Goonda

Goonda is a term in Indian English, Pakistani English, and Bangladeshi English for a hired thug. It is both a colloquial term and defined and used in laws, generally referred to as Goonda Acts.

The word Goonda comes from the Tamil word Goondan or Goondar (குண்டன் / குண்டர்) or Telugu word Goonda (గూండా). "Goonda" probably comes from the Hindustani word guṇḍā (Hindi: गुण्डा, Urdu: گنڐا‎, "rascal"). There is also a Marathi word guṇḍā (गुंडा) with a similar meaning, attested as early as the 17th century, and possibly ultimately having Dravidian roots. Another theory suggests that it originates from the English word "goon". However, the first English-language appearance of "goonda" (in British newspapers of the 1920s, with the spelling "goondah") predates the use of "goon" to mean criminal, a semantic change which seems to go back only as far as the 1930s comic strip character Alice the Goon. A related term is "goonda-gardi", roughly meaning "bully-boy tactics". Another is "goonda tax", referring to bribes or money extorted in a protection racket.

Many legislative bodies have passed "Goonda Acts" (a colloquial name, due to the long titles) providing legal definitions of who constitutes a "goonda". Some of these laws permit harsh treatment such as giving the police the power to shoot them on sight.

Bangladesh's Control of Disorderly and Dangerous Persons (Goondas) Act (East Bengal Act IV of 1954), Section 13(1), gives seven grounds under which a tribunal may declare a person to be a goonda and place him on the prescribed list of goondas:

Section 13(2) additionally establishes the category of "dangerous goonda", giving more than twenty further grounds on which a tribunal may declare a person to be a dangerous goonda, mostly related to violence, prostitution, and forgery, or offences committed by a person previously declared a goonda under the Act. Per Section 14, goondas may be required to post a bond, and may be restricted from entering gambling houses; dangerous goondas may have much broader restrictions placed on their freedom of movement, and per Section 18 also may have enhanced punishment imposed on them for future offences.

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