LASD JOURNAL EDUCATIONAL VOLUME – I ISSUE – II SOCIETY

FEBRUARY 2021 Page 2 of 19

D I S C L A I M E R

No part of this publication may be reproduced or copied in any form by any means without prior written permission of Editor- in-chief of LASDES Journal. The Editorial Team of LASDES

Journal holds the copyright to all articles contributed to this publication. The views expressed in this publication are purely personal opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of the Editorial Team of LASDES. Though all efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and correctness of the information published, LASDES shall not be responsible for any errors caused due to oversight otherwise.

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E D I T O R I A L B O A R D

FOUNDER & PROJECT HEAD

Mr. Utkarsh Srivastava

EDITOR IN CHIEF:

Mr. Devaang Savla BCL, University of Oxford Practising in High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.

. EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Ms. Aparna Bajpai M.A, Azim Premji University.

EDITOR: Ms. Anjali Rawat BCL, University of Oxford.

EDITOR: Mr. Aradhya Sethia LL.M, Yale Law College. Page 4 of 19

EDITOR:

Ms. Srishti Joshi LL.B, University of Mumbai.

EDITOR:

Mr. Ayush Khanna B.Com LL.B, Amity University, Practising in High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.

EDITOR: Mr. Oliver Carr BCL, University of Oxford.

EDITOR:

Mr. Tanmay Sadh

B.A. LL.B (Hons.) from University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, Currently practising in High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.

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ABOUT US

LASD Educational Society (NGO) is a Non-Profit Organization which is involved in sectors of Legal Education, Legal Aid and Social

Reforms, expressly focusing on students and people belonging to backward communities, who are resource-deprived or suppressed. It is a development of professional legal enthusiasts who undertake to legally empower citizens of the State of , contributing towards their social and moral responsibility.

ABOUT LASDES E-JOURNAL

LASDES E-JOURNAL is open access, professional-reviewed reference- journal, dedicated to express views on topical legal and social issues, thereby generating a cross current of ideas on emerging matters.

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CANNIBALISM AND ITS LEAKAGE WITH CRIMINOLOGY - PRIYAM

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CANNIBALISM AND ITS LEAKAGE WITH CRIMINOLOGY

ABSTRACT

Today, if we go through various civilizations on the earth from ancient times to the date, humans have dined on human flesh. Whether it was done in the course of terrifying the enemy and gain his strength, cannibalism goes back a long way. We have seen various examples of individuals who have lonely enjoy and find eating one of their kinds satisfying. And if you think rationally and ask why they do so? There is just a simple but horrific answer to that that they do it because they have pleasure by doing so. In most cases, these activities are the consequences of a psychopathic personality. Some offenders of cannibalism are psychotic whereas many of them are well acquainted with the act while they are doing it. Such cannibal intensely describes the deformed feelings and distorted emotions which they have while doing such an act. They enjoy the process of murdering and cutting the body of the victim. Ultimately, this creates extreme satisfaction or some kind of euphoric state in the brain. In such a diverse world, in the huge subject of anthropology, cannibalism is one of the exotic topics. In the 21st Page 8 of 19 century, it does not matter to what extent you claim yourself adventurous and open-minded, but you will still think twice at the thought of eating human flesh. Cannibalism, as much as any other practice, still represents a limit to cultural relativism. However, because of colonialism and evangelization, cannibalism is almost entirely outdated.

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Introduction

We have read and listened about that animal eating other animals like a lion eating a deer, but society is heading towards human eating human world.

In 2005 and 2006 a case which was a sheer example of cruelty and deformed mindset came out in light famously known as Nithari serial murders or Nithari kand. The incident occurred in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The case came into the limelight when the number of children got disappeared suddenly in a series and some teenagers too and most of them are girls. Slowly, the investigation led the police to a resident of Moninder Singh Pandher in Nithari village. And in between in the village people at intervals of time found some remains of the human body, skeletons, skulls, etc. which had made the situation more scary and brutal at that time. Afterwards, according to the facts and circumstantial shreds of evidence, it was discovered that there are two accused behind all this inhumane crime. First, Moninder Singh Pandher and second his servant, Surinder Koli. Later, CBI took them in custody and further Surinder Koli confessed that he abducted the children, sexually assaulted them, and later cut Page 10 of 19 them into pieces, cook and eat them, and later disposed of the remains of the body nearby. His employer Moninder Singh Pandher was not accused in all the cases but he was a womanizer and also a convict of sexual assault of abducted children and young girls. After reading this sort of real-life example we can say that it is a case of sexual abuse, murder, attempted necrophilia but also a well-established example of cannibalism.

