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Kolkata 'Underworld' in the Early 20th Century
Article in Economic and Political Weekly · January 2004
DOI: 10.2307/4415563
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Kolkata ‘Underworld’
in the Early 20th Century
In the course of the 19th century, Kolkata had acquired a distinctly cosmopolitan
‘underworld’. By the end of the century, new forms of urban disturbances had emerged in
the city in the form of riots. This saw the emergence of the professional hoodlum or
the ‘goonda’ as a manufacturer of violence in the city. At first they were largely ‘upcountry’
labourers, but in the course of time there was a wide variety of goondas in terms of
origin and social background. By 1923, the Goondas Act had been promulgated
ostensibly with the aim of controlling such hoodlums engaged in a range of ‘criminal’
acts, as defined by the colonial legislation.
DEBRAJ BHATTACHARYA
I
Introduction
H
istorians of the urban centres of colonial south Asia have
over the years developed a sophisticated understanding
of the working of the formal sector of the economy.1 In
recent times the attention of the historians interested in urban
south Asia are moving more and more towards the informal sector
and the ‘underworld’ of the cities. This is a refreshing move as
the overwhelming majority of the urban poor were involved in
the informal sector and the ‘underworld’, rather than the formal
sector. A thorough understanding of the world outside the jute
mills and the textile mills is necessary in order to develop a
comprehensive understanding of the urban societies that developed in south Asia in course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
This paper is a contribution towards a better understanding of
the ‘underworld’ of Kolkata during the first half of the 20th
century. Specifically the paper seeks to: (i) arrive at a clear
understanding of the term ‘underworld’; (ii) examine in detail
the specific context within which the colonial government brought
out a new legislation known as The Goondas Act, 1923 and what
was the consequence: and (iii) classify the various layers of the
underworld of the city during this period based on a reading of
the history sheets that the Goondas Act of 1923 generated.
We however begin with a survey of the research that has been
already done on ‘crime’ in Kolkata during the 19th and 20th
centuries.
II
What We Already Know
In a recent essay published in Economic and Political Weekly,
Sumanta Bannerjee has started a systematic study of the underworld of Kolkata in the 19th century.2 His research has established that by mid 19th century a specifically colonial system
of crime control had emerged in the city along with new forms
of crime and new types of criminals. The gangs that were formed
during this time were cosmopolitan in nature and were very
different from the riverine caste based dacoit groups of the rural
areas for which Bengal had become famous. By the end of
the19th century the distinctive change that took place was that
the criminal became an individual and if he associated with
4276
others, then that gang or association was based on professional
expertise rather than caste or religion. New forms of crime such
as house breaking was emerging from around 1870s and by the
time of the Talla Riot of 1897 there had emerged a distinct name
for the individual criminal – the ‘badmash’ or the bad character
roughly meaning the hoodlum.3 By early 20th century, my research
suggests, the badmash or ‘bad character’ had come to be known
as the ‘goonda’.
The urban hoodlum or the goonda first emerged in academic
writing within the context of labour history. In all probability
it was Parimal Ghosh’s thesis4 on the workers of the jute industry
of West Bengal that first discussed the phenomenon at some
length. The monograph based on the thesis came out much later,5
but there was not much of a difference between the thesis and
the monograph in the way Ghosh understood the phenomenon.
Ghosh pointed out that the goondas had emerged as a special
category for the colonial police by the time the non-cooperation
movement was in full swing by the end of 1921. According to
him, the authorities saw that the goondas were often playing a
leadership role in the movement. Ghosh also observed that the
term goonda was an ambiguous one and a coolie today could
be goonda tomorrow.6 Next Ghosh deduced that because of the
role played by the goondas in the non-cooperation movement
the Goondas Act was promulgated in 1923, which gave the
colonial police the right to extern the goondas from the city.7
Ghosh’s main contention is that the goondas had a non-criminal
side and were emerging as potential labour leaders.8 This is why
the millowners were extremely worried about them settling in
the mill areas after the Goondas Act came in force and hence
the act was extended to the mill areas also. Ghosh has sited several
examples of a supposedly goonda being externed but in all
probability they were potentially dangerous labour leaders. It is
perhaps unfortunate that Ghosh did not carry the research further
and shifted his attention towards the rise of the trade unions.
However there cannot be any doubt that he had opened up the
possibility of exploring in-depth the informal sector of the economy
and the role of the goondas within it.
Suranjan Das and Jayanta K Ray deserve to be congratulated
for their effort in publishing valuable documents related to the
goondas.9 The volume they had jointly edited consists of files
on the goondas that were created as a consequence of the Goondas
Act of 1923. Before discussing their understanding of the goonda
Economic and Political Weekly
September 18, 2004
phenomenon let us take note of two problems. Firstly the introduction says that the Goondas Act came into force in 1926. This
is not correct; it came into force in 1923. However the bigger
problem with the volume is that the volume has not reproduced
the files as they are available in the archive and therefore the
precise words used by the police cannot be known from the
volume. By presenting abridged case studies the editors unfortunately reduced the value of the collection to a great extent.
The idea of publishing these documents was an excellent one,
but unfortunately the end product was not satisfactory.
