Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India

Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies

by Kim A. Wagner

Often described merely as a colonial construction, the phenomenon of thuggee remains one of the more contentious and controversial subjects of Nineteenth-century South Asian History. Based largely on new material, this book constitutes the first in-depth examination of thuggee as a type of banditry, emerging in a specific socio-economic and geographic context. Thuggee was not an essence or a caste-like phenomonon, but a means of obtaining a livelihood reverted to by all strata of Indian society in certain areas. As such it constituted a highly institutionalized practice related to issues of patronage and retainership, identity and legitimacy, and it was defined by the appropriation of high status rituals and the martial ethos. The British usually described the thugs as fanatic assassins and Kali-worshippers, yet Wagner argues that the history of thuggee need no longer be limited to the study of its representation.

Genres: History, India

281 pages, ebook

First published July 12, 2007

About the author

Kim Ati Wagner is a Danish-British historian of colonial India and the British Empire at Queen Mary University of London.

Reviews

[Rajiv Chopra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a most interesting book, as Kim Wagner writes about the practice of Thuggee in a completely new light.

It is very far removed from the versions of the practice written by other authors, as well as by colonials like Sleeman, who was responsible for the eradication of Thuggee.

It definitely is well researched and is eminently readable.

For those who want to read about, and learn about the Thugs of India, this book must be on your list.

[pallav mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book- reads more like a dissertation than a book though. Gives a more holistic picture of the phenomenon than what one gets to read in colonial literature such as Meadows Taylor's fictional work or Sleeman's Rambles..