Indian Morality Meltdown: Sid Harth

[Sid Harth]

National Magazine | Aug 20, 2007

Irfan Hussain

Scandals

Sixty Years On, More Sinned Against...

The great political scams of the last 60 years reflect their times,
but also fit a timeless definition of corruption: abuse of public
power for private gain. A trip down murky memory lane.
Smita Gupta

Special Issue: India At 60

The great political scams of the last 60 years reflect their times,
but also fit a timeless definition of corruption: abuse of public
power for private gain. They rolled out decade after decade—the
Mundhra scandal, the Kairon embarrassment, the mysterious Nagarwala
case; in the 1980s, big defence scams kept pace with India's growing
defence needs. In the 1990s, as the economy liberalised, stockmarket
and hawala scams erupted. Ironically, while political reputations were
ruined and a government was brought down—in 1989, on the Bofors issue—
very few allegations have ever been proved. The recent scandals, like
the Taj Corridor case involving Mayawati, and the Telgi fake stamp
paper scam, are still fresh in the public mind. Here, we take you on a
trip down murky memory lane.
***

The Mundhra Scandal

The timing was disastrous. Less than a year after the government
nationalised life insurance in 1956—on the grounds that it was not
being managed well—the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) produced
independent India's first scam. Pressured by the Union finance
ministry, LIC bypassed its investment committee and purchased shares
worth Rs 124 lakh in six—mainly dud—companies belonging to Calcutta
industrialist Haridas Mundhra. Feroze Gandhi, Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru's son-in-law, dramatically disclosed the deal in
1958, leading to a nationwide furore, and an investigation. The guilty
were punished, and Union finance minister T.T. Krishnamachari had to
resign.

Kairon and Sons

For independent India, this was a first-of-a-kind scandal. Later, of
course, it was to become almost a cliche in political life: a chief
minister accused of aggrandising himself and his family at public
expense. The S.R. Das Commission, tasked to investigate these charges
against Punjab chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon, exonerated him in
1964, saying a father could not be held legally responsible for the
actions of his grown-up children. But a caveat—that a chief minister
could not escape moral responsibility for his children's' actions—was
indictment enough. Kairon quit.

"Man from Bangladesh"

The case, straight out of a political thriller, captured public
imagination and continues to raise unanswered questions. On May 24,
1971, former intelligence agent R.S. Nagarwala, posing as a "man from
Bangladesh", withdrew Rs 60 lakh from the Parliament Street branch of
New Delhi's State Bank of India, following a purported call from then
prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to the chief cashier.
Nagarwala had apparently "mimicked" Indira Gandhi's voice. In the
course of the probe that followed, investigating officer D.K. Kashyap
was killed in a mysterious car accident and Nagarwala died in prison.
The Janata Party, alleging that the money belonged to Indira Gandhi,
set up the Jaganmohan Reddy commission in 1977, but found insufficient
evidence to indict her.

"Rajiv Gandhi chor hai"

"Gali gali mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai!" As the scandal over
the Bofors gun deal became a symbol of corruption in high office, this
slogan was heard across the country. The alleged kickback involved was
Rs 60 crore, small change as such scandals go, but it helped V.P.
Singh's National Front trounce Rajiv's Congress in 1989. Since then,
the Delhi High Court has acquitted Rajiv Gandhi and the Hinduja
brothers. 'Middleman' Ottavio Quattrocchi's name has not yet been
cleared, but investigators have not come up with anything conclusive
either. Yet, 18 years later, the ghost of Bofors continues to haunt a
forever tainted Congress—and Rajiv Gandhi's widow, Sonia.

St Kitts Forgery Scandal

Chandraswami, a godman with greasy locks and mighty political
connections, was the central figure in the 1989 tit-for-tat "scam"
intended to tarnish V. P. Singh. He, along with then external affairs
minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and another minister, K.K. Tewary,
reportedly organised forged documents to show that VP's son Ajeya
Singh had deposited $21 million in the First Trust Corporation Bank in
the Caribbean island of St Kitts, with his father as beneficiary.
After Rao's term as PM ended in 1996, the CBI formally charged him for
the crime. But later, the court acquitted Rao for lack of evidence.
All the other accused were also eventually let off. However, the scam
punctured Chandraswami's colourful career. Politicians kept clear of
him from then on.

Sukh Ram Telecom Scam

He came to be known by the epithet, minister of tele-'phony'. In 2002,
a CBI special court sentenced former Union communications minister
Sukh Ram to three years RI, and fined him Rs 1 lakh for purchasing
poor quality radio system equipment from a company in 1991, causing
the public exchequer to suffer losses totalling Rs 1.68 crore. The
buzz was that Sukh Ram, under whose bed dhobi bundles of cash were
found, was involved in several other deals, but nothing was proved. A
senior telecom official, Runu Ghosh, and Hyderabad-based businessman
Pataru Rama Rao, were also sentenced to two and three years
imprisonment respectively. A tortuous legal battle continues.

Stockmarket Scam, 1992

He was toasted and celebrated by investors and the media alike. But
like the stockmarket, he too crashed, leading to one of the biggest
financial scandals in independent India. 'Big Bull' Harshad Mehta,
held to be largely responsible for the stockmarket crash of '92, was
arrested by the CBI in November that year for "misappropriating" more
than 27 lakh shares—worth Rs 250 crore—of about 90 companies,
including Sensex heavyweights like ACC and Hindalco, through forged
share transfer forms. Blacklisted in the stockmarket, he reportedly
caused a loss of more than Rs 4,000 crore to various entities and
eventually died in custody in December 2001, before all the legal
issues were sorted out. The stock scam reverberated through the
country, with several people committing suicide after losing their
life savings and going bankrupt overnight.

PV in a Pickle

Close on the heels of the stock scam came Harshad Mehta's sensational
allegation that he had paid Rs 1 crore in cash to the personal
secretary of then prime minister Narasimha Rao. He even displayed a
suitcase, offering a symbol for venality, but the allegation was never
proved. Rao was also embarrassed by the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating
scandal. Pickle king Pathak, a UK-based Indian businessman, alleged
that he had paid Chandraswami and his associate K.N. Aggarwal alias
Mamaji (who were close to Rao) $100,000 in return for a paper pulp
supply contract in India, a "promise" that was not kept. Rao and
Chandraswami were acquitted of the charges in 2003 due to lack of
evidence. Despite this, the case remained a blot on Rao.

Jain Hawala Scam

Some of the country's leading politicians were implicated in the Rs 64-
crore hawala scandal, involving payments allegedly received by
politicians through the Jain brothers, who were hawala brokers. The
media went into overdrive over a diary, which apparently contained the
names of top politicians. These included the BJP's L.K. Advani and
Congressmen Balram Jakhar, Madhavrao Scindia and Arjun Singh. However,
they were all cleared. Advani was let off in 1997, while Jakhar and
the Jain brothers were also let off in 1999 for want of credible
evidence. The CBI was severely criticised for its inefficient
investigation of the scandal.

Fodder Scam

In 1996, Bihar CM Laloo Prasad Yadav became the focus of the Rs 950-
crore fodder scam in the state's animal husbandry department,
notorious for financial irregularities involving powerful politicians
(across parties) and officials. In April 2000, Laloo was chargesheeted
in the case, with wife Rabri Devi as co-accused. In December '06, they
were acquitted, but the CBI and the Bihar government, now under the
JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar, opposed the decision in the Patna high court.
Till date, 250 persons have been convicted. But the scandal's severest
toll has been on Laloo's reputation.

Petrol Pump Scam

Shortly after the NDA came to power in '98, the BJP was quick to prove
it was not "a party with a difference". By '02, it was evident that
most petrol pump, LPG and kerosene allotments during the NDA regime
had favoured BJP functionaries, Sangh activists and selected governors
and bureaucrats. Then prime minister A.B. Vajpayee was forced to
cancel all 3,158 allotments, with effect from January 2000. However,
the SC quashed the order. In 2005, an apex court-appointed panel
recommended that 296 of the 409 allotments be cancelled.

Operation West End

Tehelka.com sent shockwaves throughout the country when it released
secret video footage of senior politicians, including then BJP
president Bangaru Laxman and Samata Party national president Jaya
Jaitly, bureaucrats and army officers accepting bribes for defence
deals. This was the first major sting operation in Indian journalism.
From then on, getting 'Bangarued' came to mean being caught with your
hand in the till. The scandal forced Bangaru and then defence minister
George Fernandes to resign. The CBI filed charges against Bangaru and
two of his aides in July '06 and against Jaitly in December '06.
Chargesheets were also filed in 2006 against some of the other accused
in the Union ministry of defence and the army. R.K. Jain, former
treasurer of the Samata Party, was finally arrested in 2006 on charges
of receiving huge payoffs in defence deals.

Bu Smita Gupta with Debarshi Dasgupta

Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM

22 Gulam:>>" Who are "we" here?
All those involved in fighting the terrorists."

All those now involved in 'protecting/training' the terrorists should
also sincerely join the fight against terrorists and their
elimination. Otherwise, these may well be the first, though
unintended, casualties in the terrorist explosions. Perhaps, you may
be able make them realize this, before it is too late.

v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM

21 Seshadri,

>> Who are "we" here?

All those involved in fighting the terrorists.
Ghulam Y Faruki
New York, United States
Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM

20 Ghulam:>>"We should kill them at a faster rate than they can train
their recruits."

Who are "we" here? The major OIC countries, especially Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, should help non-OIC terrorist-
targetted countries like, India, UK, US in detecting and exterminating
terrorists. Will they? Pakistan is sheltering the Bombay bomber and
Bin Laden and denying it all the time. God Allah will help these
moslems only if they help in eliminating islamic terrorists. Will
they ?
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM

19 "The expansion of the ummah and the killing of "kafirs" are both
ideas that do not cross the minds of the bulk of the Muslim
community."

Most of the muslims nourish ideas of ummah expansion and how it can be
brought about. Many of them express it shamelessly, in schools,
offices etc. One of the reasons why the rest of the Indians despise
Muslims in general.
chaitanya
chennai, India
Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM

18 Seshadri,

>> It means 5 million can be killed or maimed, in due course, by these.

Not if we are killing them at the same time. We should kill them at a
faster rate than they can train their recruits. The terrorists have
done more harm to Muslims than to anyone else.

>> you will agree that all moslems consider non-moslem khafirs could justifiably be killed, if they come in the way of the expansion of the UMMA.

Not true. The expansion of the ummah and the killing of "kafirs" are
both ideas that do not cross the minds of the bulk of the Muslim
community. I have never heard of them from anyone I know. The only
time I hear them is from the sanghis, zionists and from rabid jehadis
who somehow or other have become the favorites of British TV crews.

Ghulam Y Faruki
New York, United States
Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM

17 Ghulam:>>"The best estimate of American and British experts in the
field on the total number of terrorists in the world is less than
10,000."

I see it was Joseph who mentioned the number of jihadis as only a few
millions out 1.3 billion moslems in the world. I wrongly attributed it
to you, sorry. You say the ''trained' terrorist jihadis' are only
10,000; each has a potential for killing or disabling 500 persons,
with today's terrorism technology. It means 5 million can be killed or
maimed, in due course, by these.
More are being trained, in the mean time. IF the moslem states
cooperate with the non-moslem states, the menace can be contained.
Otherwise, the number of terrorist jihadis may grow exponentially with
time and become uncontainable, as it is becoming in Iraq.

>>"You were implying that all Muslims, that is 1.3 billion, were trained to kill non-believers. That is patently untrue."

I did not imply that all the moslems were "trained" to kill the other
non-believers. But, you will agree that all moslems consider non-
moslem khafirs could justifiably be killed, if they come in the way of
the expansion of the UMMA. Even this is against the basic human rights
of non-moslems also as humans, with a right to exist. If devout
moslems believe that only believers in Allah will go to heaven in
after-life, I have no objections to that.

v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM

16 Seshadri,

>> You have yourself stated earlier that the 'few' jihadis amount to a few millions.

What we were discussing was what percentage of Muslims may be
terrorists. The best estimate of American and British experts in the
field on the total number of terrorists in the world is less than
10,000. You were implying that all Muslims, that is 1.3 billion, were
trained to kill non-believers. That is patently untrue.
Ghulam Y Faruki
New York, United States
Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM

15 Ghulam:>>"Not true, except perhaps for a few jehadis "

You have yourself stated earlier that the 'few' jihadis amount to a
few millions. If each suicide bomber can kill 100 and disable another
100, most of them moslems of slightly different sects, the few million
jihadis can finish off most of the billion-plus moslems in the moslem
world today. Is it desirable or permissible ?
Moslem govts should themselves monitor their madarsas, modernize their
education, reduce inter-sect hatreds, liberalize the moslems' world-
view and jail the die-hard jihadis in isolated islands, if reqd.
Mesa'potamia' is burning, George Bush on the 'Potamac' river in
Washington is not able to do much about it. Only Man Mohan Singh's
kind heart may be bleeding for the berieved, disabled, displaced and
refugees of Iraq, especially the children. I wonder why the OIC or the
moslem-welfare organization you have in US are not doing anything
about it. The OIC should itself organize a CIA type secret service to
identify hard-core suicidal jihadis among moslems and arrest them and
put them off.

The idea that 72 'virgins' are waiting to please martyrs in heaven
must be re-explained to the moslems in general and jihadis in
particular. What Narada {Gaapriya=Gasbriel] told Mohammed [Ravana]is
that there is a non-gravity region in Jupiter [St. Peter's 'heaven']
neighbourhood; soul-will in that neighbourhood can bring about the
'joining' of appropriate free elements of the periodic table, seen as
the 272 joiners or yoginees [spiritual virgins, in tantra saastra on
the sree chakra, wheel of creation] to form bodies to experience some
life and apples to eat and so on. 72 of the more significant elements
are indicated by Narada to Ravana. Bhagavat Geeta also talks about
swarga where souls can have some happiness before returning on a new
birth to the earth. If these things are explained and sexual
interpretation of the enjoyment of virgins etc is removed, jihadi
enthusiasm may come down; they may choose to have some good lives on
the earth itself.
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM

14 Seshadri,

>> Moslems are brought up to consider all nonmoslems as khafirs fit for elimination only.

Not true, except perhaps for a few jehadis who miss the main thrust of
religious teaching and memorize just a few paragraphs out of context.
Ghulam Y Faruki
New York, United States
Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM

13 >>" corruption: abuse of public power for private gain. They rolled
out decade after decade"

Corruption will continue to mar the nation's politics and
administration until politics ceases to be the first choice as 'money-
making profession' for scoundrels and scoundrel families. Perhaps, the
grandchildren of corpotate-succeess families now may loose the lure
for lucre and seek to enter politics for purely 'national service' and
not to make money, which they may have in abundance.

But, there is one aspect which popular will can enforce on corrupt
politicians/bureauocrats, even now, namely quick, early and proper
punishments when prima facie crime has been established. The Chinese
have recently given death sentence to a senior official found
responsible for non-enforcement of pharma-product qualities. We may
not go that for, but we may at least confiscate the properties of
politicians and bureauocrats found guilty by the first courts, on
fodder scam, stamp-paper scam etc; they could go in appeal to higher
courts, as per law, but leaving them in power and with ill-accumulated
wealth already declared illegal still with them only makes it easier
for them to employ the most expensive lawyers and win the appeals
somehow, or delay eventual sentences by decades. Karunanidhi now
questionably celebrates halfcentury in politics, only because the case
against some ex-judge who held his black money benami could not end
even before the said judge himself died ! If confiscation of property
pending appeals becomes the norm, such confiscated wealth could be
held in trust and the income proceedings from it can be used for
health and education of the poor in the country; trust can be closed
and wealth returned to appellant, if and when he wins the appeal at
the higher court.
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM

12 Shenoy: Moslems are brought up to consider all nonmoslems as
khafirs fit for elimination only. But, practising christians like
Joseph could be expected to be even-handed between hindus and moslems,
but he is very partial to islam, favouring its growth and eventual
domination of world, to eliminate other cultures and civilizations
from the world, because of its basic intolerance. But he forgets that
such intolerant culures usually meet their nemesis, by internal feuds
and conflicts, besides acts of God like earthquakes and volcano
eruptions and tsunamis, since arrogance violates God's expectation
from mankind; the Roman civilization met with its end for such reasons
only.
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM

11 Joseph:>>"So-called Islamic Fundamentalists or so-called Jehadis
total a few million people "

Today's news is that over 170 people died and over 200 injured in Iraq
in one or two suicide bombings. Thus, each jihadi claiming heaven's
vigins makes life extinct or impossible for over 200 people, most of
them moslems also. You say there are only a few million jihadi
moslems. But, 5 million jihadis are enough to kill or disable a
billion moslems, if my arithmatic is right, 7 million enough to take
care of all moslems. Are you happy with the situation? Perhaps, you
are happy about it, as a practising christian, so long as the people
killed are only moslems, jews, hindus, not christians. But moslems
must consider the fact jihadism is wiping out moslems at a rate faster
than procreationism is proliferating it. Moslems should learn to live
in harmony with other cultures all over the world, enlarging and
ennobling quranic laws into humanistic
welfare laws, by give-and-take adjustments with the laws of other
cultures also, which are also human.
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM

10 Joseph:>>"the President and the Prime Minister of India will always
be Hindus."

Since you insist on proportionate representation for moslems, i.e,
increasing representation for them, as their population increases
disproportionately every decade, they will increase their political
power in all the legislatures and the parliament; chances of moslem
presidents and prime-ministers for India would only increase.
Recently, all 3 candidates for VP's post were moslems. Nothing wrong,
if they are like Zakir Hussein, Abdul Kalam or Ansari. The word,
moslem, sanskritized, stands for mukta-Sreemaan, liberated well-fare-
minded person. All moslems should live upto their names.

v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM

9 Joseph:>>"Secularism without Equity and proportionate representation
is, Mr. Seshadari, Sham-Secularism. I stand by my observations and
forecast that, henceforth, the President and the Prime Minister of
India will always be Hindus."

A secular democracy can only provide equality of 'opportunity' to all
creeds and castes in the country, people have to utilize them and come
up.

Pak and B-desh drove out nonmoslems. Earlier the moslems 'destroyed'
all persians in Iran and buddheists in Afghanistan, you seem to have
no regrets on that. They would have done the same in India, but the
hindu 'cast' system saved them from annihilation, as a bad blessing in
disguise; only the 'fighting caste' faught and died, 'traders' fled
and came back; priest-caste were either pushed into temples [those not
destroyed] or pushed out of villages as the new 'dalits', the
'workers' started working for the new masters, without change of
religion. Only the older dalits could be persuaded to become moslems.
Women, of all castes, if not too old and not married, were all taken
into harems of the sheiks; child-marriage of girls saved India's
ancient civilization for posterity.

Compared to this, free India's treatment of the non-hindu minorities
has been more humanistic and less demonaic; in fact the privileges
given in set-up, staffing, charging etc of minority institutions for
education in India have been such that, minority college-lords have
prospered fleecing the hindus on education; hindus are trying to get
minority college status on language basis; RKMutt is seeking minority
status for convenience, knowing Paramahamsa will not approve it ! My
late friend Varghese of HCE in Chennai was hoping his college wealth
will beat the Birlas! But now, lay christians in Kerala are raising
their voice against greedy churchian priests running colleges for
profit there. Commerce stands for 'kaama' and 'eershaa', desire and
jeaolousy; hence it leads to corporate behaviour, 'sarpa-reetih',
serpentine behaviour.

Sanskrit apart, you should admit that, opportunity-wise, minorities in
India have been treated more than fairly. Christians have benefitted
and prosperred, because they have left the bible behind and grown up
with science and technology for progress in this world, like their
counterparts in the west, other than the catholics of south America;
but moslems have used their educational priviliege only to deepen
quranic education and thinking in madarsa children. Result is that
moslem children shun science and technology, grow up to be either
traders or tailors or artisans or money-lenders, [perhaps they could
get into police/army, but they probably think defending India will be
quranic sin] They keep their women in coverage, concentrate more on
procreation than creativity, demand larger power in politics because
of increasing numbers in population. Post-1973 rise in oil prices gets
them more Arab dollars for madarsas, making them imagine that God is
for the UMMA to eventuyally take over the world. But, money can buy
things only if someone in the world 'produces' goods other than
children. If the whole world has only procreators, the increasing
population will die of hunger and overpopulate the heaven.

Friends of islam, like you, should advise modernisation of madarsa
education, instead of hate-hindu ideas. Then, moslems can take all
sorts of jobs and prosper in all fields. I have taught in an IIT and
elsewhere for over 50 yrs, had only very few moslem students in most
classes, but those who were there were very studious, courteous and
competant; given good education, they can equal and excel all other
cultures, and deserve the fact that Lord Skanda [same as Apollo/Jesus]
appeared as Sikandar for the moslems to save them from extinction by
the crusaders. God has only mercy and goodwill for all mankind. It is
for humans to utilize it.

v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM

8 Secularism without Equity and proportionate representation is, Mr.
Seshadari, Sham-Secularism. I stand by my observations and forecast
that, henceforth, the President and the Prime Minister of India will
always be Hindus.

Going by the Caste situation in India, to an out side mind, it is
difficult to accept that Hindus will accept non-Hindus as equals when
Hindus themselves are discriminated against by fellow Hindus.
Joseph
Karachi, Pakistan
Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM

7 Dear Mr. B. V. Shenoy, I take serious umbrage at your addressing me,
a practicing Christian, as one who does not afford space for other
Religions and for alleging that I am steeped in Islamic
Fundamentalism, whatever that may mean.

Please allow me to recapulate my basic premises about Islam and
Muslims which are as Follows.
a. As Muslims number 1.37 billion which is about one-fifth of the
World's people, it will serve no useful purpose to browbeat them or
subjugate them as is being attempted in Afghanistan, Iraq and
Palestine and elsewhere to a lesser degree.
b. So-called Islamic Fundamentalists or so-called Jehadis total a few
million people out of a total 1,370 Million people.
c. The more the West adopts the present strategy, more number of
Muslims will become antagonistic to it.
d. Islam is growing while other Faiths are either static or losing
followers.
e. Muslims are far more ardent in following their precepts and
practices and as such are a far more dynamic whole.
f. It is better to 'live and let live'
g. From (f.) above must follow a just and equitable solution of the
socio-political issues relating to Muslims in the Philippines,
Thailand, Myanmar, Indian-Administered Jammu and Kashmir, the South-
West Regions of China and Palestine.

Iam quite clear in my mind that the continuinf presence of foreign
invading forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 'cruel approach' of
Israel to Lebanon and Palestine is only exacerbating the problems.
This appraisal is seconded by a House of Commons Committee as may be
seen below.

Let us not use exaggeration and negative observations against some
one, just because his or her views are unpalatable.

Joseph
Karachi, Pakistan
Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM

6 I have to thank you Mr. Pathasarathy for telling me what I always
knew that the Minorities in India are no better off than their
counterparts in Pakistan. As a matter of fact, in the political sphere
we are far better off in that we have Joint Electorate with Special
Reserved Seats as well.
Joseph
Karachi, Pakistan
Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM

5 Dear Sheshadri, you are wasting your admittedly deep knowledge about
the Hindu scriptures and holy books on people like Joseph who are
steeped in Islamic fundamentalism which refuses to acknowledge living
space for other religions. You may be a great savant or a pundit, but
for Joseph, you are only a kafir. Pl keep this in mind.
B.V.SHENOY
BANGALORE, India
Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM

4 Joseph:>>" India is a Hindu Country masquerading as a Secular One"

You are being unfair to hinduism and India and you know that.
Secularism, pluralism etc. are respectable words in India's politics,
only because the majority of population in India is still hindu,
despite higher-than-average proliferation rate of moslems and rapid
increases in churchians by open and crypto-convesions. Hunduism in
India still respects secular values for India, because the bhagavat
Gita, accepted by all sections of hinduism. requires that hindus
should respect all godheads faithully believed in by people anywherem,
since the formless and hence all-forms-possible Absolute will respond
to them in any form faithfully worshipped. Even the RSS/BJP/VHP are
fighting only for the survival of primordial hinduism in India, in
harmony with all other world religions, NOT for the removal of other
religionists from India, or the curtailment of their citizenship
rights in India's dynamic democracy, temporarily operating as if it is
a dynastic demonarchy.
v.seshadri
chennai, india
Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM

3 When will the U. P. A. Government fall, Miss. Chitra of Mangalore?.
Rather, more precisely, when will Sardar Manmohan Singh be asked to
resign?.

We are coming closer to the situation where the President and Prime
Minister will always be Hindu, which is how it should be as India is a
Hindu Country masquerading as a Secular One. Sixty years is, indeed,
to long to carry on with a myth.

By the way, were you at St. Agnes'?.
Joseph
Karachi, Pakistan
Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM

2 Congress and secular brigades are known as mother of all scams and
scandals. Today india is fast moving to occupy the world's most
corrupt nation. Let us hope that we stand first at least in some area.
Shameless secular leaders are running in the government in the name of
secularism and showing ghost of the hindu nationalists. Our democracy
have failed to punish corrupt politicians. UPA government is full of
corrupts, anti-nationals and hardcore islamists.

Miss Chitra
Mangalore, India
Aug 12, 2007 12:00 AM

1 Man u guys are liar.. after investigation it was found only 7% of
petrol pump went to peopel with BJP support.. given BJp usually nets
around 26% popular vote if anything bjp suporter should cry foul that
they didn;t get their proper share..
Rahul
Delhi, India

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?235369

National Magazine | May 01, 1996

Focus

Settling A Score

Nina Pillai's mission is to defeat the Congress
Ajith Pillai

Focus

The Political Option

M'esco Managing Director Rita Singh hits the campaign trail
Bharat Ahluwalia

EVER since the gruesome death last July in Tihar jail of her biscuit
tycoon husband Rajan Pillai, Nina Pillai has been threatening to get
her back on "friendly" politicians who "deserted" her in her husband's
time of need. So it did not come as a surprise when she filed her
nomination as an independent candidate for the Lok Sabha from her
husband's hometown of Kollam, 70 km from Thiruvananthapuram.

Though she does not admit it, Nina's immediate mission seems to be not
to win herself but to ensure the defeat of Congress candidate and
Union Minister of State S. Krishna Kumar. "Krishna Kumar was supposed
to be our friend," she says. "But he refused to even come on the phone
when Rajan was dying." However, she is quick to add that it is not
Krishna Kumar she is fighting. "I am fighting his boss."

The 39-year-old former air hostess is also using her political status
to embarrass the Congress. Her revelation at a press conference in
Thiruvan-anthapuram on April 17 that her husband had been cheated by a
political nexus, with the controversial godman Chandraswami at its
core, will not help the Congress. She has alleged that about $2
million was paid to the godman between November '94 and February '95
by her husband. Chandraswami had promised to sort things out for Rajan
Pillai but finally failed him. Points out Nina: "The money was paid to
him because even senior Union ministers we approached told us that
Chandraswami was the man who could move things at the Prime Minister's
level".

She also sees sinister machinations in the troubles she has been
facing in claiming her shareholdings in various companies owned by her
late husband. She suspects the hand of a rival business group which
she alleges is acting with the blessings of Chandraswami. Says Nina:
"Rajan is gone. Now this friend of the Prime Minister wants to torture
a helpless widow." She says her husband fell out of favour with a
section of Congressmen after the '91 elections. It was then that her
husband, she claims, on the request of a senior Congress leader from
Maharashtra, approached K. Karunakaran and Satish Sharma, asking them
not to support Narasimha Rao as the candidate for prime minister-ship.
"Ever since this came to the notice of Chandraswami, we have been in
trouble," she says.

Though Nina Pillai is not likely to emerge even as a marginal leader,
local Congress leaders did their best to persuade her not to contest.
Among them: Chief Minister A.K. Antony, Union Industries Minister K.
Karunakaran and PCC President Vylar Ravi. The Pillais are influential
in Kerala and traditional Congress supporters.

The only cause for comfort in the Congress camp is that Nina is a
novice in politics and as an independent she lacks the backing of any
political organisation. The BJP has come forward to support her but
the party's infrastructure is not fully committed to campaign for her,
perhaps because Nina has made it clear that she will not join any
party. Says she: "Don't think I am part of the BJP. I am not. They
(BJP) came forward to help and I said fine. I want to be an
independent".

Her campaign involves meeting people directly rather than holding
meetings. However, Nina says she is trying to rope in Arjun Singh,
Kiran Bedi and friends in the film industry in Bombay to attend a
rally in Kollam. But despite such plans, her campaigning is patchy.
She is the first to admit that she is a reluctant politician. "I never
dreamt of getting into politics. I have literally been forced to fight
this election. I am fight-ing it for my survival and the survival of
my children".

Though her husband's family was opposed to her entering politics they
have now come around and her in-laws who command much respect in
Kollam have extended support. Early estimates put it that Nina will
corner enough votes to ensure Krishna Kumar's defeat. That, in a
sense, will be victory for her.

May 29, 1996
1 No Place for Revenge

It was saddening to learn that people enter the electoral fray revenge
(Settling a Score, 1). Nina Pillai has admitted that her husband Rajan
had tried to bribe himself of the mess he was mired presumably one of
his own creation, by offering Rs 2 crore Chandraswami. Business people
like them exploit and a corrupt system to further eir ends and, in the
rare instances when they don’t succeed, cry themselves hoarse bout
corruption.

Nina Pillai contested the elections not to serve the electorate, but
to ensure the down- of Krishna Kumar, who (I be wrong) is one of the
Congress politicians who is clean and, what’s more, who proved himself
an able administrator and an efficient minister. It is not that I
don’t sympathise with Nina Pillai. she has suffered is traumatic. But
it is, to a large extent, the effect of the actions of her own ilk
that nurtured such a system. The only thing that can be said in her
favour is that she is honest and makes no bones about her intentions.

N.J. Thomas, Dehra Dun

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201281

SC's Poser on Chandraswami's Role in Rajiv Assassination
New Delhi | May 26, 2009

The Supreme Court put a query why no proceedings were initiated
against controversial godman Chandraswami if the government really
suspected him of funding the assassination of former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE.

"If he has funded the assassination, then why did you not proceed
against him?" a vacation bench of Justices VS Sirpurkar and RM Lodha
asked ED's counsel Wasim Ahmed Qadri.

The bench made the passing reference after the ED opposed
Chandraswami's plea to travel abroad on the ground that he had several
criminal cases registered against him and is suspected of funding the
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the controversial godman,
however, told the court that Chandraswami was never an accused in the
case unlike the slain LTTE chief V Prabhakaran and others like the
organisation's intelligence wing chief Pottu Amman.

To another query from the bench, Quadri said it appears the case
against Prabahakaran might be closed in India in view of his killing
by the Sri Lankan Army.

Rohtagi earlier strongly pleaded that Chandraswami be permitted to
travel abroad as he had been acquitted of all the criminal cases
registered against him, except the nine-odd cases registered against
him by ED.

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?660446

National / Politics / Interviews Magazine | Dec 08, 1997

Exclusive

"Chandraswami Was Sivarasan's Godfather"

J. Ranganath, who sheltered Sivarasan, Rajiv's assassin, speaks to
Outlook on One-eyed Jack's last few days

A.S. Panneerselvan Interviews J. Ranganath

Jayaram Ranganath, 40, is accused No. 26 in the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination case. A Kannadiga Tamil from Bangalore, he was married
to Mridula and owned a workshop in the garden city. An unwitting
player after Rajiv's assassins—kingpin Sivarasan alias one-eyed Jack,
and Shubha, part of the killer squad at Sriperumbudur, along with five
others—knocked on his backdoor and allegedly forced entry into his
house on August 6, 1991. The LTTE operatives stayed on till August 20
when the CBI raided the house and found them dead. The deaths, says
the police, was by suicide, although there are doubts about this
theory.

Ranganath was arrested on August 18, 1991, for sheltering Sivarasan
and Shubha. Ironically, it was Ranganath who informed the police about
the fugitives in his house and is the only witness to the CBI's break-
in operation. And he and his estranged wife are the only ones to have
heard Sivarasan and Shubha speak about the crime.

Ranganath's recent affidavit filed before the Jain Commission accuses
the CBI of deliberately hiding key facts and shielding several
culprits. His major contention is that his information that Sivarasan
and his team were promised a safe passage to the West by Chandraswami
and details pertaining to the god -man and some Congress leaders were
not recorded by the CBI. According to him, the CBI was determined not
to widen the net beyond the role of the LTTE in the plot to kill
Rajiv. "As the only living witness and the only one with no political
axe to grind, my words should be taken seriously," he declares.

As a key witness, the information he has is important, to say the
least. A.S. Panneerselvan sought an interview through Ranganath's
lawyers. The questions were sent to him at the high security
Poonamallee sub-jail located within the designated court complex where
the Rajiv assassination case is being heard in Chennai. Ranganath's
answers have been duly attested by the additional superintendent of
the jail. Excerpts:

Did Sivarasan and Shubha tell you about their connections with
Chandraswami and an AICC functionary?

They did speak about their connections with Chandraswami and also with
a Congress leader from Karnataka who was a member of Rajiv Gandhi's
cabinet. They used to say that it was through this leader that they
got the details of Rajiv Gandhi's election tour programme. They talked
about the AICC functionary as their close associate. During his stay
with me, Sivarasan also informed me that Chandraswami was his
godfather.

(In his affidavit submitted to the Jain Commission on November 4,
Ranganath speaks of Sivarasan and Shubha naming Aswath Narayan, a
local Congress leader, as one of their friends. Both Shubha and
Sivarasan pointed out that Narayan was close to the AICC functionary
in Delhi who helped them with Rajiv's tour programme.)

What was the safe passage promised to Sivarasan by Chandraswami?

Sivarasan wanted to go abroad directly from Bangalore. This was the
reason why he came to Bangalore. But he said that if he went to Jaffna
he could be killed and that the 'Jain Muni' (The godman's real name is
Nemichand Jain) would arrange for his safe passage to a foreign
country.

(In his affidavit to the commission, Ranganath declares that Sivarasan
told him the godman planned to first bring him to Delhi and then sneak
him out to a foreign destination.)

Did the CBI prevent you from telling the whole truth?

The CBI threatened me. Barring the LTTE, they did not want me to
mention the involvement of the others in the crime. Since they fixed
the LTTE as the only offenders, they wanted evidence to accuse it—and
not against those who commissioned the offence.

What are the truths the CBI refused to record or act upon?

Then CBI chief Karthikeyan warned me not to speak anything about the
AICC functionary or any other Congress people, and Chandraswami.
Karthikeyan seemed to know the facts about the assassination and also
the powers behind Rajiv's killing. He warned me of serious
consequences if I gave the information to a magistrate or others. From
what he told me it was clear that he was shielding Chandraswami and
some key Congress people. Even after my request, CBI (SIT) failed to
record my statement.

I took DCP Kempiah (Karnataka police) to the Bangalore hideout where
Sivarasan and Shubha were hiding. But his statement has not been
produced before the designated court.

How do you know that the CBI was reluctant to arrest Sivarasan and
Shubha?

On the morning of July 30, 1991, a person called Vicky was arrested at
Coimbatore. He gave specific information about Sivarasan's hideout in
Bangalore (this was before Sivarasan and the others forcibly entered
Ranganath's house on August 6). But for 24 hours, the CBI made no
effort to search the hideout. On August 2, 1991, the CBI questioned
one Jaganathan, who arranged four safehouses for the LTTE workers. He
gave details of the locations of these houses and the hospitals in
which the injured LTTE men were admitted. But the CBI did not make any
effort to arrest Sivarasan. Perhaps because if he were caught alive,
Sivarasan would squeal about those who conspired to kill Rajiv and
also of his (Sivarasan's) connections with Congressmen. This is
perhaps why even on August 18, 1991, the CBI did not allow the local
police to catch them.

If I get an opportunity to depose before the Jain Commission, then I
will prove the fact that there are other persons involved in Rajiv
Gandhi's assassination. I am the only one alive who stayed with
Sivarasan and Shubha (after the assassination) and heard what they had
to say about the killing.

Aug 25, 2009 04:04 PM
1 congress has involved in rajiv's killing it is the hidden fact
MATHI
Madurai, India

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?204696

National / Politics / Cover Stories Magazine | May 04, 1998

Cover Story

Enter Chandraswami
Rajesh Joshi

Also In This Story

Cover Story
The Life And Times Of Jayalalitha"

No one can get anything out of me or subdue me by threats, harsh
treatment; it only makes me more stubborn, inflexible, unbending,
determined. The only way anyone can get me to cooperate is to be nice
to me, pamper me, cajole me, talk to me kindly, softly." —Jayalalitha
in a March 1985 interview.Ajith Pillai, A.S. Panneerselvan

Cover Story

The Revenge Of Draupadi

Cover StoryThe Inner Circle

Cover StoryA Coalition In FettersThe BJP struggles to come up with a
strategy to deal with unpredictable allies like JayalalithaIshan
Joshi

Cover StoryAn Intriguing DualismThe Tamil psyche is a paradoxical mix
of a 2,000-year-old heritage, regional pride and modernitySagarika
Ghose

Cover Story72% Tamils Angry With Jaya's DemandsTo gauge the reaction
of the people of Tamil Nadu to AIADMK leader Jayalalitha demands on
the BJP government at the centre ,an option poll was conducted by
Outlook - Mode in the cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and
adjoining areas. In all 5990 respondents in the age group 21 - 45 were
interviewed on April 21 - 23. Most of them do not approve of her
actions and move to destabilise the Vajpayee government.

CHANDRASWAMI is back in business. His services were sought recently by
friends in the BJP to defuse the on-going crisis provoked by the
friend Subramanian Swamy and J. Jayalalitha on one side, and Ram
Jethmalani on the other. Even though the BJP adopts an anti-
Chandraswami posture in public, senior leaders like Murli Manohar
Joshi and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat are known to be close to him.

So, while the prime minister appealed to the allies to observe
restraint, Shekhawat met the godman at Rajas-than Bhawan, apparently
to propitiate Swamy. However, Chandraswami's aide Vikram Singh
maintains they discussed "some work regarding his school in
Rajasthan".

Such interaction with the godman is not new. Sources say that after
the general elections when the BJP was still trying to garner support,
Chandraswami was approached by "top party leaders". Says a
Chandraswami aide: "Around 10 days before the formation of the
government, people from the BJP approached Swamiji to get Dr Swamy and
Jayalalitha around." And now with the BJP-Jayalalitha standoff
continuing, the Vajpayee government badly needs an effective
intermediary. Chandraswami, it is felt, is just the man. His hold on
Swamy can be gauged from the fact that he played an important role in
bringing two sworn enemies, Swamy and Jayalalitha, together.

But those close to Chandraswami concede that even he can't ask Swamy
to keep quiet. "How can you expect Swamy to keep quiet when he is not
getting anything? Why does one then get into politics?" asks Singh.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?205454

National / Politics Magazine | May 11, 1998

Focus

Swami's New Saviours

Will friends in the BJP coalition help Chandraswami wriggle out of the
cases against him?
Charu Lata Joshi

Also In This Story

Chandraswami Case-List

CONTROVERSIAL godman Chandraswami could well have been holidaying in
the south of France. But for a timely order on May 1 by CBI Special
Judge Ajit Bharioke who has been hearing the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating
case—and in whose court the swami had moved an application for
permission to travel to France and the US for 'medical treatment'.

Till then, Chandraswami's plans for a getaway had appeared to be
moving with clock-work precision.

Jethmalani feels the government is 'soft' on the Godman. AIADMK's R.
Kumar is believed to be behind the 'Save Swami' campaign.

Just a fortnight back, on April 17, the Directorate of Enforcement
(DOE)—which is trying him for five cases of foreign exchange
violations amounting to Rs 2,100 crore—had told the metropolitan
magistrate hearing the cases that it had no objection to his
travelling abroad. In a matter of days, the court gave Chandraswami
the green signal.

The two dichotomous moves have exposed a simmering controversy within
the government on the future of the godman. And has exposed the power
he continues to wield. This time round, Chandraswami derives his
strength, not only from his proximity to BJP leaders like Bhairon
Singh Shekhawat, but also from his closeness to Janata Party chief
Subramanian Swamy. And it is the Swamy-faction—represented by AIADMK
chief J. Jayalalitha and her minister of state for banking, R.K. Kumar—
who appear to be indirectly involved in soft-peddling the cases
against Chandraswami. Says Ram Jethmalani, minister for urban
development, who has had clashes with both the godman and Swamy: "The
attempts to go soft on Chandraswami seem quite obvious."

The stand adopted by the DOE—a letter from Kunal Singh, assistant
director of investigation, Delhi zone, had informed the court that it
had "no objection" to Chandraswami's travel plans—which literally gave
him permission to flee the country, has clouded the entire proceedings
with suspicion. The enforcement agency holds that since both
investigation and adjudication proceedings were completed in the four
cases, they had technically no reason to oppose his application.
However, legal experts argue that the move amounts to a major
concession towards Chandraswami by the department. The move seems
suspicious since investigation is still pending in one case—involving
foreign exchange transactions worth $200,000 with his then New York-
based disciple Bina Ramani in 1981—and there are apprehensions that if
he does travel abroad, he could tamper with witnesses and crucial
evidence.

The fact that the metropolitan magistrate had first asked for the
DOE's stand on the accused in writing and also demanded Chandraswami's
status in the CBI cases, possibly indicates the DOE's influ-ence over
the court's decision.

What made the DOE's stand even more dubious was the fact that yet
another sister agency, the CBI, which when confronted with a similar
move in the Pathak case—the agency is presently handling two cases
against the godman, the St Kitts Forgery case as well as the Lakhubhai
Pathak cheating case—had categorically opposed the godman's
application to travel abroad. According to sources, Cha-ndraswami is
likely to move the high court in appeal against the rejection of his
application by Bharioke.

THE godman's moves are getting desperate. And in the process, the
dichotomy in the government's stand is being further exposed. In a
spate of curious developments, even as the DOE appeared to be giving
Chandraswami a free rein, a definite lobby within the government,
headed by L.K. Advani in the home ministry, appears all set to nail
him. The main motive being to get at the BJP's principal foe,
Subramanian Swamy. Says Supreme Court senior counsel, Ashok Panda:
"What is required is a comprehensive approach by the government as a
whole and not diverse actions by individual agencies. "

Within a matter of days of the DOE move, the ministry of home affairs
(MHA) gave its approval to prosecute the god-man under the Foreign
Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA). The case had come to light when
the CBI, while inspecting the accounts of Chandraswami's Vishwa
Dharmayatan Trust, found that it had not intimated the MHA of its
foreign contributions ever since it was formed in 1985. The agency
subsequently filed a chargesheet and moved the MHA for sanction to
prosecute the godman

. Recently, an interim Income Tax report evaluated the total assets of
Chandraswami and the Trust at Rs 2,300 crore, a substantial amount of
which came from foreign donations. The report, which gives a detailed
break-up of foreign donations received by the Trust till June, 1996,
shows that, among others, NRI businessmen Somchai Chawla of Hong Kong,
Abdul Ismail from the UK, Adnan Khashoggi and Rakesh Khanna from
Canada, had made substantial contributions in dollars.

The income tax department's inquiry into the godman's living expenses
also shows that he had spent nearly Rs 200-300 crore on foreign trips
undertaken between 1985-95. The report also mentions Vikram Singh as
Chandraswami's closest confidant and states that he is the director of
five companies—Ambassador Construction Pvt Ltd., Neptune Estates Pvt
Ltd., Nav-Abhiyan Publication Pvt Ltd., Scorpion Finlease Pvt Ltd.,
and Genesis Financial Services Pvt Ltd.

But, despite all the probes into the god-man's murky financial affairs—
which followed after the public interest litigation was filed in
Supreme Court in December, 1996—what has emerged most clearly is that
the swami is neither down nor out. After nearly two years of heated
legal battles and after languishing for eight months in a dingy Tihar
cell, Chandraswami appears to have staged a dramatic comeback.
Political circles are abuzz with news of his having returned to his
favourite occupation: power-broking.

What has aroused even greater suspicion within certain sceptics in the
DOE circles is Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's recent
announcement to "introduce drastic changes" in foreign exchange
regulations by the next session of Parliament. Insiders fear that this
will spell a dilution in powers of arrest as well as major concessions
to FERA offenders. Realistically, this may imply that the charges
which Chandraswami presently faces may not constitute offences at all
by the time a new enactment on FERA is brought about.

Political pundits see a deeper conspiracy behind the recent moves to
go-slow on Chandraswami. The fact that both Chandraswami and
Subramanian Swamy have allegedly been named in Justice M.C. Jain's
final report on the larger conspiracy behind Rajiv Gandhi's
assassination, and that the government has a mere six months to place
it before Parliament along with an Action Taken Report is one of the
reasons for Chandraswami's desperation to flee the country. According
to sources, former cabinet secretary Zafar Saifullah had told Jain of
having personally read certain wireless intercepts of conversations
between the LTTE, Chandraswami and Israeli intelligence agency Mossad
in early 1991. And these had allegedly showed their involvement in the
wider international conspiracy.

With the underlying pressure to make the report public, the
speculation is that certain factions in the government are eager to
free Chandraswami and would prefer to turn the heat on the Janata
Party leader—who is, in any case, causing problems for the ruling
combine. Legally, too, experts argue that a case of embezzlement and
foreign exchange regulations is not as serious as the findings of the
Jain Commission report. For, once a special team is constituted to
further investigate the Jain Commission recommendations, it will lead
to a serious probe into an even murkier case of money laundering, and
involvement with foreign intelligence agencies in an assassination.

But given that Advani has constituted a team of home ministry
officials to recommend further action on the basis of Jain's
recommendations and an internal report is to be submitted to him
within a month, the heat on the godman seems back on. Yet, knowing
Chandraswami, he will do his bit to use every likely political contact
to wriggle out of a sticky situation.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?205496

National / Politics Magazine | May 15, 1996

Investigation

No Godfather Now

Chandraswami's fate will depend on the next government
Ranjit Bhushan , A.S. Panneerselvan

WILL Chandraswami ever be nailed? This week, finally, may provide an
answer as the godman was remanded to a day's judicial custody till May
4. But that answer hinges on another key question: is Narasimha Rao
losing his grip over the proceedings? That may be decided by May 10,
when the results of the elections are expected to be known. If Rao
returns as Prime Minister, the May 2 arrest of the well-chronicled and
controversial godman in a Madras hotel could turn out to be merely a
flash in the pan.

But in the event of the reins of power slipping from Rao's hands, the
investigating agencies may have a different role to play. "The charges
are serious. Depends on how they are framed," says an official
coordinating several charges against the self-styled guru—which range
from income-tax evasion to FERA violations to charges of bribery and
cheating.

Officials admit that the charge on which Chandraswami and close
associate Kailash Nath Agrawal (alias 'Mamaji') were picked up—of
cheating London-based NRI Lakhu Bhai Pathak to the tune of $100,000—is
a weak link in the chain of investigations launched against the
godman. But if Rao's downfall becomes inevitable, there is every
reason for Chandraswami's tryst with trouble to be long drawn out.

On May 2, Delhi's chief metropolitan magistrate Prem Kumar issued non-
bailable warrants against Chandraswami. Issuing the warrants, Kumar
directed the CBI that the godman be arrested and produced on or before
May 14. Such is the godman's clout that reporters trying to ascertain
the next course of action were informed that "he would have to be
traced", even though it seemed common knowledge that the god-man was
holed up in Madras.

A 10-member CBI team headed by Joint Director D. Mukerjee descended on
the Om Sindoori hotel in Madras the same evening. Interestingly, the
hotel owner is Apollo hospital's Dr Pratap Reddy, a Chandraswami
acolyte. Inside the hotel—which resembled a set out of a detective
movie, with CBI sleuths prowling around with their cellphones—the
godman was talking to Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy. The three-
hour meeting between the former Union commerce minister and the guru
was ostensibly meant to ward off the arrest. Swamy was reportedly
trying to use his friend and former attorney general G. Ramaswamy to
invoke immunity through a 1988 bail order in the same case.

The godman had already summoned a battery of doctors who were ready to
certify his "acute condition of cervical spondilitis". But the CBI
would have none of it. In a move reflecting freshly-found confi-dence,
Mukerjee said that if the godman needed treatment, he would have to
accompany the CBI men to a government hospital. After that,
Chandraswami got into the waiting CBI car without further ado and was
taken to the residence of additional sessions judge S. Sambandam,
where a transit warrant was to be obtained.

The CBI had registered the case against the godman on the basis of a
complaint filed by Lakhu Bhai Pathak in 1988. The agency had
chargesheeted the godman and 'Mamaji' for cheating Pathak through the
false promise of using their influence to secure him a newsprint and
paper pulp contract in India. Since then, nothing much had happened.
As judge Prem Kumar observed in his 17-page order, "investigations had
been going on for years without any tangible results."

Interestingly enough, the preliminary investigations conducted by a
CBI superintendent of police in the Pathak case found the "allegations
to be true". Subsequently, the case was transferred to the Enforcement
Directorate for initiating "necessary action". And the Directorate has
declined to reveal the further course of investigations, claiming
privilege because of the sensitive nature of the case. Now, perhaps,
it will be forced to reveal its hand. The real drama may have just
begun to unfold.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201366

National / Politics Magazine | Apr 03, 1996

Focus

Godman Cornered?

A new PIL pitches Chandraswami in his toughest legal battle yet
Rajesh Joshi

WILL the jet-setting guru Chandraswami be able to wriggle out of this
one? Time seems to be running out for the godman, as the Supreme Court
this week hears a public interest litigation (PIL), originally filed
on September 20, 1995, seeking to appoint a special commission to look
into the charges against him.

The investigating agencies—under fire for allegedly protecting the
godman are hoping to prevent that eventuality.

The petition accuses the investigating agencies of having failed to
take action against the godman in spite of the presence of
overwhelming evidence.

The PIL, originally filed by advocate Anukul Chandra Pradhan, accuses
the agencies of "complete inaction" vis-a-vis the Chandraswami case,
because of his "influential connections". The petition primarily seeks
an expeditious inquiry into the charges against Chandraswami, to be
carried out by special commissioners under the direct supervision of
the court.

The PIL was filed only a few days after the then minister of state for
internal security, Rajesh Pilot, ordered the swami's arrest, following
disclosures by Dawood Ibrahim's hitman, Babloo Srivas-tava, linking
the godman to the Dubai-based don. Subsequently, a human rights
organisation, People's Union for Civil Rights, also sought the apex
court's intervention to book Chandraswami and others in the St Kitts
forgery case. The court directed that all complaints pertaining to
Chandraswami be clubbed together and appointed advocate Anil Divan as
amicus curae. It came down heavily on the CBI, directing it either to
"book or leave" him.

The amended petition highlights the Government's reluctance to take
action against Chandraswami. It says the probe must cover his alleged
FERA and tax violations, the St Kitts forgery case, the Lakhubhai
Pathak cheating case, Babloo Srivastava's allegations and the godman's
links with politicians. The investigating agencies have failed to take
action "in spite of overwhelming material", says the plea.

The fact that the court has taken cognisance of the petition should
set alarm bells ringing. Those said to be closely linked with the
godman are Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, Petroleum Minister Captain
Satish Sharma and former minister R.K. Dhawan. All three and former
Union minister K.K. Tewari are named in the FIR in the St Kitts case,
but have not been interrogated. Had the CBI acted vigilantly and
independently, it would have done so, the petition points out.

It goes on to explain how Chandraswami manages, each time, to get over
any crisis—referring to his close proximity to top politicians. To
establish the godman's high connections with politicians like Rao and
former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, the petition quotes from his
own admission before the Jain Commission.

Giving details of the St Kitts forgery case—allegedly plotted by V.P.
Singh's political opponents with the aid of Chandraswami and some
officials of the Directorate of Enforcement (DOE)—the petition pleads
for the confessional statement of the late A.K. Nandy, former DOE
deputy director and an accused to the CBI. The petition says, Nandy's
statement discloses the role played by politicians. It also describes
how the operation was planned by Chandraswami, his aide K.N. Aggarwal
alias Mamaji, Larry Kolb (son-in-law of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi)
and the godman's disciple, Dev Kethu.

Quoting from the FIR lodged on May 25, 1990, the petition observes
that Rao, then external affairs minister, also had a role to play. The
FIR says that Rao called consul general R.K. Rai to his suite at the
United Nations Plaza hotel in New York on October 4, 1989, and told
him to personally attest the documents brought to him by Nandy.

The petition highlights the CBI's reluctance to follow the Babloo
Srivastava case. Contrary to practice, the CBI did not use
Srivastava's claim—that he had stayed at Chandraswami's ashram and
planted a bomb in journalist Rajinder Jain's car to falsely implicate
him at the behest of the godman—in the chargesheet filed in the L.D.
Arora murder case.

This omission by the CBI was intended to prevent the judge from taking
cognisance of it and directing the agency to investigate Chandraswami
for harbouring a criminal. More so, because TADA provisions are
drastic, the petition speculates. Had the statement been filed,
Chandraswami would have been implicated, it adds. In former Union
minister Kalpnath Rai's case, the CBI had filed the statement of
Bombay-based criminal Bhai Thakur, which finally led to the arrest of
Rai and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan.

Meanwhile, Chandraswami is maintaining a stoic silence and—perhaps in
the hope of propitiating the gods—observing the navratri fast.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201123

National Magazine | Feb 21, 1996

Update

By The Grace Of God

The CBI fails to find 'clinching evidence' and recommends that the
case against Chandraswami be closed

Rajesh Joshi

Also In This Story

Update"The Swami Used To Give Us Money"THE various people accused in
the hawala and the Bombay blasts cases have made sensational
allegations against top politicians in the course of their
interrogation by the investi -gating agencies. Only a few of these
have been conclusively proved. But nevertheless, the charges can
provide vital leads. Outlook met Virendra Pant, a close associate of
Dawood's right-hand man Babloo Srivastav, and an accused in the murder
of the Delhi businessman, Lalit Suneja. Pant, who was arrested and
interrogated by the CBI and is currently in Tihar Jail, spoke about
Chandraswami's activities and the goings-on in his Delhi ashram.
Excerpts:

The preliminary inquiry (PE No. 2/S/95) registered last year against
controversial godman Chandraswami is being accorded a quiet burial by
the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI). Last week, the CBI sent a
report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recommending that the
case against the godman be closed.

The orders to arrest the godman had been issued by the then minister
of state for internal security, Rajesh Pilot, in the wake of the
confessions made by Babloo Srivastav, a hired killer, about Chandra-
swami's links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

While arrest warrants are being issued to top politicians, the godman
continues to play wheeler dealer from his ashram.

Following his extradition from Singapore for masterminding the murder
of L.D. Arora, a customs offi-cial, last year, Srivastav had disclosed
to the CBI that Chandraswami had kept him in his ashram in February
1992 when hewas wanted in connection with several criminal cases by
the Uttar Pradesh police. In his statement, Srivastav confessed to
having placed a bomb in the car of Delhi-based journalist Rajendra
Jain at the behest of Chandraswami, along with Virendra Pant and
Sanjay Khanna, members of Dawood's vast underworld network.

Pilot's directive had been precipitated by allegations from the
Opposition that Chan-draswami was not being investigated because he
enjoyed political patronage. The CBI looked into the revelations made
by Sriv-astav, and the godman and his aide Vikram Singh were
interrogated on four occasions. But ultimately, the CBI says it has
found "nothing clinching" against the swami.

However, based on Srivastav's revelations, CBI sleuths interrogated
Pant, Sriva-stav's accomplice in the Jain bomb case. Bureau sources
now confirm that Pant not only corroborated Srivastav's statement but
also gave further information about Chandraswami's activities. But,
for some mysterious reason, Pant's confession was not included in "the
official record". This, despite the fact that the investigating agency
had sought the permission of the Shahdara court to interrogate Pant.

What is even stranger is that after the three-day interrogation at
Delhi's Tihar Jail, the CBI said it was not in a position to pursue
the bomb case and, subsequently,Chandraswami's role in it. The reason:
since the case was originally registered with Delhi's Mandir Marg
Police Station, the agency could investigate the charges only if a
notification transferring the case to the CBI was issued by the MHA.
But the transfer never came. However, following adverse media reports,
the police had to reopen the Jain case and Pant was rearrested. As for
the other allegation against the godman of harbouring Srivastav,
officials now say that it will be very difficult to prove in court
that Chandraswami knowingly sheltered him. Going by the law, the
harbourer can be booked only if it is established that he had
knowledge of crimes committed by the person he was shielding.

Pilot had also ordered an inquiry into Chandraswami's alleged links
with Daw-ood Ibrahim. According to Srivastav, Arora was killed because
he had information about the Bombay blasts. Chandra-swami's harbouring
of Srivastav and former minister Arif Mohammed Khan's claims that he
had pictures of the god-man with Dawood's hitmen, hinted at definite
links. But concrete proof has remained elusive.

And now, Chandraswami, a master of crisis management skills, has
somehow managed to win over a one-time sworn adversary, Somchai
Chaisri Chawla, a Thailand-based NRI.Chawla had accused the godman of
cheating him of $250,000 in March 1995, and the Thailand police had
issued arrest warrants against Chandraswami and Vikram Singh. The NRI
had also complained to the Prime Minister then and had sought the
protection of the Delhi police on the grounds that he was being
harassed and threatened by "one Shri Vikram Singh, a close associate
of Shri Chandraswami.... I am being shadowed. As if Delhi is governed
by the rule of Chandraswami". Surprisingly, Chawla has reportedly done
a volte face and withdrawn all his charges against the godman. Sources
informed that Chawla had filed an affidavit with the Indian Government
last month "supporting Chandraswami." But he has been asked by the
Government to present himself and personally verify the contents of
the affidavit.

And so, at a time when arrest warrants are being issued against top
politicians like Kalp Nath Rai and H.K.L. Bhagat, and cabinet
ministers are compelled to resign on corruption charges, the
globetrotting godman continues to play the "wheeler-dealer" from his
sprawling south Delhi ashram.

Also In This Story

Update

"The Swami Used To Give Us Money"

THE various people accused in the hawala and the Bombay blasts cases
have made sensational allegations against top politicians in the
course of their interrogation by the investi -gating agencies. Only a
few of these have been conclusively proved. But nevertheless, the
charges can provide vital leads. Outlook met Virendra Pant, a close
associate of Dawood's right-hand man Babloo Srivastav, and an accused
in the murder of the Delhi businessman, Lalit Suneja. Pant, who was
arrested and interrogated by the CBI and is currently in Tihar Jail,
spoke about Chandraswami's activities and the goings-on in his Delhi
ashram. Excerpts:

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?200868

National / Politics Magazine | Oct 18, 1995

Spotlight

Spinning A Web Of Fraud

The Chandraswami saga heats up with a series of probes and arrest
warrants. But can the godman be nailed?
Ranjit Bhushan

EVER since the then minister of state for internal security, Rajesh
Pilot, ordered the arrest of Chandraswami, the question which is being
increasingly asked is whether this marks the end of the road for the
controversial godman. Senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office
say PV. Narasimha Rao has given the go-ahead for the law to take its
own course. But as investigating officials plod through the plethora
of charges against the globetrotting godman, it is becoming clear that
it will be extremely difficult to nail him.
For one, except for the charges emanating from the confession of
Babloo Srivastav, a hired killer recently extradited from Singapore,
almost all the charges against Chandraswami relate to alleged frauds
committed outside the country. Investigating officials admit that
frauds are difficult to prove in court. It is also not that easy to
conduct investigations in foreign countries.

In one country, however no real probe is needed to begin with. The
Thailand police have already issued a warrant of arrest against
Chandraswami for allegedly duping a businessman of that country,
Somachandra Chaisiri Chawla. Chawla had complained to the Indian Prime
Minister about the fraud perpetrated on him by Chandraswami way back
in March this year, and Pilot's arrest order was based primarily on
it. But even in this case there are doubts whether the arrest warrant
can be executed because India and Thailand do not have an extradition
treaty.

Along with his complaint to Rao, Chawla had also sought protection
from the Delhi Police. He wrote to Commissioner of Police Nikhil
Kumar: "I have been receiving threatening calls/messages from one Shri
Vikram Singh, who is a close associate of Shri Chandraswami...they
have been claiming that in case I do not succumb to their illegal
demands and do not pass on funds/donation to a political party, I
shall not be able to set up any project in India." He also claimed
that Singh threatened to implicate him in false criminal cases.

The Thai warrant was more specific. Issued against Chandraswami and
Vikram Singh, his Man Friday, it said that Rs 2.4 crore had been paid
to the duo for 'getting' work done on Chawla's Rs 1,000-crore ventures
with the Bangalore Development Authority and the Bangalore Water and
Sewage Board for promoting housing projects and water supply schemes
in Bangalore.

While ordering an inquiry into Chawla's complaint, Pilot asked the CBI
to delve into the entire gamut of cases against Chandraswami,
including his alleged links with the prime accused in the Bombay
blasts case, Dawood Ibrahim. The links had been disclosed during the
CBI's interrogation of Srivastav. But proof of any such link can be
extremely elusive. Though the CBI is reportedly examining his
passport, it does not rule out his having used several identities and
passports. The Foreign Registration and Recording Office in Delhi is
looking at all his photographs taken since 1982.

Former minister Arif Mohammed Khan, who first levelled charges against
Chandraswami when his premises were raided in connection with the Jain
hawala case, claims he has pictures of Chandraswami with Dawood
Ibrahim's hitmen at an American airport. But he says he will only
release these pictures at an appropriate time.

As for Srivastav's claim that he had stayed at Chandraswami's ashram
in February 1992, it should not ruffle the probing the cases against
Chandraswami.

Most of the cases abroad relate to frauds. Chandi Suryavali, a local
leader of Indian origin from Paramribo in Surinam, had registered a
case of alleged fraud against the godman in 1986. According to the
details of the Intimation of Unlawful Activities--the Surinamese
version of an FIR--Suryavali had paid him $1 million for setting up
business ventures in India under the aegis of the Surinam Non-Resident
Indian Association. But once he got the money, Chandraswami reportedly
did the vanishing act. The complaint was sent to the Ministry of
External Affairs n 1987 but did not evoke much response from the
Indian Government, except for a cursory "we are examining the issue".

But Pilot's offensive has certainly set the cat among the pigeons.
This round of dirt-digging exercises includes an investigation into
Chandraswami's apartment at Olympic Towers Officials say the apartment
may have been used to entertain influential guests from India, which
may explain the godman's political clout.

The CBI is also chasing up another old case of cheating, this time in
London. According to the details of the case, Chandraswami and his
secretary, K.N. Agrawal, known as Mamaji, cheated an NRI, Lakhu Bhai
Pathak, of $100,000 on the pretext that the accused would use his
influence to secure newsprint and paper pulp supply contracts from the
Government of India. "Even after long persuasion, there was no
response from the accused either to secure the contracts or to return
the money given by the complainant (Pathak)," the CBI document says,
admitting that any further progress would be very difficult. "It has
not been possible to complete this investigation due to the refusal of
foreign witnesses for examination and non-receipt of relevant
documents," it notes.

The catalogue of the thorns in the swami's side is growing. Babloo
Srivastav's lawyers, V.K. Ohri and H.A. Alvi, are especially keen to
see him implicated in a 1991 case of a fatal bomb attack on Delhi-
based Journalist Ravindra Jain. The Jain commission probing the Rajiv
Gandhi assassination decided to look into an Akali leader, Mahant Seva
Dass' claim that the godman was one of the main conspirators.

In the welter of charges that are now seeing the light of day, people
remain cynical as to what the CBI or any other agency can really do.
Especially if the St Kitts investigation is anything to go by. "This
man has known all prime ministers except V.P. Singh," says the Janata
Dal's Ram Vilas Paswan. Former prime minister Chandra Shekhar,
however, maintains there is not much behind the screaming headlines.
"The law takes its own course. It is not dictated by headlines," he
says.

The experience of former joint director of the CBI, N.K. Singh is
quite different though. Singh remembers how he was abruptly taken off
the case and transferred out of the agency when he started issuing
notices to Chandraswami in early 1991. In his special leave petition
before the Supreme Court, Singh recalls the number of times Chandra
Shekhar and the then law minister, Subramanian Swamy, personally
intervened to have the case scuttled. And that is exactly what
happened in the end.

Chandraswami's saviours, if a list is drawn, far outnumber those
gunning for him. So if liquor baron Vijay Mallya offers his personal
aircraft for the godman's use, Chief Election Commissioner T.N.
Seshan, despite Iris all-out war against corruption in high places,
thinks nothing of meeting him publicly.

Leading saffron lights Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Vijayaraje Scindia
also, count among his ardent camp followers. And earlier this year the
Communist Party of India (M) publicly ridiculed its high profile MP,
Amal Dutta, for attending the godman's birthday bash; Dutta, who is
West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu' nephew, is unlikely to get a
party ticket in the next general elections. Chandraswami's relations
with arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi extended to the Iran-Contra deal,
details of which became public later once American involvement in it
was established.

As Vineet Narain, owner of a video-magazine and one of the first to
carry exposes on the godman, says: "it something still happens to
Chandraswami, all I can say is that the Prime Minister has given up on
him. But to see that happening is wishful at this stage."

A telling example of Chandraswami's clout is that the team of CBI
sleuths is 'interrogating' him at his ashram, and not at the CBI
headquarters. And at the doorsteps of the ashram, Janata Party
President Subramanian Swamy beams: "No charges can be proved. It is
all being engineered by the Congress(T)." If that confidence is
anything to go by, the godman seems to be oil a good wicket.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?200039

http://www.outlookindia.com/peoplefnl.aspx?pid=8886&author=Chandraswami

National / Politics / Interviews Magazine | Aug 07, 1996

Focus

'Sweeper Or PM, A Crime Is A Crime'

Lakhubhai Pathak the NRI businessman who has made allegations of fraud
against Narasimha Rao and Chandraswami, began an 'indefinite' fast on
July 25 in Bombay 'to force' the former prime minister to tell the
truth. He called it off the following morning, on the advice of his
newly discovered guide G.R. Khairnar—the recently sacked civic
official, who earlier ran a crusade against Sharad Pawar. Pathak spoke
to Lekha Rattanani after he called off his fast. Excerpts from the
interview

Lekha Rattanani Interviews Lakhubhai Pathak

Also In This Story

Focus
New Man, New Impetus?
With a Deve Gowda man the new CBI chief, the agency may change its
overt pro-Rao stance
Rajesh Joshi

According to Narasimha Rao, he was not present at the Haloram House
hotel in New York when you say you met him.

The meeting took place 13 years ago. I don't remember the exact date.
But that does not change the facts. It was sometime before Christmas.
I remember I went to El Paso after this meeting , and then to Mexico
for Christmas.

So when exactly was the meeting with Rao?

It happened a few days before Christmas—between the 18th and the 23rd.
Had I known how important the meeting would turn out to be, I would
have recorded it or called in a cameraman. Rao met me in
Chandraswami's room.

According to Rao's counsel, Kapil Sibal, there is no entry in the
former prime minister's passport to show he was in New York.

Was he (Rao) an ordinary traveller or was he travelling on a
diplomatic passport? It is not my job but the job of the investigating
agencies to find out if he was actually there. Passports can be messed
around with. Anything can happen in India. We can buy ministers like
we buy vegetables. They have fooled the country, now they are fooling
the court.

Some of the witnesses whom you said were present at the meeting—Muscat-
based businessman Umesh Khimji and Ashwin Patel, the businessman from
Leceister, have denied being there. So, were they actually present?

They were eight to ten people. I have already given their names to the
court. I had told the magistrate that I cannot reveal their names
without their permission. I didn't want to offend them or create any
problems for them. I was told by the magistrate that hiding anything
is equivalent to lying. Now they are denying they were present and I
don't have to force them to speak the truth.

One of the witnesses, Maharashtra minister Suresh Jain, said he didn't
know you then and that Rao was not present.

It is an absolute lie. Politicians are people who can change their
statements like other people change their clothes. They have no
conscience.

How did you enter into a contract to supply newsprint and paper pulp
when it isn't your line of business?

The contract was a trap. I was in the pickle line, in no way in
paper.

But what about the money you paid to Chandraswami? Wasn't that a
bribe?

A bribe taken is a crime. So is a bribe given. Let the court decide
whether this is a crime. I paid $100,000 in two cheques, drawn on the
Canadian Imperial Bank, to Chandraswami. I am prepared to face any
sentence if I am proved guilty. A crime is a crime whether it's
committed by a sweeper, king or prime minister.

Are you certain the man you met in the hotel was Rao?

I didn't know Rao till he came into Chandraswami's room. But he has a
face that can't be forgotten.

What exactly did Rao say to you?

Chandraswami brought Rao to his room. Suresh Jain and others were
present. All of us got up and greeted him. Chandraswami introduced me
to Rao saying: "Yeh hamare Pathakji hain. Yeh bahuth bada
industrialist hai." Rao turned to me and said: "Chandraswami has told
me everything. Your work will be done." I was thrilled because I was
the only one in the room who was introduced to him. Suresh Jain said I
was lucky to have managed an introduction. This is the whole truth.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray says that you are keen to join his
party.

I want to be a Shiv Sainik and be of service to the people. I know the
Shiv Sena from the time I had a pickle factory in Andheri in 1974-75.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201873

National Magazine | Dec 22, 2003

Sanjoy Ghosh

haryana

'Godman Gave The Slit-Throat Sign...'

That's how Chandraswami threatened the IAS officer who blew the
whistle on Chautala's teacher scam

Chander Suta Dogra

A little after 7.30 pm on October 22, Chandraswami, Delhi's infamous
godman and political wheeler-dealer, had an unusual visitor. Ushered
into his presence was Sanjiv Kumar, the 1985 batch IAS officer and
whistle-blower-in-chief of the schoolteacher recruitment scam in
Haryana. It was on his petition that the Supreme Court on November 25
ordered a CBI inquiry into alleged attempts by Haryana CM Om Prakash
Chautala and his office to substitute genuine selection lists with
fake ones for appointment of primary teachers in 19 districts.
"Mr Chautala was built up as a ruthless man whom I should be very
frightened of."

The attempt was to effect 2,000 new appointments. Though there's no
official confirmation, it's alleged that Rs 1 lakh was demanded from
each candidate.

The October 22 meeting with Chandraswami was meant to force Kumar into
entering into a compromise and withdraw the demand for a CBI probe and
accept an inquiry by a divisional commissioner. The godman spoke to
him for about eight minutes. The contents of that conversation,
secretly recorded by Kumar and given to the Supreme Court for
safekeeping, is giving sleepless nights to many in Haryana, especially
Chautala.

The godman may be down and out in Delhi, but he's playing an active
role in neighbouring Haryana, threatening to get "the throat slit" of
people like Kumar. Recalls Kumar: "Two minutes into the conversation
with Chandraswami and I realised he was handing out threats on behalf
of chief minister Chautala who's one of the respondents in my
petition." Though the apex court has ordered a CBI inquiry into the
case and Kumar has been provided protection by the Delhi Police, he is
still a scared and harried man. Says he: "I'm worried that what
happened to Satyendra Dubey (the whistle-blower in the Golden
Quadrangle highway contracts scam who was murdered in Patna three
weeks ago) might also happen to me."

The officer spoke exclusively to Outlook about the meeting with
Chandraswami, which he recorded on the tape.

"The godman said I should think of what'll happen when police
protection is taken off."

"After a few preliminary remarks, Chandraswami said I should think of
what'll happen when police protection is taken off after a few months.
He then placed his hand on his throat and ran it like how a butcher
would. I asked him, 'Maar bhi sakte hain (You mean, get killed)?' and
he replied, 'Woh kuch bhi kar sakte hain (He can do anything)'."
According to Kumar, he was advised by the godman to be wary of
Chautala. "Mr Chautala was built up as a tough and ruthless man whom I
should be very frightened of. Chandraswami also reminded me of how
former PM Chandrashekhar was laid up in hospital with a heart ailment
after the treatment meted out to him by Chautala when the former's
Bhondsi farmhouse in Gurgaon district was taken back by the state
government."

The godman, according to Kumar, continued in a similar vein:
"Chandraswami said 'Chautala will institute more cases against you and
your career will be ruined'." He also apparently warned Kumar to keep
away from Karan Singh Dalal, RPI MLA from Palwal (a bitter critic of
Chautala), saying "he's a finished man". When Kumar asked whether he
(Kumar) too could be killed?, the godman reportedly said: "Main kya
keh sakta hoon (What can I say?)."

A couple of days later, Kumar was summoned again to Chandraswami's
ashram. This time two candidates, whose names are in the second list
(allegedly fake), were also present. In a separate petition to the
court, they had pleaded their selection was genuine. Their petition
gave damaging details of the place and time when an officer in the
CM's office called them to Delhi's Haryana Bhavan and demanded money
from them. Chandraswami was trying to get them to withdraw their
case.

As for Kumar, he was given another dose of Chandraswami's threats
which also he recorded. Recalls the IAS officer: "He repeatedly
threatened me with dire consequences if I did not heed his
warning.Eventually, I asked him, 'Swamiji what should I do?' and he
replied, 'Samjhauta kar lo (work out a compromise)'. I told him that I
would do so. The fact that I had agreed to a compromise was apparently
passed on by Chandraswami to the CM because at the next hearing of the
case on November 3, the Haryana government counsel offered to get the
matter inquired into by a divisional commissioner. They were quite
taken aback when I opposed this offer and stuck to my original plea
for a CBI investigation." The SC order directed the CBI to take charge
of the tapes as well as the two lists of selected teachers, which were
till then kept in the court's custody.

But why did Kumar agree to meet Chandraswami? Ever since it became
clear the apex court was likely to order an inquiry, he began getting
threats on his phone. Eventually, he told the anonymous caller that it
would be better if he came out in the open and talked. A few minutes
later, he got a call from a person claiming to be the swami's
secretary. He said, "Swamiji would like to meet urgently. It's
something of your interest." Says Kumar, "At that point I was quite
demoralised and virtually at my wits' end. I agreed. But I took the
precaution of telling my wife that if I did not return in an hour she
should inform the police," says Kumar.

Trouble began for Kumar in July 2000 when he was appointed director,
primary education, by the newly elected Chautala government. According
to the facts as stated in the October 25 apex court judgement,
applications for recruiting 3,206 teachers were invited in November
1999. And on the basis of interviews held in 19 districts, a list of
selected candidates was finalised. The outgoing director, Rajni Sekhri
Sibal, kept the lists in a cupboard and sealed it. The key to the
cupboard too was put in a sealed and signed envelope. When Kumar took
charge, he was "pressurised" into substituting another list in place
of the original list. He refused.

In September 2000, all members of the 19 district selection committees
were called to Panchkula and then to Haryana Bhavan in Delhi. Fresh
and false lists of candidates were prepared and the members were
forced to sign this list. On September 28, 2000, this list was handed
over to Kumar with a directive that it should immediately be
substituted for the original list. Instead, Kumar, on November 7,
2000, opened the sealed cupboard and released the original list. These
candidates were then appointed. And within a month of that he was
transferred.

But he took the precaution of taking the "fake" list with him. And
then the nightmare began. His flat in Sector 19, Chandigarh, was
broken into. He began receiving threats. He was denied promotion twice
and put under suspension. Soon after that the government registered
two corruption cases against him, which also come under the ambit of
the CBI investigation.

It's two years since he was suspended and he has been managing to keep
the home fires burning with the help of family and friends. "The
government has not given me even the subsistence allowance of 50 per
cent of my salary," Kumar says. Justice is still a long way off for
him because the CBI investigation into the case could drag on for some
time. But it takes courage to blow the whistle. And Kumar is
determined to keep up his dogged fight as long as he can.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?222426

National Magazine | Jul 20, 1998

Exclusive

Finally All Fingers Point To A Foreign Hand

The Jain Commission's final report focuses on a larger international
conspiracy, and the CIA-Mossad-LTTE link, in the Rajiv killing
Charu Lata Joshi

Also In This Story

Exclusive

Mossad Missives
Ex-Cabinet secretary Zafar Saifullah told Jain of the Israel link

Exclusive
Damning Intercepts
Wireless messages indicate the LTTE wasn't acting in isolation

Exclusive
The BCCI Channel
Jain says Chandraswami linked up with BCCI through Khashoggi

FOR seven rambling years, the Jain Commission of Inquiry—set up to
unravel the larger conspiracy behind Rajiv Gandhi's May 21, 1991,
assassination—has stumbled from one controversy to another. The
Commission's interim report, tabled in Parliament last year, led to
the fall of the United Front government—it had pointed fingers at its
coalition partner, the DMK, for harbouring the LTTE, thus creating
conditions which facilitated the assassination.
"The possibility of a foreign hand behind the LTTE in the Rajiv
assasination is trengthened."

It had also come down heavily on the V.P. Singh government for
ignoring the security threat to Rajiv.

The final report charts a markedly different course. Volume II,
covering chapters I to VI, widens the ambit beyond the immediate
circumstances to emphasise a larger, international plot. Foreign
intelligence agencies like the CIA and Mossad, and leaders of some
Sikh extremist organisations step in as the new dramatis personae. The
report says they actively collaborated with the LTTE and key Indian
individuals in the period immediately preceding the assassination. The
eight-volume set, 14 chapters in all—accessed by Outlook—was submitted
to the home ministry on March 7 this year.

Curiously, even as he lambasts the work of the CBI's Special
Investigation Team—devoting an entire volume to its investigational
lapses—Jain appears to have considerably toned down his earlier stand
on the complicity of the DMK and has instead concentrated on the
'foreign' angle. But there are specific recommendations for the
prosecution of certain members of the DMK, PMK, and DK, who were
earlier chargesheeted in the assassination of EPRLF chief K.
Padmanabha in Chennai in 1990.

The report is not without its Indian angle. Startling depositions and
intelligence intercepts included in the report indicate that Dr
Subramanian Swamy and former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, in
different ways, may have had prior knowledge of a threat to Rajiv but
did not react in a "timely manner".

"CIA seems to have a track record of destabilising governments while
indulging in assassination plots."

At the same time, Jain appears to have pulled his punches in
recommending any further probe into the charges against these two
politicians.

What emerges finally is a picture of a well-networked international
plot and certain key Indians, cast in varying degrees of complicity,
who had 'knowledge' of the plan. Whether Home Ministry officials, who
are studying the report, will be able to take any action on these
findings for presenting the Action Taken Report in Parliament during
this session remains in the realm of speculation. For now, the report,
with its explosive annexures and wild-card theories, has the potential
of stirring up yet another political maelstrom.

THE FOREIGN HAND: What is the foreign hand referred to in the final
report? The depositions and intelligence inputs from RAW and IB have
led Justice Jain to infer that the Tamil Tigers couldn't have operated
in isolation. In fact, he barely stops short of concluding that it was
just the hired executor—a point Jain had touched upon in his interim
report. Notes Jain: "The LTTE may be having its own financial
resources but to acquire such high-tech weaponry, financial help and
help in the form of shipment of arms, which are referred to in IB
reports, cannot be ruled out. The possibility of a foreign hand behind
the LTTE in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi can't be ruled out,
rather it is strengthened." The wireless intercepts (see box) clinches
the fact that LTTE operatives like K.

"...there were moves to remove Rajiv and the hand of Chandraswami has
been established."

Padmanabha had links with the CIA and that the US intelligence agency
assisted the Tigers in arms procurement and other operations. The LTTE
was networked with international agencies and these could have helped
them in the plot to kill Rajiv.

To establish the foreign link, the report quotes telegram No. 24 (CCB)/
20537 of September 11, 1991—sent to the Ministry of External Affairs
by the Indian Ambassador in Tunis, containing a key tipoff he got from
PLO president Yasser Arafat. It was conveyed that "Yasser Arafat had
information that Rajiv's enemies would use the election period to get
rid of him. He got this information from inside Israel and his
European sources. These sources mentioned that the LTTE and Sikh
extremists would try to harm Rajiv Gandhi. Besides the above three,
hostile forces from outside India may also make an attempt."

A recorded note on the talk between the then foreign secretary
Muchkund Dubey and the Palestinian ambassador in India, dated June 6,
1991, included in the final report reads: "The Palestinian ambassador
told me that they had seen the movement of Mos-sad agents in India,
including towards Madras. He said that if one was looking for a link,
it was the CIA/Mossad/LTTE link. He further stated that the culprit
could have been one of the women related or associated with the five
LTTE leaders who had killed themselves after taking cyanide soon after
the commencement of the IPKF operation."

Justice Jain gives considerable import to the Arafat input.

"Swamy spoke of the possibility of Prabhakaran having been financed
for the job..."

"I find the information furnished by Yasser Arafat genuine and there
is no reason to disbelieve it.... From the note of Shri Muchkund Dubey
and the CCB telegram, it is amply borne out that there was an
international plot to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi and that it was a
Mossad/LTTE/CIA link."

Statements from Dubey's successor J.N. Dixit, Sonia Gandhi as well as
details gleaned from RAW and IB have been woven into the report to
shore up the information the PLO chief had passed on to Indian
authorities. Dixit's deposition finds prominence in the report:
"Arafat is right in stating that he had sources within Israel and well-
established sources in Europe. This information conveyed in the
telegram must have been cross-checked by the field units of RAW under
directives of their headquarters."

"There must have been operatives of the CIA and Mossad in India during
1990-91.... The likelihood of Rajiv coming back to power might have
been viewed with some reservations, not so much by the US government
itself but by segments of the US defence and Intelligence
establishment in the context of Rajiv Gandhi's opposition regarding
refuelling facilities provided by India for US Air Force planes during
the Gulf War," adds the ex-foreign secretary.

Similarly, in her statement to the Commission, Sonia Gandhi confirms
that "it is a fact that Arafat sent my husband messages through the
Palestinian mission in India saying that they had learnt of the
threats to his life. This was reconfirmed to me and my children
personally by Arafat when he met us soon after my husband's funeral.
There were several other occasions when he received similar
information."

RAW too provided the Commission with inputs, which it had shared with
IB, on the activities of Mossad and CIA in India in the year
immediately preceding the assassination. The final report mentions
Amos Radia and Giorce Betchar as agents operating for the Israelis in
India. As regards CIA activities in India, RAW had informed the IB
that two suspected US intelligence officers were in India in the
months preceding the killing.

A study of the post-Gulf war scenario in West Asia conducted by RAW,
which was communicated to the PMO, then cabinet secretary Naresh
Chandra, then foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey, IB, the Naval
Headquarters and then Air Force chief S.K. Mehra, clearly stated:
"International terrorism will get a fillip and we can expect terrorist
strikes against soft targets in India. Considerable vigil will have to
be exercised."

While Jain has gone to great lengths to establish the foreign hand,
he has also indicted intelligence agencies like RAW for not taking a
serious view of information that came its way. The report says: "RAW's
conclusion on Arafat's information requires deeper examination.
Nothing has been said about the possible involvement of the CIA which
may operate through Mossad in the light of Rajiv Gandhi's utterances
during the Gulf War opposing refuelling facilities to the US."

Further, Jain writes, "the CIA seems to have a track-record of covert
operations for desta-bilising governments while indulging in
assassination plots or otherwise as reported in the print media.... It
is in this background of the CIA's alleged track-record that Arafat's
utterances have to be evaluated."

THE report notes that, "Kumaran Padmanabha's (KP) account in BCCI,
Bombay branch, prima facie establishes links of the LTTE with the
bank. Unless material from the Senate subcommittee is gathered, it
will not be proper to conclude that the BCCI funds were not made
available in connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.... The
material which has come before the Commission raises a very strong
possibility of such help from some individuals and agencies since it
is well established that KP was the LTTE's international arms
procurer."

Despite all the information pieced together, the report is short on
specifics and does little to flesh out the precise manner in which the
foreign hand purportedly worked. The veil of mystery that shrouds the
Rajiv killing remains. Jain indicates how the LTTE conspired with
foreign agents/agencies to carry out the assassination, but provides
only a vague delineation of possible motives. As things stand, it is
doubtful whether the MEA (which has been given charge of investigating
the international link) will be able to come up with anything.

THE INDIAN CONNECTION: Justice Jain has devoted separate chapters to
three key Indian players who are suspected, one way or the other, to
have had prior knowledge of the assassination. Nothing definitive or
conclusive here, but Jain has woven in intriguing loops of
circumstantial evidence—quoted and contained in the annexures—around
godman Chandraswami, Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy and
former PM Chandra Shekhar. The three are bracketed, prima facie, as
either having a link with those who allegedly conspired with the
assassins or at least having been privy to the fact of a plot.

The link between Chandra Shekhar and Subramanian Swamy has been taken
seriously by Jain in the light of Chandra-swami's deposition: "I know
Chandra Shekhar and Subramanian Swamy have been very thick for the
last 7-8 years. Dr Swamy told me that I (Chandraswami) may persuade
Rajiv Gandhi to make Chandra Shekhar the PM." Working within this
framework, the Commission has read much into the independent
testimonies of a host of witnesses—wherever they overlap—and arrived
at certain conclusions.

For instance, Justice Jain concludes that Akali leader Mahant Sewa
Dass's deposition stands corroborated by evidence provided by RAW.
Dass was sent as Chandra Shekhar's emissary to meet Khalistan
proponent Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan in London. He had deposed that at the
meeting a plot to eliminate Rajiv was being hatched jointly by Babbar
Khalsa militants and a representative of the LTTE (R.M. Pradi)—and
that the project was to be financed by Chandraswami. Jain says: "It is
fully established that Mahant Sewa Dass went to London, met Dr Chohan
in the presence of some persons, conveyed the message of Chandra
Shekhar and brought back a letter from Dr Chohan addressed to Shri
Chandra Shekhar."

The letter also finds a place in government records and reads:

"Dear Mr Chandra Shekharji,
Namaskar!

Mahantji discussed quite a few but very important things with me. I
very much appreciate your initiative in Punjab. I am sure it will help
to pacify the violence in Punjab. Mahantji will give you the details
of our discussion on various aspects. Talks are the only way to
resolve the problems.
More on hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan"
According to the report, "RAW confirms the meeting and that almost all
the active pro-Khalistan groups were represented in the meeting. It
also says that the main purpose of Mahant Sewa Dass's sojourn was to
find out the pro-Khalistani elements on a possible peace package
acceptable to them which could then be projected as an achievement of
the Government of India as a successful attempt to bring back the
Sikhs abroad into the national mainstream.... However, a contemporary
inquiry should have been made and the report should have been sent to
the PM."

The Commission also has on record a communication UO.No 3/5/88-VS,
dated July 21, 1988, in which RAW mentioned reports indicating that Dr
Chohan was trying to establish contact with the LTTE in the UK. Also,
"government records show that Mahant Sewa Dass was sent by the
government as an emissary of Chandra Shekhar to meet Dr Chohan. His
arrangements for travel were made by the government."

According to Jain, "From the perusal of various statements, it is
evident that the relations of Chandraswami did exist, not only with
Rao but also with Chandra Shekhar, Subrama-nian Swamy and O.P.
Chautala. However, no inference of complicity can be drawn, although
the surveillance at 10, Janpath and the statement of Saifullah may
give rise to some doubts."

As for Chandraswami, the circle of suspicion is wider. His links with
the LTTE as well as international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (see
box) have been established. Notes Jain: "The evidence and material
does point an accusing finger at Chandraswami and circumstances which
have come before the Commission raise a doubt regarding his
involvement in the assassination. Taking the entire evidence, material
and circumstantial, brought on record, a serious doubt arises
regarding Chandraswami's complicity and involvement. So the matter
requires a further probe.... There is a plethora of evidence on record
in the form of testimony of Buta Singh, S.S. Mahapatra, B.G. Deshmukh
and others which proves that there were moves to remove Rajiv Gandhi
and the hand of Chandraswami in these moves has been clearly
established."

Many witnesses have attested to the godman's dubious links with
international agencies. Ramesh Dalal, BJP activist, deposed that he
knew "Shri Chandraswami has relations with the CIA, Mossad and the
LTTE. He took the help of these agencies in assassinating Rajiv
Gandhi.... In the core group of Chandraswami, Rajendra Jain, Babloo
Srivastava, K.N. Aggarwal, Subramanian Swamy, Chandra Shekhar, O.P.
Chautala and Pinaki Misra were there. The people of this core group
used to meet Chandraswami in his bedroom. Chandraswami told me he had
been financing the LTTE..."

The report says: "It is noteworthy that when he (Ramesh Dalal) had
expressed his doubts regarding the involvement of Chandraswami as
early as August 1991, investigations should have been conducted.
Outrightly rejecting his testimony would not be a proper course and a
thorough investigation is required to be made about the truth or
otherwise of his testimony. Some support is available...from the
deposition of Mahant Sewa Dass Singh."

As for Swamy, the Commission interweaves various independent
depositions and pieces of evidence to flesh out his links with the god-
man and international agencies as well as his role as an intermediary.
The report notes that Swamy had made a trip to London in 1995 with
Chandraswami—they both stayed at Halkin Hotel and the bill was picked
up by the godman.

Going back to the period before the killing, Jain cites the then
cabinet secretary Zafar Saifullah's statement that "there were some
intercepts emanating from Israel for information to Chandraswami and
Swamy for Jaffna. These intercepts have not come before the
Commission. If Saifullah's statement is correct, then the intercepts
would have thrown much more light on the question of complicity."

THE report adds: "A serious doubt has also been cast by E. Velusami
who has filed an affidavit before the Commission..." Velusami, then
general secretary of the Janata Party in Tamil Nadu, had deposed that
his party president had arrived "in the morning at Madras airport by a
flight from Delhi on Sunday, May 19, 1991." Elections in the state
were set for May 26. "Swamy's whereabouts became unknown on May 21
morning. He subsequently learnt he had spent May 21 morning in a hotel
called Trident near the airport and that he had met some persons
there....

It is not clear why he made this secret stay in Madras on May 21,
1991, that too, after suddenly cancelling his pre-settled programme of
going to Delhi from Madras and without any information to his
colleagues..." Swamy's itinerary was confirmed by the personal
secretary to the ex-minister, writes Jain. He gives credence to the
testimony of Aziz Haniffa, Washington bureau chief of India Abroad, in
which he states that "during an interview with Swamy, the latter
claimed it was he who was instrumental in introducing the LTTE to the
Israelis, which led to their training by Mossad."

Similarly, former Rajya Sabha MP Rajani Ranjan Sahu deposed that in
1994 Dr Swamy told him and two others at the Tamil Nadu governor's
house that the LTTE was hired for the job. He claimed Prabhakaran
ordered the assassination after entering into a Rs 100-crore deal. He
also revealed that "one W. Anderson, first secretary in the American
Embassy, was anti-Rajiv" and that intelligence officials had got wind
of the plot. Jain, at the same time, seems to suspend judgement on the
episode: "From the statements of Sahu, Jitendra Prasada and Rajiv
Shukla, it is borne out that they happened to meet Dr Swamy in the
drawing room of the Governor's house and that... Dr Swamy spoke of the
possibility of V. Prabhakaran having been financed for the job which
might have motivated him for the assassination.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?205868

...and I am Sid Harth

[bademiyansubhanallah]

This page contains information The Rick A. Ross Institute has
gathered about Sathya Sai Baba.

Visit Sathya Sai Baba's Official Web Site
(Link takes you outside the Rick A. Ross Institute web site)
http://www.sathyasai.org/

Sathya Sai Baba, "God"
or "sexual predator"?

Atheist Karuna woos godman in TN
Times Now, India/May 9, 2007
By Dhanya Rajendran

He may be one of the country's best known atheists, but when it comes
to funding state projects, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi
does not mind the help of spiritual gurus. The Satya Sai trust has
agreed to fund a project which will provide drinking water to parched
Chennai. And Karunanidhi is only too happy to welcome the godman.

Till a few years ago, it was unthinkable that Karunanidhi would ever
share a dais with Satya Sai Baba, however at a public appearance with
the spiritual Guru in January this year, Karunanidhi asked Sai Baba's
help for developmental projects. Now Sri Satya Sai Trust has agreed to
upgrade the 25 km-long Kandaleru-Poondi canal, which will bring water
to Chennai.

Karunanidhi may not believe in God, but as analysts say, he has proved
to be a tactful politician.

"He is an atheist at a personal level, and when he shared a dais with
Sai Baba, he explained his stand saying the question was not whether
he believed in God, but whether he was worthy of God's trust. But at a
more practical level, I buy his point From whichever source the money
comes, and as long as it is not tainted, it is welcome," remarked S
Murari, a political analyst.

The chief minister has kept aside his radical beliefs for good reason;
With the states finances running dry due to the numerous sops given by
his government, Karunanidhi desperately needs funds. Now that the Baba
trust has entered into a partnership with the government, the big
question is whether they will undertake the Coovum river-cleaning
project.

"Cleaning the Coovum is my dream, but I will need your help. It has
been quoted as a Rs 1,000 crore project. I'm not asking for the whole
amount, but I will be happy if you donate the same," is M
Karunanidhi's request.

This is, definitely, an image makeover. But the chief minister's
tolerance towards religious matters are limited to accepting help to
develop his state. When it comes to clashes between believers and non-
believers within the state, Karunanidhi always sticks to his
ideologies.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba24.html

Spiritual guru criticised for opposing statehood for Telangana region
Gulf Times/January 23, 2007

Hyderabad -- People went on a rampage here yesterday in protest
against spiritual guru Satya Sai Baba who said he was against a
separate Telangana state.

His followers meanwhile called a shutdown in Puttaparthi town of
Anantapur district to condemn remarks on the guru.

Shouting slogans against him, dozens of students belonging to
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) barged into a Sai Baba temple near
Osmania University here, pulled down huge cut-outs of the guru and
burnt them.

An effigy of Sai Baba, who termed moves to bifurcate the state
'mahapapam' (great sin), was also burnt.

Addressing a function in Chennai on Sunday, Sai Baba said there was no
demand for a separate Telangana state from the people of the region.

"Dividing the people or the country is not good. Bifurcating the state
is mahapapam," he said.

Sai Baba, who preaches love, understanding and universal brotherhood,
has thousands of followers in India and abroad including several heads
of state, politicians, military officials, judges, film stars and
sportsmen.

During the last few decades, he has built a vast empire worth billions
of rupees transforming the small village of Puttaparthi, his
birthplace, into a modern town with a state-of-the-art airport,
education and health facilities.

The reaction to his comments was sharp from the protagonists of
separate Telangana. TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao asked Sai Baba
to confine himself to religion. "Is Sai Baba blind to the suicides by
farmers in Telangana region? Is he blind to the fact that the region
was subjected to exploitation?" asked Rao, who is leading the movement
for a separate state comprising 10 districts including Hyderabad.

Congress MP from Nizamabad Madhu Yaskhi Goud wondered what Sai Baba
knew of the problems of Telangana.

