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Thug (THAG whose blood sprang)

or THAG whose blood sprang a demon. These demons multiplied, and at last the goddess created two men to whom she gave handkerchiefs, with which they strangled their infernal beings. When the men had finished their task the goddess gave them the privilege of using the handkerchief against their fellows, and so the class of Thugs is said to have arisen.

Though worshipping a Hindu goddess, the majority of the Thugs were Mohammedans. They usually traveled in gangs, the members of which had ostensibly some honest calling in their own community, and in selecting their victims always endeavored to pitch on persons of property in order that while propitiating goddess they might enrich worshipers. Various steps were taken to suppress the Thugs, both by the native and the English governments, and in 1829 Lord William Bentinck adopted such stringent measures that in six years (1830-1835) 2,000 of them were arrested; and of these, 1,500 were convicted and sentenced to death, transportation, or imprisonment, according to the gravity of the charges proved against them. In 1836 a law was passed making the fact of belonging to a gang of Thugs punishable by imprisonment for life with hard labor, and though some gangs continued to operate sporadically for many years, the system is now powerless.