the indian thugs by david arthur walters

8/6/2019 The Indian Thugs by David Arthur Walters

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THE INDIAN THUGSFrom KALI by David Arthur Walters

PORTRAYED BY MEN AS GHASTLY, ghoulish, and gruesome, and even more sowhen her consort Siva is absent, the goddess Kali is perceived not only as the protector of the criminally oppressed but also as the consummate patroness of organizedcriminals. That being said, it would be unbecoming of us to refrain from discussing herethe ancient society of sadistic murderers who were most devoted to her, namely, thePhansigars (stranglers), also known as the Thugs (deceivers).

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Much of what we know about the Thugs is due to the investigations of Sir William HenrySleeman. He came to India in 1809 at the age of twenty-one to serve as an infantrycadet in the East India Company's Bengal army. During 1814-16, he participated in theNepal war campaigns as a young officer. In 1820, he became a district officer for thecivil service; his duties in the new territories of Central India entailed the collection of land revenues and the administration of justice.

In 1826, Sleeman accidentally stumbled upon evidence of what he later said was "themost dreadful and extraordinary system recorded in the history of the human race", anancient cult of organized criminals who strangled, robbed, and buried their victims:some Thugs confessed to having personally strangled up to a thousand victims; a Thugnamed Buhram said he strangled 931. And all this was performed as a religious ritualdedicated to Kali.

The mounting evidence collected by Sleeman prompted him to lead a 12-year effort thatsuppressed and eventually broke up the Thug network. In 1835, he was appointedSuperintendent of the Thuggee Department, where he coordinated his operations. Hisspecially trained police squads were effective, as were his interrogations methods andthe extraordinary judicial procedures he urged upon the courts. Another major factor leading to the Thug's downfall was the cracking of their code: Sleeman published aglossary of their argot under the title of Ramaseeana in 1836: an expression, for example, such as "Pass the tobacco" could mean "Strangle him now."

The Thugs themselves attributed their downfall to the violation of religious principles,especially the prohibition against killing females. Of course, members of the Thug classwere also exempted. Furthermore, a Thug must not kill a Brahman, for they are pure,nor should he murder sweepers and washers or the maimed and sick, for they areimpure. There must be no stealing from or killing of people where they reside: only

travelers are fair game. Tigers, admired for their bloodlust and cruelty, must also bespared. And, perhaps for reasons more secular than spiritual, Europeans must not bemurdered. However, the love of riches eventually took precedence over scruples, andmany a member of protected species gasped their last breath under the most infamousof neckties, the white or yellow 'rumal,' a handkerchief said to be the hem of Kali's skirt.A Thug would relax the initial choke hold for a moment to let Kali in so she could fullyenjoy the rich person being strangled of all his worldly possessions including his body.

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The Stranglers were true to their name, Thugs, or Deceivers, given to them byoutsiders. They were an amiable and gregarious lot, nice guys who could befriend eventhe wariest of travelers just to relieve them of their fortunes and lives. They did not askfor much: they just took everything. Accompanying the travelers on their journey, havingencountered them on the roads or at inns, the Thugs enjoyed socializing with themwhile secretly relishing the plan to bring the party to its last gasp, pocket the goods, andgive the remains to Kali. This all might be accomplished under the noses of Britishtroops camping within earshot, with nary a sound of alarm being heard.

Only Kali knew in advance whom would be selected for the next contribution: the Thugsrelied on her signs or omens for guidance. Life or death might depend on the way a wolf crosses the road; the left side is feminine and therefore evil: if the wolf crosses from leftto right, the quarry should be abandoned to another fate. A pair of jackals crossing theroad together in either direction spells prisons and chains. The noise of jackals fightingat night is a very bad omen, as is two owls calling each other, the cry of a kite beforedawn, the untimely croak of a crow, and whatnot. When a man's adrenaline is up duringthe hunt, his memory is aggravated to perchance endow with portentous significance,and thereby commemorate, some fortuitous and otherwise insignificant detail. Henceideas of good and evil begin to evolve.

