Witch hunts in India are real — and deadly for the accused
Almost 2,000 people killed from 2005 to 2015
BHILWARA, India – “Going on a witch hunt” is a custom many in India observe — and for those hunted, it can be deadly.
Ask Ramkanya Devi, 80, who lives in fear three months after a young neighbor branded her a witch.
“I don’t trust anyone anymore,” Devi said in the shack she shares with her husband of more than 60 years in this western Indian village. “I’m still scared they might kill me if they catch me alone.”
Stories such as Devi’s are common across India, even though the state of Rajasthan, where Devi lives, outlawed branding people as witches in 2015, and other states adopted similar laws.
Nearly 2,000 people across India, mostly women, were killed for alleged witchcraft from 2005 to 2015, the most recent numbers available from India’s National Crime Records Bureau.
Devi, who has lived here her whole life, has been a midwife to many women, and her husband and two sons run small barbershops.
Upon falling ill, a schoolgirl went to the village bhopa, a self-proclaimed sorcerer with powers to heal, bring good fortune, conjure up voodoo and identify witches. He convinced the girl’s family she was a victim of witchcraft, and she named Devi as the witch.
That led to death threats and a vow to burn their house, so Devi’s family kept her locked in a musty brick storage room — where she spent 18 days in the dark before an activist arranged for her rescue.
“She was crying and kept saying, ‘I’m not a witch. I’m not a witch. Don’t kill me,’ ” said Tara Ahluwalia, who has fought to protect women from witch hunts since 1986.
Bhilwara Police Superintendent Pradeep Sharma said bhopas are at the root of the problem.
“Bhopas are a very widespread social evil,” Sharma said. “People go to these bhopas for a number of problems, mostly to cure their illnesses. ... They call spirits and try to remove spirits. It’s something like voodoo.”
Ajay Kumar Jain, a lawyer who petitioned for protections against witch hunts, said, “Branding a woman as a witch is itself a serious offense, punishable with up to five years of rigorous imprisonment.”
Thirteen victims of witch hunts have received compensation of $750 to $3,000 from the state government, but no one has been convicted in the 86 cases filed since the Prevention of Witch-hunting Act was passed two years ago, largely because of the slow pace of India’s courts. In three of those cases, the witch hunts ended with the killing of the women accused of witchcraft.
Sharma said police receive many complaints, but the term “witch” is often used as an insult during disputes, and the aggrieved party might see the new law as an opportunity.
“It’s not always that somebody is cast as a witch and thrown out of the village,” Sharma said. “By complaining that they were called a witch, they can (file) a legal case.”
Ahluwalia donned a garish sari and posed as a superstitious villager to nab aggressors in the act. She caught seven bhopas on video as they tried to “exorcise” women volunteers she claimed were witches by chanting mantras, slapping them and beating them with a broom.
“One female bhopa beat my volunteer so badly that she tore out a piece of her hair, and she put a sword to her neck,” Ahluwalia said. “Right now, all seven are behind bars.”
“We found in a lot of the cases, single women, especially women belonging to the lower strata of society, were harassed by being branded as witches,” lawyer Jain said. “The objective in most of the cases was just to grab their property.”