Ruyard Kipling en parle dans une de ses oeuvres :
The Taking of Lungtungpen is a short story by Rudyard Kipling which was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette on April 11th 1887, and in book form in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in subsequent editions of that collection.
The story is about one of Kipling's three private soldiers, Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris, whose adventures are further related in his collection of short stories Soldiers Three: Terence Mulvaney.
This story tells "how Privit Mulvaney tuk the town av Lungtungpen", in his own words (Kipling represents him conventionally as an Irish speaker of English). Mulvaney, who continually blots his copybook (and loses promotions and goods conduct badges from his habit of "wan big dhrink a month") is nevertheless a fine soldier. When he is patrolling Burmah against dacoits with 24 young recruits under Lieutenant Brazenose, they capture a suspect. Mulvaney, with an interpreter, takes the prisoner aside and "trates him tinderly" [='treats him tenderly'] with a cleaning rod. This example of army brutality extracts the information that there is a town called Lungtungpen, a haunt of dacoits, 9 miles away, 'across the river'. Mulvaney persuades the Lieutenant not to await reinforcements, but to "visit" Lungtungpen that night. Mulvaney is in the lead when they come to the river, and tells the four men with him to strip and swim across. Two of them can't swim, but they use a tree trunk for flotation and cross the river - despite their discovery that "That shtrame [= stream] was miles woide!" When they reach the other side, in the dark they have landed on the river wall of L<ungtungpen, and a fierce fight ensuesd - fortunately for the British, they are so close under the wall that, in the dark, the Burmese fire passes harmlessly over their heads. The British, still naked from their swim, go in with bayonets and the butts of their rifles, as well as their ammunition: they kill 75 Burmese. They hold "the most ondasint p'rade [= 'indecent parade'] I iver tuk a hand in", with only eight men having even belt and pouches on; the rest "as naked as Venus". While half of them dress, the other half patrol the town, with the women laughing at them.
Dans la réalité
The word Dacoity is the anglicized version of the Indian word ḍakaitī (historically spelled dakaitee, Hindi डकैती or Urdu ڈکیتی or Bangla ডাকাতি) which comes from ḍākū (historically spelled dakoo, Hindi: डाकू, Urdu: ڈاکو, meaning "armed robber") or Bangla ḍakat (ডাকাত).
Dacoity (Hindi: डकैती ḍakaitī, Urdu: ڈکیتی ḍakaitī, Bangla: ডাকাতি ḍakati) means "armed robbery".
Dacoit (Hindi: डकैत ṭakait, Urdu: ڈکیت ṭakait, Bangla: ডাকাত ḍakat) means "a bandit". According to OED ("A member of a class of robbers in India and Burmah, who plunder in armed bands.") Dacoits existed in Burmah as well as India, and Rudyard Kipling's fictional Private Mulvaney was hunting Burmese "dacoits" in The Taking of Lungtungpen. The term was also applied, according to OED, to "pirates who formerly infested the Ganges between Calcutta and Burhampore".
The most infamous member of the Dacoit "profession" was probably India's Phoolan Devi.
But the title of the most legendary dacoit is held by Daku Man Singh and Nirbhay Singh Gujjar who was killed recently.Between 1939 and 1955, Daku Man Singh had notched up 1,112 dacoities, 185 murders, countless ransom kidnappings. He was involved in 90 police encounters and had killed 32 policemen.
