Thugs killed Millions of Indian travellers
The final review of Mike Dash’s fascinating book - Thug: The True Story of India’s Murderous Cult.
Thugs were a notorious band of marauding murderous highway robbers that plagued Indian roads between the 1600s and mid 1800s (Introduction to Thugs). They used to trick wealthy and not-so-wealthy travellers into traveling with them as a group. When the fatal and opportune moment arrived, they killed all the travellers, including women, disfigured the bodies and buried them in wells or ad hoc graves. Of course, theirs became the booty, right from the gold to the garments.
Historians date the origins of Thuggery to the arrival of the Mughals. Incidentally, about 33% of the Thugs were Muslim while the rest were Hindu. But what is interesting is that, they were all, Hindu and Muslim, equally superstitious, and worshipped their guardian deity who they called Devi or Bhuvani.
Thug gangs were from all over India and struck most major roads at that time. While some estimates put the total death toll inflicted by the Thugs to some 40 million Indians, the more conservative ones bring this number down to a few hundred thousand.
Captain William Sleeman, assisted by the magistrate Francis Curwen Smith, were the famous British heroes that ultimately put an end to this devilish crime. The initial ones that he captured after much investigation were lured with incentives into becoming approvers for arresting the others that remained at large throughout the length and breadth of India. It is from these approvers that the world has now learnt how the art of inveigling travellers, strangling them with a scarf, and the violent disposal of their bodies were developed and practiced.
Sleeman firmly resolved to put an end to this barbarous crime and got entirely involved in the investigation by creating maps of Thug routes, their popular burial grounds, their genealogy etc. This way, between 1826-1836, Sleeman succeeded in catching more than 4500 Thugs - of which 504 were condemned to be hanged, 3000 to life in prison or transportation to the Far East, and most of the rest to serve several years of hard labor. Fewer than 250 were acquitted.
Although this unrelenting vengeance by the British East India Company is criticized by a few historians today, the truth is that this evil criminal practice deserved it, and the hundreds of thousands of poor Indian travellers desperately needed security.
Thus, Thuggery, which the Thugs themselves never dreamed would end, was ultimately eradicated in a period of over a decade. However, the Thug Department did not believe that this easy death was all, as it had learnt that the practice was mostly hereditary and invovled extended families. Therefore, the Dept. feared that it would re-emerge, for which reason it never let the captured Thugs intermingle with the rest of society or, in prison, with other prisoners. However, fortunately for Indians, Thuggery did come to an end, and Sleeman was pleased to find that, ‘for the first time in living memory, not a single sepoy had vanished without trace between his home and his barracks while on leave’.
However, the Thug Department developed to become the Government of India’s intelligence agency, and was still popularly called the ‘thagi daftar’, the Thug Office. After the Thugs, they continued to capture and try other serious criminals such as the River Thugs, that practiced the same profession on the Ganga, and others. Notorious among the latter were the Megpunnas, who were a rudimentary group of thieves that also murdered small parties of travellers to steal their children, who were later sold into slavery or prostitution. The Megpunnas turned out to be a recent innovation and they give a glimpse into the likely protohistory of the Thugs themselves.
On the other hand, there were also unfortunate consequences of the stern determination of the Company to eradicate Thuggery - these were the rare caputre and punishment of innocent victims that were accused wrongly by the approvers for personal revenge. Owing to the hereditary nature of the Thugs and other serious criminals, the British passed the notorious Criminal Tribes Act in 1876, which was used to wrongfully criminalize entire communities.
Lastly, I have to credit Mike Dash for writing an excellent volume on what is perhaps the most barbarous crime in human history. His extensive research shows clearly in the depth and breadth of what has been revealed of the Thugs. The writing is balanced, crisp and very engaging. Dash’s writing goes a long way in teaching us an entertaining form of writing history.
Read why the British attributed crimes by Indians to Hindu religion.
Related Articles |
Comments
[...] Similar was the case with the Thugs - notorious groups of highway robbers that murdered travellers and robbed them after violently disposing of their bodies. Mike Dash writes in his excellent book - Thug: The True Story of India’s Murderous Cult, that ‘there had been no hint…that religion was of any special importance to the Thugs, nor that the beliefs they held influenced the manner in which they practised their grim trade. On the contrary, numerous captured stranglers had implied that their motive for committing murder was financial. The few references to religion that do appear in the statements of ordinary Thugs imply that it was simply a part of everyday life.’ [...]
[...] That’s enough for now - its a very interesting book, and a must read for any Indian history enthusiast. For the latest review, read Thugs killed millions of Indian travellers. [...]