Types of Ghost Stories from South Asia

Words by Ahsun Zafar

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A few weeks ago, I put a call out for submissions of South Asian-related ghost stories. My inbox filled with spooky tales of spirits and ghouls. They were stories preserved and passed down through generations from different regions, cultures and communities, but as I read through each creepy submission, I noticed these stories were similar to each other in many ways. We have a shared history, our foods and culture are connected, so why not our ghost stories? Ghost stories reveal the fringes of our resentments and anxieties, the essence of our collective fears and hopes, and the things societies keeps repressed. “We need ghost stories,” once wrote Stephen King, “because we, in fact, are the ghosts.”

Fascinated with how a ghost story from one community could be so similar to another ghost story from a completely different community, I decided to list the commonalities of our ghost stories and provide examples.