That the Thugs of India did not last for an even longer time than three hundred years was strictly due to the perseverance of the British in rooting them out.
And the man who was primarily responsible for rooting the Thuggees out of India in the early 1800’s was Major General Sir William Henry Sleeman.
Major-general Sir William Henry Sleeman KCB (8 August 1788 – 10 February 1856) was a British soldier and administrator in British India. He is best known for his work from the 1830s in suppressing the organized criminal gangs known as Thuggee. He also discovered the holotype specimen of the sauropod dinosaur Titanosaurus indicus in Jabalpur in 1828. The first outbreak of lathyrism in India in 1844 was reported by him.
Let’s take a look at the Thugs by reading the words of his biographer and great-grandson, Colonel James L. Sleeman, as he describes a sweet-looking old Indian man.
But remember as you read his words that we are studying here another equally secretive and diabolical sect known as the Jews who are not at all unique but are rather very similar to the Thugs.
Here, we are reading what the Sleemans wrote about just one old man, just one old Thug:
“And if it were difficult to believe that the curtain was rising upon so hideous a drama, it would have been still harder to appreciate that this venerable native, with kindly face and white beard, had encompassed the death of a whole battalion of men, not by means of the ordinary weapons of assassination, but by the skillful use of the most harmless weapon in the world, the ruhmal, or strip of cloth, little bigger than a handkerchief.
The use of this was not a question of choice but of decree, for by the laws of the Thugs’ satanic faith no blood should be shed during the process of murder.
In fact, Thuggee could not have existed for so long a time had its followers used knives or daggers.
“If the onlooker had hoped to find on the old Thug’s countenance some signs of remorse for a life spent almost entirely in treacherous murder, he would have been doomed to disappointment, for the old man positively beamed with pride and reminiscent delight while the story of his ghastly past was drawn from him by skillful questioning, literally smacking his lips when recounting some particularly atrocious deed which had necessitated the exercise of great cunning and inhuman deceit.“
‘Do you never feel remorse for murdering in cold blood, and after the pretense of friendship, those whom you have beguiled into a false sense of security?’ asked Sleeman after one of these periods of obvious exultation.“
‘Certainly not!’ replied Buhram.
‘Are not you yourself a shikari (hunter of big game), and do you not enjoy the thrill of the stalk, the pitting of your cunning against that of an animal, and are you not pleased at seeing it dead at your feet?
So, with the Thug who, indeed, regards the stalking of men as a higher form of sport.
For you, sahib, have but the instincts of the wild beasts to overcome, whereas the Thug has to subdue the suspicions and fears of intelligent men and women, often heavily armed and guarded, and familiar with the knowledge that the roads are dangerous.
In other words, game for our hunting is defended from all points save those of flattery and cunning.
Cannot you imagine the pleasure of overcoming such protection during days of travel in their company, the joy in seeing suspicion change to friendship, until that wonderful moment arrives when the ruhmal completes the shikar.
This soft ruhmal, sahib,’ –here the old man exhibited a strip of coarse yellow and white cloth, the Thug colors – ‘has terminated the existence of hundreds.
Remorse sahib?
Never! Joy and elation, often!’”
“Such were the tales heard day after day during the suppression of Thuggee, varying little in detail, and always characterized by a total lack of feeling for the wretched victims.
And Buhram, however vile, was sincere in his belief that he had been engaged in work, not only pleasurable and profitable, but, in addition, productive of great merit in the hereafter.
Buhram does not stand alone in his prowess as a Thug, for several others ran him close in Thuggee history:
Ramzam, for example, with a total of 604 [murders], and Futty Khan, whose 508 victims in twenty-one years, as compared with Buhram’s 931 in forty years, would have put him at the top of his profession had he not been captured.
“In an age when tales of crime prove so attractive and bookstalls groan beneath a wealth of imaginary horrors, these true tales of Thuggee must surely appeal to those who prefer fact to fancy.
And if the strange history of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is of interest, the actual dual personality of the Thug must surely be more so – that fiend in human form – luring his victims to their doom with soft speech and cunning artifice, committing the cold-blooded murder of every man he met, saint or sinner, rich or poor, blind or lame, during his annual holiday, and spending the remainder of the year as a public-spirited citizen of seeming respectability.
“Thug, from the Sanskrit root Sthag, “to conceal”, is pronounced “Tug”, and Thuggee as “Tuggee”.
It is a term often wrongly applied, particularly in the United States, to bandits or hold-up men, who do not attempt either concealment of their intention or strangulation.
