Paper on Superstitions & Women by Santosh Takale at NCSM Kolkata

1. SUPERSTITIONS AND WOMEN
Santosh Hiraman Takale
Scientific Officer-F, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai-400 085.
(E-mail: santoshatbarc@gmail.com)
Key Words: Superstitions, Patriarchy, Rituals, Remarriage, Constitution, Dowry, Polygamy,
Malnourishment, Death rate, anemic, UNESCO, Black Magic, WHO.
Marathi Words: Kanyadan, Manusmriti, Shudras, Narbali (Human Sacrifice), Bhanamati, Devdasi,
Balvivah, DAKIN (Witch craft), Keshvapan, Sati.
Abstract :
The real cruelty behind the superstitions or blind faith is that, it creates the mental slavery, person
stops thinking and opens the doors for the exploitation. Women are the victims of all the exploitation
and harassment arising through these superstitions and still they don’t take any objections against that.
They believe that, these are not superstitions but the beliefs or customs which gives meaning to their
life. The women who are exploited due to blind faiths become carrier of them. Then they are passed
from mother to daughter and Mother-in-law to daughter-in-law.
There are many reasons, which make the women superstitious. One of them is unending family
problems at her home front. She is not equipped with the ways to escape these situations. She faces
more failures, frustrations, grieves in her life. Patriarchy in our society doesn’t allow her to find the
out of this maze of blind faiths. Fact that makes women helpless is their inferior position in family,
society and religion. In 21st century also, she is unwelcomed from her birth.
Long ago we had matriarchy in society. Every major work was done by women; they were able to take
decisions etc. But now the scene has changed. Today women spend their whole life in male
dominance. She is brought up with a teaching of her role in life as daughter, wife and mother. She has
to do everything for the man in her life. Her every fast, vow is for her husband or son. If her husband
died due to any reason, she is considered responsible for the death and ostracized by her family and
society. As a widow, she is not invited to any religious function or celebration of any auspicious day.
Every religion in the world has given the poor treatment to women in every aspect of life. For
thousands of years, this religiousness is being engraved on her mind. The inferiority complex, sorrows
and helplessness of hers leads to the superstitions.
According to UNESCO Report 80% women in India are found to be anemic. Due to early marriage,
especially in villages, a girl conceives and delivers at a very early age. Five hundred out of a lakh of
women die during delivery in India while in other developing countries the figure is 20!
Most women are under continuous mental strain for various reasons. Torture by in laws, ignorance of
husband, lack of recognition and prestige in family, household (homely) conflicts, sexual
dissatisfaction etc. shatters her personality. Sometimes she sits sullenly, suffers from palpitation,
shivering and twitching of the body, feeling of being choked or of chest being compressed. All these
are mental disorder called Hysteria. Sometimes this is taken as she is possessed by ghost; and for that
some horrible & monstrous measures are taken.
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2. The inferiority complex & conflict mind gives birth to some strange things like some marks on
woman’s body, tearing or burning cloths, showering of pebbles (stones) or lemons on roof, etc. This is
related to some black magic & the women are then taken to some exorcist. Thus the main reason of
women being superstitious is her physical & mental illness.
Another reason of superstitions in women is our customs & traditions. 150 years ago women were not
educated. She did; whatever she learnt from the pothi, puranas, katha & kirtans. She didn’t have right
to diagnose the rituals. She never asked how & why. She was doing all these rituals full of
superstitions with blind faith, just because it was told by her forefather. This mentality leads to some
cruel & horrible customs like Devdasi, Sati, Keshvapan, Balvivah, Dakin etc. everything against
women.
The paper discusses various aspects pertaining to Superstitions & blind faiths. Also shares the
experiences gained during awareness programs on superstitions eradication.
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Introduction:
Takale Charitable Trust established with main intent of Spreading literacy, Science Communication,
Youth empowerment & to eradicate superstitions among masses and ignite them with scientific
temperament & outlook. NGO also works on spreading awareness about safe guarding our
environment, Nature & Mother earth by eco friendly celebration of all religious and non religious
functions.
