- ABSTRACT
Societal belief in magic and divinity to influence human well-being are human ‘cultural universals’. The practice of witch hunt is deeply rooted in the indigenous practices of the tribal lands in Assam. Both the sexes of men and women are subjected to the practice of witch-hunting in Assam. There is a belief that witches are capable of causing drought, disease, death, potential to cause harm to others by practising rituals and chanting of mantras thus bringing derogation to the family and the society at large. Superstitions about the ‘evil eye of the witch’, fear of the supernatural are common across regions and communities and not limiting itself to the state of Assam alone. However, poor performance of the state in access to education for women, primary healthcare, economic prosperity and inaccessible governance is what makes the state of Assam more vulnerable. Absence of these specific indicators make witch craft a dominant belief in how incidents, mishaps and occurrences are viewed by the society.
The civil society discussion in Assam have made few jointed assumptions. Witch hunting is viewed as targeting women who are widow, or without a male guardian. They are more vulnerable to targeting if they are in ownership of resources, land or property within their immediate surrounding. Practiced traditionally within the tribal communities, the important trigger in witch hunting is the material motive. Greater emphasis is laid on superstitious belief among the people, aggravated further by the lack of access to quality education among the people. Empowerment of women includes equipping women to be economically self dependent, however gender constructions of women around witch hunting poses a huge challenge to the question of upliftment of women in rural society. This is also due to the fact that witch hunting in India has manifested to be a ‘gendered crime’ as women are the prime victims. Being labelled as ‘witches’, women across the state have been shunned, traumatized, questioning of dignity therefore violating the rights as enshrined for women by the laws of the land.
Legal interventions might be enough to punish the wrongdoers committing the offence. However, for any society to uproot such deeply rooted practice, access to education should be the need of the hour. It is only then that the people will be able to distinguish between scientific rationality and traditions. Education will not only help in removing superstitions and other beliefs but also help in upliftment of the society and empowerment of women.
Keywords: cultural universal, superstitions, upliftment of women, gendered crime, legal interventions, access to education, scientific rationality
SCOPES AND TRENDS
For women, empowerment flows from power. While it stands as an important means for human development, it considers equipping women to be economically independent, self-reliant and have a positive regard in the society. When empowerment of women is the talk of the day, practices like witch hunting proves to be blot on the integral discussion of women empowerment in society preceded by lack of education, access to healthcare and dominance belief in sorcery over rationality.
Article 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India guarantees absence of discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, caste, creed etc. Women have been conferred full rights of franchise like men, as per the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution. The Parliament has also enacted laws giving equal rights to women in marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc after the independence in a bid to check on gender equality. Despite the above constitutional provisions women are not able to come out of the constraint and shackles that binds them, they are shackled to the traditions, customs, age-old superstitious and beliefs, orthodoxy, dogmatism like witch hunting and conservatism. As per Government of Assam report, from 2006 to March 2018, over 1,700 women died in Assam due to rape, dowry and witch-hunting[1]. However the overall figures are much more astounding as many cases and incidents of such crimes committed on women goes unreported or gets settled by ‘compromises’. Another factor of low figures when it comes to cases of witch hunting is the fact that village customs take precedence and many members of the village get involved or sometimes the whole village. This becomes a challenge to punish the offenderunder the existing legal framework which are difficult to enforce in tribal dominated areas where villages have their own rules and customs in dealing with matters of alleged “wizardry’. As per a report of National Crime Records Bureau, in the period from 2008 to 2012, 768 women were being killed following accusations of being ‘witches’. Killing of persons, predominantly women has been a huge matter of concern for women rights group in the Eastern part of the country which follows a line of brutality leaving behind a wide area of investigation into reports. Progressive voices from civil society, media and various state agencies have initiated many discussions to address the problem, even crime figures are recorded but these do not reflect the real picture of victimization as witches and killings in the name of it that exist on the ground. Ostracization, dislocation are some of the community punishments that are meted out to humiliate the victims, resulting in isolation, impoverishment and fear of life.
In addition to addressing of the violations and motives associated with witch hunting, it is necessary to address the underlying factors that leads to targeting and victimization of women in particular. The indicators that should be on the spotlight are areas where governance fails to reach, where social security programs fails to find its space and it is incumbent upon the government to examine these areas and develop a course of action. A comprehensive definition of witch hunting is not feasible due to the amalgamation of many factors that makes it incomprehensible for us to access the crime. Because any crime committed against women is a manifestation of historical unequal power relations and gender constructives that has led to domination and discrimination by men over women. Assam is one of the leading state in the country with a high crime record with most numbers accruing to domestic violence, dowry and witch hunting[2].
