Ipsita Roy Chakraverti (; born Ipsita Chakraverti; 3 November 1950) is a Wiccan priestess and religious leader based in India. Born into an elite family in India with a diplomat for a father and royalty for mother, Chakraverti spent her early years in Canada and the US where her father was stationed. There, she was allowed to join a select group of women studying ancient cultures of the world and the old ways. Chakraverti studied with them for three years and finally chose Wicca as her religion. After coming back to India and getting married, Chakraverti declared herself as a witch in 1986. Amidst the backlash that followed her declaration, Chakraverti explained to the media the Neo Pagan ways of Wicca and its healing power.
Chakraverti started administering Wiccan ways of healing to the people of India, including traveling to remote villages and teaching the Wiccan way to the female population, several of whom were often accused of black magic and "witchcraft" by male folk, and murdered. In 1998, Chakraverti campaigned as an Indian National Congress candidate for the Parliament of India in the Hooghly district, but was not elected. She released her autobiography Beloved Witch in 2003. A second book titled Sacred Evil: Encounters With the Unknown was released in 2006, and it chronicled nine case studies during her life as a Wiccan healer and explained why those events happened. Both books received positive critical acclaim.
The book, Sacred Evil was made into a motion picture by Sahara One Pictures. Titled Sacred Evil – A True Story, the film starred Bollywood actress Sarika playing Chakraverti. The film was a commercial disappointment but received mixed reviews. Chakraverti started the Wiccan Brigade, a platform for those who wanted to study Wicca. Later, Bengali TV channel ETV Bangla, created two tele-serials based on Chakraverti's life and her experience with the paranormal. Chakraverti, who believes that Wicca is the first feminist movement in history, has been credited with throwing new light on the taboo subject of witchcraft in India, and the rest of the world.
Early life and education
1943–1972: Early life and introduction to Wicca
Chakraverti was born on 3 November 1950, to diplomat Debabrata Chakraverti, and Roma Sen, daughter of Sovana Sen. Through her maternal lineage, Chakraverti is a descendant of the family of Brahmo reformer Keshub Chunder Sen, who was her great-great-great-granduncle through his sister Chuna. She is a first cousin three times removed of Suniti Devi, Maharani of Cooch Behar, and Sucharu Devi, Maharani of Mayurbhanj, and was also a grand-niece of the Bengali poets and scholars Kamini Roy and Jamini Sen.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 5 Chakraverti spent much of her early life in Montreal, Canada, where her father was stationed. He was a representative from India to the Council of ICAO. An only child, she shared her father's passion for reading and devoured books on Indian mysticism and traditions partly because people at Montreal were always asking questions about India. In 1965, while on vacation in the Laurentian Mountains, Chakraverti was invited to an all woman's party by one of her mother's friends, Carlotta. There, she was introduced to the Society for the Study of Ancient Cultures and Civilizations, founded by Carlotta. The group studied ancient texts, long-forgotten customs and the mystical way of life. Chakraverti was selected to join the group, through a process of initiation, and enrolled for a course with them.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 45 For the next five years, she stayed in a chalet on the mountains and studied ancient cultures and their long-forgotten rituals with eleven other women, with Carlotta as their teacher. Alcohol, close friendship or anything that distracted them from the prescribed hours of study, solitude and meditation, were taboo. Practical training in witchcraft was the only way; it included learning varied techniques of self-development and understanding the significance of ancient chants, movements, symbols, gestures, invoking energy from the elements, and training in the use of the apparatus integral to the craft. Chakraverti later commented, "It started as an academic curiosity. [...] Wicca includes both scientific facts and old lore. We studied Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche because Wicca means studying various layers of the human mind." In 1972, near the completion of their course, Chakraverti, along with two other women were asked to choose between Way of Tao, Wicca and Kabbalah as their practiced craft; Chakraverti chose Wicca. She later commented that ancient goddesses like Isis, Artemis, Hecate, Kali and Freya, played an important role in deciding her future in Wicca.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 51
1975–1980: Finishing Wicca study, return to India and marriage
While studying in the chalet, Chakraverti came across a number of prophecies left by a fifteenth-century Wiccan, Luciana, who was brought to trial for practicing her craft, but managed to escape to a castle on the Rhine. Chakraverti translated the scrolls and believed that she was the reincarnation of Luciana. She commented in her book Beloved Witch, "Even though Wicca does not believe in fortune telling or divination, Luciana left a few quatrains like Nostradamus, prophesying about generations to come. I was the one who sat at a chalet monastery in the Laurentians years ago and translated them from an ancient dialect to English. I knew I had to. That was my purpose. For I was Luciana returned. To take revenge for the wrongs she had suffered, to vindicate all women who are battered and bruised as witches in India till today. I have a purpose – I know that. Through the eyes of Luciana I see this world. I am She – I rise with the storm I was killed – now I am born On the winds of revenge Blood, lust and greed, I will avenge.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 90
