Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult (51 page)

…
abandoned where they fell
… During the cold season of 1829–30, the bodies of six men were found lying on the ground near a tank in Saugor & Nerbudda. They had been stripped naked and clearly bore the marks of strangulation on their necks. Nicholson to Sleeman, 10 Dec. 1829, BC F/4/1251 (50480/2) fo. 501. See also Deposition of Narooha Kumusdar, 5 Nov. 1831, cited by Thornton, op. cit. pp. 127–9.

‘
In these chosen spots
’ Thornton, op. cit. p. 9. Again, no one method was used throughout India. One gang of Deccan stranglers, noted by Bevan, op. cit. I, 72, buried their victims ‘in an upright position, by doubling up the legs’.

‘
slightly buried
’ ‘12th or Deo Huttee Case’, BC F/4/404 (55517) fo. 346; also ‘Trial No. 7 of 1832: Mahsum Ali case’, F/4/1490 (58671) fos. 95–6, ‘Case No. 18, Jubulpoor sessions 1830’, F/4/1685 (67999) fos. 52–3, and others far too numerous to list.

Thug method of burial distasteful
Cf. Theon Wilkinson,
Two Monsoons
pp. 180, 215.

…
concealed under piles of stones
… Depositions of Heurea, 26 Apr. + 23 July 1830, BC F/4/1251 (50480/2) fos. 450–51, 481; ‘11th or Kundee and Juppa Case’, BC F/4/1404 (55517) fo. 269.

ravines and cliffs
‘Trial No. 9 of 1832: Barwaha Ghat Case’, BC F/4/1490 (58671) fo. 407; Thomas Bacon,
First Impressions and Studies from Nature in Hindustan
II, 409.

‘…
where the ground is stony
’ Evidence of Sheeodeen, dialogue of 26 Apr. 1837, Paton papers fo. 66.

Cook and eat
Evidence of Futteh Khan, ibid.

Villagers dispose of bodies
Ibid. fo. 24. On blame placed on tigers see ‘Deposition of Bhujda Bheel’ in Smith to Prinsep, 19 Nov. 1830,
Sel.Rec
. 36;
Ramaseeana
I, 22–3.

Bodies recovered from wells
‘Comparative statement of murdered bodies found on the High Roads and in the wells in the zillah of Etawah in the years 1808, 1809 and during the 12 months from the date on which the first Gang of Thugs was apprehended,’ Add.Mss. 5376 fos. 8–8v.

Animal carcasses
in wells Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
II, 275.

‘
We change the wells
’ Paton papers fo. 28. 

Feringeea’s birth
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 175. On the date, see Feringeea’s age (then 33) in the table ‘Approvers in this case’ in Sleeman to Smith, Sangea 1833, T&D G1 fo. 246, NAI. In addition to the assaults conducted by Blake Sahib and Jacob Sahib, referred to above, Sindouse had already been burned to the ground at least once, by the Rana of Gohud, during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, according to the evidence of the Thug Thukoree in
Ramaseeana
I, 224. The Rana’s motive was, as usual, the desire to impose taxes on the people of the pargana.

Feringeea’s family
Ibid. I, 165, 173, 223–5; Iftikhar Ahmad,
Thugs, Dacoits and the Modern
World-System
in Nineteenth-Century India
p. 86. Feringeea’s family tree, as compiled by Sleeman, is reprinted by Martine van Woerkens,
The Strangled Traveller
pp. 140–1.

Brahmins
Nicholas Dirks’s recent
Castes of Mind
observes (pp. 116–17, 251–4) that caste may not originally have been the immutable, hereditary denominator it has since become, being in many cases based as much on local social politics as the exhortations of religious texts. He also suggests that the Brahmins, as the Company’s main source of information on Indian society, exaggerated their own importance and role in pre-colonial India.

‘
every male
…’ This proud claim was not strictly true; one of Purusram’s grandsons was described by the British as merely a pickpocket. Sleeman to Principal Assistant, Nursingpore, 5 Dec. 1832, T&D G1 fo. 169, NAI.

Death of Purusram
See genealogical table in Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, facing p. 270.

Boys of eight or nine years
Ibid. I, 148.

‘
Fathers are glad
…’ ‘Dialogues with Thugs’, Paton papers Add.Mss. 41300 fo. 22.

Nephew collapses in shock
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 149–50.

‘
a father does not initiate
…’ Paton papers fo. 23.

Gurus
Ibid.; ‘Extract from the examination of Koshal prisoner’, BC F/4/411 (10204) fo. 315; George Bruce
The Stranglers
pp. 56–7.

Initiation and the first rumal
‘Deposition of Poorun Phansygur’, 1829,
Sel.Rec
. 34.

‘…
fatal goor
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 138, 216–17; HV Russell and Hira Lal,
Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
IV, 577; Stewart Gordon, ‘Sword and scarf’ pp. 414–15.

