Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult (55 page)
Read Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult Online
Authors: Mike Dash
There were nearly
4,500 of them in all
… The number of men arrested as suspected Thugs up to the end of 1840 was 3,689. A further 531 were committed in the years 1841–7 and 120 in 1848. James Hutton,
A Popular Account of the Thugs and Dacoits
pp. 92–4.
‘
Threatened to overwhelm’ Sel.Rec
. ii.
Proportion of Muslims and Hindus
A breakdown of the religious affiliation of all the prisoners tried up to and including the sessions of 1832 appears in BC F/4/1685 (67999) fos. 124–8, OIOC. A slightly higher proportion of Muslim Thugs was reported in the 26 trials that made up the sessions of 1831; see BC F/4/1406 (55521) fo. 177. When Sleeman asked his approvers to tell him how many Thugs were Muslims and how many were Hindus, Feringeea replied: ‘In Oude nine-tenths are Musulmans. In the Dooab, four-fifths are Hindus. South of the Nerbudda, three-fourths Musulmans. In Rajpootana one-fourth Musulmans. In Bengal, Bihar and Orissa about half and half. This is a rough guess, since we have no rule to prescribe or ascertain them.’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 178.
Hindu castes
Van Woerkens,
The Strangled Traveller
pp. 129–31, summarizes lists drawn up of the prisoners tried at Indore in 1829 and in the Jubbulpore sessions of 1832–33.
Thugs in prison
For Syeed Ameer Ali, see BC F/4/1406 (55521) fo. 205; for the Sindouse Thugs,
Ramaseeana
I, 219–20; for the Lucknadown gang, Ravenshaw and Marjoribanks to Governor General, 28 Nov. 1832, BC F/4/1483 (55514) fos. 19–26.
Instances of Thugs detained by British forces, 1799–1828
A provisional listing of the fate of Thugs arrested by Company officials up to the beginning of the anti-Thug campaign would include well over 20 cases and gives the lie to the commonly held assumption that the British encounter with the Thugs began only in the late 1820s.
| Date | Place | Description | Outcome |
| 1799 | Seringapatem | 99 Thugs captured after the fall of the city | ? |
| 1807 | Chittoor, Arcot | Gang of Phansigars detained | ? |
| | Bangalore | Trial of a gang of Phansigars | ? |
| 1809 | Gorruckpore | Arrest of 16 Thugs | Acquitted |
| | Bihar | Apprehension of a gang of Thugs | Released |
| 1810 | Shekoabad | Arrest of 8 Thugs causes ‘a sensation’ | Delay in obtaining warrants leads to escape |
| 1811 | Chittoor | Gang of Phansigars detained | Some convictions |
| | Cuddapore | Gang of Thugs appears in court | ? |
| 1812 | Calastry | Gang of Thugs arrested | Held in jail |
| 1812–13 | Mynpooree | Four Sindouse Thugs tried | Released |
| 1813 | Barelly, Benares | Execution of Thugs | 49 men hanged |
| 1813–14 | Zillah Salem | 500 Phansigars detained | Magistrate discharged for abuse of process |
| 1814 | Bihar | Gang detained Gorruckpore 1809 rearrested | Released on security |
| | ? | 15 members of the above gang rearrested | Acquitted |
| | Mynpooree | Stockwell and Perry arrest 200 Thugs | 180 released on security |
| | Cawnpore | Wright arrests 100 Thugs | Released |
| c.1815 | Banda | Notorious Thugs seized by Mr Wauchope | ? |
| 1816 | Malwa | Gang of Thugs captured by British official | ? |
| 1820 | Bhopal | Gang of Thugs arrested | Deported from Malwa by Resident at Indore |
| c.1820 | Jubbulpore | Thugs arrested for murders in Jhansee | Held in jail |
| 1821 | Akoolah | Gang of Thugs arrested | Found guilty at Jhalna, 1823, imprisoned at Aurangabad |
| 1822 | Kotah | Gang of 46 Thugs detained by British and handed over to local ruler | Held in jail |
| | Seonnee | 60 Thugs arrested for murders in 1820 | Held until 1832, then tried |
| c.1823 | Mynpooree | Three leading Thugs and followers held | Escaped |
| 1823 | Nerbudda valley | 115 Thugs arrested for murder of 37 people | Held until 1830, then tried |
| 1824 | ? | One of 1809 Gorruckpore gang rearrested | Released |
| c.1826 | Mozuffurpore | Gang of 16 Thugs arraigned | Four hanged, 12 transported, approver released |
| 1826 | Gorruckpore | Thug trial | Two men hanged |
| | Nerbudda valley | 26 Thugs arrested and tried at Jubbulpore | Two hanged and 24 transported |
| 1827 | Patna | Gang of Thugs detained | Prisoners released, informants lashed and jailed |
| 1828 | Candeish | 6 members of Dhoolea gang tried | Two hanged and four transported |
Sources:
1799
, Sherwood,
Asiatick Researches
13;
1807
Chittoor, Thornton, p. 3;
1807
Bangalore, Sahai,
Crime of thagi
I; Gorruckpore,
Ramaseeana
II, 250–2;
1809
Bihar,
Crime of thagi
I;
1810
Shakoabad, Perry papers;
1811
Chittoor,
Ramaseeana
II, 307;
1811
Cuddapore, Thornton, p. 286;
1812
,
Ramaseeana
II, 307;
1813
,
Crime of thagi
I;
1812–13
,
Ramaseeana
I, 221;
1813–14
, E/4/929 Madras dispatches;
1814
Bihar and?,
Ramaseeana
II, 253;
1814
Mynpooree and Cawnpore,
Ramaseeana
I, 257–60;
c.1815
,
Ramaseeana
II, 371;
1816
, Malcolm,
Memoir
II;
1820
,
Ramaseeana
II, 139–40; c.
