Superstition and Change: The Conflict Within

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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 get 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, honour 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 into the space of reason and free will. Actually, the nature
changes faster than the human mind in space and time. 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 thatched 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 behaviour,
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 education. 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
into a �godman�, and deification began. He became a miracle man capable of unusual deeds such as curing
illness as serious as cancer and tumour 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 rumour 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 that 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 Kamakhya 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 as well, 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
we cannot create a human mind on the Earth that is free from prejudice and fear, superstition and
obscurantism, we shall lose the Earth itself in self-destruction.

One way to eradicate superstition is to popularize the scientific essays in simple and understandable
language. Dr JV Narlikar, the acclaimed Indian relativist, 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 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 in order to grow in
the sunshine of reason and moderation.

(The writer is Chief Information Commissioner, Asom)