"He is from Rayalseema region and what does he know about the problem
of fluorosis (an abnormal condition caused by excessive intake of
fluorine), in Nalgonda? He is funding the water projects for
Rayalseema and Chennai," said Goud.

Revolutionary balladeer and Maoist sympathiser Gaddar, who is also
actively participating in the movement for separate Telangana,
criticised Sai Baba for opposing the demand.

Meanwhile, a shutdown was being observed in Puttaparthi town in
Anantapur district to condemn the remarks of Telangana leaders against
Sai Baba.

Shops and business establishment were shut and Sai Baba's disciples
set afire effigies of Chandrasekhara Rao, Madhu Yashki Goud and
Gaddar. The streets around Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of Baba, wore
a deserted look.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba23.html

Satya Sai Baba caught in British controversy
Indo-Asian News Service/December 22, 2006

Satya Sai Baba, one of India's best known spiritual leaders, has
triggered a fresh controversy in Britain after association with The
Duke of Edinburgh's Award charity involving young people.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is a London-headquartered charity whose
patron is Prince Philip.

It gives three kinds of awards (bronze, silver and gold) to anyone
aged between 14-25 for achievements in four categories: community
service, skills, physical recreation and expeditions. Each year it is
estimated that over 2,25,000 youngsters vie for the honour in Britain
alone.

This year, when the charity celebrates its 50th year, it has chosen to
send about 200 young volunteers to India to work with the Sri Satya
Sai Organisation.

However, the feat, pulled off by Sai Youth UK, a division of the
parent body, has created a furore. Several people, including some of
the Satya Sai Baba's former Western disciples, questioned the decision
in view of the mixed reputation the godman enjoys. Sai's devotees deny
the allegations.

The Guardian was the first to raise its voice saying the award scheme
had chosen as its accredited partner a spiritual group "whose 'living
god' founder has been accused of sexually abusing young boys".

Satya Sai Baba hit bad press in Britain two years ago when a BBC
programme, The Secret Swami, interviewed young Western disciples who
alleged that the godman had sexually coerced them.

The Guardian quoted Tom Sackville, a former Home Office minister and
chairman of Fair, a cult-watching and victim support group, as saying:
"It is appallingly naive for the award scheme to involve young people
and the royal family with an organisation whose leader is accused of
paedophilia. Parents who plan to send their children on this
pilgrimage... should be aware of the danger their children are being
exposed to."

The daily also said Michael Gave, a conservative MP, planned to write
to the charity to say it should monitor the organisations they chose
as partners more strictly.

"As a society we need a more determined effort to identify and expose
those religious cults and extremists that pose a direct threat to
people, so that they do not enjoy patronage that should be directed
elsewhere," he was quoted as saying.

In the 1990s, when Prince Charles visited India, he had expressed a
desire to visit the Sai Baba but was quietly dissuaded by the British
Embassy in New Delhi.

Since The Guardian's article, it was reported that there was mounting
pressure on the charity to distance itself from the Sai group.

However, charity spokesperson Shona Taylor did not answer repeated
queries as to whether the volunteers had left for India and how they
could be contacted.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba22.html

A holy furore rages in Britain
Daily News Analysis/November 5, 2006
By Ginnie Mahajan

Delhi: Old allegations of sexual abuse of boys by spiritual guru
Sathya Sai Baba have created a fresh furore in Britain.

The issue snowballed after the British press reported that 200 boys
would visit India on a month-long humanitarian pilgrimage starting
November 13, organised by the Sai Youth Movement, a division of the
Sri Sathya Sai Organisation.

These boys are to receive the Duke of Edinburgh award for their
humanitarian work. According to the Guardian, the British public is
irked by two issues — safety of the boys at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram
at Puttaparthi in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh and the
involvement of royalty with the Sri Sathya Sai Organisation.

The newspaper quotes a former home office minister Tom Sackville, who
also runs a victim support group, as saying, “It is appallingly naive
for the award scheme to involve young people and the royal family with
an organisation whose leader is accused of paedophilia.”

Interestingly, the United States Department of State has a travel
advisory against the Sathya Sai Organisation: “US citizens should be
aware that there have been unconfirmed reports of inappropriate sexual
behaviour by a prominent local religious leader at an ashram or
religious retreat located in Andhra Pradesh.”

The Guardian says US state officials have confirmed that this is a
direct reference to Sathya Sai Baba. There have been rumours for years
that the spiritual guru, who calls himself an incarnation of god,
molested young devotees during interviews. Both Indian and foreign
visitors to the ashram have come on record to say how he has abused
them.

The public relations officer of Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram, however,
told DNA: “We do not care what the advisory says. People and
organisations can write whatever they want to believe. We have no more
to say on this issue. Yes, the boys are coming to India in about two
weeks’ time.”

The visit coincides with Sathya Sai Baba’s 80th birthday. He had
apparently given a ‘divine commandment’ to the Sai Youth Movement to
visit him on the occasion.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba21.html

The Indian living god, the paedophilia claims and the Duke of
Edinburgh awards
Sexual abuse accusations against group's leader--80th birthday
invitation to hundreds of youngsters

The Guardian, UK/November 4, 2006
By Paul Lewis

A spiritual group whose "living god" founder has been accused of
sexually abusing young boys has become an accredited partner of the
Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, the Guardian can reveal.

Last night pressure was mounting on the charity to break its links
with the group whose followers are devoted to the preachings of 79-
year-old holy man, Sai Baba.

About 200 young people will fly to India in two weeks' time on a
humanitarian pilgrimage run by Sai Youth UK, a division of the Sri
Sathya Sai Organisation. The teenagers and young men earn their Duke
of Edinburgh awards for humanitarian work, chiefly distributing
medical aid.

The trip coincides with Sai Baba's 80th birthday and has been
arranged, organisers say, after he gave a divine commandment for the
UK's Sai youth movement to visit him for the occasion.

For decades male former devotees have alleged that the guru molested
them during so-called "interviews". During the last youth pilgrimage,
in 2004, young people were granted group interviews with the guru
after administering medical aid to villages surrounding Sai Baba's
ashram in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, although there was no evidence
of abuse.

Large numbers of young men have travelled from across the world to
study alongside and meet the guru. His supporters say their encounter
was spiritually enriching. Others, including participants in a BBC
programme, The Secret Swami, two years ago, accuse him of abuse,
claiming he massaged their testicles with oil and coerced them into
oral sex.

Sai Baba has never been charged over the sex abuse allegations.
However, the US State Department issued a travel warning after reports
of "inappropriate sexual behaviour by a prominent local religious
leader" which, officials later confirmed was a reference to Sai Baba.

Tom Sackville, a former Home Office minister and chairman of Fair, a
cult-watching and victim support group, said: "It is appallingly naive
for the award scheme to involve young people and the royal family with
an organisation whose leader is accused of paedophilia.

"Parents who plan to send their children on this month's
pilgrimage ... should be aware of the danger their children are being
exposed to."

But Peter Westgarth, chief executive of the charity, last night faced
down calls to terminate his organisation's relationship with the Sai
organisation. He said: "This is not the only religion accused of
paedophilia. Young people who are participating on these trips are
doing so because they choose to," he said. "The awards accredit the
good work they do for poor people in India. We make no judgment about
their religion. We would no sooner intervene here than we would the
Church Lads' and Girls' Brigade."

The Conservative MP Michael Gove said he would write to the charity
asking it to consider a stricter monitoring of the organisations they
they work with. "As a society we need a more determined effort to
identify and expose those religious cults and extremists that pose a
direct threat to people, so that they do not enjoy patronage that
should be directed elsewhere," he said.

Shitu Chudasama, Sai's UK national youth coordinator, defended the
trip, saying it was primarily a humanitarian mission to help
impoverished people, saying that the sex abuse claims were "totally
unfounded". He added: "We hope to have an interview with Sai Baba but
it's not guaranteed. If he wants to see us, he'll call us."

Sai Organisation's UK branch has also came into contact with royals
through the awards, something Buckingham Palace was made aware of in
September. In correspondence seen by the Guardian, Brigadier Sir Miles
Hunt-Davis, Prince Philip's private secretary, wrote: "[We] are very
keen to get this sorted out properly and finally." He said trustees of
the award would undertake legal advice before deciding how to
proceed.

In July the Sai Organisation received a certificate for their
"invaluable contribution" to the awards at a Buckingham Palace garden
party. A news story which appeared on a Sai Baba website after the
ceremony was removed after an intervention by Peter Westgarth, who
said the event had been misrepresented.

In the posting, Mr Chudasama recounted the moment he delivered a
speech to "various dignitaries, diplomats, ministers [and] famous
celebrities" at the palace. "I was the last speaker called up, and
suddenly a confidence, a joy, engulfed my being," he said. "I
attributed everything to our founder Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. As
I spoke I watched the sea of faces, they were hanging from my every
word and there was a look of excitement on their faces as if to say
'why have we not heard of this organisation before?'."

Mr Chudasama also attended a private audience with Prince Philip at St
James's Palace last year. "Prince Philip showed a very keen interest
in our youth and asked many questions," Mr Chudasama wrote in a Sai
newsletter. "I also had the opportunity to mention ... that we drew
our inspiration and motivation from our founder Sri Sathya Sai Baba;
he paused for a few seconds and then said: "Very good".

Backstory

Saytha Sai Baba, who has an estimated 30 million followers worldwide,
is possibly India's most controversial holy man. He gained a following
in his teens when he claimed to have divine powers and, later, said he
was an incarnation of God. His teachings are benign - his most famous
mantra is "Love All, Serve All" - and he encourages followers, which
include many of India's political elite, to undertake humanitarian
work. He purports to be able to miraculously conjure sacred ash and
expensive jewellery into the palm of his hand, as if out of thin air.
Opponents dismiss his miracles as party tricks. The Sai Organisation
claims to have more than 1,200 Saytha Sai Baba Centres in more than
100 countries.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba20.html

Guru who gives us no answers
The Scotsman/June 18, 2004
By Tom Adair

The Secret Swami might have veered towards the amusing - in an "Oh my
God, how gullible can you be?" kind of way - had it not been for the
repeated allegations of sex abuse.

Sai Baba, the swami in question, had started off looking like some old
bloke with an ego as big as his bank account. There he sat, in his
opulent ashram at Puttaparthi, near Bangalore, dressed in blinding
canary-yellow and sporting a head of what looked like jet-black pubic
hair - a mane of Leo Sayer proportions; as if he had poked his tongue
into a light socket. Count your blessings - he didn't sing.

Instead, he did tricks, producing trinkets from his fingers - gold
watches, bracelets, stuff with Ratners written all over it. Maybe he'd
read the Paul Daniels Trickster's Guide to Palming, and practised like
mad without the distraction of the lovely Debbie McGee (it later
transpired that Debbie would not have been a distraction). The swami's
followers adored his "miracles" and gasped.

Ten thousand worshippers formed a permanent camp inside the ashram,
believing Sai Baba to be an avatar - a god on Earth. He attracted
attention from burned out hippies, the ones with smoke still doping
their nostrils. Sometimes they smiled their faraway smiles; sometimes
they spoke. One guy believed he'd been in communion with Sai Baba for
21 years before he'd visited "god" in his pad. Sai Baba was quick to
spot white faces wearing dollar signs. As these dupes gawped up from
the crowd, he would single them out for special attention.

The documentary took a much less wide-eyed approach than Sai Baba's
flock, denouncing him from the start as a sham whose ashram resembled
a market place, not a shrine. Oh yes, he appeared to have done some
good - constructing a hospital in the district, providing free
medicare for the poor, and supplying clean water - however, the £40
million it cost was funded by wealthy acolytes, faithfully following
Sai Baba's earnest exhortation: "Wherever you see a sick person -
there is your field of service." And yet, Sai Baba's secret motto
turned out to be different, more like: "Wherever you see a gullible
young believer, (boys only apply) bingo! - sexual opportunity."

The programme gathered American former devotees who claimed that Sai
Baba had abused them, had exposed himself to them, indulged in oral
sex and then sworn them to secrecy. This sexual degradation had shaken
their faith. These victims included a father and a son who were
alleged to have been abused over many years. It was implied that many
Indian boys had also been taken advantage of but were too scared to
make public statements.

All this would matter if it affected just one child. What makes it
worse is that Sai Baba has a worldwide following of 160 million people
and is visited by heads of state. He is thus respectable, a notable
Indian figure.

The allegations went unanswered. When duly challenged, a twitchy
Indian government minister blew his top and accused the reporter of
impertinence. Meanwhile the US embassy's website has posted warnings
to potential visitors.

Whether or not it will shake the blind faith of the devotees remains
to be seen. However, the programme was an example of investigative
reporting all too rare these days - getting inside and under the
issue. It may have even stopped further innocents from falling prey to
the avatar's whim.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba19.html

Spiritual Depths
The Guardian (UK)/June 18, 2004
By Rupert Smith

It's difficult to write about religion without offending someone, but
mercifully we're reviewing a television programme here, and not the
mixture of wishful thinking and wilful credulity that leads people to
worship soi-disant gurus such as Swami Sai Baba. BBC2's This World
strand last night gave us The Secret Swami, an entertaining hour that
made a compelling case against Sai Baba, portraying him as a charlatan
and an abuser.

Young men who claimed to have been sexually abused by Sai Baba related
hair-raising stories of "private interviews" in which the not-so-holy
man pulled his skirt over his head and invited them to get down and
dirty. Hilariously, one Hindu scholar reminded us that this is a
practice sanctioned by neither scripture nor tradition. "Worship of
the linga does not include doing the blow-job."

What started out as a routine denunciation developed into something
more sinister. Sadly, the moment I see a man in a dress surrounded by
grinning worshippers, I'm looking for a catch - and it didn't take
much to prove that Sai Baba's "miracles" were nothing more than a bit
of old-fashioned sleight of hand. On that basis, we might all end up
worshipping David Blaine, which is a worry. But reporter Tanya Datta
did her job properly, and went far beneath the surface of magic tricks
and gaudy tat. She found that Sai Baba bought the eternal gratitude of
rural Indian villagers by paying for clean water supplies, and that he
caused a massive hospital to be built, funded by one of his followers,
Isaac Tigrett, who co-founded the Hard Rock Cafe chain. She discovered
also that the Indian government, rightly mindful of the rural vote,
has turned a blind eye to claims of wrongdoing in the Baba camp. A
government official got very shirty indeed with Ms Datta, shouting
denials before he'd even heard the allegations. In these cases, "no"
usually does mean "yes".

There was little room amid all the skulduggery for any real
examination of Sai Baba's theology; all we learned was that he is an
avatar, although of whom was not made clear, and that he conveniently
embraces all religions. Without any real exegesis of his ideas, it was
hard to know exactly what his followers believed in - it surely can't
just have been Baba's ability to produce fake Rolexes out of thin air,
or cough up eggs.

But even former disciples couldn't shed much light on what turned them
into such true believers. A nice family from Arkansas were so crazy
about Sai Baba that they encouraged their teenage son to spend as much
time with the guru as possible. Despite allegations of abuse at the
hands of Sai Baba, the son came out with the astonishing comment, "we
are all tools, and we all have to be around for Swami to use - if he
needs a screwdriver".

An hour wasn't enough to do the subject justice, and for once I was
left wanting more. This isn't something I'd say lightly about
television documentaries, which usually need to be edited by 50%. The
mystery of Sai Baba, of his apparent protection by the authorities, of
his canny manipulation of the rural poor and his inexplicable appeal
to rich westerners, only deepened. Astonishingly, Sai Baba has not yet
had the collar of his robe fingered by the long arm of the law.

Armand Leroi, the handsome biologist, turned his attention to the
tricky subject of racial difference in the final part of Human Mutants
(Channel 4). There was some fun stuff about excessive facial hair and
random skin pigmentation to pave the way to Leroi's central thesis,
that "we are all mutants - but some of us are more mutant than
others".

With this in mind, he gently introduced the idea of "a new race
genetics", which was nowhere near as sinister as it sounded. Genome
mapping enabled scientists to identify racial background according to
four main human groups - and, against this kind of science, "terms
like 'black' and 'white' don't describe anything that's real any
more".

This would have come as cold comfort to a Cape Town housewife who went
to bed as a white woman and woke up the next morning black. Shunned by
her family, she died in poverty, which suggests that Leroi's DNA
utopia is a way off just yet.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba18.html

Sai Baba: God-man or con man?
Basava Premanand is India's leading guru-buster

BBC News/June 17, 2004
By Tanya Datta

He believes that the country's biggest spiritual leader, Sri Satya Sai
Baba, is a charlatan and must be exposed.

Basava Premanand has been burgled... again.

It is the third time in just one month. But he is in no doubt of the
thieves' motives.

He suspects they were looking for evidence that he has collected for
over 30 years against India's leading spiritual guru, Sri Satya Sai
Baba.

Mr Premanand believes this evidence proves the self-proclaimed "God-
man", Sai Baba, is not just a fraud, but a dangerous sexual abuser.

"Sai Baba is nothing but a mafia man, conning the people and making
himself rich", he says of his bete noire.

As India's leading guru-buster, Basava Premanand is the scourge of all
miracle-makers.

He is the founder of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations
and the editor of a monthly periodical called The Indian Sceptic.

He believes that it is his duty to dispel the "curse of gullibility
blighting his country in the form of myth and superstition", and
replace it instead with the "gospel of pure, scientific
understanding".

Since 1976, he has waged a bitter war against Sai Baba, a man who
commands a following of millions both in India and abroad. His
devotees believe him to be an Avatar, or incarnation of God in human
form.

But to Mr Premanand, this God is anything but holy.

Allegations

Rumours about Sai Baba sexually abusing young male devotees have been
circulating for years.

In 1976 a former American follower,Tal Brooke, wrote a book called
Avatar of the Night: The Hidden Side of Sai Baba. In it, he referred
to the guru's sexual exploits.

But Brooke's allegations were dismissed out of hand by the tightly
controlled Sai Baba Organisation.

Dr Michael Goldstein, chairman of the international Sai Baba
organisation, admitted he had heard rumours, but told us that he did
not believe them. He said: "My heart and my conscience tell me that it
is not possible."

But in the last four years, and with the growth of the internet, the
tide of claims against Sai Baba has become a groundswell.

Former devotees such as Alaya Rahm and Mark Roche, featured in the the
BBC film Secret Swami, are coming forward with increasingly graphic
stories of the guru's serious sexual exploitation.

Their own experiences bear an uncanny resemblance, yet span a time
frame of almost 30 years.

Both had been subjected to Sai Baba rubbing oil on their genitals.

"He took me aside", said Alaya Rahm, "put the oil on his hands, told
me to drop my pants and rubbed my genitals with the oil. I was really
taken aback."

All the allegations against Sai Baba so far have been made by
Westerners.

But Mr Premanand says that there are many Indians who also claim to
have been abused but are too afraid to speak out.

Well-connected

It is no surprise that Indian victims are scared of reprisals. Sai
Baba's influence among the power elite of India is impressive.

Prime ministers, presidents, judges and generals, have all come to the
ashram (religious retreat) in Puttaparthi in southern India, to pay
their respects.

The previous prime minister of India, Mr Atal Vajpayee, once issued a
letter on his official notepaper calling the attacks on Sai Baba
"wild, reckless and concocted."

Sai Baba also enjoys a close relationship with the state police. A
former head of police once acted as his personal chauffeur.

None of this, however, deters Mr Premanand who has doggedly pursued
Sai Baba over the years through the courts, the media and several
embarrassing books and exposures.

Little wonder that his campaign has enraged some of the holy man's
supporters.

To date, Basava Premanand has survived four murder attempts and bears
the scars from several savage beatings.

In 1986, he was arrested by the police for marching to Puttaparthi
with 500 volunteers for a well-publicised confrontation with Sai
Baba.

Later that year, he took Sai Baba to court for violating the Gold
Control Act by producing gold necklaces out of thin air without the
permission of a Gold Control Administrator.

When his case was dismissed, Mr Premanand appealed on the grounds that
spiritual power is not a defence recognised in law.

Break-in
In June 1993, the peace of the ashram was shattered when a gruesome
incident took place.

Four male devotees, who were close to Sai Baba, broke into their
guru's private quarters late at night armed with knives.

Their motives are unclear. Some say they were going to warn their guru
about corruption among the higher echelons of the ashram. Others say
they were going to kidnap or even kill Sai Baba.

They were stopped by Sai Baba's personal attendants and in the violent
struggle that ensued, two of the attendants were killed and two left
seriously wounded.

Sai Baba managed to escape through a secret flight of stairs and raise
the alarm.

Just before the police arrived, the four men escaped to Sai Baba's
bedroom. It was there, the police say, they shot the intruders out of
self defence.

Mr Premanand claimed a cover up and went to court.

He says: "The central government stopped the investigation, because if
the investigation takes place, a lot of things will come out like
economic offences and sex offences."

He was outraged that Sai Baba - one of the key witnesses to the events
of that night - had not been questioned.

Over the next three years, he took his case all the way to the Supreme
Court, before he was eventually defeated.

Today, this sprightly septuagenarian is as busy as ever, collecting
and collating more information. Mr Premanand is preparing for another
battle.

"This," he says mischievously, "is going to be the greatest fight of
my life."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba15.html

BBC2 uncovers secrets behind India's Secret Swami
Aim/June 14, 2004

The most popular of all Indian Godmen, Sai Baba has always been the
Teflon God, the untouchable, charismatic man worshipped by Indian
Prime Ministers, Presidents and peasants. His power over both the
influential and the downtrodden goes to the heart of Indian society
and raises serious questions about the social health of the world's
fastest emerging economy.

Sai Baba claims to be a living God and to millions, his word is truth;
his ability to bring clean water and healthcare to thousands, proof of
divinity.

In a programme that explores the nature of belief, This World travels
from India to California, where the generation whose devotion and
donations helped Sai Baba to power are unravelling at the seams. Hard
Rock Café owner Isaac Tigrett sent Sai Baba's message around the world
by making the Godman's Love All Serve All mantra the corporate slogan
of his multi-million empire. He now has to confront the fact that his
God may have been a sexual abuser.

This World features the story of a family who gave their entire lives
to a man they believed was God, only to discover he was exacting a
terrible price: the sexual innocence of their son. In an intimate and
powerful portrait a family talks openly about their betrayal and the
man who controlled their lives.

"The being which I called Sai Baba, the living God that I had taken
into my heart had been truly abusing my son, for so long. I felt
completely betrayed..." says Marissa, a former devotee. Another, Alaya
says: "I remember him saying, if you don't do what I say, your life
will be filled with pain and suffering."

This programme is the first to film inside Sai Baba's Ashram for a
number of years and aims to come closer to the true "face of God" than
ever before.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba16.html

Man Arrested With Gun at Sai Baba's Ashram
The Hindustan Times/January 18, 2002

Bangalore, India -- A 26-year-old man who allegedly tried to shoot Sai
Baba on Thursday with an air pistol at his ashram in Whitefield on the
outskirts of Bangalore, was overpowered by ashram volunteers. The air
pistol and some pellets were recovered from the man, Somasundaram, the
police said. Somasundaram was overpowered when he started running
towards Sai Baba who was emerging from a building to give darshan,
eyewitnesses said.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba13.html

British law against Sai Baba sought
Times of India/September 5, 2001
By Rashmee Z. Ahmed

London -- Campaigners against religious cults across western Europe
are trying to persuade the British government to follow the French and
legislate against movements such as Sai Baba and the Moonies.

Tom Sackville, a former British minister and current chairman of the
anti-cult organisation Family Action Information and Resource (FAIR),
told The Times of India, "the French legislation of two months ago has
enormously encouraged my 15-year battle against exploitative cults
such as that of Sai Baba."

The anti-cult campaign comes even as The Times, London, carried
extensive reportage of Sai Baba on Monday, questioning his role in the
"mysterious deaths of three British men", which campaigners admit are
hard to prove were directly caused by the guru.

The newspaper, which flagged its investigation as "exclusive", said
"Sai Baba's activities are being studied by the (British) Foreign
Office, which is considering issuing an unprecedented warning against
the guru to travellers."

It said one of the men had "complained of being repeatedly sexually
molested by Sai Baba at his ashram in Puttaparthi near Bangalore."

There is growing British press interest in the man they describe as
"Indian mystic and miracle worker" to the rich, famous and titled such
as the Duchess of York and an architect known to be close to Prince
Charles.

Commentators say this is largely because Sai Baba has a substantial
European fan following, alongside a growing number of hostile and
vocal former devotees who accuse him of physical, mental and monetary
abuse.

The Internet war launched by former devotees across western Europe,
including David Bailey, a Welsh concert pianist once considered to be
Sai Baba's right-hand man, has focussed unsavoury publicity on Sai
Baba.

However, Sai Baba's London headquarters continues to reject all the
allegations.

Several parliamentary questions in the last five years have drawn the
British government's attention to Sai Baba's alleged misconduct. But,
British MPs and anti-cult campaigners say the government has always
maintained that the number of British cases are too few to merit
action.

But now, a new area of concern has arisen according to The Times,
which says Sai Baba has infiltrated the British school system in a
dangerous catch 'em young policy.

The newspaper says more than 500 British schools are being taught
according to "Sai Baba-influenced educational programmes". It says the
programmes are promoted by two charities, the Sathya Sai Education in
Human Values Trust UK and the Human Values Foundation.

Former minister Sackville says the development is worrying because "it
is just like we wouldn't want or allow far-right groups such as the
British National Party (BNP) to be talking to our children in school."

Admitting the BNP was an extreme example, he said "the principle we
are keen to impress on the British government is that just like the
French, we have to make it a criminal offence to exploit people in
vulnerable situations."

Anti-cult campaigners say that their cause has been strengthened
because UNESCO pulled out of an educational conference at Puttaparthi
last year.

They say that if the French legislation is followed by other European
countries, it could eventually become European Union law and would
severely limit the activities of movements such as that of Sai Baba.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba12.html

Suicide, sex and the guru

The reputation of Sai Baba, a holy man to the rich and famous, has
been tarnished by mysterious deaths and allegations of sexual abuse

August 27, 2001
By Dominic Kennedy

In a world of pain and sorrow, a smiling little man in a saffron robe
who can cure misery by magic is a bewitching prospect.

To millions of followers around the world, Sai Baba is a benevolent
spiritual leader whose hospitals and schools work tirelessly for the
advancement of the poor. But an investigation by The Times today
discloses that three British men have apparently taken their own lives
after becoming followers of the miracle worker. Two of them were
encouraged to believe that he could cure their medical problems. One
of those also said that he had been touched intimately by the Sai
Baba.

This is the same Sai Baba who is adored and indulged by the
international jet set. The Duchess of York had the treat of watching
him produce a gold watch and cross from thin air when she visited his
ashram in India.

The Prince of Wales's architectural adviser, Keith Critchlow, designed
a vast, stunning hospital for Sai Baba, which has been compared to St
Peter's in Rome and a maharaja's palace. "The most influential holy
man in India today," is how the respected architect describes the
guru.

The hospital, mostly financed by Isaac Tigrett, the wealthy American
founder of the Hard Rock Café chain of restaurants, treats the humble
people of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. So it was with
righteous indignation that Sai Baba, in a rare fit of public anger,
has turned on the band of disillusioned disciples who are now
tarnishing his name.

Jesus Christ, said Sai Baba to a large crowd of devotees, underwent
many hardships and was put on the cross because of jealousy. In those
days there was only one Judas to betray him, but now there are
thousands.

The holy man alleged that his detractors were being bribed to lie
about him because of fear of his growing popularity. "People are
trying to stop me but can do nothing," he said. "People love and
follow Sai because of the truth I stand for and the love that is my
basis."

Detractors are casting doubt on Sai Baba's miracles, suggesting that
he is little more than a conjuror with a limited repertoire of jaded
tricks. A financial row over the £13 million fortune of the British
film actor James Mason, whose widow became a Sai Baba devotee, is
smouldering. Most devastating is the suggestion that Sai Baba might
have been abusing his power over young male followers by indulging in
sexual activity with them.

Sai Baba was born Sathyanarayana Raju on November 23, 1926 in the tiny
village of Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh.When he was only 14, Sai Baba
- already magically producing candles and pencils for school friends -
surprised his family by announcing that he was the reincarnation of
Sai Baba of Shirdi, a miraculous old Indian sage who died in 1918.

Today Sai Baba's birthplace is home to an ashram that can accommodate
10,000 pilgrims. The obscure village has grown to cater for Sai Baba's
followers, of which there are more than 20 million worldwide. They
include some of India's most influential people. The legendary batsman
Sachin Tendulkar, who helps to organise cricket matches at Sai Baba's
stadium, says that he "worships" the guru.

The director-general of police in Andhra Pradesh, H. J. Dora, acts as
Sai Baba's chauffeur when the spiritual leader visits the state
capital, Hyderabad. Judges and top civil servants flock for audiences
with him. The Indian Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee, another follower,
has opened a new Sai Baba hospital in Bangalore. In a lofty tribute,
the premier said that Sai Baba has shown humanity the path of
liberation which goes beyond freedom from worldly attachments.

However, the first cracks in faith in Sai Baba's magical powers came
about because of a visit by a previous prime minister, Narasimha Rao,
also a devotee.For this special occasion, Sai Baba appeared to
materialise a gold watch from nowhere. But when Indian state
television workers played back film of the incident in slow motion,
they saw that the miracle was a sleight-of-hand hoax. The clip was
never broadcast in India but has been widely circulated on videotape
there. Sai Baba's most common miracle is to produce "sacred ash" from
between his fingers.

Sometimes he pulls shiny, solid religious artefacts from his mouth.
But magicians who have analysed these wonders say they are nothing
more than old and simple tricks. Sai Baba is being challenged on
another more prosaic front. Questions are being asked about the
fundraising techniques employed by his followers. Some are accused of
targeting vulnerable rich people and claiming that the miracle worker
might be able to cure the afflictions of old age.

One of Sai Baba's most devout followers was Clarissa Mason, the second
wife of the film star James Mason. When Clarissa died of cancer in
1994, she willed a large part of her late husband's £13 million estate
to the cult, although, due to a dispute with Mason's children,
Portland and Morgan, who contend that the estate was not hers to will
in the first place, it will be some time before the cult can hope to
see any of the Mason millions.

Clarissa Mason believed utterly in the powers of Sai Baba, filling her
house near Lake Geneva with pictures of the "godman". Her legacy has
gone to a trust whose beneficiaries are believed by Mason's children
to include a follower of Sai Baba.

But more potentially damaging than claims about money are the sexual
allegations against Sai Baba. These were first publicised as long ago
as 1976, when Tal Brooke, a disenchanted American devotee, wrote
Avatar of Night. Over the years, the description by disillusioned
followers of intimate acts involving Sai Baba has persisted.

The suggestion is that Sai Baba grants one-to-one audiences to young
men, who believe they are in the presence of a living god. This may
entail a high level of intimacy and the men allowing their private
parts to be touched or fondled by the guru.

There have been no prosecutions. A complaint was lodged with India's
Central Bureau of Investigation on March 12, 2001 but there has been
no result. In the United States, though, anti-Sai Baba campaigners are
trying to persuade the authorities to open investigations into the
alleged molestation of American citizens who are minors. The co-
ordinator of this American campaign says that he has been interviewed
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation but no formal inquiry is under
way.

So has Sai Baba, the most worshipped sage of the Orient, really been
groping youthful followers. One innocent explanation is provided by
Stuart Jones, a member of Sai Baba's Bristol and Bath group. He points
out that there is a possible cultural misunderstanding at play. In
yoga, Jones explains, one of the energy points on the body is below
the testicles, an area sometimes stimulated by a teacher such as Sai
Baba.

"When I was out there, it happened to a couple of friends of mine, but
it was more like, how can I say, doctor's surgery. There was no
sexuality involved. One chap said that a tremendous amount of energy
was suddenly released in him and he felt wonderful afterwards. I don't
mean ejaculation. It was like suddenly feeling wonderful. Sometimes he
rubs the chest or the forehead where these other points are."

Talk of "energy points" does not endear Sai Baba to the Indian
Rationalists Association, an organisation of atheists and doubters
which seeks to debunk organised religion and disprove all miracles.
They denounce him as the biggest fraud of the "god industry". Joseph
Edamaruku, the association's president, says: "He has consistently
refused to subject himself to an independent examination. He raises
enormous amounts of money from India and around the world. We do not
believe claims that it is spent on hospitals and charitable works."

One charitable field where Sai Baba's followers do seem to be most
active is education. Sai Baba's teachings, however, are a collection
of banal truisms and platitudes. The most famous utterances he has
made in a six decade-long career as a living god are "Help ever, hurt
never" and "Love all, serve all". Few are likely to argue with such a
simplistic and universal moral code. He broadens his appeal further by
allowing devotees to continue practising their own religion while
paying homage to him.

Sai Baba's children's course, Education in Human Values, is taught in
schools in 100 countries. It promotes five qualities: truth (satya),
righteousness (dharma), peace (shanti), love (prema) and nonviolence
(ahimsa). Education in Human Values rejects rote learning, emphasising
Indian techniques such as "silent sitting", quotation, story-telling,
song and group activities.

Sai Baba's message reaches British schoolchildren through two
charities. The first is named in his honour, the Sathya Sai Education
in Human Values Trust UK, which claims to have had contact with 80
schools. Typical of its activities is a summer camp held at
Christchurch Primary School in Ilford, East London, several weeks ago
where 100 children painted, played games and sang. Courses have been
cleverly designed to fit into Key Stages 1 to 4 of the National
Curriculum, targeting children aged seven to 16.

The charity states that it does not promote any particular religion.
Carole Alderman, the founder, a former ChildLine volunteer, has no
teaching qualifications. She admits to using some of Sai Baba's
quotations but says: "We don't teach about Sai Baba at all."

She adds: "I have witnessed a lot of his miracles. I have seen people
going in with crutches or wheelchairs and come out walking. I have
seen him materialise things many times a day. He just knows
everything." Asked about the sexual allegations, she says: "It's
totally unfounded. Anybody who actually knows him, knows it is."

Another British charity, the Human Values Foundation, says it has
reached more than 500 schools. Its chairman, Dennis Eagan, said "The
foundation has nothing to do with Sai Baba."

But the Human Values Foundation's programme is also called "Education
for Human Values". It promotes Sai Baba's same five virtues, using
"silent sitting", activities, songs, quotations and stories. Its
president, June Auton, has been a regular visitor to Sai Baba's
ashram. She has been described by Barry Pittard, a former English
lecturer at Sai Baba's college in India, as "synonymous with Swami's
Human Values Programme."

Auton told The Times: "I'm not going to discuss anything about my
religion at all on the phone. My religion is my business." Pressed,
she would only say: "I do attend my local church." It is the recent
suicides, however, that may hurt Sai Baba the most in Britain.
Suicides and suspicious deaths have long marred his reputation. A
German man was found hanging from a rafter in Puttaparthi in the early
1980s. A father and daughter took fatal overdoses in Bangalore in 1999
after failing to get an audience with the guru.

In a puzzling incident in June 1993, Sai Baba was attacked by four
young male devotees armed with knives. Two of the guru's bodyguards
were stabbed to death. After the four youths, long-time followers of
Sai Baba, locked themselves in a room, they were all shot dead by
police. Challenging faith in a man of miracles can be painful. At Sai
Baba's Central London base in Clerkenwell, there is reluctance to
confront the allegations of sexual harassment, suicides and financial
maneuvering.

Dee Puri, at the London headquarters, denounces the suggestion that
Sai Baba takes money from the rich, pointing out that at his 28-year-
old London premises: "Entrance is free. There is no money going to
Baba at all.

As for the suggestions of sexual harassment, she told The Times: "I
don't want to talk about it because there is no such thing. I think
such conversations disturb me and my beliefs. The organisation is most
unhappy that you have tried to hurt us. Nobody will speak to you
unless you want to write something which is truth, which is not
controversial.

"As far as I am concerned, Baba is a great, great guru. Thirty years I
have been a devotee of Baba and millions and millions of people are,
so I would very respectfully ask you please not to put that sort of
question to me."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba11.html

Three die after putting faith in guru
The Times British News/August 27, 2001
By Dominic Kennedy

Three British men have died mysteriously after becoming followers of
an Indian mystic famed as a 'god man' and miracle worker. Sai Baba's
activities are being studied by the Foreign Office which is
considering issuing an unprecedented warning against the guru to
travellers.

The Times has learnt that three Britons have apparently taken their
lives after placing hope in India's most popular holy man.

One of them had complained of being repeatedly sexually molested by
Sai Baba at his ashram in Puttaparthi near Bangalore.

Michael Pender, an HIV-positive student, was found dead at a London
hostel after taking alcohol and painkillers. He had already tried to
commit suicide at the holy man's headquarters.

Aran Edwards hanged himself at home in Cardiff after joining a Sai
Baba support group and being encouraged to write to the guru to solve
his psychological problems.

Mr Edwards sent a flurry of anxious letters but was devastated after
receiving no replies and being told that the guru did not read his
mail.

Andrew Richardson, a South Africa-born British national, jumped off a
building in India shortly after visiting Sai Baba's ashram.

Among visitors who have paid respects to Sai Baba are the Duchess of
York, the Prince of Wales's architect Keith Critchlow, the cricketer
Sachin Tendulkar and the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Sai Baba's message is being preached in more than 500 British schools
through charities which claim to provide non-denominational education
in 'human values.'

Tom Sackville, a former Home Office Minister, last night urged the
Government to take decisive action to warn teachers and pilgrims of
the dangers of becoming involved with Sai Baba. The guru's reputation
is plummeting after the United Nations cancelled a conference at his
headquarters, issuing a condemnation of his alleged sex abuse of
youths and boys.

Unicef pulled out of a conference it was due to sponsor with the
guru's educational organisation in Puttaparthi last September.

The UN's cultural agency issued a trenchant statement: 'The
organisation is deeply concerned about widely reported allegations of
sexual abuse involving youths and children that have been levelled at
the leader of the movement in question, Sathya Sai Baba.

'Whilst it is not for Unesco to pronounce itself in this regard, the
organisation restates its firm moral and practical commitment to
combating the sexual exploitation of children, in application of the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires states to
protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and violence.'

In hundreds of British schools, Sai Baba-influenced educational
programmes on 'human values' are currently being promoted as part of
the National Curriculum.

The Charity Commission met the trustees of one of the educational
charities involved, the Sathya Sai Education in Human Values Trust UK,
last year and 'found no concerns,' a spokesman said.

Mr Sackville, chairman of the anti-cult organisation Fair (Family
Action Information and Resource), said that he had successfully
intervened to persuade a girls' school to reject a Sai Baba-inspired
course.

'Schools are not on their guard because at official level they are not
given any steer,' Mr Sackville said. 'Some other countries would have
had official warnings.'

He said that Whitehall was strongly opposed to letting the British
Government apply sanctions to cults, which civil servants describe
respectfully as 'new religious movements.'

As for the Charity Commission's clean bill of health to the Sai Baba
educational organisation, Mr Sackville said: 'There's a lot of very
naive people around in these government institutions.'

He called on the Foreign Office to issue a warning against Sai Baba
along the lines of recommendations to travellers to beware the dangers
of Aids and violence abroad. The Foreign Office is believed to be
considering putting out just such advice.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba10.html

'I sought peace and couldn't find it'
The Times British News/August 27, 2001
By Michael Dynes and Dominic Kennedy

Durban -- Michael Pender, a student, hoped that Sai Baba would be able
to cure him of HIV. Like thousands of devotees from around the world,
Mr Pender went on a pilgrimage to Sai Baba's ashram in Puttaparthi,
southern India, expecting to find magic and divinity. Instead Mr
Pender, known as "Mitch," was found dead after taking tablets in the
lonely bedroom of a hostel for the homeless in Highbury, North London.
He was 23.

Kathleen Ord, who first told him of Sai Baba's teachings, has since
destroyed her books and videos on the holy man. She said: "I blame
myself in many ways because, if I hadn't introduced them, Mitch would
probably be alive now. That's what he went to India for, thinking he'd
find a cure.

"He tried to commit suicide in the ashram. He had overdosed on drugs
more than once. He had some strange, very powerful experiences there.
There was something sexual that was frightening." Her son, Keith, has
given a detailed account of what Mr Pender said in his last weeks
about meeting Sai Baba. The guru flattered the British student by
describing him as "the reincarnation of St Michael." Mr Ord's
evidence, posted on the Internet, states: "He told me that the very
first private interview that he had with SB was a sexual encounter.

"At first he couldn't believe any of this was happening. It felt
unreal and frightening. But then after the first interview he thought
SB must have been showing him something about himself . . . that there
must have been some spiritual or 'divine' explanation behind the
swami's actions.

"But after the fourth interview, he became very despondent and
confused about the whole thing; each interview was a repetition of the
first . . . Baba 'materialised' an emerald ring on the fifth interview
and gave him money on the sixth.

"After telling me of his experiences, Michael became quite depressed."
On January 12, 1990, Mr Pender's body was found by the supervisor of
his hostel. Traces of paracetamol and alcohol were found in his blood,
but a pathologist found it impossible to determine if they were lethal
doses. An open verdict was recorded at an inquest in St Pancras.

Aran Edwards, a classical guitarist and postgraduate theology student
at the University of Wales in Newport, joined Sai Baba's Bath and
Bristol support group. David Bailey, a concert pianist from Conwy,
North Wales, who had become one of the guru's closest British aides,
met Aran with the group.

"He was sort of persuaded that Sai Baba looked after him, did
everything for him and that he should write to Sai Baba with his
problems," Mr Bailey said.

"He was quite an ill person, mentally unstable and needed orthodox
help. In the end, he wrote a couple of dozen or more letters to Sai
Baba. The group had told him this was what to do.

"He used to ring me from phone boxes pleading with me. There were 35
phone calls, I suppose . . . he was absolutely desperate that I should
talk to Sai Baba for him because he was in such a state and had
written all these letters which he had sent out and hadn't had a
reply. Could I please help because I was Sai Baba's right-hand man?
"At the end I said, 'Wake up. He doesn't even read these letters'. He
was so distraught about the situation, he decided to commit suicide."

Aran Edwards, a single man, was found hanged from a staircase at his
home in Cardiff, on April 19, 1999. He was 37. A suicide verdict was
recorded by the coroner.

Stuart Jones, of the Bath and Bristol group, said: "He was a very
fragile kind of person, very sensitive, very gentle in nature. If you
are thinking there is a link, I know for a fact there wasn't a link in
the sense of all the allegations going about Sai Baba. He was in
distress long before."

Aran never visited Sai Baba in India. But Andrew Richardson, a British
national born in South Africa, did. He made a pilgrimage to Sai Baba's
ashram, booking in for a week, but mysteriously leaving after only two
days.

On September 19, 1996, Mr Richardson travelled to Bangalore and hired
a taxi at the railway station to one of the city's tallest buildings,
the State Bank of Mysore. Mr Richardson flung banknotes and
travellers' cheques in the air, ran into the bank and up the stairs to
the eighth floor, where he smashed a window and leapt 84ft to the
ground, killing himself. He was 33.

Two letters were found on his body. One to Sai Baba outlined his quest
for spiritual enlightenment. The second was a suicide note saying he
was in a deep depression: "I came to India in search of peace but
could not find it." His mother, Deirdre, at her home near
Pietermaritzburg, said: "Andrew wanted to see Sai Baba, but was also
heading to Calcutta to see Mother Teresa . . . All he wanted to do was
work with the poor."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba9.html

Sex Scandal swirls around Sai Baba
Cult News Summary/December 2004

Sai Baba, a controversial Indian "holy man" presides over a spiritual
kingdom that includes one of the world's largest ashrams. He claims to
have millions of followers.

But the guru, who is approaching 80, has a history of sexual abuse
allegations that in recent years has made media headlines around the
world.

Former followers of the aging swami reportedly call him "a sexual
harasser, a fraud and even a pedophile."

One man says Sai Baba ordered him to drop his pants and allow the guru
to massage his penis. He later said, "Sai Baba was my God -- who dares
to refuse God? He was free to do whatever he wanted to do with me; he
had my trust, my faith, my love and my friendship; he had me in
totality."

Despite such revelations and the growing scandal that surrounds Sai
Baba he continues to be worshipped at his ashram. Twice a day he
parades about and makes appearances to the faithful, entertaining them
with what seems like little more than magic tricks.

Sai Baba's so-called "materializations" include making watches and
jewelry appear out of "thin air."

At functions his followers rock back and forth with "shining eyes"
seemingly in trance-like or hypnotic states. Perhaps in this condition
they are prepared to believe almost anything.

The guru holds court within lavishly appointed rooms decorated with
gold leaf and hanging chandeliers.

"Sometimes I think the ashram is a madhouse and Swami is the
director," said one recently devoted disciple. Does Sai Baba prey upon
the psychologically and emotionally vulnerable? "When you don't have
problems, you don't go to the ashram," says a disciple.

But there may be casualties amongst the true believers.

A Malaysian woman reportedly had a psychotic breakdown, attacked
ashram workers and was taken into police custody. She sat in a holding
area almost catatonic, mumbling "darshan, darshan, darshan"
repeatedly.

Sai Baba has accumulated substantial influence and prestige within
India. That influence includes some prominent leaders such as former
Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. The Times of India reported in 1993
that the guru's followers include "governors, chief ministers,
assorted politicians, business tycoons, newspaper magnates, jurists,
sportsmen, academics and, yes, even scientists."

His popularity is easy to understand. Sai Baba has built a hospital
that offers free services, partly financed by a $20 million donation
from Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of the Hard Rock Café. Its pink façade
makes it look more like a palace than a hospital. And in the entrance
area there are images of Sai Baba.

Sai Baba's charities have reportedly been plagued though by "rumors of
chicanery and worse."

Nevertheless Illustrated Weekly of India stated, "God or a fraud, no
one doubts the good work done by the Sai organization."

But does the guru use his accumulated good will and "God-man" status
to get into people's pants?

The sex abuse claims are strikingly similar and seem to fit the same
pattern.

"During my 'private audiences' with Sai Baba, Sai Baba used to touch
my private parts and regularly massage my private parts, indicating
that this was for spiritual purposes," wrote one former devotee. "He
grabbed my head and pushed it into his groin area. He made moaning
sounds. As soon as he took the pressure off my head and I lifted my
head, Sai Baba lifted his dress and presented me a semi-erect member,
telling me that this was my good luck chance, and jousted his hips
towards my face," the man said.

When the devotee later talked about his sexual encounter he was thrown
out of the ashram.

"Each time I saw Baba, his hand would gradually make more prominent
connections to my groin," said another former follower.

All of the allegations reportedly involved mostly teenage boys and
young men in their 20s.

This story is hardly new. In 1970 a book by Tal Brooke titled "Lord of
the Air" later renamed "Avatar of Night," told the story of a devoted
disciple's disillusionment upon learning of Sai Baba's sexual
appetite.

More recently a document called "Findings" accumulated accounts of
alleged sexual exploitation and abuse from the guru's former
followers.

An excerpt from the document reads, "Whilst still at the ashram, the
worst thing for me -- as a mother of sons -- occurred when a young
man, a college student, came to our room, to plead with David, 'Please
Sir, do something to stop him sexually abusing us&These sons of
devotees, unable to bear their untenable position of being unwilling
participants in a pedophile situation any longer, yet unable to share
this with their parents because they would be disbelieved, placed
their trust in David; a trust which had built over his five years as a
visiting professor of music to the Sai college."

Since the release of "Findings" the Sai Baba sex scandal has grown and
gained momentum.

A California man named Glen Meloy, who spent 26 years as a devotee
wanted to launch a class-action lawsuit against the Sai Organization
in America. "You've got all these kids who are scared to death to do
anything that will do disrespect to their parents, in a room with
someone they believe to be the creator of the whole universe. This
isn't just any child abuse; this is God himself claiming to do this,"
Meloy said.

One former Indian ashram volunteer petitioned India's Supreme Court to
investigate Sai Baba. "I've spoken to 20 or 30 boys who have been
abused, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are 14-year-old
kids made to live in his room and made to think it's a blessing. In
most cases, their parents have been followers for 20 years and are not
going to believe them. American citizens have been knowing about this
abuse and taking American boys to Puttaparthi and feeding them to
him," he said.

UNESCO yanked its co-sponsorship of an education conference in India
linked to Sai Baba and stated it was "deeply concerned about widely
reported allegations of sexual abuse involving youths and children
that have been leveled at the leader of the movement in question,
Sathya Sai Baba."

After Conny Larsson, a Swedish actor went public about his coerced
sexual relations with the guru; the Sai Organization in Sweden was
shut down.

India Today ran a cover story about the scandal, as has England's
Daily Telegraph.

Labor MP Tony Colman raised the issue in Parliament.

Former British government minister, Tom Sackville said, "The
authorities have done little so far and that is regrettable."

But it seems that the guru's ardent followers can rationalize almost
anything.

One such disciple concluded in an essay published on the Internet,
"First of all, I believe that Sathya Sai Baba is an Avatar, a full
incarnation of God ... any sexual contact Baba has had with devotees
-- of whatever kind -- has actually been only a potent blessing, given
to awaken the spiritual power within those souls. Who can call that
'wrong'? Surely to call such contact 'molestation' is perversity
itself."

A "potent blessing"?

"When he does it, he has a purpose," concludes another still devoted
follower.

Other devotees have rejected reports about their guru's sexual abuse
completely regardless of how many of his alleged victims come forward
to tell their stories.

One said, "I think this is a projection of his devotees' problems. You
hear a lot of rumors&but for me it's not important. When you're happy,
why doubt it?"

Note: This news summary is based upon an article titled
"Untouchable" (note: dead link) by Michelle Goldberg, which appeared
in Salon Magazine, July 25, 2001

Holy man? Sex abuser? Both?
Vancouver Sun/February 27, 2001
By Douglas Todd

His followers say Sai Baba is a God on Earth, and they generously
support his multi-billion-dollar religious empire. But some former
adherents are coming forward with dark tales of the guru sexually
molesting young men.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba -- "The Protector," "The Infinite," "the Creator"
-- has only once left India, where he reigns as arguably the country's
most famous living swami. But Sai Baba is here tonight at this temple
in east Vancouver. Sai Baba is sitting in the ochre robe on the wooden
throne at the front altar, smelling the eye-stinging incense,
listening to the spine-tingling chants and watching the earnest,
multiracial followers bow to him. Sai Baba is omni-present.

So be-lieves B.C. Sai Baba president Nami Thiyagaratnam, who teaches
management studies at the University of Victoria. To devotees, Sai
Baba is an avatar, God on Earth, born of a virgin mother. Separated by
gender in the Vancouver temple, the scores of East Indians,
Caucasians, Japanese, blacks and Chinese followers who sit on the red
carpet revering Sai Baba believe he paranormally transports his
invisible soul throughout the globe.

They are convinced that at this moment he is gazing contentedly at
them and other adherents conducting similar rituals of worship around
the planet at 6,700 Sai Baba temples, charity hospitals and schools,
mostly in India, but including 500 centres in the U.S. and 70 in
Canada. Dr. Ray Ludwig, 60, a Vancouver physician, puts his awe for
the Indian avatar succinctly: "Sai Baba, to me, is like a thousand
Mother Teresas. It was the greatest day of my life when I met Sai Baba
15 years ago. He transforms people to an altruistic lifestyle."

But deep troubles are emerging in Sai Baba's wealthy, glorious
universe, where people of all religions, from Christianity to
Buddhism, are meant to come together, because, as Sai Baba teaches,
"all faiths are facets of the same truth."

Accusations are mounting that Sai Baba has been sexually molesting
comely young men for decades during private meetings at his giant
ashram in India, where thousands visit each week.

The round-faced "saint" with the Jimi Hendrix hairdo, who is known for
miraculously manifesting out of thin air everything from wristwatches
to sacred stones and ash, has never admitted to sexual assault. But
followers in Canada and elsewhere acknowledge they've taken part with
him in what they call "sexual healing."

As the number of disturbing accounts grow, followers around the world
and across Canada have been feeling betrayed. Greater Vancouver boasts
one of the bigger North American Sai Baba contingents, with several
thousand members, about 75 per cent of them from the city's large Indo-
Canadian community With the sex scandal rapidly being unveiled on
various Internet sites and in a few newspapers, Sai Baba has told his
adherents, whose numbers range from 10 million to 50 million,
depending on whom you talk to, not to sign on to the World Wide Web.

The abuse charges are producing a mix of confusion and sadness,
defensiveness and sublime indifference among those who remain
acolytes. Thiyagaratnam, speaking at the Sai Baba Centre at 1659 East
10th, says he's not surprised that people are trying to ruin the
reputation of such a wondrous man. After all, he says, people also
persecuted Jesus Christ and Buddha. "It's very acrimonious and we're
sad. But people are entitled to their opinion." The charges are taking
their toll, however.

UNESCO recently cancelled its co-sponsorship of a conference in Sai
Baba's hometown of Puttaparthi, in southern India, saying it was
"deeply concerned about widely reported allegations of sexual abuse
involving youth and children that have been levelled at the leader of
the movement."

The many celebrity admirers of 75-year-old Sai Baba -- including
Indian president Atal Bihari Vajpayee; Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of
the Hard Rock restaurant chain and House of Blues; Sarah Ferguson,
Prince Andrew's former wife, and dozens of prominent Indian
professionals -- have so far been silent. But graphic charges have
come from all over the world.

London's Sunday Telegraph newspaper and India Today magazine recently
reported the case of American Sam Young, a young man who said he was
repeatedly abused by Sai Baba in a private room while his unwitting
parents remained outside, feeling blissful that their son was getting
so much of the divine one's attention.

Former Sai Baba leaders such as Swedish psychotherapist and former
film star, Conny Larsson, who says the guru regularly performed oral
sex on him and asked for it in return. Sai Baba was said to have
claimed he was simply correcting Larsson's inner "kundalini" energy.

David Bailey, a Welshman who had risen high in Sai Baba's inner
circle, fell away after hearing numerous accounts of how young men's
sessions with Sai Baba, which started out as purported sexual healing,
eventually turned into molestation. Bailey has been compiling the
stories, called the Findings, on a Web site.

Californian Glen Meloy is one of many former adherents who are busily
"e-bombing" decision-makers, including the White House, U.S. Senators,
the FBI and Indian newspapers, with warnings to keep young males away
from Sai Baba.

Still, no criminal charges have ever been laid against Sai Baba,
although some speculate that's because of his exalted position and
charitable work in India, where he's opened numerous well-appointed
hospitals, schools, colleges and water-treatment facilities.

Dr. Michael Goldstein, the influential U.S. president of the Sai Baba
organization, this year dismissed all the accusations. He says they're
unbelievable and that Sai Baba remains divinely pure, filled only with
"selfless love." The answer for those who doubt, says Goldstein, is to
show more faith.

But Goldstein's attitude draws the disdain of people such as
Vancouver's Tony Cleary, who walked away last year from the group
after 15 years of high-level dedication. Cleary, a 57-year-old
businessman, said it's difficult to leave. "Sai Baba makes you feel so
important because he tells you he's chosen you."

In addition to the sex allegations catalogued by Bailey, a friend,
Cleary is concerned about what he estimates are the billions of
dollars that well-meaning devotees give to Sai Baba and his various
charities. "It's a huge enterprise," Cleary says. Sai Baba is said to
be the reincarnation of the revered Indian saint, Shirdi Sai Baba, who
died in 1918. But Cleary said Sai Baba's teachings are "pretty
standard stuff.

"It's basically Hinduism with an eclectic mix of Christianity and
Buddhism, so it will appeal to more people." Despite his anger, Cleary
still believes Sai Baba probably has miraculous powers, including the
ability to "astral travel," which allows his soul to traverse the
globe.

Cleary also believes Sai Baba, who has only physically travelled to
Africa many years ago, may transport himself to sleep in various
sacred beds that devotees keep for him around the world, including in
Vancouver. So far in Canada, two people have agreed to go public with
accounts of Sai Baba's practice of "sexual healing," sometimes known
as "genital oiling."

But they offer ambiguous interpretations of what happened. Marc-Andre
St. Jean said in an interview from Montreal that when he was 19 and
had a private session with Sai Baba, the guru pointed at his genitals
and said, "Something slow."

Although St. Jean didn't know what Sai Baba was talking about at the
time, he said the guru then "asked me to drop my pants. He made a
materializing motion with his hand and there was cream on it. He
applied it to my scrotum." St. Jean thought at the time the event was
not sexual -- but more like "going to the doctor" for what he found
out was a urinary infection -- but St. Jean has since quit the group
after hearing and believing the mounting allegations of molestation.

St. Jean, now 29, remains bemused. "The charisma of Sai Baba is
incredible," he says. "The love was flowing from him. All this still
bothers me a lot. It's scary." In Langley, by contrast, Sai Baba
leaders Ann and David Jevons remain defiantly loyal to their divine
master.

Although they witnessed Sai Baba conduct a "sexual healing" on their
son's genitals more than a decade ago, they say the guru did it
because their son had a lump on his testicles, probably caused by an
anti-miscarriage drug she had taken during pregnancy.

"I know Sai Baba has done sexual things," says Ann Jevons, 62. Ann and
David, 65, acknowledged in an article for their newsletter that Sai
Baba can show less interest in adults such as themselves and more
interest in children and young people in general -- showering them
with rings and watches that he mysteriously materializes out of
nowhere.

But Jevons thinks sexual healing is a good thing, because "there is a
kundalini point between the anus and the genitals, where human energy
starts." It is totally understandable, she says, that a saint would
want to help people by curing disruptions in the flow of such a
crucial life force.

"Sai Baba is faultless," Jevons says. "He just opened the largest
hospital in south India. He's done incredible service to the world.
His accusers are wrong. And we're no gullible believers."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba6.html

Guru shrugs off sex allegations
The Star/January 14, 2001
By Tom Harpur

`Do not get deluded because I talk, laugh, eat and walk like
you. . . . All my actions are always selfless, selfless, selfless.'-
Guru Sai Baba

IN THE Oct. 28 issue of the London Telegraph's Sunday magazine, a
major feature article described one of the greatest scandals to befall
a guru or religious leader in our time.

Titled "Divine Downfall," the six-page expos* by British investigative
journalist Mick Brown makes the case that the man millions around the
world hold to be God incarnate, a healer and "miracle worker" on a par
with Krishna or Christ, has systematically and for decades sexually
abused large numbers of teenage boys.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba - who has only once left his southern India ashram
in Puttaparthi, close to Bangalore (for a visit to Uganda), yet has
followers numbering anywhere from 10 million to 50 million, depending
on the source - is also accused of financial wrongs and "B-grade
conjuring tricks."

But those charges have been around for years. What is new is the huge
controversy now coming to a head over a document released on the
Internet, called "The Findings."

It was compiled over the last three years by David Bailey, a Welsh ex-
devotee, who had risen high in the guru's inner circle only to be
devastated by allegations made to him by several students at Sai
Baba's ashram college.

They claimed the guru had sexually abused them and said they couldn't
tell anyone because they were fearful of being disbelieved by their
parents and friends who were also devotees.

Shocked, Bailey quit the ashram and began building a record of
evidence gained from devotees around the globe.

The completed dossier includes scores of accounts of such abuse from
Holland, Australia, Germany, India and the United States.

Swedish movie actor Conny Larsson is one of those cited: "Not only did
Sai Baba make sexual advances towards him, but he had also been told
by young male disciples of advances the guru had made on them."

The Telegraph account told a particularly moving story of an American
husband and wife who suddenly found themselves being given special
treatment by the guru - out of all the thousands seeking to get near
him at his twice-daily public sessions.

Simultaneously, their teenage son, Sam, was being selected for even
closer ties. The Telegraph said he was given presents of all kinds,
including expensive watches, which the guru claimed to have
"materialized" out of thin air.

Over four years, Sam spent many hours alone with "God," just metres
from his parents outside.

The parents were stunned when their son finally alleged that Sai Baba
had steadily moved from fondling to demands for oral sex and,
eventually, attempted rape. Sam said he had feared that to tell anyone
would end his parents' happiness and incur the divine wrath of the
guru.

Significantly, the harrowing stories in "The Findings" produced a
flood of similar accounts from every corner of the Internet.
Gradually, the stage was set for one of the most amazing battles ever
spawned in cyberspace.

Browsing the Net recently, I found everything from Web sites with
specious, unconvincing arguments - for example, that the whole affair
was initiated by the omnipotent, omniscient guru as a kind of "divine
game" to test the disciples' faith - to a host of critical chatrooms,
columns and letters.

Sai Baba has been "India's most famous and powerful holy man" for
nearly 60 years.

His official biographer says in a four-volume work that the "saint"
was born sinless "of immaculate conception," like the Virgin Mary, in
Puttaparthi in 1926.

At 13, he announced he was the reincarnation of a revered southern
saint, Shirdi Sai Baba, who died in 1918. Even as a boy, the guru
displayed signs of allegedly miraculous powers by "materializing"
flowers and candies from "nowhere."

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other politicians are
included among his followers, as are members of India's judiciary,
academics, scientists and scores of high-profile members of the upper
middle class.

There are nine chapters of the Sai Baba organization in Toronto and
many others nationwide.

Nothing I have found yet on the Web or elsewhere directly meets the
current charges. Instead, the pro-Baba arguments seem to consist of
various ways of saying that God is God and doesn't really have to
explain. His ways are far beyond anything we mere humans can
understand.

Sai Baba is reported to have said recently to his devotees: "Never try
to understand me."

Perhaps he eventually will be cleared of the accusations levelled
against him. He may be a pure healer and a promoter of universal love.

But if this quote is accurate, he embodies the kind of guruship to be
avoided at all cost.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba5.html

The man believers think is God

Sai Baba, an Indian holy man, worshipped by many prominent Canadians,
is accused of being a sexual predator

The Ottawa Citizen/December 19, 2000
By Bob Harvey

Millions of devotees in Ottawa and in more than 100 countries around
the world recently celebrated the 75th birthday of Sai Baba, an Indian
spiritual leader they believe is God.

But a growing number of leaders of the movement in Canada, Sweden, the
U.S. and other countries have quit: they say Sai Baba is a sexual
predator.

UNESCO also recently cancelled its co-sponsorship of a conference in
Sai Baba's home town of Puttaparthi, India, saying it was "deeply
concerned about widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse involving
youth and children that have been levelled at the leader of the
movement."

Raj Midha, the president of Ottawa's brand new $2-million Sri Sathya
Sai Spiritual Centre on Hunt Club, is a believer. Like many devotees,
he wears a large ring given to him by the guru. "He materialized it
from thin air," Mr. Midha says.

Television documentaries produced in Australia, India and other
countries have used slow-motion to show that such "miracles" are
really just clever sleight-of-hand by Sai Baba. But Mr. Midha shrugs
off this and other allegations about Sai Baba. "With all big leaders,
there have always been people who didn't like them. Even Jesus was
crucified."

What Mr. Midha wants to do is tell how Sai Baba has changed his life
and others. He shows off the 156,000-square-foot centre with pride,
and points to Sai Baba teachings posted on the walls of the building.
He says those teachings can be summarized in eight words: "Love All,
Serve All", and "Help Ever, Hurt Never."

Mr. Midha, a telecommunications engineer, believes Sai Baba cured his
wife's cancer, and he credits his own work with the Shepherds of Good
Hope and other charities to Sai Baba's teachings. On the centre's
second floor, he is reverent as he enters Sai Baba's bedroom, which
comes complete with bathroom, and a balcony overlooking the worship
area on the ground floor.

Sai Baba has taken only one trip out of India, and that was to Uganda.
But Mr. Midha and other devotees firmly believe their leader can
transport himself around the world at will. Mr. Midha says they know
Sai Baba uses his Ottawa bedroom, because they leave a glass of water
on his bedside table, and often the glass has been half-drained. About
200 devotees regularly worship at the centre, and some report having
seen the holy man while they were praying.

Conny Larsson, a psychotherapist, and once a well-known actor and film
star in his native Sweden, has a very different view of Sai Baba. He
first met Sai Baba in 1978, built his own apartment near the guru's
headquarters in Puttaparthi, and remained a devotee until last year.
Mr. Larsson was the spiritual co-ordinator of the Sai Baba movement in
Sweden, and says he brought tens of thousands of people to India to
see Sai Baba by speaking at conferences, writing a book about Sai
Baba, and speaking on radio.

"Now I feel very guilty," he says. For the first five years he knew
Sai Baba, Mr. Larsson says the guru regularly practised oral sex on
him, and asked that Mr. Larsson do the same for him. The guru's
explanation, as it has been for many young men, is that he was
correcting Mr. Larsson's kundalini, or cosmic force.

"I was brainwashed," said Mr. Larsson in a telephone interview from
Sweden. "As a child I was severely molested, and when he did this to
me, he told me he was going to correct something. And in my mind, I
thought God was healing me of this tragedy. This is the reason he
could do what he liked. "Everyone told me I was very special. They
puffed me up. For a person so molested and hurt as a child, it was a
relief to be someone."

By 1986, Mr. Larsson had talked to many young male devotees, most of
them attractive blond westerners, who told him they too had had sex
with Sai Baba. He believes Sai Baba has had sex with many more
reluctant male followers. Why do they do it? He says it's because
"everyone believes he is divine. They want to believe because they
have nothing else," he said.

For more than 50 years, Sai Baba has been India's most famous holy
man. The number of his followers is estimated at somewhere between 10
million and 50 million, and they include India's Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vaijpayee; Isaac Tigrett, the co-founder of the Hard Rock
Restaurant chain; Simon de Jong, a former New Democrat MP from
Saskatchewan; and Kris Singhal, founder of Ottawa's Richcraft Homes.
Birendra, the king of Nepal, Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew's former
wife; and many other celebrities have also made pilgrimages to see the
guru.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Sai Baba's ashram,
and what was once a small village now has an airstrip, a university, a
hospital and enough hotels and apartment blocks to accommodate tens of
thousands of people. "When you see all these important people moving
around there, kings and queens moving around as if they were common
people, you start to believe he (Sai Baba) has a divine plan for all
mankind," said Mr. Larsson.

Twice a day, Sai Baba strolls among the thousands of devotees seated
in the main temple and chooses people from the crowd for private
interviews. Often those chosen for private interviews are young men
like Mr. Larsson once was. What prompted him to quit the organization
and start speaking out was the abuse suffered by a young Swedish man
who asked for his help as a psychotherapist, after six interviews with
Sai Baba.

"He told me about the same things that happened to me. The swami
opened his trousers and started to masturbate him. He withdrew, but
the swami insisted." Mr. Larsson then brought the man to a meeting of
Swedish leaders of the Sai Baba movement, and told his own story as
well. The majority of the leaders resigned, and Mr. Larsson, like many
other ex-devotees, put his story on the Internet.

Mr. Larsson's story is one of many that appear in another Internet
posting, The Findings, a 42-page document amassed by David and Faye
Bailey, former devotees who once lived in Puttaparthi, and edited a
magazine to propagate Sai Baba's teachings. Mr. Bailey is a British
concert pianist and taught students at the Sathya Sai Baba College.
When some of his students complained to him about being sexually
molested by Sai Baba, he quit the organization and began documenting
the stories of abuse.

Glen Meloy, a retired management consultant in California, is another
former devotee who is using the Internet to warn others to keep their
sons away from Sai Baba. After 26 years of following Sai Baba, he quit
when he heard the story of a 15-year-old California boy who said he
had been abused on multiple occasions. Mr. Meloy said this boy and
others in families of devotees "were born with the idea that Baba is
God. So they submit because they're afraid to displease their parents,
let alone God himself, who's asking them to participate in these
acts."

Mr. Meloy is now bombarding politicians, the White House, Indian
newspapers, and the FBI with allegations of abuse by the Indian
spiritual leader. He says he gets 50 to 100 e-mails and phone calls a
day from former devotees, many of them looking for advice on what to
do about the tales of abuse they have heard.

To date, only one former Canadian devotee is willing to go public with
his story of being sexually touched. Marc-Andre St. Jean of Montreal
said that when he visited Puttaparthi in 1992, Sai Baba took him into
a private interview room, and asked him to drop his pants. Then he
touched Mr. St. Jean's genitals. He said he had a kidney problem and
at the time he thought Sai Baba was just trying to help him.

But Mr. St. Jean's story, and that of the son of a Quebec family of
devotees, helped persuade seven co-ordinators of the Sai Baba movement
in Quebec to hand in their resignations.

Alain Groven of Montreal's South Shore was the province's
representative on the national Sai Baba council. He said he and other
co-ordinators resigned after comparing the stories of Quebecers to
those of Mr. Larsson and others who suffered more severe abuse.

Mr. Groven said that last year, the Canadian organization gave Sai
Baba $90,000 as a birthday present, and the 70 centres across Canada
probably donated even more this year, for the 75th birthday.

[One woman said that] she and the other Montreal-area co-ordinators
who resigned wonder why so many others have remained devotees. "But
when you believe he is God, and you have invested yourself in a
spiritual community, it involves too much to suddenly decide he is not
God. Your whole spiritual world falls apart. It's too hard to bear,"
she said.

V.P. Singh of Windsor has been president of the Canadian Sai Baba
organization for the past 30 years. He said he does not care to read
the allegations against Sai Baba, and like most other devotees, he
obeys his guru's command not to use the Internet.

"I have known him for 30 years, and I have had a nice experience," he
said. Mr. Singh said the Canadian and other leaders who have resigned
from the organization around the world "can do whatever they want to
do; it's their business."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba4.html

Divine downfall
The Daily Telegraph Saturday Magazine/October 27, 2000
By Mick Brown

Driving into town from the small Midwest airport where Carrie Young
and her husband had met me off the plane, she pulled a large picture
from the back seat of the station wagon. Framed in gilded-gold, the
picture showed the couple and their three children posing with an
elderly, chubby-faced Indian man with an ostentatious Afro haircut,
dressed in a red robe. Staring out of the picture, it seemed the
Youngs were shining with happiness. "And to think," said Carrie, "this
is the man we used to think was God."

The Youngs were what Americans call "straight arrows": honest, decent
and truthful. A handsome, clean-cut couple in their mid-40s; both
worked in the computer industry. The past year, said Jeff, had been
difficult, what with all that had happened, but they were pulling
things together.

A year ago, their son Sam had come to them with a shocking assertion:
Sathya Sai Baba, he told them - the man the Youngs had revered as God
for more than 20 years - was, in fact, a sexual abuser. Over the
course of four years, in his ashram, while Sam's parents sat a few
metres away - thrilled that their son should be in such close
proximity to the divine, secure in their belief that the god-man was
ministering to their son's spiritual welfare - Sai Baba was actually
subjecting him to sustained and systematic sexual abuse. "You'll meet
Sam at the restaurant," said Carrie. "He's prepared to talk about
this. He thinks it's important too."

Sam was a tall, blue-eyed, dreadlocked boy with a look that could only
be described as angelic. For the next four hours, they told me the
story of how they had come to Sai Baba; of their spiritual
aspirations, the dreams, the visions, the miracles - and the nightmare
their lives had turned into. And always, throughout the conversation,
the same question repeated itself: how could it possibly have come to
this?

For more than 50 years, Sai Baba has been India's most famous and most
powerful holy man - a worker of miracles, it is said, an instrument of
the divine. His following extends not only to every corner of the
Indian sub-continent, but to Europe, America, Australia, South America
and throughout Asia. Estimates of the total number of Baba devotees
around the world vary between 10 and 50 million.

To even begin to appreciate the scale and intensity of his following,
it is necessary to have some understanding of what his devotees
believe him to be, and of the powers that are attributed to him. Among
his devotees, Sai Baba is believed to be an avatar: literally, an
incarnation of the divine, one of a rare body of divine beings - such
as Krishna or Christ - who, it is said, take human form to further
man's spiritual evolution.

According to the four-volume hagiography written by his late secretary
and disciple, Professor N. Kasturi, Sai Baba was born "of immaculate
conception" in the southern Indian village of Puttaparthi in 1926. As
a young boy, he displayed signs of miraculous abilities, including
"materialising" flowers and sweets from nowhere. At 13, he declared
himself to be the reincarnation of a revered southern Indian saint,
Shirdi Sai Baba, who died in 1918. Challenged to prove his identity,
Kasturi writes, he threw a clump of jasmine flowers on the floor,
which arranged themselves to spell out "Sai Baba" in Telugu.

In 1950, he established a small ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam (Abode of
Serenity) in his home village. This has now grown to the size of a
small town, accommodating up to 10,000 people, with tens of thousands
more housed in the numerous hotels and apartment blocks that have
sprung up around. There is a primary school, university, college, and
hospital in the ashram, and innumerable other institutions around
India bearing Sai Baba's name. In India, his devotees include the
former prime minister, PV Narasimha Rao, the present Prime Minister,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and an assortment of senior judiciary,
academics, scientists and prominent politicians. Unlike other Indian
gurus who have travelled in the West, cultivating a following among
faith seekers and celebrities, Sai Baba has left India only once, in
the '70s, to visit Uganda. His reputation in the West spread largely
by word-of-mouth. His devotees tend to be drawn from the educated
middle-classes.

It is said that as an instrument of the divine, Sai Baba is
omniscient, capable of seeing the past, present and future of
everyone; his "miracles' include materialising various keepsakes for
devotees, including watches, rings and pendants, as well as vibhuti or
holy ash. Like Christ, he is said to have created food to feed
multitudes; to have "appeared" to disciples in times of crisis or
need. There are countless accounts of healings, and at least two of
his having raised people from the dead.

Sai Baba's teachings resemble a synthesis of all the great faiths,
with a particular emphasis on Christian charity, enshrined in his most
ubiquitous aphorism, "Love All, Serve All".

The principal event in Prasanthi Nilayam is darshan, in which Sai Baba
emerges twice daily from his quarters adjacent to the main temple and
walks among the thousands of devotees seated on the hard marble floor.
Hands reach forward to touch his feet or to pass him letters of
supplication. Occasionally he pauses, to offer a blessing or to
"materialise" vibhuti in an outstretched hand. It is during darshan
that Sai Baba, by some unseen criteria, chooses people from the crowd
for private interviews. Some devotees might wait for years.

Inevitably for such a potent figure, Sai Baba has, for years, been the
subject of rumbling allegations of fakery, fraud and worse. But he has
proved remarkably immune to controversy, the accusations doing little
to dent his growing following or the esteem in which he is held. But
all that, it appears, is about to change.

In recent months, a storm of allegations have appeared - spurred by a
document called The Findings, compiled by an English former devotee
named David Bailey - which threaten to shake the very foundations of
Sai Baba's holy empire. Sai Baba may represent an ancient tradition of
belief, but the instrument of accusation against him is an altogether
modern one. Originally published in document form, The Findings
quickly found its way on to the Internet, where it has become the
catalyst for a raging cyberspace debate about whether Sai Baba is
truly divine or, as one disenchanted former devotee describes him, "a
dangerous paedophile".

David Bailey became a devotee of Sai Baba in 1994, at the age of 40,
drawn by an interest in the guru's reputation as a spiritual healer.
"I couldn't see him as a God," says Bailey, "but I did think, this
could be a great holy man who has certain gifts."

An extrovert man, Bailey quickly became a ubiquitous and popular
figure among devotees. He travelled all over the world, speaking and
performing at meetings and would visit the ashram in India three or
four times a year. Over the course of four years Bailey claims to have
had more than 100 interviews with Baba. At Baba's instigation, Bailey
married a fellow devotee, and together they edited a magazine to
propagate Sai Baba's teachings. But the closer he came to Sai Baba,
Bailey told me, the more his doubts multiplied. The miracles, he
concluded, were B-grade conjuring tricks, the healings a myth, and
Baba's powers of being able to see into people's minds and lives
merely a clever use of information gleaned from others.

Bailey's dwindling faith was finally crushed when students from the
college came to him alleging that they had been sexually abused by the
guru. "They said, `Please sir, can you go back to England and help
us."' They were unable to tell their parents because they were afraid
of being disbelieved, and feared for their personal safety.'

Shocked by the allegations, Bailey severed his association with Sai
Baba and began to assemble a dossier of evidence from former devotees
around the world. The Findings is a chronicle of shattered illusions.
It contains allegations of fakery, con-trickery and financial
irregularities in the funding of the hospital and over a Sai Baba
project to supply water to villages around the ashram, which is
habitually trumpeted as evidence of his munificence.

Some of these allegations have been aired before. But the charges
contained in The Findings are of an altogether different magnitude.
They include verbatim accounts of abuse from devotees in Holland,
Australia, Germany and India. Conny Larsson, a well-known Swedish film
actor, says that not only did Sai Baba make homosexual advances
towards him, but he was also told by young male disciples of advances
the guru had made on them.

In April, Glen Meloy - a retired management consultant and a prominent
Californian devotee of some 26 years standing - received a letter from
an American woman who had read The Findings on the Internet. Her 15-
year-old son, she said, had also been abused. Included in the letter
was a four-page statement from the boy himself alleging multiple
sexual abuse.

Meloy launched his own Internet campaign to spread the allegations.
The effects of this have been enormous. There has been a rash of
defections from Sai Baba groups throughout the West. >From other
devotees, however, the response has been one of disbelief and denial.
"Sai Baba," says Bailey, "is a simple sex maniac who's on an ego trip,
after money, after power. He is a sheer conman." No, say others, "Sai
Baba is God."

The Young family are not among those listed in The Findings, but the
story of how they had come to Sai Baba was not atypical. In the early
'70s, Jeff had become interested in "the spiritual quest", initially
through psychedelics, then through yoga and meditation. He learned of
Sai Baba through a friend, and in 1974, at the age of 18, visited
India for the first time.

Three weeks later Jeff had a private interview with Sai Baba. "And I
remember feeling peace like I had never felt before; feeling loved
like I'd never been loved before." He returned to Los Angeles, where
he lived in a community with fellow Baba devotees. He met Carrie,
whose childhood had been characterised by parental abuse, and her
teenage years by drug abuse. She, too, became a devotee of Sai Baba.
They married, moved to the Midwest and started to raise a family. Over
the years, they visited Sai Baba from time to time. They founded a
community, home-schooled their children according to his teachings,
and strove to lead a life of purity and self-discipline.

Then, in 1995, things began to change. Their son, Sam, who was now 16,
visited the ashram with a family friend and was singled out for a
private interview with Sai Baba. Eighteen months later, the Youngs
returned to Puttaparthi; again Sai Baba singled out Sam and called him
and the family for an interview. "He made [a big fuss of] our group,"
said Jeff. "He materialised a ring for my son. He told everybody that
Sam had been a great Shirdi Sai devotee in a previous life - he just
poured it on." During the course of that visit, the Youngs were called
for seven interviews, while Sam had some 20 private meetings. The
family felt blissfully privileged. He materialised rings, watches,
bracelets, gave them robes and the silk lungi he wore next to his
skin.

The following year, the family returned to Puttaparthi three times. On
each occasion they would be gifted with two or three interviews. Sam
had twice as many. "We had no idea what was going on," said Jeff.

In 1995, Sam had come to his father. In a private interview, he said,
Sai Baba had "materialised" some oil in his hand, unbuttoned Sam's
trousers and rubbed his genitals. Jeff told his son he had had a
similar experience when he first met Sai Baba at 18. "I said to Sam,
what did you think about it? He said he didn't feel there was anything
sexual about it; it was like Sai Baba was doing his job. And I'd kind
of had that experience. A doctor gives a boy an exam. I'd taken it as
some kind of healing." Thereafter, Sam said nothing about his
experiences.

What had actually occurred was this: from anointing with oil, Sam told
me, Sai Baba's advances had grown progressively more abusive and
forceful. Sai Baba, he said, had kissed him, fondled him and attempted
to force him to perform oral sex, explaining that it was for
"purification". On almost every occasion Sai Baba had given him gifts
of watches, rings, trinkets and cash, in total around $10,000. He had
told him to say nothing to his parents. When Sam asked Baba why he was
doing this, he would tell him it was because Sam was "a special
devotee - that it was a great blessing". When Sam attempted to resist,
he said, Baba would threaten not to call his parents for any more
interviews. "I felt obligations, to my parents, our friends, all the
thousands of people sitting outside who all wanted to be in the
position I was in, not knowing what was really there.

"And then the big thing was the concept that he is God, from day one,
so when he says, don't tell anybody ..."

In fact, Sam did tell somebody. He confided what was happening to two
other American teenagers who were students at the Puttaparthi college.
They had had similar experiences. "They justified it as a divine
experience. But he was doing things to me that I didn't want to do,
and I was just letting it happen."

In 1998, according to Sam, Sai Baba attempted to rape him. The
following year, the day before the family were leaving for
Puttaparthi, he told his father he did not want to see Sai Baba alone,
without specifying why. Jeff sensed something was amiss. "I told him,
you must always be true to your conscience. The family don't care if
we never have another interview again." In Puttaparthi, Sam was again
called for a private interview. When Sai Baba attempted to get him to
perform oral sex, Sam walked out for the last time, although it would
be some months before he summoned the nerve to tell his parents. Jeff
said it took some weeks to "process" what they were hearing. "We knew
that Sam was telling the truth, but I still asked myself, what could
this mean?"

The Youngs contacted a leading figure in the American Sai Baba
organisation. "He said it must be some kind of test," said Jeff, "and
for a moment we felt better."

Then Dr Michael Goldstein, the man in charge of the entire Baba
organisation in America, flew in from California to meet them. "He
said, we've got to talk to Baba about this; words are not enough;
faith must be restored." Goldstein flew to India. He returned to tell
the Youngs that Sai Baba had told him "he is pure", and that Goldstein
accepted that. He asked Jeff if he thought his son might be
delusional. The Youngs no longer speak with Goldstein.

A senior devotee, a trustee for the Sathya Sai Baba Society of
America, Jerry Hague, told me that he and his wife had been devotees
for 25 years. He was deeply shocked at the allegations and could not
begin to understand them.

"All I know in my heart is that Swami is the purest of the purest, and
that everything he does is for the highest good of everybody." This
denial - Sai Baba is God, God doesn't do these things - was a theme
that was echoed by innumerable other devotees I spoke to in America
and Britain.

Among those people named in The Findings is Dr D Bhatia, the former
head of the blood bank at the Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital,
who, it is claimed, had a longstanding sexual relationship with Sai
Baba. Bhatia resigned from his post at the hospital in December 1999
and is now an administrator at a hospital in New Delhi.

Contacted by phone, Bhatia said that he had become a devotee of Sai
Baba in 1971, at the age of 20, and that he had had sexual relations
with Sai Baba for "15 or 16 years". In that time, he said, he was also
aware that Sai Baba had relations with "many, many" students from the
college and school, and with devotees from overseas.

One of the most remarkable facets of this controversy has been the
role of the Internet. Even 10 years ago, it is doubtful whether the
allegations against Sai Baba would have spread so far and so fast.

Conny Larsson has set up a support group for those claiming abuse by
Sai Baba, and says he receives some 20-30 e-mails a day from victims
"crying out for help. You cannot leave these people in the desert".

In America, the campaign organised by Glen Meloy has concentrated on
"e-bombing" copies of the allegations to senators, the White House,
the FBI and Indian newspapers. The most conspicuous success of the
campaign came in September when Unesco withdrew its co-sponsorship and
participation from an education conference at Puttaparthi, citing
"deep concern" over the allegations of sexual abuse.

For all the allegations laid against him over the years, Sai Baba has
never been charged with any crime, sexual or otherwise. And his
exalted position in India has until now kept him safely insulated from
any kind of public inquiry.

Among former devotees, there is a sense of shock, betrayal, anger - a
hunger, if not for revenge, then for accountability. "We know that
many victims have been physically molested," Glen Meloy told me, "but
in reality all the former devotees have been spiritually raped because
we chose to believe that this man was the highest. I certainly
considered him to be the God of gods, the creator of all creation, my
friend, my everything. The intense desire I have to expose him now is
directly proportionate to the amount of devotion I gave him."

Sitting in the restaurant in a small, homely Midwest town, Jeff Young
struggled to understand what had led him to believe that an Indian
guru could be God.

Looking back, he said, when Sam finally told him about the sexual
abuse, he didn't find it difficult to believe at all. "I realised, I'd
really known this for a long time but didn't really know it." Jeff
shook his head. " You ask yourself, how could millions of people be
wrong? How could millions of people be tricked? .. We'd spent 23 years
raising our family to believe in him, going upstream against a river.
You think, how could I have been so wrong?"

Whether he is divine, "a demonic force", as Glen Meloy describes him,
or simply an accomplished fakir and confidence trickster, Sai Baba has
said nothing publicly about the allegations. When contacted, K.
Chakravarthi, secretary of the Puttaparthi ashram, said, "We have no
time for these matters. I have nothing to say."

Sai Baba's principal English translator, Anil Kumar, said every great
religious teacher had faced criticism. Allegations had been made at
Sai Baba since childhood, "but with every criticism he becomes more
and more triumphant."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba3.html

Scandal engulfs guru's empire
Divine Downfall

The Age (Australia)/November 12, 2000
By Padraic Murphy

For Hans de Kraker, a trip to India to see Sathya Sai Baba, a self-
proclaimed god with a following of up to 25 million devotees, was a
spiritual quest. But he said the pilgrimage ended when the 73-year-old
guru tried to force him to perform oral sex.

Mr de Kraker, who now lives in Sydney, has gone public to alert
devotees to a sex scandal that is threatening to undo Sai Baba, by far
the most popular of India's new-age gurus.

"It is devastating to realise the man you see as a spiritual master is
simply conning people for his own sexual gratification," Mr de Kraker,
32, said. "After a while you notice that the people chosen for private
interviews tend to be good-looking young males."

Mr de Kraker, who first visited Sai Baba's ashram in 1992, said the
guru would regularly rub oil on his genitals, claiming it was a
religious cleansing, and eventually tried to force him to perform oral
sex. He was kicked out of the ashram after alerting senior officials
in 1996.

Mr de Kraker's story is not an isolated one, and a growing list of
alleged victims is threatening to engulf the Sai Baba organisation,
which has an estimated worth of $6billion. Droves have left after
allegations of paedophilia and the rape of male followers.

Sai Baba's main ashram in Puttaparthi, India, is the largest in the
world and can sleep up to 10,000 people. That number of people
regularly turn out to "darshan", a twice-daily ritual in which Sai
Baba walks among devotees choosing people for private interviews.

It is in these private interviews that many of the alleged assaults
against males between the ages of seven and 30 take place. Former
devotees said the interviews usually involved family groups, but when
young males were involved they were ushered into a second room, behind
what has come to be known as the "curtain of shame".

The organisation has been shut down in Sweden after revelations that
Conny Larson, now a film star in that country, was molested by Sai
Baba. The FBI is looking into similar allegations made by American
children and there are investigations into the sect in France and
Germany.

Both UNESCO and Flinders University in South Australia and Flinders
University in South Australia pulled out of a conference organised by
Sai Baba in September because of concerns about the guru's sexual
conduct. In Australia, the sect is estimated to have up to 5000
followers. It runs schools in northern NSW and Western Australia, and
has meditation centres across the country.

Now Australian victims are preparing documents to present to federal
authorities about the guru's activities.

Terry Gallagher, a property developer from Kiama, in New South Wales,
regularly visited Sai Baba in the early 1990s and spent three years as
the coordinator of the group in Australia. He left the group in the
mid '90s after boys in Indian schools run by Sai Baba complained to
him of sexual abuse.

"Spiritually it is devastating. I'm concerned because of both the
sexual abuse of young boys, and the spiritual fraud Sai Baba
perpetrates," Mr Gallagher said.

Sri Ramanathan, a former Sri Lankan judge and head of the Sai Baba
Organisation in Australia and Papua New Guinea, refuses to warn
families taking children to Puttaparthi about the allegations.

"All god men have these kind of allegations levelled at them, why
should I warn people of these allegations, they are just allegations?"
he said. "He is a holy man. I know that (these allegations) cannot be
proved."

Raphael Aron, the director of Cult Counselling, said: "These
organisations are run by one individual and there are never any
complaint mechanisms. When these sorts of allegations come up, the
usual response is that it is some kind of test of faith and the whole
thing is denied."

Several former devotees who spoke to The Sunday Age said they had been
thrown out of Sai Baba's ashrams when they questioned leaders about
the charges.

The sexual exploits of the guru were exposed 30 years ago by Tal
Brooke, a former high-ranked devotee who now runs a cult-watch group
in the US. "It appears that now he is out of control. The problem is
that people have such faith that these allegations would kill them
spiritually," he said from his home in California.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba2.html

Screen Star James Mason Laid to Rest After 16 Years
Reuters/November 25, 2000

London - Hollywood screen legend James Mason has been finally laid to
rest -- 16 years after his death, the Daily Telegraph newspaper
reported on Saturday.

Mason's children buried his ashes in a Swiss cemetery on Friday after
an acrimonious legal battle over the British actor's estate with their
stepmother Clarissa Kaye, and later with the administrators of her
estate, the paper said.

The wrangle became so bitter that for many years Mason's children,
daughter Portland and son Morgan, had no idea of the whereabouts of
their father's ashes. Portland finally tracked them to a bank vault in
Geneva.

``It is like a dream,'' the Daily Telegraph quoted Portland Mason as
saying after the burial ceremony. ``Sometimes I thought it would never
happen. It has been so, so long,'' she said.

Mason, who died of a heart attack aged 75 in 1984, was the star of
such screen classics as ``A Star is Born,'' ``The Desert Fox,''
``Lolita'' and ``North by Northwest.''

The paper said that the actor felt his second wife Clarissa had
sacrificed a Hollywood career of her own when she agreed to move to
Lake Geneva with him in 1963. He wanted her to be able to live in
comfort after his death. The children believed he intended for them to
inherit his estimated 15 million pound fortune on Clarissa's death,
the paper said. But Clarissa, who died six years ago, bequeathed
everything to a trust with unknown benefactors.

The children believe the benefactors are devotees of Sathya Sai Baba,
an Indian religious sect, which Clarissa became close to in the last
years of her life. They are continuing litigation in the hope of
gaining control of at least part of their father's estate.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba8.html

Devotee 'Tricked Woman Into Sex'
The (London) Times/July 5, 2000
By Simon De Bruxelles

A Follower of an Indian guru tricked a woman into having sex with him
by promising that it would cure her "bad vibrations", a court was told
yesterday.

Priyakant Shah, 47, a shopkeeper from Plymouth, allegedly persuaded
the mother of three that he was a messenger from the Hindu mystic Sai
Baba and he had been ordered in a dream to have sex with her. His
alleged victim, who is also of Asian origin, told Plymouth Crown Court
that the relationship began after Mr Shah had "engineered" her divorce
from her husband, whom she subsequently remarried.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she met Mr Shah
in the mid-1980s when he ran a temple in South London devoted to the
worship of the 73-year-old guru who claims 30 million followers
worldwide.

The woman, who was 37 or 38 at the time, said Mr Shah persuaded her to
leave her husband and take her daughters to live in a flat above his
shop in Plymouth.

She said: "I had been praying in the prayer room and Shah was asleep
on a bed in there. As I prayed, I heard him say 'No, Baba, no, Swami,
I cannot do that'.

"I asked him later what he meant and he told me that I would not
believe it, but Baba had said he had worked so hard with me but I was
still carrying bad vibrations and that he had to have physical contact
with me.

"I asked him what he meant and he said he had to have sexual
intercourse with me. It was the only way the bad vibrations would come
out. I said 'no way'."

She said she woke later to find Mr Shah naked by her bedside and he
had made her have sex with him.

Mr Shah denies two charges of procuring a woman to have sex by false
pretences and one of indecently assaulting one of her daughters, who
was 12 or 13 at the time.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/saibaba/saibaba1.html

Them are few things sadder than a good guru gone bad. The cynics among
us may object that a "good guru" is a contradiction in terms and
certainly the spectacle of corrupt and authoritarian cults in recent
years has cast a pall over the role of spiritual teachers.
Nevertheless I'm willing to maintain that a significant amount of
wisdom and compassionate works have proceeded from various gurus and
their followers, and I resist the impulse to write off the whole bunch
as charlatans and power-trippers
From all indication Swami Muktananda helped thousands of people in his
day - a fact that even disillusioned ex-devotees don't dispute.
However, the last few years of his life saw a proliferation of abuses
which are only now coming to light William Rodarmor; a former lawyer,
park ranger, wilderness trip leader and presently a graduate student
at the University of California at Berkeley journalism school has
spent months interviewing former and current followers of Muktananda
for this investigative article. CQ independently contacted his major
sources and confirmed the authenticity of their quotes and
allegations. -Jay Kinney

The Secret Life of Swami Muktananda
by William Rodarmor

Illustrated by Matthew Wuerker

"There is no deity superior to the Guru, no gain better than the
Guru's grace ... no state higher than meditation on the Guru." -
Muktananda

ON THE American consciousness circuit, Baba Muktananda was known as
the "guru’s guru," one of the most respected meditation masters ever
to come out of India. Respected, that is, until now.

When Baba Ram Dass introduced him to the U.S. in 1970. Muktananda was
still largely unknown. Thanks to Muktananda's spiritual power, his
Siddha meditation movement quickly took root in the fertile soil of
the American growth movement. By the time he died of heart failure in
October 1982, Muktananda's followers had built him 31 ashrams, or
meditation centers, around the world. When crowds saw Muktananda step
from a black limousine to a waiting Lear jet, it was clear that the
diminutive, orange-robed Indian was an American-style success.

At various times, Jerry Brown, Werner Erhard, John Denver, Marsha
Mason; James Taylor, Carry Simon, astronaut Edgar Mitchell, and Meg
Christian have all been interested in Muktananda's movement. The media
coordinator at the large Oakland, California, ashram is former Black
Panther leader Erika Huggins.

Baba Muktananda said he was a Siddha, the representative of a
centuries-old Hindu lineage. According to his official biography, he
wandered across India as a young man, going from teacher to teacher,
living the chaste, austere life of a monk. In Ganeshpuri, near Bombay,
he became the disciple of Nityananda, a Siddha guru of awesome yogic
powers. After years of meditation, Muktananda experienced
enlightenment. When Nityananda died in 1960, Muktananda said the guru
passed the Siddha mantle to him on his deathbed, though some of
Nityananda's followers in India dispute the claim. When Muktananda
himself died, a sympathetic press still saw him as a spiritual Mr.
Clean, and his two successors, a brother-sister team of swamis,
continue to draw thousands of people searching for higher
consciousness.

To most of his followers, Muktananda was a great master. But to
others, he was a man unable to live up to the high principles of his
own teachings. "When we first approach a Guru," Muktananda wrote, "we
should carefully examine his qualities and his actions. He should have
conquered desire and anger and banished infatuation from his heart."
For many, that was a warning that was understood too late.

