The origin of the Badhaks is obscure, but they seem to have belonged
to Gujarat, as their peculiar dialect, still in use, is a form of
Gujarati. The most striking feature in it is the regular substitution
of _kh_ for _s_. They claimed to be Rajputs and were divided into clans
with the well-known Rajput names of Solanki, Panwar, Dhundhel, Chauhan,
Rathor, Gahlot, Bhatti and Charan. Their ancestors were supposed to
have fled from Chitor on one of the historical occasions on which it
was assaulted and sacked. But as they spoke Gujarati it seems more
probable that they belonged to Gujarat, a fertile breeding-place of
criminals, and they may have been descended from the alliances of
Rajputs with the primitive tribes of this locality, the Bhils and
Kolis. The existing Bagris are of short stature, one writer stating
that none of them exceed five feet two inches in height; and this
seems to indicate that they have little Rajput blood. It may be
surmised that the Badhaks rose into importance and found scope for
their predatory instincts during the period of general disorder and
absence of governing authority through which northern India passed
after the decline of the Mughal Empire. And they lived and robbed with
the connivance or open support of the petty chiefs and landholders,
to whom they gave a liberal share of their booty. The principal bands
were located in the Oudh forests, but they belonged to the whole
of northern India including the Central Provinces; and as Colonel
Sleeman's Report, though of much interest, is now practically unknown,
I have thought it not out of place to compile an article by means of
short extracts from his account of the tribe.
In 1822 the operations of the Badhaks were being conducted on such a
scale that an officer wrote: "No District between the Brahmaputra,
the Nerbudda, the Satlej and the Himalayas is free from them; and
within this vast field hardly any wealthy merchant or manufacturer
could feel himself secure for a single night from the depredations
of Badhak dacoits. They had successfully attacked so many of the
treasuries of our native Sub-Collectors that it was deemed necessary,
all over the North-Western Provinces, to surround such buildings with
extensive fortifications. In many cases they carried off our public
treasure from strong parties of our regular troops and mounted police;
and none seemed to know whence they came or whither they fled with
the booty acquired." [42]