The Thug was a murderer by hereditary profession, who sincerely believed that he had a divine right to kill, and no other class of criminal possesses the right to call itself by that name.
Certainly not the modern type, for, contemptible and horrible as the Thugs unquestionably were, it is certain that they would be loud in their expression of horror at the deeds of these despicable ruffians in Western countries.
However unscrupulous and treacherous the Thugs were, one thing at least stands to their credit that while they sometimes killed women – though contrary to their faith – they never maltreated them beforehand.
The taking of human life for the sheer lust of killing was the Thugs’ main object – the plunder, however pleasant, being a secondary consideration.
That robbery did not form the principal motive is clear from the fact that they made little effort to ascertain the wealth of those they put to death, and wretchedly poor men, their total worldly wealth less than sixpence, constantly appear in Thuggee records as having been added to the bag.
The Thug, indeed, regarded his profession much in the same light as the sportsman.
No motive was required for the murders they planned to commit.
Their prospective victims were unknown to them.
And it mattered nothing whether they were Hindu or Mohammedan, for the Thugs had in their ranks, members of both religions.
All travelers were fish for their net, and they watched their growing toll of human life with exactly the same feeling of pride that the sportsman experiences when making his entries in a game book.
“Here was no body of amateur assassins, driven to crime by force of circumstance, but men of seeming respectability and high intelligence, often occupying positions of importance and responsibility in their normal lives, secretly trained from boyhood to the highest degree of skill in strangulation.
Each Thug had his particular job to do:
to one fell the task of throwing the ruhmal around the victim’s neck, to others the task of seizing arms and legs and giving those scientific wrenches and cruel blows at vital parts which ensured his being brought down at the psychological moment.
These arts were continually practiced by the Thug in his off-duty moments, fathers teaching sons this foul work with parental pride, until all engaged in a Thuggee expedition became so expert that they could strangle their victims with the maximum of adroitness and in the minimum of time.
Their art was carried still further, for other Thugs were specially trained to bury and conceal the murdered bodies with such skill that the ground beneath which they rested appeared undisturbed.
In the hey-day of the organization, these experts could bury the body within half an hour, with such success that even the Thugs themselves could only find the graves later by reference to landmarks.
“The histrionic sense of the Thug was highly developed, many being remarkably good actors, and if they detected the slightest suspicion on the part of travelers, they were attempting to ingratiate themselves with, they immediately departed and disappeared in another direction.
No sooner were they out of sight, however, than messengers were sent to other gangs – for they quartered the ground like wolves – who caught up with the travelers, primed with any information that the first Thugs had gleaned, and it was seldom that the quarry escaped death.
“A rich merchant, for example, protected by an armed escort, would meet on his journey some seemingly poor men, who would ask permission to avail themselves of his protection.
Being unarmed and few in number, this request would be granted, and the party would proceed together for some days, the Thugs – for such they were – losing no opportunity of making themselves pleasant and useful, until the combined party journeyed together with a confidence born of friendship.
Meanwhile other Thugs, apparent strangers, but actually of the same gang, would day by day be overtaken and allowed to join the party, this process being repeated until at last, the genuine travelers were outnumbered.
Then the opportunity would come when two or more Thugs stood unobtrusively behind each traveler, waiting for the signal to kill.
This was usually “Tabac la ow” (Bring tobacco), whereupon the ruhmals were instantly thrown round the necks of the victims who were strangled so skillfully that they could neither escape nor fight for their lives.
The bodies were then cut about to prevent swelling upon decomposition, which would raise the surface of the graves and so attract attention and carefully buried at beles (permanent murder places) selected beforehand.
These murders were planned with such forethought and accurate calculation that often these graves were prepared many days ahead.
If there were people in the vicinity and it was dangerous to dig the graves in the open, the Thugs did not scruple to bury the bodies beneath their own tents, eating their food and sleeping on the soil without a qualm!
“Many devices were adopted by the Thugs to make their murders easier, one favorite ruse being to feign sickness, the Thug selected for the part pretending to be taken violently ill.
Others would attempt to succor him, but to no purpose – the pains growing increasingly severe.
It was then pretended that a charm would restore him, and the doomed travelers were induced to sit around a pot of water, to uncover their necks, and to look up and count the number of stars.
Having, in their superstitious folly, put themselves over so completely in the hands of the Thugs, the ruhmals were about their necks in a trice and they were strangled with dispatch.
The Thug’s repertoire of such tricks was extensive, and he rang the changes according to the type of victim he was after.
