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Archive for category MAKAAR HINDUS

The Dark Side of Very Prominent Hindu Gurus

The Dark Side of very prominent Hindu gurus

Religious gurus are among the big money-earners in India

Indian swamis and religious spiritual preachers and teachers who have been caught out in nefarious activities are many. As soon as followings grow large, they attract people who are looking for advantages – both supposedly spiritual ones, but also not least financial and social gains. Organization becomes a necessity and, led by a charismatic figurehead whose word is taken as unquestionable divine truth, those who become part of their fiefdoms willingly carry out his (or her) orders, for which they are rewarded. This scenario is one chief way in which a guru cult begins. This is by no means only an Indian phenomenon, of course, as there are also some very well-known major cults in U.S.A., Italy. South Korea… and, of course, many sexually abusing priests in Christian churches and sects, and there have been many revelations concerning the Catholic Church in many countries, which has had to face vast sums in payouts following lawsuits.

Religious gurus are among the big money-earners in India, so it is hardly surprising that these cults are able to buy police and yet higher protection. Despite this, in an increasing number of instances, so-called “spiritual” gurus have been successfully prosecuted by Indian authorities for crimes ranging from sexual abuse to cynical murder. India, being such a religious cauldron seems to have the lions’ share. Indian gurus either convicted or widely accused of crimes, including major fraud, include:-

1) Sathya Sai Baba (deceased 2011) is most likely the most influential guru in India and abroad – self-proclaimed God Sai Baba in 2008Incarnate, Deity of Deities, the Vishnu Avatar of the Age etc. – who has obtained protection from attempts to convict him for murder complicity (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/8/MurderReview.htm) and serial sex abuse (http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/6/saisex1.htm) by his devotees among Indian Prime Ministers, Presidents and Supreme or High Court judges. This is itself an indictment of the Indian State’s ongoing corruption – a kind of protection that typifies a de facto despotism (though possible only while in office) rather than the exercise of democratic and legal principles. Of course, his fraudulent ‘materializations’ and many false statements and predictions are also very documented or reported by disaffected followers.

2) The well-known ‘all singing all dancing’ Indian-based Hare Krishna sect (ISKCON) has had many and major convictions against them in the USA. See herehere

3) Indicted for many felonies, but not convicted, was Rajneesh-Osho (who fled the USA with over 100 indictments against him). See documentation here.

4) Swami Premananda (deceased)- convicted for murder and multiple rape – double life sentence. The case went right to the Supreme Court of India, which confirmed the conviction, based on DNA evidence. See also Deccan Herald April 5 and April 6, 2005. Premananda’s alleged vibuthi materializations were investigated for fraud by Erlendur Haraldasson and Richard Wiseman See larger photo no. (No. 42) here– and read their most critical report (1995) Investigating Macro-PK in India: Swami Premananda. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 60(839) 193-202t

5) Swami Rama (Deceased – Author of ‘Living Among the Himalayan Masters’) who escaped likely conviction for sexual abuses by dying before the case could be concluded. See evidence here. Also here

6) Swami Rameshwaranand Giriji Maharaj – who has a large following in India and abroad – was arrested in September ’95 as a party to the murder of his lover’s husband. The 26-year old Manoj Girothra, husband of Savita, who was having an affair with the ‘godman’, was murdered on December 3rd, 1994, some two months after his marriage. Two professional hitmen had been hired by the ‘godman’.

7) Gayatri Swami, whose influence in South India was very considerable was thoroughly exposed by Gytri Swami (Gayatri Swami) Professor Erlendur Haraldsson and Richard Wiseman. He was found to be pretending to materialize objects within fruits, but had a silk thread attached to them! Likewise, his ‘materialization’ inside fruits of right-handed conches (extremely rare in India as ‘Sri Lakshmi conches’) the ‘left-handed type’ are the only indiginous sort), Haraldsson traced his imports of them from California, where they are indigenous! (See larger photo here photo no. 17).
Erlendur Haraldsson & Joop M. Houtkooper (1994). Report of an Indian swami claiming to materialize objects: The value and limitations of field observations. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 8(3), 381-397. (Full text).