1820
, BC F/4/1309 (52131);
1821
,
Ramaseeana
II, 273, 288;
1822
Kotah,
Ramaseeana
I, 212; II 123–31;
1822
Seonnee, BPC P/123/13;
c.
1823
,
Sel.Rec
. 56–61;
1823
BC F/4/1483;
1824
, Thornton, p. 309;
c.1826
,
Ramaseeana
I, 185–6;
1826
Gorruckpore,
Ramaseeana
II, 251;
1826
Nerbudda valley,
Ramaseeana
I, 46–7;
1827
,
Ramaseeana
II, 245–7;
1828
,
Ramaseeana
I, 46.
There were undoubtedly also numerous instances in which captured Thugs appeared before Indian rulers or courts. Few if any relevant records survive from the Native States, however, and references to these cases appear only sporadically in British sources. The following instances are known:
| Date | Place | Description | Outcome |
| c.1775 | Kundul | All Thugs in area jailed for several days | Released |
| 1785 | ? | Several Phansigars arrested | ? |
| 1794 | Muthura | 70 Thugs captured by Mahadji Sindhia | Hanged |
| 1809 | Gwalior | Gang of 21 Thugs captured by Jacob Sahib | Hanged |
| 1812 | Jetulpoor | 56 Thugs captured | Imprisoned; some escaped |
| 1813 | Nodha | 80 Sindouse Thugs arrested | ? |
| 1812–13 | Gwalior | 133 Sindouse Thugs arrested | Released after 13 months; many died in prison |
| 1813 | Ellichpore | 250 Thugs arrested | Released after one month |
| 1814/15 | Jhalone | Two Thugs arrested | Trampled to death by elephants |
| 1816 | Hyderabad | Gang of Thugs arrested for murder of 10 | 21 men executed |
| c.1816 | Jubbulpore | Gang of Thugs arrested | 2 had nose/hands cut off; 3 released; some escaped |
| 1818 | Gwalior | Thug jemadars seized and imprisoned | Released on payment of a fine |
| 1822 | Bundelcund | Gang of Thugs arrested at Bijawar | ? |
| 1822 | Kotah | Feringeea’s gang of 30 men arrested | Released after one day with faces blackened |
| 1828–9 | Alumpore | Feringeea arrested | Escaped from prison |
Sources:
c.1775
,
Ramaseeana
I, 157–8;
1785
, Forbes,
Oriental Memoirs
IV, 13;
1794
Ramaseeana
I, 221; Russell and Lal,
Tribes & Castes
573;
1809
,
Ramaseeana
I, 208;
1812
, Perry papers Add.Mss. 5376 fos. 24–7, CUL;
1812–13
,
Ramaseeana
I, 219–20;
1812
,
Ramaseeana
II, 296;
1813
,
Ramaseeana
I, 157;
1814/15
,
Ramaseeana
I, 156, 245;
1816
,
Ramaseeana
I, 34–5;
c.
1816
,
Ramaseeana
II, 233–4;
1818
,
Ramaseeana
II, 133;
1822
, Bundelcund, BPC P/123/13;
1822
, Kotah,
Ramaseeana
I, 177;
1828–9
, BC F/4/1251 (50480/2) fo. 444.
A good deal more work needs to be done to make these provisional listings definitive ones.
Abortive cases
Perry to Dowdeswell, 6 Oct. 1812, Perry papers, Add.Mss. 5376 fos. 17–18v, CUL; ‘Deposition of Rujub, approver’, 30 Nov. 1832, in
Ramaseeana
II, 245–9.
Courts and law
in early nineteenth-century India
Singha,
A Despotism of Law
pp. 3–6; Chakrabarti,
Authority and Violence in Colonial Bengal, 1800–1830
pp. 4–12, 33–5; van Woerkens, op. cit. p. 83; Clare Anderson,
Convicts in the Indian Ocean
p. 17; James,
Raj
p. 204. It should be added that British felons in India were tried in different courts, under English rather than Islamic law.
The inconsistent bandying about
… Smith to Swinton, 20 June 1832,
Sel.Rec
. p. 111.
Cost of attending court
Sleeman,
Rambles and Recollections
I, 97n.
Justice in the Native States
… Smith to Swinton, 5 July 1830, BC F/4/1251 (50430/2) fo. 417;
Ramaseeana
II, 133; Singha, op. cit. pp. 31–2, 80–1, 306;
Sel.Rec
. 80–1; Bearce,
British Attitudes Towards India, 1784–1858
pp. 90–1.
