Administrative System of the Marathas c20.s8: 12. Prisons
Administrative System of the Marathas c20.s8
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12. Prisons
c20.s8.1
We may now enquire how prisons were managed and how the great department of police, so necessary for prevention as well as detection of crimes, was worked.
c20.s8.2
There being no regular prisons some rooms in forts were generally used for that purpose.
c20.s8.3
Elphinstone remarks that "imprisonment in hill forts and dungeons was common and the prisoners unless they were people of consideration, were always neglected, and sometimes allowed to starve. Hard labour in building fortifications was not unknown." Elphinstone's remarks were undoubtedly based on his experience of the worst days of the Maratha administration under that bad prince Baji Rao Raghunath. Hard labour it has been found is better for the health, both physical and mental, of the prisoners. And as for the rest, it seems they were treated according to the standard of the time. In Maratha prisons allowance of food was regulated by weight and not by price, and in apportioning prison rations the rank of the prisoner was taken into consideration. But such distinction is not unreasonable; because the standard of living differs in different stations of life. Even in British India, we find some difference in rations allowed for European and Indian prisoners.