The Deceivers is a 1952 novel by
John MastersLieutenant Colonel John Masters, DSO was an English officer in the British Indian Army and novelist. His works are noted for their treatment of the British Empire in India.-Life:...
on the
ThuggeeThuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India....
movement in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
during
British imperialThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
rule. It was a 1988
Merchant Ivory ProductionsMerchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. Their films were for the most part directed by the former, produced by the latter, and scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala . The films were often based upon novels or short stories,...
film starring
Shashi KapoorShashi Kapoor , born Balbir Raj Kapoor on March 18, 1938 in Calcutta, is a Indian film actor and producer and a member of the Kapoor family, an film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema. He is the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, the son of Prithviraj Kapoor, the widower of Jennifer...
,
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist, who holds both Irish and American citizenship. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
,
Bijaya JenaBijaya Jena is an Indian actor, film director and producer.-Early years:Jena is the youngest of 3 children, born into a family of academicians and aristocrats...
,
Saeed JaffreySaeed Jaffrey OBE is an Indian-born British actor, who has done numerous British movies. He was born in Malerkotla, Punjab...
and
Dalip TahilDalip Tahil is an Indian film, television and theatre actor. He did his schooling from the elite Sherwood College in Nainital, India and later graduated from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.-Films:...
.
The story shows how British officer and colonial administrator William Savage (
BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist, who holds both Irish and American citizenship. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
in the film version) comes to know about the
thuggee cultThuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India....
, infiltrates their society, learns their ways and code of communication, and destroys them by capturing or killing their key leaders.
The Deceivers is a 1952 novel by
John MastersLieutenant Colonel John Masters, DSO was an English officer in the British Indian Army and novelist. His works are noted for their treatment of the British Empire in India.-Life:...
on the
ThuggeeThuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India....
movement in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
during
British imperialThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
rule. It was a 1988
Merchant Ivory ProductionsMerchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. Their films were for the most part directed by the former, produced by the latter, and scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala . The films were often based upon novels or short stories,...
film starring
Shashi KapoorShashi Kapoor , born Balbir Raj Kapoor on March 18, 1938 in Calcutta, is a Indian film actor and producer and a member of the Kapoor family, an film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema. He is the younger brother of Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, the son of Prithviraj Kapoor, the widower of Jennifer...
,
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist, who holds both Irish and American citizenship. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
,
Bijaya JenaBijaya Jena is an Indian actor, film director and producer.-Early years:Jena is the youngest of 3 children, born into a family of academicians and aristocrats...
,
Saeed JaffreySaeed Jaffrey OBE is an Indian-born British actor, who has done numerous British movies. He was born in Malerkotla, Punjab...
and
Dalip TahilDalip Tahil is an Indian film, television and theatre actor. He did his schooling from the elite Sherwood College in Nainital, India and later graduated from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.-Films:...
.
Synopsis
The story shows how British officer and colonial administrator William Savage (
BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist, who holds both Irish and American citizenship. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
in the film version) comes to know about the
thuggee cultThuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India....
, infiltrates their society, learns their ways and code of communication, and destroys them by capturing or killing their key leaders. During his travels with the thuggee he almost falls prey to the cult's ways as he comes to experience the ecstasy of ritual killings. The movie shows how complex the web was in terms of type and stature of people involved with the thuggee cult.
Analysis
The Deceivers portrays both the
thuggeeThuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India....
cultCult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices...
and
Honourable East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
government in an accurate way. Historically, the Honourable East India Company, which was exploiting the natural resources of India for their own colonial interests, was the world's first joint stock company - chartered by Queen
Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in 1601. (The British government took over administration of India from the Company in 1857, and the corporation dissolved in 1858.) The company's attitude to colonial administration is pointedly expressed by Savage at the beginning of the film version: "Do nothing, have nothing done, and let no one do anything." The film is shot on location and shows the countryside not as a jungle, as many think of India, but as an arid steppe.
The main character, William Savage, is a
CaptainCaptain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
of the
British Indian ArmyThe Indian Army , now sometimes called the British Indian Army to distinguish it from the modern army of the Republic of India, was the principal army of the British Raj in India during the last half-century before the partition of India in 1947.The Indian Army served both in India and,...
and tax collector (or, as he would rather view himself, colonial administrator) of the fictional district of "Madhia". He is deeply committed to his duties, which he considers to lie with the people of his district, rather than tax extraction for the East India Company.
He is fluent in four dialects and has a highly developed sense of honor. At the beginning of the story, he marries his fiancée Sarah Wilson, the daughter of Colonel Wilson and 20 years his junior. In the course of the story he discovers a mass grave, filled with the remains of travellers, all of whom were evidently strangled to death in ritualistic fashion, among them a recently killed British officer. This leads him to begin an investigation, in the course of which he arrests Hussein, who confesses to being a
thug, or deceiver. Colonel Wilson arrives and is furious at the measures that Savage has taken to find the ones responsible for the mass murders. He refuses to believe Savage's story of the thuggee cult, blaming the murders on dacoits (bandits) instead. Savage then decides to become a thug and infiltrates their society with Hussein's help. His character is loosely based on
William SleemanSir William Henry Sleeman was a British soldier and administrator in India.A great admirer of India's rich natural beauty, he was born in Stratton, Cornwall, the son of Philip Sleeman, a yeoman and supervisor of excise of St Tudy...
, who historically started an extensive campaign involving profiling, intelligence, and executions.
Relations with other books in the series
William is the father of Rodney Savage, the protagonist in
Nightrunners of BengalNightrunners of Bengal is the title of the first novel by John Masters. It was published in the United States in January 1951, and at first attracted severe criticism from some reviewers who objected to what they regarded as its imperialist viewpoint and graphic depiction of acts of savagery...
, set during the
Indian Rebellion of 1857The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May, 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
. Hussein also makes an appearance, rescuing Rodney from the slaughter.