Superstition and Crime in India
| Author | H. R. Roe |
| Published date | 01 January 1930 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3000300101 |
| Date | 01 January 1930 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Superstition
and
Crime
in India
By H. R. ROE
Indian Police
IN basis there is little difference between India and other
. countries in the belief in superstition; astudy of folklore
reveals how universal is a belief in the supernatural, and the
similarity of legends and superstitions in countries widely
diverse in other respects is a remarkable instance of common
thought amongst peoples not even distantly related by origin.
In all countries it is the peasantry that cling to old superstitions;
as education advances so does the belief in the supernatural
recede. In the question of degree,
it
may be said that India
is full of superstitious belief, and this pervades daily life in a
remarkable
way;
in the case of many Indians no journey is
undertaken, no business started, no sowing undertaken, unless
the omens are auspicious; even journeys to different points
of the compass are governed by particular days. Crooke says
, Europeans in India usually quite fail to realize the influence
which such ideas exercise over the people.'
In
India the
readiness to accept the supernatural is instanced by the fact
that the Indian Penal Code still contains a by no means mori-
bund sectionwhich penalizes the inducing of a person to believe
that he will be rendered an object of divine displeasure by
the commission or omission of a certain
act;
this at once
connects superstition with crime.
A belief in spells and in sacrifice to obtain a material
object is not an infrequent cause of crime. Recently a wealthy
merchant was convicted of instigating and abetting the murder
of a child to secure the recovery of his own son and heir who
was sick. An older case of child murder was due to the accused
being told that his wife would produce a healthy child if she
were washed in the blood of a newly slain
child;
this is a fairly
I A
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