Thakur Daku Maan Singh Rathore

Thakur Daku Man Singh Rathore, (died 1955) known as "Daaku Maan Singh", meaning Dacoit Man Singh, was a notorious dacoit, or bandit, born in Agra.

BIOGRAPHY: 

Daaku Man Singh was popularly known as "Man Singh". Born in a Hindu Rajput family, Daaku Man Singh lived in the village of Khera Rathore in the Chambal region of India, where a maze of deep ravines and scrub forests had hidden generations of outlaws since the 13th century.

Between 1939 and 1955, Singh is credited with 1, 112 robberies and 185 murders, including the killing of 32 police officers. Man Singh headed a crew of 17, most of them his sons, brother Nabab Singh, and nephews, who were unchallenged in the Chambal Valley. The police registered over a hundred cases against him, ranging from kidnapping to murder, until he and his son, Subedar Singh, were shot dead by Gurkha troops in 1955 while sitting under a Banyan tree in Kakekapura, Bhind, Madhya Pradesh. This operation was headed by inspector Vinod Chand Chaturvedi

S. N. Subba Rap heard Singh speak on stage in 1953 at a public function in Chambal: "I was surprised to hear him speak. He was totally unlike what I had read about him in the papers. Though at the peak of his popularity or notoriety, he was respectful and humble. I was impressed with the contradiction he presented. The government wanted him dead with a big inaam (reward) on his head and here he was, standing before the adoring public." A Robin Hood figure who once performed essential social services in hard times and adjudicated local issues, today Singh has a pagoda dedicated to him Khera Rathore. According to Dipankar, a Chambal resident who said that he regularly came to worship at the Man Singh Mandir, "they were men who fought for the family izzat(honour). They are baaghiyaan (rebels). There is no difference between a baaghi and a sadhu".

Actor Amitabh Bachchan also quotes "In my younger days, we were in awe of Daaku Man Singh, whose escapades and adventures were common conversation in and around every possible gathering".

SUCCESSORS:

Successors of Singh are living at Khera Rathore near the river Chambal. His son Tehsildar Singh, who used to be a famous dacoit of Chambal along with contemporaries such as Daaku Madho Singh, Mohar Singh, Chhidda Makhan, is living with his family at Sheopur, near the Morena Commissionary.

LION OF THE CHAMBAL:

There are many Rajput folk songs and Nautanki plays based on the stories of his life. Songs about Singh include "Rasta Chalta Koi Nahin Loota, Na Bahino Se Chheene Haar" "Jo Bhi Mila So Baant Diya, Bahino Ko Pahinaye Bhaat" [in English: "(He) did not rob anyone who was walking on the road neither snatched the necklace of a girl; whatever we got distributed it to the poor."]

MOVIE ON DAKU MAAN SINGH:

Daku Man Singh was a 1971 movie directed by Babubhai Mistry. The cast included Dara Singh, Nishi, Shaikh Mukhtar, Jeevan, Shyam Kumar, and Guddi Maruti; the music was by Sardul Kwatra. It was produced by Time-Life Films. However, the film, which showed the rural dacoits defying established power and serving the poor, was not strictly factual.

TEMPLE OF DAKU MAAN SINGH:

MOTHER TERESA may need three miracles and a five-year-long observation period before the Pope can proclaim her a saint, but in the Chambal Valley in Uttar Pradesh, notorious for its breed of dreaded dacoits, sainthood comes easy. Man Singh, the archetypal dacoit of the Chambal ravines and a thorn in the flesh of the police in the 1940s and 50s, has been deified and has a temple to his name.

His side-kick, Roopa, a Brahmin-turned-dacoit, also has a temple to his name not far away. Both the temples are similar in design and architecture to any other North Indian temple, complete with a rising shikhara, the portico and the inner sanctum sanctorum. The deity at the altar is not any of the 33 crore Hindu gods and goddesses but a handle-bar moustached man with a gory criminal record. People in and around the Chambal Valley walk long distances just to bow before these marble busts in the temple and seek their blessings. Man Singh, the legendary dacoit of yesteryear, ran amok in the Chambal region long before Phoolan Devi landed on the scene and stole his thunder. The police had registered over 100 cases against him, ranging from kidnapping to murder, until he was shot dead in 1955 in an encounter in Bhind, (MP). However, for the people of this region, he is up there among the pantheon of Hindu gods, fit to be revered. The temple not only has regular art but has a full-time pundit to conduct the rituals.

The construction of the temples began in the early 1980s and they are located in Khera Rathore in the Chambal region, the birth-place of many a dacoit. Both Roopa and Man Singh were born in this village and their descendants are living here. Man Singh headed a 17-member gang and his writ ran unchallenged through the entire Chambal Valley encompassing six districts of Uttar Pradesh and five of Madhya Pradesh. Most of the members ofMan Singh gang were his brothers or nephews who hid in forests or the labyrinthine ravines near the Chambal river.

Dacoits were described as bagis (a romanticised label for a dacoit) literally meaning a rebel. But they were more than just rebels. They plundered at will and kidnapped for ransom. Villagers, however, credit them with virtues like morality, valour and courage.

"They were not dacoits. They were bagis. They helped us in the times of need", says Ravinder, a villager. This is just as well. Man Singh and other big dacoits of the 1950s carry a Robinhood image for the people of the Chambal area. Local legend puts them down as heroes and men of valour. Villagers maintain Man Singh and his men did not plunder and rob indiscriminately. Like the legendary Prince of Thieves,Man Singh was said to loot the rich and distribute the goodies to the needy. If any poor farmer faced any problem, especially in raising funds for the marriage of his daughter, Man Singh was said to step in and make the necessary arrangements. The villagers have not forgotten this philanthropy even if it was their grandparents who benefited from it.

"They were men who fought for the family honour. They are bagis. There is no difference between a bagi and a sadhu", says Dipankar, a Chambal resident who says he regularly comes to worship at the Man Singh temple.

Family honour and prestige were (and still are) two very sensitive issues in the Chambal belt. Even a minor misunderstanding leads to a feud between families that can pass from one generation to the next. Upholding the family honour is top priority and there are people who do not flinch from shedding blood for it.

Man Singh was one of them. He had turned bagi — after eliminating five Brahmins in order to avenge his brother’s insult. Most dacoits of Chambal had turned bagisafter they had killed someone in a property dispute or family feud. These bagis were outlawed but respected by their communities because they stood up for their family prestige. This is another reason why the dacoits of yore are deified in their villages today.

While glorifying Man Singh and his ilk, the residents here hold the contemporary dacoits in utter contempt. They say the present-day dacoits in Chambal are mere mercenaries whose only aim is to make money. "Man Singh was not after money but honour. He only demanded money from the rich and shared it with the poor", says another villager.

Man Singh’s descendants take great pride in counting the members of their family who became bagis and the number of people they killed in the name of family honour. The more the number of people, the more superior they feel. Man Singh’s grandson, Jandail Singh, 78, not only worships his grandfather in the temple but he started his life stepping into his shoes. From 1953 to 1963, Jandail Singh was behind bars for hobnobbing with the outlaws. Twirling his thick white moustache (that he grows like Man Singh), he says that many of his cousins and all his four uncles were bagis. Naresh Singh, Man Singh’s 61-year-old great-grandson, says he never saw his father because he was a bagi and he presumes the police have killed him.

Despite being on the run, Man Singh had the mandate of the people. He virtually decided important panchayat matters from the deep recesses of the Chambal ravines and forests. Along with his lieutenant, Roopa Singh, he governs their hearts and souls today.