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CHAPTER SIX
DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. When driving, we stop at a red light, whether or not a policeman is present. This is a form of:
a. internalized social control.
b. formal social control.
c. externalization.
d. anticipatory socialization.
4. Alan, a 14-year-old boy, finds himself in a situation where he can steal a digital watch from K-Mart.
He decides against the theft because he fears what others would think of him if they found out. In this
situation, Alan conforms to society’s values because of:
a. formal social controls.
b. informal social controls.
c. aversive social controls.
d. internalization.
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6. If caught cheating on this exam, you are likely to be punished by the professor and the university.
This is a type of:
a. informal control.
b. formal control.
c. self-control.
d. street-level justice.
7. Adrianne does not smoke or drink alcohol in front of her family because she is afraid they would
disapprove. This is an example of:
a. formal social control.
b. informal social control.
c. aversive social control.
d. internalization.
10. Norm violations that exceed the tolerance level of the community and result in negative sanctions are:
a. deviance.
b. eccentric.
c. rule violations.
d. fun.
11. When sociologists stress that deviance is relative, they mean that:
a. relative to criminal acts, deviance is a minor form of nonconformity.
b. it runs in the family, among relatives.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
c. whether an act is regarded as deviant or not often depends on the time, place, or individual.
d. deviance is related to more serious criminal offenses.
12. In the definition of deviance, it is not the act itself that matters, but the:
a. audience.
b. reason for the behavior.
c. intention of the actor.
d. legal definition.
13. Biological and psychological explanations for deviance look for the causes:
a. within society.
b. in the groups a person interacts with.
c. in the processes internal to the individual.
d. in the audience for the behavior.
14. Sociological theories of deviance tend to emphasize that the reasons for deviance:
a. stem from personality disorders.
b. are based largely on genetic factors.
c. stem from personal disorganization.
d. are found in the social structure of society.
15. The structural-functional perspective was first applied to the explanation of deviance by:
a. Durkheim.
b. Merton.
c. Sutherland
d. Hirschi.
16. The term used to describe a situation in which the norms of society are unclear or no longer
applicable to current conditions is:
a. ambiguity.
b. moral decay.
c. anomie.
d. institutional change.
17. Durkheim first applied the explanation of anomie in his study of:
a. deviance.
b. social control.
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c. suicide.
d. crime.
18. Extreme tattooing and body modification are used by some people:
a. to demonstrate their membership in a subculture.
b. to recover a sense of control over their body after a traumatic experience.
c. to indicate their rejection of dominant cultural values.
d. All of these are reasons cited for extreme forms of body modification.
19. According to the text, the stigma against extreme forms of body modification is strongest when it is
practiced by:
a. young people.
b. middle-aged people.
c. women.
d. the middle class.
20. Citizens sometimes complain that employees in government agencies are more concerned about
following the rules, even when this doesn’t make sense, than they are about helping citizens. Robert
Merton would refer to these employees as:
a. ritualists.
b. conformists.
c. innovators.
d. retreatists.
21. According to Merton’s strain theory, the social class most likely to engage in deviance is the:
a. lower class.
b. working class.
c. middle class.
d. upper class.
22. Youths growing up in poor neighborhoods are more likely to deal drugs to make money than middle-
class youth. This example represents the pattern of deviance called:
a. rebellion.
b. retreatism.
c. ritualism.
d. innovation.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
23. Which of the following examples is NOT an innovative adaptation to situations of strain?
a. athletic achievement through the use of steroids
b. joining the mafia to get rich
c. cheating on exams to get a better grade
d. getting a free handout by dropping out and drifting from one city mission to the next
24. Retreatists __________ the culturally approved goals of society and __________ the institutional
means for achieving them.
a. accept; accept
b. reject; accept
c. accept; reject
d. reject; reject
25. According to Merton’s strain theory, rebels differ from retreatists in that:
a. rebels are committed to creating an alternative society; retreatists just drop out.
b. retreatists withdraw to communes whereas rebels start revolutions.
c. retreatists reject society’s values but accept the means; rebels reject both means and values.
d. rebels reject society’s values but accept the means; retreatists reject both means and values.
