Witch Branding in India: A Study of Indigenous and Rural Societies

As per the National Crime Records Bureau, 2,468 murders were committed with the motive of witch persecution between 2001 and 2016. Between 2001 and 2016, the highest number of killings in a year of persons accused as witches was 242 in 2011. 

 The report's research team conducted 115 case studies and noted that 84 women and 31 men had been persecuted on the allegations of witchcraft.

In 2016, Jharkhand recorded the highest number of killings of persons accused as witches with 27 killings. 

The ojha is considered to be the witch finder and traditional healer in rural indigenous communities. He is authorised to interpret formal rules, unwritten social and economic rules, formal social conventions, gender norms and behaviour, shared belief about the cause and cure of diseases, and the means of enforcement to limit individual behaviour of local people. During an interview, the badwa of the Sadwa block in Madhya Pradesh said that witches were shape-shifters and could turn into a dog, buffalo, or any other animal to harm people. Whoever the witch cast an evil eye on could get stomach ache, itchy eyes, body rashes, or fever.  

Many people in indigenous rural societies prefer to go to the ojha when they fall ill and pay a hefty amount for his services. The ojha would then usually blame a woman for causing the illness through witchcraft or casting an evil eye. Violence against supposed witches is not restricted to simply killing them. It is preceded by public torture and humiliation through cruel acts such as forced consumption of excreta, drinking urine, rape, and pulling out her teeth and nails.

Sometimes, men are also branded as witches. This happens i) when a man opposes accusations of being a witch against his wife at a time when she is likely to be killed, ii) when a man considers himself to be above others, or iii) when a man accumulates resources through exploiting others.

Factors that lead to witch persecution in India are tensions related to land, jealousy, suspicion over having caused illness, unconventional religious practices, strangers in the village, and women’s assertion of rights. There is no national-level legislation that penalises witch-hunting. In the case that there are state-level laws against witch persecution, they are too weak to act as deterrents.

The study argues that effective state mechanisms against witch persecution and killing, change in patriarchal attitudes, and demand for concrete evidence of witchcraft and building community support to dismantle the authority of the ojhas will facilitate the decline of witch-hunting.

Focus and Factoids by Karen Chhaya.

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.