Thuggee, the controversial cult of ritual highway murderers 'discovered' by the British in early nineteenth-century India, is one of the most sensational and contentious practices in South Asian history. This anthology brings together primary sources from the period of British involvement with thuggee many of which have long languished in the archives. It provides an insight into the production of colonial knowledge and explores how far the authentic voices of the accused thugs could be discerned in the detailed interviews and interrogations conducted by the British. The volume also includes a wide range of popular accounts and academic assessments from 1824 to 2006 shedding light on the shifting interpretations of this custom over the past two centuries.
Edited by:
Wagner
Imprint: OUP India
Dimensions:
Height: 225mm,
Width: 146mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 523g
ISBN: 9780195698152
ISBN 10: 0195698150
Pages: 334
Publication Date: 01 January 2009
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements; Preface; Introduction; Section I: Thuggee in Pre-colonial India; 1: India; 2: Indigenous References; 3: Early European Accounts; Section II: The Discovery of Thuggee; 4: The First British Accounts; 5: Early Measures; 6: Confusion of Terminology: Report of J.W. Laing, 3 April 1810. Complaint of T.H. Ernst, 12 May 1810. Despatch from the Board of Directors, East India Company, 1820; 7: The First Thug Trials; 8: Thuggee in Sindouse; 9: The Phansigars of Southern India; 10: Commencement of Operations; 11: The Anti-thuggee Campaign; 12: The Nineteenth Century; 13: The Twentieth Century; 14: History and the Representation of Thuggee
Kim A. Wagner is Research Fellow at King's College, University of Cambridge.
Reviews for Stranglers and Bandits: A Historical Anthology of Thuggee
This book is an immensely useful reader, primarily for all those interested in the history of the British Raj and the disinformation and repression dynamics functional to the Imperial aims of control and exploitation ... historiographers, students and scholars of Indian or South Asian history will find in this book a very useful compendium of sources addressing the many facets of this intriguing phenomenon Davide Torri, South Asia Research
