Witch hunts remain a persistent scourge in rural parts of Jharkand state and adjoining areas of Chhatisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal. Periodically there are reports of a woman accused of causing misfortunes through black magic. Once accused, a woman faces hideous treatment, banishment and possibly death:
Recalling the trauma she faced, Ramani narrates: ‘I was tortured and forced to eat human excreta just because I was branded a witch by the ojhas (witch doctors).’ (Â…)
Vaisakhi, in her 50s, had also been brutally beaten up by a villager, who branded her a witch.
There are scores of women who have been branded witch by villagers and tortured. Many were killed, sometimes by beheading or dismembering their limbs.
Many like Ramani Devi are forced to drink urine or consume human excreta. Some are ostracised and thrown out of their villages. [Link]
These occurrences are most common in adivasi (or “tribal”) communities; but they have also been reported in non-adivasi settings. The victim may be a vulnerable woman, such as a widow, or one who has made herself inconvenient to the village power structure by asserting an economic or political right:
In Bijli village in Raipur district of Madhya Pradesh, a Dalit woman, Lata Sahu, contested against a backward-caste woman in the panchayat elections. Lata was prone to epileptic attacks. The Yadavs and Patels, who belong to the land-owning castes, got Lata’s sister-in-law to condemn her as a tonahi (witch). Lata was stripped of her clothes and paraded in the village.
In another case, in Tarra village in Raipur district, a woman was hacked to death after being branded a witch by her brother-in-law after she sought a right over her deceased husband’s land. In yet another case, in Gaandi village in Angara Block in Ranchi, two Dalit widows were tortured, resulting in the death of one of them, who was 75 years old. It began with the death of two children due to malaria and jaundice in September. An exorcist told the father of the children, Mahavir Baitha, that the two widows, Jeetan Devi and Dubhan Devi, were responsible for the deaths. In front of the son, the mother was tonsured, beaten, paraded and burnt. Earthen pitchers were broken on the heads of the two widows. [Link]
States including Jharkhand have adopted a law against witch hunts, but awareness is minimal, let alone enforcement, and the punishment it provides for is minimal:
In 1999, the government passed a law, which came to be known as the “The Prevention of Witch Practices Act”. The law proposed six months imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 rupees (44 dollars) on anyone found guilty of torturing innocent women.
Despite being adopted by many States, the law has failed to act as a deterrent. Analysts blame illiteracy for cases of torture against women. [Link]
With the law largely impotent, some Jharkhand women who survived these experiences are now responding by creating awareness. A non-governmental organization based in Jamshedpur is helping them develop educational programs such as street plays:
‘When these women tell the gory acts and inhuman things they were subjected to, people can feel it. They succeed in pulling a good number of crowds,’ says Vasvi, a social worker engaged with Free Legal Aid Committee (FLAC), an NGO that organises the street plays and works to spread awareness against witch killings. [Link]
The method is a classic one of community education and outreach, and it appears to have some effect:
“During the street performances, we throw up an issue, let the audience identify the problem and involve them to come up with the solutions. They also suggest the steps that lead to the solutions. We do at least two to three shows a week,” said Flac member and Changemaker Ajay Kumar, who has been involved with the project since its inception.
The street shows are usually followed by debates amongst the audience, during which they arrive at conclusions themselves. “Around 10 people have joined us as Changemakers in the past month, having been inspired by our work. Our target is to create 40,000 Changemakers every year,” added Kumar. [Link]
And it has turned victims into educators and activists:
Poonam Toppo, who was once declared a ‘witch’ and ostracised, says that through dramatizing the true-life witchcraft nightmares, she along with others seeks to reach out to the villagers. “We deliberated on how best to uproot this evil that is seeped in superstition. We know it is complete superstition and has no scientific basis. But to get this message across we compiled our true-life witch-hunt experiences into a street play. We first performed the play in our villages and, thereafter, have been moving from village to village, trying to educate people about the law. This is our endeavour, to bring about social awakening,” she said. [Link]
And that, in its own way, is magic.
I have visited tribal area of mp(now in chattisgarh) and was told by a police that he routinely has such cases. Also i think raipur is now in chattisgarh.
We were coming back to Jamshedpur after a trek through the Dalma Hills. The year was February 1991. We decided to walk back to Jamshedpur and cross the river Subarnakha as the water level was only knee-high. Around midnight we started our trek. What a memorable journey it was!
The only bad thing was that whenver we reached the boundary of a hamlet we would be greeted by barking ferocious and mascular village dogs who would reach close to us but stopped short of actually biting us(everyone had oiled lathis). These barking dogs would show us the boundary of the village and the dogs from the next village would take over from them.
After passing a village we noticed an elderly woman sitting under a tree and staring blankly at the road. She was an widow as she was wearing white clothes. What a sight it was. A woman sitting alone in the darkness of the night wearing a white sari.
Some of my co-trekkers spotted her from a distance got terrified and started shouting. No one look at her! Look at the other side when you cross her!! She is a Dain in search of prey(Dains are supposed to come out only in the night)
I couldn’t resist looking at her when I passed her. Nothing remarkable. An old woman with an expressionless face. The crossing of so many strangers in the middle of night did not arouse any curiosity in her.
What probably would have happened is that the poor widowed woman must have been branded a “witch” by her neighbours and relatives who could claim her property after her death.She was perhaps ostracised and thrown out of the village.Looking back I feel very bad for the hapless woman.