8 ) Swami Balyogi Premvarni. (‘Yogant Foundation’) of Rishikesk, where he has an ashram. He also has Bala yogi Premvarnivarious branches abroad. He has been exposed as a serial womaniser, especially convincingly in Mary Garden’s book ‘The Serpent Rising’ which she bases on her experiences in India in the 1970s. See the book here. And read a review by David Mainwaring here

9) Gowrishankara Swami; Hindu monk gets 10 years RI for sodomy.’‘The Hindu’ Bangalore, Feb. 3 2004 (PTI): “The Karnataka High Court today sentenced a Hindu monk to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and awarded a fine of Rs 25 lakhs after holding him guilty of sodomy. In default of payment of fine, the court sentenced the Gowrishankara Swami, the previous junior pontiff of Sri Siddaganga Mutt at Kyatasandra in Tumkur District, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of one year.”

Swami Shyam of Kulu

10) Swami Shyam , a current ‘advaita’ guru, popular with Westerners (particularily Canadians and Northern Europeans), many of whom have bought expensive residences at Kullu in the Himalayas, where he has his ashram. He considers himself a reincarnation of Krishna! He is under attack for seducing the wives of his followers. He has recently been exposed by Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper here. Another exposé source is found here. A book has recently been published which exposes him – Himalayan Hoedown.

11) The Palghat (of Kerala) born Bala Sai Baba (the child Sai Baba), who at 35 years of age is a bit overgrown for his name. He claims to be the real Sai avatar, set up an ashram in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh and purposely copies Satya Sai Baba trait for trait in amazing detail. A clearly fraudulent attempt to hi-jack the Sathya Sai Baba ‘phenomenon’. He is the most ‘lookalike’ of a series of imitators of Sathya Sai Baba, a few of whom can be seen here.

12) Swami Nithyananda The scandal of his sexual activities broke early in 2010 with a video of him and a well-known actress (he originally claimed to be celibate!), later documents came to light showing how tantrik sexual perversions were practiced and partakers were sworn to secrecy by signatures. An overview can be obtained here: Swami Nityananda chargesheet: rape and unnatural sex

13) Bhagavan Kalki See Severe Problems with ” Deeksha Oneness Movement also note what dissident voices have to say:- I’m not going to beat around the bush. Kalki is saying that he wants everything disbanded because he doesn’t want it to become a cult. Well, it is a cult. He’s saying he’s an avatar, I am God, and I’m going to decide when you pray, if you get the job you’re praying for or not. So if somebody … is saying that I am God, that’s delusion. There is only God, equally everywhere. Just because there’s realisation doesn’t mean there’s more god, or that the persona has changed into a go. You know, one doesn’t become a god.” transcript of part of Kalki Oneness U. Snafu – Enlightenment or Oneness

14) Kripalu Maharaj – 88 years old –  It is reported that There are thousands of people who are trapped in his ashrams from around the world living a life of horrible mental abuse in his ashram under disguise to serve him as god. A CBI inquiry has been demanded because ca. 170 bodies are untraceable.The guru himself has absconded. He had faced charges of indecent assault and rape in 1997 in Nagpur. Millions of dollars of money was taken from people in America.

15) Sri Sri Ravichandran, dressed like Jesus, has amassed immense wealth. His field of operation is in the West. He knows that wealthy westerners are depressed and he promises mental happiness by introducing a course called, “The Art of Living.’ As a matter of fact this title, ‘The Art of Living,’ was plagiarized from the project originally started by Norman Vincent Peale. Peale started a radio program, “The Art of Living,” in 1935, which lasted for 54 years. (See comment to this blog)

16) Prakashanand Saraswati led one of the top Hindu temples in the United States until a jury convicted him of molesting children and he took off for Mexico, reports Ben Crair of ‘The Daily Beast’ (June 20, 2011). He led the premier Hindu temple in Texas and, perhaps, the whole United States. Barsana Dham sat like the Taj Mahal in the hillsides south of Austin. When PBS made its 2004 Many Voices documentary project about American congregations, producers chose Barsana Dham as their exemplar of the Hindu faith. Barsana Dham was “very much an ecumenical mainstream Hindu organization,” says Robert King, a former professor of Asian studies and dean at the University of Texas. And yet there was Saraswati, ordered to trade in the saffron robes for an orange jumpsuit. The charges were serious—20 counts of indecency with a child. See also San Marcos Mercury uses public records law to get $ details of bond deal for Hindu guru/convicted child molester

 

 

17) Swamiji Maharaj of Dwarka, Gujurat rapist and criminal … see scan on right

18) Asaram Bapu arrested for sexual assault, India’s worst male chauvinist guru? The Times of India and many other national news outlets reported on Asaram Bapu’s statements that the He stated at a recent rally that the gang-raped and murdered young lady ion a Delhi bus, Nirbhaya , was equally to blame for the rape and added, “Mistake is never from one side alone.” Considering the utterly horrendous treatment she received, this put him among the very worst of ignorant and unscrupulous male chauvinist gurus alive.

