The ''Gentoo Code'' (also known as ''A Code of Gentoo Laws'' or ''Ordinations of the Pundits'') is an 'Anglo-Brahminical'

legal code A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...

which was created under Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India, at a time when the Colonizers realized it was important to know India to rule India. The purpose was to create a distorted version of cultural and historical scriptures of Hindus and Muslims to govern the people of India. It was translated from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

(in which it was known as ) into

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...

scholars; and then from

into English by

Nathaniel Brassey Halhed Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (25 May 1751 – 18 February 1830) ( bn, হালেদ, "Haled") was an English Orientalist and philologist. Halhed was born at Westminster, and was educated at Harrow School, where he began a close friendship with ...

, a British grammarian working for the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. ''Vivādārṇavasetu'' is a digest of Hindu law in 21 sections (taraṅga) compiled for Warren Hastings by the pandits. The translation was funded and encouraged by

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-General ...

as a method of consolidating company control on the Indian subcontinent. It was translated into English with a view to know about the culture and local laws of various parts of Indian subcontinent. It was printed privately by the East India Company in London in 1776 under the title ''A Code of Gentoo Laws'', or, ''Ordinations of the Pundits''. Copies were not put on sale, but the Company did distribute them. In 1777 a pirate (and less luxurious) edition was printed; and in 1781 a second edition appeared. Translations into French and German were published in 1778. It is basically about the Hindu law of inheritance (

Manusmriti The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote thei ...

). The Pandits and the Maulvis were associated with judges to understand the civil law of Hindus and Muslims. The resulting 'Anglo-Brahminical' output completely violated the spirit of actual practice. This is because the eleven pandits (Brahmin scholars) hired by Warren Hastings "took advantage of the assignment to favour their own caste, by interpreting and even creating sacrosanct 'customs' that in fact has no shastric authority" The result was a magnification of the problem of caste hierarchy in India - an issue still extant today.

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External links

A Code of Gentoo laws
at

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Legal codes Ancient Indian law British East India Company Translations into English {{India-hist-stub

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