Gabbar Singh Gujjar (1926 — 13 November 1959) was a

dacoit Dacoity is a term used for "banditry" in the Indian subcontinent. The spelling is the anglicised version of the Hindi word ''daaku''; "dacoit" is a colloquial Indian English word with this meaning and it appears in the ''Glossary of Colloquia ...

active in the late 1950s in the Chambal valley of north-central India. Gabbar Singh was born in Dang village, Madhya Pradesh, India. He joined the Kalyan Singh gang in 1955 and later formed his own gang, committing a series of crimes in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In 1959, a ₹50,000 reward was placed on his head, the largest at the time for a wanted criminal in India. Gabbar instilled fear in several regions, as described by Khusro Faramurz Rustamji, then Inspector General of Police. Gabbar Singh died in a gunbattle with police in the Bhind district.

Early life

Gabbar Singh was born as Gabar Singh in 1926 in Dang village of Gohad Tehsil, Bhind district in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. It is situated in the

Chambal division The Chambal Division is an administrative geographical unit of Madhya Pradesh state of India. A river by the name Chambal, a tributary of Yamuna River, forms the boundary between Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, in the upper part of the Chambal Div ...

. His father's name was Raghuveer Singh .

Dacoity career

In 1955, Gabbar Singh left his house and village to join the famous Kalyan Singh gang of

Bhind Bhind is a city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the headquarters of the Bhind district. Demographics As of 2011 Indian Census, Bhind had a total population of 197,585, of which 105,352 were males and 92,233 were females. Populati ...

. Later, Gabbar formed his own gang between October and December 1956, he committed a series of murders and dacoities in the

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. In December 1957, he went on to disfigure several persons in Machhuari, Bhakre, Chammodi and Chirenasta villages in

Reward for capture

The state governments of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

and

declared a ransom reward of for his head in 1959. At the time, it was the biggest reward placed on the head of a wanted criminal in India. In his autobiographical narrative ''The British the Bandits and the Border Men'',

Khusro Faramurz Rustamji Khusro Faramurz Rustamji, better known as K F Rustamji, is the only police officer in India thus far to have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award. This award has been in recognition of his multifarious achievem ...

then the IG (

Inspector General An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is "inspectors general". Australia The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (Australia) (IGIS) is an independent statutory off ...

) of Police in the

, details that Gabbar had instilled so much fear in the areas of

Dholpur Dholpur is a city in the Dholpur district in Rajasthan state of India. It is situated on the left bank of the famous Chambal river. The city is the administrative headquarters of Dholpur District and was formerly seat of the Dholpur prin ...

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

and

Etawah Etawah also known as Ishtikapuri is a city on the banks of Yamuna River in the state of Western Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Etawah District. Etawah's population of 256,838 (as per 2011 population census) m ...

, that no one dared to leak any information regarding him.

Death

He died on November 13, 1959 in Jagannath-Ka-Pur village of Bhind district during a gunbattle with the police force.

, who earlier worked as special security officer to

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

decided to present the news of Gabbar's death as a birthday gift to the first Prime Minister of India,

In popular culture

* Rajagopal P. V., former

Director General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive (government), executive officer, often the chief executive offi ...

Police, who had gone after several dacoit gangs, edited the book on the criminal history of the real-life of Gabbar Singh during his retirement in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. The book was released in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. *Indian

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

cinema has made several films based upon Gabbar Singh. The most notable film is ''

Sholay ''Sholay'' (, ) is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film directed by Ramesh Sippy, produced by his father G. P. Sippy, and written by Salim–Javed. The film is about two criminals, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), ...

'', in which Gabbar Singh was played by Amjad Khan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabbar Singh 1926 births 1959 deaths Indian outlaws People shot dead by law enforcement officers in India