Indian Black Magic: Sid Harth
navanavonmilita
Indian Superstition: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/0bbe50a323c05335#
Kill Bill: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/f7b4e319f7a4fa28/ad4a6038f51d0cba?lnk=gst&q=Kill+Bill#ad4a6038f51d0cba
Of God, Godmen and Good men: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/beee6405766fa364#
INDIA PLAGUED BY DEEP SUPERSTITIONS - BLACK MAGIC & WITCHCRAFT
- a review of current witchcraft problems in India and how Sathya Sai
Baba aggravates the issue
LATEST ADDITION: CHILD SACRIFICES AND WITCH-KILLING IN INDIA
Black magic is a primitive superstition which is firmly supported by
the self-proclaimed avatar, Sathya Sai Baba. Seeing he and his
'teachings' are worshipped by Supreme Court judges, Prime Ministers
and Presidents of India, is it any wonder that this country cannot
remove the dreadful ignorance of so many of its citizens, as is
documented here? See for example Sai Baba's statements in his
published discourses from his series 'Sathya Sai Speaks' as follows:
Of course, there is magic in the world both white and black; but, the
manifestation of Divine Power must not be interpreted as magic. Can
the crow's egg and the cuckoo's egg be identified as belonging to one
class? http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/index.htm#sss Sathya Sai
Baba - Vol 10. p. 261 (click to view)
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/index.htm#sss All kinds of silly
stories were circulated when I was ill! Some people feared that when I
went to the South recently, some black magic was inflicted upon Me and
that the stroke was the consequence. Let Me tell you that nothing evil
can affect Me. Nothing. Sathya Sai Baba - Vol 3. p. 93 (click to
view)
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/index.htm#sss
In the above we see that Sathya Sai Baba sustains dangerous false
beliefs which in India can and do cause the worst kind of social ills,
including many horrific murders of suspected witches. The influence of
Sathya Sai Baba in India is also very considerable among the poor as
well as ruling classes. Many of his utterances provide persistent and
strong support for base superstitions - like the evil eye, black magic
and many other proven false beliefs. One superstitious practice of his
is the strict observation of (supposedly!) auspicious and inauspicious
times of the day for traveling or starting new projects! His
reinforcements to superstitious belief speak for themselves - at least
to those who are not given to believing anything that suits their
fancy or whatever they are told by this self-instated 'omniscient'
Incarnation of Godhood. Below I present independent documentation by
National Geographic Channel and the Mumbai High Court of some of the
current consequences of these primitive forms of ignorance.
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/index.htm#wit
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/index.htm#pet
Sathya Sai Baba is one of those many ignorami who sustain and spread
false beliefs about the powers of black magicians and witches (i.e.
female black magicians). He is on record in various books by devotees
of having told followers that they have been attacked by black
magicians, and that he has saved them from black magic! See some
examples of many, as follows: (all light blue text is direct
quotation)
The writer of the single most popular book about Sathya Sai Baba, 'Man
of Miracles' , Howard Murphet writes a long, involved account of how
the Norwegian Alf Tidemann-Johannessen in 1962 fell foul of black
magic and was 'saved' from it by Sathya Sai Baba. Alf Tidemann-
Johannessen was a magnate with a shipping firm in Bombay, and
unscrupulous competitors "engaged a black magician to work against
him" (p.165).
"But Alf's lawyer in Bombay, who was working on the company's
problems, soon caught a whiff of the black magic. He had known similar
cases before" A Parsi priest was consulted and Alf reportedly stated
to Murphet: "By many strange methods he began piloting me and my
business through the troubled waters stirred up by the black
magician." The magician was identified as an "evil-eyed old Indian
who, by clever ruses, had gained admittance to his private office"and
Alf confronted him. The black magician then decided to work for Alf,
"... if the latter paid him reasonably well. He would see to it that
all Alf's enemies were completely annihilated. 'Black magicians are
very powerful,' he announced, and added meaningly, 'they can even kill
a child in its mother's womb.' Alf had just received a cable that very
morning from Norway informing him that his wife had lost her child in
its seventh month. This must be more than coincidence, he thought" (p.
165)
Years later, in 1966 he came into contact with Sai Baba of Shirdi and
soon after, Sathya Sai Baba. He wanted to sell his business in Bombay.
Murphet reports that Sai Baba said: "I will help you find a reliable
buyer and obtain a good price." and also "Do you remember the black
magician? I helped you then." (p. 169) This again confirms that Sathya
Sai Baba actually believes in black magic!
It would not have seemed such a tremendous blessing and help if the 7-
month old foetus was killed, in the womb as Alf thought, by black
magic! However, some years later, Alf Tidemann-Johanessen caused a
stir for the members of the Norwegian Sai centre, informing a member
that he had been swindled by Sathya Sai Baba who he knew to be a fraud
and a bad person! He had provided a helicopter to Sai Baba for him to
give darshan from the air one of his birthday celebrations, which can
be seen on one of the Richard Bock films. He was even writing a book
against Sai Baba, which fact disturbed Sai followers in Norway. He
left Sai Baba completely some time before 1984. We in the Oslo group -
then all unable to accept the slightest criticism of Sai Baba -
decided that he must himself be a 'bad man' and he was not contacted
again! So much for misplaced faith in a Swami!
Howard Murphet has written many fanciful things which have contributed
vastly to the popularity of Sathya Sai Baba, but few of them surpass
his confused and speculative account of how Sathya Sai Baba's legs
were (apparently!) paralysed by a black magician. This is in his book
"Sai Baba Avatar - a new journey into power and glory" According to
Murphet, a yogi (whose name and location are not revealed) with strong
hypnotic powers which, among other things, he used to seduce women,
told a young American that he "could dominate a pupils' mind and will
absolutely - given time. A pupil so completely dominated could be sent
out to murder anyone the tantrist desired out of the way. The American
added it was known to several in the ashram that one pupil was being
trained, conditioned and overshadowed by the tantrist for the purpose
of killing Sai Baba. As the dark hates the light that overpowers it,
the black magician hated Baba who frustrated many of his
designs." (from Chapter 9 - 'The Lord's Legs'). Murphet connects this
yogi's murder plans - without evidence or cogent reasoning of any kind
- to the paralysis of Sathya Sai Baba's legs! According to Murphet,
Sai Baba eventually decided to cure himself of this paralysis as he
allegedly once did when he cured a week-long paralysis of the left
side of his body." All this is accepted as Murphet as Gospel, as usual
in his case, without a hint of critical thinking or questioning of any
of it.