Some of Muktananda's most important former followers now charge that
the guru repeatedly violated his vow of chastity, made millions of
dollars from his followers' labors: and allowed guns and violence in
his ashrams. The accusations have been denied by the swamis who took
over his movement after the master died.

In the course of preparing this story, I talked with 25 present and
former devotees; most of the interviews are on tape. Some people would
only talk to me if promised anonymity, and some are bitter at what
they feel was Muktananda's betrayal of their trust. All agree that
Muktananda was a man of unusual power. They differ over the ways he
used it.

"I don't have sex for the same reason you do: because it feels so
good." -Muktananda

IN HIS teachings Muktananda put a lot of emphasis on sex - most of it
negative. Curbing the sex drive released the kundalini energy that led
to enlightenment, he said. The swami himself claimed to be completely
celibate.

Members of the guru's inner circle, however, say Muktananda regularly
had sex with his female devotees. Michael Dinga, an Oakland contractor
who was head of construction for the ashram and a trustee of the
foundation, said the guru's sexual exploits were common knowledge in
the ashram. "It was supposed to be Muktananda's big secret," said
Dinga, "but since many of the girls were in their early to middle
teens, it was hard to keep it secret."

A young woman I am calling "Mary" said the guru seduced her at the
main American ashram at South Fallsburg, New York, in 1981. Mary was
in her early twenties at the time. Muktananda was 73.

At South Fallsburg, Muktananda used to stand behind a curtain in the
evening, watching the girls coming back to the dormitory. He asked
Mary to come to his bedroom several times, and gave her gifts of money
and jewelry. Finally, she did. When he then told her to undress, she
was shocked, but she obeyed.

"He had a special area which I assume he used for his sexual affairs.
It was similar to a gynecologist's table, but without the
stirrups." (To his later chagrin, Michael Dinga realized he had built
the table himself.) "He didn't have an erection," Mary said, "but he
inserted about as much as he could. He was standing up, and his eyes
were rolled up to the ceiling. He looked as if he was in some sort of
ecstasy." When the session was over, Muktananda ordered the girl to
come back the next day, and added, "Don't wear underwear."

On the first night, Muktananda had tried to convince Mary she was
being initiated into tantric yoga - the yoga of sex. The next night,
he didn't bother. "It was like ‘Okay, you're here, take off your
clothes. get on the table and let's do it.' Just very straight, hard,
cold sex."

Mary told two people about what had happened to her. Neither was
exactly surprised.

Michael's wife Chandra was disturbed. Chandra was probably the most
important American in the movement. As head of food services, she saw
Muktananda daily, and knew what was going on. "Whoever was in his
kitchen was in some way molested," she said. A girl I’ll call "Nina"
used to work for Chandra. One day, the guru remarked to her in Hindi,
"Sex with Nina is very good." Nina's mother was later made a swami.

Chandra said she had rationalized the guru's having sex in the past,
but was dismayed to learn it had happened to her young friend Mary.
Aware of Muktananda's power over people who were devoted to him, she
saw it as a form of rape.

The other person Mary confided in was Malti, Muktananda's longtime
translator.

Mary said Malti wasn't surprised when she told her about being seduced
by the aged guru. "She told me people had been coming to her with this
for years and years," Mary said. "She was caught in the middle." Malti
and her brother, who have taken the names Chidvilasananda and
Nityananda, are the movement's new leaders.

Another of Muktananda's victims was a woman I'll call "Jennifer." She
says Muktananda raped her at the main Indian ashram at Ganeshpuri in
the spring of 1978. He ordered Jennifer to come to his bedroom late
one night, and told her to take her clothes off. "I was in shock," she
said, "but over the years, I had learned you never say no to anything
that he asked you to do...."

Muktananda had intercourse with Jennifer for an hour, she said, and
was quite proud of the fact. "He kept saying, ‘Sixty minutes,’" she
said. "He claimed he was using the real Indian positions, not the
westernized ones used in America." While he had sex, the guru felt
like conversing, but Jennifer found she couldn't say a word. "The main
thing he wanted to know was how old I was when I first got my period.
I answered something, and he said, ‘That’s good, you're a pure girl.’"
Devastated by the event, Jennifer made plans to leave the ashram as
soon as possible, but Muktananda continued to be interested in her.
"He used to watch me getting undressed through the keyhole," she said.
She would open the door and see the guru outside "I became rather
scared of him, because he kept coming to my room at night."

Both women said the Ganeshpuri ashram was arranged to suit
Muktananda's convenience.

"He had a secret passageway from his house to the young girls'
dormitory," Mary said. "Whoever he was carrying on with, he had
switched to that dorm." The guru often visited the girls' dormitory
while they were undressing. "He would come up anytime he wanted to"
Jennifer said, "and we would just giggle. In the early days, I never
thought of him as having sexual desires. He was the guru..." Mary knew
otherwise: she talked with at least eight other young girls who had
sex with Muktananda. "I knew that he had girls marching in and out of
his bedroom all night long," she said.

While his followers were renovating a Miami hotel in 1979, Muktananda
slept on the women's floor, and ordered that the youngest be put in
the rooms closest to his, and the older ones down the hall.

"You always knew who he was carrying on with," said Chandra. "They
came down the next day with a new gold bracelet or a new pair of
earrings." Around the ashram, said Mary, people knew that "anyone who
had jewelry was going to his room a lot."

For a time, Muktananda's followers found ways to rationalize his
behavior. He wasn't really penetrating his victims, they said. Or he
wasn't ejaculating - an important distinction to some, since retaining
the semen was supposed to be a way of conserving the kundalini energy.

Ultimately, Chandra felt it didn't make any difference. "If you're
going to be celibate, and you're going to preach celibacy, you don't
put it in halfway, and then pull it out. You live what you preach..."

After years of repressing their growing doubts about Muktananda,
Michael and Chandra finally drew the line when they learned he was
molesting a 13-year-old girl. She had been entrusted to the ashram by
her parents, and was being cared for by Muktananda's laundress and
chauffeur. The laundress "told me Baba was doing things to her," said
Chandra. "I think he was probing around in her." The laundress
suggested it was only "Baba's way of loving her," but Chandra was
appalled.

Charges of sex against Muktananda continued. In 1981, one of
Muktananda's swamis, Stan Trout, wrote an open letter accusing his
guru of molesting Little girls on the pretext of checking their
virginity. The letter caused a stir, but word didn't go beyond the
ashram. In a "Memo from Baba," Muktananda merely answered that
"devotees should know the truth by their own experience, not by the
letters that they receive... You should be happy that I'm still alive
and healthy and that they haven't tried to hang me."

"Wretched is he who cannot observe discipline and restraint even in an
ashram." -Muktananda

I N THE first of his eight years with Muktananda, Yale dropout Richard
Grimes said he was "in a funny kind of grace period, where you're so
involved with the beginning of inner Life that you don't really notice
what is going on." But then he started seeing things that didn't jibe
with his idea of a meditation retreat.

"Muktananda had a ferocious temper," said Grimes, "and would scream or
yell at someone for no seeming reason." He saw the guru beating people
on many occasions. "In India, if peasants were caught stealing a
coconut from his ashram, Muktananda would often beat them," Grimes
said. The people in the ashram thought it was a great honor to be
beaten by the guru. No one asked the peasants' opinion.

Muktananda's ubiquitous valet, Noni Patel, was a regular target of his
master's wrath. While on tour in Denver, Noni came down to the kitchen
to be treated for a strange wound in his side. "At first, he wouldn't
say how he had gotten it," Grimes' wife Lotte recalled. "Later it came
out that Baba had stabbed him with a fork."

When ex-devotees talked about strong-arm tactics against devotees, the
names of two people close to Muktananda kept coming up. One was David
Lynn, known as Sripati, an ex-Marine Vietnam vet. The other was Joe
Don Looney, an ex-football player with a reputation for troublemaking
on the five NFL teams he played for, and a criminal record. They were
known as the "enforcers"; Muktananda used them to keep people in line.

On the guru's orders, Sripati once picked a public fight with then-
swami Stan Trout at the South Fallsburg ashram. He came down from
Boston, where Muktananda was staying, and punched Trout to the ground
without provocation. Long-time devotee Abed Simli saw the attack, but
figured Sripati had just flipped out. Michael Dinga knew otherwise.
Muktananda had phoned him the morning before the beating, and told him
Trout’s ego was getting too big, and that he was sending Sripati to
set him straight. Dinga, a big man, was instructed not to interfere.

In India, Dinga and a man called Peter Polivka witnessed Muktananda’s
valet Noni Patel give a particularly brutal beating to a young
follower: A German boy in his twenties, whom Dinga described as
"obviously in a disturbed state" had started flailing around during a
meditation intensive. The German was hauled outside, put under a cold
shower, stripped naked, and laid out on a concrete slab behind the
ashram. Dinga said the German just sat in a full lotus position, and
tried to steel himself against what happened next.

Noni Patel took a rubber hose, a foot-and-a-half long, and beat and
questioned the boy for thirty minutes while a large black man called
Hanuman held him. "They were full-strength blows," said Dinga, "and
they raised horrible welts on the boy's body."

There exists a long tradition in the East of masters beating their
students. Tibetan and Zen Buddhist stories are full of sharp blows
that stop the students rational minds long enough for them to become
enlightened. Couldn't that have been what Muktananda was doing?

"It could be seen that way," said Richard Grimes. "For years we
thought that every discrepancy was because he lived outside the laws
of morality He could do anything he wanted. That in itself is the
biggest danger of having a perfect master lead any kind of group -
there's no safeguard."

Chandra Dinga said that as Muktananda's power grew, he ignored normal
standards of behavior. "He felt he was above and beyond the law," she
said. "It went from roughing people up who didn't do what he wanted,
to eventually, at the end, having firearms."

Though the ashrams were meditation centers, a surprising number of
people in them had guns. Chandra saw Noni's gun, Muktananda's
successor Subash's gun, and the shotgun Muktananda kept in his
bedroom. Others saw guns in the hands of "enforcer" Sripati and ashram
manager Yogi Ram. The manager of the Indian ashram showed Richard
Grimes a pistol that had been smuggled into India for his use. One
devotee opened a paper bag in an ashram vehicle in Santa Monica, and
found ammunition in it.

A woman who ran the ashram bakery for many years said she knew some
people had guns, but that it never bothered her. The Santa Monica
ashram, for example, was in a very rough neighborhood, she said, and
the guns were strictly for protection.

"In an ashram, one should not fritter one's precious time in a
precious place on eating and drinking, sleeping, gossiping and talking
idly." -Muktananda

BY ALL accounts, devotees in the ashrams worked hard under trying
conditions. In India, they were isolated from their culture. Even in
the American ashrams, close friendships were frowned on, and
Muktananda strongly discouraged devotees from visiting their families.
A woman I'm calling "Sally" used to get up for work at 3:30 a.m. She
said her day was spent in work, chanting, meditation, and silence.
"Some days, you couldn't talk to anyone all day long. I would get very
lonely." Recorded chants were often played over loudspeakers. Even a
woman who is still close to the movement admitted that "the long hours
were a drag."

Though he was Muktananda's right-hand man for construction, Michael
Dinga worked "under incredible schedules with ridiculous budgets,"
putting in the same hours as his crew. In the six-and-a-half years he
was with the ashram, he said he had a total of two weeks off.

As time went on, Dinga came to be bothered by what he saw as
exploitation: "I saw the way people were manipulated, how they would
work in all sincerity and all devotion [with] no idea that they were
being laughed at and taken advantage of."

"Even a penny coming as a gift should be regarded as belonging to God
and religion." -Muktananda

MUKTANANDA'S movement was both a spiritual and a financial success.
Once Siddha meditation caught on, said Chandra Dinga, "money poured
into the ashram." Particularly lucrative were the two-day "meditation
intensives" given by Muktananda, and now by his successors. Today, an
intensive led by the two new gurus costs $200. (Money orders or
cashier's checks only, please. No credit cards or personal checks.) An
intensive given in Oakland in May 1983 drew 1200 participants, and
people had to be turned away. At $200 a head, Chidvilasananda and
Nityananda’s labors earned the ashram nearly a quarter of a million
dollars in a single weekend.

There was always a lot of secrecy around ashram affairs, Lotte Grimes
remarked. During Muktananda's lifetime, that secrecy applied to money
matters with a vengeance.

The number of people who came to intensives, for example, was a secret
even from the devotees. Simple multiplication would tell anyone how
much money was coming in. And when Richard Grimes set up a restaurant
at the Oakland ashram, he said Muktananda "had a fit" when he found
out that Grimes had been keeping his own records of the take.

Food services head Chandra Dinga said the restaurants in the various
ashrams were always big money-makers, where devotees worked long hours
for free. On tour during the summer, she said, they would feed over a
thousand people, and bring in three thousand dollars in cash a day.
Sally said that a breakfast that sold for two dollars actually cost
the ashram about three cents.

Donations further fattened the coffers. if somebody important was
coming to the ashram, Chandra’s job was to try and get them to give a
feast and to make a large donation. $1500 to $3000 was considered
appropriate. "There was just a constant flow of money into his
pockets," said Chandra, "it let him get whatever he wanted to get, and
let him buy people."

Muktananda himself was said to have been very attached to money. "For
years, he catered only to those who were wealthy," said Richard
Grimes. "He spent all the time outside of his public performances
seeing privately anyone who had a lot of money."

A parade of Mercedes-Benzes used to drive up to the Ganeshpuri ashram
with rich visitors, said Grimes. In Oakland, Lotte Grimes saw Malti
order a list drawn up of everybody in the ashram who had money, to
arrange private interviews with Muktananda, by his orders.

Devotees, on the other hand, had to get by on small stipends, if they
got anything. Chandra Dinga, despite her status as head of food
services, never got more than $100 a month. Devotees with less
prestige were completely dependent on the guru's generosity. Sally
once cried for two days when she broke her glasses, knowing she would
have to beg Muktananda for another pair.

How much money did Muktananda amass from his efforts? Even the
officers of the foundation that ostensibly ran Muktananda's affairs
never knew for sure.

Michael Dinga was a foundation trustee, and used to cosign for
deposits to the ashram’s Swiss bank accounts, but the amounts on the
papers were always left blank. In 1977, however, he got a hint. Ron
Friedland, the president of the foundation, told Dinga that Muktananda
had 1.3 million dollars in Switzerland. Three years later, Muktananda
told Chandra it was more like five million. "And then he laughed, and
said, ‘There’s more than that.’"

A woman called Amma, who was Muktananda's companion for more than
twenty years, told the Dingas that all the accounts were in the names
of Muktananda’s eventual successors, Chidvilasananda and Nityananda.

Michael and Chandra Dinga finally quit the ashram in December 1980.
They had served Muktananda for a combined total of sixteen-and-a-half
years, and had risen to positions of real importance. Both knew
exactly how the ashram operated.

Together, they went to Muktananda to tell him why they wanted to
leave. The guru wasn't pleased. To get the Dingas to stay, Muktananda
called on everything he thought would stir them. He offered them a
car, a house, and money. When that failed, he started to weep. "You're
my blood, my family," he said. Then Muktananda abruptly changed tack.
"You've come on an inauspicious day," he said. "I can't give you my
blessing." Next morning, he called Chandra on the public intercom and
said she could leave immediately.

After they left, the Dingas say they were denounced by the guru, and
their lives threatened.

"Muktananda claimed he had thrown us out because Chandra was a whore"
said Dinga, "that she was having sex with the young boys who worked in
the restaurant. Later he said I had a harem. In other words, he was
accusing us of all the things he was doing himself." Muktananda also
claimed that none of the buildings Michael had built were any good.
When one of Michael's crew stood up for him, he was threatened
physically.

Leaving all their friends behind in the ashram, the Dingas moved to
the San Francisco area, but Muktananda's enmity followed them. Their
doorbell and telephone started ringing at odd hours, and Michael saw
the "enforcers" running away from their door one night. A cruel hoax
was played on Chandra. Someone followed her when she took her cat to
the vet, then phoned the vet's office with a message that her husband
had been in a bad accident. Chandra waited frantically at Berkeley's
Alta Bates Hospital for three quarters of an hour, only to learn that
Michael was at work, unhurt.

Death threats started to reach the Dingas toward the end of April
1981, six months after they had left the ashram. On May 7, Sripati and
Joe Don Looney visited Lotte Grimes at her job in Emeryville with a
frightening piece of information: "Tell Chandra this is a message from
Baba: Chandra only has two months to live." Another ex-follower said
he got a similar message: If the Dingas didn't keep quiet, acid would
be thrown in Chandra's face; Michael would be castrated.

The Grimeses and the Dingas reported the threats to the police. The
Dingas hired a lawyer.

The threats stopped soon after Berkeley police officer Clarick Brown
called on the Oakland ashram, but Chandra was badly frightened. Some
ex-followers still are.

Michael and Chandra's departure sparked a small exodus from the
ashram. Some of the ex-followers began to meet and compare notes on
their experiences in the ashram. "We were amazed and rejuvenated,"
said Richard Grimes. "We got more energy from learning he was a con
man than we ever did thinking he was a real person."

Just the same, the devotees who left the ashram are still dealing with
the damage done to their lives. Michael and Chandra's marriage broke
up, as did Sally's. Michael is only now coming out of a period of
depression and emptiness. Richard and Lotte Grimes are bitter at
having wasted years of their lives in the ashram. Stan Trout still
considers Muktananda a great yogi, but a tragically flawed man.

Chandra Dinga has taken years to come to terms with her experience
with Muktananda; "Your whole frame of reference becomes askew," she
said. "What you would normally think to be right or wrong no longer
has any place. The underlying premise is that everything the guru does
is for your own good. The guru does no wrong. When I finally realized
that everything he did was not for our own good, I had to leave."

Muktananda’s two successors were at the Oakland ashram in May end I
asked Swami Chidvilasananda about the accusations against her guru.

To her knowledge, did Muktananda have sex with women in the ashram?
"Not as far as I saw," she said carefully. What about the charge that
Muktananda had sex with young girls? "Those girls never came to us,"
Chidvilasananda said. "And we never saw it, we only heard it when
Chandra talked to everybody else."

Chidvilasananda also denied that there was a bank account in
Switzerland. When asked about the ashram's finances, she said that all
income was put back into facilities. "We are a break-even
proposition," the new leader said.

As for the alleged beatings, she said that Americans had their own
ways of doing things. She said, "You can't blame the guru, because the
guru doesn't teach that."

Why then, I asked, do the other ex-devotees I talked with support the
Dingas in their charges?

Chidvilasananda replied, "I'm very glad they gave you a very nice
story to cover themselves up and I want to tell you I don't want to
get into this story because I know their story, too, and I do not want
to say anything about it." When I said, "You have a chance to tell us
whether or not you think these are accurate charges, falsehoods, or
delusions," Malti's answer was: "I’m not going to probe into people's
minds and try to find out what the truth is."

Two swamis and a number of present followers also said the charges
were not true. Others say they simply don't believe them.

On the subject of money, foundation chief Ed Oliver conceded in an
October 1, l983, interview with the Los Angeles Times that there is a
Swiss account with 1.5 million dollars in it. And when I repeated
Swami Chidvilasananda's denials about women complaining to her, Mary,
the woman who says the guru seduced her in South Fallsburg, said,
"Well, that's an out-and-out lie."

"The sins committed at any other place are destroyed at a holy centre,
but those committed at a holy centre stick tenaciously - it is
difficult to wash them away." -Muktananda

THIS IS a story of serious accusations made against a spiritual leader
who is still prayed to and revered by thousands. Even his detractors
say Muktananda gave them a great deal in the beginning. "He put out a
force field around him," said Michael Dinga. "You could palpably feel
the force coming off him. It gave me the feeling I had latched onto
something that would answer my questions." Former devotees say
Muktananda's eyes had a kind of light; when they first met the guru,
he radiated love and benevolence. He also had a way of making his
devotees feel special.

"I think he liked me so much because I wasn't taken by all the visions
and the sounds," said Chandra, "that I understood that having an
experience of God was something much more substantial and more
ordinary." Chandra still feels that spirituality is the most important
thing in her life. She says the gradual unfolding of the dark side of
her guru's personality chipped away at her love and respect. "When you
have a loved one you never dream that he might hurt you. At the end, I
was devastated." Yet despite the unsavory conclusion to her ten years
with the swami, Chandra still notes, "if I had it to do over again, I
still wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world."

In a way, the sex, the violence, and the corruption aren't the real
point. Muktananda's personal shortcomings were bad enough, explained
Michael Dinga, but "the worst of it was that he wasn't who he said he
was."

A person can make spiritual progress under a corrupt master, just as
placebos can actually make you feel better. But how far can a person
really grow spiritually under a master who doesn't himself live the
truth? There was a tremendous split between what Muktananda preached
and what he did, and his hypocrisy only made it worse. His successors
are now in a dilemma: If they admit their guru's sins, Chidvilasananda
and Nityananda lose their god-figure, and weaken their claim to a
lineage of perfect masters. But if they don't, people who come to them
looking for truth are courting disappointment.

Stan Trout, formerly Swami Abhayananda, served Muktananda for ten
years as a teacher and ashram director. He left in 1981. "My summary
withdrawal from Muktananda’s organization was also a withdrawal from
what I had considered my fraternal family, my friends, and able all,
my life’s work," he wrote us. He sent this open letter after reading a
draft of "The Secret Life of Swami Muktananda," in which he is quoted.
- Art Kleiner

Letter From a Former Swami

by Stan Trout

I’d like to add this letter, if possible, as an appendix to the
article on Muktananda by William Rodarmor. It is a statement of my
thoughts and opinions of Muktananda after two years of deep
deliberation following my discovery of his ‘secret life’.

When I left Muktananda’s service, I did so because I had just learned
of the threatening action he had taken against some of his long-time
devotees who had recently left his service. He had sent two of his
body-guards to deliver threats to two young married women who had been
speaking to other women who had been speaking to others of
Muktananda’s sexual liaisons with a number of young girls in his
ashram. It was immediately clear to me that I could not represent a
guru who was not only taking sexual advantage of his female devotees
but was threatening with bodily harm those who revealed the truth
about him. However, after I had left Muktananda and had make the
reasons for my departure known to others still in his service, another
issue came to light for me, teaching me something not only about
Muktananda’s, but about the nature of the organization and all other
such organizations in which the leader is regarded as infallible by
his followers, and is therefore obeyed implicitly.

When Chandra and Michael Dinga and later myself realized the truth
about Muktananda and his secret sex life, there was absolutely no
means available to present the evidence for a fair hearing or
judgment. There was no recourse but to leave, for the guru was the
sole appeal, and he was as accustomed to lying as he was to breathing.
Yet his word was regarded by followers as so absolutely final that
when each of us left and were branded "demons" by him, not a single
soul among those who had been our brother and sister devotees for ten
years questioned or objected, but unamimouly rejected us outright as
the demented infidels he said we were. One has only to observe the way
each of us who discovered the guru’s secret life were treated by our
former comrades to understand the power for evil inherent in any
relationship based on the infallibility of the leader and the
unquestioned obedience of the subjects...

It is clear to me that not only had the girls with whom Muktananda
practiced his sexual diversions committed acts to which they had given
no moral or rational consent, but so had the men who were ordered to
threaten them with violence, and so had I myself when I had followed
Muktananda’s orders to express to others opinions which I did not
sincerely hold. It is a sad but perennial phenomenon: Out of a love
for truth and for those who teach it and appear to embody it, we
unwittingly set ourselves up for exploitation and betrayal. Our
mistake is to deify another being and attribute perfection to him.
From that point on everything is admissible.

I think the lesson to be learned is that we simply cannot afford to
relinquish our individual sovereignty - whether it be in a socio-
political setting or in a religious congregation. Those who willingly
put aside their own autonomy, their own moral judgment, to obey even a
Christ, a Buddha, or a Krishna, do so at risk of losing a great deal
more than they can hope to gain.

About Muktananda himself I have thought a great deal. There is no
doubt in my mind that he was an extraordinarily enlightened, learned,
and articulate man who possessed a singular power, a dynamic personal
radiance and charisma that drew people to him and inspired them to lay
their lives at his feet. Surely such a power is divine; yet there is
no way to justify the way in which he used this power. If God himself
were to behave in this way, we would have to find him guilty of
flagrant disregard for the law of love.

Some may say, ‘He did no worse than any of us have done, or would do
if we could.’ And I would answer, ‘No; he did worse than any of use
have done or would have done in his place. For, though he was only
human like the rest of us, he staged a deliberate campaign of deceit
to convince gentle souls that he had transcended the limitations of
mankind, that through realizing the eternal Self, he had attained holy
"perfection." He planted and nourished false, impossible dreams in the
hears of innocent, faithful souls and sacrificed them to his sport.
With malicious glee, he cunningly stole from hundreds of trusting
souls their hearts and wills, their self-trust, their very sanity,
their very lives. No ordinary, good person could do this, no matter
how he tried; his heart and conscience would not allow it.

Like all of us, Muktananda was only human. And, like all men who
worship power, he was inevitably corrupted and destroyed by it. His
power could not save him form the weakness of the flesh, nor from the
wickedness and depravity that servitude to it brings. He ended as a
feeble-minded sadistic tyrant, luring devout little girls to his bed
every night with promises of grace and self-realization.

Muktananda’s claim of "perfection" (Siddha-hood) was based on the
notion that a person who has become enlightened has thereby also
become "perfect" and absolutely free of human weakness. This is
nonsense; it is a myth perpetrated by dishonest men who wish to
receive the reverence and adoration due God alone. There is no
absolute assurance that enlightenment necessitates the moral virtue of
a person. There is no guarantee against the weakness of anger, lust,
and greed in the human soul. The enlightened are on an equal footing
with the ignorant in the struggle against their own evil - the only
difference being that the enlightened person knows the truth, and has
no excuse for betraying it.

Throughout history there have been many enlightened souls who have
been thought great, who, in the pride of their perfection and freedom,
have imagined themselves to be beyond the constraints of God’s laws,
and who have thus fallen from love and lost the glory the once had.
Those glorious Babes and Bhagwans, thinking to build their kingdom
here on earth upon the ruins of the young souls devoted to them, often
succeed for a time in fooling many and in gathering a large and
festive following, but their deeds also follow them and proclaim their
truth long after the paeans of praise have been sung and wafted away
on the air. "God is not mocked"; there is no freedom, no liberation,
from His law of love, nor from His inescapable justice. It is indeed
often those very persons who have thought themselves most perfect,
most free and ungoverned, who have fallen most grievously; and their
piteous fall is an occasion for great sadness, and should serve as a
clear reminder of caution to us all.

www.LeavingSiddhaYoga.net

The Rick A. Ross Institute
email: in...@rickross.com URL: http://www.rickross.com

Copyright © 2001-2008 Rick Ross.

http://www.rickross.com/groups/saibaba.html

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Cult News from Rick Ross
A news perspective with analysis from cult expert Rick Ross
07.01.04

Guru exposed in sex scandal snags space in the New York Times by
lifting Jeff GoldblumPosted in Sri Chinmoy, Brainwashing, Amma at 7:19
am by Rick Ross

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, called “Sri Chinmoy” by his devoted followers,
has made something of a career through publicity stunts. His favorite
appears to be phony power lifting that he uses to attract attention
and feed his seemingly insatiable ego.

The latest newspaper to be sucked in by the guru’s antics is the New
York Times.

In a long piece today titled “They’re Not Heavy; They’re His People,”
NY Times reporter Cory Kilgannon gave the guru enough space to make
him blush, perhaps for the sake of humor.

However, though the NY Times correctly reported that the guru’s group
has been called a “brainwashing cult,” it gave much more attention to
his self-serving public relations ploy than the people he hurt.

Readers were regaled with a long list of celebrities that Chinmoy has
lifted in the past, which reportedly includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond
Tutu, Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Susan Sarandon,
Roberta Flack, Yoko Ono, Sting, Richard Gere, Sid Caeser, 20 assorted
Nobel laureates, sumo wrestlers and a headhunter from Borneo.

Actor Jeff Goldblum was the latest celeb slated for the 70-something
guru to hold up for a photo op.

It all sounds like fodder for a good laugh. That is, unless you know
the details of sexual abuse allegations that have spun around “Sleazy
Sri” as reported by the New York Post.

Nothing was mentioned in the NY Times article about this.

According to former Chinmoy devotees the guru is not only posing as a
celibate, he’s also is a bit kinky.

Chinmoy apparently likes to watch but not always weightlifting
events.

He also reportedly has paid for at least one of his female follower/
sex partners to have an abortion.

This is hardly the stuff of humor.

Sorry, comments are closed

Disclaimer
This news page is about groups, organizations or movements, which may
have been called "cults" and/or "cult-like" in some way, shape or
form. But not all groups called either "cults" or "cult-like" are
harmful. Instead, they may be benign and generally defined as simply
people intensely devoted to a person, place or thing. Therefore, the
discussion or mention of a group, organization or person on this page,
is not necessarily meant pejoratively.

http://www.cultnews.com/?p=1587

Rick Ross
Rick Ross was born November of 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio. His family
moved to Phoenix during 1956 and he grew up in Arizona.

Ross attended both elementary and high school in Arizona, except for a
brief one-year stint at Camden Military Academy, a boarding school in
South Carolina. He never attended college.

During his summers he often worked as a camp counselor and was an avid
swimmer.

After graduating from Phoenix Union High School in 1971 Ross was first
employed by a finance company and later a local bank. In 1975 he took
a job with a cousin's auto salvage business. He became a company vice
president and worked in that area until 1982. During this time his
other interests were largely good cigars, art, jazz and classic cars.

But in 1982 a controversial religious group infiltrated the staff of a
Jewish nursing home where Ross' grandmother was a resident. He brought
this to the attention of the director and working with the organized
Jewish community in Phoenix, ended the problem.

Ross' effort at the nursing home soon led to further work with the
Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and the publication of a ground
breaking brochure, which carried the ecumenical endorsements of most
of Arizona's religious leaders. It was titled, What in God's Name is
Going on in Arizona?

The brochure achieved wide recognition and Ross was soon appointed to
a national committee focused upon the cult phenomenon, by the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC). The UAHC, commonly called the
"Reform Movement," is one of the largest denominations of Judaism in
the world today.

Ross was later appointed to the UAHC Interreligious Affairs committee.
And during the 80s he lectured and contributed to educational
materials for the denomination.

In the early 80s Ross also became aware of serious problems regarding
proselytizing within the prisons and jails of Arizona. He again
brought this to the attention of the organized Jewish community.

Hate groups, harassed, threatened and frequently targeted Jewish
inmates. Jews in prison also lacked any meaningful advocacy or
consistent programs.

Ross founded the Jewish Prisoner Program of Arizona, which was soon
absorbed by Jewish Family & Children's Service (JFCS) of Phoenix.

In 1983 Ross became a member of the JFCS professional staff. What was
once volunteer work for the Jewish community, now became his full-time
job.

Ross' work on behalf of Jewish prisoners culminated in his election as
chairman, of both the Religious Advisory Committee to the Arizona
Department of Corrections and the International Coalition of Jewish
Prisoner Programs sponsored by B'nai B'rith in Washington D.C.

During his time at JFCS Ross continued his cult-related work, studies
and research.

He also became an instructor for the Phoenix Bureau of Jewish
Education and designed a course curriculum about destructive cults.

In 1986 Ross left the staff of JFCS to become a full-time private
consultant, lecturer and cult intervention specialist.

He then began working privately with the victims of destructive groups
and/or leaders.

His professional help is typically requested by parents, but often is
sought by spouses and at times by the adult children of cult members.
He has done hundreds of interventions.

Ross once cooperated with parents in involuntary "deprogramming"
cases.

Such involuntary interventions were initiated by families and involved
the restraint of a loved one. In this type of intervention the cult
member was not free to leave and instead restrained under the
supervision of their family. This restraint guaranteed an opportunity
and adequate time to address family concerns.

However Ross, like other professionals working in this area, abandoned
involuntary casework some years ago. He now restricts his intervention
work exclusively to voluntary efforts, unless working with a minor
child under the direct supervision of a custodial parent.

In voluntary interventions adult cult members are free to go at any
time.

Cult members willingly agree to participate in Ross' current
intervention work, despite the option to leave, usually because family
members urge them to stay.

Ross states that amongst his current voluntary cases 75 percent not
only decide to stay and discuss their family's concerns, but
ultimately leave the group, which has drawn concern.

He has maintained this success rate consistently for some years. This
is important, in a field where such definitive results are most often
the bottom line.

Ross has worked throughout the United States and internationally.

He also continues to lecture and has been asked to speak at many
universities and colleges. This has included such prestigious
institutions as the University of Chicago, Dickinson College, Carnegie
Mellon, Baylor, The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia,
Duquesne, Knox College, Rutgers and the McCallie School.

Ross has been qualified, accepted and testified as an expert witness
regarding destructive cults and controversial groups in nine states,
typically concerning child custody and personal injury cases.

His work with law-enforcement has included consultation with local
police departments across the United States, the Federal Bureau of
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and the FBI.

Families once retained Ross to do two interventions with Davidians and
both ended successfully. His study of the once little known group led
by David Koresh, began in 1988 as a direct result of repeated
complaints.

Ross' work has been cited and/or his comments quoted in newspapers
across the United States including the New York Times, Chicago
Tribune, Washington Post, USA Today, Dallas Daily News, Boston Herald,
LA Times, Village Voice, Seattle Times, Phoenix Republic, Anchorage
Daily News, Tampa Tribune, The Las Vegas Sun, Austin American
Statesman, Richmond Times Dispatch and the Oregonian.

Ross has likewise been quoted within national magazines such as
Newsweek, GQ, Details, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, American Lawyer
and Slate.

Wire services such as Associated Press and Reuters have also carried
his comments.

Time Magazine cited Ross as "a veteran cult watcher."

He has also been quoted within international publications including
The London Times, The South China Post, Davar of Israel, Processo of
Mexico, The Toronto Sun, Johannesburg Sunday Times and The Australian
Courier.

Ross has appeared on more than 100 radio shows across the U.S.
including National Public Radio, CBS and Pacifica and internationally
on the BBC, RAI in Rome, CKO National Network of Canada and the
Australian Broadcast Corporation.

He has appeared on American national network television on programs
such as Nightline, Dateline, The Today Show, Good Morning America,
Primetime, NBC Evening News, CNN, MSNBC, Oprah, 48 Hours and MTV News.
Ross has appeared internationally on such television networks as NHK,
Asahi and Nippon in Japan, CBC of Canada and TV 2 National News of
Denmark.

He has also participated in documentaries for Post Newsweek, NHK and
Court TV.

Ross has been retained as a paid professional consultant by CBS, CBC
and Nippon television networks.

He also worked for Miramax/Disney as a technical advisor to the actor
Harvey Keitel regarding his role in the Jane Campion film Holy Smoke.

Launched in 1995, his website, RickRoss.com, is now one of the largest
and most comprehensive sites about controversial groups and leaders on
the Internet. It contains thousands of articles and documents archived
through hundreds of individual group and subject web pages.

Noted cult researchers and authors Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman call
RickRoss.com, "The Mt. Everest of mind control Internet Resources."

Thousands of individuals visit this website every day.

Rick Ross personally handles hundreds of complaints and inquiries each
month. This work has often led to breaking stories both about "cult"
abuses and celebrity, political and business involvement with groups
often called "cults."

After 2000 Ross launched two more related websites. CultEducation.com,
which features educational materials about cults and CultNews.com for
breaking stories.

In 2001 Ross moved from Arizona to New Jersey. He now lives in
downtown Jersey City on the Hudson River, opposite Manhattan.

At the beginning of 2003 Ross launched the Rick A. Ross Institute Inc.
(RI). RI is a New Jersey nonprofit corporation recognized as a tax-
exempt educational charity by the US Internal Revenue Service. The
mission of RI is the study of destructive cults, controversial groups
and movements. RI maintains public archives made available through the
Internet and is an institutional member of the New Jersey Library
Association.

In January 2009 Rick Ross was an official guest of the Chinese
government invited to attend an International Forum on Cultic Studies
sponsored by the the Centre for the Study of Destructive Cults in
China. Ross presented a paper, which was published by the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.

Other than his work, which requires frequent travel, Ross is a life-
long art collector and still enjoys a good cigar while listening to
some quiet jazz.

Ross is pictured on this page in front of an oil painting by noted
artist Steven Yazzie titled, No Spring Chicken.

Britain's FHM Magazine named Rick Ross "America's number one cult
buster."

The Rick A. Ross Institute
email: in...@rickross.com URL: http://www.rickross.com

http://www.rickross.com/biography.html

By Rick Ross
Topics
Defining a Cult
Destructive Cult
Destructive Cult Dynamics
Destructive Cult Mindset
Destructive Cult Control
Destructive Cult Recruitment

Defining a Cult
Isn't the word "cult" a pejorative label used to discriminate against
new religious movements?

No. It is disingenuous to ignore the historical significance and
modern day applications of the word cult. Today many controversial
groups, that have been called "cults", are seeking to either eliminate
the word, or create through fear of litigation a reluctance to use the
term. Some cult apologists have literally said that "'cult' is a four
letter word," and should be replaced by the politically correct title
"new religious movement" (NRM). However, historically cults have
always been with us and they continue to be a part of the world
today.

How is the word "cult" defined?
Webster's Dictionary defines a cult as:

"1. A formal religious veneration 2. A system of religious beliefs and
rituals also its body of adherents; 3. A religion regarded as
"unorthodox or spurious."; 4. A system for the cure of disease based
on dogma set forth by its promulgator; 5. a: A great devotion to a
person, idea, thing; esp.: such devotion regarded as a literary or
intellectual fad, b: A usually small circle of persons united by
devotion or allegiance to an artistic or intellectual movement or
figure."

This definition obviously could include everything from Barbie
collectors to old "Deadheads," "Trekkies" to diehard Elvis fans.
American history might also include within such a definition the
devoted followers of Mary Baker Eddy the founder of Christian Science,
or the Mormons united through their devotion to Joseph Smith. Both
these religious groups were once largely regarded as "unorthodox or
spurious." However, the most important concern today is not simply who
might be somewhat "cultic" in their devotion now or historically, but
what groups might represent potential problems regarding personal or
public safety. That is, groups that are potentially unsafe and/or
destructive.

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who wrote the definitive book about
thought reform (often called "brainwashing") also wrote a paper about
cult formation. Lifton defined a cult as having the following three
characteristics:

A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as
the general principles that may have originally sustained the group
lose power.

A process [is in use] call[ed] coercive persuasion or thought reform.

Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the
leader and the ruling coterie.

Don't some groups once seen as "cults" often move more into the
mainstream, becoming generally respected sects or religions?

Yes. There are certainly examples of groups that were once perhaps
thought of as "cults" that have evolved into relatively mainstream
sects or religions. Such examples as the Seventh Day Adventists once
led by Ellen White, or the Mormons, also known as the Church of Jesus
Christ of the Latter Day Saints.

But it is also important to note that some groups, which may have once
been labeled as "cults" continue to be controversial due to their
unsafe or destructive practices. Two examples of groups that continue
to be problematic and often destructive are the former Russellites,
now known as "Jehovah's Witnesses," that once prohibited organ
transplants and still expects its members to refuse blood
transfusions, which has resulted in numerous deaths. And the Christian
Scientists founded by Mary Baker Eddy who often reject medical
treatment, again resulting in the loss of life. Some groups may say
they have renounced unsafe or destructive practices, only to be
exposed later as guilty of the same extremes and abuses.

Can hate groups or political extremists be somewhat "cultic"?

Yes. Many anti-government extremists such as the so-called "militias"
and hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, racist skinheads, some
radical anti-abortion groups, the "Christian Identity" movement and
often violent gangs, share many of the same characteristics as
destructive cults; such as a "we they" mentality, black and white
thinking and/or unreasonable fears about the outside world. And
radical anti-government extremists and hate groups have at times
isolated themselves in compounds or remote settings not unlike the
Waco Davidians or Jim Jones' People's Temple.

It is important to note that historically there have also been many
radical left-wing political groups such as the SLA that abducted Patty
Hearst, or the National Labor Federation founded by Gino Perente,
which exhibit these same cultic tendencies.

More recently the right-wing followers of Lyndon LaRouche appear to
have obsessive, cult-like devotion to their leader and some have
referred to this group as a "political cult".

Can some multi-level-marketing and commercial schemes be seen as
somewhat cultic?

Yes, some commercially motivated groups stress total commitment, avoid
answering critical questions and seem to employ "cult like"
manipulative techniques to achieve what can be seen as undue
influence. Though most lack the intense focus upon a central leader
like a classic cult, I have received repeated complaints about alleged
abuse within some commercial groups.

People considering multi-level-marketing need to research a company
thoroughly and ask tough questions.

Is the company about selling a product or selling its system of
distribution? This can often be seen by the emphasis it places upon
the importance of recruitment.

What amount of the company's income is derived from promotional tools
and/or percentages paid up the chain of distribution, as opposed to
product sales?

What is the actual net monthly income for the average distributor and
the the typical number of hours devoted to achieve that income?
These are important common sense questions that should be clearly
answered and objectively proven before becoming involved with any
marketing and/or commercial sales group.

Are all so-called "cults" unsafe and destructive?

No. Just because a group is "cultic" and its adherents are focused on
unusual leaders and/or ideas is no reason to call them unsafe or
destructive. There are groups centered on seemingly strange
spiritualists, radical political concepts, the supposed power of
crystals, UFO's, witchcraft or "Satanism," that may appear eccentric,
but most often don't harm anyone. An unsafe or destructive group is
not defined by what it believes, but by what it does. That is, the
behavior that causes harm and injury to the members of the group and/
or others in society.

Do you ever find that complaints you receive about a group or person
are false and/or unfounded?

Yes, there have been times that families have over-reacted to a group
or situation that later proved to be benign and/or not dangerous or
destructive. This has often occurred regarding claims about "Satanism"
and/or so-called "Satanic ritual abuse". Such claims have often been
based upon supposed "recovered or repressed memories" gathered through
therapy sessions. This is a controversial practice and/or process that
relies upon a theory, which has been increasingly rejected as
unscientific and unproven in the courts and also rejected by many
mental health professionals.

Again, it is crucial to understand that behavior is the issue and not
belief. When those concerned about someone's group involvement find
clearly destructive behavior, this is an issue for legitimate concern.
But when a group is simply perceived as strange, eccentric and/or even
personally repugnant, such as some adherents to "Satanism," this does
not mean the group is destructive. Satanists, just as Christians, Jews
and Moslems, have religious rights that are constitutionally
protected. I have rarely found that the claims of horrific acts
attributed to "Satanic" conspiracies can be objectively proven. And
those destructive acts that were proven were rather examples of
isolated and atypical groups. This has been substantiated again and
again by law-enforcement reports and numerous studies.

Destructive Cult

What are the characteristics of a destructive "cult" or group?

Margaret Singer, clinical psychologist and once Professor of
Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley was the
preeminent cult expert of the 20th Century. She counseled and/or
interviewed thousands of people affected by controversial groups often
called "cults." Dr. Singer offered meaningful definitions of unsafe
groups or "cults" in her book Cults in our Midst.

According to Singer, unsafe groups or cults can generally be defined
by three factors:

The origin of the group and role of the leader.

The power structure, or relationship between the leader[s] and the
followers.

The use of a coordinated program of persuasion, which is called
thought reform [or more commonly, 'brainwashing'"].

What typifies an unsafe group or "cult's" leadership and structure?

Again, a good working understanding has been provided by Margaret
Singer: "In most cases, there is one person, typically the founder at
the top...decision making centers in him or her." Illustrating the
structure Singer says, "imagine an inverted T. The leader is alone at
the top and the followers are all at the bottom". There is little if
any accountability and as Singer says, "the overriding philosophy...is
that the ends justify the means, a view that allows [such groups] to
establish their own brand of morality, outside normal society
bounds".

What specifically would define a group or "cult" as unsafe?

Unsafe groups or "cults" often abuse and exploit their members. This
abuse may occur in the areas of finances, physical labor, child abuse
and neglect, medical neglect, sexual exploitation and/or psychological
and emotional abuse.

Extreme examples of destructive behavior have been historically
recorded in such groups as the Waco Davidians, the cult suicides of
"Heaven's Gate" and the Solar Temple of Switzerland and the suicide/
murder of almost one thousand members of the Peoples Temple ordered by
Jim Jones. In 1995 the Japanese cult known as Aum, the followers of
Shoko Asahara, gassed the subways of Tokyo with the deadly poison gas
sarin, killing twelve and injuring thousands of citizens. Perhaps the
most deaths ever caused by a single cult in modern history can be
attributed to the "Movement for the Restoration of the Ten
Commandments" of Uganda. Shortly after the turn of the century 780
bodies were found after a reign of terror that included murder and
possibly mass suicide. But due to the isolated circumstances of the
group many believe all the bodies will never be recovered, placing the
actual loss of life much higher, possibly greater than Jonestown.

Are all unsafe or destructive groups isolated in compounds?

No. Isolation can often be less obvious. Many destructive groups
create isolation through their control of a member's associations with
outside society. The group members may be discouraged from associating
with outsiders, especially those who express a negative attitude about
the group and its leader(s). Isolation can also be fostered by a kind
of hyper-activity that allows little time for family, outside
interests or friendships. Marshall Applewhite the leader of "Heaven's
Gate" controlled his followers through carefully subscribed daily
schedules and regimentation, though the members were seemingly free to
come and go at anytime. This regimentation and control took place in a
mansion within a plush California neighborhood, not an isolated
compound.

Doesn't the First Amendment protect these groups?

Yes. The First Amendment certainly protects all religious groups in
the United States in the areas of freedom of belief and speech, but
this is not blanket protection for any actions done in the name of
those beliefs. If a group breaks the law they are accountable for
their actions just like everyone else. Psychiatrist and cult expert
John Clark once commented, "The First Amendment is not a suicide
pact."

Isn't criticism of so-called "new religious movements," a form of
religious bigotry, hatred and persecution?

Americans historically have been sensitive to the issue of religious
intolerance since before the Revolutionary War. Roger Williams, a
dissenter who disagreed with the Puritans founded Rhode Island as a
safe haven for religious minorities. But the members of many groups
called "cults" often characterize virtually any criticism of their
behavior as religious "persecution," "intolerance" and/or "bigotry."

It seems that many so-called "cults" have forgotten that the First
Amendment is expansive and protects both their freedoms and the free
speech of their critics. Margaret Singer once said that "The conduct
of certain cults, however, especially groups that tend to overtly
exploit and abuse people and engage in deceptive, unethical, and
illegal conduct, does provoke the surrounding society into a critical
stance."

Destructive Cult Dynamics

What types of people become leaders of unsafe and/or destructive
groups?

Many cult leaders seem to be narcissistic personalities often
fantasizing about messianic visions that will change the course of
human history, while appearing to have little if any conscience. Some
make claims that they are the exclusive voice of God, "psychic"
connections to historical figures, or aliens from outer space. Often
these leaders seem deeply delusional and disturbed and some have been
called psychopaths. Marshall Applewhite, the leader of "Heaven's Gate"
was once confined to a mental hospital.

Extreme examples of destructive and delusional behavior by cult
leaders such as Jim Jones, David Koresh and Shoko Asahara have caused
many mental health professionals to question their sanity. Still
others simply may be opportunistic con men or women, exploiting their
followers for personal profit and self-interest.

What kind of relationship do destructive group leaders have with their
followers?

The leadership most often defines what is right and wrong and group
followers are essentially expected to defer making meaningful value
judgments regarding almost any issue of significant importance. And
any member of the group who questions or doubts the authority of the
leader is likely to be labeled wrong, rebellious, suppressive,
negative and in some situations even "demon possessed" or "satanic".

No area of a member or follower's life appears to be immune from such
a group's scrutiny and/or criticism. A kind of learned dependency
often develops. Group followers appear highly dependent upon their
leaders to resolve problems and provide them with an ongoing sense of
clarity and purpose.

Are there any meaningful boundaries in such relationships?

No. It seems that most destructive cult leaders do not provide
appropriate boundaries regarding the relationship they have with their
followers. Because of this and other factors such as learned
dependency, thought reform and little if any meaningful
accountability, a formula for abuse and exploitation often exists in
such group relationships.

Also, the adulation of followers may have a negative impact upon the
leader(s), almost like an intoxicating and addictive drug. This may
deepen a codependent relationship between the leader and his or her
followers. And such virtual worship may also provide seeming proof to
some cult leaders that their grandiose delusions of greatness, power
and absolute authority are true. The more obedience and adulation such
leaders receive, the more they may want and eventually require. This
may then become the foundation for ever-escalating bizarre and/or
destructive behavior.

Destructive Cult Mindset

Is there actually a kind of mindset within potentially unsafe or
destructive groups?

Yes. There seems to be a typical mindset within most destructive
cults. This is often characterized by black and white thinking, a low
tolerance of ambiguity and a relentlessly judgementa1 attitude.
Members of such a group often think in "we, they" opposing terms
regarding those outside their group. This mindset frequently produces
feelings of superiority and/or spiritual elitism, claims of supposed
"persecution" and unreasonable fears. These fears typically concern
the outside world and the consequences of disagreeing with or leaving
the group.

How is such a mindset achieved?

Most often destructive cults, groups and/or leaders are able to shape
a mindset based upon control of communication, association, and
information through hyperactivity and/or isolation. This in turn
provides the basis for further control of behavior, emotions and
thinking, which has been called "mind control." This is frequently a
gradual step-by-step process that includes facets of psychological
persuasion and the principles of influence.

Destructive Cult Control

How can cults use communication to control people?

One example is through "loading the language," a feature of thought
reform, characterized by thought terminating cliches. Such cliches are
easily memorized phrases and terms that essentially become
communication shortcuts or "ultimate terms." This can have the effect
of stopping critical thinking and independent analysis, essentially
restricting and ultimately often constricting the mind.

How can cults control information?

Information is controlled in many cults by creating strict rules and/
or guidelines regarding such things as books and outside reading,
television, movies, radio, music and often even restricting
associations with anyone who might express independent ideas, doubts
or negative feelings about the group. The group and its leader(s) thus
may become much like a filter, supposedly needed to help eliminate the
"pollution", "poisons" and negativity of the outside world.

How can hyperactivity or isolation contribute to cult control?

When people are busy with group activities there may be little if any
meaningful time away from the group, except for work, school or sleep.
Group members are thus often cut off and isolated from any outside
frame of reference or objective feedback. They become constrained
through their largely exclusive associations within the group, this
may also include being substantially removed from family and old
friends. All these factors can create a kind of vacuum regarding any
meaningful critical analysis. And then the group and/or its leadership
fills that vacuum with its own perspective and agenda.

How is "coercive persuasion" really different from normal persuasion?

Essentially, coercive persuasion relies largely upon thought reform
techniques and may also utilize unreasonable fear to compel people to
change. Through such a process many can be changed without their
knowledge and/or informed consent. This is done in a rigid way that
frequently precludes any meaningful exchange of ideas, is fairly one-
sided and seems to have little respect for differences. Margaret
Singer clinical psychologist and author of the book "Cults in Our
Midst" made distinctions between various types of persuasion such as
education, advertising, propaganda, indoctrination and thought
reform.

What "unreasonable fears" do many cult members have?

These are fears often not based upon objective reality, such as
bizarre conspiracy theories, baseless projections of an impending
catastrophe, crisis and/or physical danger. Members of some cult
groups are warned of an extreme punishment beyond death proscribed
specifically for those who refuse to submit to the group and its
leader. They may also be told stories about those who left or were
disobedient and how their lives were tragically ended or impacted as a
direct result. Many of these stories may be made up, grossly
exaggerated and/or distorted, but they reflect an implicit purpose,
which is to intimidate members and thus retain them within the group.

What is "undue influence"?

This can be seen as an individual who becomes so dependent upon others
through cult indoctrination that they often make decisions which are
not in their own best interest. Our judicial system has made such
distinctions by determining diminished capacity, which subsequently
may be exculpatory regarding responsibility and/or mitigate sentencing
concerning a crime.

There is a notable difference between the levels of influence employed
through education, advertising, propaganda, indoctrination and thought
reform. Undue influence usually is the result of unethical and/or
improper techniques of persuasion that is administered by an
authoritarian figure and/or hierarchical structure.

Some have offered the analogy that the Marines are not unlike
authoritarian cults and that they also use undue influence to train
and control recruits. However, there are stark and basic differences
between the operation and conduct of the Marines and most destructive
cults in such areas as meaningful accountability, the ability to
address grievances and communication.

Can one individual gain destructive "cult-like" control of another
person?

Yes. It is possible for a cult to be composed of one leader and only
one follower. This also can be seen as an abusive/controlling
relationship, which is a one-on-one deliberately manipulative and
exploitative intimate relationship between two people. Some marriages
or domestic partnerships where there is spousal abuse may be
characterized and explained in this way. This is sometimes called a
"cultic relationship."

Those dominated within abusive/controlling relationships may be so
completely under the influence of another person that they appear to
have lost the ability to think independently, much like the member of
a destructive cult. The person in submission is also frequently
isolated from family and friends and becomes very dependent upon the
dominant authority figure.

Destructive Cult Recruitment

Are cults and other controversial groups deceptive when they recruit
people?

Yes, they often are. They may employ deception in the recruitment
process by using front organizational names and/or not clearly
identifying themselves or their purpose. For example, a religious cult
may not even initially advise potential recruits that it has a
religious agenda. Groups with controversial leaders may withhold that
information and also keep their more radical beliefs hidden or secret
until they achieve more influence and compliance thorough their
indoctrination process.

What types of people are recruited by cults or become involved in
potentially unsafe or destructive groups and relationships?

All types of people. Individuals from strong and troubled families,
with and without histories of psychological problems. People who have
had and have not had drug problems, with a solid or weak religious
background, the educated and uneducated, the wealthy, poor, middle
class, intelligent and not so intelligent.

One of the myths about cult involvement is that a certain type of
person is more vulnerable. Another myth is that healthy, strong,
intelligent well-educated people from good families don't become
involved. Or, that somehow if someone has clearly defined religious
convictions they cannot be recruited. These theories have never been
proven or substantiated through research. In fact, repeated studies
continue to indicate a wide and varied background for cult recruits.

Frankly, cults are quite good at persuasion and indoctrination; it's
their stock and trade. And most people simply are not prepared, either
through education and personal experience, to be sensitive to the
possible impact of cult methodology.

The truth is, almost anyone could potentially become involved with an
unsafe or destructive group. We are all especially suggestible at
certain times, when depressed, lonely, during an awkward transition,
when within a new environment such as a college campus away from home,
after a romantic breakup, death in the family or some other personal
problem or ordeal. Since all people have such experiences, we all have
periods of vulnerability. And many destructive cults/groups have honed
their skills, timing and focused their programs to exploit such
situations as opportunities for recruitment.

But aren't these people just weak and stupid?

No. As previously mentioned cult recruits are often caught at a
particularly vulnerable time and probably did not recognize the
warning signs necessary to make a more balanced and informed decision.
In everyday life this can be seen to some extent when people make
poorly informed decisions largely based upon the influence of slick
advertising and sales gimmicks. There are many examples of such
successful, but often unethical, methods of persuasion through high-
pressure car deals, land and stock swindles, misleading infomercials
and boiler room phone solicitations.

Many intelligent and successful celebrities and stars have become
involved with groups that have been called "cults," such as Madonna,
Tom Cruise , Elizabeth Taylor and John Travolta.

Specifically because these well-known personalities are so strong and
compelling, some have been used to promote controversial groups and
defend them. Ironically, the very reason they are useful to such
groups is the public admiration and respect they enjoy and the
perception that they are role models and often trendsetters.

People are often frustrated and anxious about the world around them.
And most of us seem to have a need for answers, security, a sense of
control, a feeling of belonging and a desire for personal recognition.
Today there are millions of "true believers," who faithfully accept
psychics, UFOs, angels, questionable multi-level marketing schemes,
political extremism, conspiracy theories and demagoguery. People often
find things to believe in that fulfill a need for explanation about an
increasingly complex world. At a time of crisis such beliefs may also
fill a personal void. Personal voids, burning questions and the need
for answers are not unique to any single type of person, instead they
appear to be part of the human condition.

If such a system exists to coerce, persuade, influence and control
people, then why doesn't somebody use it to take over a nation or the
world?

This has already happened. The politics of fear, control of the
environment and manipulation of both information and communication has
been used successfully to control nations. Hitler's Germany, Stalin's
Russia, Mao's China, the Ayatollah's Iran and Sadam's Iraq are just a
few examples. Such intense influence and control allowed Hitler to set
the stage for the Holocaust.

Many dictators have historically been labeled as "megalomaniacs" and
"psychopaths." They are not unlike destructive cult leaders, who often
have messianic pretensions and delusions about world influence.
Movements such as Nazism, Stalinism and Maoist China can be seen as
cults that fit well within the criteria advanced by Robert Jay Lifton
in his paper concerning "cult formation." Hitler, Stalin and Mao were
all "charismatic leader[s] who increasingly be[came] an object of
worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained
the[ir] group[s] los[t] power". These leaders also employed obvious
thought reform techniques and exploited their followers.

In the United States during the "Red Scare" of the 50s there was a
mindset that came be known as "McCarthyism." This mindset produced
overwhelming intimidation, information control, propaganda and
unreasonable fear. During that bleak era of American history Senator
Joseph McCarthy dominated and profoundly influenced the thinking of a
nation.

The Rick A. Ross Institute

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Copyright © 1999 Rick Ross

http://www.rickross.com/faq.html

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism
The University of North Carolina Press/Chapel Hill and London
By Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.

Below is an edited excerpt from Chapter 22 of Robert Jay Lifton's
book,"Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of
'Brainwashing' in China." Lifton, a psychiatrist and distinguished
professor at the City University of New York, has studied the
psychology of extremism for decades. He testified at the 1976 bank
robbery trial of Patty Hearst about the theory of "coercive
persuasion." First published in 1961, his book was reprinted in 1989
by the University of North Carolina Press. Scroll down to the read the
chapter.

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Chapter 22: Ideological Totalism

Topics
Milieu Control
Mystical Manipulation
The Demand for Purity
The Cult of Confession
The "Sacred Science"
Loading the Language
Doctrine Over Person
The Dispensing of Existence

A discussion of what is most central in the thought reform environment
can lead us to a more general consideration of the psychology of human
zealotry. For in identifying, on the basis of this study of thought
reform, features common to all expressions of ideological totalism, I
wish to suggest a set of criteria against which any environment may be
judged - a basis for answering the ever-recurring question: "Isn't
this just like 'brainwashing'?"

These criteria consist of eight psychological themes which are
predominant within the social field of the thought reform milieu. Each
has a totalistic quality; each depend upon an equally absolute
philosophical assumption; and each mobilizes certain individual
emotional tendencies, mostly of a polarizing nature. In combination
they create an atmosphere which may temporarily energize or
exhilarate, but which at the same time poses the gravest of human
threats.

Milieu Control
The most basic feature of the thought reform environment, the
psychological current upon which all else depends, is the control of
human communication. Through this milieu control the totalist
environment seeks to establish domain over not only the individual's
communication with the outside (all that he sees and hears, reads or
writes, experiences, and expresses), but also - in its penetration of
his inner life - over what we may speak of as his communication with
himself. It creates an atmosphere uncomfortably reminiscent of George
Orwell's 1984.

Such milieu control never succeeds in becoming absolute, and its own
human apparatus can - when permeated by outside information - become
subject to discordant "noise" beyond that of any mechanical apparatus.
To totalist administrators, however, such occurrences are no more than
evidences of "incorrect" use of the apparatus. For they look upon
milieu control as a just and necessary policy, one which need not be
kept secret: thought reform participants may be in doubt as to who is
telling what to whom, but the fact that extensive information about
everyone is being conveyed to the authorities is always known. At the
center of this self-justification is their assumption of omniscience,
their conviction that reality is their exclusive possession. Having
experienced the impact of what they consider to be an ultimate truth
(and having the need to dispel any possible inner doubts of their
own), they consider it their duty to create an environment containing
no more and no less than this "truth." In order to be the engineers of
the human soul, they must first bring it under full observational
control.

Mystical Manipulation
The inevitable next step after milieu control is extensive personal
manipulation. This manipulation assumes a no-holds-barred character,
and uses every possible device at the milieu's command, no matter how
bizarre or painful. Initiated from above, it seeks to provoke specific
patterns of behavior and emotion in such a way that these will appear
to have arisen spontaneously, directed as it is by an ostensibly
omniscient group, must assume, for the manipulated, a near-mystical
quality.

Ideological totalists do not pursue this approach solely for the
purpose of maintaining a sense of power over others. Rather they are
impelled by a special kind of mystique which not only justifies such
manipulations, but makes them mandatory. Included in this mystique is
a sense of "higher purpose," of having "directly perceived some
imminent law of social development," and of being themselves the
vanguard of this development. By thus becoming the instruments of
their own mystique, they create a mystical aura around the
manipulating institutions - the Party, the Government, the
Organization. They are the agents "chosen" (by history, by God, or by
some other supernatural force) to carry out the "mystical imperative,"
the pursuit of which must supersede all considerations of decency or
of immediate human welfare. Similarly, any thought or action which
questions the higher purpose is considered to be stimulated by a lower
purpose, to be backward, selfish, and petty in the face of the great,
overriding mission. This same mystical imperative produces the
apparent extremes of idealism and cynicism which occur in connection
with the manipulations of any totalist environment: even those actions
which seem cynical in the extreme can be seen as having ultimate
relationship to the "higher purpose."

At the level of the individual person, the psychological responses to
this manipulative approach revolve about the basic polarity of trust
and mistrust. One is asked to accept these manipulations on a basis of
ultimate trust (or faith): "like a child in the arms of its mother."
He who trusts in this degree can experience the manipulations within
the idiom of the mystique behind them: that is, he may welcome their
mysteriousness, find pleasure in their pain, and feel them to be
necessary for the fulfillment of the "higher purpose" which he
endorses as his own. But such elemental trust is difficult to
maintain; and even the strongest can be dissipated by constant
manipulation.

When trust gives way to mistrust (or when trust has never existed) the
higher purpose cannot serve as adequate emotional sustenance. The
individual then responds to the manipulations through developing what
I shall call the psychology of the pawn. Feeling himself unable to
escape from forces more powerful than himself, he subordinates
everything to adapting himself to them. He becomes sensitive to all
kinds of cues, expert at anticipating environmental pressures, and
skillful in riding them in such a way that his psychological energies
merge with the tide rather than turn painfully against himself. This
requires that he participate actively in the manipulation of others,
as well as in the endless round of betrayals and self-betrayals which
are required.

But whatever his response - whether he is cheerful in the face of
being manipulated, deeply resentful, or feels a combination of both -
he has been deprived of the opportunity to exercise his capacities for
self-expression and independent action.

The Demand for Purity
In the thought reform milieu, as in all situations of ideological
totalism, the experiential world is sharply divided into the pure and
the impure, into the absolutely good and the absolutely evil. The good
and the pure are of course those ideas, feelings, and actions which
are consistent with the totalist ideology and policy; anything else is
apt to be relegated to the bad and the impure. Nothing human is immune
from the flood of stern moral judgments. All "taints" and "poisons"
which contribute to the existing state of impurity must be searched
out and eliminated.

The philosophical assumption underlying this demand is that absolute
purity is attainable, and that anything done to anyone in the name of
this purity is ultimately moral. In actual practice, however, no one
is really expected to achieve such perfection. Nor can this paradox be
dismissed as merely a means of establishing a high standard to which
all can aspire. Thought reform bears witness to its more malignant
consequences: for by defining and manipulating the criteria of purity,
and then by conducting an all-out war upon impurity, the ideological
totalists create a narrow world of guilt and shame. This is
perpetuated by an ethos of continuous reform, a demand that one strive
permanently and painfully for something which not only does not exist
but is in fact alien to the human condition.

At the level of the relationship between individual and environment,
the demand for purity creates what we may term a guilty milieu and a
shaming milieu. Since each man's impurities are deemed sinful and
potentially harmful to himself and to others, he is, so to speak,
expected to expect punishment - which results in a relationship of
guilt and his environment. Similarly, when he fails to meet the
prevailing standards in casting out such impurities, he is expected to
expect humiliation and ostracism - thus establishing a relationship of
shame with his milieu. Moreover, the sense of guilt and the sense of
shame become highly-valued: they are preferred forms of communication,
objects of public competition, and the basis for eventual bonds
between the individual and his totalist accusers. One may attempt to
simulate them for a while, but the subterfuge is likely to be
detected, and it is safer to experience them genuinely.

People vary greatly in their susceptibilities to guilt and shame,
depending upon patterns developed early in life. But since guilt and
shame are basic to human existence, this variation can be no more than
a matter of degree. Each person is made vulnerable through his
profound inner sensitivities to his own limitations and to his
unfulfilled potential; in other words, each is made vulnerable through
his existential guilt. Since ideological totalists become the ultimate
judges of good and evil within their world, they are able to use these
universal tendencies toward guilt and shame as emotional levers for
their controlling and manipulative influences. They become the
arbiters of existential guilt, authorities without limit in dealing
with others' limitations. And their power is nowhere more evident than
in their capacity to "forgive."

The individual thus comes to apply the same totalist polarization of
good and evil to his judgments of his own character: he tends to imbue
certain aspects of himself with excessive virtue, and condemn even
more excessively other personal qualities - all according to their
ideological standing. He must also look upon his impurities as
originating from outside influences - that is, from the ever-
threatening world beyond the closed, totalist ken. Therefore, one of
his best way to relieve himself of some of his burden of guilt is to
denounce, continuously and hostilely, these same outside influences.
The more guilty he feels, the greater his hatred, and the more
threatening they seem. In this manner, the universal psychological
tendency toward "projection" is nourished and institutionalized,
leading to mass hatreds, purges of heretics, and to political and
religious holy wars. Moreover, once an individual person has
experienced the totalist polarization of good and evil, he has great
difficulty in regaining a more balanced inner sensitivity to the
complexities of human morality. For these is no emotional bondage
greater than that of the man whose entire guilt potential - neurotic
and existential - has become the property of ideological totalists.

The Cult of Confession
Closely related to the demand for absolute purity is an obsession with
personal confession. Confession is carried beyond its ordinary
religious, legal, and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming
a cult in itself. There is the demand that one confess to crimes one
has not committed, to sinfulness that is artificially induced, in the
name of a cure that is arbitrarily imposed. Such demands are made
possible not only by the ubiquitous human tendencies toward guilt and
shame but also by the need to give expression to these tendencies. In
totalist hands, confession becomes a means of exploiting, rather than
offering solace for, these vulnerabilities.

The totalist confession takes on a number of special meanings. It is
first a vehicle for the kind of personal purification which we have
just discussed, a means of maintaining a perpetual inner emptying or
psychological purge of impurity; this purging milieu enhances the
totalists' hold upon existential guilt. Second, it is an act of
symbolic self-surrender, the expression of the merging of individual
and environment. Third, it is a means of maintaining an ethos of total
exposure - a policy of making public (or at least known to the
Organization) everything possible about the life experiences,
thoughts, and passions of each individual, and especially those
elements which might be regarded as derogatory.

The assumption underlying total exposure (besides those which relate
to the demand for purity) is the environment's claim to total
ownership of each individual self within it. Private ownership of the
mind and its products - of imagination or of memory - becomes highly
immoral. The accompanying rationale (or rationalization) is familiar,
the milieu has attained such a perfect state of enlightenment that any
individual retention of ideas or emotions has become anachronistic.

The cult of confession can offer the individual person meaningful
psychological satisfactions in the continuing opportunity for
emotional catharsis and for relief of suppressed guilt feelings,
especially insofar as these are associated with self-punitive
tendencies to get pleasure from personal degradation. More than this,
the sharing of confession enthusiasms can create an orgiastic sense of
"oneness," of the most intense intimacy with fellow confessors and of
the dissolution of self into the great flow of the Movement. And there
is also, at least initially, the possibility of genuine self-
revelation and of self-betterment through the recognition that "the
thing that has been exposed is what I am."

But as totalist pressures turn confession into recurrent command
performances, the element of histrionic public display takes
precedence over genuine inner experience. Each man becomes concerned
with the effectiveness of his personal performance, and this
performance sometimes comes to serve the function of evading the very
emotions and ideas about which one feels most guilty - confirming the
statement by one of Camus' characters that "authors of confessions
write especially to avoid confessing, to tell nothing of what they
know." The difficulty, of course, lies in the inevitable confusion
which takes place between the actor's method and his separate personal
reality, between the performer and the "real me."

In this sense, the cult of confession has effects quite the reverse of
its ideal of total exposure: rather than eliminating personal secrets,
it increases and intensifies them. In any situation the personal
secret has two important elements: first, guilty and shameful ideas
which one wishes to suppress in order to prevent their becoming known
by others or their becoming too prominent in one's own awareness; and
second, representations of parts of oneself too precious to be
expressed except when alone or when involved in special loving
relationships formed around this shared secret world. Personal secrets
are always maintained in opposition to inner pressures toward self-
exposure. The totalist milieu makes contact with these inner pressures
through its own obsession with the expose and the unmasking process.
As a result old secrets are revived and new ones proliferate; the
latter frequently consist of resentments toward or doubts about the
Movement, or else are related to aspects of identity still existing
outside of the prescribed ideological sphere. Each person becomes
caught up in a continuous conflict over which secrets to preserve and
which to surrender, over ways to reveal lesser secrets in order to
protect more important ones; his own boundaries between the secret and
the known, between the public and the private, become blurred. And
around one secret, or a complex of secrets, there may revolve an
ultimate inner struggle between resistance and self-surrender.

Finally, the cult of confession makes it virtually impossible to
attain a reasonable balance between worth and humility. The
enthusiastic and aggressive confessor becomes like Camus' character
whose perpetual confession is his means of judging others: "[I]…
practice the profession of penitent to be able to end up as a judge…
the more I accuse myself, the more I have a right to judge you." The
identity of the "judge-penitent" thus becomes a vehicle for taking on
some of the environment's arrogance and sense of omnipotence. Yet even
this shared omnipotence cannot protect him from the opposite (but not
unrelated) feelings of humiliation and weakness, feelings especially
prevalent among those who remain more the enforced penitent than the
all-powerful judge.

The "Sacred Science"
The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic
dogma, holding it out as an ultimate moral vision for the ordering of
human existence. This sacredness is evident in the prohibition
(whether or not explicit) against the questioning of basic
assumptions, and in the reverence which is demanded for the
originators of the Word, the present bearers of the Word, and the Word
itself. While thus transcending ordinary concerns of logic, however,
the milieu at the same time makes an exaggerated claim of airtight
logic, of absolute "scientific" precision. Thus the ultimate moral
vision becomes an ultimate science; and the man who dares to criticize
it, or to harbor even unspoken alternative ideas, becomes not only
immoral and irreverent, but also "unscientific." In this way, the
philosopher kings of modern ideological totalism reinforce their
authority by claiming to share in the rich and respected heritage of
natural science.

The assumption here is not so much that man can be God, but rather
that man's ideas can be God: that an absolute science of ideas (and
implicitly, an absolute science of man) exists, or is at least very
close to being attained; that this science can be combined with an
equally absolute body of moral principles; and that the resulting
doctrine is true for all men at all times. Although no ideology goes
quite this far in overt statement, such assumptions are implicit in
totalist practice.

At the level of the individual, the totalist sacred science can offer
much comfort and security. Its appeal lies in its seeming unification
of the mystical and the logical modes of experience (in psychoanalytic
terms, of the primary and secondary thought processes). For within the
framework of the sacred science, and sweeping, non-rational
"insights." Since the distinction between the logical and the mystical
is, to begin with, artificial and man-made, an opportunity for
transcending it can create an extremely intense feeling of truth. But
the posture of unquestioning faith - both rationally and non-
rationally derived - is not easy to sustain, especially if one
discovers that the world of experience is not nearly as absolute as
the sacred science claims it to be.

Yet so strong a hold can the sacred science achieve over his mental
processes that if one begins to feel himself attracted to ideas which
either contradict or ignore it, he may become guilty and afraid. His
quest for knowledge is consequently hampered, since in the name of
science he is prevented from engaging in the receptive search for
truth which characterizes the genuinely scientific approach. And his
position is made more difficult by the absence, in a totalist
environment, of any distinction between the sacred and the profane:
there is no thought or action which cannot be related to the sacred
science. To be sure, one can usually find areas of experience outside
its immediate authority; but during periods of maximum totalist
activity (like thought reform) any such areas are cut off, and there
is virtually no escape from the milieu's ever-pressing edicts and
demands. Whatever combination of continued adherence, inner
resistance, or compromise co-existence the individual person adopts
toward this blend of counterfeit science and back-door religion, it
represents another continuous pressure toward personal closure, toward
avoiding, rather than grappling with, the kinds of knowledge and
experience necessary for genuine self-expression and for creative
development.

Loading the Language
The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the
thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human
problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-
sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become
the start and finish of any ideological analysis. In [Chinese
Communist] thought reform, for instance, the phrase "bourgeois
mentality" is used to encompass and critically dismiss ordinarily
troublesome concerns like the quest for individual expression, the
exploration of alternative ideas, and the search for perspective and
balance in political judgments. And in addition to their function as
interpretive shortcuts, these cliches become what Richard Weaver has
called "ultimate terms" : either "god terms," representative of
ultimate good; or "devil terms," representative of ultimate evil. In
[Chinese Communist] thought reform, "progress," "progressive,"
"liberation," "proletarian standpoints" and "the dialectic of history"
fall into the former category; "capitalist," "imperialist,"
"exploiting classes," and "bourgeois" (mentality, liberalism,
morality, superstition, greed) of course fall into the latter.
Totalist language then, is repetitiously centered on all-encompassing
jargon, prematurely abstract, highly categorical, relentlessly
judging, and to anyone but its most devoted advocate, deadly dull: in
Lionel Trilling's phrase, "the language of nonthought."

To be sure, this kind of language exists to some degree within any
cultural or organizational group, and all systems of belief depend
upon it. It is in part an expression of unity and exclusiveness: as
Edward Sapir put it, "'He talks like us' is equivalent to saying 'He
is one of us.'" The loading is much more extreme in ideological
totalism, however, since the jargon expresses the claimed certitudes
of the sacred science. Also involved is an underlying assumption that
language - like all other human products - can be owned and operated
by the Movement. No compunctions are felt about manipulating or
loading it in any fashion; the only consideration is its usefulness to
the cause.

For an individual person, the effect of the language of ideological
totalism can be summed up in one word: constriction. He is, so to
speak, linguistically deprived; and since language is so central to
all human experience, his capacities for thinking and feeling are
immensely narrowed. This is what Hu meant when he said, "using the
same pattern of words for so long…you feel chained." Actually, not
everyone exposed feels chained, but in effect everyone is profoundly
confined by these verbal fetters. As in other aspects of totalism,
this loading may provide an initial sense of insight and security,
eventually followed by uneasiness. This uneasiness may result in a
retreat into a rigid orthodoxy in which an individual shouts the
ideological jargon all the louder in order to demonstrate his
conformity, hide his own dilemma and his despair, and protect himself
from the fear and guilt he would feel should he attempt to use words
and phrases other than the correct ones. Or else he may adapt a
complex pattern of inner division, and dutifully produce the expected
cliché's in public performances while in his private moments he
searches for more meaningful avenues of expression. Either way, his
imagination becomes increasingly dissociated from his actual life
experiences and may tend to atrophy from disuse.

Doctrine Over Person
This sterile language reflects characteristic feature of ideological
totalism: the subordination of human experience to the claims of
doctrine. This primacy of doctrine over person is evident in the
continual shift between experience itself and the highly abstract
interpretation of such experience - between genuine feelings and
spurious cataloguing of feelings. It has much to do with the peculiar
aura of half-reality which totalist environment seems, at least to the
outsider, to possess.

The inspiriting force of such myths cannot be denied; nor can one
ignore their capacity for mischief. For when the myth becomes fused
with the totalist sacred science, the resulting "logic" can be so
compelling and coercive that it simply replaces the realities of
individual experience. Consequently, past historical events are
retrospectively altered, wholly rewritten, or ignored, to make them
consistent with the doctrinal logic. This alteration becomes
especially malignant when its distortions are imposed upon individual
memory as occurred in the false confession extracted during thought
reform.

The same doctrinal primacy prevails in the totalist approach to
changing people: the demand that character and identity be reshaped,
not in accordance with one's special nature or potentialities, but
rather to fit the rigid contours of the doctrinal mold. The human is
thus subjected to the ahuman. And in this manner, the totalists, as
Camus phrases it, "put an abstract idea above human life, even if they
call it history, to which they themselves have submitted in advance
and to which they will decide arbitrarily, to submit everyone else as
well."

The underlying assumption is that the doctrine - including its
mythological elements - is ultimately more valid, true, and real than
is any aspect of actual human character or human experience. Thus,
even when circumstances require that a totalist movement follow a
course of action in conflict with or outside of the doctrine, there
exists what Benjamin Schwartz described as a "will to orthodoxy" which
requires an elaborate facade of new rationalizations designed to
demonstrate the unerring consistency of the doctrine and the unfailing
foresight which it provides. But its greater importance lies in more
hidden manifestations, particularly the totalists' pattern of imposing
their doctrine-dominated remolding upon people in order to seek
confirmation of (and again, dispel their own doubts about) this same
doctrine. Rather than modify the myth in accordance with experience,
the will to orthodoxy requires instead that men be modified in order
to reaffirm the myth.

The individual person who finds himself under such doctrine-dominated
pressure to change is thrust into an intense struggle with his own
sense of integrity, a struggle which takes place in relation to
polarized feelings of sincerity and insincerity. In a totalist
environment, absolute "sincerity" is demanded; and the major criterion
for sincerity is likely to be one's degree of doctrinal compliance -
both in regard to belief and to direction of personal change. Yet
there is always the possibility of retaining an alternative version of
sincerity (and of reality), the capacity to imagine a different kind
of existence and another form of sincere commitment. These alternative
visions depend upon such things as the strength of previous identity,
the penetration of the milieu by outside ideas, and the retained
capacity for eventual individual renewal. The totalist environment,
however, counters such "deviant" tendencies with the accusation that
they stem entirely from personal "problems" ("thought problems" or
"ideological problems") derived from untoward earlier influences. The
outcome will depend largely upon how much genuine relevance the
doctrine has for the individual emotional predicament. And even for
those to whom it seems totally appealing, the exuberant sense of well-
being it temporarily affords may be more a "delusion of wholeness"
than an expression of true and lasting inner harmony.

The Dispensing of Existence
The totalist environment draws a sharp line between those whose right
to existence can be recognized, and those who possess no such right.

Are not men presumtuous to appoint themselves the dispensers of human
existence? Surely this is a flagrant expression of what the Greeks
called hubris, of arrogant man making himself God. Yet one underlying
assumption makes this arrogance mandatory: the conviction that there
is just one path to true existence, just one valid mode of being, and
that all others are perforce invalid and false. Totalists thus feel
themselves compelled to destroy all possibilities of false existence
as a means of furthering the great plan of true existence to which
they are committed.

For the individual, the polar emotional conflict is the ultimate
existential one of "being versus nothingness." He is likely to be
drawn to a conversion experience, which he sees as the only means of
attaining a path of existence for the future. The totalist environment
- even when it does not resort to physical abuse - thus stimulates in
everyone a fear of extinction or annihilation. A person can overcome
this fear and find (in martin Buber's term) "confirmation," not in his
individual relationships, but only from the fount of all existence,
the totalist Organization. Existence comes to depend upon creed (I
believe, therefore I am), upon submission (I obey, therefore I am) and
beyond these, upon a sense of total merger with the ideological
movement. Ultimately of course one compromises and combines the
totalist "confirmation" with independent elements of personal
identity; but one is ever made aware that, should he stray too far
along this "erroneous path," his right to existence may be withdrawn.

The more clearly an environment expresses these eight psychological
themes, the greater its resemblance to ideological totalism; and the
more it utilizes such totalist devices to change people, the greater
its resemblance to thought reform. But facile comparisons can be
misleading. No milieu ever achieves complete totalism, and many
relatively moderate environments show some signs of it. Moreover,
totalism tends to be recurrent rather than continuous. But if totalism
has at any time been prominent in the movement, there is always the
possibility of its reappearance, even after long periods of relative
moderation.

Then, too, some environments come perilously close to totalism but at
the same time keep alternative paths open; this combination can offer
unusual opportunities for achieving intellectual and emotional depth.
And even the most full-blown totalist milieu can provide (more or less
despite itself) a valuable and enlarging life experience - if the man
exposed has both the opportunity to leave the extreme environment and
the inner capacity to absorb and make inner use of the totalist
pressures.

Also, ideological totalism itself may offer a man an intense peak
experience: a sense of transcending all that is ordinary and prosaic,
of freeing himself from the encumbrances of human ambivalence, of
entering a sphere of truth, reality, and sincerity beyond any he had
ever known or even imagined. But these peak experiences, carry a great
potential for rebound, and for equally intense opposition to the very
things which initially seem so liberating. Such imposed peak
experiences - as contrasted with those more freely and privately
arrived at by great religious leaders and mystics - are essentially
experiences of personal closure. Rather than stimulating greater
receptivity and "openness to the world," they encourage a backward
step into some form of "embeddedness" - a retreat into doctrinal
patterns more characteristic (at least at this stage of human history)
of the child than of the individuated adult.

And if no peak experience occurs, ideological totalism does even
greater violence to the human potential: it evokes destructive
emotions, produces intellectual and psychological constrictions, and
deprives men of all that is most subtle and imaginative - under the
false promise of eliminating those very imperfections and ambivalences
which help to define the human condition. This combination of personal
closure, self-destructiveness, and hostility toward outsiders leads to
the dangerous group excesses so characteristic of ideological totalism
in any form. It also mobilizes extremist tendencies in those outsiders
under attack, thus creating a vicious circle of totalism.

What is the source of ideological totalism? How do these extremist
emotional patterns originate? These questions raise the most crucial
and the most difficult of human problems. Behind ideological totalism
lies the ever-present human quest for the omnipotent guide - for the
supernatural force, political party, philosophical ideas, great
leader, or precise science - that will bring ultimate solidarity to
all men and eliminate the terror of death and nothingness. This quest
is evident in the mythologies, religions, and histories of all
nations, as well as in every individual life. The degree of individual
totalism involved depends greatly upon factors in one's personal
history: early lack of trust, extreme environmental chaos, total
domination by a parent or parent-representative, intolerable burdens
of guilt, and severe crises of identity. Thus an early sense of
confusion and dislocation, or an early experience of unusually intense
family milieu control, can produce later a complete intolerance for
confusion and dislocation, and a longing for the reinstatement of
milieu control. But these things are in some measure part of every
childhood experience; and therefore the potential for totalism is a
continuum from which no one entirely escapes, and in relationship to
which no two people are exactly the same.

It may be that the capacity for totalism is most fundamentally a
product of human childhood itself, of the prolonged period of
helplessness and dependency through which each of us must pass.
Limited as he is, the infant has no choice but to imbue his first
nurturing authorities - his parents - with an exaggerated omnipotence,
until the time he is himself capable of some degree of independent
action and judgment. And even as he develops into the child and the
adolescent, he continues to require many of the all-or-none polarities
of totalism as terms with which to define his intellectual, emotional,
and moral worlds. Under favorable circumstances (that is, when family
and culture encourage individuation) these requirements can be
replaced by more flexible and moderate tendencies; but they never
entirely disappear.

During adult life, individual totalism takes on new contours as it
becomes associated with new ideological interests. It may become part
of the configuration of personal emotions, messianic ideas, and
organized mass movement which I have described as ideological
totalism. When it does, we cannot speak of it as simply as ideological
regression. It is partly this, but it is also something more: a new
form of adult embeddedness, originating in patterns of security-
seeking carried over from childhood, but with qualities of ideas and
aspirations that are specifically adult. During periods of cultural
crisis and of rapid historical change, the totalist quest for the
omnipotent guide leads men to seek to become that guide.

