Illustrations of the History and Practices of the Thugs: and Notices of some of the proceedings of the Government of India, for the Suppression of the Crime of Thuggee.
London. Wm. H. Allen and Co., 1837. First Edition. Stock ID #224787 Scarce. The author, Edward Thornton (1799-1875) was on the staff of East India House 1814-57, and his account was a sensational exposé that detailed the secret, hereditary network of highway assassins who terrorised travellers across India for centuries. Relying heavily on official court records and testimonies from captured informants, Thornton meticulously documented how these gangs disguised themselves as friendly travellers, used a sacred cloth scarf (rumāl) to strangle their victims without shedding blood, and buried them in hidden graves to avoid detection. The account deeply fascinated and horrified Western readers by illustrating the religious rituals underpinning the crimes—including devotion to the goddess Kali and the tracking of omens—while ultimately highlighting the aggressive, intelligence-led colonial campaign spearheaded by William Sleeman, and was hugely popular. When referring to this item please quote stockid 224787.
Black and white folding engraved frontispiece and one other folding plate, [ii blanks]+ [iv] + 475pp, 22 x 13.5 cms, original green cloth-covered boards, re-backed mounting the original paper title label (chipped), endpapers renewed, the plates spotted and darkened (concentrated at the margins and folds), early inked ownership inscription "John C. Clare/Calcutta Decr. 1851" to the initial blank, and one other, (recent) to the front pastedown, a little dusty, the original boards a trifle scuffed, frontispiece starting but firm in the renewed binding, a good copy of a scarce work.
With the early ownership inscription of "John C. Clare, Calcutta Decr. 1851", possibly the prominent 19th-century British ship master and captain who regularly commanded merchant voyages along trade routes between the UK, Australia, and Calcutta, India. In October 1851 the British Indian Association had been formed in Calcutta, marking the exact birth of organised Indian nationalist politics and a shift in how both native elites and Europeans challenged the British East India Company's monopoly.
Price: $1,200.00 AU