19) Baba Ramdev has been at the centre of various controversies over the years ranging from being booked by the Enforcement Directorate in a case of alleged foreign exchange violation to making politically charged statements.

A further short list of some gurus East and West, including facts about some of the criminals among them is seen here (http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/listing.html).

 

Posted by robertpriddy  http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/the-times/

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American female student discovers ‘Incredible India’ – ‘Traveler’s heaven, woman’s hell’

 
 
 
 
Courtesy:
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American female student discovers ‘Incredible India’ – ‘Traveler’s heaven, woman’s hell’
 
Sexual harassment in India: ‘The story you never wanted to hear’
 

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By Daphne Sashin and Katie Hawkins-Gaar, CNN
August 23, 2013
 
(CNN) — Michaela Cross, an American student at the University of Chicago, has written a powerful account of her study abroad trip to India last year, during which she says she experienced relentless sexual harassment, groping and worse. Upon her return, she says she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and is now on a mental leave of absence from the school after a public breakdown in the spring. Cross, a fair-skinned, red-haired South Asian studies major, titled her story “India: The Story You Never Wanted to Hear.” She posted her account on CNN iReport under the username RoseChasm.

  
 

What action should be taken to combat sexual harassment to [email protected]

  
Her story has struck a chord around the world, racking up more than 800,000 page views as of Wednesday morning. It quickly found its way to India, where many readers sympathized with the story and men felt compelled to apologize for the experience she endured. Others called for greater perspective and warned against making generalizations about India or its people.
 
Reaction: Indian women feel sorrow, anger at U.S. student’s harassment claims
 
India’s deadly gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi happened a few days after Cross left India in December, and she said that helped others understand what she and her classmates went through. The country has continued to see several high-profile cases of rape and sexual violence cases since then, and the government has introduced tougher laws and punishment for sexual crimes. Keeping chivalry alive in India: Men respond to rape crisis On her return, Cross struggled to find a way to talk about a cultural experience that was both beautiful and traumatizing, she said in her essay.
 
She writes:
 
“Do I tell them about our first night in the city of Pune, when we danced in the Ganesha festival, and leave it at that? Or do I go on and tell them how the festival actually stopped when the American women started dancing, so that we looked around to see a circle of men filming our every move? Do I tell them about bargaining at the bazaar for beautiful saris costing a few dollars a piece, and not mention the men who stood watching us, who would push by us, clawing at our breasts and groins? When people compliment me on my Indian sandals, do I talk about the man who stalked me for 45 minutes after I purchased them, until I yelled in his face in a busy crowd?”
 
“How it feels to be a woman in India”
 
Later, she writes: “For three months I lived this way, in a traveler’s heaven and a woman’s hell. I was stalked, groped, masturbated at; and yet I had adventures beyond my imagination. I hoped that my nightmare would end at the tarmac, but that was just the beginning.” A university spokesman confirmed Cross is a student at the school and would not comment on her mental leave. He said the school is committed to students’ safety at home and abroad. Cross said she didn’t say anything to the professors on the trip until things reached “a boiling point” — what she called two rape attempts in 48 hours.
 
Should solo female travelers avoid India?
 
Dipesh Chakrabarty, a University of Chicago professor who was in India for the first three weeks of the session, told CNN that he was unaware of Cross’ situation. He noted, though, that the university tries to prepare students for what they might encounter while abroad. The Civilizations Abroad in India program was based in the city of Pune, but the students traveled to other areas during the semester. “Both faculty and staff in Chicago and our local Indian staff counsel students before and during the trip about precautions they need to take in a place like India,” Chakrabarty said in an e-mail. “Ensuring student safety and well-being is the top priority of both the College and staff and faculty associated with the program.”
 
