Editing Thuggee (section)

== Etymology ==
ठग ({{IAST|Thuggee|''ṭhag''}}), translated from [[Hindi]] as "[[swindler]]" or "deceiver". It is related with the verb ''thugna'' ("to deceive"), from the [[Sanskrit]] स्थग ({{IAST|''sthaga''}} '[[wikt:cunning|cunning]], [[wikt:sly|sly]], [[fraudulent]]') and स्थगति ({{IAST|''sthagati''}}, 'he conceals').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/T/THU/thugs.html|title=Thugs|website=1902encyclopedia.com|access-date=1 October 2017}}</ref> This term, describing the murder and robbery of travellers, was popular in the northern parts of the [[Indian subcontinent]], especially the [[North India|northern]] and [[East India|eastern regions]] of India.<ref name="thugs"/> The English word [[Thug (disambiguation)#People|thug]] is derived from the same roots as the term "Thuggee".<ref>{{cite book |author1=Jan Alber |author2=Frank Lauterbach |title=Stones of Law, Bricks of Shame: Narrating Imprisonment in the Victorian Age |date=2009 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1442693135 |pages=78, 81  |language=En}}</ref>

The Thuggee reportedly operated as gangs of [[highwaymen]] who tricked and murdered their victims by [[strangling]]. To take advantage of their victims, the thugs would join travellers and gain their confidence, which would allow them to surprise and strangle the travellers with a handkerchief or noose.<ref name="David Scott Katsan 2006 141">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlMUSz-hiuEC&pg=RA4-PA141|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, Volume 1|publisher=Oxford University Press |page=141|year=2006|author=David Scott Katsan|isbn=9780195169218}}</ref> 
One of the Thuggee would befriend their potential targets (even to the point of assuming their religion) and accompany them for a while to assess their potential wealth.<ref name="Mike Dash 193">{{cite book|first=Mike|last=Dash|title=Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA193|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta|page=193|isbn=9781847084736}}</ref><ref name="Mike Dash; Thuggee" /> Eventually, as one Thug managed to distract their victims by engaging them in conversation, the other members who were tasked with the killing would strangle them swiftly from behind.<ref name="Thug; True story of india" /> After the murder, they sometimes mutilated the corpses to hide evidence,<ref name="Mike Dash 73">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA73|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=73|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref> and buried the remains.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA79|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=79|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref>{{sfn|Rost|1911}} Their [[modus operandi]] led to the thugs being called ''Phansigar'' ("using a [[noose]]"), a term more commonly used in southern India.<ref name="RussellLai1995">{{cite book|author1=R. V. Russell|author2=R. B. H. Lai|title=The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76c1VSYnPE0C&pg=PA559 |access-date=19 April 2011|year=1995|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=978-81-206-0833-7|page=559}}</ref> 

[[File:Datura metel Fastuosa2944475918.jpg|thumb|''[[Datura metel]]'' 'Fastuosa' (Hindi: काला धतूरा ''kāla dhatūra'' – "black datura"), the deliriant herb sometimes used by the Thugs to stupefy their victims.]]
Although strangulation is one of their most-recognised methods of murder, they also used blades and poison.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=116}} The Thuggee gangs usually commenced their act in the evening,<ref name="Thug; True story of india" /> and attacked travelling groups whose numbers were smaller than their own groups to avoid unnecessary losses.<ref name="Mike Dash; Thuggee" /> To avoid suspicion, they carried only a few swords.<ref name="Thug; True story of india">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA77|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=77|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref> The poisonous ingredients which prepared by the Thuggee were consisted of ''[[Datura metel]]'', the Indian thornapple, (family [[Solanaceae]]), a poisonous plant sacred to [[Shiva]]<ref name= "Siklos VMT">{{cite journal |last1=Siklós |first1=Bulcsu |title=Datura rituals in the Vajramahabhairava-Tantra |journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |date=1994 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=409–416 |jstor=23658487 }}</ref><ref name= "Geeta & Gharaibeh">{{cite journal |last1=Geeta |first1=R. |last2=Gharaibeh |first2=Waleed |title=Historical evidence for a pre-Columbian presence of Datura in the Old World and implications for a first millennium transfer from the New World |journal=Journal of Biosciences |date=December 2007 |volume=32 |issue=S3 |pages=1227–1244 |doi=10.1007/s12038-007-0132-y |pmid=18202447 |s2cid=11871048 }}</ref> with powerful [[deliriant]] properties, were sometimes used by thugs to induce drowsiness or stupefaction, making strangulation easier.<ref name="mikedash"/> The [[Hindi]] name for the plant ''धतूरा'' (''dhatūra'') is derived from the [[Sanskrit]] and was adapted by [[Linnaeus]] into the Latinate genus name ''[[Datura]]''.<ref>Schultes, Richard Evans; Hofmann, Albert (1979). The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens (2nd ed.) pub. Springfield Illinois: Charles C. Thomas. Pages 283 and 288</ref><ref name= "Symon & Haegi">'Datura (Solanaceae) is a New World Genus' by D.E. Symon and L. Haegi in (page 197 of) ''Solanaceae III: Taxonomy Chemistry Evolution'', Editors J.G. Hawkes, R.N. Lester, M. Nee & N. Estrada, published by The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK for The Linnean Society of London 1991. {{ISBN|0-947643-31-1}}.</ref>

A leader of a Thuggee was called ''[[jemadar]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA67|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=67|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref> This was derived from military-style ranks such as jemadar and ''[[subedar]]'' among Thugs as well as reference to individual members as a "[[Private (rank)|private]]", suggests that the organisation of their gangs had a military link.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=110}} They used a jargon known as ''Ramasee'' to disguise their true intentions from their targets.<ref name="Mike Dash 73"/> The Thuggee members comprised some who had inherited Thuggee as a family vocation, and others who were forced to turn to it out of necessity.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=135}} The leadership of many of the groups tended to be hereditary with family members sometimes serving together in the same band. Such thugs were known as ''aseel''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA87|title=Thug: The True Story of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=87|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref> According to a Thuggee testimony, a young initiate who joined the group was usually trained by a senior experienced Thuggee member who held the title of ''[[guru]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA84|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=84|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref> While they usually kept their acts a secret, female thugs also existed and were called ''baronee'' in Ramasee, while an important male Thuggee was called ''baroo''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5HPc_EgwUg8C&pg=PA146|title=The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India|author=Martine van Woerkens|page=146|isbn=9780226850856|date=November 2002|publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref>

The Thuggee usually avoided killing the children of the victims and instead adopted them.{{sfn|Wagner|2007|p=107}} However, sometimes they resorted to killing women and children to eliminate witnesses.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5HPc_EgwUg8C&pg=PA147|title=The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India|author=Martine van Woerkens|date=November 2002|page=147|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226850856}}</ref> Some of the thugs avoided murdering victims they considered proscribed according to their beliefs and let other unscrupulous members commit the murder or were forced to let them by those who did not believe in their customs like the Muslim thugs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA95|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|date=3 February 2011|page=92|publisher=Granta Publications |isbn=9781847084736}}</ref> Many of them avoided committing the robberies near the areas in which they lived, to avoid recognition and criminal repercussion.<ref name="Mike Dash; Thuggee">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XMfasdSA9EC&pg=PA33|title=Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult|first=Mike|last=Dash|page=33|isbn=9781847084736|date=3 February 2011|publisher=Granta Publications }}</ref>