Historical perspective of capital punishment in India-A study

Capital punishment or death penalty is the penalty of death for a person convicted of a serious crime. It is derived from the Latin word ‘capitalis’³ which means ‘of the head.’ The penalty is so-called since centuries ago beheading was the most frequent form of punishment for serious crime. Among the current methods of implementing capital punishment are firing squad, electrocution, gas chamber and lethal injection, apart from hanging by neck. From the study of history, we can see the prevalence of capital punishment since time immemorial. Right from ancient Indian period, through medieval period of India and as well as in modern India, capital punishment has been very much prevalent. The punishments are provided in order to deter serious crimes. The punishments are imposed to make the threat credible. Threats and imposition of punishments are obviously necessary to deter crimes. This paper focus is on the extent of implementation of capital punishment in ancient India and medieval period. This paper also examines trends and developments in India particularly in terms of the challenges in implementation of the Capital Punishment in modern India.