One particular demon was most adamant. No blows or threats would make
it budge. Watching Swami from a distance, with hearts filled with
pity, we would curse the demon. Obviously, it was a stubborn demon. It
would go on shouting and heaping abuses. Swami looked fatigued after
all that beating. Lifting her up by the hair, Swami swung her round
and flung her to a distance as if she were a ball. Her body hit the
wall and came back and fell at his feet. Speechless with terror, we
clung to the wall. She had a very sturdy build. How was He able to
lift that weight? Didn't He (as Krishna) in the bygone days, lift up
the Govardhan mountain on His little finger? We were all intensely
watching Swami. His body was drenched in Sweat. He was sweating
profusely. His eyes were bloodshot and looked terrible. Holding her by
the hair again, He shouted "Will you leave at least now? Have you
learned your lesson?" "Alas! Enough! Don't beat me anymore. I will go
away. I won't come back again." Saying these words, quivering and
shaking, the demon ran away. From the centre of the woman's head,
Swami forcibly plucked out a few hairs. There was a sharp thorn-like
formation under those hairs. Swami beckoned to the husband of the
woman and showed it to him and said something to him in a low tone. He
then gave the order for her to be escorted inside. Swami was panting
for breath. His face still looked fierce. When we were peeping at Him
from a corner, He smiled at us. That was enough. Immediately, we
swarmed around Him. Meanwhile, the woman's husband came out, and Swami
told him, "It is not only a case of being possessed by a demon.
Someone cast an evil spell on her. "Black magic was used and a
magician was hired to do all sorts of pujas to make her lose her wits.
There is no need for fear now". The husband fell weeping at Swami's
feet. Later, Swami created a talisman and, inserting into that the
hairs He plucked. He closed it, and tied it around the woman's neck.
To our question, "Do demons really exist, Swami?" He gave the reply,
"Yes! Those who committed suicide, those killed in accidents, those
who met with an untimely death, all these will be roaming around like
ghosts. A demon cannot go near someone who is strong. It goes near the
weak and makes fools of them like this. Sometimes, a man remarries
when the first wife dies. The first wife, who died with desires
unfulfilled, 'possesses' the mind of the second wife and tortures her
like this. Sometimes, where a lot of property is involved would-be
heirs, to get that property, hire magicians to make the owner of the
property go mad. There are many reasons like this". He drove away
demons this way, physically, only for one year. Later, He just used to
give vibhuti prasadam and, with that, send the demons away. (Anyatha
Saranam Nasthi - Other than you refuge there is none by Smt.
Vijayakumari, Chennai 1999, p. 40-1)
The episode of the paralysis of his legs is also recorded - amid the
usual gushing and vastly exaggerated comments - by Diane Baskin in her
self-enhancing and Sai-praising book 'Divine Memories of Sathya Sai
Baba' (pps 108-110), which abounds in photos of herself with Sai Baba.
Baskin wrote: "Our servants told us that one of the many rumours
circulating was that swami had been poisoned, but the explanation that
Swami gave was never made public. Swami said that some very powerful
yogis were testing Him to determine of He really was the Avatar. They
were sending Him, what best could be compared to currents of very high
voltage, enough to kill a human being instantly. He could not return
the energy force to them because they would die; thus He accepted it,
adding that ultimately these yogis - by this act of His - would become
His devotees. After one week, Swami miraculously threw off the
paralysis as He had always done with any illness that beset Him."
Vague hearsay and the obviously embroidered account - with spiritual
'high voltages' that could kill a person instantly, with 'very
powerful yogis' who have, of course, never appeared on the scene as
his devotees, speulation of his miraculous 'throwing off' of paralysis
- is quite typical of hundred of accounts in books by devotees who
seek his blessings. As to self-healing, with him now staggering around
on a collapsed hip joint which he cannot cure, and evidently suffering
from disorientation and senile symptoms to conceal which cause the
ashram staff great difficulties, one can draw one's own conclusions!
In yet another highly overdone hagiographic account 'Lokanatha Sai' by
M.N. Leela, [signed in 1995 by Sathya Sai Baba and thus authenticated]
we find the following account which again proves that has been
spreading superstitions about black magic: "Swami called my mother and
others separately and said that a black magician had done havoc to my
father: on that Friday when my father went early morning with bailiff
and removed his shed put in our land at Guindy. He also said. "Dig the
spot where you find broken pots and remove the remains of goat and
chicken etc and throw them off. Now he is fully recovered, but the aim
of the sorcerer Is to drive him mad and ultimately kill him." (p. 151)
See scan of the excerpt and cover etc.
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/index.htm#sss
What is important to realise is that all these accounts are published
and approved by Sai Baba's own press - even signed by him -. This can
only add to the superstition about black magic which Sai Baba
promotes. His promises to protect devotees from such powers are also a
clever means of creating a strong dependency and thus underlying
anxiety - for if one questions him on this, then the implication is
that he may withdraw his protection due to lack of faith! This is a
key to the 'guru trap'. Sathya Sai Baba is widely known to instil fear
by various such subtle means in most of his followers, as anyone who
knows many of them well can attest.
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/SaiBaba/gurutrap.htm
Resumé: INDIAN WITCH HUNT (National Geographic documentary).
Witchcraft is still widely believed in and 'practiced' in many
backward parts of India. Jharkand in Ranchi has been dubbed 'the witch-
killing hub of India' by journalists where women suspected of
witchcraft are attacked and not seldom killed. Historians have
estimated that, in Europe until the 17th to 18th century, ca. 40,000
women were killed as witches, often by burning at the stake. (The
latest well-known witch trials in an industrialised or developed
Western country were those at Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.)
In Jharkand, five hundred cases of witch hunts were reported in the
1990s, and they continue to occur. The State ratified an Anti Witch-
hunting Law, resulting in 400 arrests since 2000. The journalist
Sohaila Kapur - author of "Witchcraft in Western India" followed one
headline-grabbing witchcraft killing for National Geographic TV
Channel. A teenager, Gurudas Mardi took the severed head of his aunt
Maina Mardi to the police station, having cut off her head while she
was grazing cattle in her field. The reason he gave was that his
eldest brother had contracted a fever and died within one day, his
father had died within three years and his elder brother was currently
ill in hospital with the same symptoms. Gurudas believed his brother
would be cured due to his having killed his aunt as a witch. However,
all agreed that Maina had long been as a mother to him. Gurudas was
condemned for murder and is currently serving in Ghatasila prison in
Jharkand.
There were 7 such cases in Jharkand in as many years. Most accused
'witches' are widows. Mostly, others benefit from their deaths or
banishment from their home and property. Part of the witchcraft
rationale is that, if prayers can heal at a distance, so can they also
harm from afar. The belief in black magic is backed up by
practitioners of it, such as - in this case - the Tantric 'guru' Baba
Ramashankar of the popular Kali temple at Kamakilija. National
Geographic filmed the 'guru' and three female disciples carrying our
sacrifice rituals so as to obtain magical powers, including biting the
head off a live chicken. The death spells they cast involved use of
snakes and scorpions too. The 'guru' stated that the spells can cause
love, hate and confusion.