Totalism, then, is a widespread phenomenon, but it is not the only
approach to re-education. We can best use our knowledge of it by
applying its criteria to familiar processes in our own cultural
tradition and in our own country.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/brainwashing/brainwashing19.html

http://uncpress.unc.edu/

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Encyclopedia of the Paranormal Gordon Stein, editor Carl Sagan
(Prometheus Books, 1996)Order
Everybody's Guide to People WatchingAaron Wolfgang (Intercultural
Press, 1995)Order
Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds Charles MacKay
and Andrew Tobias (Crown Pub, 1995)Order
Faith Beyond Faith Healing: Finding Hope After Shattered Dreams
Kimberly Weston (Paraclete Press, 2002)Order
Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of GurusAnthony
Storr (Free Press; Reprint edition August 19, 1997)Order
The First Honest Book About LiesJoni Kincher (Free Spirit Publishing,
1992)Order
Fraud!: How to Protect Yourself from Schemes, Scams, and
SwindlesMarsha Bertrand (American Management Association; 1 Ed edition
October 1999)Order
Frauds, Myths and Mysteries Kenneth L. Feder. (Mayfield Publishing,
1998)Order
The Fringes of Reason Tim Schultz (editor) (A Whole Earth Catalogue:
Harmony Books, 1989). Order
From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt E.A. Wallis Budge (Dover Pub,
1989)Order
From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in
the Late Vietnam Era (Religion and Politics)Stephen Kent, PhD
(Syracuse University Press, 2001)Order
The God Part of the BrainMatthew Alper (Rouge Press, 2001). Order
Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide Cass R. Sunstein
(Oxford University Press, USA May 13, 2009)Order
Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle William Nole, M.D. (Random
House, 1974)Order
How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World Francis Wheen (Public Affairs,
2005)Order
How the Mind Works Steven Pinker (W.W. Norton & Co, 1999)Order
How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age
Theodore Schick, Jr. and Lewis Vaughn (Mayfield Publishing,
1999)Order
Invasion From Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic Hadley Cantril
(Harper Torchbooks, 1966)Order
Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-
ReligionsRonald H. Fritze (Reaktion Books May 15, 2009)Order
Karma Cola: Marketing to Mystic East Gita Mehta (Vintage, 1994)Order
Leaps of Faith Nicholas Humphrey (Springer; 1 edition June 4,
1999)Order
Lies, Lies, Lies! The Psychology of DeceitCharles V. Ford (American
Psychiatric Press, 1995)Order
The Many Faces of Deceit: Omissions, Lies and Disguise in
PsychotherapyHelen K. Gediman and Janice Lieberman (Jason Aronson,
1996)Order
Maximize Your MemoryJonathan Hancock (David and Charles, 2000)Order
Mind Magic: Tricks for Reading MindsOrmond McGill and Canevari Green
(Millbrook Press March 1, 1995)Order
Mind Reading and Magic TricksBob Longe (Sterling Books, 1999)Order
My Father's Guru: A Journey through Spirituality and Disillusion
Jeffrey M. Masson (Addision Wesley, 1993)Order
The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience Andrew
Newberg, MD and Eugene G. Aquili, PhD (Fortress Press, 1999)Order
The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide
Robert Jay Lifton (Basic Books, 2000)Order
Nineteen Eighty-four George Orwell (Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition
January 29, 2004)Order
The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy Arthur J. Deikman,
M.D. (Beacon Press; Reprint edition April 15, 1983)Order
Official Know-it-all Guide to Secrets of Mind PowerHarry Lorayne
(Frederick Fell, 1999)Order
On the Wild Side Martin Gardner (Prometheus Books, 1992)Order
Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior Hilary
Evans, Robert E. Bartholomew (Anomalist Books April 20, 2009)Order
Physics: Concepts and ConnectionsArt Hobson (Prentice Hall, 2nd
edition 1999)Order
The Power of MythJoseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (Contributor), Betty Sue
Flowers (Editor) (Anchor, 1991)Order
The Practical Dreamer's Handbook: Finding the Time, Money, and Energy
to Live the Life You Want to Live Paul and Sarah Edwards (JP Tarcher,
2000)Order
Practical Mental MagicTheodore Annemann (Dover, 1983)Order
Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious
Personalities Len Oakes (Syracuse Univ. Press, 1997)Order
Psychic Mafia M. Lamar Keene, Allen Spraggett, Lamar Keene and V.
Raucher (Prometheus Books, 1997)Order
The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents
Joyce Milton (Encounter Books, 2002)Order
The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence
Ervin Staub (Cambridge University Press, 1992)Order
Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology Steven Jay Lynn
(Editor), Scott O. Lilienfeld (Editor), Jeffrey M. Lohr (Editor)
(Guilford Press 2002)Order
Secrets of Mind Power: How to Organize and Develop the Hidden Powers
of Your MindHarry Lorayne (Frederick Fell, 1999)Order
Self-Working Mental Magic: Sixty-Seven Foolproof Mind-Reading
TricksKarl Fulves (Dover, 1989)Order
Self-Working Table Magic: Ninety-Seven Foolproof Tricks with Everyday
ObjectsKarl Fulves and Joseph Schmidt (Dover, 1981)Order
Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America HelplessSteve Salerno
(Crown June 21, 2005)Order
The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing
Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions Robert Todd Carroll (John Wiley &
Sons, August 2003)Order
Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and
MarriagePaul Ekman (W.W. Norton, 2000)Order
Trauma and Recovery Judith Herman, MD (Basic Books, 1997)Order
Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of
Aquarius Valentine Lachman (The Disinformation Company 2003)Order
The Vanishing HitchhikerJan Harold Brunvand (Norton, 1981)Order
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern
History David Aaronovitch (Jonathan Cape October 5, 2006)Order
Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic: More Notes of a Fringe-Watcher Martin
Gardner (Prometheus Books, 1996)Order
Who's Crazy AnywayJoan Mazza (iUniverse April2000)Order
Why God won't go away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief Andrew
Newberg, MD (Ballantine Books, 2001)Order
Without Conscience Robert Hare (The Guilford Press January 8,
1999)Order
The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in
American SocietyArthur J. Deikman, M.D. (Beacon Press, 1994)Order

Destructive Churches
Amazing Grace Kathleen Norris (Riverhead Books, 1998)Order
By What Authority: The Rise of Personality Cults in American
ChristianityRichard Quebedeaux (Harper Collins, 1981)Order
The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A reflection of the Priest's
Crisis of Soul Donald B. Cozzens (Liturgical Press, 2000)Order
Charismatic Chaos John F. MacArthur, Jr. (Zondervan Publishing House,
1993)Order
Churches that AbuseRonald Enroth (Zondervan Publishing House,
1992)Order
Cult Proofing Your KidsPaul Martin (Zondervan Press, 1993)Order
Damaged Disciples: Casualties of Authoritarian Churches and the
Shepherding MovementRon and Vicki BurksOrder
The Drift Into Deception - The Eight Characteristics of Abusive
ChristianityAgnes C. Lawless with John W. Lawless (Kregel Resources,
Grand Rapids, MI, 1995)Order
Exposing Spiritual Abuse: How to Rediscover God's Love When the Church
Has Let You Down Mike Fehlauer (Charisma House, 2001)Order
"Join Us" (documentary about cults in America) DVDOndi TimonerOrder
The Grace Awakening Charles Swindoll. (Word Books, 1996)Order
Healing Spiritual Abuse : How to Break Free from Bad Church
Experiences Ken Blue (InterVarsity Press October 1993)Order
The Jesus People; Old-Time Religion in the Age of Aquarius Ronald M.
Enroth (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., May 1972)Order
Lead us not into temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of
Children Berry and Andrew Greely (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2000)Order
Letters to a Devastated ChristianGene Edwards (Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, Wheaton, IL 1984, 1992)Order
More Jesus, Less Religion: Moving from rules to relationshipStephen
Arterburn and Jack Felton (Waterbrook Press, 2000)Order
Occult:They Didn't Think it Could Happen in Their Church June Summers
(Global Strategic Resources, 2005 )Order
Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis A.W. Richard Sipe (Bruner/
Mazel, 1995)Order
Shackles of Faith Mark Hosler (Tate Publishing February 2, 2010)Order
The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse - Recognizing and Escaping
Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority within the
ChurchDavid Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen (Bethany House Publishers,
Mpls. MN, 1991)Order
Tithing: Low- Realm, Obsolete & DefunctMatthew E. Narramore (Tedoa
Publishing, 2004)Order
Twisted Scriptures- A Path to Freedom From Abusive ChurchesMary Alice
Chrnalogar (Control Techniques, Inc. P.O. Box 8021 Chattanooga, TN
37414-8021)Order
The Unhealed Wounded: The church and human sexuality Eugene Kennedy
(St. Martins Press, 2001)Order
Youth, Brainwashing, and the Extremist Cults Ronald M. Enroth
(Zondervan Publishing Company November 2000)Order

Gurus
Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up CultJayanti Tamm (Harmony
April 14, 2009)Order
The Enlightenment Blues: My years with an American Guru Andre Van Der
Braak (Monkfish Book Publishing October 2003)Order
Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power Joel Kramer (Frog, Ltd. May
20, 1993)Order
Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus Anthony
Storr (Free Press; Reprint edition August 19, 1997)Order
Karma Cola: Marketing to Mystic East Gita Mehta (Vintage, 1994)Order
My Life in Orange: Growing up with the Guru Tim Guest (Harvest Books
February 1, 2005)Order
The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist's Misadventures with Gurus,
Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising
Experiments Eliezer Sobel (Santa Monica Press February 1, 2008)Order
The Serpent Rising: A Journey of Spiritual Seduction Mary Garden (Sid
Harta Publishers October 2002)Order
Without the Guru: How I took my life back after thirty yearsDr Michael
Robert Finch (BookSurge Publishing October 6, 2009)Order

New Age Groups
A Path With Heart : A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of
Spiritual Life Jack Kornfield. (Bantam, 1993)Order
Carlos Castaneda, Academic Opportunism and the Psychedelic Sixties Jay
Courtney Fikes. (Millinea Press, 1996)Order
The New Age: Notes of a Fringe-Watcher Martin Gardner. (Prometheus
Books, 1991)Order
19 Years in a Manhattan Cult: The Cult Next DoorJudith L. Carlone (Ace
Academics July 1, 2005)Order
Psychic Dictatorship in America Gerald B.Bryan, Talita Paolini,
Kenneth Paolini. (Feb 2000)Order
Understanding the New Age Russell Chandler. (Zondervan, 1993)Order
Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage CommuneMargaret Hollenbach
(University of New Mexico Press, 2004)Order
Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America HelplessSteve Salerno
(Crown June 21, 2005)Order

Persuasion Techniques
In the Name of Love: Abusive Controlling Relationships (DVD)
Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion Anthony
Pratkanis & Elliot AronsonOrder
Battle for the Mind William SargentOrder
Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control Kathleen Taylor (Oxford
University Press August 24, 2006)Order
Coercive Persuasion - A Socio-Psychological Analysis of the
"Brainwashing" of American Civilian Prisoners by the Chinese
CommunistsEdgar H. Schein with Inge Schneier and Curtis H. Barker (New
York WW Norton & Company, 1971)Order
Crazy Therapies-What are they? Do they work?Margaret Singer and Janja
Lalich (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 1996)Order
Dark Hero Of The Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener, the
Father of Cybernetics Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman (Basic Books,
2004)Order
Easily Fooled: New Insights and Techniques for Resisting Manipulation
Bob Fellows (Mind Matters, 2000)Order
Easily Led: A History of PropagandaOliver Tomson (Sutton Press,
1999)Order
From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in
the Late Vietnam Era Stephen A. Kent (Syracuse University Press,
2001)Order
Get Anyone to Do Anything and Never Feel Powerless Again :
Psychological Secrets to Predict, Control, and Influence Every
Situation David J. Lieberman (St. Martin's Press; 1st edition May 10,
2000)Order
The Hidden Persuaders Vance Packard (Pocket; Updated edition June 3,
1984)Order
Hypnotism InvestigatedTony Bamgridge. (Renew February 1998)Order
InfluenceRobert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. (Quill, NY, 1984 (Revised
1993))Order
The Manipulated Mind: Brainwashing, Conditioning, and Indoctrination
Denise Winn (Malor Books, 2000)Order
Obedience to Authority Stanley Milgram (Harper Perennial August 8,
1983)Order
People Who Play God: How Ultra-Authorities Enslave the Hearts, Minds,
Souls of Their Victims
Beth E. Peterson (Xlibris Corp., 2003)Order
Ponzi Schemes, Invaders from Mars and More Extraordinary Popular
Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Joseph Bulgatz (Harmony
Books)Order
The Power of Cult Branding: How 9 Magnetic Brands Turned Customers
Into Loyal Followers (and Yours Can, Too)Matthew W. Ragas, Bolivar J.
Bueno (Prima Publishing, 2002)Order
The Psychology of Attitude Change and Social Influence Philip Zimbardo
(McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 3 edition February
1, 1991)Order
Rape of the MindJ.Meerloo (Putnam Pub Group, 2000)Order
Stages of Faith - The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest
for MeaningJames W. Fowler (Harper Collins, 1995)Order
The True BelieverEric Hoffer (Harper and Row, 1951)Order
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism - A Study of
Brainwashing in ChinaRobert J. Lifton, MD. (The University of N.C.
Press Original Publisher: Norton and Co., 1961)Order
Under the Influence: The Destructive Effects of Group Dynamics John D.
Goldhammer (Prometheus Books, 1996)Order
When Prophecy Fails Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken and Stanley
Schachter (Harpercollins College Div June 1964)Order

Repressed Memories & MPD
The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of ChildrenFlorence Rush. (Prentice
Hall Trade October 1980)Order
Child Sexual Abuse and False Memory SyndromeRobert A. Baker (Editor).
(Prometheus Books, 1998)Order
The Cognitive Neuropsychology of False Memories: A Special Issue of
Cognitive NeuropsychologyDaniel L. Schacter (Editor). (Taylor &
Francis, 1999)Order
Confabulations: Creating False Memories, Destroying FamiliesEleanor C.
Goldstein, Kevin Farmer (Editor) (Social Issues Resources Series,
1992)Order
Crazy TherapiesMargaret Thaler Singer, Janja Lalich (Contributor)
(Jossey-Bass, 1996)Order
Creating Hysteria: Women and Multiple Personality DisorderJoan Ross
Acocella (Jossey-Bass, 1999)Order
Diagnosis for Disaster: The Devastating Truth About False Memory
Syndrome and Its Impact on Accusers and FamiliesClaudette Wassil-Grimm
(Penquin USA, 1996)Order
Eyewitness TestimonyElizabeth F. Loftus (Harvard University Press,
1996)Order
False-Memory Creation in Children and Adults: Theory, Research, and
ImplicationsDavid F. Bjorklund (Editor). (Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc,
2000)Order
How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday
LifeThomas Gilovich (Free Press, 1993)Order
Making Monsters: False Memories, Pyschotherapy and Sexual
HysteriaRichard Ofshe and Ethan Watters (Charles Scribner's Sons NY,
1994)Order
Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to
PeopleTana Dineen (Robert Davies Publishers, 1998)Order
Memory Distortion: How Minds, Brains, and Societies Reconstruct the
PastDaniel L. Schacter (Editor). (Harvard University Press,
1997)Order
The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual
AbuseElizabeth Loftus, Katherine Ketcham (St. Martin's Press,
1996)Order
National Incidence Studies on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and
Thrownaway Children in AmericaDavid Finkelhor (DIANE Publishing,
1990)Order
Psychology Astray: Fallacies in Studies of 'Repressed Memory' and
Childhood TraumaHarrison G Pope, Jr., MD (Social Issues Resources
Series, 1997)Order
Recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse: Psychological, Social, and
Legal Perspectives on a Contemporary Mental Health ControversySheila
Taub (Editor). (Charles C. Thomas Publishers, 1999)Order
'Recovered Memory' and Other Assaults upon the Mysteries of
Consciousness: Hypnosis, Psychotherapy, Fraud and the Mass
MediaWilliam Rogers (McFarland and Company, 1995)Order
Science of False Memory, TheCharles J. Brainerd, Valerie J. Reyna
(Oxford University Press, 2005 )Order
Second ThoughtsPaul Simpson (Thomas Nelson, 1997)Order
Searching for Memory: The Brain, The Mind, and The PastDaniel L.
Schacter (Editor). (Harper Collins, 1997)Order
Slaughter of Innocents: Child abuse through the ages and today Sander
J. Breiner. (Plenum Pr April 1990)Order
Suggestions of Abuse: True and False Memories of Childhood Michael D.
Yapdo, Ph.D (Diane Books Publishing Company April 1994)Order
Survivor Psychology: The Dark Side of a Mental Health MissionSusan
Smith (Social Issues Resources Series, 1998)Order
Therapy Gone Mad : The True Story of Hundreds of Patients and a
Generation Betrayed Carol Lynn Mithers (Basic Books, 1997)Order
Therapy's Delusions: The Myth of the Unconscious and the Exploitation
of Today's Walking WorriedEthan Watters and Richard Ofshe (Simon &
Schuster, 1999)Order
Too Scared to Cry: Psychic Trauma in ChildhoodLenore Terr (Harper
Collins, 1992)Order
Trance on Trial Alan W. Scheflin, LL.M. and Jerold Lee Shaprio, Ph.D
(The Guilford Press August 4, 1989)Order
Truth in MemorySteven J. Lynn (Editor), Kevin M. McConkey (Editor)
(Guilford Press, 1998)Order
Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and MindPaul
R. McHugh (Dana Press; 1 edition November 15, 2008)Order
Victims of Memory - Incest Accusations and Shattered LivesMark
Pendergrast (Upper Access Inc. VT, 1995)Order
Wounded Innocents: The Real Victims of the War Against Child
AbuseRichard Wexler (Prometheus Books, 1995)Order

Terrorists and Terrorism
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Amongst Us Steven Emerson (Simon
and Schuster, 2002)Order
American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Lou
Michel, Dan Harbeck (Regan Books, 2001)Order
Eco-Terrorism & Eco-Extremism Against Agriculture Joseph M. Miller and
R.M. Miller (Joseph a Miller - R M Miller; Spiral edition January 5,
2000)Order
Holy War Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden Peter Bergen
(Free Press, 2001)Order
Inside Terrorism Bruce Hoffman. (Columbia University Press,
1999)Order
The Militia Threat: Terrorists Among Us Robert L. Snow (Perseus Press,
1999)Order
The New Jackals: Ramzi Youseff, Osama bin Laden and the Future of
TerrorismSimon Reeve (Northeastern University Press, 1999)Order
The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction Walter
Laqueur (Oxford University Press, 1999)Order
Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of
Mind Walter Reich (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998)Order
Profiles in Terrorism: Twenty Years of Anti-Abortion Terrorism
Frederick Clarkson (Common Courage Press, 2000)Order
Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism Patricia Baird-Windle,
Eleanor J. Bader (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)Order
Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence Mark
Jeurgensmeyer. (University of California Press, 2001)Order
Them and US: Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat Arthur Deikman
(Bay Tree Publishing September 25, 2003) Order
Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network Yonah
Alexander and Michael S. Setnam (Transnational Publishing, 2001)Order
Groups of Interest

al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden
Holy War Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden Peter Bergen
(Free Press, 2001)Order
The New Jackals: Ramzi Youseff, Osama bin Laden and the Future of
Terrorism Simon Reeve (Northeastern University Press, 1999)Order
Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network Yonah
Alexander and Michael S. Setnam (Transnational Publishing, 2001)Order

Amish

Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life Ruth Irene Garrett
and Rick Farrant (Harper San Francisco, January 7, 2003)Order

Amway

Amway Motivational Organizations: Behind the Smoke and Mirrors Ruth
Carter (Backstreet Publishing September 1, 1999)Order
Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise Stephen Butterfield (South End
Press, 1985)Order

Aum Shinrikyo

Aum Shinrikyo -- Japan's Unholy Sect Rei Kimura (GreatUnpublished.com,
2002)Order
The Cult at the End of the World: The Terrifying Story of the Aum
Doomsday Cult, From the Subways of Tokyo to Arsenals in Russia David
E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall (Crown Publishing, 1996)Order
Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence,
and the New Global Terrorism Robert Jay Lifton (Owl Books September 1,
2000)Order
Holy Terror: Armageddon in Tokyo D.W. Brackett (Weatherhill,
1996)Order

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

My Life in Orange: Growing up with the Guru Tim Guest (Harvest Books
February 1, 2005)Order

The Brethren

From Dean's List to Dumpsters Jim Guerra (Dorrance Publishing Company,
2000)Order

Brother XII/Edward Arthur Wilson

Brother XII:The Strange Odyssey of a 20th-century Prophet and His
Quest for a New World John Oliphant (Twelfth House Press September 30,
2006)Order
Catholic Sects

More Catholic than The Pope: And Inside Look At Traditionalism
Patrick Madrid, Pete Vere (Our Sunday Visitor September 30,
2004)Order
The Pope's Armada : Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful
New Sects in the ChurchGordon Urquhart (Prometheus Books, 1999)Order
Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in
Contemporary CatholicismMichael W. Cuneo (John Hopkins University
Press, 1999)Order
Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II
Jason Berry and Gerald Renner (Free Press, 2004)Order

Children of God/The Family

Blinded by Deceit Joanne Hansen (Beaver's Pond Press, 2002)Order
Heaven's Harlots: My Fifteen Years as a Sacred Prostitute in the
Children of God CultMiriam Williams (William Morrow, 1998)Order
Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical
EdgeDon Lattin HarperOne (October 9, 2007)Order
Not Without My SisterChristina Jones, Celeste Jones, Juliana Burhring
(HarperCollins Entertainment July 2, 2007)Order

Christian Fundamentalists

Behind the Scenes: The True Face of Fake Faith HealersYves A. Brault
(FirstPublish, 2000)Order
The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and TruthValerie
Tarico, Ph.D. (Lulu.com Paperback -- January 18, 2007)Order
Divine Destruction: Dominion Theology and American Environmental
Policy Stephenie Hendricks (Melville House 2005)Order
Eternal Hostility--The Struggle Between Theocracy and
DemocracyFrederick Clarkson (Common Courage Press, 1997)Order
Faith Beyond Faith Healing: Finding Hope After Shattered Dreams
Kimberly Weston (Paraclete Press, 2002)Order
From Rapture to Revelation: Addressing the Spiritual and Theological
Concerns of Former Fundamentalists in the United States of
AmericaMichelle Grace Lyerly (Wolf & Stock Publishers August
2006)Order
The Fundamentals of ExtremismKimberly Blaker (New Boston Books,
2003)Order
Holy Terror - The Fundamentalist War on America's Freedoms and
Religion Politics in our private livesFlo Conway and Jim Siegelman
(Delta Books, Del Publishing, 1982)Order
The Jew and the Christian Missionary: A Jewish Response to Missionary
ChristianityGerald Sigal (KTAV Publishing, 1981)Order
Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian NationalismMichelle Goldberg (W.
W. Norton May 11, 2006)Order
Leaving the Fold Marlene Winell (Apocryphile Press January 15,
2006)Order
Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in
America-and Found Unexpected Peace William Lobdell (Collins February
24, 2009)Order
The Mind of the Bible-BelieverEdmund Cohen (Prometheus Books,
1988)Order
The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation
Barbara R. Rossing (Westview Press, 2004)Order
Rescuing the Bible from FundamentalismJohn Shelby Spong (Harper
Collins, 1992)Order
Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian RightSara Diamond
(South End Press, 1989)Order
Stealing Jesus : How Fundamentalism Betrays ChristianityBruce Bawer
(Three Rivers Press, 1998)Order
Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and
Threatens America: An Evangelical's LamentRandall Balmer (Perseus
Books Group July 31, 2006)Order
Why the Religious Right is Wrong: About Separation of Church and
StateRob Boston, Robert Boston and Barry W. Lynn (Prometheus Books,
1994)Order
Christ Miracle Healing Center, Rev. Frances Thomas
Shootout at Miracle Valley William R. Daniel (Wheatmark December 15,
2008)Order
Christian Science
Faith Beyond Faith Healing: Finding Hope After Shattered Dreams
Kimberly Weston (Paraclete Press, 2002)Order
God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church
Caroline Fraser (Owl Books 2000)Order
The Healing Revelations of Mary Baker Eddy: The Rise and Fall of
Christian ScienceMartin Gardener (Prometheus Books, 1993)Order
The Religion That Kills - Christian Science: Abuse, Neglect, and Mind
Control Dr. Linda S. Kramer (Huntington House Publishers)Order
Chung Moo Quan (later Chung Moo Doe and now called Oom Yung)
Herding the Moo: Exploits of a Martial Arts Cult Joe Smith (Trafford
Publishing May 4, 2006)Order
Andrew Cohen and Moksha Foundation

American GuruWilliam Yenner (Epigraph Publishing August 11,
2009)Order
Enlightenment Blues: My years with an American GuruAndre van der Braak
(Consortium Book Sales & Dist 2003)Order
The Mother of God Luna TarloOrder
The Endeavor Academy--Chuck Anderson, a.k.a. "The Master Teacher"

Complete Story of the Course : The History, the People, and the
Controversies Behind a Course in MiraclesD. Patrick Miller, (Fearless
Books, August 1997)Order

Extremists and Hate Groups
A Force Upon the Plain - The American Militia Movement and the
Politics of HateKenneth S. Stern (Simon and Schuster, NY 1996)Order
American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists and
Others John George and Laird Wilcox (Prometheus Books, 1996)Order
American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of
Hate Pete Simi and Robert Futrell (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Inc. January 16, 2010)Order
American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Lou
Michel, Dan Harbeck (Regan Books, 2001)Order
Animal Rights: History and Scope of a Radical Social MovementHarold D.
Guither (Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1998)Order
The Bondage of Self Kirsten Helene Kaiser (Milo House Press August 15,
2002)Order
Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from
the Margins to the Mainstream Leonard Zeskind (Farrar, Straus and
Giroux; 1 edition May 12, 2009)Order
Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture Mark
Fenster (University of Minnesota Press, 1999)Order
Documents of American Prejudice: An Anthology of Writings on Race from
Thomas Jefferson to David Duke S.T. Joshi (Basic Books, 1999)Order
Dragons of God: A Journey Through Far Right America Vincent Coppola
(Longstreet Press, 1997)Order
Eco-Terrorism & Eco-Extremism Against Agriculture Joseph M. Miller and
R.M. Miller (Joseph a Miller - R M Miller; Spiral edition January 5,
2000)Order
Encyclopedia of White power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right
Jeffrey Kaplan (Altamira Pass, 2000)Order
Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America Robert
Alan Goldberg (Yale University Press, 2001)Order
The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America Craig Wade (Oxford
University Press, 1998)Order
From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in
the Late Vietnam Era Stephen A. Kent (Syracuse University Press,
2001)Order
Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat James Corcoran (Harper
Perennial April 23, 1997)Order
Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux KlanDavid Mark Chalmers
(Duke University Press, 1987)Order
In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific NorthwestDavid
A. Neiwert (Washington State University Press, 1999)Order
Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate MovementKathleen M. Blee
(University of California Press, 2002)Order
Live from the Gates of Hell: An Insider's Look at the Anti-Abortion
Movement Jerry Reiter (Prometheus Books, 2000)Order
The Militia Threat: Terrorists Among Us Robert L. Snow (Perseus Press,
1999)Order
One Aryan Nation Under God: How Religious Extremists Use the Bible to
Justify Their Actions Jerome Walters (Sourcebooks, 2001)Order
Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of
Mind Walter Reich (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998)Order
The Politics of the Extreme Right: From the Margins to the Mainstream
Paul Hainsworth (London: Pinter, 2000)Order
The Politics of Unreason Seymour M. Lipset and Earl Raab (Harper & Bro
Place of Publication, 1978)Order
Profiles in Terrorism: Twenty Years of Anti-Abortion Terrorism
Frederick Clarkson (Common Courage Press, 2000)Order
The Racist Mind: Portraits of American Neo-Nazis and Klansmen Raphael
S. Ezekiel (Penguin US, 1996)Order
Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Chrisitian Identity
Movement Michael Barkun (University of North Carolina Press,
1996)Order
Selling Fear: Conspiracy Theories and End Times Paranoia Gregory S.
Camp (Baker Pub Group March 1997)Order
Soldiers of God: White Supremacists and their Holy War for America
Howard Bushart (Pinnacle Books, 1999)Order
Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American RightLisa McGirr
(Princeton University Press, 2001)Order
Tabernacle of Hate: Why They Bombed Oklahoma City Kerry Noble
(Voyageur Pub, 1998)Order
Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism Patricia Baird-Windle,
Eleanor J. Bader (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)Order
Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence Mark
Jeurgensmeyer. (University of California Press, 2001)Order
The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical
RightDaniel Levitas (St. Martin's Griffin, January 2004)Order
The War Against the Greens: The "Wise Use" Movement, The New Right and
Anti-Environmental Violence David Helvarg (Sierra Club Books,
1997)Order
Waves of Rancor: Tuning in the Radical Right (Media, Communication,
and Culture in America) Robert L. Hilliard, Michael C. Keith and
Donald Fishman (Published by M.E. Sharpe, 1999)Order
The White Separatist Movement in the United States: White Power, White
Pride Betty A. Dobratz, Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile (John Hopkins
University Press, 2000)Order
Father Divine, Peace Mission Movement

Promised Land: Father Divine's Interracial Communities in Ulster
CountyCarleton Mabee (Purple Mountain Press; First edition November
22, 2008)Order

Goths
The Goth BibleNancy Kilpatrick (St. Martin's Griffin September 23,
2004)Order
Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark CultureGavin Baddeley (Plexus
Publishing; 2nd edition June 22, 2006)Order
Goth: Undead SubcultureLauren M. E. Goodlad (Duke University Press
March 30, 2007)Order
What is Goth?Voltaire (Weiser Books; illustrated edition edition
September 2004)Order
Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture (Dress, Body, Culture)Paul
Hodkinson (Berg Publishers; 8 edition (October 1, 2002)Order

Gothard, Bill
A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and the Christian LifeDon
Veinot (Midwest Christian Outreach August 25, 2003)Order

Heaven's Gate
Cosmic Suicide: The Tragedy and Transcendence of Heaven's GateForrest
Jackson, Rodney Perkins (Pentaradial Press, 1997)Order
The Keepers of Heaven's Gate: The Millennial Madness, the Religion
Behind the Rancho Santa Fe SuicidesWilliam Henry, Cary Anderson
(Earthpulse Press, 1997)Order

Benny Hinn
Behind the Scenes: The True Face of Fake Faith HealersYves A. Brault
(FirstPublish, 2000)Order
The Confusing World of Benny HinnG. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt
Goedelman (Personal Freedom Outreach, 1997)Order

International Church of Christ

Bewitchment: You Foolish GalatiansTimothy Williams (WinePress
Publishing, 2002)Order

Islamic Fundamentalism
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia Ahmed
Rashid (Yale University Press, 2001)Order
Triumph of Disorder: Islamic Fundamentalism, The New Face of War
Morgan Norval (McKenna Publishing, 2001)Order

Jehovah's Witnesses

30 Years a Watchtower Slave: The Confessions of a Converted Jehovahs
Witness William J. Schell (Baker Books; Abridged edition December
2001)Order
Answering Jehovah's Witnesses: Subject by Subject David A. Reed (Baker
Books April 1996)Order
Apocolypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's Witnesses M. James Penton
(University of Toronto Press; 2nd edition March 1998)Order
Awakening of a Jehovah's Witness: Escape from the Watchtower
SocietyDianne Wilson (Prometheus Books, 2002)Order
Blood on the Altar: Confessions of a Jehovah's Witness MinisterDavid
A. Reed (Prometheus Books, 1996)Order
Captives of a Concept (Anatomy of an Illusion) Don Cameron (Lulu
Press, 2005)Order
Confessions of a Teenage Jesus JerkTony DuShane (Soft Skull Press
January 19, 2010)Order
Crisis of ConscienceRaymond Franz, former member of the Governing Body
of Jehovah's Witnessess (Commentary Press, Atlanta, 1983)Order
The Four Presidents of the Watch Tower Society Jehovah's Witnesses
Edmund C. Gruss (Xulon Press December 2003)Order
The Gentile Times Reconsidered: Chronology & Christ's Return Carl O.
Jonsson (Commentary Press; 3rd edition July 1998)Order
Have You Seen My MotherJerry Bergman, Bryan Lee McGlothin (Taurleo
Publishing , 2005)Order
I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing
Kyria Abrahams (Touchstone March 3, 2009)Order
In Search of Christian Freedom Raymond Franz (Commentary Press,
1992)Order
Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics under
Persecution M. James Penton (University of Toronto Press November 27,
2004)Order
Jehovah's Witnesses-- their monuments to false prophecyEdumund C.
Gruss (Witness Inc 1997)Order
The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses Heather Botting, Gary
Botting (University of Toronto Press May 1, 1984)Order
Out of the Cocoon: a Young Woman's Courageous Flight from the Grip of
a Religious Cult Brenda Lee (Robert D. Reed Publishers, 2006)Order
The Sign of the Last Days Carl Olof Jonsson and Wolfgang Herbst
(Commentary Pr September 1987)Order
The Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse Among Jehovah's
Witnesses Joy Castro (Aracade Publishing, 2005)Order
Understanding Jehovah's WitnessesRobert M. Bowman, Jr.(Baker Book
House, 1991)Order
"Jews for Jesus"

Hawking God - A Young Jewish Womans Ordeal in Jews for JesusEllen
Kamentsky (Sapphire Press)Order
Jesus and JudaismE.P. Sanders (Fortress Press, 1987)Order
The Jew and the Christian Missionary: A Jewish Response to Missionary
ChristianityGerald Sigal (KTAV Publishing, 1981)Order
Judaism and Chrisitanity: The DifferencesTrude Weiss-Rosmarin
(Jonathan David Pub., 1997)Order
What do Jews Believe: The Spiritual Foundations of Judaism David S.
Ariel (Schocken Books, 1996)Order

Jonestown/ Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple

The Children of JonestownKenneth Wooden (McGraw Hill)Order
The Cult that Died: The Tragedy of Jim Jones and the People's Temple
George Klineman (Putnam 1980)Order
The Ghosts of November: Memoirs of an Outsider Who Witnessed the
Carnage at Jonestown, GuyanaJeffrey Brailey (J&J Publishers,
1998)Order
Raven: The untold story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People Tim
Reiterman, John Jacobs (Planeta Pub Corp., 1986)Order
Seductive Poison Deborah Layton (Anchor Books, 1998)Order
Six Years with God: Life Inside Jim Jones' People's Temple Jeannie
Mills (A&W, 1979)Order
Suicide Cult: The Inside Story of the Peoples Temple Sect and the
Massacre in Guyana Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers (Bantam Books,
1978)Order
White Night: The True story of what happened before and after
Jonestown John Peer Nugent (Scribner, 1979)Order
Krishna

Betrayal of the Spirit Nori Muster (University of Illinois Press
November 1996)Order
Devotee Farm George Vaishnava (Upfront Publishing, 2002)Order
Monkey on a Stick John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson (Onyx Books; Reprint
edition March 1990)Order
Servant of the Lotus Feet: A Hare Krishna Odyssey Gabriel Brandis
(Universe Inc., 2004)Order

Landmark Education/EST, the Forum

Outrageous Betrayal : The Real Story of Werner Erhard from Est to
ExileSteven Pressman (St Martins Pr; 1st ed edition August 1993)Order
Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man. The Founding of est W.W.
Bartley, III. (Clarkson N. Potter, Inc, 1978)Order

Lyndon Larouche
Lyndon Larouche and the New American FascismDennis King (Doubleday;
1st ed edition January 1, 1989)Order

Charles Manson
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders Vincent Bugliosi,
Curt Gentry (Bantam Books, 1996)Order
The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten: Life Beyond the Cult
Karlene Faith (Northeastern University Press, 2001)Order
Manson: The Unholy Trail of Charlie and the Family John Gilmore, Ron
Kenner (Amok Books, 2000)Order
Manson in His Own Words Charles Manson, Nuel Emmons (Grove Press,
1998)Order

The Mormon Church/The Church of Jesus Christ
of the Latter Day Saints--LDS
American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows Sally Denton
(Knopf, 2003)Order
Early Mormonism and the Magic World View D. Michael Quinn (Signature
Books, 1998)Order
Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith : Psychobiography and the Book of
MormonRobert D. Anderson (Signature Books, 1999)Order
Inside Today's Mormonism: Understanding Latter-day Saints in Light of
Biblical TruthRichard Abanes (Harvest House Publishers January 1,
2007)Order
Leaving the Fold: Candid Conversations with Inactive MormonsJames W.
Ure (Signature Books, 1999)Order
Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church
Simon G. Southerton (Signature Books, 2004)Order
Mormon America: The Power and the PromiseRichard N. Ostling, Joan K.
Ostling (Harper, 2000)Order
The Mormon Conspiracy Charles L. Wood (Black Forest Book Promotions,
2001)Order
The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of PowerD. Michael Quinn (Signature
Books, 1997)Order
The Mormon Murders: A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit and Death
Steven Naifeh (Onyx Books, Reissue edition 1989)Order
Mormon Polygamy - A HistoryRichard S. Van Wagoner (Signature Books,
1986 (Salt Lake City, UT)Order
The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple WorshipDavid
John Buerger (Signature Books, 1994)Order
Nauvoo Polygamy: "... but we called it celestial marriage"George D.
Smith (Signature Books December 5, 2008)Order
No Man Knows My History-The Life of Joseph SmithFawn M. Brodie (Alfred
A. Knopf, Inc., 1971)Order
The Pattern of the Double-Bind in Mormonism Marion Stricker (Universal
Publishers, 2000)Order
Quest for the Gold Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson's Archaeological
Search for the Book of MormonStan Larson (Freethinker Press,
1998)Order
Reconsidering No Man Knows My History : Fawn M. Brodie and Joseph
Smith in Retrospect Newell G. Bringhurst (Utah State University Press
August 1996)Order
Secret Ceremonies:A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and
Beyond Deborah Laake (William Morrow and Company, 1993)Order
Studies of the Book of MormonBrigham D. Madsen (Editor), B. H.
Roberts, Sterling M. McMurrin (September 1992)Order

Multi-Level Marketing
All that Glitters is not God: Breaking Free From the Sweet Deceit of
Multi-Level Marketing Athena Dean (Wine Press Publishing, 1998)Order
Consumed by Success: Reaching the Top and Finding God wasn't there
Athena Dean (Wine Press Publishing, 1997)Order
False Profits: Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level
Marketing and Pyramid SchemesRobert Fitzpatrick and Joyce K. Reynolds
(Herald Press, 1997)Order
Home Businesses You can Buy: The Definitive Guide to Exploring
Franchises, Multi-Level Marketing and Business Opportunities Paul and
Sarah Edwards (Walter Zooi, JP Tarcher, 1997)Order
Spellbound: My Journey Through a Tangled Web of SuccessRobert Morgan
Styler (Sandy Creek Publishing; 1 edition January 1, 1998)Order
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds
Work...and Why They're More Common Than EverJames Walsh (Silver Lake)
(Merritt Publishing 1998)Order

Nation of Islam
Inside the Nation of Islam, A Historical and Personal Testimony by a
Black MuslimVibert White (University Press of Florida, 2001)Order

Nuwaubians
Ungodly: A True Story of Unprecedented EvilBill Osinski (Indigo Custom
Publishing May 2007)Order

Oneness Pentecostalism

Christianity Without the Cross: A History of Salvation in Oneness
Pentecostalism Thomas A. Fudge (Universal Publishers, 2003)Order
Opus Dei

Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei Maria del Carmen Tapia
(Continuum Pub Group, 1998)Order
Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the most
Controversial Force in the Catholic Church John L. Allen Jr.
(Doubleday Religion 2005)Order
Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Powerful Secretive Society within
the Catholic Church Michael Walsh Harper (San Francisco 2004)Order
The Popes Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New
Sects in the Church Gordon Urquhart (Transworld Publishers Limited,
May 1996)Order
Saints and Schemers: Opus Dei and Its Paradoxes Juan Estruch, Joan
Estruch, Elizabeth L. Glick (American Philological Association,
September 1995)Order
Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei Robert A.
Hutchison (St. Martin's Press, June 1999)Order

Polygamists

Colorado City Polygamists: An Inside Look for the Outsider Benjamin G.
Bistline (Agreka Books; 1 edition July 21, 2004) Order
Church of Lies Flora Jessop (Jossey-Bass January 27, 2009) Order
Daughter of the Saints: Growing up in Polygamy Dorothy Allred Solomon
(W.W. Northon & Company, 2004)Order
Escape Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer (Hardcover - Oct 16, 2007) Order
God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary
Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy Andrea Moore Emmett
(Prince-Nez Press, 2004)Order
His Favorite Wife Susan Ray Schmidt The Lyons Press (March 3,
2009)Order
Inside the World of Warren Jeffs Carole A., Dr. Western (Wyndham House
Publishing November 15, 2007)Order
Lost Boy Brent W. Jeffs (Broadway May 19, 2009)Order
Mormon Polygamy: A History Richard S. Van Wagoner (Signature Books
1992)Order
Nauvoo Polygamy: "... but we called it celestial marriage"George D.
Smith (Signature Books December 5, 2008)Order
The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona Benjamin G.
Bistline (Agreka Books, 2004)Order
Polygamous Families in Contemporary Society Sterling M. McMurrin,
Irwin Altman, Joseph Ginat (Cambridge University Press 1996)Order
Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy Dorothy
Allred Solomon (W.W. Norton & Company 2003)Order
The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in a Polygamous
Mormon Sect Daphne Bramham (Random House Canada March 25, 2008)Order
The Secret Story of Polygamy Kathleen Tracy (Sourcebooks 2001)Order
Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's WifeIrene Spencer (Center
Street August 22, 2007)Order
SisterWifeNatalie R. Collins (Zumaya Publications, 2003)Order
The Sixth of Seven Wives: Escape from Modern Day Polygamy Mary Mckert
(Truth Publishing, 2000)Order
A Teenager's Tears : When Parents Convert to Polygamy John R.
Llewellyn (Agreka Books 2001)Order
When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of
Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back Stephen Singular (St. Martin's
Press April 21, 2008)Order
Wives and Sisters Nalie R. Collins (St. Martin's Press, 2004)Order

Sai Baba
Avatar of Night: The Millennial EditionTal Brooke (End Run Publishing,
1999)Order

Sahaja Yoga
Sahaja YogaDr Judith Coney (Curzon Press, 2000)Order
Shamans, Mystics and DoctorsDr Sudhir Kakar (University Of Chicago
Press; Reprint edition April 9, 1991)Order
The Shortest JourneyPhilippa Pullar (Unwin Paperbacks, 1984)Order
Satanism

Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England
Jean La Fontaine (Cambridge University Press February 28, 1998)Order
A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case Lynley Hood
(Longacre Press, 2001)Order
The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic Mary de Young (McFarland and
Company 2004)Order
In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the OccultRobert D. Hicks
(Prometheus Books, 1991)Order
Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions and the Media Bill Ellis
(University Press of Kentucky 2000)Order
Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American
Witch Hunt Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker (Basic Books,
1995)Order

Scientology

A Piece of Blue Sky - Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard
ExposedJon Atack (NY Carol, 1990)Order
Bare Faced Messiah - The True Story of L. Ron HubbardRussell Miller
(M. Joseph 1987)Order
L. Ron Hubbard - Messiah or Madman?Bent Corydon (Fort Lee, NJ
Barricade Books, 1992)Order
My Billion Year ContractNancy Many (Xlibris Corporation September 12,
2009)Order
Seventh Day Adventist
The White LieWalter Rea (M&R Publications, 1982)Order

Sidha Meditation
The Guru Looked GoodMarta Szabo (Tinker Street Press January 30,
2009)Order

Sri Chinmoy

Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up CultJayanti Tamm (Harmony
April 14, 2009)Order
Synanon

The Light On Synanon : How A Country Weekly Exposed A Corporate Cult-
And Won The Pulitzer PrizeDave Mitchell (The Point Reyes Light,
1979)Order

Transcendental Meditation

TM and Cult Mania Michael A. Persinger, Normand J. Carrey and Lynn A.
Suess (Christopher Pub House, 1980)Order
The Maharishi Effect: A Personal Journey Through the Movement That
Transformed American Spirituality Geoff Gilpin (Tarcher October 19,
2006)Order

Trinity Foundation - Ole Anthony

I Can't Hear God Any More: Life in a Dallas Cult Wendy J. Duncan (VM
Life Resources 2006)Order
Ultra Orthodox Jewish Groups

The Faith of the Mithnagdim: The Rabbinic Responses to Hasidic Rapture
Allan Nadler (Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies, 1997)Order
The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox IndifferenceDavid
Berger (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, September 2001)Order
Rescued from the Reich: How One of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the
Lubavitcher Rebbe Mark Rigg (Yale University Press, 2004)Order
Unification Church/Rev. Moon

Bad Moon Rising John Gorenfeld (Polipoint Press March 1, 2008)Order
Heartbreak and Rage: Ten years under Sung Myung Moon Gordon Neufeld
(Virtual Bookwork, 2002)Order
Hostage to Heaven: Four Years in the Unification CultBarbara
Underwood, Betty Underwood (Random House Value Publishing December 12,
1988)Order
In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's
FamilyNansook Hong (Little Brown & Company, 1998)Order

Urantia
Urantia: The Great Cult MysteryMartin Gardner (Prometheus Books,
1995)Order
Waco Davidians/David Koresh

See No Evil: Blind Devotion and Blood Shed in David Koresh's Holy
WarTim Madigan (The Summit Group, Fort Worth TX, 1993)Order
Mad Man In Waco: The Complete Story of the Davidian Cult, David Koresh
and the Waco MassacreBrad Bailey & Bob Darden (WRS Publishers,
1993)Order
Inside the CultMarc Breault & Martin King (Signet Books, 1993)Order
Massacre at WacoClifford Linedecker (St. Martins Paperback,
1993)Order

Wicca
The Law Enforcement Guide to WiccaKerr Cuhulain (Horned Owl
Publishing, 1997)Order

"Word of Faith" Movement
Christianity in CrisisHank Hanegraff (Harvest House Publishers, Inc,
1997)Order
The Confusing World of Benny HinnG. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt
Goedelman (Personal Freedom Outreach, 1997)Order
A Different Gospel - A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern
Faith MovementD. R. McConnell (Hendrickson Publishers Inc.,
1988)Order
The Walking Wounded-A Look at Faith TheologyJeremy Reynalds
(Huntington House Publishers Lafayette, LA, 1996)Order

Worldwide Church of God
On Angels Wings: A Spiritual JourneyPatricia Ann Laessig (Authorhouse
November 2002)Order

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"Ripped Off by a Religious Fraud"
3HO Discussion e-Group

Abundant Life Church, Hillsborough, NC

"Corruption in the Church"

Abuse

In the Name of Love: Abusive Controlling Relationships (DVD)

Bishop Accountability.org (Clergy Abuse)
CHILD (Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty)
Free Youth
The "Courage to Heal" debunked
Bad Therapy Kills
Book Review of "Courage to Heal"
Child Protection Project
Friends of Montrose Baptist Church
Spiritual Abuse and Recovery Resources
Parent Watch
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Security on Campus
Pokrov
Student Safety: Violence, Hazing and Other Campus Crimes
Child Abuse Research Eli Newberger, M.D.
Stop Baptist predators--shining a light on Baptist clergy sex abuse

Abusive and Controlling Relationships

In the Name of Love: Abusive Controlling Relationships (DVD)

Support Network for Battered Women
Battered Women's Support Services
Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women
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Women Helping Battered Women
Battered Women's Legal Advisory Project
Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network
Children of Battered Women
Essential Information for Battered Women
Borderline Personality Disorder
Shattered Love, Broken Lives
Love and Stockholm Syndrome: The Mystery of Loving an Abuser
Malignant Self Love and Abusive Relationships
Kids Health Teen/Abusive Relationships

Adi Da
aka Da Free John, Bubba Free John and Franklin Jones

The Adi Da Archives

Damanhur

Damanhur Inside Out

Aesthetic Realism
"Aesthetic Realism is a cult" by former members

Aetherius Society
Aetherius Society

Amish
Amish Deception

"Amma" Mata Amritanandamayi
Cult of the Hugging Saint (alternative views on Mata Amritanandamayi
or "Amma")
A forum for ex-devotees (or questioning) of Amma (Mata
Amritanandamayi)
Ammachi (Mata Amritanandamayi) Discussion List

Amway

Merchants of Deception
Amway: The Untold Story
The Anti-Amway MLM Webring
Welcome to Amway: The Continuing Story
WWDB: The Things They Will Say
Dream Stealers
Amway Sucks
False Profits
The MLM Survivors Page

Ananda Church of Self-Realization

Ananda Uncovered
Ananda Info

Anchor Missionary Fellowship, Bill and Ardith Keef

Anchor Abuse

Assemblies of God

Recovery from Spirtual Abuse

Attachment Therapy

The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice
Advocates for Children in Therapy
Kids Come First Info

Avatar

Avatar Cult Info
Church of Scientology vs. Harry--U.S. Court
Church of Scientology vs. Harry--U.S. Court of Appeals
Simpos/Avatar--Harry Palmer

Bob Jones University

Bob Jones University Exposed

Brahma Kumaris

Brahma Kumaris and so-called Raja Yoga: The Real Story (critical)
Brahma Kumaris Info (Independent discussion of life in and after the
BKWSU sect)

William Branham

William Branham biography by Eric Pement
Watchman Fellowship analysis of William Branham

James D. Brennan

Criticism of James D. Brennan, Hawaii

The Brethren--James Roberts aka the Garbage Eaters,
The Brothers and Sisters

Find Ben
Larry & Judy Wilcox's Home Page

Brothers/Bruderhof Communities

The Peregrine Foundation

Burning Man Event--Larry Harvey

Burning Man is Dead

Carlos Castaneda's Tensegrity and Cleargreen

Sustained Action

Controversial Catholic Sects and Movements

Unity Publishing

Calvary Chapel

Calvary Chapel Visalia (discussion group)
Calvary Chapel Surveys

Local Church and Witness Lee

"Local Church" information site by Daniel Azuma

Love Holy Trinity Blessed Mission

A Cult in Our Midst

Chabad Lubavitch

Can the Rebbe be Moshiach?
Failed Messiah.com

Champions for Christ

Champions for Christ, Maranatha and Morning Star

Children of God now known as The Family
-- founder Moses David Berg

exFamily.org
xFamily.org
Moving On
Bulletin Board for Ex-COG Members

Ching Hai

Opposing Views about Suma Ching Hai

Christian Cult Watchers

Apologetics Resource Center
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability
Ministry Watch
Trinity Foundation
Spiritual Counterfeits Project
New Covenant Ministries
New England Institute of Religious Research
Watchman Fellowship
Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center
Dialog Center
The Christian Research Institute
Personal Freedom Outreach
John Ankerberg Theological Institute
Cult Awareness and Information Centre, Australia

Christian Fellowship Churches--founded by Wayman Mitchell
aka The Potter's House, The Door, Victory Chapel

Is the Potter's House a Cult?
Freedom from the Potter's House (discussion group)
Vocie of Warning
Life after Potter's House
Escape from the Fellowship (discussion group)

Christian Fellowship Ministries International -- Lloyd Ray Davis

Just CFCMI Help
Abusive Churches.org

Christian Fundamentalism

Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability
Ministry Watch
Trinity Foundation
Stillpoint Press
Freedom From Religion Foundation
Fundamentalism by Gene Garman
"Born Again Fundamentalism - Hope or Hoax?"
Institute for Democracy Studies
"Acquire the Evidence" about Teen Mania Ministries
Crusade Watch (evangelism and conversion)
Christian Agression.org

Christian Reconstructionism

Public Eye (see Reconstructionism under Search)

Christian Science

Suffering Children and the Christian Science Church

The Church of Bible Understanding (COBU)

X-COBU

Church of God Restoration

Church of God Restoration Exposed
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Church of Israel, Dan Gayman

Gayman Gate

Clark, Hulda

Hulda Watch

Clergy Abuse

Report COGIC Abuse
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
Alter Boys The Advocate
Clergy Abuse Tracker

Andrew Cohen

American Guru, by William Yenner
What Enlightenment?! an uncensored look at self-styled "guru" Andrew
Cohen
The Myth of the Totally Enlightened Guru

Consumer Protection

Fraud Discovery Institute
Americans Against Fraudulent Self-Help (AAFS)
Ministry Watch
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The Better Business Bureau
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Product Liability Lawyer
National Fraud Information Center
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
National Charities Information Bureau
Quatloos--Scams & Frauds Exposed
Scam Club
Fraud Discovery Institute

Cults on Campus

Responding to High Pressure Groups - California State University
"A Note of Caution"
Signs of Unhealthy Groups - University of New Hampshire Counseling
Center
Friends are everywhere - Groups and You - University of Maryland
Responding to High-Pressure Groups - Rutgers, The State University of
New Jersey
Is Your Student Group Destructive? - Johns Hopkins University Campus
Ministries,
Baltimore, Maryland

Juan Pablo Delgado

Alfredo Prado and Juan Pablo Delgado Web blog

Discipleship

Washington Post/Mother of God
Damaged Disciples

Diamond Way, Ole Nydahl

Diamond Way Cult - Exposing Ole Nydahl's Diamond Way Cult
Diamond Way Truths - Dedicated to exposing the truth about Ole Nydahl
and Diamond Way

Divine Light Mission (aka Elan Vital) founded
by Guru Maharaji (aka Maharaji, Prem Rawat)

Without the Guru by Michael Finch
Prem Rawat Maharaji Info.
Maharaji's Unofficial Website
Ex-Premie.org

Eckankar

Surviving the Cult Eckankar

Emin Foundation

The Emin Foundation

Endeavor Academy

Mexico Mission--Bodhi's Blog

Faderhuset, Ruth Evensen

Fornits Wiki Copy

Father Ephraim

Monasteries of Fr. Ephraim
Pseudo-Prophet

Every Nation

Every Nation Exposed

Faith Healing Groups

In Memory of Deborah Elizabeth Shepherd

Faith Tabernacle, Junction City Kansas

False Memories

Seeking Justice for Peter Ellis
The "Courage to Heal" debunked
Bad Therapy Kills
Forensic PTSD
Australian False Memory Association
British False Memory Society
Human Trinity Hypnotherapy
False Memory Syndrome Foundation

Falun Gong/Li Hongzhi

Facts.org "Truth on Falun Gong"

Fellowship of Friends/Fourth Way, Robert Burton

The Burton Assram
Fellowship of Friends -- a cult for intellectuals
Fellowship of Friends blog/scrapbook
Fellowship of Friends Discussion (Free Speech is a Dirty Business)

Bill Fields and The Peacemakers International

Ex Peacemakers

Findhorn

Findhorn (New Age commune Schotland)

Freedom Radio - Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux Revealed
Molyneux Cult Watch

Friends of the Western Buddhist Order

FWBO-files (critical material)

Gangs

Texas Gang Investigators Association
Gang Prevention Inc.
Gang and Security Threat Group Awareness
California Gang Investigator's Association

Sharon Gans/Alex Horn schools

Esoteric Freedom

Geftakys Assembly

Geftakys Assembly.com (critical website by former members)

General Group Information

Cult Insider
Paul Marantz, cult expert
Cult Information Services of Northeast Ohio
International Cultic Studies Association
Cult Counseling Australia - Raphael Aron

"Join Us" (documentary about cults in America)

Stillpoint Press
Cult Information Center England
Cults in France, an official report
The Cult Controversy, Washington Post
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Scottish Cult Information and Support
Stephen Kent, Ph.D. Cults, New Religions and Social Movements
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Info Cult Canada
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Simpos-the Netherlands
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The Psychology of Spiritual Movements
Ex-Cult Resource Center
NY Jewish Family Service Cult Clinic
"Mind Control Made Easy or How to Become a Cult Leader" -- A 12-
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FAIR, UK
FECRIS, France

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"Gentle Wind Project" exposed
Victims of the Gentle Wind Project (discussion group)
Wind of Changes, former members
Criticism from former members

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Gospel Assembly Free (Wanda Mason)

Back to Top
Gothard, Bill

Midwest Christian Outreach, Bill Gothard archive

Government

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The United States Senate
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European Union Online
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Grandview Baptist Church blogspot

Gray, John: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

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GCx Web Library (Resources on the Great Commission church movement)
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Decommissioned
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Ex-members of GGWO website

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Ezzo Info

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Flameout
The Myth of the Totally Enlightened Guru

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An enquiry into the fantastic claims of Mr. Christopher Hansard.

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target="_blank"The Public Eye
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- not to be confused with either the United Church of Christ or
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Reclaim
Triumphing Over London Cults (Graham Cluley)
Reveal by Catherine Hampton
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Bibliography
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Mahikari

Goseigen - a book of Revelations
Jesus Christ is Buried in Japan?

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Critical information about Lee Jae-Rock & Manmin

Maranatha

Every Nation Exposed
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Momentus (aka Association for Christian Character
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Morningland

ex-Morninglanders

Move/Pam Africa

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MSIA, John Roger, Insight

Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness

Multi-Level Marketing

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Narconon

Narconon Exposed

Nation of Islam

Examining the Black Muslim Movement

New Acropolis

New Acropolis

New Alliance Party, NAP, CUIP, Social Therapy
--Fred Newman and Leonora Fulani

Dennis King Media Commentary
Ex-IWP.org
Political Research Associates, Public Eye
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New American Wing - James Vincent Randazzo - Fourth Way School

NAW Aware: School or Scam?

New Covenant Church of God -- Arvika, Sweden -- Christopher Warren

New Covenant Church of God

New Frontiers International

Spiritual Abuse within New Frontiers

New Kadampa Tradition (NKT)

Western Shugden Society - unlocked
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Ontopsychology - Tonino Meneghetti

Ontopsychology--a critical page

Opus Dei

Forums on Opus Dei (English and Spanish)
Guide on Preventing Opus Dei Infiltration
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The Ordo Templi Orientis

The Ordo Templi Orientis Phenomenon

Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho)

Paradise Springs Community Church

Paradise Springs Community Church Survivors Group

ETC Ministries, Ken Parks

Ministry Warning

Pentecostal

Ex-Pentecostals.org
Origins of the Pentecostal Movement, ORU
20th Century Tongues: Faith or Fake?

People of Hope

The People of Hope N.J.

Perverted Justice, Xavier Von Erck (a.k.a. Phillip John Eide) founder

Corrupted Justice

Mike Peters -- "Indianapolis Cult"

Mike Peters -- "Indianapolis Cult"

Polygamists

Photos of FLDS compound in Texas
A Chronology Of Federal Legislation On Polygamy
Help the Child Brides
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Pre-Paid Legal

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Private Investigation

Desverine Associates, Pierre Merkl, California
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The Process, Geis Process, Wayne Geis

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Radhasoami, Sant Mat and Shabd Yoga

Radhasoami Beas Secret History
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Raelians

Rael Free
Raelian Religion

Swami Rama - Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and
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Son of Swami, A Website Dedicated to the Truth

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Re-evaluation Counseling Resources Site (critical)

Religious Studies

University of Pennsylvania Religious Studies
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Religous Worlds

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Sahaj Marg

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Sahaja Yoga

Sahaja Yoga:Facts and Warnings from Ex-Members
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Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba in Word and Action
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Sai Baba Expose'
Barry Pittard blog about Sai Baba

Santeria

The Believers

Satanism?

Seeking Justice for Peter Ellis

Scientology

Cult Insider
Blown for Good, Marc Headley
My Billion Year Contract, Memoir of a former Scientologist
"Scientology Cult"
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Jeremy Perkins: A Scientology Family Tragedy
Stop-Narconon.org
Suppressive Person Defense League
Study Tech--Scientology vs. Education
Narconon Exposed
ARS Week in Review, by Rod Keller
Lerma net.com: "Exposing the con"
The Fishman Affadavit
Reed Slatkin Financial Fraud
FACTNet
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Touretzky)
Operation Clambake
The Fishman Papers
Jeff Jacobsen's information about Scientology.
Lisa McPherson Memorial Page
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Yahoo - "Scientology critics" page
The Secret Library of Scientology
Italian Scientology Critics Page
Secrets of Scientology: The E-Meter
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Self-Realization Fellowship

Is Self-Realization Fellowship a cult?
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Shepherd's Chapel and Arnold Murray

Watchman Fellowship Profile--Arnold Murray
Jesus People study of Arnold Murray

Siddha Yoga

Leaving Siddha Yoga

Skeptics

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R.G. Stair Ministries

The Net Team
Watchman Fellowship article

Straight Inc.

The Straights.com
Anonymity Anonymous

Suma Ching Hai

Opposing Views about Suma Ching Hai

Swami Shyam

Shyam Shadows: The dark side of Swami Shyam

Synanon

Synanon page by Paul Morantz
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Synergy Yoga

Truth about Synergy Yoga

Teen Boot Camps

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Theosophy

Theosophy
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Tilton, Robert - Fund and Games

Robert Tilton Fund and Games

Tony Alamo Ministries

Tony Alamo News (critical)

Totalitarianism

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Stalin Era Research and Archives Project
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Transcendental Meditation

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"I Can't Hear God Anymore: Life in a Dallas Cult" Wendy Duncan

Tvind --a.k.a. Institute for International Co-operation and
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Daheala West)

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The Rick A. Ross Institute
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Copyright © 1996-2009 Rick Ross.

http://www.rickross.com/links.html

[bademiyansubhanallah]

New Book By Ex-Amma Devotee Exposes The Dark Side Of Amma
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

A newly released book by ex-Amma devotee Jovan Jones sheds light on
the dark side of the hugging saint. Chasing The Avatar is the true
story of one woman who spent two years living in the ashram, teetered
on the edge of sanity, and went head to head with darkness. Through
grace, she managed to get out of the ashram alive and with the
strength to share her story with the world. There is little doubt that
this book will be a blessing to ex-devotees, families of devotees
struggling with their loved ones involvement with the group, and
devotees who find themselves trapped in psychological, emotional, and
spiritual darkness. Several ex-devotees are currently reading this new
book and will return back with a full review. In the meantime, on
behalf of everyone who has suffered due to direct or indirect
involvement with the Amma group….THANK YOU JOVAN for finally giving a
voice to those who live in fear of coming forward from the shadows.

BUY THE BOOK

Jovan reads Chapter 11, “A House Swept Clean”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: amma, amma criticism, amma doll,
amma miracles, ammachi, ammaji, amritapuri, bhajans, charity, chasing
the avatar, christ, christian, cult, cult indocrintation, cult
leaders, cultofthehuggingsaint, cults, darkness, darshan, demonic,
god, goddess, guru, gurus, hugging saint, jovan jones, mata
amritanandamayi, messiah, messianic claims, miracles, negativity,
psychic vampires, religion, spirituality, sudhamani, worship | 1
Comment »

Amma As A Darker Force-A New Visitors Opinion
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. -Matthew 7:15

“The reason why people feel Amma has so much spiritual power is
precisely because she takes it from all the people worshiping her. She
makes you feel good when you hug her, because you are feeling all that
stolen life force emanating off of her.” says a recent visitor to one
of the Amma programs who gained insight into the darker aspects of the
“hugging saint”.

Click Here For Full Article And Discussion by Stephanie Brail

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: amma, amma criticism, amma doll,
amma miracles, ammachi, ammaji, amritapuri, bhajans, charity, cult,
cult indocrintation, cult leaders, cultofthehuggingsaint, cults,
darkness, darshan, demonic, god, goddess, guru, hugging saint, mata
amritanandamayi, messiah, messianic claims, miracles, negativity,
psychic vampires, religion, spirituality, stephanie brail, sudhamani,
worship | Leave a Comment »

Amma Relevant Excerpts From ‘The Guru Papers’
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

Excerpted from:

The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power

by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad

The following quotes are taken from Part One of the Guru Papers
and are deemed by ex-members to be strikingly accurate in describing
the dynamics of a cult guru.

“If an authority not only expects to be obeyed without
question, but either punishes or refuses to deal with those who
do not, that authority is authoritarian.” (p.15)

“Gurus can arouse intense emotions as there is extraordinary
passion in surrendering to what one perceives as a living God.”
(p.33)

“In spiritual realms fear and desire can become
as extreme as they get.. When a living person becomes the focus
of such emotions, the possibility of manipulation is correspondingly
extreme.” (p.41)

“In the East a guru is more than a teacher. He is a doorway
that supposedly allows one to enter into a more profound relationship
with the spiritual. A necessary step becomes acknowledging the
gurus specialness and mastery over that which one wishes
to attain. The message is that to be a really serious student,
spiritual realization must be the primary concern. Therefore,
one’s relationship with the guru must, in time, become one’s
prime emotional bond, with all others viewed as secondary. In
fact, typically other relationships are pejoratively referred
to as attachments.(p..49)

“So although most gurus preach detachment, disciples become
attached to having the guru as their center, whereas the guru
becomes attached to having the power of being others center.”
(p.50)

“The ways people deny and justify are similar: Since
supposedly no one who is not enlightened can truly understand
the motives of one who is, any criticism can be discounted as
a limited perspective. Also, any behavior on the part of the guru,
no matter how base, can be imputed to be some secret teaching
or message that needs deciphering.”

By holding gurus as perfect and thus beyond ordinary explanations,
their presumed specialness can be used to justify anything. Some
deeper, occult reason can always be ascribed to anything a guru
does: The guru is said to take on the karma of others, and that
is why his body has whatever problems it has. The guru is obese
or unhealthy because he is too kind to turn down offerings: besides,
he gives so much that a little excess is understandable. He punishes
those who disobey him not out of anger but out of necessity, as
a good father would. He uses sex to teach about energy and detachment.
He lives an opulent life to break people’s simplistic preconceptions
of what ego-loss should look like; it also shows how detached
and unconcerned he is about what others think. For after all,
Once enlightened, one can do anything. Believing
this dictum makes any action justifiable.”

People justify and rationalize in gurus what in others would
be considered unacceptable because they have a huge emotional
investment in believing their guru is both pure and right.”
(p.52)

“That interest in one’s own salvation is totally
self-centered is a conundrum rarely explored.” (p.54)

“So disciples believe they are loved unconditionally, even
though this love is conditional on continued surrender. Disciples
in the throes of surrender feel they have given up their past,
and do not, consciously at least, fear the future. . . Feeling
totally cared for and accepted, at the universe’s center,
powerful, and seemingly unafraid of the future are all achieved
at the price of giving one’s power to another, thus remaining
essentially a child.” (p56)

“It is not at all unusual to be in an authoritarian relationship
and not know it. In fact, knowing it can interfere with surrender..
Any of the following are strong indications of belonging to an
authoritarian group:

1. No deviation from the party line is allowed. Anyone who has
thoughts or feelings contrary to the accepted perspective is made
to feel wrong or bad for having them.

2. Whatever the authority does is regarded as perfect or right.
Thus behaviors that would be questioned in others are made to
seem different and proper.

3. One trusts that the leader or others in the group know what’s
best.

4. It is difficult to communicate with anyone not in the group..

5. One finds oneself defending actions of the leader (or other
members) without having firsthand knowledge of what occurred.

6. At times one is confused and fearful without knowing why. This
is a sign that doubts are being repressed.” (p.57)

“The power of conversion experiences lies in the psychological
shift from confusion to certainty.” (p.65)

“People whose power is based on the surrender of others
develop a repertoire of techniques for deflecting and undermining
anything that questions or challenges their status, behavior,
or beliefs. They ridicule or try to confuse people who ask challenging
questions.” (p.66)

“Is experiencing intense energy a sign of spirituality,
or is the experience in the same vein as young ladies who swoon
in the presence of rock stars?” (p.68)

“To be thought enlightened, one must appear not only certain
that one is, but certain about most everything else, too.”
(p.70)

“Gurus undercut reason as a path to understanding. When
they do allow discursive inquiry, they often place the highest
value on paradox. Paradox easily lends itself to mental manipulation.
No matter what position you take, you are always shown to be missing
the point; the point being that the guru knows something you do
not.” (p.74)

“Their stance toward outsiders is of benign superiority.”
(p77)

“As long as the guru still sees the possibility of realizing
his ambitions, the way he exercises power is through rewarding
the enthusiasms of his followers with praise and positions in
his hierarchy. He also whets and manipulates desire by offering
carrots,and promising that through him the disciples
desires will be realized, possibly even in this lifetime. The
group itself becomes an echo of the guru, with the members filling
each other’s needs. Within the community there is a sense
of both intimacy and potency, and a celebratory, party-like atmosphere
often reigns. Everything seems perfect; everyone is moving along
the appropriate spiritual path. The guru is relatively accessible,
charming, even fun. All dreams are realizable-even wonderful
possibilities
beyond one’s ken.” (p.78)

“People are especially vulnerable to charismatic leaders
during times of crisis or major life change.” (p.87)

“People don’t want a second-rate guru; they want the
one who seems the best. Since purity is the standard measurement
of the gold or Greenwich meridian time of the guru world
each guru has to claim the most superlative traits. This
is naturally a breeding ground for hypocrisy, lies, and the
cultivation
of false images of purity. Gurus are thus forced to assume the
role of the highest, best, the most enlightened, the most loving,
the most selfless, the purest representative of the most profound
truths; for if they did not, people would go to one who does.
Consequently, it is largely impossible for a guru to permit himself
real intimacy, which in adults requires a context of equality..
All his relationships must be hierarchical, since that is the
foundation of his attraction and power.” (p.88)

“Since adulation from any one person eventually becomes
boring, gurus do not need any specific disciple they need
lots of them. Gurus do give special attention to those with wealth
and power.” (p.89)

“Gurus likewise do many things to ensure that their disciples
prime emotional allegiance is toward them. In the realm of sexuality,
the two prevalent ways control is exerted are through promulgating
either celibacy or promiscuity. Although seemingly opposite, both
serve the same function: they minimize the possibilities of people
bonding deeply with each other, thus reducing factors that compete
with the guru for attention.” (p.92)

“Many gurus and spiritual authorities negate, make light
of, or even ridicule the use and value of Western psychotherapy
because its concepts of the unconscious undermine their authority
and power. To acknowledge that unconscious factors may be operative
in oneself means that one cannot be totally sure one is selfless.”
(p.102)

“A primary goal in therapy is to free clients from their
need to transfer unresolved issues onto others. This need makes
people particularly susceptible to authoritarian control. Good
therapists aim at being very conscious of how they deal with
transference.”

Because of the nature of the relationship which demands total
surrender, gurus do exactly the opposite. They cultivate and reward
transference, for a parental type of authority is at the very
core of the gurus power over disciples. The power to name,
arrange marriages, and dictate duties and behavior are ultimates
in parental authority, especially in traditional societies like
the East. To give someone the power to name or marry you is to
profoundly accept their parental role in defining who you are.
The ostensible motivation behind this has to do with an attempt
to break the ties of the past so the person can become new.
A deeper reason is that this aids the guru in becoming the center
of the persons emotional life, which facilitates surrender.”
(p.105)

“Successful gurus, rock stars, charismatic leaders of any
sort, experience the intensity of adulation amplified beyond most
peoples ken. This can make ordinary relationships pale
by comparison. Being the recipient of such adulation and devotion
is exceedingly addictive. Here addiction is used in its loose
sense to mean mechanically needing an on-going fix
of adulation to where it becomes the central focus of one’s
life. Adulation has powerful emotions for the sender as well,
and can be easily mistaken for love. It is likewise addicting
for the sender, as it is an easy route to feelings of passion.
Since adulation is totally a function of image, should the images
crack, adulation disappears, demonstrating that it is essentially
empty of real care.” (p.112)

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‘Amma the Hugging Saint’: Mother-Cult Leader, U.N. Globalist
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

‘Amma the Hugging Saint’: Mother-Cult Leader, U.N. Globalist
BY BRONTE BAXTER, AUG 25, 2008

What do stuffed dolls have to do with enlightenment? Lots, if you’re
into the cult of Amma, known also as Ammachi, Mata Amritanandamayi,
and “the hugging saint.”

Amma’s devotees talk to dolls made in her image that are sold on Amma
retreats. They tell the doll their problems, seek its comfort, and
listen in their minds for its advice. Amma calls the devotees her
children, and clucks syllables like baby talk into their ear in her
trademark ritual of lining people up, watching them kneel before her,
then embracing them.

She tells them she is their mother and that she hears their prayers.
She says she’d no more charge them for her darshan (i.e., being in her
presence) than a mother would charge an infant for breast milk. Yet
insiders have estimated Amma rakes in upwards of 3 million dollars in
a 7-week tour, through donations and sales of items like her
toothbrush, fragments of a garment she has sat on, Amma dolls, Amma
posters, and books by devotees extolling her divinity.

Devotees believe Amma is a living incarnation of the being they
consider the supreme God: Kali in Hindu religion, who is depicted in
Indian art wearing a bloody necklace of human skulls but who somehow
translates to devotees as a loving maternal figure. Amma events
consist of childlike lectures on Hindu doctrines, Amma blessing water
which devotees then drink, hymn singing, worship ceremonies, and the
hugs. At some events, Amma wears a two-foot-high sparkling crown.

Amma marries people on stage, gives babies their first taste of solid
food, tells couples to break up or to stay together, and ordains some
of the faithful to abandon their family and live as monks in her
ashram. Amma teaches that love is all we need, and it is her divine
love that will save us.

In Seattle a couple of months ago, she predicted nuclear war and that
no child younger than 5 will live to adulthood after the year 2012.
After spreading fear and despair through such prophecies, she
announced that only meditation and self-effacing acts of charity can
possibly mitigate the sentence for humanity. “Meditation” means mantra/
obeisance meditation to the divine mother. Self-effacing charity means
donations to her organization and service to her cause.

At public sessions, devotees chant hymns to Amma that grow in volume
and frenetic intensity, gesticulating in unison with their arms in the
shape of an arc, from their midsection up and out towards Amma, who
sits on a dais in front of them. The words of the chant are “Aum
Parashaktyai Namah.” That translates to “I bow down/ pay homage to the
Supreme Mother of the Universe.” The arm gesture is body language for
surrendering one’s soul to Kali in the form Amma, her living
embodiment.

I am one of the moderators of the Ex-Amma Forum, a place where people
who’ve left the Amma cult come together to help each other heal from
their ordeal. The group is open to ex-followers, questioning devotees,
concerned family and friends of devotees, and people seeking more
information. I became involved with the forum when I watched a close
friend of mine grow farther and farther away from the person he once
was, the deeper he sank into Amma’s hypnotic embrace. On the forum,
I’ve read hundreds of first-person accounts of what people experience
with Amma, the side of her no one wants to talk about.

I’ve seen an email from her former joint-secretary alleging she cooks
the books, that the money she gathers for charity doesn’t go to the
charities she claims. I’ve read accounts by her former monks of the
unexplained wealth of Amma’s family, how her charity hospitals won’t
take the very poor because the poor don’t have money enough for
treatment. I’ve read about “suicides” and unexplained deaths of ashram
devotees. So many dead bodies have appeared in the waters outside the
ashram that The Indian Express, New Delhi’s daily newspaper, printed
an account of local citizens demanding a police investigation into the
matter.

I’ve read of organ selling and beatings. I saw a video of Amma
performing a puja (worship ceremony) to a portrait of Sai Baba, the
guru who gives penis massages to his favorite boy disciples. I read a
letter from a former Amma monk alleging he was told by an Indian holy
man not to share what he knows about Amma if he values his safety.

Amma’s website sells pujas performed on behalf of the paying devotee
for prices ranging from $30 to $250. We read there an explanation of
what happens in Kali puja, which is performed “on Amma’s birthstar”:

“The puja is offered to a lamp representing the Goddess… The puja
starts with a worship of the Guru… The central aspect of the puja is
the symbolic offering of the five elements of creation to God. Our
body is composed from these five elements… The puja symbolizes the
surrender of the devotee to God… Each element is represented by a
material symbol, such as flowers, or fire… These are offered at the
foot of the lighted lamp. The desire of the devotee to offer his or
her surrender is effected by these symbolic offerings. During the
entire puja the temple resonates with the continuous chanting of the
holy names of Kali.” (emphasis mine)

Amma’s PR is impeccable. She presents as “the hugging saint,” a
portrait of sweetness and universal love, and the media promotes her
unquestioningly as such. There has never been an investigation into
her movement, the dead bodies, where the money goes, or what is really
happening in her hospitals and orphanages in India.

In July, 2005, the United Nations awarded Amma with “Special U.N.
Consultative Status,” according to her website. She is one of 25 core
leaders in the United Nations Parliament of World Religions. Her
website contains over a dozen pages extolling the humanitarian work of
the U.N. One page compares the U.N.’s “Millenium Goals” with Amma’s
goals, which are word-for-word identical. (Click here to view both
documents.)

The ashram is among 30 Indian NGO’s to receive formal U.N.
affiliation, according to Amma’s website. “This will provide
opportunities for joint collaboration” between the U.N. and her
organization, it goes on to state. Amma’s website openly extols the
U.N. for its advances toward global government:

“The United Nations has been in the forefront of tackling problems as
they take on an international dimension, providing the legal framework
for regulating the use of the oceans, protecting the environment,
regulating migrant labor, curbing drug trafficking and combating
terrorism, to mention a few. This work continues today, with the
United Nations providing input into the trend towards a greater
centrality of international law in governing interaction across a wide
spectrum of issues.” (emphasis mine)

Pulling all this together, what are we seeing here? Amma is a
globalist, working intimately with the U.N. to bring about its agenda.
That agenda is world regulation and control – a wolf that hides in the
sheep’s clothing of humanitarian ideals. The U.N.’s aim is a global
Orweillian state held in place by a world bank, a centrally controlled
media, a world “peace-keeping unit” (world army), technological
surveillance, and control of the world’s water, food and other
essential resources.

As one of the 25 core leaders in the U.N.’s religion parliament, Amma
supports and promotes these “Big Brother” goals. For anyone wondering
if the global conspiracy has a spiritual component, Amma provides
strong evidence.

My earlier articles in the “Blowing the Whistle on Enlightenment”
series expose the real meaning of the kind of surrender that Amma and
other Indian gurus promote among their followers. It is surrender of
the personal self to the gods, whom Amma calls “the Lord.” Amma’s
hugs, her relics, her blessed water and food, are ways of infusing her
energy signature and that of the beings that possess her into the
bodies and minds of those who visit her, be they devotees or
unsuspecting guests.

Such an energy transfer helps devotees entrain with her vibration and
meld their minds and souls with the godhead – in other words, to
become assimilated, or possessed, by the same “cosmic” forces that
possess and work through Amma. This is called “attaining
enlightenment” or “liberation” – a state where one no longer functions
as an independent individual but as a unit or tentacle of “the Lord,”
the astral entities posing as gods who live off the energy of mankind.

What makes Amma both so successful and so sinister is the loving image
she hides behind. The media uses it to promote her far and wide. If it
seems remarkable that no investigative reporting has been done, that
no one from the mainstream media has questioned Amma’s PR, the mystery
evaporates when we recall who the mainstream media is run by these
days.

Large corporations have bought and own our press and television, and
dictate the “news” that journalists are permitted to report. Behind
the corporations, as behind our governments, lurk the ruling elite,
controlling world events from the sidelines by means of the puppets
they’ve put into power.

Why do I single out Amma among the dozens of gurus I could write
about? Because she is so popular, and so unquestioned. Even that guru-
busting website, Guruphiliac, seems to miss the shadiness of Amma,
voting her the “least bad” of the gurus. But Amma is one of the worst.
Powerful and successful, she ropes in new recruits by the thousands on
her yearly worldwide tours. Amma’s movement claims that the “saint”
has hugged over 26-million people – people who often return as
devotees, singing her praises and donating to her coffers.

Amma’s brand of religion is a return to the infantile. She makes
babies of grown men and women, giving them dolls to babble to and
telling them she’s their mother. While speaking fine words about “the
God within each of us,” her actions teach something different.
Allowing people to pray to you, kneel to you, and worship you as God
Incarnate is not the behavior of someone who wants people to recognize
themselves as magnificent, powerful, incarnate expressions of God.

Amma’s disciples get their power from hugs, dolls, mantra obeisance,
and the group euphoria of retreats, not from the core of their own
being. They’re conditioned to believe that their inner self is less
than the glorious entity before them. They’re told, in fact, that
their inner self is flawed, selfish, proud, and must be destroyed.
Every time they bow down to Amma and the gods who live in her, they
close the door more tightly on the Infinite within themselves.

But then, that’s the whole idea now, isn’t it?

Bronte Baxter
© Bronte Baxter 2008

Anyone may republish this article on another website as long as they
include the copyright and a back link to this site.

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Amma’s Magazine Bashes Gandhi
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

EXCERPTED FROM AMMACHI’S MAGAZINE, IMMORTAL BLISS

1ST QUARTER 2007, VOL 3, NO.1

FROM THE ARTICLE “SECRETS OF DHARMA” BY BR. SIVAMRITA CHAITANYA.

People like Carl Marx, Mahatma Ghandi, Leo Tolstoy and Albert Einstein
attained great goals in life but not peace within. Some of them were
theists, others were not. But what was common to them was that they
could not develop total faith in another human being, surrender their
egos, and seek a Masters advice in critical situations. Take the case
of Gandhi. He was totally committed to truth and non-violence
throughout his life and finally achieved his life mission of political
freedom for India from the British. During the freedom struggle he had
publicly declared that Britian could divide India into two countries
only over his dead body. But a sect of Muslims who wanted a separate
Islamic Nation instigated riots in some areas at the cost of many
innocent lives. Gandhi was in a great dilemma. If he upheld his
pledge, more people would be killed in riots, and his unyielding
principle of attaining freedom through non-violence would be a farce.
But if he consented to those Muslims, he would have to swallow his
words and give up truth for the sake of preventing a spread of
violence and death.

Gandhi was genuinely devoted to God. He led a pious life and inspired
millions to follow his path without ever holding any official post in
a political party, having no army or cadre under his command, not even
a permanent office structure or place of stay. He never assumed he had
any special or divine powers. He sought answers to problems in deep
prayer and meditation. But sadly, he failed to grasp the great
significance of seeking the guidance of a Self-Realized Master,
especially in a matter that would affect the lives of millions.

Though Gandhii used to read the Gita every day and had even penned a
commentary on it, he missed the fact that Arujna had, in a critical
situation, sought advice not from his consciousness but from his
brother-in-law and bosom friend.. He approached Krishna for the first
time as a disciple, and with all humility agrees to follow his advice
explicitly. Krishna convinces him to fight the war to maintain dharma
as an instrument in the hands of the Almighty, without hatred for or
attachment to anyone.

Gandhi, on the other hand, took the momentous decision to give up
truth for the sake of saving the innocent lives of a few, heeding the
small voice of his consciousness. But, when he consented to divide the
country, contrary to his wishes of gaining independence for India
through non-violent means, what happened surpassed any massacre in the
known history of the nation.. The tragic story did not end there. Even
today, the killing spree that started then goes on unchecked in the
form of wars and skirmishes between India and Pakistan, as
extermination of Hindus in Kashmir by militant groups, and as threats
of an atomic war loom ominously over the horizon..

Just imagine what would have been the course of history had Gandhi
consulted one of the contemporary Mahatmas who could have foreseen the
outcome of the historic decision. There were many, like Anandamayi
Ma, Maharshi, Nityananda, Narayana Guru, Chattambi Swami, Yogananda
and Mahayogi Aurobindo. He had met most of them and had great respect
for all of them.

The life of Gandhi is a clear example that however high a level of
morality we may maintain, or however sincerely we pray, the inner
voice can be the voice of the ego passing itself as God’s voice. The
knowledge that God is all-pervading cannot save us from sure sorrow
and death unless we drink from the fountain of wisdom…God’s living
human form, which is grace and compassion condensed.

(Article goes on to praise Amma and how blessed we are to have God in
a human body in the form of Amma)

Some questions this article raises:

#1: How do these views reflect in light of Amma having accepted the
Gandhi-King award for non-violence, for which there was much media
acclaim?

#2 The RSS was implicated in the assassination of Gandhi it has been
suggested that Ammas
ashram may have ties to the RSS. Is there a connection?

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AIMS Hospital Horrors
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

The following has been excerpted from a post on the Ex-Amma forums. If
the original author is available and willing to update us as to how
this situation progressed and/or resolved itself please contact us
using the link in the right navigation bar. We make no claims as to
the legitimacy or accuracy of these allegations, but believe the
authors story deserves to be considered.

I am extremely disturbed by what I read. No
parent should have to go through such a nightmare. I
hope you are successful in convincing your daughter to
leave this cult. Recently, I had an experience which
was much worse. This god woman runs a hospital in
Kochi in India which is yet another scam. The
following is a brief description of the course of
events …

My dad walked in for a routine health check
up on July 7,2007 at their health clinic and ended up
being convinced by their so called experts that he had
blocked arteries. The cult methodically isolated my
parents from myself and my sister who lives in Chicago
and much against our wishes my dad went in for an
angiogram and they screwed it up royally causing his
kidneys to go in to a shock. A routine test which
nearly proved fatal in his case. The doctor did not
perform a check to see whether he was allergic to the
dye used in the test. They covered this up and kept
telling my mother that it was his age (which was 70 by
the way). After he recovered from this my Dad wanted
to get out of there, but they would not release him
citing his purported heart condition.

Over the next week and half they systematically brainwashed my
mother into getting him to undergo the angioplasty on
August 2, 2007. His operation was scheduled for 2 AM
in the morning on Aug 2. At 10 PM in the night on Aug
5, my mother was urgently called in to the
administrator’s office to discuss my dad’s condition.
She is told he has a leaky valve and they need a
security deposit from her for $3500 to arrange for the
valve and a triple bypass. She was in no state to make
an informed decision, so she handed them the money.
The operation was completed as per schedule and then
the surgeon told her that everything was ‘o.k.’ and
that my dad should be awake in the next 24 to 48 hrs.
She asked him about the valve, and the surgeon
expressed surprise and said there was nothing wrong
with his valves, and went on state that my dad had
20%, 30% and 15% blockage in 3 arteries which did not
actually merit a bypass. An angioplasty would have
sufficed, but they performed a bypass anyway.

My mother then confronted him with the security deposit
bill she was charged for the heart valve replacement
and the surgeon got irritated and told her to pick up
the matter with the hospital accounts department in
the morning. She went their first thing in the morning
and was told that they figured out the error but she
would not get the refund as it had been donated to the
amrita hospital trust which performs free surgery for
needy patients. My mother says it is a noble cause but
does agree the manner in which the donation was made
on her behalf and that too by deceit. They told her
they will look into it once the final bill is settled.
In the meanwhile my dad’s condition worsened and he
died due to post surgical complications.

My sister and i were enroute to Kochi from San Jose and Chicago
respectively when the death occured. My sister had a
GSM phone with her so she got the news while in
transit in Gatwick airport, so she immediately
starting pressing the hospital for a post mortem. She
was told it would be done. They embalmed the body
instead of performing the postportem. My sister
expressed dismay that the post mortem was conveniently
skipped. I was oblivious of all this since i was
boarding a flight out of Singapore while all of this
transpired. My sister wanted to visually inspect the
body but found it impossible since the whole body was
covered in a tape, like a mummy. Due to Hindu
religious beliefs she could not convince our family
members to undo the covering. My sister was alerted by
a colleague of hers at Smalley Bearings in Chicago
about organ donation racket that was associated with
this cult’s hospital. Her colleague wanted her to
visually inspect his back for any signs of kidney
removal. We have been trying to uncover what actually
transpired which a sent a man visiting a health clinic
to his death. At every step of the way we are
continuously being stonewalled by this cult and the
hospital. The hospital staff is totally uncooperative.
We are yet to see the refund for the heart valve which
was never replaced. We did not even get a breakdown of
the procedures done and none of the medical records
have been made available to either to us till date.

We are planning to take legal action here in California
and Illinois since Amrita hospital trust has an arm
here in Pleasanton California. Again my sympathies are
with you and sincerely hope that you get your daughter
back soon where she belongs. I know how difficult it
is to cope with a loved one’s loss.

Sincerely,
S. R. Nathan
San Jose, California

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A Critical Look At The Biography Of Amma Part I
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

I would like to bring to your kind attention the biography of Mata
Amritanadamayi written by swami Amritasvarupanada. This book was
published by: Mata Amritanadamayi Mission Trust, Amritapuri P.O.
Kollam, 690525, Kerala, India and printed by: Amrita Offset Printers,
Amritapuri. These companies are affiliated with Amma’s spiritual
organization and stated as Mata Amritanadaayi Mission Trust,
Amritapuri, Kollam in the book. Unfortunately there is no ISBN, this
being the nature of many books printed in India. 1988 was the first
edition, 3000 copies are stated to be sold or made (i’m unsure). 1989
another 3000, 1992 – 2000 copies, 1993 – 3000, 1995 – 3000, 1996
-6000, 1997 – 6000, 1998 – 3900, 1999 – 5000, 2000 – 5000, 2001 -
5000.

I’m not aware if this book is still around. I have read this book and
upon closer inspection have concluded some findings about Amma which I
would like to pose to the readers. It is up to you to judge.

I am also aware of mayi’s marketing technique which shows her
materializing water from milk. Apparently she is against doing
miracles and does this to show her powers, that was back when she was
still young. But the funny part is that she lets this marketing
gimmick to be done by allowing a ‘remake documentary’ of this episode.
Can she demonstrate this power today under scientific scrutiny?
Anyway, there’s also another cheap gizmo which makes her to be the
hinted as the mother of the universe.

Both of these videos can be seen at

Indians deify people who help out or who have done good towards them.
This is a tendency in the people. Many also have revered siddhars and
souls who have realized god. But many do not understand that realizing
god/brahman is just a state, it is not becoming a god or a superman.

Let us now see what is written in her biography.

a) Sudhmani aka Ammachi’s parents are said to be initially non
understanding of the divine child’s spiritual fervour and said to
continually beat and torture the child.

But, in the autobiography though the above is presented there is
serious contradictions. For example, both of Sudhamani’s parents are
said to be highly spiritual nature. In page 20, chapter 1: From life
itself, it is written -

” Many pious souls had been born in the Idamannel family. Sri
Velayudham was such a man. He was a very compassionate, truthful and
generous person, who firmly held the ideal of ahimsa. He would not
allow even a little rat to be killed. Velayudhan was married to
Srimathi Mathavi, a chaste and pious woman, whose habit was to get up
early in the morning before dawn in order to make flower garlands for
all the deities in the family shrine room…….

Sugunandan was their eldest sone of five children. Inspired by the
devotional atmosphere of his family, he became an ardent devotee of
lord krishna. When he was nine or ten years old, he began studying
Kathakali, a classical dance drama of Kerala, which depicts games and
playful diversion of gods and goddesses. While the actors present the
story through dance and mudras, singers narrate the story through
songs.

The character Sugunanadan most loved to portray was Sri Krishna. Once
during a Kathakali performance he became so identified with his role
of Krishna that he fell unconscious on the stage”.

From here we know that both Sudhamani’s (future amritanandamayi)
paternal grandparents were pious, the grandpa would have been taken
in by gandhi’s ahimsa preaching.

Sugunandan, Sudhamani’s dad is also portrayed as pious. But there is
also a interesting twist here. Ramakrishna was a saint from bengal.
He was from the 19th century and his advent was much much earlier, he
was also quite popularized due to Vivekananda who sailed to the west
and opened up Hindu thought to the curious west. Ramakrishna’s
biography is well known, it was recorded by many people, but the most
famous was by Mahendra gupta, also known as M. In it the child
Ramakrishna is said to be fond of theaterics, much like Sugunandan
also. In one of these, Ramakrishna becomes so absorbed with the role
of Shiva that he becomes unconscious. Here this unconsciousness to
the external environment is due to samadhi. The samadhi is
Ramakrishna’s total absorption on Shiva. The crowd is said to be
overcome with awe and a feeling that Ramakrishna is Shiva himself.
Sugunandan also like Ramakrishna acts in one of this form of theatre
acting out puranas like Kathakali. Like Ramakrishna he also becomes
absorbed on Sri Krishna and becomes unconscious. It should be noted
that Sugunandan was also a child like Ramakrishna when this is said
to have occured.

However, the author stops short of calling Sugunanda’s absorption
samathi and we also do not know how the crowd reacted to this. No
reason is given for sugunanda’s unconsciousness, though this is said
to have occured due to becoming very identified with his role of Sri
Krishna.

It is not difficult to see that the child Sudhamani would have
learned this antics from her father and later on also portrays
herself to be Sri Krishna. However so unlike her father, she goes a
step further by saying she herself is the divine incarnation.

Let us now look at a description of her mother Damayananti. In page
21 of the same chapter:

“….Damayananti came from a devout family, which performed religious
practices daily without fail. Her family even had its own temple.
From childhood, Damayananti had led a virtuos life. Her father,
Punyan, and mother, Karutta Kunya, were exemplary devotees of god.
The whole family atmospehre supported her in leading a religious
life. Damayanti was so pious that she was reverently called by the
villagers, ‘pattathi amma’, or the ‘brahmana lady. As devotion to god
was her focus in life, she would observe various religious vows
almost every day of the weeek. She frequently undertook fasting and
would break her fast by drinking the water of tender coconuts which
mysteriously feel from the trees.”

So here too Damayananti, Sudhamani’s mother and paternal grandparents
are portrayed as being very pious and spiritual. Damayananti, though
belonging to the fisher-caste clan, even earns the nickname -
brahmana lady due to this. The family even has their own temple.

As such it is not difficult to see that Sudhamani is exposed to
religion from very young.

Let us see Damayanti’s reaction when Sudhamani was born, from page 23
of the same chapter:

” The babe had a beaming smile on her tiny face! The gaze of the
child penetrated Damayanti’s innermost heart and was never
forgotten.”

From here we can know that the child has had such an impact on
Damayananti from the day she was born. It pierced her innermost heart
and was never forgotten – these are very emotional claims. She
definitely remembered this long enough to be passed on.

In fact both parents have had visions of gods and goddesses before
Sudhamani was born, just like Ramakrishna’s parents too.

Page 22, Chapter 1:

” During her pregnancy, Damayanti began having strange visions.
Sometimes she had wonderful dreams of Lord Krishna; at other she
beheld the divine play of Lord Shiva and Devi, the Divine Mother. One
night Damayanti dreamt that a mysterious figure came to entrust her
with an idol of Sri Krishna cast in pure gold. Around the same time
Sugunandan had a dream of the divine mother. As he was a devotee of
Lord krishna, he was unable to understand why devi should suddenly
appear to him. Upon relating his story to damayanti, he found that
she had recently had may strange visions also…..

One night Damayanti had a wonderful dream that she had given birth to
Krishna, and he was lying on her lap drinking her breast milk. “

It is very rare that people dream of gods and goddesses during their
pregnancies and for their spouses to have likewise dream also. It is
surprising that Damayanti and Sugunandan couldn’t draw a conclusion
that the child might be divine. Unlike Ramakrishna’s parents,
Sudhamani’s parents however become barbaric later on.

It is said that the child had a dark blue color, due to this, it is
said in page 24 (chapter 1):

“….ironically, it was because of her blue-black complexion, that
Damayanti and the other family members would look upon the child with
great disdain. Their aversion for the dark child eventually led them
to treat her as the thankless servant of the family and relatives.”

The family is said to have consulted the doctors for this ailment of
dark skin when this child was born. Let us see what is written. In
page 23 & 24 of the chapter: ” The parents were puzzled by the babe’s
dark blue complexion and the fact that the child lay in padmasana
(lotus posture), holding her fingers in chinmudra (the mudra
symbolizing oneness with godhood). They feared this dark blue shade
might be a symptom of some strange disease and that the peculiar
posture might be due to abnormal bone structure. Various doctors were
consulted. The fear of bone abnormality was allayed when the doctors
confirmed that there was no such handicap. As for the skin color, it
could not be attributed to heredity, since both damayanti and
sugunanadan were light tan in skin tone. Hence the parents were
advised not to bathe the child for six months in the hope that the
mysterious ailment would disappear.”

This is quite strange that both parents were not aware of padmasana’s
and chinmudra, being from quite a religious and spiritual background.
Moreover, if it was true that the baby was dark blue, how did the
parents didn’t know of the color being associated with Krishna?

It also adds further doubt to the above story when doctors are
actually said to advise the parents to not bathe the child for six
months. I am not aware if this is the standard remedy practiced by
Keralite doctors for ‘mysterious skin ailments’. In fact this is
dubious only. By not bathing the child might most probably get skin
diseases like rashes, fungal infections and maybe other bacterial
infecions also.

Moreover, Sugunandan and Damayanti are both from the fishermen-caste.
These people go out in the sun to catch fish. We know that via
evolution, humans exposed to hot sun will finally assume a dark skin
color. This is because melanin which gives the tan blocks out harmful
sunrays. As such, most of these clanspeople are bound to be brown or
black only. In fact, there are many Indians who are pitch black. This
is not a rarity.Damayanti’s mom is known as Karutta Kunya which
translates to ‘black child’. Please do not misunderstand my intention
as being color discriminatory. No, it is not my intention. Nature has
made melanin to block out sun’s rays. In humans near the equator,
they have over a very large period of time acquire characteristics
which help them survive in their surroundings. This is basic
evolution. As such it is difficult to imagine Sugunanda’s uproar
seeing his daughter’s skin. There are many dark skinned woman in the
village also. Sugunandan, his wife, his elder son and some relatives
are portrayed as quite barbarous in their treatment of Sudhamani.
This is hard to believe for one who is entrenched in religious
virtue, has a wife of religious virtue, has family background of
religiousity and also attains samadhi while nine years old. It is
said that samadhi changes one’s perception towards things
permanently. Yet Sugunandan has reverted (or portrayed) to become a
monster.

Let us look at further contradicitions in the book. In chapter 25 of
the same chapter, it is written;
” The parents gave the name Sudhamani, “Ambriosal Jewel”, to their
remarkable baby daughter.” This hardly depicts someone who hates the
blue black baby.

Let us now look at the barbarous treatment of Sudhamani as given in
the book: ” At ten, Sudhamani was fored to abandon her schooling..
From early morning before dawn until late at night she labored….
(last paraghraph, page 37, chapter 2 – the divine servant)

…..sudhamani toiled from three o’clock in the morning, as she set
to work cleaning the house, sweeping the compoung, fetching water,
cooking the food, tending the cows, milking them, washing the clothes
and scrubbing the cooking vessels.” (2nd paragraph, page 37, chapter
2).

….when her crying continued, Sugunandan eventually lost his
patience and flung (the baby Sudhamani) on the cot. Page 28, chapter
1.

It is difficult to understand the reason for the parents stopping the
brilliant child Sudhamani compared to their other children. This is
illustrated in page 27 – chapter 1: ” Her older classmates, including
her brother and sister, sometimes received harsh punishment from the
teacher for being unable to learn verses of poetry by heart.
Meanwhile, little Sudhamani, who was studying in the lower grade,
would melodiously sing the peoems and dance to the melody like a
delicate butterfly. all the teachers admired her and were amazed by
Kunju’s (sudhamani) astonishing memory. She scored full marks in all
subjects and was ranked first in class, despite the fact that she was
often absent because of household responsibilities. “

In fact so harsh is the treatment that the child says the mother
treats her like a daughter-in-law and not a daughter. Traditionally
in some families, daughter-in-laws are maltreated for heavy dowry and
not bearing a male heir, this treatment passed on to generations just
like the ‘ragging’ tradition in the universities in the past.

Apart from this Sudhamani also claims many things which cannot be
observed now, nor which she has demonstrated. These include:

1) animals tendering her body during tapas, etc the garudas which
bring fish for her food.

2) miraculously lighting lamps without oil and with use of water.

3) changing water into milk.

4) giving endless supply of food from a small vessel, more like Jesus
Christ.

Apart from this Sudhamani has also caused griveous hurt to her cousin
by her own words. Let us look at the unfolding of events as it is
given.. Subhagan is Sudhamani’s cousin. He and another cousin are
irked with Sudhamani’s claims of being god. Apart from them there are
also others. These have formed a commitee called ‘Rationalist
movement’ and ‘commitee to stop blind beliefs’. We do not get any
account from this group, just swami amritasvarupananda’s comments as
recorded in the book. As such a honest look of events cannot be had
in this book. However so Subhagan and his cousin one day will try to
scare Sudhamani and which will end disastrously for the cousin.

Page 144 – chapter 8- dazzling like a million suns: ” One day,
subhagan and a few of his cousins called the Mother to a relative’s
house under a false pretext. When she arrived, they locked her in a
room and one cousins began threatening her, sudenly pulling out a
knife which he had hidden in his clothing. Subhagan announced, “This
behavior of yours has gone too far! You are bound to spoil the family
name. Since you cannot stop mixing freely with all sorts of people
and persist in your sining and dancing, it is better you die.” He was
enraged to hear the Mother laugh and retort, “I am not afraid of
death.The body must meet its end sooner or later, but it is
impossible for you to kill the Self. Now that you are determined to
kill me, let me meditate a while, then you can kill me”. “

The last utterance of Sudhamani is similar to Shankara’s when he
faces death at the hands of bandits. Seeing Sudhamani’s past in which
she would have been exposed to much of hindu literature, it is not
difficult to assume how she would have arrived to such a concoction
of a story, passed on by the faithful swami amrita, tsk!

What conspires later, (page 144, chapter 8): “…though they verbally
threatened the holy mother (sudhamani), none of them was courageous
enough to do anything to her after hearing her bold reply and seeing
her unperturbed. Suddenly the cousin who had brandished the knife
jumped forward and pressed the kinfe against her chest as if to stab
her. But he could not make another move, as he was immediately
stricken by an excruciating pain in his own chest at the exact point
where he pressed the knife against Holy Mother’s. He himself fell to
the floor in agony. Seeing this, the others in the room became filled
with dread. At this moment Damayanti arrived, having seen Sudhamani
leaving with Subhagan and his cousins. Hearing the uproar, she began
pounding on th door, shouting. When the door was opened, Damayanti
took the Holy Mother by the hand and led her home, taking the path by
the shore. On tbe way back, the Mother told Damayanti, “your people
dishonored me. This ocean is my mother as well. She will accept me
happily with outstretched arms. I am going to her lap”. Hearing this
Damayanti became mentally unbalanced and began screaming, ” don’t say
that, daughter!”……..succeeding in dissuading the Holy Mother, she
took her back to Idamannel. “

It is hard to imagine that for one who has claimed to cross the stage
of non-duality and attaining oneness with god (as stated throughout
the book), Sudhamani becomes angry at humiliation. This shows her
attachment to the body. She has not realized that which is not
destructible. It is false where she shouts she is not the body.
Actually, Shankara who said this thing after being confronted by the
bandits and saved by his disciple will not show any aversion to the
bandits. This is different to Sudhamnani’s reaction. This is because
the cousin brother who dared to point the knife to her mysteriously
dies. Though his death is not known to us, let us read Sudhamani’s
version via swami amrita.. Page 145, Chapter 8: ” The episode doesn’t
end here. The cousin who had raised the knife against the Mother to
stab her was taken in pain to the hospital. Though provided with
excellent medical treatment, he finally died, continuously vomiting
blood. As his disease was in its acute stages, the Holy Mother
visited him in the hospital. She lovingly consoled him and fed him
with her own hands. He was deeply repentant toward her for his grave
mistake, and burst into tears experiencing her compassion and
forgiveness.

The holy mother had no enmity toward her cousin who had attempted to
murder her, nor had she made any resolve to avenge his evil act. He
simply suffered the fruit of his action. The Mother explained, ” Just
as human beings have intense love for Mother, numerous subtle beings
love her as well. If somebody attempts to harm Mother, Mother does
not react. Mother faces such a person without any excitement and does
not even think any harmful thought regarding him who acts out of
ignorance. But these subtle beings get angry and take revenge. Do you
understand how this is? Suppose someone’s mother is attacked by a
man. Do the children sit back indifferent? Even if their mother tries
to stop them, they find that man and take revenge.” – page 145,
chapter 8.

Now let us pause and think. What is Sudhamani implying here. First of
all she claims to not react. Yet she initially wanted to drown
herself due to humiliation. Then she talks about visiting the cousin
who is also repentant. She forgives him and he wallows due to her
compassionate and forgiving nature. So this means that he has
repented and deeply regrets his actions. So why does this man has to
suffer anyway? He has not caused any hurt to Sudhamani except for
threatening.. For this has he got to die? Sudhamani cites karma or
divine retribution for this. But she does have weird ideas of how
karma works. She says that ’subtle beings’ have exacted their
revenge. We do not know who these are nor does she elaborate. We are
to assume that these are divine beings. Even as a human being I will
not punish somebody who has repented as seriously as these subtle
beings have done, here I mean in the context of the act that the
cousin brother carried out against Sudhamani. On top of this she even
claims that this subtle beings are likened to the children which seek
out revenge if someone slights their mom, even if the mother tries to
stop them. Quite disturbing conclusions can be made from here. First
of all even though Sudhamani has forgiven, the subtle beings killed
her cousin. Is Sudhamani implying that she has no control over these
subtle beings? I mean if god forgives, it can even override karma.
Even companies overwrite bad debts. That is the true meaning of
forgiving, don’t you think so? If I were to suffer my actions
regardless of being forgiven by god, what is the need of this? On top
of that, these subtle beings attacked him due to anger. This is
unbecoming of Sudhamani’s subtle children whom she has no control of,
they even don’t give a damn even though she has forgiven the cousin
and she was actually unhurt. Moreover the cousin repents and regrets
his actions.