We all know there are many superstitions and blind beliefs with every, caste, sect, religion & every
civilization. In our society, it is observed that female are more superstitious than their male
counterpart. Just to elaborate I will narrate my own experience, As a part of awareness spreading or
science communication campaign, our team has arranged lecture and observations of solar eclipse
through telescope at some remote place in Raigad district, just to pass on the message through our own
act, we were having ‘SAMOSA’ and some snacks when eclipse was happening, off course people
were curious and doubts related to few myths were asked and cleared by us. But reaction by old lady
aged around 55 to 60 years is worth mentioning. When we were enjoying our snacks, she approached
and asked what, exactly we are trying to convey by doing this, without waiting for answer she
enquired are we pregnant? Off course most of were male & few college going girls, so we said NO.
Then she slap back, then Why eclipse should affect you, it affects pregnant ladies only, who take food
in eclipse. Our explanation & justifications were turned down by her age old blind faith & unnecessary
confidence about it. Two things can be learned from this, superstitions pertaining to celestial bodies or
phenomena or snake like species has too much influence on us, because they are imbibe on us since
child hood, we take them for granted and if someone tries to justify us, we keep giving various
branching to problem and support our behavior on the basis of some pseudo science. The real cruelty
behind the superstitions or blind faith is that, it creates the mental slavery. Here person stops thinking
about his behavior, Ignores the science he has learned till date & supports his decision, whether it’s
right or wrong and opens the doors of mind for the exploitation.
As I mentioned earlier women are found to be more superstitious. They are the victims of all the
exploitation and harassment arising through these superstitions and still they don’t take any objections
against that. They believe that, these are not superstitions but the beliefs or customs which gives
meaning to their life. The women who are exploited due to blind faiths become conveyor of them.
Then these rituals are carried out and passed on from generations to generations ie. from mother to
daughter and Mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. They never ask how and why? and the propagation of
blind faith continues.
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3. The root cause of women being more superstitious lies in the circumstances and society in which they
are born and brought up. One of them is the continuously stressed situation in which she lives. She is
ignorant about the ways to escape these situations. She faces failures, frustrations, grieves in her life.
Patriarchy in our society doesn’t allow her to find the out of this maze of blind faiths. Fact that makes
women helpless is their inferior position in family, society and religion. In 21 st century also, she is
unwelcomed from the birth due to which the male-female ratio is imbalanced, in few states female to
male ratio has gone below 900/1000 and then we have to run the projects like ‘SAVE GIRL’ or ‘LEK
LADAKI ABHIYAN’ to balance the drastically reducing number of women. This happens due to
misconception that taking last sip of water from boy ensures your heaven seat or at least he will
support his parents during their old age. But you all know ‘A son is son till he gets him a wife. A
daughter is a daughter all her life.’ This Land of Rani Laxmibai, Indira Gandhi, Kalpana Chavala,
Kiran Bedi & many more still considers girls as responsibility & burden on family, what else other
than this, you call out dated belief. The bitter truth is that the proportion of female foeticide is much
more in educated & well to do families compare to poor & tribal communities in India.
After independence our constitution has approved the male-female equality. But still this equality has
yet to touch many segments, may be legislative assembly and parliament. May be about job
opportunities as well as equal remuneration for the same work, privilege in property. The controversy
is that those are only women who are the toppers of many exams in different fields and those are also
women who are deserted, abandoned and become victims of dowry. In India major political parties are
headed by women, but on the other hand the elected female MLAs or MPs are not more than 5%. The
backward position which women acquire in the society, religion, culture, economy, and politics is
related to superstitions in different ways.
