NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE

UNIVERSITY, BHOPAL

VI Trimester Project of History II

On

The Thuggee Act of 1836 and its Influence on the Indian

Law-making in the 19th Century

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. Uday Pratap Singh Siddhant Barmate

Associate Professor 2017B.A.LL.B112

1
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................................. 5
METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 5
THE THUGGEE ACT (ACT XXX OF 1836) ............................................................................... 6
FURTHER AMENDMENTS AND STATUTES LINKED TO THE THUGGEE ACT............... 8
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 10
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 11

2
 INTRODUCTION

Thuggee (from Hindi thag ‘thief’, from Sanskrit sthaga ‘scoundrel’) was an Indian network of
secret fraternities of highway robbers engaged in murdering and robbing travellers by
strangulation. Thugs were committed by members of a religious sect in honour of the goddess
Kali. These groups formed a dominant confederacy operating over large tracts of land in central
and northern India from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Thuggee was referred during
the thirteenth century1 indicating that these groups originated much earlier than the arrival of
British. Some historians believe that the existence of a Thuggee cult in the nineteenth century
was in part the product of "colonial imaginings" — British fear of the little-known interior of
India and limited understanding of the religious and social practices of its inhabitants.2 3 They
say that various peripatetic groups were stereotyped into a colonial construct called ‘thugs’. 4

Their modus operandi was to befriend unsuspecting travellers and win their trust. The thugs
killed them at a suitable and familiar place called ‘beles’ preferably in darkness. Their method of
killing was very often strangulation, performed by throwing a yellow scarf (rumaal) around the
neck. Usually two or three thugs would strangle one traveller. Because they used strangulation as
the method of murder they were also frequently called ‘Phansigars’ or ‘noose-operators’. The
thugs then hid the corpses, often by burying them or by throwing them into wells. Each member
of the group had its own role, like luring travellers with polite words or that of guardians to
prevent escape of victims while the killing took place. The leader of a gang was called
jamaadaar.

Thuggee groups consisted of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims, though their patroness was Kali, one
of the Hindu Tantric Goddesses whom they often called Bhowanee.5

1
The earliest authenticated mention of the Thugs is found in Ziau-d din Barni's History of Firoz Shah (circa 1356)
2
Martine van Woerkens The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India, 2002,
3
T. R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1994), p. 41. He says ‘Thuggee’
enabled the British to give voice to their own enduring fears and anxieties…[becoming] a metaphor for the
representation of what they feared most in India, the inability to know and control their colonial subjects”
4
Bandopadhyay, Sekhar From Plassey to Partition p.150
5
Dash, Mike Thug: the true story of India's murderous cult ISBN 1-86207-604-9, 2005

3
Induction was passed from father to son and the leaders of the thug groups tended to come from
these hereditary lines. Sometimes the thugs groomed the young children of the travellers to
become thugs themselves. Some men became thugs to escape great poverty. A fourth way of
becoming a thug was by learning it from a guru.

Estimates of the total number of victims depend heavily on the estimated length of existence of
the thugs for which there are no reliable sources. According to the Guinness Book of Records the
Thuggee cult was responsible for approximately 2,000,000 deaths. The British historian Dr.
Mike Dash estimated that they killed 50,000 persons in total, based on his assumption that they
only started to exist 150 years before their eradication in the 1830s.

Lord William Bentick (1828-1835) played a major role in the passing of the Thuggee Act. It was
finally passed during the viceroyalty of Lord Auckland (1835-1841). By launching legal assaults
against such violent Hindu customs as Thuggee on grounds of humanitarian principle, British
risked the wrath and unpopularity of India’s orthodox majority. Earlier in 1829 the Thuggee
Department was formed by Colonel Sleeman to deal with the problem. Sleeman’s report of 1840
says that over 1500 thugs were apprehended from 1829-35. Before 1836, 55% (1,892 out of
3,437) of the total trials held under British auspices circa 1826-41 had been completed, with a
conviction rate of 98.9%

4
 OBJECTIVES

 To study the Thuggee Act and analyze the major provisions of the act.
 To analyze the various amendments and statutes linked to the Thuggee Act.
 To study its impact on Indian law-making.

