Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar/Report 3/Chapter 1/Section 19

Section XIX.

The state of Crime viewed in connection with the state of Instruction.

The state of crime viewed in connection with the state of instruction is a subject of great interest, but it is one on which all the means necessary to form a sound judgment have not yet been obtained. The records of crime have not been framed with a view to derive from them data to determine the effects of instruction, and what I attempt under this head is rather to point to the importance of this branch, of the inquiry than to found conclusions on the facts which I have collected, although at the same time it will be seen that the conclusions which those facts suggest and support are not unimportant. I have been favoured with permission to examine the half-yearly returns made to Government in the Judicial Department relating to crime in the localities of which an educational survey has been made, and from that source I subjoin the following abstract statement of crimes ascertained by the Police Officers or otherwise to have been committed within the city and district of Moorshedabad, and the districts of Beerbhoom, Burdwan, South Behar, and Tirhoot in the six years beginning with 1829 and ending with 1834:—

		City and District of Moorshedabad.	District of Beerbhoom.	District of Burdwan.	District of South Behar.	District of Tirhoot.
Dacoity or Gang Robbery not on the highway.	With murder	12	8	4	2	. . .
	With torture	1	1	2	5	. . .
	With wounding	40	15	9	9	2
	Unattended with aggravated circumstances	95	74	24	17	. . .
	Attempting to commit	40	10	10	1	. . .
	On the river	2	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .
Highway Robbery.	With murder	. . .	3	. . .	10	3
	With wounding	. . .	1	1	7	9
	Attempting to commit	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .
	Exceeding 50 Rupees	. . .	2	1	4	. . .
	Exceeding 10 Rupees	1	3	. . .	12	2
	Under 10 Rupees	. . .	2	. . .	11	2
Burglary.	With murder	1	. . .	. . .	2	3
	With wounding	. . .	3	2	8	6
	Exceeding 50 Rupees	83	78	43	143	250
	Exceeding 10 Rupees	97	181	54	329	425
	Under 10 Rupees	135	276	51	1,211	1,186
	Without theft or attempting to commit	151	119	80	502	2,526
	With theft, value unknown	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	102
Cattle Stealing.	With murder	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .
	With wounding	. . .	1	. . .	1	1
	Exceeding 50 Rupees	4	7	2	33	30
	Exceeding 10 Rupees	20	67	16	513	488
	Under 10 Rupees	39	140	30	438	501
	Value unknown and precluded from investigation under Reg. II. of 1862	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	18
Theft.	With murder including the murder of children	. . .	6	5	5	3
	With wounding	. . .	. . .	2	6	13
	Exceeding 50 Rupees	80	42	27	159	162
	Exceeding 10 Rupees	110	132	57	356	430
	Under 10 Rupees	32	102	88	431	1,326
	Value unknown and precluded from investigation under Reg. II. of 1862	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	262
Affrays.	With loss of life	3	4	1	16	16
	With wounding or violent beating	5	5	1	56	22
	Simple	4	11	1	34	56
		City and District of Moorshedabad.	District of Beerbhoom.	District of Burdwan.	District of South Behar.	District of Tirhoot.
Child stealing	. . .	. . .	3
Wilful murder	. . .	37	24	23	43	21
Homicide	. . .	3	9	9	19	33
Assaults	. . .	51	127	3	13	217
Wounding	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	17
Arson with affray	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	1
Arson without affray	. . .	5	3	1	7	9
Receiving stolen goods	. . .	2	2	1	9	1
Kidnapping	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	1
Rape	. . .	. . .	3	. . .	3	1
Adultery	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	4	1
Perjury	. . .	4	2	3	17	11
Forgery	. . .	1	2	. . .	13	6
Embezzlement	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	3
Extortion	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	2	1
Bribery	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	. . .	1
Miscellaneous	. . .	93	694	28	214	675

The official returns are made twice every year, embracing the periods from January to June and from July to December, and the above table is merely an abstract of the returns for the six years 1829-34. I at first intended to include a period of ten years in the table, but I found, on examination, that the returns for the two years preceding 1829 were imperfect, and those for the two years following 1834 were framed on a different model, both circumstances preventing, that strict comparison which I was desirous of making, and I therefore limited my attention to the six years for which the returns were complete and nearly uniform.

The relation of crime and instruction to each other may be ascertained by classifying all persons convicted of the same crime according to the kind and amount of instruction they have received. The returns of crime would thus exhibit whether the criminals were entirely destitute of instruction; whether they could barely decipher writing or sign their names; whether they could merely read and write; whether they possessed attainments superior to mere reading and writing, including, moral as well as intellectual instruction; whether they had received a learned education; and in each case whether it was a first or a second conviction; and what was the age and sex of the convict. It is only such returns that can enable us to judge satisfactorily of the effect of the different kinds and degrees of instruction upon the increase, diminution, or modification of crime, and of the consequent obligation on this ground imposed on the governing authority in a State to give to its subjects any particular kind or degree of instruction or to withhold it altogether. Such returns are received by the Government of France from its judicial officers, and it is worthy of the consideration of the British Indian Government whether with the above object the returns of crime in this country should be made to include the information which I have indicated.

