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Steal or I'll Call You a Thief: 'Criminal' Tribes of IndiaAuthor(s): Susan AbrahamSource: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 34, No. 27 (Jul. 3-9, 1999), pp. 1751-1753Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4408149 .

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their ilence.Oneof theguidelines,con-sequently,nsistson the safeguard"thatvictimsor witnessesarenot victimisedordiscriminatedgainstwhiledealingwithcomplaints of sexual harassment".Unfamiliarwith the societal realityandimperviousotheSupremeCourtmandate,the committee suppresses the com-plainant's ilence to silence herspeech.Theyoungwoman s condemned o a no-win situation.Inmyearlier omment, hadclungonto thestraw f theMSUvice-chancellor's'punyaprakopa'.Now I knowthat,evenif he manages o ignoreor convenientlytwisthis innervoice, the SupremeCourtguidelines indhim withthedirective: Itshallbethedutyof theemployer r otherresponsible ersonnworkplaces r otherinstitutionsoprevent rdeter hecommis-sionof acts of sexualharassment ndtoprovideheproceduresor theresolution,settlement rprosecutionf actsof sexualharassmentytakingall stepsrequired."Under hestewardshipf thisVC,MSUhasbeen emissednthematterfprovidingthemechanismequiredundertheupremeCourt uidelines.Theenquiry ommitteesetupbyhimcannotbe said o havereallyenquirednto hematter.tsreportwill notstand moment's crutiny,ayorjudicial.Lethimnot wait for the righteousangerof others,or forjudicial ntervention,osecurejustice. No matterwhether t isslipshod,peremptoryr/andprejudiced,this reportfails to ensure yet anotherimportantupreme ourt uidelinewhichrequires:hat here s no hostile environ-menttowardswomenat workplaces ndnoemployeewoman houldhavereason-able grounds o believe thatshe is dis-advantaged in connection with heremployment."Theacceptancef thisreportwilldeepen,notalleviate,women's fearsat MSU. Letalonedoing ustice, hereport asnotevencared o be seen as doing ustice.To sumup, there s a clear case for rejecting hereportbecause: 1) The committee'suseof thecomplainant'silenceovertheyears,farfromproving hebaselessnessof herallegations,s a prima acie violationofthe normsof naturalustice, proceduresof law,andmodesof assessingevidence.(2)There s nogroundorthecommittee'sassumptionabout the non-existence ofanycorroborativevidence for the com-plainant.3) The committee'sfailure toconsider he possibilityof a connectionbetween hecomplainant'sllegations ndthe stoppageof her scholarship'by hesupervisor ffers a queercontrast o itseagerdownplaying f thatblatantabuseof powerasjust an administrativeapse.

(4) The committee's voice' is unmistak-ablyhostileto thecomplainant.tbetraysan incapacity, f not unwillingness, orcomprehendinganythingsaid by her.Ratherthan follow the SupremeCourtguidelinehat,wherenecessary,hevictimbeprovided aspecialcounsellor r othersupportervice",hecommittee as reatedthe complainantas an adversary,un-deservingof anytrust,anddeniedher asympathetichearing.Finally,amelancholyhought bout heefficacy of the SupremeCourt's com-prehensivend trict uidelines. rovidinga complaintmechanism, nd ntroducinginto its composition safeguardsagainstmiscarriagefjustice,theSupremeCourthasmandated:TheComplaint ommitteeshouldbeheadedbya womanandnot essthanhalfof itsmembers houldbe women.Further,o prevent he possibilityof anyunduepressure r influence romseniorlevels,suchComplaintCommittee houldinvolve a thirdparty, itherNGOor other

body who is famijiarwith the issue ofsexualharassment."t suncertain hether,andhowfar, heMSUenquiry ommitteefulfilstherequirementf familiaritywiththe issue of sexual harassment.However,its composition appearsto have beendesignedto answer the SupremeCourtdirective. t was headedby a womanandtwo of its threememberswerewomen.Ifa committeeso constituted an producesuchareport,heSupreme ourt uidelinescanbythemselvesproduce ut ittlecheer.All theirbuilt-in afeguards otwithstand-ing,theguidelinesareunlikely obemoreeffectivethanwhat s permitted ythenetcombined sensitiveness to women'squestionof thosecomposinga particularcommittee exceptwhen there s a con-sciousattempto counter ommittees hatareinsensitive o women'spredicament.Each instance of justice secured in theteethof general esistance o orapathyorwomen's cause will serve to makelife abit less difficult for women.