METHODOLOGY

Doctrinal

5
 THE THUGGEE ACT (ACT XXX OF 1836)

In the past The East India Company had been very reluctant in policing or intervening into native
practices. Since 1770s the colonial project was heavily invested in the creation of a body of
knowledge to help govern the land.6 The Britishers started to increase their sway through control
of borders, development of the army and police and took measures against the Pindaris (armed
marauders of central India, 1806-15) and the thugs.7 The campaign against Thugs was initiated in
the late 1820s in the assertion of humanitarian affairs of British paramountcy championed by
Lord William Bentick (1828-1835). In 1829 the Thuggee and Dacoity Department (1829-1909)
was formed under Colonel William H Sleeman to deal with the problem of Thuggee. Lord
Bentick played a major role in the suppression of thugs and the passing of the Thuggee Act. He
did not alter the thanedari system but he organized a ‘flying-squad’ to deal with the specific
crimes of thuggee and dacoity.8 The Thuggee Act was finally passed during the viceroyalty of
Lord Auckland (1835-1841).

The Government’s duty was clear in the case of thuggee. It was impossible to justify murder for
the sake of robbery even though the perpetrators might claim to be religious devotees. But the
element of religion among Indians was strong and many people perceived it as a British
interference in their religion.9 By launching legal assaults against such violent Hindu customs as
Thuggee on grounds of humanitarian principle, the British risked the wrath and unpopularity of
India’s orthodox majority.10

The Thuggee Act ruled that

1. Whoever shall be proved to have belonged, either before or after the passing of this Act, to
any gang of Thugs, either within or without the Territories of the East India Company, shall be
punished with imprisonment for life, with hard labour.

6
Through Ethnological, Linguistic and Archaeological Surveys of India
7
Robb, Peter A Histroy of India pp.125, 126
8
Bakshi, S.R. Governors-General and Viceroys of India pp.178-180
9
Ibid
10
Wolpert, Stanley A New History of India p.212

6
2. And…every person accused of the offence…may be tried by any court, which would have
been competent to try him, if his offence had been committed within the Zillah where that Court
sits, any thing to the contrary, in any Regulation contained, notwithstanding.

3. And…no Court shall, on a trial of any person accused of the offence…require any Futwa from
any Law Officer.

The Thuggee Act extended the jurisdiction of the Company’s for this offence courts to territories
outside the dominion of the British East India Company. The offence could also be tried in any
court of the Company irrespective of where it had been committed. This act tried to further
curtail the judicial weight of the Muslim Law Officer’s Fatwa on the final sentences. The Act
also defined a category of criminal who could be punished by the paramount power, irrespective
of whether he was the subject of the Company or of an Indian state.11 To constitute the offence
of thuggee it is not essential that the accused should have actually committed murder, robbery or
child-stealing, all that is crucial is that he must have been the associate of such persons, that is to
say a member of the gang, or in short, a confederate. The actual commission of an offence is a
non-issue. Thus, the essence of the crime lies in being a member of the organization, the actual
commission of the offence not being necessary.

The purpose of the campaign, according to Singha, was not to root thuggee out through
education or regeneration of the indigenous society but to police and prosecute gangs seen as
perpetrating a crime in the name of religion. According to the Sleeman’s report over 1500 thugs
were apprehended from 1829-35. Before 1836, 55% (1,892 out of 3,437) of the total trials held
under British auspices circa 1826-41 had been completed, with a conviction rate of 98.9%12. The
thug trials were speeded up and improved. Manufactories were established at Jabalpur and
Lucknow for giving employment to the approvers13 of Thuggee cases.

The suppression of Thuggee was almost complete in British India and in the Indian States during
the time of Lord Auckland. No petition attempted to stay this work for its practical advantage

11
Singha, Radhika A Despotism of Law Chapter 5 Criminal Communities: The Thuggee Act XXX of 1836
12
Sleeman’s Report 1840
13
Approvers are prisoner who confessed to their crime and agreed to give evidence against their accomplices in
return for pardon or remission of sentence.

7
was too obvious.14 Thuggee and Dacoity campaigns were essential steps in a centralized police
bureaucracy that emerged after 1857 Mutiny. The suppression of Thuggee was a notable
achievement of the pre-mutiny era.

FURTHER AMENDMENTS AND STATUTES LINKED TO THE

THUGGEE ACT

Numerous statutes were passed to remove the bottlenecks and shortcomings of the Thuggee Act
of 1836. These acts in a way contributed to the development of law. Standards of evidence, trials,
diminishing punishments if the prisoner approved about the crime are some features which have
been a contribution by these acts.

