i) ‘Bez’ or ‘Kaviraj’
In a society which has tribal roots, where prevails the worship of demons, witches, ghosts etc. people have tremendous faith in the ‘Bez’ or ‘Kaviraj’. Assam has been well-known since long for the practice of black magic. In Marigaon district, Mayong was, as mentioned above, once known as the Indian Capital of Black Magic.
So the influence of such beliefs is still there among those who are illiterate. Just a day after eminent rationalist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune last year; two people were killed in a remote village in Assam’s Kokrajhar district, allegedly by villagers, who suspected them of practising witchcraft.
ii) Economic Disparity
One of the major reasons behind witch hunting is economic disparity and
neglect of health care as well as absence of a health care infrastructure. This
lies behind the power as well as respect enjoyed by the ‘Bez’ or ‘Ojha’ in rural Assam, especially in the tribal dominated areas. A large number of ‘Bez’ or ’Ojhas’ earn their livelihood by
providing medication and health care to these illiterate villagers who are
deprived of modern healthcare facilities and unaware of modern medicine.
Specially, in the rainy season, the villagers suffer from malaria, cholera etc.
and several epidemics result in mass deaths. Anyone who is seriously ill is
taken to these ‘Bez’ or ‘Ojhas’. But in most of the cases the
‘Bez’ or ‘Ojha’ fails to cure the patient. The villagers become angry and accuse the ‘Bez’ to be responsible for the death, and it turns to severe punishment by branding
them as witches. To save themselves from such accusations, the ‘Bez’ might brand some woman in the village as a ‘witch’. It is under the instruction of the ‘Bez’ that the destitute woman is beaten to death, burnt alive or buried.
iii) Land Mafia
Sometimes there are cases of
killing of women, which are found to be acts of the Land Mafia. It has been
found that all these cases are not incidents of witch hunting, rather they are
acts committed with long-term planning by land mafia to grab land and property.
Some people with vested interests use these social practices and superstitions
to uproot families having land, on which they have set their eyes , so
that the land can be acquired at a very low price, because, generally, people
do not want to buy land which is known to have been owned by some ‘witch’. Garbo Murmoo, 55 and his
wife Muni Hajda, 45, an adivasi couple of Gosaigaon sub-division of Kokrajhar
district of Lower Assam were attacked on 18th October night of 2009. “Crime and Superstition – A spate of witch hunting
assaults,” article by Ratna Bharali
Talukdar 27/06/2010.
They were branded as a ‘witch couple’ and, while asleep, they were attacked brutally. Though they were thought to
have been killed, fortunately they were rescued by BCF (Birsa Commando Force)
local unit the next morning, and were taken to Kokrajhar Civil Hospital.
They survived, but Muni’s face was disfigured and
Garbo could not walk properly. The cause behind this attack was that since the
ethnic clash of the 1990’s, they along with many others
had been living in a relief camp. In 2006 most of the camp dwellers decided to
return to their villages, where the atmosphere had become normal again. But Garbo
decided to stay along with a few other inmates as it was easier for him to find
a daily wage job near the camp. But the land mafia, who had an eye on the camp
site, threatened them to leave the camp site. They challenged the land mafia
and decided not to leave theplace, so they were branded as ‘witches’, perhaps they thought it would
also frighten the others in the camp site. In another case Brishnu Rabha and
Purshee Rabha, who had crossed their sixties, of Rajapara village in Palashbari
of Kamrup district were burnt alive by their fellow villagers in front of one
of the couple’s sons, the other sons had
fled away in fear. The couple had been involved in a land dispute with a
neighbour Banti Rabha, who had committed suicide due to some unknown reason.
