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Background: In India, only about 10% of persons with psychiatric illnesses receive evidence-based treatments. Stigma, mistrust in allopathic medicine, allegiance toward faith healers, cultural and traditional practices, and beliefs are some of the major hindrances to the treatment of mentally ill patients. Aim: To assess supernatural attitudes toward mental health among tribal and non-tribal populations. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 subjects were included in the study after informed consent, 50 of whom were tribal and 50 non‑tribal. All were required to fill a self‑constructed proforma, the Supernatural Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF). The scales were scored, compiled, and statistically analyzed. Results: The tribal and non-tribal subjects were well‑matched on socio‑demographic variables. The score of SAQ was significantly higher in the tribal group as compared to the non-tribal group. On the ATSPPH-SF, the scores of the two groups were not significant. Conclusion: Even though the tribal populations of India hold a higher supernatural attitude toward mental illnesses as compared to the non-tribal populations, their treatment-seeking attitude remains unaffected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of Western education in Bengal in the wake of British conquest of the province made the province's literati painfully aware of the contempt with which the new rulers treated them. British portrayal of India as a subjugated country passing from its Muslim conquerors to the British hurt their pride. Their ancient religion came under attack from Christian missionaries for its bigotries and social superstitions. This produced a strong reaction among its leading intellects such as Raja Rammohun Roy, Debendranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, who tried to resuscitate the glory of ancient Indian civilisation by blending them with European ideas of Enlightenment and rationality. Rabindranath Tagore gave a fillip to it by arguing that Indian civilisation did not deserve to be judged by Western yardsticks as it had fixed its ideals in the assimilation of all conflicting influences from outside. India might have been invaded from the outside, but thereafter the invaders always merged with the local people and became India's own. Therein lay the greatness of Indian civilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the narrative of modernity has been rejected by numerous scientists, it remains a powerful paradigm. Several Western countries have, during the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessed renewed interest in some archaic practices and beliefs. Based mostly on media analysis, this paper provides an insight into religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia and India, two completely different cultural areas. Simultaneously, it challenges the self-identification of the West as the epicentre of rational thought, in contrast to the so-called non-Western world. The self-image of superiority adopted by the modern West in terms of religious relevance has proved to be distorted, as the tendency to turn to spiritual practices in times of crisis is not exclusively a feature of non-Western societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, a popular trope is adapting cultural myths and religious iconographies into visceral images of the monster in literary and visual representations. Cinematic representations of the Indian monster are modelled on existing folklore narratives and religious tales where the idea of the monster emerges from cultural imagination and superstitions of the land. Since it rationalizes several underlying archetypes in which gods are worshipped in their monstrous identities and disposition, the trope of the monster is used in cinema to indicate the transformation from an ordinary human figure to a monstrous human Other. This paper examines cinematic adaptations of monster figures in Malayalam cinema, the South Indian film industry of Kerala. The cultural practice of religious rituals that worship monstrous gods is part of the collective imagination of the land of Kerala through which films represent fearsome images of transformed humans. This article argues that cultural monsters are human subjects that take inspiration from mythical monster stories to perform in a terrifying way. Their monstrous disposition is a persona that is both a powerful revelation of repressed desires and a manifestation of the resistance against certain cultural fears associated with them. The analysis of several Malayalam films, such as Kaliyattam (1997) Manichithrathazhu (1993) and Ananthabhadram (2005), reveals how film performance adapts mythological narrative elements to create new cultural intertexts of human monsters that are psychotically nuanced and cinematically excessive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Powerful governments with huge resources have failed miserably in protecting their vulnerable populations from the covid-19 crisis. In Ashapara – an internally displaced people's makeshift relief camp in an Indian peripheral state of Tripura, an underdog group of 16 Bru people, against all the odds, has set a rare example by successfully shielding its marginalized indigenous community from the coronavirus. Besides supporting the Brus to cope with the crisis, the group has also helped its members to redeem themselves and restored their lost sense of self-worth and dignity. Such incredible stories of exceptional resilience, determination, and community solidarity give hope to the wretched of the earth, who are fighting a lone battle against the coronavirus pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With modern civilization and the rise in literacy, cases of human sacrifice are rarely encountered by forensic practitioners. Human sacrifice, also called 'Narabali' in India, involves an act of deliberately killing an individual due to ritualistic beliefs for the appeasement of the Gods, spirits, or ancestors. Human sacrifice and ritual murder are often considered synonymous, but ritual murder further involves offering the body part to the deity after killing. Diverse methods were historically adopted for human sacrifice across the globe, strongly influenced by their superstitious, religious, and cultural beliefs. Cases of human sacrifice mostly involve children. We report the rare case of human sacrifice involving an adult victim assaulted by a sharp weapon over the posterior aspect of the neck. The deceased succumbed due to the transection of the cervical spine and corresponding spinal cord. Corroboration of circumstances of death and profiles of the deceased and the perpetrator with autopsy findings were essential in the investigation. This case report discusses extreme superstitions and beliefs, resulting in homicide., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Superstitious beliefs have been frequently encountered in our day-to-day practices among patients and caretakers. Though this is a common phenomenon, there is a paucity of data pertaining to these beliefs due to various reasons. Many of these beliefs are deep engraved into the culture and mindsets of the population. This is an observational study performed in Tertiary burn care center in India during period October 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019. Data from 100 patient units were collected through a set of questionnaires given to each of patient and their caregivers/family members and responses were collected and analyzed. In the food category of superstitions, there was a thought that white colored foods had to be avoided to avoid pus discharge and wound healing in 60% of the response; eating pomegranate or drinking the juice of pomegranate improves the hemoglobin in 80% of the response. Wearing various colored strings in various parts of the body seemed to be a dominant practice in 85% of the responses, wearing the hair with origin from human, donkeys, horses, and various animals was practiced in 45% of people and wearing peacock feathers was seen in 40% of patients. About 95% of the patients thought adversely to the idea of bathing or even contact of the water with the wounds. This study is an attempt to analyze the different parameters of superstition, misconception, and magical beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most superstition from the past have been proven by science as unnecessary, ineffective or just plain silly but are still practiced by normal intelligent people today. Every country has its own localized take on superstitions. In this research, researcher reviews on prevalence of superstitions in Indian society in 21st century. There is much different kind of researches in the field of superstition and had different concepts related to the superstition. In this research, researchers separate the beliefs regarding superstitious activities into three categories i.e. common superstitious activities; death related superstitious activities and pregnancy and new-born related superstitious activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

