Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is morally unacceptable. Yet people sometimes resort to it under specific circumstances.

It does not contain any corrective measures. It only aims to instil fear into people’s minds.

Therefore, the practice of taking a life out of anger cannot be accepted in a civilized social system.

Even if somebody is a genuine criminal who has no public support (no matter how notorious a criminal he or she may be, he or she is still a human being), he should have an opportunity to become an asset to society?

It is possible that although the person fails to evoke our sympathy because of the seriousness of his or her crimes, he or she may sincerely repent and be prepared to dedicate the rest of his or her life to the genuine service of society.

If criminals are afflicted with a mental disease, our duty is to cure them instead of sentencing them to death.

Most civilized countries reason that criminals who commit a crime on the spur of the moment are to be given more leniency.

Some people argue that if criminals who commit serious offences are not given capital punishment, they will have to be sentenced to life imprisonment, because few countries have the facilities to cure them of their mental disease.

But such a decision may cause overcrowding in the prisons. Is it possible for the state to provide so many people with food and clothing? Rather I would ask, “Why should such criminals live off the state at all?”

The state will have to see to it that it receives suitable work from them. And after the completion of their sentence, the state should sincerely make arrangements to find them employment so that they will be able to earn an honest living.

A prison should therefore be just like a reform school. The superintendent should be a teacher who is trained in psychology and who has genuine love for society.

Hence a jailer should possess no less ability than a judge.

To appoint a person to this post on the basis of a degree he or she has earned from some university or according to his or her capacity to please a superior, would be most detrimental.

If those charged with antisocial activities and sentenced to prison experience daily injustices, feel a lack of open-heartedness from others, or receive less food and poorer-quality food than that sanctioned by the government, their criminal tendencies and maliciousness will develop and manifest all the more.

If a criminal is imprisoned for a serious crime, his children might join a gang of pickpockets and his daughters might take to prostitution.

In other words, by trying to punish a single criminal, 10 more criminals may be created.

Thus when sentencing a criminal, one will have to take into consideration the financial condition of the members of his or her family. The state will have to provide them with the means to earn an honest living.

If the judicial system is to be totally accessible to the public, ordinary people will have to be able to afford it. Therefore one of the most important things to do is to increase the number of judges.

It is true more or less everywhere in the world that judges, due to pressure of work, are often compelled to adjourn cases. I do not completely oppose the practice of adjournment, because at times an adjournment can be advantageous to innocent people.

But it can be of equal value to criminals who get the opportunity to tamper with evidence, to influence witnesses and to find false witnesses. This cannot be denied.

Experienced judges know if and when it is necessary to adjourn a case in the interests of the public, but if the public interest is not served by this measure, no judge in all conscience should adjourn a case simply due to pressure of work. It is therefore essential to increase the number of judges.

It is not easy to increase the number of judges. It requires a thorough examination and careful selection of candidates. Relatively simple and ordinary cases can even be entrusted to responsible citizens.

To deal with such cases, honorary magistrates can be employed. However, these honorary magistrates will also have to exhibit a highly-developed sense of responsibility at the time of discharging their duties.

In countries where they are selected from among businessmen who have made a quick fortune or from among known sycophants, they will be mere liabilities to the people.

There was a learned judge who delivered judgements according to Whoever gave sufficient money.

The Need for a Spiritual Ideal

“Prevention is better than cure” may be applied to all aspects of life.

When the variety and seriousness of crimes increases with the advancement of civilization, the crime-prevention policies should be given greater importance than remedial action.

Civilized people today should be more interested in preventing base criminal propensities from arising in human beings in the first place, than in taking corrective measures to cure criminals’ mental diseases.

People act in order to attain happiness.

We judge people’s actions as “good” and “bad”, “virtue” and “vice”, only after evaluating those actions in terms of a goal and steps to reach that goal.

Most people are not born dishonest.

There are differences among people’s goals and their efforts to reach their goals. These differences are caused by defects in their bodies’ various glands. This can be corrected through collective effort.

If one’s goal is a pure and pervasive one, then the defects in the process of attaining the goal can never transform a person into a sub-human creature.

If these efforts are in harmony with people’s psychology, this will be extremely beneficial.

As a result, many people will harmonize the rhythm of their diverse ideas and ideologies and progress together. It will gradually transform the inherent individualism and disparity of social life into one symphonic chord, one unified rhythm.

This will become the genuine prototype of a healthy human society.

This idea of oneness is fundamentally a spiritual idea.

Individually and collectively, human beings will have to accept the Supreme and the path to realize the Supreme as the highest truth. This will have to be recognized as the highest goal of human life. It is impossible to implement a sound, well-thought-out plan of action for social progress without this.

Without a spiritual ideal, no social, economic, moral, cultural or political policy or programme can bring humanity to the path of peace.

Virtue and vice are both distortions of the mind.

That which may be considered good in one particular temporal, spatial or personal environment may be considered bad in another.

A country generally bases its penal code on the concept of virtue and vice which prevails in that country, and the concept of virtue and vice in turn is based on accepted religious doctrines.

Virtue is that which helps to expand the mind, by whose assistance the universe increasingly becomes an integral part of oneself.

Vice is that which makes the mind narrow and selfish.

A Universal Penal Code

Except for those social problems caused by geographical factors, the solution to all complex social problems is in implementing a universal penal code applicable to all humanity.

Different laws should not bind different peoples, countries or communities.

All human beings:

• laugh when happy
• cry when sad
• mourn when they feel despair
• need food, clothing and housing.

So why should people be separated from each other by artificial distinctions?

The world constitution should be drafted by a global organization recognized by the people. Otherwise, the possibility exists that at any moment a minority in a country might be persecuted.

Everyone knows that:

• when a revolutionary is victorious in a country’s political struggle, he will be considered a patriot
• when a revolutionary is defeated, he will face death and be branded as a traitor despite his or her innocence.

In nearly every country the law is based on the opinions of powerful people, and their autocratic style cannot be questioned. But is such a situation desirable? Does this not undermine civilization?

That is why I contend that laws must be drafted by a global organization, and, further, that the supreme authority to judge or to try a person should be vested in that organization.

If that global organization then refrains from interfering in the internal affairs of countries, powerless groups or individuals will be forced to lead the lives of virtual slaves, in spite of written assurances that they are free.

1959

Footnotes

(1) The ripus, or śad́aripus (six enemies), are underlying mental weaknesses which cause immense harm to people. They are: káma (physical desire); krodha (anger); lobha (avarice); mada (vanity); moha (blind attachment or infatuation); and mátsarya (jealousy). –Trans.

(2) In the Dáyabhága system the heirs’ right of inheritance is subject to the discretion of the father, who has the right to disinherit any of the heirs. –Trans.

(3) After the Suicide Act 1961 was passed by the British Parliament, it was no longer an offence to commit suicide under English law. –Trans.

(4) These books contain mainly stories and codes of conduct. (While they have all provided social and ethical guidance to Indian society in their respective periods, only the Rámáyańa and the Mahábhárata continue to be extremely popular today.) –Trans.

(5) The Sarda Act was intended to prevent the marriage of girls below the age of fourteen. –Trans.