The Deconstructed Stranglers: A Reassessment of Thuggee

Abstract

Maunsell, a lieutenant in the 23rd Native Infantry of the Bengal Army set out on horseback in October 1812 from Agra, in what were then called the North-western Provinces, on a visit of inspection to Etawah, seventy-five miles south-east, accompanied by two sepoy orderlies and a horse carrying his belongings and equipment. All three were armed, Maunsell with sword and holster pistols, the sepoys with the Brown Bess musket and bayonet.

Collaboration against ethnography: How colonial history shaped the making of an ethnographic film

“…Although the first Criminal Tribes Act was passed in 1871, its history starts much earlier, with 8 the anti-Thuggee campaigns waged by William Sleeman, superintendent (and later commissioner) of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department from 1826-1848 (Anderson, 2004;Dash, 2006;Friedman, 2011;Major, 2000;Nigam, 1990aNigam, , 1990bRadhakrishna, 2001;Roy, 1998;Schwarz, 2010;Singha, 1993;Tolen, 1991;Van Woerkens, 2002;Wagner, 2004). At that time there was a need to control the increasingly troublesome phenomenon of "men on the road" who threatened the safe travel of East India Company sepoys through central India, as well as the recently established opium monopoly in that region (Singha, 1993: 87).…”

Collaboration against ethnography: How colonial history shaped the making of an ethnographic film

“…Although the first CTA was passed in 1871, 8 its history starts much earlier, with the anti-Thuggee campaigns waged by William Sleeman, superintendent (and later commissioner) of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department from 1826–1848 (Anderson, 2004; Dash, 2006; Friedman, 2011; Major, 2000; Nigam, 1990a,b; Radhakrishna, 2001; Roy, 1998; Schwarz, 2010; Singha, 1993; Tolen, 1991; Van Woerkens, 2002; Wagner, 2004). At that time, there was a need to control the increasingly troublesome phenomenon of “men on the road” who threatened the safe travel of East India Company sepoys through central India as well as the recently established opium monopoly in that region (Singha, 1993: 87).…”

“…The problem with this description is that it is not clear if the Thuggees existed outside of the imagination of colonial officials – an issue which has caused considerable controversy. On one side of the debate are scholars like Dash (2006; see also Wagner, 2004) who rely heavily on the colonial archives, while on the other are scholars who have called the veracity of these archives into question (Roy, 1998; Van Woerkens, 2002), pointing out that all it took to convict someone of being a Thuggee was testimony by an “approver” – a convict who confessed in exchange for a pardon (Roy, 1998: 59). Despite such questionable judicial procedures, between 1826 and 1848, more than 500 were hanged and thousands more were sent to penal colonies or died awaiting a trial (Dash, 2006: 254).…”

From Thugs to Victims: Dakxin Bajrange Chhara's Cinema of Justice

“…The thugs ... were a cult of professional stranglers who preyed on travelers-though never on Englishmen-as an act of worship to the popular Hindu goddess Kali. They were represented as hereditary killers drawn from all regions, religions, classes, and castes, united by their devotion to Kali and the act of strangulation [Roy 1998] There is considerable debate today about the extent to which such a phenomenon actually existed, or to what extent it was a product of the colonial imagination [Dash 2006;Roy 1998;van Woerkens 2002;Wagner 2004]. Yet Thuggee scholars and revisionists alike agree that the crimes were not religiously motivated as Sleeman was led to believe, and has been preserved in accounts from contemporary popular culture, such as The Deceivers and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [Dash 2006:228;Roy 1998;Schwarz 2010;van Woerkens 2002:282-283;Wagner 2004:954].…”