16 Denotified Tribe

Sangeeta Dey

Contents:

1. Introduction.

2. Crimes in India and classification of criminals

3. A Brief History of Criminal Tribes or Denotified Tribes.

4. Denotified Tribes or Criminal Tribes

5. Some Characteristics of the Criminal Tribes

6. Role of the Caste System in formation of criminal tribes

7. Welfare of Denotified Tribes in India

8. Conclusion

Learning objectives:

-Students will be able to identify criminal as well as non –criminal categories of tribe.

-Students will be able to classify criminals of India.

-Students will be able to explain about the Denotified tribes and their characteristics.

-Students will be able to explain the role of caste system in propagation of criminal tribes.

– Students will be able to understand the importance of the welfare of Denotified tribes of India.

1. Introduction:

Tribes may be defined as collection of families or groups of families bearing a common name which as a rule does not denote any specific occupation generally claiming common descent from a mythical or historical ancestor and occasionally from an animal but in some parts of the country held together rather by obligation of kinship; usually speaking the same language and occupying, professing, or claiming to occupy a definite tract of country.

The tribes in India are of two kinds:

Criminal Tribes – are made up of those people who traditionally follow criminal activities as their profession. This category is called as Denotified tribes or Vimukta Jatis after the result of the Criminal Tribes Act and enacting the Habitual Offenders Act of 1952.
Non – Criminal Tribes – are those groups of families bearing a common descent from a mythical or historical ancestor. However these tribes do not accept criminal means of livelihood as their profession. This category constitutes the present Scheduled tribes who enjoy special privileges under the present constitution.

The term “Backward Classes” include Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), Denotified Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). These classes of Indian population have laboured under different and distinct disadvantages in the Indian social system. They have suffered from social and economic disabilities and have come to be known as Backward Classes. The SCs and STs are identified as a result of different lists revised and issued under the scheduled castes and scheduled tribe lists modification order, 1956 whereas the Denotified tribes are defined under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1924.

From many centuries these criminal tribes existed in India, becoming marauders, living by illegal methods chiefly robbing and thieving. Because their modus Vivendi was by criminal propensities, they were called “criminal tribes”. Criminal tribes can be defined as those sections of the people of India traditionally follow criminal activities for example stealing, robbery and decoity, and such criminal acts which serve approved occupations to gain their livelihood.

Criminal tribes were treated as born criminals and were subject to vigilant watch by government officials beginning in 1871, the year the First Criminal Tribes Act was enacted. Their freedom of movement was restricted until the Criminal Tribal Act was repealed in 1952.

2. Crimes in India and Classification of Criminals

Crime is considered a violation of the criminal law. Generally law may be defined as a principle established and enforced by the State. If there were no criminal laws, there would be no crime. Whenever a criminal law is passed and enforced, acts that were not crimes previously then become crimes. However, according to law, crime may be defined as “the commission or the omission of an act which the law forbids or commands under the pain of a punishment to be imposed by the state by a proceeding in its own name.” In other words the State has the responsibility of taking action against the criminal. Thus, one may say that a criminal is one who has committed a crime and is found guilty by a court of law.

According to Haikerwal, the criminals in India could be classified as follows:

The incorrigible – The incorrigible is the one who deliberately chooses crime as a profession. The incorrigible finds it a profitable and easy way of obtaining a livelihood. Though he is given an opportunity to earn as honest livelihood, he will never take it, because he does not believe in it. He does not always commit crimes himself. More frequently, after a successful career of crime, he employs others to execute his plans and sees that the punishment falls upon them and not upon him. His own immunity from punishment hardens him in his career of crime. He persuades people to commit crime and is always on the lookout to make sure that no member in his federation gives up his profession. He is fully familiar with the secrets of crime and imparts his knowledge freely. He employs lawyers to defend his clients. If he fails in all his trials to defend his clients, he will often support the family of the imprisoned man. He is so organized that he cannot be easily apprehended by the police.
The habitual – The habitual criminal like the incorrigible is one who commits crimes continually. He is to a large extent the victim of circumstances and economic stress and he cannot escape from this. A habitual offender is not necessarily incorrigible. This distinction is necessary. The incorrigible deliberately takes up crime as a profession where the habitual offender does not. The habitual offender, however sincere he may be in his desires and efforts to reform, ordinarily has no chance of doing so. When one or more convictions are against his name, reformation is impossible.
The accidental criminals – Accidental criminal is a very careless type of individual. He is neither a professional criminal like the incorrigible nor does he commit crimes as a habitual without being much prepared or intended. For instance, a person riding a cycle without a light during the night is against the law. But, if he should not reach his destination before night fell, and there is no place for him to stay along the way, he must continue on without the use of the light of his cycle. Thus, he commits crime.
The criminal tribes or caste – This category also known as Denotified tribe are neither habitual offenders nor are they incorrigible, though they accepted crime as a profession. This section of people traditionally follows criminal activities to obtain their livelihood.

3. A Brief History of Criminal Tribes or Denotified Tribes

The earliest history of the criminal tribes is not known. However we have the views of Risley, Ghurye and others who conclude that the tribes were the original inhabitants of the country in which they lived.

Elwin Verrier called the Baigas, one of the criminal tribes as original owners of the country. The exact origin of the criminal tribes is unknown. Our purpose here is not concerned with the tribal origin but to know when these tribes came to be considered as criminal. Sher Singh noted that the criminal tribes were first dealt with by the regulation of 1773 and finally in the year 1871 officially recognized as an illegal social organization. They were shown as a separate category for the first time in the 1911 census.

In the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 the Government proceeded on three basic assumptions:

First, all persons born in a particular group or caste would become criminals from the birth because they take up the fathers profession;
Second, when once they learn such law violating behaviour, they will always continue to be criminals because they believe it to be a profession; and
Third, because of continuous criminal practices, they become hardened criminals.

The Act is provided for registering all the members of the tribes declared as criminal tribes. The Act also required that the registered members have to report themselves at the police authority and notify their place of residence. The Act authorized the authority to restrict any criminal tribe or his movements to any specified area and whenever he crosses the limits to which his movements were restricted even for few hours or for an innocent purpose. They were subject to punishment of imprisonment for longer duration and also a fine which may extend to Rs 500 or $67.

However, this approach of the government was wrong. It postulated that the criminal tribes represented a group of born criminals and that crime was hereditary with their members, and that criminals, could be reformed by ruthless punishment and life – long harassment.

4. Denotified Tribes or Criminal Tribes

Denotified tribes were of two kinds which may broadly be classified into nomadic groups and settled communities. The nomadic group includes gypsy like people, while the settled and the semi – settled groups trace their descent irregular fighting clans, who were uprooted from their original homes on account of invasions or political upheavals in the distant past. Before settlement in colonies, they used to make a living out of hunting, snake charming, selling medicinal herbs and other goods. The innate spirit of adventure coupled with extreme poverty, lack of openings for better economic conditions and also other psychological factors led them to take to criminal practices which later became a tradition and a part of their heritage.

Under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1924, these groups which numbered about 127 and whose population was 24.64 lakhs in 1951, were dubbed as criminal tribes. Thus, when a child was born of these tribes, he was considered to be criminal, even though he might have been totally innocent. These peoples were kept in colonies, sometimes fenced with barbed wire and under strict vigilance of the police. Quite often, they were made scapegoats for undetected crimes. In these settlements, the registered persons were interned for a prescribed period during which they were taught agriculture or certain handicrafts. The movement of these settlers was restricted within that area. Thus these notified groups had to wear dark cloak of notoriety around them. This deprived them to all channels of employment.