28. ________ refers to the extent to which individuals in a neighborhood share expectations that
neighbors will intervene and work together to maintain social order.
a. Collective efficacy
b. Anomie
c. Retreatism
d. Ritualism
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29. According to ________, crime is more likely to occur in neighborhoods that suffer extreme structural
disadvantage and as a result experience low collective efficacy.
a. differential association theory
b. collective efficacy theory
c. strain theory
d. symbolic interaction theory
30. If __________ theory is correct, we would expect crime among the lower classes to rise during
economic recessions when it becomes difficult to meet basic needs.
a. anomie
b. differential association
c. self-esteem
d. conflict
31. Which of the following statements is NOT part of the conflict theory of deviance?
a. Class conflict affects deviance.
b. Those in power decide what is deviant and how it will be punished.
c. The lower class does not share the goals of the upper and middle classes.
d. Economic inequality leads to crime.
32. Which of the following situations is NOT consistent with the conflict theory view of deviance?
a. A young man who steals a pack of gum from Walgreens is sent to jail; a young man who steals a
box of pens from work is reprimanded.
b. A city allocates more money to preventing consumer fraud than to stopping mugging.
c. Ted Turner’s house is robbed and the police launch a full-scale investigation; Maria’s house is
robbed and the police take her statement and tell her to lock her doors.
d. A lawyer kills his wife but is found not guilty at the trial; a garbage man kills his wife and gets
life in prison.
33. Conflict theorists point out that the class differentials in crime rates develop partly because:
a. the upper classes commit less important types of crimes.
b. law enforcement discriminates more heavily against the poor.
c. the lower classes are less integrated in their families and neighborhoods.
d. the lower classes have accepted subcultural values that are more supportive of crime.
34. Which of the following statements about conflict theories of deviance is TRUE?
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
a. All conflict theorists believe that the upper classes commit more crime.
b. Conflict theorists are in agreement that the lower class commits more crime.
c. All conflict theorists agree that crime is an unnatural condition, resulting from unattainable goals.
d. All conflict theorists believe that class interests determine which acts are criminalized and how
heavily they are punished.
40. Diane’s aunts, uncles, parents, and friends all take towels from the hotels where they stay. Diane also
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takes the towels. “Everybody does it,” she reasons. Diane’s deviance is best explained by:
a. deterrence theory.
b. strain theory.
c. differential association theory.
d. labeling theory.
41. A similarity between differential association and deterrence theories is that they both:
a. see deviance as the result of social inequality.
b. view deviance results, at least in part, because there are greater rewards for deviance than for
conformity.
c. locate the source of deviance in the social structure.
d. see deviance as the result of strain between goals and means of attaining them.
42. Deterrence theories place the primary blame for deviance on:
a. parents.
b. an inadequate system of rewards and punishments.
c. individuals.
d. peer pressure.
43. Which theory assumes that individuals consciously assess the costs and benefits of whether to
conform or be deviant?
a. labeling theory
b. deterrence theory
c. differential association theory
d. reward theory
44. When social structures do not provide adequate rewards for conformity, more people will choose
deviance. This is part of which theory?
a. reward theory
b. differential association theory
c. labeling theory
d. deterrence theory
45. In deterrence theory, conventional social rewards are important because they:
a. make crime a rational choice.
b. allow people to rationally decide that “crime doesn’t pay.”
c. encourage individuals to turn in deviants.
d. eliminate criminal behaviors.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
46. Empirical studies show that three kinds of rewards are especially important in deterring deviance.
Which of the following is NOT one of them?
a. family ties
b. large friendship networks
c. doing well in school
d. having a good job
49. On a whim, three-year-old Bobby flicks a spoonful of mashed potatoes at his father. Bobby’s father
puts him in the time-out chair and tells him he is a bad boy. Bobby’s behavior is an example of:
a. primary deviance.
b. secondary deviance.
c. non-conformity.
d. bad manners.