In this article, we are going to discuss crime connected with deformity of mindset known as cannibalism. Nowadays, with changing scenarios of society cannibalism is taking place more frequently. Maybe cannibalism is related to some illness, psychological abnormality, etc. but the method and its consequences is overall a crime. In ancient times it was somewhere a part of some tribal societies as a part of their culture but now it is happening within our society and creating fear in our minds.

The root word cannibal comes from the Spanish caníbal, caríbal “savage, cannibal”. It came from Caniba, which Columbus recorded for the Carib tribe Page 11 of 19

(from which the name Caribbean was also derived). This tribe was reputed to be anthropophagous, and thus greatly feared.

Cannibalism means the practice of eating the flesh of a human or of one's kind which inhumane cruelty is. It formed a practice in earlier times which was followed by many people in countries like Prehistoric Europe, South America, New Guinea, and Fiji. It has been encountered that in ancient times it was accepted for reasons of survival when faced with the extreme need or for religious or magic reasons. Anthropological data represents that millions of years ago the link between Neanderthals and Homosapiens was cannibalistic for nutritional reasons.

In today's framework, these types of cases are extremely rare but when traced in society it is often related to some sort of severe mental illness. In , just like Nithari kand, various other cases have taken place in metro cities where the accused consumed his victim. Cannibalism takes place in tribal groups such as Andaman and Nicobar islands where people eat human flesh. In India, the famous section of Aghoris eats human flesh in the name of religious rituals and superstitions that eating another human will keep them young and make them immortal. Page 12 of 19

Several times it has been observed that aghoris took dead bodies from cremation ghats for eating their flesh. Sometimes this cannibalism moves one step forward in the form of sexual cannibalism where the accused either sexually assault the victim before his or her death or after his or her death or then later consume his or her dead body too.

Various studies show that cannibalism is anti-social and highly impulsive and is a sign of abnormal behaviour of the accused. Analyzing in detail it was opined that it is psychopathological. The person who is accused of these kinds of crimes has some sort of history of deviant behaviour, impulsiveness, depressing childhood, has no feelings of remorse, and also has pleasure in given giving pain to others. If we try to find the characteristics of such offenders in people who genuinely have it is a difficult task. They are not easily traceable, these types of people act normally and socialize like normal people but in reality that has a deformed mind and grotesque mindset which is always ready to catch people for making their prey. These kinds of offenders have some factors in common, like-

Having a family history of some kind of mental illness. Page 13 of 19

Some pregnancy birth complications, such as malnutrition or exposure to toxins or viruses that may impact brain development.

Taking mind-altering drugs during teen years and young adulthood.

If we closely examine we can see that apart from these above- mentioned reasons there is one more important and trending reason behind this social issue is overpopulation and the presence of alternative nutrition facilities. All over the world, there is a population boom no matter it is at a slow or fast pace but it is there. And for this huge population, the nutrition available in nature is getting scarce. For fulfilling their needs people resort to other human beings for their nutrition. And when these problems get assorted with any or some kind of psychopath problems the situation becomes fierce.

Types of Cannibalism-

There are four types of cannibalism existing in our society or we can say they are the reason behind cannibalism- Page 14 of 19

Survival Cannibalism- Several times cannibalism is committed for survival. The person who is eating the human flesh in not doing it according to his choice but because he has no other option left to keep himself alive, till now various example has been seen and listened that someone has committed cannibalism for survival. For example, if two people have been trapped on an isolated island and there is no means of survival then the fittest one will consume the weaker one. This is also a perfect example of the survival of fittest.

Ritual Cannibalism- As the name suggests when cannibalism is done for some ritualistic cause. There are various tantrics, aghoris, etc. who use dead or alive human bodies, human blood, and carcass for their worship in the name of the devotee.

