Thuggees, a Sanskrit word meaning concealment, were an organized gang of professional assassins – sometimes described as the world's first mafia – who operated from the 13th to the 19th centuries in India. Members of the fanatical religious group, who were infamous for their ritualistic assassinations carried out in the name of the Hindu Goddess Kali, were known as Thugs, a word that passed into common English during the British occupation of India.

Thuggees worked by joining groups of travellers and gaining their trust before surprising them in the night and typically strangling them with a handkerchief or noose, a quick and quiet method, which left no blood and required no special weapons. They would then rob their victim and bury them carefully.

Their crimes involved a high degree of teamwork and co-ordination both during the infiltration phase and at the moment of attack. Each member of the gang had a special function such as luring travellers with charming words, acting as a lookout, or taking the role of the killer.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Thuggees were responsible for approximately two million deaths, however estimations vary widely since there is no reliable source to confirm when the practice first began.

Thuggees and victims

Thuggees typically strangled their victims during the night. Image source: ‘Confessions of a Thug’ (1839) by Taylor, Philip Meadows.

The first known record of the Thugs as an organized group, as opposed to ordinary thieves, is in Ẓiyāʾ-ud-Dīn Baranī's History of Fīrūz Shāh dated to around 1356. Although the Thugs traced their origin to seven Muslim tribes, Hindus also appear to have been associated with them from an early period. The Hindu members worshipped the goddess of destruction and renewal, Kali, and for at least some of the Thuggees, this formed the basis of their actions, as it is said that they believed they were helping Kali maintain the worldly balance of good and evil. However, their Hindu faith was not very different from their contemporary non-Thugs, and the fact that some Thugs were Muslims also complicates the issue.

There is evidence, however, that all Thuggee assassins were united by common superstitions and rituals, which led to the gang being branded a cult or sect. The fraternity possessed a jargon of their own (Ramasi), as well as certain signs by which its members recognized each other in the most remote parts of India. They were also bound by a set of rules, such as the prohibition to steal a person’s property without killing them in accordance with ritual first. Brahmans were not killed because of their purity, killing of the sick was considered an unworthy sacrifice, and women were not killed because they were considered to be incarnations of Kali.

Kali, goddess of destruction and renewal

Kali, goddess of destruction and renewal. Image source.

Membership to the fraternity of Thuggees was often through hereditary lines, passed down from father to son. Others trained with a guru, similar to an apprenticeship, or tried to align themselves with other Thugs in the hope of being recruited. Sometimes the children of travellers who were killed were groomed to become Thugs themselves, as the presence of children would help allay suspicion.

Coloured drawing of two Thugs pointing upwards to the sky to distract their victim

Coloured drawing of two Thugs pointing upwards to the sky to distract their victim, whilst another creeps up behind ready to strangle him. Drawings by an Indian artist, for Capt. James Paton, Assistant to the Resident at Lucknow, 1829-1840* (British Library)

The Thuggee assassins were eventually suppressed by the British rulers of India in the 1830s, after the implementation of the Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, which stated:

It is hereby enacted, that whoever shall be proved to have belonged, either before or after the passing of this Act, to any gang of Thugs, either within or without the Territories of the East India Company, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, with hard labor.

A number of strategies were implemented to aid the success of the new laws, including incentives for gang members to turn in their peers, and wide dissemination of reports regarding Thuggee behaviour to educate and warn travellers and the general population.

Finally, after at least six centuries of wreaking havoc across India, the days of the Thugs came to an end. Yet today, their reputation lives on in their name, now widely used throughout the world to refer to aggressive and violent young criminals.

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