India proposes sweeping overhaul of British-era criminal laws

India’s government unveiled new punishments for mob lynchings and crimes against women on Friday in a proposal for the country’s biggest criminal justice overhaul since the British colonial era.

India’s Penal Code and other statutes governing the police and courts were introduced in the 19th century, while the country was governed by the British crown.

Sweeping changes to the laws would remove archaic references to the British monarchy and other “signs of our slavery”, home minister Amit Shah told parliament Friday.

Colonial rule

“These laws were made to strengthen the colonial rule, to protect colonial rulers, and the intention was to punish and not give justice,” he told lawmakers while introducing bills for the reforms.

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“We are going to change this and the spirit of these new laws will be to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens.”

New provisions in the laws would impose the death penalty on perpetrators of mob lynchings and minimum sentences of 20 years for gang rape.

The bills also introduce community service provisions for petty crimes to ease the chronic backlog of criminal cases in Indian courts, which have millions of pending cases.

Fixed timelines would be imposed for trials and criminal investigations in a country where both can drag on for years without result.

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The bills have been referred to a parliamentary committee for further deliberation but could be passed before the current legislature dissolves ahead of general elections next May.

India’s history books

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government has sought to remove lingering symbols of colonial rule from India’s history books, urban landscape and political institutions.

It has renovated the capital New Delhi’s parliamentary precinct, originally designed by the British, to replace old colonial-era structures.

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Last year Modi inaugurated a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose, an independence hero venerated for taking up arms against the British, but controversial for his collaboration with Nazi Germany’s war machine.

The unveiling ceremony took place just hours before Britain announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and the statue itself replaces one of Britain’s King George V torn down nearly half a century ago.