Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Act
Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Act 1836–48 in British India under East India Company rule were a series of legal acts that prohibited thugee
Introduction Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Act 1836–48 in British India under East India Company rule were a series of legal acts that prohibited thugee—a training in North and Central India including burglary and ritualized murder and mutilation on parkways—and dacoity, a type of banditry pervasive in a similar district, and recommended discipline for something similar. Thugs were the hereditary assassins who used to mislead individuals and choke them to death with their Pugree...
Introduction
Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Act 1836–48 in British India under East India Company rule were a series of legal acts that prohibited thugee—a training in North and Central India including burglary and ritualized murder and mutilation on parkways—and dacoity, a type of banditry pervasive in a similar district, and recommended discipline for something similar.
Thugs were the hereditary assassins who used to mislead individuals and choke them to death with their Pugree or knives. They used to go in Gangs, camouflaged as vendors or explorers. They were bound together by a vow on the rituals of their divinity goddess Kali. “Thug” is derived from “Sthag” of Sanskrit, which signifies “tricky“.[1]
In the eradication of Thugs, alongside William Bentinck, another name is remembered. This capable official was William Henry Sleeman. At first, he was a soldier and later turned into a manager. In 1835, the ‘Thuggee and Dacoity Dept‘ was made by William Bentinck, and William Henry Sleeman was made its director. He was subsequently advanced as its commissioner in 1839. The thorough tasks under Sleeman prompted the catch of 1400 Thugs who were hanged by the public authority or shipped forever.
A unique jail was set up at Jabalpur for Thugs. The explanation of this was the mindfulness by the Government. The office began dispersing data about the Thugee and at each Police Station or Thana, the data about the new procedures by the Thugs would be sent. The explorers were cautioned.[2]
Historicizing the Thugs
The first common interaction that the Britishers had with the thugs was the information that was being obtained through a deep network of thugs who were recruited for the job. It is believed that after the Battle of Buxar in 1765, the East India Company was handed a toxic goblet, which was of immense value to the Indian soil and its people.
It was during the nineteenth century that the Britishers encountered the true diversity and richness of India. India was encountering the fall of the Mughals along with the vacuum created by the Maratha Confederacy. This act of the British sowing their seeds in India went not only till affecting the urban trading towns but also to the peripheries. This was a time when thugs saw an opportunity to establish themselves and create terror among the masses.
Act XXX, 1836
Description: Provides for the trial and punishment of Thugs.
Passed 14 November 1836.[3]
This act’s main intention was to provide trial and punishment for the thugs. Since thuggee was a relatively new concept, a sanction for the same was necessary. Thugs considered the hard-earned money of the innocent civilians to be their own and were harassing them in any and every way possible. It was hereby enacted, that if an individual was proved to have any connection, either before or after the passing of this act, with any Thugs or gangs, then that individual would be punished with imprisonment for life, along with hard labour.
Act XVIII, 1839
Description: Provides for the trial of people blamed for murder by Thuggee. Passed 15 July 1839.
This act mainly dealt with the procedure for the trial of individuals who were accused of indulging in the practice of thugee. It was hereby enacted, that any individual blamed for the offense of murder by Thuggee, might be brought by any Court which would have been able to attempt him if his offense had been submitted inside the Zillah where that Court sits, anything contained in any Regulation or Regulations, in actuality, notwithstanding.[4]
Act XVIII, 1843
Title or Description: An Act for the better guardianship of people sentenced for Thuggee and Dacoity. Passed 9 September 1843.
Whereas it regularly happens that the offenses of Thuggee and Dacoity are submitted by packs, also inside the Territories subject to the Government of the East India Company, as in those of Native Princes, or States in coalition with the said Company, and it very well might be important, for the wellbeing of people and property inside the Territories subject to the Government of the East India Company, that people sentenced for the like offenses, inside the Territories of such Princes or States, ought to be kept in secure guardianship, which is impossible inside the last referenced Territories.
Act XIV, 1844
Description: An Act for controlling the procedures of the Sudder Courts of Ft. William, Ft. St. George, Bombay, and at Agra concerning sentences of Transportation forever. Passed 6 July 1844.
This act was enacted on 6th July 1844 by Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough. This act emphasized the regulation of proceedings under the jurisdiction of the Sudder Courts of Fort William, Fort George of Bombay, and Agra with respect to sentences of Transportation of Life.
