Reincarnation Cases in Fatehabad

Reincarnation Cases in Fatehabad:

A Systematic Survey

in North India*

DAVID READ BARKER Public Policy Communications, Inc., Washington, D. C., U. S.A.

SATWANT K. PASRICHA University of Virgina School of Medicine, Charlottesville, U.S.A.

INDIVIDUALS who claim to remember a previous life or to be the reincarnation of a deceased person have been reported in Indian publications during the past 50 years. The most intensive investigations of these cases have been conducted since 1961 by Ian Stevenson, M. D. and his associates. Stevenson has published 17 detailed reports (Stevenson, 1974; 1975) of Indian children who apparently exhibited paranormal knowledge of and behavioral similarities to deceased individuals, designated here as "previous persons," who were identified as their former incarnations. One of us (S.K.P.) coauthored with him shorter reports of three additional cases in India (Pasricha and Stevenson, 1977). Stevenson and three colleagues have also summarized some common characteristics of 105 Indian cases of the reincarnation type (Stevenson, et al., 1974). By the end of 1977, Stevenson and his associates had investigated 231 reincarnation type cases in India, 72 of them in six districts in the western half of the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Based on 1971 census figures, the number of investigated cases in these districts indicated a prevalence of cases ranging from approximately three per million in the Agra District to approximately nine per million in the Budaun and Mainpuri Districts (Barker, 1979). Since Stevenson had investigated only those cases reported to him, however, a

* Thanks are due to the American Institute of Indian Studies for funding a large part of this survey. Mr. M. P. Gupta, Block Development Officer, and Mr. Mahavir Prasad Singh, village- level worker, gave us invaluable assistance in Fatehabad. Professors Ian Stevenson, Walter Hauser, Murray Milner, and Richard B. Martin offered valuable suggestions and advice throughout the survey. Mr. Heinz Grosse photographed many of the survey interviews. Miss Emily Williams made helpful editorial suggestions. An earlier version of this paper, entitled "North Indian Villagers' Familiarity with Reincar- nation Cases," was presented at the Xth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, New Delhi, December 13, 1978. 232

systematic survey to identify cases was needed to determine their real prevalence in these districts. In addition, since Stevenson's reports had shown that certain features occur frequently in reincarnation type cases, we speculated that knowledge of one case might influence features of others. Ascertaining the real prevalence of cases in a selected area of northern India could help to identify the means and extent of diffusion of information about cases. This paper summarizes the results of a sample survey conducted during February-April and October-December 1978 in the Agra District of Uttar Pradesh. The survey was designed to determine ('1) the prevalence of reincarnation cases, (2) the characteristics of a census of cases in a sample of villages, and (3) the diffusion of information about them.

The Setting

The Agra District is located in the southwestern corner of the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, adjoining the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Since Agra shares a common political, cultural, and linguistic history with the districts to the north and east, the results of this survey are probably typical of those in other Ganges plain districts throughout the western half of Uttar Pradesh, an area with a present population of approximately 50 million. The Agra District is divided into seven tahsils corresponding roughly to counties in the United States. These tahsils are in turn divided into 18 development blocks, each with a population of about 100,000. The Fatehabad Development Block was chosen as the site of the sample survey because it ap- pears to be typical of the rural area of the Agra District. Fatehabad Town, which is both a block and a tahsil headquarters, is located 35 kilometers east of Agra City. In addition to Fatehabad Town, the Fatehabad Block is composed of 96 "revenue villages," the basic units of tax collection, voter registration, and the census. The survey villages were drawn from the 1961 census, which lists all the villages in the block in geographic order from west to east. Starting with the number seven, randomly selected, an interval sample of every tenth village resulted in the selection of nine villages for the survey. These were spaced fairly evenly across the block, none being closer than 4 kilometers nor farther than 6.5 kilometers from the nearest other survey village. Five of the villages were just off paved roads, but reaching the others required driving for several kilometers on dirt tracks. One village was accessible only by bullock cart or on foot. The smallest survey village had a population in 1975 of 329. The largest, Dhimsiri, was also the largest village in the block (1971 population 5,489), and it contained seven small hamlets in addition to the major village. Because of its large size, only one of its hamlets, Bas Bale, was selected for the survey. Table 1 below shows the population and number of respondents in the survey villages.