Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 T H E L AW 06A sub-lieutenant in a regiment posted to the Punjab, he had recentlymarried and was here to visit his new wife in their small house roundthe corner. He came from one of the wealthier families in the village,and we were introduced to some of his older and more important relationswho began to accumulate while the old man we had first met satin the background.The army officer told us that the nature reserve was nearby, justbehind the village. There was a lake, and some of the villagers had boatsthat they used to cross to where the rest house was. He had not beeninto the sanctuary for a long time, as it had become the base for a gangof local dacoits, Indian bandits. The poorer villagers could go, and hethought we would be all right, but if the dacoits saw him they wouldtake him captive and demand a ransom from his family. There was nothingto be done but pay up, as the local police were bribed by the dacoitsto leave them alone. The dacoits turned to kidnapping when the bankwas built in the village and they could no longer rob the landownersdirectly. The bank was pointed out to us, a one-room building across thevillage—closed when we arrived, the steel-shuttered front had sincebeen opened.Dacoits are common in this, the most lawless and corrupt state inIndia. After Independence the new Indian government tried to do somethingabout the unequal distribution of land, taking some from the biglandowners to give small plots to the poor. In much of India they madeat least some headway, but not in Bihar. This state was already knownback then for the corruption of its officials, and it was they who frustratedthe government’s good intentions. As a result the only way outfor the poor, and here that meant the Untouchables, was either to go tothe towns and cities, or turn to crime. The dacoits are the revenge of theUntouchables.We were fed with food brought to us by the old man. He still saidvery little, being more concerned with our welfare than with who wewere. First there was water, poured over our hands into a bowl, then1 1 7