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines ‘witch’ as a women thought to have evil magic powers, especially to do evil things and ‘witchcraft’ as use of magic powers, especially evil ones, and the word ‘witch hunt’ defines an attempt to find and punish people who hold opinions that are thought to be unacceptable or dangerous.[3] Accusations of being a witch in stemmed in the belief of possession of magical powers or evil spirit by women that has the capacity to ‘alter’ the very course of nature. The victim is branded by the community or in most cases by the ‘Oja’ or the ‘Bej’ (locally known name for a person who is a witch doctor in Assamese society). Upon branding, the victims or dianis (witch in local dialect of Assam) are subjected to torture which includes but not limited to beating, burns, parading naked in the village, forced to eat human excrement and sometimes even being lynched by the community members.[4]
The practice of witch hunting in Assam is not limited to Mayong (known as the Black Magic Capital of the world) but it is rather spread over several communities and tribes across the Brahmaputra valley not limiting itself to specific geographical territory. Some of the worst smitten areas are Baksa, Sonitpur, Karbi Anglong, Lakhimpur, Goalpara, Sibsagar, Jorhat. The practice of witch hunting is therefore prevalent in the tribal dominated rural areas having high illiteracy rate where blind faith and superstitions invokes them to believe in wizardry and witch hunting. This deep rooted psychological anomaly has become a subject matter for the National Commission for Women and the various State Commissions for Women in the country.
- SOCIOLOGICAL DIMENSION
While discussing the phenomena of witch hunting, it is very important to put on the table the various sociological dimensions of the issue. Powers involved in witchcraft is believed to be acquired from performance of certain kinds of rituals and chanting of distinct mantras. Specific worship of nature is believed to be a mode of acquiring certain evil supernatural powers. With local terms in Assam among the Adivasis like deo dhorise or chaitya uthise, women have been more associated with witch hunting. The victims cut across castes and communities in Assam, and largely from the weaker strata. Allegations about the use of ‘supernatural’ powers are invariably present in cases of witch hunting. But land, property, jealousy, sexual advances and other common tensions between social intimates emerged as underlying factors in a very large number of cases. The high occurrence of lack of formal education among the victims and the perpetrators on the one hand and the large number of health issues which surfaced as pretexts for labelling women as witches indicate the links that the issue has with lack of basic educational and health infrastructure, in other words, issues central to governance and development. Public humiliation is common, with instances of forced entry into the victim’s house to drag her outdoors to a public place, tonsure her hair, blacken her face, forcibly disrobe and parade her being some of the visible trends. Violence is inflicted not just to hurt the victim, but to degrade and humiliate her absolutely, through cruel acts, such as forced consumption of excreta and drinking of urine. Almost all cases involve more than one accused, so that these public forms of violence are executed by a group rather than an individual. There is no appropriate penal provision to respond to the nature and degree of violence inflicted by these acts, so they tend be treated as a generic category of lesser offences. Name calling is rarely limited to being called ‘witch’; it is almost always accompanied by a range of sexual slurs and local abuse.
Labeling of a ‘witch’
In the areas of the study by various state agencies, terms such as dayan, tohni, chudail, etc., are used to label a woman as a witch. The term tohna is used for males who are labelled as a witch. The preponderance of terms used for women is one indication that this is a gendered practice. Whatever the different practices and understandings of the term ‘witch’ may be, it involves one common feature – the attribution of certain ‘supernatural’ powers to a person by others. Classification of a person as a witch is forever negative, fearsome and annihilative. Although such attribution draws upon what may be treated as superstition, it does not necessarily arise from superstition. In many cases, interpersonal animosity, rivalry and conflict over various material sources may lie behind the labelling of a person as a witch. Once a person is labelled, whether or not such labelling is malicious in nature, a complex set of reactions and fear are invoked, making it very difficult for the women (sometimes men) targeted as witch to defend themselves. Witch hunts might in some (not all) cases be accompanied by extreme brutality and violence including forcible stripping, being paraded naked in public, cutting or tonsuring of the hair, blackening of the face, cutting off of the nose, pulling of the teeth to ‘defang’, gouging out the eye, whipping, gang rape, forcible consumption of human excreta, cow dung or other noxious substances, sexual assault, and killing by hanging, hacking, lynching or burying alive. Subsequent to the branding and the accompanying physical violence there may be several other negative fall-outs, social stigma, psychological torture, social and economic boycott, loss of livelihood and violence for the survivors of witch hunting. This kind of societal alienation and violence can be for short period of time or go on for years and sometimes can last a lifetime. Witch hunting is largely associated with women and that too single women which includes widows with productive, economic resources or property; women who transgress social authority and mores; women with exceptional physical attributes, etc.Although it draws upon superstition witch hunting is driven by material conflicts which get camouflaged by the superstition. There is thus generally an economic, material or sexual motive behind the targeting of women as witches.
