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© Copyright 2001, Jim Loy
The word "thug" is often used to mean a "crude or violent criminal." The word comes from the Thugs, a former religious sect (also called Thuggee) in India. These Thugs were worshipers of Kali. They would go on murdering and robbing sprees, normally killing by strangulation, using a ritual scarf. Some of the sect's members claimed to have killed thousands of people. In the 19th century, the British destroyed the Thugs with arrests and executions.