Editing Thuggee (section)

== Thug beliefs ==
[[File:The Thugs Worshipping Kalee (1850, p. 98) - Copy.jpg|thumb|alt=Drawing of two men worshiping before a statue|''The Thugs Worshiping Kalee'', around 1850<ref name=MissionaryRepository1850>{{cite journal|title=The Thugs Worshipping Kalee|journal=The Missionary Repository for Youth, and Sunday School Missionary Magazine|date=1848|volume=XII|page=98|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FkEAAAAQAAJ|access-date=6 November 2015}}</ref>]]
Thugs considered themselves to be the children of [[Kali]], having been created from her sweat.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Brigitte|last1=Luchesi|author2=Kocku von Stuckrad|author2-link=Kocku von Stuckrad|title=Religion im kulturellen Diskurs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-uSxOSwDclYC&pg=PA623|access-date=20 April 2011|year=2004|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-017790-9|pages=623–624}}</ref> However, many of the Thugs who were captured and convicted by the British were Muslims,<ref>{{cite book|first=Douglas M.|last=Peers|title=India Under Colonial Rule: 1700-1885|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dyQuAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA57|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-31-788286-2|page=57}}</ref> perhaps up to a third.<ref name="mikedash"/>{{page needed|date=October 2024}} 

According to colonial sources, Thugs believed that they played a positive role in saving human lives. Without the Thugs' sacred service, Kali might destroy all mankind:
* "It is God who kills, but Bhowanee has [a] name for it."
* "God is all in all, for good and evil."
* "God has appointed blood for [Bhowanee's] food, saying 'khoon tum khao': feed thou upon blood. In my opinion it is very bad, but what can she do, being ordered to subsist upon blood!"
* "Bhowanee is happy and more so in proportion to the blood that is shed."<ref name="WœrkensTihanyi2002">{{cite book|first1=Martine van|last1=Wœrkens|first2=Catherine|last2=Tihanyi|title=The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EiSYciTbyc4C&pg=PA170|access-date=19 April 2011|year=2002|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-85086-3|page=170}}</ref>

The Muslim thugs, while retaining their monotheistic faith, had functionalised [[Bhavani]] for Thuggee and she was syncretised as a spirit subordinate to [[Allah]]. A Muslim thug caught by Sleeman stated, "In my heart, I take the name of God, when I strangle a man – saying ''"God thou are [[Malik|King]]!"'' ''"Alla, toomee Malik!"'' I do not pray to Bhowanee, but I worship her." Other Muslim Thugs who had agreed to testify for Sleeman, stated they had [[syncretism|assimilated]] Bhavani and started the practice of Thuggee.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=141}}

In the view of the historian [[Mike Dash]], the Thuggee had no religious motivation in their murderous conduct. When religious elements were present among Thugs, their beliefs, in principle, were little different from the religious beliefs of many others who lived on the Indian subcontinent and attributed their success or failure to supernatural powers: "Indeed all of the Thugs's legends which concerned the goddess [[Kali]] featured exactly the [[cautionary tale|cautionary notes]] which are typically found in [[folklore]]."<ref name="mikedash"/>

Kim Wagner asserts that we can analyse their traditions about events after their flight from Delhi "to a much greater advantage". A tradition which was recounted by a captive stated that Thuggee had originally tried to settle in [[Agra]] and they later settled in Akoopore in the [[Doab#Yamuna-Ganga Doab|Doab region]]. However, they had to flee to Himmutpur and later they fled to Parihara after their kings started demanding a larger share of the plunder. In turn the original Muslim and [[Kayastha]] Thugs helped spread Thuggee amongst other groups like the [[Brahmin|Brahmins]], [[Rajput|Rajputs]], other Hindus, the [[Lodhi (caste)|Lodhi people]] and the [[Ahir]] people.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|pp=154-155}}

The Thuggee generally considered that it was forbidden to kill women, ''[[fakirs]]'', ascetics, bards, musicians and dancers.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA92|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=92|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref> Like the ancient Hindu texts which distinguished robbery from the murder of Brahmins, women or children as violent crimes, many Thugs considered it taboo to kill people who belonged to such categories.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5HPc_EgwUg8C&pg=PA111|title=The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India|author=Martine van Woerkens|date=November 2002|page=111|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226850856}}</ref> Those who worked in lowly professions, the diseased and disabled were also forbidden as victims based on their [[folk belief]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA93|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|date=3 February 2011|page=93|publisher=Granta Publications |isbn=9781847084736}}</ref> The Thuggee cults believed that breaking these rules would incur [[divine retribution]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5HPc_EgwUg8C&pg=PA165|title=The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India|author=Martine van Woerkens|date=November 2002|page=165|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226850856}}</ref>