Nonetheless, the brief introduction to the volume opened up
several new dimensions. Das attempted an analysis of the number
of ways in which urban poor drifted towards crime.10 The factors
included not just poverty but also several relational factors such
as the influence of the neighbourhood as causes behind drifting
towards crime. He also noted that it would be a mistake to think
that only the poor became goondas. Several of them came from
respectable family background and some even had army connections. It is also clear from Das’s study that the goondas were
not just ‘upcountry’ Muslims, there were Bengali Hindus as
well.11 Along with this Das noted two more aspects – (a) there
were considerable variety and specialisation in the way the
goondas were operating and (b) there were often a symbiotic
relationship between the goondas and the police.12 The study
concluded by noting the possibility of the same person being
treated as a goonda by the state and treated as a hero by the
common people.13
Sugata Nandi, in an unpublished M Phil dissertation has written
a detailed account of the role of the goondas during the communal
riots of 1946 in Calcutta.14 The most important point that comes
out from his study is that by this time the middle-class politicians
of both sides had goondas under their control and were mobilising
them in a planned and determined fashion. He also demonstrated
how the goondas were allowed to loot and cause mayhem by
the administration.
Thus we can sum up the existing research as follows:
In course of the 19th century Kolkata had acquired a distinctly
cosmopolitan ‘underworld’. By the end of the 19th century new
forms of urban disturbances had emerged in the city in the form
of riots. These riots saw the emergence of the professional
hoodlum as a manufacturer of violence in the city. By the time
of the non-cooperation movement, the goondas had emerged as
a dangerous element in the city. Their role in the riots and
demonstrations promoted the government to introduce the Goondas
Act in 1923. By 1946, the politicians in the city had developed
strong links with the goondas and used them in the riots of 1946.
These goondas were initially at least mostly ‘upcountry’ labourers.
Many of them were perhaps even labour leaders. There is,
however, no reason to believe only the upcountry labourers
became goondas. In course of time we see a wide variety in terms
of origin and social background. Just as there were diverse origins
of goondas, there were also diverse acts they specialised in.
Let me now move on to my research findings.
III
What Is the ‘Underworld’?
A Framework for Analysis
One of the questions that the existing research has not answered is
what we mean when we use the word ‘underworld’. For my purpose
I would like to divide the urban economy into three sectors15 :
Economic and Political Weekly September 18, 2004
(a) The formal sector – a typical example would be the jute
industry, where the rules and regulations are clearly spelt out
and an industrial system was in operation.
(b) The informal sector – the diverse range of economic activities
that are only partially regulated by the state and the operations
largely depend on informal understandings rather than clearly
laid out rules and procedures. A hawker or a motor-repairing
garage or tea stalls on the street are examples.
(c) The criminal sector – consisting of economic activities that
are explicitly described by the state as ‘illegal’. Smuggling is
the obvious example. We must, however, note that in some cases
there could be activities, which are branded as illegal by the state
but is not considered morally offensive. Such activities are also
included in the criminal sector as the state had declared these
activities to be illegal.
Let us note certain aspects of the criminal sector:
(i) The three sectors were not mutually exclusive. The informal
sector and the criminal sector generally are very closely interlinked and the urban poor were very often engaged in a range
of activities that could belong to more than one sector. A garage
mechanic could also be member of a gang of robbers (as we shall
see below).
(ii) The degree of risk (for an individual involved in the sector)
was the highest in the criminal sector. It therefore attracted two
types of persons – the first consisted of those who were willing
to take extreme risks for the sake of power and profit. However,
most of the people involved were extremely vulnerable and had
no way of joining the first two sectors. They were forced to earn
their living by risking their lives on a regular basis.
(iii) The criminal sector by definition was not supposed to exist
as it was illegal. Hence in order to exist it had to continuously
invest (time, money, influence) on corrupting the state machinery
(such as bribing the police) and this must be seen an additional
cost one has to bear for seeking profit in this sector.
(iv) The sector produced both goods as well as services. The
example of the former is illegal arms while the example of the
latter is the service of a prostitute.
(v) Like all other sectors this sector also has a tendency towards
specialisation of skills.
(vi) This sector usually existed in spite of being declared illegal
when for the state the cost of wiping it out was greater than the
cost of limiting it within tolerable limits. Such costs include
expenditure on maintaining a bureaucracy (police, etc) plus the
cost of propaganda to prove that the state is able to control the
affairs of the criminal sector. What is tolerable depends to a large
extent on the strength of the civil society that the state had to
negotiate with.
(vii) Unlike the other two sectors there was always a moral
discourse against this sector. However, all activities which were
branded illegal and therefore fell within the criminal sector were
not necessarily disapproved by every section of the society. The
boundaries of the moral discourse and the boundaries of the legal
discourse were not always the same.
For my analysis I have completely avoided the moral discourse
and have tried to see the sector only in terms of its economic
activities only. Why the state considered something as illegal has
been analysed below but I have not tried to put forward my own
moral case either for or against the state. In my analysis I have
not tried to probe the mind of the criminals (unlike some criminologists)16 but have restricted myself to studying the specific
activities they were involved in. These various activities, when
4277
put in an orderly framework, gives us the picture of a society
and an economy that is as much part of urban south Asia as the
jute mills and the cotton mills.
