Modern-day witch hunting in India
Joe Fleishman
June 05, 2009
Sita Rani, a so called Indian witch somehow managed to escape with her life by the assistance of the local authorities. But all other pronounced witches are not so lucky. It is not very uncommon that the women were even killed in a barbaric manner once she has been identified as a witch.
I am not telling a mediaeval story. This is what is happening in the twenty first century in the worldīs largest democracy - India. In recent years over seven hundred such witch hunting incident were reported. Women suspected of witchcraft are being hunted down and attacked. Some are forced to eat human excreta others are beaten and stripped naked. Many are brutally tortured and killed by enraged mobs. Those who were lucky were rescued but many of them are not so fortunate.
Witches are blamed for losses of crops, diseases, epidemic and all other bad lucks. The local villagers believe if they sacrifice the witch or if they get rid of the witch evil spirit will ultimately calm down and will let them stay in peace. Some believes those women have some spiritual connection with bad souls, so wherever those women go bad luck follows them. Sometimes they locked them in a room but in most cases they want to get rid of them either by killing or any other way is possible. These stories are awfully similar to the mediaeval stories.
In a documentary an Indian Journalist Sohaila Kapoor showed a teenage boy Gurudeo Mardi has been arrested for beheading his aunt Maina Mardi and carrying her head to the police. He believed his aunt was a witch.
Indiaīs northeastern Assam province is apparently the worst affected area. There are different tribal communities lives in these areas. Witch hunting is more common among these tribal people.
Some NGOīs are trying to educate local people about the witch hunting that has reduced the number of incident to some extent but the modern-day witch hunting is still exist. This is an embarrassment for India. But the government has shown little concern about it. May be they are comparing the number of incident with other crimes. Surely the number is far shorter than many other crimes yet killing a human in a fifteenth century style is a bizarre thing to go through.
Indian government is not taking the witch hunting matter seriously. They think this problem can be solved locally and there is not enough necessity for the central government to involve. The local governments on the other hand do not have enough money and ability to fight with this. They are also not very much interested to operate any massive campaign against the witch hunting. So the government is literally ineffective here.
NGOīs and the Social Organizations are relatively playing better role to educate people and rehabilitate the victims. But itīs a slow process and in this rate it will take years to prevent witch hunting completely.
I am not telling a mediaeval story. This is what is happening in the twenty first century in the worldīs largest democracy - India. In recent years over seven hundred such witch hunting incident were reported. Women suspected of witchcraft are being hunted down and attacked. Some are forced to eat human excreta others are beaten and stripped naked. Many are brutally tortured and killed by enraged mobs. Those who were lucky were rescued but many of them are not so fortunate.
Witches are blamed for losses of crops, diseases, epidemic and all other bad lucks. The local villagers believe if they sacrifice the witch or if they get rid of the witch evil spirit will ultimately calm down and will let them stay in peace. Some believes those women have some spiritual connection with bad souls, so wherever those women go bad luck follows them. Sometimes they locked them in a room but in most cases they want to get rid of them either by killing or any other way is possible. These stories are awfully similar to the mediaeval stories.
In a documentary an Indian Journalist Sohaila Kapoor showed a teenage boy Gurudeo Mardi has been arrested for beheading his aunt Maina Mardi and carrying her head to the police. He believed his aunt was a witch.
Indiaīs northeastern Assam province is apparently the worst affected area. There are different tribal communities lives in these areas. Witch hunting is more common among these tribal people.
Some NGOīs are trying to educate local people about the witch hunting that has reduced the number of incident to some extent but the modern-day witch hunting is still exist. This is an embarrassment for India. But the government has shown little concern about it. May be they are comparing the number of incident with other crimes. Surely the number is far shorter than many other crimes yet killing a human in a fifteenth century style is a bizarre thing to go through.
Indian government is not taking the witch hunting matter seriously. They think this problem can be solved locally and there is not enough necessity for the central government to involve. The local governments on the other hand do not have enough money and ability to fight with this. They are also not very much interested to operate any massive campaign against the witch hunting. So the government is literally ineffective here.
NGOīs and the Social Organizations are relatively playing better role to educate people and rehabilitate the victims. But itīs a slow process and in this rate it will take years to prevent witch hunting completely.
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