History-sheeter

In Indian English, a history-sheeter (sometimes referred to as a rowdy-sheeter[1] ) is a person with a long criminal record.[2][3][4] Known as a career criminal outside of South Asia, the term is found in newspapers of South Asian countries such as India[5] and Pakistan.[6]

According to Anastasia Piliavsky, the concept of "history sheeter" has origins in the colonial era rule and its police surveillance codes.[7][8][9] The legal codes allowed preemptive penalties against those listed as a "history sheeter", and these codes were copied into the post-independent Indian Penal Code Sections 109 and 110. The Indian states such as Rajasthan list a person as a "history sheeter" when "his or her criminal record reaches or exceeds thirty offenses," states Piliavsky.[7]

History-sheeter is a broad term that refers to people who have been registered onto a history sheet which can include those who have a history of criminal activities[10] or people who are considered to be a threat to society.[11] This term is most commonly used in India.[12] These history sheets can include a description of where a certain individual has been, a description of their features, jobs, previous crimes and the person’s relationships or connections.[13]

There are two categories of history-sheeters, Class - A history-sheeters are those who are "less hardened criminals" whereas Class - B history-sheeters are those who are "professional criminals... dangerous persons and abettors".[14] The local police officers oversee the regulation of these history sheets and are in control of the decision on whether to register somebody, meaning that many people who lack convictions are on a history sheet simply because an officer considers them to be suspicious.[11]

These history-sheeters are subject to many policies such as the restriction of movement and police surveillance in order to ensure that further criminal activity does not occur, and they are often “treated as social outcasts”.[10] Mrinal Satish[11] describes the nature of the police surveillance of history-sheeters as being constant and not being confined to the specific area they were registered, as information on the individual is passed on to the relevant station if they were to move. These specific policies put in place to deal with these history-sheeters has many implications for both the individuals and the prevalence of crime in contemporary India.


The origin of the concept of history-sheeters can be seen in the British colonial understanding that nomadic lifestyles were difficult to maintain control over,[15] and their efforts to subsequently repress these lifestyles led to the criminalisation of certain groups known as criminal tribes.[16] The subsequent maintenance of these ideas following the independence of India in 1947, saw that the methods used for these criminal tribes were carried over to deal with crime in post-colonial India. These colonial origins help bring into perspective how the term history-sheeters entered the current Indian lexicon and how these policies entered its contemporary systems.

  1. ^ "Definition of History-Sheeter by Cambridge Dictionary".
  2. ^ "Definition of History-Sheeter by Oxford Dictionary". Lexico Dictionaries. Archived from the original on July 11, 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-10. A person with a criminal record.
  3. ^ Tom Dalzell; Terry Victor (2015). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Taylor & Francis. p. 9722. ISBN 978-1-317-37251-6.
  4. ^ Christiane Dalton-Puffer; Nikolaus Ritt (2011). Words: Structure, Meaning, Function: A Festschrift for Dieter Kastovsky. Walter de Gruyter. p. 35. ISBN 978-3-11-080916-9.
  5. ^ K. Balasankaran Nair (2004). Law of Contempt of Court in India. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. pp. 100 footnote 92, 103. ISBN 978-81-269-0359-7.
  6. ^ World Englishes: Critical Concepts in Linguistics, Volume 2 by Kingsley Bolton, Braj B. Kachru, p. 247 gbook
  7. ^ a b Anastasia Piliavsky (2013). David N. Gellner (ed.). Borderland Lives in Northern South Asia. Duke University Press. pp. 45 note 26. ISBN 978-0-8223-7730-6.
  8. ^ All India Reporter. D.V. Chitaley. 1946. p. 147.
  9. ^ Uttar Pradesh (India). Legislature. Legislative Council (1934). Proceedings: official report. Adhīkshaka. p. 318.
  10. ^ a b Bhadauria, Y (1980). "Reactions of History-Sheeters Towards Police Surveillance" (PDF). Indian Journal of Social Work. 41: 45–50.
  11. ^ a b c Satish, Mrinal (2011). "Bad Characters, History Sheeters, Budding Goondas and Rowdies": Police Surveillance Files and Intelligence Databases in India". National Law School of India Review. 23: 133–160.
  12. ^ Libertatem Magazine: Issue 9. (2015, October 15). Libertatem Group, p. 31.
  13. ^ Banerjea, D, ed. (2005). Criminal Justice India Series: Volume XVII. Delhi: Allied Publishers.
  14. ^ Singh, Pradeep Kumar (2021). "Policing in India: Need of Effective Preventative Actions to Tackle Crime and Criminality". Jurnal Media Hukum. 28: 136–152.
  15. ^ Bhukya, Bhangya; Surepally, Sujatha (2021). "Unveiling the World of the Nomadic Tribes and Denotified Tribes: An Introduction".
  16. ^ Gandee, Sarah (2018). "Criminalising the Criminal Tribe: Partition, Borders and the State in India's Punjab". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 38: 557–572.