GURGAON, India — In a smoky nightclub on the third floor of the Sahara Mall, blowing off steam to the thudding bass line of a Bollywood dance mix, are the inhabitants of the new India — the sales representatives and software developers and call-center cubicle dwellers, all of them dancing giddily, hands flung in the air.
Amid the din, it is almost possible to miss the half-dozen strongmen circulating slowly among them, watching from the edges for any signs of trouble.
Look closely and it becomes clear that the bouncers are all of a single physical type, their chests and biceps built like the front bumper of a sport utility vehicle. If they look like cousins, it is because they are. A startling number of them share a family name, Tanwar, and when the nightclubs close many will return to the same nearby village, a place where women walk down dusty lanes with their faces obscured by a cloth, balancing stacks of dried cow dung on their heads, much as their ancestors did three centuries ago.
New Delhi
New Delhi
INDIA
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The market, he said, only continues to grow. “As the money increases, the crime increases,” he said. “And as the crime increases, our business increases.”
One measure of his success is that, though his two sons have been wrestling since the age of 8, he hopes they will be part of the first generation of his family to work desk jobs. He looked on proudly as the elder son, a broad-shouldered boy named Kunal, answered a few questions in halting English and confessed with a shy smile that he would like someday to become an accountant.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on February 22, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Old India’s Village of Warriors Becomes Birthplace of Bouncers. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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