In India, women accused of witchcraft commonly have to contend with verbal and physical assaults. Some are even killed. Superstition of witches runs deep, but some manage to use this for their own financial gain - so is religion to blame, or is religion a victim as well?

The Day explains:

“Superstition is only an excuse. Often a woman is branded a witch so that you can throw her out of the village and grab her land, or to settle scores, family rivalry, or because powerful men want to punish her for spurning their sexual advances. Sometimes it is used to punish women who question social norms,” said Pooja Singhal Purwar, an official at the Jharkhand social welfare department.

“Women from well-to-do homes in the village are never branded witches,” Purwar said. “It is always the socially and economically vulnerable women who are targeted and boycotted.”

According to a study by the Free Legal Aid Committee, only 2 percent of people charged with witch-hunting are convicted. “People go scot-free because witnesses are hard to come by. Villagers often approve of the torture meted out to these women,” said Girija Shankar Jaiswal, a lawyer who heads the organization. “They think witch-hunting is a heroic act and that it will clean the society of evil.”

Even if religious beliefs are being used for personal gain, the fact remains that the religious beliefs about witches do exist and do motivate people to physically attack neighbors — so, in the end, the bulk of the responsibility for these incidents must rest with religion. The fact that people are able to use religion in this way is simply another black mark against it.

This is what happens, unfortunately, when religion and superstition are able to get a hold of people’s minds, preventing them from thinking skeptically and rationally. If religious belief systems encouraged more critical thinking and more questioning of authority, perhaps we’d see this less often.

Read More:

• Religion 101
• Theism 101
• Skepticism & Critical Thinking