Witchcraft In The 1900s

Assignment #2: Witchcraft in Western India in the 1900s Witchcraft was an extremely common belief in India in the 19th century, and while its phenomenon has decreased over the past centuries, it was still heavily present in the mid to late 1900s. But what exactly is witchcraft? Witchcraft is the manipulation of power substances of words via magic to cause harm. Witchcraft are magical rituals intended to cause misfortune or inflict harm and often referred to as sorcery. It is believed to be practiced by people who embody evil spiritual powers or collaborate with malevolent supernatural beings (Robbins et al. 2016, 126). Like explored in this paper, in western India in the 1900s, the belief in witchcraft is widespread, takes many forms, and

For example, they believe that dakans (witches) have deep, dark, red eyes, which the witch avoid eye contact with another individual (Mac-Machado 2010, 199).The citizens of the Vasa Bhils also believe that one who has been trained in witchcraft gets married and goes to her husband's place in another village. However, she does not practice witchcraft there until and unless she has given birth to her first offspring (Mac-Machado 2010, 194). Another belief about witchcraft is that when a dakan becomes very old, she cannot practice witchcraft anymore, as all the putada (ghosts) leave her (Mac-Machado 2010, 197). Others believe that female witches are nymphomaniac, which further reinforces the sexualization of liminal beings such as witches and vampires that continues on to present day (Mac-Machado 2010,

Angadevs are extremely expensive and many villagers sacrifice goods in order to afford it (Desai 2009, 424). The three stages of the Angadev’s visit are: the binding of village boundaries, the detection of witches and ghosts, and last the ‘play’ or entertainment aspect of the visit (Desai 2009, 425). Research has also shown that witch accusations and police authority in colonial times suggests that, in contrast to other parts of India, police presence was very minimal and ineffective (Desai 2009, 434) and most of the policing was left to village law agents who colluded in keeping witchcraft accusations at the level of the village. Witches are seen as seen inherently evil, has certain physical traits, and women are frequently accused, just as in western India in the twentieth century. Individuals in the western India believe in witchcraft as a form of social control, and use the witch accusations as a method of placing blame for struggles a family may face. Many witches are attacked by villagers, or combatted through special deities or