Haunting Witch Hunt
No person in this world can say that they are not superstitious. Being superstitious or not depends on various factors and the prime one is education. Superstition is of two types white and black. While white superstitions are not so much harmful to anyone, black superstitions are very dangerous which may manifest as murder or mayhem. Inhuman witch-hunt fall in this category.
Tetelia Sarugaon, a small village under the Khetri police station of Kamrup district. Here resided Daman Kathar, an employee of the irrigation department at Sonapur. Daman had a small family comprising his wife Soneswari and two daughters, aged ten and six years along with a son of two years.
June 1, 1998. It was nighttime. The ambience was unnaturally calm and quiet indicating the probable arrival of an impending danger. In the absence of Daman, who was at his Sonapur office, a group of fifteen youths entered the house to pull out Soneswari and killed her brutally, firstly by piercing and cutting her body with sword and spears and then throwing the corpse into fire. The reason for the brutal killing was the superstitious fear of the youths that Soneswari was a witch capable of harming people through witchcraft. Fortunately, the killers spared the children who underwent deep psychological trauma.
Now the horrible figure! Statistics reveal that from 1998 to 2002, at least 200 people have been lynched on charge of practising witchcraft in Assam. Majority of these killings have taken place mostly in western and eastern Assam that are mainly tribal dominated. Not only Assam, reports of witch-hunt also come from Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. For example, 167 such cases have been reported from Andhra Pradesh in the year 2001-2002.
May 25, 2000. Thaigarguri was a remotest village in Kokrajhar district of lower Assam. There was a nighttime meeting of senior people of the village that was presided by village headman Samarendra Narzary. The village witnessed a number of unusual deaths in the recent past and the quack priestess had declared that all these are the handiwork of five witches, four men and a woman. Death sentence was provided to all the five by the village-court. After listening to the pronouncement of capital punishment, uncontrolled violent and turbulent mob lynched five persons to death. Narzary and 17 other people were arrested next day by the police on the charge of ghastly execution. Three months afterwards, all the arrested persons were granted bail and it appeared that Narzary was very much proud to free the village from the clutches of witches.
Amazingly there was a change in Narzarys mindset after two years when another witch was bludgeoned to death by frenzied mob in village Guabari of Bongaigaon district. The 60-year-old Narzary, along with 20 men and women from Thaigarguri went from home to home in Guabari to tell the villagers that if anybody has died in their families, it is because of a disease and not due to black magic power of the witches. So if somebody is ill, the patient should immediately be taken to the hospital to consult doctor. In reality, withes do not exist on earth.
There have been a good number of killings in the recent past in Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Dhubri districts due to superstitions. For example, in new Dhoradhora village near Kachungaon, two persons were butchered by enraged villagers on the suspicion of practising witchcraft. Two innocent villagers were slaughtered in Uttar Patgaon village. Similarly, a woman fell under the wrath of ruthless mob and was brutally murdered in Guabari village under Dhaligaon police station.
The moot question now is what is the basis of such senseless witch-hunts? Dr R Zaman, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Gauhati Medical College opines: Lack of proper education and lack of medical facilities are the root cause of such a social evil like witch-hunt. In the remote villages, where people feel helpless in a life-threatening situation, they go to the quacks expecting remedy. But when quacks or ojhas fail to get the patient cured, they put the blame on someone else and label them as witches believed to have supernatural dangerous black power.
Interestingly, it has been found that witch-hunting is often used to deprive the woman of her property. Women get the lions share of property in many Adivasi communities. Members of the womans family or others often portray the woman a witch so as to easily grab the piece of land. Again when upper caste families try to rob the land of the tribal or dalit families, they declare a single member of the family as witch or sometimes the whole family as a witch family and lynch them. Often the vested interests exploit the dalit and tribal communities for fulfilling their narrow interest by branding some of their family members as witches with the help of influential ojhas.
Subhadra Basumatarey, a 45-year-old woman who used to live in Tilapara village of Goalpara district, openly revolted against the obscurantist practices and unscientific rituals of local kavirajes or witch doctors or ojhas. She was a member of All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) and was the mother of three sons and three daughters. She demanded a part in her late fathers property, which her stepbrother obviously did not like because he wanted the full share of the property. The stepbrother and the kavirajes in the local area formed an ominous nexus to eliminate her. She was branded as a witch since there was a repetition of a disease three times in the village affecting a large number of people.
