Dacoity is a term used for " banditry" in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. The spelling is the anglicised version of the

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

word ''daaku''; "dacoit" is a colloquial Indian English word with this meaning and it appears in the ''Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases'' (1903). Banditry is criminal activity involving robbery by groups of armed bandits. The

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

established the

Thuggee and Dacoity Department The Thuggee and Dacoity Department was an organ of the East India Company, and inherited by British India, which was established in 1830 with the mission of addressing '' dacoity'' (banditry), highway robbery, and particularly the Thuggee cult of ...

in 1830, and the

Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–1848 Thuggee (, ) are actions and crimes carried out by Thugs, historically, organised gangs of professional robbers and murderers in India. The English word ''thug'' traces its roots to the Hindi ठग (), which means 'swindler' or 'deceiver'. Rela ...

were enacted in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

under East India Company rule. Areas with ravines or forests, such as Chambal and Chilapata Forests, were once known for dacoits.

Etymology

The word "dacoity", the

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...

version of the

word ''ḍakaitī'' (historically spelled ''dakaitee'').

डकैती comes from ''ḍākū'' (historically spelled ''dakoo'',

: डाकू, meaning "armed robber"). The term dacoit (

: डकैत ''ḍakait'') means "a

bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an ...

" according to the ''

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

'' ("A member of a class of robbers in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, who plunder in armed bands").

History

Bandits of Bhind-Morena and Chambal

The dacoity have had a large impact in the

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 ...

and Morena of Chambal regions in

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 ...

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 s ...

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...

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 north-central India. The exact reasons for the emergence of dacoity in the Chambal valley have been disputed. Most explanations have simply suggested feudal exploitation as the cause that provoked many people of this region to take to arms. The area was also underdeveloped and poor, so that banditry posed great economic incentives. However, the fact that many gangs operating in this valley were composed of higher castes and wealthy people appears to suggest that feudalism may only be a partial explanation of dacoity in Chambal valley (Bhaduri, 1972; Khan, 1981; Jatar, 1980; Katare, 1972). Furthermore, traditional honour codes and

blood feud A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one pa ...

s would drive some into criminality. In Chambal, India, organized crime controlled much of the countryside from the time of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

up to the early 2000s, with the police offering high rewards for the most notorious bandit chiefs. The criminals regularly targeted local businesses, though they preferred to kidnap wealthy people, and demand ransom from their relatives - cutting off fingers, noses, and ears to pressure them into paying high sums. Many dacoity also posed as

social bandit Social banditry or social crime is a form of lower class social resistance involving behavior that by law is illegal but is supported by wider "oppressed" society as being moral and acceptable. The term ''social bandit'' was invented by the Marx ...

s toward the local poor, paying medical bills and funding weddings. One ex-dacoit described his own criminal past by claiming that "I was a rebel. I fought injustice." Following intense anti-banditry campaigns by the Indian Police, highway robbery was almost completely eradicated in the early 2000s. Nevertheless, Chambal is still popularly believed to be unsafe and bandit-infested by many Indians. One police officer noted that the fading of the dacoity was also due to social changes, as few young people were any longer willing to endure the harsh life as a highway robber in the countryside. Instead, they prefer to join crime groups in the city, where life is easier.

Other dacoity

The term is also applied, according to the ''

'', to "pirates who formerly infested the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

between

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and Burhampore". Dacoits existed in Burma as well –

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's fictional Private Mulvaney hunted Burmese dacoits in "

The Taking of Lungtungpen "The Taking of Lungtungpen" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling which was first published in the ''Civil and Military Gazette'' on 11 April 1887. In book form, the story appeared in the first Indian edition of ''Plain Tales from the Hills'' in ...

Sax Rohmer Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da ...

's criminal mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu also employed Burmese dacoits as his henchmen. Indian police forces use "Known Dacoit" (K.D.) as a label to classify criminals.

Notable dacoits

Notable dacoits include: * Chavviram Singh Yadav * Gabbar Singh Gujjar - inspired the famous 1975 film ''

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) ...

'', based on his life *

Man Singh Man Singh I, popularly known as Mirza Raja Man Singh (21 December 1550 – 6 July 1614) was the 29th Kachwaha Rajput Raja of Amer, later known as Jaipur state, in Rajputana. He was the most powerful and trusted general of the Mughal empe ...

was a notorious Dacoit of the Rathore clan of Rajputs. He was also known as the Lion of Chambal. * Malkhan Singh Rajpoot, a notorious bandit known as the ''Bandit King'' or ''King of Dacoits.'' He also had political aspirations in MP. * Malangi * Kallu Yadav ( Kalua ) , also known as Katri King *

Mohar Singh Mohar Singh Rathore (5 January 1926 – 22 June 1985) was a social reformer & political Congress worker. He was a follower of Arya Samaji and Acharya Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan movement (land donation movement). He advocated for social reforms suc ...

* Nirbhay Singh Gujjar * Nizam Lohar, a dacoit born into a

Punjabi Muslim Punjabi Muslims ( pa, ) are adherents of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis. Primarily geographically native to the Punjab province of Pakistan today, many have ancestry in the entire Punjab region, ...

family during the

Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahor ...

. He is known for his rebellion and freedom struggle against the

. * Paan Singh Tomar - Was a soldier of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

, an athlete that represented India in the Asian Games, who later resorted to becoming a Baaghi due to the injustices he faced. Also inspired the famous Bollywood film Paan Singh Tomar (film) played by

Irrfan Khan Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in In ...

