2. Cult of Kali
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is based loosely on a Hindu cult known as the Cult of Kali. In the movie, Indiana Jones and his band of sidekicks have to infiltrate a temple dedicated to the worship of Kali, where people are gruesomely killed. Kali is a Hindu goddess who worshipers believe demands human sacrifice. The Thuggee were a band of Hindu and, surprisingly, Muslim assassins who would strangle people so that they could offer them up as sacrifices to Kali. The purpose of strangling was to make sure that not a drop of blood would be spilled so that all of it could be offered to Kali.
Under the British imperial rule in India, a concerted effort was made to stamp out the Thuggee, who were terrorizing people all throughout the country. Their primary weapon of choice was the garrote, but they soon turned to use yellow scarves that they could carry on their persons. They were responsible for as many as two million deaths over at least 450 years of their existence. What remains largely under speculation is why so many Muslims joined the Thuggee, when Islam explicitly affirms the oneness of God and is incompatible with the polytheism of Hinduism. Nevertheless, today, we refer to bandits and robbers as “thugs,” after the Thuggee.
