Free World Famous Cults and Fanatics by Colin Wilson

Ismailis no longer committed murder, they were still fanatically devoted to their chief. Fraser also commented that there were Ismailis in India too. This raises a fascinating
question: whether the Assassins of the Middle East formed a liaison with their Indian counterparts, the Thugs. When William Sleeman was investigating the Thugs in the nineteenth century, he was
puzzled why, although they were Moslems, they worshipped the Hindu goddess Kali. One captured Thug explained that Kali was identical with Fatima, the murdered daughter of the Prophet . . .
    The Thugs (pronounced “tug”) came to the attention of Europe after the British annexation of India in the late eighteenth century. At first, the conquerors noted simply that the
roads of India seemed to be infested with bands of robbers who strangled their victims. In 1816, a doctor named Robert Sherwood, stationed in Madras, induced some of these robbers to talk to him
about their religion. His article “On the Murderers Called Phansigars” appeared in Asiatic Researches in 1820, and caused some excitement. Sherwood alleged that the phansigars or
Thugs (phansi means a noose; thug means cheat) committed murders as a religious duty, and that their aim was the actual killing, rather than the robbery that accompanied it.
    The bizarre story caught the imagination of the English, and the word “thug” soon passed into the language. The Thugs, according to Sherwood, lived quietly in their native villages
for most of the year, fulfilling their duties as citizens and fathers in a manner that aroused no suspicion. But in the month of pilgrimage (usually November-December) they took to the roads and
slaughtered travellers – always taking care to be at least a hundred miles from home.
    The method was always the same. The advance guard would locate a band of travellers, then one or two of the Thugs would approach the group and ask if they might travel with it – for
protection. A few days later, a few more Thugs would make the same request. This would continue until there were more Thugs than travellers. The killing usually took place in the evening, when the
travellers were seated around the fire. At a given signal, three Thugs would take their place behind each victim. One of them would pass the strangling cloth (or ruhmal ) around the
victim’s neck; another would grab his legs and lift them clear of the ground; the third would seize his hands or kneel on his back. Usually, it was all over within seconds. The bodies of the
victims were then hacked and mutilated to prevent recognition, and to make them decompose more quickly. The legs were cut off; if there was time, the whole body might be dismembered. Then it was
buried. It was now time for the most important part of the ritual – the ceremony known as Tuponee. A tent was usually erected – to shield the Thugs from the sight of travellers. The kussee , the consecrated pickaxe (their equivalent of the Christian cross), was placed near the grave: the Thugs sat around in a group. The leader prayed to Kali for wealth and success. A
symbolic strangling was enacted, and then all who had taken an active part in the murder ate the “communion sugar” ( goor ), while the chief poured consecrated water on the grave. One of the captured Thugs told Sleeman: “Let any man once taste of that goor and he will be a Thug, though he know all the trades and have all the wealth of the world.”
    William Sleeman was a captain in the British army; born in St Tudy, Cornwall, he had served in India since 1809. He was fascinated by Sherwood’s paper, and in the early 1820s, he began to
study the Thugs in the Nerbudda valley. The revelations he made in 1829 caused a sensation throughout India. Sleeman revealed that Thuggee was not a local religious sect, but a nationwide
phenomenon that claimed the lives of thousands of travellers every year. Sleeman became the acknowledged authority on the subject, and in 1830, Lord William