The world is full of strange beliefs which have no scientific explanations. Why is a black cat or an owl bad omen? Why Tuesday is not a good day for a haircut? Why does seeing one’s reflection on a broken mirror bring bad luck? There is no rationale in these age-old beliefs and yet we continue to follow them, defying everything that science has taught us over centuries.
Such irrational beliefs, or superstitions, have always been a part of human civilisation. As long as these superstitions remain a figment of an individual’s perturbation, there is no apparent harm. But when such psychological distortions reach a despicable level leading to inhuman behaviour, like what happened at Pashang in East Khasi Hills recently, then they turn into social menace.
On March 8, nine friends coming back from a picnic at Syntung lost their way and circled around Pashang with their vehicle several times rousing suspicions about their intention. As the rumour spread that the youngsters, all in their early twenties, were menshohnoh, which is the traditional version of the devil’s advocate, villagers gathered in hundreds and attacked the group. While six of them managed to flee, three others became the victims of mob fury. Macmillan Kharshandy, the 24-year-old who was the only bread earner of his family in Madanrting, succumbed to the injuries on the spot.
So what is menshohnoh that makes people blood-thirsty? The fear of and disgust for the evil entity stem from a Khasi folklore about a malevolent serpent, U Thlen, that would grant wealth to those who worked for him and fed him with human blood. The agents of the slimy and cold-blooded creature are the dreaded menshohnoh whose mention itself unleashes terror.
In states like Assam, West Bengal and Jharkhand, the target of such hostility arising out of superstition are mostly women, who are branded as witches. In Meghalaya, a menshohnoh can be a male or a female.
It is baffling that in Meghalaya, where literacy rate is higher than many Indian states and where western culture has a deep influence, the fear of black magic still exists. More surprising is that even many urbanites believe that U Thlen exists and menshohnoh is for real.
But Margaret Lyngdoh, who teaches at University of Tartu in Estonia, clears the confusion. Lyngdoh has done a research on the indigenous demonology and written elaborately about the age-old belief in ‘On Wealth and Jealousy among the Khasis: Thlen, Demonization and the Other’. She says, asking why people in urban pockets believe in thlen is “like believing in any other religious practice there is”.
“Because you see, becoming a Christian does not guarantee that a person would stop believing in the power of evil. This simply means that the framework of belief would change. So thlen would become the vernacular Satan. This means that in the process of demonisation of aspects of the older traditional religion, the church projects ‘evil’ onto a subject that is at once familiar and feared,” she explains.
Lyngdoh also objects to the term ‘superstition’ because it “is derogatory and carries colonial anthropological baggage”. Rather, she chooses a more relatable and identifiable term, belief.
“The myth (of U Thlen) is engraved in our culture. The belief is age-old and it has become a part of our tradition. It is difficult to get over it and it very much exists in the city too,” says Pretty Kharpyngrope, advisor to the Madanrting Seng Kynthei.
The attacks and lynching over the years have occurred in places not far from Shillong, which is considered the education hub of the North East. With time, the city has progressed not only in terms of urban settlements but also education and economy. Despite this, the shadow of thlen haunts many even amid the bustle of the city.
Many citizens whom Sunday Shillong spoke to are unsure about the thlen’s existence and only one person completely rejected the idea of evil spirit.
“I don’t believe this but the fear still lingers,” says a 28-year-old woman in Shillong on condition of anonymity.
So it is absolutely wrong to blame illiteracy and rural lifestyle for the persisting ‘superstition’. In fact, literacy, urbanisation and modernity are not preconditions for the eradication of belief, Lyngdoh says. “Education is not a marker of intelligence… The educated intellects, activists and respectable people in Shillong are quick to pass judgment on lynching associated with the thlen belief and denounce such actions as stemming from illiteracy and ignorance. But I have not read a single opinion piece that actually tried to interpret events like this,” she points out.
Is it tradition?
There are mixed interpretations about serpents in the Bible. Serpent, according to one explanation, is a symbol of wisdom. Jesus said to his disciples , “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
Serpent is also a cursed one for tempting Adam and Eve. The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.”
According to the tribal tradition here, snakes, especially pythons, are not revered at all.
But when a tradition turns fatal, then the society concerned should introspect about it. From being a mythical demon, U Thlen has come to overpower human consciousness and rationality and diabolically transform wisdom into blind faith even in the 21st century. It is time that such a tradition is rejected. “I do not have the authority to say whether this belief can be called tradition. Superstition is a belief existing for time immemorial. Probably, the belief of thlen can be called tradition. At the same time, anything that destroys peace and relationships is bad and if a tradition does so, then it should be stopped. Human life is given by God and we have no right to take it,” says Fr Michael Makri of the Catholic Church.