‘…
carries not even the appearance
…’ Moodie to Swinton, 4 July 1822, in Consultation No. 19 of 26 July, P/123/13, OIOC; see also Smith to Swinton, 26 May 1832,
Sel.Rec
. 79; Smith to Macnaughton (Agent to the Governor General, Simla), 29 May 1832, ibid. 82.
Commencement of trials
Sleeman
Ramaseeana
II, 379–84; Singha, op. cit. pp. 203–4.
Majority tried in Saugor
Of the 1,803 Thugs eventually tried between 1829 and 1836, 1,514, or 84 per cent, were tried by the Agent for Saugor & Nerbudda in either Saugor or Jubbulpore. Data from
Ramaseeana
I, 38–9; for later trials see Sleeman,
Depredations
pp. 184–5.
Position of the Saugor & Nerbudda Territory
The Territory thus became – the officer
commanding
it observed in 1836 – ‘a theatre for the experiments of incipient legislation’. Singha, op. cit. pp. 173–5, 207.
Arduous trials
Smith to Swinton, 20 June 1832,
Sel.Rec
. 104, 114. See also Smith to Swinton, 8 May 1832, ibid. 72;
Foreign Quarterly Review
21 (1838) pp. 29–30.
Fanny Parks
Parks,
Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque
I, 122–3. I have translated some of Parks’s Anglo-Indian phraseology.
Disinterrals
See
Sel.Rec
. 35, 84; van Woerkens, op. cit. p. 77.
18 in one place
T&D G/1/2 fos. 5–6.
Goldsmiths
‘Trial No. 11 of 1832’, BC F/4/1490 (58672) fos. 105–6. ‘Even when such
identifications
were not possible,’ added Smith, ‘the credibility of the evidence of the approvers is doubtless increased by the exhumation of the bodies of the murdered at their suggestion, and by their pointing out the very graves in which they were buried.’ Bruce,
The Stranglers
p. 160.
Meadows Taylor Confessions
p. xviii.
Proportion of bodies recovered
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 38–9; Anon., ‘Ramaseeana’, in
Foreign Quarterly Review
21 (1838) p. 32.
One wife recognized
… Bruce, op. cit. p. 91; see also Borthwick statement, n.d. [1829],
Sel.Rec
. 35
Borthwick’s gang
Borthwick statement, ibid. 39.
‘
The confession of some prisoners
…’ Sleeman to Smith, 20 Feb. 1833, T&D G/1 fos. 225–7.
‘
The following precautions
…’ Smith to Swinton, 20 June 1832,
Sel.Rec
. 35.
Incident at Hyderabad
‘Ramaseeana’,
Foreign Quarterly Review
21 (1838) p. 39.
‘
native defendants lie freely
…’ Moodie to Swinton, 4 July 1822, in Consultation No. 19 of 26 July, BPC P/123/13, para 17. The same was certainly true of prosecution witnesses, though the courts were less willing to accept this. The magistrate at Midnapore, early in the
nineteenth
century, admitted that innocent men were often punished on mere suspicion and confessions extracted by force. To make matters worse, many courts were plagued by men who earned a dubious living hiring themselves out to give false evidence. Chakrabarti, op. cit. pp. 41, 72.
Checks on Thug alibis
Cf. ‘Trial No. 8 of 1832’, BC F/4/1490 (58671); van Woerkens, op. cit. pp. 80–1.
In a third
, … ‘Trial No. 12 of 1832’, BC F/4/1490 (58672) fos. 283–5.
‘
These men
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 38–9.
Believed old tactic of denial would still serve
‘I used to think,’ the Thug Sheodeen told Captain Paton, ‘that, as usual, I should escape by denying guilt.’ ‘Dialogues with Thugs’, Paton papers fo. 18v, BL.
‘
the change in the demeanour
…’ Smith to Swinton, 20 June 1832,
Sel.Rec
. 122.
Cheinsah and Bhudalee
BC F/4/1404 (55517) fos. 229–33.
Sleeman’s view of Thug witnesses
Sleeman,
Rambles and Recollections
I, 107.
Evidence in Thug trials
Trial No. 7, BC F/4/1490 (58671) fos. 95–6; Trial No. 10, BC F/4/1490 (58672) fos. 1–2; Trial No. 13, ibid. fos. 347–8; Akola case, BC F/4/1403 (55515) fos. 384–508; Smith to Swinton, 8 May 1832,
Sel.Rec
. 77. The sepoy’s name was Lalsingh Soobadar, and Smith recommended that his son, Girdharee, be allowed ‘3 rupees per mensem till he is sufficiently old to provide for himself, and then to make him a
Burkindaz
’ (police militiaman). The child had been readily identified, not least because Dirgpal had failed even to change his name.
Khoman’s identity parades
BC F/4/1309 (52131) fos. 134.
…
long association
… Cf. Singha, op. cit. p. 184.
‘
never convicted upon the mere evidence of accomplices
…’ Ravenshaw and Marjoribanks (Directors, East India Company) to Governor General, 28 Nov. 1832, BC F/4/1403 (55514) fos. 19–26.