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Initially, I was aiming to study more about 'superstition' in India, but the category of 'superstition' was too broad to be summarized into one padlet. Then I thought of one specific category of 'superstition' -- the exam 'superstition' . As we all know, India students are facing a highly competitive environment; stressful exams are very common. Then it is interesting to see what would students in India do to gain extra luck in exams. In this padlet, I would like to share some interesting and relevant examples I have found on the internet. By analyzing these examples through anthropological perspectives, I wish to discover more about 'superstition' in India. Because the definition of ‘superstition’ is fluid, I use quotation marks to emphasize its uncertainty and vagueness.

In specific, I would like to study the difference between faith, religion, and 'superstition'. Previous studies have revealed to us that the boundaries between the three spheres are incredibly subtle. In the following example illustrations, I will try to demonstrate how faith, religion, and superstition are similar to but different from each other.

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I found this interesting video on Youtube when I was looking into the exam 'superstitions'. Contrary to my original beliefs, even this video has 'mass prayer' in the title; its content can hardly be counted as ‘superstitious’. This forty-minute event contains two different speeches, both aiming to comfort and encourage the stressful 9th-grade students. The first presenter cut into the topic by showing sympathy to the students about their stressful condition, and then encouraged them to ‘turn adversity into advantages’. Shortly afterwards, the presenter unveiled his theory for success, the 4 P’: 1. Pertinent to the roots 2. Perseverance 3. Practice 4. Prayer. The presenter particularly emphasized the weight of the last factor, saying that prayer is crucial in establishing a clear and focused mind state. Finally, the two presenters introduced the Krishna Mantra to the student, and the video ended in the mass prayer.

This video is very relevant to anthropological discussions of superstition and religion. From the video, we can sense that most students became notably more relaxed and confident after engaging in the speech and the prayer. However, we cannot determine whether this positive outcome was a result of science (psychological manipulation) or religion (the spiritual power of prayer) or superstition (blind faith). On the one hand, the fables and stories told by the presenters were uncontestably helpful to the students. On the other hand, although it's hard to judge the exact effects of the prayer, the spiritual engagement did take effects on students. This is to say, by telling the stories, the presenters had set a stage for the final prayer. Students who attended this event did get more relaxed and confident, but they could not tell the origin of the boost. It can be the speech or the prayer, or both of them. Indeed, this event cannot resemble the conventional ‘superstitious’ activities, but it can still reveal how the collaboration of scientific base (the obvious effect of fables) and the uncertain effects generated by individual spiritual activity laid the foundation of religious events.

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Students Mass Prayer 2016 At Chennai for Board Exams - By GOD INDIA

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An Indian Youtuber telling his own experience of exam ‘superstition’

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An Indian Youtuber telling his own experience of exam ‘superstition’

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In this short clip of video, the young Indian Youtuber Arnab Saha expressed discontent towards Indian exam ‘superstitions’. It provides valuable information for us to look into how students in India actually think of the exam 'superstition'.

In general, the author was taking a negative attitude towards the exam 'superstition'. Firstly, he didn't understand why his mother thought eating an egg on the day of the exam would lead to bad luck and refrained him from doing so.  Then he questioned why students in India would need to pray to all the gods at home before the exam, which, in his opinion, is an unfair deal for the gods. And lastly, seeing his classmate who studies science asking for help from God for good grades in the exam, he was confused about whether his classmate's belief would contrary to the subject he has learnt.

In Arnab's opinion, the demands of the people who pray to God before the exam are irrational and greedy. More specifically, the 'superstitions' mentioned in the video had one thing in common: they all wanted to establish an instant transaction with the supernatural power. In specific, the people who performed such 'superstitious' were not doing so for faith, but personal goods. Furthermore, the effects of these transactions could not be guaranteed, which further hampered the Arnab's belief in them. In other words, he was denouncing those people who could have spent their time studying but turned to illogical 'superstitious' behaviour, trying to fulfil their own voracious demands.

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CRAZY INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS (Exams Edition)

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Discussion of personal experiences with Hanuman Chalisa on Quora

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Discussion of personal experiences with Hanuman Chalisa on Quora

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Hanuman, the God of Strength, is well-known because of his bravery and courage appeared in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Such attributes made him one of the most common deities that the Indian people would seek help when they are in hardship. A lot of people would chant his mantra to pray for courage and confidence. Although there is no specific kind of mantra that people would chant before the exam, Hanuman mantra is one of the most popular ones used in this situation. In order to discover more about people's personal spiritual experience, I looked into this specific Quora question. Even though these stories are not entirely reliable, they nonetheless convey valuable information about people's personal beliefs in spiritual connections.

It’s common for the storytellers to experience certain hardships before they had supernatural experiences. Usually, in the midst of struggle and bewilderment, one little thing can trigger them to start worshipping Hanuman. Such an incident can be explained as a coincidence or the appearance of supernatural power. For example, one of the answerers mentioned that when she entered the car, her phone automatically played Hanuman Mantra, which she believed as the guidance given by Hanuman himself. Many people have demonstrated their spiritual transformation after their allegiance to Hanuman, which illustrated the power of faith.
As one of the answers mentioned: The religion doesn’t drive you, it is your faith that makes you religious. In this case, although people who chose to conform to Hanuman are still demanding, they were not doing so in a practical manner. In my opinion, this is what different faith from 'superstition'. Even though both of them contain the belief of the supernatural,  the practices of faith are more spontaneous and altruistic than the practices of 'superstition'.

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In the study of religion and anthropology, the boundary between 'religion' and 'superstition' is very vague. In some cases, the notions of religion and 'superstition' are even interchangeable.Indeed, both of them share a great deal of common features, the most significant one is the belief of miracles. However, I would argue that, the difference between religion and 'superstition' lies in the very usage of miracles. Miracles can generate very powerful and instant effects, such as healing and flying. Obviously, these miraculous effects cannot stand scientific inspections, which means for religion and superstition to sustain, they need something other than miracle. In this sense, religion is more 'organic' than 'superstition', in which it seeks power from other sources, such as psychology and sociology.

The very origin of the study of religion can be traced back to Tylor. His famous definition of animism has opened the gate to future religious studies. However, Tylor assumed that the belief in supernatural power is illogical and wrong, which is clearly too limited for today’s studies of religion. In contemporary anthropology studies, we should reexamine the power of subjective beliefs. And we should admit that this spiritual power can generate certain effects in people’s life. Only the form that leads to this belief is different.

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Rajput, B. (2019). Brajesh Rajput. [online] Facebook.com. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1390783090951723&set=a.178985278798183&type=3&sfns=mo [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].

Quora. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-are-your-personal-experiences-with-Hanuman-Chalisa] [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].

Saha, A. (2019). CRAZY INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS (Exams Edition). [online] YouTube. Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oeza7fq0e34 [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].

Dwaar, N. (2019). Students Mass Prayer 2016 At Chennai for Board Exams - By GOD INDIA. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55a_2Lhb3c [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].