We moderns may mock the Thugs for their acquired superstitions, yet when doing sowe should consider our own credulity as we pore over our advanced charts to divine thefuture with all the advantages of supercomputers and scientific statistical analysis. Nomatter how insignificant some detail might seem to be, it may indeed be the verymissing clue that eludes us because of our ignorance. Modern complexity theoristshave opined, for instance, that the flap of a butterfly's wings in China may lead to somedisaster around the world; that should not amaze us in view of the vast distances a

monarch butterfly can fly by ordinary means. The world is awfully complex and so isman, a microcosm thereof. The Thugs loved to hunt him because he is the mostdangerous and unpredictable of animals. One never knows. Perhaps our fate mighthinge on the hoot of an owl, given the relevant circumstances.

The Thugs were not supposed to shed blood, at least not indiscriminately. Theyabhorred blood and everything contaminated by it. They had the usual superstitionsconcerning menstruation, deflowering, and birth. And the corpses of those who died of natural causes or by someone else's hand were also abhorred. However, to feed Kali,Thugs knifed and bled the bodies of their victims into the graves dug with the "tooth" of Kali, the sacred phallic pickaxe, thus remitting the lifeblood into the gaping holes,returning it to Black Mother's tellurian filter. Furthermore, time permitting, they ate andslept amongst their victim's corpses, tarrying to admire without remorse their handiwork.Although Thugs are loving brothers, husbands, and fathers, they are taught at a veryearly age to feel no compassion for their victims and to have no guilt after the dastardlydeed is done. Quite to the contrary: having once partaken in the yellow-sugar ritual, the

joy of murder is in their blood, the sadistic ecstasy of it would not be traded for any other profession. Indeed, if captured, Thugs tend to waste away and die in prison for want of Kali's love.

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As for the consecrated corpses, they are handed over to Kali not merely as bribes inexchange for filthy lucre but as thanksgiving offerings. For Kali already owns everything:she is the Mother of the Universe. The Thugs are merely doing her bidding and thankingher for the bounteous booty. They are simply Kali's little helpers, helping to keep the

creative-destructive process going by releasing the creative energies trapped by thebodies of those to be murdered. Since the blood is considered contaminated by thebody, both are inedible and must be returned to Earth; on the other hand, the righthand, consecrated edible things are to be offered to Heaven according to the sacredcookbooks composed in ancient times by the holy cooks. Of course the drained bodiesmight be eaten, but that would not perpetuate the Cosmic Process as it is perceived bythe Thugs. Hence they do not consume the Sacred Corpus, or Siva, for that belongs toKali. They only share in the loot taken: it is shared communally by equal distribution, or on a graduated union scale proportionate to the skill and functional valuation of thelabor divisions.

The Thugs used a myth to explain their preference for strangulation. A monster wasdevouring mankind, so Kali cut it in half with her sword. But from every drop shed, anew demon sprung up. Since Kali could not keep up with the generations issuing fromher bloody endeavor, she created two men and gave them a 'rumal' cut from her skirt tostrangle the demons with. First of all, she taught them the fine art of strangulation,fashioning clay dummies to practice on. The victims must be deceived into a falsesense of security. The apprentice holds the victim's arms while the journeymanstrangles him. And other such niceties must be learned. When the apprentices hadcompleted the educational requirements and had finished strangling the demons, Kalicommanded them to keep the 'rumal' and to pass it and the trade down to their heirs.The heirs were of all castes, including the Brahman caste; and many Thugs wereMoslems who believed Kali was Fatima. Kali also presented the Thugs with the sacred

pickaxe to bury the dead; one of the men had looked back and caught her devouring thecorpses: she therefore ordered the Thugs to cut and bury the bodies thereafter.

