5.0 Introduction
Individuals engage themselves in numinous activities irrespective of culture and ethnicity. Some of these activities may occasionally get them into a scrape. Clouded faith, poverty, lack of proper education, and inclinations to adopt an easy path to resolve their complications in life lead many people to select sorcery as a means of livelihood.
However, most of the time they invite trouble when they go ahead with magical practices like sorcery. It has been seen that many of the Sabar people of Purulia district in West Bengal have become victims to sorcery. The Sabars are a type of hunting-gathering tribe. Beside the Sabars, a large number of other people practising sorcery can be found all over India. They generally belong to the economically poor class and the sorcerer takes advantage of superstitions and blind faith of the people. This mystical practice is studied through a behavioural approach and a relationship approach. The relationship approach deals with the bond between the sorcerer and the victims. The behavioural approach unveils how the believers of sorcery look at this mystical practice when it provides them with some success and sometimes, it is believed, to propel them towards utter despondency and even unnatural death.The present research has been organised into three parts to understand different aspects of the practice of sorcery and how the people deal with this magical practice. The first part deals with the cultural aspects and the manifestation of sorcery. The study reveals how clouded faith and unfounded and unnatural beliefs associated with various ritualistic performances result in a large scale victimisation. The central point of the second part is to locate sorcery among the Sabar, a hunting-gathering tribe in the district of Purulia in West Bengal. This study reflects the dichotomy of belief of the Sabar people to sorcery as a key unit of supernatural power and their awe and fear towards it. The third part deals with the concept of sorcery and its exact contemporaneous position in our society.
5.1