Opinion Jharkhand witch-hunting killing: What the rise in attacks on Adivasi women reveals
Despite state laws, the practice continuues, rooted in medical scarcity, 'ojha-dayan' beliefs and patriarchal control of land
The need to hold mostly aged single women, or those who breach the barrier of patriarchy, responsible for any social crisis, is tied to the failure of ojhas and the inaccessibility of necessary health facilities. Norwegian missionary and linguist P O Bodding, in his book, Studies in Santhal Medicine and Connected Folklore (1986), wrote, “There is no genuine Santhal who doesn’t believe in witches.” While one may criticise his colonial gaze, given the recent spate of witch-hunting across Bihar and Jharkhand, it is difficult to discard his reading. In the last few months, there have been many cases of alleged witch-hunting across Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the latest being reported from Jharkhand, where a 65-year-old woman was beheaded after being branded a witch.
According to NCRB reports, in 2023, there was a 100 per cent rise in the number of witch hunt cases in Jharkhand compared to the previous year. Despite the strict provisions of the Prevention of Witch Practices Act in Jharkhand, 2001 — six states across India have such state-level legislations to combat witch hunting — there has been little progress. While each case of witch-hunting is different, two factors show up prominently: Lack of healthcare facilities and absence of Adivasi women’s land rights.
In the Adivasi landscape of Chhotanagpur, if witch/dayan represents evil or black magic, ojhas symbolise the white magic that, according to Shashank Sinha, is “socially and psychologically beneficent.” This ojha-dayan binary becomes clearer when one tries to understand the perceptual construction of diseases among Adivasis. Among Kols, British official Thomas Wilkinson noted, the spread of disease had three reasons: Angry bonga (generic name of Adivasi God), the spirit of someone who died, and witchcraft. The first two could be pacified by animal sacrifices, but the last one could only be cured through “elimination”. This perception was echoed by other colonial officers as well. E G Man wrote that witches were believed to have the “power of killing people by eating their entrails and also of causing fevers, murrain in cattle and other kinds of evil.” They were also held responsible for cholera, smallpox, stomachache or any physical complaints that ojhas couldn’t cure with traditional medicines.
The need to hold mostly aged single women, or those who breach the barrier of patriarchy, responsible for any social crisis, is tied to the failure of ojhas and the inaccessibility of necessary health facilities. In 2021, a study conducted by the Odisha State Commission for Women and an NGO Action Aid Association in Odisha found “27 per cent of witch branding was attributed to health issues among children, whereas 43.5 per cent of the cases were linked to health issues in the case of adult villagers.” In Jharkhand, the distance of basic healthcare facilities from interior villages makes it difficult for Adivasis to access them. This further pushes them towards ojhas and paves the way for witch branding.
Another major reason behind witch-hunting has been land-grabbing. According to Adivasi customary laws, women don’t have inheritance rights. So, if any Adivasi woman loses her father or husband and doesn’t have a son, she is left at the mercy of male relatives, who would eventually become the owner of the property. In such instances, women are often branded as witches and are forced out of the property. However, the Centre’s proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which claims to uphold women’s rights, exempts Adivasis from its mandate, as seen in Uttarakhand.
So, the colonial understanding of witch-hunting lingers on, both due to the failure of governments to develop modern health infrastructure and due to the colonial belief that customary rights should be privileged even if they go against universal human rights. We must take a nuanced approach. Or else, Bodding would again be proved right.
The writer is senior assistant editor, The Indian Express
abhik.bhattacharya@expressindia.com
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