THE QUEEN'S JUSTICE : A True Story of Indian Village Life

Hardback. In 1882, Malekk Chand was convicted, on the strength of testimony provided by his younger daughter Golak Mani, then 7yrs old, for the murder of his elder daughter Nekjan aged 9; on appeal to the High Court in Calcutta, the counsel for the defense, Manmohan Ghosh, was able to persuade the judges that Malek Chand deserved a more equitable trial; at the second trial in the Sessions Court, Ghosh obtained an acquittal for his client, for Malek Chand's daughter was shown to have perjured herself. Such was the popularity of the account of Malek Chand’s trial that the author, who had with extraordinary success brought the stories of the Bhagavad Gita and of the Buddha before the British public, rendered another account. Malek Chand’s case, as he noted, furnished much "ethnographic colour", besides being of "forensic interest"; and he set the note for his work by drawing an idyllic picture of village life, and then puncturing it with the sombre and difficult realities of India. 181pp. 12mo h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With uncut edges, lightly browned pp., sl. faded sp., v. lightly marked covers. G++