Imagine the situation, when someone suddenly attacks you — say a man barges into your office with a gun, already firing bullets — you don’t have the luxury to sit and calculate, “hmm… should I strike back softly or strongly? What is the exact proportionate response?” No! The human instinct is to act and preserve life. That instinct, in law, is known as private defence.
For centuries, Hindu philosophy too has recognised this instinct — because Jeevan Raksha is not violence, it is an act of Dharma. Even the principle of Ahimsa, never meant passively allowing harm. It meant: do not cause unnecessary injury to other beings. But when life itself is under threat, the effort to protect that life is part of Ahimsa, because Ahimsa begins with protecting the living flame of one’s own existence.
Yet, in courtrooms, judges often treated private defence like a secondary excuse: “Yes, maybe you saved your life, but was your counter‑action exactly proportionate?” Although, The Supreme Court in Rakesh Dutt Sharma Vs. State of Uttarakhand (2025) reminded us of this reality. It leaned on the earlier Darshan Singh Vs. State of Punjab (2010) case, where a doctor in his own clinic was shot at, and fired back to protect life. The Supreme Court said clearly: self‑defence cannot be weighed in golden scales. You cannot expect mathematical perfection when survival is at stake.
Now, as a vegan, I feel that to protect your own life or the life of an innocent animal under assault — that is the truest practice of Ahimsa. Because life is sacred, whether it is the trembling goat at the butcher’s shop or the trembling doctor in a clinic. Both deserve defence. Both deserve the shield of protection.
If you read my next post on the *Right of Self-defence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)*, you may find through various real-life stories that survival is not a sin. Protecting life — human or non‑human — is not cruelty, it is compassion in action. The law must breathe with the realities of India, where dangers come suddenly, and instincts guide action. In that moment, self‑defence is true Dharma.
👨🏫 Sudesh Kumar
🌎 sudeshkumar.com