The university provided this statement to CNN:
 
“Nothing is more important to us at the University of Chicago than caring for the safety and well-being of our students, here in Chicago and wherever they go around the world in the course of their studies. The University offers extensive support and advice to students before, during and after their trips abroad, and we are constantly assessing and updating that preparation in light of events and our students’ experiences. We also place extremely high value on the knowledge our students seek by traveling and studying other civilizations and cultures, and we are committed to ensuring they can do so in safety while enriching their intellectual lives.”
 
From India: A different view
 
Her story sparked a wave of reaction online, with scores of Indians responding, many with sympathy to her plight and pointing out that Indian women also experience high levels of harassment and abuse. Arvind Rao, a media professional in Mumbai, was moved to post this comment on her story: “It thoroughly disgusts me to be known as an Indian male … An apology is extremely meager for all the trauma you’ve gone through.” He expressed hope that politicians would “wake up and implement stricter laws against crime and sexual harassment on women.” “Every time my girlfriend goes out alone, I pray that she comes back home safely,” wrote a commenter using the name Jajabar. “Being an Indian male, I apologize.”
 
Others, however, observed that sexual harassment was by no means confined to India, and Indian commenter Sam1967 warned against condemning his home country when so many others failed to protect the women living within their borders. “I accept what happened was definitely an embarrassment and a cause of trauma for her that might haunt her for the rest of her life. But this has happened in many other countries or places and therefore it may not be the right thing to single out India.”
 
‘She could have been me’: Action urged after Delhi gang rape
 
 
 
 
 
‘Traveler’s heaven, woman’s hell’
 
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American college student Michaela Cross struggles to describe her time studying abroad in India. She says it was full of adventures and beauty but also relentless sexual harassment, groping and worse.
 
 
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Graffiti found on the streets of Pune, where the India study abroad program took place.
 
 
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Cross, a South Asian studies major at the University of Chicago, studied in India for three months in the fall of 2012.
 
 
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Cross shared this photo taken after the Ganesha Festival during her first night in Pune.
 
 
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Months after returning from India, Cross was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and said she took a mental leave of absence from school. She plans to return in the fall.
 
Part of complete coverage on
 
Violence against women in India
August 14, 2013 — Updated 1121 GMT (1921 HKT)
They’re called the Red Brigade, a group of teenagers who are facing sex pests head on, vigilante-style.
 
August 23, 2013 — Updated 1549 GMT (2349 HKT)
A U.S. student’s experience of sexual harassment in India triggers more anguish and sympathy from women in India.
 
August 23, 2013 — Updated 1811 GMT (0211 HKT)
American student Michaela Cross says during a three-month trip to India she experienced relentless sexual harassment, groping and worse.
 
August 15, 2013 — Updated 1029 GMT (1829 HKT)
Months after the brutal rape of an Indian woman on a bus, have measures to address violence against women worked?
 
March 7, 2013 — Updated 2147 GMT (0547 HKT)
New Delhi is known as the crime capital of India. CNN’s Sumnima Udas talks to women there about what daily life is like.
 
July 16, 2013 — Updated 1106 GMT (1906 HKT)
There’s one clear observation from the outcry to India’s rape crisis: some of the voices belong to India’s men.
 
January 16, 2013 — Updated 1906 GMT (0306 HKT)
‘Top Chef’ Host Padma Lakshmi weighs in on the New Delhi gang rape case and shares her experience living in India.
 
 
India has been painted as a dangerous jungle for women but one CNN staffer found otherwise.
 
January 3, 2013 — Updated 1841 GMT (0241 HKT)
The director of Amnesty International, India, says that execution “would just perpetuate the cycle of violence.”
 
January 16, 2013 — Updated 2355 GMT (0755 HKT)
The Delhi police bore the brunt of criticism for a December gang rape, but now they say they’re changing their ways.
 
January 4, 2013 — Updated 1634 GMT (0034 HKT)
The fatal gang rape of a young woman sparked weeks of angry protests and heated debates about sexual violence in Indian society.
 
January 3, 2013 — Updated 2340 GMT (0740 HKT)
It has taken an attack that lies nearly outside of comprehension to prompt demonstrations, but the outcry has begun.
 
January 3, 2013 — Updated 1853 GMT (0253 HKT)
The New Delhi woman who was gang-raped died with her honor intact; her rapists will live in ignominy, actress Leeza Mangaldas writes.
 

