While India Has One Foot in the 21st Century, the Other Seems Stuck in the Middle Ages - Witch-Hunting

India: 75-year-old woman branded 'witch', killed in Jharkhand,

another fed human faeces in similar incident in Bihar

The victim's neighbour killed her using sticks and a sharp weapon

Falah Gulzar, Social Media Reporter

Gulf News

  

A 75-year-old woman was branded a witch and lynched in the Salami village from the district of Gumla, in the Indian state of Jharkhand, on September 9.

The victim, identified as Shanicharwa Khadia, was sitting outside her home, when her neighbour Pandu Oraon assaulted her with sticks and a sharp weapon, according to local media reports.

Mangaleshwar, the son of the victim, told local media that his mother died on the spot.

“Oraon called my mother a witch and yelled that he used to see her apparition wherever he went," he was quoted as saying.

Oraon had tried to kill her in 2018 as well, Mangleshwar claimed.

Superintendent of police (SP) Hrudeep P Janardhan was quoted as saying: “The accused will be arrested soon. While the cases of witch-hunting have reduced, still a lot of awareness is needed.”

In a similar incident, a woman was allegedly thrashed by her family in the Indian state of Bihar last week. They shaved her head and force-fed her human faeces after labelling her a witch, an Indian news outlet reported.

Similar incidents had also made headlines in May and August from India.

Here is an article from 2015 which helps put things into perspective:

Meet the Indian women hunted as witches

In remote parts of India, women branded witches are still being abused, tortured and murdered

by Baba Tamim 

5 Jun 2015

Bahura Bai says: "I keep praying and asking my goddess 'what is my crime?'" [Baba Tamim] 

For 40-year-old Bahura Bai it began as these things often do in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. First, a village girl she had affectionately caressed in the marketplace fell sick. Then, a year later, her brother-in-law developed an ailment.

That was all it took for some local shamans and village leaders to brand Bai a witch. The threats and abuse from her family and community began instantly.

"It got worse in November last year, when my brother-in-law and other relatives attempted to choke me," she explains from inside her mud and brick home. "They want to kill me. They believe I'm a sorcerer. In prayers, I ask my goddess every morning, 'am I really?'''

"If my sister-in-law had her way she would love to burn me alive. My nephew wants to cut me into small pieces. Only my husband supports me," she continues, before urging me to leave in case my presence angers the villagers and inspires reprisals.

"The village heads don't want the police or media meddling. They say it's an internal affair of the village," she explains.

Drooping branches and bags of rice 

Recently, family members of a 55-year-old woman beat her to death in the Bemetara district of Chhattisgarh for practicing 'black magic'. Activists say she was pulled by her hair, dragged naked through the streets and had chili powder sprinkled onto her face and genitals until she died.

Thousands of women across India have been abused, tortured and even executed after being accused of being a witch. But Chhattisgarh - where a decades-old conflict between Maoist rebels and the state has uprooted tribal societies riddled with misogynistic violence and superstition - is particularly deadly.

If my sister-in-law had her way she would love to burn me alive.

My nephew wants to cut me into small pieces. Only my husband supports me.

Bahura Bai

Between 2001 and 2013, there were 1,500 witch trials here and 210 associated murders.

But this is a crime that extends beyond this troubled place.

The Indian government's latest figures suggest that, between 2000 and 2012, some 2,100 people, mostly women, were killed across the country after being accused of practicing witchcraft. But rights groups suggest the number could be higher as many of the victims' families refuse to lodge an official complaint and some deaths simply go unreported.

Those cases often get addressed at village level, within illegal village courts that refuse to involve the police because doing so might undermine their authority.

In remote parts of the country, these courts and village heads are often left alone to ignore the state's Witchcraft Atrocities (Prevention) Act 2005, which criminalises the persecution of women over allegations of witchcraft. 

In Chhattisgarh's neighbouring state, Jharkhand, officials say at least 414 people were murdered between 2001 and 2013 after being accused of being witches or sorcerers. Other India states have reported similar cases.

A family member's illness, crop failure or a dry well are all common reasons for accusing a woman of witchcraft. These allegations might be made by relatives, neigbours, village leaders or local shamans, and childless, unmarried or widowed women are particularly vulnerable to them.

Once a rumour has spread, local men armed with sticks and axes will often hunt down the woman and lynch her.

It has even been known for people to employ a shaman to identify a witch responsible for the deaths of their cattle. The shaman, who supposedly uses white magic, will carve the names of local women of a certain age onto the branches of a Sal tree. The branch that droops is believed to bear the name of the witch.

Another method sees a shaman wrap up grains of rice in small bags, each with the name of a different woman written on it. The bags are then placed in a nest of white ants. The bag from which most rice is eaten is declared to be the one identifying the witch.

The death business

"Interestingly, only women are blamed for witchery," says Sita Devi, who heads a small coalition of women who have been accused of witchcraft in Mandir Hasaud.

"This discrimination starts at birth. For example, when a baby boy is born the villagers celebrate by bursting three crackers. And when a girl is born only two crackers are fired," she explains.

"There is a lot of caste consciousness and illiteracy in these villages and an ojha [a witch doctor or shaman] takes benefit of it by targeting these underprivileged women. Getting a woman killed has become a business for the fake god men and witch doctors."

Male villagers are reluctant to talk to outsiders about it, but one tells me: "Women can turn into witches to avenge someone who has done them bad in the past."

"I have seen a woman turning to a witch and flying faster than a car. Even a powerful man will shiver before such an ugly woman. The ojhas are our last resort as the educated people don't listen to us."

"They [the witches] eat human flesh and drink human blood. That's what our elders have seen," he explains.

In 1995, when ophthalmologist Dr Dinesh Mishra saw a woman beaten to death and her body dragged through the streets by an angry mob, he decided to fight this oppression.

