The Better Angels of Their Natures? The Declining Rate of Homicides against India’s Dalits

There is a common perception—made the more acute by the growing focus on rapes since the horrific gang rape incident in Delhi in 2012—that India is an increasingly violent society. One can even see aspects of this perspective in official documents. Crime in India, 2009 for example observed that ‘The quantum of total violent crimes [increased] continuously … from 2005 to 2009’. This article focuses on serious, violent crimes against India’s Dalits (Scheduled Castes), especially homicides, as they appear in official statistics. It suggests that contrary to popular understanding, murder, rape and arson directed against Dalits have declined significantly since a peak in the early 1990s. The article argues that, in part, the declines are due to the social mobilization of Dalits, the emergence of lower caste and Dalit political parties in north India and specific aspects of political competition. But another, broader and important influence, perhaps related to what Steven Pinker has called ‘the better angels of our nature’, is an unnoticed but significant decline in overall rates of interpersonal violence in India.