 

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India is now the sick man of Asia by Maqsood Kayani

India is now the sick man of Asia

 

 

Highlights

 

·           “A summer of difficulties has dented India’s confidence, and a growing chorus of critics is starting to ask whether India’s rise may take years, and perhaps decades, longer than many had hoped.

·           “There is a growing sense of desperation out there, particularly among the young”

·           India’s growing economic worries are perhaps its most challenging.

·           “I think things will get much worse before they get better,” said Sonal Varma, an India economist at Nomura Securities in Mumbai. “The government is between a rock and a hard place.”

·           Unable to build or buy, India is becoming dangerously short of vital defense equipment, analysts say.

·           “Many analysts say that India is unlikely to achieve prominence on the world stage until it reaches some sort of resolution with Pakistan of disputes that have lasted for decades over Kashmir and other issues.”

Courtesy: PTT Member-Maqsood Kayani 

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LATA MANGESHKAR: The Siren Call of Fascism

 

 

The Siren Call of Fascism

M_Id_331332_Lata_Thackeray
 
 

IT seemed like a bizarre train of thought at first but in hindsight perhaps an agreeable one, that as Bal Thackeray lay dying in a Mumbai hospital I was comparing renowned singers Lata Mangeshkar and Noorjehan in my mind.

Here was an Indian star that I thought no end of, one who symbolised the warm, calming hug her people badly needed after their bruising tryst with foreign rule and an even more lacerating struggle to win freedom.
That was Lata Mangeshkar. She could switch from a gentle morning pick-me-up in a Marathi ‘Bhoopali’ to a more nuanced love expressed in Persianised Urdu, linking two diverse strands of free India’s cultural mix. She could dredge out Ghalib’s soul with a purist’s diction and sway with Shakeel’s rustic verse in an eastern UP dialect for Dhanno in Ganga Jamuna with the gentlest inflection of her vocal cords.

Perhaps she was a born polyglot, I would think with admiration. How else could she deliver Iqbal’s Kabhi ae haqeeqat emuntazar with the swirl of a dervish?
‘When I bowed my forehead in supplication/the earth itself pleaded with me: /Your heart is riveted to an icon of stone/Why do you waste your time in namaaz?’
I have leaned on Iqbal’s complex lines, which Lata sang with uncluttered ease only to illustrate the romance she engendered in the halcyon days that came with independence.

Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi: what a team they made for a newly freed people. Their duets, so popular in Pakistan, in a sense defied the idea of Pakistan itself with their true notes. In some ways the duo single-handedly undid the communal damage that came with the partition, not just in India but in Pakistan too, where she remained a household favourite at the head of other great singers.

Then something snapped last week. In her moment of personal trauma, Lata Mangeshkar bared her heart. She revealed she felt orphaned by Bal Thackeray’s passing away, but she didn’t stop there.

She went on to describe the Shiv Sena chief as a “Hindu hriday samraat”, a ruler of Hindu hearts. We knew that it was how many of his admirers, his less intellectually gifted followers, shall we say, saw him.

People who knew her claimed that Lata Mangeshkar donated a sum of her earnings to the Shiv Sena. But all this was seen as a tithe decent folks often pay after 1992-1993 to keep nuisance at bay. But now she revealed she may have been a devout bhakta of Thackeray, the self-proclaimed fascist whose adulation of Hitler only matched his love for Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s assassin.

Let’s leave alone his hatred of Muslims and of Pakistan. I thought a majority of people Thackeray hated were Hindus. They were Hindu Gujaratis, Hindu Biharis or their cousins from Uttar Pradesh, Hindu Tamils and others from South India, communists, Brahmins.

They were all Hindu, if they must be given that identity at all, but they were all targeted albeit selectively in different stages of the rise of the Shiv Sena. In one stroke Lata Mangeshkar had disowned millions of her ardent fans.

I am not even broaching Thackeray’s documented role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Did the singing diva of India, decorated with the country’s highest civilian honour, agree with the Ayodhya sacrilege? And did she get to read the Justice Shri Krishna Commission report on the anti-Muslim pogroms in Mumbai that followed the outrage in Ram’s birthplace? The killings, according to the report, were carried out by Thackeray’s foot soldiers, that she admires, in 1992-93. Is that what made her proud of the ruler of Hindu hearts?

