Social Banditry and Colonial Power: Reinterpreting Malangi and Nizam Lohar in Colonial Punjab

Abstract

This article covers the stories of Malangi (Daku) and Nizam Lohar, two men revered in Punjab as icons of resistance to British authority. Although colonial documents refer to them as criminals, this study contends that such classifications were political rather than objective legal judgements. The British used crime-related terminology to quell local opposition and justify their authority over Punjab. The article demonstrates how colonial practices like land confiscation, the n/lambardari system, punitive taxes, and labelling entire populations as "criminal tribes" disturbed village life and exacerbated inequality. These circumstances prompted many ordinary people to fight colonial rule in everyday ways. The article demonstrates how Punjabi communities remembered Malangi and Nizam Lohar as justice fighters rather than lawbreakers by combining official data with folk music, oral traditions, and popular memories. These shared memories undermined the British narrative of history and maintained alternate notions of fairness and dignity. This study situates Malangi and Nizam Lohar within a larger legacy of local resistance in Punjab, calling for a novel and critical interpretation of colonial archives that have long overlooked the political importance of popular defiance. Akhtar Sandhu highlights a lapse in Punjab historiography, which ignored ‘culture’ while addressing historical events. Historians focused on colonial power, administration, or governance, ignoring folk wisdom, folklore, social trends, and local heroic traditions. To Sandhu, ignoring culture in writing regional history leaves a major gap in Punjab historiography (Sandhu, 2025). Malangi and Nizam were products of Punjab’s society, but this important aspect was overlooked while writing under colonial pressure.