Sohaila Kapur did a follow-up investigation on the deaths in the
family which Gurudas Mardi believed due to his aunt's witchcraft. His
remaining brother survived due to hospital treatment for TB. The
doctor testified that both the father had died from tuberculosis and
had infected Gurudas' two brothers.
Further, Sohaila Kapur filmed the local female witch doctor who
Gurudas' family had approached and who had pointed the finger at Maina
for witchcraft holding a trial in the village temple. While so doing
Kapur was approached by a distraught man whose mother was about to be
pointed out condemned as a witch by a same witch doctor in the village
temple. A big local landowner's daughter was ill and many medicines
had failed, so witchcraft was suspected. Because of the TV cameras,
the priest dared not to make the announcement that the person was a
witch and the villagers backed her up. Instead the witch doctor
directed for a tree to be blighted and predicted it would die within
two weeks. Of course, no effects on the tree were visible weeks
later.
The female victims of witch hunts invariably have to seek police
protection and mostly are ostracised and so driven by the villagers to
leave their homes and even give up their properties, their houses etc.
often being burned to the ground. The harrowing lives they then live
is seen clearly in the interviews in the documentary. Inspector Mishra
of Jharkand police, who had arrested Gurudas, blamed the widespread
ignorance and lack of medical information and care in the area for the
locals' reliance on witch-hunting. See also here.
The police authorities do not always take any action to protect
persons persecuted for witchcraft. This is shown by the petition (by
a person accused of witchcraft) in the High Court at Mumbai (below).
That this petition was deemed necessary (a tortuous and costly
procedure in India) and that it was subsequently dismissed in favour
of the police authoritiess' account, illustrates clearly the parlous
state of affairs in the Indian police system and judiciary! This is
the same judicial system that judged that Sathya Sai Baba had not
contravened the Gold Control Act on the grounds that he materialises
gold out of thin air! Further, the attempt by Hari Sampath (supported
by two of India's most famous lawyers) to get a Writ Petition against
Satyhya Sai Baba considered was refused on a technicality by his own
devotee judges in the Supreme Court (Click here and here)!
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/index.htm
TANTRIC MURDER
In many parts of northern India, tantrics play on people's fears and
superstitions to perpetrate such atrocities as child sacrifice.
Horror of India's child sacrifice
Deccan Herald- 17. 4.2006 By NAVDIP DHARIWAL
In India's remote northern villages it feels as if little has changed.
The communities remain forgotten and woefully undeveloped, with low
literacy and abject poverty.
They are conditions that for decades have bred superstition and a deep-
rooted belief in the occult.
The village of Barha in the state of Uttar Pradesh is only a three -
hour car drive from the capital Delhi. Yet here evil medieval
practices have made their ugly presence known. I was led by locals to
a house that is kept under lock and key. They refuse to enter it.
'Peering through the window bars you can see the eerie dark room
inside, with peeling posters of Hindu gods adorning the walls and
bundles of discarded bed clothes. In one comer is the evidence we had
come to find: blood - splattered walls and stained bricks.
It is the place where a little boy's life was ritually sacrificed.
Those who tortured and killed Akash Singh did so in a depraved belief
- that the boy's death would offer them a better life.
"The woman who did this was crazed," the villagers say. "Akash was
friends with all our children... We still cannot believe what happened
here."
Akash's distraught mother discovered her son's mutilated body.
The family was told he was lured away with sweets and begged his
captors to set him free.
"First they cut out his tongue," his grandmother Harpyari told me.
"then they cut off his nose, then his ears. They chopped off his
fingers. They killed him slowly. "The woman who abducted Akash lived
just a few doors away. She claimed to be suffering from terrible
nightmares and visions.
It was then she turned for guidance to a tantric, or holy man. It was
under his instruction that she brutally sacrificed the boy - offering
his blood and remains to the Hindu goddess of destruction.
There are temples across India that are devoted to the goddess.
Childless couples, the impoverished and sick visit to pray that she
can cure them.
Animal sacrifice is central to worship - but humans have not been
temple victims since ancient times.
We were met with a hostile reception at the temple in Meerut.
The high priest did not want us to see the ritual slaughter. Tantrics
like him clearly have an overwhelming grip on their followers.
Often they are profiting from people's fears. In extreme cases others
have instructed their followers to kill.
S Raju a journalist with a leading newspaper, has been reporting on
child sacrifice cases since 1997 in western Uttar Pradesh. He has
reported on 38 similar cases.
In one incident he says a tantric told a young man that if he hanged
and killed a small boy and lit a fire at his feet the smoke from the
ritual could be used to lure the pretty village girl he had his eye
on.
He has been campaigning for a crackdown on the practice of tantrics,
alarmed at what he has seen.
"The masses need to be educated and dissuaded from following these
men," he said. "They play on people's fears and superstitions - it is
crazy." We visited the jail where those accused of murdering Akash
were being held.
The prison warden told us of over 200 cases of child sacrifice in
these parts over the last seven years. '
He admitted many of the cases go unreported because the police are
reluctant to tarnish the image of their state. He told us incidents of
child sacrifice are often covered up.
Many of those killers are behind bars - but, chillingly, others
poisoned by the same sinister beliefs remain at
large.
7-yr-old boy sacrificed in Orissa
Deccan Herald - 11. 7. 2006
PHULBAN1 (ORISSA),PTI: In a gruesome incident, a seven-year-old boy
was sacrificed by his own father before the village deity in
Kandhamal district on last Saturday, police said on Monday.
Kanhu Charan Pradhan, a tribal of Kadumaha village, who is believed to
be a practitioner of sorcery, had killed his son Surath to propitiate
the deity, superintendent of Police Basanta Kumar Sahu said.
Pradhan, who had been arrested and was being Interrogated, said he
first sacrificed a goat using a sword last Saturday in the presence
of Surath, his third -son.
After decapitating the goat, he turned his attention on the boy,
killing him on the spot and the blood was offered before the
deity. . », ,
The man appeared to be mentally unstable. The child body was dumped at
a nearby waterbody.
Tantrik held for eating corpse
Deccan Herald - 11. 4. 2006
A tantrik and his disciple were arrested In ]aunpur in UP on Monday
for digging up the body of an 18 - month • old boy arid eating it to
attain "supernatural powers, " reports PT1.
The two had admitted to exhuming the body and consuming it after
cutting off the head in order to attain supernatural powers. The head
of the child, who had died a week earlier due to some illness, was
found lying near the grave.
