Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult (56 page)

‘
Just 16 miles of Asia
’ George Bearce,
British Attitudes Towards India, 
1784–1858
p. 42. On ‘Persian poetry and Hindu metaphysics’, see Dennis Kincaid,
British Social Life in India
p. 129. On Mrs Graham, see ibid.

‘
Oh, nothing, thank goodness
’ Hilton Brown, The Sahibs p.
225
.

British officers and Indian women
For a moving study of one relationship between a British
officer
and an Indian woman, in Hyderabad in the period 1798–1806, see Dalrymple,
White Mughals
. For the costs of running a
zenana
, see Michael Edwardes,
The Sahibs and the Lotus
p. 47.

The British and Hinduism
Bernard Cohn,
An Anthropologist Among the Historians, and Other Essays
p. 146; Katherine Prior,
The British Administration of Hinduism in North India, 1780–1900
; PJ Marshall (ed.),
The British Discovery of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century
pp. 1–43; Amal Chatterjee,
Representation of India
1740–1840
pp. 6, 8, 87, 95, 100, 103; Atis Dasgupta,
The Fakir and Sannyasi Uprisings
pp. ii, 8, 59–60.

Kali and Calcutta
On important occasions, British administrators attended ceremonies at Kali’s temple outside Calcutta. Michael Edwardes,
The Sahibs and the Lotus
p. 38. This led the Thugs to observe that the Company itself worshipped Kali.

‘
lust, injustice
…’ This quote, by the evangelical Christian William Wilberforce, is cited by John Keay,
India
p. 429.

‘
the horrid rite of chundee pooja
’ Basudeb Chattopadhyay,
Crime and Control in Early Colonial Bengal
,
1770–1860
p. 8, citing BCJC, 23 May 1794.

Distrust of fakirs
Amal Chatterjee,
Representation of India 1740–1840
pp. 6, 8, 87, 95, 100, 103; Atis Dasgupta,
The Fakir and Sannyasi Uprisings
pp. ii, 8, 59–60.

Female infanticide
Malavika Kasturi, ‘Law and Crime in India: British Policy and the Female Infanticide Act of 1870’,
Indian Journal of Gender Studies
1 (2) (1994) pp. 169–94.

Suttee
In Hindu eyes this custom – which gave the widow the opportunity to perform the necessary rites of purification and select the most propitious spot to die – charged its victims with divine power. To the Mughals and their successors, the British administrators of Bengal, it seemed akin to human sacrifice, and suttees were generally discouraged on the grounds that the practice, while ancient, was not approved by any sacred text. There were about 8,200 cases in the Bengal Presidency between 1815 and 1828 – that is, 585 a year – and the custom was considerably rarer in Bombay and Madras: an average of 172 incidences a year across the latter two Presidencies combined. VN Datta,
Sati
pp. 188–92. The practice was finally outlawed by a new Governor General, Bentinck, in the late 1820s. See Chatterjee, op. cit. pp. 111–24; Singha,
A Despotism of Law
pp. 108–10.

Juggernaut
The word means ‘Lord of the world’ and is one of the 1,000 titles accorded to the god Vishnu. The temple is in the Cuttack district, on the coast of Orissa a little over 300 miles from Calcutta, and the statues, roughly carved from sandalwood, were each about six feet high. Although they were popularly reputed to be covered in ‘obscene sculptures’, one sober British observer confessed that ‘if there … it requires a very searching eye to find them out’. They were reputed to be more than 4,000 years old. The procession lasted for two or three days. Visitors who ate food prepared at Juggernaut were supposed to be absolved from the four cardinal Hindu sins, those of killing a Brahmin, drinking spirits, committing adultery and killing a cow. A second, bathing, festival was held at Juggernaut each year in addition to the more celebrated ‘car festival’. In Britain, both were scarcely known before 1810, when the poet Robert Southey described Juggernaut in an epic verse ‘full of the shrieks of the victims and the groans of the unfortunates who were sacrificed to bloody and superstitious rites’. After that, though, Juggernaut became part of the demonology of the Subcontinent. Walter Hamilton,
The East-India Gazetteer
II, 55–8; Thomas Bacon,
First Impressions and Studies from Nature in Hindustan
I, 174–7; Bearce,
British Attitudes
p. 104.

‘
hideous moral wilderness
’ Lawrence James,
Raj
pp. 195–6.

‘
universally and wholly corrupt
…’ The opinion of the Company director, Charles Grant, cited in Dalrymple,
White Mughals
p. 46.

Dacoits, Fakirs, Sanyassis, Nagas and Kallars
Chattopadhyay, op. cit. pp. 8–10; David Shulman, ‘On South Indian Bandits and Kings’,
IESHR
17 (1980) pp. 284–8.

Conversations with Thugs
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 64–6. Sleeman offered these ‘almost literal translations’ on the grounds that ‘these conversations were often carried on in the presence of different European gentlemen who happened to call in, and as they seemed to feel a good deal of interest in listening to them, I thought others might possibly feel the same in reading them if committed to paper’. The transcripts fill the final hundred or so pages of the first volume of
Ramaseeana
and have become the principal source – indeed in some cases the only source – for modern accounts of Thuggee. They are considerably more interesting and colourful than the dull pages of unpublished court transcripts in the Company’s archives, but both, taken in isolation, can be very misleading. It is important to read them in conjunction.

