There was never any clear definition of what a thug was, which is why it was so attractive to the British. It allowed them to criminalize any kind of indigenous activity as being something that was inherently irrational and politically illegitimate, not different from the way it’s used today. You’re effectively describing them as having no legitimate grievances and just being hoodlums.

A Brief History of the Word ‘Thug’ • 2015 Apr 29 • Newsweek

Some historians now argue that the Thuggee Cult was in many ways an invention of the British colonizers as a way to better control India. Historian Martine van Woerkens argues in her book The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India that the Thuggee Cult may have been the result of ‘colonial imaginings,’ and that the brutality used to suppress the group has been overlooked.”

What A Thug’s Life Looked Like In 19th Century India • 2013 Nov 18 • Code Switch • NPR