In October of 1812, the British magistrate N.J. Halhead found himself in a part of India that was not friendly to men wearing red coats.

By that time, Hellhead was no stranger to the violent side of the British East India Company's colonial project on the subcontinent.

Over the past two years, he had earned a reputation for being a tireless campaigner against Indian fighters and freebooters deemed rebels by the

British authorities. Between 1810 and 1812, Hellhead had personally overseen a handful of campaigns

against groups of bandits and the local Indian lords known asindars, who were accused of supporting them.

To this end, Hellhead and a small army of British and Indian troops equipped with artillery,

besieged strongholds and leveled forts around Central India in what were known as the seated

and conquered provinces.

These were areas that had recently come under company control after the end of the most

recent Maratha War. But British control over much of this territory was tenuous at best.

The border between what was now a British jurisdiction and what still

belonged to the remnants of the Maratha state was of particular concern to the colonial authorities.

Neither government seemed to exert much control over these regions, and as such, they became known

as haunts for bandits who could

bounce between either side of the newly established border to evade capture. So it was that in July

of 1812, Hellhead was given authority over the region around the British stronghold of Itawa.

For years, the colonial authorities in

Itawa had been reporting that the roads around the region were plagued by murderous bandits.

Every year, dozens of bodies of travelers that had been robbed and murdered were discovered

by the roadside in the town well or in chilling mass graves.

In 1809, the authorities started using the word thugs to describe these roadway murderers,

although what it actually meant to be a thug was still unclear.

...