When the suppression of the Thugs was seriously taken in hand by the
Thuggee and Dacoity Department under the direction of Sir William
Sleeman, this abominable confraternity, which had for centuries
infested the main roads of India and made away with tens of thousands
of helpless travellers, never to be heard of again by their families
and friends, was destroyed with comparatively little difficulty. The
Thugs when arrested readily furnished the fullest information of
their murders and the names of their confederates in return for
the promise of their lives, and Colonel Sleeman started a separate
file or _dossier_ for every Thug whose name became known to him, in
which all information obtained about him from different informers
was collected. In this manner, as soon as a man was arrested and
identified, a mass of evidence was usually at once forthcoming to
secure his conviction. Between 1826 and 1835 about 2000 Thugs were
arrested and hanged, transported or kept under restraint; subsequently
to this a larger number of British officers were deputed to the work
of hunting down the Thugs, and by 1848 it was considered that this
form of crime had been practically stamped out. For the support of the
approver Thugs and the families of these and others a labour colony
was instituted at Jubbulpore, which subsequently developed into the
school of industry and was the parent of the existing Reformatory
School. Here these criminals were taught tent and carpet-making and
other trades, and in time grew to be ashamed of the murderous calling
in which they had once taken a pride.