Smyrna times., 1906-12-12

India is usually spoken of as land
where life and property have become
safe under British rule True, the
bands of thugs have been broken up,
the Pindharee hordes have been sup
pressed, and the British police system
is spread over the whole country, but
the criminal tribes or castles, those
whose hereditary profession is rob-
berry and nothing else, remain, their
instincts strong, wanting only opportu-
nifty to practice their traditional call
ing, which the Indian caste system for
bids them to abandon.
These tribes are most numerous and
most hayward in the united provinces.
in which are Cawnpur and Lucknow,
the cities associated forever with the
Indian mutiny.
Half of the division is Oudh, the ma
tive province last annexed by Britain,
many of whose old men wildly re-
member when every "talookdar," or
feudal chief, lived in a fortified castle
and retained swarm of armed men,
who received no pay, but lived on the
country. They were official robbers,
and their example gave free scope to
the professional" robbers, or, as they
have always been known in India, the
criminal tribes.
These tribes are the Sanauriahs, the
Barwars, the Sansiahs,. the Doms, the
Haburahs, the Aheriahs, the Banriahs,
the Bhatus. Each tribe has its own
dialect, dress and customs.
A singular feature of Indian life is
that persons who would be considered
depraved characters in a European
country and would bear the stamp of
their nature ON their faces are not de-
PRAYED in their own estimation or in
that of the people at large. A casual
murderer is not ashamed of himself
nor abhorred by his neighbors, who
welcome him back among them if he
escapes the gallows and is released
after a term in Jail. The universal be-
lief that all things are decreed by fate
accounts for this amazing state of
| feeling. Much more, then, are men re-
| garded with Indifference or even re-
and natural profession is robbery with
murder.
So the members of these tribes go in
| and out of the towns and villages with
out misgivings, and there is not sign
| in their faces or manner to indicate
that their business is robbery and muir
| der.
When a gang encamps outside of a
| town the inhabitants feel uncomforta-
| BILE and take precautions, but cherish
| no i'll will against the strangers. And
when robberies and murders occur al
| most Immediately within a radius of
| twenty miles they take more precau-
lions, but regard the whole affair as a
| visitation of Providence, like flood or
a fire.
| These habitual criminals are not de-
| PRAYED in any sense understood by the
| people. They simply have the mis-
fortune to belong to a trade which is
unpleasant for the neighborhood-like
a dyer's or a tanners.
They are we'll satisfied with them
selves and are as careful as other peo-
pie of their responsibility, They have
no unusual vices; they do not get drunk
or riotous; they are civil. courteous
and unassuming. Cruelty and ferocity
are with them neither habits nor pleas
ures, but simply methods of business.
During the excitement of a sudden
attack the people if they do not run
away will turn out and aid the police
in repelling or capturing the robbers
But if a police inquiry begins two or
three days after the robbers have done
their work unmolested the people will
usually do nothing to help in tracing
them and will even deny that they
have lost anything.
For many years past the government
of India has worked to induce these
criminal tribes to settle down to q
peaceable and industrious life.
But progress is very slow. Vagabond
age is bred in the bone and marrow OF
the tribes, and marauding is their cho
sen occupation. From time to time mer
will suddenly disappear, perpetratt
several daring dakaitis in another dis
trict and escape over the border int
one of the Independent native state.
which cluster round three sides of tn,
united provinces.
The word "dakaiti," also spelled ida
coity," means robbery by gang o.
armed men, and dakait, or dacoit, Il
a member of such gang.
An assault by robbers in India diff
fers from one in Europe or America II
that it always takes place at nigh
and is accompanied by a tremendou
amount of noise. The Indians are
noisy people at all times, and in a rob
berry with violence the robbers objec
is to terrify their victims into panic
hence whether travellers be waylaid o.
a lonely road or a wealthy man.
house be attacked in a village the as
sault is always made suddenly, wit
loud.shouts and yells and in the case G
a village with beating of drums an
\ waving of lighted torches.
I The persons attacked below for a
they are worth, but rarely offer resis