Ramasee dictionary
Ibid. I, 67–140; see also van Woerkens,
The Strangled Traveller
pp. 114–15, 295–315.

Sikh Thugs
There seem to have been very few Sikh Thugs. But Sahib Khan, the Deccan
strangler
, ‘knew Ram Sing Siek: he was a noted Thug leader – a very shrewd man’, who also served with the Pindaris for a time and was responsible for the assassination of the
notorious
Pindari leader Sheikh Dulloo. Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 239–40.

Common feature of folk religion
Bayly,
Empire & Information
pp. 173, 176; Radhika Singha,
A
Despotism of Law
pp. 189–90, 202.

Thieves and housebreakers
‘Dialogues with Thugs’, 29 Oct. 1836, Paton papers, Add.Mss. 41300 fo. 63v, BL.

‘
Having performed the usual worship
…’ ‘Deposition of Bheelum Burre Khan, Jemadar of Thugs’, n.d., T&D D/2/2, NAI. This is the only reference to religious affairs I have been able to find anywhere in the official papers preserved in London, Delhi and Bhopal. Nowhere else in any of the numerous files examined is any kind of worship hinted at. The reasons for the yawning discrepancy between the evidence of Sleeman’s ‘Conversations with Thugs’ and that of the Company’s legal records is hard to fathom, but a large part of the answer almost certainly lies in the manner in which the Thug trials were organized.

Mahadji Sindhia and other victims of Kali
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 156–8, 220–2, Russell and Lal,
Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
IV, 572–3.

‘
that Bhowanee may have her blood
…’ Paton papers fo. 14v. Some Thugs explained the practice of mutilating the bodies of the Thugs’ victims – which the earliest stranglers questioned by Company authorities had attributed simply to the desire to conceal their identities – in precisely these terms. ‘Why do you stab the dead bodies?’ Paton asked his approvers. ‘That no life may remain,’ answered one. But others disagreed: ‘Bhowanee, whom we worship, is displeased where we do not shed the blood of our victims,’ said the strangler Dhoosoo. Ibid.

‘
on one occasion
…’ Russell and Lal, op. cit. IV, 575.

‘
That Davey instituted Thuggee
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 187.

‘
Our ancestors were never guilty of this folly
’ Ibid. I, 197.

‘
A wretched trade
’ ‘Narrative of a Thuggee expedition in Oude … supposed to have been in 1830’, Paton papers fo. 119.

Thugs and ghosts
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 175–6. ‘It is by the blessing of Davey that we escape that evil,’ the approver Kuleean asserted.

‘…
irresponsible agents
’ Russell and Lal, op. cit. IV, 573.

Fate
Feringeea deployed this argument to justify his murder of the Moghulanee: ‘It was her fate to die by our hands. I had several times tried to shake [her party] off.’
Ramaseeana
I, 215.

Thugs and tigers
Paton papers fo. 123.

‘
look forward indifferently
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 150.

‘
How many men
…’ Ibid. I, 76.

‘
If a man committed
…’ Russell and Lal, op. cit. IV, 573.

‘
A Thug considers
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 7.

Kali venerated by many classes
Russell and Lal, op. cit. IV, 575.

Pickaxe worship
Ibid. IV, 574.

Introduction of the pickaxe
Ibid. IV, 575. This legend, Sleeman considered, originated ‘in a very remote period’.
Ramaseeana
I, iii.

Beliefs similar to those of dacoits
Russell and Lal, op. cit. IV, 572.

‘
When you have a poor traveller
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 196–7.

‘
Do Mussellman Thugs
…’ Paton papers fo. 28.

‘
You paid great reverence
…’ Ibid. fo. 62v. See also
Ramaseeana
I, 186–7.

‘
Kali’s temple at Bindachul
…’ Das Gupta,
The Days of John Company
, p. 582.

‘
that fiend in human form
…’ James Sleeman,
Thug
pp. 4–5.

‘
The histories of these men
…’ Thornton,
Illustrations
p. 407.

 ‘
However unscrupulous
…’ Sleeman,
Thug
p. 5.

Thugs as noble criminals
See also
Ramaseeana
I, 235.

‘
noble and chivalrous instincts
…’ Charles Hervey,
Some Records of Crime
I, 27; Sandria Freitag, ‘Crime in the social order of colonial North India’,
Modern Asian Studies
25 (1991) pp. 236–8.

‘
I know not
…’ Reynolds, ‘Notes’ p. 208.

‘
Made positive pets
…’ Extracted from the diaries of Fanny Eden. See J Dunbar (ed.),
Tigers
,
Durbars and Kings
p. 104, and the chapter 19 for further details.

‘
What a sad but faithful picture
…’ Cited by Bruce,
The Stranglers
, p. 179.

