THE CONCEPT OF EX-CRIMINAL TRIBES- Denotified Tribes : The Laman Banjara

THE CONCEPT OF EX-CRIMINAL

TRIBES- Denotified Tribes : The Laman Banjara 

PART- 2

   Prior to indepenaence Nehru  made a very important comment apout the CT Act in 1936. He stated, "I am aware of the monstrous provisions of the Criminal Tribes Act which constitute a negation of civil liberty. Wide publicity should be given to its working and attemptm ade to have the Act removed from the statute book. No tribe could be classed as criminal as such and the whole principle was out of consonance with all civilized principles of criminal justice and treatment of offenders" (Kapadiaop.cit.). 

    At the time of,independence in 1947 there were 128 tribes and castes, totally nearly 3.5 million individuals (roughly 1% of the total population), who were officially designated as 'Criminal Tribes'. Int, he post-independence period, in 1949 the government set up ac ommission under the chairmanship of Ananthasayanam Ayyangar to look into the problems of the Criminal Tribes. The commission came out very negatively against the state provisions: "If effective measures had been taken for the reformation and welfare of these tribes by the states during the years the Act hasb een in force, we feel that the problem would have been solved a long time ago. Without providing for adequate reformation and welfare work, if the Act is continued, no material improvement among, these tribes can be expected and on the other hand as time passes the members of these tribes will more and more realise the injustice,done to them and their position may turn them into permanent enemies of the society as well as Government." The government measures instead of ameliorating the situation had just the opposite effect as many innoce persons were arrested and imprisoned. In the prisons they became hardened coming into contact with seasoned and hardened criminals. The system of regularly reporting to the Patels and petty officials resulted in exploitation as the officials exacted free labour from them. If one was arrested elsewhere, he was marked absent by the Patel. On returning, if he shared the spoils with the Patel, he was marked present. "Fraud and bribery on the part of the officials have not only encouraged, members of the criminal tribes to indulge in their anti- social activities but also have blunted their moral sentiments"(Kapadia: op.cit.). Sometimes the Patels and the officials helped out the CTs by instigating them to commit crimes in order to revenge

themselves on their rivals.

   In order to reform the CTs and rehabilitate them the government made some settlements for them. But most such settlements turned to be more like jails. In many cases the entire family  used to be intended in such settlement.  Lack of employment  opportunities also did not help matters much. Many of them turned to crimes immediately on being released from the Some of the settlements maintained by Christian missionaries were too not very good and incidences of corruption were reported.

   Devy (op.cit.) points out that soon after independence, the communities notified as Criminal Tribes were denotified by the

government. The notification was followed by the substitution of a series of Acts, geneat an entire community could be 'born' criminal. But the police forces as well as the people in general had been taught to look upon the 'Criminal Tribes' as bom criminals during colonial times and that attitude persisted and persists even today. The result is that every time there is a petty theft in the locality, the DNTs in the neighbourhood become the first suspects. The ratio between the arrests and convictions of the DNTs reveals the harassment. The denotified have to withstand. Although legally the legal stigma attached to the Criminal Tribes was removed, the social stigma has persisted until today (Major:1999). Taking note of the negative features of the Habitual Offenders weta Devi (A social activist on behalf of the Denotified and Nomadic Tribal Right Action Group filed a petition against the Act, Mah,Act in 1998. It may be pointed out that in 1956 in the undivided Bombay,state 27 tribes were identified as nomadic and as many as 73 as semi-nomadic. After a survey report in 1961 the Maharashtra government declared two lists: Schedulel consisting of 13 Vimukta,Jatis and Schedule Il comprising of 24 Nomadic Tribes (Patil: nd).,The Laman Banjaras fall within the ambit of Vimukta Jati or Denotified Tribe.

Compiled by- Prof.Dinesh Sewa Rathod

  www.profdineshrathod.blogspot.com

    Ref- Ethnography  Of A Denotified Tribe -The Laman Banjara- 

  J.J.Roy Burman