The Chhara community, once notified a "criminal tribe" by the British in India, celebrated "denotification day" as their liberation day in the city Wednesday.

The Chharas annually celebrate the day when they were taken off the list of "criminally notified tribes" and declared free by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on August 31, 1952, five years after India became free.

The British Government in India had "notified" certain communities as "criminal tribes" and passed the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871.

Such tribes were forced to live in settlements under police observation during British rule in India.

The people living in such settlements were used as cheap labour. There were 12 major settlements across the country when the tribes were denotified.

"The elders in our settlements did not even know that India had become free in 1947. It was only after the declaration in 1952 that we were freed from various settlements across the country.

"We do celebrate August 15 as Independence Day, but we also celebrate August 31 as our 'Vimukti Divas' (liberation day)," Dakxin Bajrange told.

"Though we became free in 1952, we still lived in subhuman conditions. We were tagged as criminals, so mainstream people never accepted us, neither did the government make any provision to uplift our society," he added.

August 31 has been celebrated since 1998 as freedom day in Chharanagar, a locality in Ahmedabad where this denotified tribe now lives.

But that "liberation" has not meant much to the community, barring some symbolism.

"In 1959, the Government of India passed the Habitual Offenders Act, which is not much different from the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871. This Act has often been misused against denotified tribes," said Kalpna Gagdekar, a Chhara theatre activist.

"Similar celebrations were to take place in Delhi too this year. We also try to do that in other states.

"The day would come when people would ask why we celebrate two independence days. Let the government's suppression of denotified tribes be exposed," said Dakxin.