Blind faith Witch doctor drives family out of village
Deccan Herald - 6. 9. 2006
KOLKATA, DHNS: A witch doctor proposed and the villagers did not
oppose. Consequently, an entire family of 15 in a village not too far
from here was hounded out of their home on suspicion that they were
practising witchcraft and causing the deaths of humans and livestock.
The police, who had Initially offered them shelter at a local
government office, on Tuesday asked the 65-year-old Haridasi Sardar
and her family of 'witches' living in Nadia district to move
elsewhere.
According to reports Sardar, her four sons their wives and six
children, all residents of Balalghata village, were charged with
practising black magic and casting a spell on the village, resulting
in the deaths of several people and livestock.
The witch doctor, hired by the villagers to probe the deaths, ordered
their immediate expulsion from the village.
"We are engaged at present in talks with the village administration
for some alternative (to evicting the family)," said Nadia Additional
Superintendent of Police Subrata MItra. The police have already tried
twice to get them to be back Into their village, but have failed.
11 -year-old sacrificed
Times of India- 1.11.2006
An 11 -year-old boy was beheaded on the advice of an exorcist to
propitiate the gods to cure an ailing infant in Masaurhi sub-division
of Bihar's Patna district. Golu, son of Upendra Kumar, was sacrificed
allegedly by a villager Sitaram Mahto, on the suggestion of a woman
exorcist Kari Devi to propitiate the gods. The beheaded body was found
in Mahto's field.
Child sacrificed for cure
Deccan Herald - 1.11.2006 PATNA, PTI: An eleven year old boy was
beheaded on the advise of an exorcist to propitiate the gods to cure
an ailing infant, here, in Masaurhi sub-division, police sources said
on Tuesday.
Golu, son of Upendra Kumar, was sacrificed allegedly by a villager
Sitaram Mahto, on the suggestion of a woman exorcist Kari Devi on
October 23 to please the gods for the cure of his ailing-two-month-old
grandson, police said.
The beheaded body of the boy was recovered from the field of Sitaram
Mahto the next day following which the boy's family grew suspicious
about his role in the killing.
The sources said Jitendra, a grandson of Sitaram, lured Golu into a
trap by persuading him to accompany him to watch the immersion of
idols of Ganesha and Laxmi but instead of doing so, he took him to his
grandfather's farmland.
Reportedly, here the child was sacrificed with the help of other
family members.
Witch-hunt:2 killed
Deccan Herald - 8.12.2006 DH News Service
RANCH I: The Sonua police have implicated three persons in connection
with a witch-craft - related killing in which a 65-Old woman and her
daughter were killed at Kasarun village in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum
district on Tuesday night. Officer-ln-Charge of Sonua police station
said that the accused are at large now' However, raid is being carried
out to nab those responsible for the incident" he said.
According to police, the assailants identified as Nandu Hembrom,
Singrai Surin and Bandhu Melgandi, all the residents of Kasarun
village, barged into the house of a co-villager and accusing Somabari
Purty and her daughter Raimuni Purty (35) of practicing voodoo,
dragged them to a nearby field and killed them with sharp edged
weapons on Tuesday night.
Police said the assailants tried to kill Raimuni's son Sukhdev also
but he escaped somehow and informed the village headman about the
incident.
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/witch/childsacrifice.html
THE FUNDAMENTALIST 'GURU TRAP' EXPLOITATION
with Sathya Sai Baba and his devotional movement as an example
http://www.start.no/
This paper outlines part of a many-sided system of control over
persons exercised by gurus, swamis, godmen, masters, saints, avatars
or whatever otherworldly title certain individuals assume, with
special reference to Sathya Sai Baba. The main core of the system is
the same for nearly all gurus, both those who are well-intentioned and
honest as well as all of the deceitful and more or less fraudulent
ones. The same goes for their many techniques and refinements, though
the actual roles adopted and the social scenarios and personal stories
developed to back them up vary considerably. The likeness between all
these many competing masters and gurus, their teachings and methods of
instruction, are often so striking that there can be little doubt that
they draw upon a common culture which holds beliefs and skills which
serve to control and exploit people to the guru's advantage. This
culture has been developed and extended in certain religions over
millennia, most often originating in India, where the guru-chela
relationship is so ancient and widespread.
The "guru trap" is one of the most successful means of exploiting
people, often having a very positive face, behind which façade there
is almost always a concealed desire for power over others, fame, money
and the unhindered satisfaction of the guru's human desires. The same
themes are used to control and gain power over others, whether with
kind or selfish intent, but their presentation and use varies from the
simplistic to the very most sophisticated and subtle kinds of
brainwashing. There is no guarantee that an intellectual skeptic or a
scientist will see through the many-layered ideology and phenomena
which can be involved. An august line-up of scientists and other
intellectual workers have been drawn to many gurus. Fortunately, after
many years of adherence, some have disaffiliated themselves, having
gone through the charade and seen it for what it is.
THE BAIT IN THE TRAP
The guru-trap is always baited with the attraction of personal
spiritual development, transformational and transcendental experiences
and teachings beyond conventional education of any kind. It is
invariably presented as eternal (but hidden) wisdom direct from the
source of all knowledge, especially the kind of illumination that
cannot be conveyed by mere words and study. Insights handed down by
word-of-mouth via a guru figure have accumulated many methods of
control and manipulation of persons. These reach back to an ancient
Indian priesthood and the ideology entwined with esoteric texts
regarded as scriptures. This tradition does enable acolytes to
experience things they would otherwise very seldom do, and to attain
certain yogic or tantric powers of the mind and body. The master is a
person who knows how to treat each individual to advantage, to mould
each kind of psyche towards specified ends (often his own). The
student or disciple must thus - through protracted experience - become
free of all doubts about and full of respect for him or her. As one's
insight into the spiritual life apparently develops through the guru's
grace (i.e. His Grace, God's grace direct from - or via - the master)
- one should learn to worship him unreservedly. The techniques of
suggestion, psyche-manipulation, emotional-mental brainwashing,
hypnosis, and the use of rewards and punishments are part of the
master's armory. Knowledge of unusual states of mind and body are
employed, including what are called 'para-psychological' phenomena.
Such phenomena are reported so extremely widely throughout history and
human cultures - and especially within Hinduism - that they cannot be
denied as such, but the explanation of how the various states come
about may be quite non-mystical. Here I take no definitive standpoint
on this broad issue, but withhold judgement, while observing that the
latest genuinely scientific researches are beginning to explain the
most unusual states of mind, from waking visions (UFOs, abductions
etc.) to thought transference (also in dreams) and various unusual
healing phenomena.
AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY CULTS
However much they propound inclusivity of all people, religions, races
etc., these groups are always actually exclusive of those who do not
agree with them sufficiently, so dividing their world into 'us and
them'. Cult members often call one another 'brother' or 'sister',
which they do not extend to others! For example, in the Sai Baba
movement, non-adherents are excluded from the 'Sai family' of 'Sai
brothers' and 'Sai sisters'. The unavoidable inner tensions and
negative feelings within such authoritarian personality cults are
redirected outwards, projecting negative qualities onto
'nonbelievers'. The disaffected who may speak out critically are
mostly shunned, depersonalised and even demonised by the cult members.
The result of this is eventual withdrawal into a sectarian sense of
belonging and social cohesion in the face of the perceived outside
threat. The perception may be correct, as sects and cults are under
threat from the legal systems of the world, ordinary sensibilities and
not least, the disaffected who reject the authority and any misuse of
power by the guru and his supporters. Such misuses have been uncovered
in practically all known sects and cults historically, and continue to
be exposed in them in an ever more effective manner today.
Authoritarian power over the participants of groups of any size and
spread requires a hierarchy through which the guru can operate. There
always arises an inner circle and an outer one, whether formal with
the organised rankings of followers or by informal or 'unofficial'
rating as to who is most convinced, more active or important to the
status of the group. This frequently takes the shape of some kind of
'spiritual class system' with a top-down system decision-making and
communication. This is traditionally justified by the guru's wisdom in
choosing his lieutenants and leading disciples or representatives, a
wisdom which must never be questioned. To echo George Orwell, the
dominant attitude in the ashrams and the organisations in theory and
practice is, "All devotees are equal, but some are more equal than
others." This pseudo-equality is a strong feature of the Sathya Sai
Organisation, which has an unelected leadership (selected directly by
Sai Baba) and a semi-military discipline embodied in its published
rules and guarded and non-publicised inner directives. In his
authoritarian role of self-proclaimed mother and father of all beings,
Sai Baba insists that 'All are God', but says that only he is fully
aware of this. Hence, he accepts being worshipped (as God) and insists
on being obeyed implicitly in everything like the strictest of
parents!
FAME, MONEY & POWER-SEEKING GURUS
What can be observed of a great many self-proclaimed gurus and masters
of all kinds, unfortunately, is that they preach about how one should
act, but do not follow up in their own actions, or even do the exact
opposite. One consequence of this steel-hard perfectionism is well
known from world literature on many fundamentalist sects is that
followers never can maintain the standard set and so become enmeshed
in diverse levels of hypocrisy. Those gurus or 'masters' who collect a
following to teach and who require obedience to themselves are
suspect. The greater effort to enrol followers, the more suspect a
guru's motives will be. To convince followers while not doing what one
teaches oneself requires a great deal of charisma, a lot of convinced
helpers and a large measure of deceptive talk. They will claim to be
able to act as God, and so be unanswerable to anyone, but - still more
- that their acts are inscrutable and no one alive is in a position to
understand or challenge them.
For example, Sathya Sai Baba claims that he does many works of social
service which he does not actually do at all, but for which he alone
takes the credit. Like many other gurus before him, he claims that he
is free of all human limitations. Such gurus must be observed most
closely to see if they diverge in any way from their own teachings in
actual personal behaviour. Scrutiny can be most difficult as it will
mean penetrating through to their inner circle so as to get behind the
façade of cleverly organised appearances and the barrage of teaching/
propaganda. One would need to get to know their right-hand men to get
to the true facts in any matter. It is hard enough for the vast
majority of followers even to see beyond the many barriers set up by
the already-established inner circle of believers. The lower echelon
leaders and the rank-and-file followers are ill-informed, deceived and
deluded through subtle ideological and social brainwashing into a
protective gang for the guru. The larger the community and movement
grows, the easier it is to manipulate through hearsay and stories of
all kinds, as the majority are then easily kept at such a distance
that the are unable to check anything out personally.
THE NATURE OF THE GURU
What then can the nature of such a guru or master be? One will not
wish to deny that there are some who are selflessly engaged, who have
good intention and who have understood much through experience both
outward and inward. That they can be 'Perfect Masters of Wisdom' is
not accepted, as wisdom would have to include knowing the truth of the
universe and this is not known fully. I would require being able to
tell future events accurately and fully, yet no one has ever
convincingly been able to predict more than trivial happenings or
general trends with any accuracy or dependability, and especially not
over large spans of time.
However, science is revealing ever more about the cosmos, both its
physical and human aspects. The sciences have already reached far
beyond the knowledge of ancient 'seers' or 'sages' as to the
observable world and what causes what. As to truth, the theory of
relativity, which covers the entire universe and even human reality,
was never so much as dreamt of by any writer of any scripture, yet it
represents the closest to certain, universal knowledge so far
achieved. That a person can know the essential truth of all human life
and the cosmos cannot be proven scientifically or in any other
definitive way. What is not understood is termed 'God', or 'due to
divine power' etc., and is therefore subject to the machinations of
priest-craft or guru-craft. This cognitive difficulty arises also
because everything is also relative to the subject's position and
perspective, so claims as to matters beyond proper explanation will
always remain in the sphere of speculation and belief.
IMPRISONMENT BY ONE'S OWN COURT
The circle of admirers keep out all others, eventually depriving them
of contact with the world of normal people, when only those who
qualify as believers can be controlled and allowed near the guru. If
there is no 'court jester' immune from punitive exclusion or death,
how can the king know what is really being said? His precarious grip
on reality will blight his most ardent subjects. Normal conventions
and common sense are flouted in the court of the mighty, because the
God-king or dictator simply loses touch with with the populace, what
most people really think and feel.
The last person in the inner court of Sathya Sai Baba who could so
much as mildly contradict him died on March 9, 2000. He was the famous
and retired elderly journalist, V.K. Narasimhan. Even then, Sai Baba
lived in a world of vast imaginings, which Narasimhan, as editor of
the monthly journal "Sanathana Sarathi" (whose title implies that Sai
Baba is Lord Krishna), tried to tone down and make more sensible. But
the task was too great, for he could not censor everything, since Sai
Baba was set on crowing how the whole world loves him and will soon
come to his holy feet, nothing can harm his body or affect him and
many another preposterous boast. In absurd discourses, he explained
his former staggering (symptoms of his hip-joint degeneration) as
being due to the magnetic pull of the earth which was attracted to him
- the source of all magnetism in the whole universe. These discourses
seem to have slipped under the guard of his editors and were actually
published, which shows how far the rot had gone and how little aware
Sai Baba is of physics and the educated world's understanding. When
Sai Baba simply collapsed and had to have major hip surgery (from
which he is visibly not properly recovered), the reason for his
staggering could no longer be concealed. It must be highly embarassing
for anyone with even half an education who is associated with him.