Steal or I'll Call You a Thief'Criminal'Tribesof IndiaSusan AbrahamInstead of celebrating the militant and heroic heritage of thosedesignated 'criminaltribes' by the British rulers, independentIndiacontinues to ill-treat them. Withcruel irony constant harassmentinfact drives some of them to crime.* JALANbelongs to the pardhicom-munity.Her husbandwould be arrestedandbeatenupatregularntervals; er wochildrenwere'confiscated'bythepoliceon thecharge hat heywerestolenas shedid not have their birth certificates.Recently, hewasstrippedffa saribythepolicefornotpossessing ts cash memo.*BudhanSabar elonged o the kheria-sabar ommunityfWestBengal.Recentlymarriedhe was determinedo eke out aliving from his handicrafts.On his wayto the market ne dayhe was pickedupbythepolice.Hewascontinuously eatenfor five daysandnights thougha searchof his houseshowednoevidenceof theft.Onthesixthdayhe was senttojail wherethe beatingscontinued.On the seventhday he was declareddead.*PinyaHariKale elonged o thepardhicommunity,who workedas a landlessagriculturalabourerand on whom hiswife and ourchildrendependedor theirlivelihood.Oneday hepolicepickedhimuponcharges f theft.The nextdaywhilestill in custody,he was declareddead.

These are not the happenings of theprevious century when communities suchas pardhis, kheria-sabars or the vadaris,bhils, bedars, kalkadis, kanjars, manga-rudis,nir shikaris or tadvis of Maharashtralike hundreds of communities all overIndia, were labelled 'criminal tribes' bythe British penal system. Then, a memberof any of these communities could beramdomly picked up, tortured,maimedoreven killed.These incidents occurred in 1998, 50yearsafterso-called independence. Jalan'stripping took place on March 9. BudhanSabar's death was due to torture by theofficer-in-charge of Barabazar policestation in West Bengal and he died onFebruary17. Pinya Hari Kale-was arrestedbyBaramatipolice in Maharashtra n June8, killed in one day and his dead bodyburied in a forest. They all belonged tothat community called 'denotified' tribes(DNTs). What happened to them issymbolic of the treatmentmetedoutto thiscommunity to this day. Even the use of.the term'denotified' is like brandingthem

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- once acriminaltribe,now anex-criminaltribe.No wonder then that throughoutMaha-rashtra,August 15, 1997 was observed asblack day by the DNT communities andvarious 'bomabom' (shout or cry out)rallieswere takenout throughoutthe stateto highlight the plight of these com-munities.Every year persons from the DN tribesare eithermoblynched,killedbythepoliceor forced into criminal activities by thepolice. It must be the worst form ofexploitation whentheestablishment forcesa section of the people to be engaged incriminalactivities- akin totheexploitationof women keptenslaved intheprostitutiontrade. The DNTs who submit are trappedin a world of rob and run inwhich the local

