Editing Dacoity (section)

=== Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts ===

Introduced in 1836, the [[Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–48|Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts]] brought about several legislative measures, including establishing special courts, authorization for using rewards for informants, and the power to arrest suspects.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Singha |first=Radhika |date=1993 |title='Providential' Circumstances: The Thuggee Campaign of the 1830s and Legal Innovation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/312879 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=83–146 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00016085 |jstor=312879 |s2cid=145536132 |issn=0026-749X}}</ref> These acts were primarily intended to counter the activities of the [[thuggee]], groups of criminals who allegedly moved along the highways of India murdering and robbing unaware travellers. According to academic Mark Brown, the prevalence of the thuggee across India during the early 19th century and the East India Company's response to it "might best be viewed in light of anxieties in both British ruling and Indian subordinate groups produced by the rapid and far-reaching [British] colonial expansion" across [[South Asia]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2002 |title=Crime, Governance and the Company Raj: The Discovery of Thuggee |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23638761 |journal=The British Journal of Criminology |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=77–95 |doi=10.1093/bjc/42.1.77 |jstor=23638761 |issn=0007-0955}}</ref>