What A Thug's Life Looked Like In 19th Century India Summary

In “What A Thug's Life Looked Like In 19th Century India”, Lakshmi Gandhi shows a great fascination and history of the word thug; displaying the roots (origin) and background to further and new understandings of the word thug. The word thug has been used by many people in the world countless times. To call someone thug has a lot of different connotations to it that have been altered many times. Some of these connotations would be a thief, a murderer, and other strongly negative words. Looking hard at the word Thugs/Thuggees, it is evident that such a word with such a negative background cannot be turned into something more pure even if it is used more modernized.

The author acknowledges all aspects of the word thug and really demonstrates a highly and leveled version of what a true thug is. A vicious murderer/strangler that enacts in cults to further and greater the number of kills be eliminating or even assassinating the innocent. It becomes clear from the very start of the article that the word thug is derived from a very violent past. The author claims various details/facts of cults that displayed the very meaning of a true born criminal. Looking at these facts, it is easy to see how and why the word thug would be brought up into present time and used more modernly and harmlessly.
Looking at the word thug from greater aspects allows us to see and even more demanding us of the word thug.
The author acknowledges that the word thug has been used by many rappers and that the word thug is almost idolized by them. The true question is why has a word with such a bad history gained so much fame and popularity? The author goes further by showing the reader a passage of what Mark Twain had written in the book “Following the Equator”
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“The joy of killing! The joy of seeing killing done — these are the traits of the human race at large. We White people are merely modified Thugs; Thugs fretting under the restraints of a not very thick skin of civilization; Thugs who not long ago enjoyed the slaughter of the Roman arena…”

The highlighted section of that quote demonstrates a strange and fascinating commonality between humans; although it could be a great speculation, it is in fact possible that people enjoy an onslaught. There was even a time when people sat around with a million others to watch people go at each other for the hell of it. These tough skinned people still exist today, and the modernized thug may even believe that it is his or her duty to show some sort of pride or even an understanding of what it means to him or her to be a thug. A dangerous role to play, yet so many accept it blindly as a mere quote such as “thug life” become popular.