‘Bhole Baba’ and the thriving industry of godmen in India
As details of the Hathras preacher, Suraj Pal and his exploits emerge, it adds another chapter to the sordid history of Indian godmen
The man who began the Church of Scientology, Ron Hubbard which boasts of 200,000 followers worldwide, once famously remarked, 'If you want to make money, start a religion.’
Had he ever visited India, the man who could count John Travolta and Tom Cruise among his devotees, would have paled into insignificance.
As skeletons tumble out of the cupboard of Hathras religious preacher Suraj Pal, also known as Bhole Baba, there is one stark difference: unlike Hubbard, the Hathras baba’s followers are mostly the very poor, a vast majority of them desperately impoverished Dalits.
It does not, therefore, explain how Suraj Pal, also known as Narayan Hari Sakar, the man behind the large religious gathering at Hathras that ended in a tragic stampede, resulting in the death of 120-plus people, mostly women and children, has a sprawling network of 24 ashrams, a fleet of luxury cars, and assets estimated at least ₹100 crore.
Pal’s trust, the Shri Narayan Hari Sakar Charitable Trust, oversees his empire. Media reports paint a scarcely believable picture: when Suraj Pal made his grand entrance before his devotees, he was usually clad in a crisp white three-piece suit, replete with a tie and fashionable eyeglasses. He invariably arrived in a convoy, headed by 16 commandos in black fatigues, astride powerful 350 cc motorcycles, ensuring a clear path for his escort of 15 to 30 vehicles.
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His Trust’s volunteers or sevadars, dressed in light pink attire and carrying batons, are strategically positioned along the route to ensure smooth passage for their revered leader and to ensure that no one films or takes a photograph. Pal himself rode in a white Toyota Fortuner, its interiors adorned with matching white seat covers, epitomising both luxury and spiritual authority.
And all this in the name of God.
Wrote Manohar Bhatia in a blog titled, `The Weird World of Babas’: "India has had a long history of gurus or spiritual guides – the learned masters who helped people attain higher knowledge. But in recent times the tradition seems to have metamorphosed into an industry, with godmen exploiting weaknesses of existing institutions like family, religion and society to their advantage, and offering instant or quick-fix solutions/miracles to alleviate the dissonance caused by modern life and the rat race.’’
Says historian Salil Misra: "Being a godman is a very seductive profession. People like Hathras baba are the ones we hear of, but there are many more who try and don’t make it. Bhole Baba could have been successful for a variety of reasons - great managerial capabilities, propagation of his healing powers, the capacity to network between local politicians, businessmen and officials, and many more such assets.”
The heady cocktail of an ancient land obsessed with spiritual leaders with their professed magical powers, when coupled with hundreds of millions of gullible people at the bottom and crooks in the middle, an unbeatable combination takes shape.
As details of the so-called Bhole baba come out, modern Indian history is littered with the exploits and debauchery of such `holy men’, who have often enough taken undue advantage of their position, their patronage of politicians and connections with those who matter, to ‘cure’ and 'heal’, using it as a ruse to commit heinous crimes.
The common thread that runs through them is money and sex. Consider this list of infamy:
Asaram Bapu
The controversial spiritual leader and convicted rapist was allegedly accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at his ashram in Rajasthan. Earlier in 2008, two young boys went missing from his gurukul under mysterious circumstances. Their mutilated bodies were later found from the banks of Sabarmati River near the ashram. According to news reports, the 72-year-old swami and his son were also involved in a ₹700 crore land grab case in Madhya Pradesh. By 2013, he was estimated to have established over 400 ashrams and 40 schools in India and abroad.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh
In August 2017, this Dera Sacha Sauda chief, was convicted on two counts of rape and in January 2019, he was convicted for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. He filed an appeal against both decisions at the High Court. In another ongoing case, he has been accused of compelling around 400 of his male followers to receive castrations based on `false promises’.
Shiv Murti Dwivedi
Also known as alias Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale, he was arrested by the Delhi police in February 2010 for allegedly operating a high-profile sex racket in the national capital, which involved former air hostesses and students. He claimed to be a disciple of Sai Baba. Dwivedi was apparently running his sex racket from two government flats allotted to senior government officials in south Delhi's R.K. Puram. A diary recovered from the swami shows he owned assets worth nearly ₹2,500 crores. The diary lists the names of nearly 600 call girls.
Rampal
The self-styled godman has several cases against him ranging from sedition, murder, attempt to murder, waging war against the state, rioting, illegal detention and others. This godman kept dodging arrest, culminating in his followers opening fire at security forces in a village in Rohtak, Haryana. In the clash, many people, including an infant perished. Rampal was arrested on November 19, 2014, and convicted.
Chandraswami
Nemi Chand Jain claimed to be an astrologer and a faith healer, who was repeatedly accused of financial irregularities, among his lesser crimes. The Supreme Court had asked him to cough up ₹nine crore as a penalty imposed by the ED in several FERA violation cases against him. The CBI had lodged a case for his involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1996. Chandraswami, 66, died in near anonymity in May 2017 of multiple organ failure at a Delhi hospital.
Swami Sadachari
Once the spiritual adviser of several top politicians, including former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he was jailed for allegedly running a brothel.
Kriplau Maaharaj
He was a spiritual leader and poet who was given the title of Jagadguru, was an Allahabad native. He had four ashrams in India and one in the USA. After his death in 2013, an American disciple, Karen Johnson, in her book “Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus: How I Was Conned by a Dangerous Cult And Why I Will Not Keep Their Secrets” exposed some shocking details. She claimed that he invited women to give him ‘charan seva’, a kind of massaging ritual which usually incorporates sexual touching. In 2002, Kripalu was alleged to have raped and molested a 22-year-old Guyanese woman in a prayer-room.
Devanathan
In 2009, a sex scandal involving this temple priest in the famed pilgrim town of Kancheepuram shocked the world. The priest had videos with some female devotees in `objectionable’ poses. The 36-year-old priest engaged in sexual acts even as unsuspecting devotees waited outside to perform Puja! He was exposed after the technician repairing his phone chanced upon the videos and made it public!
Swami Amrita Chaitanya
He was a godman from Kerala, who was arrested in 2008 on charges of raping three minor girls and a 22-year-old woman, making pornographic videos, financial fraud and possession of narcotics. He was also arrested by Interpol in 2008 for conning an NRI woman of ₹45 lakhs. The Baba was handed out a 16-year rigorous imprisonment.
The deep personal dissatisfaction of the people and blind faith, however, turns truly noxious when politics gets mixed into it. "The mixing of faith and politics turns the situation into a deadly cocktail. Godmen wooing gullible individuals would not be a problem if politicians did not use them to influence voters. That the politicians vied with each other to get the favour of dubious Baba Ram Rahim (when elections were round the corner) is too well known to be narrated," wrote blogger Bhatia.
Clearly, in this netherworld, anything is possible as the gory details of Suraj Pal, the former police constable, reveal.