These people were bound by their own morals. They were physically well – built and mentally sound. They seem to have their own standards which they observed scrupulously. The Bampta steals neither during the daytime nor from the body of a person asleep. The Tagoos of Karnal, the Sonarias and the Oudiahs, on the other hand steal in the daytime, near in the night. The Bamptas and the Sonarias never steal in their own villages. The Burias usually rob the well-to –do as they detest depriving the poor of their hard-earned income. Minas of Shahjahanpur in the Punjab give plenty to all those who come to them for alms. The charity of the Minas in Saddabarat, is perpetual, and invites all comers to partake of it.

They have their own code of conduct and secret dialect to communicate with each other in the performance of their work. This code of conduct was strictly followed. Contravening these rules met with severe social disapproval, which was a stronger sanction than laws.

After independence, the national government realized the injustice of dubbing the whole community as criminal without exception. Apart from being repugnant to the fundamental principles of jurisprudence, it was socially unjustifiable and nationally wasteful to maintain a whole community, generation after generation, in bondage. The Government therefore appointed a Criminal Tribes Enquiry Committee in 1949 and on its recommendation repealed the Criminal Tribal Act with effect from August 31, 1952 and the restrictions imposed on those people were withdrawn.

5. Some Characteristics of the Criminal tribes

The Bhamptas are railway thieves par excellence.
The Minas of the Punjab, U.P, and Rajasthan are more prone of decoity which is preceded by a heavy pelting of stones.
The Kallan considers robbery a duty and a right sanctioned by descent.
The Jandna are swindlers who pretend to turn metals into gold.
The Gopalas engage themselves only in cattle steeling.
The Manggarodis are cattle poisoners and cattle lifters.
The Kolis commonly steal only bullocks and buffaloes; the Manggarodis steal goats and sheep.
The chapper–bands are known for pilfering and petty larceny, though at times they take to counterfeiting coins.
The Lamanis kidnap women and children.
The Baurias engage only in house burglar and cattle stealing at night. They are expert at wrenching jewelry off the persons of sleeping women.The radius of their burglary is beyond 50 miles of their village.
A badall would be stealing all the edibles including food, fowls, and eggs.
A Barwar would commit theft after sunset or before sunrise, would readily surrender.
The Baurias sometimes pose as members of caste and manage to marry their daughters to well-to-do people whom after wards they plunder in collusion with them.
The Soonarias are daytime pickpockets and petty thieves.
The Sansis often disguise themselves as constables and in the course of a mock search rob travelers.
The Harnis are adept at masquerading as religious mendicants.
The Kasikadis, who take to robbery and decoity, disguise themselves as Jangams (lingayat priests), fortune tellers, medicine men or shepherds to pick up information.
The Chandrawadi will often disguise himself as a woman and travel in the third class, woman’s carriage and carry on his trade.

6. Role of the Caste System in formation of criminal tribes

A peculiar social system known as the Caste System was developed. Probably thus was originally based on the division of labour, but its gradual development led to a rigid social structure by which a person who was born into a caste or group named after birth with that caste. The caste became the shadow of the individual. The caste never ended until he died. The caste was his own world. An individual was born into it, lived in it and died in it. The caste was ascribed by birth. The strict caste system was maintained by strict observance of rules such as prohibiting inter-caste marriage, inter-dining and drinking, fixed occupation, fixed hierarchical ordering of status and restricted social intercourse. This system divided the society into several thousand mutually exclusive, non – overlapping and permanent social units. Nobody was allowed to go out of the social units into which he was born. This led other groups and tribes to follow the same pattern since they were under the influence of the caste system. Out of ten people, if nine persons lived as mutually exclusive and permanent individuals, the tenth member would automatically become another exclusive unit. The same principle applied to the tribes. After some generations, the tribes also acquired the characteristics of a caste such as prohibition of inter-caste marriage, ascribed status by birth, etc. The caste system was strengthened and no social mobility was possible. A child born to Vaisya (trading community) automatically becomes a Vaisya, and a son of a criminal tribe, naturally enough became to a criminal. So without having any guilt in their minds, the tribes became criminals. The caste system produced merely four million criminal tribes because of its nature and function.