We know long back we had matriarchy in society. Every major work was done by women; they were
able to take decisions. But now the scene has changed. Today women spend their whole life in male
dominance. To get married and give birth to a child is just like other work for man but for woman it is
her entire being. She is brought up with a teaching of her role in life as daughter, wife and mother. She
has to do everything for the man in her life. Her every fast, vow is for her husband or son. If her
husband died due to any reason, she is considered responsible for the death and ostracized by her
family and society. As a widow, she is not invited to any religious function or celebration of any
auspicious day. She even has no right to do ‘Kanyadan’ of her own daughter, whom she held in her
womb for nine months. Just to understand illogical part of our traditional rituals and outcome expected
from them, we will diagnose two vratas together ‘ VATASAVITRI’ Vrata & ‘MANGALA-GAURI’.
The intent of this two vratas with all ritual together is logically impossible to attain, because one
ensures same husband for seven life cycles, who needs to be elder than her, other ensures her death
before her husband dies.
Today India has progressed in many fields. Still some casts or religions do not allow remarriage of
young widow. Every religion in the world has given the poor treatment to women in every aspect of
life. One of the oft-quoted dictums of Manusmriti - a typical male chauvinist code of conduct-says, ‘a
woman should always remain obedient to her father in her childhood, to her husband when married
and to her son in her old age. She does not deserve freedom.’ Even the somewhat liberal poet of the
comparatively recent past, Tulasidas says that, “ Shudras, the insane, beasts and women all deserve to
be beaten.” All other religions are equally high handed towards and discriminating against women.
According to the Bible, God made woman for (for giving company and comfort to) man, after man
and from the man (man’s rib). This first woman-the Eve- committed the sin of eating the forbidden
fruit of the tree of knowledge, because of which both Adam and Eve the first man and woman of the
human race were condemned to leave paradise and live their lives on earth. So here also it’s been tried
to justify that for grief and sorrows of woman woman was responsible but she is only who was
responsible for man’s grief and sorrows. Among the Jews, a wife can be divorced on as flimsy a cause
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4. as burning a bread even if inadvertently. Among the Muslims the woman is made helpless and
insecure by subjugating her in two ways. Polygamy is sanctioned and the right of a very easy divorce
to the wife without alimony, is bestowed on the man by the religion. According to the Jains a woman
does not have enough intellect and capacity to understand the meaning and gravity of ‘austerity and
penance.’ Gautam Buddha, one of the few ancient rationalists, too had a poor opinion of women.
According to him, Buddhism that was expected to last for over thousand years would, by admitting
women into the ‘Sanghas’, last for only five hundred years! Thus all religions seem determined to
subjugate women.
Her physical & mental illness also causes to make her superstitious. Her health is always purposely
ignored, from her birth. She is never given healthy diet. Always fresh & good food is given to a boy as
he is ‘KULDEEPAK’ & the remaining & stale food is given to the girl. Therefore she becomes
malnourished & doesn’t grow well. In addition to this; when she gets around 15 years old, her
marriage is held. In progressive & forward Maharashtra also 40% of women get married before 18 yrs
of age. Immediately after marriage she gets pregnant. Now how can a malnourished mother, can
nourish her foetus. The child born with very low weight. It increases the possibility of child’s death. In
India the child- death rate is higher than any other undeveloped country. This fact is then related to
superstitions. Wish to getting ‘Son’ brings more deliveries or abortions i.e. female foeticides which
makes her anemic & vulnerable to any disease. This is also related to the heavenly wrath, some ones
curse or a spell or sorcery. According to UNESCO Report 80% women in India are found to be
anemic. If any women could not give birth to child then she is declared as infertile or barren & she is
tortured like anything by her family and society. She gets so much tortured that for getting a child she
keeps fasts, makes vows, she goes to Charlatan (so called agents of god) she even becomes ready for a
‘human sacrifice’. These truths are now a days publicly know, thanks to Sony TV serial “CRIME
PATROL”.
