A Secret in the Oxford Sense: Thieves and the Rhetoric of Mystification in Western India

Abstract

Common sense commodifies the secret, alienating the value of its content from its social context. But a secret perfectly kept dies in its circle of initiates. Few secrets, however, are dead on arrival, since their seduction lies precisely in their revelation. Most things said to be hidden are in fact nurtured through the processes of calculated concealment, allusion, and revelation, the secrets propagating themselves through circles of conspiracy, rumor, and gossip. As Tim Jenkins observed, “What is concealed, and the reasons for its concealment, serve to distract attention from the dynamic of the secret: what at first sight appears to be static and indeed dead, possessed by and known to only a few, kept in some dark place, in fact has a life and movement of its own; the secret propagates itself through a structure of secret and betrayal” (1999: 225–26).

The “Criminal Tribe” in India before the British

“…In 1947 India was home to some 128 communities and 3.5 million people classed as innately criminal by law (Major 1999). In 1949, the Criminal Tribes Act was replaced with the Habitual Offenders Act, which closely mimicked its predecessor: more than half a century after the label of criminality was formally removed and the colonies disbanded, the lists of “habitual offenders” in police stations remain full of “denotified” or “ex-criminal tribesmen” subject to the old set of special policing and penal measures (Piliavsky 2011a; 2011b; 2013a). The story of lives crushed by the runaway juggernaut of criminal tribe legislation must not be forgotten, and several historians have already commemorated it in detail 16…”

“…People told me that Kanjars defecated ceremonially on the site of their burglary, sacrificed children to bloodthirsty goddesses, outran police jeeps, and could even vanish magically on the spot. They were a closed, secret society, which no ordinary human could hope to penetrate (Piliavsky 2011a).…”

“…In western and northern India such groups continue to be employed as retainers, watchmen, and thieves by landed authorities today (Chakravarti 1975: 73, and chs. 3 and 4; Piliavsky 2011a; 2011b).…”

“…In western and northern India such groups continue to be employed as retainers, watchmen, and thieves by landed authorities today(Chakravarti 1975: 73, and chs. 3 and 4;Piliavsky 2011a;2011b).39 In the second decade of the nineteenth century, Bhils and other tribal groups were engaged in British military campaigns and hunting parties, forming in 1825 the first Bhil Corps in Khandesh(Russell and Hira Lal 1916, vol. 2: 375;Benjamin and Mohanty 2007).…”

The ethics of efficacy in North India'sgoonda raj(rule of toughs)

“…On South Asian communicative hierarchies, see Burghart (), Fuller (: 4), Osella & Osella (), Piliavsky (). On ‘top‐down’ gifting, see Parry (), Piliavsky (; ), and Raheja ().…”