A vast array of diverse cultures coexist in India. Many take immense pride in this aspect of India. The first Prime Minister and one of the chief architects of the vision of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote at length on this
[1]. However what is often lost in this narrative is the proliferation of darker and regressive elements under the guise of richness of these cultures. Superstitions are one such element that we’ll explore in this essay. First we’ll understand what superstitions are, then we’ll see where they fit in the larger context of religion and culture, then I’ll talk a bit about superstitions in my personal life, then we turn to the most important part – the effect of superstitions – and finally we’ll see where we’re headed with this whole superstition business.
It’s impossible to define what a superstition is that everyone can agree to. Just see the very first line of the article on superstition on Wikipedia:
Superstition is any belief or practice that is considered irrational[1] or supernatural. [dubious – discuss][citation needed]
– Superstition on Wikipedia (as on 28 December 2019)
It’s not uncommon to see such a flood of tags on Wikipedia articles. But in this case we can also see the rather explicit and specific calling out of the issues. However, for the purposes of this essay this definition will work for us. In fact I may be so bold as to assume that everyone reading this would be familiar with one superstition or another (regardless of actually believing or practicing it). Nevertheless if one has to be precise about it, we can also go with the definition –
instances of the association of a sequence of movements with a reinforcing stimulus[2].
Superstitions, culture and religion
If defining a superstition is hard then teasing out superstitions from a culture or a religion is doubly harder. This is compounded by the heightened sensitivity with which people guard their beliefs. For instance, recently I was out to get some food. While I was waiting for the food to be packed I happened to cross my arms. The kind cashier noticed this and requested me to not cross my arms. Having an agreeable personality I immediately concurred with a smile. Even as I found myself asking him why he asked me to do that, I already knew the answer. And just as expected he told me that “it’s wrong to cross arms”. Alright. I didn’t need to probe further. His eyes told me enough. That was aided by another gesture where he raised his hand to touch both the sides of his cheek. In Hinduism, that’s a gesture to ask God for forgiveness for having wronged. Now I also knew what would be his response if I had probed further on this strange request. He would tell me that its simply wrong but he doesn’t know why, particularly. I can almost imagine his ominous tone as he would say this. And perhaps this time he would even put on an expression of disbelief that I dared question what is supposed to be customary.
Now I don’t remember why I crossed my arms at the time. Maybe I was feeling cold. Or maybe I just characteristically cross my arms whenever I am in public. I don’t know. Psychologists love to analyse such body language. In this case they will tell you that crossing your arms may indicate introversion, lack of openness or power tripping
[3]. On a cultural level some people may find it rude. But in my case it was because of none of that. It was purely because of a blind belief in something that parents tell their children and then children tell it to their children and so on. No one knows why its bad. No one knows what would be the negative consequences of not abiding by it. But not everyone will concede as much. Some people do remember vividly why a certain superstition is said to be bad, some others tend to exaggerate the stories surrounding them, and yet others with a creative bend of mind will be completely free to make up their own story. But some won’t let me get away by saying that the superstition I just described is just that. They will argue that it has its origins in religious beliefs.
There are many other superstitions which are not so detached from religion. Some examples that are directly related to religion (in this case Hinduism) are – not touching a pen or book with your legs, hanging lemon and chilies to ward off evil, do not sweep after sunset, fasting during eclipses, not sweeping after sunset. I relate these to religion as the commonly accepted theories revolving around these beliefs involve the belief in one of the millions of Indian Gods. But then there are some superstitions that have no such direct link to religion (and maybe even none). These may just be called as traditional superstitions or purely cultural superstitions. They include not letting a cat cross your path before you set on a journey, a lizard falling on your right (or left?) hand, don’t trim your nails (or cut your hair) on a particular day, involuntary twitching of left eye, a dot of kohl on the cheek to remove evil eye, adding one rupee to a monetary gift (so that it’s not a multiple of 10). I cannot vouch for this classification though. As I stated earlier, it’s not easy to separate superstitions that are purely cultural from those that are ostentatiously linked to religious beliefs. Interestingly, but rather unsurprisingly, Indians believe in these superstitions irrespective of their religion.
Personal Superstitions
As I just mentioned, religion does not seem to act as a filter against superstitions of other religions. In fact many superstitions act as a common denominator among different cultures of India. They are readily assimilated into each other embedding into what is conveniently labelled as
Indian customs & traditions. This could be explained with the evolutionary theory of
memetics. Under this model a superstition is considered as the fundamental unit of culture. And then the superstition spreads through a community much like a
meme spreads in online communities (Note – I should mention that the idea of
meme in this sense actually predates the modern usage of
memes as in internet
memes. The
word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins). In the next section I shall be arguing that superstitions are bad (surprise, surprise!). So it would be good to explore how customs and traditions relate to superstitions in the larger baggage of culture.