The myth, not surprisingly, bears a paradox. Kali proceeds to kill demons to savemankind from being devoured by them, yet men wind up being strangled at her behest,and she is seen eating them, thus she proceeds from apparent good to obvious evil.The distinctions between demons and men become blurred for some reason or another

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that we must either find or devise. One possible moral of the story is how best intentionsare roads to hell when a good thing is carried too far, or a story of good running amok.Or, perhaps what seemed good in the first place was originally evil, and the viciousbattle of evils will someday result in a single controlling evil to be revealed as the goodfinal cause. Every god needs his devil.

In another version of the myth, Siva, the god of destruction, to forestall total destructionand therefore save his job, lays down with the slain and plays dead. When Kali happensupon him during her feasting, she is astonished to see her own husband beneath her;she had forgotten him during her orgy of consumption (Kali is a consumer par excellence with unlimited credit unless contained by Siva). To please her consort, nakedKali donned a girdle of severed arms (a display of false modesty) ornamented herself with other gruesome decorations, and, then and there, mounted Siva to creatively revivehim: without Kali, so it is said, Siva is a corpse. Kali is often portrayed standing on thewhite corpse of Siva with her tongue sticking way out. We believe Aryan attorneys,probably Brahmans, in order to cover up the brutal rape of Kali, composed this versionof the myth for Siva, the district attorney for Saivism. But more on that later; suffice it tosay here that Kali is not sitting on Siva in that particular pose, and that her tongue isprotruding in a gesture of supreme contempt, not the erotic rapture claimed by Aryansophists.

During his interviews of confessed Thugs, Colonel Sleeman diligently inquired into their religious philosophy. He was informed that Kali makes Thugs do things for which theywill not be punished in the next world or life. The victims are not strangled by Thugs butare killed by Kali: Thugs are merely the instruments of her will. Refusing to kill woulddeeply offend her. According to the Moslem Thugs, Kali cannot be an enemy of their god for she would not be tolerated as such; god commands them to love her; she exists

by virtue of his love: that is, God loves Satan or there would be no Satan. As for theplunder, it is not stolen but is god's gift. And, Thuggee cannot be stamped out becauseit is the work of god. As one Thug put it, "If Thugs were not meant to be, why have theysurvived for generations?" In fact, their great prince, Feringeea, was a descendent of 11generations of Brahman Thugs. Again, Thugs are assisting Kali, who is also known asBhavani (giver-of-existence), the Creatrix, wife of Bhava (becoming), the form of Rudrawho protects those who sacrifice and kills those who do not. And again, the Thugs'misfortunes are caused by failing to pay attention to omens and for murdering without

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distinction-especially for killing women and Brahmans-religion can never fail provided itis properly observed.

Colonel Sleeman was not very interested in the Thug's professed relationship to their gods, but rather in the practical effects of their religion. Many British authorities believedThugs existed because the Indians were inherently debased and forever perverted by afalse religion. But Sleeman had a sociological perspective gained from the utilitarianradicals back home. His main concern was the social, political, and economiccircumstances, as probable causes of criminal behavior. He believed Indians are, likeeveryone else, subject to conditions.

For example, although the Moguls had installed an admirable administrative systemadopted from the Persians, without the remains of which the British could not haveeventually gained control, the collapse of the Mughal Empire resulted in a social andpolitical breakdown. Lawlessness prevailed, much to the gratification of its lawlessbeneficiaries. Officials were corrupted, laws were left unenforced, and the police forcewas untrained. Goods had to be transported over long distances through unprotectedareas. The Moguls preferred to invest surplus wealth in such nonproductive showplacesas the Taj Mahal, rather than in public conveyances: inheritance of wealth was severelyrestricted, monuments were erected to glorify the living rather than benefit unknownsuccessors, hence public facilities were already in shambles long before the empire fell.To make things worse, 30,000 Pindaris were riding about in bands of 2,000 to 3,000,ravaging the countryside (the women riding with them were notoriously ruthless).Further complicating matters, tribes of hereditary criminals called Dacoits were wreakingtheir usual havoc.