. * Phoolan Devi * Rambabu Gadariya - Regarded as the last notorious dacoit of Chambal * Shiv Kumar Patel (Dadua) * Veerappan, a notorious dacoit, poacher, and smuggler in South India.

Protection measures

In Madhya Pradesh, women belonging to a village defence group have been issued firearm permits to fend off dacoity. The Chief minister of the state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, recognised the role the women had played in defending their villages without guns. He stated that he wanted to enable these women to better defend both themselves and their villages, and issued the gun permits to advance this goal.

In popular culture

Dacoit films

As the dacoits flourished through the 1940s–1970s, they were the subject of various

Hindi films 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 ...

made during this era, leading to the emergence of the dacoit film genre in Hindi Film Industry. The genre began with Mehboob Khan's '' Aurat'' (1940), which he remade as ''

Mother India ''Mother India'' is a 1957 Indian epic drama film, directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar and Raaj Kumar. A remake of Khan's earlier film '' Aurat'' (1940), it is the story of a poverty-stricken village wom ...

'' (1957). ''Mother India'' received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination, and defined the dacoit film genre, along with Dilip Kumar's ''

Gunga Jumna ''Ganga Jamna'' (ISO 15919: ''Gaṅgā Jamunā''), also transliterated as ''Ganga Jamuna'' or ''Gunga Jumna'', is a 1961 Indian crime drama film, written and produced by Dilip Kumar, and directed by Nitin Bose, with dialogues written by Wajaha ...

'' (1961). Other popular films in this genre included

Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor (pronunciation: �aːd͡ʒ kəpuːɾ born Shrishti Nath Kapoor; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered one of th ...

’s '' Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai'' (1961) and

Moni Bhattacharjee Moni Bhattacharjee was an Indian film director and screenwriter of the 1960s who directed Hindi language films. Career Bhattacharjee started as an assistant to Bimal Roy on many classic films of the 1950s. After the success of the film ''Madhum ...

's ''

Mujhe Jeene Do ''Mujhe Jeene Do'' () is a 1963 Hindi film, directed by Moni Bhattacharjee and written by Aghajani Kashmeri. This dacoit drama stars Sunil Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Nirupa Roy, Rajendranath and Mumtaz. Shot in the Chambal Valley ravines of ...

'' (1963). Pakistani actor Akmal Khan had two dacoit films, '' Malangi'' (1965) and '' Imam Din Gohavia'' (1967). Other films in this genre included ''

Khote Sikkay ''Khote Sikkay'' () is a 1974 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film directed by Narendra Bedi, starring Feroz Khan and Danny Denzongpa as part of a gang of men hired by a villager to save his village from the dacoits. The film also stars ...

'' (1973), '' Mera Gaon Mera Desh'' (1971), and '' Kuchhe Dhaage'' (1973) both by Raj Khosla. The most famous dacoit film is ''

'' (1975), written by Salim–Javed, and starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, and Amjad Khan as the dacoit character Gabbar Singh. It was a

masala film Masala films of Indian cinema mix multiple genres into one work. Masala films emerged in the 1970s and are still created as of the 2020s. Typically these films freely mix action, comedy, romance, and drama or melodrama. They also tend to be ...

that combined the dacoit film conventions of ''Mother India'' and ''Gunga Jumna'' with that of Spaghetti Westerns, spawning the "Dacoit Western" genre, also known as the "Curry Western" genre. The film also borrowed elements from

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

's '' Seven Samurai''. ''Sholay'' became a classic in the genre, and its success led to a surge of films in this genre, including '' Ganga Ki Saugandh'' (1978), once again starring Amitabh Bachchan and Amjad Khan. An internationally acclaimed example of the genre is '' Bandit Queen'' (1994). The Tamil movie starring Karthi, ''

Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru ''Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru'' () or simply ''Theeran'' is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by H. Vinoth and produced by S. R. Prakashbabu and S. R. Prabhu under the banner Dream Warrior Pictures. Based on ...

'' (2017) deals elaborately with bandits. The film reveals the real dacoity incidents which held in Tamil Nadu between 1995 and 2005. Director

Vinoth Vinoth is an Indian given name and surname. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Charles Vinoth, Indian actor * Gnaruban Vinoth, Sri Lankan footballer * H. Vinoth, Indian director * Kalloori Vinoth (born 1988), Indian actor Given na ...

did a two-year research about bandits to develop the script. A related genre of crime films are Mumbai underworld films.

Other media

Bengali novel Devi Chowdhurani by author Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1867. A Hindi novel named ''Painstth Lakh ki Dacoity'' (1977) was written by Surender Mohan Pathak; it was translated as '' The 65 Lakh Heist''. Dacoits armed with pistols and swords appear in '' Age of Empires III: Asian Dynasties''. They frequently appeared in the French language '' Bob Morane'' series of novels by Henri Vernes, principally as the main thugs or assassins of the hero's recurring villain, Mr. Ming and in English as the agents of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu.

References

External links

Dacoity - Indian Penal Code, Chapter XVII
(Mobile Friendly)
As modern world closes in, India's fabled bandits are disappearing
- International Herald Tribune {{Use dmy dates, date=October 2020 British India Robbery Outlaws Illegal occupations Organised crime in Pakistan Indian robbers Gangs in India Indian slang Pakistani slang Bengali words and phrases Urdu-language words and phrases Organised crime in India Secret societies in India Secret societies related to organized crime hi:डकैती