In the absence of this detailed information we must look at crime and criminals collectively; not at the amount and degree of restraining influences imposed by education on the individual, but at the number of criminals in the mass and the different kinds of crime of which they have been convicted as compared with the amount or proportion of instruction previously ascertained to exist in society within the same local limits. The preceding abstract statement of crimes committed in five different districts during a period of six years affords the means of making this comparison which is attempted in the following table:—

		Population.	Proportion of population above 14 to population below 14.	Estimated population above 14.	Aggregate number of crimes in 1829-34.	Centesimal proportion of crime to population above 14.	Centesimal proportion of instruction to population above 14.
City and district of Moorshedabad	. . .	969,447	65 to 35	630,141	1,160	1·1849	5·81
District of Beerbhoom	. . .	1,267,067	48 to 52	608,191	2,162	1·3559	5·31
District„ of Burdwan	. . .	1,187,580	57 to 43	676,920	579	1·0859	9·01
District„ of South Behar	. . .	1,340,610	59 to 41	790,959	4,662	1·5899	4·91
District„ of Tirhoot	. . .	1,697,700	52 to 48	882,804	8,836	1·0009	2·31

The statement of the population of the four last mentioned districts is derived from Mr. Shakespear’s Police Report of 1824 to which I have had an opportunity of referring in the Judicial Department, and that of the city and district of Moorshedabad is the result of a census made by Mr. Hathorn in 1829. The proportion of the population above 14 years of age to the population below that age has been calculated from the population returns contained in Section XIII. of this Report, and the estimate of the population above 14 is founded on the proportion ascertained by actual census to prevail in one entire thana of each district, and now assumed to prevail in all the thanas of the same district for the purpose of obtaining an approximation to the total adult population. It was necessary to obtain this approximation, first, because the aggregate number of crimes can be correctly compared, not with the total population of the district, but with the population which by reason of age may be assumed to be capable of committing crime; and, second, because the proportion of instruction possessed by the population above 14 can be correctly compared only with the proportion of crime committed by the population of the same age. The conclusion to which this comparison or rather contrast conducts is most curious and interesting, and is the more so to me because it is wholly unexpected. It will be seen from the table that, in the district of Burdwan, where the proportion of instruction is highest, there the proportion of crime is lowest; and in the district of Tirhoot where the proportion of instruction is lowest there the proportion of crime is highest. The intermediate proportions have the same correspondence. In South Behar, where instruction is double in amount of what it is in Tirhoot, crime is only one-half of what it is in the same district. In Beerbhoom the proportion of instruction is a little higher than in South Behar, and the proportion of crime a little lower; and in the city and district of Moorshedabad where instruction rises still a little higher, there crime falls to a still lower proportion. I have said that this conclusion was unexpected, for although I had no doubt of the general salutary effect of education, yet I saw little in the native institutions and in the systems of native instruction from which to infer that they exercised a very decided moral influence on the community, and I therefore did not anticipate that the state of education would have any observable or striking relation to the state of crime. It is impossible, however, to resist the conclusion from the preceding data that the relation is most intimate, and that even the native systems of instruction, however crude, imperfect, and desultory, most materially contribute to diminish the number of offences against the laws and to maintain the peace and good order of society.

If we pass from the consideration of crime in the aggregate to the particular crimes enumerated in the table at pp. 245 and 246, other inferences will be suggested illustrating the relation of instruction to crime, although the conclusions to be drawn are not very definite in consequence of the form in which the returns have been made, crimes against the person and crimes against property not being in all cases distinguished. Taking, however, the returns as they stand, we find that in Tirhoot, where instruction is lowest, dacoity or gang robbery was almost wholly unknown during the six years in question, and that it prevailed in an increasing degree in South Behar, Burdwan, Beerbhoom, and Moorshedabad in the order in which those districts are now mentioned. Thus, therefore, the description of crime ordinarily attended with the greatest violence to the person is apparently neither promoted by ignorance nor checked by education. Highway robbery prevailed during the period under consideration more in South Behar than in any of the other districts; but it is when we look at the records of burglary, cattle-stealing, theft, and affrays that we perceive the excess of crime in the less instructed districts of Behar as compared with the better instructed districts of Bengal. Cases of homicide, assault, and wounding, are also much in excess in the Tirhoot district. Forgery deserves special attention. This is a description of crime which with much seeming probability has been usually supposed to be facilitated and increased by education; but we find that, in the three Bengal districts during a period of six years, there were only three convictions for forgery, while in the two Behar districts during the same period not fewer than nineteen occurred. The comparative prevalence of forgery in the less instructed, and of gang robbery in the more instructed districts shows the necessity of more extended and precise investigation into the connection between instruction and crime.

I have not attempted to show the increase or diminution of crime from year to year in the different localities, because that would have no relation to the state of instruction unless it could also be shown that education had advanced or retrograded during the same periods and in the same localities for which no data at present exist. The future inquirer into the statistics of education in this country will derive some aid in this branch of his investigation from the results recorded in this Report.