Banti’s widow claimed that since her husband’s death she had begun to have
nightmares. She accused the couple for this, and in front of a village court,
the villagers branded them as witches and declared the punishment that they
were to be burnt alive. “Crime and Superstition – A spate of witch hunting assaults,” article by Ratna Bharali
Talukdar 27/06/2010.
iv)Internal Conflicts
Due to social transformation, changes have occurred among various tribes
and such changes have given rise to some conflicts amongst themselves. There
are some persons within every community who are regarded to be ‘wise’, who have tremendous influence over the common people. In order
to keep their influence intact, they want people to be loyal to them, and for
this, sometimes they take the help of ‘magical powers’. Dr. Indivar Deuri, a renowned thinker and intellectual,
said in one of his books on this topic. “A Sauntal (Santhal) young girl, pointed out by the
Sauntal witch, if refuses to join the witch group, she is threatened to be
harmed with ‘Mantra’.
Such a secret tradition still prevails. So some groups of vested interests try
to fulfil their economic and political interests taking help of such beliefs--
people’s faith on some supernatural power, and whosoever opposes such a
conspiracy, is branded a ‘witch’. Brinda Karat, AIDWA vice president, gives the example of
Subhadra Basumatary 40, a Bodo woman in Tilpara village of Goalpara district of
Assam, mother of three sons and three daughters, who had the courage to
denounce rituals conducted by the ‘Kaviraj’ or ‘Ojhas’ or witch doctors. She was attacked;
she had thrice been branded as ‘witch’ as there had been three instances of a
disease affecting people in the village. On the fourth occasion, her family
members ganged up against her as she had demanded a share of her late father’s property.
The people took the help of a local ‘Ojha’, she was declared a ‘witch’, was dragged out of her house at night, and beaten until dawn.
v) Psychiatric disorders
According to modern medical science, sometimes a person may suffer from such problems as hallucination. Also, people at times may suffer from psychiatric disorders, which can be cured by proper medical treatment. But due to lack of scientific knowledge, education and proper medical facilities, people take recourse to such superstitions as wearing ‘Maduli’ or ‘Tabij’, going to ‘bez’ etc for exorcism. In such remote areas people do not have proper facilities for education or development, having no proper means of communication, no electricity, no hospitals, and no schools. The doctors, even those who are deputed, never stay there. Medical treatment is too expensive for them as they have to travel a long way for treatment. Therefore, it must be admitted that the issue of development is quite an important factor behind acts of ‘witch’ hunting.
vi) Personal jealousy
There is often personal jealousy and rivalry behind such incidents. If a family becomes relatively wealthy and develops economically, with its sons and daughters being well established in various fields, a group of people become jealous of them and they instigate the illiterate, fear stricken poor villagers against them, taking chances by using some instances.
vii) Gender inequality and gender violence prevalent in our society is also
a major cause behind witch hunting. As has been mentioned earlier the incident
of branding of Subhadra Basamatary, a follower of the Communist ideology, began
to protest against the unscientific ideas prevalent in society and dared to
challenge them; this could not be tolerated by the male-dominated society and she
was branded as a ’witch’
and tortured brutally.
viii) Unwanted attention from men
In another instance, it was found that a young widow was targeted by a few
young boys of a remote village and they wanted to have a secret, illicit
relationship with her, against which she protested and threatened to tell the
villagers about this. The boys spread the rumour that she was a ‘witch’. She was attacked, but she joined the Birubala Mission, an NGO
fighting against the practice of witch hunting.
Studies reveal that a practice like witch hunting has its roots among marginalized
communities, deprived of development. Poor, illiterate people living in remote
areas live a life greatly influenced by superstitions. Can we blame them, when
we, even in the metro cities notice all around us well-to-do people, having
high qualifications, running from temple to temple, wearing precious stones according to birth signs
and observing fasts for a bright future, for safety, for a long life, for good
results in examinations, for a good job etc. Poor people always blame their
stars or fate for their poverty and depend on the blessings of numerous gods
and goddesses for betterment in their lives. And it has already been mentioned
that in such a society there are always some self-declared ‘wise’ men, ‘witch doctors’, ‘Bez’, ‘Kaviraj’, ‘Ojhas’ who govern the lives of common people.
