God is Unbending

God is Unbending

1992 7 July 7 God is Unbending (402) Devi Singh, the notorious dacoit, was killed in a police encounter in January, 1984. Shortly before he met his fate, Mrs. Amrita Pritam, the well-known poetess, had a chance meeting with him. The very interesting conversation which they had was subsequently published in the Hindustan Times of January 22, 1984. In the course of their talks, Devi Singh admitted to Mrs. Pritam that up to that time he had ‘committed about 100 dacoities. “We are not dacoits, but rebels fighting against the government. We loot treasure, but we have never sullied the honour of any girl. We observe a strict moral code. If any of our members goes against it, we immediately shoot him.”

When Mrs. Pritam asked Devi Singh to tell her how many members there were in his gang, he replied, “Seven men and the eight is God.”

At first sight this seems to be a translation of a verse from the Holy· Qur’an (with one minor difference) which says: “Where there are five of your people, there the sixth one is the Almighty (Chapter 58).” The dacoit’s statement would appear to be in the same vein as this verse from the Holy Qur’an. But this is not at all the case. Apart from the similar lexicon used, there is nothing else which is common.

The actual sense in which the dacoit used these words becomes clear from what he later explained in the same interview. He said that whatever loot they took was divided up between the members of the gang. But instead of dividing it into only seven parts, they made eight equal shares, the eighth one being for God. “The part which belongs to God is given to some needy person. This giving away of one part of the loot is the way of all dacoits.”

The God of the Holy Qur’an creates fear in the mind, while the God of the dacoits encourages fearlessness. God is there so that He may prevent wrongdoing. But by giving a share to God, they endeavour to make Him their Protector. Their way of thinking is that if the seven of them join together to commit some dacoity, God will be their eighth and will be ready to stand guard over them. But the God of the Qur’an would never be a party to such evil. He would, on the contrary, mete out the severest of punishments to the offenders.