Lata Mangeshkar has said she learnt some of the tricks of playback singing from listening to Noorjehan. They had a lot in common, including an army of followers that remained loyal to each, often to the exclusion of the other. They also sang for their armies, the real fighting ones.

And yet, as far as I can tell, Noorjehan would never have wooed religious fundamentalists, much less those who earn their keep from fomenting ill-will towards India. She wouldn’t have been a darling of Faiz if she had.

Thackeray of course had bigger fish to fry than playing The Godfather to his favourite admirer. He was a creature of India’s emerging consensus and that is the scarier part. It was his ability to cut across the political redlines, which anointed him as a more successful fascist than his other rightwing rivals have been shown to be.

Consider the grovelling and fawning news channels. And look at the grief writ on movie star Amitabh Bachchan’s face at Sunday’s funeral, or take corporate czar Anil Ambani who looked one of the most bereaved in the mêlée of Mumbai’s elite.

Both of them support the rightwing claimant to India’s top job, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and both have political associations that shore up the supposedly secular government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The fact is that Thackeray fulfilled corporate India’s need to suspend democracy if the going got tough and this would be done by a national consensus. He represented a militant, aggressive pro-market quest of the Indian state, one that can only be placated by bludgeoning its own people.

Every party needs to outdo the other in the bloody act. Lata Mangeshkar would appear to be a misfit in the gory denouement of India that Thackeray’s Shiv Sena revelled in. Else she could allow herself to beguile her fans with the siren call of fascism.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
[email protected]

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A PICTURE FOR PAKISTANI SAFFRON BRIGADE: THEIR BAPU’S SEX LIFE EXPOSED

At the cost of annoying Asma Jehangir, Marvi Sarmad, Hamid Mir, Imtiaz Alam, Beena Sarwar, Mehr Tarar, Farzana Bari, Najam Sethi and the rest of the PSB (Paki Saffron Brigade) 
 
 
Gandhi – A very rare photo…
 
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GANDHI’S EXPERIMENT WITH CELIBACY By Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari

 

 

 

Ii is well known that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the most trusted and the most loyal stooge of the British crown, served the British interest through his Satyagraha or the nonviolent freedom struggle. But most of the people of this country, who take him to be a man of high moral, do not know what short vile lechery he indulged in in the name of keeping Brahmacharys or celibacy, or in experimenting with the same. In 1903, when he was only 34 years old ( alternatively in 1906, when he was 37), or in other words, when he was at the zenith of his youth, he took a vow that he will observe celibacy and will remain a brahmachari for the rest of his life (D Keer, Mahatma Gandhi, pp-73).. 

But the question remains, what made Gandhi, an extremely sensual man, to take such a vow? Gandhi was so sensual that when his father Karamchand was dying, he preferred to make love and have sex with his wife Kasturba in another room of the same house. So, when such a sensual Gandhi took vow to keep celibacy, one becomes suspicious that there must have been an evil intention behind that vow. Many believe that at that time, he developed some form of aversion towards Kasturba, an illiterate mother of three children, or in other words, he disliked to share bed with her. So, his intention was to abandon Kasturba as a sleeping partner in the name of keeping celibacy. 

In 1882, when Mohandas was married to Kasturba, he was 13 and Kasturba was 14. While he was in South Africa, he came in contact with several educated and well bred women through his profession and Gandhi liked their company very much. From their company, Gandhi used to obtain a special kind of intellectual pleasure, which was not possible from Kasturba. At that time, more than a dozen women came very close to him and six of them were of Western origin. They were Graham Polak, Nilla Cram Cook, Madelline Slade (aka Miraben), Margarate Spiegel, Sonja Schlesin and Esther Faering (M V Kamath, Mahatma and Celibacy, Organiser, 2.7.2006). His closest Indian women were Srimati Prabhavati Devi (wife of Jaiprakash Narain), Kanchan Shah, Prema Ben Kantak, Sushila Nair (sister of Pyarelal), Manu Gandhi (wife of his grand-nephew Joysukhlal Gandhi), Ava Gandhi and Saraladevi Chaudhurani. This Saraladevi was a niece of the poet Rabindranath Tagore and her mother was Srimati Swarnakumari Devi (M V Kamath, ibid). 

