Violence and the Marginalized
The Lodhas of West Bengal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.27.2025.01.09Keywords:
Lodha, Criminal Tribe, violence, Adivasi, Denotified TribeAbstract
Adivasi or tribal communities in contemporary India are no strangers to violence. The incidence of violence within the tribal world requiresa multifaceted analysis. While much of the contemporary violence arises out of contestations over resources, it may also arise from other factors like social prejudice. This paper proposes a typology of violence encountered in the world of Adivasis through the history of the Lodha community in the Indian state of West Bengal. Categorized as Criminal Tribe in 1916 during British colonial rule, Lodhas were vilified and victimized both by the colonial government and by the rural society at large. After Independence, the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed in 1952, and Lodhas were denominated as the Denotified Tribes or vimukta jāti. This did not, however, ameliorate their social marginalization or their material status and Lodhas continued to live a life of abject poverty even under progressive governments. Finally, the paper looks at the steps taken by the Lodha community to combat such stigmatization in recent years.
References
Bates, C. 1995. Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: The Early Origins of Indian Anthropometry. In: P. Robb (ed.). The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press: 219–259.
Bera, N. 2005. Sabar charit. Calcutta: Karuna Prakashani.
Bhowmick, P. K. 1963. The Lodhas of West Bengal: A Socio-Economic Study. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak.
Bhowmick, P. K.1983. The Lodha and Their Life and Problems. In: Adibasi, 23(1): 29–41.
Bhowmick, P. K. 1981. Rehabilitation of a ‘Denotified Community’: The Ex-Criminal Lodhas of West Bengal. In: RAIN, 44: 6–8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3032233
Bhukya, B. 2010. Subjugated Nomads: The Lambadas under the Rule of the Nizams. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan.
Biswas, S. and S. Pal. 2024. Effect of Homestead Land Titling Programme on most Vulnerable Adivasis: The Case of the Lodhas of West Bengal. In: Community Development Journal, 2024: 1–18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsae047
Booth Tucker, F. de L. 1923. The Criminal Tribes of India. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 71(3661): 158–166.
Bourgois, P. 2001. The Power of Violence in War and Peace: Post-Cold War lessons from El Salvador. In: Ethnography, 2(1): 5–37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14661380122230803
Brown, M. 2001. Race, Science and the Construction of Native Criminality in Colonial India. In: Theoretical Criminology 5(3): 345–368. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480601005003003
Chatterjee, M.S. 2022. Amlasole: A Saga of Extreme Poverty Alongside Scenic Resorts in Bengal’s Jhargram. In: Newsclick. https://www.newsclick.in/Amlasole-Saga-Extreme-Poverty-Alongside-Scenic-Resorts-Bengal-Jhargram (accessed on 31.05.2025).
Chatterjee, M.S. 2025. No Jobs, Healthcare and No PM-JANMAN Scheme: Bengal’s Lodha Shabar Tribes are Dying of Starvation. In: The Wire. https://thewire.in/health/no-jobs-healthcare-and-no-pm-janman-scheme-bengals-lodhashabar-tribes-are-dying-of-starvation (accessed on 31.05.2025).
Chaudhuri, R. 1987. Ethnicity and Conflict in Jhargram. In: Economic and Political Weekly, 22(44): 1851–1852.
Cohn, B. S. 1996. Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India. Princeton: Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400844326
Daly, F. C. 1916. Manual of Criminal Classes Operating in Bengal. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press.
Dandapat, B. 1998. Medinipur Jela Lodha-Shabar Utsab 1998-e Pradatta Bhashan [Speech delivered at the Midnapur district Lodha-Savara Festival]. Bortika, April–June.
Das Gupta, S. 2025. A ‘Criminal Tribe’ in Post-Colonial India: Discrimination and Resistance in Chuni Kotal’s Writings. In: Archiv Orientalni, 92(3): 523–545. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47979/aror.j.92.3.523-545
Devi, M. 1983a. The Lodhas of West Bengal I. In: Economic and Political Weekly, 18(22): 947–949.
Devi, M. 1983b. The Lodhas of West Bengal II. In: Economic and Political Weekly, 18(23): 997–998.
Devi, M. 1992. The Story of Chuni Kotal. In: Economic and Political Weekly, 27(35): 1836–1837.
Devi, M. 1997. Dust on the Road: The Activist Writings of Mahasweta Devi. Calcutta: Seagull Books.
