AN ACADEMIC DISSECTION OF OUR SUPERSTITIONS

 

Uncertainty has been the root cause of worries for mankind from time immemorial. And so certainty becomes the solution to all kinds of worries. Being sure about tomorrow or the next year can make all of us happier and content, as long as they meet our expectations. Even in the contemporary era of rational thinking and logic-based understanding, instances of making money by exploiting human curiosity about the future are common. They range from preparing a horoscope for every newborn child to consulting astrologers before matchmaking to ensure a happy married life, and everything in between.

 A search towards the origins of this behaviour transcends the boundaries of places and time. What the sociologist Herbert Spencer described as Totemism (the worship of totems as symbolic representations of social groups) may be the root of many beliefs that later transformed into a broad spectrum of religions and superstitions.

This adherence to totems may have gradually shifted into the worship of particular behaviour patterns around which rewards or positive coincidences occurred. When coincidences got interpreted as supernatural, actions became rituals, and routine behaviours became sacred - the violation of which may bring misfortune. Superstitions arise from that point of internalisation. A clear line cannot be drawn separating religion and superstition in the contemporary scenario, where a group of subsets of intertwined beliefs and superstitions has merged together into a universal set known as religion. Most of the superstitions are geographically configured and transcend religious categorizations, while some of them are religion-specific. Another assortment of superstitions can be divided into those that are baseless and those that are based on an underlying explanation. In India, especially, where the most supernatural of concepts were encoded into mathematical and physical equations, many of the beliefs which we grade as superstitions have an underlying science. Superstitions, thus, do not exist randomly but are a result of historical, sociological and cultural processes that shaped the way of human living. That explains why there is a need to analyse superstitions academically, instead of skimming through them and judging their negative impacts on society. To prepare a list of such beliefs, a disclaimer would be necessary, which clearly states that any kind of social practice that marginalises a gender, sect, or community should be despised as a superstition, no matter how scientific or majoritarian it sounds. For example, the concept of caste and untouchability was explained by its propagators as measures to prevent contamination from the sections doing menial jobs. Even when the reason sounds logical, the heinous impact it has had on society, which continues for centuries, denying social justice to a large section of the population, is reason enough to keep aside such beliefs as superstitions. A cautious interpretation of any logic must therefore be considered, with regional variations included, before proving the scientific rationale behind superstitions. Otherwise, self-harming creations of society may get glorified as mechanisms to bring structure. I analysed a few of the common superstitions prevalent in our immediate metropolitan society, as well as in the rural areas of India, which uncovered a stark incongruency within the nature of beliefs that are accepted in different social settings. The common beliefs whose origins I followed in urban settings include charms to ward off evil, donating money to transwomen, attending temples and other gatherings with veiled heads, black magic, reverence of cows, not walking under a ladder, and others. A few everyday examples show how such practices evolve from social circumstances. The donation of money to transwomen is done in the attribution of Lord Ardhanarishwara’s blessings through them. But the practice has a justification where there are very few dignified job opportunities available to them for earning a living. This plight requires help from fellow citizens, giving an apt reason to the superstition. The veiling of heads has become a part of North Indian spirituality, while similar religious beliefs elsewhere do not require and often condemn the covering of heads during rituals as a disrespect to the deity. Then, from where did this tradition spring? It can be traced back to the era of foreign invasions. When victorious warriors claimed the women of subjugated territories as their wives or maids, the veiling of heads might have been initiated as a way to prevent falling prey to the eye of a greedy warrior. This theory is further justified by the fact that South India faced fewer invasions compared to its Northern counterpart. As a result, if you cover your head at a South Indian prayer, you will attract stupefied glances for sure. This is a harmless superstition as far as individual freedom is respected. Reverence for cows can be traced to a rural-centric civilisation where cows and buffaloes must have been the primary means of sustenance. The milk and manure from the cow, giving a living for a family, make it their provider and command respect. This practice might have continued as a tradition through repetition, making its way into the 21st century, when few families in Delhi survive on what a cow provides. In short, the list of superstitions and their explanations will be a never-ending list, but what appears to be a clear difference between urban and rural superstitions is a variation in the extent of their rigidity. In urban areas, even though superstitions are widely followed, their violations are tolerated. In Delhi, for example, due to a continuous confluence of multiple cultures, society has grown more tolerant of the differences in traditions practiced by outsiders. If a youngster, for example, appears without a veil at religious gatherings, not many would criticise them. This quality of ignoring deviations in urban settings must be a result of modernisation and cultural liberalism that followed. Still, its reverberations have not yet reached the rural areas of North India. Instances of honor killing and caste-based segregation are still common in rural areas, not only in Delhi but in other states as well. While urban occurrences attract legal punishments or public outrage, rural incidents may follow the reverse. In rural areas, punishments for failing norms are imposed by society itself through gram sabhas or local penal codes. Superstitions are embodied as a tradition for many rural societies, and violating them is the same as outperforming culture. The potential for rational thinking in such cases gets less and less prominent, with rebellism being labelled as a crime or anti-social tendency. In a democracy like India, education is the only tool that can repair this institutional malfunctioning. A space for those who wish to deviate from social norms should be incorporated as an essential feature of any healthy and pluralistic society.