The retrograde practice of branding women as witches is still
extant among the Bhil Adivasis in Alirajpur. In one such case Keramsingh, Mathri,
Tuli, Bhina, Jhetri, Bhimbai, Gyansingh, Adesiah and Kelbai of village Girala
had called Ranglibai, who is pictured below, a witch.
The perpetrators ransacked
her house, looted her belongings, stole her cattle goats and children and
chased Rangli away from the village. Rangli with her six children
were forced to flee to her parent's house in Sorwa. The matter was brought to
the attention of the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath which immediately carried
out an investigation and submitted an application to the Superintendent of
Police Alirajpur on behalf of Rangli. This led to a meeting in the village
under Police pressure and now Rangli and her family are back in their house.
Notably, women
are also involved in calling Rangli a witch and raiding her house with Bhimbai
playing the major role. Rangli is the second wife of Jatansingh and Bhimbai is
the first wife. Bhimbai thought that if she could call Rangli a witch and chase
her away from the village then she and her sons would be the sole heirs of
Jatansingh's property. So Bhimbai spread the canard that Ranglibai was secretly
killing people in the village by her witchcraft for the past two years and so
she should be chased away. She got some other people to believe this canard and
together they attacked Ranglibai. In most cases witch hunting is related to property disputes as in this one. In recent years there has been an increase in cases of witch hunting arising from property disputes and there have been a few murders also.
The Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath has been conducting a campaign against this malpractice. The advocacy of
Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath with the administration resulted in the
Superintendent of Police deciding to hold eight village level conventions in
the district to spread awareness that there were no such things as witches and
witch branding was a punishable offence that would be dealt with severely. Shri Shankar Tadwal was invited to lecture
on the harmful aspects of witch hunting in these conventions and the picture
below shows him holding forth in once such convention in Bhabhra.
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