What is meant by ‘witch’?
The present meaning of ‘witch’ has a very remote relationship with the meaning of the word ‘witch’ of the past. According to Dr. Aparna Mahanta, a renowned writer and intellectual from Assam, originally the word ‘witch’ was used to mean wicca, a scientist woman, who would go to the jungle at night, to gather medicinal plants and with such herbs she would offer treatment to patients and cure them.
But new medical knowledge became completely monopolized by males, so it became necessary for them to stand up against these wicca. At the same time this modern medical treatment was costlier for the poor, and they had to go to the local ‘Bez’. When such a ‘Bez’ or ‘Kabiraj’ was unable to cure the patient, then she/he was branded as a ‘witch’, about whom it was said that the patient had to succumb to death due to her. ‘Bez’ is the local doctor who gives treatment to the patient.
Usual causes
It is a general notion that the ‘witch’ is a
woman. There are such cases in Kokrajhar, Goalpara districts. In Dhudhnoi of
Goalpara district, in a village named Hatimura, a person Bedeswar Rabha was
severely tortured. He was a very proud man and disliked by the villagers. His son
started a shop and the son of the Mukhia of the village also opened a shop,
they were rivals. Many villagers had fallen ill, the bez told people that there
was a 13 headed demon who was obstructing the god of the village temple from
entering the temple and that he was Bedeswar Rabha. So he was severely beaten
in a meeting. Later Mission Birubala saved him, filed a case, and then brought
them to a negotiation. Some people say that the
practice of polygamy is also behind the phenomenon of ‘witch’
hunting, because when a man marries two or three women – one of them becomes the target of the others, as she is loved more
by the husband. Padumi Rabha was the second wife of her husband. The third wife
was a young girl, and after this marriage the husband stopped giving
maintenance to Padumi. She had a child. Both Padumi and husband worshipped
Siva. He always called her ‘witch’ whenever she protested against his
attitude of neglect towards them. Taking the chance of an incident of a dead snake,
carried by Padumi’s husband, it was kept in front of Padumi’s house. The husband, and even Padumi’s maternal family tortured her, she was forcefully sent out of the
village while a woman Birubala Rabha saved her and now she is a member of the
Mission.
Again, some say that with the spread of Christianity, those who influenced the
people with so called ‘supernatural powers’ became wary of Christianity. At this
juncture the Christian prophets were afraid of the influence of witches on
common people. So, in order to restrict this influence, they began to propagate
negative things regarding the activities of the so called ‘witches’.
In India, among the tribal people, where there is no existence of goddesses
like Kalior Durga, people worship demons, the Devil or some negative
supernatural powers. Their dependence on nature, fear of natural calamities,
fear of disease, all lead them to worship such evil powers.
Witch hunting, in Assam, is branding a woman as ‘witch’ (daini) mostly by the local ‘Bez’
or ‘Kabiraj’, the local doctor. Usually, when the villagers approach a ‘bez’
with a chronic ailment, or for some suggestion or way to find out
the cause of sudden death of any person or animal, the ‘ojha’
or “bez”
identifies some woman as a ‘witch’ or ‘daini’. Then the villagers drag her out, torture her and
she is often beaten to death; sometimes wrapped in fishing net and beaten to
death and sometimes buried alive. In some states, the woman branded as ’witch’
or ‘daini’
is paraded naked and even raped by mobs of village people, who are
convinced of her evil powers. In a tea garden in Behali of Sonitpur district,
Assam the family of Binanda Gaur was
branded as ‘witch family’
and was attacked by a group of villagers.
The mother and the daughter were dragged out to a ditch and were raped and
killed. Tiku Orang, one of the arrested confessed.
(Hindustan Times. 23-6-2011). In Odisha, a group of villagers assaulted and forced three people including two women –to walk naked through the village in November-2013 (Science and ReligionJuly Aug, 2014 by Ryan Shaffer). But most often those who lead such activities have vested interests. If by sheer luck, the victim manages to escape, she is ostracized from the village with a heavy fine being imposed, and is dispossessed of her property.
It is seen that though this practice was prevalent mostly in Bodo areas, yet with the passage of time, it has spread to other districts, and now such crimes are being reported from Kamrup, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Nawgaon, Bongaigaon, Dhemaji, Karbi Anglong districts. Such incidents occur in areas predominantly inhabited by the adivasis, the tribal people. According to SP Kokrajhar in Kokrajhar district alone 63 were murdered in the name of ‘witchs’ during the period 2001 to 2011.