We start our journey by tracking a term that was slowly
becoming part of vocabulary of the city around the turn of the
century – goonda.
IV
Legal Innovations
Emergence of a New Profession in the City
The first mention of the term goonda that I have come across
is in a 1907 file which investigates into alleged police mishandling of a Swadeshi demonstration held at Beadon Square, on
October 2, 1907.17 In this file the terms goonda and badmash
are used interchangeably. Moreover the spelling of the term is
also irregular – both gunda as well as goonda was used. One
can conclude that it was around this time that the term was
becoming part of the administrative vocabulary. If that was the
case then it is unlikely that something called the goonda emerged
in the city two decades earlier. In all probability the term is very
much an early 20th century phenomenon. That the term was not
in existence before is also confirmed by researches by Sumanta
Bannerjee.18
At a slightly later date, in 1910, there was another riot in
connection to the Bakr- Id festival.19 On October 29, 1910, the
commissioner of police received a letter from the Marwari
Association signed by a number of inhabitants of Armenian
Street, Amratollah Street and the vicinity stating that they had
heard that a cow was being sacrificed at a mosque in at 16
Armenian Street. The letter claimed that such a thing had never
happened in before in the neighbourhood and requested the police
to prevent the sacrifice. On receiving the letter the commissioner
made an inquiry into the matter. He found that the mosque in
question was a small building situated in the southern side of
the Armenian Street. It was built around 1850 by a man named
Din Mahomed. At that time the inhabitants of the locality were
rich momins and sartis from Mumbai. In course of time rich
Marwaris and other rich Hindus who were overflowing the
Harrison Road area displaced them. Dundas found that on the
north side of the Armenian street there were virtually no Muslim
left. Directly opposite the mosque on the north side of the
Armenian Street there used to be a basti occupied mostly by
Muslims. The basti originally belonged to one Nokal Das Malik
of Behrapati. By 1910 the entire property belonged to a Marwari
firm named Gopi Ram Bhagat Ram. The Marwaris cleared up
the bastis but were unable to build on the land because of the
fact that cows were sacrificed openly in the mosque nearby.
The commissioner initially decided not to intervene into the
affairs of the mosque. The Marwaris led by the Marwari Association, were not disheartened by the lack of response from the
government and invited to Kolkata a certain Awadh Behari Lal,
alias Nityanandaji. Dundas noted in the report that the Marwaris
were also bringing in ‘extra durwans’ or toughs, from north India.
There is a very clear connection between these upcountry ‘durwans’
who were being brought in and the term goonda. In all probability the
word originally referred to them and were then used more widely.
What is also clear is that many of these ‘durwans’ who were
brought to the city by the Marwaris to act as their toughs soon
got out of hand. In other words, they saw more profit in the
4278
criminal sector. That the ‘durwans’ had got out of control by
1914 is evident from the fact that the Marwari Chamber of
Commerce and the Marwari Association requested the government to do something about it in that year.20 Another appeal was
made in 1920.21 At this point of time the government was concerned
about the problem in the Burra Bazar area but was not willing
to give it top priority. When Maulavi Fazlul Haq inquired in the
legislative council on April 12, 1920 whether the government
was aware “that there is a considerable panic among the residents
of Burra Bazar and its neighbourhood owing to the depradations
of the goondas and other bad characters”, the chief secretary,
H L Stephenson dismissed the query by saying that the “information before the government does not bear out the statement
that there is panic on the subject”.22 In 1921, the goonda department was set up consisting of one assistant commissioner, one
inspector, two sub inspectors, six constables and one jamadar.
In two years 978 arrests were made.23 However, this was not
enough to control the goondas. They took a leading role in
the street violence that broke out in the city during the noncooperation movement.
Non-Cooperation Movement and Change of
Government Policy
The violence caused by the goondas in the city during the noncooperation movement pushed the government towards introducing a bill to control the goondas. On December 13, 1921,
the commissioner of police observed in a letter to the chief
secretary, “On November 21 and 22, 50 volunteers were arrested
in Burra Bazar and Jorasanko. These men, mostly of the goonda
class, were going about exhorting shopkeepers to observe hartals
on December 24 and to boycott the Prince (of Wales)”.24
However, one can point out that there were other reasons also.
Immediately after the brutal suppression of the non-cooperation
movement, both for the colonial police as well as the government
it was necessary to show that government was deeply interested
in the preservation of law and order of the city and thereby win
over at least the moderates among the middle-class of the city.
Also the introduction of the bill must not be seen in isolation.
Faced with greater and greater civil unrest, the government every
now and then set up committees to review various ‘repressive
laws’. One such committee set up immediately after the protests
against the Rowlatt Act recommended the repeal of several such
laws in 1921.25 Similarly the need was felt for a significant
transformation of the police force of the city.26 All these was
aimed at convincing the civil society that that the government
was primarily interested in the preservation of law and order of
the city and the draconian laws were aimed only at the morally
degenerate such as the goondas or the prostitutes. It is also
possible that this projection by the government was not simply
instrumental but they themselves were trying to find a self-image
for themselves.