Sai Baba's servitors turn themselves inside-out to conceal or explain
away his confused doing and sayings. When he collapsed after failing
to 'regurgitate' the annual 'golden Shiva lingam' in 2004 (as shown
most clearly on the BBC documentary The Secret Swami), his servitors
had to cart him off-stage. To save face it was announced that two more
gold lingams had materialised from Sai Baba's mouth. When he recovered
he announced ": "Out of the stomach emanated Shiva Lingas of the
weight of three tonnes. That's the reason why some strain on the face
and the body." This statement was captured on the BBC film and so
could not be covered up as usual.
Most so-called masters or gurus demand that their followers practise
self-sacrifice, do selfless service (which the guru also accepts and
expects to receive). Followers must free themselves from ego and all
worldly attachments. Yet the very person who preaches this can
invariably be seen by any observant (i.e. non-confused) person to have
the greatest attachment of anyone... narcissistic self-attachment.
Many gurus soon surround themselves with pomp and splendour. Sai Baba
takes this self-adulatory practice to new heights.
The guru has to insist on being the sole source of all decisions and
assumes total authority. It becomes a case of 'the emperor's new
clothes' and 'power corrupts'. The blind believer is a person who
cannot (and will not) see the guru's attachments for what they are,
rationalising them away by accepting the guru's and his warmest
supporters' far-fetched explanations for his aberrant behaviour. The
guru will usually take credit himself for all the service and
sacrifice of his followers in the worldly sphere, as their teacher,
their inspirer, without whom it will be claimed that they would never
have achieved anything. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, the
devotees become so dependent on the figurehead that they lose more and
more autonomy of mind and action. Unknowingly they become the very
'puppets on a string' that Sai Baba says everyone is! This con -
drawing everything to oneself - has been perfected by Sathya Sai Baba
par excellence, and on a scale that those who have not seen the sheer
extent of his influence will find hard to imagine. All the traits
described in the above are easily observable in his behaviour and
published discourses.
In his discourse, December 26, 2000, Sai Baba - defying the peace-and-
goodwill meaning of Christmas - angrily berated his critics, saying
that they were bought and how no one has done one thousandth of his
good works. How odd that one who proclaims himself God fully
incarnate, come to save the entire world within his own lifetime,
should feel the need to compare himself to politicians!
Links to articles related to the above:-
PERSONAL DISEMPOWERMENT IN WORSHIPPING GURUS - EXEMPLIFIED BY THE
SATHYA SAI BABA CULT (6 part series)
CLAIMS BY SATHYA SAI BABA OF PUTTAPARTHI, SOUTH INDIA
TAKE THE FIRST STEP, THEN WHAT?
RESEARCH INTO PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL ENTRAPMENT -
FROM EXPERIENCE - Techniques for entrapment & self-programming
http://home.chello.no/~reirob/SaiBaba/gurutrap.htm
September 20, 2005 at 12:18 pm
The Great Indian Witch-Hunt
Author Saakshi O. Juneja
Posted in
Government
India
Yesterday i saw the special screening of “The Great Indian Witch
Hunt“, an award winning documentary film hosted by noted playwright,
writer and actress Sohaila Kapur (sister of director Shekhar Kapur)
and directed by Filmmaker Rakhi Varma. It was part of the 12 episode
series “It happens only in India” launched by The National Geographic
channel from September 18, with each episode focusing on an aspect of
“real India” hitherto unexplored in detail.
Here is a report on the film :
“The great Indian witch hunt” explores possible causes of single and
widowed women accused of being witches and their ostracism from the
society sometimes with terrible consequences. Set in Jharkhand, this
episode concentrates on a gory end to a woman named Mania Mardi who is
killed by her nephew Gurudeo because he believed she was a witch who
had brought on the death of his father and brother.
In the early part of the narrative, Varma interviews so-called witches
who have been tortured by villagers and even forced to eat human
excreta. She focuses on the activities of Baba Ramashankar who claims
to have supernatural powers that can bring about the death and
destruction of anyone he should choose to cast his fury upon.
For the murder trial, Varma uses journalist and author Sohaila Kapoor
to conduct an on-camera inquiry of sorts that questions Gurudeo’s real
motives and arrives at the conclusion that he had wrongly assumed that
his relatives had died as a result of a spell. Medical records showed
they had contracted tuberculosis.
Witch hunting is a huge issue in many Indian states. The filmmaker
chose Jharkhand because of the 500 or more cases of witch hunting
reported there in the ’90s. The film unfolds a disturbing trend and
tries to find out the factual reasons that led to the killing of women
after branding them witches. In most cases, the brutal acts were the
fallout of property disputes or were instigated by witch doctors.
However the film fails to give its viewers any conclusive evidence
that ‘Black Magic’ really exists.
Ms. Verma concludes her story in a philosphical way by saying “Black
magic like miracles, falls in the realm of what cannot be proved…it’s
a matter of faith”.
The most horrific part of the film, according to me is the part
showcasing ‘Baba Ramashankar’s rituals’. In the middle of a full moon
night, Baba Ramashankar and his three women accomplices chant a heady
mantra. They are all witches, initiated into the art of using their
powers to save or to destroy through the benevolence of the one they
worship — the dain(witch). As the chanting reaches a crescendo, Baba
begins to dance around the fire with a live goat kid hanging by his
teeth. In the next scene, he has a chicken in his mouth, the neck of
which he snaps with his teeth. After some time, everyone appears to be
suspended in a psychological state that is far beyond the ordinary.
Then comes a sexual orgy. According to the Baba, sexual intercourse is
a necessaity inorder for him to complete his ritual and thereby please
his goddess who inturn gifts him his holy powers.
The film makes you realise that for these people ‘the belief in black
magic is far more than their belief in magic itself’.
More on the film and the director, here….
Some facts about Witch-hunt in India
In the interiors of states like Bihar and West Bengal, ‘witches’ or
‘dains’ and their children are still hunted and killed. Witch-hunting
is one of the least talked-about acts of violence. The murder of
individuals and entire families accused of witchcraft is common in
other states too, such as Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan,
Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
From 1991 to 2000, over 522 cases of witch-hunting have been
registered in Bihar alone.
Main reasons for many of these accusations of witchcraft are socio-
economic factors such as land-grabbing, property disputes, personal
rivalry and resistance to sexual advances.
In many cases, a woman who inherits land from her deceased husband is
asked to disown the land by her husband’s family or other men. If she
resists, they approach the Ojhas (traditional village doctors) and
bribe them to brand her a witch.
The strategy of branding a woman a witch is also used against women
who spurn the sexual advances of the powerful men in the community.
The Free Legal Aid Committee (FLAC), based in the new state of
Jharkhand has started a campaign against witch-hunting. They provide,
egal support to the victims, awareness and legal literacy through
streetplays and publications, raising the issue at legal and human
rights fora, and the formulation of laws and amendments. Their efforts
prompted the state of Bihar to pass the Anti-Witch Hunting Act in
1999.