And there were the Thugs, who were far from being so obvious because they, members

of all castes, blended in with the general population to conduct their nefariousoperations in utter secrecy. Their conduct was too horrible to be credible: who couldbelieve that such an organization really existed and was murdering thousands of peopleannually pursuant to religious principle? The wealthy merchants and landholders whotook kickbacks and the officials who were bribed did not suspect they were dealing witha fraternity to murder the rich and powerful instead of ordinary thieves. That is, exceptfor those Thugs who held responsible positions and who alerted their brothers of upcoming shipments and other golden opportunities.

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Further complicating matters, Kali was not just the collective representative justifyingThug conduct, but was also nearly universally admired by the general population.Furthermore, as intolerant as Hinduism with its rigid caste system may seem to be in itsvertical unity subservient to the Brahman caste, it is amazing tolerant in its horizontaldistribution. In the diversity of its diffusion, almost every type of belief has some form. Alldepends upon which group one is born into. For, "That is how they are", according to anorganic organization that clings to its origin hence does not evolve but revolves in grandcosmic cycles.

As for the British super-caste, the ultimate master race, they were not absolutely evil, for wherever evil exists some good can be found. Conditions in India actually improved inIndia for some residents once the forces of radical political reform from England beganto restrain the British version of Thuggee, unleashed by them for the general plunder of India under yet another name for god. There was, admittedly, a cynical motto recited inrespect to the British government of India: "Do nothing, have nothing done, and letnobody do anything." Yet there were notable exceptions, such as Colonel Sleeman. Hecared not for carousing and womanizing, preferring to take on the "painful and odious"

job of saving thousands of lives from the ravages of Thuggee. His job included diggingup the god-awful evidence. His devoted wife accompanied him on field trips; we canimagine their feelings of revulsion when on one of those trips, after getting up in themorning, a number of bodies were dug up where they were camped.

With that in mind, we are becoming every more suspicious of our presentcircumstances. The more we know, the more justifications we find for our paranoia. Wemust pause here briefly and circumspectly, to make a few broad generalizations.

Somebody has asked: What evil had not been done under the auspices of religion in thename of a cross-dressing male god? We answer: As fantastic as our collectiveimagination may be, we cannot answer that question. But we are willing to speculate on

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the hellfire, to save our own bodies from the holocaust, for he who ignores evil is goodfor nothing. Evil has many disguises. It behooves us to recognize them.

When faith is exalted over works and declared to be the sole means of salvation, whenthe subject of blind faith is a feeling of impenetrable mystery and incomprehensibleignorance, then anything goes, depending only on what is wanted. That is, according tothe inclinations of the people involved, anything goes under the cloaks of religion, evenwhen no religious labels have been sewn onto them. In the Thug's case, the cloak is anoose fashioned from Kali's dress. In any case, a woman is traditionally at fault. As Kali,she is a chthonic goddess who, if she has her own orgiastic way unrestrained by thegod who owns her, would drown the Earth in oceans of blood just to have plenty todrink, being the drunk that she naturally is when left home alone with her inclinations.

Kali is clothed in aspects designed by her consort under the pretext of the spiritualauthority he assumed prior to becoming a god. He also created for his own company avocational caste of tony epigones, fashion designers obsessed with their own sex. Thelines are occasionally altered to fit the superficial trends, but the subtle subtext remainsthe same: woman is addressed as the root of all evil. Well, if she is the root of evil, what,then, are men? Beneath the cosmetic gloss that dazzles the designer with his ownreflection is the misogynist foundation of his self-hatred. Sorry that he was born into theglare to learn the awful anxiety of self-conscious existence, unable to return to thewomb and lose the curse he so artfully conceals to save face, he seeks annihilation byother means. And he blames the whole matter, the material universe, on, in this case,Kali, Black Mother, or on her most conveniently available mundane representative.Sometimes called Kankali, she is an irrational man-eater; a left-handed, left-wingedbloody materialist possessed by demonic natural forces; a damned communist whocraves the cruel justice necessary to equalize the hierarchically arranged patriarchy.

