ABSTRACT
My starting-point was a search for details about ‘conditions in a typical Indian gaol’. Despite problems of access, I gathered sufficient information about the physical conditions and regime in a particular central gaol to produce at least a poor imitation of John Howard. However, it soon became clear that, not only are Indian gaols so varied that to describe any one is to create a false picture, but a description of ‘conditions’ alone would give readers outside India little real insight into the country’s prison system or how it is experienced by inmates. To achieve such insight, it is essential to understand something of the social and historical context.
