BHAGAT

The pristine Dangs, a tribal area
in Gujarat on the western slopes
of the Sahyadri ranges, shot into
the limelight a few years ago and
for all the wrong reasons. A
communal face-off at its
headquarters — Ahwa — had
then snowballed into a veritable
Hindu-Christian conflict
throughout Gujarat. However,
what remains the core USP of the
Dangs, oddly yet undocumented,
is its distinctive local bhagat's
ways of dealing with the resident
Dangi's ailments and
interpersonal problems. While
cities have medical
breakthroughs, technology-aided
surgeries, counsellors,
physiologists and state-of-the-art
health care, the Dangis have their
own ethnic solutions evolved
from archaic traditions.
Warlocks, known as bhagats by
the resident Dangis, play an
almost indispensable role in the
tribals' life. Dangis, when afflicted
with disease or infirmity, make a
beeline for the nearest bhagat,
instead of a medical practitioner
and surprisingly — get cured. It
is not the cure, which would
baffle a scientific mind, but the
treatment, which seems rather
incredible.
For almost any ailment suffered
by a tribal, whether an infant or
otherwise, the cure is in the form
of branding known as dambh.
While a bout of jaundice is
countered with a branding by
red-hot rods of the wrists,
gastroenteritis is cured by a
dambh on the stomach. A mere
throat pain is cured by
implanting a dambh on the neck,
while a case of an inflamed
testicle (hydrocele) is cured by
piercing the correspondingly
opposite ear lobe with a hot
copper wire. Medical treatment
for a Dangi is usually out of
reach, with the nearest state
health centre miles away.
The bhagat, on the other hand, is
the most accessible option. And,
although the entire healing
process seems to be appalling,
the patient more often than not
gets cured. The burn injury
contorts into a scorched lesion
filled with pus and bursts within
a week. It is then that the
infection is said to have left the
body — and the victim is cured.
The bhagats, who live in stark
seclusion from the rest of the
village, are said to possess occult
powers, which enable them to
exercise metaphysical control
acquired by years of yogic
penance, tantra and tatrak vidya.
Going by hearsay, some of the
bhagats even possess powers of
summoning a spirit in woman-
form that performs incredible
tasks at the behest of the bhagat.
Solving personal problems, such
as infidelity, marital disharmony
or for that matter, winning the
heart of an unwilling partner are
all child's play for the bhagat.
Coupled with fowl and cattle
sacrifices, the bhagat's
ceremonies include repetitive
incantation of tantras in a local
Dangi dialect and numerous
yagnas and religious rites.