Thuggee

Thuggee
Group of Thugs around 1894
Foundedunknown, possibly early 1300s[1]
Named afterSanskrit word for concealment
Founding locationCentral India and Bengal
Years activec. 14th century – late 19th century
TerritoryIndian subcontinent
MembershipUnknown
ActivitiesMurder, robbery
RivalsBritish Raj, merchants

Thuggee (UK: /θʌˈɡiː/, US: /ˈθʌɡi/) is the name given to the alleged practice of thugs, who supposedly were historical organised cults of professional robbers and murderers in India. They were said to have travelled in groups across the Indian subcontinent.[2]

They usually murdered their victims by strangling using a handkerchief as a tool.[3] The Thuggee were believed to practice their killings as a form of worship toward the goddess Kali.[4] For centuries, the authorities of the Indian subcontinent, such as the Khalji dynasty,[5] the Mughal Empire,[1] and the British Raj, attempted to curtail the criminal activities of the Thuggee during their rules.[6]

Contemporary scholarship is increasingly sceptical of the thuggee concept, and has questioned the existence of such a phenomenon,[7][8] which has led many historians to describe thuggee as the invention of the British colonial regime.[9]

  1. ^ a b Wagner 2007, p. 26.
  2. ^ "Tracing India's cult of Thugs". 3 August 2003. Los Angeles Times.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference David Scott Katsan 2006 141 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Will Sweetman, Aditya Malik was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Martine van Woerkens 2002 110 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Wagner 2007, p. 7.
  7. ^ Gámez-Fernández, Cristina M.; Dwivedi, Om P. (2014). Tabish Khair: Critical Perspectives. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443857888.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference ReferenceA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ S. Shankar (2001). Textual Traffic: Colonialism, Modernity, and the Economy of the Text. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0791449929.