Take the example of not allowing your legs or feet to touch books or pens (or any other study material for that matter). This is associated with Hinduism. Because, in the Hindu pantheon of Gods there’s the Goddess Saraswati who is the Goddess of learning. So touching books or pens with your feet is akin to touching the Holy Goddess with your feet. And that is a big blasphemous sign of disrespect. And so I was brought up learning to give respect to my books and pens. This sounds like a good thing. After all what could be wrong in respecting your books right? Indeed it’s a relatively harmless belief that is firmly embedded in my behaviour now. There are a few times when there’s a bit of discomfort because of this belief. Say I drop a pen while I’m sitting at my study desk. Being clumsy this is not such a rarity for me. Now I could just pick up the pen with my feet. But the notion of that being wrong has been drilled so hard into my brain that if I do that I can feel some sense of repugnancy. And its not limited to my own personal agency. If I see someone else do that (say in an English movie) I still feel the same repugnancy. Its funny for me to imagine how tortuous it must be for some to watch the movie
My Left Foot (1989) which is about a person with cerebral palsy who learns to write and paint with his foot.
I am now an atheist. I consider myself a rationalist in many ways. I don’t go intentionally disrespecting the Gods like Saraswati but I don’t particularly respect them either. And so I now have no reason to continue not touching books with my feet. And yet I don’t see myself trying to get out of it. Perhaps because I lose nothing adhering to it (except a bit of inconvenience at times) while outgrowing it will require some active effort. The opportunity cost is maintaining this belief is negligible. But there’s the larger question of whether I should even try to rid myself of it. Could I not just consider it an aspect of my Indian tradition? More so because it’s a positive (albeit false) belief.
There are many other superstitions that I believe in. But it would be nonsensical to dismiss all of them under the larger blanket of superstition. In fact this relates to the difficulty of defining superstitions as I mentioned at the beginning of this essay. So, the alternative is to not be bothered about whether or not something should be labelled superstition and instead pay attention to the very real consequences of it. Here’s a sample of some other superstitions/cultural practices that I continue to abide by, and are relatively harmless – eating with hands (and only with my right hand), not touching elders with legs, handling money only with my right hand etc.
The Effect of superstitions
We have surveyed a wide variety of superstitions. So far I have only mentioned relatively harmless superstitions. Some would argue that superstitions must have an advantage from an evolutionary perspective because they seem to be favoured via Natural Selection. A superstition like
not to walk under a ladder is arguably a reasonable one
[4]. While I will argue against believing even in them, we must first survey the bad superstitions that have deleterious effects on our societies.
Recently there was a partial solar eclipse in large parts of southern India. It was a field day for rationalists and anti-superstition activists! There were reports ranging from half burials of disabled children (in the hope that they’ll be somehow cured)
[5] to large scale shut down of food banks (because eating during eclipse is thought to have bad effects)
[6]. The amount of misinformation surrounding eclipses is phenomenal. Perversely using scientific justifications in superstitious claims such as why looking at the moon during lunar eclipse is bad only makes things worse and more confusing to unsuspecting individuals. Its perfectly fine to look at the moon during lunar eclipse. Its not fine to look at the sun during solar eclipse. But that’s not because of any special reason. Its damaging to the eyes to look at the sun whether it’s under an eclipse or not. Then there are superstitions like fasting. Fasting is not all that bad. But if you fast despite failing health and uncooperative body it is going to lead to more damage than good. I routinely see people fasting despite their failing health in the hope that the Gods will bless them with good health for this sacrifice. Some superstitions can get really weird. There’s one where infants are dropped from a roof to be caught in a blanket below (
video). Other superstitions associated with menstruation are sadly only too common in India even in 21st century.
Perhaps the most damaging superstition that was ever documented in Indian history was the practice of
Sati. This is where the widow of a dead husband is forced to burn along with her dead husband on the funeral pyre. This sounds ghastly and fortunately it was abolished in 1829 mainly due to the efforts of the great social reformer and father of Indian renaissance Raja Ram Mohan Roy. But another sinister practice is plaguing contemporary India now –
mob lynching by cow vigilantes. These acts are no less ghastly than the
Sati practice of bygone era.
Now we are entering the domain of religious beliefs. But I will argue that all religious beliefs are superstitious beliefs. Religious beliefs are based on faith. They are not based on evidence. Hence the beliefs are false and manifested by our own minds. They do not represent an objective truth. Even without digressing into a discourse against religion we can reasonably conclude that when it comes to the harm done by beliefs it doesn’t matter whether they’re religious beliefs or superstitious beliefs. Both are irrational. In fact they are not distinguished even in law. The section 295 of Indian Penal Code reads –
295. Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class.—Whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship, or any object held sacred by any class of persons with the intention of thereby insulting the religion of any class of persons or with the knowledge that any class of persons is likely to consider such destruction, damage or defilement as an insult to their religion, shall be punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
This has been used widely to attack rationalists and anti-superstition activists
[7].
