Jain Journal 1974 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 41

JANUARY, 1974
125
Origin of State :
The state was built upon the ruins of the gentile constitution of the free people under the Kulakara order, as Rsabhadeva became the first tribal king. Similar instances are found in Greece (Athens), Rome and among the Germans. “Athens represented the purest, most classical form. Here the state sprang directly and mainly out of the class antagonism that developed within gentile society. In Rome gentile society became an exclusive aristocracy amidst a numerous plebs, standing outside of it, having no rights but only duties. The victory of the plebs burst the old gentile constitution asunder and erected on its ruins the state, in which both the gentile aristocracy and the plebs were soon wholly absorbed. Finally, among the German vanquishers of the Roman Empire, the state sprang up as a direct result of the conquest of large foreign territories, which the gentile constitution had no means of ruling"13.
“The state is, therefore, by no means a power forced on society from without ; just as little is it the reality of the ethical idea, the image and reality of reason, as Hegel maintains"?14.
From the study of the evolution of mankind, beginning from the stage of infancy of the human race to the upper stage of the Kulakara society it appears to be clear that the state which came into being under the leadership of Rsabhadeva is a product of society at a certain state of development.
As pointed out before, with the change in Nature, the growth of population and the destruction of natural sources of food staff and socio-economic needs, the Kulakara society became entangled in an insoluble contradiction within itself, it had split into irreconcilable antagonisms followed by conflicting economic interests and lawlessness and anarchy. Therefore, it became necessary to have a power seemingly standing above society for alleviating the conflict and keeping it within the bounds of order. This power of the society of the Kulakaras was the state which came into being by placing itself above the society and alienating itself more and more from it in the course of history from the ancient period up to the modern age.
As already mentioned, Rsabhadeva made the political division of the country into provinces, provinces into divisions and districts, 13 The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, p. 166. 14 Ibid.