Elephant keeper
Edward Thornton,
Illustrations of the History and Practices of the Thugs
p. 346.

Adoptive children
Translation of the acknowledgement of Ghoolam Hossyn Thug made before me on the 11th April 1810’ in Perry papers Add.Mss. 5375 fos. 117–22, CUL.

Thug women
Thuggee was an almost exclusively male profession. There are no more than a handful of references to women serving in any capacity with Thug gangs; see JAR Stevenson, ‘Some account of the P’hansigars …’
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
I, 281–2. Sleeman spoke to a Thug woman, Moosmp, who had assumed the title of jemadar alongside her husband. She was then in jail in Delhi for the murder of three families, but insisted that she had never participated directly in any murder: ‘The female Thugs are only employed in taking charge of the children of the murdered people.’ James Sleeman,
Thug
pp. 152–3.

‘
slaves
’ BC F/4/1251 (50480/2) fo. 579, OIOC.

‘
Almost one in 10
…’ Based on an analysis of Sleeman’s Thug genealogies,
Ramaseeana
I, 270–1.

Punchum Jemadar
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 173–4; Thornton,
Illustrations
pp. 182–4.

Thugs and heredity
For examples, see Sleeman’s Thug genealogies, loc. cit; Thornton, op. cit. p. 236.

Not all children of Thugs take up Thuggee
Cf. Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 266.

Aseel Thugs
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 158.

All gangs contained some men who were related
van Woerkens, op. cit. pp. 139–42.

Gang of 1829
Sleeman to Smith, 12 Mar. 1833, T&D G/1, NAI. These men were members of the gang led by Sheikh Inaent, himself the son of a noted Thug leader. See chapters 12 and 13.

Burkas
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 67–140.

Feringeea’s first expeditions
For 1813, see Case 40, Jubbulpore sessions of 1830, BC F/4/1689 (6799) fos. 108–9. For 1816, see deposition of Feringeea, ‘Trial no. 11 of 1832: Deonagar case’, BC F/4/1490 (58672) fos. 165–7.

Four Indians in every 10
Bayly,
Rulers
pp. 51–3.

‘
The castes to be met with
…’ van Woerkens, op. cit. pp. 129–31.

Thugs adopt high-caste disguise
Ibid.

Feringeea as jemadar
Sleeman,
Rambles & Recollections
I, 96–8.

Youthful appearance
Sleeman to Smith, 7 Jan. 1831, Consultation No. 11 of 18 Mar. 1831, BPC P/126/27, OIOC.

Feringeea as subadar
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 216.

Sujaina murders
Sleeman,
Rambles & Recollections
I, 96.

Military service and Ochterlony
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 235–7.

Feringeea’s time in Rajpootana
Ibid. I, 66, 234.

Ramzan
‘Deposition of Rumzan, a noted Thug …’, 20 Apr. 1837, Paton papers fo. 122v, BL. Suntoke Rae, son of Laljee, the zamindar of Sindhouse, noted that the Thugs of the Chambel Valley ‘never returned in less than six months, and if they were unsuccessful, they sometimes remained absent two years’. Thornton, op. cit. p. 473.

Murder of the Mughulanee
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 166, 206, 212–16; Thornton, op. cit. pp. 265–70.

…
more attention
… Based on the amount of space Sleeman devoted to the case in his works. As van Woerkens observes, he was particularly fascinated by murders involving young and pretty girls, displaying less interest in, or empathy for, older or ugly women.

‘
The Rule of the bones
’ Smith to Swinton, 20 June 1832,
Sel.Rec
. 124.

Proscriptions
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 133, 181–2. Robert Russell and Hira Lal,
The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
, pp. 580–2, provide a recapitulation and an explanatory commentary.

‘
These, God has afflicted
…’ Paton papers fo. 12v. See also van Woerkens, op. cit. pp. 110–11. It is interesting to note that the Thug laws and proscriptions did not apply in reverse, for there were no restrictions on maimed Thugs serving with the gangs. ‘The case of Kehree,’ FC Smith observed after the trial of one Thug gang in 1830, ‘is in point. As a boy he had a hand cut off on conviction of belonging to a Thug association, he witnessed the appalling exhibition of his confederates being blown away from Guns, but so far from abandoning this dangerous
profession
, he is now, in his old age, condemned to death for the same description of crime he was punished for so severely in his youth.’ Smith to Prinsep, 19 Nov. 1830,
Sel.Rec
. 54. Most remarkably of all, Bodhoo Jemadar, who had had his nose and both his hands amputated on the orders of the Rajah of Jhalone, returned to his gang even though he could hardly have hoped to resume his work as an inveigler. This was, perhaps, a special case (Bodhoo was, in Feringeea’s words, ‘a Thug of great repute: for sagacity we have never seen his equal: people who had been robbed used to go to him as an oracle’), but evidently even severe mutilations were not sufficient, in themselves, to prevent a longstanding member of a gang from
returning
to serve with his old comrades.
Ramaseeana
I, 245; Thornton, op. cit. pp. 207–8.