‘
I could not forsake them
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 234–5.

‘
These common enemies of mankind
…’ Sleeman to Smith, 7 Jan. 1831, Consultation No. 11 of 18 Mar. 1831, BPC P/126/27, OIOC.

‘
Mr Wilson
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 29–30n.

Hurree Singh
Ibid. I, 34–5, 36–7n.

‘
only about two months ago
…’ Sleeman to Cavendish (resident, Gwalior), 11 June 1832, Sleeman correspondence, T&D G/1 fo. 11.

‘
Are you yourself
…’ Cited by James Sleeman,
Thug
pp. 3–4. Sleeman gives no source for this quotation and it must be regarded with a certain caution.

‘
consider the persons
…’ Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 7.

‘
mediate his murders
…’ Ibid. I, 8.

‘
What do you think
…?’ George Bruce,
The Stranglers
p. 167; on the history of Sahib Khan, see William Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 245–6

‘
Suppose all our operations
…’ ‘Collections on Thuggee and Dacoitee’, Paton papers, Add.Mss. 41300 fo. 18v, BL. The speaker in this case was the approver Futty [Futteh] Khan.

‘
Once a Thug
…’ Smith to Swinton, 25 June 1832, BC F/4/1406 (55521) fo. 204, OIOC.

‘
Suspected stranglers
…
were often disconcerted
…’ The colourful account of one of Sleeman’s interrogations given by Francis Tuker, in
The Yellow Scarf
pp. 83–4 is, however, fictional.

Thugs move base of operations
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 187, 246–7, 254.

‘
rarely seized or punished
’ Ibid. I, 238. These men were ‘Brinjarees’ – peripatetic drovers, common throughout the mofussil, some of whom supplemented their ordinary earnings by crime.

Another tactic, employed by several able Thugs, was to abandon their gangs and work with only a few trusted associates. Sleeman noted that Bukshee Jemadar, ‘one of the most noted Thug leaders of his day, who died in Saugor Jail in 1832, had for some 15 years ceased to accompany the large gangs, and was supposed to have left off the trade entirely’. Ibid. I, 24.

‘
Two seasons are still required
…’ Smith to Swinton, 25 Mar. 1832, Smith to Macnaghten, 24 Apr. 1832,
Sel.Rec
. pp. 73–5.

‘
There are many leaders
…’ Sleeman,
Depredations
p. xi.

Act XXX, Act XXIV and Regulation
8 Radhika Singha,
A Despotism of Law
pp. 214–20; van Woerkens,
The Strangled Traveller
pp. 100–2.

‘
To release on security a Thug
’ Smith to Swinton, 20 June 1832, in Ch Philips (ed.),
The Correspondence of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck
II, 844.

‘
affording a security net
…’ Singha, op. cit. p. 216.

Suppression in Bundelcund
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 20.

‘
Completely suppressed’ in Madras
Bengal despatches political, 28 Nov. 1832, E/4/735 fos. 1473–91, OIOC.

Doab
Smith to Macnaghton, 26 June 1832, in CH Philips (ed.),
The Correspondence of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, Governor-General of India
1828–1835
II, 1085.

Sessions from 1833–35
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 38–9;
Depredations
pp. 184–5.

Standards of proof fell
Singha, op. cit. p. 212. Men could still be convicted solely on the evidence of an approver, but the maximum sentence was one of imprisonment for life, and branding on the forehead.

Sentencing after 1836
Sleeman,
Depredations
pp. 184–5; van Woerkens, op. cit. p. 101.

Agents and collaborators
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 39–41.

Davey Deen
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 156.

Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
Ibid. pp. 40–41, 56, 181;
Depredations
p. i.

Bengal Thugs tried in Saugor
The judicial independence of the Saugor & Nerbudda Territory was ended in 1835 when it became part of the newly created Presidency of Agra, local courts then falling under the supervision of Agra’s
Sadar Adalat
. In practice, however, the higher court barely interfered with the by-then well-established practices of the Thug trials. See Singha, op. cit. pp. 207n, 211.

‘
the enormities of the Thugs
…’ Bengal despatches political, 28 Nov. 1832, E/4/735 fos. 1473–91; Singha, op. cit. pp. 205–6.

Thugs of Bengal
Sleeman,
Depredations
pp. i–v.

1836 murders by Deccan thugs
Ibid. pp. v, ix.

Jubbulpore sessions of 1836–1837
BC F/4/1898 (80685) fos. 66–188.

Sepoys safe
Sleeman,
Ramaseeana
I, 41–2n.

Sleeman’s circular
The circular of 1841 likewise threw up no trace of any stranglers. James Sleeman,
Thug
pp. 189–93.

End of the anti-Thug campaign
The formal end of the campaign was signalled in July 1840, when the East India Company’s Court of Directors, at home in London, were informed that ‘as organised associations Thug bands had been broken up’. Singha, op. cit. p. 220&n.

As many as 4,000 rank-and-file Thugs
Bruce, op. cit. p. 212.

Thuggee pronounced extinct
Singha, op. cit. p. 220n.