Liminal 'Criminals': Re-thinking Historiographies of, and through, the 'Thuggee' Phenomenon

If persuasive, this article holds relevance for all historiographical enquiries into 'the past', though particularly those engaging with colonial encounters, in which the documentary sources typically relied-upon are bound-up with the complex politics of the peculiar political, economic, social and cultural situations in which they were created. In the case of 'thuggee' - a 'bandit' phenomenon suppressed by the British in 1830s India - the complexity of power-relations between colonizers and colonized are brought to the fore in the court-records of 'thug' trials. In these trials, the British relied upon the use of informants called approvers, who testified against former accomplices in return for a pardon, thus capitalizing on their liminal position in both judicial and criminal worlds. British dependence upon the very 'criminals' whose activity they aimed to suppress in order to secure the convictions of other 'thugs' has hobbled historical enquiries into 'thuggee' however, miring them in questions about its existence or non-existence independently of the colonial mind. This article argues that a re-evaluation of the ambitions of historiography and the type of truth-claims it makes are imperative if historical studies of 'thuggee' are to continue to offer insightful impressions about colonial pasts.