Warfare Cannibalism- People commits cannibalism to the people of other countries with whom they are waging war. This is basically for inflicting pain and fear in the minds of the opposite country. They do this to mark their territory in the respective country that they are waging war with.

Dietary Cannibalism- One of the reasons which is also a type of cannibalism is people eat human flesh for fulfilling their dietary Page 15 of 19 purpose. According to the human flesh have some distinct kinds of nutrients and benefits that cannot be available in another form. These types of cannibals are the real threat to their surroundings as they always seek the chance to catch their prey from their immediate society and people or victims are not a bit aware of their camouflaged callous and barbaric malice aforethought.

Laws: National and International

In India, there is no doubt that cannibalism is existing but there is no such prescribed law on it like there are various other codified laws on various other offences. But instead of that, there are legislations in which it is punishable according to severity and intensity. Cannibalism directly results in the murder of the victim, whose body is later consumed by the accused. And murder is a crime and punishable under the codified criminal law of India. Further, if the accused did something else with the victim apart from murdering him or her like sexual assault, necrophilia, abduction, etc. then the accused will be punished for that also. From time to time in such cases, our courts try to set a benchmark and give commentaries to make Page 16 of 19 people understand the intensity of these kinds of crime without any codified law on it. In Nithari Kand, CBI and the court had played their roles very efficiently in the investigation and in giving punishment to the accused respectively.

Many times when anyone commits such an offence which includes cannibalism they confess that they did such activity for survival. They aren't the habitual offender. It shows that many incidents of cannibalism are not a consequence of psychotic tendencies or any kind of past deformity. Such cases make an impact on the mind and heart and suppress us to question where we are as humans exist. Such kinds of cases make our legal system also wonders that what punishment should be given that it creates a benchmark and create a fear of law in the minds of such offenders who do such activities just out of pleasure and personal satisfaction.

In the United States, there are no laws against cannibalism per se, but most, if not all, states have enacted laws that indirectly make it impossible to legally obtain and consume the body matter. Murder, for instance, is a likely criminal charge, regardless of any consent. Further, even if someone consents to Page 17 of 19 be eaten and kills himself, the cannibal may still be liable for criminal or civil actions based on laws governing the abuse or desecration of a corpse, which vary from state to state.

In case Regina v. Dudley and Stephens 1 is an English criminal case concerning two men who survived a shipwreck in the 19th century. The defendants and two other shipmates were marooned on a raft after their ship was destroyed in a storm. They had no fresh water and little food. In desperation, one of the men drank seawater to quench his thirst, but it only made him sick with dehydration, and eventually, he lost consciousness. Dudley then killed him and the three survivors drank his blood and ate his meat for the next week before being rescued. Despite the atrocious circumstances and evidence that the victim was near death anyway by the time Dudley killed him, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death. Their sentences were later commuted to six months in prison.

1 (1884) 14 QBD 273 DC Page 18 of 19

Conclusion

Cannibalism is a horrific and gut-wrenching activity. Whenever it is discovered in society it creates fear in our minds and somewhere it led us to question where we are heading as humans. People have hidden personalities who commit cannibalism which we cannot be traced normally in our daily normal life. They just trap innocent peoples from their surroundings and later murder them and consume their bodies. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to discover such types of activities. It is not the matter of concern that there is no prescribed law on this that is why it is happening rather it is the mindset of the accused which is deformed for a very long time and this deformity is dominant which cannot be changed by laws or punishment but rather it takes treatment to replace the deformity and place it with logical reasoning. As per the acts which constitute an activity of cannibalism can be punished under legal statutes for instance murder, necrophilia, abduction or kidnapping, etc. but if we solely think about cannibalism, it is a morally or ethically questionable issue, it is difficult to be tackled legally. Through laws, one can punish the doer for his Page 19 of 19 illicit acts but cannot prevent his tendency to commit such crimes. Mental deformities have no fear of law or punishment. These kinds of people need proper check-up and should be kept under strict surveillance. It is the responsibility of the state to protect common citizens. As there may be one such kind of offender in a specific area but he can result harmful for many who are there in his surroundings unaware of his intentions and his mental deformity. Cannibalism has increased crimes too but the legal system tries to curb it with its judgments and commentaries with the help of present legislation.