Obstinate to the conventional trait, widows and single women were not the only ones vulnerable as majority of the victims belonged to the age group of 40 to 60 years, with middle-aged, married women to be the most vulnerable for targets as witch, though there are a few instances of younger women being labelled as witches.
The perpetrators of violence are generally related to the victim through kinship, community or neighbourhood ties. Accusations about the use of “spiritual” powers are ever present in cases of witch-hunting, however factors such as land, property, jealousy, sexual advances and other common sources of tension between social intimates were also observed in a large number of cases. Counter narration in every case make for a complex understanding of the phenomena than what the framework of witchcraft suggests. As the instigators are persons who are proximate to the victim, the plausibility of conflicts, tensions and jealousies between them is reinforced. Marriage and the munificent support of the immediate family, offers little immunity against targeting and victimization as a witch. Rather targeting often results in victimization of the immediate family members of the women. The economic condition of the victims does not appear to have a significant bearing on the vulnerability to being targeted, as the economic status of the victims’ households was found to vary along the scale of decent to marginal, some with land and some without, and varied degrees of access to other resources and properties. While social jealousies, conflicts and tensions arise in context of close propinquity, it seems that witch-hunting is also linked with a set of broader political and economic context which shapes people’s lives. The high rates of lack of formal education and schooling in the early age among the victims and the perpetrators and the large number of health indicators which surfaced as pretexts for labeling women as witches indicate the links that witchhunting has with issues fundamental to governance and development. Acute neglect and gloomy administration manifesting in poor healthcare, sanitation and education, large chunk of the population being below the poverty line, illness, deaths and tragedies that cannot be explained, particularly in the context where education, health facilities, and sanitation are lacking, tend to get coherent through witch-blaming.
The structural context within which the process of victimisation plays out reflects the failure of government administration as well as absence of rule of law, which create the necessary freedom for targeting and victimisation. The practice of witch hunting should not be just seen through the lens of superstitious beliefs, lack of education or healthcare but rather through a gendered lens and manifestation of patriarchy and therefore should be addressed as such. Physical contact with or verbal statements made by the victim as well as assumed evil intentions are often mustered up as evidence of the victim’s responsibility for the undesirable incident. It may be added here that once a woman (or a man) has been identified as responsible for any particular undesirable event, a series of other allegations may be made which may be further ‘proven’ on the basis of claims about the suspicious conduct of the victim. At times such conduct itself (such as extreme religiosity, removal of objects from a ritual site, any novel ritual practice, etc) is read as signs of witch-craft and may be treated as evidence to support the labeling. This process of labeling is also often aided by the intervention of the local sorcerers who are approached to ascertain the cause of various modes of suffering.
- INTERFACE WITH THE LAW
There has been numerous demands for legal interventions from the policy makers in the state as well as in the national level. In response to a petition filed before the Gauhati High Court, the Government of Assam was asked to relocate district wise funds for rehabilitation and compensation of victims of witch hunting. It also recommended heavy penalties to those accused in witch hunting. Systematic legal documentation must be made that goes beyond present narratives and address the various dimensions of the issue at hand. The Assam State Commission for Women played a significant role in formulation a bill to prevent such crimes from being committed, Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015. he Act would be imposed, along with Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), if someone is killed after being branded as witch. The offense of witch hunting is now a non-bailable, cognizable and non-compoundable and punishment for leading a person to commit suicide after intimidating, stigmatizing, defaming and accusing her as witch, may be extended to life imprisonment, along with Rs 5 lakh fine. The Act also talks about various measures that the administration and police should initiate, along with NGOs and civil society, to educate people about witch-hunting. It also entails that the fine realized as punishment for an offence shall be paid to the victim or his/her next of kin as compensation. The state laws (Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh) criminalize preliminary acts/offences very particular to witch hunting, such as ‘identifying’ any person as a witch along with the mental and physical torture accompanying such identification. While these carry small sentences (in Bihar and Jharkhand) they are cognizable and non-bailable.