The social activist explains: "Local belief … is that a woman can curse someone by making them sick or making them lose financially by destroying their crops. They are even held responsible for a natural calamity. This thinking creates hatred against the women and hence this crime."

He believes that a lack of medical knowledge leads people to place their trust in the self-styled shamans who trick them in order to make money.

"The problem is widespread all over Chhattisgarh," he says. "I am aware of more than 1,200 cases of witch hunting and I believe the numbers are just 10 percent [of the real total] as most of … the women are afraid to launch reports or complaints or they are sure that their voices will never be heard."

"I also show magic tricks, which the witch doctors use to get the attention of the gullible villagers. I do all this to raise awareness and to tell villagers that witch doctors are tricking you. But their ancestral belief is so strong and any change in attitude will take time to happen."

Here some women branded as witches share their stories:

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Backlash From the Brutal Murder and Burning of Afghan Woman

Islam's invisible women pray invisible prayers at Afghan shrine

The savage lynching of an Afghan woman who railed openly against superstitious practices has stoked public anger over the treatment of women but also ignited revulsion against Kabul's ubiquitous shamans, forcing them to go underground.

Last month a furious mob turned on Farkhunda, 27, beating her in broad daylight and setting her body ablaze on the banks of the Kabul River after an amulet seller, whom she had castigated, falsely accused her of blasphemy.

Demonstrators rally in front of the Kabul supreme court on March 24, 2015,
to protest against the savage lynching of Afghan woman Farkhunda

Her killing, which triggered protests around Afghanistan and several world cities, drew global attention to the treatment of Afghan women, while her funeral procession saw female pallbearers bucking tradition to carry her casket.

Women carry the coffin bearing the body of Farkhunda,
who was savagely lynched by an angry mob on the banks of the Kabul River,
in central Kabul on March 22, 2015

But the "Justice for Farkhunda" movement, as it is known, is not about women's rights alone.

"Down with ignorance" has been a familiar chant at protests denouncing her killing, which has prompted public sentiment to turn against Kabul's "healers" peddling amulets, talismans and good luck charms.

"Not every man who wears a turban is a religious scholar," Daiulhaq Abid, Afghanistan's deputy minister for religious affairs, told reporters.

Of course, there is far more at play here beside women's rights - I don't see that as an issue in Farkhunda's murder; or superstition. The real issue seems to have been overlooked, and that is the instant madness that came upon the crowd at the mere suggestion that someone burned the Quran. It takes a very small spark to cause Islamic insanity to explode into a massive eruption.  That is the issue that western liberal governments fail to understand in relation to their immigration policies.

Abid said his investigation revealed that the amulet seller falsely accused Farkhunda -- a graduate in Islamic studies -- of burning the Koran as her anti-superstition advocacy had been driving away his customers.

Many of Kabul's divine healers went underground even before Abid's ministry launched an unprecedented crackdown in the wake of Farkhunda's killing, shutting down their shops and evicting them from roadside markets.

Padlocked stores and vacant roadside stalls have become a familiar sight in the meandering and congested lanes of Murad Khani in Kabul's Old City, one of several hubs where spiritual healers have thrived for decades.

The backlash highlights the angst of a post-Taliban generation in Afghanistan -- where nearly two-thirds of the population is under 25 -- that is often torn between conservatism and modernity as the country rebuilds itself after decades of war.

"Farkhunda's death brought a revolution," women's rights activist Belqis Osmani told AFP.

"It shocked everyone, awakened everyone. It warned the traditional-minded people that a new generation is emerging -- a generation that is more educated and open-minded. They are more liberal and they don't fall for tricks of fake mullahs," she said.

- 'Exploiting ignorance' -
Ahmad Jawad, a 37-year-old Kabul resident, said the "Justice for Farkhunda" movement marked a rare battle in Afghanistan against pervasive ignorance.

"I once went to a traditional healer because I was in love with my cousin and wanted to marry her. He gave me some perfume and paper amulets. He instructed me to sprinkle perfume on the amulets and burn them," he told AFP.

"I did that for a week and everyone around me got a headache because of the bad smell. I couldn't marry my cousin in the end, and realised that my ignorance had been exploited for a charlatan's monetary gain."

But the backlash seems to be limited to urban centres such as Kabul. Just a two-hour drive outside the capital, in the village of Shakar Dara, it is business as usual.

An Afghan religious healer (R) writes amulets for his clients at his home
 in the Surkh Rood district of Nangarhar province

Baba Sahib, in his 60s, sat at the edge of a shrine, surrounded by stacks of amulets, charts with Arabic verses and photocopies of what he called "talismans for all problems".

Traditional healers are much-revered in the deeply conservative countryside, where illiteracy remains rampant.

Several decades of war have destroyed infrastructure in Afghanistan, with rural denizens having little or no access to conventional health services.

Many are forced to rely on healers for a variety of problems -- from debilitating maladies and infertility to finding stolen items and uniting lost lovers. Frequently help is sought despite warnings by religious clerics that such practices are at odds with Islamic doctrines.

Since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban government, the United States and other foreign donors have invested millions of dollars in Afghanistan's public health system.

But most government hospitals are still bedevilled by poor quality of care, scarcity of equipment and pervasive corruption.

As the midday sun rose, a trickle of village clients called on Baba Sahib to seek remedies for health ailments, relationship issues and to ward off "evil spirits".

For a turbaned village elder who complained about a severe headache, he offered the same paper amulet he offered to another client worrying about memory loss.

"Wrap it in a white cloth and then in a red cloth, and then tuck it into your turban. Your headache will go away," Baba Sahib said.

The elder kissed the amulet and turned back, looking hopeful.