One night at 10 pm, she was forcefully heaved out of her house by a group of village people in the presence of a female kaviraj and taken to a distant serene place. The villagers ordered her to declare in a piece of paper that she is a witch. As Subhadra had enough courage, she refused to sign. Angry villagers started beating her in a ruthless way. First they broke her right arm, then her ribs and finally, she was left with badly bruised legs. Her husband was also beaten. After the attackers left the spot in jubilation, her husband took her to a nearby hospital and got her admitted. She survived and took shelter in the house of an AIDWA activist. It is the AIDWA activists whose presence discouraged the superstitious villagers to take further action.
Sumitra Hazarika Gogoi, president of the Forum on Atrocities against Women opines, superstitions like witch-hunt are mostly found among the plain and tea tribes. Actually in our society a girl child since her birth has to fight to keep herself alive. In villages, the situation is worse due to lack of proper medical care, poverty and lack of education. Sometimes a single woman or widow is held responsible for sudden illness in the village or any catastrophic incident as they are accused of casting a spell. As punishment, they are termed as witches who are often stripped and paraded, blackened and even provided with capital punishment. I think a mass movement should come out from the grassroots level and the government should take proper measures to spread scientific education. Dignity of woman and her right to property should be properly maintained.
To fight superstition, Assam Police launched Project Prahari in Thaigarguri village in August, 2001. The main person behind this idea is present IGP (Training) Kula Saikia, who is currently the nodal officer of the project. When Saikia was DIG, Western Range at Kokrajhar in 2000, the barbarous killing of five villagers in Thaigarguri village took place. Saikia made a detailed study in the affected Bodo areas and found that illiteracy and poverty are the basic factors blocking the progress of the area. He instructed the local people to identify their own problems themselves and assured an all-pervading police help to tackle such problems. This project, which opened a new era, got mass support for participatory development and community policing. As part of the project, awareness programmes about social evils like witch-hunt were undertaken and within a short period, the village became completely free from witch-hunt. The project also tried to develop the economic condition of the people of the area through self-employment schemes in collaboration with NGOs and various financial institutions. Currently, women at Thaigarguri have more than 20 spinning machines in their possession. The Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati has also agreed to work in the affected areas for development. The success of Project Prahari, which was Saikias experiment, encouraged the then Director General of Police Harekrishna Deka to take 40 villages under its cover. Unfortunately, lack of proper government support has deterred spread of Project Prahari in other vulnerable areas of Assam. Now, after five years of its launch, the project covers only 60 villages. The Assam Science, Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) assured to supply solar lighting system to villages that have been covered by the project.
Pranab Kumar Sarma, advocate opines: Tell me how you can punish a large section of violent mob who under provocation has gone for a culpable homicide? In general it is not possible, but you can always locate the group leader or the so-called ojhas and provide them with serious punishment like life imprisonment or death sentence. In the eye of the law, there is no difference between witch-hunt and an ordinary murder. Dr Zaman also holds this view.
The failure of the government to provide full support to Project Prahari and its implementation throughout the entire State has resulted in the barbaric killing of five persons in the name of witch-hunt recently. The incident happened at Biswanath Chariali on March 18, 2006. The bloodthirsty mob belonging to the Munda tribe was so furious that they dared to go to the Biswanath Chariali police station with blood-oozing heads of the victims in their hands. The reason for this gang murder is the repeated uncharacteristic, abnormal deaths in the last few months in that area. In this context, it must be mentioned that in all the 60 villages where Project Prahari is operating, the crime rate and witch-hunt have come down to almost zero because of awareness about social evils and community policing.
I remember the award winning documentary The Great Indian Witch-hunt that was shown in the National Geographic channel as a part of the series It happens only in India. Yes, it only happens in Assam where in spite of brilliant success of the Project Prahari, it has not received due support from the Government of Assam to spread it statewide and eradicate superstitions and social evils. It is not known how much the NGOs are doing in this regard. The role of NGOs should be based on total commitment in synchronization with government efforts. Political lobbies as well as vested interests should not be used to satisfy their narrow interests by glamourizing the position of witch-doctors among tribal communities. Various science societies can use the concept of vigyan yatra to educate the people in the remote villages that witches do not exist on earth. If you have any disease, go to the doctor in the nearest hospital.
