Stranglers and Bandits A Historical Anthology of Thuggee edited by KIM Α. WAGNER OXPORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Contents Preface xi Acknowledgements xv Introduction 1 PART L THUGGEE IN PRE-COLONIAL INDIA 1. Early India 49 Wilhelm Halbfass, Tradition and Reflection, 1991 • Paul Dundas, 'Some Jain References to the Thags 1995 2. Indigenous References 58 Biography of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, 1290 • Poem by Surdas, Sixteenth Century • The Farman of Aurangzeb, 1672 3. Early European Accounts 61 Jean de Thevenot, 1666-7 • John Fryer, 1675 · James Forbes, 1785 · Robert Drummond, 1808 IL THE 'DISCOVERY' OF THUGGEE 4. The First British Accounts 67 Report of O.W. Steer, 18 November 1809 · Report of J. Law, 23 December 1809 • Report of T. Brooke, 23 January 1810 • Report of O.W. Steer, 7 February 1810 5. Early Measures 73 Regulation VI of 1810 • Report of W. Wright, 12 March 1810 · Order of Major St Leger Order, 28 April 1810 • Sita Ram, From Sepoy to Subedar, c. 1813 CONTENTS 6. Confusion of Terminology 88 Report of J.W. Laing, 3 April 1810 • Complaint of T.H. Ernst, 12 May 1810 • Despatch from the Board of Directors, East india Company, 1820 7. The First Thug Trials 91 Examination of Ghulam Hussain, 19 March 1810 • The Trial of Ghulam Hussain, 9-17 November 1810 • The Trial of Tuhowar Khan, 21 July 1812 8. Thuggee in Sindouse 103 Examination of Ruheem Khan, 30 December 1810 • Deposition of Suntoke Rae, 24 August 1834 • Deposition of Laljee, ll December 1812 • Report of N.J. Halhed, 10 December 1812 · Report of James Shakespeare, 1815 9. The Phansigars of Southern India 126 Letter of W.E. Wright, 6 December 1809 · R. Sherwood, 'Of the Murderers Called P'hansigars', 1816 • J.A.R. Stevenson, 'Some Accounts of the P'hansigars, or Gang-robbers and of the Shudgarshids, or Tribes of Jugglers', 1834 III. THE ANTI-THUGGEE CAMPAIGN OF THE 1830s 10. Commencement of Operations 165 Letter 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 183 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 221 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 · Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897 13. The Twentieth Century and Beyond 244 R. Russell and H. Lal, Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, 1916 · James L. Sleeman, Thug; or, A Million Murders, 1933 • Sir Francis Tuker, The Yellow Scarf, 1961 • Mike Dash, Thug: The True Story of India's Murderous Cult, 2005 · Robert Johnson, Spying for Empire, 2006 V. MODERN HISTORIOGRAPHY 14. Representation of Thuggee 261 Hiralal 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, Banditry and Rural Crime', 1985 • Sandria B. Freitag, 'Crime in 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 Strangled Traveler, 2002 · Mark Brown, 'Crime, Governance and the Company Raj; 2002 • Cynthia Ann Humes, 'Wrestling with Kali', 2003 · Maire ni Fhlathuin, 'The Campaign Against Thugs in the Bengal Press', 2004 • Tom Lloyd, 'Acting in the "Theatre of Anarchy" 2006 Glossary 305 Select Bibliography 307 Contributors Note 315.