Tulsi Prajna 2000 10

SR No.: 524605
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shanta Jain, Jagatram Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 128
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 6 MB

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in America were supposed to teach offenders a lesson and correct their shortcomings. But, later on with the advancement of civilization, reformative view was adopted. Reformatories were established with a programme of work education, recreation, and religious services with the purpose of rehabilitating the offender and preparing him for his entrance back into law abiding society. Criminals are treated as patients. In the Gandhian philosophy criminals are treated as a sick man, as a diseased man. According to Gandhi “Sinner is equal to the saint in the eye of God. A saint who considers himself superior to sinner forfeits his sainthood and becomes worse than sinner who, unlike the proved saint, know not what he is doing”.!?
Gandhian theory of crime and punishment was based on the unity of non-violence. Voluntary and unconditional surrender of the chambal bandits at the instance of Acharya Vinoba and his followers in 1960 was indeed a social miracle.18 It was small in its dimensions but great in its significance and hidden potentialities. It proved beyond doubt the desirability and efficacy of the non-violent approach in solving even sociological problems of administration, of justice, of maintainance of law and order and of dealing with crime.
Following Gandhi and Vinobha, Jay Prakash Narayan in 1972, made an experiment of non-violent approach to the solution of the problem of crime, by persuading successfully the chambal valley dactoits to self-surrender.19 Thus, a spiritual change of heart was also made possible even in hardened criminals by this method. On J.P.'s plea for the adoption of a policy of reconciliation and liberal treatment for surrendering dacoits, an open jail was established at Mungawali in Guna District of Madhya Pradesh. This Jail is unique among the modern jail. According to J.P., “This experiement has much deeper and wider sociological significance than other similar projects undertaken earlier in India in imitation of correctional practices prevailing in most western and other Asian countries.”20
The humanistic or non-violent approach consisted on treating the person or persons concerned with real love, sympathy and understanding. Gandhi employed this method many times and on most occasions he succeeded. His experiments in the application of truth and non-violence to problems in the social, economic, political and legal fields are a great legacy to Indian people in particular and the whole of mankind in general. He did view crime in a unique manner, in the context of the toil surroundings. Similarly this concept of punishment was
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