Tamil Nadu HSE Second Year Ethics and Indian Culture key terms

The moral duty and right conduct expected of a person according to age, role, and circumstance; it is the foundation of ethical life in Indian thought and governs both personal and social obligations.

The principle that every intentional action produces consequences that shape the actor's present and future experience; it explains moral responsibility without appealing to external punishment.

The four recognised goals of human life: dharma (righteousness), artha (material well-being), kama (legitimate desire), and moksha (liberation). Together they frame a balanced, ethically ordered life.

Release from the cycle of birth and rebirth, regarded in most Indian traditions as the highest human goal; different schools describe it as union with the divine, isolation of the self, or extinction of suffering.

The ethical commitment to non-violence in thought, word, and deed; central to Jainism, Buddhism, and Gandhian thought, it treats causing unnecessary harm as a moral failure.

Gandhi's method of non-violent resistance based on truth-force, in which suffering is accepted willingly rather than inflicted on opponents, aiming to convert rather than defeat the adversary.

Self-rule; for Gandhi it meant not only political independence from colonial rule but also individual self-mastery and village-level economic and moral autonomy.

The principle of preferring locally produced goods and services and supporting indigenous industry; used in the freedom movement as an economic and moral rejection of colonial dependence.

An ancient fourfold social classification of society described in Vedic and later texts; it is a theoretical scheme, distinct from the thousands of endogamous birth groups called jati.

A hereditary, endogamous community defined largely by birth, marriage rules, and traditional occupation; jati is the lived social reality of caste in most of India.

Unfair treatment of persons based on birth-caste, historically including untouchability and denial of access to wells, temples, and schools; prohibited by the Constitution and by law.

The constitutional guarantee in Article 14 that the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within India.

Basic entitlements belonging to every person by virtue of being human, such as life, liberty, dignity, and freedom of expression; in India they are protected by the Constitution and the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Eleven obligations listed in Article 51A of the Indian Constitution, added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, asking citizens to respect the Constitution, protect the environment, and foster harmony.

A village-level council of elders or elected members that settles local disputes and manages community affairs; the 73rd Constitutional Amendment gave elected panchayats constitutional status in 1993.

A Tamil ethical work of 1,330 couplets in three books on virtue, wealth, and love, attributed to Thiruvalluvar; it is a cornerstone of Tamil moral literature and world ethics.

The Tamil term for virtue, righteousness, and moral duty; it is the subject of the first book of the Thirukkural and the organising idea of classical Tamil ethics.

The traditional author of the Thirukkural, revered in Tamil tradition as a moral teacher; his date and life are uncertain, and he is honoured across religious communities in Tamil Nadu.

The earliest known Tamil literature, comprising anthologies of poems on love and war composed roughly between the 3rd century BCE and 3rd century CE, including works such as Purananuru and Akananuru.

A devotional current that spread across India from the early medieval period, emphasising personal love of God over ritual and caste, and producing poetry in regional languages including Tamil.

The twelve Vaishnava saint-poets of Tamil Nadu, active from roughly the 6th to 9th centuries CE, whose devotional hymns in praise of Vishnu are collected in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.

The sixty-three Shaiva saint-poets of Tamil Nadu who composed hymns in praise of Shiva; their works, notably those of Appar, Sundarar, and Manikkavacakar, shaped Tamil devotional religion.

A traditional Tamil system of election in which names were written on palm leaves and dropped into a pot; used in Chola-period village assemblies such as the ur and sabha.

Metal images cast by the lost-wax method under the Chola dynasty, especially the Nataraja form of Shiva; admired for balance, detail, and spiritual expressiveness in Tamil temple art.

A classical dance form originating in Tamil Nadu, combining nritta (pure movement), nritya (expressive gesture), and natya (drama), with a repertoire rooted in temple and court traditions.

The classical music tradition of South India, built on raga (melodic framework), tala (rhythmic cycle), and compositions by figures such as Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, and Syama Sastri.

The design of Hindu temples, typically featuring a garbhagriha (sanctum), vimana or gopuram towers, and mandapas; Dravidian style is characteristic of Tamil Nadu's great temples.

The inherited practices, monuments, arts, languages, and knowledge systems that a society values and passes to future generations; in India it includes both tangible sites and living traditions.

Living heritage such as oral traditions, performing arts, rituals, festivals, and craft skills, which UNESCO distinguishes from physical monuments and sites because it exists in practice and transmission.

The study of moral duties towards nature, including animals, plants, ecosystems, and future generations; it asks what obligations humans have beyond their own immediate interests.

Development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs; popularised by the 1987 Brundtland Report and central to modern environmental policy.

A 1970s Indian forest-protection movement in Uttarakhand in which villagers, especially women, hugged trees to prevent felling; it linked livelihood rights with ecological conservation.

A national programme launched in 2001 to universalise elementary education; it aimed at enrolment, retention, and quality, and was later subsumed under the Samagra Shiksha scheme.

The branch of ethics concerned with how people should behave towards one another in groups, families, and institutions, including questions of justice, care, and mutual obligation.

The process of building unity and common citizenship across India's linguistic, religious, and regional diversity, while respecting plural identities and opposing communal division.

In the Indian constitutional sense, the state has no official religion, treats all religions equally, and may intervene to reform religious practices that violate fundamental rights.

Thiruvalluvar's teaching that true friends are those who help without being asked and warn against wrongdoing; the chapters on friendship stress discernment before forming ties.

An ethical approach that focuses on the character and habits of the agent rather than only on rules or consequences, asking what kind of person one should become.

The family of ethical theories judging actions right or wrong by their outcomes; utilitarianism, which seeks the greatest good for the greatest number, is its best-known form.