The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c18.149

c18.149

Judicial torture for the purpose of extorting a confession was recognized and freely used. Many gruesome regulations on the subject are recorded. The general principle laid down was that ‘those whose guilt is believed to be true shall be subjected to torture’, of which there were eighteen kinds, including seven varieties of whipping. In certain cases the victim might be ‘subjected to one or all of the above kinds of torture’. The torture of women was supposed to be limited to 'half the prescribed standard'.¹ All experienced magistrates know how deeply the tradition of torturing a prisoner in order to extort a confession is engrained in the mind of Indian policemen, and how difficult it is to check the practice even under modern conditions.