(Disclaimer – above information was obtained from here) Stop the witch-
hunt
Witch-hunting is still prevalent in some Indian states. FLAC runs a
campaign against this appalling practice and supports women accused of
practising witchcraft.
In the interiors of states like Bihar and West Bengal, 'witches' or
'dains' and their children are still hunted and killed. Witch-hunting
is one of the least talked-about acts of violence. The murder of
individuals and entire families accused of witchcraft is common in
other states too, such as Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan,
Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. From 1991 to 2000, over 522 cases of
witch-hunting have been registered in Bihar alone.
The Free Legal Aid Committee (FLAC), based in the new state of
Jharkhand, first got involved in the case of Mani Kui of Karandih,
Jamshedpur, who had been attacked and badly wounded by a group of
people wh! o accused her of witchcraft. The mob also killed her
husband and son. FLAC decided to investigate the case, and initiated a
widespread discussion of the practice.
The NGO now runs a campaign against witch-hunting. It also provides
support to women accused of being witches, and their children.
FLAC has been successful in highlighting the fact that it is not
superstition that is at the root of many of these accusations of
witchcraft but socio-economic factors: land-grabbing, property
disputes, personal rivalry and resistance to sexual advances. In many
cases, a woman who inherits land from her deceased husband is asked to
disown the land by her husband's family or other men. If she resists,
they approach the Ojhas (traditional village doctors) and bribe them
to brand her a witch. G S Jaiswal of FLAC says, "It is difficult to
shake people's faith in witch-doctors." Lack of health facilitie! s
and legal support add to the problem. This strategy of branding a
woman a witch is also used against women who spurn the sexual advances
of the powerful men in the community.
FLAC's campaign against witch-hunting includes legal support to the
victims, awareness and legal literacy through streetplays and
publications, raising the issue at legal and human rights fora, and
the formulation of laws and amendments. They have produced two video
films on the subject of witch-hunting: Kya Mohia Ki Ma Dain Hai? (Is
Mohia's Mother a Witch?) and Akhir Kab Tak? (Till When Will This Go
On?). These efforts have prompted the state of Bihar to pass the Anti-
Witch Hunting Act 1999.
Legislation alone will not stop the practice. Change must come from
within the community. The campaign, however, is gathering momentum,
and attitudes are slowly changing.
Contact: ! G S Jaiswal / Prabha Jaiswal
Free Legal Aid Committee
Opp IV Phase Adarshnagar
Sonari North, Sonari
Jamshedpur - 831011
Jharkhand, India
Tel.: 91-657-220 949 (O)/232 828/237 172 (R)
Email: jai...@dte.vsnl.net.in
http://infochangeindia.org/20030205571/Women/Stories-of-change/Stop-the-witch-hunt.html
A very interesting article written by Brinda Karat, focuses on some of
the Issues In The Struggle Against Witch-Hunting.
http://sakshijuneja.com/blog/2005/09/20/the-great-indian-witch-hunt/
People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Vol. XXV No.
02
January 14, 2001
Some Issues In The Struggle
Against Witch-Hunting
Brinda Karat
SUBHADRA BASUMATAREY, a forty-five year-old woman who was declared a
witch by a female kabiraj (witch doctor), four months ago, still
cannot return to her village in the Goalpara district of Assam.
Subhadra, a member of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association,
had challenged the obscurantist practices of local kabirajs (also
known as ojhas ) for which she had incurred their wrath. Further, she
had demanded a share in her late father’s property, challenging her
step-brother’s claim to the whole property. The step-brother and the
kabirajs in the area developed a common interest in eliminating her,
so she was declared a witch, and accused of casting a spell on three
children in the village who had fallen sick.
One night a group of men, accompanied by the female kaviraj, abducted
Subhadra, took her to a lonely spot and asked her to sign a confession
that she was a witch. Subhadra, courageous woman that she is, refused
to sign. They then proceeded to break her right arm saying that this
was the punishment for not signing. When she still refused they broke
her ribs and she was left for dead Her husband found her and carried
her on his back to the main road, several kilometres away, and then to
the district hospital where he got her admitted. Later, he was given
shelter by her colleagues in the women’s organisation.
When the assailants heard that Subhadra had been saved, they
threatened to kill the women who had helped her, saying that anyone
who helped a witch deserved the same punishment. At that time, I
happened to be in Gauhati for a convention against globalisation and
its impact on women, when some of the women who had come to attend the
convention spoke about the attack. We rushed to the area. It is
difficult to describe the kind of tension that the women were living
under. Prajapati and the other women who had saved Subhadra had
received notices, supposedly from the local terrorist group, warning
them against sheltering Subhadra. Yet, not only were they looking
after the injured Subhadra, but had along with many adivasi comrades
of the Kisan Sabha, held meetings in the neighbouring villages
condemning the incident.
When we arrived, there were over a hundred women from the Bodo
community holding a meeting in the block office to condemn the attack.
The police had refused to register a case under Sec.307, attempt to
murder, but assured a women’s delegation later that they would do so.
The kaviraj has not yet been arrested.
But at least Subhadra could be saved. Laxmi Deb Burman could not. She
was a communist supporter and also an active worker of the AIDWA in
Tripura. A tea-garden worker, she was very popular in her village. In
September this year a colleague of Laxmi’s, living in the same
village, who had been running high fever for several days, died. Laxmi
had in fact been taking her to the local hospital for treatment, but
she succumbed to her illness. The following night a group of men known
to be involved with the NLFT, a terrorist group in Tripura, came to
Laxmi’s house which was in an isolated place, dragged her out, hacked
her to death and put up notices in the village that she had to be
killed because she was a "witch." They did not want to say that she
was killed for being a communist supporter -- so they said she was
killed for being a witch. Here also the murder led to widespread
protests.
A few months earlier, Lata Sahu a dalit woman in Raipur, Madhya
Pradesh, who had contested the polls against the wishes of landowning
castes, was condemned as a witch, stripped and beaten. Recently in the
Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh, five adivasi women were branded
as witches and burned to death.
INCIDENTS INCREASING
Such cases occur with alarming frequency in many regions though it is
difficult to make reliable estimates since cases of witch killing are
not registered under a separate category. However available figures as
well as collations of press reports do indicate an increase :
- five such cases reported in Bihar within the month of September this
year,
- 167 such murders reported in the last two years in Andhra Pradesh,
over 50 in the last year in Assam, to cite a few examples.
Witch naming, hounding and punishing can include stripping and
parading the victim, tonsuring, blackening the face, slashing the
victim with knives or any other sharp instrument, beating, burning,
burying alive. Those declared 'witches' are usually women, although
according to one estimate in Bihar in thirty per cent of the cases,
men were the victims. There may be similar figures for other states
also.