A Matter of Definition
While introducing the bill the chief secretary, H L Stephenson
completely ignored the non-cooperation movement and said that
there has been persistent demand from some quarters for strong
executive action against the goondas.27 He sited three reasons
for the introduction of the new bill: (i) the existing laws were
very difficult to enforce in Kolkata; (ii) it was very difficult to
Economic and Political Weekly
September 18, 2004
find witness who would testify against the goondas as the people
were afraid of them; and (iii) the goondas invariably have some
ostensible means of livelihood which made them exempt from
the section 109 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The most controversial and strongly debated aspect of the bill
was the definition of the goonda. A goonda was defined as ‘a
hooligan or other rough’.28 In spite of initial opposition, the
definition was carried through and remained part of the Goondas
Act, 1923. This meant that the police now had the power to
describe almost anyone with some sort of a criminal record as
a goonda and force him to leave the city.
How Effective was the Goondas Act?
The immediate political problem was solved. In the next few
years crime statistics came down significantly and the police
added a feather in its cap as the protector of law and order.
However what the act really achieved was the increase of the
bargaining power of the police vis a vis the violent elements in
the city. The act became a threat, which could be used to exercise
influence over the goondas. In turn it meant that that the goondas
would be protected if they did not cause too much trouble. The
career of Ahmed Din is an example.29
Ahmed Din was born in or about 1875. He first came to Kolkata
around 1900 in search of employment. He started working in
the footpaths of Lower Chitpore Road, as a shoe repairer. From
such humble beginnings he grew spectacularly in course of the
next two decades and became an opium smuggler and for years
“he was the most influential man amongst the criminals and
smugglers of Mechuabazar where his name was held in awe”.
In 1921 the excise department started a prosecution against him
but it was dropped after some time, on ground that “Ahmed Din
was rendering service to the government to check the noncooperation movement”. In 1924, Ahmed Din threatened a shopkeeper in Howrah and the deputy commissioner of the detective
department called Ahmed Din and warned him. By 1936 he had
left Kolkata but his brother Kamruddin continued to play a key
role in the riots of 1926 as the leaders of the Muslims living on
the eastern side of the Mechuabazar street. Ahmed Din managed
to return to Kolkata around 1929 and reoccupy his seat of power
at 97 Mechuabazar Street. The file on him abruptly ends here
and we have no information on him after this. However, what
little information is available makes it clear that the Goondas Act
was essentially aimed as establishing influence over the goondas
rather than solve the problem of crime. The police had by this
time realised that these elements could be useful for them as well.
We must take note of another dimension here. The bargaining
power of the policeman was often blunted by the corruption of
the policeman on the street. A petition filed by Fazlu Elahi
attached to the file on him30 complained that the constables often
arrested his associates and released them if they were willing
to pay a bribe. Moreover one Gopal Kakkar, an ex-criminal and
a police spy also tried to extort money from him as he usually
did from criminals in the bad books of the police.31
V
Typology of the Criminal Sector
The Goondas Act resulted in several hundred history sheets
of the ‘goondas’. However research into the history sheets has
revealed that these sheets give a wide range of activities rather
Economic and Political Weekly September 18, 2004
than any specific kind of criminal activity. It is possible therefore
on the basis of the history sheets and some other records to create
a broad picture of the criminal sector as whole. Although there
were many different types of crime, we can think of seven broad
divisions:
(a) Smuggling – opium, cocaine, arms: An entry point perhaps
would be the case of opium and cocaine smuggling. In the
hinterland, because of the pressure of revenue extraction, many
peasants were forced to, especially those belonging to the backward castes to take to opium cultivation in order to secure ready
cash for revenue payment and to some extent escape from caste
oppression. A report published in 1883,32 on opium cultivation
noted that for various reasons lower caste peasants of Bihar and
north-western provinces prefer to cultivate poppy and not any
other crop. The report also noted that the peasants frequently
complained about low prices paid by the colonial state and that
there was not enough control over the system of procurement.
The result inevitably was smuggling. The report noted that
there is reason to believe that smuggling…exists on a large scale
and on an organised system…In a case which occurred last year,
a box containing 13 seers of opium consigned to an address in
Chandennagore was seized at the Hoogly railway station. This
opium has been purchased from licensed dealers in the northwestern provinces where the price is Rs 16 and it was intended
to be disposed off at Hoogly for Rs 29. Opium is often smuggled
in a similar way from Chittagong into British Burma, and from
some districts in the Meerut division into the Punjab. But the
principal smuggling trade is carried out in opium which is illicitly
obtained from the cultivators, and which is sent down the Behar
districts to Chandennagore and Kolkata.33
The smuggling trade in opium in Kolkata by 1920s was controlled
primarily by the Peshwari Pathans and the Chinese.34 A part of
the total produce was sold in Kolkata in the various opium dens
and the rest were exported. At the ports deals were made with
the crew of merchant vessels leaving for Rangoon, Shanghai or
Hong Kong. Then the vessels travelled to Amoy and Moji and
finally reached either Japan or Germany. In Kobe, a major centre
for the trade in Japan, cocaine could be bought at Rs 28 per ounce
and sold back in Kolkata for Rs 45 to 60 per ounce.35
The trade in cocaine and arms-smuggling was intimately related
to moneylending, the other two areas where the Peshwaris
specialised in. In 1925 a government file noted that in recent
years arms smuggling had increased to an alarming degree.36 It
sited two causes –
(1) that the ordinary Indian criminal have discovered the efficiency
of fire arms and hence their demand has increased, (2) that owing
to the low rates of exchange in the continental ports a handsome
profit can be reaped by purchasing arms in those ports and selling
them in India. With a profit of anything between 300 to 500 per
cent the smuggler is willing to take the risk of detection.37
As to the methods of bringing arms into the city, the document
cites two –
either in ones and twos by seamen or in bulk…disguised as
merchandise…The brokers are invariably cocaine smugglers and
the arms traffic is run as a side line. The original middleman is
not infrequently a money lender, the lascar borrowing money prior
to his outward voyage and repaying in kind.38
There could be other methods as well. Some could of course
be stolen as is evident from the police administration reports.