Pijush Kanti Dhar
Tetelia Sarugaon, a small village under the Khetri police station of Kamrup district. Here resided Daman Kathar, an employee of the irrigation department at Sonapur. Daman had a small family comprising his wife Soneswari and two daughters, aged ten and six years along with a son of two years.
June 1, 1998. It was nighttime. The ambience was unnaturally calm and quiet indicating the probable arrival of an impending danger. In the absence of Daman, who was at his Sonapur office, a group of fifteen youths entered the house to pull out Soneswari and killed her brutally, firstly by piercing and cutting her body with sword and spears and then throwing the corpse into fire. The reason for the brutal killing was the superstitious fear of the youths that Soneswari was a witch capable of harming people through witchcraft. Fortunately, the killers spared the children who underwent deep psychological trauma.
Now the horrible figure! Statistics reveal that from 1998 to 2002, at least 200 people have been lynched on charge of practising witchcraft in Assam. Majority of these killings have taken place mostly in western and eastern Assam that are mainly tribal dominated. Not only Assam, reports of witch-hunt also come from Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. For example, 167 such cases have been reported from Andhra Pradesh in the year 2001-2002.
May 25, 2000. Thaigarguri was a remotest village in Kokrajhar district of lower Assam. There was a nighttime meeting of senior people of the village that was presided by village headman Samarendra Narzary. The village witnessed a number of unusual deaths in the recent past and the quack priestess had declared that all these are the handiwork of five witches, four men and a woman. Death sentence was provided to all the five by the village-court. After listening to the pronouncement of capital punishment, uncontrolled violent and turbulent mob lynched five persons to death. Narzary and 17 other people were arrested next day by the police on the charge of ghastly execution. Three months afterwards, all the arrested persons were granted bail and it appeared that Narzary was very much proud to free the village from the clutches of witches.
Amazingly there was a change in Narzarys mindset after two years when another witch was bludgeoned to death by frenzied mob in village Guabari of Bongaigaon district. The 60-year-old Narzary, along with 20 men and women from Thaigarguri went from home to home in Guabari to tell the villagers that if anybody has died in their families, it is because of a disease and not due to black magic power of the witches. So if somebody is ill, the patient should immediately be taken to the hospital to consult doctor. In reality, withes do not exist on earth.
There have been a good number of killings in the recent past in Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Dhubri districts due to superstitions. For example, in new Dhoradhora village near Kachungaon, two persons were butchered by enraged villagers on the suspicion of practising witchcraft. Two innocent villagers were slaughtered in Uttar Patgaon village. Similarly, a woman fell under the wrath of ruthless mob and was brutally murdered in Guabari village under Dhaligaon police station.
The moot question now is what is the basis of such senseless witch-hunts? Dr R Zaman, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Gauhati Medical College opines: Lack of proper education and lack of medical facilities are the root cause of such a social evil like witch-hunt. In the remote villages, where people feel helpless in a life-threatening situation, they go to the quacks expecting remedy. But when quacks or ojhas fail to get the patient cured, they put the blame on someone else and label them as witches believed to have supernatural dangerous black power.
Interestingly, it has been found that witch-hunting is often used to deprive the woman of her property. Women get the lions share of property in many Adivasi communities. Members of the womans family or others often portray the woman a witch so as to easily grab the piece of land. Again when upper caste families try to rob the land of the tribal or dalit families, they declare a single member of the family as witch or sometimes the whole family as a witch family and lynch them. Often the vested interests exploit the dalit and tribal communities for fulfilling their narrow interest by branding some of their family members as witches with the help of influential ojhas.
Subhadra Basumatarey, a 45-year-old woman who used to live in Tilapara village of Goalpara district, openly revolted against the obscurantist practices and unscientific rituals of local kavirajes or witch doctors or ojhas. She was a member of All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) and was the mother of three sons and three daughters. She demanded a part in her late fathers property, which her stepbrother obviously did not like because he wanted the full share of the property. The stepbrother and the kavirajes in the local area formed an ominous nexus to eliminate her. She was branded as a witch since there was a repetition of a disease three times in the village affecting a large number of people.
