Question
What is the relevance of “Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah” in Kaliyuga? How is it justified now?
Answer
The verse of which " Dharmo rakshita rakshitah" is a part is found in Manu Smriti.
We need to understand the context in which it was said.
The following is the translation of the full verse.
Manu Smriti 8.15. ’Justice, being violated, destroys; justice, being preserved, preserves: therefore justice must not be violated, lest violated justice destroy us.
This verse and the adjoining verses are discussing how the king's judgement should be impeccable in the court of justice. So, it's basically about courts, witnesses, judges, justice and the king.
The following verses should give you an idea about the context:
8.12. But where justice, wounded by injustice, approaches and the judges do not extract the dart, there (they also) are wounded (by that dart of injustice).
8.13. Either the court must not be entered, or the truth must be spoken; a man who either says nothing or speaks falsely, becomes sinful.
8.14. Where justice is destroyed by injustice, or truth by falsehood, while the judges look on, there they shall also be destroyed.
So, it is so easy to misinterpret the verse without knowing in which context it was said.
Coming to fights and deaths that result from inter-religion clashes, then those in no way prove this verse to be false.
Those people might be fighting for their own Dharma but what's the guaranty that such a Dharma is the one which is defined in Manu Smriti as Dharma? It is not actually.
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