Witch hunting in the eastern region of India

Witch hunting is one of the social crimes committed and accepted by many communities. Those who believe in such superstitious practice believe that disease, death and dying or and any sorts of miseries are because of witchcraft and sorcery. They torture those who are so branded as witches. Looking into the different case studies, one can see different perspectives and different dimensions of the changing nature of witch hunting. The feminine gender ‘witch’ is not necessarily a feminine as witch now can be ‘males’ too. The human hunting goes on and cut across gender, age and number. The reason for hunting is not merely the belief system but also for foul play of few cunning people who hatch conspiracy by taking undue advantage of the world view of naïve villagers against those vulnerable groups for grabbing land, animal, money, personal vendetta or sexual favour. In this paper an attempt is being made to examine the cause, consequences and controlling measures to combat witch hunting by considering different case studies at different parts of eastern India.