The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s3.t8.10

c10.s3.t8.10

Gupta and Vardhana India was thus inestimably in advance of that of the Mauryas. Nay, the modern world which has restricted capital punishment to three crimes, viz., murder, treason, and piracy (Act of British Parliament, 1861) and which liberally practises torture to extort confession is still behind the Hindu conscience of the fifth century. It was left to the Bolsheviks of Russia to revive India's ideal under the Guptas by removing capital punishment from statute books for the first time in European history.