How a ‘personal enmity’ led to accusation of black magic, social boycott of family in Gujarat village for six months

For the last six months, this family of five people in a small village in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district had been living under social boycott.

It started when a couple in Kabran village in Chotila taluka accused the head of the family, Hamir Natha Chavda, and his wife of practising black magic on them and casting an “evil eye”. For good measure, Samat Devshi Parmar and his wife Hemu had shown themselves to be “in a trance” which, they claimed, was brought about by the Chavdas.

Following intervention by an NGO fighting superstition, police investigated the matter earlier this month. Soon, truth emerged: The Parmars had faked the story of “being possessed by a deity” to get back at Hamir and his wife over a personal enmity.

Hamir said he and his wife were falsely accused of being practi