Note 116 — Volume II. (continued 2)

The criminal Biloch of the North-Western Provinces. 4. In the Muzaffarnagar District they are also known as Rind. “They originally emigrated from the Panjâb; that they are professional thieves of a dangerous character is now well established. They depart on their predatory tours assuming the character of faqîrs, physicians, and teachers of the Qurân, and carry on their depredations at great distances as far southward as Ajmere and westward as Lahore. Some few in the Muzaffarnagar District have acquired landed property; but the rest may be said to have no ostensible means of livelihood and to be habitual absentees. Their mode of robbery is not by violence, but by picking locks with needles. One thief makes an entry, receiving two-thirds of the property as his share, while his confederate, who sits outside to watch, receives one-third.”116 The same people there called Biloch are found in Ambâla and Karnâl. “During the rainy season the whole country is inundated for months. A more suitable stronghold for a criminal tribe could not be imagined. They are almost certainly of true Biloch origin, and still give their tribal names as Rind, Lashari, Jatoi, and Korai. But they are by their habits quite distinct from both the land-owning Biloch and the camel-driver, who is so commonly called Biloch simply because he is a camel-driver. They are described as coarse-looking men of a dark colour, living in a separate quarter, and with nothing to distinguish them from the scavenger caste except a profusion of stolen ornaments and similar property. They say that their ancestors once lived beyond Kasûr, in the Lahore District, but were driven out on account of their marauding habits. The men still keep camels and cultivate a little land as their ostensible occupation; but during a great part of the year they leave the women, who are strictly secluded at home, and wander about disguised as Fakîrs or as butchers in search of sheep for sale, extending their excursions to great distances, and apparently to almost all parts of India.”117