Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c7.s2.9

c7.s2.9

Justice has one meaning for the ruler, another for the ruled. What was impartial justice for the British was imperialist oppression for the Indians. What was impartial justice for the Muslims was the imposition of the Islamic Shariat on the Hindus because Muslim law was full of discrimination against non-Muslims. Muslim law on crime and punishment is complicated and cruel. Where imprisonment of a month or two would be considered sufficient, say for pilferage or theft, in Islam it is visited with cutting of hands and feet. A Hadd (pl. Hudud) comprises punishments that are prescribed in the Quran and the Hadis. These include stoning to death for adultery; one hundred lashes for fornication,⁶¹ and eighty lashes for drinking wine. When a woman is to be stoned a chest deep hole is dug for her, so that her nakedness is not exposed and the modesty of the watching multitude is not offended. No such hole need be dug for a man. The stoning is begun by the witnesses followed by the Imam or Qazi, and then by the participating believers. Cutting off the right hand is prescribed for theft,⁶² and cutting off feet and hands for highway robbery. In the cases of murder the right of revenge (*qisas*) belongs to the victim's heir. But the heir can forgo this right of death for murder and accept blood-price in exchange. For the death of a woman, Jew or Christian, only half of the blood-price is due. "As slaves and unbelievers are inferior in status to Muslims they are not entitled to qisas according to most Muslim *faqihs* (jurists)."⁶³ In all such cases, a woman's testimony (*shahadah*) has half the weight of a man's.