treatment contact in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia attending a tertiary care hospital located in North India. Methods: A total of 122 caregivers (aged ≥ 18 years, staying with patient ≥ 1 year and involved in patients’ care) of consecutive patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia (according to the ICD-10) were evaluated for their supernatural beliefs and first treatment contact. Results: The first treatment contact was a government or private psychiatrist in slightly more than half (53.3%) of the patients, while it was faith healers in 23.8% of the patients. Around three quarters (74.6%) of the caregivers attributed patients’ symptoms to ≥ 1 supernatural belief (like sorcery / witchcraft, ghosts, spirit intrusion, divine wrath, planetary influences, evil spirits, and bad deeds in previous life) and more than half (57.4%) of the caregivers attributed patients’ symptoms to > 1 supernatural belief. It was observed that those who contacted faith healers for their patients’ treatment had significantly higher attribution of the symptoms to supernatural causes. Conclusions: Supernatural beliefs were common in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia and the majority attributed their patients’ symptoms to these beliefs. It signifies an urgent need for mental health literacy in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper seeks to discuss the attitudes and beliefs of the Pakistani/Kashmiri community in Birmingham towards the cultural practice of consanguineous (cousin) marriage and health, and how an understanding of Pakistani/Kashmiri community views may help institute good practice for health care professionals. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research study using eight gender- and age-specific focus group discussions and eight in-depth one-to-one interviews with participants who were in consanguineous relationships. All participants were from the Pakistani/Kashmiri community and residents of Springfield ward in Birmingham. Findings – The findings illustrate Pakistani/Kashmiri attitudes towards consanguinity and health. There was awareness of still births and genetic conditions but a poor understanding of genetics; respondents were reluctant to accept the link between cousin marriages and birth issues and explanations for still births and impairments were largely attributed to the "will of God". Female respondents were in favour of screening for genetic conditions but would not terminate pregnancies as this was contrary to Islamic ideas about pre-destiny and all respondents wanted more medical and Islamic scholarly information on cousin marriage and how it is linked to disabilities. Clearly there is a need to improve healthcare outcomes and reduce infant mortality in the Pakistani/Kashmiri community. Research limitations/implications – Research findings correspond with previous studies that have explored ethnic minority knowledge and attitudes to health and healthcare services and the need for culturally competent services. Originality/value – This paper presents some suggestions on effecting behaviour change in this important area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periyar EVR was a great leader of the Indian National Congress in Madras Presidency. For various social and political reasons he left the Indian National Congress and took up the cause of all downtrodden people from various social rungs. He led a powerful movement to eradicate superstition. He declared himself to be an atheist. In those days with little or no literacy and education, masses of people knew little about the development of science. Periyar felt that, with the knowledge of science, people would give up their superstitions. He dreamt and hoped that the forthcoming world would be based on science. Some of his dreams included cellular phones, test tube babies, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide prevalence of socio-religious, cultural, and tribal practices in India often leads to a multitude of skin conditions, which can misled the dermatologists in arriving at a diagnosis. With increasing globalization and migration, the practice of indigenous customs and traditions are crossing boundaries, making it imperative for the dermatologists to be acquainted with the cutaneous side effects of these practices. Here, we report a unique case of thermal burn in a circumferential pattern over the umbilical region, a result of the placement of burning lamp over umbilicus to alleviate abdominal discomfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the official debate over the abolition of "sati" in colonial India in the 1820s with an understudied 1830 sentimental novel "The Suttee, or, the Hindoo Converts." Like the political and missionary texts that contributed to the official debate, the book's literary representation of sati figures an encounter between British observers and Hindu participants, between European values and Hindu "superstitions," between British feelings and the suffering body of the sati. The writer of the book stages this encounter not as between British men and Hindu women, but as a cross-cultural, homosocial interaction, where the most important dialogues are between British women and Hindu women, and between British men and Hindu men.

