From Thugs to Victims: Dakxin Bajrange Chhara's Cinema of Justice

Collaboration against ethnography: How colonial history shaped the making of an ethnographic film

“…They are still considered "born criminals" by the police and much of the local population, and suffer discrimination as a result. Publicly Budhan Theatre states that they seek "to sensitise mainstream society, [the] legal system, and the judiciary that we are not 'Born Criminals' but we are 'Born Actors'" (Friedman, 2011;Seetha and Muralikrishna, 2007), but while making Acting Like a Thief we had discovered that few Chhara see things as being quite so clear cut. The following exchange between Dakxin and his grandmother Prachi Bajrange, or "Dadi" (grandma), as she is called in the film (Talukdar and Friedman, 2005) Numerous interviews had suggested that the very manner of thieving used by the Chhara, which doesn't involve weapons or the use of force, depends on excellent acting skills.…”

“…They have achieved international fame for their earnest and moving performances and documentary films (Friedman, 2011). Moreover, their fame has made it possible for Budhan Theatre to function as an intermediary between the community and representatives of India's civil society, making Budhan Theatre a "theatre for community development" (Friedman, 2011;Seetha and Muralikrishna, 2007). But as effective as this strategy is, it makes it difficult for Budhan Theatre to directly address the issue of criminality within the community outside of the narrow frame of victimhood.…”

“…Although the first Criminal Tribes Act was passed in 1871, its history starts much earlier, with 8 the anti-Thuggee campaigns waged by William Sleeman, superintendent (and later commissioner) of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department from 1826-1848 (Anderson, 2004;Dash, 2006;Friedman, 2011;Major, 2000;Nigam, 1990aNigam, , 1990bRadhakrishna, 2001;Roy, 1998;Schwarz, 2010;Singha, 1993;Tolen, 1991;Van Woerkens, 2002;Wagner, 2004). At that time there was a need to control the increasingly troublesome phenomenon of "men on the road" who threatened the safe travel of East India Company sepoys through central India, as well as the recently established opium monopoly in that region (Singha, 1993: 87).…”

“…Although the concept of Criminal Tribes differed from that of the Thuggees in its pseudoscientific grounding in Victorianera concepts of hereditary criminality (as opposed to religious cults) (Friedman, 2011;Nigam, 1990a: 156), the belief that members of criminal communities could blend into mainstream society, hiding their true (criminal) identity remained an important part of thinking about such populations (Tolen, 1991: 111 (Naidu, 1915), these police ethnographies provided police with the information that supposedly allowed them to identify dozens of Criminal Tribes by the identification of various cultural traits and criminal practices (Brown, 2003: 217). Having read numerous examples of the genre I am skeptical that these texts fulfilled their stated function (Friedman, 2011). Their usefulness might be better explained by adopting a Foucauldian interpretation that sees these texts as a part of a larger "investigative modality" (Cohn, 1996: 11), in order to define these groups as "populations" requiring state control (Chatterjee, 2008: 40;Friedman, 2011).…”

“…We were hoping to explore the link between thieving and acting-a connection to which volunteers and their families had alluded in numerous interviews, but upon which nobody had been willing to elaborate. Despite the fact that it has been over half a century since the newly independent Indian state repealed the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act (D 'Souza, 2001: 78;Friedman, 2011), thieving remains a sensitive topic for the community. They are still considered "born criminals" by the police and much of the local population, and suffer discrimination as a result.…”