The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term "Bandit" as 'a violent robber or outlaw belonging to a gang'. The term "outlaw" is defined as 'a fugitive from the law'. But if this is the Case then why do people have a tendency to justify outlaws and bandits as heroic figures?
Many people justify their actions by them being forced into a life of crime due to situations beyond their control.
Eric Hobsbawm (author of 'Bandits' 1969) distinguished between 'bandits' and 'social bandits'.
Social bandits appeared to the poor as popular people, otherwise know as 'Champions of the poor'. Social bandits are peasants who had resisted the powers of their masters, they had 'fled the bonds of serfdom'. These social bandits did not steal from their own immediate poor, as they needed their support, the bandits were generous to their own. Thus they used the money that they stole from neighbouring villages to pay for purchases from their own villagers. These bandits had no political programme, they are merely symptoms of a situation, their objective was individual alleviation not class liberation. However they were not champions of the poor as they would repress the peasants for the right price - thus these social bandits fall into a criminal underworld, crossing the line to becoming a criminal.
Many people justify their actions by them being forced into a life of crime due to situations beyond their control.
Eric Hobsbawm (author of 'Bandits' 1969) distinguished between 'bandits' and 'social bandits'.
Social bandits appeared to the poor as popular people, otherwise know as 'Champions of the poor'. Social bandits are peasants who had resisted the powers of their masters, they had 'fled the bonds of serfdom'. These social bandits did not steal from their own immediate poor, as they needed their support, the bandits were generous to their own. Thus they used the money that they stole from neighbouring villages to pay for purchases from their own villagers. These bandits had no political programme, they are merely symptoms of a situation, their objective was individual alleviation not class liberation. However they were not champions of the poor as they would repress the peasants for the right price - thus these social bandits fall into a criminal underworld, crossing the line to becoming a criminal.
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