“…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).…”