The next strange thing

Life in Uttar Pradesh is short and uncertain. That8217;s a quote, astoundingly enough, from a state government web document detailing UP1...

Life in Uttar Pradesh is short and uncertain. That8217;s a quote, astoundingly enough, from a state government web document detailing UP8217;s abysmal human development indices. Quite apart from the fact that this is a candid 8212; if inadvertent 8212; admission of the state8217;s utter failure to shape up, it is also a simple explanation why the state is plagued by bizarre phenomena like the muhnochwa. The face-scratcher, as the 8216;creature8217; is called, has over the last month been variously described as a genetically modified insect introduced by the ISI and this one from the area8217;s top cop, a DIG, a terrorist with a laser and, really, anything the imaginations of eastern UP8217;s denizens will allow.

These are particularly strong imaginations. But it is difficult to blame the people for mass hysteria 8212; this happened before in 1996 when a strange man-creature that killed children turned out to be a pack of wolves 8212; and the occasional lynching death. This time around, most of the reports are springing from hearsay. Only a few people have actually had their faces scratched. It8217;s no coincidence, then and now, that eastern UP has led the packs of rumour mongers. A female child here, as the government website helpfully points out, is likely to live 20 years less than her sister in Kerala. The region8217;s Sub-Saharan hopelessness is now legend. Travel in the area and you will find a people whose lives are riddled with a hopelessness uncommon even by Indian standards 8212; and rivalled only by deepest Bihar.

Psychologists point out that it8217;s not too difficult to understand why a mind bereft of education and overwhelmed by the iniquities and burdens of daily life is prone to fear, superstition and wild imagination. As this paper reported yesterday, the official government explanation, based on a report submitted to the home department by IIT, Kanpur, for the muhnochwa is likely to be the rare phenomenon of ball lightning. When the rains die down, says the report, so too will the sightings. Or so they hope. But until eastern UP gets down to improving the lives of its people, it will only be a matter of time until the next strange thing comes along.