People and historical records

Sansi communities have histories in Punjab and elsewhere in South Asia. A study of law and imperialism examines how colonial officials constructed the Sansi as a supposedly criminal category. That language was a state-imposed label, not a fact about any community or individual. Names and administrative classifications in colonial files reflect the priorities and assumptions of the people who created them. They cannot tell us the whole history of Sansi families, their livelihoods or their own identities. Community testimony and work by scholars and advocates are important alongside official records.[1]

The Criminal Tribes Act

British authorities used the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 to notify whole communities and impose forms of registration and control. Historian Sarah Gandee dates the notification of Sansis to 1874 and examines the continuing effects of colonial classification around Partition and independence. The act treated inherited group membership as grounds for surveillance rather than requiring evidence of individual wrongdoing. The ways the law was applied varied over time and place; a notification or police file needs to be read with its date, jurisdiction and the voices missing from it.[2]

After colonial rule

A 2021 report by the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre discusses the continuing stigma associated with colonial classifications, including in its study of Sansi communities. Its field survey covers Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, not Punjab, so it is comparative evidence rather than a survey of Punjabi families. The repeal of the Criminal Tribes Act and denotification in independent India did not automatically remove social discrimination or settle questions about livelihoods and access to services. People’s experiences differ across families and regions, and colonial occupation labels should not be used to predict what anyone does today. A fuller account requires community-led histories and attention to laws and policies in the place and period under study, including differences between India and Pakistan.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Preeti Nijhar. Constructing the Sansi as a “Criminal” Class ↗Written source · Source date: 2014 · Locator: Law and Imperialism, chapter 7; publisher’s chapter record. Accessed 2026-11-04.Scholarly study, research report or dated account inspected. Bibliographic details were rechecked on 4 November 2026; this metadata check alone does not establish independent review of additional material.Return to People and historical records, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Sarah Eleanor Gandee; University of Leeds. The “Criminal Tribe” and Independence: Partition, Decolonisation, and the State in India’s Punjab, 1910s–1980s ↗doctoral history thesis · Source date: 2018 · Locator: Repository abstract and dissertation introduction, printed p. 1: 1874 notification and petition. Accessed 2026-11-04.Repository abstract and selected indexed dissertation passages checked. The underlying colonial notifications and case files were not independently examined.Return to The Criminal Tribes Act, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Bhasha Research and Publication Centre; hosted by People’s Archive of Rural India. Voicing the Community: A Study on the De-notified and Nomadic Tribes of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh ↗community research report · Source date: 2021-10 · Locator: Title page; introduction; historical and social background; survey scope. Accessed 2026-11-04.Title page, introduction and selected discussion rechecked. The field survey covers Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, not Punjab; its contemporary findings are not generalised to Punjab.Return to After colonial rule, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-COM-0074 · English edition · human review not performed