Najar or Bhut-Evil eye or ghost affliction: Gujarati views about illness causation

This paper examines the supernatural beliefs of najar (evil eye) and bhut (ghost) and their roles in illness causation in Gujarati families in Britain today. The data arose unexpectedly in an ethnography of child rearing patterns carried out in Harrow, North West London and a short period of observation in Ahmedabad, India. I used anthropological methods of participant observation and unstructured interviews, which were transcribed using pseudonyms. The study group involved 70 Hindu and Jain Gujarati households with children and the fieldwork was conducted over a period of four years. Many of the individuals studied had migrated from India to East Africa before coming to the UK in the 1970s, but maintain links with both countries through kinship ties, marriage and rituals. I set out to study the continuity of women's roles in the transmission of religious and moral values, the rituals of childhood, views about infant feeding, and parenting relationships within joint families. The beliefs of najar and bhut in poor, rural settings in India have been described, but these Gujarati beliefs in Britain have not been well documented. This study indicates that najar and bhut continue to be a concern of women in most Gujarati families in Britain today and across all socio-economic groups, not confined to those on the 'bread-line', as have been previously suggested. These beliefs align themselves with Hindu ideas of the soul and reincarnation: powerful forces residing outside the body. An understanding of these beliefs could be informative to health professionals working with Gujarati communities in the UK.