THUGS
The English word “thug” comes from “thag”, meaning “cheat, swindler, robber.” The word originated from a group professional highwaymen in India who made their living robbing and killing people, preferably the rich. In its heigh day thuggery was not a only a profitable trade it was a caste-like calling and profession, in some cases practiced by families for centuries. In many cases, people knew who they were and they were even required to pay taxes.
Thugs not only acted on greed and tradition there was a religious aspect to what they did. In what has been described as a “hideous religion of murder” victims were reportedly offered as human sacrifices to the Hindu goddess Kali, the goddess of destruction. Thugs believed that their crimes honored Kali. Before each crime they consecrated a pickax and made an offering of sugar to Kali. The pickax represented the tooth of Kali, which she was said to have bestowed upon the Thugs. After the crime some of the loot was set aside as a reward for Kali and the pickax was consecrated after a murder victim's grave had been dug with it.. Kali, in turn, expressed her wishes and offered help, through omens.
Thugs were particularly active in remote, rough areas of India such as Rajasthan and the ravines and gorges of central India. They regarded themselves as superior to dacoits (common thieves and murderers, See Below) — more clever, creative, ingenious and less likely to get caught. The leader of one thug gang said, “If a banker’s treasure was put before me and entrusted to my care though in hunger and dying, I would scorn to steal,. But let a banker go on a journey, and I would certainly murder him. Dacoits are robbers and contemptible. I despise a dacoit,”
Thugs were also called Phansigars (stranglers). Membership was primarily hereditary and included both Hindus and Muslims, but all were devotees of the Hindu goddess Kali. The Thugs were protected by their strong organization and by local officials with whom they would divide the spoils. Some thugs have became folk heroes. their exploits were immortalized in stories like “The Murder of Forty” and “Sixty Soul Affair”.
Book: “Thug: The True Story of India’s Murderous Cult” by Mike Dash; “The Stranglers” by G. L. Bruce, (1969)
History of Thugs
The earliest references to Thugs dates to A.D. 1290. In ancient Sanskrit texts they were referred to as robbers and imposters. Some thugs claim they were from lineages that dated back to Alexander the Great. No thug was identified until the early 19th century. The Thugs were able to survive as long as they did through secrecy, superior organization, and security offered by retired Thugs, who remained active as spies and cooks.
Thugs did well for themselves in the early British era. According to the Guinness Book of Records, an estimated 2 million people were strangled by thugs between 1550 and 1853. It is not clear wether there was more thuggery at this time than before or just that the cases were better reported.
In the early 1800s thuggery claimed at least 20,000 victims a year, and maybe as many as 50,000 victims a year. The first thug to be caught and identified was a 20-year-old man named Gholam Hossyn who confessed to 90 murders. The world record for murder (931 victims) was committed between 1790 and 1840 by a Thug named Behram.
In the late 1820s and 1830s Governor General William Bentinck launched a campaign to clamp down on the practice of thuggery that was regarded as largely successful. A number of thugs were caught and imprisoned.
The thugs were largely brought under control in the mid 19th century with the help of a British secret agent named Capt. William Sleeman, who was credited with shutting down two notorious gangs and arresting dozens of thugs. . In his book “Ramaseeana” (1836), revealed secersu of the Thugs and is credited with introducing the word “thugs” to English. He claims t have infiltrated the sect and participated in their bizarre rituals to learn the identity of the members bu mainly he relied on paid informers and thorough police works . His office captured 4,500 Thugs and filled prisons with them. Some convicted Thugs had the word THUB tattooed on their face.
Some forms of thuggery continued. India’s Thugee and Davoity Department was not lcoed down until 1904. The British
Thug Activities
Thugs operated in gangs of 10 to 200 men and often posed as fellow travelers. Many were specialists in a certain aspects of thuggery. There were spotters, stranglers, grave diggers, handholders who won the trust of the victims and men who presided over the rituals that honored Kali. The stranglers were regarded as the most skilled members of the gang. They had to perform their duties quickly and silently and were experts at determining when the last breath was made.
For most of the year Thugs had regular job, but in the autumn they gathered into bands, and disguised as merchants or religious mendicants. When they encountered wealthy travelers, they ingratiate themselves to them and waited for an opportunity to kill. Thugs were very superstitious. The cry of a baby owl was regarded as warning of a impending disaster. The call or partridge was considered auspicious.
Thugs generally robbed their victims after they killed them. They worked quickly to win the confidence of their victims. They often fell in with travelers and journeyed by their sides for days or even weeks at a time, often under the pretext of protecting them. Survivors described them as “mild and benevolent of aspect and particularly gentle, courteous and obliging.” The followed a strict code of honor:
Thug Murders
Thug murder usually was usually done by strangling the victim with a scarf specially designed for that purpose. Women and members of certain low castes, such as washermen, sweepers and musicians, were usually exempted from attack. Attacks on mystics, fakirs, dancers, lepers and anyone traveling with a cow were not allowed. Rich men were the prime targets.
