Analyse John rawls’s concept of social justice in the Indian Context. (150 word). (2016 - UPSC Mains General Studies Paper 4)
The concept of social justice given by John Rawls attempts to solve the problem of ‘distributive justice’ by utilising a variant of the familiar device of the ‘social contract’. The term distributive justice means socially just distribution of goods in a society. The resultant theory is known as ‘Justice as Fairness’, from which Rawls derives his two principles of justice.
1. Society should be structured so that the greatest possible amount of liberty is given to its members, limited only by the notion that the liberty of any one member shall not infringe upon that of any other.
2. Inequalities, either social or economic, are only to be allowed if the worst off will be better off than what they might have been under an equal distribution. If there is such a beneficial inequality, this inequality should not make it harder for those without resources to occupy positions of power including positions in government and public offices.
Rawls proposes a person constructing the ideal society to be blinded by a veil, essentially being unaware of what position he would later entail in hopes of securing basic liberties. Since the person has no clue about his position, he would want to construct a society in which even a person who is the worst off does as well as he can. Rawls proposed this thought experiment to be a social contract entailing the original position of equality. He laid down the difference principle that would be chosen from the original position which states that inequality could be fair, should it benefit those who are the least fortunate. E.g., The privileged stratum of the society could benefit until their benefits help fix the lesser fortunate in a substantial way. The Reservation clause in Indian context would be a good paradigm of it.
Read more @ http://www.questjournals.org/jrhss/papers/vol9-issue3/2/L09036468.pdf
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