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HEGEL ON STATE, Introduction, Hegel's theory of state is an integral part of his whole philosophy and it is the final stage of the dialectic process. History in Hegel's view is the manifestation of absolute idea or world spirit and this theory is embodied in the state or what Hegel frequently calls , national state., Hegel's Theory of State, Hegel considers state as essentially a divine institution and described it as the March of God on this earth. He completely rejected the social contract theory which held that the state was the result of a contract. He believes that the state was the product of a long process of evolution. In simple words he considers the state as handi work of God and the highest embodiment (body, form, physical) of reason, Divinity or Spirit. The state is the spirit that dwells in the world. The State is the divine idea as it exists on earth. We must therefore worship the state as the manifestation (sign, object that show something, mark , symbol) of the Divine on Earth., Hegel 's state is an end in itself and never a means to an end. The individual exists for the state and not the state for the individuals. It exist for its own sake. Its own welfare and preservation is its highest end. It has a will and personality of its own different from the wills and personalities of the individuals who composed it. It was the sole agency which worked for the moral upliftment of mankind. Hegel regarded the state as perfect rationality-in the sense that man has ethical status only as a member of state and that highest duty of man is not to develop his individual faculties, but to be a member of the state and faithfully fulfil his allotted functions therein”., Hegel comprehended state as an organism with a natural growth. To the complete state belongs, essentially, consciousness and thought.” The state has interests, passions and can act as individual. It has passed through several stages of evolution. The final stage is state. All the stages or parts are closely related with each other. But it is to be remembered that the state is a complete whole. This is because when the evolution is complete all the parts forming the state are fully merged with it and the parts cannot claim their separate identity. If the state is destroyed various parts will lose their existence., Hegel believed that the individual had no right against the state and the freedom for the individual consisted in blind obedience to the dictates of the state. Hegel considers the state as the creator of all individual rights and does not give the individual any right against the state. He treats him as a representative of the unity of the universal and the individual will and completely subordinates the man to the state. He treats him as an end and the individual as a means for the attainment of that end. Hegel considered state as an embodiment of the highest social morality which laid the standard morality for the individual members., Hegel considers state as more important than society in the same manner in which the society is higher than the family. In the words of Bosanquet the Hegelian state “includes the entire hierarchy of institutions by which life is determined, from the family to the church and the university. It includes all of them, not as a mere collection of growth of the country but as the structure which gives life and meaning to the political whole”., Conclusion, Hegel has tried to stress that the state is an end in itself and that man without state cannot develop, progress and show what is best in himself. But his conception has been put to criticism on the ground that the state can never be an end in itself. The state exists for the sake of individuals and aims at achieving their development. The state is an agency for giving freedom to individuals and aims at their progress. Thus the end is individual and not the state. To believe that the state is an end in itself will be merging the individual in the state which is contrary to all desirabilities and will be just reversing the whole social and political order. Hegel has not only made the state an absolute identity but also has given it a totalitarian concept which is against the spirit of liberty and democracy which is both undated and outdated. Then again by giving very many powers and supreme position to the state, he has created danger of exploitation and subordination leading to slavery by those who wield power.