50. Continued and deliberate deviance that results from labeling is:
a. primary deviance.
b. innovation.
c. secondary deviance.
d. white-collar crime.
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52. ____ combines the symbolic interaction and conflict perspectives into one theory.
a. Differential association theory
b. Merton’s strain theory
c. Labeling theory
d. Deterrence theory
54. Why is lower-class behavior more likely than upper-class behavior to be labeled as deviant?
a. The more power a group has, the more likely they are to be successful at defining deviance.
b. Lower-class people engage in more blatant forms of deviance.
c. The more numbers a group has, the more likely they are to be successful at defining deviance.
d. Very few upper-class people engage in deviant behavior.
56. Which of the following categories is most likely to be able to successfully claim the label of “ill”?
a. women
b. African Americans
c. the lower class
d. people in positions of power
57. Which of these statements about the labeling of a behavior as an illness is FALSE?
a. People who are labeled ill are generally absolved from blame for their behavior.
b. Despite being labeled as an illness, deviant behavior is still stigmatized and punished.
c. People in positions of power are more likely to be labeled ill than deviant.
d. Child abuse, gambling, murder, and rape may now be regarded as forms of mental illness better
treated by physicians than sheriffs.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
58. All of the following are examples of the medicalization of deviance except:
a. cosmetic surgery to cure self-esteem.
b. taking a drug to cure shyness.
c. prescribing drugs to help someone get over the loss of a loved one.
d. prescribing drugs to cure bipolar disorder.
59. Deviant acts that are subject to legal or civil penalties are defined as:
a. eccentric.
b. crimes.
c. deviance.
d. social deviance.
62. The Uniform Crime Report monitors all of the following major offenses EXCEPT:
a. forcible rape.
b. prostitution.
c. arson.
d. motor vehicle theft.
63. Property crime has declined steadily since 1980. Most observers agree that a major reason for this is:
a. a steady decline in the amount of personal property most people own.
b. a reduction in the number of young people throughout the country.
c. the decriminalization of marijuana in some areas.
d. better policing.
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66. Victimless crimes are difficult for the police to control because they:
a. do not harm anyone.
b. lack a complaining victim.
c. have wide acceptance in the larger community.
d. involve property and not persons.
68. According to a 2010 study, which of the following groups is least likely to support the legalization of
marijuana?
a. Democrats
b. Republicans
c. people ages 65 and older
d. people ages 50-64
69. Crimes committed by respectable people of high social status in the course of their occupations are
known as:
a. victimless crimes.
b. graft and corruption.
c. white-collar crimes.
d. hidden crimes.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
72. White-collar criminals are far less likely than street criminals to have all of the following happen
EXCEPT:
a. be sentenced to prison.
b. receive a lengthy sentence.
c. hire a competent lawyer.
d. be tried for a crime.
73. In regards to who commits crime in the U.S., the text suggests that:
a. people in lower classes commit the most crime.
b. the crimes committed by those in the lower class are the most costly to society.
c. people of different statuses have different opportunities to commit crime.
d. the crimes of people in the upper class are higher yield, but also higher risk.
74. Less than half of violent crimes, and less than one-fourth of property crimes, ever result in an arrest.
This means that:
a. people arrested for criminal acts represent only a sample of people who commit crimes.
b. the police aren’t doing their job.
c. these crimes are the ones that most often go unreported.
d. those who are arrested are a good representation of those committing crimes more generally.
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76. Your text suggests that we need to be cautious when generalizing about crime and the larger
population of criminals based on UCR statistics because:
a. levels of crime reporting are much higher than actual crime levels.
b. the people arrested for criminal acts are not a random sample of the people who commit crimes.
c. the UCR overemphasizes the crimes of white-collar professionals.
d. UCR statistics do not include those crimes that have been cleared by an arrest.
77. Young people are more likely to be deviant than older people because they:
a. have more energy.
b. do not have as much to lose, such as a career or a credit rating, by being deviant.
c. don’t know any better.
d. are growing up in a more complex society than the older generation did.