The Indian Penal Code is the most frequently used, providing as it does the most comprehensive framework that responds to threats, intimidation, the physical forms of violence and murder. However, until 2012, the Penal Code was totally inadequate for addressing sexualized gender-based violence that is intrinsically part of such victimization.[5] Acts of forced disrobing and parading were dealt with as simple hurt (Sec. 323) or as outraging the modesty of a woman (Sec. 354) or using word or gesture to insult the modesty of woman (Sec.509); acts of stoning, tonsuring the hair, blackening the face, forced consumption of excreta too were treated as simple hurt (Sec. 323) – all trivial in comparison to the gravity of the violence, the degradation and cruelty intentionally perpetrated through such acts, often resulting in long-term ostracism. Some of this has changed with the passage of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which gives due recognition to forced disrobing as a serious offence, strengthens the older provision on outraging the modesty (Sec. 354), and criminalizes sexual harassment. These amendments even introduce the right to compensation and medical treatment for victims of acid attack and rape, which in fact need to be expanded to include all victims of sexual and gender based violence. What remains missing in the law are provisions that adequately respond to the public acts of cruelty such as forced consumption of excreta, tonsuring, parading, and similar acts that are intended to demonize and denigrate the victim, almost irreparably, in the eyes of the community. While many of these acts have a strong resonance and recognition with respect to caste atrocities, there is growing evidence of similar violence used to punish a range of deviance, including inter-community intimate relationships, sexual transgressions and gender variance, especially in relation to hijras. The penal code needs to specifically name these offences, and respond to their gravity rather than obscuring and trivializing such acts as simple injury.
The discussion on the law cannot be complete without referring to the ongoing calls for special laws against witchcraft and superstition, whether at the state or national levels. There are two compelling aspects that cannot be ignored in this context. The first is that superstition is only one part of a complex narrative in witch hunting; every case has counter-narratives by the victim, her family and supporters that tell a different story of motives, conflicts and tensions. Witch hunting appears to be one way of settling scores and conflicts, although the nature of tensions and the motives have evolved over time to cover a wider range of contexts. The motives are not static or limited as the data in this study shows, with superstition and belief in the occult being just one, certainly contested, part of the story. Secondly, the violence associated with caste atrocities is often similar to the cruelty perpetrated in witch hunting. Even as the forms of targeting and victimization vary, most cases show a pattern of public humiliation and denigration for which the law has no appropriate response or remedy. Further, violence and humiliation as a public spectacle is not limited to witch hunting alone, with increasing evidence of similar retribution in cases of sexual transgression, inter-community relationships, and so-called honour crimes. In light of these realities, the special law for witch hunting will be inappropriate, as it would not be able to respond to victimization where the motive is not connected with ‘witch’ identification.
The role of local governing bodies, administration and women’/community groups must also be explored in this context. There is greater urgency therefore to turn to prevention and reparative justice, which remain outstanding and not deliberated by criminal law.
CASES OF WITCH HUNTING IN ASSAM
Following are the some of the illustrious cases on witch hunting in Assam.[6]
- Khedai Bala Rabha: Khedai Bala Rabha had been attacked by the villagers, who accused her of misleading young women through black magic. In this case, some individuals from the village had planned to get a small piece of land and home after the death of her husband by throwing her and her two sons far from the village. On the day of incident, some of the villagers called Khedai Bala Rabha to the village school. When she approached there,she was attacked by some villagers and become unconsciousness. Her son reached the place and started throwing water on mother’s head. However, the atrocities flawing bland did not end, thus,with her sons Khedai Bala Rabha took a shelter at a relative place for three months. Later on they come to know that they are socially boycotted by the villagers.
- Jonali Rabha: Jonali Rabha was thrown out from her village for accusations of being a witch. Her mother in law was also expelled 20 years before in the similar manner from the village. Jonali Rabha was forced to take shelter in her paternal village, Hatigaon. She was informed to Dherabati Mahila Samata Sangha of Hatigaon. When the members of the Sangha wanted to communicate the matter with villagers, they denied. As a result,Jonali Rabha with the help of the members of Sangha filed a complaint in Lakhipur Police Station. In the initial integration, the concern SP asked the villagers to take her back in the village.Jonali had to stay four years out of the village. Finally, with the help of police, Jonali could also bring back her mother in law and have been living peacefully in that village till today.
- Amita Rabha: Amita Rabha a resident of a village, was suspected of being a witch and cause of sickness in the village when a boy in her village was found to be sick. Infact, he had been suffering from Hydrophobia due to dog bite. In absence of proper medical treatment the boy died, but the villagers blamed her and threw her out of the village. The police department and Assam Mahila Samata Sangha took initiative and succeeded to resettle her in that village.
