NCJ Number
100269
Date Published
1985
Length
24 pages
Annotation
The imposition of a land-revenue-based state in India in the early 19th centruy and its protection of a stable agrarian society influenced the state to focus crime control on organized criminal groups who threatened socioeconomic structures and who were difficult for a centralized state to control.
Abstract
The ruling group succeeded in imposing its own definition of morality on Indian society, partly because it expanded administrative structures, such as the census operations, to assist in crime control. Another trend over the 18th and 19th centuries was the alteration of elite status and the introduction of new elites with new practices, ranging from landlords' patronage of bandits to merchants' employment of criminal elements. Still, the ruling group did not permit the integration of criminal groups into accepted Indian society, as they were continually labeled and targeted as deviant. Although many Indians shared authority and moral influence with the ruling British, in the effort to expel British rule, many local criminal leaders (''dacoits') were included in organizations for independence. It was only after Indians replaced the British as the exclusive authority that criminal groups were again labeled deviant instead of allies for independence.