79. According to your text, the strongest social explanation for sex differentials in crime rates is that:
a. girls are supervised more closely than boys.
b. boys are bigger in physical size.
c. boys have a biological predisposition toward aggression.
d. boys are given less freedom so are more apt to rebel.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
81. According to your text, all of the following are possible explanations for the higher rate of crime by
lower-income people EXCEPT:
a. blocked avenues to achievement.
b. receiving fewer rewards from school and the labor market.
c. the bias in law enforcement making their crime rate appear higher.
d. a biological propensity toward deviance.
83. Differences in crime rates between members of minority groups and nonminorities are more apparent
than actual. This means that:
a. the apparent differences are real.
b. when members of the different groups engage in the same crimes, members of minority groups
are more likely to be cited, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted.
c. while there are differences in the rate of arrest, the differences disappear by the time the crimes
are prosecuted.
d. members of minority groups commit more crimes than do nonminorities.
84. Which of the following statements describing the relationship between race and crime is FALSE?
a. When engaging in the same criminal behavior, minorities are more likely to be cited, arrested,
prosecuted, and convicted than whites.
b. On average, whites commit more crimes than minorities.
c. Much of the difference in crime between whites and minorities is explained by social class
differences.
d. The UCR overestimates the percentage of crime committed by minorities.
85. When it comes to perceptions of crime, research indicates that the majority of people:
a. underestimate the amount of crime occurring.
b. overestimate the amount of crime occurring.
c. have a fairly accurate perception of how much crime is occurring.
d. have little interest in the amount of crime occurring.
86. Which of these is NOT a way in which the media contributes to overestimates of crime?
a. There is no reporting of the decline in crime rates.
b. When the news fails to report crimes, it makes the public fear what they do not know.
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87. When society punishes offenders to avenge the victim and society as a whole, this is called:
a. reformation.
b. retribution.
c. retaliation.
d. specific deterrence.
ANS: b REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
88. Sending a juvenile delinquent to a boot camp rather than prison would be an example of:
a. deterrence.
b. retribution.
c. reform.
d. prevention.
ANS: c REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
89. Elliott receives a very harsh sentence for committing a minor crime. The hope is that he will think
twice before committing another crime. This tactic is called:
a. retaliation.
b. deterrence.
c. retribution.
d. reform.
ANS: b REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Applied OBJ: 6.6
ANS: c REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
91. In the U.S. in 2010, there were _____ full-time police officers for every 1,000 people in the country.
a. 1.2
b. 2.6
c. 3.5
d. 4.1
ANS: c REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
ANS: b REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Applied OBJ: 6.6
93. The most important phase in determining a person’s guilt or innocence is the:
a. arrest.
b. processing.
c. pretrial phase of prosecution.
d. criminal trial.
ANS: c REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
ANS: b REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
95. About what percentage of prison inmates are African American males?
a. 10%
b. 20%
c. 35%
d. 40%
ANS: d REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
96. Your text suggests that __________ is the probably the least effective of the ways listed to deal with
crime and prison crowding.
a. developing more effective community-based corrections
b. putting more money into law enforcement
c. addressing the social problems and institutions that give rise to and encourage crime
d. building more prisons
ANS: d REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
97. Evaluation of newer intensive supervision probation programs indicates that they:
a. are not as effective as prison in terms of rehabilitation and deterrence.
b. reduce costs and increase the likelihood of rehabilitation when combined with drug treatment and
other service.
c. only work for the most serious offenders.
d. are effective at rehabilitation, but the services required make them more costly than prisons.
ANS: b REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
98. The 1972 Furman decision determined that capital punishment was:
a. racist but necessary to deter future crime.
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CHAPTER SIX – TEST BANK
b. racist and unconstitutional due to the uncontrolled discretion of judges and juries in sentencing.
c. not racist since more blacks than whites committed violent crimes.
d. a just way to deal with all rapists, regardless of race.