Temptations to break proscriptions
It is evident, from the Thugs’ own depositions, that at least some of these decisions were entirely pragmatic, and based on a shrewd calculation as to the likely profit to be made from a given murder. Thugs were occasionally known to decoy away
potential
victims whose poverty meant that they were not worth killing, even though they were not members of the proscribed groups and castes. Sleeman once related the case of a party of 25 Muslim Thugs who were travelling north from Jubbulpore: ‘While they were at dinner, five travellers came up on their way to Bandah, two of them carriers of Ganges water, two tailors and a native woman. They rested a little while with the gang at the well and as soon as the Thugs were ready they all proceeded together to Shahnagar, where they all passed the night, and the next day went on together towards Beseynee, where they fell in with two other
travellers
on their way to Bandah. They appeared to be so poor that the Gang wished to separate them from the other five as their murder promised no advantage, and their presence might offer some obstacle to their attempts upon the others. They at first attempted to persuade them to remain when they were about to set out with the five travellers, after the third watch, but finding them obstinate they placed them with four Thugs who led them on the direct road while the main body diverged upon a byroad by which they usually took their victims. But they had not gone far before they became alarmed at being separated from the main body and insisted upon rejoining them, to which the four Thugs reluctantly agreed, and they soon
overtook
them on the byroad. As soon as they came up, it was determined to put them to death, and six of the gang were ordered to attend them for the purpose and move on a little ahead of the main body. They went on while the main body slackened their pace, and on reaching the nullah where the five men were to have been murdered, they strangled them and concealed their bodies till the main body came up, when the other five were strangled and the bodies of the whole seven were buried under stones … From the first two they got only one rupee, but from the other five they acquired property to the value of about 200 rupees.’ Sleeman to Smith, 12 Mar. 1833, T&D G1, NAI.

‘
Horribly dangerous
’ See, for example,
Ramaseeana
I, 179.

Breaking of proscriptions a recent development
Thornton, op. cit. p. 27.

Punchum and Himmut
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 173–4; Thornton, op. cit. pp. 99, 182–4. Punchum was Feringeea’s uncle on his mother’s side.

Death of Himmut
Ibid. I, 174.

Murder of the Kale Bebee
Ibid. I, 164–5, 174–5; Thornton, op. cit. pp. 181–2.

Lack of scruple of Hindustani Thugs
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 164, 166, 171, 173–4.

Refusal of Bengal and Bihar Thugs to kill women
‘Do you Behar Thugs ever murder women?’ Sleeman asked a group of captured stranglers in 1835. ‘Never,’ came the answer, ‘we should not murder a woman if she had a lakh of rupees upon her.’ To which a man from the Doab rejoined: ‘Nor would the Dooab Thugs if she had two lakhs upon her.’ Ibid. I, 171, 180.

‘
Some were sufficiently religious
’ ‘We had,’ Feringeea’s associate Zolfukar observed, looking back on the early years of the nineteenth century after his capture in 1830, ‘then some regard for religion. We have lost it since. All kinds of men have been made Thugs, and all classes of people murdered without distinction; and little attention has been paid to omens. How, after this, could we expect to escape?’ Thornton, op. cit. p. 102.

‘
Among us, it is a rule
…’ Ibid. p. 27.

Jubber
Paton papers fos. 120v–121v. For equivalent cases, see also
Ramaseeana
I, 143, 174.

‘
The love of money makes us kill them
’ Paton papers fo. 12. Bevan, in
Thirty Years in India
I, 260, tells of one Thug who, whenever he was drunk, ‘would hiccough out repentance for his crimes’.

‘
a very handsome youth
…’ Evidence of Sheodeen, ibid. fos. 17–17v.

The Peshwa’s handmaid
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 166.

Arrest at Kotah
Ibid. I, 177.

Murder of Newul Singh
‘21st or Busuynee Case’, BC F/4/1406 (55520) fol. 177–333; ‘25th or Chuparah case’, BC F/4/1406 (55521) fol. 3; ‘Case no. 52 in sessions of 1830’, BC F/4/1685 (67999) fos. 106–7;
Sel.Rec
. pp. 86–7;
Ramaseeana
I, 166–9.

Increase in burials
Based on the author’s analysis of 1,459 Thug murders dating from 1790–1839 reported in
Sel.Rec
.; Sleeman’s
Ramaseeana
, Rambles and Recollections and Depredations
; Thornton’s
Illustrations
; and Spry’s ‘Some account of the gang murderers of Central India’.

Feringeea’s precautions
‘Trial no. 11 of 1832, Deonagar case’, BC F/4/1490 (58672) fos. 105–252; ‘Trial no. 12 of 1832, Nayahshahar case’, ibid. fos. 253–346.