Let me ask, if these ’subtle beings’ were in fact true human beings
and Sudhamani also acknowledges likewise, what would have happened?
If I go and kill a guy who threatens my mom with a knife, but who
couldn’t or didn’t do any harm, and also who was eventually forgiven
by my mother, what do you think will happen to me? I will go behind
bars only. What will happen to my mother who claims the grand law of
karma, thus justifying my act? At the same time she also acts
forgiving by saying that she has no anger towards the killed man.

This whole episode and Sudhamani’s response to it sounds like a big
drama only. Or is there any hidden truth? It also teaches false
paradoxes.. She acts humane, forgiving etc. She quotes Karma. She lets
subtle beings kill someone who has repented and who she has forgiven,
quoting the divine dispensation of Karma. She also says these subtle
beings reacted out of anger and she has no control over them. Aren’t
subtle beings supposed to have subtlety, I mean more forgiving than
human?

My dear readers, ponder on these truths for a while..I will get back
to you in my part two of my rendition of a critical look at mata
amritandamayi.

To be continued..

-Sashi

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A Critical Look At The Biography Of Amma Part II
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

Dear Readers,

Kindly read my previous post, titled as above- part 1. This
is a continuation of it.

Okay,let us now look at the mysterious death of Subhagan. In page 152,
chapter 9, Sudhamani aka Holy Mother says,” It seems that brother
Subhagan is nearing the end of his life span. As a solution you can
take a vow of silence, but certain obstacles can be seen which will
try
to break your vow. Therefore be careful when you take the vow.”

Let us look at how Damayanti breaks the vow, in page 157 of the same
chapter:

” Damayanti observed a vow of silence one day. However, when it was
halfway over, it so happened that a cow broke its rope and started
running from their cowshed. Damayanti started running from their
cowshed. Damayanti completely forgot her vow and shouted, “There goes
the cow! Catch it!”…….

The family took this as a bad omen, especially as forewarned by
Mother.
This auspicious event filled the family with fear and anxiety.”

So there we have it… Sudhamani initially warns Damayanti of impending
death of Subhagan. Maybe we can say this is Karma. But the funny part
is- it is linked with observing a vow of silence. I don’t understand
the reason as how a vow of silence helps to appease Karma. So does
this
mean the mute will escape death or law of Karma? This sounds more like
religious superstition and proves the fact that Sudhamani is basically
a girl steeped in religious superstition without much thought.
Damayanti just shouts after a cow which escapes from the cowshed. This
is just the most logical thing to do. Does death gets hastened due to
this? Without thinking what the factors which affect death are, we get
the superstitious Sudhamani dishing out irrational things to equally
superstitious family members.

However so, Subhagan’s death is directly proclaimed by Sudhamani
herself. Let us look at what is written in the page 153, chapter 9:
” One day Subhagan, in a fit of fury, severely harassed a Muslim woman
who had come to Idamannel for the Bhava Darshan. Unable to bear
Subhagan’s vicious remarks, the lady rushed to the temple, burst into
tears and began beating her head against the threshold of the shine
room. She was crying out, “O Mother..O Mother…is this the fate of
those who come to see You?”

Hearing the Muslim woman’s distraught cries, the Mother’s radiant and
smiling face underwent an immediate transformation. With a terrifying
appearance, she stood up from the sacred seat holding a trident in one
hand and a sword in the other. In a solemn and deep tone the Mother
said, “Whoever has caused this undue grief to this devotee will die
within seven days.”

When the Mother’s prediction reached the ears of Sugunanadaan, he
rushed to the temple seeking forgiveness for his son’s grievous
behavior. He pleaded to the Mother to spare Subhagan’s life and take
his instead. Mother calmly told, “I never punish anybody. If I am
abused or harassed I don’t care at all. But when a devotee suffers
such
abuse even God will not forgive. Each one must enjoy the fruit of
one’s
actions. There is no other way.”

Seven days had passed. It was nearly midinight on June 2, 1978 when
Subhagan, who had been informed of the Mother’s predicition, committed
suicide by hanging. He had written a suicide note giving the reason as
unbearable stress caused by his incurable disease (elephantitis).
Subhagan’s suicide created chaos and distress at Idammanel house. “

From the above we can see the utter stupidity of the whole story.
Harassing a devotee does not incur such a punishment as death. In
today’s standards, harassing and taunting a person does not amount to
punishment by death. Is god so stupid as to warrant this punishment to
someone who taunts his devotees? The muslim lady was not physically
hurt nor any of her belongings stolen. She did see the so called Holy
Mother and lamented Subhagan’s “vicious remarks” only. This “vicious
remarks” cannot be justified as warranting death punishment by god or
anyone else for that matter. Moreover hypersensitive people can even
classify a normal criticism as “vicious remarks”.

Sudhamani now actively interferes in the death of Subhagan by
proclaiming his forthcoming death due to the taunting of a devotee.
Though pleaded to by her dad, she does not lift this curse. Previously
it could be avoided by just following a vow of silence. That too got
destroyed due to the old lady’s shouting at a mere straying cow. Now
it
is the ‘vicious remarks’ which justifies the death punishment to
Subhagan. If we look at the story it seems Subhangan was informed of
his sister’s predicition. He was said to hang himself. Was he forced
to
hang himself to make his sister’s prediction come true or was he also
too superstitious to believe this prediction, thereby due to utmost
stress of this disturbing prediction hanged himself? In the book, his
disease -elephantitis, is quoted. But many people in India have lived
and are living with elephantitis without killing themselves. It is not
a psychotic or fatal disease as made out in the book; moreover the
medication diethylcarbamazine was available in India at that time,
even
the generic.

In this chapter 9- the sword of truth, we have swami amrita mention
about the rationalists and how they tried to discredit mighty
Sudhamani. From what he has written, it seems that there were a group
of poor villagers who came to the bhava darshan. Sugunandan eventually
helps his daughter in carrying out these activities. Sudhamani becomes
the deity Krsna and Shakti in this bhava darshans. But there is also
another group which seeks actively to stop this activity of Sudhamani
-
they are classified as the rationalists by Swami amrita. But we do not
know the real reason that they have done this. From what I can gather
through reading the book, they are portrayed as mere trouble makers
who
try to become obstacles to Sudhamani and her quest without any
apparent
reason. It is just out of hate. That is as stated by the swami. But I
think it is deeper than that.

Let us now shift our attention on Sudhamani’s bhavas. This bhavas are
also observed in devotional common Hindus during Thaipusam and other
events. It is more like trances or the Christian’s descending of holy
spirit in which some speak in tongues. Whatever it is we can only say
it is yet fully understood by science. There are also small scale
priests who also have this visitation of spirits and who are sought
out
for healing and other purposes. The shamans of the pagans and the
priest of organized religion claim this divine power to be able to
heal
and prophesize. However so let us look at Sudhamani’s explanation of
this bhavas as recorded by swami amrita.

Page 197 & 198, chapter eleven – The meaning of Divine Bhavas:

” The Great Masters of India have classified Divine Incarnations in
three main categories: 1) Purna Avatara (full or perfect), 2) Amsa
Avatara (partial manifestation) and 3) Avesa Avatara (temporary
overshadowing by divine powers)…

A purna avatara is the descent of the nameless, formless and immutable
supreme energy, assuming a human form and manifesting infinite power
without any limitations.

The incarnation of Vishnu as Vamana and Narashima are examples of Amsa
Avatara. Parasurama, as depicted by Srimad Bhagawatam is avesa avatar.
“

Let us now see the elaboration of the purna avatar in the book. It is
said that Hanuman wanted to visit Krishna but insisted to only see the
form of Rama. Hanuman was a ardent devotee of Rama who is but an
incarnation of Vishnu just like Krishna. Yet Hanuman wishes to see
Rama
alone. Only Krishna could assume the form of Rama for Hanuman since he
is a purna avatar. Let us read as stated in page 199, Chapter 11:

” While Garuda was fetching Hanuman, certain events were taking place
in Dwaraka. Lord Krishna, by His mere Will, assumed the form of Lord
Rama, who had lived many centuries earlier. Rukmini, Krishna’s
consort,
became Sita. By this time, Hanuman had arrived in Dwaraka. Having seen
his beloved Sri Rama and Sita and having offered worship to Them, he
returned to his abode….

Only a Purna Avatara can easily become one with any other god or
goddess. Being such an Avatara, Krishna easily manifested Rama Bhava.
One day, Lord Krishna asked his wives including Satyabhama, one of His
dear ones, to assume Sita Bhava, but none were able to. Finally
Rukmini, an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi, effortlessly assumed Sita
Bhava.

In the case of an Avesa Avasa Avatara, godly powers enter into a
particular person and withdraw after fulfilling the intended goal.
This
was not the case with Sri Krishna and Rukmini. What Lord Krishna did
was to manifest Rama Bhava or the attributes of Rama which were
already
potential in him”.

Okay, so we have read Sudhamani’s rendering of the meaning of avatars.

Let us see how she classifies her own self regarding this, whether an
amsa, avesa or purna avatar.

Page 200, chapter 11:

” Bhava Darshan is the manifestation of different Iswara Bhavas or
divine moods by an incarnation of God according to the wishes of
devotees.”

Let us see how Sudhamani compares herself with Anandamayi Ma, another
Ma who lived earlier in Bengal and manifested Krishna and Kali as
Sudhamani. Page 200, Chapter 11, last paragraph:

” Anandamayi Ma, who lived in Bengal, used to manifest Krishna and
Kali
Bhavas while singing bhajans. These Bhavas manifested by Incarnations
took place only on certain occasions to fulfill a particular end,
especially in response to the ardent desire of devotees. Moreover,
they
would last only for a short time. The Holy Mother Amritanandamayi (
note: Sudhamani) manifests the Divine Moods three nights a week
lasting
for long periods of 10 to 12 hours depending on the number of devotees
present for Darshan. This is the Holy Mother’s way of serving
humanity,
plunged as it is in the deep quagmire of worldliness.”

Page 201: ” During the Holy Mother’s Krishna and Devi Bhavas, she
brings out That which is within her and manifests those Divine Beings
in order to bless her devotees. The holy Mother once said regarding
these bhavas. ” Mother is not manifesting even an infinitesimal part
of
her spiritual power during the Bhavas. If it were manifested as it is,
no one could come near!”

Page 202: “Even now some people believe that Lord Krishna and Devi
visit the Holy Mother’s body three nights a week, after which They
leave her body. This misconception springs from a lack of correct
understanding about the Holy Mother’s Divine Moods. These Divine
Bhavas
are nothing but the external revelation of her incessant Oneness with
the Supreme. They have nothing to do with possession or Divine Grace
as
it is commonly understood.”

So there we have it. Sudhamani is not a avesa avatar. She is not
possessed with divine grace but reveals what is an innermost part of
herself. More than that she is also an incarnation equal to Krishna
and
Rama. She has even said that people can’t get near her if she were to
reveal her infinite glory. Perhaps it was some kind of vibration. It
sounds more like a cartoonish science fiction though. She even
compares
herself superior to another person who has these bhavas also,
Anandamayi Ma.

Then there arises the question of Krishna and Rama as pertaining
Hanuman. If I were to know a person intimately, definitely I will know
the person’s form and could distinguish cheap imitations. Krsna is
said
to assume the bhava of Rama for Hanuman. As Hanuman knew Rama
personally, we can only say that Hanuman wishes to see Rama exactly in
outward and inward form. If he just wants to see the inner core Rama,
Krishna could have assumed this personality for him. But the
insistence
of Hanuman means Krishna would have changed his external form to Rama.
It is difficult for me to comment as I have seen neither Krsna nor
Rama. Definitely both men being male warriors would have exhibited
masculine form. But Sudhmani is just her physical self in this bhavas.
What she does is to assume costumes. This any actor could do, just
like
her dad Sugunandan did in his earlier frolics during Kathakali. Even
today we have actors assuming historic roles. This is not something to
be called divine. It is just human capabilities of a good actor. I
have
seen many darshan pictures of Sudhamani in the book but have not seen
any in which she looks like Krishna who is a male. She just looks
herself, an average Indian girl.

From all these, it can be seen that Sudhamani is just as deluded as
those who follow her. She has made a big hotchpotch of everything she
has learned and heard, which is not surprising considering her
background (refer my earlier post). She has mixed irrational
superstition, vedantam, bhakti and paganism into her show.

Many people believe that her success of acceptance is proof of her
godhood. I beg to differ though. Humans have a tendency to idolize
others regardless of race, religion and culture. Look at our pop
divas,
Michael Jackson, sportsmen, actors and actress and other charismatic
personalities. These people are masters of portrayal and attract a
huge
following amongst the masses. The Beatles also caused mass hysteria
amongst the people whenever they visited a town. But apart from this,
everyone is human, that is all. Being in power, the chances of abuse
is
higher. Sudhamani is just a successful actor, just like any other. She
is idolized just like Michael Jackson. But that’s about it. She is no
more divine than you and me.

In the world we live, many impacting changes have been caused by
ordinary human beings. The amendments of law resulting in gender
equality and abolishing of slavery were caused by men without claiming
godhood. Read our history and you will realize. In science also,
humans
like Edison, Wright brothers and others have discovered things
changing
the life of mankind itself. Most, if any, never claimed divinity at
all
and most didn’t make huge financial gains out of their discoveries
either. As such we can see men and women who have sacrificed their
life
for others. The Red Cross, the nurses and many others were responses
by
ordinary men and women to provide care for the needy. They don’t claim
divinity either. So we can see that for one spiritual organization
which claims to administer disaster relief and humanitarian work, many
other non-divine ordinary organizations can be touted to do the same.

Here is a proof of Sudhamani’s appropriation of Ramakrishna, just as
she earlier did with Shankara (read earlier post,no. 278).

Page 202 & 203, Chapter 11, Sudhamani says regarding her cross-
dressing
habit (for Krishna) and assuming devi’s costumes:

” It will help the people to remember what Bhava is. Child, each
attire
is important in its own way. We are naked when we are born. Later,
according to each country and social custom, people adopt different
kind of dress. Whatever the dress, the person is the same….

Mother will make this point clear through an anecdote. One man was
cutting a tree which was growing by the side of the road. Another man
who happened to see him doing this said,” Don’t cut down that tree! It
is wrong to do so, it is against the law.” The man not only refused to
stop cutting but also scolded him severely. The person who tried to
prevent the hooligan from cutting the tree was a policeman. He
departed
but soon returned in his official dress. Even from a distance the mere
sight of the policeman was enough to make the hooligan flee without
looking back. See the different impact created when he came in
ordinary
and official dress. Therefore, special attire is needed to teach
ignorant people. Likewise, the costumes of Krishna and Devi Bhavas.”

This proves the fact of Sudhamani to be well aware of Ramakrishna’s
biography. In it Ramakrishna will advise that realizing (god) is more
important. He says that without getting the mantle from god mere
preaching will not do. People will not be really benefited. This he
said regarding the Arya and Brahmo Samajs which were active in his
time. Ramakrishna stresses the importance of realizing god compared to
preaching work done by the Samajs. The mantle of god can only come if
one is realized. It is not necessary that god decrees us to instruct
others upon realizing it. This he makes known through a few
anecdotes..
One of it is his comparing of a group of people who befoul the banks
of
the bathing ghat/river even when warned by others. Only a government
sanction could stop this nuisance. And that too a mere notice of
warning put up near the bank is enough to act as a deterrent.
Ramakrishna compares this notice board as the mantle.

But here we have Sudhamani totally twisting the story and adding a new
meaning to it. Though the basic essence is the same, its underlying
reason is different. For Sudhamani, the uniform has taken the place of
the government notice board. The cutting of the tree substitutes the
act of befouling. And that too to teach ‘ignorant people’ who by the
way appear to be many, judging by her hours in Bhava Darshan.

It will do well to note that Indian people have noted many saints who
were partially and completely naked, not including many who were
dressed without much pomp and ado. Examples include Buddha, Trailanga
Swamigal etc. Many aghoris, natha and naga sadhus also are naked. They
occupy primal position in reverence as can be seen during Kumbha Mela
where these naked sadhus are given priority in taking the first dip.
As
such Sudhamani’s excuse of making an impression on the people by
assuming colorful garbs and costumes is at best stupid. It is done to
delude the masses only. People understand genuineness regardless of
its
outward form; hence we have the maxim “don’t judge the book by its
cover.” Sudhamani totally ignorant of this makes up her shortcomings
by
masquerading as Krishna and Shakti which is why the so
called ‘rationalist movement’ might have riled up against her. That
explains her brother’s and cousins’ oppositions also.

Another thing we could ask here is Sudhamani’s claim of the almighty
itself. She claims that she is the supreme incarnation which could
manifest any divinity.. As such she is also the god come as human
form,
this according to her also. Sudhamani claims to be accessing or rather
is the absolute. The world is contained in the absolute. By this
Sudhamani claims to be all-knowing even to the extent of being able to
exact death by mere willing. Throughout the book, numerous incidences
are
given of Sudhamani’s capability of altering the outcomes of tragic
events for the better, healing diseases and thought-reading. All this
is child’s play to her. But supposedly if we were to ask her any
mathematical question, can she answer? Will she dare to take up this
challenge? By accessing the supreme which pervades all, she is able to
know all, and that includes mathematical or scientific knowledge also.
Even till now she needs an interpreter, she can’t speak fluent
English.
This shows that like other humans she cannot have spontaneous
knowledge
of a thing without learning, pondering or coming to contact with it.
Instinctual knowledge doesn’t give us any knowledge of understanding
Chinese or Tamil. It is just a small hint through which our intellect
works, more like thinking out of the box. But the things we think
about
we have learned or pondered beforehand. This is how scientific
discoveries are made. Sudhamani cannot vouch for any such discovery
also, this is better to prove her godhood rather than changing water
into milk. At least the discovery might be beneficial to humans and
befits her motto of serving humanity. But rather than this we get
cheap
and cheesy imitations of gods and goddesses thrown in with a heavy
dose
of vedantam, puranam and bhakti teachings.. These can be had by
reading
the books alone, just as Sudhamani might have done.

To be continued…

-SASHI

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A Critical Look At The Biography Of Amma Part III
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

Dear Readers,

This (part 3) is my final rendition of ‘a critical look’.

Swami Amritasvarupananda is Sudhamani’s aka Amritanandamayi’s
disciple only. He is one of her chief disciples. His rendition of his
story of Sudhamani’s magnificence sounds more like Yogananda’s
(autobiography of a yogi) version in which he is helped through to
get a college degree.

The more I read this book of his, the more it occurs to me that all
this is just a cheap scam of imitation to attract fortunes and boy,
have they succeeded.

Let us now shift our attention to Chapter twelve, the cheesiest
section of the book. In it Sudhamani’s omnipresence, omniscience and
omni-whatever is presented to the readers. It is really mind boggling
though, coming to think of it.

a) claims of all-knowing, page 208, chapter 12:

” Sheeja is a seven year old girl to whom the Holy mother gave the
pet name ‘takali’ which means ‘tomato’. Once she cherished an intense
desire in her innocent young heart praying, “O God, if only I were
fortunate enough to wear the crown which Amma wears during Krishna
Bhava, I would be so happy!” But she knew that the fulfilment of her
wish was all but impossible.

That year during Lord Krishna’s birthday celebrations Takkali came to
the ashram. Ma who was waiting at the jetty, took her to the ashram.
There a group of children, dressed in colorful costumes, were
preparing for a folk dance portraying Krishna’s childhood sports in
Vrindavan. Mother took Takkali into the temple and dressed her in
beautiful clothes and finally put her Krishna crown on Takkali’s
head. Now she looked like Krishna when he was a child! Placing her in
the middle of the other children, Mother asked them to dance around
her. Takkali was thrilled at her good fortune. Her dreams have come
true. Even without being asked, Mother had understood her innocent
wish and fulfilled it. God knows and fulfills the longing of the pure
in heart. “

So there you have it. Sudhamani’s claim to godhood by being able to
grant the wish of a seven year old child.

b) claims to be even present in a photo:

” Nambisseri Bhargavi Amma was an ardent devotee of lord Krishna, who
had appeared to her one day in a dream saying, “You are burning me
up.” She hadn’t understood the meaning of the Lord’s statements.
Shortly after the vision, she came to Holy Mother’s ashram. During
Krishna Bhava the Mother told Bhargavi Amma, “You have locked Me in
the cupboard, so you are burning Me up.” Suddenly she realized the
meaning, the portrait of Sri Krishna which she had worshipped for a
long time was locked in the cupboard.. Some time ago, when she had
gone to stay with her daughter, she had locked the portrait in the
cupboard to protect it from insects. Bhargavi had forgotten to
retrieve it and to resume worship when she returned. Hearing these
words she had no doubts that the Holy Mother is Lord Krishna Himself.”

The irony is for such a forgetful one as Nambisseri Bhargavi Amma to
be called an ardent devotee..

c) claims to be all knowing including scientific knowledge, page 214,
chapter 12:

….after a short pause she (bindu’s mom) said, “Bindu’s experience
while taking her exams is still more wonderful.” The devotee’s
curiosity was aroused, and he begged Bindu to tell what happened.
“Of all the subjects I had to study,” she said, “chemistry and
physics were too difficult for me to grasp. I was really perplexed
when I received the exam on science. Sitting in the examination hall,
I sincerely prayed to the Holy Mother to help me. The next moment I
was startled to see the Mother to be sitting beside me. I thought
that my eyes were playing tricks, so I looked again; the Mother was
really sitting next to me… Nobody else in the examination hall seemed
to be able to see her. Again, I had the feeling that it must be a
hallucination or projection of my own mind. The next moment, as if to
convince me, Mother talked to me. She encouraged me and explained how
to answer the difficult questions. The same thing happened the next
day as well. The Mother came and sat beside me everyday, instructing
me how to answer the difficult questions from the first day of the
examinations until the last. When the results were announced, I was
even more surprised to see that I passed, scoring high marks than I
have expected.”

Truly this is the most damning evidence I have ever read. If
Sudhamani could explain physics and mathematics without ever going to
school, then for sure she could speak any language without being
taught, this as we know is naught, she needs an interpreter.

The irony which escapes swami amrita by writing this piece of mumbo
jumbo is the blatant cheating in public examinations. If this were to
happen with others noticing surely Bindu would have been kicked out..
This is the just plain cheating. Bindu by her own words can’t believe
it she passed, which goes to show that she is basically a dud head. By
allowing a person to cheat in exams Sudhamani is equally guilty of
this act. It does not become justified just because others did not
notice it. If this goes on at a higher level we will have less
qualified doctor, engineers and accountants in influential positions..
This is one of the biggest disservices which can be done.

Basically it shows the power crazed attitude of Sudhamani and lack of
ethics. This is what is portrayed of her in these concocted stories.

Initially Sudhamani talks about karmic retributions in which one
reaps according to what one sows; this applied to Subhagan her
brother- in a distorted context though. Now however, she allows her
stupid disciple to cheat though she deserves to fail by not putting
enough effort to master the subject of chemistry and physics.

This just goes on to show the dual nature of Sudhamani’s ‘justice’.

d) ability to bring back life, page 224, chapter 12:

“…..the child had suddenly become acutely ill and had died before
any medical aid could be summoned. An uproar had arisen in the
house….immediately a blaze of lightning flashed near the body of
Nalini’s son. Within a few seconds, the child had come back to life,
as if he were waking up after a deep sleep.

e) ability to transfer death to domestic animals. This happens to one
Kunjamma who is convinced of her son’s predestined death via snake
bite which was predicted through the horoscope. She seeks out
Sudhamani who merely assures the death will be transfered to one of
her domestic animals. Page 223, chapter 12:

“….though she felt sad about her dog’s death, she suddenly
remembered the Holy Mother’s words: “Your son’s death will be
transferred to one of your domestic animals.” Her heart was flooded
with gratitude to the Mother. This incident occured during the very
period when her son was supposed to die. Full of love and reverence,
Kunjamma saluted the Holy Mother mentally. Her faith in the Mother
was greatly strengthened by this gift of grace. Her son is still
alive and is leading a happy life with the blessing of the Holy
Mother.”

Apart from the above there are other stories of Sudhamani’s ability
of finding a long lost child, transporting herself in a multitude of
places, attacking troublemakers with ‘balls of fire’ and all the
other fantasy stories we read in fairy tales associated with her.
Even Harry Potter pales in comparison to her.

e) ability to grant children to barren women, this is termed
as ‘manasa putrans’ or children born out of mother’s sankalpa
(thought or will power). One Mr Vidyadharan and his wife Omana were
deeply grieved to have a child for nine years. Sudhamani grants
them ‘manasa putran’ and Omana carries. Let us read the rest, from
page 246, chapter 13:

” When she was four months pregnant, she saw a doctor who confirmed
the foetus was healthy. In nine months she was examined and was
astonished to hear the doctor report she was not pregnant! The most
surprising thing was that her belly had remained enormous.”

The couple we are told went to other doctors just to be confirmed the
same. But the inevitable happens, read on.

“At last one doctor, a specialist in gynecology, took an X-ray of
the mother’s womb and was surprised to see dense smoke on the film
instead of a fetus…..

Finally one day in the sixteenth month, the Holy Mother directed
Omana’s family to take her to the hospital….

After much discussion, they (the surgeons) decided on surgery. The C-
section revealed a fully grown healthy infant in the womb….

Named Shakti Prasad (Blessing of supreme energy), by the Holy Mother,
he began meditating and chanting mantras when he was barely three.”

Thus ends one of the biggest mysteries told by Sudhamani. Not only
she implies the blessing of supreme energy aka Sudhamani to beget
children, even gynecologists in Kerala have a most unheard practice.
That is using X-Ray, a harmful procedure for pregnant mothers (and
which according to medical ethics cannot be used on them). The
diagnostic procedure to rule out malignant and false pregnancies is
not by using X-ray. But swami amrita just got the stories screwed up.
This is because of the story itself is concocted.

There are a list of children which are born through Sudhamani’s
blessings. Let us hear her own rendering of this mysterious act. Page
253, chapter 13:

” During meditation, a power emits from me and enters into the
mother’s womb, and in this way they become pregnant. Some of these
children will become perfect sannyasins. Others will lead family
life. Whatever they may be, they all will turn to spirituality..”
Hearing this truth, many mothers of these children were dismayed to
think that after some years they would lose their sons to the service
of mankind. Therefore, Mother promised them another child who would
fulfill all the expectations that parents usually have for their
children, that they marry and lead a householder’s life. Within the
next few years, all of these mothers were blessed with another
child.. “

Thus Sudhamani’s sheds light on her mysterious ability which
unfortunately is not and will never get to be scrutinized by real
scientists, thus adding no value for human understanding of the
nature of life and death.

That is all my dear readers, to read the rest of the crap you have to
get the book itself.

The final conclusion of reading the book just shows Sudhamani the
actor who has fooled the world believing her to be god. But upon
close scrutiny, the truth stands to be revealed. And the truth
doesn’t give a damn whether its the next door average Joe or the so
called mighty Amritanandamayi.

Yours sincerely,

Sashi

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Delusions Of Amma: Perpetuating Mental Illness
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

“Ammachi was seen as all powerful; she knew what we were thinking and
feeling; she knew our past and future.” – (Rahima. “Swept Up By
Mother Love.”)

One of the more disturbing occurences around the hugging saint is the
tendency of devotees to believe that Ammachi is watching their every
move and intervening in their daily lives on a regular basis. This
belief can easily perpetuate damaging psychological effects, from
simply regressing into the adult version of having an imaginary
friend, to paranoia and more profound psychological disorders over
periods of time. Devotees are encouraged to believe that Amma is
overseeing every small event that occurs as well as all of their
thoughts, desires and actions. This type of behavior is encouraged by
Amma and those around her by statements attesting to Amma’s
omnipresence. Amma has made countless claims of knowing and seeing all
of the thoughts and impressions that pass through the minds of her
devotees. Even those who may have only attended one darshan session
can walk away feeling that they have established a deep, personal
connection with Amma. The extent to which this belief is carried
varies according to the personality and susceptibility of the
individual. There is an entire marketing campaign set up to enforce
this belief, because it keeps members tied into the cult. The subtle
allusions to Ammachi’s all-knowing nature are found in books, song
lyrics and other promotional materials sold by the ashram. It is
commonly accepted among devotees that Ammachi knows who they are, and
that she has a direct, yet invisible personal relationship with them
at all times.

“My son began to attribute everything that happened in his life to
Amma, even the most mundane things. I remember once he had misplaced a
file of important papers that he needed for school. He said, “It must
be Amma trying to fool me.” While listening to him talk with others
who were involved in this group, I realized that this type of thinking
was common. Ammachi’s followers believed that everything that happened
was being orchestrated by her alone. -( anonymous letter)

This tendency seems to be closely tied into the bizarre phenomenon of
the Amma doll. A doll made to resemble Amma, with the largest and most
common size priced at $180. The doll is marketed primarily to adults,
and many devotees carry them around like children, talking to them and
believing that Amma can interact with them through the doll. This
disturbing promotion of infantilism and image worship points to the
underlying message of the group, which is to worship Amma while
maintaining the fantasy that she is interacting with all facets of the
devotees life.

“Sitting in the courtyard of the ashram, you can see older women
walking to and fro, occasionally protectively clutching Amma dolls.
Amma is clearly deified and idolized by her followers. She *IS* God to
many of these people.” -(A Blogger’s observation of ashram life)

The promotion of imaginary relationships is big business for the Amma
organization, with an entire store inventory devoted to keeping people
feeling close to Amma via dolls, trinkets and personal items that Amma
has worn or touched. Amma’s saris, linens, hair, drinking vessels and
various other items fetch several times their retail price if they
have been touched or used by the guru. Devotees commonly express that
these items make them feel “closer to Amma”, or help them to think of
Amma more often.

“Beside me, a shrunken old woman sits whispering to a plastic Amma
ring on her finger. Beside her, a young French girl sits rocking, her
arms wrapped around an Amma gollywog in a sari that costs $180. The
girl’s head lolls back, then jerks forward, her eyes roll and spin,
her mouth flops open and she drools. She’s hysterically high on Amma
love, drunk on desperation for divinity. An elderly English woman
collapses, weeping, and is carried off stage.” -(Sarah Macdonald,
Holy Cow.)

This website is dedicated to the free dissemination of alternative and
critical information regarding the activities of Mata Amritanandamayi
(Amma), frequently dubbed "the hugging saint" by the Western media.
This website is intended as a resource, and is maintained by ex-
devotees, concerned families of devotees, and everyone who submits
articles, thoughts, and experiences for publication. As such, this
website will be an ever-expanding archive of resources for those who
are interested in exploring the side of the "hugging saint" that is so
often ignored by the media.
_____________________________________________________

"One man with courage makes a majority.” -Andrew Jackson

YOUR VOICE IS IMPORTANT! If you have a personal experience that you
would like to share, please contact this website. We understand that
many people reporting on subjects that are critical of Amma and/or her
organization will wish to remain anonymous. We will honor all requests
for anonymity and will not post your personal information, name, or
other personal details if you request anonymity. The voice of one
single person speaks out for the countless ex-devotees and families of
devotees who live in fear of sharing their experiences. We understand
the fear of speaking out, but we also realize the great importance of
letting others know they are not alone.

2 Responses to “Delusions Of Amma: Perpetuating Mental Illness”

cult or spirituality?

Joie de Vivre said
July 7, 2009 at 3:12 am

[...] the behavior of the group that B is part of, I am deeply
disturbed. I hope he doesn’t have an Amma doll. I will totally flip
out if he does. He certainly has enough pictures (photographs and
calendar) of [...]

stephanie said
July 12, 2009 at 4:34 pm

If you look at this from the perspective of psychic vampirism, then it
is not that far off-base that Amma’s disciples feel they have some
deep connection to her. They DO have a deep connection to her. It is a
connection forged by deep energetic cords connecting their life force
energy back to her.

It is possible that every item she touches, that they then buy and put
their energy on, becomes yet another psychic “transformer” that feeds
their life force energy back to the guru.

http://cultofhuggingsaintamma.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/delusions-of-amma-perpetuating-mental-illness/#comment-10

“Without Amma Life Is Not Possible.”
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

“You are children. You don’t realize who Amma really is. You don’t
really want Amma. You want only to see the form of Amma. Nobody is
interested in the Supreme Consciousness which lies behind that.” -Amma

The devotee should think “The Guru is verily the life breath in me.
Without the Guru life itself is not possible.. I am just an instrument
in the Guru’s hands” This is the attitude that a true disciple has to
develop. If we keep a seed in our hand, it will never sprout. It is
only when it goes underneath the soil, that it can sprout.”

-Amma, as quoted from her speech given at Guru Purnima, 2002.

http://cultofhuggingsaintamma.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/without-amma-life-is-not-possible/

God Worships Amma: Translation Of The Arati
Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

The Arati is a bhajan and devotional ceremony that headlines the
beginning of every public program in every city where Amma tours. It
is highly unlikely that much of the visiting public, the media, and
those showing up for a motherly hug (not to mention all of the
Christians and people of other faiths turning up for darshan) are
aware of what the opening ceremony signifies. The truth is, visitors
are not just getting a hug, they are taking part in a ceremony that
worships Ammachi as not only God, but higher than God. Let this be a
lesson on why you shouldn’t sing along to languages you aren’t fluent
in.

Many Western visitors to Amma’s darshan programs may wonder what the
worship ceremony upon Amma’s entrance means. Below is the English
translation of the Arati of Amma, which has been excerpted directly
from Amma’s own website.

The line of the arati that is of most concern is : Victory to
Amritanandamayi! The one who is worshipped by the gods!

The translation goes on to explain that Amma is worshipped by the gods
themselves.

See the full explanation and translations of the arati by clicking
below

http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/mantra/arati.php
But they won’t tell the public this when they turn up for their hug,
because that would send most people running from the room faster than
you can say Ma.

http://cultofhuggingsaintamma.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/god-worships-amma-translation-of-the-arati/

« “Without Amma Life Is Not Possible.”Amma Embodies All Forms Of God
»OUTSIDER VS. INSIDER DOCTRINE OF THE HUGGING SAINT

Posted by cultofhuggingsaintamma on June 30, 2009

All cults have different levels of truth. “Outsider doctrine” refers
to information and “truths” which are told to the general public.
Complementary to this “outsider doctrine” is “insider doctrine” which
is revealed to members alone and then usually only gradually as they
attain status. For example, the outsider doctrine of the
Scientologists is that their organization works for mental health and
human potential. The insider doctrine includes belief in past lives on
other planets and other unusual beliefs. The reason for this
separation of doctrine in cults is that it would be impossible to
recruit if people knew what the organization really was about. -Ken
Ragge

The media image of the “hugging saint” is entirely different than the
one that begins to reveal itself once an even moderate indoctrination
into the cult occurs. Throughout the media and the various propaganda
materials of the Mata Amritanandamayi mission, we are presented with
the image of a tireless humanitarian, a living saint, and a
compassionate woman who spends her days doling out hugs free of charge
and establishing charities. Within the cult, Ammachi is worshipped as
a living God, an omnipresent guru, and the embodiment of the Supreme
Consciousness. Devotees believe that she is intervening in their daily
affairs and controlling even the smallest details of their lives.
Bhajans are sung in praise of Mata Amritanandamayi, a living
incarnation of God. She is often referred to as the direct
reincarnation of Krishna, the Goddess Kali, and Jesus Christ. Ammachi
has also allegedly claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. To
view a conversation in which devotees profess their belief in Ammachi
as the reincarnation of Christ, read the following thread:

http://ammachi.tribe.net/thread/4f1018b3-58aa-4d82-87c9-7393e99c8860

Needless to say, these red flags of cult behavior never make it into
the television and newspaper reports. The reason for this is not mere
oversight on the part of reporters, but rather a result of the
deliberate manipulation of the media by the cult and a lack thus far
of investigative reporting into its activities. All media interviews
are conducted with pre-selected devotees who are presented with a
sheet outlining the details of what types of discussions are
forbidden. Devotees are dissuaded from discussing the devotional
aspects of the cult, and are encouraged to only discuss the
humanitarian activities of the mission. Photography and video of any
kind are not permitted during any programs or retreats, and only
selected press are granted interviews. When it is known that the media
will be present, Devi Bhava items are removed from the Ammachi shop.
It seems that the concern over Devi Bhava arises from the protective
measures the cult takes against revealing the fact that Ammachi is
worshipped as God. Understandably, the public would be much more wary
of cult activity if these facts were revealed in the recruitment
propaganda. The focus is steadily held on the humanitarian and
charitable activities of the group, and it isn’t until one begins to
immerse themselves further that the cult aspects come into play.

” Devotees call this ‘Krishna,’ ‘Devi,’ …..according to their faith.
Amma is none of these, and at the same time she is everything. But she
is also beyond. The entire universe exists as a small bubble within
her.” – Amma (Awaken, Children Vol.. VII p. 107)

Devi Bhava is an elaborate ceremony in which Ammachi dresses up as a
goddess, with robes and a sparkling crown. Devi Bhava translates to
“Mood of the goddess”. Devotees believe that during this time, she is
literally possessed by God/Goddess. Unassuming members of the public
wander in and out of the hall receiving darshan, but they do not
understand the full meaning of the ceremony in which they are taking
part. Only the interior circle knows that this ceremony is one that
worships Ammachi herself. During the Devi Bhava ceremony, devotees
believe they are in the presence of a living Goddess.

“The press is only invited during regular hugging sessions. The press
is never allowed in on Devi Bhavas, because there is concern that the
image of Amma in Devi Bhava garb is in conflict with that of the
humanitarian in the white sari. During “regular” days when the press
comes, most Devi Bhava photos are removed from the Amma shop. When the
press seeks out devotees to interview, they are hand-selected.
Usually, they are the same people all of the time. Most of the time,
they are actually part of Amma’s press team, yet they are referred to
as “devotees” since that is, technically, correct.

People are advised before being interviewed not to talk about their
“devotion to Amma”, but to instead focus on talking about her
“humanitarian activities.” These are just some of the ways that the
media is wrangled to keep up the pristine image of the group..” –
Anonymous Ex-Devotee

There are several tactics the cult uses to assure that the focus on
humanitarian activities is the only thing the public is initially
privy to. As mentioned in the above excerpt, while Devi Bhava is open
to the public, it is not something that the group advertises.
Reporters and press interviews are never allowed on Devi Bhava days.
Photos of Ammachi wearing the Devi Bhava costume are banned from the
Internet, and devotees who display them online are promptly contacted
by the organizations lawyers and told to remove them.

Devi Bhava photos are banned from the Internet. I know this for a fact
because I was contacted by the ashram lawyers last year regarding Amma
photos on my personal devotional blog to Amma. I was informed in no
uncertain terms that to use photos of my guru on a devotional blog
constituted copyright violation. I believe others who kept devotional
blogs were advised against it as well.

As for the Devi Bhava photos, several of us were contacted by Jnani,
Amma’s photographer. It was explained to us that the reason was
because newcomer Westerners may not understand why Amma wears a crown
and it may deter them from accepting Amma. It was explained that some
may think “Who does this woman think she is in a crown?” and that by
restricting Devi Bhava photos, that potential could be avoided. Jnani
also informed us that this was a direct order from Amma herself. –Ex-
Devotee testimony as posted in the Ex-Amma Yahoo Group.

Another brief article on the Devi Bhava photo ban can be seen here:
http://guruphiliac.blogspot.com/2007/01/ammachi-gets-greedy.html

The primary bhajan sung by devotees during the Devi Bhava ceremony,
translated to English is:

O Mother, Mother, dear Divine Mother, Goddess of the Universe, Giver
of food to all creatures, Thou art the Primal Supreme Power.

Everything in the world happens because of Your Divine Play.

Protect me Mother, o Mother, protect me… without conceivung in the
womb, You have given birth to millions and millions of beings.

O Sister of Lord Vishnu who rides the bird Garuda, o Beautiful One,
from birth itself I am singing Your glories.. Thou art the Perfect
One, Primordial Cause, the Destroyer…

Thou art my life’s goal, o Mother. Ignore me not, o Goddess of the
World. Thou art the Goddess Lalita, Ruler of the World. O Mother, if
Thou throwest me into troubles again and again, who else is there to
protect me? O Mother with the enchanting eyes, Thou art the
Omnipresent Witness of all.

The fact that the truth behind Devi Bhava is kept from the public is
only a small indicator of the various tactics the organization uses to
maintain a public image of a humble humanitarian instead of a cult
leader who allows herself to be worshipped as an incarnation of God.
The gap between insider and outsider doctrine runs deep and gradually
moves many people from followers of a humanitarian saint to hysterical
cult members who believe Amma sees and hears their every move and
word. This is accomplished by a myriad of classic brainwashing methods
that progress over time as one moves from casual observer, to free
program attendee, to someone who attends retreats in every city.

Take for example the following quote by Amma recorded at a recent
retreat during the question and answer session:

““AMMA IS AWARE OF YOUR MENTAL STATES ALL THE TIME- REGARDLESS OF
WHETHER YOU ARE PRAYING TO HER OR NOT AT THAT POINT”

These types of messages would never be relayed during a regular public
program, and certainly would never be part of an interview with the
press. It is assumed that if you are a paying retreat registrant, then
you are at a stage where these messages will not be viewed as cultish
or strange. This masterfully manipulated game is one where you become
privy to more and more brainwashing techniques the closer you get and
the more time and money you invest in the group. It is at this point
that new devotees will begin to immerse themselves in the various
propaganda such as books, cds, mantra books and dolls made in Amma’s
image. Again, the books hold different messages than the initial
propaganda that is presented to newcomers. In the books you will find
countless references to Amma’s god status, as well as quotes and
teachings from Amma that would never be openly shared with the public
or press. Were these messages to be shared in the recruiting
materials, the group would have been the subject of cult investigators
many years ago. The books and magazines are a dangerous blend of
seemingly harmless teachings about love and selflessness and parables
mixed with classic brainwashing, fear-based, and cult indoctrination
techniques.

“Only those who are willing to stay on, in spite of even being beaten
and killed, will progress. A bramachari has to carry the whole world
on his shoulders, so he should not be weakened by little things. I
will really shake my children up. Those who desire only Self-
realization will stay, the others will leave.” -Amma (As excerpted
from Eternal Wisdom, Vol. I)

“Children, always remember that when Mother says something it should
not be taken lightly. It is the supreme that makes Her speak. Whatever
She says must come to pass either in the near or distant future
because Her words are not Her own but are that of the Lord.” –Amma (As
excerpted from Awaken Children Vol. II)

“ A disciple will serve the Guru with the attitude that the Guru
should not even know that he is serving him. That is the duty of a
true disciple. Seva or service means obedience. Obedience means self-
surrender. Self-surrender means giving up one’s own ego, the feeling
that “I am doing and I must get the fruit of it.” A true disciple will
be ready to sacrifice all of his comforts and even his body to serve
the Guru.” -Amma (As exerpted from Awaken Children Vol II)

Of all of the lies that the organization feeds the media and public,
one of the most nefarious is the frequently repeated suggestion that
“Amma makes no claims.” One wonders how such outright lies can be
told, when it is clear to even a casual observer that Amma does
nothing but make claims and allow claims to be made for her. Even in
the press and propaganda materials, it is often hinted that Amma has
performed miracles and healed people of all manner of physical and
emotional ailments. She allows dolls to be made and worshipped in her
image, allows ritual worship of herself, and directly feeds the
brainwashing recruitment of her devotees.

It is imperative that the truth be shared regarding the large
discrepancies between insider and outsider doctrine. Because the media
and press stories are so tightly manipulated, and alternative views
are consistently thwarted by the organization, many people
unassumingly find themselves wrapped into the cult before even knowing
what hit them. The initiation begins with the presentation of Amma as
a humble humanitarian and a compassionate mother figure and saint who
doles out hugs. The focus zooms in on the various charitable and
humanitarian aspects of the group, in an effort to boost fundraising.
As one moves further into the inner circle, Amma is revealed as God in
human form, an incarnation of Christ, and an overseer of the lives of
all of those who devote themselves to her. Devotees will often abandon
their families, careers and very selves in an effort to surrender
their souls to Amma and gain spiritual “liberation”. This conversion
of the curious public program attendee into brainwashed cult member is
at the very heart of this organization. It is a carefully planned and
manipulated process, which the media has fed into and perpetuated
since the group first began visiting the Unites States in the 1980s.
It is time for the truth to be told, for people to have access to
alternative views, and for the resources to be made available so that
people may make an informed decision.

To witness firsthand the results of the cults indoctrination, it would
be worth your time to peruse the postings of diehard devotees at the
following message boards:

We Love Ammachi: http://ammachi.tribe.net/

Ammachi Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ammachi/

http://cultofhuggingsaintamma.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/outsider-vs-insider-doctrine-of-the-hugging-saint/

Activity within 7 days:New Questions
Description

This is a forum for ex-devotees and questioning devotees of Amma (also
called Mata Amritanandamayi, Ammachi and popularly known as "the
hugging saint"). It is a place to safely and anonymously share your
stories, thoughts, healing, struggles and concern or disappointment
over your experiences.

Devotee harassment and attempts to infiltrate the forum and re-convert
ex-devotees back to Amma is constantly attempted but never tolerated.
This group is tightly moderated to maintain a nurturing environment
for expression and discussion by people who regard themselves as
healing from involvement with a cult.

We invite you to join this group if you are:

1. An ex-devotee

2. A questioning devotee

3. Friend or family of a devotee, concerned about their involvement

4. Someone interested in Amma who wants to hear the other side (a more
unbiased view)

This group was started as an alternative to other online Amma forums
that do not welcome free-flowing criticism and observation of the
discrepancies around Amma and her organization.

We want to hear people's experiences and the reasons why they left. We
do not want to hear propaganda, Advaitan "up-is-down" philosophy, "why
Amma is God," or "why Amma is not that bad." If you subscribe to such
ideas, feel free to join and read but not to post. Posts which do not
follow these guidelines will be deleted and the poster's membership
terminated.

When requesting admission to this group, you must state your reason.
"Just curious" or "because it is a group" are typical responses of
hecklers trying to infiltrate, so you have to do better than that if
you genuinely belong here. The moderators don't have time to question
each prospective new member.

The members list is private (accessible to moderators only) and cannot
be viewed by others, even group members. When signing up, you can
elect to hide your e-mail address, but if you do that, you'll need to
come directly to the board to make posts.

Best regards,
The Examma Moderators

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/examma/

Activity within 7 days:19 New Messages - New Questions
Description

Ammachi (Mata Amritanandamayi) is an embodiment of unconditional love,
devoted to the service of all humanity. So open is she, so
approachable and accessible, that people have come to realize in her
that archetypal, universal 'Mother-Love', at once personal yet
boundless like a vast ocean, beating softly on the shores of troubled
minds and searching hearts.

Upon subscribing, your first few postings will be moderated. This is
done to prevent Spam, especially those that advertise sexual sites,
from reaching the List. During this time, you may experience a delay
in your postings reaching the List.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ammachi/

[bademiyansubhanallah]

This man publicly preaches the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda
dressed of ochre as a monk, that introduces himself as the only direct
disciple living in Europe of Paramahansa Yogananda,

J.Donald Walters alias "Swami" Kriyananda, for his same admission has
renounced the votes taken with his Guru many years ago, therefore he
is not a " Swami " anymore, as his two marriages confirm. It is not
anymore a monk in the monastic order founded by Paramahansa Yogananda,
for his dismissal in 1962.

His personal project to create "colonies of world brotherhood" pursues
stubbornly for more than thirty years, has stranded on the sands of
the trial Bertolucci, bringing the community and the people that had
believed in him and to his promises to bankruptcy.

In this site written by former members to provide answers for the many
questions, you will find articles, documents and testimonies that
explain the reasons for this failure and how an idea of life in
community may become the cult of a single personality.

To open files .pdf you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader

From prison: Shivani starts ritual fasting
Download here the Acrobat file with latest news (in italian)

Arrested nine members of Ananda Assisi community, pending call for
arrest also for James Donald Walters aka Kriyananda, still retired in
India.

We publish these links to the latest news, also released in the second
national italian TV channel RAI TG2 of March 13th. Articles in
italian

Link al Corriere di Foligno di Foligno

Link a Il Messaggero Caltanet Altri articoli su Ananda da Il
Messaggero

Link a Perugia News

Link al sito di SRS

Ananda Assisi assists unbelieving for a new blitz of police read more
here (in italian)

Ananda press comunicate and translation from italian Newspapers

From Il Messaggero del 16/01/2004 (In italian)

From Corriere di Foligno (In italian)

More information at this link (In italian)

More from the forums

Posts and articles extracted from the groups and forums. Focused on
Ananda, his founder and community lifestyle with new detailed issues
and opened claims. This collection, wrote by many different person
shows the way they felt and mind about Ananda, helping us to
understand more the lesson behind. download it here

Table of authorities

A walk in the money relationship between Ananda and his founder. How
they managed money, bank accounts, transferts, loans and tithes. An
extract from table of authorities, very detailed and rich of
informations. download it here

The demand for a trial - Bertolucci deposition

What really has happened in Ananda to stir up Bertolucci against
Walters and some his ministers in a trial? Find here enclosed the
original demand for a trial Bertolucci legals have begun with. The
document reports about circumstances and facts as recalled by
A.M.Bertolucci. It is useful to better understand what has happened
that time. download it here

J. Donald Walters – The deposition book

Finally available for all the readers, the complete book reporting all
the sessions that the Court carried out gathering the deposition of
Mr. J. Donald Walters in the Bertolucci trial.

A book that includes precious information and declarations useful for
better understanding the story of Mr. Walters and of his Ananda world
brotherhood community.

A book dictated by his author under oath, and that objectively tells
from his founder’s point of view the true story, the raise and the
growth of Ananda.

Finally collected and arranged in a fluent reading format, which
allows the search for names, dates, and key words thanks to the
computer advanced search functions. A necessary format for those who
want to learn point by point Kriyananda’s objective version on the
action brought by Mrs. A. M. Bertolucci against the Ananda Church of
God Realization.

Download it directly here

Who is entitled to initiate on Kriya?

If everyone shouldn't initiate others into Kriya, then who should?
Perhaps we should look to the Master's explicit and written
instructions in this regards instead of relying on our limited and
egocentric understanding:

"Do not discuss, or divulge, any technique without first consulting
with SRF headquarters, which reserves the sole right to give Kriya
instruction, or to appoint a qualified SRF member to give such
instruction. If you know of someone who you should have the benefit of
certain SRF techniques, encourage him to become an SRF student, that
he may receive the full benefits of study. If some difficulty stands
in the way of his becoming a member, advise him to write directly to
Self-Realization Fellowship, explaining his situation and affirming
his sincere desire to receive instruction in specific SRF
techniques."

SRF Praeceptum Lessons, 1938 copyright, K-7, pg. 3.

Or perhaps we should listen to the counsel Kriyananda gave while he
was working in the SRF center department:

"It is our policy to permit only ordained ministers to give the Kriya
Yoga initiation. Master said that after his passing he wanted only ---
SRF renunciates to be ordained as ministers, and at that only after a
minimun of seven years in one of our colonies..."

Donald Walters, 1957

DISCLAIMER

This site is born in service and is the collaboration of the work of
many devotees. It springs from the need to provide information
concerning issues surrounding Ananda and Kriyananda. We report on a
variety of subjects including the several lawsuits that J.Donald
Walters, aka Swami Kriyananda,* and Ananda, the community he founded,
have been involved with.

This work is intended to provide background information and support
for those people searching into Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings who
may have heard or been involved to some degree with Ananda. Here
you'll find many documents: articles from devotees, former Ananda
members, legal trial documents, and open letters from world-wide
sources that may help to show how Ananda became a personality cult of
Donald Walters, and not an extension of the vision of Paramahansa
Yogananda.

Paramahansa Yogananda founded his organization, Self-Realization
Fellowship (SRF) in 1920, in Los Angeles. He dedicated SRF as the
organization authorized to spread world-wide these teachings.
Paramahansa Yogananda revered and respected all true religions, but he
linked his particular teachings to the church he founded, Self-
Realization Fellowship.

He one day told:

“These are my happiest days, I am happy for two reasons: I have been
able to please God, and I have been able to fulfill the pledge that I
gave to my guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, to build this work of Yogoda
Satsanga/Self-Realization to spread the message of Kriya Yoga...”

To understand the array of topics covered here, navigation has been
provided by “cards”, you can proceed reading card by card by clicking
above in the "next card" buttons. If you wish to proceed directly in
the Archives-Downloads areas click here.

* The readers should be informed that in this site we refer all the
informations to "Swami Kriyananda" alias James Donald Walters, the
Ananda Village founder and Spiritual Director of the Ananda Church of
Self Realization (see a picture). Every other having the same name are
not involved anyway with the subject of this site.

Yogananda and SRF

Paramahansa Yogananda's sacred mission had been prophesied from birth
by the Himalayan master Mahavatar Babaji, and by his chief disciple
Lahiri Mahasaya. As a spiritual engine he will carry many souls to
God's kingdom.Paramahansa Yogananda's vivid childhood memories of
being a yogi during previous lifetimes in the Himalayas are well
substantiated by his own life. When as a youth of 17, he met his
Guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, the recognition, joy, and empathy between
Master and disciple was immediate and enlightening. For the next
several years he quickly grew towards Self-Realization under the wise
and compassionate direction of his God-realized master.

Following a prophetic vision and a letter inviting him to speak at the
upcoming Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, USA (Sept 1920), he
carefully accepted this major new career direction as God's will. It
was soon confirmed by a personal visit from Mahavatar Babaji that the
young Swami Yogananda had been sent years earlier to His Master for
training to eventually spread the timeless knowledge of the science of
Kriya yoga meditation in the West. When Paramahansa Yogananda arrived
in America Sept 20, 1920, the "New World" was ready to receive these
advanced teachings that had previously been reserved for monastics and
chelas in ashrams. Without any personal ambitions, he came to serve
and save those who wanted to learn and grow, and help raise the
consciousness of humanity.

Paramahansa Yogananda quickly adjusted to his newly adopted homeland,
he soon became a prominent and successful speaker on America's
spiritual scene. His main lecture tours were conducted between 1925
and 1936 to overflowing audiences, and during this time his
organization called SRF, was steadily growing. It was Paramahansa
Yogananda who succeeded in giving the world outside of India a full,
effective and clear exposition to the Science of Kriya Yoga
meditation. His main mission in all of this was to build a lasting
bridge of World Brotherhood based on raising the spiritual awareness
between the East and West.

On the Master's return visit to India in 1935-36, his Guru expressed
approval for his work by giving him India's high spiritual title,
"Paramahansa". It was also during this historic trip, when Mahatma
Gandhi asked that Yogananda initiate himself and his staff into the
sacred science of Kriya Yoga. The outstanding success of his world
mission was mainly the result of various factors; including his God-
centered life and service to humanity, and the divine love and power
many persons say they felt in his presence and in his writings. With a
number of competent,spiritually attuned staff through His divine
influence and presence millions of lives are being changed for the
better, and inspired towards a more harmonious way of living
spiritually centered lives.

All this spiritual success gave his followers and successors a solid
foundation named Self Realization Fellowship with which to carry on
with this mission. In the 140+ years since it's quiet beginnings in
India (1861), when Kriya yoga was introduced to the masses by Lahiri
Mahasaya, this divine lineage has produced an impressive record of
great souls and public service. Including many of those who stayed on
to aid Yogananda's work through SRF. Yogananda carried out his mission
par excellence, not requiring Babaji to send any others to duplicate
or confuse this work. His reputation was impeccable, and he always
kept his word. Many readers claim that the vibrations of his ever-
living presence can still be felt through his writings and recordings,
as he spiritually touches and guides their lives.

Yogananda's best known work, "Autobiography of a Yogi", was first
published in 1946, and has appeared on best-seller lists as recently
as 1997. This spiritual classic of the 20th century gives the reader
new insights and inspiration to seek Truth, to experience deeper
awareness and love. Just reading this book is in itself a powerful
consciousness-raising experience. Beginning with the beautiful
portrait of a devout Hindu family, the author continues with living
presentations of the lives of many modern yogis and saints whom he met
during his own spiritual quest. Thus describing as never before the
full significance and function of the Master-disciple relationship,
and it's importance as the vital key in one's search for Self-
Realization and salvation.

Yogananda's vivid and detailed descriptions of his experiences in
Samadhi (cosmic- consciousness) are no doubt the most believable and
articulate in the history of spiritual literature. This was the first
time the profound teachings of the Kriya yoga were written about in
such detail in English, by a fully accomplished Yogi. After the
publication of the original edition of the Autobiography of a Yogi,
the author Paramahansa Yogananda made many major changes to this book.
such as the addition of the 49th chapter, the removal of 80% of a page
on world brotherhood colonies, the addition of many new and important
footnotes, as well as a number of other grammatical and spelling
corrections.

He also appointed an Editor-in-chief and her successor (monastics whom
he personal trained for this task, and both of whom had been in
spiritual training with the Guru for many years, and were well aware
of His wishes for the future of His work), to carry the editing and
publication of all His writings, which he bequeathed solely to the
Self-Realization Fellowship.

Further changes since 1952, have made the most recent editions more
fully reflect the deepest intentions and truest teachings of the
Author, which give more reliable direction to all readers and serious
devotees.Paramhansaji clearly stated that after his departure the Self-
Realization Fellowship Teachings would be the Guru, and through these
teachings others would be in tune with Him and the great Gurus who had
sent Him. Also stating that the SRF would always be headed by a leader
of deep spiritual realization. His comment about the teachings does
not diminish the importance of the personal Guru-disciple
relationship, which is an eternal relationship and integral to success
on the spiritual path.

The Self-Realization Fellowship lessons, an extremely comprehensive
and complete course in its field, are sent to interested seekers at a
cost that barely covers printing and mailing, and are accompanied by
excellent ongoing personal guidance and counseling.Personal
instruction of the Kriya yoga and other meditation techniques are
given by monastics who make frequent visits to major centers around
the world. One of the mater's final declarations about his mission
was,

"If you follow the Self-Realization teachings I have brought to you
from the masters of India, you can find God in this life."

Who is Kriyananda?

Swami Kriyananda is the charismatic founder of the Ananda communities
and the Ananda Church of Self-realization. As the spiritual leader of
his church, he claims to represent the great avatar Paramahansa
Yogananda. This claim is based on private discussions that Kriyananda
says he had with the Master during the three and half years he spent
with him prior to Yogananda's passing in 1952.

But there are no witnesses to these discussions, and all of
Yogananda's closest and most advanced disciples dispute Kriyananda's
claim, saying that he is just trading on Yogananda's good name to
further his own personal ambitions. After Yogananda's passing,
Kriyananda quickly rose through the ranks of his Guru's society, Self-
Realization Fellowship (SRF). Within eight years Kriyananda was
promoted to second vice-president. His rise to power ended abruptly,
though, just two years later in 1962 when he was expelled from SRF by
the Board of Directors.

Although claiming that his dismissal was "unfair", during his
deposition Kriyananda admitted that he had not kept his vow of
celibacy-even while a monastic in SRF. Kriyananda also stated that
while in India he "was attempting to form an organization, a park and
ashram, in the center of the city where the greenbelt area comes in
close to the center." He fails to mention, however, that these actions
were in direct violation of SRF's express orders to cease and desist.
Had Kriyananda not been quickly ordered back to the U.S. and forced to
"resign," India was preparing to expel not only Kriyananda but the
whole SRF organization from the country.

SRF's senior vice-president, Tara Mata, a close disciple of the Master
since 1924, called Kriyananda immoral, a Judas and prophetically, an
egotistical Machiavellian schemer who was trying to divide the work
and set himself up as the Master's true representative and spiritual
heir. Daya Mata, now the president of SRF and one of the Master's
closest disciples, was trained by Yogananda for over twenty years to
assume the responsibilities of carrying on the work after he was gone.
Yogananda assures us:

"Follow her. She has followed me with one hundred percent devotion,
one hundred percent obedience, one hundred percent loyalty. She is in
tune with me. I can work through her."

Kriyananda repeatedly chose to not follow her, feeling that he
understood Master's intentions better than she. Opposing her on many
issues and with the incidents in India as the final straw, Kriyananda
was eventually forced out. Kriyananda never recovered from the shame
and rejection of his dismissal, complaining bitterly to this day how
he was mistreated and misunderstood. Unable to forgive or forget, he
has worked for fifty years to prove that he is the innocent victim of
a heartless and corrupt SRF leadership. Saying whatever he can to
discredit his fellow disciples for fifty years he has been obsessed
with proving that he really is a great and worthy disciple, fit to
lead his Master's mission, and that SRF is wrong not to recognize his
superior wisdom and attunement with Yogananda.

Years earlier, though,Kriyananda wrote that he would never start an
organization that would be opposed to SRF because it would be
"treachery" to do so. Some believe Kriyananda is an advanced yogi who
has acquired certain spiritual powers through his practice of
meditation. They believe these powers give him the ability to transfer
shakti (spiritual energy) to others and to be aware of their deepest
feelings. Some feel very blissful and uplifted and become convinced
that Kriyananda must be a saint. Yoga teaches, though, that these
powers mean nothing in themselves, and can be used for good or ill--to
bless people or to control and manipulate them.

Kriyananda is a man of calculating intelligence, but his intellect is
underminded by his narcissitic immaturity and pride. Narcissists
usually have normal, even superior intellectual development while
remaining emotionally and morally immature. They unfortunately have
difficulty learning from and taking responsibilities for their past
mistakes. Kriyananda is a prolific writer, poet, musician, with
prodigious energy and volcanic creativity. Typically, however, his
followers are the ones left to pay for and manifest his "visions". To
those who follow him he is an inspired speaker. Seen as a keen student
of human nature, he is adored by hundreds worldwide.

His initial sweetness, lovable personality and professed high ideals
inspire fanatical loyalty. His ministers work tirelessly to build and
promote what Kriyananda often refers o as his "great work"--his
mission to disseminate Yogananda's teachings to the world. Kriyananda
constantly reminds us of his Guru's words to him, "You have a great
work to do," as though to convince us (and himself?) that Ananda is
the great work Yogananda commissioned him to undertake. Many of the
Master's other close disciples have another interpretation, based on
what Yogananda told them about Kriyananda.

They believe the Master was referring not to an outer work, but to
Kriyananda's inner work to achieve enlightenment. They say that the
word "great" refers not to "important and wonderful," as Kriyananda
wishes to believe, but to the herculean task of overcoming his
spiritual pride. Yogananda told some of his close disciples that this
was a pivotal life for Kriyananda-that he would either find God or
fall for many more lives.

Other disciples of Master, liken Kriyananda to Brother Elias, a monk
in St. Francis' order, who had desires to reform the order but fell
due to pride. Kriyananda has privately admitted that Master did warn
him- "do not be my Brother Elias". Ananda is Kriyananda's "proof" that
he is not only destined for enlightenment but that Yogananda"s mantle
has passed to him. As he proclaims, "Ananda could not have come into
existence and flourished without the blessings of Paramahansa
Yogananda on my life and work. But why not? Many far greater works are
flourishing, after all, such as L. Ron Hubbard' s Church of
Scientology, without the benefit of Divine blessings.

Brother Anandamoy, one of Yogananda's close disciples, and
Kriyananda's best friend when he was in SRF, has said that for those
who are drawn to Ananda, it will be their greatest test of
discrimination in this life. This is because Kriyananda is very
convincing. He seems so humble, loving and magnetic--people just want
to believe in him. But Yogananda warned against following those who
set themselves up as teachers in his name, claiming to be his
channel.

This is what Kriyananda has done, urging that Ananda members should go
through him in order to reach Yogananda: "Yes, you can go straight to
Master, or to any other master in our line of gurus. Try it, please,
if you like. See if they will accept you. Others have done so,
however, and I have yet to see one of them flourish" (Ananda
Directions, 1999).

Who, then, is Swami Kriyananda? For those who are seeking the truth
and value their spiritual welfare, it would be wise to carefully check
him out for yourself. There are many who knew him well when he was in
SRF, and there are hundreds of former Ananda members who have their
own stories to tell--many who have been severely harmed by him. Is
Kriyananda a great spiritual teacher, as his followers claim, or a
blind guide leading his blind followers into the ditch of ignorance
and pride?

As Swami Vivekananda, the eminent disciple of the great master
Ramakrishna, once said:

“Of one hundred persons who take up the spiritual life, eighty turn
out to be charlatans, fifteen insane, and only five, maybe, get a
glimpse of the real truth. Therefore beware.”

Kriyananda and Rosanna when were married

What is Ananda?

What is Ananda? Ananda is many different things at the same time. It
is an idyllic spiritual community filled with smiling, loving
devotees; it is a thorn in the side of its neighbors on the San Juan
Ridge; it is a business that markets the spiritual experience; it is a
long-term employer of long-term leadership figures; it is a place of
dishonesty, deception, and denial, a village patterned after the
consciousness of its founder and another layer of defense in
Kriyananda’s formidable psychological armor; it is a graduate school
for developing discrimination and destroying one’s delusions; and it
is a political entity like any other town in the country, but this is
a very authoritarian political entity.

The present US Ananda consists of a seclusion retreat of approximately
70 acres and a village of more than 400 acres in the foothills of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains of northern California. Ananda Assisi is a
much smaller group of persons, gathered around a building named "Il
Rifugio". This group includes Walters faithful and most of these have
come from the America. Other nationalities, mostly Italians, comprise
the rest of the community. Some leave the community after a few days,
others after a few years, but yet the nucleus in Assisi remain the
original American imports.

Ananda had its beginning in 1968, when Kriyananda joined a few other
men to buy and divide up a large parcel of land outside of Nevada
City. Several years later he bought a farm a few miles away from the
seclusion retreat, and this land, which includes more than 400 acres,
is now Ananda Village. The land is quite beautiful, with forests of
pine, cedar, oak, and madrone. A couple of years ago Ananda turned the
trees into money by having it logged.

Over the years many people have moved to Ananda, and a small core of
original residents is still there, most of whom serve as the Ananda
leadership. Most of the others who moved to Ananda have left, and many
of them still live nearby. Though it may seem strange, the majority of
them want nothing to do with Ananda. Having seen through the surface
layer of spiritual identity to the reality underneath--the process of
discrimination--and having learned the lesson, they graduate.

Ananda advertises itself as following the teachings of Paramahansa
Yogananda, helping people learn meditation, yoga postures, and how to
live life according to the classic yogic teachings. Kriyananda was a
Self Realization Monk for 14 years, about 3 1/2 of these while
Yogananda was still alive. He therefore is considered a direct link
with the Guru, and this is Ananda’s foremost claim to being a part of
Yogananda’s work.

When one first comes to Ananda, everything is beautiful. The setting
is peaceful, and there are many scheduled spiritual events--kirtans,
meditations, services, ceremonies, kriya initiations, plays, concerts,
and other things. But newcomers are expected to let go of all their
own ideas of what is right and accept the new ways of doing things
without question. After becoming members, they find somehow their
previous personal life goals and ambitions have been put “on hold”.
But, after all, with such a great Master as Yogananda guiding the
place, how could they go wrong? The newcomer soon learns how he is to
regard Self Realization Fellowship--as an outdated rigid, entity that
hates and wants to destroy Kriyananda and Ananda.

It can take quite a long time to realize that Ananda is not primarily
Master’s or God’s place, though their names are mentioned often.
Ananda is Kriyananda’s place, and he comes first there. The Ananda
leaders are unconditionally loyal to Kriyananda, with God and Master
coming lower on the list. This loyalty requires them to adopt, as
their own, his view of the world and especially his own history.

Almost as soon as Kriyananda established Ananda on the San Juan Ridge,
he began making sexual advances on the local women. Consequently he
got a bad name with his neighbors, who knew from the beginning what he
was like. Ananda people, therefore, are not encouraged to be friendly
with their neighbors. Ridge people are against them, they are told,
and are too worldly and unspiritual. They also know too much about
Kriyananda.

The Ananda leadership knows about Kriyananda, too, but their duty is
to keep this information quiet so that Ananda can maintain its public
relations image as a model spiritual community in which only love,
peace, and seeking God happen. They also have given decades of their
lives to this company, and it may be impossible for them to admit they
were wrong. And where else could they find employment now?

Some of the real story came out during a recent lawsuit, in which
Kriyananda, the Ananda Church, and one of the ministers were found
guilty of sexual harrassment. (Kriyananda left it to Ananda people to
pay his $1,000,000 plus fine.)

In the aftermath of this lawsuit, Kriyananda decided to make Italy his
full time home. A new fold of devotees needed his spiritual guidance
and presence in Europe, he said. Many residents, as well, departed the
community at this time. Some were in considerable shock because they
had lived there for nearly 20 years without knowing of Kriyananda’s
sexual activities. They had thought that such dishonesty and deception
could not exist at Ananda.

Their places were soon taken by new residents from the Ananda centers
in Palo Alto (California), Portland (Oregon), and Seattle
(Washington). Now Ananda is carrying on as usual, as though nothing
happened and everything is the same as before.

The ordinary citizens of Ananda are, with few exceptions, the
spiritual core of the community. They try to know and follow
Yogananda’s teachings. They are the ones who give Ananda its spiritual
identity, and they are the ones who do the most to maintain it. They
are kept under tight control by vows of obedience to Kriyananda and
all community leaders. Some are stuck because their only assets are in
Ananda housing, making it difficult for them to leave even if they
want to.

Kriyananda has had ongoing plans for Ananda, such as the constant
expansion of the population, and ongoing acquisition of adjoining land
for this purpose. Because Ananda is in a rural area, the neighbors do
not welcome these goals, and it creates a lot of tension at times.
Kriyananda does not care how the neighbors feel. Anyone who does not
support whatever he wants is his enemy. He wants what he wants without
consideration of other people, and what he wants has little or nothing
to do with the spiritual development of Ananda citizens.

Ananda is many things to many people. For visitors it is a miracle of
serenity and love. For new residents it is the challenge of living the
spiritual life and handing their lives over to what they believe is a
high cause. For longer-term residents it is the place where they made
many dear friends, and perhaps the place where they began to question
what Ananda really is. For many graduates, leaving there is the
beginning of their real lives--Ananda was the extreme that blew their
delusions sky high. For psychologists, Ananda is a fascinating study
in what happens when a charismatic but mentally twisted man attracts a
following of people who accept his twisted worldview.

Inside Ananda Assisi:

The core community, settled by members that have fully accepted the
pledge to Walters (including the obedience pledge), is comprised of
less than thirty persons. The rest, as Ananda Assisi’s marketing
confirms, is about fifty persons, including those who have NOT signed
any pledge to Ananda or to Walters and who live in their own homes in
the neighbouring community. These people tend to see Ananda more in
the light of a community rather than a spiritual path to which they
can devote their energy. In fact, many are people who have left the
city to gain a different perspective on life, desiring to experience
peace living in the hills. So while they live alone they still need
the contact of neighbours, and Ananda gives them the opportunity to
socialize. While this is not a sharing of a spiritual pursuits, but
more a convenience, Ananda is pleased to call them “members”.

Since the beginning, Ananda Assisi has had limited growth, not many
new members, not much money. The historic estate is “Il Rifugio,” an
old flat three-story building bought with American donations and a
large loan, not yet paid back. The loan was made by several Italian
disciples that supported the birth of Ananda Assisi. Years later, in
the tradition of Ananda America, they are still waiting for their
money to be paid back.

Ananda’s pattern is to create a debt with a person and, as is the
case, for some of the first contributors this acts as a magnetic force
to keep them in Ananda’s orbit as they wait to recover their loan
monies. The banks and the homeowners of many homes and buildings,
which Ananda uses to accomodate vistors, are knocking at the door
trying to collect their debts and threatening to cease their financial
largess to the community.

The community’s activities are based on the Guru’s name, history, and
are creatively exploited. Ananda has a commercial section called Inner
Life to sell various objects everywhere: articles, pictures, books
based on a spiritual subjects. A second activity is the guests’
accomodation, bed & breakfast, restaurant, tour guidance to Assisi,
lessons and techniques on yoga, counseling and psychological support
are all the services included in the package. Naturally the bulk of
Ananda’s income is generated by donations, that people give when
asked, thinking that it will be used for the spreading of the Guru’s
teachings. The main focus of attraction for this channel of funding is
Swami Kriyananda, presented as a living guide, in perfect attunement
with Guru’s will.

Inside the Ananda Assisi grounds, nearby the old structure, ìIl
Rifugioî, was built the Temple of Light, an example of how it is
possible to “make a miracle” with devotee’s donations. This new
building was built in a very short time, arising on the ground
surrounding the old shelter. The manpower was recruited from devotees,
using the karma yoga time they must give during their stay. As the
“Rule” prescribes, “Work is service”.
The money was gathered by continous requests, by phone calls, by
letters, during visitors’ stays, or using the more charming members to
obtain the goal.

Even the designer, a Swiss named Ramatou Wintsch, was not payed for
his work, since he felt blessed (by Yogananda) when he first
envisioned the project in meditation. Much of the materials for the
base, filling and the tools were recycled from discard or payed for at
very low prices from different manufacturers. The temple is proof of
effectiveness of marketing strategies, using the name of Yogananda.
For a long time in the Ananda Assisi’s mailed fund raising appeals,
the need for a Temple to spread Master’s teachings was emphasized.

The rest of the community’s activities are supported by rent from
homes. Villa Gioia, Villa Pace and the old temple (where the member’s
rooms are) are owned by local townspeople. It is sometimes necessary
to remove the altar and other furnishings because the owners hold
banquets and meetings for the Hunter’s Association of Perugia-what
should be a sacred place becomes, effectively, a pub.

The other cabins (about 320/430 square feet each) are built nearby the
“Il Rifugio”, and serve as the American members’ homes. They have been
built illegally, so have been placed out of sight. The community arose
on a natural (preserved) area, so the areas in which new housing can
be built is very limited.

Looking from the outside, members appear to be happy. They give their
hearts to everyone and are always smiling. This kind of behavior is
felt as a very welcomed message, which impresses town people strained
from hard living and needing to recover in that heavenly site.
Unfortunately this is clearly a forced attitude. In private, members
are not so disposed and open. Some confess discomfort in the way
things are managed and organized.

The reader should try to venture out of the standard routes made for
guests, to understand the behind scenes’ realities- When one is
“parked” in the boutique, in the temple, or in the lunch room all the
members may target him with their “love bombing”. But just go out and
try to enter into the inner activity and you may discover iron rules
which are hard to accept.

The recent lawsuits filed in America have left a scar, and the
residents’ old disagreements about the leadership have resurfaced. In
fact, in Italy, the leadership makes up 4/5ths of the Assisi
residents. They are faithfully confident of Walters and, until a few
years ago, were spending a fortune in trans-oceanic phone calls to
receive guidance and instructions from “Swami”. For those who remain,
an enormous amount of daily work is rewarded only by their personal
love for Master and, while they will occasionally will call a meeting
to “ask residents their opinions” on certain matters, the final
decision has almost always made with regard only to Kriyanda’s
wishes.

There ís no democracy in all this, only an implicit agreement that
goes like this: If you stay here is because we permit, work to gain
the right to remain and do not discuss what we are doing, because it
is being done in the best interest of the community.

This doesn’t mix well, however, with Italian tradition. In Italy there
is less enthusiasm than in America about social experiments like
Ananda’s, “world brotherhood colonies”. Here in this country,
tradition is strongly tied to family, to home, to wife and children,
and it isn’t as easy to choose a new style of life such as community
living.

Individuals who have had contacts with Ananda Assisi has been
repeatedly called to join the community, especially those having
property and money, but for Ananda the results has been disappointing.
The few who have joined are young, relatively free from commitments
and with a little or no money in the bank. They are the spine of the
community, their hard work continuosly feeds the furnace of Ananda’s
existence. Without this huge commitment in exchange for token pay, a
bed, and something to eat Ananda Assisi will be just a remnant of 70’s
ideology.

The real value of Ananda Assisi is stated in their promotional
advertisements-a nice place to recharge the batteries and recover from
the chaotic life of the city. This is the same offer that any holiday
agency can arrange (and we find the prices are quite comparable!). But
the spiritual promises of closeness to Guru and other disciples of
Ananda are false. Those who wish to go further in the Kriya path of
Babaji can grant themselves a “spiritual holiday” to any one of
Assisi’s many other monasteries or ashrams for reflective
contemplation. The spiritual aspirant should never feel the need to
live in a Walters’ “world brotherhood colony” to obtain enlightment of
the Guru’s guidance.”

Remember Master’s saying:

“Solitude is the price of greatness.”

Those who wants receive more informations, or feel the need to help
our work are welcomed, go to our mail page to contact us

What's Ananda's teachings?

This is an important document. It shows clearly how many ceremonies
and teachings are currently observed in the community. We only marked
in red those ceremonies have been replaced by one's Master.

What teachings are actually studied at Ananda?

If one is associating with Ananda primarily because of a desire to
study Yogananda's teachings, one should know that at the current time,
all of Yogananda's ceremonies, written lessons and most of the books
recomended or required for study at Ananda have been replaced by those
created by J. Donald Walters: Former members have stated that of the
total material officially used at ceremonies and religious services,
including quotes from books, yoga lessons, poems and songs, as much as
70 to 80% comes from that created by J. Donald Walters, 10 to 15% is
of generic Hindu or Christian sources. Only 5 to 10% is taken from
Paramahansa Yogananda.

Ceremonies and religious services studied at Ananda

Superconscious Attunement Ceremony, created by J. Donald Walters.

Purification Ceremony, created by J. Donald Walters.

Ananda Wedding Ceremony, created by J. Donald Walters. (replaces
Yogananda's)

Kriya Yoga ceremony, created by J. Donald Walters. (replaces
Yogananda's format)

Rules of Conduct for Members, (known as "The Rule") "The rule" was
created by J. Donald Walters. Includes directives that members should
seek permission from a special comittee of community leaders before
marrying, changing jobs, or even having children.

Membership Vows, created by J. Donald Walters. (includes vow of
"coopertive obedience and loyalty, above all" to the spiritual
director of Ananda. (J. Donald Walters)

Discipleship ceremonies (Does not include Kriya Yoga, the traditional
discipleship initiation taught by Paramahansa Yogananda) Created by J.
Donald Walters

Vows taking ceremonies; village member, monastic training, postulant,
novice, renunciant and final vows; (most membership vows include vow
of "coopertive obedience and loyalty, above all, to the spiritual
director of Ananda church; J. Donald Walters) Created by J. Donald
Walters.

Ministers pledge ceremonies, for ministers and lightbearers. (senior
ministers) Created by J. Donald Walters

Astral ascenscion ceremony; Format created by J. Donald Walters,
(replaces Yogananda's. Christening ceremony) Format created by J.
Donald Walters, replaces Yogananda's.

Shiva Ratri ceremony; traditional Hindu ceremony

Other community ceremonies or holidays

Two day (weekend) celebration of J. Donald Walter's birthday.

Theme; gratitude to Mr.Walters. Open house, people come up from
centers. Some classes about Mr.Walters, Musical show of Mr.Walters
music, Usually the Sunday Service for this weekend also follows this
theme.

Easter, Combination of Walters and Christ; Example; includes walk from
market to Expanding Light temple singing Walters Christian style
chants and songs.

Christmass, Includes musical evening of J.Donald Walters music.Usually
2 or 3 Christmass parties at J.Donald Walters house by invitation only

Music, Mr.Walters discourages music other than his own.

Spiritual renewal week, created by J. Donald Walters. (Created as
substitute for Yogananda's yearly Convocation)

County wide open house, focus on what Ananda and J. Donald Walters
have accomplished.

Schools, An article in the Palo Alto Weekly reported that; "The Ananda
School uses the education techniques of J. Donald Walters" (Swami
Kriyananda)

Written teachings required or recomended for membership at Ananda:

Ananda Course in Self-Realization, created by J. Donald Walters.
(replaces Yogananda's "SRF Lessons")
Over 60 books written by J. Donald Walters.
Early, incomplete version of Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi, and
other books.

by a member of the community

A slip isn't a fall?

This piece compares Walters veiws with Yogananda and other spiritual
leaders on the issue of a swami falling from his vows. It shows how
Walters makes up his own "teachings" to suit his own desires and to
cover up his failings.

What if a swami "slips"? Is a "slip not a fall"?

J. Donald Walters:

"A swami is a man or woman vowed to renunciation. In this sense a
swami is like a Catholic monastic or preist. Has a person failed in
renunciation if he or she is ever tempted, or, worse still, if he or
she succumbs to the temptation? To carry this thought further, has a
person failed as a renunciate if he or she slips in any of the aspects
of renunciation? ....We may speak of error, but why define error as
failure? Indeed, why define it as sin? A slip is not a fall.

"J. Donald Walters, Article, Yoga International magazine, July/August
1995, "Gurus and the Inner Eperience of Truth" Page 42.

Paramahansa Yogananda:

"Even the outer donning of the swami's robe or the monk's habit is not
proper (lest worldly people lose respect for the religious orders)
until one is a monk at heart, has renounced all worldly desires, and
is immersed in God. There is no meaning in monasticism without the
inward joy of God."

Paramahansa Yogananda, SRF magazine, May, 1951, pg. 30, "Spiritual
Interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita," Chapter 5, Stanza 2 and

"God talks with Arjuna," Bhagavad Gita translation, pg. 533, 534.

"Mental weakness is never wisdom, but a sign of deep subconscious
attachment to the ego and its delusive pleasures. He who cannot stand
firm in righteous behavior before a test of the Almighty loses the
right to speak as a wise man."

The Bhagavad Gita, translation by Paramahansa Yogananda, "God Talks
With Arjuna", p. 195.

Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri and Lahiri Mahasaya:

Paramahansa Yogananda wrote in his autobiography:

"On several occasions Sri Yukteswar, like Lahiri Mahasaya, discouraged
"unripe" students who wished to join the Swami Order: "To wear the
ochre robe when one lacks God- Realization is misleading to society",
the two masters said. "Forget the outward symbols of renunciation
which may injure you by inducing a false pride."

Paramahansa Yogananda quoting Sri Yukteswar and Lahiri Mahasaya in the
Autobiography of a Yogi, pg. 130, 1981, pg. 138, 1959 edition.

Ramakrishna Paramahansa:

"No lie of any sort is good. A false garb, even though a holy one, is
not good. If the outer garb does not correspond to the inner thought,
it gradually brings ruin. Uttering false words or doing false deeds,
one gradually loses all fear. Far better is the white cloth of a
householder...
...Attachment to worldliness, occasional lapses from the ideal, and an
outer garb of gerrua (ocher cloth of a monk) - how dreadful!"

From page 195 of "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", by Master Mahasaya.
The author, a brother disciple of the renowned Swami Vivekananda, is
the saint Paramahansa Yogananda meets in his "Autobiography of a
Yogi", in the chapter "The Blissful Devotee and His Cosmic Romance."

Swami Vivekananda:

"Now, please do not make religion pander to the vanity of the present
day! Let us all, mark you, be honest. If we cannot follow the ideal,
let us confess our weakness, but let us not degrade it. Let us not try
to pull it down."

Commentary:

Mr. Walters idea expressed here may have some relevence for the
ordinary devotee, struggling sincerely to better themselves and gain
strength over time. But for one who has taken vows and presents
themselves to the world as a swami, a completely different standard
applies. A medical student tries, but one who has been awarded the
formal title "MD", must be able to be trusted by the public as one who
has acheived a higher standard of knowledge. Imagine a doctor injuring
or even killing patients out of incompetence saying, "Well, I'm trying
my best, a slip is not a fall". The Vedanta Society states that a
swami who "slips" is expelled immediately from the Order.

Interview with a member of the Jury

This one is an interveiw with an actual member of the jury that
convicted Walters. The trial went on for 4 months. Many hours of
testimony were heard from both sides. And in the end, ordinary people
saw clearly that Walters was a liar and guilty.

An Interview with a Member of the Jury

What were the real reasons J. Donald Walters and his church were found
guilty of fraud and fined over 1.6 million dollars? Ananda has offered
many excuses for their defeat; Do any of them match what the jury
actually experienced and felt?
March, 1998

Post-trial quotes and excerpts from interview

'Juror A:' is the 'Member of the Jury, letter A''I' is the Interviewer

EXCERPTS FROM
INTERVIEW:
Interveiwer: What was your experience with the other jurors; were you
pretty cohesive? Juror A: ....It was a cohesive group. When we were
able to communicate with each other [about the case], we didn't have
some really disparaging points of view. Everybody was pretty much on
the same wavelength....

Interveiwer: What was your impression of Swami Kriyananda?
Juror A: To put it into a very few words, kind of a "holier than thou"
type of attitude. That "She's full of it" and, you know, kind of some
head-shaking kinds of things. I just really got the sense that he was
kind of pooh-poohing the testimony, like, "How could anybody believe
that of me?" And I wasn't particularly impressed with his testimony,
because there was a certain amount of arrogance in it, again. "Even
though [he] made a few mistakes, so what?" was kind of the attitude I
was getting from that. I noticed his lack of sympathy for the women.

Interveiwer: Did you hear there was another court case brought against
Ananda by SRF earlier, and that Ananda said SRF might be staging this
whole thing?
Juror A: ....I didn't believe that it was an SRF thing at all.

Interveiwer: Do you think that meditation itself and chanting always
lead to "brainwashing"?
Juror A: Oh, I don't think so, un-un....I'm probably not a strong
believer in brainwashing. I think that people are vulnerable to powers
of suggestion, and wanting to be part of a group, and having group-
think, as it was termed a couple of times. I think that that happens,
and I think because she was vulnerable and looking and seeking some
civility and something to hang onto in her life, it just made her
susceptible to falling into that group-think. And follow the crowd. I
mean, it's human nature.

Interveiwer: So it wasn't so much meditation and chanting, it was more
suggestions from everyone?
Juror A: That's right. That's right. And those messages, that this is
-- The light and the darkness, I guess is what I'm trying to get to.
If you're doing THESE things, you're increasing your chances of being
closer to God, and if you're doing THOSE things, you're putting up
barriers. And so that kind of thing could really push you to a certain
direction. So those messages -- you see, I can't call that
brainwashing. It's the coercion of the group.

Interveiwer: What did you think of [Woman #1]?
Juror A: She looked like she led a fairly simple home life, and had a
demeanor about her, a mellowness, and an innocence....I wanted to
smack the guy [Swami Kriyananda].

Interveiwer: What did you think of [Woman #15]?
Juror A: Okay. Yeah. She was one of the ones who realized right away
that something was wrong, and got the hell out of there, as I recall.
I thought that it was a good indicator that there were varying levels
of what was going on. And then someplace later on in testimony, it
came out...that there was this kind of ethic project: you [Swami
Kriyananda] kind of see how far you can go, and if that works out
without any red flags, then you move to the next level, and the next,
until you get to a [Woman #1] or a [Woman #2] kind of situation. She
[Woman #15] put up the red flag.And the community seems to have
protections all around it....it seems like all of these protections
are built around the community. You know, take care of Swami....And
this, ugh, this poverty issue. That really slayed me. I'd like to be
as poor as that. And have somebody taking care of my yard, and
somebody cleaning my house, and doing -- You know, I pay a lot of
money to get my house cleaned. But I have to pay for it myself.
Somebody that does my secretarial kinds of stuff, and "Gee, I think
I'll go to Italy next week," and someone making arrangements for me, I
go to the airport, hop on a plane, and I'm there. I mean, this is not
a life of poverty....I'm going to France this summer, and I know how
much money it costs....I would surmise that all of those people in the
quote "inner circle," as it was described a couple of times -- I
suspect that they all make a good living, or have a lot of things
being taken care of for them under the guises of "church visits,"
"church goings," and they live a life of luxury. Granted, it's a more
simple life, because they live in a rural community. But, it's what
they want. And they get everything they want. And that's the bottom
line. They're getting everything that they want, in my eyes. That's
the picture that I saw.

Interveiwer: What did you think of [Woman #3] and her
testimony? Juror A: It was a boundary issue. I
can't imagine, myself, you know, "Oh, come on in. Take your clothes
off. Lay on top of me." It just takes something just a little bit -- I
don't know what -- what brings a person to say something like that to
another person, you know? It's way over the boundary. Way
over....Because of the illusion that he has given about his own
superiority, he oversteps everyone else's boundaries.

Interveiwer: Did you ever see the plaintiff's lawyers treating it like
a case of religious persecution?
Juror A: Not at all, no. I think that was very clear, that it was not
religious persecution, in my mind. It was not about that at all. And I
never got the feeling that I was judging Ananda as a church. I feel
sorry for members of Ananda Church. Here they are in a community where
they want to practice something that they really believe in. I can
understand why they would do that. I can embrace their right to do
that. There's aspects of it that sound ideal, in many ways, to me. And
yet they're being bamboozled by this group of people, with Swami at
the top. The leadership crew. I have no doubt at all.

Interveiwer: What did you think of the punitive damages testimony?
Juror A: I was absolutely appalled at their bookkeeping....I know
there have got to be checks and balances and such, and when money is
going in and out, in and out, money laundering -- I mean, that's what
it sounded like to me....
And just the money going to and from Crystal Hermitage -- just to pay
Swami out of this? Padma has some ability just to write checks that
nobody knew about, nobody cared, it just happened. It doesn't seem
like a good way to run a corporation whether it's non-profit or
otherwise.

Interveiwer: What did you think of Swami Kriyananda's testimony?
Juror A: His demeanor was such that he was above all of this....He
really presented himself as being just as special sitting there on the
witness stand as he is sitting in front of his community. And I think
he needed to be slapped up the side of the head....I think the overall
-- to put it incredibly eloquently -- Overall, we thought Swami was a
scumbag. That was the bottom line.

Interveiwer: Do you know that every day when the trial was over for
the day, Ananda would have a hotline update, where they'd talk about
the trial?
Juror A: Yes, we did hear about that. The one thing that did come out
in the trial -- I remember comments that the jury looked upon Swami's
testimony favorably. Fool!

Interveiwer: What was your opinion on the use in the trial of the word
"cult"?
Juror A: They didn't stress the word "cult."

Interveiwer: Here's a quote from Ananda since the trial ended: "Ananda
does not condone or tolerate sexual harassment or sexual abuse in any
form by any of its members or leaders." Do you have any comments on
that?
Juror A: Well, that's a matter of semantics. They can easily say that
they don't condone it, but do they turn their backs and close their
eyes if they know it's happening? I mean, what are you going to do?
Put up a big sign that says, "Come to Ananda Village. We approve of
sexual harassment." But by turning their backs, it's the same thing
[as condoning it]. You can SAY that you don't condone it, but if you
aren't doing anything about it, then it's -- what's that phrase? --
kind of like lying by omission, essentially. It's kind of that same
idea.

Interveiwer: Here's another quote from Ananda since the trial ended:
"Mike Flynn and Ford Greene repeatedly compared Ananda to groups like
Waco and Jonestown in a calculated attempt to engender fear and anger
in the jury." Did you ever feel fear and anger during the trial?
Juror A: ....I don't think Mike or Ford ever tried to engender fear or
anger in the jury, absolutely not....

Interveiwer: Ananda says the other side's case was full of "terrible
lies" about them; did you feel that one side or the other was lying?
Juror A: I think probably some lies were told, but I think that the
foundation of the case wasn't based on lies.
A bunch of lies, no. Well, disguising the truth is what was happening
on Ananda's side. I think that elements of the truth were behind what
they were saying, but out of protection, they weren't straight-forward
about all of the
pieces.

Interveiwer: What did you think when people from Ananda said that they
had no idea that Swami had been doing this for years?
Juror A: I believed them.

Interveiwer: Even, like, Jyotish?
Juror A: No. Not Jyotish, no. I didn't believe Jyotish on anything on
that.

Interveiwer: That he didn't know what a swami was?
Juror A: That was a crock. I mean, that was ludicrous, when he said
that. How can you be in a position you're in, first of all, not
knowing what the Swami's doing, and secondly, not knowing what Swami
is. I mean, that was ludicrous testimony, in my eyes -- I think in a
lot of our eyes, the jury.

Interveiwer: What did you think of Vidura?
Juror A: Vidura, for some reason, I felt a little sorry for. Somehow,
and I don't know why, there was just something about him. I think
Vidura is -- I saw him as a victim. I think he's been involved in the
organization for a long, long time, and because of his association for
a long time with Swami and Jyotish and the group, he's kind of gotten
himself into a position that -- you know, this is just my own opinion,
but -- where he's become a victim of this. He doesn't really want
anything to be wrong with Ananda, so he's being protective of it. But
I get the feeling it wouldn't be his choice to
deceive anybody. And that's just kind of an intuition that I got out
of his testimony. And I kind of felt sorry for him, because it's like,
"Oh my God, I'm losing something that I've spent my life on, and I
didn't mean to do
anything wrong, but --" Much more so from him than from either Jyotish
or Devi, who got this wall that they put up and this defense that
'we've done nothing wrong.' Totally different demeanor and attitude
with them.

Interveiwer: What did you think of Asha?
Juror A: She had a real attitude kind of thing. In her presence.
Interveiwer: An attitude of -- ?
Juror A: Arrogance. Protective of her position. "Everybody else is
wrong, we're right."

Interveiwer: When Devi showed that film about Ananda, what did you
think of that?
Juror A: I thought I was at one of those properties that have sales
pitches kind of thing. I expected to walk out with a set of luggage or
something. I felt like we'd all be walking out with our sets of
luggage -- sign on the dotted line.

Interveiwer: Do you think Swami Kriyananda told any truth? Do you
think he was lying, covering up?
Juror A: I think he was covering up. I think he was lying. I think he
stretched the truth. I think there were aspects that were truthful in
there that he stretched to make himself look -- to present himself in
a different way. And I think the bottom line is that it's a lie. I
think his whole life is a lie. And I think that came across to me as I
listened to him.

Interveiwer: Do you think he should apologize, to the women or to
Ananda? Juror A: I think if he apologized, it wouldn't
mean a damn thing. Because I don't think he could be sincere about
apologizing. What good would that do? Everything else he's done --
He's manipulated with words. He is so good with words, that an apology
would be worth s---. And you can quote me on that one.

