MORALS BY LEGISLATION ?

Summary

In “Morals by Legislation?”, M. R. Masani examines whether laws can make people moral or produce lasting social justice. Beginning with A. P. Herbert’s satirical image of officials eager to “stop everyone from doing” ordinary things, Masani argues that the question is wider than regulating sex, drink, gambling, or entertainment: morality includes fair dealing, official integrity, honesty in professional and business life, and the elimination of social and economic injustice. He contrasts British and Indian examples of regulation with the danger that laws intended to promote desirable ends may instead restrict individual initiative, property, livelihood, and personal independence.

Masani identifies an étatist view that looks to legislation and State administration as the main instruments of progress, and an individualist or libertarian view that regards concentrated State power as inherently prone to corruption and despotism. He connects the latter position to Mahatma Gandhi, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Jayaprakash Narayan, and C. Rajagopalachari, emphasizing conversion, self-discipline, voluntary action, decentralisation, and “people’s policy” over coercive law-making. The essay also discusses constitutional safeguards, judicial independence, welfare-state expansion, and the danger that attempts to achieve a stateless or free society through State power may produce a more powerful State instead. Masani closes by rejecting a single-track answer: parliamentary government and grassroots voluntary initiative are presented as complementary dimensions of democracy.

Key points

• Masani questions whether legislation can create personal morality or social justice.
• He treats morality as including fair dealing, official integrity, professional honesty, and opposition to exploitation.
• Indian restrictions on drinking, gambling, shop hours, films, plays, and child marriage illustrate the belief that law can stop undesirable conduct.
• The essay contrasts an étatist reliance on State administration with an individualist or libertarian suspicion of concentrated State power.
• Masani argues that constitutional amendments weakening judicial review and Fundamental Rights would threaten the Rule of Law.
• Gandhian and Sarvodaya approaches are presented as alternatives based on conversion, voluntary action, decentralisation, and Janashakti rather than coercion.
• The conclusion urges a many-sided conception of democracy that includes both parliamentary institutions and grassroots initiative.