Guwahati: Try imagining a remote village, where a traditional healer has the power to declare anybody a ‘daini (the Assamese word for a witch)’, leading to the person being subjected to unimaginable torture, likely ostracisation from the village and even death.
Two decades back, a lone woman stood up against this social evil prevalent in Assam, including in her own tribal community.
Birubala Rabha became a tireless crusader in spreading awareness and combating witch-hunting, which, as per Assam government data, had claimed 107 lives in just a span of eight years between 2011 and 2019.
Birubala, who passed away on May 13 and was cremated with state honours, will be remembered for being the trailblazer who started the pushback against the ghastly practice. Her work also got her a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, and a Padma Shri in 2021.
Birubala’s struggle against witch-hunting started with a personal tragedy, which made her not only question quacks and traditional healers but also made her address the issue at a community level, apart from contributing in awareness campaigns and victim rescue operations for decades.
“She kept speaking against injustice”
It was an ominous prediction made by a traditional healer about her eldest son which started the sequence of events leading to Birubala’s lifelong fight against witch-hunting. Her eldest son, Dharmesar had developed a mental illness.
“Our brother Dharmeswar had developed a mental disorder. While my parents unsuccessfully tried to help him recover from it through various medical treatments, Saral Rabha, a well-known ojha or deodhani (a traditional healer believed to possess divine powers) in our village predicted that Dharmeswar would die shortly,” Birubala’s son Bishnu told this writer.
Bishnu says that Saral Rabha also claimed that his brother was under the influence of an angel who had conceived his baby and as soon as she gave birth to the child, Dharmeswar would die.
“Dharmeswar remained alive years after that prediction. However, with his condition worsening, in 1994, we had to shift him to a mental asylum in Shillong where he stayed for many years,” said Bishnu.
The fact that the traditional healer couldn’t predict her son’s demise resulted in Birubala getting disillusioned with ojhas and their claims of practising witchcraft.
Notably, Saral Rabha, was later found to be involved in several cases of witch-hunting and she was also briefly jailed.
Just a year after Birubala’s son was shifted to Shillong, her husband passed away, which led some within his family to blame her for the death. Bishnu says that his parents had a turbulent relationship, with Birubala at times being physically assaulted by her husband.
Contrary to popular belief that after her husband’s death Birubala was declared a witch, her son says that activist Mamoni Saikia first introduced his mother to the menace of witch-hunting.
Thereafter, Birubala would travel through the vast expanse of Assam’s heartland, visiting remote villages to create awareness against the social evil.
“We have seen our mother speaking out against injustice since our childhood, whether it is within the family or in society. She had to face many life-threatening situations and opposition from her own community for speaking against witch-hunting,” Bishnu adds.
Work with Assam Mahila Samata Society
Back in 1999, Mamoni Saikia came to Goalpara as the district coordinator of an NGO, Assam Mahila Samata Society (AMSS). AMSS was then being funded by the Union government under a scheme for women’s empowerment.
While engaged in empowerment of women in the area through education as per the Union government’s National Mahila Samakhya Programme, Saikia came to know about the practice of witch-hunting in some villages of Goalpara and decided to raise awareness, besides rescuing victims.
“On October 15, 2001, AMSS had organised a meeting in Goalpara where 25 local mahila samitis from several villages took part. Birubala was the president of one such mahila samiti formed in Thakurbila, her village,” Mamoni Saikia told The Wire.
Saikia recalled that while none of the women participants in the meeting were willing to speak up against witch-hunting, it was Birubala who stood up and condemned the practice of declaring a person daini.
That public utterance didn’t bear good news for Birubala, though.
“She was intimidated for speaking against the custom and barred from attending any social function for two years by her community. She was also ousted as the president of the local mahila samiti,” recalls Bishnu.
According to Saikia, social boycott could not deter Birubala from taking part in various programmes against witch-hunting in Goalpara and elsewhere in Assam.
“We got an opportunity in 2004 to apply for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. Birubala baideu’s (elder sister) name was sent to the Swiss committee. The fact that her nomination was accepted in 2005 was a huge achievement,” says Saikia.
Birubala’s nomination for the Nobel Prize amplified her work against witch-hunting nationally, leading to more people taking up the cause.
Supporting the police with Project Prahari
Talking about Birubala’s fight against witch-hunting in Assam would be incomplete without mentioning Project Prahari, an initiative started by the Assam police in 2001, which turned out to be an effective policing model.
Birubala took the lead and worked with the police under Project Prahari, which had a profound impact on the campaigns against witch-hunting.
“From declaring someone a daini to the inhuman treatments meted out to that person, everything involves community engagement and acceptance. If such a strong sense of community integrity can be transformed into something meaningful, what better contribution could it be for social progress? This was the ethos that Project Prahari was based on,” Kula Saikia, former Director General of Police (DGP) of Assam and the brain behind the project, told The Wire.
He added that the project went on to become a model case study on how police can be a change agent.
Along with prompt rescue of witch-hunting victims and expediting the legal procedure in such cases, what made Project Prahari stand out was its social initiatives, be it awareness building or engaging people in community activities.
A meeting organised as part of a campaign against witch-hunting. Photo by special arrangement.
Drawing from his experience, ex-DGP Saikia ascribed some common reasons behind the practice of witch-hunting, including the fact that most cases are related to ownership of property.
A proclaimed witch, when thrown out of the village, often leaves behind his/her properties that can be grabbed by others, he added.
“The power dynamics play a crucial role too. The challenges meted out to the existing power structure by the upwardly moving youth section appear to be a big reason behind witch-hunting in many instances. Personal vendetta and rivalry adds to it too. In fact, social beliefs are backed up by these factors along with low level of education, prevalence of quackery, and apathy towards modern health care system,” said the former cop.
Talking about Birubala’s contribution in fighting against witch-hunting, former DGP Saikia recalled that since women’s empowerment was a prime objective of the project, he was in search of brave women within the local community who could break away from the shackles of traditional prejudices and stand up against witch-hunting. Birubala perfectly fit the role.
Witch-hunting: An ongoing phenomenon
In 2018, the Assam government enacted the The Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition Prevention and Protection) Act, a law that has stringent provisions for perpetrators of witch-hunting.
However, the fear of law has not ensured an end of cases of witch-hunting in Assam. Activists such as Mamoni Saikia also blame police inaction at times for such crimes.
“As recently as September 2023, there was a case where one woman was killed after she was declared a daini (in Goalpara district). But there has been no arrests till date,” she said.
Saikia spoke about several similar incidents wherein much to the surprise of activists, the local police would be unaware of the 2018 law, or of an instance when the traditional healer turned out to be a policeman.
“In many instances, we even need to confront the police. Whenever we get information about someone thrown out of a village or tortured after he/she was accused of being a witch, our first step is to rescue the person. The police is seen to be hesitant to take prompt action sometimes,” added activist Saikia.
While witch-hunting does continue in Assam, Saikia says that the incidents over the years have gone down, owing to the long-drawn out collective fight of activists working with the community.
Even after her passing away, Birubala remains a beacon of hope for those persecuted in the name of witch-hunting in Assam’s villages because of her tenacity to fight the social evil despite a multitude of challenges coming her way.
Sandipan Talukdar is a Guwahati-based independent journalist.
