Dadua Slain. Is Banditry on the Wane?
The only known picture of Dadua
I did a short interview for NPR yesterday on the last stand of the feared bandit Dadua in Uttar Pradesh last week. Special forces surrounded the dacoits position and lobbed grenades at him and ten of his armed colleagues.I'm interested in doing some more research on banditry in India. Unlike the various revolutionary movements across South Asia, there is something romantic--if unnerving--about the dozen or royal dacoits who have spend decades resisting the government. Unlike the Naxals men like Dadua, Veerapam, and Man Singh didn't have grandiose political aims, but were unwilling to live by conventional morality. It almost that the most powerful dacoits in India are the inheritors of India's long dead feudal traditions.
Dadua survived in the ravines and jungles of Uttar Pradesh for so long because he fashioned himself as a patron of the rural downtrodden. He got the vote out for political parties, and paid dowry money for families who could not afford to get their daughters married off. He was half-magnanimous monarch and half cold blooded killer with over 150 murder cases attributed to him by the police.
Man Singh, the notorious bandit king who was gunned down in a similar manner by the police in the 1950's, has risen to god like status in Madya Pradesh. Today a score of temples in rural areas include his bust along with the pantheon of Hindu gods. Even 60 years after his death local people see him as a benefactor.
Yet the central government seems to be stepping up operations against bandits and I wonder if soon there won't be any place for these sorts of figured in India's IT future.
I'd like to find out more about Dadua. Perhaps I'll take a trip up to UP and visit the temple he consecrated.
Listen to the NPR story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12255575
posted by Scott Carney @ 9:41 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Yes, it's very romantic in theory but the number of people these bandits have terrorized is fact enough to make one stop over-romanticizing these people. Poverty makes people do desperate things, true, but a lot of poor people don't take to crime to improve their lot - case in point being India's former President Abdul Kalam who was born into a poverty-stricken illiterate fisherman's family but who used different means - education and public service - to overcome those early obstacles. I think that more people respect and venerate him than they do Dadua.
The difference between bandit and national hero is razor thin. Take Bhagat Singh for example. He shot a military officer, bombed the legislature and was executed. Today he is heralded as a national hero. Bose is another fine example. If history had turned just a little differently then Bhagat Singh and Bose would be more reviled than celebrated.
But I don't mean to defend Dadua's murders. I know that the police have implicated him in 150 killings, but I have no idea who he killed or why he did it. All I know is what I read in the papers that say locals are treating him like a hero. There must be some reason for that.
And I don't see how Former President Abdul Kalam is relevant to this discussion. He may have come from a poor family, but the similarities between him and Dadua stop there. It would be sort of like comparing Bill Gates to Maria Sharpovia. Both worthy of respect, but for entirely different reasons.
Oh please,
Bhagat Singh shot a military officer.
Well, not our military.
Bhagat Singh bombed the legislature.
Well, not our legislature.
These institutions were only Indian in name, in a colonial setup we all know where the strings were pulled from.
And I really have to quibble about your statement, "if history had turned out differently"
Do you mean to say if we were still labouring under slavery, we would have thought differently?
Restless,
You are making my point for me. It wasn't "our" legislature that was bombed, or "our" military. Now I'm all for your nationalist sentiments, but I don't think you are looking at it from the perspective of the people who supported people like Dadua.
The fact is that many many people are unhappy with the current Indian state. How many active separatist movements can you count? There are at least five major ones to my knowledge, and probably dozens more.
There are separatist movements because those people do not feel represented by the Indian state. Sometimes they are wallowing in slavery (or the perception of it). These are the people who support Dadua and Veerapam.
Who knows. What will happen if the Naxals ever get an independent state? Just today the Hindu ran an article about a Naxal flag on his grave and an epitath about his bravery.
well, must admit, you got a point there
Yes, many people are dissatisfied with the Indian state. Yes, the Indian state is imperfect. For that matter, many people are dissatisfied with the American state. Like all those militias in Michigan and in Montana, not to mention the KKK, the Christian Coalition and also I believe, some animal rights activists. Granted the American state is imperfect too but hey, should we start singing paeans to the nobility of these militiamen? As for separatism, yes there are issues of misgovernance that do need to be addressed (and in a democratic set up they will eventually have to be as in the Indian system - unlike the US - the poor are the largest and most reliable group of voters). All the different separatist movements are also kept going by large scale external funding. For example, in the Indian northeast US-based evangelical movements have pumped money into Naga and Mizo separatist groups. Naxals and Kashmiri groups have received financial and military support from India's neighbors looking for a chance to fish in troubled waters. Small wonder that after a while, all these heroic separatists descend into mindless violence for the sake of violence and internecine war for financial dominance (aka old fashioned turf wars) while the political issues of misgovernance remain unaddressed.
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