Attitude to Crime in Kautilyan Society & the Present One

Imprisonment is not prescribed as a punishment in Kautilya's "Arthashastra." People were locked up because they were under investigation for a serious offence or unable to pay a fine imposed on them.

Apart from Judges, high officials also could imprison people for non-payment of fines. The usual modes of punishment were fines & also mutilation (much before the advent of Islam!) which could be avoided by a heavy fine. Of course, capital punishment could be awarded for a variety of offences, not necessarily "in the rarest of rare cases."

So in the Kautilyan State, probably the most corrupt of the present day state organs, namely the Department of Prisons, was entirely absent. Also there is a conundrum here. Offenders against society, especially murderers, are now being housed, fed & given medical support by the tax-payers money belonging to the society, which they have harmed & during imprisonment do not economically contribute to. Is this not unfair? Unfortunately, this has become a global norm due to a misguided concept of humanity.

As a senior official remarked recently, the jail inmates are provided access to dish TV & watch current films (dealing mostly with crime) & come out street-smart & hardened to take advantage of every loophole of the law with the help of unscrupulous lawyers. Also it passes understanding as to how the accused in serious crimes, ostensibly many  belonging to the poorer classes can afford to go on appealing right up to the Supreme Court & even file appeals beyond that also.

As a footnote on a related subject, even the women were safer during the Regency period in U.K. as evinced by Jane Austen's heroines walking fearlessly alone in English countryside, whereas a single woman was abducted, assaulted & killed by a Police Officer, no less, in busy crowded London & the accused will spend 20 years supported by tax-payers' money!

Metaphysics, Metafiction & The Nature of Reality

Plato asks us to imagine a dark cave in which people are imprisoned since birth, tied up facing the back wall. Behind them is a fire, which casts shadows on the wall. Between the prisoners & the fire, people walk up & down, holding various objects which cast shadows on the wall. Only these shadows on the wall are seen as the world by the prisoners. If one of the prisoners unties himself & looks around, he will see the real objects & the world. (These untied people are the enlightened ones.)

In the rare sub-genre of children's metafiction, probably the best known example is Roderick Townley's "The great good Thing." This book is also a paean to books, their characters & most importantly, the Readers. It explores the possibilities of the characters in a book getting out of the book & interacting with a sympathetic reader. The readers are the very life breath to the characters in a book, without whom they die. So the grandchild of the girl who was the first reader of the eponymous book, helps Princess Sylvie, the heroine of the book (which has gone out of print with only one copy possessed by the grandchild) remain in existence after the book is mischievously destroyed by fire. 

After the destruction of the physical book, the characters live only so long as they remain in the memory & dreams of the readers. So Princess Sylvie (who doesn't age as she is only a character in the book) frantically traces the descendant of the first reader, insinuates herself into her memory (with the help of the first reader's grandchild) & triumphantly goes on to live, as the descendant recreates the eponymous book from her memory.

So both in Plato & Townley, the nature of reality & existence is analysed & also the resultant doubt of whether our life is real or a figment of someone else's thought or dream.

Of course, this is also close to "Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya" of Advaita Philosophy.

History & Religions

Prof. Arnold Toynbee, in his monumental "A Study of History", has a section entitled "Universal Churches -  Cancers or Chrysalis"

It can also be interpreted as whether the higher religions are self-perpetuating cancers (a view to gladden the heart of Richard Dawkins!) or a Chrysalis to evolve humanity to higher mutants.

One of the earliest religions, Hinduism, evolved from the rituals for well-being in the Vedas to the inquiry into the nature of Soul in the Upanishads.

The Semitic religion of Judaism, while propounding the Universal Ten Commandments, also advocated the not so desirable  concepts of "An Eye for an Eye & a Tooth for a Tooth" (which are being put into use by Israel against the Palestinians!) & also the concept of "The Chosen People" as if God had favourites.

The advent of Jesus Christ was the first to bring the concepts of forgiveness & mercy as civilising influences. But probably later evangelists propagated the hard to accept theory of "Jesus is the Only Way."

Islam's Prophet adapted the teachings of both the earlier Semitic religions with modifications to suit the Arabians. But here also the stultifying concept of the Prophet being the best & the last crept in. But curiously, though he was not aware of Hinduism, the Hindu practice of cleaning oneself & going unshod into a place of worship was incorporated into Islam.

The Universal Idea of a continuously evolving time cycle bringing the Chrysalis into a Divine Butterfly was mooted in the four Yugas of the Hindu belief which satisfies the rational & scientific mind.

After the implied intolerances of the Semitic religions, it was refreshing to note the Hindu reformer Saints, who appeared after the advent of the Semitic religions, promptly taking them on board as alternative ways to reach the Godhead, which is so obvious to an unbigoted mind. These were Shirdi Sai Baba in the western India, Sri Ramakrishna in the eastern part & Ramana Maharshi in the southern part.

As an interesting side light, Dr. S. Srikanta Sastri, in his Kannada textbook on World History, notes that though the Moors invaded & conquered Spain in 8th Century, the Islamic Culture propagated there was superior to the Christian Culture at that time. The Moors established Universities also. But when King Philip II of Spain drove out the Moors many centuries later, he destroyed the artifacts of the Islamic Culture in a fit of religious fanaticism.

To end with Prof. Toynbee again, he has also mentioned Islamic Tolerance as against Christian Intolerance in his magnum opus.