It was hereby enacted, that inside the domains subject to the Government of the East India Company, at whatever point any of the Sudder Courts will condemn any guilty party to detainment forever, it will simultaneously condemn such wrongdoer to transportation past Sea forever, except if there ought to be exceptional reasons inciting the Court to think such detainee not a legitimate subject for transportation, which extraordinary reasons the Court is hereby coordinated to record.
Act III, 1848[5]
Description: An Act for eliminating questions concerning the significance of the words ” Thug” and “Thuggee” and the articulation “Murder by Thuggee” when utilized in the Acts of the Council of India.
Passed: 26 February 1848.
Enacted by: Governor-General of India, Lord Dalhousie, in Council.
This act was an Act to remove doubts as to the meaning of the words ” Thug” and “Thuggee” and the expression “Murder by Thuggee” when used in the Acts of the Council of India. It was hereby proclaimed and enacted, that the word ” Thug,” when used in any Act until now passed by the Council of India, will be interpreted to have implied and as meaning an individual who is, or has whenever been routinely connected with some other or others to submit, by implies expected by such individual or known by such individual to probably cause the demise of any individual, the offense of Child-kidnapping, or the offense of Robbery not adding up to Dacoity.
Act XI, 1848[6]
Title or description: An Act for the punishment of meandering Gangs of Thieves and Robbers.
Passed: 20 May 1848.
Enacted by: Governor-General of India, Lord Dalhousie, in Council.
While it is convenient to expand a portion of the arrangements of the Law for the conviction of Thugs and Dacoits to different groups of Thieves and Robbers, It is enacted, as follows: Whosoever will be demonstrated to have had a place, either previously or after the death of this Act, to any meandering posse of people, related for the motivations behind burglary or theft, not being a group of Thugs of Dacoits, will be rebuffed with detainment, with hard work, for any term not surpassing seven years.
Impact of Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Act
With the passing of these administrative acts, the British authorities started methodically taking action against thuggee and dacoity groups in regions under their influence. Those individuals who were caught by them turned into informants to get a less and lenient sentence from the courts.[7]
The informants who were caught also ended up being significant resources in the chase after the thuggee groups. Refuges and anybody who was seen nearby there were wiped out and the survivors were brought to trial. The sentences went from life sentence to death by hanging, contingent upon the seriousness of their crimes.
By the 1870s the Thugs were basically eradicated, however, the historical backdrop of Thuggee prompted the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) of 1871. Albei,t the CTA was revoked at Indian autonomy, clans considered crooks actually exist in India. The Thuggee and Dacoity Department stayed present until 1904 when it was supplanted by the Central Criminal Intelligence Department (CID)[8]
[1] Singha, Radhika (February 1993), ” ‘Providential’ Circumstances: The Thuggee Campaign of the 1830s and Legal Innovation”, Modern Asian Studies, 27 (1, Special Issue: How Social, Political and Cultural Information Is Collected, Defined, Used and Analyzed): 83–146, doi:10.1017/s0026749x00016085
[2] Sleeman, Sir William Henry (1849). Report on Budhuk alias Bagree decoits, and other gang robbers by hereditary profession: and on the measures adopted by the government of India, for their suppression. J.C. Sherriff. p. 354. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
[3] Field, Charles Dickenson (1870). Chronological table of, and index to, the Indian statute-book from the year 1834: with a general introduction to the statute law of India. London: Butterworths. p. 30. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
[4] Sleeman 1849, pp. 353–354
[5] Wagner, Kim A. “Thuggee and Social Banditry Reconsidered.” The Historical Journal, vol. 50, no. 2, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 353–76, Available here.
[6] Naronha, Rita, and Ameeta Singh. “THUGGEE — THE RELIGION OF MURDER IN CENTRAL INDIA.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 62, Indian History Congress, 2001, pp. 400–13, Available here.
[7] Singha, Radhika. “‘Providential’ Circumstances: The Thuggee Campaign of the 1830s and Legal Innovation.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 83–146, Available here.
[8] Brown, Mark. “CRIME, GOVERNANCE AND THE COMPANY RAJ: The Discovery of Thuggee.” The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 42, no. 1, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 77–95, Available here.
Antariksh Anant
Antariksh is a Law student at RGNUL - Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law Patiala, Punjab, India.
