25. Suppression of Thuggee
When the suppression of the Thugs was seriously taken in hand by the Thuggee and Dacoity Department under the direction of Sir William Sleeman, this abominable confraternity, which had for centuries infested the main roads of India and made away with tens of thousands of helpless travellers, never to be heard of again by their families and friends, was destroyed with comparatively little difficulty. The Thugs when arrested readily furnished the fullest information of their murders and the names of their confederates in return for the promise of their lives, and Colonel Sleeman started a separate file or dossier for every Thug whose name became known to him, in which all information obtained about him from different informers was collected. In this manner, as soon as a man was arrested and identified, a mass of evidence was usually at once forthcoming to secure his conviction. Between 1826 and 1835 about 2000 Thugs were arrested and hanged, transported or kept under restraint; subsequently to this a larger number of British officers were deputed to the work of hunting down the Thugs, and by 1848 it was considered that this form of crime had been practically stamped out. For the support of the approver Thugs and the families of these and others a labour colony was instituted at Jubbulpore, which subsequently developed into the school of industry and was the parent of the existing Reformatory School. Here these criminals were taught tent and carpet-making and other trades, and in time grew to be ashamed of the murderous calling in which they had once taken a pride.
[1] Thevenot’s Travels, Part III. p. 41, quoted in Dr. Sherwood’s account, Rāmaseeāna, p. 359.
[2] Sleeman, p. 11.
[3] P. 144.
[4] P. 162.
[5] P. 147.
[6] P. 205.
[7] Hutton’s Thugs and Dacoits.
[8] Sleeman, p. 170.
[9] Sleeman, p. 168.
[10] He was called Feringia because he was born while his mother was fleeing from an attack on her village by troops under European officers (Feringis).
[11] Sleeman, p. 205.
[12] Hutton, p. 70.
[13] Ibidem, p. 71.
[14] Pp. 34, 35.
[15] See Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India, p. 249.
[16] Pp. 32, 33.
[17] Kandeli adjoins the headquarters station of Narsinghpur, the two towns being divided only by a stream.
[18] P. 23.
[19] Near Bilehri in Jubbulpore.
[20] Captain Lowis in Sleeman’s Report on the Thug Gangs (1840).
[21] Pp. 15, 16.
[22] P. 7.
[23] P. 150.
[24] Sleeman’s Report on the Thug Gangs, Introduction, p. vi.
[25] P. 142.
[26] P. 216.
[27] ‘Oh Kāli, Eater of Men, Oh great Kāli of Calcutta.’ The name Calcutta signifies Kāli-ghāt or Kāli-kota, that is Kāli’s ferry or house. The story is that Job Charnock was exploring on the banks of the Hoogly, when he found a widow about to be burnt as a sacrifice to Kāli. He rescued her, married her, and founded a settlement on the site, which grew into the town of Calcutta.
[28] P. 133.
[29] P. 173.
[30] Orphéus, p. 170.
[31] Dhāmoni is an old ruined fort and town in the north of Saugor District, still a favourite haunt of tigers; and the Thugs may often have lain there in concealment and heard the tigers quarrelling in the jungle.
[32] Sleeman, p. 196.
[33] P. 91.
[34] P. 67.
[35] P. 100.
[36] Orphéus (M. Salomon Reinach), p. 316.