Editing Witch hunt (section)

===India===
There is no documented evidence of [[witch-hunting in India]] before 1792.
The earliest evidence of witch-hunts in India can be found in the Santhal Witch Trials in 1792.<ref>{{cite book |last= Archer |first= W G |date=1979 |title=The Santals: Readings in Tribal Life |location= New Delhi |publisher= Concept Publishing Company }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Crooke|first=W |date= 1969|title= The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India|location=Delhi |publisher= Munshiram Manoharlal }}</ref> In the [[Singhbhum|Singhbhum District]] of the [[Chota Nagpur Division]] in [[Company rule in India|Company-ruled India]], not only were those accused of being witches murdered, but also those related to the accused to ensure that they would not avenge the deaths (Roy Choudhary 1958: 88). The Chhotanagpur region was majorly populated by an [[adivasi]] population called the [[Santhals]]. The existence of witches was a belief central to the Santhals. Witches were feared and were supposed to be engaged in anti-social activities. They were also supposed to have the power to kill people by feeding on their entrails, and causing fevers in cattle among other evils. Therefore, according to the adivasi population the cure to their disease and sickness was the elimination of these witches who were seen as the cause.<ref name="Sinha 1672–1676">{{cite journal |last=Sinha |first= Shashank|title= Witch hunts, Adivasis, and the Uprising in Chhotanagpur |jstor= 4419566 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=42 |issue= 19|pages= 1672–1676|year= 2007}}</ref>

The practice of witch-hunt among Santhals was more brutal than that in Europe. Unlike Europe, where witches were strangulated before being burnt, the santhals forced them "..to eat human excreta and drink blood before throwing them into the flames."<ref>{{cite journal |last= Varma|first=Daya |title= Witch-Hunt among Santhals |jstor= 4419670 |journal=Economic & Political Weekly |volume=42 |issue=23 |pages= 2130|year=2007 }}</ref>

The [[East India Company]] (EIC) banned the persecution of witches in [[History of Gujarat|Gujarat]], [[Rajputana Agency|Rajputana]] and [[Chota Nagpur Division]] in the 1840s–1850s. Despite the ban, very few cases were reported as witch-hunting was not seen as a crime. The Santhals believed that the ban in fact allowed the activities of witches to flourish. Thus, the effect of the ban was contrary to what the EIC had intended. During 1857–58, there was a surge in witch-hunting; coinciding during the period of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], which has led some scholars to see the resurgence of the activity as a form of resistance to Company rule.<ref name="Sinha 1672–1676"/>