§ MR. CAINE (Bradford, E.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India if the attention of the Secretary of State has been drawn to the recent increase of hook-swinging festivals in India, to their condemnation by the leaders of Brahminism, and their reprobation by the Native Press; if it is true that surgeons in the employ of the Indian Government frequently superintend these hook-swinging festivals with a view to testing the physical capacity of the persons swung to bear the torture inflicted upon them; and if the Indian Government will be instructed to suppress them in future as a public nuisance?
§ SIR E. GREYAs stated in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Flintshire, the subject is receiving the consideration of the Government of India. It appears that in the Madura case, about which my hon. Friend asked a question in February last, a surgeon was present with the object of seeing whether there was evidence to justify the Magistrate in prohibiting the performance as dangerous to life, health, or safety. But it was found impossible to take action on this ground, and, so far as the Secretary of State is aware, no other similar festival has been attended by surgeons in the employment of Government. The Secretary of State is advised that, under the present Criminal Procedure Code, it is impossible to proceed in the manner suggested.