Dacoity is a term used for "banditry" in the Indian subcontinent. The spelling is the anglicised version of the Hindi word डाकू (daaku); "dacoit" is a colloquial Indian English word with this meaning and it appears in the Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases (1903). Banditry is criminal activity involving robbery by groups of armed bandits. The East India Company established the Thuggee and Dacoity Department in 1830, and the Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–1848 were enacted in British India under East India Company rule. Areas with ravines or forests, such as Chambal and Chilapata Forests, were once known for dacoits.
Thuggee are actions and crimes carried out by Thugs, historically, organised gangs of professional robbers and murderers in India. The English word thug traces its roots to the Hindi ठग, which means 'swindler' or 'deceiver'. Related words are the verb thugna, from the Sanskrit स्थग and स्थगति. This term, describing the murder and robbery of travellers, was popular in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, especially the northern and eastern regions of India.
The Hanafi school or Hanafism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was established by the 8th-century scholar, jurist, and theologian Abu Hanifa, a follower whose legal views were primarily preserved by his two disciples Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. As the oldest and most-followed of the four major Sunni schools, it is also called the "school of the people of opinion". Many Hanafis also follow the Maturidi school of theology.
Major-general Sir William Henry Sleeman KCB was a British soldier and administrator in British India. He is best known for his work from the 1830s in suppressing the organized criminal gangs known as Thuggee. He also discovered the holotype specimen of the sauropod dinosaur Titanosaurus indicus in Jabalpur in 1828.
Colonel Philip Meadows Taylor,, an administrator in British India and a novelist, made notable contributions to public knowledge of South India. Though largely self-taught, he was a polymath, working alternately as a judge, engineer, artist, and man of letters.
Mirza is a name of Persian origin. It is used as a surname or prefix to identify patriarchal lineage. It is derived from the term Mirzadeh (میرزادہ).
Nightrunners of Bengal is the title of the first novel by John Masters. It is a work of historical fiction set against the background of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It was published in 1951 in the United Kingdom by Michael Joseph, London, and in the United States by the Viking Press, New York.
The Deceivers is a 1952 novel by John Masters on the Thuggee movement in India during the period of British rule during the 19th-century. It was his second novel, following Nightrunners of Bengal.
Organised crime in India refers to organised crime elements originating in India and active in many parts of the world. The purpose of organised crime in India, as elsewhere in the world, is monetary gain. Its virulent form in modern times is due to several socio-economic and political factors and advances in science and technology. There is no firm data to indicate the number of organised criminal gangs operating in the country, their membership, their modus operandi, and the areas of their operations. Their structure and leadership patterns may not strictly fall in line with the classical Italian mafia.
The Siasat Daily is an Indian newspaper published by the Siasat Press based in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana. It operates the digital news website Siasat and is the publisher of the Siasat English Weekly magazine and the Siasat Urdu Daily newspaper whose editions are also available as electronic papers.
Gunga Din is a 1939 American adventure film from RKO Radio Pictures directed by George Stevens and starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., loosely based on the 1890 poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling combined with elements of his 1888 short story collection Soldiers Three. The film is about three British sergeants and Gunga Din, their native bhisti, who fight the Thuggee, an Indian murder cult, in colonial British India.
The British Empire has often been portrayed in fiction. Originally such works described the Empire because it was a contemporary part of life; nowadays fictional references are also frequently made in a steampunk context.
Confessions of a Thug may refer to:
The Deceivers is a 1988 adventure film directed by Nicholas Meyer, starring Pierce Brosnan, Shashi Kapoor and Saeed Jaffrey. The film is based on the 1952 John Masters novel of the same name regarding the murderous Thuggee of India.
The Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–48 in British India under East India Company rule were a series of legal acts that outlawed thugee—a practice in North and Central India involving robbery and ritualized murder and mutilation on highways—and dacoity, a form of banditry prevalent in the same region, and prescribed punishment for the same.
The Gate of Worlds is an alternate history novel by American writer Robert Silverberg. It was first published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston in the United States in 1967. The first UK hardcover edition was published by Gollancz in 1978.
This article details events occurring in the year 1839 in India. Major events include the reduction of the Khanate of Kalat to a subsidiary ally of the British, and the capture of Aden in Yemen by the East India Company, creating an important stopover for voyages between Europe and India.
Salah Al-Din is a 2001 historical Arabic television series directed by Hatem Ali which deals with the political events in the sixth century AH in the region of the Shaam and Egypt, in the scene of the Crusades. The series focuses on the biography of Salah ad-Din and highlights his courage and good creation and wisdom as he tells how he managed to unite the Muslims and crush the crusaders in the battle of Hattin and restore Jerusalem after being taken away by the Crusaders for almost a hundred years.
Mir Gowhar Ali Khan Siddiqi, commonly known as Mubarez-ud-Daulah was a member of the Asaf Jahi dynasty of Hyderabad State. A son of Nizam Sikandar Jah, he was influenced by the Wahhabi movement and wanted to overthrow the East India Company and defeat his elder brother and Nizam Nasir-ud-Daulah. However, his plans were intercepted by Resident James Stuart Fraser and he was arrested by the Nizam.
Kurnool state was a small princely state during the Company rule in India. It had its capital at the town of Kurnool in the present-day state of Andhra Pradesh and was eventually annexed by the East India Company.
