Hiral Pandey, PHD Scholar, Vikram University, Ujjain
ABSTRACT
India is a multi-religious country known for its tradition and cultures from different religions. These cultures are the one which makes India to stand different from other countries. The laws in India are framed in such a way that no religion could be harmed or discriminated. But these cultures also come along with some superstitious practices for example a cat crossing the road is a symbol of bad luck, sneezing before leaving the home means not to leave immediately, falling utensils in kitchen means guests are arriving etc. These examples does not violates someone’s rights but there are more superstitious activities which does harms the human rights and may involve hurt or death. Thus, these activities need proper legislation to be considered as an offence through enactments. Under this paper one of the brutal superstitious practices has been brought into light, i.e. human sacrifice in the name of religion. The paper includes the historical scenarios where such activities were practiced along with the prevalent practices. This paper talks about a separate legislation to criminalise superstitious activities through black magic and witchcrafts.
Keywords: Superstitious Laws, Human Sacrifice, Anti-superstition Laws, Witchcraft, Black-magic, Witch-hunting.