7. Welfare of Denotified Tribes in India

The Backward Classes Commission 1955 had recommended that:

The nomenclature of these classes may be changed from “criminal” to “Denotified Communities”.
These communities may be divided into Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes for getting the benefits available to the categories concerned.
These communities may be distributed in small groups in towns and villages where they will ultimately come in the contact with the other people and will eventually be assimilated in society.
Normal instruction together with basic education followed by vocational and technical education at secondary level should be given to them.
The children of the criminal groups should be removed from their parents on attaining the age of seven and should be put in suitable hostels.

After the legal withdrawal of the limitations and restrictions in 1952, the first problem was to wean them away from the criminal tendencies, particularly the younger generation and removed the stigma attached to them and secondly to put before them opening to useful occupations which would make it possible for them to live honourably. The total allotment under the First Five Year Plan both at the centre and states for these communities and other backward classes was Rs. 3.5 crores. By the end of this plan period, about 17 settlements and 30 colonies had been set; more than 36000 families had received assistance for agricultural development; 113 cooperatives had been organized and 337 industrial centres were set up for their benefits.

The Second Plan made an allocation of Rs. 3.12 crores for the welfare of these communities. The major schemes were housing and educational development. Apart from agriculture and cottage industry, another possibility of leading a life of honest means can be getting employed in government services, private firms, factories etc. But even though the Act has been repealed and theoretically there is no bar to getting employment, yet the stigma attached to those belonging to these communities does not make it easy to secure them employment.

In view of the small results achieved thus far, their needs should be studied in each area and programs could be drawn up on the basis of the following suggestions of the Study Team setup by the Committee on Plan Projects:

The need for a combined correctional and welfare approach for the rehabilitation of Denotified communities which should be supported by a program of social education;
Formulation of special economic programs which keep in view the character of the population, in particular, their adventurous spirit and traditional skills;
Organization of industrial and other cooperatives;
Provision of opportunities for employment in the public services supported by way of additional training and orientation facilities; and
Where the Denotified tribes constitute a sizeable population, cadres of trained workers, who are familiar with their social and cultural background and can work closely with them, should be built up.

The Objective of assimilation, emphasized by the Third Plan should guide the program of rehabilitation and development from the very start and progressive and forward – looking elements among the Denotified tribes themselves should be assisted and encouraged to play an increasing part in this effort.

In pursuance of these observations and recommendations and in view of the urgency of early rehabilitation of the Denotified tribes, all the schemes were implemented under the centrally sponsored programs. Economic development and social progress of these communities were given due emphasis for which around four hundred lakhs was made available in the Fourth plan, all the schemes were continued with an allocation of around four fifty lakhs.

The pattern of implementation of schemes was again changed in the Fifth Plan Period when all the welfare schemes for the Denotified tribes were transferred to the state plan sector. These schemes have continued to be implemented in the 6th and 7 th Plans by the respective state governments. The Schemes include educational programs in the form of granting of scholarships and stipends to eligible students, tuition and examination fees, provision of mid – day meals and establishment of Ashram schools, residential schools and hostels; programs for economic development, rehabilitation, colonization, assistance for agriculture and organization of cooperative societies; Miscellaneous schemes like setting up of community welfare centres, balwadis, digging of drinking water wells etc.

Much more could have been done for the welfare of the Denotified tribes, had there been a statutory provision for their welfare as there has been for the protection and promotion of interests of scheduled castes and tribes in the various articles of our constitution. The Denotified tribes are entitled to certain benefits and concessions under the general provision of Article 41 of the Constitution of India which stipulates the promotion of educational and economic interests of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other weaker sections. It is desirable that the various safeguards, concessions and benefits available to the schedule castes and tribes should be extended to them also under the statutory provisions to be made by the parliament through an amendment of the Constitution.

