{"id":4523,"date":"2015-06-15T17:28:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T17:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/?p=4523"},"modified":"2020-06-15T14:35:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T13:35:26","slug":"800-years-of-magna-carta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/?p=4523","title":{"rendered":"800 Years of Magna Carta"},"content":{"rendered":"

“\u2026ideas of the free world and democracy existed in the Vedic scriptures in Ancient India, almost 5000 years ago\u201d.
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It all started 800 years ago on this day, 15th<\/sup> June 1215 at Runnymede, by the River Thames. The tyrannical King John of England was forced by feudal Barons to affix his seal to a certain document, which has since been famously known by the name, Magna Carta or \u201cGreat Charter\u201d<\/em>. It was drawn up in a time of much uncertainty, in a bid to end the Civil War that had been tearing the country apart under the rule of this Monarch. The King was a man so awful and gruesome, who believed he had a divine right and could confiscate property, impose tax or torture his subjects as per his will and leisure. Incidentally, no King since has been a John!<\/p>\n

So what is so special about this highly venerated \u201cCharter\u201d that everyone seems to have celebrated and appropriated, including the American rapper Jay-Z, who named his latest studio album \u201cMagna Carta\u2026 Holy Grail<\/em>\u201d. Well for a start, it was the first time a contract was created between a Monarch and his subjects. Fundamentally, it presents the rights of the people and states that the law is applicable to everyone and that no one (not even the King) was above the law.<\/p>\n

The legislation is acclaimed for conceiving the very notion of human rights, that \u201call men are equal\u201d. It ordained that \u201cno free man shall be imprisoned or stripped of his rights or possessions, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.\u201d It can be said that the Magna Carta represents the beginning of change and the construction of true democracy in England that has radiated all around the World, including USA and India \u2013 the largest democracies in the World.<\/p>\n

The document did not affect agricultural labourers that were bound by the feudal system who were tied to working on their lord\u2019s estate, representing a form of slavery. In fact, the Magna Carta\u2019s clause 30 (commonly known as Habeas Corpus), forms the basis of a law against slavery. It can be disputed that this \u201cGreat Charter\u201d was completely disregarded when it came to issues such as the slave trade, and the ill treatment of Native Americans and natives of all pre-colonial countries. In fact, 1515 years before the Magna Carta was created, the Ancient Indian Emperor Ashoka recognised the cruelness in the practice of slavery and abolished slave trade in parts of India as early as in the 3rd century BC.<\/p>\n

In a recent publication by Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK, Professor Nawal Prinja, an academic and religious spokesman for the Vedic Organization for Indian Culture & Education (VOICE), writes about the Magna Carta in conjunction with Hindu Vedic scriptures. He advocates that the idea of democracy and election was in existence in Ancient India almost 5000 years ago; \u201cin the Rig Veda, a verse in Book 10 Hymn 124 implies, that those people who elect their rulers are divine. Thus electing a government or ruler is a godly act\u201d.<\/p>\n

The article also inscribes that \u201cthe origin of the State, the office of the King or ruler, the law conferring power on the ruler and ruler\u2019s duty to maintain law and order have been explained in the Shantiparva of the Mahabharata.\u201d He explains that the 2715 year-old (give or take a century) Vedic scripture known as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states that \u201cthe law is the king of kings. No one is superior to the law. The law aided by the power of the king enables the weak to prevail over the strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Prinja mentions that \u201cwhilst we admire and enjoy the freedom and democracy and salute the Magna Carta that enshrined these rights in the law books 800 years ago, [we] should be mindful that similar ideas of the free world and democracy existed in the Vedic scriptures in Ancient India, almost 5000 years ago!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Queen joined Prime Minister David Cameron earlier today at the site in Runnymede where the \u201cCharter\u201d was first sealed, to celebrate its 800th year anniversary. In his speech, the Prime Minister declared that the principles of the Magna Carta are \u201cas relevant today as it was then” and that fundamental reforms to UK human rights laws are needed in order to \u2018\u201dsafeguard the legacy\u201d of this historic document. Changing the Human Rights Act was a key proposal in the Conservative election campaign earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Just like many historic compositions, texts and Vedic scriptures, it is clear that some of the manuscripts of the Magna Carta have survived better than others, but the principles still remain. Whether it is in politics, the law, or our constitutional monarchy, it is one immense, irreplaceable and fundamental notion that we are not governed by powerful people, but by the institution of law.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Priyesh Ranmal<\/strong><\/em>
\nNHSF (UK) PR Team<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“\u2026ideas of the free world and democracy existed in the Vedic scriptures in Ancient India, almost 5000 years ago\u201d. It all started 800 years ago on this day, 15th June 1215 at Runnymede, by the River Thames. The tyrannical King John of England was forced by feudal Barons to affix his seal to a certain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[738],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}