The Intersectionality of Religion,Gender and Class - a Study of Witch-Hunting in Assam, India

“Religion is the last refuge of human savagery - Alfred North Whitehead”. It is the vantage point of society from where socio-cultural and socio-economic disparities are advocated, legitimised and sustained. Religion which intended to create social unity and stability instead stimulated oppression, domination, discrimination, subjugation and exclusion amongst the masses ultimately leading to hierarchical stratification with resultant layers of inequality perpetuating use and abuse of power of one strata over another. Witch-hunting, the practice of branding women as witches, practitioners of black magic, worshippers of Devil, harbinger of evil, epitome of misfortune and then persecuting them is a vile phenomenon which plagued Europe and America in the Middle Ages and continues to do so even today the cultural fabric of Africa and Asia. This paper attempts to study the vice of witch-hunting in the Indian context specifically concerning the state of Assam where though a legal crime and punishable offence, it continues to occur in significant numbers till date gaining validation from religion, superstition, lack of education and awareness, caste and class based differentiation, cultural notions of purity and pollution, gender disparity, prevalent ritual and customary traditions, patriarchal social structure etc. It endeavours to shed light on the concept of ‘Intersectionality’, or ‘Multiple’ or ‘Combined’ or ‘Overlapping’ Discrimination through the study of witch-hunting cases to highlight the extreme vulnerability and susceptibility of women who suffer manifold having to face unequal treatment owing to their coinciding Gender (weaker and inferior sex), Class (economically poorer), Religious (ritually impure and deficient) positions in a society which is inherently patriarchal with power, status and resources shared amongst the men. Finally it tries to understand witch-hunting from a sociological perspective and reinforce how though stemming from religion it has penetrated to cultural, economic, social, gender, caste aspects of everyday life of both victim and culprit.