Thug: The True Story of India's Murderous Cult

by Mike Dash

Never in recorded history has there been a group of murderers as deadly as the Thugs. For nearly two centuries, groups of these lethal criminals haunted the roads of India, slaughtering travellers whom they met along the way with such efficiency that over the years tens of thousands of men, women and children simply vanished without trace. Mike Dash, one of our best popular historians, has devoted years to combing archives in both India and Britain to discover how the Thugs lived and worked. Painstakingly researched and grippingly written. Thug tells, for the first time the full story of the Thugs' rise and fall from its beginnings in the late seventeenth century to its eventual demise at the hands of British officer William Sleeman, in 1840.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, India, True Crime, Crime, 19th Century, Religion

356 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Mike Dash, the author of Tulipomania, Batavia's Graveyard, Thug, Satan's Circus and now The First Family, was born, in 1963, just outside London, and educated at Gatow School, Berlin, Wells Cathedral School, Somerset, and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history and ran the Cambridge student magazine. From there he moved on to King's College, London, where in 1990 he completed an unusually obscure PhD thesis describing British submarine policy between the Crimean and the First World Wars.

Dash's first job, for which he was thoroughly unqualified, was compiling about a quarter of the entries for Harrap's Dictionary of Business and Finance (1988), a volume that he researched via clandestine meetings in a London Spud-U-Like with a college friend who had gone into banking. From there, he began a six-year career in journalism book-ended by stints as a gossip columnist for Fashion Weekly and a section editor at UK Press Gazette, the journalists' newspaper.

While still at UKPG, Dash took a phone call from John Brown, the maverick publisher of Viz, who asked him to suggest the names of some possible magazine publishers with an editorial background and some knowledge of the newstrade, Unsurprisingly nominating himself, Dash found himself hired to take over the eccentric portfolio of Viz Comic and Gardens Illustrated.

Dash's first book, The Limit (1995), was published by BBC Books and his second, Borderlands (1997) by Heinemann. He has since written five works of historical non fiction, all of them acclaimed for combining detailed original research with a compelling narrative style.

Having written his first three books while still with John Brown Publishing, Dash has been a full-time writer since 2001. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.

'History doesn't get much more readable.'
New York Daily News

'Dash writes with unabashedly cinematic flair, backed by meticulous research.'
New York Times

'Dash captures the reader with narrative based on dogged research, more richly evocative of character and place than any fiction, and so well written he is impossible to put down.'
The Australian

'An indefatigable researcher with a prodigious descriptive flair.'
Sunday Telegraph

'Dash writes the best kind of history: detailed, imaginative storytelling founded on vast knowledge.'
Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Reviews

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dash is a good writer, did extensive research and its a fascinating subject. The only fault this book has is he goes overboard trying to debunk historical records from people who were there at the time these murders were occuring that there were religious overtones to the killings. Dash, like seemingly all modern academics, only sees economic motivations for everything that ever happened in all of history. Overall a very interesting book though.

[E. Kahn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The thing about a history book is that even if it's well researched, well written and entertaining, it's still going to be an abject failure if it's not, you know, true.

A large part of current academic thought on the Thuggee is that, to put it succinctly, the whole thing was a load of lurid horseshit invented by ambitious British functionaries in India and exploited by the East India Company and Christian missionaries to promote the view that the Indians were bloodthirsty heathens incapable of governing themselves and really needed white men in charge and a healthy dose of Jesus. There may be a credible case to be made that the Thuggee did exist; this book does not make it.

Time and again, Dash insists on the unimpeachability of investigators and alleged eyewitnesses that recall the worst and most notorious miscarriages of justice from the Inquisition and witch hunts all the way down to the Stalinist purges. As Dash acknowledges, the whole "investigation" depended entirely on captured informants whose families received stipends in exchange for the prisoners' cooperation in bringing in yet more alleged cultists. It is a familiar story in the age of for-profit prisons, as vagrants, itinerant workers, low-caste people and other "undesirables" were enslaved in all but name, forced to work in the most appalling conditions or transported to do forced labor in the jungles of Malaya for the colonists' profit.

