Witch hunts in India
For example, a popular method of torture in Western India was 'witch-swinging', where an accused witch would have chilli paste rubbed into her eyes, was hung upside-down from a tree and swung over an open fire until she confessed to her crimes or promised to release her victim(s).
[10] In one case in 1886 an elderly woman called Kunkoo was accused of inflicting illness on a soldier's wife, she was made to put her hands in boiling oil and swung for days before being released and eventually murdered.
The British failed to acknowledge how deeply embedded witchcraft beliefs were in tribal societies and instead of stopping witch hunts the bans drove the practice underground.
[12] It did not help that many colonial officials, attempting to ease tensions and accommodate local traditions, were known to accept certain witch-hunting practices and were lenient towards perpetrators with some even attending witch-swingings.
Firstly, many Indians opposed the trials of witch-killers, who were often influential men that played central roles in village life and, in the views of locals, were only trying to protect their communities from evil supernatural forces.
Additionally, after the passing of witch-hunting bans, reasons to hunt 'dayans' expanded beyond land-grabbing and a way of gaining retribution for misfortunes and arguably transitioned into a form of resisting colonialist rule.
The rebellion provided an opportunity for rebel leaders to 'clean out' witches, whose numbers many suspected had risen under the 'benevolent power' of the British, leading to a surge in hunts across rebel-controlled regions.
[2] Since the early 2000s reported cases of witch-hunting have shown that women accused of practising black magic have been subjected to persecution and inhumane treatment from those living in their village.
[25] This is a key causal factor of witch hunts as disease outbreaks and seemingly unexplainable deaths are viewed in these communities as the result of witchcraft or black magic.
[26][27] The poor standard of education in states like Jharkhand also increases the likelihood that people will turn to irrational superstitious beliefs, like witchcraft, to explain sudden deaths, illnesses or crop failure in their communities.
[1][3] This is because coveted land and resources owned by single, usually widowed and childless women are more easily acquired after witch hunts by jealous neighbours and family members.
[9] Some feminist academics have argued that an underlying desire to subordinate women who pose a threat to the patriarchal structure of rural Indian societies is a key factor in the existence of modern-day witch-hunting.
Tanvi Yadav, for example, argues that brutal methods of physical and mental punishment for accused witches, such as beating, naked parading and lynching are used to intentionally terrorize and silence women who otherwise may have challenged or spoken out against patriarchal norms.
[9] Sikha Das also notes that young, independent and strongly-willed widows are more likely to be branded a witch as a way of punishing them for stepping outside of traditional expectations for women of their status.
[15] In 2021 the state government launched Project Garima which aims to curb witch-hunting by “empowering” victims by providing them with counselling, job skills training and livelihood opportunities.
[1] Currently 6 states in the country have specific laws targeting witch hunting including Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, and Assam, meanwhile Maharashtra and Karnataka have legislation broadly covering witch-hunting along with other superstitions.
Firstly, the majority of laws enacted to combat witch-hunting have only been made at a state level and the Central Government of India has yet to pass a specific piece of legislation relating to the practice.
[32] For these reasons, campaigners have argued for social solutions which target superstition and irrationality in communities, support victims and address the roots of the problem, rather than taking a strictly legal approach to eliminate witch-hunting.
[2]Non-governmental organisations like the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) use the legal system to fight for the rights and assets of women and marginalized people, who are attacked in witch hunts.
