The Criminal Tribes of Northern India
| Author | S. T. Hollins |
| Published date | 01 April 1930 |
| Date | 01 April 1930 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3000300212 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Criminal Tribes
of
Northern
India
1
By S.
T.
HOLLINS
Deputy Inspector-General, Indian Police
THE criminal tribes of the United Provinces of Agra and
Oudh (i.e. in North Central India) furnish one of the most
difficult and at the same time one of the most fascinating
problems that confront the police.
It
is not possible to deal
adequately with every branch of the subject in a single article;
for volumes could be written on these tribes. Further, to
render an article on these tribes intelligible to readers who have
no special knowledge of Indian conditions, much technical and
ethnological information, which is necessary for a full appre-
ciation of the tribes, must be omitted.
Origin.-Let it suffice to say that social outcasts from the
Indian caste system are responsible for many of the criminal
classes of the present day. They formed themselves into
groups for mutual protection. Their numbers gradually
swelled, and in time they began to prey upon their more
fortunate neighbours and so became outlaws. Many of these
groups attracted broken men and ruined women from other
castes, and in time the members of each group adopted a
general caste and tribal name of theirown. Some of these tribes
were-and
still
are-nomadic.
They cannot settle down,
but
wander about the country, stopping a few days here and there.
These are the real gipsy tribes of India. Other tribes have
settled down,
but
such of their members as are criminally
inclined-and
the number is very considerable-sally forth in
bands at frequent intervals to commit crime.
Two tribes must be specially referred to here, as they have
been driven to crime more by force of circumstances than
anything else. They are the Banjaras and the Chain Mullahs.
1See
also'
Some Types of the Indian Hereditary Criminal,' in ThePolice
Jounral,
.-01.
I. p. 1°5. 277
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