ANS: b REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
99. New research shows that the __________ is at least as important as race of the defendant in
determining who receives the death penalty.
a. violence of the crime
b. social class of the defendant
c. race of the victim
d. gender of the defendant
ANS: c REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
100. The text reports that a leading sociologist recommends addressing crime in the United States by:
a. building more prisons.
b. instituting more “three strikes and you’re out” rules.
c. reducing social inequality.
d. using more boot camps.
ANS: c REF: The Criminal Justice System DIF: Factual OBJ: 6.6
TRUE-FALSE QUESTIONS
1. When people obey the law even when there is no reason to believe that they will be punished for
breaking it, they are said to have internalized social control.
2. Effective social control depends almost entirely upon formal social control.
3. When rules are not supported by group values, it is difficult for even formal agencies to enforce
compliance.
4. Whether or not an act is considered deviant depends on the time, place, actor, and audience.
6. Both conflict theory and structural-functionalism locate the causes of deviance in the social structure.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
7. Conflict theorists and structural-functionalists agree that members of the lower social classes are the
most likely to engage in criminal behavior.
9. According to deterrence theories, inadequate sanctioning systems are the primary reason that
deviance occurs.
10. When deviant behavior is medicalized, the individual involved is more likely to receive treatment and
sympathy than punishment and stigma.
11. The Uniform Crime Report summarizes all crimes that are known by the police to have occurred.
14. The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world.
15. The U.S. prison system is designed for the rehabilitation of inmates.
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
ANS: Informal social control is self-restraint because of fear of what others will think, while formal
social control includes administrative sanctions such as fines, expulsion, or imprisonment.
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CHAPTER SIX – TEST BANK
ANS: Whether or not an act is regarded as deviant often depends upon the time, the place, the
individual, and the audience.
3. What is anomie?
ANS: Anomie is a situation in which the norms of society are unclear or no longer applicable to
current conditions.
ANS: Strain theory suggests that deviance occurs when culturally approved goals cannot be reached
by culturally approved means.
ANS: The extent to which individuals in a neighborhood share the expectation that neighbors will
intervene and work together to maintain social order.
ANS: Differential association theory argues that people learn to be deviant when more of their
associates favor deviance than favor conformity.
7. What is the basic concern of labeling theory as it relates to crime and deviance?
ANS: Labeling theory is primarily concerned with the process by which labels such as deviant come
to be attached to specific people and behaviors.
ANS: When deviance is defined as resulting from illness, either mental or physical, instead of a lack
of morals or other deficit, the person engaged in the behavior is more likely to receive treatment and
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
ANS: White-collar crime is crime committed by respectable people of high status in the course of
their occupations and by companies.
10. Why are rates of imprisonment higher in the United States than anywhere else in the world?
ANS: Imprisonment rates are higher in the United States because of harsher sentencing policies,
especially for drug-related offenses, such as mandatory minimums and “three strikes and you’re out”
laws.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Define false enforcement and give an example of how it reinforces unpopular norms.
2. Describe the three different types of social control and rank them in terms of their general importance
in reducing deviance. Identify the circumstances in which this order might be reversed.
3. Briefly outline the four types of strain deviance identified by Merton and give an example of each.
4. Explain the process by which a person is labeled a deviant. Include the concepts of primary and
secondary deviance and their role in the process.
5. Are lower-class individuals really more deviant than those from the upper classes? Discuss from the
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CHAPTER SIX – TEST BANK
standpoint of one of the following theories: strain, deterrence, labeling, or conflict. Provide evidence
to support your answer.
6. Give an example of a “victimless” crime. Is it really victimless? Explain using a major theoretical
perspective to support your answer.
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DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL CONTROL
7. Define white-collar crime. What are its costs and why does it receive so little attention relative to
street crime?
8. Discuss the differences in crime rates for each of the following characteristics: age, sex, race, and
social class. Summarize the major reason(s) for each pattern.