Here's a protip: If a writer complains that his views are unpopular because of "political correctness" in the introduction, it's more than likely that you're reading a book of racist fiction.

[Adiel Simick lepcha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives a chilling account of the life and the modus operandi of the thugs or thuggee .A 600 year old secret cult of professional assassins ,suppressed during the East India Company Raj, who killed only for the sake of pleasing their presiding deity.Such was their notoriety that the English imbibed the word "thug" into their dictionary and is used till this day...

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent well written history book, that shows a side of India neglected in most academic and popular histories of the sub-continent. This book manages to analyse the thugs in their indian social context and the British response to it in it's social context, while using the colonisation of India as a background. But the best part is that the author manages to unravel the romantaicised image of the Thug but at the same time shows how it came to exist in the first place. I recommand this book to anyone who is interested in colonisation history/ history of India/ history of crime and criminal networks/ history of law and anyone interested in reading a good, well documented history book.

[Robert Ottoboni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just in case you wanted to know everything there was to know about Thugee in a detailed history of how British authorities first encountered, then documented and eventually eradicated an underground economy based the efficient and organized murder of strangers met on the roads.

[Torgo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book about a kind of obscure part of history. I liked this in particular because I know almost nothing about British India, I may have to read up some more about it. This was a great book because it covered two of my favourite genres: killers & history.
It's basically about this network of 'Thugs' who travelled around the roads in old India strangling thousands of people and taking all their stuff. Very interesting.
As with most historical books, the author went a little overboard with the notes & references section at the back. I wish authors would use that space to tell more of the story, and instead just have a brief URL on the last page for more info (I've seen some authors actually do this). Can't believe I found this book in a thift store for $3! I'd also recommend Dash's book "Batavia's Graveyard" which is one of my all-time favourite historical novels.

[Rahul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently being made into a movie in India starring Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

[Shane Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A disturbing read on the Thugs....gruesome stuff which we can thank the British authorities for ending......

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read of an interesting part of Indian history. Could if been more expansive however.

[Sai Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book my Mike Dash. I have never read anything more riveting in the history of medieval india.

[Ani Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling read for the interested. Seems to have handled the "facts" and "controversies", but from a colonial perspective.

[Julien Saint-Clemente · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book , from the start to finish the explanation from the Sleeman and others are very good and very well explained . Much more info than i was thinking about , very good book !

[Manish · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://manishmohandas.com/2025/09/29...