But there could also be men like Shaiq Ishaq who used to work
in a gun-shop at Durmahatta, whose father Abdur Rahman used
4279
to be hawker of silk cloths in the port area. Through this connection he came in touch with the lascars selling the revolvers.
He used to supply them to a man named Ram Chand Pehlaj Rai.39
(b) Gang robbery: With Pehlaj Rai we enter the second layer
of the criminal sector. He was born in village Shikarpur in Sind.
He first migrated to Mumbai and then to Kolkata. In Kolkata
his career came into full bloom. He formed a large gang consisting
of 20 odd members from various communities, developed liaison
with other powerful gangs, with drug dealers, local policemen
and with arms suppliers like Shaiq Ishaq mentioned above, who
supplied him with .380 bores, .320 bores and German
automatics.40 Pehlaj introduced a particular innovation into the
criminal world of Kolkata – the taxi cab robbery. The gang used
stolen taxis to commit robberies at a far distance from their
residential area, which made them almost impossible to trace.
Nagendranath Pal Chaudhuri, one of the members of Pehlaj’s
gang, whose testimony played a crucial role in his prosecution,
has left a detailed account of Pehlaj’s method of gang management. Ngendra was involved in selling goods stolen by a certain
Jogindranath Chandra, a pickpocket. Nagendra once sold a few
things to one Paramananda Singh. But Paramananda did not pay
back in due time. Another Punjabi, living next door to
Paramananda, told Nagendra that Paramananda had disposed off
the goods to a certain Pehlaj Rai and promised Nagendra to
introduce him to Pehlaj Rai.
When Nagendra met Pehlaj Rai sometime later in Beadon
Square, Pehlaj Rai promised him to realise his money. He kept
his promise and told Nagendra to meet him later. When he went
to see him Pehlaj Rai treated him cordially and offered him a
cup of tea. Nagendra was highly impressed and began to visit
him regularly to sell stolen goods.
It is clear after some time Pehlaj wanted to test him as to whether
he has become an ‘insider’ or not. He requested Nagendra
whether he would be willing to keep two revolvers and some
cartridge with him or not. Nagendra accepted the proposal. The
next stage came when Pehlaj asked him whether he would be
interested in some ‘work’. Nagendra refused saying that he didn’t
want to work with the Punjabis. Pehlaj accepted his refusal and
this again made Nagendra respectful of him. He continued to
provide him with information.
What is interesting here is that Pehlaj clearly had a multicommunity gang and he had to maintain a balance between them.
In all probability he did not have a fixed group who were fulltime working for him but were involved in various kinds of
professions in the informal sector and joined him whenever there
was some ‘work’. In other words, the network he created in the
city was different from the strictly community-based network of
the Peshwaris. Both were essentially networks of migrants to the
city but Pehlaj’s gang was more multi-community than the other
variety. It also indicates that the formation of the gangs were
not necessarily ‘community’ based.
(c) Gambling: The third category within the ‘underworld’ was
formed by those who ran the gambling dens. From newspaper
reports on various raids by the police it seems that there were
many such gambling dens in Kolkata and they were not owned
by any particular community. We have mentions of the Chinese,
the Peshwaris, the Anglo-Indians, the Marwaris and the Bengalis.
However this is an area on which detailed information is lacking
and precise quantitative data is not available. What one can say
for sure is that a gambling den was something quite common
and raids to gambling dens by the police often figured in the
4280
press as sensational stories. The Amrita Bazar Patrika, for
example, noted on February 22, 1922:
At the southern division police court before Mr Swinhoe, chief
presidency magistrate, a sensational gambling case cropped up in
which the police prosecuted J B Bettie, Jagat Mohun Moitra, Tulsi
Charan Bose and Tarak Das Moitra under section 45 of Act IV
of 1866 as alloeged for keeping a gambling house…known as
Tattesall’s Club in Monga Lane.41
(d) Prostitution: The trade in prostitution also remains to some
extent a mystery. It is not clear who controlled the trade. However
we have one report on prostitution in the city during the 1920s.42
According to this report, there were mainly three types of prostitutes in Kolkata. The first group consisted of Europeans brought
mainly southern Russia and Anglo-Indians, the latter usually
involved in the trade in an informal basis. The brothels were well
organised and in charge of ‘madams’ who appropriated half of
the earnings of the girls in return for board and lodging. The
customers were usually only Europeans. The most important area
of European prostitution was Koraya Road near Ballygunj. They
were usually under strict police supervision.