9. Explain the role of the media in the creation and maintenance of a “culture of fear” in the U.S. How
do the media contribute to the public’s overestimation of the dangers of crime?
10. Explain the punishment rationale behind capital punishment. Is justice served by death penalty
sentencing? Why or why not? (Be sure to discuss issues of race differential in your answer.)
340
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The English are our masters. They make their laws as stringent as
they please; they hold their grip as tight as they wish. They say to us:
“People of India, you are weak. Weakness is recognized in our
system as a crime. Therefore you are doomed.” So they show the
power in their hands and use it as they will. But when they say to us:
“People of India, cease to quarrel and live in peace,” they are not
only cruel but unjust and hypocritical, for the quarrels are their own
creation, and our divisions they recognize as their main support.
Says the Premier of England, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald:
“As the red patches advanced over the map of India, sections
pulled themselves together to resist, but no power then existing
could develop that Indian cohesion which was necessary if the
new trading invader was to be hurled back. We were not
accepted, but we could not be resisted. India challenged, but
could not make her challenge good.... Moreover, we were not a
military conquering power imposing tribute and hastening hither
and thither in our minds. The invasion was not of hordes of men
seeking new settlements, nor of military captains seeking spoil,
but of capital seeking investment, of merchants seeking profit. It
was necessarily slow; it divided to rule, and enlisted Indians to
subdue India.”[39]
After Plassey (1757) the English control over India began to expand
rapidly, and the East India Company acquired the real nature of a
government instead of a mere trading company. Gradually as the
political power of the Company grew in India and abuses crept in,
the English Parliament undertook to control all Indian affairs through
appointed representatives. This policy was carried out in so far that
on the eve of the Sepoy Mutiny (1857), which led to the transfer of
the Government of India to the British Sovereign, the English
Parliament already supervised the India affair through a cabinet
minister and a council board in England, and a governor-general
appointed by the British cabinet in India.
The resentment of the people of India against the British rule and its
consequent political and economic humiliations found its tragic
expression in the rebellion of 1857, commonly known as the Sepoy
Mutiny. The masses of the country led by the native army burst forth
in mad fury against the yoke of their foreign rulers. The rebellion
started in the United Provinces and at once spread like wildfire
throughout the British territories. Once again the British played the
natives against each other. The rebellion, which at one time
threatened the complete overthrow of the British power in the
country, was crushed with the assistance of Sikh regiments from
Punjab. The suppression of the rebellion involved a terrible loss of
life, and some of the deeds of horror which were committed by the
infuriated English soldiery remain as fresh in the minds of the Indian
people to this day as they were in 1857. The last of the Moghul
emperors was deposed and all of his heirs were fired from the
mouths of cannon. Thousands of rebels were hung, and their dead
bodies were left hanging from the branches of trees in order to excite
terror in the minds of the populace. Kaye and Malleson’s History of
the Mutiny gives the most horrible account of the butchery which the
English officers carried on during the bloody days after the Mutiny in
the most indiscriminate and barbarous fashion. The authors of this
memorable account of the Mutiny state: “Already our military officers
were hunting down the criminals of all kinds, and hanging them up
with as little compunction as though they had been pariah-dogs, or
jackals, or vermin of a baser kind.” So ferocious was the temper of
the white soldiers, and so strongly had the fierce hatred against all
“who wore the dusky livery of the East” possessed them, that on one
occasion in the absence of tangible enemies they turned on their
own camp-followers and murdered a large number of their loyal and
unoffending servants. Sir Charles Ball writes: “Every day we had
expeditions to burn and destroy disaffected villages and we had
taken our revenge. We have the power of life in our hands and I
assure you, we spare not.” Innocent old men and helpless women
with sucking infants at their breasts felt the weight of the white man’s
vengeance just as much as the vilest malefactors. It is recorded that
in several places cow’s flesh was forced by spears and bayonets into
the mouths of Hindu prisoners because the English knew that the
Hindu so abhors cow’s flesh that he will rather die than eat it. Kaye
and Malleson write:
FOOTNOTES:
[35] Quoted from R. C. Dutt, Economic History of British India.