Interveiwer: Do you think the leadership should apologize?
Juror A: Yes. I think the leadership should apologize to the
community, but more importantly, the leadership should change. Not
necessarily the players -- that might be good, if the players changed.
But certainly the behavior of those players should change. If they
want their community to continue, they better shape up, or else --
they run the risk of losing it. Who's going to want to join something
like that?

Interveiwer: What changes do you think Ananda should make?
Juror A: I think, first of all, clean up the books. Have a little bit
more equity in the kinds of employment and positions. Treating people
like human beings instead of slaves. Taking the Swami out of the
picture.

Interveiwer: Do you think the ministers should develop a code of
ethics?
Juror A: Oh, absolutely. I think there should be a clear set of steps.
If anything should happen, I think it should be talked about in the
community. I think it should be something that -- People should have
an awareness of inappropriate behaviors....Not to punish, but to stop.
That's the bottom line. It's not the punishment. It's the stopping of
those behaviors.

Interveiwer: On the Ananda phone hotline, Ananda leadership would say,
"Our witnesses were very powerful."
Juror A: I found very little power in their witnesses. Very little.
And I think they were deceiving the community. I think they've got all
these people living in a delusional world. And they're fostering it.

Interveiwer: Do you think there is anything that Ananda should do or
say for the other women who were abused by Swami Kriyananda?
Juror A: I think it would be nice if something could come towards
these other women, especially the ones who risked, by coming out and
being on the stand. It would be nice if something came toward them.
Some sort of compensation. Some sort of damage compensation....As for
the women who have come forward, I think that was only the tip of the
iceberg. That's what I feel, definitely. I think it was definitely a
problem that [Swami Kriyananda] has, and was probably a carry-through
for most of his adult life...

Interveiwer: Do you think some of the Ananda leaders should be removed
from their positions?
Juror A: Yeah, I do. I think changing the leadership would be a good
thing, periodically. ...Having a democracy where you voted people in
periodically, like a presidency -- every four years you have an
opportunity for change, and no longer than eight years. Something to
that effect. It seems to me it would provide more balance and more
room for other people to dance.

Interveiwer: If you were an Ananda member, what would you do about the
present situation? Leave? Stay and fight?
Juror A: ....If you've been there a while, and this is your life, it's
your home, then maybe fighting would be the best alternative....

Interveiwer: Was there anything that most struck you about Ananda's
presentation?
Juror A: Well, there were some bizarre things, and I think it had
something to do with their behavior around Swami, the fact that they
protected him so much. It was kind of off-center, as far as norms go
in my mind. They just looked like some normal folks. And I think that
many of them really are very normal, average folks. Living a life,
making a living. Running true to their religious beliefs.

Interveiwer: Any last thoughts on Swami Kriyananda? Janice Moreno had
said that he opened up to her unlike he did to anyone else.
Juror A: Yeah, right. Right. I don't think we saw that at all. I think
we saw the leader, the special one, somebody that was up on a
pedestal. I think that's all we saw. I don't think we saw a human side
to him at all. In my opinion. And I think -- I had a hard time with
that. If any time would be the time to come down off your pedestal and
approach a group of people as a human being, this would be it. And I
didn't see that.
[Juror A: confirmed that she thinks Swami Kriyananda is a narcissist,
and can't feel empathy for others.]

Interveiwer: What would you like to say to Swami?
Juror A: "Where do you get off thinking that you're so special?"

Interveiwer: What message did you hope to communicate to Ananda by
your verdict?
Juror A: "Shape up."

Interveiwer: What message did you hope to communicate to the larger
society?
Juror A: "Watch out for people in positions of power, and
inappropriate behaviors of people in positions of power." The Pamela
Cooper-White message [imbalance of power between clergy and
parishioners; Swami is a narcissist and a patterned sexual predator]
probably is the message [of the trial], what people need to be aware
of.

OTHER QUOTES:

"I felt no bias against the religious group. It wouldn't have been my
choice [of religious group] but if somebody else wants to do that with
their life, fine."

"I think that people [on the jury] felt very strongly about the fact
that these [Ananda] people had a right to their religion, and that
this was not up to us. But the taking advantage of individuals was
inappropriate."

"I didn't believe that it [the trial] was an SRF thing at all."

"They [the attorneys] didn't stress the word 'cult.'"

"Because of the illusion that he [Swami Kriyananda] has given about
his own superiority, he oversteps everyone else's boundaries."

"They [Ananda people] can easily say that they don't condone it
[sexual harassment or sexual abuse], but do they turn their backs and
close their eyes if they know it's happening?....You can SAY that you
don't condone it, but if you aren't doing anything about it, then
it's...kind of like lying by omission."

"The only women who were powerful were married to men who were also in
leadership positions...And I think about the rest of you, who were
just a bunch of...you're like scullery maids running around, to serve
Swami and the
powers that be, in my opinion."

Woman #100

This letter was sent to Ananda leaders years ago but which did no
good in getting Kriyananda to admit his mistakes but instead pushed
into a further hiding. It is a heartbreaking account.

January 18,1998

Dear Friends,

We are writing to you at this time because we once lived at Ananda
Village and still deeply care about our former home. We feel Ananda is
now in crisis and at a turning point. How this crisis is handled will
determine the very nature of the Ananda community.

We want to reflect on this situation by focusing on the experience of
woman #10 as a representative of each woman who felt hurt and damaged
by sexual interaction with Swami Kriyananda. Why woman #100? We think
woman #100 has a sweet vulnerable nature and our sympathy naturally
goes out to her. Since she harbors no motive of retaliation or
revenge, woman #100 is exceptionally believable.We have talked to
woman #100 many hours about her experiences.
Here are her recollections:

Woman #100 was 22 years old when she came to Ananda in May, 1980.
Swami Kriyananda was 54 years old. Like all new Ananda residents, she
learned that it was a privilege to live in close proximity to Swami
Kriyananda- a direct disciple of Yogananda. Being near to Swami
Kriyananda, "tuning in" to him in love and service, was a way to be
closer to Yogananda. Feeling great enthusiasm for the spiritual path,
woman #100 joined the Ananda convent in October '80 and remained there
as a nun until February '82. So far, so good.

During June 1981, Kriyananda asked woman #100 to massage his sore
shoulder. After about three months of massages, Kriyananda asked if it
would embarrass woman #100 if he didn't use a towel to cover himself
during massage sessions. Shortly after Thanksgiving 1981, Kriyananda
began placing woman #100's hand on his genitals and directing her to
masturbate him and and also initiated her in oral sex. Although it
appears obviously inappropriate now, woman #100 considered these
sexual acts as a continuation of her service and devotion to the
spiritual leader of Ananda. Kriyananda advised woman #100 to take
advantage of this special opportunity for spiritual advancement.

Woman #100 did not have a reciprocal romantic relationship with
Kriyananda-an affair. She simply sexually serviced him by masturbating
him to ejaculation and then left. Rather than just briefly slipping
into delusion, Kriyananda maintained woman #100 in his sexual service
for two years. During the first month (December '81) of woman #100's
sexual service, Kriyananda requested and received manual masturbation
or oral sex virtually every night. Woman #100
and woman #1 were often in trouble for missing morning meditation with
the other nuns because they had been up late in Kriyananda's bedroom.
In February '82, woman #100 left the monastery. Although she now lived
farther away from
Kriyananda on Ananda property, he would still occasionally call her
over to masturbate him.

Woman #100 moved back in with her parents in Los Angeles during March-
May '82. During a visit to LA to give classes, Kriyananda called woman
#100, and arranged a meeting to receive oral sex. When woman #100
returned to the community in June '82, Keshava thoughtfully offered
her a trailer to live in right next to Kriyananda's dome. Instead,
woman #100 ended up living in a room at EM's house. After a party
there, Kriyananda invited her back to his dome to give him massage and
sexual service. Woman #100 masturbated Kriyananda or performed oral
sex several times from June '82 to August '82.

At the end of the summer, Seva encouraged woman #100 to move to Ananda
House in San Francisco. From September '82 to January '84, whenever
Kriyananda visited Ananda House, he would solicit sex from woman #100,
often being masturbated or receiving oral sex every night during his
visits. During this period, Kriyananda initiated sexual intercourse as
part of woman #100's sexual service. About half the time he would ask
for masturbation or oral sex, the other times for sexual intercourse.
Kriyananda asked for one last sexual service from woman #100 after she
moved back to Ananda Village in January '84. At that time, Rosanna was
coming on the scene and Kriyananda no longer needed woman #100.

Woman #100 eventually moved back to Ananda House in San Francisco to
return to school. She completed her Science degree in June '88 and
moved to Los Angeles. In the early '90s, woman #100 gradually began to
recognize the obligation of teachers to act only for the well-being of
those in their charge. She realized it was wrong for a spiritual
teacher to ask for sex from a student. Only during the current lawsuit
did she finally acknowledge to herself how much Swami Kriyananda had
hurt her and how little he had her interests at heart. Her enthusiasm
for spiritual life had been undermined; she had recurring bouts of
depression; and she found that at the core of her being, she was
afraid of Swami Kriyananda. Even at present, woman #100 is struggling
with the damage inflicted by Kriyananda.

In early 1995, woman #100 decided not to become involved in the
Bertolucci lawsuit. She distrusted litigation as a method of solving
problems. She knew and liked Danny Levin. However, she then read
Kriyananda's November 25, 1994 letter to the Ananda community denying
he had ever harassed anyone, protesting that he even closed his eyes
and meditated during movie love scenes. woman #100 knew Kriyananda was
representing himself untruthfully and suspected that he was still
preying on Ananda women. She assumed that if Ananda leaders knew that
Kriyananda was secretly having sex with his students, Ananda's public
denials would cease and Kriyananda would be prevented from hurting
anyone else.

During March 1995, woman #100 called four Ananda friends and four
Ananda ministers. She let them know what had happened to her between
November '81 and January '84.

Seva conceded that what Kriyananda did to woman #100 was wrong but
Seva urged her not to tell others. Seva's advice: don't cause people
to lose their faith; don't be negative; come back to Ananda and heal.

Haridas instructed woman #100 to look at her own motives and warned of
the serious karma she would incur by telling the truth about
Kriyananda. That knowledge could knock devotees off the spiritual path
entirely and woman #100 would be responsible. Haridas did admit that
he hadn't figured out what to make of Kriyananda lying to the
community about his sexual life. Haridas related a message from Swami
Kriyananda to woman #100: keep what happened just between you and God.

Ram, the leader of woman #100's Apprentice Program, sternly informed
woman #100 that she was not an injured party because she was a
consenting adult. Battle lines were drawn; this was war. He warned
woman #100 that if she continued to call Ananda residents, Ananda's
law team would sue her.

Jyotish confessed that he had heard rumors about Kriyananda's sexual
activity with woman #100. He stated that Swami had sexual problems,
and that because of those problems, Swami may have interpreted woman
#100's massage as seductive.

Why didn't Jyotish, the head of Ananda ministers, investigate those
rumors? Why didn't he talk to woman #100? Why didn't he confront Swami
Kriyananda? Why didn't he bring this serious violation to the Village
Council? Why did he not protect woman #100? Why did he let the sexual
servicing continue?

Surely, Swami Kriyananda had an obligation to act in the best
interests of those who came to Ananda and placed their spiritual lives
in his care. He had a profound responsibility not to use these
devotees for his own sexual satisfaction. How can sexually using a
woman who lacked healthy boundary distinctions be considered
friendship? Why didn't these senior Ananda ministers bring
disciplinary action against the Spiritual Director?

We understand that it is extremely difficult to take an ethical stand
in the midst of a militant culture which sharply divides the world
into camps of light and darkness and populates the surrounding
darkness with unseen enemies plotting Ananda's annihilation. So what
is the Ananda community to do now? How can we help Swami accept
responsibility for what he has done and make amends?

1) Should a public written apology be extended to woman #100 and the
other
women who were hurt by sexual interaction with Swami Kriyananda?

2) Should Swami Kriyananda provide written assurances that he will
not court temptation by receiving nude massages from female devotees?

3) Should Ananda ministers define and publish a sexual code of
conduct. (The California Yoga Teachers Association Code of Ethics
provides an example.)

We hope that our perspective will help Ananda move from the paradigm
of spiritual warfare to values of justice, healing, and
reconciliation. We feel that taking the risk of seeking reform at
Ananda is the cost of discipleship for devotees of Paramahansa
Yogananda.

Please make sure that the harm done to woman #100 is never again
inflicted on a vulnerable 22-year-old spiritual aspirant at Ananda.

http://www.anandauncovered.com/IndexENG.htm

A Michael Flynn and Ford Green declaration

This document shows clearly how a legal trial became the field of a
hard battle. M.Flynn and F.Green were the plaintiff's attorney.In this
article they tell the truth on Ananda and Kriyananda's behavior
against A.M.Bertolucci.

Is The Union the swami's new ally?

by Michael J. Flynn, Ford Greene - Sat, Sep 19, 1998

Does Swami Kriyananda and his church, Ananda Church of Self-
Realization have a new ally The Union?

In a recent editorial, The Union portrayed the second phase of Anne-
Marie Bertolucci's lawsuit.Here are some facts established in the
first trial which may cause The Union readers to arrive at a different
opinion.

Bertolucci first sued the swami and Ananda for fraud and sexual abuse.
After a 31/2-month trial in Redwood City, the evidence conclusively
proved that since founding Ananda in 1968, the swami has used his self-
elevated spiritual status as a "swami" - a celibate monk of the Hindu
Giri Monastic Orders, to get sex, money and labor from countless
young, devoted female disciples. Swami claimed this status and wore
monastic robes even though he had been thrown out of the Order in 1962
for various improprieties. The jury found that during the 26-year
period between 1968 and November 1994, the swami engaged in a
continuous pattern of fraud, sexual abuse and cover-up.

The jury also found that the current church leadership, the Novaks,
the Smallens, the Pravers and others, lied and covered up the swami's
sexual "problem"; a word used in the trial by the swami after
admitting to sex with at least a dozen female disciples who worshiped
and pledged obedience to him. The swami had previously denied under
oath any sexual involvement with these women in an effort to keep his
defamation case alive and he swore under oath that Bertolucci was a
liar, a dupe and a slut.

During the trial, the judge ruled that Ananda had concealed evidence,
taken confidential documents from Bertolucci's lawyers, including a
list of about 20 women who had been abused by the swami, some of whom
had expressed fear for their lives. The judge ordered that
Bertolucci's case against Ananda for malicious abuse of the legal
process and for invasion of privacy be tried in a subsequent case -
the current case in Nevada City. The judge's ruling and the jury's
findings in the first case were based on the following evidence.

Like hundreds of other young female devotees, Bertolucci joined Ananda
believing the Kriyananda, as a real "swami" would lead her to truth,
happiness and salvation. That he could be entrusted with her body,
mind and soul. She swore and signed a pledge of loyalty to the swami
and Ananda. The swami and his leading minister then proceeded to take
all of her money (about $22,000), use her body for sex, and to program
her mind and soul, in order to fuel swami's growing spiritual empire.
She ended up destitute, homeless and suicidal. An Episcopal minister
called a as witness described Bertolucci's ordeal as "soul stealing."

The details of the swami's 26-year history of abusing female devotees
in bizarre spiritual/sexual rituals are not fit for a family
newspaper. They give a new perverted twist to the classic menage-a-
trois, particularly one between a cult leader and several of his
female "slaves." The swami's usual sermon to several of his female
devotees who were sexually servicing him at the same time was that
swallowing his ejaculate conferred a spiritual blessing on them that
resonated through the universe. Kind of like getting to Ananda heaven
by receiving the swami's communion.

Because Ananda's cash flow depended upon keeping the swami's "problem"
hidden from the paying public and other less-fortunate devotees not
worthy of his sexual presence, the swami and the leadership covered it
up. Therein lies the basis of the Nevada City case.

The best defense is a good offense, even if it is fabricated. Use the
cost of litigation to bury your opponent. After Bertolucci brought
suit, Ananda and the swami sued Bertolucci for defamation claiming
that she and at least 10 other women who had come forward were all
lying about the swami. See the articles in The Union dated Nov. 30,
1994, and Jan. 21,1995. Bertolucci and her lawyers spent the next
three years and about $350,000 in legal fees and over $300,000 in
costs defending against the swami's and Ananda's false claim that
Bertolucci and the women were lying and that the swami was really a
swami. Ananda spent over one million dollars of tax-exempt money on
legal fees and costs prosecuting Bertolucci and the women as liars.
The "swami" fraud had to continue in order to keep the tax-exempt
donations flowing.

On the first day of the Redwood City trial, before the jury was
empaneled, swami and Ananda dropped their defamation charges. They did
this to prevent the jury from hearing testimony from the 10 women
about the swami's 26-year "problem." The strategy partially worked. By
dropping the defamation claim, swami and Ananda prevented Bertolucci
from proving that the swami brought the defamation to beat Bertolucci
and her lawyers into submission. Additionally the judge ruled that all
damages to Bertolucci and her lawyers from the swami's "maliciously
prosecuting" the defamation claims had to be decided in a second case.
Thus, the jury never heard evidence about the financial and emotional
damages suffered by Bertolucci and her lawyers during the three years
of defending false claims brought solely to conceal swami's fraud.

At the same time in October 1997, as the trial was about to begin,
Bertolucci's lawyers discovered that two years earlier, Ananda had
stolen confidential documents from Bertolucci's lawyers by trespassing
onto their property, penetrating a 6-foot fence and stealing attorney/
client privileged documents from their trash. Ananda and the swami
then spent over two years lying and concealing their conduct,
including the secret payment of over $250,000 of tax-exempt money to
at least three California law firms to cover-up the theft. Ananda
money was laundered through the client account of the lawyer who
professed to represent the trash stealers and not Ananda. Bertolucci's
lawyers spent over two years and $250,000 trying to uncover the cover-
up.

The judge ruled that Ananda's and the swami's invasion of privacy,
malicious prosecution of the defamation case, and all of the costs to
Bertolucci and her lawyers had to be tried in a second case. The jury
in the first case was not allowed to hear this evidence. In the first
case, the jury determined damages for fraud and sexual abuse alone of
$325,000 against Ananda and one of its ministers; and $1,295,000
against the swami. To date, Bertolucci and her lawyers who have
actually spent over $300,000 in out-of-pocket costs, and over $600,000
in attorney fees have not received a cent. The swami and Ananda have
spent over $1,250,000 of tax-exempt money to conceal swami's
"problem." Ananda has filed bankruptcy to avoid paying the judgment.
The paying public still goes to Ananda uninformed of what has
transpired, and continues to give tax-exempt donations to the swami
and Ananda. Based upon these facts and the illegal conduct of Ananda,
it is clear that this second case is not "mean spirited" and is fully
justified and necessary. A tax-exempt church and its charlatan leader
should not be allowed to prey upon innocent spiritual seekers, then
use tax-exempt money to destroy them when they try to warn others
about the swami's "problem." Religious ministers who counsel thirsty
souls should be held just as accountable as a psychiatrist counseling
troubled minds. Innocent people making tax-exempt donations to a
sexual predator who clothes himself in the monastic robe of a
spiritual sheep have the right to be warned. We have the duty to warn
them.

So does The Union. Bertolucci and her lawyers don't own a newspaper in
Nevada City where the jury pool will be chosen from. Our voices are
filtered through the swami PR department. We don't receive tax-exempt
donations or any other donations to fight this case. But I doubt any
well-informed juror in Nevada City would ever perpetuate swami's
fraud. Thank God for a jury of your peers.

Michael J. Flynn and Ford Greene are attorneys who represent Anne-
Marie Bertolucci.

Financial Exploitation

My association with Ananda began in the Spring of 1983, when a couple
from Ananda came down to San Diego to teach Hatha Yoga and the
philosophy of Yoga.

That summer I made my first visit to Ananda, staying at what was then
called the Old Retreat, a simple sylvan camp.

At the time I was financially well off and I had always been attracted
to the idea of community and felt myself to be in sync with the
teachings of Yogananda, whose spiritual values I was being told were
also those followed and promoted by Ananda. I soon made my first gift
in support of the outreach of this (I thought then) wonderful work,
and our common ideals.

When I asked what I could substantially do to promote Ananda's
outreach, I was told that A&D (Ananda "ministers") needed a motorhome,
which was going to cost $40,000, so they could travel more
conveniently without the expense of transportation and motels. My
first gift was for $10,000, as I recall. It went toward purchase of
that motor home, which went around trying to sell Swami's books and
tapes to bookstores.

Between that summer and early 1993, I gave something in the
neighborhood of $220,000 to Ananda. Except for that first motor home,
and my final gift of $31,000 in December of 1992, I have no idea how
the money was spent. I don't know why I didn't ask questions, except
that I felt my gifts were to God, and I also felt intimidated by these
people whom I felt to be God's servants, who had sacrificed everything
for God's work.

On one occasion, I gave $1500 for the specific purpose to create a
safe play place for the children after school. It was another 6 years
before the space was created and there was never any explanation of
where the money I contributed had been used.

From time to time, there would be special promotions for which Walters
acted as sponsor, and, that being the case, of course the entire
community wanted to have "some of that." One that I was present at
(and seemed particularly outlandish) was a seminar given in Italian by
a man from Turin, named Manfredi. He had perfected principles
discovered in the 19th century. He was offering cylinders filed with a
specially zapped powder that protected the energy field against
atmospheric pollutants and in particular from electrical emissions
such as those from power lines. The price tags were from $120 to
$1200. Walters kicked off the weekends with his own exhortations to
buy.

In 1988, I offered my home in La Jolla as an ashram for Ananda to use
for the purpose of trying to start a church in San Diego. Eight people
moved into my home with me. I thought the ministers deserved my
bedroom. I moved into the garage apartment.

Unfortunately, they could not or would not keep their junk cars out of
the driveway, in this neighborhood of million dollar homes. My
neighbors turned me in to the zoning department and that was the end
of the ashram. The inhabitants moved to another rental in Del Mar, and
I was left with a bill for $13,000 to demolish my garage apartment,
which had not been legal under the building codes.

Those who caused this situation never so much as apologized for the
results. D & V (two community leaders) came to visit to ask me if I
was "all right with the situation." Good little devotee that I was
(coward would be a better word), I said I was. Similarly, Walters
himself called. Although the situation wasn't mentioned on the phone,
I assumed that was why he called and his call alone would be enough to
make the situation "all right."

In 1990, I briefly moved to Colorado. In Autumn of 1992, I sold my
land and home in Colorado. I gave $31,000 of the profit to provide
salary for a new outreach ministry program. It was to be carried on by
a minister named R and his wife D. R thanked me personally for this
which led me to assume that the money really went to him. I was
pleased by this as I had heard that he and D were so strapped for
money that the community had taken up a collection to buy R running
shoes.

By winter of 1993, I again went through the Prospective Member's
Program. When it was published in the community newsletter that * (a
former CEO), now the Ananda development director would be willing to
help anyone who needed financial advice, I took him up on the offer.
It was then he became aware that I no longer had the large assets I
once had. No longer "community milkable" assets. I did not even have
sufficient equity in my home at ---- to leave in a will to Ananda. At
that point, I became a non-person at Ananda. The inner circle had no
further use for me.

This was my great fortune as it turned out as the inner workings of
Ananda had now become more clear to me. It provided me the opportunity
to feel how the moneyless at Ananda are treated in contrast to the way
the moneyed are treated. The former are mercilessly used and exploited
while the later are treated like totally privileged beings, free to do
exactly as they please. It must be difficult for the wealthy members
to even imagine how the rest of the community is treated. It was
difficult for me, making visits over the years to Idyllic Ananda, to
now see how the other half lived.

For awhile, I went to group meetings with about 18 people who had the
courage to attend some communications workshops outside of Ananda. The
aim was to get in touch with feelings. People were getting together to
speak honestly and openly. At a couple of these meetings one of the
young husbands flew into a rage. He could not bring himself to talk
about what it what was bothering him. All he would say was that it was
something about Swami. I heard from other channels that this man's
marriage was in trouble. Naturally, this degree of emerging honesty
was highly explosive and the Ananda members were called on the carpet
and chastised by the inner circle. That was the end to open honest
discussion at Ananda.

By then I had moved into Nevada City where I attended the "in town"
Ananda group until the false notes became too uncomfortable for me.
Several years ago, I asked C in writing for an accounting of my
donations to Ananda which I wanted to compare to my records. Combining
the two, I have come up with the figure of about $220,000 that I have
given over approximately 10 years. Money I would never had donated if
I had known the secret side of Kriyananda's life.

http://www.anandauncovered.com/More2.htm

My perspective

I moved to Ananda in April 1984 and left in June 1992. I still bless
the day I moved out of there, but from a seven-year perspective, I can
see the valuable lessons I learned. These lessons were learned slowly,
embarrassingly slowly, but learning them has made me free.

Lesson 1: I gave up the delusion that my life was only worthwhile if I
gave it to a great cause. The cause in this case was supposed to be
spreading the teachings of PY, but it turned out be trying to make J.
Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda) happy, an impossible job. But the
cause is not what's important-- the lesson is that I cannot shift to
anyone else the work of finding what my life is for.

Lesson 2: I learned that I could not give up my own perceptions and
interpretations for those of a group, even though it meant that I
would never wholly be part of that group.

Lesson 3: I learned that I could never surrender to a group power over
my life, having seen what happened to those who did.

Lesson 4: I learned that I could not pledge loyalty when that meant
replacing my own world view with someone else's.

Lesson 5: I realized that I was just an ordinary person, not one who
was chosen by God to take a great teaching into the new millennium.
These lessons are deeply valuable to me, and I am grateful to Ananda
for forcing me to learn them. Each lesson resulted in greater freedom.
I didn't have bad experiences at Ananda; I left because I wasn't
allowed to be myself there. I bless the day I moved out. There are two
curious things that happened while I was at Ananda. All my life I had
felt that I participated in the great abundance of the Universe--- I
had always felt wealthy, even though I never had a lot of money. The
other thing was during meditation one day before I moved there, I came
to the complete inner knowledge that I would know God. So I came to
Ananda with these two deep convictions. After a time at Ananda, I
realized that these deep inner convictions were gone. I had entered
poverty consciousness and no longer knew that I would someday indeed
know God. Now, after seven years away from Ananda, both of these
things are back. I bless the day a left.- Don't be afraid to leave.

Reflections of another member

Ways Kriyananda Maintains Authority Over All Aspects of Community Life

Only those who are "in tune" with him are allowed into positions of
leadership and power. Attunement means believing swami can do no wrong
and following him blindly. Attunement with Swami is equated with
attunement with God. The rank and file are controlled by the
leadership through guilt and fear. Although swami himself never tells
anyone what to do, he withholds his attention, affection, and approval
from those who fail to follow his "suggestions". His suggestions cover
every area of community life, goals and objectives, organization,
architecture, etc. It was his idea to incorporate as a township, live
in housing clusters, communize our personal assets, etc.

Once labeled "out of tune", one is marginalized, shunned, and
ostracized. ---- once told me: "I have learned that to doubt Swami is
not to love him. " ---- told me: "I would gain more by following Swami
into a ditch than by trying to develop my own discrimination." I was
told by both * and * "Who are you to question Swami?"

Kriyananda got his hooks into me by acting very sweet, loving, and
humble. I loved him because he was so sweet and kind to me. It becomes
very difficult to believe anyone so sweet and self-sacrificing would
have a desire for power or control, or that he could be dishonest or
deceptive in any way. It took several years before I saw through his
act. Most never became suspicious because of their deep need for
acceptance and approval by the group. Peer pressure kept everyone in
line.

Kriyananda controlled by appearing self-sacrificing, vulnerable, and
eliciting sympathy. He told us repeatedly: "I'm working so hard for
all of you, I'm so exhausted- my health is suffering. I'm giving my
life for you."

The community response was always "Poor Swami, we have to do more to
help you."

Kriyananda controlled us by instilling in us delusions of grandeur. We
were going to save the world. Wonderful new concepts of living could
flow out to the world from Ananda's living example of Master's World
Brotherhood Colony.

Kriyananda cannot accept criticism of any kind. I once wrote and
article in a community news letter giving a negative opinion of his
design for a building. He told me: "I'm concerned about you. I think
you are being influenced by dark astral entities

Other one woman's story

Because I think it is very wrong for spiritual leaders (who have our
trust) to do this sort of thing, I want to inform you of my
experience. I am 66, so what happened to me was shortly after Ananda
Community was open to the public for week long yoga retreats, about 30
years. ago. At that time, I had 3 small children and had gone through
a very unhappy divorce as my husband left me for another woman. My
self-esteem was at a low ebb, although I was fairly attractive at the
time. I had an "illumination" experience in 1963, while praying for a
person, so thus began my quest, quite before the metaphysical hippy
days had started. I read AY and yearned for the Kriya Yoga initiation
techniques, to further my spiritual growth and understanding of my
spiritual experience.

Joyously, I discovered that there was an actual Kriya yoga instructor,
in the person of Swami Kriyananda (SK), who came to San Rafael to
deliver his teachings. I was very impressed, as I knew that his name
would mean "bliss in Kriya" and that surely he must be a Master. I had
been studying the *** lessons, and other yoga studies, and was aware
of the humble respect and service one should demonstrate toward one's
teacher, guru, swami, etc., and that it was a special honor to be
singled out by them for any kind of attention or service request, that
it was likened to serving The Master, or even God. I was also aware of
the law of Karma, (cause and effect), and the fact that SK had taken a
vow of celibacy.I invited SK and a young woman (later called K), who
seemed quite dazzled by SK for dinner, so SK was more aware of me than
others who had taken his classes in this area.

When I was at Ananda, I believe it was my second visit there, SK
"honored" me by requesting I come to his abode to give him a foot
massage. I felt very honored to have been thus chosen, considering
that he had his own entourage of people who actually lived at Ananda
to fulfill this noble function.This took place on the outside deck of
his home, while SK reclined in a hammock. Shortly, after I had begun
to massage his feet, he pulled up his orange cotton garment and
proudly revealed his large, bare, tumescent penis, and he gallantly
invited me to massage it (while fondling himself), and have
intercourse.

I was shocked, terribly embarrassed, humiliated, disgusted, and worst
of all, AFRAID. I had previously been beaten for turning down a man's
sexual overtures. I knew I had done nothing whatsoever to entice or
seduce SK. I had been modest, dressed modestly and had acted with
dignity and humbleness. I was also amazed that SK would do this in
broad daylight outside, when anyone could have approached from the
surrounding area, where people easily wandered around. However, I felt
safe in declining his request out there, than I would have inside his
home. That made me more assertive, because I felt he wouldn't attack
me physically outside as I could scream or someone might see us, if I
declined him and made him angry.

Curiously, what actually came to mind after that was that I did not
want the responsibility of messing up his karma, and taking on
negative karma myself by being a party to his losing his vow of
celibacy, so I respectfully declined his "kind offer", to mate with
him. He didn't argue, and I left.

I even wondered if he was trying to "honor" me with this special
privilege so I would donate a lot ofmoney to his community, since he
had seen my nice home on the golf course in San Rafael, and he may
have assumed I had money to spare for such things, but I did not.I
left Ananda quite saddened, depressed, and disillusioned, I canceled
my *** mail lessons. I was shocked at the lack of integrity of this
man who was functioning as the spiritual leader of this community,
with innocent people trusting him. I even felt it was a "test" by God
of my own integrity, or maybe Kriyananda had thought it up to see if I
was a worthy chela or not, To me it was cruel, and beneath the dignity
of a spiritual leader, and certainly reflected badly on the teachings,
and that there was a pretense at celibacy so that a woman could feel
safe in the Ananda environment, without fear of being attacked. My
trust was violated and compromised. I even felt GUILT that I had not
accommodated his request, for fear I should have obeyed him, and
consequently wondered where I stood spiritually with "God", as a
result of my noncompliance, which added to my depression. I was still
of an age that women were supposed to home and obey the clergy,
doctors, and lawyers. My mother told me to. I am a lot wiser now.

Ananda Rules

The following are excerpts from the "Ananda Rules of Conduct for
Members", the whole of which has been entered as evidence in the
sexual harassment lawsuit. Written by J. Donald Walters. (Swami
Kriyananda)

"The Rule"

"These rules of conduct have evolved through many years of practical
experience, both in the development of Ananda World Brotherhood
Village since its birthing period, 1967-1969, and in my own earlier
spiritual life as a direct disciple of the great master, Paramhansa
Yogananda. The rules presented here are based on the present realities
of life at Ananda.

For many years, these rules were defined not as rules, specifically,
but rather as a growing body of traditional observances. This was
entirely as it should have been. For who would be so foolish as to fit
a person to a new suit of clothes, rather than fit the new suit to the
person! "The sabbath," Jesus Christ said, "was made for man, and not
man for the sabbath." Astonishingly, systems are often built on
preconceived theories alone, with no practical reference to the human
realities they are meant to affect. The purpose of these rules, then,
is primarily to explain and clarify a way of life that is already in
existence, and thereby to guide the members of Ananda further in their
efforts to grow toward perfection.

Ananda World Brotherhood Village is, essentially, not only a
spiritual, but also a monastic, community. It is monastic in the
dictionary-accepted sense of a community that renounces worldly
interests that are centered in ego-gratification and in the quest for
personal gain; and that is wholly dedicated to living for God alone,
to serving Him, and to becoming united with Him, eventually, in
spirit.

May these Rules of Conduct help to point the way to perfection for
those who have accepted the ray of the divine light that was brought
to the West by Paramhansa Yogananda, and that is expressed through
Ananda World Brotherhood Village.

“Loyalty”

It is not necessarily a sign of loyalty, on the other hand, merely to
agree--if, for example, one's agreement is with what he inwardly
perceives as an error. It is a sign of loyalty, however, to support
one's spiritual family regardless of one's disagreement with some of
its directions, provided those directions constitute no major threat
to what should always be the member's highest loyalty: his commitment
to God.

It is not loyal, in the name of "fairness" and "objectivity," to
withhold support from community decisions, once these decisions have
been agreed upon. Nor is it loyal, in the name of "open-mindedness,"
to hold oneself aloof in such matters as if claiming to represent some
higher wisdom that is not being accepted. Perfection cannot be
achieved here on earth. Is it not wrong, then, to make such minor
imperfections as one may find, or imagine one has found, in his chosen
spiritual family his excuse for withholding mental support! Does one,
for instance, for the imperfections that he may observe in his own
mother, hold himself aloof from her! She is his mother, after all, her
human shortcomings notwithstanding. When there is love, a person's
deepest awareness will always be of the causes for unity, not for
disunity.

Members, wherever they may go, should see themselves as channels of
God and of the ray of divine light that is expressed through Ananda.
They should behave themselves accordingly-joyfuliy, of course, but
never with abandon, and always with God- remembrance. They ought to
strive consciously to project their inner light, so that that light--
which is to say, God's light, through them--may touch, on some level,
everyone they meet.

Article 13 “Membership Vows”

Vows of membership should be defined first in terms of final
commitment, and then adjusted to varying degrees of commitment up to
that highest level. The final vows, then, are four: simplicity, self-
control, service, and cooperative obedience. Simplicity, at Ananda, is
not defined as poverty. It is defined, rather, as reducing one's wants
so that material things do not intrude on one's inner freedom, but
rather, in the context of whatever needs to be done, facilitate that
freedom. Self control means always to hold one's physical sense-
pleasures in rein, and to strive to direct one's energy from the
senses to soul-consciousness, rather than the reverse. Service means
less the actual activity of serving than the love one channels while
serving. Indeed, for the devotee, all life should be viewed in terms
of the opportunities it gives him to serve God in all. Cooperative
obedience, finally, means intelligent, creative participation in
whatever one is asked to do, as opposed to that kind of obedience
which asks, and is allowed to ask, no questions. The final vows of
Life-Membership in the Ananda monastic order read as follows:
"Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Friend, Beloved God; Great masters:
Jesus Christ, Babaji-Krishna, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar,
and our guru, Paramhansa Yogananda; great saints of all religions: I
bow to you all. "I offer my life, my service, and my devotion
unconditionally to God, to you my line of gurus, and to the ray of the
divine light that you represent. "I promise to live my life always in
openness and surrender to God's will. I will abide by the monastic
principles of simplicity and self-control as they have been defined in
the Ananda Rules of Conduct for Members. Henceforth I relinquish all
sense of'I' and 'mine' in my life. I offer all that I own and all that
I am at Thy feet of Infinity. "I dedicate myself to finding Thee, my
God, and to serving Thee in a spirit of love through my fellowman. "As
a means of attaining Self-realization, I pledge my cooperative
obedience and loyalty to Ananda, to those members who are responsible
for guiding the community in its various aspects, and, above all, to
the living representative of the Ananda line of gurus: the Spiritual
Director of Ananda Church of Self- Realization." (The Spiritual
Director of Ananda is J. Donald Walters)

Article 6 “Marriage”

Members should ponder the fact that marriage is not only a private and
personal affair, but also a social state. In a spiritually close
community, especially, like Ananda, a disharmonious marriage cannot
but affect in some way the harmony of everyone, whereas a harmonious
marriage gives joy to all. No two members wishing to get married
should feel that the matter is their concern alone. Grave mistakes in
marriage might be prevented if the advice of others--spiritual well-
wishers, especially, uninfluenced by personal desire--were consulted.
A committee should be appointed by the community to consult with
couples wishing to be married. To develop guidelines of true,
spiritual compatibility, as opposed to merely romantic attraction,
should be the long-range goal of this committee. The immediate
function of the marriage committee, however, will be to give the
community's consent to a marriage. This approval should be sought by
every couple before committing themselves to getting married. The
committee's approval, moreover, should not be given lightly, but
weighed carefully. The couple's relationship together should be
studied conscientiously, with regard primarily to their highest
welfare, but also with regard to the welfare of the community. The
true meaning of marriage should be explored with the prospective
couple at a series of sessions. Couples ought to wait at least one
year from the time they first announce their desire to marry, before
actually getting married. Couples who are Ananda members should accept
to be married by an Ananda minister, and according to the Ananda
Wedding Ceremony. The essence of the meaning of this ceremony, as
distinct from many other wedding ceremonies, might be expressed thus:
Traditionally, the bride comes to the wedding dressed in white, as if
to declare, "Until today, my body has been kept pure for marriage." At
Ananda, however, if the bride wears white it is to declare, "My
husband and I want always to live together in purity." If any couple,
influenced by personal desire, decide to marry in opposition to the
community's decision and advice, they may not be married by an Ananda
minister. Let them, instead, be married outside the community, and not
burden their spiritual family, who have their highest welfare
sincerely at heart, with the request that it go against it's own
conscience in the matter.

Article 7 “Children”

Children are not possessions: They are sacred charges. A couple's
responsibility to their children is a responsibility in God, and must
be discharged in truth, love, and divine respect. They must seek ever
to touch the children at their highest level of reality.. The couple
have a duty also to the community in raising their children, if only
because their children's behavior can affect other children in the
community. Couples haven't the right to insist, as couples often do in
the world, "This child is
ours to raise as we feel to do." The community's feelings in such
matters should be considered also, and its involvement actively
soughthildren in the community ought, moreover, in avery real sense to
be seen as the children of the community. The members, in other words,
in the love and concern they show the children, should treat all of
them as their own.

Article 8 “Work Is Service”

Ananda members should view whatever gainful employment they seek as a
service, never merely as work. The mere thought of hard work, indeed,
often drains a person's energies, whereas joyful, willing service
opens inner floodgates to a boundless supply of energy. Expansive
service, moreover, in God's name, is much more spiritually
regenerating than that constricted service, motivated by human
feelings, which people commonly offer to the few whom they consider
their own. Even those closest to them should be served, rather, with
the thought that, through them, one is serving God. The employment
sought by members should be in keeping with Ananda's ideals; it should
not be selected from financial motives alone. Above all, it should be
approached in the light of the opportunities it affords for serving
others in a divine way. Ananda members are free both to create their
own businesses and to import businesses from outside the community.
They are free, as well, to pursue their own personal careers. No
gainful activity should be admitted into Ananda, however, until it has
been passed on by a business council. The main focus of this business
council should be on the compatibility of the proposed activity with
Ananda's ideals. The emphasis in this case should be positive; in
other words, the council should be open to accepting almost any new
activity, provided the activity doesn't contradict Ananda's ideals.
For in truth, virtually any business can have a spiritual influence,
if the people who serve in it do so in the consciousness of God.

Members who want to change their jobs should first consult the
community, or appointed representatives of the community, lest the
change they propose cause inconvenience to any aspect of the
community's life and activities, and also for reassurance from their
spiritual family that the change will be for their own highest,
spiritual good. Members should feel that Ananda as a whole, and not
the building in which they happen to live at Ananda, is their home.
Thus, should their services ever be required elsewhere, it will be
easier for them to view this need as an opportunity

for their spiritual growth, and to accept it willingly, with non-
attachment.

A woman's story

Because I think it is very wrong for spiritual leaders (who have our
trust) to do this sort of thing, I want to inform you of my
experience. I am 66, so what happened to me was shortly after Ananda
Community was open to the public for week long yoga retreats, about 30
years. ago. At that time, I had 3 small children and had gone through
a very unhappy divorce as my husband left me for another woman. My
self-esteem was at a low ebb, although I was fairly attractive at the
time. I had an "illumination" experience in 1963, while praying for a
person, so thus began my quest, quite before the metaphysical hippy
days had started. I read AY and yearned for the Kriya Yoga initiation
techniques, to further my spiritual growth and understanding of my
spiritual experience.

Joyously, I discovered that there was an actual Kriya yoga instructor,
in the person of Swami Kriyananda (SK), who came to San Rafael to
deliver his teachings. I was very impressed, as I knew that his name
would mean "bliss in Kriya" and that surely he must be a Master. I had
been studying the *** lessons, and other yoga studies, and was aware
of the humble respect and service one should demonstrate toward one's
teacher, guru, swami, etc., and that it was a special honor to be
singled out by them for any kind of attention or service request, that
it was likened to serving The Master, or even God. I was also aware of
the law of Karma, (cause and effect), and the fact that SK had taken a
vow of celibacy.

I invited SK and a young woman (later called K), who seemed quite
dazzled by SK for dinner, so SK was more aware of me than others who
had taken his classes in this area.When I was at Ananda, I believe it
was my second visit there, SK "honored" me by requesting I come to his
abode to give him a foot massage. I felt very honored to have been
thus chosen, considering that he had his own entourage of people who
actually lived at Ananda to fulfill this noble function.

This took place on the outside deck of his home, while SK reclined in
a hammock. Shortly, after I had begun to massage his feet, he pulled
up his orange cotton garment and proudly revealed his large, bare,
tumescent penis, and he gallantly invited me to massage it (while
fondling himself), and have intercourse.
I was shocked, terribly embarrassed, humiliated, disgusted, and worst
of all, AFRAID. I had previously been beaten for turning down a man's
sexual overtures. I knew I had done nothing whatsoever to entice or
seduce SK. I had been modest, dressed modestly and had acted with
dignity and humbleness. I was also amazed that SK would do this in
broad daylight outside, when anyone could have approached from the
surrounding area, where people easily wandered around. However, I felt
safe in declining his request out there, than I would have inside his
home. That made me more assertive, because I felt he wouldn't attack
me physically outside as I could scream or someone might see us, if I
declined him and made him angry.

Curiously, what actually came to mind after that was that I did not
want the responsibility of messing up his karma, and taking on
negative karma myself by being a party to his losing his vow of
celibacy, so I respectfully declined his "kind offer", to mate with
him. He didn't argue, and I left.

I even wondered if he was trying to "honor" me with this special
privilege so I would donate a lot of
money to his community, since he had seen my nice home on the golf
course in San Rafael, and he may have assumed I had money to spare for
such things, but I did not.

I left Ananda quite saddened, depressed, and disillusioned, I canceled
my *** mail lessons. I was shocked at the lack of integrity of this
man who was functioning as the spiritual leader of this community,
with innocent people trusting him. I even felt it was a "test" by God
of my own integrity, or maybe Kriyananda had thought it up to see if I
was a worthy chela or not, To me it was cruel, and beneath the dignity
of a spiritual leader, and certainly reflected badly on the teachings,
and that there was a pretense at celibacy so that a woman could feel
safe in the Ananda environment, without fear of being attacked.

My trust was violated and compromised. I even felt GUILT that I had
not accommodated his request, for fear I should have obeyed him, and
consequently wondered where I stood spiritually with "God", as a
result of my noncompliance, which added to my depression. I was still
of an age that women were supposed to home and obey the clergy,
doctors, and lawyers. My mother told me to. I am a lot wiser now.

http://www.anandauncovered.com/More3.htm

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Brahma Kumaris so-called Raja Yoga: The Real Story

Remembering those who have taken their lives as a result of
associating with the BKWSU

The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is a large international
cult that teaches a philosophy that is unique unto itself whilst
maintaining an appearance of traditional eastern schools of thought.
The message is one of love and peace, of purifying one’s karma and of
helping the souls of the world achieve happiness. What they actually
believe is extreme and unrelated to any scripture. Their
organisational practises are deceptive if not fraudulent. The result
has been traumatic for many.

The growth of the Brahma Kumaris over 70 years has been the result of
the dedicated efforts of those who have come and gone during that
time. They believed in spirituality but trusted people they shouldn’t
have. Many people have given many years of their lives, all their
effort, money, and other resources while they were manipulated by
their desire to be better people than they believed they were. When
they were exhausted they were abandoned by an organisation that has no
duty of care policy or practise and that shows no concern for the
people whose lives it has impacted.

We respect all the members (students) of the BKWSU because they are
genuine and sincere. Primarily we wish to address the problems that
lay with the leadership of the organisation – namely it’s widely
demonstrated inability to address critical duty of care issues as well
as its increasingly deceptive practises.

This site is dedicated to minimising trauma and saving lives by
pressuring the Brahma Kumaris Leadership to implement a meaningful
duty of care program to protect its members. We also want the BK
Leadership to be upfront and honest about its beliefs and practises
and stop hiding behind carefully crafted disguises. Until the BKWSU
leadership take it upon themselves to be honest with everyone and tell
the truth to the public about what they really believe and are really
trying to achieve it becomes the burden of the authors of this site to
do so – to warn the public of the very real potential dangers of
becoming involved with this organisation.

The following pages will allow you to understand The Brahma Kumaris
World Spiritual University and how it operates, demonstrate that the
BKWSU is a cult, and provide evidence of deception and tax fraud. It
will help you to understand how people become trapped in its ranks.
And how members and former members reach such desperation that they
take their own lives.

Please note that the authors of this site are former long term members
of the BKWSU with a great deal of experience, long term relationships
with senior leadership and have a lot of genuine inside information.
We left the organisation after witnessing leadership lose direction
and authenticity and with that become increasingly hypocritical,
deceptive and arrogant

Identifying the BKWSU as a Cult

Rather than reinvent the wheel or limit this discussion to a perhaps
subjective point of view this discussion has been cross referenced
with other sites that are exploring cult issues. Here we look at ‘cult
identifiers’ and see how they relate to the BKWSU. Typically these
identifiers include: totalitarian control of members, elitist
perspective, ownership of a revelation, psychological manipulation and
abuse of members, exploitation of members, and the willingness of
members to blindly support the organisation to the point of personal
crisis.

These descriptions or identifiers of a cult are provided by www.culthelp.info
(For more from them please click on the link to go through to their
site).

A Universal Definition CULT – Any group which has a pyramid type
authoritarian leadership structure with all teaching and guidance
coming from the person/persons at the top. The group will claim to be
the only way to God; Nirvana; Paradise; Ultimate Reality; Full
Potential, Way to Happiness etc, and will use thought reform or mind
control techniques to gain control and keep their members.This
definition covers cults within all major world religions, along with
those cults which have no OBVIOUS religious base such as commercial,
educational and psychological cults. Others may define these a little
differently, but this is the simplest to work from.

The BKWSU have a hierarchical management system with a clearly defined
lineage. At the very top are God Shiva and Brahma Baba (the spirit of
the late Dada Lehkraj) who are channelled by Dadi Gulzar. The senior
most people in management are referred to individually as
“Dadi” (meaning Senior Sister). The Dadis then direct the
organisationand its members through a network of preferred members. To
be a preferred member one must be worthy, that is, co-operative,
obedient and totally support the Dadis and the system. Dissenters are
marginalised by default and considered to be lacking in realisation
and struggling in their relationship with God.There is also a powerful
committee that has a high level of control. This committee includes a
number of Senior Brothers. The exact role of the committee and its
influence is not made public but its members were not elected nor are
they accountable to the general membership.Like all religions, sects
and cults, the BKWSU base their lifestyle and practises on a belief
system that is the basis of their reality. This reality is formed in
the minds of members through constant study and hours of daily
meditation. The members believe that they are the true children of
God, who is teaching them directly and exclusively. They believe that
through their relationship with God Shiva they will become pure and
achieve Nirvana. They will then reincarnate into the new world (Golden
Age) as deities and rule that world as divine kings – the product of
the pure karma they accumulated at this time through their
renunciation (of money and personal resources) and service (expansion
of the organisation).The main method for becoming pure is meditation,
which means to concentrate on the love and purity of Shiva and Brahma
and the ’spiritual knowledge’ to the exclusion of all ‘worldly
thoughts’ – a very effective system of indoctrination and mind
control.

A Secular Definition CULT – From the Latin ‘cultis’ which denotes all
that is involved in worship, ritual, emotion, liturgy and attitude.
This definition actually denotes what we call denominations and sects
and would make all religious movements a cult.

A Christian Definition CULT – Any group which deviates from Biblical,
orthodox, historical Christianity, i.e. They deny the Deity of Christ;
His physical resurrection; His personal and physical return to earth
and salvation by FAITH alone.This definition only covers those groups
which are cults within the Christian religion. It does not cover cults
within other world religions such as Islam and Hinduism. Nor does it
cover Psychological, Commercial or Educational cults which do not
recognize the Bible as a source of reality. The Orthodox Bible-Based
Cult

A group is called a cult because of their behaviour – not their
doctrines. Doctrine is an issue in the area of Apologetics and Heresy.
Most religious cults do teach what the Christian church would declare
to be heresy but some do not. Some cults teach the basics of the
Christian faith but have behavioural patterns that are abusive,
controlling and cultic.This occurs in both Non-Charismatic and
Charismatic churches. These groups teach the central doctrines of the
Christian faith and then add the extra authority of leadership or
someone’s particular writings. They centre around the interpretations
of the leadership and submissive and unquestioning acceptance of these
is essential to be a member of good standing. This acceptance includes
what we consider non-essential doctrines e.i. not salvation issues
(such as the Person and Work of Christ.) The key is that they will be
using mind control or undue influence on their members.

Other Identification Marks:

(a) The group will have an ELITIST view of itself in relation to
others, and a UNIQUE CAUSE. i.e. THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES RIGHT –
everyone else is wrong. THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES DOING GOD’S WILL –
everyone else is in apostasy.

Integral to the Brahma Kumaris philosophy is the notion that they are
a special group of souls, those whose good fortune brings them
eternally back to God. They are the souls who will achieve the highest
state of purity and spiritual power. They will uplift all the souls of
the world and bring about the new Golden Age of humanity – which they
will rule as divine kings and queens.The BKWSU consider themselves the
most fortunate souls of the world for all of time. They are the only
ones who know God, the Truth or who can save the world from sorrow.
They are by default the ones who are right and that all other
religions, sects etc are the domains of partial truth and exist for
weak souls who need that type of limited support. They typically
counter accusations of elitism by claiming that as anyone can become a
member they are not so. It is an argument that only works for them.

(b) They will promote their cause actively, and in doing so, abuse
personal rights and freedoms. This abuse can be THEOLOGICAL,
SPIRITUAL, SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL.

Promoting themselves as a great spiritual organisation that makes a
unique and critical contribution to humanity is a major preoccupation.
They hold courses, seminars and conferences etc. and they have
meditations centres to run. They are a very busy group of people. The
members take on this workload as a way of creating good karma and
purifying themselves.

They start with meditation at 4.00am and are occupied from then until
the end of their day. To not participate is a sign of weakness, lack
of innate ‘fortune’, lack of recognition of God or their inherent
responsibility as a child of God. Failure to cooperate with the
heirachy in the fulfilment of the ‘elevated purpose’ of the BKWSU
carries guilt and implications of being a lesser, weaker and poorer
soul. Obedience is seen as a sign of strength, disobedience is bad
karma. To leave is eternal damnation, eternal loss. The fear of
failing is referred to as a “sweet fear” and therefore a good thing.

Throughout their time as a member they will have been promised rewards
of purity, peace, bliss and a kingdom in heaven whilst being
patronised with lessons on failure and loss. The heirachy take
ownership of the individuals self esteem and manipulate them with
concepts of reward and loss. Members must confess their weakness and
doubts to the Seniors, ostensibly in order to overcome them.

Ultimately the Heirachy exerts influence on everything a member will
think, say or do, and how they spend their time and with who. They are
told to renounce all past relationships, attachments and money and
belong only to ‘Baba’ (God Shiva).The BKWSU practise all the types of
abuse mentioned, but because it is not violent, or loud, but carried
out from behind a facade of pity and benevolence no one sees it for
what it is.

How They Do This?

1. Their leader/s may claim a special, exclusive ministry, revelation
or position of authority given by God.

The bureaucracy of the BKWSU is a hierarchy of ‘exceptional souls’ who
are the dispensers of “Shrimat” – the divine directions of god – to
the general membership. Ones’ seniority within the organisation is
seen as an indication of one’s past good karma and current good
efforts, and of ones overall ‘fortune’. It would also suggest that
one’s “yoga” or connection with God, is of a higher quality and
therefore one is able to receive “touchings” from God and would also
have a clearer understanding of what God wanted or expected of his
“beloved children” at any given moment. Thus the senior is worthy to
dispense shrimat and, effectively, control the lives of members under
their ‘care’.

2. They believe they are the only true path and take a critical stance
regarding the Christian church while at the same time praising and
exalting their own group, leader/s and work.

The BKWSU believe that God has incarnated directly into the body of
their founder, Dada Lehkraj, and is teaching them personally and
exclusively. From 1936 to 1969 BKWSU religious philosophy was
‘chanelled’ in daily sermons known as Murlis. As there is only one God
and they are the only ones who know him or the Truth, then definitely
they are the only one true path. The Senior members (known as Dadis)
are praised as angels, and as the highest and purest souls of all
time. Everyone else is patronised as good souls but without the power
of purity or greatness that the Seniors have.

3. They use intimidation (albeit subtle) or psychological manipulation
to keep members loyal to their ranks. This could be in the form of
threats of dire calamity if they leave; certain death at Armageddon;
being shunned by their family and friends etc. This is a vital part of
the mind control process.

Members are continuously reminded that the world is to end soon and to
leave would be the greatest misfortune and lead to “a thousand years
of suffering in a second” as a result. They are told to break their
attachments to the ‘old world’ (family, friends, career, money etc)
because that is only bondage to a life of suffering. They are
instructed by Seniors, on behalf of God, to dedicate themselves to
their new spiritual life exclusively. Their self-respect is based
entirely upon being a committed child of God Shiva who is obedient to
Seniors. The Seniors are very much in control of the minds and hearts
of the members.

A simple example of group manipulation is one of Dadi Janki, now head
of the BKWSU. In 2006 it was known to many that the then head of the
BKWSU – Dadi Prakashmani – was seriously ill with Alzheimers. Dadi’s
Alzheimers was creating some confusion in the ranks for a variety of
reasons. Typically Dadi Janki used the philosophy to pull members back
into line. In 2006 Dadi Janki, in a typically moving and emotive
lecture, told everyone that “the time is close” (meaning that the
world is about to end) and that as sick as Dadi Prakashmani is, she
would be there with all of them until the end. Suddenly all the
doubters are ‘inspired’ to refocus on their personal efforts for
purity. If they do not become pure in time, they will have to suffer
judgement, punishment and a lower status in the new world. In fact,
Dadi Prakashmani died in early 2007. Dadi Janki has been made head of
the organisation, and everyone has forgotten the guarantee that she
gave in that lecture.

4. Members will be expected to give substantial financial support to
the group. This could be compulsory tithing (which is checked);
signing over all their property on entering the group; coercive
methods of instilling guilt on those who have not contributed; selling
magazines, flowers or other goods for the group as part of their
ministry. At the same time bible-based cults may ridicule churches
that take up free-will offerings by passing collection plates and/or
sell literature and tapes. They usually brag that they don’t do this.
This gives outsiders the intimation that they are not interested in
money.

The BKWSU is a very wealthy organisation. Vast sums of money,
property, jewellery and other assets have been ‘donated’ to the
organisation. Hapless members who are convinced of the truth of the
BKWSU teachings believe that the world is soon to be destroyed and
that they will reincarnate in paradise in the very near future. A new
member who is experiencing the ‘honeymoon stage’ of their ‘new life’
will be encouraged to give all they can in this context. In some cases
this can be houses, cars and bank accounts. Ultimately all funds and
assets received by the BKWSU have been solicited – BKWSU are lectured
on the good karma of giving and are reminded regularly of the need to
‘donate’ to the Godly purpose.

It was uncommon for any new person to be asked for money. The public
or interested parties were always told that all services of the BKWSU
are free and that the organisation is funded entirely by donations.
The general perception of ‘outsiders’ is that the BKWSU are not
interested in money and that the property they do have is really a
sign of the integrity of the organisation and the donations they have
received as a result.

5. There will be great emphasis on loyalty to the group and its
teachings. The lives of members will be totally absorbed into the
group’s activities. They will have little or no time to think for
themselves because of physical and emotional exhaustion. This is also
a vital part of the mind control process.

A member’s day begins with meditation at 4.00am. It is known as “Amrit
Vela” and is one of several ["Mariadas"]. Mariadas are the basic rules
by which a good member should live their lives. In reality someone is
only considered a true or real member/student/child of god if they are
following these rules. The list of mariadas includes celibacy,
vegetarian diet (with no eggs, onions or garlic) and daily morning
class (Murli class).

There is a real if unspoken pressure to conform to these Maryadas (and
thereby demonstrate one’s loyalty) if one is to be taken seriously by
the group, especially the seniors. Additional to Mariadas is Shrimat
(the supposed directions of God). Shrimat coerces members to think and
behave according to the directions spoken by god in the murli, and
directions given by seniors. Supposedly mariadas and shrimat are to
ensure the ‘child’ receives maximum benefit from god their true
father. The main benefit is to be purity of the soul. To not follow
Maryadas and Shrimat is a great sin – very bad karma.

Shrimat requires obedience, submission and compliance from the member.
The member who follows Mariadas and Shrimat will start their day at
4.00am and will be busy until they sleep at night. If they are not
busy meditating or earning an income they will be kept busy doing
“service”. There is no room for free will, only loyalty, obedience and
“cooperation”. The net effect is an almost permanent state of
tiredness or exhaustion.

6. There will be total control over almost all aspects of the private
lives of members. This control can be direct through communal living,
or constant and repetitious teaching on how to be a true Christian (or
member) or being obedient to leadership.

Members will look to their seniors for guidance in everything they do.
A good student will follow Shrimat. They will not make a decision
about their lives without consulting seniors in order to get shrimat.
Their lives are heavily influenced by seniors in this way, and in the
process the seniors will come to know the detail of the member’s life.
A good student would not risk making a mistake and accumulate even
more bad karma by either not consulting a senior or by disobeying
shrimat.

Shrimat will commonly include instructions to donate money, to
dissociate from family and friends, to give up ones career, to only
eat food cooked by other members, to not watch television and movies
or read books and magazines, and to give up all “worldly interest”.

7. Any dissent or questioning of the group’s teachings is discouraged.
Criticism in any form is seen as rebellion. There will be an emphasis
on authority, unquestioning obedience and submission. This is
vigilantly maintained.

Questioning or doubts are the sign of a weak intellect. Dissent means
the soul is under the influence of past bad karma and is the proof of
past sin. The senior sisters especially are to never be challenged. To
do so is proof of ignorance. Any member who continues to dissent will
be excommunicated.

9. Members are required to demonstrate their loyalty to the group in
some way. This could be in the form of informing on fellow members
(including family) under the guise of looking out for their ’spiritual
welfare’. They may be required to deliberately lie (heavenly
deception) or give up their lives by refusing some form of medical
treatment.

In the BKWSU members would demonstrate their loyalty through their
financial support, commitment to service and obedience. They would
follow the party line publicly and talk the talk. They adopt the view
that they are one family – a divine family of future deities and act
according to the rules of the family – [Maryadas].

10. Attempts to leave or reveal embarrassing facts about the group may
be met with threats. Some may have taken oaths of loyalty that involve
their lives or have signed a covenant and feel threatened by this.

Ranjana and Sharad both demonstrated the state of mind one experiences
when leaving the BKWSU. They were indoctrinated into the belief that
any form of dissent is a mortal sin that they will be burdened with it
for all eternity. Therefore the system is never challenged and the
status quo within the organisation is not interrupted. People leave,
are crushed by the belief system that they had been manipulated by
during their membership, and will suffer severe depression and may
suicide. But they do not dissent.

The BKWSU have generally maintained a ’softly softly’ approach in
public to all issues. They have no concern for those who leave – hence
this website. Former members may be encouraged to return, but BKWSU
teachings recommend leaving ex-members alone in case existing members
become ‘trapped’ trying to help them and leave as well.

Ex-members are so affected by guilt that they rarely become dissenters
even after they leave.

BKWSU Watch
10 Comments By LIz Bywater, January 16, 2009 @ 9:58 am

I need to say that this is very shocking reading – I ‘joined’ in 1985
– have deep concerns and would like to discuss further if poss

By editor, January 17, 2009 @ 10:00 pm

Yes, as a BK this information is very disturbing. When one puts ones
heart and soul into their spiritual life it is a matter of grief to
even think that one may have been misled or deceived. This is why
typically exBks feel so betrayed and let down. The reality that the
organisation that you have committed everything to is a cult is
overwhelming.

However, denial is not any kind of protection against reality. Facts
are facts and these are different to beliefs that pass as facts to a
believer.

Our wish is that the BKWSU management would overcome its own
egocentric agendas and just practise openness and transparency. Is it
right that so many secrets are kept from the students? For example,
why is it not okay to know what happens to the money you put in the
donation box?

Is it right that there is no duty of care?

TS Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:32 pm

good point editor..!

By Thomas, April 29, 2009 @ 9:56 am

Once, when I was very young, I was taken from my home and sent to a
place surrounded by high fences and guards. I was forced to have my
head shaved, forced to wear the same clothes as all the others in the
camp, deprived of sleep, forced to work long 14 hour days, and made to
watch indoctrination filmss depicting those who took me away as the
only right-and-good way while vilifying all other groups.

I was, of course, drafted into the Army. If this isn’t the definition
of a cult, I don’t know what is.

I say this because I’ve spent my entire life looking into various
religious groups – some classified as cults, and have read a lot of
liturature by anti-cult groups. In addition to this I’ve completed a
masters degree in Education where my thesis’ focus was on why we learn
what we learn – not on what we learn, but why. The conclusion of my
thesis was that we’re all brainwashed from birth to think a certain
way – first by our parents and immediate family, then our extended
family, then community, then religious leaders, then our country and
it’s leaders.

Very few of us ever begin to think for ourselves. Most of us just go
along with the herd mentality – doing and saying what we’ve heard
others say and do. That, too, is a cult.

So take care how you define a cult. Asking anti-cult groups to define
appropriate religion is a little like asking the KKK to define
humanity. Their opinion is based on a predisposed point of view.

Just my thoughts.

editor Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

Yes – the sociologists quest for objectivity rings clearly here. I
agree with you. The purpose of this site is to put an argument out
into the public domain in order to create a counter point of view to
the singularly one sided, subjective position that exists at the
moment. Hopefully this will get people to think more for themselves or
at least be a little better informed.

another one suckered Reply:
May 1st, 2009 at 4:28 am

Thomas, were you “taken” or did you sign up for a wage?

There is two big difference between the Army and basically all cults;

• Firstly, you get paid … if you are lucky, they will even throw in a
professional or university education and a pension.
• Secondly, what it says on the label you get what … you know what you
are in for before you do.

One specific difference between the US Army and the Shiv Shakti Army
(BKWSU), is at least in the Army you a day a week off, paid holidays
and some R&R. With the BKWSU, its 24/7/365 … and no “love you long
time” or the rest of your life!!!

But, my friend, your ‘edukashun’ is kind of incomplete. There are a
lot more sides to the debate than “culties” versus “anti-culties” …
and one set of excesses do not excuse another.

Equally, there are a number of “cult apologists” who try and put down
and discredit ex-members for being ‘apostates’ when, in fact, the
apologists know Jack Shit about the religion in question that they are
sucking up to, nor cares 2 cents for any of the families that are torn
to pieces by these groups. The likes of Eileen Barker rings out as
being one of them.

So, take care what tar you are throwing around at the end of that
broad brush of yours … it might be someone in your family next.

Thomas Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 10:07 am

What is so difficult to understand about the phrase: “I was…
drafted…”?

Granted, I received benefits from my time serving my rich uncle, but
it’s the criteria anti-cultists use to define a group as a cult that I
was commenting on. If they apply, then they apply, simple and straight-
forward. If they don’t apply to certain organizations (Army, etc),
then maybe the anti-cultists are in error in applying them to groups
they deem are cults. It could be a personal proclivity of the examiner
and nothing more.

re: “nor cares 2 cents for any of the families that are torn to
pieces”. Family dynamics being what they are, chances are that if the
family in question wasn’t “torn to pieces” by the “cult”, then it
would have been torn to pieces by some other arrangement of life. The
“cult” may just be a convenient scapegoat for their own inadequacies.
A person’s destructive tendencies follow a person no matter where he/
she goes in life. It’s always easy to blame others for our failures.

I’ve spent my entire life fighting against prejudice and bigotry. I’ve
seen it in both camps: religious and secular.

When I ask side “A” a serious and potentially damaging question, they
think I belong to side “B”. When I ask the same question to side “B”
they think I’m part of side “A”. If by some miracle I convince both
sides I’m not a plant for the other side, then they think I’m part of
some covert operation of some side “C”. Sort of like a damned-if-you-
do-damned-if-you-don’t situation.

Lastly… I knew “Jack Shit”. He was an asshole.

editor Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

Yes it is very possible that the damage done to families and
individuals through their association with the BKs may have happened
somewhere else and at some other time. As it is human nature to
believe whatever they need or want to believe it can be a case of “if
not this cult then that cult/religion/society/association/whatever.

BUT, the fact is that in these cases it did happen at the BKWSU and
the BKs did nothing to help – which is contrary to their core promises
of peace, love and happiness – putting it politely. Again and again it
comes back to duty of care. The BKWSU is responsible to have a
reasonable duty of care policy and practise that does look out for the
people that come to them. But they deny their share of responsibility
in these matters and that is the core of the problem.

By Wayne, December 23, 2009 @ 4:38 am

I stumbled on this web site, after watching Dada Janki on U Tube. And,
yes, I was impressed. She seemed to embody an authetic relaxation into
the self. Rather than the apparent constant opposites, bangs and
clash. Sometimes there seems no end to this, prehaps there lies my
gulibilty to beleive she is true. I put forward my own case as
example, can be sure! Conflict in my mind and the fixing of it is my
central occupation.

Sad to see this site. My blessing to all of You!

Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga is Probably a Cult - But Yoga Alliance? |
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Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga is Probably a Cult – But Yoga Alliance?
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:44am |

I recently saw an ad on Craigslist for free meditation classes. They
did not include a link to their website, but I gleaned from the email
address provided that the organization was Brahma Kumaris, an
organization that describes itself as a “spiritual university”
teaching Raja Yoga. (Raja Yoga, i.e., “royal yoga,” is the yoga of
meditation as originally described by Pantanjali in the Yoga Sutras.)

I always like to know what I’m getting into and a quick search on the
Internet reveals that Brahma Kumaris is considered a cult by many.
Brahma Kumaris has some heavy duty critics. It’s apparently not just
your usual yoga cult – this one is a “doomsday cult,” where the belief
is that the world will end soon and those who participate in Brahma
Kumaris will ascend to become deities in the new Golden Age.

The doomsday stuff was enough to convince me that the free meditation
classes probably weren’t worth my time. I also shy away from
organizations that rely on guilt-trip donations and do a heavy sell on
tithing.

But I’m not automatically scared off by cult charges. I regularly take
kundalini yoga classes even though the kundalini yoga organization,
3HO, has been considered a cult for a long time. In both organizations
you’ll find vegetarians who get up at 4 am for meditation, wear all
white, and follow other strict rules for living.

Most of the kundalini yoga teachers I go to actually do seem to be
“Happy Healthy and Holy” as the 3HO name suggests. These are fantastic
spiritual teachers who really do seem to walk the talk. I can tell
you, however, from the stories that these folks tell, that I would
have never gotten along with Yogi Bhajan. I am too independent by
nature. Regular life in an ashram wouldn’t sit well with me. As I
mentioned in my last blog post, I believe there are some people who
want direction and authority in their lives, and that makes them
happy. As long as they aren’t harmed by it, it’s fine with me. If they
want to wear all white and wake up at 4 am to take a cold shower every
morning, then more power to them. No 3HO member has ever given me a
high pressure sell in any kundalini yoga class, ever. I’ve never been
asked to tithe away my live savings, though I suppose yoga classes can
add up.

I do think, though, that it’s good to be skeptical of charismatic
leaders and rigid authority, whether it’s yoga or not. I know of a
teacher (not a yoga teacher) who has such tight control of her little
community that her students are emotional prisoners. Rather than
encouraging the students to leave the nest for bigger and better
things, the teacher has emotionally crippled the students so they are
dependent on her.

From observing that, I don’t think it’s meditation or yoga that
creates a cult, but psychological manipulation, which can occur
without these things. People are drawn to yoga-specific cults because
meditation and yoga does bring such tremendous benefits.

So some cult watchers go a bit too far, perhaps, when they bash
spiritual organizations simply for being weird, or having problem
people in it. (Yes, apparently some guy at 3HO was growing marijuana
but what does that have to do with the rest of the sincere members?)
Leading anti-cult guru (irony intended) Rick Ross has actually gone so
far as to warn people against Yoga Alliance, simply because some board
members were involved in 3HO and other yoga organizations he deems
cults. He wrote back in 2003:

“Anyone considering yoga classes with teachers and/or schools
registered by the Yoga Alliance might want to exercise a bit of
caution, before beginning any of their exercises.”

A bit over the top, I think. Well, maybe he was unaware that Yoga
Alliance is pretty much the de facto yoga certifying organization in
America, and that almost all mainstream yoga teachers in the US have
their certification through them now.

At any rate, I personally like to keep my toe into organizations
without jumping full in to the point where an organization takes over
my life. I enjoy the exercises and meditations I have learned in
kundalini yoga, but I do not need to go full on American Sikh in white
clothes and a turban to benefit. If it works for you, great, but it’s
not for me. But I think the key here is that kundalini yoga people
allow you to be who you are – on the other hand, those strict
organizations that are the cults to be wary of do not.

Posted in Gurus and Celebrity Yogis, Kundalini Yoga

Comment 5 Responses to “Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga is Probably a Cult –
But Yoga Alliance?”

December 2nd, 2008 at 10:27 am Rick

You say you aren’t put off by accusations of organisations being cults
– but only refer to an example where you have got to know the
organisation yourself. Shouldn’t you give this organisation the same
consideration before making harmful accusations based on what appears
to be zero personal experience of them?

December 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 pm Stephanie

I started taking kundalini yoga classes at Golden Bridge from a
recommendation from a friend. It’s a pretty well-known yoga center
here in Los Angeles and as such there’s a context for me, whereas
Brahmas Kumaris is an unknown organization that is actively recruiting
through Craigslist.

Of course I’m going to be more suspicious of the organization I’ve
never heard of that has been identified as a “doomsday cult.” I had
also done homework on 3HO and knew of the Yoga Bhajan controversies.
My take on kundalini yoga is that it’s a useful practice and whether
or not Bhajan was a sincere guru doesn’t really matter to me at this
point. He did not create kundalini yoga – he just brought it with him
from India. I’m not interested in getting deeper and giving up my
normal clothes and make-up to become a Sikh however…but the point is,
the 3HO people don’t seem to be interested in heavy recruiting like
other “cults” appear to be.

December 20th, 2008 at 8:41 pm Yogi

One of the beefs that I have with the Brahma Kumaris is that they have
sucked up practically every Hindu deities name you could imagine … AND
the classical term “Raja Yoga” … to describe their own practises which
are specifically mediumistic rather than yogic.

The Brahma Kumaris DO NOT teach Raja Yoga. They teach their own
practise. Raja Yoga has a 2,000 year tradition. The BK’s practise only
goes back as far as the 1950s. The focus of their “yoga” is a
channeled spirit entity or entities which speaks and acts through the
sect’s mediums at its headquarters. They believe this entity to be
“the god of all religions”, their religion to be the supreme one,
themselves to be becoming angels … all other religions and all the and
Hind dieties to be only poor or partial “memories” of their religion.

Any spiritual master worth their salt would encourage students to do
their homework first and check out their would be master’s lineage.
That requires people to dig a little bit deeper than the
organization’s own PR and the wide eyed “intoxication” of its neophyte
devotees.

The big problem with the Brahma Kumaris is … why all the secrecy? Why
do they expect people to initiated into a relationships with this
spirit entity BEFORE they know ‘the big picture’.

In the BKs case, the big picture included an imminent and desirable
nuclear holocaust and the death of 6 billion human being to “purify”
the world in order that they leadership can rule a “golden age” on
earth as Emperors and Empresses for 2,500 years starting off with only
900,000 of their faithful followers. All of time fitting into one
single, identically repeating 5,000 Year Cycle.

The downside with the BKs is that getting to the truth is difficult.
They are steeped into their own historical revisionism. The reports of
multiple suicides amongst their followers and the leaderships handling
of the child sex abuse cases at their headquarters are abysmal.

In this case, starting with the critics and gauging the organization’s
response to those criticism, might be the best way of learning about
the reality before you surrender your life to them.

January 25th, 2009 at 4:53 am Daljit

I agree with Stephaine, there are lot of people promoting yoga, but
yoga is a philosophy in itself and nobody can claim its ownership.

People start yoga practice for getting fit and very few for spiritual
upliftment. Anybody can do yoga, it will certainly help you to
progress in your spiritual progress irrespective of the religion you
follow.

I am from India and here people of all religions do yoga and never
feel about shedding their religious beliefs. Those who seriously
become real yogis, they are above religion.

“3HO people don’t seem to be interested in heavy recruiting like other
“cults” appear to be.” This seems to be a better philosophy, yoga is
not for recruiting people to your way of life but to help people to
live better.

October 31st, 2009 at 12:40 pm TS

I quite agree that yoga is really nice, and keeps you active and
healthy – so refreshed

http://namasteph.com/gurus-and-celebrity-yogis/brahma-kumaris-raja-yoga-is-probably-a-cult-but-yoga-alliance/

http://bkwsuwatch.com/about/identifying-a-cult/

Deception, Disguises and Fronts

The BKWSU engage in many forms of deception. To this end they disguise
who they really are and engage with the world wearing a variety of
masks, using a variety of methods, and includes tax fraud and
pretending to be a charity. This is covered in the next few pages.

The BKWSU has an agenda. They want to fill their ranks to 900,000
dedicated members. According to their teachings that is the number at
which the world will be destroyed. Soon after that paradise will arise
from the radioactive ashes of hell and they will live as deities.
However, there is a dilemma: how to openly and honestly reveal such an
agenda and still be taken seriously? Clearly they have realized they
can’t and have opted to be taken seriously – even if they have to
engage in a process of deception to achieve this.

It is also a consideration that the collective ego of BKWSU management
simply cannot cope with any accusation that they are nutters. But what
else would you think if they told you that God is teaching them
directly and exclusively, that the world was supposed to end in 1976
but that they are still waiting, that time repeats identically every
5000 years (yes you read all of this 5000 years ago and will do again
in another 5000 years)?

Senior management is deeply concerned with the public persona of the
BKWSU. It has been determinedly managed and is protected with
ferocity. They do not tolerate dissent within their ranks and are
especially sensitive to public dissent. They simply don’t want the
public to know what they truly believe or what their true motives are.
The irony appears to be lost on them, but their primary effort is to
hide what they truly believe – their very reason for existing in the
first place. This is evidenced by the fact that nowhere in the BKWSU
websites, advertising material, or anywhere in their public presence
will you find any reference to what they truly believe.

Instead they hide behind a deception of concern for you and the world.
This is the cynical type of deception for which Pol Pot was noted.
This is only the beginning however. The nature and form of deception
continues to evolve. It begins with the claim to be teaching Raja
Yoga.

Raja Yoga. One of the most prominent and effective marketing tools the
BKWSU has employed for decades is its false claim to be teaching Raja
Yoga. Patanjali is regarded in India as the creator of Raja Yoga,
which is well respected in India and considered one of the highest
paths to enlightenment by many. Patanjali created Raja Yoga before
Christ. The BKWSU do not teach anything resembling Patanjalis Raja
Yoga or anything from the Yoga Sutras. Quite the opposite – the BKWSU
teach that all knowledge created by humans – including Patanjali – is
impure and flawed.

Cynically they advertise that they teach “ancient Raja Yoga” playing
on peoples’ interest in the genuine Raja Yoga. A gullible general
membership will say that it is ancient because they taught it 5,000
years ago.

The meditation centres in Australia and other countries went under the
banner of “Raja Yoga Centres” for many years before switching cover
and referring to themselves as a university. It is still the favourite
marketing tool however and a search on the internet will take you to
many sites labelled Raja Yoga that are BK fronts.

A University. The use of the term ‘university’ is not only misleading
but in most countries illegal. It is certainly not a university. There
are no publicly accredited courses, qualifications or even a basic
structure that might identify it as a place of learning at all. One
has to be a cult member to even attend regular classes – which are
nothing other than a process of mind control anyway.

Fronts. The BKWSU have more fronts and disguises than can be counted.
They also present public programs, projects, conferences, services and
the like under a variety of banners as well. The latest is a program,
initiated in Wembley and transported around the world, called “Just a
Minute”. The program is typically innocuous and encourages people to
take just one minute at a time to meditate and be calm. Nice idea. In
reality it is just an exersize in working their VIPs’ – giving them a
stage and an audience, making them feel all warm and fuzzy and a bit
closer to the final entrapment. They are also casting their nets as
they look to increase their numbers and to replace the devastated
people they have left behind.

Oxford Leadership Academy and Relax7. These two programs are run by
long term senior ‘brothers’ who have refined the art of entrapment to
a high degree and manage to turn a profit at the same time. Relaxkids
is a business operated by a ’sister’ who was indoctrinated as a child
and who allows the BKWSU to exploit her business for the recruitment
of children.

To read more on these click on the relevant link: Relax7, Oxford
Leadership Academy, Relaxkids

convert this post to pdf.

BKWSU Watch

3 Comments By Ed, June 15, 2009 @ 7:15 am

I notice also that they teach empowerment and confidence building
classes thus lining themselves up with New Age and Personal Growth
themes already common in society.This is the way that they infiltrate
into society by presenting quite a legitimate and acceptable front.

By citizen smith, January 19, 2010 @ 9:25 pm

Ive just lost my soulmate best friend and my wife to a 61yr old frank
wylie, He says he a buddhist a member of the sheff green party and
really into brahma kumaris and has now got her reading all bowt brahma
and im worried bowt her, she intelligent in her own field but really
not in others, she very addictive person, Im worried big time she
gonna get hurt !!!! She got loadsa good mates away from me but they
aswell are worried bowt the hold this frank wylie has on her

By TS, February 2, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

JUST TELL HER PLEASE THAT THEY ARE A WASTE OF TIME AND WILL RUIN YOUR
HEART MORE THAN GOOD THAT THEY SEEM TO CLAIM. I HOPE YOU GET YOUR
FRIEND BACK SOON.

http://bkwsuwatch.com/deception-disguises-and-fronts/

Tax Fraud & False Claims

The BKWSU is a well organised, well run fiefdom. The acceptance of
what is effectively a monarchy by the general membership and the
closed door policy of the ruling inner circle has resulted in a
complete lack of transparency. This in turn has given sufficient
opportunity for BKWSU management to employ whatever means it deems
necessary to advance it’s financial agenda. Given the propensity for
deception as discussed in previous pages, deception in financial
dealings would not then come as a surprise. The principle
consideration here is the deception for financial gain of the British
Charities Commission by the BKWSU.

Included on this page are the Financial Reports submitted to the
British Charities Commission as required by law. They reveal both the
significant amount of money the Brahma Kumaris are dealing with in the
UK and the highly questionable nature of their claim to be a charity.

The deception begins with the withholding of financial information
from the general membership. No member will have any information about
what happens to donations they give, or any idea of the financial
status of their BK centre. Once the funds have been transferred to
higher levels there is no idea what goes on – there is no transparency
at all. As the BKWSU deal mostly in cash there is no way of saying how
much of their true income is actually declared.

Whilst the bulk of donations to the organisation is cash, donations
come in a variety of forms. Members are indoctrinated into giving
everything they possibly can in any way they can. This may include
gold and jewellery (the BKWSU has a high number of Indian members who
will give in this way), property, cars and inheritances. The BKWSU
hold funds in networks of private bank accounts and trusts. it has
been reported that they have also moved undeclared cash and jewellery
internationally, and hold property in individual names.

In the United Kingdom alone The Brahma Kumaris have successfully
avoided paying tax on over £18,000,000 (including £3,000,000 cash in
the bank). Evidence provided below demonstrates that they have mislead
the Charities Commission in order to claim charitable status. As a
registered charity they are not required to pay tax and also gain an
entitlement to tax refunds.

In order to get charitable status in the UK an organisation has to
comply with the requirements of the Statute of Elizabeth. This statute
requires that a charity fulfils certain basic criteria. The Brahma
Kumaris fulfil none of these however they have falsely stated that
they do.

This is page 3 from their 2006 Financial Report to the British
Charities Commission:

False Claim

Firstly they claim that they “PROMOTE THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE HINDU
RELIGION AND OTHER RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD.” An examination of BK
beliefs reveals that their teachings state that they are not Hindus,
that they teach a conflicting philosophy to Hinduism (notably in their
interpretation of God, soul and reincarnation) and that they preach
that all religions are impure and theirs is the only true religion.

The Brahma Kumaris often exploit the title “Raja Yoga” or “the Ancient
Raja Yoga” appearing to make reference to Hinduism. But they preach
that God Shiva teaches them directly and exclusively a form of
meditation that is unique to them and which they have chosen to call
Raja Yoga because it is the Supreme Yoga, or Highest Yoga.

Their participation in Hindu festivals etc is only as a front in order
to fish for new members. They have no involvement with traditional
religion. In reality the only religion they promote is their own.

Senior BKWSU management know that this claim is false.

Secondly they claim “TO PROMOTE STUDIES OF AND RESEARCH IN THE FIELD
OF HINDU RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY, YOGA (VARIOUS TECHNIQUES OF
CONCENTRATION AS DEFINED AND DISCUSSED IN HINDU SCRIPTURES) AND TO
MAKE KNOWN THE RESULTS OF SUCH STUDIES AND RESEARCH. This claim is
very far from any activity of the BKWSU past or present. No general
member of the Brahma Kumaris will be aware that this is a declared
intention of the organisation or will have participated in such an
activity. No research or study has ever been done and so naturally no
results have been made known. They do not have the personnel or
infrastructure to do so. A review of their balance sheets will confirm
this.

This claim is also false.

Thirdly they claim “TO RELIEVE POVERTY, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL SICKNESS
AND DISTRESS.” For the BKWSU to make this claim is cynical and
deplorable. They have no agenda for this at all.

Members are strongly discouraged from helping others in any material
way at all, and it is strictly against the organizations policy to
utilise resources in that way. The Brahma Kumaris preach that material
poverty and suffering is the result of bad karma and to help such a
person materially is only to support that bad karma or weaknesses.
They believe that the only way you can help them, ultimately, is by
making them a member.

Importantly the Brahma Kumaris do not consult, employ or engage mental
health practitioners or health professionals. How is it they intend to
relieve mental or physical sickness when they have zero capacity to do
so? It is also clear from the following financial reports that there
is zero expenditure in this regard. There is simply no intention to
fulfill this stated aim.

Given that this site is dedicated to the trauma and suffering of BKWSU
membership past and present and to those who have committed suicide as
a result, the only valid claim is that they cause mental illness and
distress. Their claim to relieve mental and physical sickness and
distress is an appalling abuse of the right to claim charitable
status.

The Financial Reports:

Public disclosure of the Financial Reports of charities has enabled us
to draw to public attention the contradictions revealed by those
reports against claims made by the BKWSU management. We have the
reports for 2005 and 2006, which are the latest submitted.

Below is page one of a legally required report submitted by the BKWSU
Trustees to the Charities Commission:

As we have already highlighted, none of what they claim above is true.
A survey of the general membership would establish this beyond doubt.

Below is page two of the report:

There are two parts to this statement – to identify suitable
properties and to further ‘primary objectives’. As previously
discussed, the primary objectives are false claims to promote religion
and relieve poverty etc. To ‘identify suitable properties’ is BK talk
for accumulating properties. This they have been very good at. In
later reports you will see that they have accumulated well over £10
million pounds in free hold property – all with untaxed money.

And page three reveals how relaxed the Charities Commission is:

The answer the Brahma Kumaris give to the question of success is vague
and unsupported by any data – it is the response of amateurs not of an
organisation that is responsible for millions of pounds of
“charitable” funds and assets. This is just form filling with no
intention for the answer to be taken seriously by anyone.

The fact is the BKWSU management have no mechanism to determine the
success of its’ strategy beyond the value of properties accumulated,
the number of people who attended their courses, or the number of
‘recruitment’ programs they instigated and the number of attendees. In
reality the success of any zone is determined by the number of
problems they are, or are not, dealing with. Senior management have no
idea about the “general happiness, lack of stress, esteem or positive
outlook” of its students/members because no study or research is done,
nor is there anyone professionally qualified to have an opinion on
these matters.

And lastly, perhaps to highlight the obvious, how does “general
happiness, lack of stress, high esteem and general positive outlook of
the Brahma Kumaris own students”, as their own measure of success,
relate to their stated aim of “promoting of religion, religious
education and relief of poverty”? It just doesn’t. They also certainly
demonstrate zero consideration for anyone outside their own fold,
which is also contrary to their stated aim.

The next page of the report they state that “the charity played a
great role not only in financial assistance to the Tsunami victims but
also that of spiritual help which involves meditation and positive
thinking”. However, looking closer one can see an income of £1,586,000
and an expenditure of £1,041,000 leaving a profit of £545,000. Most of
this profit they later state that they used to buy a new retreat
centre. It makes a mockery of the £69,000 in financial assistance they
gave and then claim as a “great role”. Even more questionable is the
claim that they (in the U.K.), also claiming to be a Hindu
organisation, taught the traumatised survivors of the Tsunami – who
were mostly Indonesian Muslims – meditation and positive thinking!
This may be considered cynical or dishonourable.

In question 5b the BKWSU states that its’ most charitable act of the
year was in giving £69,000 in Tsunami relief. This was out of the
£1,586,000 available to them and with a £545,000 cash surplus for the
year. You can also see in 5c that this £69,000 was actually raised
from their membership as an extra and was in fact not part of their
regular “charitable” activities. In reality, the most significant
charitable act of the year was an anomaly. It would also be the only
actual charitable financial donation the BKWSU has ever given.

The next page of the report reveals further how confused Brahma
Kumaris management is about their purpose. On one hand they believe
that God is teaching them directly and exclusively, that they are the
only true children of God and that salvation for any person lies only
in becoming a student / member of the BKWSU. On the other hand they
teach self management and self leadership courses that are designed
and licensed to them by a corporate consultant – Brian Bacon. How do
these “enable a greater understanding of the self and supreme soul”?
Again, The Brahma Kumaris have created a façade to hide who they
really are, what they really believe, and what their true intentions
and purpose are.

And they finish with a Freudian slip – “the charity’s trustees ensure
that it co-opts proffessional individuals and sets up management
committees to run every department of its charity to ensure aa
proffessional and accurate running of the charity.” (The italics are
ours). They can neither spell nor write a grammatically correct
sentence. We are reassured to see that they are employing
professionals!

The 2006 report is also quite revealing of false claims and dodgy
dealings, notably including BKIS – a publishing company owned by the
BKWSU but which conflicts with charity tax laws. According to BK
preachings the organisations entire income must be derived from within
the “Divine Family” i.e.: those who have recognised that Shiva is God
and that He is teaching through Brahma. However, in order to propagate
their teachings, and turn a profit (also against their preachings),
they have established a publishing capacity. However, due to governing
charity laws, they cannot engage in business. So they sell books and
DVDs which make a profit, but how to get the profit out and back into
their own coffers? Simple, charge a “management fee”. This is walking
a fine line, but as we have seen the BKWSU management are very good at
this. This is evidenced in the following graphics:

In (1) you can see the list of products for sale. In (2) is
demonstrated the clear link between the BKWSU and BKIS. And in (3) it
becomes clear that the beloved leader, Dadi Janki, is both a common
denominator and willing participant in this deception. The “management
fee” is highlighted here:

The BKWSU management is deceiving its’ own members by practising
hypocrisy. They are also lying to both the Charities Commission and
the Tax Commissioner – there is absolutely nothing independent or
professional about this. They are extracting the profits from BKIS
before the Tax Commissioner gets his bit with a phoney management fee.
And the BKWSU gets its’ profit without declaring it as such to the
Charity Commission.

How do the BKWSU get away with all this? It is a case of chronic
nepotism and manipulating contacts – notably the use of its’ own
membership as Financial Auditor – a significant conflict of interest.

Firstly we see that trustees serve until they resign and that new
members are appointed by the existing board – guaranteed to keep
things in house and away from prying, untrustworthy eyes.

As for the “chief executive” – in reality there is no such thing. The
Brahma Kumaris are effectively ruled by a monarch, that being Dadi
Janki. She holds absolute control and has, in reality, the power to
appoint or terminate trustees. The assistance given by trustees is
really the help provided by sicophants at her grace. As she has total
control over the organisation the available cash becomes, in effect,
her discretionary income. According to the 2006 Financial Statement
this sits at over £3,000,000.

An email was sent to the auditor of the BKWSU financial reports Jay
and Co requesting information about the relationship between the
auditor and the Brahma Kumaris. The following reply was received:

“I have been a BK was some 15 yeas and folow maryadas as much as
possible as being in the family who cooperate but are not BKs one has
to balance and cannot be complete”.

The author is Jayanti (not Jayanti the senior BK manager) who, in his
grammatically challenged statement, has stated that he has been
closely associated with the BKWSU for 15 years. His reference to
“being complete” reflects his guilt in not following all the mariadas.
It is also a reflection of his indoctrination into the BK teachings.
This makes him available to manipulation by BKWSU management. This
type of manipulation and use and abuse of “cooperative souls” is
typical of the Brahma Kumaris throughout the world.

The Charity Commissions report can be viewed at:

www.charitiesdirect.com/CharityDetail.asp?orgid=5965

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University

Also Known As : World Renewal Spiritual Trust (UK)
Address : Global Co-operation House
65 Pound LaneLondonNW10 2HH
Tel : 020 8727 3350
Charity Registration Number : 269971
Founded : 1975
Constitution : Trust

http://bkwsuwatch.com/deception-disguises-and-fronts/financial-deception/

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Another BK suicide - open letter to Jayanti
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Your Taxes, their Golden Age: funding the end of the World
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Publication Details

ISBN: 1-4392-4504-5
ISBN-13: 9781439245040
Library of Congress: 2009909311
Published By: Babbling Brook Press

Copyright © 2001 - 2009 Michael R Finch
All Rights Reserved

Back Cover Text

For thirty-one years I gave my total allegiance, my energy, my
devotion, my dreams, my time, and my love to Guru Maharaji (the Lord
of the Universe, Prem Rawat). I also gave him and his organizations
two inheritances, a house, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. As
Maharaji’s former chauffeur I was close to him personally; I lived as
a renunciate in his ashrams, and was later authorized and empowered to
reveal his secret teachings (the ‘Knowledge’).

‘Without The Guru’ is a narrative of my time with Maharaji, and my
struggle to surrender my life to him and to achieve the liberation
that he promised. It is a story of being confined within a rigid
belief system, realizing it, and discovering how to break out from it.
It is a story of how I came to live, think, feel, behave, and love,
without ‘the Guru’, meaning both Maharaji, as the actual guru in my
own life; and in a more general sense of learning to face myself and
the world without any intermediary or negotiator, of any kind, in
between.

Mike, you have grown a great deal through the ordeal of leaving
Maharaji, so he helped you flourish after all, though probably not in
the way that he intended.
– Larry Rosenberg, author ‘Breath by Breath’ and ‘Living in the Light
of Death’; founder and guiding teacher at the Cambridge Insight
Meditation Center and senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Society
in Barre MA, USA.

Contents and Sample Chapter
You can see the front pages, contents, and chapter one, in this PDF.

Publication Details

ISBN: 1-4392-4504-5
ISBN-13: 9781439245040
Library of Congress: 2009909311
Published By: Babbling Brook Press

Press Release

On December 07 2009, this press release went out in the USA.

http://www.mikefinch.com/img/wtg_sample.pdf

Former disciple and chauffeur of Guru Maharaji Ji, Prem Rawat, reveals
how and why he left the cult to reclaim his life

Without the Guru by Michael Finch explores how to face life’s
questions without the control of a guru

December 7, 2009 – Without the Guru: How I Took my Life Back After
Thirty Years by Michael Finch narrates how he broke free of what he
felt was a suffocating, rigid belief system and learned to think for
himself.

Many people are dissatisfied by the religious aspects of spirituality,
yet science alone fails to fill that need, claims author Finch. These
individuals sometime turn to gurus, as Finch did, with the potentially
negative results he chronicles in Without the Guru.

In the book, Finch reveals how he gave his total allegiance, love and
money to Guru Maharaji Ji as well as to the guru’s organizations,
Divine Light Mission and Elan Vital. This included two inheritances, a
house and thousands of dollars. As the guru’s former chauffeur, he
lived for several years as a renunciate in the ashram and later was
authorized to reveal the secret teachings. But gradually, he began to
feel more and more trapped, and struggled to find his way out and
discover a life of his own making.

Both a memoir and a narrative of Finch’s time with the guru, Without
the Guru explores the importance of thinking for oneself rather than
adhering to anyone else’s belief system. While it examines the
popularity of cults and the seductive atmosphere they generate, Finch
also champions how to find answers within the context of one’s own
life and details the process that led Finch to face life’s main issues
on his own terms—and his own two feet.