Lack of recognition, respect and prestige in family puts most of the women under continuous mental
strain, there are other reasons too, torture by in laws, ignorance of husband, household conflicts,
sexual dissatisfaction etc. These all factors shatters her personality. Sometimes she sits sullenly,
sometimes starts murmuring, talking anything, cries, suffers from palpitation, shivering and twitching
of the body, feeling of being choked or of chest being compressed. All these are mental disorder called
Hysteria. People ignorant of scientific reason of such behavior of any women think that she is
possessed by some goddess. The exploitation of this myth is then well known. The possessed lady
starts getting respect & superstition continues creating life miserable for many others. But on contrary,
sometimes this is taken as she is possessed by ghost; and for that some horrible & monstrous measures
are taken. The inferiority complex & conflict mind gives birth to some strange things like some marks
on woman’s body, tearing or burning cloths, showering of stones or lemons on roof, etc. Family &
society tries to relate this to some black magic (BHANAMATI) & the women are then taken to some
exorcist. Thus the main reason of women being superstitious is her physical & mental illness.
Our customs and traditions also contribute significantly to superstitions in women. 150 years ago
women were not educated. They did, whatever they learnt from the pothi, puranas, katha & kirtans.
She neither had right to diagnose the rituals nor to question them. She never asked how & why. She
was doing all these rituals full of superstitions with closed eyes & without thinking, just because it was
told by her forefather. This mentality leaded to some cruel & horrifying customs like Devdasi, Sati,
Keshvapan, Balvivah, Dakin.
Sati was a religious funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed
woman either voluntarily or by use of force and coercion would have immolated herself on her
husband’s funeral pyre. The practice is rare and has been outlawed in India since 1829, But incident
one & half year back at Rajastan is surely a eye opener.
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5. In Hinduism, the devadasi tradition (servant of god) is a religious tradition in which girls are
"married" and dedicated to a deity (God or Goddess) or to a temple and includes performance aspects
such as those that take place in the temple as well as in the courtly or home context. In the state of
Karnataka in the region of South India the devadasi system was followed for over 10 centuries. Chief
among them was the Yellamma cult. The extreme limit of these tradition & superstition is
‘NAGNAPUJA’ done by Devadasi’s.
We usually see many women around having kids at an age of just 15 to 16 years; neither it’s right
from the health’s perspective nor is it good for the society. We can find many premature mothers in
India especially in small towns and villages. During recent survey conducted in India by WHO, 45%
women accepted that they got married before attaining the age of 18 years. Legal age for marriage in
India is 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys. Bal Vivah still prevails in India and there are many
places in India where people don’t mind getting their children married before the legal age. Just
imagine the situation of a girl who gets married at an age of 10 to 12 years. She is so innocent and
young to even understand the meaning of the relationships; that little child, who is still at the stage of
playing and kidding is sent to her in laws after marriage and her parents expect her to be happy. It’s
totally out of the sense and indirectly it’s a social as well as moral crime. We are snatching
the childhood pleasure, experience and all innocence by doing this.
Witchcraft is still widely believed in and 'practiced' in many backward parts of India. Vidarbha and
Marathwada regions in Maharashtra have been dubbed 'the witch-killing hubs of Maharashtra' where
women suspected of witchcraft are attacked and even killed. This tradition is known as Dakin Pratha.
In Vidarbha more than 200 cases were registered in respective police stations since 1999 and they
continue to occur. Most accused 'witches' are widows or destitute women. They just manage their
livelihood by doing some menial jobs. However their relatives or neighbors have an eye upon their
landed property or house. As such they need some pretext to throw them out or kill them. These
people benefit from their deaths or banishment from their home and property. The female black-magic
practitioners are generally known as Chetakins. Generally mentally deranged woman or someone who
has turned very vindictive due to some injustice done to her, turns into Chetakin.
No wonder that women surrounded by so many adversities- malnutrition, neglect in childhood,
ignorance, early pregnancies, deliveries without any medical help, rigors of bringing up the children
and facing responsibilities without receiving proper training and education-become victims of
superstition. Solution to the problem of superstition involves solving all these related problems. To
make women free from this yoke of superstitions & blind faiths some measures can be taken;
1) Educate the women – Women has to be educated and all help shall be extend to such women to
empower and educate other women, as they know the root situation better than anybody.
Women shall be trained to keep the scientific attitude so that they can diagnose the rituals & by
that they can dare to deny the wrong things.
2) To bring the man-women equality. Women shall be guided to remove the inferiority complex.
