SUICIDE IN BRITISH INDIA.
The information conveyed in the preceding pages, in reference to
suicide in England, and in the countries of Europe, applies in a small
degree only to Hindostan. In this vast tract of country, including many
separate states, some of which are still under native rulers, and in
which very different religious beliefs exist, and are practised side by
side, the suicidal tendencies are very varied. The habits and customs
of the several races are so entirely distinct in many points, that no
surprise need be felt when we observe the very different attitudes
these hold in respect to self-destruction. The Mohammedan races avoid
it; the Brahmins encourage it in their religious customs, and in their
social life; whilst the floating British population exhibits a slightly
higher rate than that of the British at home.
The laws respecting suicide in the districts under British rule, are
enacted by the Indian Penal Code, cap. xvi., ss. 300, 305, 306, 309.
For other regulations refer to s. 19 of Reg. xix. of 1807; and Nizamut
Adawlut Reports, Vol. iii. of 1833.
The average suicide rate for India, as a whole, I estimate at 40 per
million; the rate for the city of Calcutta alone was estimated some
years ago as high as one in 2,000.
Statistics of suicide are unfortunately even less reliable in respect
to India than they are in regard to Europe, for it is to be feared that
a very large number of murders are hidden by want of evidence, and by
false statements, under the garb of voluntary death. The Hindoos of the
lower class have the very faintest idea of the value of truth for its
own sake, and Hindoo evidence can be manufactured at a low price in any
quantity.
The causation of the suicides of the natives of Hindostan falls into
four chief divisions (Chevers), upon each of which I add a few remarks.
REVENGE OR ACCUSATION.
Although less common at the present time than formerly, cases are still
seen in which a man or woman will commit suicide to spite another, and
call down the opprobrium of the neighbours on him for some injury, or
fancied slight, such deaths were called _chandi_, or self-immolation;
the Rajpoot class greatly practised it; they would protest against
a decree, and then stab themselves as a final protest. Another form
was _dhurna_, sitting at an enemy’s door and waiting for death by
starvation, hoping to bring down a curse on the offender. The erection
of a _koor_, or wood pile, for conflagration, and self-burning
thereon, with or without the offering of some animal, was also a
process designed to invoke curses on an opponent. Cases have also been
observed is which a man has cut his throat in a neighbour’s house, so
that the neighbour might be accused of murder, and so be made to suffer
the penalty for that crime. A fakir has been known to set himself on
fire, to excite charity; and a Brahmin has thrown himself into a well,
that his ghost might haunt the owner of it.─Esdaile.
RELIGION.
The Brahmin religion has had for ages a tenet that self-sacrifice is
the most acceptable offering to deity, and five modes of great sanctity
are enumerated: 1. Starvation; 2. Burying alive; 3. Drowning in the
Ganges; 4. Covering the body with dried cow dung, and setting it on
fire; and 5. Cutting the throat at the mouth of the Ganges. See the
“Ayeen Akbery.” To throw oneself off the precipices of the Mahadeo
hills was also a sacred act (Sleeman), and perhaps above all was deemed
the death by crushing under the wheels of the Car of Juggernath.
A collateral religious rite is _sati_, or the enforced burning of
widows after the death of the husband; this martyrdom is now almost
extinct, except perhaps in the native-governed states. It was very
prevalent as late as 1803, in which year no less than 275 wives were
burned within 30 miles of Calcutta.
A male Hindoo will also occasionally burn himself on a wood pile even
now, just as did Calanus in the time of Alexander the Great. See
“Friend of India,” 1866.
Forbes describes several cases in which Brahmin devotees forced
themselves to continue eating until their deaths took place.
PHYSICAL SUFFERING.
Suicide as a means of relief from pain and disease is common in
Bengal; the sacred books named the Shastras inculcate the doctrine of
its propriety in such cases. In former times these deaths took place
with public ceremonials, but are now perforce privately completed.
Intestinal worms seem to produce great physical pain and discomfort
among the poor rice-eating Bengalese, and suicide is not infrequent
from this cause.─Woodford.
GRIEF, SHAME, AND JEALOUSY.
The Hindoos seem to be very sensitive to some trifling annoyances,
which the Englishman would take no notice of, and suicides are
not uncommonly the effect of insults and imputations. Thus, the
Commissioner of the Chota Nagpore district mentioned the case of a
woman who poisoned herself because her husband complained of her
untidiness, and another because she was asked to feed her own child,
instead of being provided with a nurse. A wife killed herself because a
friend told her that her husband was illegitimate.─Bellasis.
Forbes mentions that when he was at Dhuboy suicide was very common
among Hindoo widows of the upper classes, who being interdicted from
marriage threw themselves into the wells after perceiving the results
of their imprudences. Jealousy is also a very fertile cause of suicide
among Hindoo women.
The means used for committing suicide in India are among females almost
always drowning, especially in wells, and among the males drowning and
hanging are about equally common.─Muir of Madras.