Act XIX of 1837 tried to remove problems arising out of the trial of thugs. It clarified that “any
person charged with murder by Thuggee, or with the offence of having belonged to a gang of
thugs… may be committed by any Magistrate or Joint Magistrate within the territories of British
East India Company, for trial before any Criminal Court, competent to try such person on such
charge”. The Act laid down that no person shall by reason of any conviction for any offence
whatever, be incompetent to be a witness in any stage of any cause, Civil or Criminal before any
court in the Territories of East India Company. Thus it clarified that a dual standard of evidence
would not be applied as it would have made it very difficult to integrate the changes generated
by the Thuggee Campaign into the legal framework of the regulation provinces. The Act made
the evidence of only a convicted offender admissible in a court of law. The act also strengthened
the prosecutor’s hands in its negotiations with the approver of the crime. If a person approved of
Thuggee he would not be put on trial for any capital crime he might have committed. “Given the
high rate of conviction in prosecutions by the thuggee agency, the prisoner might well prefer to
turn approver by pleading guilty to the charge of belonging to a thug gang than risk a trial
without negotiations.”15

14
Smith, V. A. The Oxford History of India p.588
15
W H Sleeman’s Ramaseeana. J Hutton’s A popular account of the thug and dacoit and J L Sleeman’s Thug or a
million murderers figure out the number of acquittals to commitments.

8
In the Act XXIV of 1843 the definition of Thug was broadened to encompass and convict
professional dacoits who belong to certain tribes, systematically carrying on their lawless
pursuits in different parts of the country.

Act III of 1848 laid that acts which do not cause death but are likely to cause death would be
encompassed in the definition of Thuggee. Therefore, poisoning (by giving dhatura, a poisonous
substance) was treated as Thuggee though it did not always result in death.

Act XI of 1848 prescribed seven years imprisonment for belonging “to any wandering gang of
persons, associated for the purposes of theft or robbery, not being a gang of thugs or Dacoits”.

Later the relevant parts of these acts were crystallized in sections 310 and 311 of the Indian
Penal Code, 1860. Section 310 defines Thug. It reads as “Whoever at any time after the passing
of this Act, shall have been habitually associated with any other or others for the purpose of
committing robbery or child-stealing by means of or accompanied with murder, is a thug.”
Child-stealing is not defined in the IPC, but it presumably means kidnapping or abduction (s.
359-362). It spells that the association with thugs must be habitual, i.e. regularly for some time.
A casual association is not enough.

Section 311 makes thuggee a culpable offence and lays down the punishment for being a thug. It
states that “Whoever is a thug, shall be punished with transportation for life, and shall also b
liable to fine.” The word “transportation” was replaced by “imprisonment” by Act 26 of 1955.
Section 311 prescribes punishment of imprisonment for life and fine for being a thug. The
offence is cognizable, non-bailable, non-compoundable and triable by the Court of Sessions.

9
 CONCLUSION

The thugs were widespread in many parts of the country. Numerous measures were taken by the
English East India Company to uproot the menace. Notable among them was the formation of
Thuggee Department. The application of force against the thugs was judged as a partial remedy
and later the need of a statute was recognized. The efforts culminated in the formation of Act
XXX of 1836 which is referred to as the Thuggee Act. This Act empowered the courts to punish
people associated with Thuggee. This Act had set a very significant precedent for the
formulation of legal provisions to try ‘criminal-communities’. During the course of their trials
many limitations of the Thuggee Act came to the forefront. For this reason many later statutes
and amendments were passed relating to thuggee and dacoity. Though the chapter of Thuggee is
now closed, it remains an important aspect in the history of India and these acts inadvertently
contributed to the growth of legal principles in India and affected the law making in the
nineteenth century. Some of these legal principles have been modified and embedded into
various laws particularly the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.

10
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Singha, Radhika A Despotism of Law: Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India
(Chennai, Oxford University Press, 2000)
 Robb, Peter A History of India 2nd Editioc (New York, Palgrave, 2003)
 Wolpert, Stanley A New History of India 3rd Edition (New York, Oxford University
Press, 1989)
 Gaur, K. D. A textbook on the Indian Penal Code 2nd Edition (New Delhi, Universal
Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., 2003)
 Llyod, Tom Acting in the “ Theatre of Anarchy”: The 'Anti-Thug Campaign' and
Elaborations of Colonial Rule in Early Nineteenth Century India (University of
Edinburgh)
 Bandopadhyay, Shekar From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India (New
Delhi, Orient Longman Pvt. Ltd., 2004)
 Bashi, S. R. Governor-Generals and Viceroys of India (New Delhi, K. K.
Publications, 2006)
 Nelson, R. A. Indian Penal Code 9th Edition (Ed. Sarvaria, S. K., New Delhi, Lexis
Nexis, 2003)
 Sleeman, W. H. Ramaseeana: Or A Vocabulary of the Peculiar Languages used by
the Thugs, with an Introduction and Appendix descriptive of the System pursued that
by fraternity and of the measures which have been adopted by the Supreme
Government of India for its Suppression (Calcutta, Military Orphan Press, 1836)
 Smith, V. A. The Oxford History of India 4th Edition (Ed. Percival Spear, Chennai,
Oxford University Press, 2001)

11
12