Exotic India - Thugs and Khonds
Of course you can in a way understand tourism industry magazines printing that – they have to sell copies and 'exotic' sounds good, it is what outsiders expect anyway. If you ask them why they expect, you'll probably get some answer like, well, you know, you people have so many strange customs, you know. And you feel like retorting back, well, hey, didn't you ever, who burnt poor old women as witches in the Middle Ages, who saved people by torturing them on the rack, who celebrates Halloween, who makes bonfires and burns effigies of that Guy Fawkes fellow, who eats Sushi, who eats peanut butter and jam together and so on and so forth? So I guess in the end it comes down to this – exotic describes the curious things that other people do, the curious mannerisms and customs that other people have – what you yourself do is of course entirely normal.
And then you open the newspaper and come across strange news about your own countrymen that makes you wonder if you aren't an outsider yourself. The other day there was a bit about 15 people cutting off their tongues to show their devotion to some goddess. Another day, you read about a certain childless couple that was arrested in the attempt to sacrifice the neighbor's kid to Lord Ambaji in the fond hope that this would bless them with off-spring.
And then you really have to rethink the 'exotic' tag. It may not be the India of 'Maharajas and Snakes', but it certainly looks like we haven't moved too far off from the days of the Thugs and the Khonds.
The Thugs, devotees of the Goddess Bhavani, were probably the most pious gang of murderers in the history of India, although the Khonds, who had great faith in the earth goddess Thadha Pennoo, finished close.
Thug theology had its roots in the conflict between Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer – the former created with such speed that the latter couldn't keep up in his corresponding destruction. So, rather than be left behind, Shiva did what all men do in similar circumstances – he asked his wife Bhavani to help him out. She said, no problem, I'll get my people to assist you. And so she summoned all the demons and dead souls that worshiped her and gave them a live-demo on how to strangle a human being with a single twist of a handkerchief. Thus instructed in the Art of Destruction, her followers came down to earth and got busy and made Shiva's task a lot easier. It was from these illustrious killers that the Thugs of 18th Century India sprang – or so they claimed.
Like their ancestors, the Thugs set about on their sacred task in small groups and after much consulting of a variety of proper omens – they were very particular about that. When they attacked communities or travelers, they were also rather particular about seizing all their belongings – the unavoidable wages of sacred labor, of course – and in not harming the women-folk – somewhat lesser versions of Bhavani, after all. And, given their own goddess-sanctioned ancestry, everyone else they killed, they said, got a direct admission to heaven – a great boon indeed - no matter that the chosen candidates might have personally preferred to bypass it and go at a slightly later date.
The Khonds, on the other hand, didn't care so much about sending people to heaven as for spilling their blood to fertilize their fields. Nothing like human flesh to please the Earth Goddess and make the crops grow taller apparently. A practice that sprang into being after the Goddess had her own flesh sliced off and scattered on earth to make it richer for its inhabitants.
Unlike the Thugs, however, the Khonds didn't randomly seize the favored individuals or the Meriah as these were called. No, they bought them at very high prices - from parents or relatives or from traders who kidnapped people and did a brisk trade in human trafficking. Adult men were the most prized, but small children too were bought and usually reared as part of the Khond family until they reached the appropriate sacrificial age – upon which, since they also usually reached an understanding of their forthcoming fate and didn't exactly appreciate the honor, they had to be chained up. The sacrificial festivities and preparations began a month before the actual event – which was a gory affair that took place on the village outskirts and in which everyone got drunk senseless, especially the victim, if he was lucky. Fattened and spruced-up, he was tied to a post and, after everyone was done dancing and singing around him, they went at him with knives drawn and carved him up. The holy affair ended after he had been pared down to the bones. Sometimes a poor buffalo calf became a follow-up victim. The blood and flesh of the former was scattered around the village fields; that of the latter was consumed at the village banquet.
While the Khonds were all Hindus, the Thugs were remarkable for having Muslim members in their ranks – they apparently prayed to the Goddess Bhavani through the Koran, which seems a rather curious thing to do, but worked for them. To paraphrase Mr. Thomas, this was one brotherhood that, in all its history, was never touched by the tensions of communal differences.
Eventually, however, all good times must come to an end, and so it was with the Thugs and the Khonds. The British Imperialists, who found their religious killings more savage in scope to the mass killing they themselves accomplished world over, played a large role in 'civilizing' the Thugs and the Khonds.
And the present Indian government, for all its lip-service to freedom of religious expression, is not likely to let these lot start expressing themselves any time again.
So rest assured and do come and visit our exotic land.
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