There is also the need to identify their complex problems which vary from state to state due to their habitation, ecology, traditions and cultural ethos, and to find their remedies especially to their rehabilitation in vocations suited to their genius and to wean them away from their criminal tendencies, particularly the children. This can be achieved to a great extent by formulating comprehensive and integrated plans to provide them land and the financial facilities in the form of loans/subsidies for agriculture, agro – based cottage industries, housing education etc. Voluntary organizations have been playing appreciable role in their rehabilitation and welfare. They need to be involved in larger measure to complement the government efforts in ameliorating the lot of the Denotified tribes with a view to integrating them in a mainstream of the Indian society and enabling them to live as respectable citizens of the country.

8. Conclusion:

The criminality of these tribes was a social product, and it did not evolve over night. It was neither inherited quality nor was it planned with malicious intention. Most of the criminal tribes seem to be original inhabitants of the respective areas in which they lived. Most of them adopted Hindu practices with tribal identity. Some embraced Islam and other turned to other cults. All these people gradually, after a generation or so, identified themselves as tribal criminals. But when legally recognized as tribal criminals in the year of 1871, after the enactment of the Criminal Tribes Act in that year, these tribals lost their lands and properties to foreign invaders such as Aryans, Dravidians and Muslims. They became helpless, hapless and hopeless due to the defeat by the invaders. Having lost their lands and properties, they were left with no source of income, and therefore resorted to illegal means for earning a livelihood. These people had no particular profession, but they lived by means of nefarious activities. Socio – economic conditions of these Denotified tribes are responsible for becoming the criminals. Though originally they were not criminals, were a period of time through changing circumstances, they became poor. As such they were forced to take up certain activities which were easy for earning their livelihood. And gradually caste system strengthened and the exclusive groups have been developed, thus keeping them in their social groups continuing their criminal activities.

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References:

Biswas, P.C., The Ex-Criminal Tribes of Delhi State , University of Delhi, Delhi, 1960.
Cressy, Paul. The criminal tribes of India, Sociology and social research, 1936.
Edwin H. Sutherland and Donald R. Creney, Principles of Criminology, J.B. Lippincott Co., New York, 1960.
Ghurye, G.S., The Aboriginals – So called and their Future, Popular Book Depot, Bombay, 1949.
Gillin, John L. Taming the Criminal, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1931.
Gunthrope, E.J. Notes on Criminal tribes, Times of India stream press, Bombay, 1882.
Haikerwal, B.S., Economic and Social Aspects of Crime in India, George Allen and Unwin Limited, London, 1934.
Hutton, J.H. Caste in India, Oxford University Press, Bombay, 1963.
Kapadia, K.M., The Criminal Tribes of India, Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 2, March, 1952, pp. 82 – 125.
Raghavaiah, V. The Problems of Criminal Tribes, Akhila Baratiya Adimajati Sevaka Sangh, Delhi, 1949.
Sher Singh, The Sansis of Punjab, Munshiram Manoharlal, Oriental Publishers and Book Sellers, 1965.
Simhadri, Yedia C., Denotified Tribes: A Sociological Analysis, Classical Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1991.
Simhadri, Yedia C., Ex-Criminal Tribes of India, National Publishing House, 1979.
Sir Herbert Risley, The People of India, Thekar, sprink ans Co., Calcutta, 1908.
Srinivas, M.N. Caste in Modern Indian and Other Essays, Asia Publishing House, New York, 1962.
Verrier, Elwin, The Baigas, Oxford University Press, London, 1950.

Additional Readings:

Ambedkar, B.R., The Untouchables, Who are They? How They Became Untouchables? Amrit Book Company, Delhi, 1948.
Caldwell, Robert G., Criminology, The Ronald Press, New York, 1965.
Issacs, Harold R. India’s Ex-Untouchables, John Day Company, 1965.
Justine Miller, Handbook of Criminal Law, West Publishing Company, 1930.
Morris, Norval, The Habitual Criminal, Longman’s Company, New York, 1951.
Vold, George B., Theoretical criminology, Oxford University press, New York, 1958.