The second group of prostitutes consisted of Japanese girls who
catered to the sailors. These brothels were located in the suburbs
of Watgunj and Kidderpore. Police supervision was usually lax.
The third group catered to the Indian population. The principal
areas were Sonagachi, Chitpore and Beadon Square. According
to the report there was hardly any control by the police over these
areas. This is probably true as in general the police had very little
control over these areas.43
Most of the women who came to sell their body in Kolkata
or were forced to do so, came from the neighbouring districts
of Midnapore, Birbhum, Bankura and Burdwan and also from
Bihar and United Provinces, a pattern which is consistent with
the pattern of labour migration in general.
(e) Labour negotiations: The fifth category consisted of labour
sardars. Bala Misir, a leader of the carters of Strand Road is an
example.44 He emerged as a leader in solving day to day business
related problems. In the absence of clear rules and regulation
the trade to a large extent depended on the regularity imposed
on it by the command of people like Bala Misir. The price of
imposing and maintaining a certain kind of order with the trade
was a commission from various stakeholders within the trade.
This category was capable of producing violence against the police
as well as against the poor labourers but their name usually appeared
in the police records only when they were against the police.
(f) Delinquent violence: The sixth category consisted of men who
intimidated the passess by and snatched their valuables, threatening them with a knife, or may be even commit a murder. They
were the individual delinquents. A typical example is Sugan
Khan,45 a bidi-maker by profession, who came to be known as
an alcoholic and was frequently arrested for ‘loitering in the
streets’ snatching property from the passengers or for creating
disturbances in the Harrison Road area.
(g) Political violence: Leonard Gordon in his study of Sarat Bose
and Subhas Bose has noted that “…political leaders had their
own squads of goondas or hoodlums to use as the need arose”.46 We
have already noted how Ahmed Din was involved in the noncooperation movement. The involvement of the goondas such
as Gopal Mukherjee in the riot of 1946 is quite well known.47 Gopal
came from a lower middle class family and was greatly inspired
by an uncle of his who was a revolutionary terrorist. In the riot
of 1946 he played a crucial role on the side of the Hindus of
Economic and Political Weekly
September 18, 2004
the central Kolkata region and went to become a famous underworld don with strong political connections in the postindependence era.
Although much of the evidence related to involvement of
politicians and goondas has been destroyed, it is interesting to
understand and take note of the specific innovation the goondas
introduced into the politics of the city. With them producing
violence became a professional skill that was in demand in the
politics of the city.
VI
Some Implications
(i) What these seven categories reveal is that the criminal sector
was very much a cosmopolitan phenomenon and was not fundamentally different from any other metropolitan city of the
period. The demands they met – of the sex starved sailor, the
gambler, the revolutionary terrorist looking for arms, the political
boss, the police, the real estate crooks, both sides of the labour
market, etc – were all demands of a modern metropolis. The
criminal sector performed certain vital economic needs of a
modern metropolis and hence its existence. How modern was
Kolkata as a whole by 1940s is not for me to say but there is
no doubt that the criminal sector of the city did not consist of
religious cults and criminal tribes.
(ii) For a poor person in the city it was almost impossible to
move up in the society along civil channels. Opportunities of
education and employment were extremely limited. In contrast the
criminal sector provided the opportunity to rise in society, at times
even spectacularly. The skill of producing violence was a skill
that was as much in demand as that of a lawyer and expertise in
this skill brought the ‘subaltern’ of the city in close proximity of
the ‘elite’ political and industrial bosses. This attracted even many
youths from the ‘bhadralok’ society. This made the criminal
sector attractive for many in spite of the risks involved. This
tendency became even more pronounced during the post-independence period.
(iii) The primary reason for a person to join the criminal sector
was to earn one’s living and moving up in society. A rebel
disguised as a criminal, a la Hobsbawm’s social bandit, was a
rare thing. However by attracting youths from ‘bhadralok’
background to the sector, especially to the profession of
goondaism, the criminal sector was able to provide an alternative
male role model for the youth.
VII
Some Problems
Between Ahmed Din and Sugan Khan we have the complete
spectrum of the criminal sector of Kolkata during the first half
of the 20th century. I conclude this essay by noting certain
problems that require attention from researchers:
(i) There is as yet no clear picture of the total volume of trade
involved. However there cannot be any doubt that it was substantial, especially the trade in opium and cocaine.
(ii) We do not know how easy or difficult it was to move from
one category of crime to another. In other words, not much is
known regarding the hierarchies within the criminal sector.
(iii) I am not sure of the process by which the Peshwari community
came to control the opium trade in Kolkata. Whatever information
is available seems to start from the point when they have already
Economic and Political Weekly September 18, 2004
achieved their position of power. Their rise must have been quite
spectacular though. Around 1910 they are mentioned as fruit
sellers living in the streets, but by middle of the 1920s they were
controlling the opium trade. The story in between is not clear.
It is possible that they introduced it as a very risky form of big
business in the city, a kind of business which did not attract the
Marwaris as they were already making their strongholds via safer
forms of business.
