Thug Behram

Thug Behram was an Indian man traditionally described as a leader of Thuggee, a network of highway robbers who killed travelers by strangulation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

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Thuggee: Thuggee was a form of organized robbery in India in which members gained travelers’ trust before killing and robbing them. Behram is remembered as a leader within the networks colonial officials called Thuggee.
Confessions of a Thug: Confessions of a Thug is an 1839 novel by Philip Meadows Taylor about a fictional Thuggee member and colonial suppression. Its fictionalized portrayal helped popularize Thuggee, the setting associated with Behram.
Colonial historiography: Colonial historiography is the writing of history shaped by the institutions, assumptions, and power relations of colonial rule. Behram’s familiar biography largely comes through accounts produced by colonial authorities.
Guinness World Records: Guinness World Records is a reference publication that documents record-breaking claims across many fields. Behram has been associated with a record claim for the largest number of murders, though its basis is disputed.
William Henry Sleeman: William Henry Sleeman was a British colonial officer who led campaigns against Thuggee in India during the nineteenth century. Sleeman’s investigations and writings helped establish Behram’s notoriety.
Philip Meadows Taylor: Philip Meadows Taylor was a British administrator and novelist in India, best known for the novel Confessions of a Thug. Taylor’s novel shaped popular images of Thuggee that often blur with accounts of real figures.
Orientalism: Orientalism is the representation of Asian societies through frameworks that can portray them as exotic, timeless, or inferior. Colonial depictions of Thuggee and Behram invite scrutiny of how India was represented to British audiences.
True crime: True crime is nonfiction storytelling about real crimes, investigations, and their perpetrators or victims. Retellings of Behram’s alleged crimes turn a colonial case into a continuing crime narrative.
Thuggee and Dacoity Department: The Thuggee and Dacoity Department was a British Indian policing body formed to suppress alleged Thuggee and organized robbery. Its investigations helped produce the colonial records through which Behram is chiefly known.
James Sleeman: James Sleeman was a British colonial writer who published accounts concerning Indian crime and Thuggee. His writing is among the sources that helped circulate claims about Behram.