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had wanted to read for a long time and Bill bought it for me as a surprise for my birthday. The most annoying thing about this book was not the fault of the author however, but the publishers. Instead of putting in endnotes, they simply put the notes in the back, with the italicised word next to it that it had preceded. I'm sure this is designed to be not as distracting for the reader, but I found it incredibly frustrating. It seemed like bad historical methodology to have no clue as to which bits were taken from sources and which bits were the author's opinions. Obviously this book was not intended for a scholarly audience, however in the introduction he mentioned some of the current scholarly works on the subject and the debate on certain issues. Dash argued that his efforts were based on extensive study of the primary sources, however the style presented in this book made this all but impossible to verify. The suspicious part of me thinks perhaps as he published in this format his arguments were less compelling, or perhaps he was simply trying to reach a wider audience as some of his other works had been best sellers, according to the back. The book gave an overview of the Tugs activities in the early part of the 19th century and the Company's reaction to them. It told the story from both sides, and gave a lot of background information for those not familiar with India at this time. The "cult" came across not as a cult at all, despite the use of the word in the title, but rather as a well-organised, and defined criminal gang. The activities towards the end resembled the American Mafia more than anything else I could think of. This struck me as rather strange having read much about religious criminal gangs in China during the same time period I was expecting to see more of a cross over between the groups and the way they were treated. I think part of the problem with this was the lack of discussion about how the interviews with arrested cult members went and how their information was to be judged. Dash's focus was entirely on the secular side. The importance of religion to the cult now seems to be regarded as a European invention. Kali was only discussed on a handful of pages. He mentioned how the Thugs would dedicate their grave digging weapons to Kali, but said how she usually the goddess worshiped by criminals and so that this was not unique. One thing he mentioned but failed to analyse was the fact that the criminals said they only followed the Goddess when they were actually on the Thug missions, and when they went home and when they were captured they ceased their worship of her. This was fascinating, as it leads to so many questions about the nature of religion in India at this time. How deities were worshiped, what purpose did they serve, what was the relation between them? It was also interesting as it shows that the worship of the goddess was closely linked with the activities they were performing and was outside their everyday sphere of religious experience. It also contradicts what became the largest reason for persecution that Seeman (the head Englishman in charge of the elimination of the cult) gave which was that those who Thugged would stay Thugs forever and so could not be released back into society. Dash also denied the worship of the deity as a proper religion. He wrote how their faith "hardly constituted a religion. The gangs possessed no religious texts, had no agreed forms of worship, and while they certainly shared belief that the goddess protected them, they held this belief in common with thousands of ordinary Indians" (228). To me, like those who magnified the importance of the religion, seems also to show a distorted Western approach to what religion means. Rather than simply dismissing it because it doesn't fit with preconceived ideas it would be fascinating to look at what it did mean to them, and how they practised it and what it showed. I am really hoping that I am able to find another scholar who has addressed some of these questions in their work. I think it would be very helpful and increase my own understanding of similar practices in China and well as greatly increasing my understanding of Indian religion which at the moment is virtually non-existent. Dash gave a detailed description of main people involved, and what the events surrounding them. I did learn a lot however; it left me with a great deal of unanswered questions, particularly about the use of religion and popular religion in India during this time. But as it made me want to go on and read more, it definitely a book I'm glad that I read.

[Rajiv · Rating 4 out of 5]

An astonishing and a startling book…..

An interestingly written book which is captivating ! A large, secret cult who strangled thousands of travellers in not so past…..

[Scottloar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thuggee, or strangulation for robbery, was the modus operandi of organized groups of murderers active for about two centuries in Northern and Central India before eradicated, prompted by the efforts of one Willam Sleeman of the East India Company who was the first outsider to recognize the cult, identify its common methods and infrastructure, and ultimately track the members to the full destruction of the practice. Traveling in gangs of up to 20 or 40 members and often combining with other Thug (pronounced as "tug") gangs they would inveigle travelers and at an opportune moment strangle the victims for robbery. After piercing the eyes to ensure death the stomach would be slashed to prevent gases from bloating the body, and the corpse buried in graves for that purpose or dumped into wells; it was the discovery of many such corpses in wells within Sleeman's area of responsibility which attracted his interest,and once intuiting the scale of such organized murder prompted him to uncover the practice of Thuggee and work to its destruction. Like most gangs, the association of thugs was driven by need, not belief or creed, and oftentimes a seasonal calling.

A good, detailed read on a subject few now recognize as the genesis of the common English word "thug".

[SANTOSH REDDY · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though Meadows Taylors "CONFESSIONS OF A THUG" is the standard /reference book on thugs/thugee,Mr Dash has elaborated much on the history ,evolution of thugee.Not many people in India know that such gangs roamed the roads of the subcontinent.Due to the efforts of Britishers/officials like William Sleeman THUGEE was suppressed in India.

[Kuldip S Attalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thugs! A Gripping Read.
Enthralling ... What is easily the best and most judicious book on this bizarre, yet well and painstakingly researched.
Highly recommended.

[Anirudh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very engaging historical non-fiction narrative. Though there are a few factual conflicts, Mr. Dash has done a great job of ferreting out information and making a compelling story out of it.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing account of a India's murderous cult, which was not actually a cult, and the efforts of the British to suppress it. The book presents a fascinating vision of a country in transition.

[Tom Webster · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for Thug. Sadly they weren't quite reached.
A decent read nonetheless.

[Daniel]

Very interesting.