(iv) It is necessary to explore the links between Kolkata and other
metropolitan cities, especially Mumbai and Rangoon.
(v) By 1930s the ‘underworld’ was a global phenomenon. The
metropolitan and the colonial port cities were linked to vast
network. We do not have a clear picture of this network.
A Typical History Sheet48
Name – Bhaggar Khan
Aliases –
Father’s name – Alam Khan
Caste – Mahomedan49
Occupation – Tailor
Calcutta address – 25 Banstollah Gully, Burrabazar P S
Country address –
Village – Teliagarh
Thana – Katra
District – Mirzapore
Year of birth – 33 years50
Height – 5’5”
Build- strong
Complexion – fair
Beard – shaved
Moustache – slight
Associates – Omkar Jogi, Mangroo Benia, Gopalia Benia,
Ramsham Kahar
Bhaggar Khan first came to Kolkata in 1916 and from the time
of his arrival he associated with bad characters in the northern
part of the city. His chief associates were Omkarmul Jogi, Mangroo
Benia, Gopalia and Ramsham Kahar. He became an inveterate
drinker and was always found in the prostitute quarters in the
Hanspukuria and Ducca putty. His craving for a drink forced
him into a life of crime and he has not done any honest work
since he has arrived in the city.
Before he came to Kolkata, Bhaggar Khan was sentenced to
six months RI51 on 6-5-14 at Allahabad for cheating. He soon
attracted the attention of the Kolkata police and was convicted
and sentenced to 6 months RI for theft of cash and other property
from a shop in Hookaputty. After his release he returned to his
old haunts. He was convicted of loitering and sentenced to seven
days RI on 24-3-17. On 12-8-18 he was again sentenced to a
like term of imprisonment under the same section. In the following
year he was again sentenced to a like term of imprisonment under
the same section. In the following year he was again sentenced
to six months RI under similar circumstances. After his release
he left Kolkata for Burdwan. Here he soon attracted the attention
of the police and was again sent to one year RI under section
109 of CPC on 23-4-20. He again came back to Kolkata and
associated with old accomplices. On 17-6-21 he was sentenced
to six months RI for snatching away a purse from a taxi driver.
After his release he made no attempt to find work and was again
arrested on 18-7-22 by the goonda departement in the company
of his associate Ankar Mull Jogi, Gopalia and Mangroo Bania,
all of whom are old offenders. On this occasion they were found
loitering in Darmahatta Street under suspicious circumstances.
4281
Bhaggar Khan in whose possession a large knife was found and
was bound down for one year. Under section 109 CPC on 9-9-22.
During the inquiry it was found that Ankar Mull was proclaimed
offender in case of theft and he was sentenced one year RI in
that case. The other two men were discharged. A man named
Mahomed Khan stood security for Bhaggar Khan and he was
released. Mahomed has a tailors shop but he is well known to
the police as a supporter of goondas. EPW
Address for correspondence:
jarbed@Satyam.net.in
15
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Notes
[I am indebted to the Felix Trust for a grant to pursue my research between
1997 and 2000. I have benefited from discussions with or comments from
a large number of scholars and friends. Some of them are: David Arnold,
Parimal Ghosh, Sumanta Bannerjee, Rajat K Ray, Subhasranjan Chakrabarty,
Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Rajarshi Dasgupta, Nandini Gooptu, Prashant
Kidambi, Bodhisatva Kar, Subir Sinha and Amrita Sengupta. Various
versions of this paper have been presented at the History Department, School
of Oriental and African Studies; Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford and the
History Department of Presidency College, Calcutta. All errors are mine.]
19
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23
24
25
1 Some of the most notable contributions are – Richard Newman, Workers
and Unions in Bombay, 1918-29: A Study of Organisation in the Cotton
Mills, ANU Monographs on south Asia 6, (Canberra 1981); G K Lieten,
Colonialism, Class and Nation. The Confrontation in Bombay Around
1930, (Calcutta 1984). R Chandavarkar, The Origins of Industrial
Capitalism in India: Business Strategies and the Working Classes in
Bombay, 1900-1940, (Cambridge 1994). Eamon Murphy, Unions in
Conflict, A Comparative Study of Four South Indian Textile Centres,
1918-1939. Australian National University Monographs on south Asia
No 5 (New Delhi 1981), C P Simmons, “Labour and Industrial Organisation in the Indian Coal Mining Industry, 1900-39”. Thesis submitted
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Oxford,
1974. Pembroke College, Reel no 2599. NMML, Dipesh Chakrabarty,
Rethinking Working-Class History: Bengal 1890-1940, (New Delhi
1989), Arjan de Haan, Unsettled Settlers: Migrant Workers and Industrial
Capitalism in Calcutta (Rotterdam 1994). Samita Sen, Women and
Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute Industry, Cambridge
Studies in Indian History and Society 3 (Cambridge 1999). Parimal
Ghosh, Colonialism, Class and a History of the Calcutta Jute
Millhands,1880-1930, (Chennai 2000), Nandini Gooptu, The Politics
of the Urban Poor in Early 20th Century, (Cambridge 2001).
