Photos: Mystery hair choppings spread hysteria in India

Nearly 100 cases have emerged from villages in Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the past two months of sleeping or unconscious women waking to find their hair chopped off. With no strings to pull at, supernatural causes being blamed is leading to hysteria and panic among people. ...read more

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Updated on Aug 04, 2017 12:07 PM IST

Rumours and reports continue to emerge from various states in India of women’s hair being chopped off while they were asleep or unconscious nearly two months after the first incident surfaced in Rajasthan. Nearly 100 cases have been reported from villages in Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh leading to fear, trauma among victims and night vigils across communities. (Saumya Khandelwal / HT Photo)

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Cases of women’s hair being chopped first cropped up in Rajasthan where a WhatsApp message began doing the rounds warning people that a tantric would cut off the hair of young girls, leaving a trishul (a weapon representative of Lord Shiva) mark on the body. With little done to dispel the superstition in the beginning, the message and reports of such instances spread far and wide. A 60-year old Dalit woman in Agra became the first casualty of mass hysteria after she was lynched over suspicion of being out to chop women’s hair. (Parveen Kumar / HT Photo)

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The Rajasthan police attribute the original message to the handiwork of a tantric in an attempt to make a quick buck. As news and social media reports of women waking up to portions of their hair missing spread, so did the radius of such incidents. Not limited to districts of Rajasthan, women from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh also reported similar situations. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Victims have narrated varying accounts and descriptions of the alleged perpetrators, ranging from an elderly man, to a black cat who transforms into a woman, a thin man in a red and yellow outfit and even ghosts barbers. Amid these claims, police have scoured CCTV cameras and conducted investigations at various locations which have so far led to no clues or concrete evidence which would shed light on this rampant scare. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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With no eyewitnesses so far in any reported incident of hair chopping, people have resorted to superstition and self help measures to such as hanging green chillies and lemons, as well as Neem tree leaves and hand imprints in henna outside homes to ward off evil spirits. Local community members have also set up vigils to monitor thoroughfare in villages and neighbourhoods. (Saumya Khandelwal / HT Photo)

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Cases however continue to emerge, even after the presence of vigils and other family members present in the homes. Even in the communities where such incidents are reported, there are views to the contrary that highlight a possibility of women themselves taking shears to their hair and not any supernatural elements behind such instances. An argument to logic has also been presented by the police to rather look at the possibility of anti-social elements over supernatural causes. (Saumya Khandelwal / HT Photo)

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Psychiatrists too blame mass hysteria as the cause of this phenomenon. For want of evidence, the most obvious cause attributed to these occurrences has been pinned to conscious hair chopping by women themselves or in a state of ‘altered sensorum’ where the one commits act in an impaired state of consciousness or without knowing. Another cause could simply be the fear of missing out, in light of existing cases and the need to jump on the bandwagon. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)