Report on the depredations committed by the Thug gangs of upper and central India, from the cold season of 1836-37, down to their gradual suppression, under the operation of the measures adopted against them by the supreme government, in the year 1839 / [Sir W.H. Sleeman].

  • Sleeman, W. H. (William Henry), Sir, 1788-1856.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the depredations committed by the Thug gangs of upper and central India, from the cold season of 1836-37, down to their gradual suppression, under the operation of the measures adopted against them by the supreme government, in the year 1839 / [Sir W.H. Sleeman]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    must be considered as altogether unattainable, for he had been given to understand by those who appeared to be well informed upon the subject, that the evil had taken deep root in all parts of India, and extended itself to almost every village community. There were certainly at that addressing you with the hope you will have the goodness to furnish me at your earliest convenience with information on the following points : ]. The number of dead bodies discovered during the last twelve months within the Taloogs entrusted to you, which there is reason to believe are those of travellers who have been murdered by Thugs, such being easily distinguished from the bodies of men who have been murdered by highway robbers, from the circumstances of their generally being dug up by Jackalls from the beds of Nullahs and Ravines where they have been slightly buried, and offering no marks of violence, with the exception of those inflicted about the throat by the roomal, or cloth with which they have been strangled. 2. Any particular instances which may have been brought to your notice during the above period, of travellers or other individuals having been suddenly missed, whose disappearance is, in your opinion, suspicious. In furnishing me with the information above solicited, I beg you will do me the favor to state your opinion, whether from your experience as the Superintendent of a large tract of country, you have reason to believe that the system of Thuggee, formerly so rife throughout the whole of the Nizam’s Territories, has been entirely suppressed ; or that you have come to the conclusion from the circumstance of dead bodies being dis¬ covered within your District, and from the otherwise unaccountable dis¬ appearance of travellers and others, that gangs of these murderers we still carrying on their depredations in the Deccan. (Signed) D. A. Malcolm, Captain, &c. &c. Hydrabad, 5th August, 1840. The same to Pestovjee Merjee, Esq. To Captain D. A. Malcolm, Assistant Resident, Sir,—I have the honor to ackowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th August, and I have much pleasure in returning replies to the Queries therein put to me.