On a night, when the moment was right, the Thugs would suddenly fall upon their companions and strangle them with consecrated bandannas that were twisted around the victim’s neck like a garrote while the murderer pressed his knee in the victim’s back. robbed their bodies
The bodies were immediately buried to avoid detection. The bones were broken and the sinews were cut so the body could squeezed into the smallest possible space. Before the body was buried a cut was made into the abdomen so the body would not become bloated and disturb the grave. Sometimes the eyes were gougedd out under the belief and superstition that image of the killers are imprinted on the eyes of the victims.
Dacoits
“Dacoits” are bandits and armed robbers. The crime of dacoitery is defined as armed robbery committed by a gang with five or more members. The punishment for dacoity is hanging or banishment for life. Some dacoits had huge, curled, oiled Indian mustaches reached up to their eyes and were tucked behind the nose. They are still active in some places. Some have repented and converted to Christianity.
True dacoits enjoy playing a three-foot-long bamboo flute called a “narh” which some of them say eases the loneliness of the camps. True dacoits also have a code of honor which says they are supposed to rob only the rich and only in broad daylight. One dacoit told journalist Rahubir Singh that escaped from prison by digging a tunnel out of his cell with his bare hands. [Source: Raghubir Singh, National Geographic, February 1977]
In the 2000s, many dacoits made a good living through thievery, extortion and kidnapping. The police aggressively pursued them and many had to live a life on the run, never sleeping in the same place twice, and always keeping a lookout and looking over their shoulders. They typically earned around $500 a month, a large sum in poor areas of India, where dacoits usually operate, extorting money for protection and stealing gold from wedding dowries. Some specialized in robing travelers, shopkeepers and truckers and raped their women victims.
Dacoit Life
Dacoitery can be both a caste job or a profession that someone takes up. Many dacoits followed in the footsteps of their fathers. Many are Muslims. They have families but can not afford to live with them out of fear of getting caught by police. Instead they live in primitive jungle hideouts.
Many dacoits blame their lifestyle and profession on a lack of education. One dacoit, whose gang had only one member who could write well enough to pen extortion letters, told the Los Angeles Times, “When I was a boy, we were very poor. Where I lived we didn’t have schools. It was just jungle and hills.”
Many dacoits say they like their jobs because of the thrill it offers. One who specialized in highway robbery told the Los Angeles Times, “At the heat of the moment, I’d feel great. The driver used to shout and scream but there was no escape. There was nothing the could do.” Other did it for money and respect. One told the Los Angeles Times, I had huge money in my hand. I was in command of a gang and they looked up to me and that was a big high.” Some said they became dacoits because there was no other way to make a decent living.
Phoolam Devi — The Bandit Queen
Phoolam Devi is perhaps India's most famous outlaw. Immortalized in the film "Bandit Queen," she grew up in a poor lower caste family whose land was taken by an upper caste man. At the age of 11 she was raped by some upper caste thugs hired by a cousin and was married to an abusive husband three times her age in exchange for a bicycle and a cow. After being abused, starved and raped and abandoned by her husband, she was accused of being a prostitute and run out of town. After that she was jailed and gang raped, forced to walk naked throw a village by an angry gangster and then kidnaped by “dacoits”before she turned 20.
Devi fell in love with member of the gang that kidnapped her. Her lover killed the leader of the gang. She became an outlaw herself and led a gang of “dacoits” that camped in the ravines of central India and plundered villages, hijacked trucks, kidnaped landlords’ sons and murdered, and stole from higher castes, sharing what they took with the lower castes. Only 150 centimeters tall and illiterate, Devi made international headlines when she was implicated in the largest gang massacre in modern Indian history, the murder off 22 high caste men in 1981, reputedly as an act of vengeance for the murder of her bandit lover and her own gang rape. The murder victims had allegedly raped her every night for three weeks. They were upper cats Rajputs known as Thakurs.
After the so-called "Behmai Massacre," Devi became the most wanted woman in India, with a 150,000 rupee price on her head, and a major folk hero, with ballads composed about her and comparisons made to the Hindu goddesses Durga and Shakti. She eventually turned herself her in before a crowd of 10,000 people and portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. four years after the massacre making a deal with authorities. She was charged with almost 50 criminal charges but was never tried for any of them. To this day she claims she didn't commit the crime but she does not deny that she was there during the killings.
Devi spent 11 years in prison and was released on bail in 1994 at the age of 32. Charges against her were dropped in the state of Uttar Pradesh but 70 cases of murder, robbery, extortion and kidnapping are pending in other states. "God has given me more strength to endure than he has given other women," she once said. After being released she married a Thakur and embraced Buddhism.