4.Savitri Hajowari: Savitri Hajowari from Fakirpara, was suspected of being a witch by her neighbours. One day when the daughter of her neighbour fell ill, the neighbour threatened her to cure his daughter within three days, the failure of which would result in the lynching herself, her husband and their children, and they would be driven away from the village. Savitri being so threatened hurriedly made a search for a good physician to cure the illness. However, with the help of police and district administration she was saved from becoming victim of witch hunting.
5.Sagu Gaur and Salmi Gaur: On 31st October, 2016 two women, Sagu Gaur and Salmi Gaur, were buried alive at Naharbari in Nagaondistrict of Assam after they were branded as witches on the issue of presence of insects in a village well. The victims were pushed into a 10 feet deep well by three assailant brothers Basu Gaur, Sanu Gaur and Kumar Sanu Gaur. The victims were buried alive by dumping mud and earth over them in the well. The perpetrators accused the victims of using black magic to infest the well with insect from which they drank water previously. The perpetrators confessed about their involvement in the crime without any regret of their actions.
- Debojani Bora: Debojani Bora, is a national athlete, a gold medal winning javelin thrower and is resident of Serakani village in KarbiAnglong district of Assam. In 2014, she was branded as witch, when she was about to participate in another national sports event. She was wrapped with a fishing net and was grabbed like a wrestler by head priest of a Namghar (a community prayer hall) and punched repeatedly while many others just looked on. This incident took place in a broad day light. However, she could manage to flee with injuries on her chest and back.[7]
- Jamila Rabha: Jamila Rahba belongs to a tribal community of Assam. She was accused of witchcraft by family members after she claimed her right to her ancestral property. However, with the help of NGO, ‘Mission Birubala’ she could save herself from being hunted as witch.
CONCLUSION
The paper was an attempt to not only explore the socio-legal aspect of witch hunting but rather explore the reasons behind the issue from the grassroots level which involves not only a socio-legal analysis but also a psychological thought process.
Formulation of an integrated plan of action to prevent and combat the practice of witch hunting is the need of the hour alongside effective implementation of government legislation. However, there is still a lack of clarity in government policies with regard to the issue. The existing laws have not been properly defined and there are several loopholes in them due to which the perpetrators of witch hunting escape from being punished. To combat witch hunting, several short-term and long-term measures are needed to be taken up at all levels. The most important of them is the urgent need to create awareness among the public about witch hunting. Here, print and television media can play a very effective role. Local NGO’s may arrange meeting on gender sensitization and program and the need for formal education at all levels. The involvement of thevictims and motivating them to tell their story can be a very useful measure to prevent such type of social evils to others. Poverty alleviation measures too can be helpful in combating it in the long run.
There is a need to develop an institutionalized system of co-ordination between the law enforcement agencies and NGO’s who sometimes prove to be more effective than government agencies. There is an urgency to have greater co-ordination between different states in India as witch hunting is an issue not limited to a geographical territory of one state.To achieve an effective response, the increased co-ordination between government departments like police, public welfare, health, women and child is immediately required. At the same time, the cooperation of Government and NGO’s is necessary to ensure post-rescue rehabilitation of the victims in terms of providing them healthcare, education and other employment opportunities
[1]Indian Express, Over 1,700 women died in Assam due to rape, dowry, witch-hunting, The New Indian Express, (May 2, 2018, 4.30 PM) http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2018/apr/04/over-1700-women-died-in assam-due-to-rape-dowry-witch-hunting-1796616.html
[2]Manipur News, Manipur Mail, May 29, 2012
[3]Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries (January 9, 2020)https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/witch?q=witch
[4]KangkanAcharyya, Witch-hunting in Assam: A stringent law is the need of the hour to curb the practice, FIRSTPOST, (April. 24, 2018, 2.20 PM)https://www.firstpost.com/india/witch-hunting-in-assam-a-stringentlaw-is-the-need-of-the-hour-to-curb-the-practice-3398704.html
[5]Chhattisgarh Witchcraft Atrocities Prevention Act, 2005, the Bihar Prevention of Witch (Daain) Practices Act, 1999, and the Jharkhand Prevention of Witch Hunting (Dayan Pratha) Act, 2001.
[6]Assam MahailaSamakhya Society, Assam Witch Cases, (April, 24, 2018, 11.00 AM), http://www.assammahilasamakhya.org/hunting.pdf
[7]KangkanAcharyya, Witch-hunting in Assam: A stringent law is the need of the hour to curb the practice,FIRSTPOST, (April. 24, 2018, 2.20 PM)