What could be the reasons for the continuation if not increase in the
medieval practice of witch-hunting? Conventional middle-class thinking
attributes the continuation of witch hunting to the "backwardness and
ignorance of adivasi or dalit communities" in which most of these
cases occur. But, historically, there is nothing "tribal" about witch
hunting. The introduction of witch-hunting in adivasi communities was
itself linked to the colonial "civilising" project. Recently, the
former DG of the ASI, was quoted in an article in Frontline, as having
said that the larger view of shamanism, (the world of good and evil
spirits) held in adivasi communities was identified by the Europeans
with their own understanding of black magic and witchcraft. Earlier
women were regarded as healers, and granted powers -- a far cry from
witch-hunting.
If the concept of witches and the practice of witch-hunting was
introduced by the "educated and civilising power", today its
continuance can also be traced to powers and structures located, in
the main, outside the communities in which they occur. Looking at it
another way, it is no coincidence that the so-called tradition of
witch-hunting remains, while other traditions of today's marginalised
communities, which are far more advanced in their democratic content
than those practised by the upper caste , 'educated' people, are being
destroyed. Some examples are:
the more democratic codes governing marriage and divorce, and child
custody,
the attitude towards widows and single women, and children born out of
wedlock, etc.
The cultures of dominant classes and castes tolerate only those
cultures of others which coincide with their own views.
The ojhas, those believed to have supernatural powers, are often
supported by vested interests who want to perpetuate and manipulate
the popular belief in the supernatural powers of the ojha for their
own ends. This includes economic, political and social interests.
RIGHT TO PROPERTY
In a substantial number of reported cases, witch-hunting is resorted
to, so as to rob the woman of her property. In many adivasi
communities, women have greater though not equal rights to land.
Efforts to exercise those rights are thwarted by the method of
declaring the woman a witch and so rob her of her right to the land.
And it is not always the woman’s family which is necessarily involved.
Particularly where the woman is unprotected, a widow or a single
woman, there is no dearth of others who have an eye on the land, would
use the services of the ojhas.
For example, there are cases where such identification has been made
when upper castes want to grab the land distributed to dalit or tribal
families. Sometimes whole families are declared "witches’ and
eliminated. In other cases, individual financial disputes can also be
the reason for witch- naming. Political lobbies and vested interests
working with their own narrow agendas among tribal or dalit
communities, often use the ojha’s position to influence tribal
communities. It is in the interests of these very 'modern’ political
forces to preserve the position of the ojha. For example in Gujarat,
this section in the adivasi community is being assiduously wooed by
the Hindutva organisations, who see them as an easy conduit to
influence adivasi communities. Ironically, it is these same ojhas who
are being encouraged to introduce Hindu rituals among the adivasis. It
is not surprising to find that cultures which glorify sati, find it
easy to coexist with witch-hunting.
Preservation of caste structures and upper caste hegemony. also
underlies the identification of dalit women as witches. In many cases
where their caste supremecist positions have been challenged, upper
caste communities target the woman in the dalit family as a witch. In
the case of Lata Sahu who challenged the landed castes by defying
their order not to stand for elections, was declared a witch because
she directly challenged their political power. In this case however,
the agent for the identification as a witch happened to be a member of
her own caste .
On the other hand, in many areas of the north-east, the practice of
witchcraft is actively encouraged by terrorist groups who use this
tradition to command obedience, as also to eliminate opposition to
their activities from within their own communities. Laxmi Deb Burman’s
case mentioned earlier is such an example.
The current emphasis on ethnic identities by some political forces, to
the exclusion of democratic values, also means coexistence with
retrograde practices, such as witch-hunting, in the name of
preservation of ‘tribal" or oppressed caste "identities." That is why
there is not a single example of any such community-specific political
group ever fighting for reform within the community.
Further when the "jadutona" of the witch doctor fails to cure the
patient, a scapegoat has to be found and mostly it is the poorest and
most vulnerable women who are sacrificed. The target chosen in such
cases usually has little social support. Women in non-stereotypical
situations, lacking protection or support, single women, women without
children, widows and the disabled, are the most vulnerable. The hunt
is usually accompanied by a mob, whipped into hysteria by the ojha.
Such incidents also reinforce the fear and power of the ojha, which
suits the vested interests.
THE OUTSIDE POWER
There is yet another most powerful material force which helps the ojha
maintain his/her power—the World Bank ! This proposition is not so
far- fetched as it might seem. If the human race in its infancy had
propitiated the forces of nature due to a helplessness in the face of
its power, the kind of powerlessness generated due to the sweeping
forces of liberalisation and globalisation unleashed by the policies
of the ruling regime of the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO is also a
reality. Proliferating individual tragedies on a massive scale
triggered, not by unavoidable accidents, but by avoidable policies are
the context within which superstitions are created and strengthened in
India today. Such a social environment empowers unscrupulous elements
to exploit and manipulate people.
This is illustrated by the collapse of whatever existed in the name of
a health system, in the face of the aggressive privatisation policy
being followed by the central and most state governments. Hundreds and
thousands of families have lost members, mainly children, due to the
increased costs of medicines and health care. At any given time,
surveys of tribal and dalit families would show that at least one
member of the family is ill. In our work in the rural areas, one issue
which has come up repeatedly, is the increasing indebtedness of
families due to loans taken to meet recurring medical bills.
The sections worst-affected have been the adivasi-dominated areas in
remote and inaccessible parts of the country. Large-scale epidemics of
malaria, diarrhoea and other avoidable diseases, have taken a heavy
toll. In the absence of any medical support systems, adivasi
communities rely on the local ojha for magic spells to cure the sick,
and thereby the power of the ojha over the community increases. Thus
there is a direct inverse relation between the increasing ill-health
of India’s poor and the increase in superstitions and dependence on
ojhas. This is one of the major reasons why it is so difficult to
break the ojha’s hold over community belief.
There is thus a coalescing of many forces and factors. It is their
powerful presence, often backed by the state which drowns out the
voices and efforts of those who strive, like Subhadra and her
colleagues, to free their sisters and brothers from the power and
influence of the ojhas. They do so at great risk to their own lives.
Women’s organisations in India long ago rejected the narrow frameworks
of analysis which view developments impacting on women only within the
male-female equation. The practice of witch-hunting can be fought
effectively only by understanding and exposing the links between this
practice and its supporting structures.
http://pd.cpim.org/2001/jan14/jan14_brinda.htm
http://thetruthwholetruthandnothingbuttruth.blogspot.com/2010/04/indian-black-magic-sid-harth.html
...and I am Sid Harth