_Bhamta or Bhamtya._ [266]--A caste numbering 4000 persons in the
Central Provinces, nearly all of whom reside in the Wardha, Nagpur
and Chanda Districts of the Nagpur Division. The Bhamtas are also
found in Bombay, Berar and Hyderabad. In Bombay they are known by the
names of Uchla or 'Lifter' and Ganthachor or 'Bundle-thief.' [267]
The Bhamtas were and still are notorious thieves, but many of the
caste are now engaged in the cultivation of hemp, from which they
make ropes, mats and gunny-bags. Formerly it was said in Wardha that
a Bhamta girl would not marry unless her suitor had been arrested not
less than fourteen times by the police, when she considered that he
had qualified as a man. The following description of their methods
does not necessarily apply to the whole caste, though the bulk of
them are believed to have criminal tendencies. But some colonies of
Bhamtas who have taken to the manufacture of sacking and gunny-bags
from hemp-fibre may perhaps be excepted. They steal only during the
daytime, and divide that part of the Province which they frequent into
regular beats or ranges. They adopt many disguises. Even in their own
cottages one dresses as a Marwari Bania, another as a Gujarat Jain,
a third as a Brahman and a fourth as a Rajput. They keep to some
particular disguise for years and often travel hundreds of miles,
entering and stealing from the houses of the classes of persons whose
dress they adopt, or taking service with a merchant or trader, and
having gained their employer's confidence, seizing an opportunity to
abscond with some valuable property. Sometimes two or three Bhamtas
visit a large fair, and one of them dressed as a Brahman mingles with
the crowd of bathers and worshippers. The false Brahman notices some
ornament deposited by a bather, and while himself entering the water
and repeating sacred verses, watches his opportunity and spreads out
his cloth near the ornament, which he then catches with his toes,
and dragging it with him to a distance as he walks away buries it in
the sand. The accomplices meanwhile loiter near, and when the owner
discovers his loss the Brahman sympathises with him and points out
the accomplices as likely thieves, thus diverting suspicion from
himself. The victim follows the accomplices, who make off, and the
real thief meanwhile digs the ornament out of the sand and escapes
at his leisure. Women often tie their ornaments in bundles at such
bathing-fairs, and in that case two Bhamtas will go up to her, one
on each side, and while one distracts her attention the other makes
off with the bundle and buries it in the sand. A Bhamta rarely retains
the stolen property on his person while there is a chance of his being
searched, and is therefore not detected. They show considerable loyalty
to one another, and never steal from or give information against a
member of the caste. If stolen property is found in a Bhamta's house,
and it has merely been deposited there for security, the real thief
comes forward. An escaped prisoner does not come back to his friends
lest he should get them into trouble. A Bhamta is never guilty of
house-breaking or gang-robbery, and if he takes part in this offence
he is put out of caste. He does not steal from the body of a person
asleep. He is, however, expert at the theft of ornaments from the
person. He never steals from a house in his own village, and the
villagers frequently share directly or indirectly in his gains. The
Bhamtas are now expert railway thieves. [268] Two of them will get
into a carriage, and, engaging the other passengers in conversation,
find out where they are going, so as to know the time available for
action. When it gets dark and the travellers go to sleep, one of
the Bhamtas lies down on the floor and covers himself with a large
cloth. He begins feeling some bag under the seat, and if he cannot
open it with his hands, takes from his mouth the small curved knife
which all Bhamtas carry concealed between their gum and upper lip,
and with this he rips up the seams of the bag and takes out what
he finds; or they exchange bags, according to a favourite device of
English railway thieves, and then quickly either leave the train or
get into another carriage. If attention is aroused they throw the
stolen property out of the window, marking the place and afterwards
going back to recover it. Another device is to split open and pick
the pockets of people in a crowd. Besides the knife they often have
a needle and thread and an iron nut-cutter.