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36 Asia The Economist September 22nd 2018
EARLIER this year a neighbour dropped
by the Chundawats’ house in the north-
ern suburbs of Delhi, wondering why his
friend Lalit had not opened his nearby
shop.Whenhe let himself in the reasonbe-
came clear. Everyone inside—11 people
from three generations—was dead. Two
brothers, theirwives, a sister and their chil-
dren dangled from the ceiling in a hallway,
suspended by ropes, blindfolded, hands
tied. The family matriarch, 77-year-old Na-
rayani Devi, lay strangled nearby. Only
Tommy, a dog, survived.
Police say the deaths were a mass sui-
cide, most likely prompted by occult be-
liefs. Yet, strange though the incident ap-
peared, the Chundawats’ death was only
one of numerous collective suicides across
India this summer. In July in the state of
Jharkhand alone, two families killed them-
selves, driven by the more prosaic motive
of despair over debt.
Suicide is often seen as a rich-world
problem, but is all too common in India.
New research, published this week in the
Lancet, a medical journal, reveals that In-
dia suffers from perhaps 230,000 a year,
nearly double previous estimates. With
18% of the world’s population, it is respon-
sible fornearlya quarter ofsuicides among
men worldwide, and almost four out of
ten among women. Suicide is the leading
cause of death for all Indians between the
ages of15 and 39, and for Indianwomenbe-
tween the ages of15 and 49.
The paper’s lead author, Rakhi Dan-
dona of the Public Health Foundation of
India, says that previous estimates for sui-
cides relied solely on police reports. These
tended to undercount, not least because
until last year Indian law considered sui-
cide, as well as “abetment” of it, a crime.
Her team instead extrapolated results for
the past 25 years from a range of nation-
wide medical records, including nearly
half amillion autopsy reports.
India’s suicide rate, like the global one,
is falling. But whereas the rate among
womenworldwide has fallen by half since
1990, and in China by an astonishing 70%,
in India it has droppedby just 25%. And just
as South Korea and Russia have relatively
high suicide rates, butmostMuslim-major-
ity countries relatively low ones, there is
stark geographical variation among Indian
states (see chart). Awoman in the southern
state of Tamil Nadu, for example, is ten
times more likely to commit suicide than
one in jungle-boundMizoramin the north-
east. Men in the poorest state, Bihar, kill
themselves at a quarter of the rate of those
in bustling Karnataka, the heart of India’s
technology industry.
Partly because suicide was criminal-
ised for so long, there has been little re-
search into its causes. “The determinants
for such huge differences are not under-
stood,” says Dr Dandona. “South Indians
may be inclined to internalise their trou-
bles, whereas northerners verbalise, but
that is pure speculation.” There have been
no studies of differences among India’s re-
ligious groups, although there is some evi-
dence that Muslims are much less likely
than Christians and Hindus to do them-
selves in. Andnoone knowswhether caste
plays a role, although suicide rates seem to
rise with wealth and urbanisation, before
falling again as the newly urbanised grow
accustomed to their environment.
What does seem sure is that suicide
rateswill continue to fall, perhaps dramati-
cally. The ubiquity of televisions and mo-
bile phones has diminished individual iso-
lation, for example for wives oppressed by
demanding mothers-in-law. It has also
made more Indians aware and accepting
ofways to seekhelp formental problems.
De-criminalising suicide has also made
it easier todiscuss and investigate the issue.
Earlier this year the Supreme Court quoted
an eloquent argument for a more compas-
sionateview: “If the right to lifewere onlya
right to decide to continue living and did
not also include a right todecide not to con-
tinue living, then it would be a duty to live
rather than a right to life.” 7
Suicide in India
Deadly reckoning
DELHI
Astudyfinds that farmore Indians kill
themselves than previouslyassumed
A miserable toll
Sources: WHO; India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative
Suicide rate per 100,000 population, 2016
0 10 20 30 40
World average
India
Bihar
West Bengal
Karnataka
Tamil Nadu
Bangladesh
South Korea
Pakistan
United States
Male Female
Politics in Pakistan
Back on the street
EVEN for a life characterised by drastic
reversals of fortune, it has been a
dizzyingweek for Pakistan’s thrice-
ousted primeminister, Nawaz Sharif.
Therewasmisery on September14th,
when hewas granted a fewhours’ parole
from the 11-year prison sentence he began
serving in July to attend the funeral of his
wife, Kulsoom. Then, on September19th,
therewas unexpected delight. The Islam-
abadHigh Court announced it would
suspend his sentence, alongwith the
eight-year termgiven to his daughter,
Maryam, for the duration of their appeal.
The court’s terse order offered little
explanation. But during the hearing that
preceded it Justices AtharMinallah and
Miangul Aurangzeb echoedwidespread
criticismof the original verdict. Prosecu-
tors had failed to provide evidence of
their claim that Mr Sharif’swealthwas
ill-gotten, saidMrMinallah, and had
relied instead on the “mere presumption”
of guilt. The casewas needlessly rushed,
addedMr Aurangzeb (the 174-page verdict
containsmany garbled phrases, such as
“brushacite” instead of “brushed aside”).
Such scepticism from the benchmakes
an eventual acquittal likely, lawyers say.
Supporters ofMr Sharif’s political party,
the PakistanMuslimLeague-Nawaz
(PML-N), celebrated in the streets.
Mr Sharif claims that the army, with
which he often clashedwhile in power,
orchestrated the case against him to hurt
the PML-N’s chances in the election on
July 25th. If so, it worked. The PML-N lost
power to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
(PTI) of Imran Khan. But the PTI ’s suppor-
ters retort that, if there had been a con-
spiracy to foil Mr Sharif, whywas he
released? One reasonmay be that the
election is over, so the imprisonment has
served its purpose. Others argue that the
judiciary is not infinitely pliable. The two
judges concerned are considered in-
dependent and liberal-minded.
Eitherway, for the time being, Mr
Sharif and his daughter are free to do
what they intendedwhen they left Kul-
soom in a coma in London and returned
to Pakistan in early July: rally their party.
In particular, Maryam, whose reputation
has been buoyed by herwillingness to
face prison, who is furious at what has
happened to her family andwho is
thought to beMr Sharif’s chosen succes-
sor, is likely to start agitating against Mr
Khan. He, after all, made her father’s life
difficult when the PML-N was in power.
“Imran’s goose is cooked,” predicts one
jubilant party leader.
Karachi
Anunexpected court decision energises the former ruling party