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Superstition and Change: The Conflict Within
By: R.S. Mooshahary

Superstition is an unchanging evil in a time of change. Throughout history, human beings have suffered much because of it and despite unprecedented advancement in all spheres, this age-old evil continues to influence our thought processes making us irrational and blind. Though more prevalent in villages in cruder forms this scourge afflicts all classes of people in varying degrees everywhere. In its more sophisticated forms it manifests in practices like propitiating the deities through myriad rituals, going to places of worship to rid of the evils, wearing amulets, rings and other signs on one's body, being guided by stars for doing anything important and so on and so forth. Its uglier faces are witch hunting, honor killing, human sacrifices, suicide bombings, etc. It is a case of confining the human mind in a time warp continuum from where he is unable to step out in to the space of reason and free will.

Actually, the nature changes faster than the human mind in time and space. The physical geography undergoes change unrecognizably every few decades and now with increased human activities this is hastening even more. However, the human mind keeps clinging to old faiths and practices for millennia without refining them along the course of civilization. My own village is an example. It is a tiny village - Odlaguri - near Gossaigaon. It is in the throes of change. The past holds it tight from behind though the physical change has made it nearly unrecognizable. Its bountiful forests, streams and ponds with exotic flora and fauna, which provided life support to the villagers, are no longer there. The landscape is now dotted with thatch huts of human habitation. It presents a forlorn picture of rural setting where the course of change has spurted wants and anxieties destroying the carefree abandon and robust zest for life.

Presently it is in a hybrid zone - changes all around except the mind of man that has not moved forward since the time he invented the wheel. Lately a paved road has connected it to the highway, electricity, mobile network, television are available. A few even own motor bikes though most are poor without any health care and other welfare facilities. The changes in physical features have not reformed the ancient practices and the villagers still indulge in exorcism to cure the sick, cultivate their fields with the hand and hoe, go for open-air excretion, prepare their food and drink in mud pots and do most of the things their ancestors did centuries ago. It is a continuity of primitive mind and way of life where superstition dictates the norms of behavior and not reason and conviction. Let me narrate a few examples:

A young man with college education took to his father's farming profession because he could not obtain any white-collar job. His father was rather well off in the village and the young man started well. The villagers looked up to him for advice and help. However, in his mind he remained primitive despite his literacy. For every illness in the family, he consulted the village soothsayer who would convince him that he ought to perform certain rituals to drive away the evil spirit responsible for the misfortune. He did whatever was asked of him without protest. As ill luck would have it, one of his sons expired which made him even more dependant on the voodoo man who then advised him to change the homestead as the existing one had proved to be accursed. So he built new dwelling houses on a different plot, and performed yagnas to obtain divine blessings. In the process, he had to mortgage his land to pay for various expenses. Another tragedy struck him and he lost another member of his family. Now he has almost lost everything; even his homestead, which he had to sell to meet the growing cost. Still he feels that the cheat of his guru will one day redeem him from all the troubles and he will be again a happy man.

In another incident, a primary school teacher is the main character. Uncertain of the continuation of his job he showed signs of mental inconsistencies. He became recluse, unusual and started growing his beard and hair. At night, he would disappear in the darkness in search of his god. Soon he metamorphosed in to a god man and deification began. He became a miracle man capable of unusual deeds such as curing illness as serious as cancer and tumor growths with the wonder medicine that only he could collect from the bushes at night. Villagers from far and near started flocking to him with offerings in cash and kind and the rumor gathered round that he was the chosen one of Lord Shiva to heal people's suffering. Some people even testified that he had cured their illness by applying the medicine or simply by touching them. The faithful began collecting money for building a temple in his name and wanted me too to contribute when I visited the village one day. They told me that he was the incarnation of Lord Shiva himself. I made them know that it was their superstition, which was making god out of that simpleton, and I was not going to have anything to do with such type of hocus pocus syndrome. Slowly the euphoria disappeared and the man is back to his normal mortal - aloof and agonized without his god image.

There are also many incidents of inhuman cruelty from other villages - of people tortured and killed on suspicion of being witches. These usually happen at the instigation of village medicine men and crooks who fail to cure illness and cunningly put the blame on the victims for settling scores. They are a manifestation of primitive fury that still lurks in the mind of man. This is not attributable to illiteracy alone because superstition is the offspring of fear of the unknown and uncertainty of fate, which all humans inherit. Often people sacrifice animals and birds, build places of worship, perform rituals, and do all irrational things to appease gods and to ward off evils and dangers.

Commoners and kings behave alike in the world of superstition and our own Kamakya temple is a mute witness year after year where the king comes and sacrifices animals to protect his kingdom and the commoner does the same for better life. However, the king loses his kingdom and the commoner continues with the harsh struggle of life. It is the tragedy of modern man that he remains enslaved to this monster of superstition generation after generation.

Higher literacy is no solution to this evil. The incidents in my village are not isolated examples in a remote corner but are common occurrences in the towns and cities also afflicting the affluent and indigent alike. This clearly shows that human beings, despite all the attainments and progress on the intellectual plane, are instinctively primitive. How to modernize human mind is the most difficult issue in the modern world. We may colonize the moon, explore the mars but if can not create a human mind on this earth that is free from prejudice and fear, superstition and obscurantism we will lose this earth itself in self destruction.

One way to eradicate superstition is to popularize the scientific essays in simple and understandable language. Dr. J V Narlikar has been doing this brilliantly. His essays are lucid and demystifying without hurting religious sentiments. Such essays should be part of academic syllabi to foster scientific temperament in the impressionable minds, to make them inquisitive and questioning. Another important thing that we can do is to discourage religious teaching in schools as it militates against our ethos of secularism and often it breeds superstitious propensities. While superstition is not religion all religions have sprung from some form of myth and myth and superstition are two branches of the tree of obscurantism that we need to remove to grow in the sunshine of reason and moderation.

The write, a former Director General of Police in Kerala and Director General of Border Security Force and the National Security Guard, is currently the State Chief Information Commissioner, Assam