Without the Guru: How I Took my Life Back After Thirty Years is
available for sale online at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, BookSurge.com,
and through additional wholesale and retail channels worldwide.

About the Author

Michael Finch received his doctorate in mathematics and theoretical
physics. After a year in a Buddhist monastery, he became a dedicated
follower of Guru Maharaji Ji in 1970, and left the guru in 2001.
Awarded a fellowship from the International Society for Philosophers,
he now explores how philosophy meets meditation.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Michael Finch
Email: m...@sent.com
Phone:
Web: www.mikefinch.com
www.babblingBrookPress.net
REVIEW COPIES AND INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE

http://www.mikefinch.com/img/pressRelease.pdf

Welcome to the Prem Rawat aka Maharaji Information Resource
Please refer to news.

This web site has been developed by ex followers of Prem Pal Singh
Rawat, otherwise known as Maharaji, Guru Maharaj Ji or Balyogeshwar.
While other online sources of information about Prem Rawat exist,
their content is often not easily accessible to outsiders of the
movement. The purpose of this website is to provide an information
resource for the media and those interested in the character and
history of Prem Rawat and the organizations that support and promote
him.

Please refer to the Prem Rawat Critique website for a commentary (May
31st, 2007) on the Lord Mayor's Appeal.

This website should in no way be construed as an official publication
of either Prem Rawat, also called Maharaji, or the organizations that
promote him, which include Elan Vital, the Prem Rawat Foundation and
Raj Vidya Kender. On the contrary, it stands as a counterpoint to the
statements of the official Prem Rawat organs.

The authors of this website have gone to great efforts to create an
objective and broad-ranging account of Prem Rawat and his movement. It
is not our intention to attack him or his followers, or in any way
restrict their right of religious freedom. Rather these pages provide
a point of reference for both journalists and those who are interested
in the activities and philosophy of Mr. Rawat and the organizations
that support and promote him.

In the past several years people who have chosen to publicly criticise
Prem Rawat and his supporting organizations have been met with threats
and harassment from his followers; as a result the authors of this
website feel forced to remain anonymous. On the contact page is an e-
mail address where journalists and researchers can make direct contact
for further information and copies of documentary evidence.

One of the challenges presented in making any appraisal of the history
of Prem Rawat is the variety of names applied to both Rawat and his
supporting organizations. Throughout the pages of this website the
names used are those that are most chronologically appropriate. When
Prem Rawat first came to the West in the seventies, he was referred to
as Guru Maharaj Ji or Guru Maharaji. In India he was also called
Balyogeshwar. His first organizations were called Divine Light Mission
(DLM) and Divine United Organization (DUO). Later in the eighties he
started referring to himself as Maharaji and the various Divine Light
Mission organizations were gradually replaced by entities with the
name Elan Vital. Today he typically uses his given name, Prem Rawat,
and his newest organization is called The Prem Rawat Foundation. In
1974 a legal battle saw him lose control of the Divine Light Mission
in India to his mother and elder brother. With the loss of the Indian
DLM, the promotional organization for Prem Rawat in India became
Divine United Organization, which has now been renamed Raj Vidya
Kender.

All attempts have been made to present a truthful account of events
depicted. The authors welcome corrections to any inaccuracies that may
have inadvertently been applied to the website's content. Whether you
are a journalist, someone who is interested in Prem Rawat's message, a
current or ex-follower, or simply curious; we hope you will find the
information on this website helpful in your quest to learn more about
Prem Rawat AKA Maharaji.

Prem Rawat (aka Maharaji, aka Guru Maharaj Ji) dressed in traditional
Indian garb giving "Satsang" (discourse) to his followers.

http://www.prem-rawat-maharaji.info/index.php?id=4

unofficial) Homepage of Maharaji

Hello, my name is Maharaji. I used to be called Guru Maharaj Ji or the
Lord of the Universe but I've decided to stop calling myself that and
pretend I never made such claims.

I used to have a lot of devotees who believed me when I said I was God
in human form or the Lord and they gave their lives to me lock, stock
and barrel and lived in my ashrams. In these ashrams they had to work
all day in the world in ordinary jobs and then give all their wages to
me so that I could live a luxurious lifestyle.

I did very well out of the ashrams in the seventies. People who lived
in ashrams were forbidden to have sex, have any money or posessions
and were only allowed to do what I decreed they should do. Meanwhile,
I had a beautiful wife and also had a string of affairs with other
women. I've always enjoyed a drink and am quite fond of some good
hashish.

When the ashrams became unprofitable, I closed them all down and threw
my loyal devotees out on the streets. Some of these ashrams had
incurred huge debts but I made my devotees pick up the tab and you
know what - the suckers agreed! Well you know what they say don't you?
There's one born every minute. Some of these devotees were devastated
about leaving the shelter of my ashrams where they could serve me all
the time. They didn't know what to do with themselves and some of them
had mental breakdowns. A few also comitted suicide.

I have a good life. I own my own private jet and have numerous large
houses all over the world which are maintained by my devotees for
free. I am a multi-millionaire and own land and property in many
countries. All this has been financed by my loyal devotees who still
believe that I am the Lord! Well I did say there's one born every
minute. I still have enough of these old, sincere devotees left to
keep me in clover for life. Who says life isn't a wonderful thing?

Some people believe I am the Lord because I reveal a secret divine
knowledge to them if they promise to become my devotees. This secret
knowledge is just four old meditation techniques which are actually
quite well known but they don't know that until it's too late. You see
I make them promise never to reveal these techniques to anyone. This
means that the fact that I am conning people is kept a secret.

To be honest, I think meditation is a waste of time. I'd much rather
be driving my private plane or one of my luxury cars. And a good
bottle of Cognac beats meditation hands down! I have learned that if I
just make vague references to meditation in my speeches, people
believe that I actually know about it and not only that but they
believe I am the embodiment of truth! It's a good scam and it works
for me.

Some of you may be wondering how I convinced my devotees that I was
God. It was EASY. Just read how I dressed up as God to get the full
story.

I have never had a problem attracting the most beautiful women or
keeping them in line. Just read how I do it and you'll see that even
the improbable becomes possible.

Naturally, I haven't achieved all of my success without there being
some opposition. I just ignore any opposition and when people point
out my faults or criticize my complete disregard for my devotees then
I just tell them to "take a walk". Why don't you read what my enemies
are saying about me and then judge for yourself.

When all's said and done, it's all about love, isn't it. And I know
what love is because I am "rich in love", as I used to tell the press.
Read how I tap the source of love and you'll see what I mean.

Family ties mean a lot to me and that is why I haven't seen my eldest
brother for several decades. See what my own brother thinks of me and
see if you can spot the family resemblences.

You may not know this but my coming was prophesised by a great writer
over one hundred years ago. Click here to read the prophesy and you'll
see that his story was a remarkably accurate fortelling of my life and
its possibilities.

Thank you for visiting my web site and please come back soon because
I'll have some more pictures of myself up plus some more of my
thoughts. In the meantime, have a look at Incarnations of God and see
some other God imposters.

http://realmaharaji.bravepages.com/

http://realmaharaji.bravepages.com/Links/homepage.htm

Presented by

ex-followers of Prem Rawat, a.k.a. Maharaji,
The ex-"Lord of the Universe"

"The chances are you've never seen the other side of me. You've seen
the event side of me when I'm on stage. But there is another side of
me. If you evoke that side, you won't like it. It's a nasty side. You
don't want to see that side. You're not missing anything by not seeing
it." - Prem Rawat, Arundel England, 23rd July 1999.

Webmaster's note (2009). Welcome to the ex-premie website, the first
comprehensive information resource on the internet covering Prem
Rawat, also known as Maharaji, and his work. The primary purpose of
this website is to provide information to current and prospective
followers of Prem Rawat, that is not made available on his official
sites.

This website has been in existence since 1997. Since I took over in
2001, the home page has included a request for Prem Rawat or Elan
Vital to correct any inaccuracies on this site. They have yet to do
so. Elan Vital did claim copyright on quotes by Prem Rawat in which he
likened himself to Jesus, and pictures of Mr. Rawat dressed as
Krishna, but so far they have made no attempt to rebut any of the
first-hand testimonies published on this site. Personally, I think it
is obvious that Rawat has nothing to offer except lifetime dependence
on him, and is grossly incompetent at communicating what he does claim
to offer. Even though he specifically instructs his followers to
attend his speaking engagements when possible, the numbers attending
go down each year (to premies - look around you, where are all the new
people?). For people who have recently heard about Rawat, he does not
have any secret wisdom, nor a way to achieve peace. All he teaches are
four ways to meditate, and 70 hours of videos of him speaking to make
you think you need him. You don't.

After eight years of being responsible for this site, I actually have
very little interest in updating it. I value this site, and will do
what it takes to keep it available for new readers, but it, and
Maharaji, play a very small role in my life. I welcome, and will add,
new Journeys, as and when former followers tell their stories, and
when more of those former followers who were close to Rawat finally
have the courage to share what they know (you know who you are!), then
I will feature them alongside Mishler, Dettmers, Donner, Finch and
others.

Speaking of Mike Finch, his recently published book about his
experiences as a follower of Rawat and his time since, entitled
'Without the Guru', is recommended for anyone who wants to uncover the
truth about Prem Rawat. Further details are here.

Prem Rawat - The Person

Testimonies of those with first hand experience of Prem Rawat,
including those who ran his organisations.

An Open Letter to Current Followers of Prem Rawat
Summary of the major grievances of Maharaji's former followers.

An Open Letter to Maharaji
After 30 years as a loyal student of Prem Rawat, Mike Finch has
written this letter to his former teacher.

Prem Rawat - His Wealth

Admire Rawat's house and read about his wealth, and one way he 'earns'
it.

NEW! - Videos featuring Prem Rawat

An anthology of videos from 1973 to the present day, where the star,
as always, is Prem Rawat

The Elan Vital/DLM Gallery

Now hosted on this site - Scans of original Divine Light Mission/Elan
Vital publications.

Harboring a Paedophile

Mahatma Jagdeo, one of Prem Rawat's closest lieutenants, raped and
abused children of Prem Rawat's followers.

Since this site was created, several other sites with similar
purposes have been independently created. Here are a few that are
recommended:-

prem-rawat-maharaji.info - Contains much of the information on this
site, but presented in a more structured, professional way. Intended
primarily for researchers and the media.

prem-rawat-critique.org - Contains commentary on promotional
activities of Prem Rawat's supporters and organisations.

www.prem-rawat-bio.org - An incredibly detailed and well researched
study of Rawat's life.

gurumaharaji.info - Includes original audio and video files from the
period when Rawat demanded devotion from his followers.

mikefinch.com - Mike Finch's website which includes a section on Prem
Rawat with some excellent articles by Mike.

Those unfamiliar with the history of Prem Rawat, and some of the terms
we use here, are recommended to read this introduction, and the links
from that page.

While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the
content of this site; which is based on first hand accounts (usually
corroborated), Elan Vital/Divine Light Mission/DUO publications, and
other sources; we are grateful for any factual corrections.

The significant information on this site, including the personal
stories of former followers from the Journeys section, is now
available as a dowloadable book in Word format. Download here, and
distribute freely!

Corrections, comments, criticisms and thanks are all welcome, and
should be sent to the webmaster, John Brauns, at
epoweb...@yahoo.co.uk

So, once again, welcome

http://www.ex-premie.org/

[bademiyansubhanallah]

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SURVIVING THE CULT ECKANKAR

You *Can* and *Will* Recover. . .

Hints to Help You Heal - We've Been There - You'll Get Through It!
Lies You'll Need To Recognize and Banish!

May your day be filled with the blessings and joys of all the ages.
May you conquer your every fear in this day by being filled
with the love that is Eternal.
May you smile more and bring more smiles
to those you meet and greet on this day.
May happiness permeate your being and
may you glow in your own glorious radiance
that is God.
Remember that we are all connected together
and that what you think is what shall be
and in so doing
may you think more and more positive thoughts
with each and every passing day.

As it harmeth none, blessed be.

Gratitude, happiness, strength and love.
May courage of heart, clarity of mind, and
peace of spirit be with you
now and always, my friend.

~ Shawn Pyle ~

Leaving a cult isn't as easy as just sleeping late on Sunday mornings
and deciding not to go to church. I, personally, was very surprised at
some of the very unpleasant psychological effects of leaving
Eckankar.

One thing that helped was discovering information on the internet
which helped me to realize that what I was experiencing wasn't
unusual. I've listed some helpful links below.

And it helped to know that I wasn't alone. Other former cult members
reassured me that yes, I'd be fine and recover.

To be honest, I wished I'd known ahead of time what to expect. On the
other hand, experiencing it first, without outside influences,
certainly convinced me that it was "real" and not just imagination.

I, and thousands of other ex-eckists, have gotten through it. You
will, too.

Hugs,

Sharon

A Letter From a Staff Member at the American Family Federation:

Sharon,

It's pretty much universal when it comes to cult involvement. Everyone
thinks no one else will understand - if you ever attend an ex-member
workshop - you will be totally amazed that people involved in
psychologically controlling groups all have the same experiences -
different but the same.

My daughter was in a Bible-based group for five years - got out last
year - and has the same psychological problems as a person who has
been in TM or new age or etc. - In my daughter's case - she suffered
depression and confusion because she knew what she was before and she
knew what she was told in the group and came to believe - but the real
person had a mind fight with the new "enlightenment" and the struggles
are very painful.

I would recommend an ex-member workshop if you can manage it.
Best to you,

AFF Information Service
Bonita Springs, FL 34133
941-514-3081; fax 941-514-3451

A...@csj.org
Visit our award-winning Website: http://www.csj.org
* * * * * * *
Feel free to write to me personally at
bright...@yahoo.com

* * * * *
(March 2005 Update - Hi everyone, please excuse the mess, I wasn't
able to access this site for updating for several years while Lycos
was taking over Angelfire, but their great tech support finally helped
solve the problem. Now I just need the time & motivation to get the
work done. In the meantime, I hope what's here now is helpful - please
check out all the links!)

NEW!!!!

Update: March 2001
The Night Twitch Died, and More

Albert, John, and Connie's Stories

THE CENTER FOR TWITCHELLIAN PLAGIARISM

There have been new plagiarism discoveries since David Lane's original
findings many years ago. This site, a work in progress, will be an
excellent resource for all seekers of truth.

UNDOING THE DAMAGE OF ROGUE LIGHT & SOUND GURUS -- DEVIATIONS FROM THE
PATH

By a Former Member of Eckankar

To go directly to Professor David Lane's "Eckankar" pages, click here!
(And be sure to look for Raphael's Critiques of Klemp's Discourses)

Suggested Websites.....Under Construction!!

Former Eckists Tell Their Side...
NEW--Intro & Overview--My
My Delphi Page---Some Good Links There
Partial Reconstruction of old Eckankartruth Website
Up-to-date (2005) e-kult related links
Current David Lane Webpage Index
Cult Awareness & Information Center
A Former Cult Member's Critique
Another Cult Information Site

The Psychology of Spiritual Movements

EckankarHistory Discussion Club at Yahoo
EckankarTruth--a new Forum, safe for former cult members, info for
seekers
An Honest Guru's Website - Join Now!!!
German Translation of Lane's
The Unofficial Eckankar (tm) Page - complete text

http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/eckankarsurvivors/

Why Ex-Eckists Left Eckankar

Forum: alt.religion.eckankar
Thread: Message To The Seeker Looking At Eckankar For The First Time;
Or, Why Does Ben Post On ARE?
Date:1999/03/11
Author:bendouglass

I was an Eckist from 1972-84, but then summarily excommunicated for
not only asking certain delicate questions, but asking them over and
over again, but never receiving adequate answers. Mostly SILENCE!
Since that time I have gained much significant insight, emotional
detachment, objectivity, and supplimental experiences and information,
to offer certain teleogical, historical, epistemological, and
scientific criticisms about Eckankar.

It has become my personal conclusion that Eckankar is a psychological,
socio- spiritual, mythic con-game invented by a little man called Paul
Twitchell, who yearned for money, glory, and power of people--nothing
more! It is also my opinion that the "massive ancedotal evidence"
gathered by others, alone points in this direction. And because of
this I consider it my duty and responsibility as a citizen and former
Eckist to offer "another perspective on Eckankar," so that any new
seeker or student can make a more fully informed choice.

I have a right( and a responsibilty that goes with that right) to
offer any criticisms about Eckankar if I choose to do so. The only
right I do not have is to threaten and denigrate an individual with
malicious intent. There will always be those Eckists who will
consistently argue that ANY criticism leveled at Eckankar is invalid.
Often they will take these criticisms as personal attacks. The reason
is that their personal life has become irrevocably enmeshed with the
ECK and the Corporation. One becomes the other! We see these kind of
unreasonable, irrational, fearful, sheeplike people zealots in all
spiritual paths--they are called "fundamentalists."

So it all comes down to the pressing question: Can anybody ask
critical and sensitive questions about Eckankar and freely come to
their own conclusions without being "labelled" and their "personal
lives" paraded on a website without their express permission? If
alt.religion.eckankar is any barometer of this, I would say NO!
Whether it is college professors, skeptical humanists, or former
Eckists, the message from Eckists and their beloved Master is ANY
criticisms of their holy chalice is wrong, hateful, angry, etc.

More often than not, when an Eckist is vigorously challenged about
Eckankar tenets they can't defend on a purely philosophical level,
they retreat into their closed fantasy-prone system which, by it's
very nature, deadens and denies the spirit of open intellectual
inquiry among people. To the ARE Eckists 400 years of the Age of
Enlightenment, and its seasoned tools and processes of verification
and accountability are rejected enmasse.

The reason for this might be that their "HOUSE THAT TWITCHELL BUILT"
could very well violently implode from within, when examined with the
same tools of rational inquiry taht any other system is subject to.
When Eckist are given the chance (and tools & processes) to critically
examine the very foundation of their faith they act like the ostrich.
Heads in sand, singing hu while their but feathers quiver with rage
and fear.It takes courage to listen to an opponent of your chosen
path. It even takes greater courage to question your path.

If Eckankar as a system of convictions and practices is a legitimate
path to truth and happiness, then any amount of open debate can only
strengthen it. Therefore, the role of the so-called "detractor" on ARE
becomes a positive role, a community service, a consumer advocate for
spiritual seekers.

Ben Douglass-SA #961
Agitate, Educate, Liberate!
Deja Community Started by Ben

The Eckist argument: "It didn't work for you"
From: Data , None
Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 12:05:58 -0500

Eckists have said that detractors (critics of Eckankar) are people who
quit Eckankar because it didn't work for them, or because they failed
at the path, and thus can't be taken seriously. In other words, we're
hopelessly biased against Eckankar, largely because we're angry that
we didn't make the grade.

Au contraire, mon frere.

I was not a failure at the path- I was given a leadership position in
my Eckankar community! Eckists there marveled at how "spiritually
advanced" I was.

I was one of the darlings of the community- active in public outreach,
volunteering regularly at the Eckankar center, giving money, providing
entertainment at worship services, and on and on...

Eckankar did work for me, mainly because its spiritual exercises, like
using the mantra OM or HU and focusing on the third eye, are
legitimate and used by similar religions that predate Eckankar.

The reason I turned my back on Eckankar for good was discovering the
plagiarism in their bible, which other Eckists told me was divinely
inspired.

I still miss my Eckankar friends, and the feeling of belonging I had
as a member, but I won't go back because I cannot compromise my moral
principles for the sake of personal gratification or spiritual
entertainment.

The Eckist argument in the first paragraph is both specious and
fallacious, and illustrates how desperate Eckists are to discredit
former members who have come forward and revealed the truth about
Eckankar.

If the Eckists who use this argument were ever to admit that the
detractors were on an equal footing with them as far as spiritual
development is concerned, they would be faced with the painful fact
that a detractor is simply an Eckist who is no longer willing to
tolerate being deceived nor participate in the process of deceiving
others.

The Eckists I am referring to above are those who know about the
plagiarism and other deceptions Professor David Lane has found within
Eckankar's spiritual literature, and turn a blind eye to harm Eckankar
causes.

These Eckists have no legitimate means of countering Lane's
revelations, so instead, they attack the credibility of those who bear
witness to the irrefutable facts found in his research. They label the
detractors "unbalanced", "nuts", "needs help", "satanically
influenced", etc., etc., twist their words or draw illogical
conclusions from them, and even lie when absolutely all else fails in
their efforts to silence the truth-tellers. These are the same
rhetorical tricks and tactics that nearly every false religion uses to
defend itself against legitimate, factual criticism.

Unfortunately, for these Eckists, the truth is impervious to these
assaults, and will stand for all time in relentless defiance of their
attempts to make it go away.

It is sadly ironic that people who profess to be on a path of truth
cannot tolerate the truth when it undermines what they believe in.

Data

Subject: Re: The Eckist argument: "It didn't work for you"
From: zep...@connectexpress.com
Date: Mon, 03 May 1999 02:10:18 GMT

In article <372C85F6...@b.com>,

Data wrote: (snip)
This whole post applies to me as well.
Kate

Newsgroup: alt.religion.eckankar
Re: The Eckist argument: "It didn't work for you"
From: Harry , Clam Lovers (Lodge #4)
Date: 3 May 1999 00:52:45 GMT

*bow*

I, Dances with Clams, found myself smiling as I read this post, since
I believe it captures the true spirit of those called "detractors".
They number in the tens of thousands, I'm told, and most are very well
balanced, ethical people. eckankar most likely did work for them to a
point. But, eventually, we all reach an invisible line, where we each
have to decide for ourselves who we hang around with. A truly ethical
person would have quite a struggle within themselves to remain with
this organization, in light of all the blatant lies and deceptions.

Although I know they will never listen, I would suggest that all
eckists face themselves in the mirror and evaluate their own ethics in
a clear, unmuddled way. Look closely to your own ethics and answer as
truthfully as you can why you continue to support an organization that
was conceived in theft and fiction. A thing to ponder, also, is the
fact that almost all detractors have been where you are now
- but you haven't yet been where the detractors have reached. :-)

-Dances with Clams-

Author: Zuma
Date: 1997/04/17
Forum: alt.religion.eckankar

> > I was once a hibernating Roman Catholic and found Eckankar too. I started reading some books, meeting some folks, going to Satsangs, subscribing to the discourses, and finally keeping a dream log that is full of wonderful experiences with meeting Masters and flying through glorious landscapes of unspeakable beauty. I enjoyed falling asleep at night so that I may once again hear the Light And Sound. All of this in the course of two years. I knew that religion by any other name paled in comparison with the unfathomable Truth known as Eckankar. Then, a Christian friend told me that I had better take a good look at what I left for Eckankar; that I owed it to myself to know for sure that what I found was the real thing. I too started "feeling" something wasn't right with it. Once the honeymoon was over, I started reading Twitchell's long-winded fragmented books again. I became suspicious that the original lure of Eckankar and its promise "why wait, now you can touch the hem of God" wasn't what is is cracked up to be. I read Brad Steiger's biography of Twitchell and for a time became enamoured with Eckankar again, but it was short lived when I came to my senses. My good Christian friends were warning me that perhaps all these things I felt and saw were real, but that does not mean it came from the God I grew up with. Maybe these visions were the work of the Evil One. After all, long before Paul landed on Earth, the Bible speaks on numerous occasions about false prophets and the wicked treachery of Satan and how he will do everything in his power to pull you away from God.

It all became clear at that point that I had fallen into the trappings
of a full blown CULT!!! It's leader wooing me and dazzling me, and
promising me the keys to heaven, like all good cult leaders
do...telling its followers what they want to hear!! Suddenly the
Internet explodes and lo and behold I see an army of Ex-Eckists
battling it out with the chelas.

David Lane's exhaustive research on Paul Twitchell's plagiarism and
his incessant lying just sealed the fate for me and Eckankar. The
reason everyone hates what Lane says, is because he shakes the very
foundation of their spiritual investments, and no one likes to be told
they are wrong. He is lucid, scholarly and extrememly convincing,
sooooo, that's why I have become the monster we all know today as
Zuma. Even Twitchell's ex-wife Gail has said that Eckankar was
concocted under false pretenses...she was there, she oughtta know!!

> > In case anyone is interested, I've also read most of the David Lane > and David Rife stuff, and, frankly, I'm not impressed with either of > their attitudes. I've seen more open minds than those from most people > I've met.

You don't have to like their attitudes, Observer...look closely at
what they are saying. They are constantly removing the bastion of
Eckankar stone by stone, and the people inside are feeling helpless.
Time will tell for sure, and I'll bet my last dollar that this little
"Light And Sound" club doesn't make it through through another decade.

Zuma

(Following is my original resignation letter. To see what led up to
this, click on: "Harold's Deceptive Editing" For some unknown reason,
I went running back a few days later...and sent them a check! I left
forever a month or two later.)

Whatever. . .
Author: Sharon V Comstock
Date: 1998/09/12
Forum: áalt.religion.eckankar

" Now all this philosophy won't help you, nor will the reading of any
book, nor the practice of any spiritual exercise, unless the desire
for truth and God is absolutely pure."

Harold Klemp

"By their fruits ye shall know them. . ."
The Bible, I forget where

I have carefully read the disputed response from Harold to the
questionably edited question, as well as Lurk's commentary, and done
my best to look at it from many different viewpoints, on many levels.

As an Eckist, I have no problem with the editing, answer, or
commentary.

Perhaps it's just a very unspiritual & unhealthy attachment to my own
personal integrity. . .well that's not important really. . .but as of
right now I am no longer a card-carrying member of Eckankar the
organization. The letter will be in the mail shortly.

I will, however, continue as an Eckist on the inner. . .the Mahanta
will be with me, as always. He brought me here to see & learn certain
things, and now it really is time to take it back to the inner.

And before anyone makes any assumptions. . .I just want to make it
clear that a major factor in this is when I see another "Eckist"
attack spiritual truths because they're not clearly stamped with the
Eckankar copyright. Even though both truths, it turned out, according
to the outer teachings, were indeed from the Eck.

I've been having a lot of truths thrown in my face lately, and a lot
of illusions cleared away. . .this one was such a biggie it's just
impossible to rationalize in any way.

This is where the Mahanta has led me. . .

In Eck,

Sharon

P.S. Lurk, thank you --- although I must say if I were hanging around
I could really get into a lively debate on this one!

And Windy, by the way, no snide remarks. Stay the hell out of my
space. I've got the book around here somewhere but can't find
it. . .but I know there are laws about both psychic attack, which I
feel you are very close to doing although of course I can't really
judge. At the very least, there are things about taking on another's
karma by judging their particular learning experiences. If you have
something to say, I would suggest you put it where the sun don't
shine.

http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/eckankarsurvivors/data.html

Overview & Intro to Eckankar, The Cult

About This Page

This page will be, basically, a "handout" file I compiled from my
postings at alt.religion.eckankar, for people who wrote to me
requesting more information. The "attach" function hasn't been working
too well for me, so I decided to simply post my "handout" here and
send out the URL to inquirers.
This information will be repeated on and expanded elsewhere. This is
just, basically, an overview.

Eckankar paints a very rosy picture of itself, naturally. It ignores
and tries to whitewash and even eradicate the facts of its past and
present, and its members tend to deny the possibility that there's
something wrong with their "religion."

For balance, well...I may seem a bit extreme. Truth is usually found
somewhere in the middle. I ask people to look at both sides of this
cult, think about it, consider all the possibilities.....and make up
their own minds.

Just look at the world, past and present, and think about where
extremes in beliefs, and fanatic fundamentalism, has brought about.
Just two examples....the Inquisition, and the bombing of the World
Trade Center. However, we must be careful and not be too extreme in
tolerating lies and deception. For example, for much of my life, when
I'd hear people around me making racist remarks, I wouldn't say
anything, just to be polite. I stopped doing that years ago. I speak
up, and tell them that sorry, I cannot condone their racist beliefs by
my silence.>

By the way, please ignore the language....the newsgroup can be a bit
rough sometimes.

Newsgroup: alt.religion.eckankar
Subject: The Other Side of Eckankar, the Cult!
From: "JT" , Bell Solutions
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 23:32:49 GMT

I am still fascinated by all the posts on this newsgroup. Some posts
are definitely entertaining. Just one question for each of the warring
camps-

for the happy members of Eckankar:

Why do members of Eckankar refuse to acknowledge the errors of the
past? Why not give regular contributors like Sharon, Lurk, and others,
some credit for having the courage to voice their views and share
these views with others? Why to members feel the need to defend
against these former Eckists? Why question their motives and
character? The anti-Eckankar forces have simply decided that they
cannot support the formal organization of Eckankar and have chosen to
support some other path. They have not completely abandoned the
principles of Eckankar which are universal and common to many paths.
This does not make them bad people. Now they seek to warn other like
minded individuals of the mistakes they made because certain
information that would have helped them was unknown to them at the
time. They now wish to share with others their new found knowledge. Do
we really need to classify dissidents as enemies? Think about it...

for the anti-Eckankar forces:

Why do opponents of Eckankar harass otherwise happy members of a
peaceful group. A rose by any other name smells just as sweet does it
not? Regardless of the origins of the beliefs shared by today's
Eckists, if the teaching is common to other paths as well, why is it
any less true if proclaimed by Eckankar? Does truth really require a
religious label? If I am an outlaw and a scoundrel but I preach about
peace and brotherhood is my message any less valid? If Eckandar is the
science of soul travel whose express purpose is to help individual
souls back to their original home - what does it matter if the founder
was a bum? If Eckists are happy in their belief system, why should
anyone put them down? Think about it...

I suppose however, that we must do what we must do. The forces for and
against will continue to duke it out... I suppose that's all part of
being human. I suppose there's many reasons to explain the motivations
on both side of the fence. Good luck to both sides. I suppose pro or
con we are all doing what we feel we must. Maybe expressing ones view
is the important thing. Maybe the war helps both sides progress.
Without opposing viewpoints their would be no posts and no insights
for either side. In that case let me congratulate all sides to the
conflict. Your're all doing one heck of job....

JT

Intro & Overview -- Part 2

Subject: Re: The Other Side of Eckankar, the Cult!
From: Sharon
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 05:40:16 GMT

In article , "JT" wrote:

> I am still fascinated by all the posts on this newsgroup. Some posts >are definitely entertaining. Just one question for each of the warring >camps- >
> for the happy members of Eckankar:

And yes, they SHOULD be happy!! After all:

"No man merely in the state of human consciousness can judge the
ECKist any more than an animal having simple consciousness can judge
the human conscious state of man. The ECKist is in fact the new
species of the human race, not understood by men. When in this state
the ECKist has developed an intellectual illumination of the most
pronounced character, and a strongly marked sense of moral exaltation.
He has also the conviction, the sense of immortality, the extinction
of the sense of wrong doing and the extinction of the fear of physical
death." Paul Twitchell, Illuminated Way Letters, pg. 247

> > Why do members of Eckankar refuse to acknowledge the errors of the past?

Errors? What errors? How could there be errors? After all...

"Only the living ECK Master. . . is the pure instrument of God on
Earth." SKS 1 pg. 19

"ECKANKAR teaches that ECK is the source of all life. All life,
religions, philosophies, and metaphysical systems spring out of the
fountainhead which is ECK. Therefore, we cannot find anything which is
greater than the stream of life except the MAHANTA, the Living ECK
Master." Paul Twitchell, "Letters to a Chela," page 107.

"Each living ECK Master has become the Mahanta, which is God made
flesh on Earth. Therefore, we look to the Mahanta for he is the
representative of the SUGMAD in our midst today." Paul Twitchell,
Spiritual Notebook, pg. 197

"The living ECK Master is the only manifestation of the Sugmad on
Earth." Spiritual Notebook pg.198

"The living ECK Master is the perfect instrument of the SUGMAD on this
plane, often he is the Mahanta." Spiritual Notebook, pg. 198

The SUGMAD never appears in the flesh except as the MAHANTA, the
Living ECK Master. . ." Paul Twitchell, Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad II, pg.
146

GOD don't make no mistakes!!! Excuse me for quoting those
"meaningless" books, but, well...I used to be an eckist, you know. But
I missed the part that said "It's ALL on the inner!"

"When the sacred teachings of the ECK have been put into printed
books, such as the SHARIYAT-KI-SUGMAD, all ECK chelas can go forth and
by using it as reference can give all the holy scriptures of it to the
world. There is none greater than this magnificent scripture and we as
the chelas of ECK must use it as the source book, the living Bible of
our beliefs and faith." Illuminated Way Letters, page 216

"Each month, read a chapter of The Shariyat Ki Sugmad, Book One. Do it
at your leisure. You can read a few sentences or a couple of
paragraphs at a time. Pay particular attention to the chapter title.
How does the chapter relate to the title. And how does it all relate
back to you. You can use this as an ongoing casual spiritual exercise.
It is a way to spiritualize yourself, to keep close to the Mahanta,
the ECK, and the SUGMAD." page 91, "The Eternal Dreamer," Harold
Klemp

And darn, you know...right before I left eckankult, whoops I mean
eckankar...I was going to sign up for that new service...automatic
shipments of eckbooks hot off the presses, with that handy little form
headquarters sent...you could either fill in your credit card number,
or authorize automatic deductions from your checking account!!!

> Why not give regular contributors like Sharon, Lurk, and others, some credit for having the courage to voice their views and share these views with others? Why to members feel the need to defend against these former Eckists? Why question their motives and character? The anti- Eckankar forces have simply decided that they cannot support the formal organization of Eckankar and have chosen to support some other path.

I support freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and freedom to worship
as I please.

"I have sworn eternal hostility to all forms of tyranny over the mind
of man." Thomas Jefferson

> They have not completely abandoned the principles of Eckankar which are universal and common to many paths.

I take exception to your wording here. We have rejected the lies,
plagiarism, and mind-control messages of Paul Twitchell. The
"principles of Eckankar" were STOLEN and MISUSED by Paul Twitchell.
These truths are freely available elsewhere. Twitchell used them to
create a cult, and set himself up as God.

Basically, IMHO "Eckankar sucks." Lurk suggested this one, but I sort
of take it out of context. Wish I'd thought of it first!!!

>This does not make them bad people.
Au contraire, JT! I am vile, vicious, venomous, and...worst of all...
ravaged by MENOPAUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well...it's better than being an.....ASSWIPE!!! IMHO, of course.
(You know, the whole purpose of this long post was just so I could use
my favorite word! I've sort of missed it....)
> Now they seek to warn other like minded individuals of the mistakes they made because certain
> information that would have helped them was unknown to them at the time.
> They now wish to share with others their new found knowledge. Do we really
> need to classify dissidents as enemies? Think about it...

You asked why? Perhaps the answers are in the teachings of eckankar:

"We find that the only way to the heavenly world is via the path of
ECK. At this point, we must become intolerant of all other ideas which
try to creep into our consciousness." Paul Twitchell, The Secret Way,
L. 12 (members-only discourse)

"The chela must be a person of heroic spirit and mold in order to
carry out the responsibilities of beingá a divine instrument for the
MAHANTA [...] He must rely on his heroic spirit to triumph over all
the attacks made upon him by the Kal force through others [...] the
chela carries on a strategy of contradictions which will become
powerful in his hands [...]" PT, Satsang II, L. 6 (members- only
discourse)

"Those who have become recruited into ECK must realize this from the
beginning. Because of this power of the ECK, these persons must show
initiative, resourcefulness, and a fanatical loyalty to ECK." PT,
Satsang III, L. 3 (discourse)

"If the chela is not possessed of this quality of dedication and
loyalty to the path of ECK, his incarnations are lengthened in this
world, and he shall not be able to enter into the next worlds at the
end of this present life." PT, Shariyat 1, Chapter 6 á

" . . . the mission of the Mahanta on this earth is to stir the
millions of non-initiated into revolt against all orthodox religions.
It also means that anyone who opposes the Mahanta in any of the worlds
is foolish for the ECK will work swiftly in retribution." SKS I, p.
181

And of course, two of my personal favorites from "GODMAN" ...

"Those who are without the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master, are pagans,
little better than those life forms just below that of man." PT, SKS
II, page 173

" . . . each of those who are ECKists must come to the realization
that they each, belong to the chosen race of the superior being. All
others are aliens, that is those who have not yet voluntarily taken up
the path of ECK. These aliens, as we speak of them, are, in a way,
heathens or pagans who have not yet found truth. They are the agents
of the Kal, and the enemy of those who are the followers of ECK." PT,
IWL, pg. 168

> > for the anti-Eckankar forces: >

> Why do opponents of Eckankar harass otherwise happy members of a peaceful group. A rose by any other name smells just as sweet does it not?

I like REAL roses, not phony ones.

A pile of bullshit that claims "There is no way to God except through
the path of ECKANKAR, and there can be no denying of this." (IWL pg.
80) is still a pile of bullshit.

> Regardless of the origins of the beliefs shared by today's Eckists, if the
> teaching is common to other paths as well, why is it any less true if proclaimed by Eckankar?

Quite simply, because of all the LIES in eckankar. As the ORIGINAL
Cliffhanger wrote:

"Hundreds of shrewd fakirs and holy men hit the jackpot simply by
announcing they are an incarnate god." John A. Keel, "Jadoo"

> Does truth really require a religious label?

Evidently, since eckankar copyrighted its eckwords, and Twitchell
wrote copiously on the necessity for a new language in IWL. But of
course, eckankar is "evolving" ....to win new members and influence
zoning boards!

Klemp in Ask the Master, Book 2: "Now, however, with the Temple of ECK
as the center post of the missionary effort in ECK (. . .) When giving
service to others in the name of Sugmad, is it really necessary to
tell them we have another name for God?"

And this:

"So, in talking with those in orthodox religions about the spiritual
exercises, you may sometimes want to use the word *prayer*. At least
they'll understand it. Later, you can tell them our name for it: the
Spiritual Exercises of ECK, or contemplation. We need to change the
way we talk if we are to bring the message of ECK to others." Klemp,
The Living Word, Book 2: pg. 177

sounds a lot better than this ....

"If many of the people today understood the true purpose of prayer,
they would be very shocked to find that under the spiritual law, they
are coming under the label of black magicians. They would be
astounded."

But...not to worry!! After all...

"The Master is absolutely honest in his dealings with everyone."

The Precepts of Eckankar, by Paul Twitchell..."secret members-only
discourses" ... "reviewed, updated, and published under the
supervision of the Living ECK Master, Sr. Harold Klemp. It is the Word
of Eck."

> If I am an outlaw and a scoundrel but I preach about peace and brotherhood is my message any less valid?

Outlaws and scoundrels wouldn't preach about peace and brotherhood
without ulterior motives.

twitchell also wrote:

"The universes are the vineyard of the living ECK Master and he will
colonize all in the name of the SUGMAD." Spiritual Notebook, pg. 159

" . . . the mission of the Mahanta on this earth is to stir the
millions of non-initiated into revolt against all orthodox religions.
It also means that anyone who opposes the Mahanta in any of the worlds
is foolish for the ECK will work swiftly in retribution." SKS I, p.
181

"Therefore, as you can readily see, my greatest task is not to gather
disciples for ECK, but to create a corps of "true believers." This
corps must convince itself that it's the only moral position in the
universe. Their moral absolution gives them the right to dissolve what
they judge to be amoral according to the conditions of the world and
its higher spheres. The breaking up of the old traditional religions
and reestablishing of the rightful beliefs under the banner of ECK is
the way of the right [...] Indeed such attitudes are not only felt to
be right, but it's an obligation to those who belong to the ECK Truth
Corps. This truth corps is often known as "the Mahanta's children."
PT, Satsang III, L. 2

Oh!! Just for the heck of it, guess who wrote this lovely poem?

YOUR HOME IS WHERE YOU'RE HAPPY

Your home is where you're happy
It's not where you're not free
Your home is where you can be what you are
'Cause you were just born to be
Now they'll show you their castles And diamonds for all to see
But they'll never show you that peace of mind
'Cause they don't know how to be free So burn all your bridges
Leave your old life behind You can do what you want to do
'Cause you're strong in your mind
And anywhere you might wander
You can make that your home
And as long as you got love in your heart
You'll never be alone
Just as long as you got love in your heart
You'll never be alone
You'll never be alone

Happens to be someone who also claims to be Jesus Christ....

Oh, more cuties from Twitchell:

"the living ECK Master is timeless in the Atma Sarup. He is the Alpha
and Omega, immaculately conceived, raised in the physical form. . ."
Spiritual Notebook, pg. 163

"The ECK enters into the womb of a virgin, the queen of heaven, who
has submitted to the true spirit of the universe.á The consciousness
of the Mahanta state (the spiritual form of the human Eckankar leader)
is planted as the seed, and carefully nurtured in the womb.á When the
embodiment of flesh is brought into this world, a man-child is born.á
It starts its unfoldment over a period of years until the state of
perfection is reached, in adulthood.á Then the chosen one learns that
he is the Living ECK Master of his times."áSKS 1, pg. 111-112, 2nd
ed., 10th printing, 1987

The poem's author was Charles Manson, by the way. He's got quite a
following...saw a news show recently, quite a few teenagers think he's
"cool." (or whatever word they use!)

Gee, speaking of Manson, I just remembered those swastikas his
"chelas" inscribed on their foreheads...Manson's interesting, he used
mental telepathy too, you know. Anyway...I wonder about this one:

"Many of the ECK children look to the Living ECK Master, not as an
idol, but as a person to look up to and to be like when they grow up.
They want to have the spiritual understanding and the awareness to
make their way in this world. It's a known fact that Hitler started
his daydreaming at a very young age to become a conqueror, after he
entered the German army in World War I; he began this way back in
childhood." pg. 176, The Eck Ynari, Paul Twitchell

> If Eckandar is the science of soul travel whose > express purpose is to help individual souls back to their original >home - what does it matter if the founder was a bum?

Because...it didn't stop with the founder!

(Pssst...it's "Eckankar!")

> If Eckists are happy in their > belief system, why should anyone put them down? Think about it...

For the same reason that it's attempted murder if someone who knows
they have AIDS screws around with as many people as possible
anyway...

I think twitchell's "express purpose" was quite clear in "Letters to a
Chela" (see http://www.delphi.com/eckankartruth), where he wrote:

"So ECK of ITSELF must find those who are willing to *plant*
themselves in church groups, of every nature, and act as the ones to
*spread the message* of ECK. These are commonly called *cells* in
political jargon, but we know them as *cadres.* This is to *get a
foothold* in any group, any institution and to be able to quietly but
effectively *give out the message of ECK*, and act as *reformers*
within these groups ****so that their members will come over to the
works of ECK.**** This is one of the efficient ways of educating
others to *become sympathetic with the ECK and ITS works.* (...)
***But we can find ways of entering into the middle stream of life
everywhere, in social clubs, on civic boards, in groups of people who
are *seemingly without anything in their lives*. You can get
invitations to talk to public groups on ECK, have your own festivals,
such as an ECK festival, or go on radio and television programs
wherever available. *You can visit old folks homes and help cheer them
up; visit hospitals and help with people who are not able to help
themselves. Become readers who will talk to people who are
handicapped, or read to them *from the works, the books of ECK.*** You
can also ******infiltrate***** young people groups and tell them about
ECK. You can make talks to high school groups and to university and
college classes.

There are a hundred ways in which you can make yourself available to
do work for passing out the message of ECK. Everyone of them is a part
of your training for ECK leadership."

> I suppose however, that we must do what we must do. The forces for and against will continue
>to duke it out... I suppose that's all part of being human. I suppose there's many reasons to
> explain the motivations on both side of the fence. Good luck to both sides. I suppose pro or con
> we are all doing what we feel we must. Maybe expressing ones view is the important
> thing. Maybe the war helps both sides progress.

"Eckankar may not merely condone war, as it does, but often might
employ war if necessary to protect Itself . . . It must be remembered
that all complaints and all arguments against the ECK which are
directed at the Mahanta are the works of the Kal." SKS 2, pg. 27-28

"Those who are faint of heart do not win missionary or military
campaigns. (...) How will ECK and ECKANKAR become household words?
Only by our efforts. It will not happen on its own." Harold Klemp,
"Ask The Master, Book 2"

> Without opposing viewpoints their would be no posts and no insights for either side.
> In that case let me congratulate all sides to the conflict. Your're all doing one > heck of job.... >

And let me tell you, it ain't easy for us alien heathen pagan subhuman
veggie enemies of the ECK!!!! Especially me...I've got to deal with
these pesky maggots infesting my rotting flesh...they make a mess of
the keyboard!!!!

Not to mention...I also have to deal with:

"The ignorant and the naive will never understand, nor shall they
learn except by experiencing the slow death brought about by their own
overt acts against the Mahanta and the ECK. This is actually creating
overt acts against the SUGMAD." pg. 91, SKS I

Anyway...Nice post, JT!

And don't forget:

"Be thankful that you have earned the right to come to ECK in this
lifetime, for life without ECK is a living hell..." "The Book of ECK
Wisdom," quoted in "Letters of Light" ... youth newsletter...

I bet they study LL at those special youth satsangs they're having
such a wonderful response from, or maybe they just stick to the
special youth discourses, starting with the really cute coloring books
for the littlest ones...and in one of my "Mystic Worlds" there's an
absolutely ADORABLE picture of some little eckchildren singing
ecksongs at a nursing home.....

Hugs,

Sharon

http://www.delphi.com/eckankartruth

"Happy Happy Joy Joy!!" --Ren & Stimpy

Intro & Overview -- Part 3

Subject: Re: The Other Side of Eckankar, the Cult!
From: "JT" , Bell Solutions
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1999 12:43:49 GMT

Whew!!!
One heck of a response Sharon. No one can say you don't have your
reasons. Great post. Very much appreciated. I was not aware that
Twitchell was so intolerant of other religious paths.

I can't wait for the other shoe to fall. I wonder if an Eckist
(hopefully someone without Nathan's venom) can take an apposing view
and show through Eck writings how Eckankar is tolerant and generous
with non-Eckists. I must admit I see little evidence in this NG of
Eckankar's tolerance.

Thinking back, I was attracted to the works of Eck because of the
simple message - i.e. soul travel, total consciousness, finding your
way back home in this lifetime. Now I see other messages have taken
its place - such as deny, misdirect, convert, and repress, all in the
name of furthering a contemporary organization. How is that otherwise
kind people get 'sucked' into supporting an organization that wishes
to change the social order?

I suppose its a question of values. I suppose we lose sight of our
goal and get sucked into the method. I suppose we buy into the big
lie. And, I suppose if the big lie is repeated often enough in a
newsgroup enough people will buy into it thus perpetuating the group.
I suppose some people feel a greater allegiance to the group than to
their inner self. I guess I just don't know. Still, as long as these
groups are non-violent I suppose they have every right to pursue their
goals as they wish. For the rest of us I suppose we need to remain
ever vigilant.

Now I know this makes it sound like I am siding with the anti-Eckankar
forces. I suppose in a way I am. I believe in life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. Therefore any person or organization that seeks
to exercize control over others by pertuating falsehoods or by using
misdirection ( a little truth and deception cleverly mixed together)
should expect to be criticized and and can expect to engage its
membership in a psychological war with outsiders. I sure wouldn't want
to be part of any organization that felt a need to defend its precepts
or its past. Above all else truth and liberty should be cherished by
us all. Any organization that diminishes these qualities in us should
be viewed with serious suspicion...

Finally, I would like to say that I am not necessarily condemning
Eckankar, its teachings or its adherents. I think Eckists and non-
Eckists alike should thoughtfully examine the written works of
Eckankar and decide for themselves. I think that the writings should
be freely discussed and debated. It would be nice if we could keep the
mud slinging to a minimum. There is no need to demean anyone for their
views. If you have looked at the facts and have decided that on
balance that Eckankar has something to offer you - then GO FOR IT!. No
need to put down others who decide otherwise. I suppose we can debate
certain interpretations, but I hope we can agree on the facts. As to
the anti-Eckankar forces, I think we owe them our grattitude for
attempting to set the record straight. Lieing or cheating is not nice
however, let's all try to minimize the exaggeration. I know it can be
fun in a newsgroup to rattle the other guy's cage from time to time.

JT

Subject: Re: The Other Side of Eckankar, the Cult!
>From: Sharon
Date: 19 Jul 1999 00:23:52 GMT

"JT" writes:
> Whew!!!

Tell me about it! Had no idea where that one would go when I started!

> > One heck of a response Sharon. No one can say you don't have your reasons.
Great post. Very much appreciated. I was not aware that Twitchell was
so
> intolerant of other religious paths.

Haven't you read the Shariyat? Or haven't you been in Eckankar long?
Or maybe....you're the kind of eckist I was. I heard what I wanted to
hear...and disregarded the rest.

> I can't wait for the other shoe to fall. I wonder if an Eckist (hopefully
> someone without Nathan's venom) can take an apposing view and show through
> Eck writings how Eckankar is tolerant and generous with non-Eckists. I must
> admit I see little evidence in this NG of Eckankar's tolerance.

You know....I could do the same thing with the "positive"
eckstuff...the stuff I believed in. But...the other things, the things
I'd somehow glossed over and ignored, well...they're important too.

I've posted before...I had funny feelings all through my eckanyears.
In fact, I'm sure I posted here last summer, when I was an eckist...I
believe I may have been talking to Lurk...that word "infiltrate"
stuck. But...I didn't remember where I'd read it.

Anyway...I spent quite awhile composing a long response to this in
"write," as well as a short response to David H.'s post in this
thread, which I just posted from Deja...and the computer froze up when
I was about to copy the long response to this one. I ended up having
to reboot. So I lost it.

Which is okay. It's nothing I haven't said before. As I was writing, I
kept thinking, good grief...I feel like a broken record.

I mean, I know many people aren't thrilled about all my posts here.
Hey, if you think reading and/or not-reading them is rough, you should
have been here on my end!!!

I've been here a bit over a year, JT, and recently, more or less 99%
retired. I've been pretty busy...and I'd really like to work on my
websites. I've said just about everything already, you know....

But...you know, I liked my "whew" post!! I found it sort of neat how
it grew & where it went...often, well...what I post sort of,
well...takes on a life of its own. Thanks for giving me the
opportunity to write it!

The one I just lost, well...it was just the same old, same
old...except for a brief "ramble" after I had a laughing half-hour
chat with two Mormon missionaries! Fun, actually...one of them, poor
guy, was one of those "true believer" types. I found him offensive,
actually. The cute red-headed guy was fun, though...he was laughing
too. Actually covered his mouth a few times, because, well...he could
see clearly too. And yes!! They do yardwork!! The "tb" couldn't
understand that yes, I'd read their book, yes I prayed a lot, yes I
liked their book and perhaps it's true, but no, I did not have any
need or desire to get "saved" ....

Anyway, the cute red-head agreed that God probably had a sense of
humor (just look at the duck-billed platypus, or puppies playing!)...
the tb was annoyed that I wasn't going along with the programmed
salespitch he wanted to stick to...he didn't find my remark that yes,
I loved Jesus--- after all, he was a party animal, funny! That
changing water into wine stuff, you know...anyway, I think the red-
head understood about God having no limitations, and how could we put
either ourselves or God into one little book or one little box...

I'll betcha, though, if tb wasn't there, the redhead would have told
me more about Mormon underwear...he said yes, it was sacred and holy,
but he was laughing. TB just looked horrified...

Anyway...as they walked away, I noticed the redhead had *such* a cute
butt! A bit too young for me, though...and too old for my
granddaughter! I'm spayed, anyway. It would be sort of neat,
though...I mean, technically, if I died before the little baby red-
head came along, I could be my own grandmother!!

Anyway, JT...you know, you seem like a nice person, but...well, I've
served my time here...

Have a nice weekend, everyone!! Oh...any eckseminars scheduled here on
the East Coast? We could use some rain...lots of it!!

Hugs,

Sharon
http://members.delphi.com/sharon2000

"Happy Happy Joy Joy" -- Ren & Stimpy

Overview & Intro of Eckankar, The Cult -- Part 4
(This is an "introductory handout" file I send to people who are
requesting more information. Some of it, of course, is a bit
repetitious if you've looked at my other webpages....but this section
of this website will be used to direct people who aren't yet familiar
with "The Other Side of Eckankar -- What The Cult Doesn't Want People
to Know.")

To Whom It May Concern:

I was a member of Eckankar, a pseudo-religion with headquarters in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and a "Temple" in Chanhassen, for almost
15 years.

In July of 1998, I went to the newsgroup alt.religion.eckankar as a
"missionary" to help spread the "Light and Sound." I didn't think of
myself as a "missionary" .... cultic programming had convinced me that
Eckankar wasn't out to get new members; I was simply sharing the love
and joy in my heart, and "The Mahanta" would take care of the rest.

After a short time at the newsgroup, I became aware that a funny
feeling I'd had inside me for many, many years -- that there was
something wrong about Eckankar -- wasn't the "Kal" (Satan) as I'd been
told in Eckankar, or a "doubt" planted by the "Master" to test &
strengthen me spiritually. I learned that Eckankar was, basically, a
lie. When I first "left," it was a matter of personal integrity, and
not being able to remain associated with a "religion" whose leaders
lied, refused to answer legitimate questions, and indeed, spiritually
abused members who refused to follow the "party line." In the months
after I left, I went back over the "holy scriptures" and for the first
time, saw so many things that I had somehow missed.

I believe it was in October 1998 that I formally resigned. Through all
this time, I remained at the newsgroup....and went through things I
never believed possible. I learned first-hand that yes, Eckankar does
use subtle mind-control techniques which over the years,
well....basically, you end up brainwashed. I can't begin to describe
the clarity of mind, heart, and soul since leaving the cult...every
day gets better and better!

Because I was a secretary to a local Lutheran parish for 10 months
that year, and because eckists at the newsgroup had gone so far as to
post the website of the Catholic Church I now attend, well....I told
the Lutheran pastor as well as my parish priest a bit about my cult
experience. As a result, because Pastor Eric knows me personally and
knows that I'm a basically normal, well-balanced person, I was even
asked to speak to a group of pastors to tell them about the cult. And
I must say....if anyone has *experiences* they don't understand,
please, never hesitate to talk to a Christian clergyman about them.

When I was an eckist, I was asked to be a member of a "Group of Online
Eckists" whose purpose, I soon learned, was to silence those who spoke
out against Eckankar and tried to give people the information that I
wish I had known before I was caught in it. And I was told by an HI
that I should not engage in "conversation" with those who spoke
against Eckankar, especially Professor David Lane. I saw first-hand
how Eckankar's "clergy" and "High Initiates" plotted and manipulated
and discussed specific "strategies" against specific "detractors." In
this group, I was shocked to see the hatred toward those who spoke
against Eckankar, and the strategies used to silence them. I thought
Eckankar was about "divine unconditional love for all souls." I was
wrong. Eckankar lied. While many people leave Eckankar when they
discover the expose published by Professor David Lane, my experience
was different. I left because as an Eckist, I could see first-hand
that Eckankar lied and manipulated, and did not follow its own
teachings... the teachings it emphasizes in its public messages. When
I left Eckankar, at first I still "believed" ... it took months for me
to really break free of it inside, and to really understand and be
able to separate the stolen "truths" I believed in (which actually,
are from other great & valid spiritual traditions and teachings) from
the cultic lies and mind-control.

I learned that Harold Klemp regularly broadcasts on TV in Minneapolis,
and that there is much advertising in various media all over the
country; in the summer of 1998, Eckankar also had a full-page
advertisement in TV guide. Eckankar also uses expensive marketing
consultants in their efforts to gain new converts. Basically, it's a
form of spiritual "protection racket," with multi-level marketing
techniques thrown in. Eckankar, like most cults, does not want either
the general public or its members to know anything about its "hidden"
side. When Professor David Lane's research was mailed to Eckankar
centers years ago, eckists were told to destroy it without reading it.
And this is what many "higher initiates" actually did. Thousands of
other eckists, however, read the information...and left Eckankar.

While Eckankar claims to respect all religions and see everyone as
soul....it doesn't.

I am attaching a file with further information which you may find
interesting. Eckankar lures people in with subtle messages in what I
call the "newbie freebie book" you can get by calling 1-800- LOVEGOD.
From there....it's a road into a deep, dark hole that isn't easy to
escape.

Since I have been speaking out at the newsgroup, I have heard from so
many ex-eckists about the trauma they've suffered through leaving this
cult. The psychological effects of spiritual abuse in some cases is
still there for as long as 15-20 years. It doesn't have to be that
way....but because of many fear & threat messages interwoven with
stolen & plagiarized ancient truths in Eckankar's "teachings,"
well....people are afraid to speak out, and blame themselves....

When Paul Twitchell created this cult, he also considered how to
silence those who left. Fear and threats were one method. Another was
the "teaching" that people weren't "ready" for the high truth of
Eckankar, and needed to learn lessons in "other paths" ... but that
eventually, they would have to return to the "Mahanta" in order to
reach "heaven."

I hope you find the enclosed information will perhaps let more people
know the truth about Eckankar and its false and deceptive "teachings,"
so that this cult perhaps can be prevented from doing to others what
it did to me, and many other ex-eckists. If people do truly want to
join this cult, well....they should be able to know ALL the
information about it. To be honest, I don't know how anyone could
possibly look at it objectively and still want to be a part of it.

Thank you very much. Please feel free to contact me anytime for more
information.

Sincerely,

Sharon
email: sharo...@myremarq.com

Intro & Overview - Part 5

An example of Eckankar's "Protection Racket" methods to get & keep
members---
Read carefully -- note the subtle technique. First, promises of an
easy way to heaven . . . revelations of "ancient secret
knowledge" . . . the "LivingECKMaster" stuff . . .invitation to
membership . . . then the threats and scary stuff!!

Author: Sharon
Date: 1999/02/28

From "The Living Word, Book 2" by Harold Klemp, 1996, compiled by Mary
Carroll Moore,
edited by Joan Klemp & Anthony Moore.

(...a collection of articles by Sri Harold from 1989 to 1995 . . . 28
from "Mystic World", 8 from the Eckankar Journal . . . Note: "Mystic
World" contains a notice that it is for eckmembers only, not to be
available to the public...)

DREAMS, YOUR ROAD TO HEAVEN

"Our dreams are the forgotten road to heaven. This was once a nearly
absolute truth. That is, until the teachings of ECK surfaced in 1965
to encourage people to look for the lost doorway between heaven and
earth: their dreams."

(Note: Paul Twitchell "created" Eckankar in 1965, claiming to have
received "dictation" from spiritual "eckmasters." There is much
documented plagiarism from the works of Julian Johnson's "Path of the
Masters" and Scientology...Twitchell was a Scientologist for awhile.)

" Dreams are the starting point for many who wish to begin the
spiritual journey to God and do it in the easiest possible way. There
simply is no better way to start than with our dreams. Good works may
carry us far along this holy journey, and prayer is indeed a boon, but
generally we can learn more about the true nature of God through the
secret knowledge of dreams.

(Dream your way to God...the easy way! Mother Teresa, of course, will
have to reincarnate as an eckist if she wants to know God...)

Daydreams, night dreams, contemplation, Soul Travel--all are steps in
the pursuit of heaven. In Eckankar, the student is under the
protection of a spiritual guide known as the Mahanta. This is the
Spiritual Traveler. As the Mahanta, he is the Inner Master, the one
who comes on the inner planes to impart knowledge, truth, and wisdom.
But he also has an outer side. Here is is known as the Living ECK
Master. Thus, the spiritual leader of Eckankar can work both inwardly
and outwardly with all who come to learn of God and life.

Those who want his spiritual direction may choose to become members of
Eckankar. As part of their first year of study, they may receive The
ECK Dream I Discourses.

Each month, the individual is sent a six-page discourse that explores
the spiritual world of dreams. This study is different from any other
study he may have made in the past, for it deals entirely with Soul.
What is Soul's responsibility to God and all living things? Key to
this dream knowledge is divine love: where and how do you find
it?" (note: Eckankar has recently switched to sending out discourses a
year at a time... in one big batch...probably to save on postage
expenses...) "A person who travels in his dream worlds is assured of
the Mahanta's protection, because heaven is a place of many
dimensions. To learn about them, read Paul Twitchell's The Tiger's
Fang."

(Note on "The Tiger's Fang" -- this book allegedly contains
plagiarism, and was originally written using the name of Kirpal Singh,
a real-life "guru" who initiated Twitchell...Singh rejected the
book....and Twitchell replaced "Kirpal Singh" with a fictional "Sudar
Singh" and "Rebazar Tarz." This information is available from David
Lane's "Making of a Spiritual Movement" and from the Spiritual
Counterfeit Project's SCP Journal #0301.)

" In those lower heavens that lie between earth and the true worlds of
God, there are shady people who like nothing better than to cheat or
harm innocent victims. In Africa, for instance, the power of black
magic is very strong. An African man reported a dream in which a group
of men and women took him to a high place. Unknown to him, these
people were warlocks and witches. When they reached the top of this
place, which was a towering seawall, a woman in the group told him to
jump into the sea. But he knew that all who jumped from that height
never came back."

"Jump" she urged. As if hypnotized, he began to move toward the edge
of the wall. At that moment, the Mahanta appeared. The group vanished.
The master smiled and patted the dreamer on his shoulder; then the
dreamer awoke."

"What few would recognize is that the Mahanta prevented the dreamer's
death. It often happens that a dreamer, who does not have the
protection of the Mahanta, simply dies in his sleep. The doctor writes
off the cause as heart failure or some other physical condition. Often
as not, however, the dreamer had wandered beyond the safe limits of
his inner world and met a psychic criminal, who was responsible for
his death. An experience that did not have to be, had he known of the
Mahanta, the Living ECK Master."

"Dreams are one road to heaven. Another way to enter is through
contemplation: a few minutes each day of spiritual relaxation in which
the individual sits with his eyes closed and sings the holy name of
God. This word is HU. The Master comes, in time, to take him into the
worlds of heaven, the Far Country. With the Master along, what may
otherwise have been a nightmare turns out to have a spiritual end."

This "protection" and "connection" with the "Living ECK Master, the
Mahanta," is dependent upon the "chela" maintaining membership in the
organization, and paying the annual "donation" . . . when membership
is dropped, the "connection" with the "Mahanta," as well as the
supposedly- spiritual "initiations," no longer exists . . .
"initiations" (indicators of "spiritual progress") are lost.

Overview & Intro -- Page 6

Why Harold Klemp moved the Temple Site from Arizona to Minnesota
From "Be the Hu," the initiates-only book, compiled from Harold
Klemp's seminar talks to initiates of the second circle and above...

"I'm moving it for several reasons. In the past there have been a
number of psychic forces hovering around the site. We've also had to
consider the political situation in South America which is going to
push people north into overpopulated Mexico, then into the
southwestern United States."

From The Living Word, Book 2: "Why Build a Seat of Power for
Eckankar?

"We need a place from which the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master can
speak to the world about the Light and Sound of God. The Temple of ECK
will become the chief destination of spiritual pilgrims the world
over. For now, the Seat of Power for Eckankar is in Minnesota. At the
crossroads of humanity's quest for spiritual freedom, it is the
spiritual center of the world."

From Letters to a Chela by Paul Twitchell---page 34 For more chapters
of this "secret initiates-only book" see http://www.delphi.com/eckankartruth

For Initiates Only---the discourse series that Harold Klemp and long-
time Eckists (including some here on ARE) studied & were brainwashed
with--this discourse series was reprinted in book form by Darwin, and
continued being sold for many years under Harold Klemp. (Please note
the words I've * *)

"So ECK of ITSELF must find those who are willing to *plant*
themselves in church groups, of every nature, and act as the ones to
*spread the message* of ECK. These are commonly called *cells* in
political jargon, but we know them as *cadres.* This is to *get a
foothold* in any group, any institution and to be able to quietly but
effectively *give out the message of ECK*, and act as *reformers*
within these groups ****so that their members will come over to the
works of ECK.**** This is one of the efficient ways of educating
others to *become sympathetic with the ECK and ITS works.*

Since Christianity is only an aspect of the ECK there is no need of
viewing it or any other religion with awe. All religions and
philosophies spring out of the fountainhead of ECK. Therefore we must
look upon each with a sympathetic view that every group is
respectively struggling to find the Godhead.

***Since every ECKist knows that the Godhead is that which is
available only through the path of ECK then he must be warm,
sympathetic and helpful to those in religions, occultism and
philosophies for they are all the subordinates of ECKANKAR.******

There is no need to fight them, no need to have arguments with them or
try to give them truth when none are ready for it.

***But we can find ways of entering into the middle stream of life
everywhere, in social clubs, on civic boards, in groups of people who
are *seemingly without anything in their lives*. You can get
invitations to talk to public groups on ECK, have your own festivals,
such as an ECK festival, or go on radio and television programs
wherever available. *******

*****You can visit old folks homes and help cheer them up; visit
hospitals and help with people who are not able to help themselves.
Become readers who will talk to people who are handicapped, or read to
them *from the works, the books of ECK.*

****** You can also ******infiltrate***** young people groups and tell
them about ECK. You can make talks to high school groups and to
university and college classes.

There are a hundred ways in which you can make yourself available to
do work for passing out the message of ECK. Everyone of them is a part
of your training for ECK leadership."

Under Klemp's leadership, Eckankar has been implementing the message
of "Letters to a Chela" and subtly reinforcing this message in its
"chelas" .... Klemp has recently instructed all eckists to speak to
one new person a week about Eckankar. . .

Klemp in The Living Word, Book 2: "The entire ECK spiritual heirarchy
is working on the ECK missions project."

"The truth about ECK Initiates is that some are good Vahanas, or
missionaries, and some are not. (...) The first ECKist, the
unsuccessful one, uses old techniques from ten and twenty years ago.
He or she frightens people. (...) Such topics put new people off
today. It's OK to mention them---they are, after all, a part of the
ECK teachings-- but why dwell on them?

"...the successful one, shows a very different pattern. He or she is
willing to try new ways of reaching the millions of willing Souls, and
works closely with the ECK initiates at the Eckankar Spiritual Center.
This approach works. Its success lies in having the focus on the
spiritual needs of the seeker instead of what a great teaching *we*
represent." (pages 200-201)

Klemp in Ask the Master, Book 2: "Now, however, with the Temple of ECK
as the center post of the missionary effort in ECK (. . .) When giving
service to others in the name of Sugmad, is it really necessary to
tell them we have another name for God?"

At another location, I will be posting many more excerpts from the
present-day "teachings" of Eckankar showing how Twitchell's original
plans are being carried out, in a more subtle way, by Harold Klemp.
You see...eckists believe that they do NOT "proselytize" .... but,
each of them is convinced that 24 hours day, 7 days a week, they are
"channels for Spirit" and "co-workers with the Mahanta," in the
privileged position of providing the "outer" linkup to Klemp, the
Living ECK Master, the "Mahanta." Here is just one example....showing
how Klemp, himself, was affected by the mind-control of Paul
Twitchell."

http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/eckankarsurvivors/handout6.html

Intro & Overview -- Page 7

While Eckankar claims to respect all other religions, and its members
will tell you that the cult is not focused on getting new members, the
*teachings* are designed to produce members who think, inside
themselves, that all contacts in all areas of life are simply
opportunities to "link" people to their "Mahanta," if not immediately,
then in the future. This is an example of how even a simple ping-pong
game is as much more than it is: From Klemp's Ask the Master, Book 2:

Q: Why don't you go out into the streets and preach the message of ECK
as they did in days of old?

A: Each period of history has its own special way to preach the
message of ECK.

Sometimes I play Ping-Pong at a city recreation center. Hardly any of
the high-school students there know that I am in ECK, but they respect
my game. Someday they'll put two and two together, and think to
themselves, "Anybody who plays Ping-Pong like that can't be all bad!"
In the meantime, I get both exercise and fine company.

This is being a silent channel for the ECK, where actions speak louder
than words. And I love it!

This is obviously "compiled" from an old story...

since Harold was too sick to go to seminars for several years, I doubt
if he'd be playing Ping-Pong.

Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with playing Ping-Pong...exercise
is good for us. But...this shows the effects of Twitchell's
"infiltrate youth groups" orders...

Harold's not simply playing Ping-Pong for pleasure...or enjoying it
simply because he likes teenagers...

He's being a Silent Channel for the ECK...and this message is
something that runs constantly in the background in the minds of
Eckists. I know this is true. I was an Eckist for almost 15 years, and
I haven't been "out" that long.

It's hard to explain...but I'm aware of such a difference in myself.
Just this week, while just sitting & talking & laughing with a group
of people, enjoying it simply for what it was...I could remember what
my thoughts and feelings would have been when I was an Eckist.

As an example, one woman told a story about how after her divorce,
she'd even been living in a car for awhile. Then she got a small
apartment, and a neighbor invited her to go to bingo at her
church...and paid for it...and even refused to take part of this
woman's winnings...and in the process they ran into someone who knew
of a job opening, which the woman applied for and got...she said God
was taking care of her...

As an Eckist, I would have thought "Wow!! It's the ECK!!! Even though
they're not aware of it!!! And someday...they'll meet the MASTER!!!"

The other night, we were talking about nursing homes...one older guy
mentioned he used to drive his old girlfriend to work at one, and he
got acquainted with a lonely old lady, so he'd sit there and listen to
her talk...he had nothing better to do, and he enjoyed it...although
sometimes he would nod off...she wouldn't notice, though...

As an Eckist, I would have thought "Wow! It's the ECK!!! Even though
they're not aware of it!! And someday...they'll meet the MASTER!!!"

And I would have been HUing inside, constantly...

Before Eckankar...well, the Jehovah's Witnesses tried to lay that
number on me...the miserable-world & major-guilt-trip & Chosen People
& only-real-way to- God & Salvation thing...the SAME THING that
ECKANKAR does!!!!!! I ended up basically telling "God" to f*** off...I
would not and could not believe or respect a "God" who would kill
everyone, including innocent children, simply because they didn't
belong to a particular religion. I made up a "fantasy" God...and just
went through life...enjoying & living it fully...the ups and downs,
the joys and sorrows

Then...Eckankar got me. And things were different. I thought
everything was wonderful...just like the Eckists here will tell you. I
had "experiences" that I didn't understand, and I came across an
eckbook in the library. The book seemed to explain my
experiences....because I simply wasn't that familiar with a lot of
religions or spiritual teachings. The cult's books said that I had
*always* been an eckist, but had made the mistake of leaving the
"path" in a previous life. I was told if I rejected the Living ECK
Master again, well...I was doomed to suffer another horrible
incarnation here on earth.

I remember thinking a lot of what I read was a bit strange, but I
wanted to know more. I joined. I did the hypnotic "spiritual
exercises." I studied the books as I was told. And for fifteen years,
I believed. It worked for me. I thought I had "proof," but came to
realize, the "proof" was a deceptive lie."

I'm out now. And I'm glad. Being older & wiser...I understand what I
think of as "God" a bit better...and I DO know, and have experienced
whatever it is.. right before I got suckered into Eckankar. Right
now...well I'm back in the Catholic church, not necessarily as as
"true believer" in all of it...but there is truly *something*
there...what I choose to think of as God/Holy Spirit... whatever that
is.

Back to Harold's Ping-Pong story . . .

I wonder if Harold was LEM when he was playing ping-pong? I'm pretty
sure this is an older story. "Ask the Master" was compiled from older
books, to appeal to and be sold to the public.

He's not thinking that he's "infiltrated" a group of young
people...but he DOES say "hardly any...know that I am in ECK"

"Someday they'll put two and two together..." This means...many years
later, they will see Harold's picture on an eckbook...perhaps read
it...read the messages that say the least little thing is a "message
from ECK" ... and they may well be suckered in thinking..."WOW!!! I
used to play PING PONG with the LIVING ECK MASTER and I didn't even
know it!!! It was a WAKING DREAM!!! I'm an ECKIST...and I never even
knew it until now!!!"

That's how Eckankar works on your mind...from the very beginning.
That's how it got me...told me I'd "always" been an Eckist & didn't
know it...and I'd made the mistake of refusing the "master" in
millions of past lives...

Now...what does it say about what's in Harold's mind when he needs
some kind of acceptance and validation by high-school kids thinking to
themselves "Anybody who plays Ping-Pong like that can't be all bad!"

Why can't Harold simply enjoy playing ping-pong as a plain, simple
down-to-earth human being? What is it in Harold, what emptiness is
inside him that can only be filled by the ego-stroking of Paul
Twitchell's cult...or the thoughts of high school kids who knew him
even years ago...

Of course, now he's LEM...he can laugh at EVERYONE... he is THE
MASTER...

"This is being a silent channel for the ECK, where actions speak
louder than words. And I love it!"

Sometimes...yes, it's hard to tell with words, what feelings &
emotions are being expressed by it. But this sort of makes me think of
one of those little show-off bully types--- "Ha ha ha!! I really
showed THEM who's boss!!"

Well...whatever you choose to believe...at least look at all the
possibilities...something I didn't do...I just believed...

Your Brain On Eckankar Eckankar does strange things to your mind. You
see "signs" all over. They're called "waking dreams." If a light bulb
burns out, it means you're not getting enough "light" in your life and
you should "hu" more. If your muffler has rusted and falls off, it
means you'd better stop gossiping (it happened to Klemp!). If you see
a blue light anywhere, for example---a blue porch light, it means the
Master is with you and trying to tell you something. Here are some
examples of cultic thinking:

James Paul Davis in "The Dream Weaver Chronicles", after an Eckankar
campout at Newberry Volcano in Oregon:

"That had been the weekend I perceived so many waking dreams of the
Holy Fire sweeping across the world, symbolically igniting the flames
of physical forest fires all around us. It was two days after Iraq
invaded Kuwait.

On October 22nd, the United States Senate voted to make Newberry
Volcano a national monument! When I read this in the newspaper on
Tuesday morning, I thought, This is perfect. The political leadership
of America, by this act of Congress, is acknowledging my Holy-Fire
waking dreams. Of course they don't know it---but that doesn't
matter."

Harold Klemp in "Ask the Master, Book Two" - "Surprising Answers That
Can Change Your Life"

Q: "Recently at a seminar I got food poisoning. This was unusual for
me. Any insights?"

Klemp responds: "Out here it may be food poisoning, but the real
reason is often that you were a guard of the inner circle and got into
combat for love of the ECK. For this I thank you."

Klemp writes in one of his autobiographical books, "Child In The
Wilderness," of having received God-Realization on a bridge. After
this, he was detained by the authorities when he started to remove his
clothes at a public airport. Instead of being jailed, he was confined
to a mental institution . . . where he writes of "inner-plane"
experiences battling evil entities with the "Sword of the Sugmad."

This cultic thinking permeates every area of the cult member's life,
and mind. Here's another example:

Diamond star (hu4...@aol.com)
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:00:48 GMT
Subject: The Colours

Someone wanted me to come to Minneapolis and wear a white suit. Well,
actually, I did that in Washington D.C. in the 1980's. It was at that
convention that I discovered that there is more than just the
physical, easy to see structure of ECKANKAR, and that colours that we
wear on a day to day basis are part of the spiritual experience.

For one thing, I was there with my brother so I had chosen to bring
the most modest night attire I had. This consisted of a mint green
nightgown that I had purchased several years before, and a mauve
quianna caftan that I had made, also many years before. I put these on
and walked out into the living room of our suite. I said to my
brother, "I match the room." which I did for it was decorated in these
two same seemingly uncoordinated colours. He said, rather wonderously,
"I know." We both thought about this for awhile and I said, "Well, I
guess it means that I was meant to be here and that the circumstances
that would get me here were in the works for many years before I even
considered coming."

Each day of the seminar I sought the ECK's guidance as to which of my
clothes to wear. Then I went out and about my business. I had not
signed up for any of the events, but just let spontaniety take me
where it would. I found myself doing things that I had not realized I
was there to do. I'm not complaining. I know I scared at least one
person who was giving a lecture, but then I was just following the ECK
around.

As I was pondering this, I found that I had wandered into the
auditorium where Sri Harold would be giving his talk that evening. It
was empty at this hour except for one person up on the stage who was
moving around the sound equipment. I looked up at him, and he stopped
what he was doing and looked at me and we sort of froze like that for
a couple minutes. You see, he and I were dressed exactly the same. I
don't mean he was wearing women's clothes or that I was wearing mens,
but we were both wearing a white polyester suit, a pale blue shirt,
and a light gray tie, my suit and tie being feminine and his being for
men. We didn't say anything to each other, and then I walked away
pondering this situation. I have since learned more about what was
going on, but it was interesting to note that you can often learn more
by not attending the activities than you can from following a planned
schedule. I think that young man is out there, perhaps on the a.r.e.
If you recognize this story, please let me know.

Love, Rose

Another example which comes to mind is the story another Eckist
told....he recognized the woman who would become his wife because she
was wearing an eck-symbol necklace. When I find the post, I'll insert
it here.

And where did things like this begin? Well, Paul Twitchell himself saw
strange "signs" everywhere . . . for example:

"Generally we can tell whether he is a real master for a certain
number, usually seven, golden plovers will precede his arrival."
Illuminated Way Letters, Page 48

http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/eckankarsurvivors/handout8.html

Intro & Overview -- Page 9

The Words of Paul Twitchell:

"We will find that most writings on the subjects of religion and
philosophy are hardly more than dialectic fiction, and really not
sacred scriptures." Illuminated Way Letters

INCONSISTENCY: Harold Klemp in one of his biographies, "Soul Travelers
of the Far Country: says "The Bible Is Dead", yet he quotes the Bible
freely to support Eckankar's "teachings" frequently . In order to
build the Temple in MN, it was necessary for Eckankar to gain the
support of local churches for zoning approval. This is only ONE
example of Klemp's constant reinforcement of the "teaching" that all
religions are actually of the "Kal" (Eckankar's "Satan") .... and
cannot lead people to God)

We can see the effect of Paul Twitchell's lies and mind-control
messages in the "experiences" that Harold Klemp reports, and how the
"public" Eckankar and the "inner" Eckankar are quite different. Here
is an example of how the cult's mind-control messages affected Harold
Klemp himself:

"Early in my ECK studies, I wavered back and forth between the
authenticity of the Bible and the reality of the Living Word, which is
the Living ECK Master. Once, in the dream state, I slipped into a
church service in disguise. The minister arrived late. Finally, he
stepped into the pulpit and mocked up an emotional outburst of
despair. Shouting, he accused me of causing my sister's damnation
because she had left his church for ECK. Then he closed the Bible and
dramatically threw it over the heads of the people, into my lap. But
when the Bible hit my lap, I immediately jumped up and threw it on the
floor. "The Bible is dead!" I shouted in response. This caused an
uproar in the church.

The preacher hurled barbs at me while I stalked down the aisle without
a word, heading for the exit. After each of his verbal attacks, I
stopped and countercharged that each Soul must look again to the
*Living* (italics) Word, the Living ECK Master. "Judge for
yourselves," I said to the congregation. "You are being deceived by a
dead teaching." It seemed they had already guessed that. I was merely
voicing their unspoken thoughts for the minister's benefit. After all,
did he ever tell them that the Sound and Light of God are needed to
attain spiritual freedom? Otherwise, what are they for?

Awakening from this experience, I found myself stronger in Spirit. The
inner experience had spared me the unpleasantness of such an encounter
in the outer world, while the Dream Master's aim was still
accomplished: to have me stand on my own feet and speak up for
truth."

(Please note: In Eckankar, "dream" experiences are "REAL" .... and
even less "illusory" than "life on Earth" .... )

* * * * *

>From "The Spiritual Laws of Eck", Harold Klemp, 1990 (a compilation of quotes)

""A Christian who lives the Law of Righteousness is far superior to a
chela who engages in useless arguments with other chelas about whether
there is dogma in Eckankar. Even though we are ultimately on a path
that is centered upon the inner reality of truth, we do need the outer
expression of truth while in a human body."

"This Sound Current is actually the Voice of God, spoken of in the
Bible as the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us." " "How to Find God" Mahanta
Transcripts Book 2, p. 156, by Harold Klemp

"We take our steps on the spiritual path; we climb the ladder to God.
Jesus said, "Come unto me and be lifted up." " How To Find God, MT
Book 2, page 8

"In a sense, we are led to believe that the grace of God descends upon
us, but actually it's as Jesus spoke of when he told his followers to
come unto him and he would lift them up." "How To Find God", MT Book
2, p. 48, by Harold Klemp

"Our name for Spirit is simply ECK. (copyright Eckankar) This ECK is
what the Bible refers to as the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. This is the
same manifestation that came to the apostles at Pentecost. They heard
a sound like a rushing wind." "How To Find God", MT Book 2, p. 40, by
Harold Klemp

"As Jesus said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God...and all these
things shall be added unto you." " "How to Find God", MT Book 2, p.
41, by Harold Klemp

"Charity is what the Christian Bible speaks of as good will. We call
it vairag, or detachment." How To Find God, MT Book 2, pg. 40, by
Harold Klemp

"The greater you become in your state of consciousness, the quicker
your acts come back to you. In the Bible, St. Paul spoke of this Law
of Karma when he said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap." How To Find God, Bk. 2, p. 18, by Harold Klemp

"St. Paul said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
How To Find God, Mahanta Transcripts Book 2, p. 214

"One is required to pay the price for breaking the spiritual laws even
though it is done in ignorance. This is the highest law. "Do unto
others as you would first have them do unto you" really means if I
don't want people meddling in my life without permission, then I ought
to extend that same privilege to others." How to Find God, MT 2, p.
165

The cult and its members are now evangelizing by telling people that
the "hu-chant" can be used by members of all religions, without
interfering with their beliefs. The "newbie freebie" book, "Eckankar:
Ancient Wisdom for Today," encourages people to become members of
Eckankar, saying "You can stay in your present religion. In fact, its
teachings will probably become clearer than ever." This, obviously, is
at the very least---deceptive.

The following "spiritual experience" reported by Klemp is more proof
of the cult's public deception:

http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/eckankarsurvivors/handout9.html

Overview & Intro -- Page 10

From "The Living Word" ...Harold Klemp...the Word of ECK

"In Search of God"

"We commonly think that the ECK Masters see and know all things
without the need for study or research."

(Well, yes.....considering all the hype about their omniscience &
omnipresence, etc., it's natural to think that...

"The Master is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is all-
powerful, all-wise, and is in all places simultaneously." The Precepts
of Eckankar, by Paul Twitchell..."secret members-only discourses" ...
"reviewed, updated, and published under the supervision of the Living
ECK Master, Sri Harold Klemp. It is the Word of Eck." )

"All earlier research is double-checked and later gathered into the
scriptures of the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad"

( Well then, why didn't Twitch mention that Lai Tsi's "seed" had been
mentioned in the Bible? And if all research is double checked by these
Masters, then why did "Rebizarre" dictate faulty stuff to Twitch? And
anyway, was Twitch a "compiler" or a "stenographer?" Okay, maybe he
was in a hurry....but you'd think Reb's dictation would have been
better, since it was all double-checked.

Klemp has so many excuses for Twitchell even HE gets them
confused!!!!)

"In pursuit of such research on the inner planes, Wah Z signed up for
two religion classes in Askleposis, the Astral Center of culture and
art. He wanted to compare the mental teachings of the orthodox
religions with those of the heart, of ECK."

(Research? Thought the LEM/M would already know that stuff...I just
wonder... was he going to compare, or to reassure himself....

Remember....WAH Z is the INNER form of Klemp, the LEM....and
supposedly a "consciousness" not a person....so check out what this
story reveals about this "consciousness" --- the highest in the
universe!!!)

"Today was to be a special lesson: the teacher would speak of God.
Unfortunately, all he knew was so much mental hash---faith, baptism,
communion, confirmation, and penance."

(What an attitude! What happened to "what can I learn?" And doesn't
this show a respect for all religions....calling the blessed
sacraments which are very meaningful gifts from God to millions of
people around the world "mental hash!") "The teacher was in a hurry
and waited impatiently for Wah Z to quit fumbling with his things and
get out."

(Of course....not much nice to say about the teacher....)

""The religion he tries to teach the children is in pieces and
scattered everywhere, just like my things, thought Wah Z."

( Gee...even the Mahanta gets that ECK Waking Dream Stuff.
Except.....the teachings of Christianity aren't exactly "scattered"

And Eckankar's....well, they were "compiled" .... except of course
there's that "evolving consciousness" thing to explain why some of the
"compiled" stuff isn't relevant anymore...and it's all "on the inner"
despite the fact that once again, (see above) Klemp refers to the
Shariyat as "scripture" ....)

"By the time he got his shoes on, Wah Z was late for Religious
Doctrine"

"For a moment, Wah Z studied the organized chaos. A bell sounded, and
the last trickle of students melted into these caves of religious
education."

(note the words "chaos" and "caves" ... and think about the negative
connotations...and the "consciousness" they reveal...)

(He goes to a classroom "which was for Plass's class of advanced
students" now)

"This was a seminary: religion classes were thrown at a student for
two years before he went into the field as a vicar."

(Considering Klemp's seminary experience...does this perhaps suggest
that when he was in the seminary, he felt that more than he can handle
was being "thrown" at him?)

"How interesting to find religious field missions on the Astral Plane,
even as on earth. One wouldn't think it, but many people who die on
earth and go to the Astral Plane continue to promote beliefs they held
on earth."

(I'm not surprised. That's what Twitch is doing, you know. That's why
people still "see" him. And Twitch STILL thinks he's Godman....and
still promoting the cult he invented here on earth...)

"Plass was notorious for scolding latecomers, so Wah Z was relieved
that his late entrance had gone unnoticed. He slipped into a seat on
the second tier and spread his books, papers, pens, notebooks, and
coat on and around his desk. His stomach ached when he thought of
enduring two years of this highly structured study of religion."

( Fascinating, isn't this? Just Harold's speaking of Wah Z in the
third person.....

And the Mahanta, the highest "consciousness," is relieved that the
teacher isn't going to yell at him for being late? And his stomach
ached when he thinks of "enduring" two years of this study....???

What is this really saying about the REAL meaning of Klemp's
dreams.... whoops....I mean REAL experiences on those other
planes...????)

"Wah Z could not help but compare this mentalized religion with the
clean, simple teachings of ECK, which show that Soul's unfoldment
depends upon the Sound and Light of God. So easy, he thought."

(Yeah....just tune into the LEM/M and HU....and you too will have
awesome spiritual experiences .... just like this one!! )

"When Plass reentered the room, Wah Z was excitedly explaining the
simplicity of ECK to classmates seated near him. "I'm going to tell
Plass about ECK," he said. Their faces turned white; Plass might shout
down heresy."

(talking to Plass) "All this study of religion has nothing to do with
God, only with the mind," said Wah Z. "The mind can never lead anyone
to God."

( According to Eckankar, one must shut off the mind, and surrender
everything to the Mahanta....and just do 20 minutes of hypnotic
chanting....and then all this stuff will appear clearly in its true
spiritual glory....)

"Plass, sensing a heretic in the classroom, shot a critical glance at
Wah Z over the top of his glasses. "Is that so?" he said sharply.
"Then what *is* important?"

(The Sound & Light....Wah Z gives examples...Plass responds to one
with "a blank, comedic Jack Benny stare" ... Klemp goes on to lead the
class in a resounding HU....)

"Wah Z started for the door. What need has one in search of God for
dead religions of the mind? ...'This religious study you teach is not
essential for a truth seeker,' Wah Z said."

(Reminiscent of the "Bible Is Dead" story, isn't it?)

"Would you then have me stop teaching religious philosophy and dogma?"
asked Plass, thinking of his livelihood."

(Give me a break!!! If you want to make money...teaching is NOT the
way to go!!! Why does Klemp assume that "Plass" isn't teaching for the
love of the subject....the mirror principle perhaps?

My personal observation has been that teachers teach usually out of
true love of knowledge & sharing it...and good teachers love learning
new things too, and lively discussions...

I haven't met many of that other kind....who perhaps out of a mixture
of their own insecurities have to boost their own egos & need for
power & control go into the field to have students sort of "worship"
them...)

"No," he replied slowly. "That wouldn't be good either. These students
need someone to teach them this knowledge; without it, they'd miss a
step and delay their journey home to God."

(Nice of Klemp to acknowledge that. Of course, this also sort of lets
eckists know that a good knowledge of ancient wisdom isn't
necessary...all the Chosen People need is membership in Eckankar...and
the eckbooks!)

"The professor...did not know Wah Z as the Mahanta, but thought he was
a disgruntled student making plans to leave the church, so he said,
"Are you sure you want to do this rash thing? Remember your Savior."

(Just some thoughts here...for some reason I flashed on a little wimpy
kid who gets picked on by bullies....fantasizing about being some
great Super Hero.....and no one realizing it....

Sort of like the Ping-Pong story...where Klemp is thinking about what
the high school students are thinking about him....they don't even
suspect that he's The Master...the REAL "Saviour" ....

And yes...Harold wrote about the unhappiness of his family & former
friends in the church when he announced he was leaving....)

"Empty doctrines are no food for Soul," said Wah Z softly. "I am free;
give me the Song of God, the Holy HU. Soul bows beneath the weight of
books, but Sound and Light maintain me."

"The professor pondered this as Wah Z---agent for the SUGMAD---left
the room."

* * *

Doesn't one wonder about Klemp's childhood? He was sent away to a
seminary...where he evidently didn't "get it" .... you know, maybe
they should have kept him at home. This is not the only Klemp story
which reveals a little bit...perhaps Klemp found his studies too
difficult.... who knows?

And....while he was in the service....he wrote that he was only
interested in the Twitchell ad in "Fate" as a way to visit his home
back on the farm without getting in trouble for being AWOL.

And yes, I can imagine that his family & church were a bit upset when
young Harold got out of the service, and came home and spent hours in
his cold bedroom, sitting cross-legged on the floor with a blanket
over his head and body....doing the Spiritual Exercises of Eck, and
chatting with Twitchell who appeared to him in the soul body......

Perhaps what Klemp pictures as a desire for everyone else to have
power and control over him was the natural and loving concern a family
naturally shows when someone is getting involved in a strange new-age
cult?

Especially since in one of Klemp's biographies, "Child in the
Wilderness," he tells about how after his experience of "God-
Realization" on the bridge, he was subsequently confined to a mental
institution for stripping in a public airport. And in this mental
institution, he spoke of all the entities he saw and did battle with
on the "inner planes."

Klemp also talks about bullies picking on him when he was in the
service.....and how the "power of ECK" brought terrible consequences
to the bullies....

Just makes you wonder, you know?

http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/eckankarsurvivors/handout10.html

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Eckankar: The Truth About A Deceptive Cult
Welcome Friends!

My name is Sharon. I was a member of Eckankar, the "Religion of Light
and Sound", for almost 15 years. I was a "good" eckist, and always
trying to be a better one...

Eckankar is not what is claims to be. Eckankar is a pseudo-religion
created by Paul Twitchell, an intelligent man who could have perhaps
done some good in the world if he'd truly had any kind of connection
with Spirit. Unfortunately, he was an amoral megalomaniac con-man who
wanted to destroy all world religions, and even God, and replace them
with himself and his cult.

Thousands of people have left Eckankar. Some ex-eckists are speaking
out on the internet and in the "real" world, but many are silent,
still trying to heal from the spiritual and psychological damage
inflicted on the minds, hearts, and souls by Eckankar.

Leaving a cult is not as simple as not going to church on Sunday.
Eckankar's subtle mind-control methods are effective. Only someone
who's been through it really can understand. When we were eckists, we
seemed to be thinking clearly and in control of our lives. Only after
leaving Eckankar did our minds begin to clear, and it doesn't happen
overnight. For some ex-eckists, the lingering effects of mind-control
can hang like a shadow over your heart and mind for over twenty
years.

Don't be lured into this cult until you've investigated the whole
truth from both ex-eckists and cult experts, and use the mind your
Creator gave you to make a rational decision.

The teachings of Eckankar are stolen truths, which are freely given
elsewhere, with no strings attached, by TRUE spiritual giants.
Eckankar may tell you that it is the original, primal religion...but
beware...Eckankar lies.

Please follow the links below...your personal relationship with Spirit
is too important to buy into something blindly... You don't need a
connection with any kind of "master," especially the imaginary and/or
evil self-proclaimed "masters" of Eckankar.

God is in your heart, and God's love and grace are given freely to all
who desire it.

Hugs.....from Sharon

P.S. Thank you for your patience...I'm still under construction, and
learning a little about HTML...it's not that hard, really!!!

http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/eckankarsurvivors/eckankartruth.html

The Neural Surfer UPDATES

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Eckankar currently markets itself as the "Religion of the Light and
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Twitchell, who plagiarized from many authors and sources including
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ourselves in. Look before you leap into a dark hole of spiritual
blindness...learn what Eckankar doesn't want either current members or
"newbies" to know!

"Each student must be encouraged to take responsible measures to
confront teachers with unethical aspects of their conduct. If the
teacher shows no sign of reform, students should not hesitate to
publicize any unethical behavior of which there is irrefutable
evidence. This should be done irrespective of other beneficial aspects
of his or her work and of one's spiritual commitment to that
teacher." ...the Dalai Lama

This is a "public" newsgroup, and "guests" can access the message
archives and links, which I recommend you do *before* you start
posting and asking questions. There's also some very good info which
isn't available elsewhere on the internet in the "files" section, but
Yahoo only lets members access the files. You don't need to "join"
unless you want to post or read the "files". Posting is usually
restricted to former members. No one here is the least bit interested
in "discussions" with current eckcultists; we've been there, done
that.
Joining is fast easy, no pre-approval required; if you just want to
read the "files" you can quickly "unjoin" when you're done. New
members' posts are moderated until I see you're not a cult "vahana".

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loud!!), and he
Posted - Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:03 am Sharon
brighttigress

Re: A question for Colleen
Hi Leaf, Â Â Â Â I live in SoCal now, but I'm not a native
Californian. I was born in Tokyo, Japan, and was raised all over the
world. I'm glad you liked
Posted - Tue Mar 9, 2010 8:41 am David Osborn
panfluteman2000

Re: A question for Colleen
Hi David, I visited your website. I notice you're a fellow
acupuncturist. Nice website. I haven't tried to classify myself
according to the Greek humors, yet.
Posted - Tue Mar 9, 2010 5:40 am

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eckankartruth/

[chhotemianinshallah]

Cult News from Rick Ross

A news perspective with analysis from cult expert Rick Ross

Archive for Aum Sect

06.01.06
Heinous cult leader will be hung
Posted in Aum Sect at 3:20 pm by Rick Ross

Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as “Shoko Asahara” led his followers to a
day of reckoning, but it wasn’t the one he predicted, instead it was
the beginning of the end for him and the cult he created called ”Aum
Supreme Truth.”

Asahara was sentenced to death in February 2004 for the poison gas
attack he ordered in Tokyo, which claimed of lives of twelve people
and injured 5,500. Including the murder of a lawyer and his family and
other related crimes, 27 lives were lost in the wake of Matsumoto’s
madness.