To narrate the affair between Gandhi and Saraladevi, Sri Girija Kumar says, “Saraladevi Caowdhurani came very close to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Their whirl wind romance lasted for barely two years, but it upset the balance of the Gandhian establishment and shook its very roots. She is now a part of history and a footnote in contemporary Gandhian literature. She, however, left a scar in the minds of Gandhiji for the rest of his life.” (Brahmacharya: Gandhi and his Women Associates, as quoted by M V Kamath, ibid.). Gandhi used to admit that his relation with Saraladevi went up to sexuality (Girija Kumar (1997), The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India, Har-Anand Publishers. pp. 73-107). 

Next to Saraladevi was Prabhavatidevi. While commenting on Gandhi’s affair with her, Girija Kumar writes, “Prabhavati became so obssessed with Gandhi that she would not tolerate separation from him even for a single day. …. Her hysteria was highest manifestation of her desperation. She would remain unconscious for hours together…”, (Brahmacharya: Gandhi and his Women Associates, as quoted by M V Kamath, ibid.). “In his own way, without, obviously meaning it, the Mahatma ruined many lives. It was only when he was jailed at the Agha Khan Palace that he came to be reconciled with Kasturba. And it was only after Gandhi died that Prabhavati came to live a normal life with her husband, until she died a premature death. Many detested Gandhi’s so-called ‘experiments’ with celibacy” (M V Kamath, ibid). In 1938, Prema Ben Kantak wrote Prasad and Diksha, narrating her sex life with Gandhi, which triggered a widespread uproar in Maharastra. 

However, the entire episode of his sexual perversion in the name of experimenting with celibacy or brahmacharya after coming back to India in 1915 and setting up the Sabarmati Ashram. And as a consequence, Gandhi started naked display of sex with his women associated, in a big way. This obviously aroused commotion among the other members of the ashram. “The main reason behind this uproar was his double standard. While for other members, he declared strict law for renunciation of women, he kept himself above all such restrictions. As an excuse, he used to say that he was an ardhanariswar (or half man and half woman, the other name of Lord Shiva ) and hence devoid of any carnal desire” (Yashodhara Roychowdhuri, Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika, 25.6.2006). To hoodwink the other members, he used to say that he was the mother of all and hence every women of the ashram were either his mother or a sister. He used to deceive others in another way. He used to say that whatever he was doing, he was doing according to the command of his “inner voice”, or, in other words, according to the command of the God and hence all his deeds were sacred. 

Though, due to the above mentioned uproar by the other members of the ashram, Gandhi was compelled to stop his sexual activities for a time being. But that was only to resume it with a new enthusiasm in the name of experiments on celibacy and sleeping naked with several naked women on the same bed. At first, he and his women, though shared the same room but slept on different beds. But after a short while, naked Gandhi and his naked women companions started to share the same bed. He used to say that lying with so many naked women kept him warm and the practice was a type of naturopathy for him (Patricia Caplan (1987). The Cultural construction of sexuality, Routledge. pp. 278 & Parekh, Bhikhu C. (1999). Colonialism, Tradition and Reform: An Analysis of Gandhi’s Political Discourse, Sage. pp-210 ). He also used to say that lying with so many naked women helped him a lot to assess his success in keeping celibacy, (Kumar, Girja (1997). The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India, Har-Anand Publications. pp. 98, and Gandhi’s letter to G D Birla in April, April, 1945). It should be mentioned here that Gandhi considered his experiment a success if, despite such extraordinary provocation, his private part refused to erect. 

Many will refuse to believe that, after Satyagraha (or nonviolence), sex was his second major subject of his articles and letters he wrote to his eulogists. He wrote a series of five articles of his experiments on celibacy, i.e. lying naked with so many naked women, which were later published in Harijan ( Kumar, Girja (1997). The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India, Har-Anand Publications. Pp-98.). In the present context, it should also be mentioned that, in general, young and adolescent boys experience wet dream. When he was in South Africa, Gandhi had wet dream at least once in a month. But it is unbelievable that he had such an experience in Mumbai, when he was an old man of 67. This single incidence is more than enough to expose Gandhi’s sexual perversion. Moreover, Gandhi admitted that till his death, he failed to get rid of his sexual perversion (D Keer,ibid, p-678). 

