Death of a witch : a village in North India 1950-1981

Death of a Witch is the story of a small village in Rajasthan between 1950 and 1981. It shows how a small, tightly knit but not always harmonious community of Rajput farmers has reacted to the pressures of modernization.

The author, Dr G.M. Carstairs, first went to the village of Sujarupa in search of material for a research project. But the village and its inhabitants became far more to him than that. Adopted as a dharm bhai or honorific brother by two women of the village, he has been uniquely placed to watch its progress.

It was he who, in 1967, brought the first radio to Sujarupa, enabling the farmers to listen to broadcasts about modern agriculture. Since then the farmers have adopted many new methods of cultivation, which have gone some way towards raising living standards in the village.

The people of Sujarupa retain, however, a deep suspicion of modern medicine and are slow to accept literacy and education. Many of the men and all of the women are still illiterate, and Dr Carstairs shows how their lack of education combines with insensitive state health care to perpetuate misconceptions about disease and death. In the months after his first visit a group of men attacked one of the women, who was believed to be a witch and to have caused the deaths of several children, and beat her so severely that she died.

In concluding this portrait of an underdeveloped community struggling to come to terms with the twentieth century without losing its traditional values, the author explains how agents of governments need to adapt their thinking and behaviour if they are to gain the confidence of villagers such as those of Sujarupa.