Fanon, F. 1970 [1952]. Black Skin, White Masks. London: Paladin.
Faulkner, P. L. 1923. Settlements of Criminal Tribes in India. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 71(3677).
Galtung, J. 1969. Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. In: Journal of Peace Research, 6(3): 167–191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600301
Galtung, J. 2000. Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means (the Transcend Method): Participants’ and Trainers’ Manual. United Nations Disaster Management Training Programme.
Gandee, S. 2020. (Re-)Defining Disadvantage: Untouchability, Criminality and ‘Tribe’ in India, c. 1910s–1950s. In: Studies in History, 36(1): 71–97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0257643019900089
Guha, A. 2016. How the Lodhas Became Criminal or Meeting of the Past and the Present. In: The Eastern Anthropologist, 69(1): 71–88.
Henry, E. R. 1923. Discussion. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 71(3661): 163–166.
Karlsson, B. G. 2011. Unruly Hills: Nature and Nation in India’s Northeast. Delhi: Orient Blackswan and Social Science Press.
Kotal, C. 1992. Ātmakathā [My Story]. In: Bortika, July–December.
Mukherjee, A. 1995. Crime and Public Disorder in Colonial Bengal, 1861–1912. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co.
Mukhopadhyay, A. 2006. Behind the Mask: The Cultural Definition of the Legal Subject in Colonial Bengal, 1715–1911. Delhi: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195680836.001.0001
Musso, M. G. 2020. Violence and Social Change: The New Routes of Sovereignty in the Globalized World. In: International Review of Sociology, 20(2): 171–196. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2020.1807866
Nayak, G. K. 1998. Lodha Sanskriti Noi Keno? [Why is Lodha Culture Not Recognised?]. In: Bortika, April–June.
Nayek, S. 1998. Medinipur Jela Lodha-Shabar Utsab 1998-e Pradatta Bhashan [Speech delivered at the Midnapur district Lodha-Savara Festival]. In: Bortika, April-June.
Nigam, S. 1990a. Disciplining and Policing the ‘Criminals by Birth’, Part 1: The Making of a Colonial Stereotype – The Criminal Tribes and Castes of North India. In: Indian Economic and Social History Review, 27(2): 131–164. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/001946469002700201
Nigam, S. 1990b. Disciplining and Policing the ‘Criminals by Birth’, Part 2: The Development of a Disciplinary System, 1871–1900. In: Indian Economic and Social History Review, 27(3): 257–287. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/001946469002700302
Nilsen, A. G. 2018. Adivasis and the State: Subalternity and Citizenship in India’s Bhil Heartland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O’Malley, L. S. S. 1911. Bengal District Gazetteers: Midnapore. Calcutta: The Bengal Secretariat Book Depot.
Panda, S. and A. Guha. 2013. Ground Realities of Development among the Lodhas in West Bengal. In: Journal of South Asian Anthropologist, 13(1): 75–84.
Parasher-Sen, A. 1998. Of Tribes, Hunters and Barbarians: Forest-Dwellers in the Mauryan Period. In: Studies in History, 14: 173–192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/025764309801400202
Piliavsky, A. 2015. The ‘Criminal Tribe’ in India Before the British. In: Comparative Studies in Society and History, 57(2): 323–354. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417515000055
Radhakrishna, M. 2000. Colonial Construction of a ‘Criminal’ Tribe: Yerukulas of Madras Presidency. In: Economic and Political Weekly, 35(28/29): 2553–2563.
Radhakrishna, M. 2001. Dishonoured by History: ‘Criminal Tribes’ and British Colonial Policy. Hyderabad: Orient Longman.
Risley, H. H. 1891. The Tribes and Castes of Bengal: Ethnographic Glossary, Volume 2. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press.
Sivaramakrishnan, K. 1998. Work, Identity, and Statemaking in the Forests of Southern West Bengal. In: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 21(2): 26–40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/pol.1998.21.2.26
Sivaramakrishnan, K. 2000. Crafting the Public Sphere in the Forests of West Bengal: Democracy, Development, and Political Action. In: American Ethnologist, 27(2): 431–461. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2000.27.2.431
Spivak, G. C. 1988. Can the Subaltern Speak? In: C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (eds.). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Thapar, R. 2001. Perceiving the Forest: Early India. In: Studies in History, 17(1): 1–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300101700101
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sanjukta Das Gupta
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