Therefore she and her malignant brood born into assiduously cultivated original sinmust be throttled, or they must be subjected to the laws of sanctified homicide, to justwars.

To ally the basic anxiety, the underlying crisis, the hypocrisy upon which the world turns,sacrifices must be made, enemies within and without must be destroyed. The generalrules of engagement are inscribed upon an epitaph that we paraphrase to wind up thisspeculative interlude. Kill not according to your own will but only upon command.

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Sacrifice your will to authority that you may do your divine duty as a natural born killer on command. Do not ask dumb questions, ethical questions. Fear not your own deathfor all bodies die but souls survive, therefore sacrifice your body to the supremeuncommanded commander for eternal life. Have no regrets, for you are not the realkiller when you follow orders. When in command, spare the obedient and destroy therest until the global imperium is finally imposed as a grand offering to the one and onlygod. Exterminate aliens or recreate them as virtual slaves in your own image. Gather upyour fascist-bundles and offer them to the death-god, that from your bloodlust andbloodshed more Aryan warriors shall spring to let more blood as fertilizer into the earthywomb, into the very graves glorious heroes instinctively dig for themselves. Do erectthese rules as your immortal tombstone.

The downfall of the Thugs was not really due to the violation of the odiouscommandments imputed to Kali. They fell because they acted according to theimputations they slandered her with. She was dressed falsely in the first place. Againand again throughout history, Kali has been defamed and abused. What follows themistreatment is not really her "revenge", but is the justice of the talion principle: murder for murder, blood for blood. Kali does not in fact destroy: she gives forth life andreceives back what is offered to her. When she is abused, the reaction is as terrible asthe action, and of cosmic proportions, for Kali is a cosmic entity. Hence the society thatabuses women will be arrested to the extent of that abuse, making a virtual prison of itself, paying its guards and wardens in blood. The persecution of women and their divinity will eventually bring down not only criminal gangs but entire civilizations.

Yes, Kali does receive what is offered, and she is willing to oblige her offspring to thefull extent of her maya. The bomb-parasts are now bringing atomic bombs to her templelocated in the most fascinating and fantastic country in the history of the world. Indiasurvived for millennia on fire and air, on the chanting of formulae, on a mere word, nay,

on a single primordial syllable, and on the infinite forms of gods energized by their complementary consorts.

And, yes, it has survived on the oppression of women, having substituted the verbalformulae of male magicians for mother's milk. It has also survived enriched by itsresistance to and absorption of wave after wave of alien exploitation of its exotic allures.At last, India has its own nation. Will it be leveled by global blasts or by globalwesternization? Or will Mother India clear a more sacred path to tread and hand theworld a thread by which it can find its way out of the dreadful consuming labyrinth inwhich our children are being fed to the bull, the Minotaur?

Otherwise, when Divine Mother is exploited by whatever means, when Mother Natureand her Psyche are ravaged, mankind will eventually meet itself in a mass grave or in aholocaust. Since man has latitude to contract or extend the gift of life, we might hope todiminish retaliation, the tally or pay back, the body count, by refraining from injusticeand ingratitude, for injustice will always be met with more of the same unless the buckstops somewhere. And, gratitude for what we have should not be diminished by whatwe might want. Somehow, the creative-destructive equation must be tipped in our favor.To that end we present our offerings of love to Kali and her earthly constituents.

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Further Reading:

Those who are keenly interested in the Thugs may consult Sir William Henry Sleeman'swritings for further information. The author George Bruce presents an excellent andthorough account in his book, The Stranglers (Longman's, 1968). Those who prefer historical novels may refer to Captain Meadows Taylor's Confessions of a Thug, firstpublished in 1840.

In 2001, the History Channel in its Organized Crime series included some history of theThugs. The producer responded to the revisionists - "there were no Thugs except in theimagination of the British" - with video from a very old Thug temple. Colonel Sleeman'sfamily was interviewed prior to the filming.

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the indian thugs by david arthur walters

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