All magic aside, a poignant example of the misogyny that is rampant in Indian culture.
The idea that illiteracy is to blame for the brutalization of these women is absurd. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. And to assert that the offenders are ignorant of the law is laughable. “What? You mean I can’t strip my wife naked, make her drink piss and eat feces and parade her around the ‘hood? But she was givin’ me lip! Still? No? My bad…”
Not as if tomes of law thrown at these adivasi/tribal communities will help. Grassroot outreach programs such as FLAC are one way to initiate change. Preserving new ideology through generations will allow change to subsist. Gotta change the hearts and minds folks. But with around 1.1b hearts and minds to convert… don’t expect the situation to change anytime soon.
Excellent post. My fav’ since browsing SM for a week…
Like other commentors have noted these practices are shockingly common almost throughout India. When I was finishing high school and we moved to a city in Gujarat I found out about how some woman had been declared a “witch” and brutalized.
I think challenge to existing power structures and some inherent misogyny both might be contributing factors.
At least you ended on a hopeful note : Thats the right way to fight these heinous practices. It also shows the incredible courage this woman has, to confront these powerful forces. Bravo !!!
BTW, Raipur is in Chattisgarh (was in Madhya Pradesh). One of my freind’s wife is from there.
its not only women, any one who has had a seizure can also get into trouble.
blue mountain, thanks for sharing the story. i only have childhood memories of it but i remember this as a really beautiful region, forests and hills, and a very large santhal population. it’s a part of india i really hope to go back to on some future visit, though i also know that it will be depressing in any number of ways. another fact i’m embarrassed that i didn’t know prior to working on this post was that india’s adivasi population was 84 million in the 2001 census. there’s probably pushing up on 100 million adivasis now yet there is so little attention to these communities.
one analysis i’ve come across is that encroachment and economic change have compelled adivasis, who in many cases were once nomads, to assign ownership and value to land; with growing competition for land within the community as well as land pressure from outside the community, some of these “witch” hunts are actually land grabs. at other times they are punishment for speaking up, or for resisting sexual advances.
it all flows into dynamics of the larger caste- and tribe-based rural society.
it is sick. i have read other reports in indian newspapers about similar stuff. i wish i had money and i wish i had time and i wish i could do something to end the insanity!
Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she’s a witch? Peasant: Well, she turned me into a newt! Sir Bedevere: A newt? Peasant: I got better… Crowd: Burn her anyway!!
/obligatory
Backward is clearly a relative term here.
the part of india u talk about is absolutely beautiful. hills, forests, ravines and thousands of small streams dot the landscape. as u come into central madhya pradesh, mustard fields with their unique shade of green begin to dominate the landscape. all this i saw from my train window……i cant imagine how beautiful it must be to actually travel thru this region.
but its sickening to think about the suffering of the local people. and witch hunts is far from being the only cause of suffering in chhatisgarh/madhya pradesh. recently, the communists have stepped up their terror campaign, massacring poor villagers and forcing internal displacement thru fear and bullying. it really disgusts me think about these things when everyone in india (and nri’s as well) seem to want to talk only about how great the economy is and how everything is booming. i guess when i say everyone, that basically refers to a narrow slice of the middle class population, but u see my point……….
Thanks for putting this post up. I wish it were of more interest to more people, but I’m really glad that it’s here.
FLAC has been working since more than two decades on with hunting problem, we drafted the law and lobbied hard to get it passed in Bihar , when Jharkhand became a separate state we got it passed here too. Just yesterday I in my usual routine work , after getting information from one of local daily Hindi went to a village Bara jhuri some 70 KM away from Jamshedpur , for getting first hand report on a double murder occurance which took place in the night of 10th June 2008 . The nephew killed his one father’s brother and his wife while they were asleep inside their hut, he believed that the aunt was a witch and a cause of the death of his mother now father was ill and hence he decided to finish the witch. chotaram Baske after causing these ghastly murder went to police station and surrendered himself stating every thing about his doings, police has drawn an FIR , through one Dukhu Ram Mardi the gram Pradhan of the village being its number Ghatshila PS case No 0072/08 dated 11.6.2008 u/s 302 IPC @ 3/4 of Dain P.Act I some time think that the law regarding witch hunting is staying at a different plane altogether then the community collective psychology, the law can support the eradication of witch hunting but law alone could not, because it relates to a faith system and untill and unless we educate and make people aware about the myths and the facts, it is difficult to get the kiilings stopped. The state and society have the burden to make people aware. Chotaram Baske is under the illusive impression that he has done a great work for his community , whereas we despise him we have to be more realistic we should analyse why this is done at the risk of being hanged, there must be very strong motivation behind. I know of a case for which I was instrumental in making a National Geographic Channel documentary where a person named Gurdas Mardi killed his auntee 90 km away of Jamshedpur believinf her to be witch , there was no witness though he had brought the slain head of the body to PS himself claiming he killed her, but when session court summoned the witnesses there was no support . My pertinent question to all of you what shoiuld be done?
hello sir i m rohit i m again i want to participate in indian wichtes to destroy this disease sir i hope u like u may b epart of i want that girls have freedomt o go anywhere plz i want id of poonam or any association ihope u like that sir ur obediently rohit(nick name jack)