Langda Tyagi and Kesu Firangi's Badland

Bandits, corrupt cops, contract murders, abductions and honour killings make daily life in western UP look like a script from a wild west movie

Khalid Akhter Meerut

As soon as one crosses the borders of Delhi and enters the wild west of western Uttar Pradesh, the pace of life changes. There is an uncanny tension in the listless terrain. The moment the signs welcoming visitors to the region start appearing, one gets to witness dusty, crowded roads with bullock carts, tractors and trucks loaded with sugarcane. Life is slow, heavy with stasis. Things become a bit vibrant in the winters - when sugarcane, the main crop, is harvested and the air fills with the sweet smell of liquid gur (jaggery).
Most cities in western UP follow a similar pattern. The new part of towns have palatial buildings, while the old are a labyrinth of narrow lanes by-lanes and houses framed with archways with chiks or rough curtains. Unplastered houses on the outskirts tell a story of unplanned growth and encroachment. Village homes have no architectural finesse - one big shutter as a gate, a courtyard with charpoys and hukkas, and then brick rooms with no windows.
The slightly smaller towns are qasbahs, which have populations between 50,000 and 100,000. Life in these bustling small towns is not particularly exciting: the main economic activities being trade and machine works.
As in other parts of India, agriculture is the main source of the livelihood in the rural areas here. The region witnessed economic prosperity after the Green Revolution and became famous for sugar production. Within UP, it is frequently held as an agricultural model.
After sundown, the region, which is full of life in daytime, wears a deserted look. All roads, except national highways, become empty and there is an eerie silence all around. This region is now home to some of the most dreaded criminals, caste/community gangs and one of the biggest crime nurseries in north India. People are scared to go out after dark, not just in the countryside but also in the big towns. No one travels through the hinterland after sunset. No taxi will agree to ply in the night. Even in cases of medical emergency, people travel to hospitals only after collecting a group of friends and relatives who own licenced guns.
The Meerut zone has earned notoriety for being a safe haven for criminals. Hundreds of gangsters, with rewards on their heads, are still at large in western UP. This is their turf. Muzaffarnagar district tops the list with such gangsters. Most criminals are engaged in contract killings and kidnapping for ransom.
This region has witnessed a spurt in murders and criminal activities in the past three or four decades, especially in rural areas. Locals say crime in the countryside has increased since the introduction of panchayat elections, as every village has been divided into two parties. Depending on the population, each village gets between Rs 6-10 lakh for development, and the winning party gets to control that money. Locals say that the number of 'post-mortems' increases whenever panchayat polls are around.
Mohammed Hanif, a 60-year-old villager from Bijnore district, says people are scared to sleep in the open during summer. He often gets nostalgic of how peaceful life used to be in his village when he was a teenager. These days, watering the fields at night has become difficult due to widespread animosity and fear of looters. The modus operandi of the criminals is typical in cases of ransom. But this is a fast operation. They round up the people watering the fields and send one of them to the village to bring money. If anybody informs the police or the other villagers the looters kill the ones that are held.
Police postings in this region are regarded as plum postings. Locals say a large portion of their earnings goes to some police personnel. Vishal Bhardwaj's film Omkara captures the crime scenario in this region almost to the dot.
Interestingly, sugarcane crops have a role to play in crime. Senior police official Rafiq Ahmad of Bijnore says the crime graph goes up along with the height of sugarcane. As fields stretch over miles, they become a safe haven for criminals and it becomes difficult to spot or chase them in the fields.
Another widespread crime in the region is honour killings - where men and women are killed by their relatives or members of their caste in the name of saving the 'honour' of the community, caste or family. Most honour killings are ordered by so-called caste panchayats, or informal courts comprising mostly members of a particular upper or dominant caste, which decide all matters concerning them. The caste panchayats sit in judgment on matters of marital or domestic discord or on issues relating to land.
Often, villagers give precedence to the judgment of a caste panchayat over that of a legal panchayat - a constitutional body of men and women elected by villagers to decide local issues. 'Sentences/verdicts' include public lynching of couples, murder, murder made to appear as suicide, public beatings, humiliation, blackening of the face, forcing couples or their families to eat excreta or drink urine, forced incarceration, social boycotts and the levying of fines.
The first reported honour killing in UP was in 1993 in Muzaffarnagar district, which has gained notoriety for such slayings. Since then, the numbers have been rising. Other districts in the state, such as Saharanpur, Bijnor and Merrut, have also witnessed similar crimes.
One reason for the increased visibility of such crimes in this male-dominated and feudal society is the animosity against women and girls: are treated as second-class citizens in the social hierarchy. Indeed, more and more young women are going to colleges/universities and meeting others from different backgrounds and castes. They are establishing relationships beyond the confines of caste and community, or old taboos and dogmas. Girls are also getting educated, becoming more modern, and choosing professional careers or traveling to other cities. They are trying to create their own niche. The caste panchayats, which often order lovers to be strangled, burnt or hacked, are found to have a direct role to play in the violence against women. But they are not the only ones responsible for the organised, ritualistic assaults or killings - a patriarchal society's curious interpretation of 'honour' and its relationship with gender and caste are as important.
In the badlands of Langda Tyagi and Kesu Firangi, the law of the land lies inside the barrel of the gun. And the spilling of blood is not an extraordinary event. It's as ordinary and routine as the colour of the blood.