Possessed by Greed

The enduring human toll of Assam’s witch-hunts / Communities

- HRISHITA RAJBANGSHI

“This process will never come to an end,” Lakhyamati Daimary told me. “For as long as you make sure that the villagers keep believing in dainadaini”—the Bodo term for witches—“you don’t need any other way to fool them to get your work done.”

In 2014, Lakhyamati, a cook at a primary school in Jangalgaon, a village in Assam’s Udalguri district, was accused of practising witchcraft. “My brother-in-law said that my daughter’s friend had been possessed by Aai Goxani”—a goddess associated with smallpox, also called Sheetala—“and that she had claimed I was a witch, who would wreak havoc in the entire village,” she said. “How does a 16-year-old girl claim such things and the villagers believe her? You tell me.”

Lakhyamati did not take the accusation seriously at first, she added, “but then the villagers started coming to our house one after the other.” They attacked the family, severely injuring her husband and four children, and burned down their house. At a public meeting, Lakhyamati was forced to eat human excreta as punishment. The villagers demanded she leave the village with her children, or they would kill the entire family.