2 Sumanta Bannerjee, ‘City of Dreadful Night’: Crime and Punishment
in Colonial Kolkata, Economic and Political Weekly, May 24, 2003
(internet edition, www.epw.org.in ).
3 Ibid.
4 Parimal Ghosh, “Emergence of an Industrial Labour Force in Bengal:
A study of the conflicts of the Jute Mill Hands with the state 18801930”, Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctorate in Philosophy in
Arts (History), Jadavpur University, 1984.
5 Parimal Ghosh, Colonialism, Class and a History of the Calcutta Jute
Mill Hands, 1880-1930, (Chennai 2000).
6 Ibid, pp 222-26.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Suranjan Das and Jayanta K Ray, The Goondas: Towards a Reconstruction
of the Kolkata Underworld, (Kolkata 1996). Das’s earlier monograph
on the riots in Bengal also mentions the role of the goondas in the riots.
However it is not clear from his study how he was trying to understand
the goondas. See Suranjan Das, Communal Riots in Bengal – 19051947 (New Delhi 1991). See also Sandip Bandyopadhyay, Itihaser Dike
Phire Chechollisher Danga (Kolkata1992) for an account of involvement
of the goondas in the riot of 1946.
10 Ibid, pp 4-11.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Sugata Nandi, Communal Politics and Crime in Calcutta 1946-1947,
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Dissertation submitted to the Jawaharlal Nehru University in partial
fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Masters of Philosophy,
Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, 1999, pp 64-121.
I have developed my ideas as a continuation of the framework developed
by Alejandro Portes, Manuel Castells and Lauren A Benton, See Alejandro
Portes, Manuel Castells and Lauren A Benton, The Informal Economy:
Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries (London 1989). I
was also helped by a conversation with Sabyasachi Bhattacharya of JNU.
That is not possible given the nature of the documents.
Political Police, Confidential 149/07, ‘Papers regarding the Calcutta
Riots’, p 9, WBSA.
Why exactly there was a shift from ‘badmash’ to ‘gunda’ is not clear.
However my research does not indicate that this resulted in a change
of meaning as well. I welcome comments from other researchers on this.
Tracing the etymology of the word in various dictionaries has not been
very productive.
Political, Police, Confidential 290/10 (1-3), ‘Disturbances in Calcutta
in connection with the Bakr-id festival’, WBSA.
Legislative Proceedings, Volumes, May, 1923, debate on the Goondas
Bill, speech by H L Stephenson, WBSA.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Political, Political Confidential 39/21 (129-137). Sl No 131, Paragraph
no 6, WBSA.
Political, Political, Confidential. 39/21 (113-116), ‘Report to the
government of India of the Committee Appointed to Examine Repressive
Laws’. The chairman was Tej Bahadur Sapru, WBSA.
Home police, October 1920, nos 405-407 (A), ‘Bill to Consolidate and
Ammend the Law Regulating Police Administration in the Town of
Kolkata and its Suburbs’. NAI.
Legislative proceedings Volume: May, 1923, ‘Discussions on the Goondas
Bill dated November 20 and 28, 1922’, WBSA.
Ibid, p 21.
Political, police, confidential 521/29(1-4), WBSA.
Political, police, confidential 17/24 (1-5), WBSA.
Ibid.
‘Report of a Commission Appointed by the Government of India to
Enquire into the Working of the Opium Department in Bengal and the
north-western provinces’, Kolkata, 1883.
Ibid, p 227.
This is evident from the history sheets of the Peshwaris who were
prosecuted on charges of drug trafficking and also from Augustus
Sommerville, Crime and Religious Beliefs in India, Kolkata, 1929.
Augustus Sommerville, Crime and Religious Beliefs in India, Kolkata,
1929, p 54.
Political, police, report on the workings of the Indian Arms Act (1878)
during 1924 in Kolkata, p 103. WBSA.
Ibid.
Ibid.
All information related to Pehlaj Rai is available from political, police
confidential, 147/23 (1-3), WBSA.
It is worth noting that the criminals during this time did not use ‘desi’
or indigenous weapons. I have not found any evidence of small arms
producing industry.
Amrita Bazar Patrika, Kolkata, Sunday, February 7, 1922, p 5.
Home (police) 24-29 (A), 1920, ‘Report of E C S Shuttleworth,
superintendent of police, Rangoon, on the extent, distribution and
regulation of prostitution in the cities of Kolkata, Madras, Bombay,
Colombo and Rangoon’, Kolkata, 1920, NAI.
This is also evident from the fact that the report fails to provide any
vivid detail on the indigenous quarters of the prostitutes. In all probability
Shuttleworth failed to enter the quarters and do a detailed survey.
Political, Police, Confidential, 19/25 (1-8), WBSA.
Political, Police, Confidential, 116/23 (1), WBSA.
Leonard A Gordon, Brothers against the Raj: Sarat and Subhash
Chandra Bose (Kolkata, 1990), p 88.
See Das and Ray, The Goondas, p 31.
Political, Police, Confidential, 120/23 (1-6), WBSA. This sheet has been
chosen at random.
Mistake made by the person writing the history sheet.
Mistake made by the person writing the history sheet.
Rigorous imprisonment.
Economic and Political Weekly
September 18, 2004