is reports on the
subject while employed in the Sagar and Nerbudda Territories, where
he had been posted in 1820. He proved that the Thug crimes were
committed by a numerous and highly organized fraternity operating in
all parts of India. In consequence of his reports, Mr. F. C. Smith,
Agent to the Governor-General in the Sagar and Nerbudda Territories,
was invested, in the year 1829, with special powers, and the author,
then Major Sleeman, was employed, in addition to his district duties,
as Mr, Smith's coadjutor and assistant. In 1835 the author was
relieved from district work, and appointed General Superintendent of
the operations for the suppression of the Thug gangs. He went on
leave to the hills in 1836, and on resuming duty in February, 1839,
was appointed Commissioner for the suppression of Thuggee and
Dacoity, which office he continued to hold in addition to his other
appointments.

Between 1826 and 1835, 1,562 prisoners were tried for the crime of
Thuggee, of whom 1,404 were either hanged or transported for life.
Some individuals are said to have confessed to over 200 murders, and
one confessed to 719. The Thug approvers, whose lives were spared,
were detained in a special prison at Jubbulpore, where the remnant of
them, with their families, were kept under surveillance. They were
employed in a tent and carpet factory, known as the School of
Industry, founded in 1838 by the author and Captain Charles Brown. If
released, they would certainly have resumed their hereditary
occupation, which exercised an awful fascination over its votaries.
Most of the Thug gangs had been broken up by 1860, but cases of
Thuggee have occurred occasionally since that date. A gang of Kahars
(palanquin bearers) committed a series of Thug murders in, I think,
1877, at Etawa, in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The office
of Superintendent of Thuggee and Dacoity was kept up until 1904, but
the officer in charge was more concerned with Dacoity (that is to
say, organized gang-robbery with violence) in the Native States than
with the secret crime of Thuggee. Secret crime is now watched by the
Central Criminal Intelligence Department under the direct control of
the Government of India, and has to deal with novel forms of evil-
doing. In India it is never safe to assume that any ancient practice
has been suppressed, and I have little doubt that, if administrative
pressure were relaxed, the old form of Thuggee would again be heard
of.