Stranglers and BanditsA Historical Anthology of Thuggee

edited by

KIM Α. WAGNER

OXPORDUNIVERSITY PRESS

Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xv

Introduction 1

PART L THUGGEE IN PRE-COLONIAL INDIA

1. Early India 49Wilhelm Halbfass, Tradition and Reflection, 1991 • PaulDundas, 'Some Jain References to the Thags 1995

2. Indigenous References 58Biography of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, 1290 • Poemby Surdas, Sixteenth Century • The Farman ofAurangzeb, 1672

3. Early European Accounts 61Jean de Thevenot, 1666-7 • John Fryer, 1675 · JamesForbes, 1785 · Robert Drummond, 1808

IL THE 'DISCOVERY' OF THUGGEE

4. The First British Accounts 67Report of O.W. Steer, 18 November 1809 · Report ofJ. Law, 23 December 1809 • Report of T. Brooke, 23January 1810 • Report of O.W. Steer, 7 February 1810

5. Early Measures 73Regulation VI of 1810 • Report of W. Wright, 12 March1810 · Order of Major St Leger Order, 28 April 1810 •Sita Ram, From Sepoy to Subedar, c. 1813

CONTENTS

6. Confusion of Terminology 88Report of J.W. Laing, 3 April 1810 • Complaint ofT.H. Ernst, 12 May 1810 • Despatch from the Boardof Directors, East india Company, 1820

7. The First Thug Trials 91Examination of Ghulam Hussain, 19 March 1810• The Trial of Ghulam Hussain, 9-17 November1810 • The Trial of Tuhowar Khan, 21 July 1812

8. Thuggee in Sindouse 103Examination of Ruheem Khan, 30 December 1810• Deposition of Suntoke Rae, 24 August 1834 •Deposition of Laljee, l l December 1812 • Report ofN.J. Halhed, 10 December 1812 · Report of JamesShakespeare, 1815

9. The Phansigars of Southern India 126Letter of W.E. Wright, 6 December 1809 ·R. Sherwood, 'Of the Murderers Called P'hansigars',1816 • J.A.R. Stevenson, 'Some Accounts ofthe P'hansigars, or Gang-robbers and of theShudgarshids, or Tribes of Jugglers', 1834

III. THE ANTI-THUGGEE CAMPAIGN OF THE 1830s

10. Commencement of Operations 165Letter from J. Stewart, 12 August 1829 · Order of G.Swinton, 23 October 1829 • Report of W.H. Sleeman,13 May 1830 · Letter by EC. Smith, 19 November 1830• Anonymous Article (by Sleeman), 3 October 1830

11. The Campaign 1 8 3

EC. Smith, 'Report on the Sessions of 1831-32',20 June 1832 • Act XXX of 1836 • W.H. Sleeman,Ramaseeana, 1836 • Interviews by J. Paton, 1836

IV. LITERARY AND POPULAR REPRESENTATIONS OF THUGGEE

12. The Nineteenth Century 2 2 1

John Malcolm, A Memoir of Central India, 1823 ·

CONTENTS ix

Rev. Hobart Caunter, The Oriental Annual, 1836• Philip Meadows Taylor, Confessions of a Thug,1839 • Fanny Parkes, Wanderings of a Pilgrim, 1844• Eugene Sue, The Wandering Jew, 1844-5 · MarkTwain, Following the Equator, 1897

13. The Twentieth Century and Beyond 244R. Russell and H. Lal, Tribes and Castes of the CentralProvinces of India, 1916 · James L. Sleeman, Thug;or, A Million Murders, 1933 • Sir Francis Tuker, TheYellow Scarf, 1961 • Mike Dash, Thug: The True Storyof India's Murderous Cult, 2005 · Robert Johnson,Spying for Empire, 2006

V. MODERN HISTORIOGRAPHY

14. Representation of Thuggee 261Hiralal Gupta, Ά Critical Study of the Thugs and

their Activities', 1959 • S. Gordon, 'Scarf and Sword',1969 • Kathleen Gough, 'Indian Peasant Uprisings;1979 • Christopher Kenna, 'Resistance, Banditryand Rural Crime', 1985 • Sandria B. Freitag, 'Crimein the Social Order of Colonial North India; 1991 ·D.E.U Baker, Colonialism in an Indian Hinterland,1993 · C.A. Bayly, Empire and Information, 1996 •Parama Roy, 'Discovering India, Imagining Thuggee',1996 • Radhika Singha, A Despotism of Law, 1998

• Amal Chatterjee, Representations of India, 1740-1840,1998 • Martine van Woerkens, The StrangledTraveler, 2002 · Mark Brown, 'Crime, Governanceand the Company Raj; 2002 • Cynthia Ann Humes,'Wrestling with Kali', 2003 · Maire ni Fhlathuin, 'TheCampaign Against Thugs in the Bengal Press', 2004 •Tom Lloyd, 'Acting in the "Theatre of Anarchy" 2006

Glossary 305

Select Bibliography 307

Contributors Note 315