While all the above effects undoubtedly suffice to make a strong case against superstitious beliefs, in my opinion, the fundamental problem with superstitions is a far subtler one. And that is the effect it has on the scientific temper and rational inquiry of human thoughts. Its not a coincidence that superstitious beliefs go hand in hand with dogmatism, following god-men, astrology and other such false practices. Believing in superstition requires one to suspend one’s logical reasoning. And it allows for unreasonable rituals and thoughts to coexist with the rational thoughts in our minds. And this is why even relatively harmless superstitions are bad.
Future of superstitions
Human mind is both blessed and cursed with the power of pattern recognition and sense making. It’s a blessing because it enables us to navigate the immensely complex sensory input that is dished out to us every waking moment. It helps us ignore the noise and make sense of the world around us. It’s a curse because this same pattern recognition framework often leads us into drawing the wrong conclusions. It seduces us into seeing things that are not there. Superstitions are in a way a byproduct of this malfunctioning of our pattern recognition machinery.
In the same year that Indian got Independence from the colonial rule, the eminent behavioural psychologist B. F. Skinner was performing one of the first experiments researching superstitious behaviour in animals. To him pigeons were what lab rats are to medical researchers. In this seminal experiment, Skinner put hungry pigeons inside boxes that were rigged to deliver food at regular intervals. Soon enough he noticed that the pigeons started associating some of their movements with the delivery of food. Here’s what he found in his own words –
One bird was conditioned to turn counter-clockwise about the cage, making two or three turns between reinforcements. Another repeatedly thrust its head into one of the upper corners of the cage. A third developed a ‘tossing’ response, as if placing its head beneath an invisible bar and lifting it repeatedly. Two birds developed a pendulum motion of the head and body, in which the head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return.
Skinner, B. F. “‘Superstition’ in the Pigeon”, Journal of Experimental Psychology #38, 1947.
And just like that he observed the birth of superstitious beliefs in pigeons! Human brains are much more complex and cognitively developed than pigeons, but we seem to be no better than them. As the saying goes we tend to
remember the wins and forget the misses. And modern research is only uncovering the myriad of fallacies in human psychology. We are a victim to
confirmation bias,
availability bias, irrational behaviour and of course a procilivity to absorb and spread
memes.
In my late teens when I had just discovered rationalism and skeptical inquiry, I thought that education was the tool that will inevitably erode these false belief structures that we have built over millennia. I believed that religion, which is based on the lowest form of evidence (which is anecdotal evidence) and irrational rituals, would automatically wither away with the progress of mankind. But when I looked at advanced economies whose literacy levels were near 100% I didn’t find any consolation. It took me a few years to come out of my idealistic youthful thoughts. I now know that many great scientists were deeply religious and believed in superstitions. Kepler believed that Earth was literally a breathing organism. There are Christian biologists who believe that the Earth is only 10,000 years old and continue to work with fossil records. There are doctors who believe God can heal the physical ailments of their patients. The way they discharge their profession, however, is that they leave all of these nonsensical thinking at the door when they enter the lab.
In spite of an active attempt at keeping a rational disposition towards life, I am not immune to these irrational beliefs either. Recently I noticed myself developing a peculiar kind of superstition. Whenever my mobile internet connectivity seems to be poor, I open a particular app (of the service provider) and I believe that somehow speeds up my internet. I am not convinced that this app is actually helping improve the connectivity. And yet I feel helpless in stopping myself from doing that. Perhaps we could call it a digital superstition.
To conclude, we are still very far away from completely eradicating superstitions. But what is clear is that the immediate priority for us is to rid ourselves of harmful superstitions. Those that directly or indirectly lead to violence must be the first to go away. In fact these superstitions should not only be socially boycotted but legally criminalised. Secondly, we should expand the definition of violence in Gandhian sense to not just mean physical violence but also the spiritual defilement associated with our thought processes. I use the word spiritual liberally here to mean the right thoughts – reasonable and well meaning thoughts. Lastly, the only way to get rid of all kinds of superstitions in the long run is to develop a spirit of rational inquiry and skepticism. This will not only be fruitful to remove superstitions but also other false beliefs and perhaps one day, even our religions.
References
- The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru (1946)
- ‘Superstitious’ behaviour in animals by Kellogg, W. N. (1949)
- Truths exposing myths about body language, Psychology Today
- Superstitions have Evolutionary Basis, Live Science
- People perform half burials of Children, The Hindu, December 27, 2019
- Closure of Aahar Kendras due to eclipse invites criticism, The Hindu , December 26, 2019
- We and Section 295A of the IPC, Nirmukta
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