police are also paid a share of the booty.Iftheydare onotsubmit,they arehoundedout anyway. Budhan Sabar's 'offence'was thathe was trying to eke out a livingon handicrafts.Forthe stigmaof 'criminaltribe' is unerasable in the eyes of the lawand the rest of society.In factthe activistsof the PaschimBanglaKheria Sakar Kalyan Samiti (PBKSKS)-headedbywriter-activistMahashwetaDevifeels thatthevery fomlation of the Samiti,to which Budhan Sabar belonged, was athreat to the establishment. The Samitiwas formed not only to assist the com-munity members in developing theirhandicrafts but to fight against policeatrocities. And the police officer whotorturedBudhan to his death, was knownfor his hatred orthisparticularcommunity.In 1992, Roy was punished with a transferwhenduringa night raid of a Sabarvillagehe not only beat Shanti Sabar to death butmade the Sabars cremate her body atgunpoint;InWest Bengal between 1977 and 1982more than 42 people, mostly youthbelonging to the lodha community werebrutallykilledbythepolice ormob lynched.The popular belief is that in this state,under Left Front rule for decades, thetortureorkilling of aDNTearns thepolicepromotions and political patronage. In1992, the suicide of Chuni Kotwal onAugust 16 ought to have made the nationhang its head in shame. Chuni, the onlygraduatefrom the lodha community fromWest Bengal was an outastanding tudentdoing hermasters in -i:hrolt,o!.ogy.n theface of continuous harassment andhumiliation for belonging to a criminaltribe, she was forced to commit suicide.In 1997 a spate of robberies in thenorthern suburbs of Mumbai resulted inthecity police commissioner R Mendoncagoing on recordwith his statement thatthe

pardhi community being a criminal tribewas responsible. As if this was not badenough, the police swung into action to'roundup hundreds of pardhis living inslums, destroying their houses andsubjecting them to torture and prolongedincarceration. When a public outcryensued, the commissioner was forced topublicly apologise. The atrocities con-tinued however.Today in India there are approximatelytwo crore people belonging to the DNTswho arespreadover 126 tribes and castesall over India. Apart from Maharashtrawhich offers reservation facilities (apaltry2 per cent), in none of the other states arethe DNTs entitled to reservations. Theliteracy evels amongthecommunitywouldbe almost nil. They are denied the rightto own land and arethusforced intoleadingnomadic or marginal lives. Clubbedtogether with the nomadic tribes (NTs),they form the most backward group ofpeople socially andeconomically. Till dateno rehabilitation plans exist for the NTsand DNTs even on paper. The recom-mendations of the Backward ClassesEnquiry Commission way back in 1955have yet to be accepted by governments,let alone implemented. Infact, theabysmalstate in which the 'untouchable' casteswere forced to live in ancient India isthe fate of the DNTs and NTs of modernIndia.Their continued exploitation andcriminalisation can best be seen from theenactment of the Bombay. HabitualOffenders Act in 1959, seven years afterthe repeal of the British enacted CriminalTribes Act of 1871. Arbitrary powers aregiven to thepolice of Gujarat,Maharashtraby way of the new law which is targeted.against the very same communities.If you go through the profiles of theseDNTs, you will be surprisedto know thatthe wandering minstrels of Jodhpur,otherprofessional singers andmusicians, snakecharmers, fishermen, village acrobats,nomadiccattlegrazers,grasscutters,handi-craftsmen, weavers and other nomadictribalsareamongthosebrandedas criminaltribes.To understandhow these communitiesgot entrapeedin the most devious mannerimaginable, it is necessary to trace theirorigins. Their history shows that theirancestors were either forest inhabitantsorwanderingtribeswho had distinct culturalidentities. Their way of life was relativelyself-sustaining and the major centres ofancient Indiancivilisations had very littleimpact on them. Up to the Mughal periodthe forests on which these communitieswere dependent were so vast, remote and

inaccessible that these areas yielded littleor no income to the state treasuries.The scenario changed with the adventof the East India Company. More andmore forests werebroughtunder tscontrolfor commercial exploitation. With theirlives thus threatened, many from thesecommunities took to rebellions against theforeigners. In fact, many from thesecommunities had taken part in and beenmartyred n the first war of independenceagainst the British in 1857.With the formalisation of British ruleafter 1857, more and more of the foresthabitatof these communities was broughtunder colonial control, with the advent ofrailwaysandlarge-scale felling of forests.Theuppercaste peasantryalsobegan large-scale land grabbing in the tribal regionsof central and south India. The extensionof the British penal system to these areassealed the fate of these indigenous forestdwellers. There was large-scale loss oftheir lands and an end to their economicindependence, thus forcing largenumbersto migrate. Some may even have beenforced into the world of crime.

