"A Popular Account of Thugs and Dacoits, the Hereditary Garrotters and Gang-Robbers of India," tells about the criminal India of Victorian times. Thugs were organized gangs of professional robbers and murderers in India, connected to the cult of Kali. Thugs were known to have operated as gangs of highway robbers, tricking and later strangling their victims. Dacoits is another criminal movement that possibly originated because of feudal exploitation as the cause that provoked many people of this region to take to arms. The book offers a reader a lot of interesting information about how those movements originated and acted in colonial India.

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Never in recorded history has there been a group of murderers as deadly as the Thugs. For nearly two centuries, groups of these lethal criminals haunted the roads of India, slaughtering travellers. This is the full story of the Thugs' rise and fall, here laid bare, in fascinating detail are all their methods, secrets and skills.

An Anglo-Indian Couple Plotting Murder. A British Resident Nursing Conspiracy Theories. Professional Poisoners Leaving a Trail of Death. The criminal fraternity in colonial India was a diverse, bustling lot. No man's life was worth much outside the security of his home or village, and lawlessness knew no bounds. In the unsettled state of the country during the Raj, dacoits, thugs, swindlers and mysterious stranglers plagued the roads, preying on the rich and poor alike. Policing, as we know it, and the 'rule of law', as we understand it, were in their infancy and chaos reigned supreme as the British scrambled to round up these notorious criminals. A diabolical double murder in Agra, an unsolved killing in the hills of Burma, a poisoning attempt that cost a maharaja his gaddi, and the first-ever instance of cold-blooded murder by plague bacilli! Sunil Nair presents the choiciest, most obscure and gripping tales that provide an insight into the crime and criminals in the days of the Raj. These stories take us back to an age when foot-slogging police work - and a little bit of luck - were often all that could be counted on to bring a criminal to book!