[Destro]

fyi

[SAJ]

An amazingly informative article. Thanks for posting it!

[xm177e2]

This is still relevant today, and I doubt it will ever cease to be a valuable lesson.

[txzman]

Great article! Good lessons for methodically and without mercy seeking out those who would kill and maim others.

[exit82]

Thank you for this article. First time I have ever been exposed to the Thugs and their history.

[dennisw]

bttttttttttttt

[dennisw]

bttttttttttttt

[dennisw]

bttttttttttttt

[aBootes]

bump

[FreedomPoster]

Nice post. I especially liked this observation:

Moreover, on those rare occasions when conspiracies and combinations have been exposed, they have all too often succeeded in merely going underground, metamorphosing and emerging anew after a "decent" interval, to resume their subversive, murderous activities. This apparently was the case with the Cathars, the Templars, the Bavarian Illuminati, and, of course, with the American communists and their sponsors following the McCarthy era.

Obviously a very worthwhile bit of history for anyone involved in eliminating Islamic extremists. Hopefully we will be more successful there than we have been with the Communists.

[macrahanish #1]

Great article!! I usually skim such long articles. I read every word of this one.

[RippleFire]

bump

[The Pheonix]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...In-te-res-ting....

It' worth a study, at the very least,

[Publius6961]

Wow.
Fantastic post.
Thank you

[Dajjal]

ping

[TC Rider]

Gunga Din bump for a later read.

[gridlock]

All I knew about Thuggie was what was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a far from authoritative account.

This is a facinating story. It would make a fabulous movie, maybe teaming up Mel Gibson and Sophie Marceau again. Except that nobody would believe it when you told them it was a true story.

[VOA]

bump

[robowombat]

For those interested in learning more Sleeman's memoires were republished by 'Oxford-in-India' Press about 20 years ago. Copies should not be hard to find through inter library loan or from web based used book sellers such as Ex Libris. Also there are two good fictional accounts of Thuggee and its suppression in English. John Masters wrote one of Anglo-Indian cycle of novels about this episode. Titled 'The Deceivers' it was published in the mid-50s. However Ballentine brought out a pocket book edition in the 60's and these pop up in thrift stores and at used book dealers all the time. I bought one in very good condition from a thrift store for$.25 about two weeks ago. In this book Masters has an English officer pass himself off as a native (pretty hard I admit) and infiltrate the Thugs assuming a Thugs identity. The officer becomes involved with these criminals and suffers a near schizoid episode as a result of his double life. I suspect Masters heard gossip of this sort of thing as he was a career Indian Army officer in a Ghurka regiment. Due to the huge size of India and the multitude of different ethnic groups it seems that for a while in the 19th century clever and determined junior officers did engage in these sorts of deep cover ops.

The other fictional treatment was written by an officer in the British Indian Army in the 19th century named Ralph Meadows-Taylor. Meadows-Taylor was of the generation following Sleeman and fought in the Indian Mutiny (and surprisingly didn't write about that chapter in Indian history). In the 1870's he wrote 'Memoires of a Thug' which are the fictionalized reminiscences of a Thug who becomes government informant. Meadows-Taylor used Sleeman's memoires and his official reports as the basis for the work and fleshed out his narrative with information he garnered from conversations with aging Thugs who served as trustee prisoners when he was assigned to the Andaman Island prison colony. The result is a fascinating attempt to actually get into the skin of an Indian and a Thug by a Victorian soldier sahib. Not completely sucessful but a pretty remarkable product. In the 1960's 'Memoires of a Thug' were republished in England and copies should be obtainable through the used book dealers network at a reasonable price.

[Libertina]

Once a group of Thugs had insinuated itself into a company of merchants, religious pilgrims, or even police officials, they would often travel with them for days, earning trust and friendship. Should their intended victims become suspicious of their intentions, and refuse to travel with them, the Thugs often had backup groups who would conveniently meet the company of travelers further on. One way or the other, once an individual had been marked for murder, seldom did he escape the murderous hands of the Thugs.
Pre 9-11 sleepers... Pronounced Toogs in India, the word entered our vocbulary as Thugs. A bit more ruthless than the "boisterous boys" depicted as now in the US.