They have to develop themselves with a confidence. They must be adamant about the same
remuneration for same work &their right in the property.
3) Women have to pay attention to their own health, along with their family members’ health,
they need to take adequate rest & medical treatment for every illness.
4) Women should take the decision of birth of child by evaluating her financial, physical &
mental condition.
5) They should deny the pre-natal sex determination and female foeticide.
6) They has to fight against the cruel customs like Devdasi, Sati, Balvivah.
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6. 7) They must directly oppose the superstitions like black magic (BHANAMATI), spell, sorcery,
witchcraft (DAKIN), possessing, Good omen & bad omen, charlatanry, quackery etc.
8) If women improve her capacity & potential to fight against the sorrows & difficulties in the
life, she need not find any false support i.e. superstitions to remove the sorrows.
Conclusion:
It is clear that Superstitions leads to the most adverse & serious ill effects as far as human civilization
is concerned. They exist due to our ignorance of scientific facts and truths. Education can be best
solution to this problem. Women are more superstitious due to their inferior position in male
dominated society which leads to poor mental & physical health, in order to ensure safety & security
of her own family, they get trapped into this vicious circle of blind faith & rituals. Better public
outreach program, involving various sects, caste & religion of society will be very useful to eradicate
superstations. The help of modern technology & electronic media makes such outreach program more
involving & interesting for masses, this is my own experience during delivery of more than 300
lectures at colleges, Grampnchyat & villages pertaining to eradication superstations about celestial
phenomena, Snakes and our old outdates customs, ritual etc. Women are observed to be more keen &
sincere towards there all duties. I expect same attitude & support for this movement of ‘Science
Communication & Superstitions Eradication’ from them as well all members of society.
References:
1. Marathi :
i. Timiratun Tejakade by Dr. Narendra Dabholkar.
ii. ‘Hindu Sanskruti aani Stri by A. H. Salunkhe.
iii. Devadasi aani Nagnapuja by Uttam Kamble.
iv. Andha Shraddha Nirmulan Vartaptra --- May 2011.
v. Jyotiba Phule aani Stri Mukticha Vichar by Dr. Gail Amvet.
vi. ‘Vichar & Sanghatana Margadarshika’ --- Maharashtra Andha Shraddha Nirmulan
Samiti. (July – 2007).
2. English :
i. Disappearing Daughters by Geeta Arvamudan.
3. Speeches by :
i. Dr. Narendra Dabholkar.
ii. Adv. Varsha Deshpande.
Regards.
Santosh Takale,
Scientific Officer, BARC
Ph - 0-9967584554.
santoshatbarc@gmail.com
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7. About the Author :
Santosh Takale is senior Scientific Officer (Scientist-F) at Bhabha Atomic Research Center,
Mumbai. He has done B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering & advance studies in Nuclear Engineering
at BARC, Mumbai. He has also obtained many certification in the field of Welding, Non Destructive
Testing & Radiation Safety, which includes IWE (International Welding Engineer), Radiation Safety
Officer & ISNT Level-III in Ultrasonic Testing, ASNT Level II in Radiographic Testing, Ultrasonic
Testing, Eddy Current Testing, Dye Penetrant testing, Visual Inspection & Magnetic Particle Testing.
He is Founder of ‘TAKALE CHARITABLE TRUST’ & ‘Institute for Computer & Information
Technology. He is President of Sky Watcher’s Association of Raigad. He is also honorary member of
many of national & international organisations in technical & social field.
Santosh has been honoured with prestigious award of ‘PANVEL BHUSHAN’ in 2006, ‘VISHESH
GAURAVARTHI’ in 2007 & 2008, ‘MAHARSHTRA GAURAV’ in 2010, ‘YASHAWANT
GAURAV’ & ‘RASHTRA GAURAV’ in 2011, ‘PANVEL GUNIJAN, PANVEL GAURAV,
UTKRUSHTA KARYAKARTA’ in 2012 for his outstanding contribution in the field of Science &
Technology, Science Communication as well as social field.
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