One of the most
convincing legends in colonialist mythology about the ferocity of the East and
the demonic aspects of Hinduism is that of the Thugs, a clan of thieves who
were worshippers (bhakta) of the goddess Kali.
Thugs, according to popular belief, were widely distributed
across India and frequented roads, looking for travelers to prey on.
They would travel with their victims for days on end, sometimes
for weeks, before killing them—sometimes by offering them drugs-laced sweets,
and sometimes just by catching them off guard.
The victims would be strangled with a silken scarf, and no
blood would be spilt whenever possible, since the victims' blood was considered
a sacrifice to the goddess Kali and should not be squandered.
The Thugs seized the victims' worldly assets under a spoils
system that divided the rewards between god and follower.
This diabolical practice endured until the British uprooted
it and destroyed it in the 1830s.
Although the myth of the Thugs is compelling, much of it has
been disproved by more modern scholarship.
The dramatic economic disruption produced by the entrance of
the British themselves was one of the key elements in the birth of the Thugs.
Many of the individuals who were ostracized by these forces
went on the run and turned to banditry in their despair.
These small-scale, mostly localized heinous acts were converted
into a worldwide religious conspiracy.
The Thugs myth undoubtedly reflected British colonial
anxieties about their capacity to manage their area, but it might also have
mirrored British colonial fears about their ability to rule their territory.
Despite the fact that allusions to the Thugs may be found in
manuscripts written before British contact, this was one of the most persistent
colonial misconceptions.
See C. A. Bayly's Indian Society and the Making of the
British Empire (1988) and The Raj (1990) for further details.
