Witch Hunting Is it a Social Prejudice

Abstract

The practice of persecuting witches is as old as witchcraft. One common thing in most cultures and societies is that witchcraft is seen as something evil and harmful. One common thing in most cultures and societies is that witchcraft is seen as something evil and harmful. Branding someone as witch is an unfortunate social menace, which are very much prevalent in the state of Assam since long past. Witch doctors are the people, who usually brand a woman or man as witch or Daini in cases where there are issues of draught, flood, illness, death of the people of particular locality. The tribal communities of North-East India have traditional belief in witchcraft, which is a magico-religious practice, at one point of time or other that was prevalent among most of the ethnic communities of the world. It is related to the traditional belief that the person, who is suspected to be practicing witchcraft, causes harm to his or her community through abuse of magical power. In recent times, this social-evil of witch-hunting has raised its ugly head in Assam following recent incidents of killing of innocent people in the name of witch hunting particularly among the Adivasis, Bodos, Mishings, Rabhas and some other communities. In Assam every year mostly women have been branded as witches, tortured and often killed by mobs. In Assam a large number of Bej or Ojha, Kabiraj are often involved themselves in curing the village people who makes a living by providing medication to the villagers from several diseases.