However, the larger response of thesecommunities to the land grabbing tacticsofoutsiders,axandrentmposition, iola-tionof forestrights,bonded and ndenturedlabour orcedon them was thatof rebellionsand armed revolts. The rebellions of theberadcommunities against the British arepartof folklore thoughpoorlydocumented.It was the ramoshi community that.com-priseda large segmentofVasudev BalwantPhadke's guerilla squads.It was keeping in view the propensityof these indigenous tribes to revolt, andthat too with weapons, that the CriminalTribes Act of 1871 was enacted. Just asthe zamindarisystem was imposed on theIndian feudal structureby the British, theindigenous communities were sought tobe appended to the caste system at itslowliest bottom. Its main architect andmember of the Law and OrdeFCommis-

TABLE: CASTENDCRIME,871-72Caste Population Per cent Percentin Total AmongPopulation ConvictsBrahmin 2,641,776 3.95 6.0Rajput 1,238,250 1.86 1.6Kayasth 1,626,141 2.43 6.1Goala 3,126,715 4.69 7.2Kaibartta 2,191,597 3.29 6.6Chandal 1,648,349 2.47 1.5Kurmi 965,649 1.45 1.1Dusadh 953,005 1.43 5.00Muslims 20,664,775 30.99 36.8Christians 93.013 0.14 1.6Source: BengalAdministrationReport1871-72,p 106.

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sion, T V Stephens propoundedthe thesisthat as the caste system was a specialfeatureof Indian society, with each tradelinked to a caste, crime is also endemicto certain communities.The special featureof India is the castesystem. As it is, tradersgo by caste. Afamilyof carpenterswill be carpenters,acenturyor five centuries...Viewed fromthisangle.themeaningof professional sclear. tmeans ribeswhoseancestorswerecriminal romtime immemorial,who arethemselvesdestinedby theusageof casteto commit crime and whose descendantswill be offenders against law until thewhole tribe is exterminatedor accountedfor in the mannerof the thugs.A more diabolic system than the castesystem was thus brought into practice bythe British to enslave largenumbers of thelocal population.Until 1871, no particularcaste or com-munity had been dubbed as 'criminal' in

local parlance. In fact, a recent report byA K Biswas in Frontier (November 8-14,1998) shows that if the crime graph ofWestBengal of 1871-72was studiedcaste/communitywise, it would be found thattheuppercastes featuredmore thanpropor-tionately among convicts while most ofthe other backward castes showed a sharein crime which was less than theirrespec-tive percentage of population (Table A).Thepoint most forcefully provedby thisisthat herewasnobasis forthesubsequentclassification that certain castes, that tooonly from the backwardcastes andtribes,had an inclination for crime. The uppercaste beneficiaries of the caste system fortheir part lent their weight to the divideand rule designs of the British.The British colonialists thus ensuredthat sections of the Indianpopulationwerepermanently inked to the world of crime,thereby actually forcing many to engagein criminal activities. Aboriginal tribes,backwardcastesandnomadiccommunitieswere arbitrarily roughtunder thepurviewof the CTA.

By the time this dastardly law wasrepealed in 1952, altogether 153 commu-nities werebroughtunder its stranglehold.All districts had to register each memberof a 'criminal' tribewithin itsjurisdiction.Their finger impressions had to be takenin the CT Act register. Passes had to beobtained fromthepolice if anyone wishedto leave thevillage. Daily 'hazri' (reportingto the police) had to be recorded with thepolice. First imprisonment would be forone year, second for several years and athird would mean transportation for life- no matter if the crime was somethingas minor as petty theft.

