Thuggee

Epic card · No. 6369

Thuggee was a phenomenon of highway robbery in the Indian subcontinent that saw gangs of Thugs murder and rob travellers, often by strangling. During the British colonial era, thuggee was represented and popularised as a secret pan-Indian fraternity of ritual stranglers with ancient origins, motivated by fanaticism and bloodlust. This portrayal has come under intense scholarly criticism beginning in the 1950s, with historical reinterpretations generally contesting the significance of religion to thuggee and viewing the Thugs as more or less ordinary criminals, or thuggee as a type of banditry. There is a general consensus among contemporary historians against the colonial-era representation. The thuggee phenomenon came to prominence in the early 19th century, during the expansion of East India Company rule in India. In the 1830s, colonial administrator William Henry Sleeman led a policing campaign against thuggee, supported by legal developments that facilitated convictions. In 1835, the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Anonymous Indian artist. Made for Capt. James Paton, Assistant to the British Resident at Lucknow, Public domain