Children of Kali: through India in search of Bandits, the thug cult, and the British Raj by Kevin Rushby - 2003

New Delhi: Penguin Books India. Trade Paperback. 2003. First Indian Edition / full number line. Fine. Interior pristine. Spine straight, tight, and uncreased. Light wear to rear cover. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. xiv + 292 pages.

In the early 1800s, a great criminal gang, the Thugs, operated throughout India. Its members were inspired by religious fanatics and came from many faiths, yet they worshiped one goddess, Kali. In her name, they murdered more than one million Indian travelersall without spilling a drop of blood. Their weapon was the handkerchief, their sacrament sugar, and the gang was supposedly eradicated by the British in the 1830s. Today, a modern-day bandit named Veerappan is India's most-wanted man and most notorious criminal, responsible for more than one hundred murders. Some say he is a freedom fighter, others that he is a vicious killer. Still at large in the jungles of southwestern India, he avoids capture, his followers claim, by magical powers. In Children of Kali, Kevin Rushby researches these two criminal legends, both of which have been distorted and misused by those in power. Rushby recounts his quest both to gain a meeting with Veerappan and to untangle the legends of the Thug Cult and the British policeman, William Sleeman, responsible for its suppression. He visits prisons and gangster hideouts, exploring the nature of crime and punishment in a country where good and evil may be as murky as the Ganges. A compelling blend of travel journalism and history.