Editing Thuggee (section)

== Historical evaluations ==
Worship of Kali was particularly emphasized by the British contemporaries. McLeod commented, "It is a notable fact that not only amongst the Thugs, but in an especial manner among all lawless fraternities, and to a certain extent throughout the uneducated population of [[Central Provinces|Central India]], the Mussulmans vie with the Hindus in a devotion of this sanguinary deity (''Devi'' or ''Bhavani'') far exceeding that they pay to any other."{{sfn|Wagner|2007|pp=140-141}} Sleeman thought that some [[Brahmins]] acted as intelligence providers to thugs, claiming that they profited from Thuggee and directed it.<ref name="University of California Press">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NJwyyizvjpAC&pg=PA159|title=Encountering Kālī: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West|date=2003| publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=9780520232396}}</ref> [[David Ochterlony]] blamed the [[Pindari]]s for the rise of Thuggee while Sleeman blamed it on Indian rulers dismissing their armies which took away the jobs of many soldiers.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=92}} Based on Sleeman's writings about the Thugs, [[Robert Vane Russell]] claimed that most of them were [[Kanjar]]s. He viewed the Muslim Kanjars as having recently converted to Islam.<ref name="Martine van Woerkens 136"/>

The British generally took the view that Thuggee was a type of ritual murder practiced by worshippers of Kali. Sleeman's view of it as an aberrant faith was based on the contemporary British view that Hinduism was a despicable and immoral faith founded on idol-worship.<ref name="Will Sweetman, Aditya Malik">{{cite book |author= Will Sweetman, Aditya Malik |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XW02DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA49|title= Hinduism in India: Modern and Contemporary Movements|date=23 May 2016|publisher=SAGE Publications India|isbn= 9789351502319}}</ref> R. C. Sherwood in ''Asiatick Researches'' published in 1820 traces this phenomenon back to the [[Muslim conquests of India]] and suggests links to Hindu mythology.<ref>{{cite book|first=Bart|last=Moore-Gilbert|title=Writing India, 1757-1990: The Literature of British India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ifTnAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA86|date=1996|publisher=[[Manchester University Press]]|page=86|isbn=9780719042669}}</ref> [[Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet|Charles Trevelyan]] viewed Thugs as representatives of the "essence" of Hinduism (rather than as a deviant sect), which he considered to be "evil" and "false".<ref>{{cite book |author= P.D. Reeves |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DK8sbjtgBREC&pg=PA38|title=Sleeman in Oudh: An Abridgement of W. H. Sleeman's A Journey Through the Kingdom of Oude in 1849–50|date=10 June 2010|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=9780521153096}}</ref>

In 1882, [[Alexander Cunningham]] commented on [[Hiouen-Thsang]]'s remarks about "people who visited [[Kahalgaon]] and forgot to leave it", speculating that the actual reason might not have been that posited by the monk and noting Kahalgaon's later reputation as a place frequented by the "River Thugs".<ref name="Martine van Woerkens 2002 110"/>

=== Modern scepticism ===
Modern contemporary scholars have become increasingly sceptical of the "thuggee" concept, and have even questioned the existence of such a phenomenon.<ref name="Cambridge Scholars Publishing">{{cite book|title=Tabish Khair: Critical Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnExBwAAQBAJ|first1=Cristina M.|last1=Gámez-Fernández|first2= Om P.|last2= Dwivedi|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=2014|isbn=9781443857888}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite journal | doi=10.1080/13642520802193262|title = Thuggee: An orientalist construction?| journal=Rethinking History| volume=12| issue=3| pages=383–397|year = 2008|last1 = MacFie|first1 = Alexander Lyon|s2cid = 144212481}}</ref><ref name="S. Shankar 2001"/> The British representation of Thuggee is held by some critics to be full of inconsistencies and exaggerations. Numerous historians have described "thuggee" as basically the invention of the British colonial regime.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2OADAAAQBAJ|title=Engaging Colonial Knowledge: Reading European Archives in World History|publisher=Springer|year=2011|author1=R. Roque|author2= K. Wagner|isbn=978-0230360075}}</ref> However, the more radical critics in this camp have themselves been criticized for focusing overly on British perceptions of thuggee rather than on the historical accuracy of primary source documents, but conclude that "the colonial representation of thuggee cannot be taken at face value".{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=7}}

Martine van Woerkens of [[École Pratique des Hautes Études]] writes that evidence for a Thuggee group in the 19th century was the product of "colonial imaginings", arising from British fear of the little-known interior of India, as well as limited understanding of the religious and social practices of its inhabitants.<ref name="woerkens">van Woerkens, Martine (2002). ''The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India''.</ref>

[[Cynthia Ann Humes]] states that the testimony of most of the thugs captured by Sleeman does not support his view of priests profiting from and directing the thugs. She adds that the Islamic idea of fate was more commonly invoked during Thuggee acts, while invoking the Hindu [[Bhavani]] was far more rare.<ref name="University of California Press" />

Historian Kim Wagner views the policies of [[East India Company]] in relation to the dismissal of armies of the conquered Indian kingdoms as being responsible for the development of Thuggee. Roaming bands of freelance soldiers had often joined one kingdom or another during the pre-British era, with the main income of many armies coming from plunder. After being dismissed from military service, they turned to robbery as a means of subsistence.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=92}} He also contested whether the thugs mentioned by [[Firuz Shah Tughlaq]]'s biography were actually the same thugs the British authorities fought against.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=156}}

Sagnik Bhattacharya agrees with the sceptics and claims the thug-phenomenon to be nothing but a manifestation of the fear of the unknown that dawned on the British Raj at the thought of being alone in the wilderness of Central India. Using literary and legal sources, he has connected the "information panic" of the thug-phenomenon to the limitations of British demographic models that fell short of truly capturing the ethnic diversity of India. He explains the "Thuggee hysteria" around 1830s as being caused by the Raj's angst at realizing its own ignorance of local society.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bhattacharya|first=Sagnik|date=4 May 2020|title=Monsters in the dark: the discovery of Thuggee and demographic knowledge in colonial India|journal=Palgrave Communications|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|pages=1–9|doi=10.1057/s41599-020-0458-8|issn=2055-1045|doi-access=free}}</ref>