The Strangled Traveler - Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India (Hardcover, 2nd ed.)

British colonists in 1830s India lived in terror of the Thugs. Reputed to be brutal criminals, the Thugs supposedly strangled, beheaded and robbed thousands of travellers in the goddess Kali's name. The British responded with equally brutal repression of the Thugs and developed a compulsive fascination with tales of their monstrous deeds. Did the Thugs really exist, or did the British invent them as an excuse to seize tighter control of India? Drawing on historical and anthropological accounts, Indian tales and sacred texts, and detailed analyses of the secret Thug language, Martine van Woerkens reveals for the first time the real story of the Thugs. Many different groups of Thugs actually did exist over the centuries, but the monsters the British made of them had much more to do with colonial imaginings of India than with the real Thugs. Tracing these imaginings down to the present, van Woerkens reveals the ongoing roles of the Thugs in fiction and film from "Frankenstein" to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". A gripping tale of murder, crime and deception, "The Strangled Traveller" is riveting histroy and enlightening reading.

General

Imprint:	University of Chicago Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	November 2002
First published:	November 2002
Authors:	Martine van Woerkens
Translators:	Catherine Tihanyi
Dimensions:	234 x 160 x 3mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	375
Edition:	2nd ed.
ISBN-13:	978-0-226-85085-6
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1750 to 1900 Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
LSN:	0-226-85085-4
Barcode:	9780226850856

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!