At the end of her study, Carlotta gave each new initiate witch certain implements: symbolic gifts of Mother Goddesses who are worshipped by Wiccans. From Athena, Ipsita received a black cloak, which conferred majesty and regality on her. Among other gifts given to her were a crystal skull of Kali and a silver bowl from Venus to be filled with water and used in particular rituals. However, she did not receive a certain glowing amber ball of Hecate, which confers vision and is used for toning up the electro-magnetic system of the body. Carlotta told her, "If you have been and are a true Wiccan, the ball will come to you in some part of your life." That year, Chakraverti was involved in a relationship with singer Elvis Presley, whom she met in Graceland, through a mutual friend. In 1975, Chakraverti's family decided to come back to India.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 95 She lived for a few years in Delhi, before coming back to their home in Kolkata in 1978. There, while teaching at South Point High School, she met Jayanta Roy through some mutual friends and became romantically involved with him. Roy is an erstwhile love-child of the king of Orissa, an Indian state. Chakraverti and Roy got married and had a daughter Deepta Roy Chakraverti.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 100
1981–1995: Coming out as a witch and social work
After Deepta's birth, Chakraverti decided to start her work of Wicca and help women in the villages of West Bengal, where many used to be accused of witchcraft and killed.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 111 Chakraverti finally declared in front of the media, in 1986, that she was a witch. A backlash followed, including protest movements and boycotts, led by the Bengal CPM leader Jyoti Basu. However, Chakraverti put all allegations to rest and addressed the media at a press conference. There, she spoke about how Wicca is a Neo pagan religion and a form of modern witchcraft. It is often referred to as Witchcraft or the Craft by its adherents, who are known as Wiccans or Witches. She declared that she wished to start her own healing center and curb the "witch-killings" happening at that time in rural Bengal. The press was impressed by her knowledge and her straightforwardness in addressing such a taboo subject. She later clarified, "I had the social and economic padding and I decided to use it."
After the incident, Chakraverti started to administer the Wiccan way of healing and held sessions at her home.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 132 She used to advocate different ways of healing the mind and counsel people on their day to day problems suggest solutions for them. Chakraverti used the curative powers of crystals for curing people of backache, pains and spinal injuries.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 140 She also started investigating and bringing to light the plight of women in rural Bengal where many were tortured after being labeled as witches. Chakraverti travelled to such villages in Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum and documented such crimes, sometimes teaching women who were emotionally or physically battered by men to recognize and unleash the power within themselves.Beloved Witch, 2000, p. 143 "Wicca can do that through their empowerment of the goddesses. [...] The village women—simple women accused of witchcraft—would give me stories which were really heartbreaking. It opened my eyes to how much venom there was in these men. [...] I have tried to bring succor to women branded ‘witches' or ‘dayans' who are still today being molested and killed for what they are believed to practice. I have brought their cases before the authorities and the press in an attempt to show up the hypocrisy of their persecutors – mostly men – who are trying to denigrate this ancient branch of learning in order to wreak revenge on these women for some very personal motives."
1996–2004: Election candidacy, Beloved Witch and Sacred Evil In 1998, Chakraverti campaigned as an Indian National Congress candidate for the Parliament of India in the Hooghly district. She was requested to take up the post on behalf of Sonia Gandhi, but was not elected. Later, Chakraverti became the Secretary of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. She then started working on her biography, titled Beloved Witch: An Autobiography. The book tells how she came to be a Wiccan and how she had carried on the tag of being a "witch" in a society where witches are still feared and hated. The book, after its release in November 2000, won critical acclaim. Nona Walia of The Times of India commented, "Roy Chakraverti knows that it is unusual for well-bred Bengali girls to become witches and acknowledges her gratitude to her mother for allowing her the right to choose. After all, she says, every strong woman can be a witch in her own right, and that is perhaps the truest message that the book holds for the reader. [...] If there is a problem with the book, it is that much is left unsaid and much of it seems hurried, as if an editor said, 'Don't make it too serious, people won't understand,' just enough for people to chatter about at a cocktail party."