{"id":400,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=400"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:46","slug":"075-more-about-british-justice-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/01-bande-mataram-volume-01\/075-more-about-british-justice-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-075_More About British Justice.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nMore about Brutish Justice<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                        <\/font><\/span>
\nW<\/font><\/span><\/b>E<\/b>
\ncommented the other day on the policy of refusing bail which has recently been
\nadopted by the bureaucracy in a spirit of petty vindictiveness and the
\nscandalous manner in which men accused of political offences are being punished
\nbefore conviction. Of course it is all under the law, but that only proves the
\ncontention we have always advanced that the criminal law in this country on
\nwhich our rulers pride themselves is barbarous, oppressive and semi-mediaeval in
\nits spirit and that its provisions are governed far more by the principle of
\nrepressing the spirit of the people than by the principle of protecting the
\ncitizen. Moreover, in all judicial administration there are two elements, the
\nletter of the law on one side, a humane and equitable practice on the other. To
\nsuspend the latter in favour of the former shows an oppressive and tyrannical
\nspirit. The letter of the law enables the Government to appeal against any and
\nevery acquittal in a criminal case; equitable practice forbids it to take
\nadvantage of this barbarous provision except in important cases where it is
\nconvinced there has been a serious miscarriage of justice. But the first
\nprinciple of bureaucratic rule in India is repression, to crush the spirit of
\nthe people and keep them down with the strong hand. Every acquittal is therefore
\nconsidered by the executive a defeat to Government prestige and resented. Unless
\ntherefore there is a strong and independent High Court, the habit of appealing
\nagainst acquittals is bound to become a standing feature of British justice. But
\nthe idea of a strong and independent High Court is becoming more and more a
\nlegend of the past. Future generations will be as sceptical of the possibility
\nof its ever having existed as the modern world is of the existence of gnomes and
\nfairies.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>There is another equitable practice which has been violated with the most
\ncynical openness in the Rawalpindi trial. It is a sound principle of legal
\nprocedure that the accused should not be
\nhampered in his defence but on the contrary should receive<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-442<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nevery
\nlegitimate facility. The unjust judge who denies proper facilities of defence to
\na man whose life or liberty, honour or reputation is imperilled by an accusation
\nwhich may be false or mistaken, the hanging judge whose diseased brain and
\nmorbid temperament are consumed with the desire to have the accused convicted,
\nare survivals of mediaeval barbarity. Such men are the lineal descendants of
\nJeffreys and Torquemada. In England such men are rareties upon the Bench; in
\nIndia especially among Civilian Magistrates and Judges, they are not uncommon.
\nIn England the prosecuting Counsel will seldom throw unnecessary difficulties in
\nthe way of the defence, in India it is too common for the prosecuting Counsel to
\nregard the defence as an enemy to be beaten down and out-manoeuvred by any means
\nwhich the technicalities of the law leave open to him. For the atmosphere is
\ndifferent. The spirit of bureaucracy in all countries tends to be narrow, hard
\nand domineering, but in a country where a small alien element subsists in a huge
\nnative mass partly by the maintenance of a hypnotic illusion, partly by a cold
\nlegal repressive severity, ubiquitous and watchful to crush down every least
\nunit of strength in the indigenous population, this temper is immensely
\nheightened and exaggerated. Everybody knows that in the local administration of
\nthe law in this country conviction not impartial justice is the object. A
\nSubordinate Magistrate is rated not by the soundness of his judgments but by
\nthe percentage of convictions to the total number of cases he has tried, and it
\nis by this test that he is promoted. In that single fact we find the true and
\nfundamental tendency of British justice in India.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>When such is the spirit even in the ordinary administration of the law,
\nit can easily be imagined to what lengths this spirit of semi-mediaeval
\nbarbarity is likely to be carried when political considerations are imported. To
\nget justice in a Swadeshi case is nowadays almost impossible; even in the High
\nCourt only
\none or two judges have managed to keep a judicial frame of mind in relation to
\npolitical cases. This is of course natural and inevitable. A struggle is going
\non between the ruling bureaucracy and the people of the country, and every judge
\nor magistrate is a servant of the bureaucracy, generally a member of it and very<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-443<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\noften
\nhimself one of the caste and race whose monopoly of power is threatened. In his
\neyes the accused in a political case is not an ordinary accused but a rebel
\nprisoner of war; he may not be guilty of the offence with which he is charged,
