India among most violent countries in the world, says global peace index

India has been ranked as one of the most violent countries in the world, in a new list compiled by the Global Peace Index.

The list which ranks 162 countries from most peaceful to least peaceful, sees India languishing at number 141, just five places above strife-torn Syria and not faring much better than its troubled neighbour Pakistan. This was a marginal improvement of one spot from its 2012 ranking of 142. This is the seventh edition of the index.

The list works by ranking countries across 22 indicators that measure internal peace (eg: levels of perceived criminality, number of police per 100,000 people and level of organised crime) as well as external peace indicators (these include military expenditure as a % of GDP and nuclear weapons capabilities).

The main factors going against India were those such as terrorist activity, conflicts, the number of nuclear and heavy weapons in the country, and perceived criminality.

India’s poor ranking in 2012 was attributed to the high number of internal and external conflicts, ease of access to small and medium weapons and the political terror scale, as in the case of conflict-ridden Kashmir, said the report’s author Steve Killelea, to the Times of India .

And the bad news is not just for India, but for the whole world. In its report, the Global Peace Index says, “The 2013 Global Peace Index (GPI) shows that the world has become less peaceful, with a sharp rise in the number of homicides.”

So who did worst in the hall of shame? Well Afghanistan narrowly beats out Somalia for that dishonour. As for the most peaceful country in the world - that honour goes to Iceland.

You can view the full list here :