Bandit Queen — the Movie, Politician and Assassination Victim
"Bandit Queen," the movie made about Devi's life, was India's nominee for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1994. The actress Seema Biswas was praised for her portrayal of Devi and the film was well received by critics but banned by Indian film censor because of the "violent rapes scenes, nudity and depictions of sensitive political issues." Devi also denounced the film on the grounds it invaded her privacy. "They are raping me al over again and selling me on the screen," she said.
In 1996, at the age of 35, Devi ran for parliament for Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh as a member of the lower caste Samajwadi Party and won against nationalist rivals that fired shots at her motorcade, blocked by burning tires, and organized demonstrations with widows of upper caste members she reportedly murdered. She was a skillful politician. She drew large crowds when she spoke, found jobs for constituents and spoke out on issues that affected lower caste members. A British politician even suggested she be award the Nobel Peace prize.
In July 2001, Devi was assassinated outsider her home in New Delhi. She was shot by three masked gunmen who stopped her outside of her residence. She was hit for or five times in the head and most of her head was blown off. She was only 38. Her bodyguard fired at the assailants and was wounded but survived. Thousands showed up for Devi’s funeral. Hundred threw roses in her coffin. In Beham families of the upper caste embers who were massacred held a celebration.
Veerappan
Koose Muniswamy Veerappan was one of India’s most notorious criminals. He made his living as a sandalwood and ivory smuggler, kidnaper, and elephant poacher and reportedly killed 100 people, including his daughter and dozens of policemen, and drew international attention in 2000 when he kidnaped a famous actor.
Veerappan was tall and wiry and sported a humongous handlebar mustache and dressed in military fatigues. He was born onto a poor Tamil family and reportedly killed his first elephant when eh was a teenager and was inspired by a notorious bandit from the 1950s and 60s. He became one of India's most wanted criminals in 1987 after he murdered a forest ranger. Many policemen and forest rangers hired to pursue him were killed. Villagers who were suspected of informing on him were also killed. By one count he and his gang killed 32 policemen, 10 rangers and 77 villagers, some of whom where beheaded or tortured or mutilated, as well as 2,000 elephants.
Veerappan was viewed as a Robin Hood to people who lived in the forests of southern India because he built temples, gave money to villagers, and helped them for weddings. His smuggling operation employed many people. At his height he employed around 100 armed gangsters and thousands in the sandalwood trade. He reportedly had ties with the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
Veerappan Kidnaps a Famous Actor
In August 2000, when he was 72, one of India’s most famous actors, Rajkumar was kidnapped by Veerappan. Rajkumar was at a family farm home in the town of Gajanur (140 miles south of Bangalore), when Veerappan and his gang quietly entered and said, "Come with us." The incident was the top new story in India for months.
Rajkumar was taken to Veerappan jungle hideout. Veerappan demanded a ransom, a statue for the great Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar, and compensation for families of low-caste people who had been murdered and the release of Tamil militants in prison. He seemed most interested though in winning amnesty for his crimes, serving a minimum prison sentence and retiring in peace. He also mentioned he wanted a film made on his life, directed by him.
Fans of Rajkumar rioted in Bangalore. Rock-throwing mobs clashed with police; buses were hijacked and burned; schools were closed; strikes we held. The activity brought India's most high-tech city to come to a halt. Because the kidnapper was a Tamil, much of the violence was directed at Tamils.
After 108 days in the jungle, Rajkumar was released. Crowds partied in the streets. It wasn't clear on what terms he was released. Later it was reported that Veerappan was given 200 million rupees (about $4 million) for his release.
Veerappan’s Capture
Veerappan was on the run for more than two decades and eluded capture even though hundreds of the police had been assigned to his case. Great efforts were made t catch him. A $100,000 bounty was placed on his head. In 2001, 2,000 men volunteered to participate in a manhunt to track him down.
Known as the “Jungle Cat” because of his ability to disappear in the forest, Veerappan hid in 6,000 square miles the dense Sathyamangalam Forest bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the same forest he began his life of crime after being beaten up by a forest ranger and learning about elephant hunting from a ivory smugglers.
Finally in October 2004. Veerappan was killed along with three members of his gang in a shootout with police. He was traveling in a vehicle that was stopped by police in a village in Tamil Nadu near the town of Dharmapuri, 120 kilometers southeast of Bangalore. he had been ordered to surrender but rather than give up he chose to open fire.
Tamil Nadu authorities were quite proud of the their achievement, The official who announced the death said, “It is with a sense of pride and fulfillment that I wish to announce...the good news that the notorious forest brigand bandit, murderer and dacoit Veerappan along with his entire gang, has been shot dead.”
After his death, hundreds of villagers took to the forest around his hideout to look for the treasure he reportedly left behind. By some estimates he accumulated $10 million worth of cash and valuables and is said to have wrapped it polyethylene bags, stuffed them in tractor tire tubes and buried stashes in different locations around the forest.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Library of Congress, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Encyclopedia.com, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated December 2023