The Thugee are alive and well

[Martim Silva]

Will Indiana Jones come out of retirement again? 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8624269.stm

India 'human sacrifice' suspected in West Bengal temple


The severed head and torso of a man has been found in a temple in the Indian state of West Bengal in what the police say is a case of "human sacrifice".

The head and the body were found at the local temple to the goddess Kali near Chotomakdampur village in the western district of Birbhum.

"This man has been sacrificed to propitiate the gods," said local official Kalyan Mukherjee.

"This is a shame for Bengal where the ruling Left coalition claim they have eradicated social evils and combated superstition," an opposition leader Samir Kumar Ray said.

[Caliga]

The Thuggee strangled travellers and IIRC were not even Hindu.

[Eddie Teach]

The Thuggee in Temple of Doom were Kali worshippers.

[Neil]

The Thuggee strangled travellers and IIRC were not even Hindu.

Many were Hindu, but there were also Sikh and Muslim Thuggees.  The veneration of Kali by some groups of Thuggees wasn't just something they made up for the movie.

[jimmy olsen]

The Thuggee strangled travellers and IIRC were not even Hindu.

Are you saying Dr. Jones lied to me!

[Caliga]

Oh, ok.  I had thought that the Thuggee had a Muslim background but kinda branched off into their own weird cult.

[Malthus]

Oh, ok.  I had thought that the Thuggee had a Muslim background but kinda branched off into their own weird cult.

Some did.

The key to Thuggee is that it was, above all, a methodology - for robbery on a grand scale.

Problem was this: how to rob caravans travelling across India? Each caravan had lots of people, and they went armed.

The solution - to infiltrate the caravan on the most plausable of pretexts with a group of killers, and then - kill everyone at a signal. If even one lived, they could cause your group of theives serious trouble, so all must die. Then, rob the bodies at leasure.

Over time, some of the killer groups took on cult-like status - often, but not always, worshippers of Kali, though obviously with a different emphasis from the ordinary Hindu worshippers. Cult status had many benefits; above all, cementing the loyalty and secrecy of the group. Over time, for some groups the religious murder element became almost more important than the robbery element.

This is why some Thug groups could be Muslim, some Hindu, some even Sikh.