[36] Quoted from R. C. Dutt.
[37] Quoted from R. C. Dutt.
[38] Prosperous British India.
[39] From The Government of India.
[40] Quoted from R. C. Dutt.
[41] Quoted from R. C. Dutt.
[42] Quoted from R. C. Dutt.
[43] Quoted from Lajpat Rai.
[44] Digby.
[45] Digby.
Chapter IX
INDIAN NATIONALISM—ITS ORIGIN AND GROWTH
Before discussing at length the problems of Indian nationalism, let us
consider whether India is really a nation, or is merely a composite of
peoples inhabiting the same country. India’s fundamental unity as a
nation has been denied often by prominent scholars, while its historic
and cultured oneness has really never been acknowledged by the
English rulers of the country. Sir John Strachey remarks:
“This is the first and most essential thing to learn about India—
that there is not and never was an India, or even any country of
India, possessing, according to European ideas, any sort of
unity, physical, political, social, or religious; no Indian nation, no
‘people of India’ of which we hear so much.”
We said just now that one of the main grievances against English
rule in India is its alien character. It may be asked: “Why should the
alien origin of a rule itself be such a strong argument against it?” “Is
it not true that England has given to India peace and efficiency in
government? That constitutes the chief function of governments
everywhere, and the rule which has successfully achieved this
purpose justifies its existence. If it is true elsewhere, it should be true
in India also.” Our questioner may be both profoundly right and
profoundly wrong. However, the acceptance or rejection of a foreign
lordship by the heart is a matter of such subtle sentiment, that the
only way to explain its meaning to the reader is to create a situation
where he shall be called upon to judge in the matter.
Let us suppose that by some trick of fortune Japan obtained mastery
over America. Let us grant, at the same time, that the Japanese rule
over America was more efficient than the American rule, and in the
light of our modern knowledge it is not beyond the limit of probability
to imagine that Japanese efficiency in government could be greater
than American efficiency. How would our reader feel about the
situation? Would he be willing to discard his own indigenous native
government for the sake of a more efficient rule under the Japanese
Mikado? What would be his reaction if he saw his own “stars and
stripes” replaced by the Imperial flag of Japan? Certainly, he would
not feel at ease about the matter. The condition of the native of India
under British authority is exactly similar in cause and consequence.
In its fundamental aspect the rule of a country by an alien power is
essentially wrong in principle. It is unnatural and hence utterly
immoral. Whether it is the Japanese in Korea, the United States of
America in the Philippine Islands, or the English in India—it is all
unnatural and immoral. There can never be any ethical, moral, or
spiritual justification of an other than native rule in a country. “The
government of a people by itself,” says John Stuart Mill, “has a
meaning and reality; but such a thing as government of one people
by another does not, and cannot exist.”
So far there have existed only two principles for the government of
any country in the world, one is the government of a country by its
chosen representatives, who are held responsible to their
constituents, and are necessarily required to rule the country in the
interests of the governed. This system was described by an
American emancipator as “government of the people, by the people,
for the people.” When we look back over the histories of the different
countries of the world, we find that, without a single exception, the
countries which have advanced in their material and cultural
possessions, during the past two hundred years, have been those
whose governments were based on the principle of “government of
the people, by the people, for the people.”
In the modern world we find that the governments of the United
States of America, England, France, and Germany are typical for
their representative characters. It goes without saying that the
progress which these nations have made during recent times would
not have been possible under any other system of government. Take
the case of any of these countries, America for example; you will find
that “America has been made great by the democratic character of
its governmental institutions. Its colossal achievements in the
mechanical arts, the high advancement in its cultural and artistic life,
the mammoth nature of its commercial and industrial progress, the
magnitude of its educational equipment, its institutions of learning
and research, and its high standard of living—all these owe their
origin to the beneficent character of the American government,”
whose foundation was laid upon the noble principles contained in the
Declaration of Independence:
“ ... That all men are created equal; That they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed; ...”