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CRIME AND KARMA
of the crimes committed by the great majority of prisoners can be easily indicated. It is so very palpable. Theft and robbery, for example, are as a rule committed under the pressure of poverty. Even the so-called "professionals" ultimately are victims of social iniquity.
Stories about the famous robber-chief Sultana are very popular among the prisoners. He has been raised to the status of a minor mythical hero. In the stories, he is depicted as a sort of Robin Hood. And it is not the heroic touches, but the social significance, of Sultana's reported exploits that appeal to popular imagination. Sultana's popularity is not confined to the prisoners. It is wide-spread among the rural population outside. Therefore, it took the police such a long time to capture him and break up his gang. I came across only one prisoner who, after his conviction for premeditated murder, had been instrumental in the capture of Sultana. He was a Brahmin landlord with some modern education and very proud of his aristocratic lineage.
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The members of Sultana's gang, like the majority of professional high-way robbers, were recruited from the village poor. It was thanks to the sympathy and secret aid of the rural destitute that Sultana's gang defied detection for such a long time. Indian dacoits are not like the American gangsters. They are not bred out of the corrupt
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