Jain Journal 1980 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 28

66
at re-educating the criminal with a view to removing his subjective antisociality which is the root cause of his motivation and anti-social behaviour."25 This new trend which visualizes 'social re-arrangement of the society' aspires to rise above the concepts of punishment, treatment, correction and also the reformation of the individual, shifting the blame thereby from the individual to the social environmental factors and social arrangements. But the observations of Hermann Mannheim are more realistic :26 "Two major difficulties confront today's criminologists: (1) a theory of criminal behaviour is not a theory of crime, it does not explain why the behaviour is criminal or non-criminal and (2) there is no theory available which explains all types of criminal behaviour. Psychaitric theories are inadequate because not all criminals are emotionally disturbed persons and few emotionally disturbed person are criminals. Any narrow sociological explanation is inadequate because not all criminals have a history of prior associations with other criminals, and not all individuals who associate with criminals become criminals......A theory is needed to integrate the legal, sociological and psychological aspects of crime."26
JAIN JOURNAL
Indian background, with its rich heritage in culture, religions and philosophies remains unexplored in the field of penology and criminology by the western scholars. The concepts of punishment (daṇḍa) and expiation (prayaścitta) are discussed at length in the law-books (dharmasastras) and the treatises on polity (artha-sastra, niti-sästra and vyavahāra). In the books on State Administration (Rāja-niti) the topic of punishment (danda) has developed into full-fledged penology (daṇḍa-niti). Law and religion have the same equivalent word in Sanskrit, 'dharma', which has still a larger connotation.27 In India, the law and the religion went hand in hand; the Codes of Manu, Yajnyavalkya, Narada, Parasara and others are the source-books at a time both for religion and for law. Even neighbouring countires of Siam, Burma, Java and Bali did adopt the Code of Manu.28 Name of Manu is so much reputed as law-giver that even the 'Kula-kara's who preceded the first Lord Tirthankara are known as Manus in the tradition of respect among the Jainas.
Crime in India is governed by Indian Penal Code, which was drafted by Macaulay and adopted since 1960, and also by a score of minor criminal statutes, enacted from time to time. In a Supreme Court
25 Ibid.
26 Quoted from Hermann Manrheim, Pioneers in Criminology, Chicago Quadrangle Books, 1960, pp. 377-378; Criminology A Cross Cultural Perspective, Vol I, pp. 70 & 71, also p. 110.
2. Dr. Sukla Das, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient India, p. 135.
28 Maurice Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, Vol III part II, p. 557.