\nbut he is guilty of Swadeshism, he is guilty of being an opponent of the Government
\nestablished by law. His punishment is therefore desirable <\/span>in
\nthe interests of the ruling class and in the judge’s own interests as a servant
\nand member of that class. The judge is really a party to the case. It is not to
\nbe expected that in such circumstances any facilities will be allowed to the
\ndefence beyond what the letter of the law and bare decency require. A few
\nmagistrates may rise superior to these considerations, but the majority cannot
\nbe reasonably asked to do so. They are after all human beings \u2014 and
\nEnglishmen.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Still there is a limit, there is something due to decency and at
\nRawalpindi it seems to us that the limit has been overpassed and the dues have
\nbeen denied. We have nothing to say as to the guilt or the innocence of the men
\nunder trial. We will assume that they are guilty, we will assume that their
\nconviction is a thing settled. But still until the trial is over, they are in
\nlaw regarded as men who are possibly innocent and should be allowed ordinary
\nfacilities to prove their innocence. One of the principal safeguards of
\naccused innocence in India is the necessity of identification under stringent
\nrules which prevent collusion between the police and the witnesses. In the
\nRawalpindi trial it has been repeatedly stated that the identification has been
\na scandalous farce; the prisoners have been under police custody all the time
\nand have been repeatedly shown to the witnesses in the jail, and as if this were
\nnot enough, the police in Court are allowed to make signs to the witnesses so
\nthat they may be sure to identify the right persons. These statements have not
\nbeen denied. They may be true or they may be false; but when such statements are
\nadvanced by the defence, it is the duty of an impartial judge to inquire into
\nthem and take every precaution against the barest possibility of such practices.
\nPiteous complaints have been made by several of the accused of police violence
\nand cruelty in Hajat. Into this also no inquiry has been made and the only<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-444<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nanswer
\nthe unfortunate men have received is a rough and uncivil command to keep
\nsilence.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>If this were all, it would be scandalous enough, but the recent
\ndevelopments have been still more staggering. A hooligan crusade has been
\nstarted against the pleaders for the defence so shamelessly persistent and open
\nas to drive them to throw up their briefs. Sirdar Beant Singh’s house has been
\ninvaded, himself and his brother brutally assaulted, his ladies\u2019 apartments
\nentered and an ornament snatched from the person of his wife. While these brutal
\noutrages were being committed, the police remained quiet in their Thana which is
\nin the same compound as the Sirdar’s house and made no attempt to give
\nassistance, nor do we hear of any attempt to trace and punish the miscreants.
\nThe houses of other defence pleaders have been exposed to a campaign of theft
\nand pilfering and none of them is safe against a repetition of the kind of
\nintimidation which has been used against Beant Singh. All India has drawn its
\nown conclusions from these singular occurrences, for indeed, the conclusions are
\nnot difficult to draw.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>But the crowning scandal of all was the treatment of the witness
\nAbdullah. It is possible that seditious speeches were delivered by the accused,
\nbut it is certain that the amazing literal unanimity of the witnesses has
\ncreated, rightly or wrongly, an impression that their evidence was given
\naccording to police dictation. When, therefore, a Mahomedan witness actually
\ndeclared in the witness box that his first evidence has been given under fear of
\nthe police, it was obvious that the whole foundation of the prosecution case was
\nthreatened; for the example of recantation might easily be followed. Then ensued
\na scene which we hope for the credit of humanity at large, has never had a
\nparallel in recent judicial history. Immediately the prosecuting counsel leaps
\nup and demands that this inconvenient witness be at once prosecuted for perjury
\nand handed over to the tender mercies of the police against whom he has given
\nevidence; immediately the judge complies with this amazing demand; immediately
\nthe unfortunate witness is hustled out of court into the grip of the police. It
\nis not surprising that the miserable Abdullah should recant<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-445<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nhis
\nrecantation and balance his charge against the police by a charge against the
\nleading pleader for the defence. And this too is British law and British
\njustice. Nay, it is the climax, the apex, the acme, the culminating point which
\nBritish justice has reached in this too <\/i>fortunate country. After all, the
\nBritish Empire must be saved at any cost.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font>June 24, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-446<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More about Brutish Justice                           WE commented the other day on the policy of refusing bail which has recently been adopted by the bureaucracy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","wpcat-8-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}