According to Gandhi, active-celibacy meant perfect self control in the presence of opposite sex. Gandhi conducted his experiments with a number of women such as Abha, the sixteen-year-old wife of his grandnephew Kanu Gandhi. Gandhi acknowledged “that this experiment is very dangerous indeed”, but thought “that it was capable of yielding great results” (Tidrick, Kathryn (2007). Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life. I.B.Tauris. pp. 302-304). Many believe that, in the name of active celibacy, he not only used those women, but as he never sought for consent of them, he committed sexual oppression on them. On the other hand, the victims had no other alternative but to endure all such oppressions silently (Yashodhara Roychowdhuri, Ananda Bazar Patrike, 25.6.2006). 

While commenting on this aspect of Gandhi’s life, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, a real brahmachari and the most earnest follower of Gandhi, said, “There was no need for Gandhi to experiment with brahmacharya. In case Gandhi was a perfect brahmachari, he did not require his brahmacharya to be tested; and if he was an imperfect brahmachari, he should have avioded the experiments on principle” (M V Kamath, Organiser-2.7.2006). But Gandhi maintained that all his experiments yielded very good results (Tidrick, Kathryn (2007). Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, I.B.Tauris. pp. 302-304). 

It has been pointed out above that Gandhi conducted his experiments with a number of young women such as Abha, the sixteen-year-old wife of his grandnephew Kanu Gandhi. Another victim was 19 year-old Manu Gandhi, the daughter of his another grand-naphew Joysukhlal Gandhi. After making her a sleeping partner, Gandhi wrote to Joysukhlal that Manu had started to share his bed so that he may “correct her sleeping posture” ( Tidrick, Kathryn (2007). Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, I.B.Tauris. pp.302-304.). 

Gandhi went to Noakhali in December, 1946, and at that time Manu Gandhi was his sleeping partner. He used to say that at that time he was immensely benefitted by lying naked with naked Manu. And it helped him to assess the serious problems like Partition and the Hindu-Muslim amity. Gandhi used to say that he slept with Manu like her mother and Abha and Manu were his walking sticks. It should be mentioned here that at that time, Manu Gandhi was married and her husband’s name was Surendra Mashruwala. In March, 1945, Gandhi told the press reporters that lying with naked Abha and Manu, he achieved great success in his experiment on celibacy. “Previously I carried out similar experiments with Kasturba, but that did not yield so much” ( Tidrick, Kathryn (2007). Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life, I.B.Tauris. pp. 302-304.). 

Obviously, Gandhi became the target of bitter criticism, even by his closest companions, due to his sexual perversion in the name of experiments on brahmacharya. One day his stenographer R P Parashuram, observing him lying naked with naked Manu Gandhi, submitted his resignation letter and left the ashram. Gandhi told him that he was at liberty to do whatever he wanted. He could remain at the ashram or go. (Kumar, Girja (1997). The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India, Har-Anand Publishers. pp. 73-107). 

Nirmal Kumar Basu was one of the closest associates of Gandhi and accompanied him during his Noakhali tour. There an incident took place on 17th December that turned Nirmal Kumar into a severe critique of Gandhi. On that night Gandhi was sleeping, as usual naked, with Manu Gandhi and Dr Sushila Nair. Sushila was a doctor and accompanied Gandhi to look after his healthy. Just before dawn, it appeared that something unusual was happening in the room where Gandhi was sleeping with Manu and Sushila. It was found that Gandhi was screaming in shrill voice and slapping his forehead. 

Neither Manu nor Sushila had ever disclosed what happened on that fateful night. But it was not so difficult to guess. Most probably, Gandhi made sexual advances to Sushila and tried to rape an unwilling Sushila. She, on the other hand, prevented Gandhi and cried for help and that made Gandhi to scream out of frustration. After this incident, Nirmal Kumar decided to abandon Gandhi and he permanently left him on 18th March, 1947 (Ghose, Sankar (1991). Mahatma Gandhi, Allied Publishers. pp. 356, D Keer, p-759 & Yashodhara Roychowdhuri, ibid.). 

Later on, Nirmal Kumar expressed his grievances through a letter. He wrote that, perhaps he, lying naked with several naked women, wanted to test whether that aroused his sexual passion. But, in fact, he was ruining the lives of his young women associates. It is a shame that we are still using the word Mahatma before the name of such a sexually pervert man.

 

 

 

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