Born Criminals: The making of Criminal Tribes during the Colonial period in India

This article seeks to understand the idea of criminal tribes, which was based on British belief about crime in their own country, England and later adapted and imposed upon Indian nomads. An analysis of biological criminals in England and hereditary criminal tribes in India is presented in the later part. The article discourses the idea of ‘caste’, ‘class’ and ‘tribe’ which British officials used interchangeably in the context of Indian social structure. The discussion concludes by looking at the different debates on the making of the criminal tribes, the forces of change, which transformed certain nomadic communities of India as Criminal Tribes.