society that shares some values with
Christians and Jews while remaining sociologically distinct from them. Muslims give one
another “guidance” in this community, which is built by “commanding the good and
prohibiting the objectionable.”
Dalit Ethics:
All victims of abuse who seek to improve their circumstances are collectively referred to as
“Dalits.” Pregnant women are treated with greater respect and care in Dalit society, the birth
of a kid is also honoured in the same way. One does not judge a girl child. Puberty is
regarded as a positive development for the family and friends. In Dalit tradition, the women
are not restricted to get marry if they became widow. For Dalits, the value of human life is
paramount. The two things that matter most in Dalit culture are food and labour. The violence
and suicide in the community is less as compared to other community. The main focus of
their celebrations is coming together. The entire community gathers to rejoice with the family
whenever a child is born, gets married, or worships a deity. Dalits men and women dance
during the funeral procession as a means to celebrate and honour the deceased. They are able
to celebrate life in this way because many people share in the suffering of one individual.
They pay attention, speak back, and assist the person in getting over their loss,
disappointment, and unhappiness.
The Dalit follow God for the spiritual change and good life. They have both God and
Goddesses. Mostly, their Gods are human beings who were killed by upper class people. The
Madurai veeran is a God who had been killed by the upper-class people because he had loved
the girl of their class. Sometime the upper-class people take away the Dalit Gods to make the
them emotionally down.
The Dalits’ forgiveness of the non-Dalits does not imply that they are powerless. Dalits
frequently utilise forgiveness to weaken non-Dalits who mistreat them. In anywhere, the Dalit
majority area, the upper-class people felt unsecured.
Conclusion:
All religion and community have their ethics for their better life in this world. Ethics must
lead to happiness to all human beings. But it shouldn’t be stagnated for a particular people.
The Ethics must give happiness to self and other. The Hindu ethics is here is just favours the
upper-class people rather the Islamic, Buddhist and Dalit ethics are sharing the happiness
with them as well as with others.

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Bibliography:
Schweiker, William, ed. Religious Factors in Mental Illness. Great Britain: Bradford and
Dickens, 1957.