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The Pardhis of Central India are among the hundreds of tribes who were notified as criminals by the British. Though the government in independent India did away with the criminal branding and bracketed them as vimukta jati, or denotified tribes, the stigmatised Pardhis continue to inspire a fear usually reserved for felons.
Rema Rajeshwari, an Indian Police Service officer, realised that people in a village under her jurisdiction were gripped by the same fear after a policeman observed something unusual in their behaviour. The constable patrolling Guvvaldinne village in Telangana’s Jogulamba Gadwal district — where Rajeshwari is posted as superintendent
