Thugee

Thuggee ( , ; Hindustani: or , ) was a phenomenon of highway robbery in the Indian subcontinent that saw gangs of thugs (sometimes spelled thags) traverse the region murdering and robbing travellers, often by strangling. However, there is a general consensus among historians against the cultic portrayal held by the British colonial authorities and popularised in the 19th century.

The thuggee phenomenon came to prominence in the early 19th century, in the course of which the British colonial authorities came to propagate a view of thuggee as a secret pan-Indian fraternity of ritual stranglers driven by fanaticism and bloodlust, with ancient origins. Colonial administrator William Henry Sleeman led a policing campaign against thuggee in the 1830s that saw the Thuggee Department formally established in 1835 and legal developments that facilitated convictions. Sleeman and his colleagues authored works on thuggee and recorded interviews with approvers, which remain the only sources on the phenomenon. Thuggee was portrayed as 'hereditary criminality' and the campaign served as a precedent for the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act.