During the East India Company `s rule of India, Britons observed the pervasiveness of elephants in local modes of warfare, hunting, trade, and religious symbolism. The colonizers appropriated this knowledge about elephants:for instance, in the taking-over of Mughal trade routes or Tipu Sultan's stables. What Indians knew about the elephant also fid into a metropolitan culture of anthropomorphism, exemplified in the celebrated shooting of the elephant Chuny in 1826. Anthropomorphic approaches to the elephant held by Britons worked alongside Sanskrit texts and Mughal paintings. These hybrid understandings gave way by the mid-century to an allegedly objective and Christian science of animals, which could not be tainted by what was called pagan superstition. By using the elephant as a point of focus, this article urges the importance of popular traditions of colonial exchange in the emergence of science, and cautions against the reification of indigenous knowledge. The argument aims to show the strengths of a history of knowledge-making that is not focused on elites, the metropolis, or the periphery. A study of the uses of the elephant in colonialism also suggests the multiple and easily interchangeable meanings that animals could carry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three separate studies were carried out to examine the patterns of mental health care in an Indian village. The first examined the conceptual frameworks of the various traditional and modern healers. The second was an attitude study inquiring about the type of healer favoured for psychiatric consultation. The third was a population survey in which every person with one or more symptoms was asked if he or she had consulted anyone for relief of distress. Besides the modern doctors there were three types of traditional healers: Vaids, practising an empirical system of indigenous medicine; Mantarwadis, curing through astrology and charms; and Patris, who acted as mediums for spirits and demons. It was found that a large majority (59 per cent) of those with symptoms had consulted someone. The consultation was determined more by the severity of illness than by socio-demographic factors. Modern doctors were more popular, but most people consulted both traditional and modern healers without regards to the latter's contradictory conceptual framework. Literacy and other socio-demographic factors had no influence on the type of consultation. A conclusion was reached that any scheme for introducing modern psychiatry into rural areas should make use of the locally popular healers, both traditional or modern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the phenomenological context of physical and mental illness in relation to local superstition in Rajasthan, India. The study showed that the attribution of illness or misfortune to a particular supernatural is linked to a specific preceding event with which it is held to be casually related. The researchers argued on the categorization of individuals according to their susceptibility to different types of supernatural malaise.

This article presents author's views on study made by various sociologists on the use of superstition as an anti-traditional device in urban Hinduism. The term 'superstition' is used by modern Indians as they speak English or an Indian language in which they use the English lexeme together with about a hundred other English words in everyday speech. As I shall try to show, there is no Indian term which does the same semantic job in modern ideological discourse, again analogous to 'verboten' in American-English. Some seemingly modern communities, particularly Smarta and Vaisnava Brahmins in the Tamilian South, do not use 'superstition' as an anti-traditional lexeme, because such audiences belong to the grass roots; they are true traditionalists. The idiom of the missionary, on all levels of proselytization as of secular education inspired by missionary purpose, was totally interiorized by the men who generated the Hindu Renaissance, especially by religious and social reformer Swami Vivekananda, by Ramatirtha Paramhans, and in true Rajasthan-is 'superstition' praised by the Thakurs, but angrily rejected by modern Hindus.

The article discusses superstitions among college students in India. The study presented in this article had the objective of finding out the extent to which superstitious beliefs and practices among Indian college students are influenced by higher or college education. It was thought that there may be a relation between the belief and the practice of superstitions among the students receiving higher education. It is noticed that the students' beliefs fluctuated from class to class. The students in the higher classes believed as much or even more than those in the lower classes. This result that superstitious beliefs are found to a relatively similar extent in all college students is similar to the findings reported in studies carried in the United States. It appears that to entertain some such beliefs is not detrimental to mental life, even after they have been proved dysfunctional by science and philosophy. Although as a result of increased exposure to college education, belief in superstitions does not appear significantly affected, the observance is somewhat diminished. This agnosticism toward the practice of superstitions may be observed for each of the selected background characteristics. The experiment has resulted in a number of negative findings. An examination of the grand means indicates that generally no significant differences have been noted between the beliefs and practices of students with different backgrounds or academic interests.

The article offers information on the beliefs of the woodcutters, who also often worked as malangis or saltmakers, of Sundarbans in India and Bangladesh on several forests spirits, wild beasts and supernatural powers. It is stated that although the forests were infested with tigers and alligators, the dependence of the woodcutters on the forests for livelihood made them intensely superstitious and prejudiced by their belief in forests spirits, who were believed to be their sole protector. It is stated that none of the woodcutters or malangis ventured into the forests without a worship performed by a Brahmin priest or a Fakir or a Pir (saint). They were also believed to have sought payment from the East India Company for performing the pujas or worship.