Anando Lal Banerjee, a former state police chief of Uttar Pradesh hoped the museum in Bhind, the first of its kind in India, would help correct the larger-than-life image of some of the killers.
“This is a very good idea because the police should know the actual facts rather than read that these people were Robin Hoods,” Banerjee told RFI.
“They were not.These dacoits were mortals driven by greed, driven by lust and driven by money,” he said.
“They were a blood-thirsty lot and we fought them and we won.”
Even the score
The museum will host at least 2,000 digitized police records and material chronicling murder, loot and kidnapping by the outlaws, who held sway in parts of three states including Madhya Pradesh.
Bhind police personnel have so far donated 300,000 rupees or 3,410 euros towards the museum, added Rajesh Hingankar, another officer.
The facility will also display details of 40 officers slain in the Chambal badlands, a maze of ravines spanning the three states which was home to desperadoes for over half a century.
A unique museum themed on dacoits is all set to come up at the police headquarters in Bhind, located in #MadhyaPradesh. https://t.co/3mk3KOV1q5
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) February 12, 2021
Some activists who encouraged wanted men and women to surrender argue social oppression prompted them to banditry but for many, they became icons of resistance against feudal tyranny.
“Poverty, caste and the violence against women contributed to making them, in fact and in fiction, appealing figures,” Indian Express said in an editorial on Saturday.
“Off course their violence had victims. And the narrative of exaggerated heroism must be challenged. But the police version, perhaps, does not tell the full story,” the daily added.
Bandits and Bollywood
Bollywood produced “Bandit Queen” on the life and crimes of Phoolan Devi who was accused of a 1981 massacre of 22 high-caste men in retaliation to her gang rape.
Adulatory fans of the gun-slinger voted Devi to parliament. Twice! The former bandit was a sitting MP in 2001 when she was assassinated in Delhi.
BANDIT QUEEN
— Ganaeramesh (@Ganae_Ramesh) July 12, 2020
1994
HINDI
This Movie Is Based one a Life History of #Phoolan_Devi. She is 4rom Low Caste, Poor Women nd For Shake of That Reason, She Was Tortured & Raped Several Times By the Upper Cast Ppl In the Village.
Finally,She Taking a Revenge Towards Them.💥#Worth 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Df7PQGpNxk
Man Singh, another Chambal outlaw, was named in 1,112 robberies and charged with the murder of 185 people including 32 police officers, according to published accounts.
The gangster who was killed by police in 1955 inspired one of India’s first films on dacoits, a genre which saw cinemas in India rake in box office profits over the years.
“I see the dilemma of the different viewpoints,” said Maxwell Pereira, a senior officer who retired from Delhi city police force.
“Man Singh, Phoolan Devi or whoever else -- they were successful dacoits and legends were built around them because they were the ones who excited the people of the time,” Pereira told RFI.
“So far, the dacoits of Chambal belt have been glorified,” Bhind police superintendent Manoj Kumar was quoted as saying.
“Now, it is the turn of the victims and policemen who fought the menace to be brought into the limelight,” he told the media.
