Salem's Lot

Salem, Massachusetts. The site of the most famous witch hunt in the history of mankind. At least 24 people were sentenced to death, most of them women of ‘loose character’, for practicing witchcraft in Salem and various other towns across Colonial Massachusetts. Religious extremism and severe lapses in due process, according to modern historians, were behind the series of horrific murders. It is a damning evidence of the state’s failure to impose its writ, widespread religious intolerance and lack of awareness that women in 21st century Nepal are undergoing the kinds of travails faced by the 17th century residents of the American town.



Over the last few years reports have been steadily trickling in from all parts of the country of women and people of ‘low castes’ being subjected to various discriminations and inhumane treatment. For instance, in a widely reported case, Kalli Kumari BK, a resident of Lalitpur district in Kathmandu Valley, was mercilessly beaten and forced to consume her own excrete after being accused of practicing witchcraft on local cattle. What was particularly worrying about the incident was that it took place in the supposedly most educated and the most modern region of the country. That this insidious culture is not limited to rural Nepal was again brought home, in haunting details, when Dhegani Mahato, a mother of two, was on Saturday burnt alive after being accused of being a witch by a local shaman in Chitwan district, which again has among the best records in human development among all Nepali districts.



Before she was doused in kerosene and set alight, Mahato was pummeled with rocks and sticks by her own family members. These forms of extreme cruelty against women, and people of the ‘lower castes’, are sadly still all too common in Nepal. Only a couple of month ago another Dalit, Mahabir Sunar of Kalikot district, was beaten to death for entering a kitchen of an eatery belonging to ‘high caste’ members. These repeated incidents make clear that legal remedies in existence are inadequate to deter those who practice discriminations of various forms. Unless the state sends out a clear message that the perpetrators of discrimination based on class, caste and color of skin will meet with swift and strong punishment, the spate of these inhumane events are unlikely to abate.



It is also important the knowledge of such punishment be widely disseminated in order to deter likely perpetrators. But that too would not be enough. Often, in such incidents in Nepal the level of cruelty witnessed is matched by the level of ignorance on social discrimination and its severe repercussions among those involved. The Salem witch hunt was snuffed out in under two years. Act of cruel discrimination regrettably continue in Nepal, more than two decades into the democratic exercise.

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