The ruhmal with which the murders were committed was some thirty inches in length, with a knot formed at the double extremity and a slip knot eighteen inches from it, giving the Thug a firm hold.
After the victim had been brought to the ground, the slip knot was loosened and the Thug then made another fold round the neck, put his foot against it, and drew the cloth tight – to quote the words of a Thug,
“Just as if packing a bundle of straw.” [311] …
“A gang of Thugs usually numbered from twenty to fifty men, but was sometimes much larger, on one occasion a gang of 360 accomplished the murder of forty persons.
As a general rule they pretended to be merchants or soldiers, traveling without weapons in order to disarm suspicion, which gave them an excellent excuse for seeking permission to accompany travelers for there was nothing to excite alarm in their appearance.
Most Thugs were mild looking and peculiarly courteous, for this camouflage formed part of their stock-in-trade, and well-armed travelers felt no fear in allowing these knights of the road to join them.
This first step successfully accomplished, the Thugs gradually won the confidence of their intended victims by a demeanor of humility and gratitude, and feigned interest in their affairs until familiar with details of their homes, whether they were likely to be missed if murdered, and if they knew anyone in the vicinity.
Sometimes they traveled long distances together before a suitable opportunity for treachery occurred.
A case is on record where a gang journeyed with a family of eleven persons for twenty days, covering 200 miles, before they succeeded in murdering the whole party without detection.
Another gang accompanied sixty men, women and children 160 miles before they found a suitable occasion to put them all to death.
“The favorite time for murder was in the evening when the travelers would be seated in the open, the Thugs mingling with their victims, and all talking, smoking, and singing happily together.
But the Thugs’ motto was,
“There’s no fun like work.”
And three of them would sit close to each prospective victim.
On the signal being given, two would lay hold of his hands and feet, while the third manipulated the ruhmal, not relaxing his grip until life was extinct.
“Many Thugs were influential citizens in ordinary life, amassing wealth from their murders with which to bribe those who might otherwise have given them away.
Money counts in crime even to-day, West or East, and the Thugs enjoyed the countenance, protection and support of many ruling chiefs and powerful landowners in return for choice booty and renting land at extortionate rates.
These influential Indians shared in the unlawful fruits of Thuggee expeditions without the slightest feeling of religious or moral responsibility for murders which they knew were perpetrated to secure them, and were content with the promise that the Thugs would not commit murder within their states and thereby involve them in trouble.
Often the native police and villagers were also conciliated by bribes, as was shown on one occasion when Thugs bungled the killing of twenty-five travelers and were pursued to the village of Tigura, where the inhabitants came to their support and protected them against arrest.
Indeed, during the operations for the suppression of Thuggee, it was found that some subordinate native police were actually practicing Thugs, and that this was frequently the case with the chaukidars, or night watchmen, of villages and houses.
With such consummate scoundrels, such formidable protection, and such opportunities, small wonder that Thuggee flourished for centuries and accounted for many thousands of innocent lives during its long reign….
“Horrible as all of this reads, it must be borne in mind that the Thugs considered their murders precisely in the light of sacrifices to their goddess.
Not only did they plan and meditate over their murders without misgiving but they perpetrated them without any emotion of pity.
Their horrid treachery and cruel strangulations troubled neither their dreams and recollections nor caused them the slightest disturbance even in the hour of death.
They considered, in fact, that their victims were killed by God, with them as her agents, their appointed job being to kill travelers – to quote the words of a Thug,
“Just as a tiger feeds upon deer.”
“In wading through the tragic and unsavory records of Thuggee nothing strikes one more than the contrast between their devilry when engaged in their wicked hunting, and their trustworthiness in decent employment and real affection for their wives and children, which stand out saliently in pages of history blotted with hideous crime.
To illustrate this double life, a case is on record where an Englishman, Dr. Check, had a bearer in charge of his children.
The man was a special favorite, remarkable for his kind and tender ways with his little charges, gentle in manner and exceptional in all his conduct.
Every year he obtained leave of absence for the filial purpose, as he said, of visiting his aged mother for a month, returning punctually at the end of that time and resuming the care of his little darlings with his customary affection and tenderness.
This mild and exemplary being was later discovered by Sleeman to be a Thug:
- kind
- gentle
- conscientious
and regular at his post for eleven months of the year, devoting the twelfth to strangulation.
Cold blooded human beasts with a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life for one-twelfth of the year, and patterns of virtue for the remainder!
“Just as locusts pass across a pleasant landscape leaving nothing but stripped trees and desolation behind, so the Thugs on their expeditions left a trail of death and misery.
