GANDHIJI’S CONCEPT OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
In common parlance, crime in an
unlawful, illegal act. It is wrong-doing,
misdeed or trespass or immoral action which is punishable according to the law
of the land where it is committed.
It is rare that a society tries to find
out the compulsive causes which turn a normal citizen into a criminal. To
detect criminals mechanically and inflict punishment upon them on the basis the
prevailing laws is not the best approach.
According to Gandhiji all crime is a
kind of disease and should be treated as such. Like any other malady, it is a
product of the prevalent social system. No one commits crime for the fun of it.
It is a sign of diseased mind and as such the cause of a particular disease
should be investigated and removed. He
suggests: “All criminals should be treated as patients, and the jails should be
hospitals admitting these kinds of patients for treatment and cure.”
Gandhiji believed that criminals,
sinners, evildoers, offenders, and mischievous persons are actually
ignoramuses. They commit their acts unconsciously. What they need for cure is
not penal reaction but enlightenment. Punishment, said he, does not purify; if
anything, it hardens.
It is not strange if Gandhiji often
decided to forgive criminals and sinners. His ideology stood for hating the
crime, not the criminal; the sin, not the sinner. He exemplified his stand by
referring to God who looks at our acts, and any breach of His Law carries with
it, not its vindictive, but its purifying, compelling punishment
As regards capital punishment, he
could not, in all conscience, agree to anyone being sent to the gallows because
once a man is killed the punishment is beyond recall or reparation. God alone
can take life, because He alone gives it.
30th January
2020 G.R.KANWAL
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