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PDFand if there were no counteracting forces at work,
crimes of violence in India should be much more numerous
than they are with us. But the counteracting
forces acting upon Indian society are of such immense
potency that the malign influences of climate are very
nearly annihilated as far as the crimes we are now
discussing are concerned; and India stands to-day
in the proud position of being more free from crimes
against the person than the most highly civilised
countries of Europe. In proof of this fact we
have only to look at the official documents annually
issued respecting the condition of British India.
According to the returns contained in the Statistical
Abstract relating to British India and the Parliamentary
paper exhibiting its moral and material progress,
the number of murders reported to the police of India
is smaller than the number reported in any European
State. The Indian Government issue no statistics,
so far as I am aware, of the numbers tried; it is,
therefore, impossible to institute any comparison
between Europe and India upon this important point.
But when we come to the number convicted it is again
found that India presents a lower percentage of convictions
for murder than is to be met with among any other
people. It may, however, be urged that the statistical
records respecting Indian crime are not so carefully
kept as the statistics of a like character relating
to England and the Continent. Sir John Strachey
assures us that this is not the case; he says that
these statistics are as carefully collected and tabulated
in India as they are at home, and we may accept them
as worthy of the utmost confidence. The following
table, which I have prepared from the official documents
already mentioned, may, therefore, be taken as giving
an accurate account of the condition of India between
1882-6, as far as the most serious of all crimes is
concerned. In order to facilitate comparison
I have drawn it up as far as possible on the same
lines as the other tables in this chapter.
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-------------- |Population |Years.| Cases of Homicide. | over Ten. | | Reported. Convicted. | ----------------------------------------- | | |Annual |Per |Annual |Per | | |Average.|100,000 |Average.|100,000 | | | |Inhabitants.| |Inhabitants. India|148,543,223|1882-6| 1,930 | 1.31 | 690 | .46 ------------------------------------------------------------
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According to this table, the remarkable fact is established that the number of cases of homicide in India committed by persons over ten years of age and reported to the police is smaller per 100,000 inhabitants than the number of cases of the same nature brought up for trial in England. In order to appreciate the full importance of this difference it has to be remembered that in England a great number of cases of homicide
