William Henry Sleeman

William Henry Sleeman

Infobox Person
name = William Henry Sleeman


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birth_date = 1788
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death_date = 1856
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Sir William Henry Sleeman (August 8, 1788 - February 10, 1856) 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. In 1809 William joined the Bengal Army, served in the Nepal War (1814-1816), and in 1820 became assistant to the Governor-General's agent in the Saugor and Nerbudda territories.

He is best known for his suppression of the Thuggee secret society, becoming superintendent of the operations against them in 1835, and commissioner for the suppression of Thuggee and Dacoity in 1839. During these operations, more than 1400 Thugs were hanged or transported for life. One of them, Bahram, confessed to have strangled 931 persons with his turban. Detection was only possible by means of informers, for whose protection from the vengeance of their associates a special prison was established at Jabalpur (at the time "Jubbulpore").

Sleeman was also the earliest discoverer of dinosaur fossils in Asia. In 1828, serving as a Captain in the Narmada valley region, he noticed several basaltic formations which he identified as having been "raised above the waters". By digging around in the Bara Simla Hills, part of the Lameta formation near Jabalpur, he unearthed several petrified trees, as well as some fragmentary dinosaur fossil specimens [William Sleeman, from "Rambles and Recollections of an Indian official,", [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wilsonja/Titanosauria/Background_files/Sleeman1844.pdf p. 127 (pdf)] ] . Subsequently he sent these specimens to London [cite book
author = Sahni, Ashok
title = Dinosaurs of India
publisher = National Book Trust, New Delhi
year = 2001
isbn = 8123731094] and to the Indian Museum in Calcutta [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wilsonja/Titanosauria/Background.html] . In 1877 the genus was named "Titanosaurus Indicus" by Richard Lydekker [http://www.dinodata.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=7639] , but the identification has been doubted.

Sleeman also took an interest in phrenology and believed that the measurements of the skulls could help him identify criminal ethnic groups. [Bates, C. (1995) Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: The Early Origins of Indian Anthropometry. Edinburgh Papers In South Asian Studies Number 3. ISBN 1900795027]

Sleeman was resident at Gwalior from 1843 to 1849, and at Lucknow from 1849 to 1856. He was opposed to the annexation of Oudh by Lord Dalhousie, but his advice was disregarded. He died at sea near Sri Lanka on a recovery trip to Britain in 1856.

The village Sleemanabad was named in his honour. [Dash, Mike "Thug: the true story of India's murderous cult" ISBN 1-86207-604-9, 2005, page ? ]

References

External links

*
** Sleeman, H. (1844) "Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official" (1844; 2nd edition, 1893) [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15483 full text]
** Sleeman, H. (1858) "A Journey through Oudh" [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16997 full text]
*"This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica."


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