When Imran Bhatti died last week on July 7, 2024, it brought back many a thought to a subject I have researched considerably, that being the ‘thugs’ of Lahore and the surrounding countryside.

The pastime of ‘thuggery’ was a major concern for all rulers of past, especially the British.The very word ‘thug’ has ancient roots in Sanskrit for the word ‘sthaga’ means to conceal or cover up. Its literal meaning today is that of a ‘robber’ or ‘cheat’. Over the years I have examined a lot of archives concerning this topic, especially in the British Museum Library as well as the Cambridge University Library.

In Lahore, the records of the Punjab Police in that mysterious ‘police club’ opposite the Punjab Civil Secretariat have also been seen. This information resulted in two past pieces. With the passing away of the person who put me on this path, a third is called for. Imran was a Bhatti Jatt and lived in a remote village a mile from the Lahore-Sheikhupura Road. The entire village folk were related to him, and they followed similar customs. For that matter Lahore and its surroundings were primarily Bhatti Jatt … and very ruthlessly brave they were … and it is no wonder that Akbar the Mughal settled them in his expanded Lahore and named their gateway as ‘Bhati Gate’ … the gateway of the Bhattis.

I first met young and innocent Imran in a factory on Sheikhupura Road. As I interviewed him for a ‘helpers’ job I asked him: “What did your elders do?” He immediately responded: “Oh Sir, they have always been thugs”. I remained calm but inwardly was shocked. It seems that for him it was a normal pastime. How can we hire a ‘thug’ was what came to mind, but the prospect was interesting … so he was hired.

Almost five years ago I wrote a column on thugs without mentioning specifics. Since then, I have researched the topic, revisited the village and examined a lot of documents, especially in the British Museum Library as well as the Cambridge University Library.

Let me reproduce a few line from the past pieces: “On my return visit to his village last year, he repeated his claim. My initial impression was that he was trying to be smart, but then he and his family immediately caught on to what I was thinking. Very sharp they all were. The young man invited me for a long trek away from their main muddy road to visit a huge ‘pipal’ tree. “This is where our tribe used to make sacrifices to the idol Kali”. Then he clarified: “We Muslims do not worship Kali, though we respect her. We make offering to ‘Bowanee’ the pious strangler who is our Pir”. This was getting ‘unbelievable’. “Within the massive tree a small idol with a necklace of skulls was barely visible in the shrubbery. “Do you still follow thuggee?” I asked again. In all his innocence a youngster said: “We now only operate on slow speed trains”. There was a silence as the elders watched on helplessly. I promised never to reveal the location of their village lest ‘over-pious’ police raid the place and throw them in prison”.

On Thursday as I watched television an advertisement pointed out to a new film titled ‘The Thugs of Hindustan’, which is about the legendary thug Feringeea. The name William Sleeman rushed to my mind. But then also burst forth the name H. Brereton, those ‘Report on Thuggee in the Punjab’ was printed by the Chronicle Press of Lahore in 1853. For this specific column I have read the book ‘Thug’ by Mike Dash, and it is a book difficult to put down. The original manuscripts of Brereton lie today in the British Museum Library. Incidentally, that printing press was set up in Lahore just as the British took over in 1849, and that very year the very first English language newspaper ‘Lahore Chronicle’ appeared in Lahore, set up by Syed Muhammad Azeem, father of Syed Muhammad Latif, the famous historian of Lahore.

In the Punjab Police Intelligence office, also known as Roberts Club, on Nabha Road, just opposite the Punjab Civil Secretariat, at the entrance is a British-era portrait of H. Brereton and below is a small board which says: ‘Thuggee Section’. One hopes the board is still there. It was from here that the thug operation of the legendary Sleeman was controlled in Punjab. A bit of history might put things in perspective. The thug movement was spread all over the sub-continent in which every caste and religion could be members, provided they swore allegiance to the deity ‘Kali’. Now this deity is seen by non-Hindus as essentially a manifestation of evil, which scholars describe as an “aggressive manifestation of feminine fury”. To overcome such forces in nature, appeasing them is what ‘allegiance’ is all about. The result was that these criminals did not feel guilty about what they were doing. When Muslims joined these criminals, they insisted on burying their victims, all invariably cut down by strangulation using a velvet handkerchief. That was the symbol and pride of a thug. Near that infamous ‘pipal’ tree with ‘Kali’ hidden in the folds of its trunk were a few slightly raised ‘grave-like’ mounds at a distance.

There is a school of thought which claims that the British deliberately classified 128 tribes in 1947 totalling 3.5 million persons as ‘criminal tribes’. For that matter any person opposed to the rulers are classified as ‘criminal’. In a way that tradition continues with those opposing authorities having hundreds of cases registered against them. Real freedom is still far away.

If you read Khushwant Singh’s ‘History of the Sikhs’, he writes about the very long route the maharajah always took when travelling from his village near Gujranwala to Lahore. When asked his comment was: “it is best to avoid the thugs for fear of being silently strangled and my body disappears.” When I first read that amazing book it made me laugh for surely he was telling a joke. But then within this lay a traditional logic. The seminal work by Willian Sleeman, as well as a critique by the great historian Sir Christopher Bayly analyses the logic of this, the world’s largest gang of criminals. Mike Dash’s amazing book adds to this line of thinking. But to me a man out in search of a story, all this meant that there was no harm writing about this part of our colourful history. It does in a way point to the origins of the social change our society is still undergoing. But back to Imran Bhatti. I learn that he was buried in a grave near that famous pipal tree amid which is the idol ‘Kali’ is hidden. My sources tell me that they were surprised that with the body were also put a small copper pot and a ‘knife-like’ wooden piece. Just what that means I have no idea. What one can construe is that the ‘thugee’ tradition is still respected.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2024