Helpless Holo Devi

Holo Devi, 65, was found in a sack at the foothill of Dhardhariya pahad (hill)—located between the Lohardaga and Gumla districts of Jharkhand—on June 10, 2022, brutally murdered.

The previous day, the widow and a mother of two, a resident of Ganeshpur village, 170 km from the state capital Ranchi, was mercilessly dragged and beaten after she was held responsible for the death of the husband of Maniaro Devi, a woman living in the same village.

The region is populated by Kharwar Adivasis, classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). People here still attribute any death, natural or accidental, to witchcraft. It was the pahan (chief priest of the village) who alleged that Holo Devi’s sorcery led to the death of Maniaro’s husband and branded her a dayan (witch). On the morning of June 9, the villagers, with drums and dhols, gathered at the centre of the village.

They summoned the old and frail woman. “Tune mara Maniaro ke pati ko? Bol Chudail!” (Translation: Did you kill Manioaro’s husband? Tell us witch!), they demanded. The meek, old woman with visible stretch marks on her skin, screamed “Nahin mara” (I didn’t kill). They started hitting her with sticks. After half an hour, when the arms that bore the sticks were tired, a bruised and battered Holo Devi pleaded for some food. She was forced to eat pesticide instead. She started vomiting and, within minutes, lost her senses. The villagers put Holo Devi, still breathing, into a sack, carried her to the top of Dhardharia hill and threw her from the hilltop.

And once again nobody heard her screams. The voices of women branded as witches are seldom heard and hence ghastly violence against them in the name of witchcraft has continued unabated over centuries, across the world.