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Recovering from
Psychosocial Traumas
The Place of Dargahs in Maharashtra
Mentally ill persons staying in the Dargah without any relatives may
be handed over by the Dargah authorities either to the relatives whose
addresses they have, or to the local police station, so that appropriate
reception order may be obtained for their involuntary admission into
the mental hospital…
(contd...)
Table 10.1 (contd...)
(contd...)
268 Bhargavi V. Davar and Madhura Lohokare
ritual as healing
I was brought in an auto, but went back on my own two legs. Hence,
I felt good about it. (Male user, Ahmednagar)
People who do not recover in the ritual time intensify their efforts
at recovery. Others, with a complex set of problems, particularly
incurable medical conditions such as cancer, use as many resources as
they can find to seek solace and cure. Typically, the rituals are simple,
and may include making ritual offerings to the pir; making wishes
(mannat mangna); tying sacred threads, lemons, bangles or other
artifacts for wish-fulfilment; drinking holy water; eating holy ash;
bathing and personal cleansing; lighting incense; circumambulation
(pradakshina); seva (selfless service) at the dargah; wearing locked
chains around one’s ankles or hands in the pir’s name (baba ki bedi);
petitioning the pir (arzi); trancing, mediumship, undertaking physical
ordeals, and exorcism from spirit possession and witchcraft.
Dargahs allow for the acting out of emotions, which is seen in
psychotherapy as ‘cathartic’. The healing propensity of the local
traditions is attributed to several factors like arousal of faith,
complete emotional commitment of the sufferer, affirmation of
shared beliefs, the symbolism entailed in healing rituals and their
dramatic quality having effects akin to therapeutic techniques
like placebo, catharsis and suggestion. (Kleinman and Sung 1979;
Kleinman 1980; Jadhav 1995; Helman 2001). The healing process
has also been seen as symbolically representing values, emotions,
social relationships and normative codes, which are a part of the
participants’ phenomenological world as well as their external social
environment (Brown 2001; Glik 1988; Csordas 1983; McGuire
1983). The value of shamanic practices of possession and trancing
are seen by some writers as a form of psychodrama, another post-
modern therapeutic technique (Casson 2004).
Healing in these centres is achieved by involving the sufferer’s body
in the healing process since, for a sufferer, a physical experience is the
most immediate and concrete means of experiencing the divine power
(Csordas 1983; Seligman 2005). Various other physiological responses
of the participants like possession, trancing, fainting, tingling
sensation, buzzing in the ears and burning, denote the affirmation
that the divine power is indeed being manifested, convincing them of
their healing experience. An extraordinary variety of repetitive, swift,
272 Bhargavi V. Davar and Madhura Lohokare
conclusion
Several concerns are raised by the legal interventions into the local
healing sector. Of primary concern is the fact that these institutions
are facing an immediate threat from, and the prospect of closure
under the impact of the so-called ‘modern’ mental health institutions.
Secondly, the mental health authorities at various departmental levels
have absolutely no knowledge cover or evidence base for their witch-
hunt. Third, given their poor track record in establishing a human
274 Bhargavi V. Davar and Madhura Lohokare
acknowledgements
notes