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The Thugs

India's Cult of Treacherous Thieves

Sicily gave us the mafia, Missouri the James gang. India gave us the thugs. They were fearsome, lethal . . . and more than a little weird.

The thugs were a secret society of thieves who worshiped the Hindu goddess of destruction, Kali. They operated not by ambush but by infiltration. Members of a thug band would join a party of travelers and befriend them. When the moment was right on some remote stretch of road, they would strangle their prey with "Kali's skirt hem," a strip of cloth.

Beginning in the 13th Century A.D., hundreds of thugs during any given period were operating in various groups across India. Their organization was masterful. Thugs could recognize brother and sister cult members (yes—there were lady thugs) from different regions by speech codes. They paid local officials to turn a blind eye and shield them from higher authorities. Interestingly, the thugs—like Robin Hood, the James/Younger gang, Pretty Boy Floyd and other outlaw legends—reputedly robbed only the well-to-do.

Their centuries of unique depredation rapidly ended between 1828 and 1837, when the British East India Company appointed Sir William Henry Sleeman to eradicate them. Working with village and territorial police, Sleeman's force rounded up thousands of suspected thugs and their relatives. More than 400 were hanged, others slain on the road. Some 3,000 were jailed. Heavy-handed? Perhaps. But the reign of the thugs on India's byways effectively was squelched.

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