Question

what does the incident of maras wife throwing the leaves into fire tell us about Indians in general

Answer 1

The above line, taken from the short story, "About a medicinal creeper", tries to portray the ignorance and the superstitious beliefs that almost all Indians have about every scientific thing ever.

The wife of Mara had seen a living deer run out from the packet.

She did not give a second thought, but ignorantly threw some leaves, which were important for medicinal purposes, into the fire .