Superstition is the opium of the Asses. In times of great danger, it debases science and powers the rumour factory. Even though lakhs have died (official figures, the real numbers would be higher) and millions are infected by the coronavirus in India, vaccine hesitancy or rather vaccine myth is not giving thousands of rural Indians a chance to save themselves.
In the heartland of Uttar Pradesh, the government has widely publicised the power of the vaccine to save lives. But the villagers are fleeing vaccination teams and leaping into the river to avoid the needle. In rural Madhya Pradesh, a vaccination team was attacked with iron rods.
A recent study concluded that 69 per cent of Indians did not wish to be vaccinated. Romanticising rural India or for that matter the bucolic parts of any country can be emotionally satisfying because everyone craves pastoral purity.
The selfless peasant tilling his land while his wife cooks a meagre, but satisfying meal at home and the children playing hopscotch on the paved courtyard is a seductive image of tranquility. There is bird song and godhuli.
Under ancient trees flicker little lamps to local gods. An admirable idyll to aspire to, no doubt, but a myth of proportions that would humble a blue whale. Undoubtedly those who believe in the inviolable wisdom and greatness of Bharat would feel outraged, but the truth is that superstition is most rampant in the villages.
Women are denounced as witches when cattle catch a disease, and are hunted, burned or decapitated. In ancient Europe, witchfinders drowned women if the harvest failed or it didn't rain. Girls and women are married to dogs and trees to ward off widowhood.
A recent BHU study calculates that 90 percent of rural patients prefer witchcraft solutions to cure epilepsy, which they consider is caused by malefic spirits. A village road on which a Dalit’s shadow has fallen is sanctified with Ganga jal to ward off divine wrath.
Superstition is misogynistic and patriarchal - the inescapable ethos of rural India. Unless the scourge is removed by empowering education, health and employment, India will remain inoculated against progress.
India’s success story in eradicating polio faced initial hurdles since many villagers believed it caused infertility in babies.
Muslim fundamentalists in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan have resisted polio inoculation drives as against Allah's will. The Taliban in Pakistan issued fatwas condemning vaccination as a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.
Superstition is the enemy of true faith, encouraged by centuries of illiteracy and poverty. A Central survey calculated that 85 percent government schools in India are in rural areas, and half of the Class V students cannot read a Class II textbook or solve basic math problems.
Nearly 600 million Indians, mostly rural, have little or no access to health care. Most districts reporting a surge in Covid-19 cases are rural, according to a SBI Research team. The danger of superstition is that it mistakes quackery for miracles.
Local godmen become healers who end up with both huge followings and prison sentences. Mahatma Gandhi observed that India lives in the villages. So does superstition. This is not the life he meant
(The writer can be contacted at ravi@newindianexpress.com)