The Deceivers

In the second half of the 19th century, after Britain had gained a strong foothold in India, there arose the first suspicions that something dreadful was afoot. Various reports showed that each year large numbers of travelers vanished without a trace on the lonely Indian roads.

To itself, there was nothing especially remarkable about that. The country was large and sprawling, authority was lax, bandits were only to be expected, and violence was common enough in any country in those days.

But one young Englishman wanted to know more. Phillip Meadows Taylor, an assistant superintendent of police, decided to probe more deeply into the matter. Quite likely his first intention was just to compile statistics of missing persons in the area he helped administer. So gradually he pieced together a rough picture of the comings and goings in his area, and darkening that picture was one inexplicable shadow.

Every year, bands of men left their homes on what were described as trading ventures. After a number of months, they returned and recorded transactions in other parts. The market, however, remained unchanged in that area. Frantically, Taylor protested that he was near exposing something unparalleled in the history of crime. But influential people who ruled that area had asked specially for his removal and could not be swayed.

It seemed that if there was some dreadful conspiracy, its leaders had friends in high places. He was despondent. When the travelers had been lulled into accepting their lot, the Thugs whipped out handkerchiefs, which they swiftly snaked around the necks of their victims.

However, even as the frustrated Taylor was removed from his post, another British officer named William Sleeman was pursuing a similar line of thought some many hundreds of miles away. Sleeman had reached the same conclusions as Taylor and was systematically examining every piece of information that might lead him to conclusive proof.

Unlike Taylor, he had a positive lead to follow—an article by a Dr. Richard Sherwood entitled “Of The Murderers Called Phansigars.”

As India was opened up, there were published lots of colorful and extravagant stories, many of which could be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt; and Sherwood’s account of a sect of ritual killers who preyed on travelers might just have been dismissed as one of the more fanciful tales. The Phansigars, or stranglers, Sherwood wrote, took their name from a Hindu word meaning “noose,” though in the north of India they were known as Thugs, meaning “deceivers.”

From early childhood, they were brought up with the religious belief that the goddess Bhowani, also known as Kali the Black One, demanded the lives of travelers as her sacrifice. In return, she granted success in the world—part of the success being the property of the victims—and immunity from capture.

Roaming the lonely Indian roads in bands of up to 40 men, and occasionally more, the Thugs sent scouts ahead of them to find groups of wealthy travelers whose confidence they tried to win.

This accomplished, the travelers would be joined by the main band of Thugs who began polite and friendly conversation until the codewords were given.

“Bring firewood,” their leader would say. That meant “take up your positions,” and two or three Thugs would saunter casually behind their seated victim. “Let us eat betel nuts,” would say the leader. That meant “kill them.”

With incredible speed, the men whipped silken handkerchiefs from their waists. Weighted at one end with a rupee, these rumals snaked swiftly around the victims’ necks, were pulled tight, and the men quickly executed their deadly mission.

In the vast stretches of India where trading expeditions might make up to two years, detection would be almost impossible. Then, too, who was to say that an unreturned traveler had not died of disease, been bitten by a cobra, or fallen prey to bandits on his journey?

William Sleeman felt that the Thugs did exist, and he was determined to expose them and stamp out their cult. How he did so is an impressive story of patience and perseverance, ingenuity, and insight. Managing to build up a network of informers and infiltrators, he struck at the Thugs from inside their organization, gradually learning their language, their codes, the secrets of their crimes, their deadly habit patterns, and so on.

He unearthed the myths on which their cult was based and found that they may have been descended from the Persian assassins of Xerxes, that they may have dealt with the early Mongol hordes, and that they probably had been around for centuries.

Above all, the Thugs were a secret society. They had developed a sort of split mind which enabled them to live as respectable citizens for most of the time, and they could see no wrong in what they did. Killing was their time-honored art and religion.

Strangely enough, it was their sense of honor that contributed most to their downfall. Certain people were tabooed as victims—wandering holy men, women, certain classes of merchants, and Europeans—and the Thugs believed fervently that if they broke these taboos, their goddess Kali would declare them sinners and have them punished.

When a Thug did break these taboos, he alone was often mortified with guilt. Believing the wrath of Kali had descended upon him, he confessed everything, implicating others, and they, in turn, reasoned that their betrayal was willed by Kali because of the sins of their brothers. By the mid-19th century, the cult of Thuggee had been undermined by its own passive fatalism.

As more and more were brought to trial, the incredulous British felt a sense not so much of horror but of awe and even admiration. They almost found it difficult to dislike the Thugs, for apart from their misguided purpose, they were brave, courteous, intelligent, and had a great sense of honor.

Many were even described as gentle; and those who were condemned to death amazed everyone by the equanimity with which they took their punishment.

Sleeman founded schools to re-educate them, and though some of the older members despised these efforts, most applied themselves well. They proved particularly skillful at weaving. In fact, in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, there can be seen a magnificent carpet woven for Queen Victoria by the Thugs.