Rejecting a tradition is not an easy task and Lyngdoh explains why. “Let us think about the belief in ‘tradition’ of U Hynniewtrep, and of our Khynriam, Pnar, Bhoi, War, Lyngngam as being the generic ancestors of present day Khasis. American folklorist, Charles Briggs, analysing the work of Americo de Paredes, states that folklore, inclusive of tradition and cultural practice, has the powerful potential to unify communities, as in the case of 19th century Europe. However, the divisive, function of folklore is as powerful… Tradition, if you actually think about this concept, is always invented. Folklorists have put the time limit of an object or a practice, or anything, to be tradition, if it is practised for over 30 years. But this is not absolute. Belief always has consequences, fatal or otherwise.”
One of the consequences of this particular belief is using menshohnoh as a tool to achieve something maliciously. In Meghalaya, like in many other states in India where witchcraft is allegedly practised, an individual or a group often accuses one or many, sometimes of the same family, of being a witch or thlen’s agent with the intention to usurp property or for revenge.
Activist Agnes Kharshiing mentions personal enmity as the actual trigger for many violent incidents.
“Whenever I used to visit a village, I would try to find out what was the reason for burning or ostracising a family (for witchcraft). (I found that) suppose one does not like a family then somebody instigates the mob and the whole thing goes beyond proportion,” says Kharshiing.
The consequences of superstitious beliefs are always unpleasant and stakeholders can at least try to take measures to mitigate the pernicious effects of such unfounded beliefs.
Together we change
Cases of attacks on and lynching of suspected menshohnoh are not new in the state. Several violent incidents had been reported in the past from parts of Khasi Hills. In 2006, a group of young women were attacked in Laitkyrhong village, 30km from Shillong.
In 2011, three men were killed at Umkyrpong in West Jaintia Hills and their bodies were dumped in a jungle. In 2013, three of a family were killed in a village in Smit for allegedly practising witchcraft. In all these cases, the victims were young and had a better future ahead.
Following any of the incident of violence, the government never came out with a statement rejecting the ‘belief’ completely as unscientific. No consistent awareness programme was taken up after cases of lynching were reported in the past. No academician or researcher or local celebrity has ever come out to endorse science and rationality. No prominent voice has ever shouted out loud that U Thlen is not real.
Religious institutes play an important role in allaying people’s fears of thlen or menshohnoh. But Lyngdoh expresses her reservations. According to her, “the more religious minded a community becomes, there is more stress on polarisation”.
“My research, carried out on the topic of Khasi Christianity over the course of the last 13 years showed me that by othering and demonising supernatural beliefs that are associated with the Khasi traditional religion, (and) the church unwittingly preserves them,” she says.
The extreme dualisms in Abrahamic religions necessitate an opposing ‘other’ and thlen fulfils this criterion. On what role the church should play, “I would respond that Satan as epitomising absolute evil and this evil as being projected on thlen is one reason why such fear is associated with the thlen. But this is one question that I feel I am not qualified to comment on”.
Fr Makri says churches of various denominations do carry out awareness programmes.
Seng Khasi too discourages beliefs which do not go with the modern time. “We have gatherings, called Seng Pyni, every Sunday where we discuss various issues. We condemn such brutality (based on superstition),” says PD Nongrum, general secretary of Seng Khasi.
The Hima Khyrem, which includes Syntung village, will soon convene a meeting of elders and sordars for full hearing of the incident. It will also discuss the ill effects of certain traditional beliefs and chalk out a way to check this.
“The belief is so old that it will take time to eradicate it. We cannot say that we can end it immediately,” points out Kharpyngrope of Madanrting Seng Kynthei.
The police will also be a stakeholder for the first time in educating people about superstition and science. “It is an uncharted area and I am searching for studies on this. It will take some time as I have to sit with my team because we want to be fully prepared,” informs DGP R Chandranathan.
A definitive law is necessary to ensure that lynching in the name of black magic is dealt with strictly. Meghalaya, unlike its neighbour Assam where witch-hunt was rampant, does not have an anti-witch hunt law. This emboldens perpetrators and such incidents keep happening.
But Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui says even in absence of an anti-witch-hunt law, action can be taken under sections of the Indian Penal Code. The problem, he says, lies elsewhere. “Investigation (into menshohnoh lynching cases) takes so long, filing charge-sheet also takes long and prosecution is not strong. Investigation should be fast and perpetrator should be booked at the earliest so that this deters people (from taking law in their hands),” he observes.
Before a law is introduced or an awareness programme is organised, it is the prerogative of the people to educate themselves and ask questions about every unexplained belief. A snake is a reptile and does not drink human blood and this people should understand. “We need informed education, tolerance, empathy, kindness, and compassion and respect for differences in belief,” says Lyngdoh.
There are evils greater than thlen or menshohnoh that the mankind has to fight. The boundaries of science are unlimited and humans have seen only a fragment of it. Focusing on these is more important than living in fear of superstitions, which only turn us into a loathsome thlen.
~ NM