Editing Dacoity (section)

{{Short description|Term used for "banditry" in the Indian subcontinent}}
{{redirect|Daku|the artist|Daku (artist)|the Albanian footballer|Mirlind Daku}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2008}}
[[File:A family of Indian dacoits (c. 1900s).jpg|thumbnail|A family of dacoits]]

'''Dacoity''' is a term used for "[[banditry]]" in the [[Indian subcontinent]]. The spelling is the [[anglicised]] version of the [[Hindustani language|Hindi]] word डाकू (ḍākū); "dacoit" {{IPAc-en|d|ə|ˈ|k|ɔɪ|t}} is a colloquial [[Indian English]] word with this meaning. It appears in the [[Hobson-Jobson|''Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases'']] (1903).<ref>Here, "Anglo-Indian" refers to the language or linguistic usage. See: Yule, Henry and Burnell, Arthur Coke (1886; reprinted 1903). ''[[Hobson-Jobson|Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive]]''. London: J. Murry. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z5iAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA290 290]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628030029/http://books.google.com/books?id=6Z5iAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA290 |date=2014-06-28 }}.</ref> [[Bandit#Banditry|Banditry]] is a criminal activity involving robbery by groups of armed bandits. The [[East India Company]] established the [[Thuggee and Dacoity Department]] in 1830, and the [[Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–1848]] were enacted in [[British India]] under [[Company rule in India|East India Company rule]].<ref name="Roy1998">{{cite book|author=Parama Roy|title=Indian Traffic: Identities in Question in Colonial and Postcolonial India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xp82WhOGBnAC&pg=PA41|accessdate=10 August 2024|year=1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-91768-2|pages=41–}}</ref>  Areas with ravines or forests, such as [[Chambal division|Chambal]] and [[Chilapata Forests]], were once known for dacoits.