Comments on: Thuggee Law

By: xrap

xrap — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:03:43 +0000

Agori cult is even more interesting
http://www.ceveni.com/2009/01/aghori-sadhus-eating-human-flesh-video.html
http://cogitz.com/2009/08/26/aghori-human-flesh-eating-monks/

By: anuradha Rao

anuradha Rao — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:52:58 +0000

were thugs psycopathic and therefore mentally disturbed commuinity ? Kevin Rushby in his book Children Of Kali , explores the notion of thuggee being alive in secret even today and also draws some parallels..

By: Rodney Atwood

Rodney Atwood — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:04:54 +0000

Although your website is written in good faith and an attempt to be accurate, it gives a distorted account of thuggee. Probably some 50,000 men, women and children were murdered by thugs, although the figure may have been twice as large. Sleeman thought the number much larger because of the nature of his interrogations. Europeans were not attacked, it is true, but sepoys of the East India Company were frequently murdered returning home on leave with their pay. The complaint which lead to the original investigation was from a zamindar named Laljee. As to the punishments, some 4,500 men were arrested and placed on trial by Sleeman and others; a total of 504 were executed. ‘Mass hangings’ is subjective; I think the largest group was eleven. Three thousand were sentenced to life imprisonment with labour, and half of these transported to penal colonies. There is no doubt that Sleeman rendered a great service, although he exaggerated it. A Hyderabadi nobleman Hussain Dost Khan, certainly not a lacky of the British, wrote, ‘the whole of the inhabitants of this country, and travellers, have been emancipated from the fear of Thugs.’ SAleeman’s mistake was to demonise the thugs as worshippers of Kali. They in fact carried out their murders for money. If they worshipped Kali it was only in the way that so many Indians then did, as today they pray to Ganesh. That thuggee gained a distorted and romanticised aura in later years, as your article makes clear, is certainly true. But to regard it as an invention of Sleeman and the British, as some American academics think, is totally wrong.

By: Kerim Friedman

Kerim Friedman — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:13:00 +0000

Just came across this post. I recently posted something on Savage Minds:

http://savageminds.org/2007/12/22/thuggee/

I’m also engaged in an ongoing discussion with the authors of the Wikipedia page to revise the current text.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Thuggee

By: mitchell

mitchell — Sun, 21 May 2006 19:46:03 +0000

so the tactic used by brits was to identify a threat (invent one if it doesn’t exist as in the case of the Thuggees) and then use it to give themselves sweeping powers to commit barbaric abuses against the native peoples of India who might oppose british political or economic interests. state terrorism. comes from machiavelli

By: Jonathan Dresner

Jonathan Dresner — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Very interesting, thank you.

I particularly like the part where the anti-Thuggee campaign begins without anyone asking for it….

By: desesperanto

desesperanto — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

and on and on and on, despite denotification.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

jonathan: just like the middle east clamoring for freedom, no?

desesperanto: thanks for the link. same issues face the Roma (gypsy) community in present day Italy, France etc. When you live outside of societal norms, you are not up to any good, i guess.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sepoy,

I’m halfway through Philip Meadows Taylors’ Confessions… and was struck by the remarkable religious harmony among the thugs. In one chapter, the father-thug gives a wonderful lecture to his madrassa-educated protege on the very ’secular’ nature of their trade.

Anyway, your post has given me a different perspective on Thuggee and the motivations of the East India company