Justice Research: The Indian Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the diverse interpretations and contexts of the term justice, using a social-psychological perspective. It explores the traditional Indian view of justice drawing on sources, such as the epics and theoretical texts. Focusing on the prescrip tive element of various forms of justice, which it is believed are embedded in an implicit action-outcome relationship, an analysis is presented of the different aspects of this relationship, as well as the criteria used to define deservingness in specific situations. The discussion of Western perspectives includes a statement of diverse philosophical views as well as an enumeration of the major social-psychological conceptualisations including the exchange and equity theories and Lerner's "belief in a just world" hypothesis. The empirical literature on distributive justice and reward allocation is reviewed, highlighting cultural differences and those points of view that are relevant to justice in. non-western cultures.

Changing Perspectives in Social Psychology in India: A Journey Towards Indigenization

“…As a theme, justice has been important in religious social and political spheres in traditional Indian life and is discussed elaborately in the ancient treaties. The analysis has a strong prescriptive element and is closest to the sense of getting or giving what one deserves (Krishnan, 1992). Its key lies in the idea of ''deservingness'' and is embedded in an implicit action-outcome relationship (p. 42).…”

Psychological science in cultural context.

“…A fruitful interface between indigenous Indian thought and psychological discourse is found in the Guru Chela paradigm of therapy (Neki, 1973), the nurturant task style of leadership (J. Sinha, 1980), analyses of self and personality (Naidu, 1994;Tripathi, 1988), the reconceptualization of achievement (Dalai, Singh, & Misra, 1988;Misra & Agarwal, 1985), analyses of the Indian psyche (Kakar, 1978), emotion (Jain, 1994), justice (Krishnan, 1992), morality (Misra, 1991 ), the concept of well-being (D. Sinha, 1990Sinha, , 1994, development (Kaur & Saraswathi, 1992), values (Prakash, 1994), detachment (N. Pandey & Naidu, 1992), and methods of organizational intervention (Chakroborty, 1993). As Marriott (1992) envisioned, these developments suggest that alternative social sciences are potentially available in the materials of many non-western cultures, and their development is essential to serve in the many places now either left to ad hoc descriptions or badly monopolized by social sciences borrowed from the West.…”

“…A fruitful interface between indigenous Indian thought and psychological discourse is found in the Guru Chela paradigm of therapy (Neki, 1973), the nurturant task style of leadership (J. Sinha, 1980), analyses of self and personality (Naidu, 1994; Tripathi, 1988), the reconceptualization of achievement (Dalal, Singh, & Misra, 1988; Misra & Agarwal, 1985), analyses of the Indian psyche (Kakar, 1978), emotion (Jain, 1994), justice (Krishnan, 1992), morality (Misra, 1991), the concept of well-being (D. Sinha, 1990, 1994), development (Kaur & Saraswathi, 1992), values (Prakash, 1994), detachment (N.…”

Cultural Influences on Sharer and Recipient Behavior

“…Individualistic cultures such as the United States emphasize personal goals and boundaries between self and other, whereas collectivist cultures emphasize group goals and connectedness, and members of collectivist societies behave in ways to promote harmony among in-group members by helping each other and sharing scarce resources (Sinha & Verma, 1987). Furthermore, cultural factors influence the justice rules used in determining reward allocation (Krishnan, 1992). Adult members of collectivist societies tend to distribute resources more equally and based more on need than do adult members of individualist societies, who favor equity as a guiding principle in reward distribution relatively more heavily (Berman, Murphy-Berman, & Singh, 1985;Murphy-Berman, Berman, Singh, Pachauri, & Kumar, 1984).…”