Theworstaspectof theexploitation fthesecommunitieswas the setting up ofindustrial ndagriculturalettlements or'criminal ribes'.TheBritishgovernmentwas empoweredby the act to force anyindividualamilyorwholegroups f thesecommunities to the settlements evenwithout being accused of any crime.Childrencould be forciblytaken awayfrom their parentsand kept in remandhomeswhichweremore ikeprisons.Suchtacticsquiteresembledhe tacticsusedbytheEuropean olonialists o exterminateorsubjugatehe nativeAmericans ndianpopulationsn the US.The Sholapur ettlementcan be seeneven todayas a chillyreminder f whatthesesettlementswere ike.Hewn nrockby the Woddarsa century ago, thesemassive tonestructurestanddesertednAuswitz-like loom.Theentire ettlementwas fenced off by barbed wire. The'settlers'wereused as indenturedabourkept in shackles,and made to run thetextile mills of Sholapur.Thereare 72other such settlementsn differentpartsof the country.These communitieswereforced ntoslavery,not to free themfroma life of crime,butto provide reelabourto themines,millsand irmsof theBritishin India.Somewere ransportedo distantlandswhere heircraftsmanship as usedforsculptures ndcarvings.Therecanbeseeneventoday ncountriesikeMalaysiaaccordingo socialactivist ndnotedauthorLaxmanGaikwad.Itcan husbeseen hat hewholeconceptof criminal ribeswas entirelya creationof theBritish orwhichnoprevious ocialbase existed. A primarymotive was tocurbhespontaneousevolts nd ebellionsof certainwarringcommuntiesagainstalienation rom heirnatural abitats nd

againstforced penury.The beradcom-munitiesresorted o armeddacoities,notto lootthelocalpopulacebuttoempty hearmouriesand treasuriesof the British.Their ctswereconsidered sactsof valourandhonourwhich ndeed heywere.Theywere the early guerrilla ightersagainstcolonialism.Another bviousmotivewasto create slave labour.Butwhatof theplightofthedescendantsof these 153 communitiesoday?Present-day society's attitudesareno better hanthatof the British.Theroughly wocroreDNTsof Indiaarenobody'schildrenwhocontinue o eadahuntedxistence.NeithersuccessivegovernmentsorHindu ocietynor heestablished arties f thescheduledcastesand ribeshave akenuptheir ause.Manyarekeptbondedto a life of crimeas no alternative xists forthem.Thelawandordermachinerys a willing sponsorto this scenario.In a public interest itigation iled by

Mahashweta evibeforeheCalcutta ighCourtafter he deathof BudhanSabarnpolice custody,Justice RumaPalpasseda historicaludgmenton August6, 1998,ordering a CBI enquiry into BudhanSabar'sdeath,the immediate ransfer finspector Ashoke Roy and Rs 1 lakhcompensationoBudhanSabar'swidow.In the case of Pinya Hari Kale a writpetition asbeen iledbyLaxmanGaikwadin the Bombay High Court.There sanurgentneed oworkamongstthese communities, o organisethemtoliberatehemselvesrom heirpresent-daysocial andeconomicmiseries.There s anurgentneed not only to documentbuttoreclaim heirmilitantandheroicheritage.Lastbutnotleast,there s anurgentneedto linktheirstruggleso therevolutionarystrugglesfor a new.democratic ndia.

REVIEW OF AGRICULTUREMarch 27, 1999

EmergingCrisis in PunjabAgriculture: everityandOptionsfor Future-Ramesh ChandTransitionsn Rice ProductionSystemsin Eastern ndia:Evidence rom Two Villagesin UttarPradesh -Vishwa Ballabh,SushilPandeyImpactof IrrigationManagementTransfer n Maharashtra:An Assessment -Niranjan PantAgricultural radePolicy andExportStrategy -V S VyasRegulatingTransgenicPlantsin India:Biosafety,PlantVarietyProtectionandBeyond -A DamodaranRuralInfrastructurendGrowth n Agriculture -M S Bhatia

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Economic and Political Weekly July 3, 1999 1753