BOOK REVIEW Custodial Violence in India Amnesty International, Human Rights in India, Vistar Publications, 1993,226 pp., Rs. 135 (paperback). This book was originally released as a report by the Amnesty International with the title *India: Torture, Rape and-Deaths in Custody*. Popularly known as a report on custodial deaths, it has aroused a major public debate in India. The report is written on the basis of information pertaining to 415 cases of custodial deaths. Facts about these cases were gathered from newspapers, judicial enquiry reports and reports prepared by civil liberties groups in India. Despite official denials. Amnesty International has noticed that custodial deaths are on the rise. Though some cases are given proper publicity the others are publicised only in the local press or regional editions of the national press. Some may not receive any publicity. Therefore the actual number of killings could be more. After a meticulous analysis of the information the report emphatically stated that, most of the victims belong to the under-priveleged sections of the society. To quote, 'half of India's 844 million people are poor and illiterate and a quarter of them are officially recognised as being in need of special protection. People from this most vulnerable section of the population form the majority of torture victims: members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, tribal women in the northeast, migrant workers, landless labourers.' These victims are detained on grounds of burglary, theft, public order offences, sometimes on mere suspicion and subjected to torture. Invariably they are tortured in order to extract a confession or further information about a crime. According to the report, 'the most common torture methods are severe beatings, sometimes while the victim is hung upside down, and electric shocks. People have also been crushed with heavy rollers, burned, stabbed with sharp instruments and had objects such as chillies or thick sticks forced into their rectums. Sexual mutilation has been reported. Rape is a common form of torture.' This inhuman torture very often results in the death of the victims. Political opponents too are subjected to torture. People'are detained at the behest of influential political persons. In some cases dalits»and tribals who organise themselves for redressal of grievances are also Social Scientist, Vol. 21, Nos. 7-8, July-August, 1993