ABSTRACT
India symbolizes unity in diversity despite considerable geographic, cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic divisions. Even though Hinduism is the religion of 80 percent of the people, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and even Judaism all have significant followings. Apart from 23 officially recognized major languages, English being one of them, Indians speak in more than 1,600 dialects. India is a liberal, parliamentary form of democracy with more than 600 million registered voters. Moreover, despite a history of colonial rule and exploitation India at present has an economy which is growing at an enviable annual rate of 9 percent. India’s business and especially the information technology sectors are recognized around the world. Yet, despite such positive developments India remains ranked fifty-fifth amongst 102 developing countries on the Human Poverty Index mark, and has an adult literacy rate of 39 percent (UNDP 2006). The democratic polity and regular elections have failed to involve people being marginalized by new economic policies, a situation that is causing serious challenges of order maintenance to the police. The crime situation, particularly violent incidents, also remains alarming in some parts of the country, particularly in India’s mega-cities such as Mumbai, Calcutta, and Delhi. While the National Crime Records Bureau does not publish disaggregated statistics for these cities, making public only provincial (state) and national-level statistics, the following table provides some indication of the scale of violent crime. It is important, however, to read these figures with caution. Crime minimization by authorities, technical recording problems, and under-reporting of crimes (particularly those which carry a social stigma) due to the bureaucratic delays that can be involved, lack of confidence in authorities, and fear of reprisals all contribute to under-representation of the extent of the problem.
