The Etymology of "Thug"

This being the Drugs and Thugs Blog, it seems that a etymological dive into the history of the word “Thug” is necessary, if only as a way to define what we’re talking about here. 

First off, this is going to explicitly avoid any discussion of race, especially in light of the debate that came out after the NFL’s conference championship game this January and Richard Sherman’s comments. The word thug is not used here in that context, and I would never intend this blog to be viewed in that light. In all honesty, I forgot that the “thug” controversy happened earlier in the year when setting up this blog. With that out of the way, let’s look at the historical background of the term. 

The dictionary lists “thug” as being: 1. a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer. 
2. one of a former group of professional robbers and murderers in India who strangled their victims. 

When naming this blog on organized crime, narcotics, insurgency, and terrorism, my usage of the term “thug” was to connote the violent aspects of those topics and broaden the blog into non-narcotics issues. But there’s an entire history behind the term that I had no awareness of. The Thugs, or Thugee, were a group of thieves and assassins in India from roughly 1400 until the mid-1800s. Much remains unknown about the Thuggee, but the etymology is fascinating. The word is derived from the Sanskrit word for “thief” or “to conceal”, which fits nicely with the intention of this blog. All of the groups that I try to examine are effectively secret organizations, stealing for their survival and concealing their operations. The Thuggee were targeted by the British colonials in the mid-1800s for extinction because of their actions. In attempting to stamp out the Thugee, the British passed multiple laws, known as the Thugee Suppression Acts of 1836-1848. The British viewed the Thugs as a hereditary tribe and there is scholarly work arguing that the Thugs were persecuted because of their role in the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion. Stretching the metaphor a bit, it does sound like the British conducted an anachronistic counterinsurgency campaign against the Thuggee. 

The term "Thug" has a complex history and etymology, without a doubt. For the purposes of this blog, the term will continue to represent those individuals involved in narcotics trafficking, organized crime, insurgency, and terrorism. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Group_of_Thugs.gif