In 1871, the British colonial government passed the Criminal Tribes’ Act, which covered the territories of the North-Western Provinces, Punjab and Oudh. Through an amendment in 1876, this act was extended to the Bengal Presidency and then across the Madras Presidency in 1876, This draconian legislation held that: “If the Local Government has reason to believe that any tribe, gang or classes of persons is addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences, it may report the case to the Governor General in Council, and may request his permission to declare such tribe, gang or class to be a criminal tribe.” Once the Governor General endorsed the request of the local government, this had to be published in the local Gazette and the district magistrate was to maintain a register of the members of the criminal tribe resident in that district. If the Criminal Tribe had no “fixed place of residence”then the law provided that they be forced to settle in a fixed place.

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