The Hindu : Life & Style / Society : Beyond the surreal

The Hindu : Life & Style / Society : Beyond the surreal:

A career Wicca, Ipsita Roy Chakraverti is on a mission to dispel myths surrounding witchcraft and save the lives of women victimised by superstition

For Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, the world of the paranormal and metaphysical is not some make-believe hocus pocus, or the stuff that scripts sensational television drama. It is her life's work. A popular Wicca, or witch in lay terms, she not only administers Wiccan ways of healing, but has also made it her mission to travel to remote villages across India, especially where innocent women are declared witches and then murdered, to dispel myths about “witchcraft”.

“Being a Wicca is very different from the conventional perceptions that people have of spell-spewing women, who are up to no good, bringing the scourge of disease, famines and loss on people and communities,” she emphasises.

The daughter of a diplomat, Ms. Chakraverti spent her early years in Canada and the U.S. Her tryst with the world of the Wicca began when she was accepted into a select group of women called the Society for the Study of Ancient Cultures and Civilizations in London. She was with them for three years and finally chose to follow Wicca as her religion. In a news report, she has commented, “It started as an academic curiosity… Wicca includes both scientific facts and old lore. We studied Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche because Wicca means studying various layers of the human mind.”

She decided to come back to India in the late 1980s when she realised that women, particularly in rural Bengal, were being abused and tortured after they were declared to be dayans and dakinis. In her book, Beloved Witch, she reveals that she went to villages in Purulia, Bankura and Birbhum documenting such mishaps and motivating women, who were emotionally or physically battered by men, to take control of their lives. Says Ms. Chakraverti, “I am glad I came back to my roots. Purulia in West Bengal was one of the first places I had visited. A social welfare organisation had asked me to accompany them because there had been reports of witch-hunts from the region. I clearly remember that the temperature was soaring to 45 degrees Celsius; the roads were dry and dusty, with oxen cart tracks marking the white dust. On reaching one of the villages where the welfare organisation was conducting trainings in sewing and kantha embroidery, all I did for the first few days was to sit quietly among groups of women busy with their work. Then, even though their men folk continued to treat me suspiciously, the women started to talk to me about their daily lives. Days later, I gradually inquired about the witch-hunts and then some stunning facts came to light.”

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