No feelings of shame, horror or remorse ever caused a Thug to lose a minute’s sleep.
On the contrary, just as sportsmen sit over the fire at night and talk with pleasure of the day’s bag, so the Thug, when resting from his revolting labors, discussed his murders with equal pleasure, rejoicing over particular acts of treachery which had lured unhappy men and women to their doom. [312] …
“The Thugs, indeed, were so inconspicuous, owing to the care with which they divided their gangs and the cunning way they played their different parts, that they were rarely suspected of murder, and even if suspicion did fall upon them, by that time those concerned had long since scattered and returned to their respectable employments and were once again
“Thus, the difficulty of suppressing an age-old secret organization of murder, itself existing in a country renowned for secrecy and mystery, will be appreciated.
For Thuggee was a mysterious religion of murder, protected not only by a secret language, but also by native chiefs, officials, landholders and other important people who, whilst themselves ignorant of its secrets, knew enough to be convinced that to support its continuance and protect its followers was to their own pecuniary advantage. [313] …
“Thuggee was a hereditary profession, the sons of Thugs being taught their craft by skilled leaders who led them by easy stages to the point of murder, so that they came to look on Thuggee not only as a legitimate means of profit but also as a pleasant pastime.
On reaching manhood, therefore, they were not only versed in all the arts and crafts essential to inveigling their victims, but the treacherous murders they had seen committed by their seniors whom they respected had produced a callousness of mind which made them for all time devoid of feelings of pity and remorse for their victims.
The absence of motive for their murders; the fact that they never murdered near their own homes; the splitting up of the gangs and the return to respectability after a comparatively short period of absence; their secret language and signs; the support and patronage they obtained from those who benefited by the murders they committed who asked no questions, providing their palms were well oiled; their respectable appearance and pleasing manners; the reputable, if fictitious reasons given, for their absence, had all combined to keep Thuggee secret for centuries. [314]
… “With members of almost every profession and trade in their ranks, the Thugs found no difficulty in selecting for the duty of inveigling those best suited to excite the confidence or dull the fears of any kind of traveler.
It was, indeed, the very terror of finding themselves alone on dangerous roads which induced travelers to join what appeared to be parties of respectable men, whose principal concern seemed to be the protection of those exposed to such risks.
If one thing stands out more clearly than another in these gruesome records of Thuggee, it is that, just as a cat plays with a mouse before killing it, so the Thugs unquestionably extracted considerable satisfaction in ingratiating themselves with their prospective victims, spending days in changing suspicion to confidence, before murdering them.
Often and long did Feringeea and other captured Thugs laugh over tales of the innocence and faith of their victims which they had so cruelly shattered; and as one wades through these dry official records, one cannot fail to see in imagination these poor hapless travelers rejoicing at being in safe hands, while surrounded by Thugs licking their lips in anticipatory pleasure.” [315]
… “[Sleeman] was fortunate in two main things; first, in the capture of ‘approvers’ [Thugs who turned in their comrades in exchange for life in prison rather than hanging].
These ‘approvers’ supplied excellent information.
And second, he discovered the secret language of Thuggee, that spinal cord of its nervous system.
The day that Sleeman dragged this into the light hammered the first big nail in the coffin of Thuggee, for until then Thugs, whether free or under arrest, could converse before their victims or gaolers with impunity.
Next, he prepared family trees of the Thugs, work entailing laborious research, painstaking care and minute accuracy, a masterpiece of genealogical record, which ensured that every Thug by hereditary descent was ultimately accounted for.
“Fortunately for India the meshes of Sleeman’s sieve of justice were microscopically small, for it was of the utmost importance to ensure that no Thug, innocent or guilty, should again go free.
Hard as this may sound, it was essential, for, being a hereditary religion of murder, the Phoenix would have risen from the ashes and Thuggee grown again with alarming rapidity.
“Those convicted of murder and not required as ‘approvers’ were hanged.
Those who proved to be Thugs but not actually found guilty of murder, were imprisoned for life.
The sons of Thugs, either by birth or adoption, who were too young to have started on a career of murder, were imprisoned in comparative comfort, though forced into celibacy, and employed in tent or carpet making or other industries, in order that there should not be a native in India living in freedom who could claim to be descended from a Thug.
And so, this abominable confraternity, which had for centuries infested the roads of India and made away with over a million of victims, was destroyed.” [316]
ALL FOOTNOTES AND REFERENCES ARE LOCATED IN VOLUME III
The Sumerian Swindle: How the Jews Betrayed Mankind – Appendix A: The Thugs of Old India
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