One night at 10 pm, she was forcefully heaved out of her house by a group of village people in the presence of a female kaviraj and taken to a distant serene place. The villagers ordered her to declare in a piece of paper that she is a witch. As Subhadra had enough courage, she refused to sign. Angry villagers started beating her in a ruthless way. First they broke her right arm, then her ribs and finally, she was left with badly bruised legs. Her husband was also beaten. After the attackers left the spot in jubilation, her husband took her to a nearby hospital and got her admitted. She survived and took shelter in the house of an AIDWA activist. It is the AIDWA activists whose presence discouraged the superstitious villagers to take further action.
Sumitra Hazarika Gogoi, president of the Forum on Atrocities against Women opines, superstitions like witch-hunt are mostly found among the plain and tea tribes. Actually in our society a girl child since her birth has to fight to keep herself alive. In villages, the situation is worse due to lack of proper medical care, poverty and lack of education. Sometimes a single woman or widow is held responsible for sudden illness in the village or any catastrophic incident as they are accused of casting a spell. As punishment, they are termed as witches who are often stripped and paraded, blackened and even provided with capital punishment. I think a mass movement should come out from the grassroots level and the government should take proper measures to spread scientific education. Dignity of woman and her right to property should be properly maintained.
To fight superstition, Assam Police launched Project Prahari in Thaigarguri village in August, 2001. The main person behind this idea is present IGP (Training) Kula Saikia, who is currently the nodal officer of the project. When Saikia was DIG, Western Range at Kokrajhar in 2000, the barbarous killing of five villagers in Thaigarguri village took place. Saikia made a detailed study in the affected Bodo areas and found that illiteracy and poverty are the basic factors blocking the progress of the area. He instructed the local people to identify their own problems themselves and assured an all-pervading police help to tackle such problems. This project, which opened a new era, got mass support for participatory development and community policing. As part of the project, awareness programmes about social evils like witch-hunt were undertaken and within a short period, the village became completely free from witch-hunt. The project also tried to develop the economic condition of the people of the area through self-employment schemes in collaboration with NGOs and various financial institutions. Currently, women at Thaigarguri have more than 20 spinning machines in their possession. The Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati has also agreed to work in the affected areas for development. The success of Project Prahari, which was Saikias experiment, encouraged the then Director General of Police Harekrishna Deka to take 40 villages under its cover. Unfortunately, lack of proper government support has deterred spread of Project Prahari in other vulnerable areas of Assam. Now, after five years of its launch, the project covers only 60 villages. The Assam Science, Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) assured to supply solar lighting system to villages that have been covered by the project.
Pranab Kumar Sarma, advocate opines: Tell me how you can punish a large section of violent mob who under provocation has gone for a culpable homicide? In general it is not possible, but you can always locate the group leader or the so-called ojhas and provide them with serious punishment like life imprisonment or death sentence. In the eye of the law, there is no difference between witch-hunt and an ordinary murder. Dr Zaman also holds this view.
The failure of the government to provide full support to Project Prahari and its implementation throughout the entire State has resulted in the barbaric killing of five persons in the name of witch-hunt recently. The incident happened at Biswanath Chariali on March 18, 2006. The bloodthirsty mob belonging to the Munda tribe was so furious that they dared to go to the Biswanath Chariali police station with blood-oozing heads of the victims in their hands. The reason for this gang murder is the repeated uncharacteristic, abnormal deaths in the last few months in that area. In this context, it must be mentioned that in all the 60 villages where Project Prahari is operating, the crime rate and witch-hunt have come down to almost zero because of awareness about social evils and community policing.
I remember the award winning documentary The Great Indian Witch-hunt that was shown in the National Geographic channel as a part of the series It happens only in India. Yes, it only happens in Assam where in spite of brilliant success of the Project Prahari, it has not received due support from the Government of Assam to spread it statewide and eradicate superstitions and social evils. It is not known how much the NGOs are doing in this regard. The role of NGOs should be based on total commitment in synchronization with government efforts. Political lobbies as well as vested interests should not be used to satisfy their narrow interests by glamourizing the position of witch-doctors among tribal communities. Various science societies can use the concept of vigyan yatra to educate the people in the remote villages that witches do not exist on earth. If you have any disease, go to the doctor in the nearest hospital.
Pijush Kanti Dhar
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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