INDIAN CRIMINALS INHERIT THEIR TRADE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 257, 26 July 1930, Page 31

INDIAN CRIMINALS INHERIT THEIR TRADE

Secret Codes and Superstitions

The Moplahs, who are largely responsible for recent serious disturbances in the Malabar district, form one of the admitted criminal tribes of India. There is a number of these officially recognised criminal tribes established iu different parts of the country, membership of which is handed down from father to sou. The reason of this plentiful supply of recruits is that India is essentially a land of heredity. If a man there is a coolie (labourer), or a syce (groom), or a bheestie (roadsweeper), or anything else, long-estab-lished custom ordains that his progeny shall follow in ills footsteps. Hence, should the breadwinner be a dacoit (highway robber), or a professional thief, the family tradition is observed in just the same fashion. Indeed, for a youth to adopt any other calling would be regarded as a distinctly unlilial act.

A large proportion of these criminal bands belong to the Yarukala tribe (in which are the Tonka and Suva subcastes), and others to the Bats, Sansias and Kaiadis, etc. Although they may speak a different language or dialect and Inhabit widely-separated areas, all the criminal tribes of India have a common secret code, methods of working, signs and superstitions, etc., by which they can reveal themselves to other gangs. As a preliminary to embarking upon a marauding expedition, it is their practice to slaughter a fowl and throw the severed head into the jungle. As soon as the head stops quivering, they observe the direction in which It comes to rest, and look upon this as indicating a propitious startingpoint. If, and as frequently happens, it leads them into a police ambush, it is not the system that is wrong, but a spell worked by the “Evil Eye.” Another of their little peculiarities Is that prior to a robbery they spend 24 hours in a temple, praying to their special deities. They also propitiate them with burnt'sacriflces, and present the priests with a substantial share of the proceeds of a successful raid. The rest of the booty is distributed equally among all the members of the gang, with the exception of the leaders (or “Hangati”), who get a double amount. A share is also given to the wife of anyone who has the misfortune to be arrested or to become a widow. Idleness is not encouraged among the women and children belonging to the criminal tribes. Ear from it. They have to play their part equally with their lords and masters. They do so willingly enough, too. Thus, the women are employed in a sort of “intelligence system,” to discover suitable houses or people to rob, and to give warning of the approach of the police, etc. The children are trained to wriggle through narrow windows and snatch up unconsidered trifles in the way of jewellery, etc., and pocket-picking and fowlstealing are the subject of parental instruction from their earliest years. Of course, the authorities know all about the criminal tribes. Every member is registered and kept under surveillance. Nor can a gang move from one district to another without a permit. As, however, they number many thousands and pose as peaceful agriculturists, it is impossible to keep them

all behind bolts and bars. What the Government has done, accordingly, is to establish special colonies in various parts of India for their reception. These colonies are not prisons (although the occupants have to stop in them for indeterminate periods), since they have, as a rule, neither wails nor police, and the settlers are accompanied by their families. It is also part of the system that they arc paid for their labour.

The aim of a criminal colony is to make its influence reformatory rather than penal. To this end, schools are established in them and the occupants are taught handicrafts and made to realise, as far as possible, that “honesty is the best policy.” The great difficulty about this, however, is that the average member of a criminal tribe possesses a form of “religion” that makes him firmly believe he was specially created to steal.

The first of India’s criminal colonics was established in the Madras Presidency, not far from the scene of the recent disturbances. About 1800 individuals, ranging from highway robbers down to petty pilferers, were its inmates. They lived in bungalows and cottages, and were employed for the most part iu agricultural work. Schools and hospitals were also provided. Those who behaved well were rewarded by being appointed overseers; and those who behaved ill promptly found themselves transferred to prison. On the whole, there was little misconduct, beyond absconding and running off to the jungle. When, however, the settlers realised that this did not “pay,” and that they were practically bound to be caught, they turned over a fresh leaf and gave next to no trouble.

The Madras settlement at Stuartpuram answered so well that gradually the imagination of official India was fired, and the system was extended to other provinces. As a result, there are now similar settlements to be found in Bengal, Bombay and the Punjab, etc. While the police authorities exercise a general supervision over them, the actual management is, as a rule, left to v rious religious and philanthropic bodies. Conspicuous among such is the Salvation Army, and the American Baptist Mission has also done useful work in a similar direction. One of •the biggest of these criminal colonies is at Sholapur, in the Bombay Presidency, where a missionary and his wife have charge of nearly 2000 individuals of varying degrees of criminality. They are divided into three groups—(l) “reformed,” (2) “partly reformed,” and (3) “unreformed”—and the occupants are promoted or degraded from one tb the other as circumstances require. Most of the work at this settlement is performed in the local cottoil mills, and a man with a wife and two children can earn about thirty rupees a month. As he is also fed and kept, he is, from a material point of view, better off inside the colony than outside it. The watchmen employed in the settlements are all criminal tribesmen themselves, and have qualified for their position of trust by five years’ certified good conduct. They are energetically on the side of law and order, and regard themselves as Government officials, and take great pride in the fact.