Burari deaths put spotlight on strange occult practices

New Delhi: The whodunit might be solved but the mystery of how and why 11 members of a family died in their home in North Delhi’s Burari locality will endure, with its suggestion of occult practices spotlighting bizarre rituals ending in human sacrifices that exist in many parts of the country.

Blurring the lines between delusion, superstition and blind faith, it’s a narrative that cuts across lines of class, religion and literacy, say experts.

Many of these cases are related to child sacrifices. In June, a man from Rajasthan admitted to slitting his daughter’s throat to appease Allah during Ramzan. In January 2016, a Chhattisgarh father confessed to beheading his son for the “well-being of his family”. The several instances of  women being killed or tortured in the belief that they are witches, the hypnotic influence of men passing themselves off as babas and mystics, and bizarre cult practices only add to this chronicle.

According to experts, religious and spiritual influences can affect life decisions beyond the normal. “Under religious and spiritual influences, a lot of lifestyle decisions get affected, especially in cultures like ours. Some of these changes are extreme, leading to self harming or harming others,” Nimesh Desai, director of Delhi’s Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), told PTI. The idea of sacrifice at large is not new to religious or occult practices. Followers have believed “the bigger a sacrifice, the greater is the result”, added Narendray Nayak, president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA).

“Abrahamic religions have their own versions of sacrifices, like god asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, then god gave him a goat to sacrifice instead. These things are there in all the religions. Jains sacrifice themselves by committing slow suicide, by doing santhara or sallekhana,” said Nayak.

Going by details in the Burari case, it is clear that one or more of the deceased were subject to very strong delusional beliefs about an afterlife,  Nayak said.