The concept of 'social justice' comes within the broader
concept, 'justice', and can hardly be understood detached from the
latter. It is accepted as an unchallengeable fact that a sense of justice
is one of the very important attributes for the healthy functioning of
both individuals as well as societies. Objects of justice occupy a very
broad range and there is a wide umbrella above them. We often, make
judgments on people and their deeds on the basis of our conception of
justice or injustice. Therefore, to get at least a basic idea of what
justice is, one has to look at the dichotomy, the binary oppositions of
'just' and 'unjust' or 'justice' and 'injustice.' In such situations it will
be fruitful to examine the contexts that we generally characterise as
'unjust'. Robbery, criminal acts against fellow beings, discrimination
in employment on the grounds of colour or sex, unequal distribution
of profits among the individuals of a collective group, or an
inequitable supply of food which ends up in the sumptuous eating by
one group and the starvation of another group may be instances of
injustice. Then, what can be taken as justice? Justice has a great deal to do with the concepts of 'fittingness', 'fairness', 'proportion', and
the like.
