India has no shortage of aspiring hangmen

Wannabe executioners are practicing their noose knots. In Mumbai, 50 people have applied for the job of hanging the surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attack.

As several high-profile executions loom in India, critics argue that it's high time that a land famous for its belief in the sanctity of life, not to mention for a flawed justice system, abandon the practice. But some say India's reputation as a repository of spiritual values is outdated, even misguided, particularly as the country grapples with growing crime, militancy and the spread of cheap weapons.

"The idea of Hindus being otherworldly was a good marketing device, part of exotic India," says Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist and board member at the Doon School, a private institute in the city of Dehradun. "But it's not true. We can be very cruel to animals or human beings. Even during [Mohandas] Gandhi's time, it took the force of his charisma to prevent people from killing each other."

India's last hanging was in 2004, and the one before that in 1995, long ago enough that most executioners have retired, died or moved on, leaving states in the lurch.

But with several executions apparently imminent, including that of the lone surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, wannabe executioners are practicing their noose knots.

India doesn't say how many executions it has carried out, although in 2007 it reported 52 at one jail alone since independence in 1947. Civic groups place the total between several hundred and a few thousand over the last six decades. About 350 people are on death row.

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Source: Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2011

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