I find in Raaja-tarangini, - the thousand year old Kashmiri historic epic, of poet Kalhana, - that the phrase is repeatedly used, in the sense of law and order.
It was duty of the ruler and state to preserve, dharma and abhaya – righteousness and absence of fear.
Law was something more than mere law.
And order was, the fearlessness of people.
How much more desirable is this idea of inculcating fearlessness, than of enforcing ‘order’ on a frightened populace!
- Aung San Suu Kyi,
Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture, New Delhi
