Customer Reviews

Children of Kali: Through India in Search of Bandits, the Thug Cult, and the British Raj

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anybody interested in Modern India, I urge you to read "Children of Kali" by Kevin Rushby from several points of views:

1. How we get what we seek:
Kevin went to India in search of thugs and decoits, while Maddy (a character in the book) went to India in quest of happiness. See what each one got, and how this simple concept of "we get what we seek" revealed to Kevin at Sangam.

2. Real history of modern times:
The history of north and central India during East India company, Raj and after wee hours of independence is not taught to us, Indians in schools as it should be. Read how Kevin unearths it.

3. Travelogue:
How we all have very similar experiences as Kevin had in India, except he logs it in a superb fashion.

4. Objectivity:
If you are from India (a non-resident Indian, like me), see the places you grew up from an objective eye. Not necessarily an English eye, but an eye of a just seeker, Kevin that is!

5. Style:
I absolutely love the modern style of story-telling that is weaved with real facts and ground-level research. Just to examine this aspect, the book is worth reading.

I was expecting a much darker(creepy?) book from what I had read of the excerpt from the synopsis given by the bookstore. It turned out to be a very humorous travel log by Kevin Rushby's search of the Thug Cult. There are many entertaining encounters with the people in India, great descriptions of the food there, atrocious hotel rooms, the hustle and bustle of a very populated country - all a very informative and highly entertaining look of a Brit with a wonderful sense of humor travelling through ancient India. If you enjoy cooking or travel essays, this book's a keeper.

This book deals with some very interesting, yet somewhat disparate topics. Rushby's travelogue/history was apparently inspired by his learning of the British colonial administrator Sleeman, who allegedly eliminated the thuggees from India. He travels across India to investigate the thuggees, but somehow mixes them up with Indian bandits, gangsters, and assorted mischief-makers. His biggest problem is his tendency to write in a stream-of-conscious style that is confusing. He jumps around from different places, to different topics, switches between travelogue, history, and commentary, without effectively transitioning and explaining himself. At times he refers to phenomena, places and people without any explanation of who or what they are. With just a little better writing and editing, this could have earned five stars.

I am probably missing the point of this book (the reason why I am giving it three stars). First the bad: the never ending search for thugs (sorry, you where looking in the wrong places) ... taking things for what they are not (Veerappan a hero)... using two sensational subjects to sell a book on India (thugs, kali) and now the good: 1) It tries (and succeeds to an extend) to show India in its true light (India is neither the land of thugs, dirt and darkness nor the vibrant land of mysticism, color, foods). 2) it throws light on what many British reforms in India truly were.

Last year as the only visitor that late afternoon of a haveli-museum in the Shekhavati town of Nawalgarh, I was accompanied by the person responsible for the museum who gave me interesting explanations. In one room puppets dressed in the traditional attire of the different castes were displayed and he made some sociological comments. In front of the display of the puppets of the Meena caste, his odd comment that this was a caste of thieves made me laugh, at that time I did find it so absurd that people were classified as criminals on basis of their birth...
However in this page-turner by Kevin Rushby I learned that this statement finds its historical origin in the notorious British Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, which might have been repealed in 1952 but was replaced that same year by the `Habitual Offenders Act'. In the 21st century in India about 60 million people, belonging to the `denotified tribes', are still discriminated and this simply on basis of their nomadic lifestyle.

The subtitle `Through India in Search of Bandits, the Thug Cult and the British Raj' indicates that this not one of the umpteenth travelogues whereby a Westerner visits India. Rushby investigates the myth of the thugs, a religious sect (hence the title of the book) rumoured to have killed over several centuries more than 2 million people in central India, until they were eradicated by the British in the mid-19th century. He sets off to southern India, where he tries to meet the notorious criminal Veerappan, hidden in the Tamil jungle. Rushby does not get a glimpse of the legendary murderer, responsible for the death of more than 120 people (`Children of Kali' was published in 2002, Veerappan was killed in October 2004 after a 14-year long hunt by a 750-strong special task force), however the reader does not mind as in the meantime very interesting observations are made. Rushby illustrates to have the above-average amount of guts and a gift to describe poignantly the sometimes hilarious/scary situations he finds himself in.

Descriptions of his journey are interspersed by very interesting titbits of information. When Rushby moves to central India and tries to compare the written historical testimonies of British people on the thugs with the memories of the local people, he is confounded by the absence of convincing proof and conflicting data. His investigation leads him to the conclusion that the thugs were not a hereditary religious cult of human sacrificers but most likely a legend created on basis of European prejudices of that time, started by the `thug-hunter' Sleeman and propagated by fellow Victorians. There was criminality in the region, but the culprits were probably the British colonists who started to cultivate opium and created the opportunities. The locally organized small-scale marauding groups were played up by the evangelical crusading tone of the British Indian administration of the 1830. Prejudices, for instance that crime was inbred and a hereditary feature would lead to the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. The Salvation Army - yeah those of the soup kitchens - turned out to be zealots of social engineering who set up with messianic enthusiasm forced labour camps...

Reading this book has created an appetite for other work of Rushby, a writer who ventures where others fear to tread, who clearly has a sense of - situational and verbal - humour, who backs up his personal experience with research and also makes good observations - perhaps sometimes with a tendency for caricature and the hilarious - of the people he meets in this fascinating country.

As it turns out, the book looked more promising than it actually ended up being. I mean, it is enjoyable reading but the subject matter meanders all over the place. At the beginning of the book, Mr. Rushby is really psyching himself up to meet Veerappan, the Indian Robin Hood (note: the book was published in 2003 when Veerappan was alive; a year later, the Government of India acting as the Sheriff of Nottingham killed Veerappan). By the time we are done reading the book, we discover that the meeting never occurred and the closest Mr. Rushby got to Veerappan was a trip to the bandit's village. Oddly enough, Mr. Rushby wastes no tears or pages over this; I would have assumed that he would have been crushed and crestfallen since he left UK specifically to meet the bandit!

Besides this, the book cannot seem to make up its mind on whether it wants to lionize the thugs or demonize them, so it does both in parts. There are some interesting titbits in book on the origins of thugee and the efforts of the British Raj to stop the reach of the thugs. To me, these were the most interesting parts of the book. However, the book abandons this thread and veers off into modern day thugs in the form of the Bombay mafia dons and the aghoris of Kashi (Varanasi), neither of whom Mr. Rushby treats adequately as subjects despite the rich history of both.

All in all, I think the book is worth a read, but don't be surprised if you feel your enthusiasm getting tepid after a great start (March 2011).

Kevin Rushby has traveled extensively, and has written about his journeys with insight and tremendous empathy for people he has met. Children of Kali concerns his search for knowledge on the current state of the thug cult (murderous worshippers of the goddess Kali), and for one charismatic and well-known thug in particular. But the book does not read like some sort of true-crime or investigative work; rather, it takes the form of a travelogue, where Rushby learns about the parts of India he travels through, the types of people he meets. As such, although it develops at a slower or more leisurely pace, the work is deep and rich, and the reader feels he has learned not so much about the cult of Kali as gained somewhat of a new perspective on life. It was not exactly the type of book I was expecting, but I came to very much enjoy reading it.