Historical Perspectives on Illegitimacy: A Comparative Study of Legal and Social Responses from Ancient Rome to Modern India

Illegitimacy is a concept that has withstood the test of time, spanning from ancient Rome to modern India. Although the pre-Vedic and Vedic eras have been benevolent to children irrespective of their parental status, the post-Vedic and modern Indian laws typically confer legitimacy based solely on marital status, leaving children born outside of marriage in a precarious legal position. Today, children are often deprived of identity and rights solely because they fall outside legal brackets. Despite international human rights laws advocating for children's right to a name and identity as soon as they are born, Indian law remains obsolete and sometimes contradicts constitutional protections against such discrimination. While many recent judicial pronouncements signal a shift towards recognising the rights of children out of non-marital births, few changes were visible at the statutory level. The global efforts since the early 18th century to abolish illegitimacy underscore the importance of legal reform in India to ensure equal rights and protections for all children, regardless of their birth parents’ marital status, and to address the deep-rooted injustices prevailing in such classification.