The Banjaras, however, are far from being wholly criminal, and the
number who have adopted an honest mode of livelihood is continually
on the increase. Some allowance must be made for their having been
deprived of their former calling by the cessation of the continual
wars which distracted India under native rule, and the extension
of roads and railways which has rendered their mode of transport
by pack-bullocks almost entirely obsolete. At one time practically
all the grain exported from Chhattisgarh was carried by them. In
1881 Mr. Kitts noted that the number of Banjaras convicted in the
Berar criminal courts was lower in proportion to the strength of
the caste than that of Muhammadans, Brahmans, Koshtis or Sunars,
[233] though the offences committed by them were usually more
heinous. Colonel Mackenzie had quite a favourable opinion of them:
"A Banjara who can read and write is unknown. But their memories,
from cultivation, are marvellous and very retentive. They carry in
their heads, without slip or mistake, the most varied and complicated
transactions and the share of each in such, striking a debtor and
creditor account as accurately as the best-kept ledger, while their
history and songs are all learnt by heart and transmitted orally from
generation to generation. On the whole, and taken rightly in their
clannish nature, their virtues preponderate over their vices. In the
main they are truthful and very brave, be it in war or the chase, and
once gained over are faithful and devoted adherents. With the pride
of high descent and with the right that might gives in unsettled and
troublous times, these Banjaras habitually lord it over and contemn the
settled inhabitants of the plains. And now not having foreseen their
own fate, or at least not timely having read the warnings given by a
yearly diminishing occupation, which slowly has taken their bread away,
it is a bitter pill for them to sink into the ryot class or, oftener
still, under stern necessity to become the ryot's servant. But they
are settling to their fate, and the time must come when all their
peculiar distinctive marks and traditions will be forgotten."