Enforcing Criminality

In India several draconian acts were passed by the colonial administrators to notify, register and restrict the movement of criminal tribes. The legislation to deal with these communities began in India with the enactment of the Act XXVII during the year 1871. The Police Commission of 1902-3 criticized the working of the Act and a fresh Act III of 1911 was enacted. As there had been many amendments to the original Criminal Tribes Act that a fresh Act of 1924 was passed consolidating the provisions of various earlier Acts. The Act of 1924 was amended by Act I of 1947. In the light of the actual experiences gained, the government finally repealed the Criminal Tribes Act in 1952 and many of the criminal tribes were let free from the provisions of the criminal tribes' acts of 1871, 1911, 1924 and 1947. But the shadow of the Criminal Tribes Acts is still haunting several communities in Independent India.

The present work is an effort to study the need for regulation and control of the criminal tribes and passing of certain regulatory acts called the Criminal Tribes Acts between 1871 and 1965. In addition, the life patterns of certain historically branded tribes under the Criminal Tribes Acts are also discussed. The study looks into the major changes or the deviations that took place under the Criminal Tribes Acts and the reasons that motivated the British to pass the Criminal Tribes Acts. The appendices contain a wealth of information.