Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-06-14
BRITISH INDIA'S THUGS.


BRITISH INDIA'S THUGS.
An interesting report has just been
issued by the Government of India on
a subject with which the last generation
was better acquainted than this one is
Colonel Henderson's account of the
working of the Thuggee and Decoity
Department during the year 1880. IL
is something over fifty years since the
English Government set about q sys-
tematic repression of the disciples of
Bhowanee, and just thirty-three since
Captain Meadows Taylors "Confes-
sions OF Thug" made such a general
and genuine sensation. The Thugs
Tug with slight aspiration), from
thugna, to deceive--are of decidedly
ancient origin, if the hypothesis be ac-
cepted that they spring from the Sa-
GARTH, who formed part of the army
of Xerxes, and are described by Herod-
otus as people who had no offensive
weapons except their daggers, their
dependence in action being on cords
made of twisted leather, in which they
entangled and strangled the enemy.
The descendants of the Sagartii accom-
panied one of the earlier Mahometan
invaders into India, and settled in the
neighborhood of Delhi. They are de-
scribed by Thevenot in the latter part
of the seventeenth century as infesting
the road between Agra and Delhi, and
using certain rope with running
moose, switch they can cast with so
much sleight about mans neck that
they never fail to strangle him in a
trice." They were, however, expelled
from Delhi by one of the Emperors on
account of the murder of favorite
slave girl, when, dividing into seven
families OF clans, they immigrated into
different parts of the peninsula of
India. AT first, according to recent
writer, the Thugs were Mahometans,
but later they became inoculated with
Hindooism, the two faiths becoming
after manner amalgamated, for al
though they ate, drank, prayed, and
inherited according to the Koran, they
placed themselves under the protection
of q Hindoo deity-the terrible Kali, to
use the name given in Bengal and the
South to Parvati, wife of silva, after
whom Calcutta was called-she of the
many hands and blackened face, sur
mounted by chaplct Of skulls. The
late Sir William Sleeman coniectures
that the Thugs were vagrant tribes of
Mahometans who continued to plumber
the country long after the Mogul and
Tartar invasions. Old rs are the ira
ditions, there is no evidence of Thug
gee having been discovered before the
reign Of Akbar, which covered the lat
ter part of the sixteenth century. From
this time until 1910 its existence was
unknown to the British, Enough native
Princes now and then discovered and
executed the perpetrators.
The conditions of the Indian PENN
sula were particularly favorable for the
exercise of wholesale industry of
murder and robbery. There were an
immense number of territories laxly
governed by Princes and chieftans
jealous of each other; there were no
public conveyances, to which the GUS
toms OF the natives and the want of
highways would have been opposed;
journeys had TO be undertaken on foot
or on horseback over mere tracks in
tersecting woods and wilds and jungles;
between the villages, often miles apart,
there were no dwellings, and parties
previously unknown to each other were
always likely TO associate for safety.
Every one who travelled had at least 10
carry with him the money for his trav-
cling expenses, while large sums of
money or valuable packages of Jewels
were constantly sent from city to city
by messengers who affected poverty
for the greater safety of their charge.
Under these circumstances nothing was
easier than for an association of muir
derers and robbers, numerous, united
and secret, to destroy thousands of VIC
tins annually, victims whom il would
be almost impossible to trace from one
territory to another even were the au-
thorities living in friendship and ami
mated by desire to abolish the system
of Thuggee.
In 1910 so many Sepoys disappeared
while proceeding TO and from their
homes that the English COMMANDMENTS
Chief issued an order warning the men
of their danger, and two years later,
when Lieutenant Monsell was muir
dered, British expedition found 900
Thugs in villages in Scindin's domains,
who for generations had paid the
Government large sums for protection.
They were dispersed, but this only
spread the practice over a wider field,
and into districts where before it had
been unknown. Up TO 1880, though
many, Thugs were apprehended and
executed. no well-organized attempt at
Graduating the system of Thuggism
had been made. BY that time Il was
rampant all over India, but especially
in Bundeleund and Malwa, but its real
nature and extent were unsuspected by
the best informed authorities. Some
of the Thugs, and among them q noted
leader, Feringhea, offered to turn in
formers if their lives were spared, and
Captain Sleeman, political agent in the
Provinces on the Nerbudda, was moved
to incrodulity at their revelations.
Feringhea took the practical step of
digging up thirteen bodies in the very
grove where the Captain was en-
camped Captain Sleeman has writ
ten: while i was In civil charge of
the district no ordinary robbery or
theft could be committed without my
becoming acquainted with il, nor was
there robber or thief whom did not
know; yet gang of these assassins re-
sided within 400 yards of my court;
village one stage from me was one of the
greatest places of murder in all India;
the bodies of 100 travellers lay buried
under its trees and largo bands of Thugs
used TO rendezvous there and remain
for days together carrying on their
dreadful trade along every road" Cap
tain Taylor discovered that at lingo
lee respectable merchant of his 40
guaintanct was the leader of gang of
Thugs who had murdered many men
in the bazaar of the cantonment, within
100 yards of the guard-house, and
buried them there in the ditch of the
main road.
Now systematic attack was made
on Thuggec; conventions were made
with NAT va ,,rinooa ,yhn oo,,a ~, ali