What is referred to as the
Indian Mafia currently, had its beginnings during the turn of last century with the influx of migrants to Bombay, who came from all over India looking for jobs in the bustling port city. Most of them found accommodation in colonies of block-like buildings called chawls which allowed them to nurture strong ties within their community with each community sticking together and forming their own quarter in the city. From these, mostly hardworking lower strata of urban life, arouse an underbelly of criminal elements who quickly became an organised body. The first mafia elements, or syndicates, perhaps had their origins in the gambling and bootleg liquor dens set up by the infamous Pashtun Mafia member Karim Lala in the 1940s, who is arguably the first real Don in the history of the Indian Mafia. The profits from the control of bootlegging and gambling, aided by the introduction of prohibition and anti-gambling laws, made the new syndicate exceptionally wealthy, it enabled Karim Lala to acquire some legitimacy by floating the Jriga-e Hind Pathan Party, which he claimed had the blessings of the famous Pashtun freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan . He was in-turn succeeded by another migrant named Varadaraja Mudaliar , a Tamil migrant who arrived to Bombay along with a large influx of south-Indian migrants during the first half of the century. By using his community ties, he oversaw the rise of a new generation of underworld until the 1960s. Mudaliar pioneered the art of cultivating official patronage for the underworld. The increasing restrictions placed on the Indian economy by the socialist regimes of those days gave the Bombay underworld increasingly more means by which they could expand their activities. Their influence on the city slowly increased with time. A colleague of his, who was placed in jail during the Indian Emergency (1975-79), Mastan Mirza, more famously known as Haji Mastan also played a key role in structuring illegal gambling as an organised business. The first three dons were unique in that they had high standings within their own communities whose interest they looked after, each depending on their community for men and support as is the case with most Mafias.
After the collapse of the cotton mills based textile industry in Mumbai in the 1980s, many workers were left unemployed, furthering the environment for crime that already existed. Various underworld dons rose to power.
D-Company was formed by Dawood Ibrahim , an acolyte of Hajji Mastana, and a descendant of migrants from the Konkan coast. It was amongst the most powerful criminal organisations in the world in the 80s, with many illegal and legal business ventures under Dawood's control. His group eventually split up sometime during the mid-nineties due to his use of communal violence for personal gain. Where his mafia had previously been secular, it now broke up on communal lines. Soon after the Bombay riots , a series of blasts that took place in Bombay in 1993 and changed Bombay underworld completely, he was accused, both by former colleagues and the police, for orchestrating the blasts. It is thought that in an attempt to gain political support from religious radicals that would legitimise him as more than a crook, he collaborated with various terrorist organisations. This led to the fragmentation of his criminal empire when ,Chotta Rajan his lieutenant, broke away and gained support of powerful right-wing Hindu Nationalist politicians. Soon after the bombings he was forced to flee the city (now renamed Mumbai) and the country. Dawood Ibrahim reportedly now lives in Karachi or Dubai, and controls what is left of D-Company from there. The last known public contact with him was when a Times reporter once interviewed Dawood in Karachi.
The Indian Mafia in the meantime has spread to other parts of India and has diversified onto various activities. In Mumbai, with the adoption of new police policies, crime has been going down in Mumbai and the mafia has been forced to flee the city to safer heavens. Many of its crime bosses operate from different parts of the world, controlling the Mafia within India.
Now the newest mafia threat arises from the Northern regions of Eastern U.P. and the state of Bihar, which for the most part of the last five years has seen a power struggle between various groups of gangsters representing different interests and communities.