Japanese justice moves slowly and after 11 years and with all his
appeals exhausted the cult leader may soon be executed by hanging on
the gallows.

In the past decade Aum has disintegrated and splintered into factions
as its founder, who was once regarded as divine, lapsed into silence.
Today the man that once ruled the sect like a king languishes in a
jail cell alone wearing diapers, apparently unwilling or unable to
communicate or even use a toilet.

One of the guru’s lieutenants also convicted of cult crimes and
sentenced to death says that Matsumoto might remain a symbol to some
of his remaining followers after his death.

“If Matsumoto is to be executed without testifying, he will become a
martyr,” Kenichi Hirose, 41 wrote in a letter, reports Yomiuri
Shimbun.

“If Matsumoto is going to have his death sentence finalized without
testifying, fails to atone for his actions and maintains a barrier of
self-containment, I’ve nothing to say to him,” Hirose also said.

Throughout the years since his arrest the once talkative guru has been
mute. He did not speak coherently during his court trial, though at
times he has demonstrated the ability to masturbate in front of his
jailers.

Regardless of whether Matsumoto is faking, or has unraveled without
the power he once held, the murderous cult leader will not be
protected by an insanity defense.

Tokyo High Court on Monday rejected an objection filed his lawyers and
nothing remains between the heinous cult leader and the hangman.

02.20.06
Japanese cult leader can’t face the real world
Posted at 5:53 am by Rick Ross

Ever wonder what happened to the Japanese cult leader responsible for
gassing thousands of Tokyo subway riders in 1994?

Well it has been more than a decade and Shoko Asahara, convicted of
murder and sentenced to death, is still taking up cell space in his
own very special quiet way.

The once all-powerful and outspoken cult leader now just mumbles
incoherently, makes bizarre gestures and wets himself.

His lawyers say Asahara was “unfit for trial” and they keep demanding
more definitive psychiatric tests.

However, the Japanese courts have ruled otherwise and declared the
guru “fit for trial” reports Ireland On-line.

“He’s incapable of any form of communication whatsoever,” says a
psychopathology expert that visited Asahara in prison.

Apparently he suffers from “stress” brought on by “confinement.”

His lawyers shouldn’t expect any sympathy though from the Japanese
courts or the public. Asahara is responsible for the murder of twelve
subway riders and the injuries of thousands rushed to hospitals for
emergency care.

Once the grand master that controlled a financial empire and ruled as
a tyrant over an estimated 40,000 followers this self-proclaimed
messiah can’t seem to adjust to the reality of life as a mere mortal
supervised by prison authorities.

It’s no great shock though that Asahara has ultimately proven to be as
crazy as other cult leaders from the past.

However, unlike Jim Jones, David Koresh, Luc Joret, Marshall
Applewhite, or Joseph Kibwetere, Asahara decided not to do himself in
when his luck ran out.

Instead he hid hoping to somehow get away with his crimes.

Now forced to face a life without the trappings of his former glory
Asahara has shut down and shut out the world around him.

In the end a living example of what makes cult leaders tick and often
ultimately unwind.

06.28.05
Tom Cruise and Scientology garner interesting defenders
Posted at 3:44 pm by Rick Ross

Salon calls Scientology Dianetics “stranger than fiction”

Academics often called “cult apologists” have come to the rescue and
defended both Tom Cruise and Scientology in the press lately.

J. Gordon Melton and David G. Bromley were both quoted in a recent
article run within the Chicago Sun-Times.

Bromley is an old friend of Scientology and has been officially
recommended by the controversial church as a “religious resource.”

The so-called “new Cult Awareness Network” reportedly run by
Scientology also once recommended both Bromley and Melton for “factual
information on new religions,” in the wake of a California cult
(”Heaven’s Gate“) mass suicide in 1997.

David Bromley’s frequent writing partner Anson Shupe made a bundle
working for Scientology lawyers. He helped Scientology knock off its
perceived nemesis the “old Cult Awareness Network” enabling a
Scientologist attorney to eventually buy its name and files through a
bankruptcy proceeding.

The files of Scientology’s former foe were later handed over to J.
Gordon Melton.

Melton and Bromley can almost always be counted on to defend virtually
any group called a “cult” no matter how heinous or harmful.

Bromley told the Chicago Sun-Times, “Cult is a four-letter word for a
religion you don’t like.”

It seems Time Magazine must have got it wrong when it called
Scientology the “Cult of Greed,” despite the fact that a subsequent
libel suit filed against the publication by the purported “cult”
sputtered to a dismissal without ever going to trial.

Mr. Melton has raked in quite a nest egg working for groups like the
Children of God and the International Church of Christ. He was paid by
J.Z. Knight (known as Ramtha) to write a book, not to mention his all
expenses paid trip to Japan courtesy of the infamous cult known as
“Aum Supreme Truth.”

Melton arrived in Japan in 1995 and promptly pronounced that Aum was
the victim of “persecution,” despite the fact that the cult had gassed
the Tokyo Subway system sending thousands of Japanese to hospitals and
killing twelve.

Melton told the Chicago Sun-Times that “new religions,” his supposedly
politically correct euphemism to describe “cults,” put people off
because of their “newness.”

However, it appears that what puts people off most about Tom Cruise’s
behavior and his strange Scientology banter is the bizarre nature of
it all.

Today the London Free Press asked, “Has Cruise Cracked?”

Meanwhile Salon Magazine published a critique of Scientology and its
founder titled “Stranger than Fiction.”

How convenient is the timing that these two alleged academics Melton
and Bromley are now helping out Scientology’s “poster boy” Tom Cruise.

But the news media should know that such specious scholars cannot be
counted upon for any meaningful objectivity, they are politically if
not literally invested in their positions.

Benjamin Zablocki, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University put
it succinctly when he said, “The sociology of religion can no longer
avoid the unpleasant ethical question of how to deal with the large
sums of money being pumped into the field by the religious groups
being studied…This is an issue that is slowly but surely building
toward a public scandal.”

Stephen Kent, a professor of sociology at the University of Alberta in
Canada concluded, “Scholars who compromise objectivity or academic
integrity threaten to diminish the reputation of social science.”

Rich religious groups like Scientology can easily afford to pump cash
into the pockets of quite a few professors and assorted academics.
Perhaps the press should scrutinize more carefully the likes of
sources such as David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton.

01.26.05
“Cult” payoff for “scholar”?
Posted at 12:16 pm by Rick Ross

J. Gordon Melton, a somewhat specious “scholar” of what he refers to
as “new religious movements” received a rather questionable gift from
a foundation linked to a purported “cult,” reports Moving On.org.

Moving On.org is a Web site created by and for young adults with
parents who joined the notorious “Children of God” (COG).

The Web site recently made public a portion of a 2000 IRS disclosure
document that lists a $10,000.00 gift given to the so-called
“International Religious Directory,” which is a pet project of Mr.
Melton.

The gift-giver is the Family Care Foundation, an organization founded
by COG leaders.

Infamous sexual predator “Moses” David Berg who died in 1994 once
defined COG as its absolute leader.

The group taught members to sexualize their minor children and
encouraged its women to become “hookers for Christ.”

COG is now known as “The Family” and has been in the news lately due
to a grizzly murder-suicide.

Ricky Rodriquez the son of its current leader Karen Zerby, Berg’s
widow known as “Mama Maria” to her followers, committed suicide after
murdering his former nanny Angela Smith. The young man who left COG
about five years ago claimed she had molested him as a child.

Ms. Smith at the time of her death was listed as a director of the
Family Care Foundation, which is reportedly “an arm of The Family.”

J. Gordon Melton has often been labeled a “cult apologist” because of
his friendly relationships with such groups, but until now no one knew
exactly how lucrative his COG connection was through the Family Care
Foundation.

Mr. Melton seems to have made something of a career out of selling his
scholarly services to various fringe groups, often called “cults.” His
list of sponsors and/or clients has included JZ Knight or “Ramtha,” a
new age guru that funded a Melton book project. And also Aum the
terrorist Japanese cult, which paid the peripatetic apologist’s
expenses to come to Tokyo after they gassed that city’s subways
sending thousands to hospitals.

Mr. Melton’s motto seems to be, “have apologies will travel,”
apparently that is when some substantial funding is made available.

Note: Supposedly objective academic papers by J. Gordon Melton and
others often called “cult apologists” have recently been linked on-
line through a Web site database. Many of the authors listed such as
Dick Anthony & Thomas Robbins, David Bromley, Jeffrey Hadden, James
Lewis, James T. Richardson and James Tabor have been recommended
either by Scientology or the Scientology-linked “new Cult Awareness
Network” as “resources.” Anson Shupe who is listed once worked for
lawyers linked to Scientology. Another listed author Eileen Barker has
received funding from Rev. Moon. Scholar Rocheford E. Burke cashed
some checks from Krishna/ISCKON while Professor Susan Palmer worked
closely with the Raelians. Cult apology appears to be a meaningful
source of income for some within the academic community. The Web site
CESNUR, which is home for many of the papers listed is run by Massimo
Introvigne, a controversial man that works closely with many groups
called “cults.”

01.05.05
Has the Tsunami washed “cults” ashore?
Posted at 6:26 pm by Rick Ross

The old adage “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” may be useful to
Tsunami survivors receiving attention from some specious sects and
groups called “cults.”

Just like in the movie Troy something sinister and/or self-serving can
be concealed in a “gift horse,” and it’s probably not Brad Pitt.

In recent days a growing array of controversial religious
organizations, gurus and self-styled healers have launched efforts for
Tsunami relief, but who are they really focused upon helping?

Do their programs reflect a genuine desire to assist the victims of
the most horrific catastrophe of the 21st Century, or are they just
there to play the disaster for publicity and possibly some new
recruits?

South African Scientologists are using church branches as drop-off
points for clothes and other goods targeted for relief reports IOL.

And Scientologists flying in from all over.

Scientology has sent volunteers from Australia to identify bodies
reported the AAP.

English Scientologists and even a voluteer from Utah funded by an
anonymous businessman are being flown in to somehow help reports
Surrey On Line and the and the Salt Lake Tribune.

Scientology volunteers are known for their bright yellow jackets
emblazoned with “Scientology Volunteer Ministers” worn when doing
their charitable chores.

Scientology says that over 200 “volunteer ministers” are helping in
tsunami-hit countries.

In a strange twist Scientology has trained Tibetan monks to help
tsunami survivors through so-called “touch assists,” which seems to be
Scientology’s version of the popular Pentecostal practice known as
“laying on of hands” for healing. Scientology volunteers and the
Buddhist monks using their method will touch survivors to help heal
their trauma reports the AFP.

Another controversial group concerned about the trauma of tsunami
survivors is the “Gentle Wind Project.” This organization is sending
its so-called “trauma cards” to Sumatra, which supposedly have “the
ability to forgive and [help users] move forward in life” according to
one testimonial featured on the group’s Web site. But critics have
dismissed the cards as “quackery” and a doctor warned that groups
pushing such products often find “people who are desperate…and then
take advantage of them.”

Madonna’s much-hyped “Kabbalah Centre” is shipping 10,000 bottles of
its touted “Kabbalah Water,” which the pop diva seems to believe has
spiritual properties reported MSNBC.

Wouldn’t regular bottled tap water be just as effective and much
cheaper? But then that couldn’t afford a photo op with glitzy
“Kabbalah Centre” labeling would it?

And then there is the so-called “Art of Living” organization led by a
former associate of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi “Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.” He
has dispatched his disciples to teach tsunami victims “yoga” and
“meditation.”

Hey Sri Sri how about funding some conventional classrooms for
children rather than pushing your “yoga”?

Another pitch comes from Guru Sri Chinmoy of New York. His followers
are collecting for something called “The Oneness-Heart-Tears and
Smiles” organization and say they are now “engaged in an urgent global
effort to bring desperately needed relief to the survivors.”

But Chinmoy, who has been embroiled in sex scandals and called a
“sleazy swami,” doesn’t seem to fit the “world harmony leader” title
claimed at the group’s fund-raising Web site.

“Mata” the hugging mama guru has reportedly laid down some hard cash
reported one news service.

But will she want a photo op hugging her check like “Summa Ching Hai”
when she dropped some dough on the Red Cross for September 11th
victims?

Meanwhile hate preacher Fred Phelps from Kansas wants everyone to know
that he is “thankful” God killed Swedish citizens through this
particular disaster, something about their collective sexual sins
reported Raw Print.

Is that Fred smiling over there for the cameras with his “God Hates
Fags” sign?

Who will land next with the next wave of volunteers?

Maybe some Falun Gongers will show up to teach exercise classes and
pass out flyers, or will it be Sai baba the guru philanthropist and
alleged pedophile?

Nothing new about such activities by specious groups after a disaster
except the size and depth of this terrible tragedy.

Scientology volunteers were seen at Ground Zero not long after the
Twin Towers collapsed. And John Travolta seemed anxious for his photo-
op when he visited the site.

Then Tom Cruise launched the Scientology-linked “Downtown Medical,”
located in lower Manhattan, which provided the so-called “purification
rundown” for the detoxification of FDNY firemen and others that worked
at Ground Zero.

People are the most vulnerable to undue influence and recruitment
efforts by groups called “cults” when experiencing a personal crisis,
loss and/or going through a difficult transition. When people are
isolated from family, friends, their community and familiar support
systems they are likely to be weakened and more susceptible.

Sound like Tsunami victims?

Meanwhile mainstream religious and relief organizations and government
agencies are focused upon providing practical help to the massive
numbers of survivors such as potable not magical water, medical care
and the restoration of basic services through the rebuilding of
infrastructure.

CNN reports that this is the largest humanitarian effort in recorded
history.

Let’s hope that that these practical efforts reach the tsunami victims
before any so-called “cults” exploit their vulnerabilities or use them
as backdrops for some photo-op.

12.21.04
Scientology goes underground shilling “stress tests” at NYC subways
Posted at 1:48 pm by Rick Ross

Scientology must be getting pretty desperate for recruits. The
organization that boasts celebrity supporters such as Tom Cruise and
John Travolta has literally gone underground in an apparent effort to
dig up new members.

Devotees of the controversial church, which has been called a “cult,”
set up shop working shifts with their E-meters shilling “stress tests”
to passer-byes in New York’s Grand Central Station.

A concerned passenger also told CultNews that Scientologists could be
seen doing the same around access points to the PATH trains, which
links New Jersey residents to Manhattan.

Scientology’s “stress test” often utilizes an “E-meter.” This
contraption involves holding metal cans connected to a box with a
moving needle that supposedly measures the mind, or at least that what
Scientologists believe as an article of faith.

The founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard reportedly claimed that the
E-meter could register mental aberrations or “engrams” caused by
traumas.

Counseling or “auditing” sessions within Scientology use the E-meter
to help knock out those nasty engrams.

Hubbard once reportedly claimed this process could cure blindness and
even improve a person’s intelligence and appearance.

Maybe that’s what makes Tom Cruise so smart and gave John Travolta his
good looks?

However, it doesn’t seem to be working so well for Kirstie Alley
lately. The star of the new show “Fat Actress” now weighs in at over
200.

For more details about Scientology and its wares see Time Magazine’s
“Scientology the Cult of Greed.”

But now back to the Scientologists working NYC subways for fresh
recruits.

A concerned passenger told CultNews that the MTA transit authority was
contacted to find out if it’s legal for these religious recruiters to
go underground in Manhattan.

It turns out that Scientology may be breaking some rules.

“We regret if you experienced difficulty while using our subway
system,” MTA responded. “Please be aware that the Transit Bureau of
the New York City Police Department is vigilant in thwarting illegal
activity in the subway system, and maintains an extensive police
presence with officers patrolling our facilities at all times, both in
uniform and undercover,” the official advised.

MTA also said, “Supervision in the Transit Bureau has been alerted to
the conditions you reported at the 42nd Street-Grand Central Station,
and will take steps to deploy their officers accordingly. In addition,
personnel in our Division of Station Operations will monitor the
location in question and any illegal activity observed will be
reported immediately to field supervision.”

But why is Scientology so desperate that its devotees are working
underground?

Can it be that its aging stars are no longer the draw they once were?

Maybe Madonna and her Kabbalah Centre “cult,” which includes Britney
Spears, Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher and other younger stars, has
effectively bumped the old Hollywood “cult” favorite.

Perhaps the subways may soon replace Scientology’s “Celebrity Centers”
and the tabloids as the most common venue to learn about the
controversial church.

05.12.04
NPR “hears, speaks and sees no evil” about “cults”
Posted at 2:52 pm by Rick Ross

Cult apology is a trade for some, but it may be a “politically
correct” calling for others.

This week National Public Radio (NPR) “All Things Considered”
apparently was on a mission, the program featured well-known “cult
apologists” in a broadcast about “New Religions.”

The two-part series hosted by Barbara Bradley Hagerty discussed the
history of so-called “new religious movements (NRMs),” which is a
politically correct euphemism for groups commonly called “cults.”

Feigning academic objectivity was J. Gordon Melton and James Lewis.

Both men have long been closely associated with well-known “cults,”
such as the notorious “Cult of Greed” (Time Magazine May 1991)
Scientology, which has recommended the two as “religious resources.”

Melton frequently hires himself out to “cults.”

Melton, the founder of the “Institute for the Study of American
Religion,” has worked for the likes of J.Z. Knight, a woman who claims
to channel a 35,000-year-old spirit named “Ramtha.”

“Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati” a former Brooklyn housewife and the leader of
the Kashi Ashram in Florida also has retained Melton.

Melton’s professional “research,” which frequently flatters “cult
leaders,” seems to provide them with academic cover, but for a price.

The peripatetic apologists Lewis and Melton were once flown to Japan
all expenses paid by the notorious cult Aum, just after its leader and
many members were arrested for gassing Tokyo’s subways.

Lewis claimed at a press conference after conducting an
“investigation” based upon photos and documents provided by the cult,
that Aum could not have produced the poison gas used to murder 12
Japanese and send thousands to hospitals.

Not to be left out Melton chimed in that the Japanese authorities
“were threatening the group’s religious freedom.”

For those that don’t already know, Aum’s leader Shoko Asahara and his
key subordinates were found guilty and sentenced to death through a
court process that included overwhelming evidence.

Apparently Lewis and Melton overlooked and/or ignored such factual
information.

Another “scholar” featured on the NPR program was Catherine
Wessinger.

This academic once described the suicide cult “Heaven’s Gate” led by
lunatic Marshall Applewhite as “definitely Gnostic…very similar to
Hinduism (and also Buddhism).” She concluded, “The outcome with
Heaven’s Gate certainly calls into question traditional Hindu beliefs
and practices.”

Huh?

What about the more obvious explanation that Applewhite was crazy?
After all, the cult leader did once sign himself into a mental
hospital, wasn’t his psychological instability a factor?

Wessinger says, “I’m not trained in psychology so I don’t articulate
those opinions…”

Wessinger also engages in something like revisionist history regarding
Jonestown led by another madman Jim Jones. This cult tragedy claimed
the lives of more than 900 Americans in 1978. According to Wessinger
“they would still be here. But due to the attacks and investigations
they endured…”

Melton, Lewis and Wessinger might be the cult version of the “Three
Stooges,” or maybe more like the proverbial monkeys that “hear no
evil, speak no evil and see no evil” when it comes to cults.

Whatever they are NPR appears to be just plain dumb, for either not
doing its own research, or simply ignoring the facts in favor of some
sort of “political correctness.”

Here are some glaring examples:

NPR discussed Krishna without even mentioning that the “cult” is
currently embroiled in a $400 million dollar class action lawsuit
filed by its childhood victims.

The Waco Davidians were labeled as a “new religious movement (NRM),”
even though they are commonly called a “cult.” No mention was made
about David Koresh’s bizarre claim that he was “The Lamb of God” or
how the cult leader exploited and abused his followers, including the
rape of a 10-year-old.

Another “NRM” mentioned was the Raelians, but again nothing about the
sordid history of leader Claude Vorilhon (”Rael”) or the context of
the group’s clone claim, within an endless series of self-serving
publicity stunts.

Instead, all these groups were essentially whitewashed under the
politically correct rubric of “new religious movements.”

And the word “cult” was never even used once throughout the entire
program.

After all, according to the NPR “scholars” any meaningful discussion
of “cult” bad behavior may be characterized as “persecution” and/or an
“attack” upon “religious freedom.”

Note: In its second installment yesterday NPR featured yet another
“cult apologist” Lorne L. Dawson. This program discussed the “Toronto
Blessing,” an aberration on the fringes of the Charismatic Movement.
However, in what can easily be seen as misleading, the report focused
on the bizarre aspects of this Canadian group as if it offered
listeners a pivotal understanding of Pentecostal Christianity.

02.05.04
“Cult brainwashing” defense
Posted at 12:41 pm by Rick Ross

Karen Robidoux was found not guilty of second-degree murder, in the
1999 death of her infant child this week, reported the Taunton
Gazette.

The Massachusetts mother was accused of starving her baby son Samuel
to death.

Robidoux’s husband Jacques was convicted for Samuel’s murder in 2002
and is now serving a life sentence.

But the mother’s attorney, Joseph Krowski, offered the defense that
cult “brainwashing” coerced Karen Robidoux’s behavior

The attorney argued that his client was victimized, abused and
ultimately controlled by an obscure religious sect led by her father-
in-law Roland Robidoux called “The Body.”

“There were two victims here, Karen and Samuel,” Robidoux’s older
sister told the press.

And after seven hours of deliberation the jury agreed with the defense
and its witnesses, acquitting the “cult” mom of murder, but finding
her guilty of misdemeanor assault and battery.

“Because a child died, it may be an unpopular verdict, but we felt
Karen Robidoux’s intent was not to kill her baby,” the jury foreman
told the Boston Herald.

He later added, “I do believe she was psychologically held prisoner,”
and concluded “she has suffered enough” reported NBC News.

Private journals kept by a “cult” member were made public after the
verdict and they offered further proof of Roland Robidoux’s total
control over his followers reported the Boston Herald.

“Dad [Roland Robidoux] feels that the end is coming soon…Our prayers
should not be for Samuel to be healed but for God’s purposes to be
fulfilled…What can we do for Samuel? Nothing…God is the master. We are
his servants,” wrote the “cult” member.

The mother of four was sentenced to time served and walked out of the
Bristol courthouse a free woman reported the Boston Globe.

“I’m just glad the nightmare door is shut,” she told reporters on the
courthouse steps.

“It was a trail-blazing case that will affect all cult cases
nationally. It’s now been proven what can happen when someone is
brainwashed,” said nationally known forensic pathologist Dr. Millard
Bass.

In Virginia late last year another jury came to a similar conclusion
regarding the sentencing of “D.C. sniper” Lee Malvo. His lawyers also
claimed their client was “brainwashed.”

The teenager’s defense team contended that he was dominated and
controlled by his mentor John Mohammed.

Mohammed was sentenced to death, but Malvo was sent to prison for
life.

In a noteworthy child custody case in North Carolina this fall a judge
ruled that the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) exerted “complete
control over the mind, body and spirit of its members, both adults and
children.”

WOFF led by Jane Whaley has been called a “cult.”

The Carolina judge concluded, “The environment created at WOFF has an
adverse effect on the health, safety and welfare of children,” and he
subsequently ordered them to be removed from the group.

In a tacit acknowledgement of cult “brainwashing” another judge in
California granted the release last year of a woman charged with the
death of her small child to receive “deprogramming.”

Later that same judge sentenced the cult leader to 16 years in prison,
while charges were dismissed against two of his followers.

The mother charged received an eleven-year sentence and told the
court, “Mind control is a reality.”

CultNews reported that professional cult apologist Dick Anthony was
involved in both the California and Carolina cases. Anthony is a
psychologist and well paid for his work, but he failed his clients
abysmally.

Judging from the prosecution’s arguments in the Robidoux case, they
apparently were receiving input from someone like Anthony.

But the Robidoux verdict may be the most colossal setback for cults
and their apologists to date. And will likely be cited in the future
as proof of “brainwashing.”

Overall, 2003 was possibly the worst year ever for cults and their
apologists.

They even attempted fruitlessly to dismiss the “brainwashing” of
kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart.

But brainwashing has become understandable to the public after
Jonestown, Waco and the “Heaven’s Gate” suicides. It is no longer the
mystery it once was when Charles Manson and his followers entered the
California judicial system.

Europeans likewise came to acutely understand the cult brainwashing
phenomenon through the Solar Temple suicides in Switzerland. And the
Japanese were forced to confront this reality by the cult Aum, when it
attacked Tokyo’s subways.

Joseph Kibwetere sent shockwaves through Africa when he led hundreds
of his followers to death in Uganda shortly after the Millenium, once
again demonstrating the power of cult mind control.

And isn’t “brainwashing” something Osama bin Laden has used to
transform his followers into tools of terror?

Cults and their apologists will have increasing difficulty convincing
anyone that “brainwashing” is only a “theory.”

The Robidoux verdict is evidence of that.

11.19.03“Insanity” plea unlikely to save D.C. sniperPosted in
Jonestown, Solar Temple, Symbionese Liberation Army, Ten Commandments,
Heaven's Gate, Elizabeth Smart Abduction, Aum Sect, Brainwashing,
Charles Manson, Waco Davidians, Amma at 12:32 pm by Rick Ross

Lee Boyd Malvo, the teenager known as the D.C. sniper is now on trial
for murder.

At 17 he and his mentor/father figure John Muhammad went on a killing
spree that left ten dead in its wake and terrified a nation.

Now 18 Malvo is literally fighting for his own life in a Virginia
courtroom. His attorney’s hope that an “insanity” defense based upon a
“brainwashing” claim will explain the boy killer’s behavior and
somehow ameliorate the outcome of the trial.

John Allen Muhammad the man that allegedly “brainwashed” Malvo has
already been convicted and is almost certain to receive the death
penalty. If his surrogate son and accomplice is found guilty, it is
likely that he will receive the same sentence.

Opinions in the press vary, but some are calling the “insanity
defense” in this case “crazy” reports Slate.

And the Washington Post points out those witnesses, who observed
Muhammad and Malvo together, differ in their assessment of the
relationship.

Some see Muhammad as a controlling and dominant figure that molded the
boy into a “killing machine.”

Others say the two appeared more like friends, without readily seen
evidence of a dominant/submissive relationship.

Malvo’s taped confession is chilling. The teenager admits, “I intended
to kill them all.” And when asked if he personally pulled the trigger
in the shootings the boy answers, “In all of them” reports Associated
Press.

With such testimony, not to mention the physical evidence piled up by
the prosecution, Malvo really has no other meaningful option than to
plead insanity.

But was the boy “brainwashed” by John Muhammad or is this some clever
lawyer’s contrived defense?

The “brainwashing” defense did not work for Patty Hearst, who was
kidnapped by a political cult in the 1970s.

Hearst an heir to a newspaper fortune was coerced into becoming the
pawn of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), but was nevertheless
ultimately convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to prison.

President Jimmy Carter later commuted her sentence and Bill Clinton
pardoned Hearst before leaving the White House.

Public awareness regarding “brainwashing” has evolved considerably
since the Manson murders in 1969 and Patty Hearst’s conviction during
1976.

The Jonestown mass suicide/murder of 1978, which claimed the lives of
almost 1,000 followers of cult leader Jim Jones in the jungles of
South America, shocked the public and created an acute awareness of
the power of coercive persuasion.

The image of parents giving their children cyanide was certainly
compelling proof of the power of Jim Jones’ brainwashing.

After Jonestown Americans suddenly seemed to see the destructive cults
that existed throughout the country and began to more readily
recognize their methods of gaining undue influence. In repeated news
stories cult “brainwashing” was discussed during the 1980s and 1990s.

Then came Waco in 1993, the second longest standoff in US history,
between the cult known as the Branch Davidians and federal law
enforcement. The end would once again be tragedy, when David Koresh
and his followers chose death for themselves and their children.

In a succession of similar tragedies one cult after another would
demonstrate the effectiveness of its own brand of brainwashing.

1994 the Solar Temple suicide in Switzerland.

1995 — the Aum gas attack of Tokyo subways that killed 12.

1997 — 39 members of “Heaven’s Gate” commit suicide near San Diego.

2000 — the horrific mass murder/suicide of the doomsday group known as
the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments in Uganda,
which may have claimed more lives than Jonestown.

9-11-2001 — the senseless murder of 3,000 people in the World Trade
Center attack, once again perpetrated by the seemingly “brainwashed”
followers of a madman, Osama bin Laden.

Self-proclaimed “prophet” Brian Mitchell was able to brainwash
Elizabeth Smart from a dutiful family member into his seemingly
willing follower in approximately 60 days. Smart subsequently denied
her identity to police and did not attempt to escape the lunatic that
abducted her at knifepoint.

Muhammad apparently controlled Malvo’s associations, environment and
dominated his thinking in a nomadic lifestyle similar to the one
Mitchell constructed around Elizabeth Smart.

How have madmen from Manson to Mitchell persuaded normal people to act
insane?

The process of thought reform, commonly called “brainwashing” has
probably been used in various forms throughout human history. Its
mechanics have been explained in detail by psychiatrist Robert Jay
Lifton in his seminal book Thought Reform and the Psychology of
Totalism.

Lifton, who once taught at Harvard Medical School, identified the
features of “brainwashing” through eight specific criteria; Milieu
Control, Mystical Manipulation, the Demand for Purity, the Cult of
Confession, the Sacred Science, Loading the Language, Doctrine over
Person and the Dispensing of Existence (see Thought Reform and the
Psychology of Totalism).

Essentially what Lifton observed is that if an environment displays at
least six of these characteristics simultaneously, it doesn’t matter
what you call it, it is thought reform or “brainwashing.”

But can this work when only two people are involved?

The phenomenon of an abused spouse, often caught within what has been
called a “cultic relationship,” also displays many of the same
features described by Lifton. Experts have frequently labeled this the
“battered woman’s syndrome.”

Was Malvo caught within the web of a “cultic relationship”?

Based upon some of the accounts that have surfaced from his family and
witnesses he may have been.

But unlike Patty Hearst, who was eventually pardoned for her
brainwashed behavior, Malvo’s deeds under the influence of his leader
have included murder.

Perhaps the teenager was a victim of John Muhammad, but what about the
victims of their rampage?

Ten people died as a direct result of Malvo’s “insanity,” and even
though Muhammad may have been the master-planner of this killing
spree, his puppet still pulled the trigger.

Society seems willing to forgive the misdeeds of “brainwashing”
victims, but such forgiveness is far less likely if they have
committed violent crimes.

The followers of Charles Manson murdered for him. Manson was later
convicted like Muhammad, through a prosecution largely based upon
undue influence. However, his followers were also convicted and
sentenced to death.

Later the death sentences of the Manson Family were changed to life in
prison. But despite their impassioned pleas that they were essentially
“brainwashed,” Manson’s former followers such as Susan Atkins and
Leslie Van Houten have repeatedly been denied parole.

As the Virginia jury weighs its verdict they are more likely to
consider those caught within the sniper’s sights than the boy captured
within the web of a madman’s undue influence.

Malvo’s only hope may come after his conviction, when his alleged
“insanity” might mitigate sentencing.

At that point the claim of “brainwashing” might provide the basis for
a sentence of life in prison, rather than the death penalty.

07.30.03
Scientology’s Hollywood hype comes to St. Louis

Posted in Scientology, Cult Apologist?, Aum Sect at 9:07 am by Rick
Ross

After a seemingly contrived media blitz about Tom Cruise’s dyslexia,
the other shoe finally dropped.

“Applied Scholastics International” opened its doors last week in St.
Louis, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The program is closely related to Scientology and was founded, is
largely staffed and coordinated by its practitioners.

A spokesperson for the program says it’s “secular,” but it is
admittedly based upon the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of
Scientology.

Cult apologist J. Gordon Melton, was apparently flown in to assure
anyone interested that this effort “has to be separate, or it would
just be too controversial,” reported The News Tribune.

Melton previously offered apologies for the terroist cult Aum in Japan
after the group gassed Tokyo subways. Cult members paid for his travel
expenses.

Tom Cruise, actresses Jenna Elfman and Anne Archer and musician Isaac
Hayes, all Scientologists, were there for the grand opening reported
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Cruise, the featured speaker proclaimed, “Study Technology works.”

But the former “Top Gun” offered no proof other than an anecdotal
story.

For that matter, there is no meaningful independent peer-reviewed and
published scientific study proving the effectiveness of any of
Hubbard’s touted “technology,” to cure anything.

Even Cruise’s alleged cure from dyslexia has never been independently
verified.

No one seems to care about such facts though in an increasingly
celebrity-driven pop culture. If a movie star says something is true,
it must be. And there are always those photo ops.

The Hollywood TV show Extra ran a clip about the opening of the St.
Louis center without even mentioning the Scientology connection.

Scientology certainly is expert at managing and milking its
celebrities for its maximum benefit through carefully coordinated
media events in an ongoing effort to plug pet projects.

Cruise and other Hollywood types that showed up in St. Louis are just
one more example of Scientology’s slick publicity machine.

Isaac Hayes even cut the opening ribbon for yet another staged photo
op.

Disclaimer

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have been called "cults" and/or "cult-like" in some way, shape or
form. But not all groups called either "cults" or "cult-like" are
harmful. Instead, they may be benign and generally defined as simply
people intensely devoted to a person, place or thing. Therefore, the
discussion or mention of a group, organization or person on this page,
is not necessarily meant pejoratively.

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Archive for Brainwashing
03.10.06“Deprogramming” used for “cults” becomes tool to fight
terroismPosted in Deprogramming, Brainwashing at 10:25 am by Rick Ross

Indonesia has been “deprogramming” terrorists successfully, and such
efforts have yielded meaningful results, as formerly “brainwashed”
fanatics provide helpful inside information about their organizations.

Some “civil libertarians” insist upon labeling this process “torture.”

However, deprogramming typically consists of discussion between the
designated “deprogrammer” and the “brainwashed” member of a “cult” or
as reported within Indonesia a radical Islamic group linked to
terrorist attacks.

Indonesia has used a former member to do its deprogramming of
convicted terrorists. The man is also a Moslem cleric and has
effectively turned extremists to a more moderate faith. Subsequently,
those turned have reportedly provided information on terrorist
operations to authorities.

The same deprogramming process has been used in Singapore, the United
Kingdom, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. And the Australian government is
currently considering using deprogramming tactics too reports The Age.

“In many parts of the world, in Europe, in the Middle East and
certainly in Indonesia, those governments have made an attempt to
persuade extremists and terrorists who’ve been held in prison to
change their point of view and to understand that it’s not the Islamic
way to kill, it’s not the Islamic way to murder. And in some cases
that process has been successful. It’s something that we will give
thought to,” said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

The word “deprogramming” was demonized by groups called “cults” in the
United Stated beginning in the 1970s as part of an ongoing propaganda
campaign to end the practice. Groups called “cults” such as the
Unification Church led by Rev. Sun Myung Moon lost many members
through such interventions.

Cults despised deprogramming because it worked.

Seemingly in response to the cult propaganda campaign new terms and
descriptions were coined to describe essentially the same practice
such as “exit-counseling,” “thought reform consultation,” ”strategic
intervention therapy” and “cult intervention.”

Psychologist Margaret Singer, the preeminent cult expert of the 20th
Century, defined “deprogramming” as simply “providing members with
information about the cult and showing them how their own decision-
making power had been taken away from them.”

Noted psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton defined the process
often used to compromise “decision-making power” as “thought reform.”
His lauded book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism became a
seminal classic and the guide used by deprogrammers to define and
determine “cult brainwashing” techniques.

The first cult deprogrammer was Ted Patrick, often called “Black
Lightening” by the cults he opposed.

Some of those deprogrammed during the 1970s and later subsequently
became deprogrammers themselves.

Now the families of terrorists, such as the followers Osama bin Laden,
say their loved ones are also the victims of “brainwashing” and thus
became terrorist pawns. An article recounting such stories and
reviewing the parallels that can be seen between terrorist training
and thought reform has been archived for some time at Cult
Education.com.

It is interesting to observe that Islamic countries are now largely
leading the way in an effort to effectively adapt deprogramming as a
response to terrorist indoctrination.

Waleed Kadous, spokesman for the Australian Muslim Civil Rights
Advocacy Network, does not oppose deprogramming if it’s voluntary.

“It’s important to highlight that already many respected scholars in
the Muslim community are informally deconstructing terrorism and
condemning terrorism to their congregations” reported Al Jazeera.

Understanding the process of thought reform and how to unravel its
effects is an important step in the fight against global terrorism.
Rather than simply blaming culture, religion or politics for the
increase of terrorist attacks this response recognizes the reality
that almost every nation or region around the world has been affected
by “cult brainwashing” and related tragedies.

As deprogrammers have proven in the past and as they are proving
within Islamic nations like Indonesia today, those programmed by
radical and extremist groups can be helped and that destructive
mindset unraveled

Permalink 1 Comment

12.07.05“‘Sleazy’ Sri” Chinmoy has new book about his “wisdom”Posted
in Sri Chinmoy, Brainwashing at 3:48 pm by Rick Ross

According to an obscure guru some call a “cult leader” living in
Jamaica Queens, New York, saying his name can get you to a “very good
higher world.” This sage advice and other supposed gems can be found
in the book titled “The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy” reports the Queens
Chronicle.

Here is another example of the guru’s so-called “wisdom.”

Guru Sri Chinmoy writes, “A young wife was terribly afraid of staying
alone at night, so the Master said to the husband…I shall take care of
her. That night she saw the Master in a corner of the room, not the
Master’s physical body but his luminous subtle body.”

Hmmm.

Chinmoy claims to be celibate, but persistent allegations have arisen
that his “physical body” has wandered about a bit and it’s not so
“subtle.” The guru apparently has a penchant for pursuing sexual
favors from his female followers.

The New York Post once named him “‘Sleazy’ Sri.”

The now 74-year-old guru still has about 2,000 seriously committed
followers. A core group composed of some of his most devoted believers
has clustered around his house in Queens. They are known for
frequently working long and hard hours at the guru’s businesses, at
times for little more than subsistence wages.

New York businesses associated with Sri Chinmoy include the Smile of
the Beyond luncheonette in Jamaica Queens and the Oneness-Fountain-
Heart restaurant in Flushing.

Chinmoy has a long history of staging self-serving publicity stunts,
which include everything from “Peace Runs” to his followers performing
feats in their guru’s name to get him into the Guinness Book of World
Records.

One devotee Ashrita Furman has held more than 86 Guinness records for
such feats as pogo stick jumping, juggling while running 50 miles and
playing the most games of hopscotch.

Last year Chinmoy had his faithful gather more than 1,000 roses to
commemorate his 73rd birthday, no doubt hoping to set another record.

The guru teaches that overcoming ego is a spiritual goal, but
apparently this doesn’t include his own, which requires constant
feeding.

Such staged theater took a dark turn when one of his disciples died
apparently practicing a trick to please the guru.

In his latest book of “wisdom” Sri Chinmoy holds forth on the topics
of “belief,” “doubt” and “worry.”

But Chinmoy doesn’t have much to “worry” about with all his followers
taking such good care of him. He lives a life of relative ease often
leaving New York in the winter for balmy weather elsewhere.

Beyond “belief” though are Chinmoy’s persistent claims that he can
reportedly lift 7,064 pounds with his right arm and 7,040 with his
left.

More amazing than this claim is that his followers don’t seem to
“doubt” such preposterous nonsense.

Anyone interested enough to scrutinize the guru’s weightlifting will
find out that he relies more upon machines to do the job for him
rather than his muscles. But like so many devices used by this guru it
seemingly serves to pumps up his ego.

“If one enters secret domains where the inherent powers of the cosmic
realities exist, one can get the capacity to do anything,” says Sri
Chinmoy.

But it’s hard to understand how the followers of this bizarre man
continue to devote their lives to his various schemes and scams—is
there some “cosmic” reason they seem willing “to do anything”?

Some say that Chinmoy’s “inherent powers” are a form of
“brainwashing.” And that this is accomplished in part through a form
of self-hypnosis, which renders them more suggestible and compliant,
achieved through what the guru calls “meditation.” Then there is also
the so-called “cult” lifestyle, largely dependent upon living within
what can be seen as a controlled environment dominated and defined by
Chinmoy.

Maybe his disciples have bought into the proposition that their
rewards from the guru won’t be realized in this world, but rather in
the next one?

In his book Chinmoy appears to cultivates this notion telling readers
that as a teenager he followed his sister’s soul “for about three
hours in the world of death.”

The guru also says he was once busy “fighting with three death forces
that wanted to snatch away three of my close disciples…”

Hmmm.

Would those “forces” be families, old friends or maybe actually an
attack of doubt and/or critical thinking?

Chinmoy wants readers to know that his “teaching is not a kind of
miracle-mongering.” Instead, his “business is to help the aspirant to
reach God.”

Perhaps it is a “business.”

Famed musician Carlos Santana followed Sri Chinmoy for almost a decade
and then left that “business” behind him.

“This shit is not for me–I don’t care how enlightening it is,” he told
Rolling Stone.

Maybe that’s a mantra that might help Sri Chinmoy’s disciples “reach
God.” According to Deborah Santana, it didn’t hurt her life, or her
husband’s life to get away from “Chinmoy’s controlling ways.”

Permalink Comments

02.25.05Abusive controlling relationships like cult brainwashingPosted
in Brainwashing at 12:25 pm by Rick Ross

The “Battered Woman Syndrome” often cited in court and by helping
professionals assisting those victimized within abusive and
controlling relationships parallels many of the same features
identified within destructive cults.

In this sense abusive and controlling relationships, though seemingly
romantic, can be seen as a type of “cult” with a dictatorial leader,
usually a man, dominating a single follower as his victim.

This has been called the “cultic relationship” and/or a “one-on-one
cult.”

Over the years cult intervention professionals have been called upon
to apply the same expertise developed to free cult victims as an
approach to free those caught within the web of abusive controlling
relationships.

The Ross Institute of New Jersey has recently released an educational
DVD/video titled In the Name of Love: Abusive Controlling
Relationships, which shares the body of knowledge developed around
this subject in an easy to follow format.

This educational tool makes an otherwise often confusing situation
more easily understood.

The DVD/video offers a synthesis of what is known about brainwashing
and how this process directly applies to both the Battered Woman
Syndrome and most specifically to the dynamics and personalities most
often involved in abusive controlling relationships.

In the Name of Love also recounts personal stories, such as the
experience of singer Tina Turner and the tragic circumstances that led
up to the death of Nicole Brown Simpson. Such compelling examples are
helpful to better understand the personal cost, internal turmoil and
dangers of such relationships.

What are the warning signs?

What can someone concerned do?

What type of individual fits the profile of an abuser?

Why don’t those abused leave a bad relationship?

These and other important questions are answered within the DVD.

Darla Boughton the manager for a popular forum related to this subject
says, “This DVD is a magnificent breakthrough–a must-have for every
classroom, women’s shelter, and abuse Web sites everywhere.”

Much too often society blames the victim rather than attempting to
understand the disturbing dynamics within abusive controlling
relationships.

One third of American women reportedly have been abused under such
circumstances, and millions more are potentially at risk.

Permalink Comments

01.05.05Has the Tsunami washed “cults” ashore?Posted in Scientology,
Sri Chinmoy, Westboro Baptist Church, Sai Baba, Kabbalah Centre, Aum
Sect, Brainwashing, Ching Hai, Amma at 6:26 pm by Rick Ross

The old adage “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” may be useful to
Tsunami survivors receiving attention from some specious sects and
groups called “cults.”

Just like in the movie Troy something sinister and/or self-serving can
be concealed in a “gift horse,” and it’s probably not Brad Pitt.

In recent days a growing array of controversial religious
organizations, gurus and self-styled healers have launched efforts for
Tsunami relief, but who are they really focused upon helping?

Do their programs reflect a genuine desire to assist the victims of
the most horrific catastrophe of the 21st Century, or are they just
there to play the disaster for publicity and possibly some new
recruits?

South African Scientologists are using church branches as drop-off
points for clothes and other goods targeted for relief reports IOL.

And Scientologists flying in from all over.

Scientology has sent volunteers from Australia to identify bodies
reported the AAP.

English Scientologists and even a voluteer from Utah funded by an
anonymous businessman are being flown in to somehow help reports
Surrey On Line and the and the Salt Lake Tribune.

Scientology volunteers are known for their bright yellow jackets
emblazoned with “Scientology Volunteer Ministers” worn when doing
their charitable chores.

Scientology says that over 200 “volunteer ministers” are helping in
tsunami-hit countries.

In a strange twist Scientology has trained Tibetan monks to help
tsunami survivors through so-called “touch assists,” which seems to be
Scientology’s version of the popular Pentecostal practice known as
“laying on of hands” for healing. Scientology volunteers and the
Buddhist monks using their method will touch survivors to help heal
their trauma reports the AFP.

Another controversial group concerned about the trauma of tsunami
survivors is the “Gentle Wind Project.” This organization is sending
its so-called “trauma cards” to Sumatra, which supposedly have “the
ability to forgive and [help users] move forward in life” according to
one testimonial featured on the group’s Web site. But critics have
dismissed the cards as “quackery” and a doctor warned that groups
pushing such products often find “people who are desperate…and then
take advantage of them.”

Madonna’s much-hyped “Kabbalah Centre” is shipping 10,000 bottles of
its touted “Kabbalah Water,” which the pop diva seems to believe has
spiritual properties reported MSNBC.

Wouldn’t regular bottled tap water be just as effective and much
cheaper? But then that couldn’t afford a photo op with glitzy
“Kabbalah Centre” labeling would it?

And then there is the so-called “Art of Living” organization led by a
former associate of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi “Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.” He
has dispatched his disciples to teach tsunami victims “yoga” and
“meditation.”

Hey Sri Sri how about funding some conventional classrooms for
children rather than pushing your “yoga”?

Another pitch comes from Guru Sri Chinmoy of New York. His followers
are collecting for something called “The Oneness-Heart-Tears and
Smiles” organization and say they are now “engaged in an urgent global
effort to bring desperately needed relief to the survivors.”

But Chinmoy, who has been embroiled in sex scandals and called a
“sleazy swami,” doesn’t seem to fit the “world harmony leader” title
claimed at the group’s fund-raising Web site.

“Mata” the hugging mama guru has reportedly laid down some hard cash
reported one news service.

But will she want a photo op hugging her check like “Summa Ching Hai”
when she dropped some dough on the Red Cross for September 11th
victims?

Meanwhile hate preacher Fred Phelps from Kansas wants everyone to know
that he is “thankful” God killed Swedish citizens through this
particular disaster, something about their collective sexual sins
reported Raw Print.

Is that Fred smiling over there for the cameras with his “God Hates
Fags” sign?

Who will land next with the next wave of volunteers?

Maybe some Falun Gongers will show up to teach exercise classes and
pass out flyers, or will it be Sai baba the guru philanthropist and
alleged pedophile?

Nothing new about such activities by specious groups after a disaster
except the size and depth of this terrible tragedy.

Scientology volunteers were seen at Ground Zero not long after the
Twin Towers collapsed. And John Travolta seemed anxious for his photo-
op when he visited the site.

Then Tom Cruise launched the Scientology-linked “Downtown Medical,”
located in lower Manhattan, which provided the so-called “purification
rundown” for the detoxification of FDNY firemen and others that worked
at Ground Zero.

People are the most vulnerable to undue influence and recruitment
efforts by groups called “cults” when experiencing a personal crisis,
loss and/or going through a difficult transition. When people are
isolated from family, friends, their community and familiar support
systems they are likely to be weakened and more susceptible.

Sound like Tsunami victims?

Meanwhile mainstream religious and relief organizations and government
agencies are focused upon providing practical help to the massive
numbers of survivors such as potable not magical water, medical care
and the restoration of basic services through the rebuilding of
infrastructure.

CNN reports that this is the largest humanitarian effort in recorded
history.

Let’s hope that that these practical efforts reach the tsunami victims
before any so-called “cults” exploit their vulnerabilities or use them
as backdrops for some photo-op.

Permalink Comments

11.01.04Landmark Education defendant in wrongful death lawsuitPosted
in Landmark Education, Brainwashing at 10:17 am by Rick Ross

On December 12, 2001 Jason Weed murdered Oklahoma mailman Robert
Jenkins. He shot Jenkins in the back while the mailman was performing
his job as a postal carrier.

Mr. Jenkins wife and a stepdaughter survive the 30-year-old US Postal
Service employee.

The court found that Weed was “legally insane.”

However, according to the court claim made against Landmark (Been v.
Weed), “Weed was free of abnormal psychological manifestations(s) and/
or disorder(s) prior to his attending the Defendant Landmark’s
classes.”

Moreover, the plaintiff claims that through Landmark Education classes
Weed “was subjected to extreme emotional and psychological stress
which caused his mental disorders, and which resulted in the death of”
Robert Jenkins.

The lawsuit further states that “Landmark knew, because of their prior
experiences, that this type of disorder…was a likely and foreseeable
result of attendance of their classes.”

The plaintiff’s attorneys specifically cite a “screening process and
tests” used by Landmark “to eliminate person[s] who were likely to
develop mental disorders as a result of their seminars.”

Mark Kamin, a Landmark spokesman explained to Pioneer Press in
Minnesota more than two years ago that Landmark participants must pass
a screening process devised by a board of psychiatrists, including a
series of questions aimed at assessing mental stability.

Kamin said, “We have a requirement that people must be emotionally
stable at that time to participate in our programs.”

At the time the Landmark spokesman was responding to the horrific
murder of a 13-year-old boy stabbed to death by his mother, an
obstetrician who had also attended Landmark courses.

Dr. Donna Anderson was later found “not guilty” by reason of insanity
under California State Law, but received a 36-year prison sentence.

Anderson was allegedly kicked out of the Forum for acting psychotic.

But in the current litigation filed against Landmark the for-profit
privately held company is accused of “grossly negligent, willful,
wanton, and intentional and/or…reckless disregard and/or indifference”
regarding the safety of the man murdered by the former Forum
participant.

The large group awareness training (LGAT) seminar known as the Forum,
derives from one first offered by Erhard Seminar Training (EST).

Werner Erhard (AKA “Jack” Rosenberg), a used car and encyclopedia
salesman with a high school education, created the “technology” now
used in the Forum. But after repeated bad press and lawsuits Erhard
sold the company in 1991.

EST then became Landmark Education, which is run by Erhard’s brother
Harry Rosenberg.

LGATs also known as mass marathon trainings that focus upon “human
potential” have a troubled history and at times have been the focus of
personal injury lawsuits.

An article that appeared within the New York Times (1977) reported
serious psychiatric disturbances associated with the programs
presented by EST.

Three psychiatrists wrote on this subject for the American Journal of
Psychiatry (see abstracts). One told the Times, “There’s enough
possibility of a real connection between EST and psychotic breaks to
cause us to want to alert psychiatrists and psychologists.”

Lawyers for the plaintiff in Been v. Weed were far more explicit about
the connection between Landmark and the death of Robert Jenkins.

The plaintiff’s attorneys claim, “Landmark, its agents and employees,
by engaging in the practice of psychology without a license or
adequate training …focus extreme emotional distress and psychological
distress on persons who attend the seminar…engaging in ultrahazadous
activity and [therefore] are…a direct cause of harm.”

“Even though the percent of those that attend, who develop mental
disorders resulting in homicide, is small…Landmark has failed to
eliminate the risk even by the exercise of what they claim to be
reasonable care,” the lawyers added in their court filing.

The conclusion of the plaintiff’s legal summary is chilling, “Due to
the risk involved to attendees and the general public, the Defendant
Landmark’s inability to eliminate the risk or moderate the degree of
harm to attendees, it is not appropriate to conduct the seminars in
any location where the attendees have an opportunity to harm other
human beings.”

The scope of Landmark’s reach has far surpassed the range obtained
during the days of Erhard’s EST Empire.

Landmark Education has 58 offices in 26 countries and 125,000 people
reportedly participate in its programs annually, according to the
organization’s website. Programs are offered in more than 140 cities
and businesses such as Microsoft and Reebok have paid and/or
reimbursed employees to take its courses.

Note: Landmark Education is currently suing the Ross Institute of New
Jersey (RI) specifically alleging “product disparagement,” through the
information made available at the RI database.

Permalink 1 Comment

09.28.04Landmark Education lawsuit likely to become another landmark
for freedom of information on the InternetPosted in Propaganda, Forum,
Landmark Education, Immortal Consciousness, Executive Success Programs
(ESP), Brainwashing at 10:35 am by Rick Ross

Landmark Education, a privately owned for-profit company that sells
controversial large group awareness training programs to the public,
has sued the Rick A. Ross Institute (RRI) for more than one million
dollars.

The lawsuit was filed in New Jersey and is currently moving forward
within the court of federal Judge John Lifland (Civil Action No.
04-3022 (JCL)).

RRI is a non-profit tax-exempted charity devoted to providing
educational information to the public about destructive cults,
controversial groups and movements through the Internet.

RRI is one of the largest single resources regarding this subject area
on the worldwide web today. More than 15,000 individual unique users
visit its database daily. And the RRI Open Forum message board has
more than 1,300 registered members.

The lawsuit recently filed by Landmark Education claims that
information posted through the RRI archives about the private for-
profit company constitutes “product disparagement” and represents
“interference with [its] ongoing business relations.”

Landmark Education is certainly a big business; it has 58 offices in
26 countries. And boasts that “more than 125,000″ people participate
in its programs annually, which represents millions of dollars in
profits for its owners each year.

This litigation appears to be an effort by Landmark to purge critical
information about the company from the Internet.

RRI has archived articles, documents and personal testimonies about
Landmark, which features a course called “The Forum,” that was earlier
offered by a previous incarnation of this business enterprise known as
Erhard Seminar Training or “EST.”

The titular head of Landmark Education today is Harry Rosenberg, but
it was his brother “Werner Erhard” previously known as Jack Rosenberg,
a high school graduate and former used car and encyclopedia salesman,
who created the seminar “technology” touted by the company.

EST, something of a craze in the 1970s, drew endorsements from
celebrities such as sitcom star Valerie Harper (”Rhoda”) and singer
John Denver.

Forbes Magazine dubbed Werner Erhard a “millionaire guru.”

But the programs Mr. Erhard devised were soon associated with and/or
linked to “psychiatric disturbances” and “psychosis.” Amidst extensive
and unfavorable media coverage he sold EST in 1991 to employees, who
then formed the current company Landmark Education.

Landmark then agreed to pay substantial annual licensing fees to
Werner Erhard for his so-called “technology.”

No peer reviewed scientific study has ever been published by an
objective scientific or professional journal to substantiate that the
programs offered by Landmark Education produce any meaningful measured
results, though what can be seen as its “mass marathon training”
remains controversial.

New Jersey attorney Peter L. Skolnik of the law firm Lowenstien
Sandler located in Roseland, New Jersey has agreed to represent RRI
pro-bono.

An answer to the Landmark lawsuit was filed on September 20, 2004.

Other lawsuits involving RRI include litigation filed by another
seminar selling company in New York named NXIVM (not to be confused
with the “purple pill” Nexium used to quell acid reflux).

NXIVM, also known as “Executive Success Programs” (ESP), after two
losses in court hopes to appeal before the US Supreme Court. Like
Landmark, NXIVM seeks to purge critical information about its business
from the Internet.

RRI is represented pro-bono regarding the NXIVM case by Massachusetts
attorney Douglas Brooks of the law firm Gilman & Pastor and Tom
Gleason of the law firm Gleason, Dunn, Walsh & O’Shea, in Albany, New
York.

Public Citizen, a nonprofit, advocacy organization with 160,000
members nationwide, is assisting Mr. Brooks and Mr. Gleason regarding
the possible NXIVM appeal pending before the US Supreme Court.

In another interesting case a group called “The Gentle Wind Project”
located in Kittery, Maine, which hawks “healing cards” for “suggested
donations” allegedly based upon plans from outer space, sued RRI for
stating it is a “rather odd group” and for providing a link to a
website critical of the organization.

RRI is also represented pro-bono concerning this action by attorney
Douglas Brooks and local counsel William Leete of the law firm Leete &
Lemieux in Portland, Maine.

Despite legal threats and later lawsuits filed by Landmark, NXIVM and
The Gentle Wind Project, RRI has refused to be intimidated and
continues to provide historical, analytical and/or critical
information about these groups and other controversial organizations
to the general public through its Internet database.

I have previously personally withstood frivolous litigation regarding
my professional comments and/or providing website information in other
notable lawsuits.

The “Church of Immortal Consciousness” founded by Steven and Trina
Kemp sued me in 1995.

Judy Hammond of “Pure Bride Ministries” sued me for $15 million
dollars in 2001.

The Kemp lawsuit ended after an appeal to the US Supreme Court failed
and I was awarded costs. Arizona attorneys Paul Eckstein and Daniel
Barr of the law firm Brown & Bain represented me pro-bono in that
case.

The Hammond lawsuit likewise ended in a dismissal only months after
its filing. Florida attorney Robert Rivas represented me pro-bono.

RRI is listed immediately after Landmark’s own commercial website on
Google and has prominent positions regarding searches for information
abut NXIVM and The Gentle Wind Project.

In this “Information Age” the pubic increasingly has turned to the
Internet for background about people, companies, organizations and
movements.

The word “Google” has become a verb and is synonymous with this process
—as Internet users frequently say, you can “Google” someone or
something as a quick way to obtain whatever information is readily
available.

Landmark Education, despite its name, seems intent upon making sure
that essentially only self-serving promotional advertising and/or
propaganda largely appears on the Internet about the company and its
courses.

Landmark apparently hopes that it can somehow control its published
history, either through legal threats and/or what can be seen as
frivolous litigation.

However, instead the Landmark Education lawsuit is likely to become
another landmark for freedom of information on the Internet.

Note: Cult expert Steven Hassan was also sued by the Gentle Wind
Project. However, he was dropped from the suit after a negotiated
settlement, which included him deleting all material and references to
the group from his website.

Permalink Comments

07.01.04Guru exposed in sex scandal snags space in the New York Times

by lifting Jeff GoldblumPosted in Sri Chinmoy, Brainwashing, Amma at
7:19 am by Rick Ross

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, called “Sri Chinmoy” by his devoted followers,
has made something of a career through publicity stunts. His favorite
appears to be phony power lifting that he uses to attract attention
and feed his seemingly insatiable ego.

The latest newspaper to be sucked in by the guru’s antics is the New
York Times.

In a long piece today titled “They’re Not Heavy; They’re His People,”

NY Times reporter Cory Kilgannon gave the guru enough space to make
him blush, perhaps for the sake of humor.

However, though the NY Times correctly reported that the guru’s group
has been called a “brainwashing cult,” it gave much more attention to
his self-serving public relations ploy than the people he hurt.

Readers were regaled with a long list of celebrities that Chinmoy has
lifted in the past, which reportedly includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond
Tutu, Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Susan Sarandon,
Roberta Flack, Yoko Ono, Sting, Richard Gere, Sid Caeser, 20 assorted
Nobel laureates, sumo wrestlers and a headhunter from Borneo.

Actor Jeff Goldblum was the latest celeb slated for the 70-something
guru to hold up for a photo op.

It all sounds like fodder for a good laugh. That is, unless you know
the details of sexual abuse allegations that have spun around “Sleazy
Sri” as reported by the New York Post.

Nothing was mentioned in the NY Times article about this.

According to former Chinmoy devotees the guru is not only posing as a
celibate, he’s also is a bit kinky.

Chinmoy apparently likes to watch but not always weightlifting
events.

He also reportedly has paid for at least one of his female follower/
sex partners to have an abortion.

This is hardly the stuff of humor.

Permalink Comments

04.01.04O Magazine sets record straight about NXIVMPosted in Executive
Success Programs (ESP), Brainwashing at 9:48 am by Rick Ross

CultNews recently exposed a misleading brochure produced by
“NXIVM” (pronounced nexium, like the acid relief medication), a group
that has been called a “cult.”

NXIVM is the brainchild of Keith Raniere, but its titular head is his
devoted disciple Nancy Salzman.

The NXIVM brochure stated, “Nancy Salzman (highlighted in this year’s
O magazine), one of the world’s top trainers in the field of human
potential.”

Readers might conclude that Salzman was “highlighted” in O Oprah
Magazine for her touted training expertise.

However, O magazine’s spokesperson set the record straight regarding
the carefully crafted blurb within NXIVM’s promotional literature.

The O Oprah Magazine Spokesperson clarified, “Nancy Salzman appeared
in a June 2003 O, The Oprah Magazine �real woman’ fashion story. The
story simply listed Ms. Salzman’s title and occupation along with her
style preferences. It did not elaborate on her business any further.”

Oprah Winfrey is well known for her interest in self-improvement, but
neither the talk-show host nor her magazine in any way endorsed or
specifically promoted NXIVM, Salzman’s claimed expertise or Executive
Success Programs.

As reported by CultNews an apparent effort to mislead was far worse
regarding the Forbes article titled “Cult of Personality“.

Nancy Salzman quoted herself gushing about her mentor within the
brochure, but apparently tried to pass it off as a positive review
about Raniere from Forbes. The quote is attributed within the NXIVM
literature as simply, “As mentioned in Forbes magazine.”

This would be like a motion picture studio taking out an ad to promote
a film that says, “New York Times: �sensational’ ‘genius.’”

But placed in proper context the quotes actually read, “The movie’s
producer called the film �sensational’ and said the director’s work
was ‘genius.’”

Raniere and Salzman seem to have a penchant for grandiose self-
promotion.

Salzman according to her brochure bio has logged “over 20 years of
intensive study and practice in the fields of healthcare, human
potential, and human empowerment.”

However, Nancy is simply a nurse that has attended many mass marathon
training seminars similar to those offered by NXIVM and she has
studied various communication and persuasion techniques.

Salzman is not a licensed mental health professional.

Raniere’s brochure bio reads “scientist, mathematician, philosopher
and entrepreneur” with the “highest IQ” recorded in 1989.

But despite such titles Raniere like Salzman has no degree in
psychology, is not a licensed mental health professional and in fact
does not posses a post-graduate diploma.

Medical Doctor and psychiatrist Carlos Rueda is a licensed mental
health professional and he has treated three former NXIVM students.

Rueda told the Albany Times-Union, “NXIVM leaders weren’t prepared or
certified to deal with the potential psychological problems that can
surface during the training.”

It has been reported that one breakdown linked to NXIVM ended at a
hospital, while another lead to a tragic suicide.

No doubt amongst NXIVM’s devoted disciples and within its rather
insular world of classes and programs Raniere (known as “Vanguard”)
and Salzman (known as “Prefect”) are legendary.

But in the real world the controversial duo appears to have garnered
attention as little more than “cult” leaders, with perhaps some
fashion sense.

Note: Forbes was contacted for comment, but has not responded
officially.

Permalink Comments

02.17.04Might Madonna be “deprogrammed” through “prison experiment”
project?Posted in Kabbalah Centre, Heaven's Gate, Brainwashing at
11:26 am by Rick Ross

Madonna’s production company Maverick Films is prepping a feature
based upon a “prison experiment” conducted by a Stanford University
professor in 1971 reports Reuters.

Professor Philip Zimbardo, past president of the American
Psychological Association (APA), conducted “The Prison Experiment” to
demonstrate the dynamics of social influence between guards and
prisoners.

However, that behavioral research project was shut down in less than a
week due to its unsettling and potentially dangerous results.

Two years ago when German filmmakers released “Das Experiment,” based
upon the same Stanford project as an allegory for the rise of Nazism,
Zimbardo was not pleased. He reportedly had a credit removed from the
film acknowledging his work.

Can it be that the doctor has found a more suitable match in Madonna?

Zimbardo has compared the dynamics of influence demonstrated by his
experiment to the sort of control techniques utilized by cults.

Ironically, the 1980s pop diva is perhaps the most ardent devotee of a
group called the “Kaballah Centre,” led by religious guru Philip Berg,
which has often been called a “cult.”

After the tragic “Heaven’s Gate” suicide in 1997 the Stanford
professor wrote:

“A remarkable thing about cult mind control is that it’s so ordinary
in the tactics and strategies of social influence employed. They are
variants of well-known social psychological principles of compliance,
conformity, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, framing, emotional
manipulation, and others that are used on all of us daily to entice
us: to buy, to try, to donate, to vote, to join, to change, to
believe, to love, to hate the enemy…Cult mind control is not different
in kind from these everyday varieties, but in its greater intensity,
persistence, duration, and scope.”

Is it possible that by producing this feature about Zimbardo’s work
Madonna might have an epiphany about the undue influence at times
alleged regarding the group that she considers the source of her
“spiritual awakening”?

Could exposure to information about the prison experiment offer the
pop icon a vehicle to “deprogram” her from “cult mind control”?

Probably not.

The former “Material Girl’s” latest foray into feature films, like her
recent children’s books, may be just another extension of the
seemingly slavish devotion she displays to her mentor and his
teachings.

And wouldn’t it be a supreme irony if Zimbardo’s historic work, as an
acknowledged cult expert, was somehow used by a purported “cult” to
convey its message?

Note: Maverick Films, owned by Madonna, may simply have a producing
arrangement on this project. But let’s hope the diva at least watches
the film and gets its message. Wake up Madonna!

Permalink Comments

02.05.04“Cult brainwashing” defensePosted in Jonestown, Japanese
Sects, Al Qaeda, Solar Temple, Word of Faith Fellowship, Heaven's
Gate, Elizabeth Smart Abduction, Brainwashing, Aum Sect, Charles
Manson, Cult Apologist?, Deprogramming, Attleboro at 12:41 pm by Rick
Ross

Karen Robidoux was found not guilty of second-degree murder, in the
1999 death of her infant child this week, reported the Taunton
Gazette.

The Massachusetts mother was accused of starving her baby son Samuel
to death.

Robidoux’s husband Jacques was convicted for Samuel’s murder in 2002
and is now serving a life sentence.

But the mother’s attorney, Joseph Krowski, offered the defense that
cult “brainwashing” coerced Karen Robidoux’s behavior

The attorney argued that his client was victimized, abused and
ultimately controlled by an obscure religious sect led by her father-
in-law Roland Robidoux called “The Body.”

“There were two victims here, Karen and Samuel,” Robidoux’s older
sister told the press.

And after seven hours of deliberation the jury agreed with the defense
and its witnesses, acquitting the “cult” mom of murder, but finding
her guilty of misdemeanor assault and battery.

“Because a child died, it may be an unpopular verdict, but we felt
Karen Robidoux’s intent was not to kill her baby,” the jury foreman
told the Boston Herald.

He later added, “I do believe she was psychologically held prisoner,”
and concluded “she has suffered enough” reported NBC News.

Private journals kept by a “cult” member were made public after the
verdict and they offered further proof of Roland Robidoux’s total
control over his followers reported the Boston Herald.

“Dad [Roland Robidoux] feels that the end is coming soon…Our prayers
should not be for Samuel to be healed but for God’s purposes to be
fulfilled…What can we do for Samuel? Nothing…God is the master. We are
his servants,” wrote the “cult” member.

The mother of four was sentenced to time served and walked out of the
Bristol courthouse a free woman reported the Boston Globe.

“I’m just glad the nightmare door is shut,” she told reporters on the
courthouse steps.

“It was a trail-blazing case that will affect all cult cases
nationally. It’s now been proven what can happen when someone is
brainwashed,” said nationally known forensic pathologist Dr. Millard
Bass.

In Virginia late last year another jury came to a similar conclusion
regarding the sentencing of “D.C. sniper” Lee Malvo. His lawyers also
claimed their client was “brainwashed.”

The teenager’s defense team contended that he was dominated and
controlled by his mentor John Mohammed.

Mohammed was sentenced to death, but Malvo was sent to prison for
life.

In a noteworthy child custody case in North Carolina this fall a judge
ruled that the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) exerted “complete
control over the mind, body and spirit of its members, both adults and
children.”

WOFF led by Jane Whaley has been called a “cult.”

The Carolina judge concluded, “The environment created at WOFF has an
adverse effect on the health, safety and welfare of children,” and he
subsequently ordered them to be removed from the group.

In a tacit acknowledgement of cult “brainwashing” another judge in
California granted the release last year of a woman charged with the
death of her small child to receive “deprogramming.”

Later that same judge sentenced the cult leader to 16 years in prison,
while charges were dismissed against two of his followers.

The mother charged received an eleven-year sentence and told the
court, “Mind control is a reality.”

CultNews reported that professional cult apologist Dick Anthony was
involved in both the California and Carolina cases. Anthony is a
psychologist and well paid for his work, but he failed his clients
abysmally.

Judging from the prosecution’s arguments in the Robidoux case, they
apparently were receiving input from someone like Anthony.

But the Robidoux verdict may be the most colossal setback for cults
and their apologists to date. And will likely be cited in the future
as proof of “brainwashing.”

Overall, 2003 was possibly the worst year ever for cults and their
apologists.

They even attempted fruitlessly to dismiss the “brainwashing” of
kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart.

But brainwashing has become understandable to the public after
Jonestown, Waco and the “Heaven’s Gate” suicides. It is no longer the
mystery it once was when Charles Manson and his followers entered the
California judicial system.

Europeans likewise came to acutely understand the cult brainwashing
phenomenon through the Solar Temple suicides in Switzerland. And the
Japanese were forced to confront this reality by the cult Aum, when it
attacked Tokyo’s subways.

Joseph Kibwetere sent shockwaves through Africa when he led hundreds
of his followers to death in Uganda shortly after the Millenium, once
again demonstrating the power of cult mind control.

And isn’t “brainwashing” something Osama bin Laden has used to
transform his followers into tools of terror?

Cults and their apologists will have increasing difficulty convincing
anyone that “brainwashing” is only a “theory.”

The Robidoux verdict is evidence of that.

http://www.cultnews.com/?cat=18

Cult News from Rick Ross
A news perspective with analysis from cult expert Rick Ross

Archive for Deepak Chopra
05.06.03Guru golf?Posted in Deepak Chopra at 2:09 pm by Rick Ross

Deepak Chopra has recently taken up golf, and like so much of what the
guru does, it may turn a profit too.

Chopra has written about his new game in a book titled, “Golf for
Enlightenment.”

The MD and former disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says, “I nourish
my relationship with the ball by saying, ‘You’re part of me…. When you
soar, I will soar with you.’ ”

Right.

And Chopra insists, “It’s not about winning.”

But according to an LA Times article “Golf with Deepak” by Roy
Rivenburg, Chopra doesn’t really seem to follow through on his
mantras.

When his game didn’t go well the guru/doctor “became increasingly
rattled and distracted.” At one hole “he walked off without two of his
clubs.”

Later as the Times staff writer watched, “he hit the wrong ball in the
tree area [and] his karma went completely on the fritz.”

The golfing guru later tacitly admitted, “My book isn’t really about
golf…It would be stupid of me to write a book about golf…. The title
just gets you in the door. Once you’re in the door, it’s about
something else — spirituality.”

So once again as Rivenburg points out astutely Chopra is “a shrewd
marketer.”

It seems the guru’s golf book is just another gimmick, this time to
target men as consumers for his “spiritual…empire.”

Dr. Deepak has followed in the footsteps of his mentor Maharishi and
made “spirituality” into a virtual money machine.

Permalink Comments

01.23.03What could Christopher Reeve teach Tom Cruise about
Scientology?Posted in Scientology, Transcendental Meditation,
Rebirthing, Deepak Chopra, Brainwashing, Ananda Church of Self-
Realization at 1:57 pm by Rick Ross

In his new book Nothing Is Impossible, Christopher Reeve offers
inspiration and hope, but the Hollywood icon also demonstrates his
enduring sense of humor.

In a chapter titled Religion, Reeve tells the story of his involvement
with Scientology during 1975.

The saga begins outside a supermarket where the actor runs into a
Scientologist promoting a “free personality test.” Reeve obliges him
and takes the test, curious to find out its results.

The next day in the “plush…inner sanctum of…[Scientology’s]
headquarters…suitable for the president or CEO of a major corporation”
he is told the bad news. Scientologists warn Reeve that he is carrying
“heavy ‘baggage’” and suffers from a litany of personal problems.

But of course they can provide the needed “‘training’” to help him,
which they say he should begin immediately.

So the future Superman takes Scientology courses hoping one day he
will “go Clear,” which is Scientology jargon for reaching a supposed
advanced state of consciousness made possible through their training.

Reeve writes about an exercise called “‘TRO’ (Training Routine Zero)”
and explains, “The objective was to empty our minds of extraneous
thoughts (’clutter’)” And “whenever our own clutter tried to come back
in, we were…to acknowledge its return and then command it to go away.”

Doesn’t this sound like “brainwashing“?

The actor tells readers that TRO only cost him “a few hundred
dollars.” But after that came “auditing,” which he describes as
“outrageously expensive.” And Reeve says Scientology wanted “$3,000 in
advance” for that service, which was billed at a “$100 an hour in
1975.”

He explains that the “auditor” used an “E-Meter,” which is “a simple
box with a window that contained a fluctuating needle and a card with
numbers from one to ten. Two wires running out of the box…were
attached to tin cans,” which he was asked to hold.

Apparently it didn’t take x-ray vision for Reeve to conclude that the
“E-meter was basically a crude lie detector.”

What Reeve subsequently details sounds like an interrogation. The
actor was asked to “recall the use of…illegal substances…painkillers…
anything stronger than aspirin.” He says, “My drug rundown used up for
or five sessions.”

But Reeve had “growing skepticism about Scientology.” So he decided to
run his own test.

He told the auditor a long story supposedly about a past life, but he
made it all up, based upon a Greek myth.

However, the auditor didn’t detect anything, even with the help of the
trusty “E-Meter.”

It was then that the “Man of Steel” decided he was done with
Scientology. Reeve writes, “The fact that I got away with a blatant
fabrication completely devalued my belief in the process.”

Summing up a religious critique the actor says, “My problem has always
been with religious dogma intended to manipulate behavior.”

Elsewhere in the book Reeve recounts exposure to Transcendental
Meditation, a run-in with a devotee of Baba Muktanananda, an awareness
weekend seminar, Deepak Chopra, “Harmonic Convergence” and
“rebirthing.”

But Christopher Reeve never became another movie star devoted to some
guru or “cult.” And it’s refreshing to find a celebrity that isn’t
another annoying Hollywood clich�, constantly promoting some leader,
special mentor or weird group.

Even after life dealt Reeve a tough hand in 1995 through a freak
accident that paralyzed his body, he still didn’t grasp for some self-
serving, comforting or convenient belief system.

Instead, the actor says God wants us to “do our best” and simply
“discern the truth.” And Reeve cites a guiding principle espoused by
the pragmatic Abraham Lincoln, “When I do good I feel good. When I do
bad I feel bad. And that’s my religion.”

It seems Scientology has more to learn from Superman than he ever
could have taken in from its endless courses and “auditing.”

Maybe this movie star should teach some Hollywood Scientologists like
Tom Cruise and John Travolta?

Given his current circumstances many might think Christopher Reeve is
bitter. But the actor centers much of his life and faith upon the
value of hope.

He concludes at the end of his book, “When we have hope, we discover
powers, within ourselves we may have never known—the power to make
sacrifices, to endure, to heal, and to love. Once we choose hope,
everything is possible.”

http://www.cultnews.com/?cat=39

This page contains information The Rick A. Ross Institute has
gathered about Transcendental Meditation.

Visit the Transcendental Meditation Program
(Link takes you outside the Rick A. Ross Institute web site)
http://www.tm.org/

Visitor Comments:

Transcendental Meditation

"I feel that the whole TM thing is something Maharishi invented. At
first for the Hindus, but when he could not sell it to them, he sold
it in the West. I was one of his customers. A friend talked me into
it. But I always thought there was something funny about it. After ten
years I could not live with the inner conflicts. Reading articles on
the Internet has been helpful. I bought and memorized one of those so-
called secret mantras. Selling spiritual information seems terrible. I
don't think I will be trapped again in something stupid like this."

"I just ran across your site and I am glad you are keeping an eye on
Maharishi. I was part of his organization from the late 60's until the
late 70's. I learned the 'Sidhi' program, lots of advanced techniques
as well as the 'special techniques.' When the 'Sidhi' program came
along, I began to seriously question the motivation and ethics of the
whole organization."

Copyright © Rick Ross

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tmvisitor.html

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Trouble in transcendental paradise as murder rocks the Maharishi
University
Weed, meth nabbed
Students organizing cultural exchange
Vedic City to break ground on housing for 500
Vedic City Plans World Peace Meditation
Proponents want schools to introduce meditation
Time to reflect called religion
Avon Lake mayor wants resort declared blighted
Tell us about the most money you ever wasted
Judge delays murder suspect ruling
Reporting policies vary at Iowa's private colleges
Maharishi Student Accused Of 2 Stabbings In 1 Day
Student dies in stabbing at Maharishi University
Iowa legislators consider alternative health care bill
TM officials say money is in place for 500 from India
Meditate On This
Meditating on a lost party
Trailing in polls, Kucinich gains loyal following in Fairfield area
Boy Scouts see effects of drug abuse
Vedic City voters add Maharishi to name
The Maharishi's Hotel of Emptiness
Vedic City officials meet with supervisors
Seeds of peace and carrots
M.U.M. celebrates 30th anniversary, advocates meditation in
education
CIDA, the innovative university in central Johannesburg, has parted
ways with a major sponsor, audit firm KPMG, after disagreements about
the use of Transcendental Meditation (TM)
Relax: Denver to vote on stress-reducing referendum
TM courses halted as fees soar
Ex-Beatles bud sells Blackstone
Celebrities push for Transcendental Meditation center in L.A.
Divine intervention fails to get back investors' money
Vedic City drops bid for sales tax money
Meditators Eyeing Bay State 'Peace Palace'
Spiritual center must pay taxes
Peace palace proposed for Marin
Peace Palace a place to ponder
Beatles photos with Mahesh Yogi to be displayed
Think Peace
M.U.M.'s Hagelin plans "second government"
M.U.M. asks county to help secure funding
Vedic City gets Rebuild Iowa grant for environmental projects
M.U.M. building dorms in Vedic City
Labor union sues Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Dutch National Bank signals warning regarding Maharishi's money
Group Founded by Beatles Guru in Dutch Money Probe
Maharishi Fund OKs $14 million price for right of way
Vedic City Working To Outlaw Non-organic Food
Panel offers $4 million extra for SH 121 land
'King of the world' preaches peace through 'yogic flying'
Where all roads lead to om
Meditation movement's big plans have often come to little ends
Maharishi's town puts its own mark on money
Taking a Yogic Flier on 'Peace Bonds'
Natural Law Party sues over Kansas law
restricting party names
Guru's disciples find peace in crime-ridden estate
All he's saying is . . .
Payoff is limited as sect issues notes
Town sees mass meditation as way to world peace
Group's 'governor' says meditation could put an end to wars
Mystic Plans Skyscraper Despite WTC Attack
All you need is funds
Peace Could Be Just a 'Yogic' Hop Away
Peace answer seen in 40,000
Maharishi says
Mystic's followers wants own country
Voters give overwhelming 'yes' to new city
Hindu principle guides community
In Many Ways, a New Iowa Town Looks to East
Yogic flyers crash out of British politics
Property Tax Commission Rules Against Maharishi Spiritual Center
Natural Law deputy floats in for visit
M.U.M. reveals plans for Barhydt Chapel
State Board may decide on new city next month
Officials raise questions about Vedic City
The Reform Party, feelin' guru-vy
Roo the day
Maharishi eyes Colony project
Reform's John Hagelin, Transcending Politics
Building will help creativity
Dodging the Yogic Fliers
A Search for Serenity
Meditating and making money
Thinking man's magician flirted with political career
Dispute over meditation center in Rheinsberg
Maharishi's followers have integrated into small Iowa town
Guru Architecture
Reclusive Guru's in Battle to Demolish Historic Dutch Monastery
Why We Love Gurus
Politics and Transcendental Meditation
TM's Deceptions
The Guru Scene
Group Says Movement a Cult
Man Who Said He Didn't Get To Fly Awarded $138,000
Sexy romps of the Beatle's giggling guru

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
in the 1960s

Maharishi, more recently

The Beatles and Maharishi in 1967

The Rick A. Ross Institute

email: in...@rickross.com URL: http://www.rickross.com

Copyright © 1996-2008 Rick Ross.

http://www.rickross.com/groups/tm.html

Trance 101
The Jerusalem Post/April 30, 2009
By Mel Bezalel
"It's a little bit like when milk is boiling over, you can take a drop
of cold water and dip it in, and it all settles down. When stress
begins to build up, it erupts into violence."

Perhaps it isn't surprising that when international director and raja
("administrator") of Transcendental Meditation in Israel, Kingsley
Brooks, talks about the practice in which he's been involved for 35
years, he speaks using elusive terms and near-constant metaphor. After
all, the specifics of the practice are only revealed to those who
train in it - which requires three preliminary steps and four sessions
spread over four consecutive days, taught only by qualified
Transcendental Meditation teachers.

Benefits of the practice, based on the constantly quoted "600 research
studies," are commonly noted to include a feeling of relaxation and
respite from stress and anxiety, memory improvement and enhancing the
brain's creativity. The organization's Web site also purports that TM
improves the attention span, immune system, academic and job
performance, tolerance levels and slows the aging process, reduces
blood pressure and mortality rates. On a global level, it's also
claimed that TM practiced en masse reduces societal stress and crime
rates.

At the most basic level of TM, when members spend 20 minutes
meditating twice a day - morning and evening - the practice involves a
set of Hindu-inspired meditation techniques which are said to bring
practitioners to a higher level of consciousness through reciting a
mantra which is secret and unique to each meditator. While members
practice it with their eyes closed, their bodies move into a deep rest
called "restful alertness." It's described as a unique feeling not
experienced during other levels of consciousness - such as being
awake, sleeping or dreaming.

During his visit to Israel last month with his wife, Lesley - a
"partner" in his work - Brooks dedicated much of his time to promoting
TM in schools or "consciousness-based education." One test case is
already under way at an Arab school in the North, that cannot
currently be named due to the early stages of the program's
development. The TM program has been running for 10 months and already
the school (comprising 300 pupils) has reported a marked shift in its
students' behavior. One teacher who previously worked as the principal
reported: "You can say that largely the school had two periods -
before the introduction of TM and after it. Before the project, the
school was on the verge of a total collapse. We had many problems, a
lot of violence, both verbal and physical. Today, the school's climate
is better, the atmosphere is more relaxed. There is also improvement
in the students' desire for achievements, which is expressed in better
grades. There is more optimism... so much so that we received the
education award as second in the country for reduction of violence."

Students in the school are not obligated to study TM, says Brooks.
Although most do, those who don't wish to have "quiet time" instead -
which is simply the observance of silence in the classroom while the
other students meditate. One 17-year-old student from the Arab school
said the program has made a real difference: "My behavior has changed
for the better after learning TM. I am more relaxed and I am feeling
that even in moments when I feel down there is an inner happiness that
emanates from my body and dominates my behavior. I take things
quietly, just the opposite than before when I was very nervous. I feel
inner joy that controls my behavior all the time. TM is the best thing
that happened to me in my life."

Alex Kutai, National Director of the International Meditation Society
of Israel, says he has been approached by three other schools
interested in adopting the program - one of which comprises 2,000
students.

The schools program is important to the movement, says Brooks. "We
feel that the potential for everyone is great, but particularly for
young people. If they have this technology to develop their full
potential when they're young," he says, "then when they get older
they're already ahead in being as ideal citizens as they can be."

The TM school project began in America and is now also notably popular
in South America. Currently, 60,000 high-school students practice TM
worldwide. TM views schools as "peace generators" that can be
particularly effective in Israel, says Kutai, because of the immense
amount of stress caused by the [Israeli-Arab] conflict. "People are
feeling they need something to strengthen and relax them - to lose the
stress accumulated every day."

Eighteen months ago, renowned film director David Lynch, who
established The David Lynch Foundation to raise money for
"consciousness-based education and world peace," met with Shimon Peres
about the possibility of implementing TM in Israeli schools. "[Lynch]
told Peres the only way we can improve the quality of life here [in
Israel] is to create more groups in schools," recalls Brooks. "Mr.
Peres was very impressed with the idea and said his only request was
that it work for both Arab and Israeli kids."

One recent example of academic research that supports the movement's
claims is a pilot study carried out by George Washington University in
December last year on children with ADHD. Though the sample only
included 10 children aged 11-14, findings revealed that after three
months, twice-daily meditations produced improvements in attention,
working memory, organization and behavior regulation. Co-author of the
study, Sarina J. Grosswald, said: "Teachers reported they were able to
teach more and students were able to learn more because they were less
stressed and anxious."

However, despite the number of research studies conducted on TM, the
introduction of the technique in schools is not always welcomed. Just
two years ago, parents at the Terra Linda High School in San Rafael,
California, protested vehemently upon discovering that the David Lynch
Foundation was offering the school a $175,000 grant for teaching TM.
One objector, Gina Catina, who grew up in the TM movement and was
responsible for bringing the technique to two California schools in
the 1970s, wrote a letter to the school board to voice her dismay. She
accused the movement of being a cult, describing side-effects suffered
by TM practitioners she knew and disputing the movement's identity as
"non-religious." The funding was subsequently withdrawn by the
foundation. Also on the theme of religion, in 1979, a federal court
ruled that a course titled Science of Creative Intelligence/
Transcendental Meditation could not be taught in New Jersey public
schools because it "had a primary effect of advancing religion and
religious concepts" and violated the First Amendment.

Many critics of TM take issue with the movement's supposedly "non-
religious" standpoint, taking issue specifically with the allusions to
Hindu gods that appear in the TM puja - initiation ceremony. Hindu
gods such as Shakti, Krishna and Vishnu are all mentioned in the
private ceremony, in Sanskrit, and some say their personal mantras
include them, too. Bob Roth, spokesperson for the international TM
movement and national director of expansion, states that the Hindu
connection is purely "cultural" however: "The culture goes back
thousands of years, and it's nonsense to say that mantras are names of
gods - 100 percent absolute nonsense. It just creates fear and there
is no basis to it whatsoever."

One TM critic is Mitch Kapor, who founded Lotus Software and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, the international non-profit advocacy
organization. Kapor was involved with TM for seven years until 1976
and trained as a TM teacher. "TM is heavily promoted as a
scientifically-validated, secular method of stress reduction," says
Kapor, "whereas in fact the TM technique is inextricably bound up in a
religious Hindu tradition, as is obvious to anyone who considers the
mandatory TM initiation ceremony and the supposedly secret mantras.
Proponents of TM twist themselves into pretzels to deny or explain
away these inconvenient facts, but the real reason they do such things
is as part of a drive to recruit as many people as possible into the
TM movement." Kapor has strong objections to the program being taught
in schools, despite initially experiencing some relaxation benefits
from TM himself. Kapor believes that the twice-daily sessions being
introduced in schools are designed to recruit members to the movement,
who will then become much more involved.

Those who do immerse themselves in the movement often go on to become
TM teachers and many practice an advanced technique known as
"rounding" - intensive meditation that can last for several hours at a
time. It is with rounding that more issues reportedly surface with
regard to physical and mental side-effects, though the movement
officially states there are none, pointing again to its store of 600
studies.

Past practitioners of TM have publicly spoken out about the alleged
side-effects, including American social worker John Knapp, who joined
the TM movement in 1972. Although Knapp speaks with 23 years of his
own experience in TM, his role as a social worker specializing in
recovery from toxic groups, abusive churches and cults and his website
about the alleged problems of TM, mean that he is in frequent contact
with those suffering with problems related to their experience with
the technique. After signing up for TM to boost his grades at the age
of 18, Knapp recalls that he had "a cultic relationship with the
organization." Soon, Knapp became more involved with TM and began
practicing rounding. "I was spending so much time and money on TM that
other very important areas of my life were being completely
neglected," he says. "During the time I was most involved, for about
20 years I only saw my family a handful of times." Although he is
clear to state that it wasn't a directive from the organization, he
says it was "a non-stated judgment."

Knapp says he suffered several side-effects from his intensive
meditation practice, such as head-shaking (which he occasionally still
experiences), disassociation or "spacing out," problems with his
memory and a movement where his head would rapidly flip left and he'd
feel an energy surge in his spine. On visiting the doctor, it was
suggested that he'd developed a kind of Tourette 's syndrome. Knapp
says that past TM practitioners contacting him have also reported
involuntary twitching, grimacing, shouting and other tick-like
behavior.

Mentioning difficulties with the meditation was difficult in the
movement, explains Knapp, because "to bring up any, what they called
'negativity,' meant that you were likely to be ostracized from the
group. If you had any problems with the meditation, and people did, it
was the kind of thing you did behind closed doors."

In Knapp's experience, many of the problems experienced by meditators
were explained away by teachers with a concept known as 'stressing,'
'stress release' or 'body purification,' where the body experiences
temporary ticks as part of the body's healing process.

TM spokesperson Roth acknowledges that this process can occur, but
stresses that its occurrence is rare. "Just like if a person has a
weak heart, they have to modify their exercise program. It has
happened from rounding and that is why we are careful about who gets
the additional practice." However, he denies that TM has any sustained
adverse effects and responded, in reference to Knapp's experience,
that complainants practicing TM in the 1970s are an exceptional case
because of the popular use of drugs at that time: "People who have
trouble with rounding are those who in the 1970s... many of whom had a
history of taking hallucinogenic drugs. Since then, there have been
thousands of people who have gone on to teach TM with no problems
whatsoever. Now, to go on a teacher training course, one has to be
shown to be healthy with no drugs in their past." However, Knapp
asserts he's been in contact with those experiencing problems who
learned the meditation after that period.

Despite the anecdotal discussion, Roth maintains that there is no
scientific evidence to give any cause for concern: "There has never,
ever, ever been a published study with a control group published in a
[peer-reviewed] journal in America that has ever shown any negative
side effects of TM. And that is unequivocally the case."

Part of the problem with determining the legitimate benefits and
problems of TM is the conflicts within the scientific community. As
with many areas of research, some of the studies offer contradictions.
Although the movement quotes the "600 studies" in its favor, some have
been criticized for bias and a lack of scientific evidence. For
example, a research paper published in June 2007 by the University of
Alberta Evidence-based Practice Center for the US Department of Health
and Human Services, stated about meditation research (TM included):
"We found the methodological quality of meditation research to be
poor, with significant threats to validity in every major category of
quality measured, regardless of study design."

Therefore, either Roth's statement regarding the lack of scientific
evidence for TM side-effects is not straightforward, or he is simply
uninformed. Such studies do exist, such as Stanford University's Leon
Otis's 1984 study which revealed that although 52-64 percent of the
subjects who practiced TM in the study did not list a single adverse
effect, "adverse effects do occur in a sizeable percentage of those
who take up the practice," and "the number and severity of complaints
were positively related to duration of meditation. Of considerable
interest," states the research, "is the finding that the specific
adverse effects reported were remarkably consistent between groups and
formed a pattern of people who had become anxious, confused,
frustrated, depressed and/or withdrawn since starting TM."

There are additional studies that follow similar veins; however, it
seems that for every study published, a counter study is produced to
dispute the scientific claims. It is important to highlight that much
of the criticism launched at TM is, on the whole, focused on the more
intensive practicing of the technique.

If Kapor's suspicions are correct about the TM movement attempting to
enlist pupils to the movement so they'll become devout members, should
there be some concern about the meditation's introduction in schools,
or is it pure conjecture?

Hana Shadmi, director of psychology and counseling services at the
Education Ministry, says she is encouraged by the research on TM. "I
think overall, based on my familiarity with it [TM], it can help give
people tools for focus, calmness and healing, which are positive in a
school. I know of work that has been done in schools that people said
resulted in calmness and a decrease in violence. People have reported
good results in schools."

Speaking about the possible side-effects, Shadmi added: "I cannot say
anything bad about this... I am not familiar with enough literature
that says it is addictive, but it is possible... anything that you
overuse in any excessive way can take something that can be good and
make it bad. I believe in Israel there are kids who will find it hard
enough to do 20-minute sessions, [let alone] doing it excessively. Who
[will take part] and how they will be trained, will it be supervised,
who will supervise - all these questions, which I have no answer to,
puts hesitation in my responses. There is a lot of uncertainty and
lack of knowledge. The question is whether it is appropriate for
school."

Aharale Rotshtein, principal of regional high school Shar Ha'Negev,
near Sderot, has been practicing TM for around six years. He visited
the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Iowa, the original
TM school, eight years ago to see how the practice is applied in
schools. Together with his staff, Rotshtein is currently thinking
about introducing the technique into his school. "It's a wonderful way
of having a little rest," he says. "During the busy, noisy day, it's
40 minutes you can be with yourself, clearing your head. It makes me
think more effectively and physically be more effective."

However, despite practicing TM himself, Rotshtein emphasizes that
there are points about the method that he finds problematic: "It
becomes religious if you follow it to the end. As a free person I
don't like this way; I like to use it as a technical way and not more.
It's not ideology, it's only a way to give you rest. If you continue
with it and it becomes religious, it becomes very dangerous in my
point of view."

Other schools less familiar with TM, such as the Hebrew Reali High
School in Haifa, remain open-minded about the technique despite claims
from critics. School spokeswoman Galit Diamant commented: "Many
educational initiatives were born in our school, later to be adopted
by the Education Ministry. Our school has always been open to new and
innovative educational concepts and will continue to do so, provided
that they are congruent with our fundamental values: love of mankind,
love for our country and contribution to society and tolerance."

Despite the issues that exist, the TM movement maintains that
intensive "rounding" could hold the solution for wider societal
betterment. "Having a group practice meditation in an advanced program
of meditation," says Brooks, "creates a peaceful influence that
spreads to the whole world. Just like individuals have stress, a
country has stress."

According to TM research, when just one percent of the population is
practicing TM, it's as if the whole country is practicing it - and
crime rates and other social problems spontaneously drop. With the
advanced meditation program, known as the TM-Sidhi program, just the
square root of one percent of the population is needed in order to
effect societal change - known as the "Maharishi Effect." In 1983, a
group of Sidhi experts travelled to Israel, which resulted, according
to one TM study, in decreases in war deaths, war intensity, crime
rates, traffic accidents and fires, as well as increases in measures
of well-being such as the stock market.

There are of course papers questioning the validity of the study, such
as Barry Markovsky and Evan Fale's 1997 piece, which discusses the
occurrence of Jewish holidays, for example, as a significant
influencing factor on statistics that was excluded from the study.
However, it is with the global effect of TM in mind that the Israeli
TM movement hopes to establish, in addition to school programs, a new
Center for Israel Peace and Invincibility - "a place where large
groups of peace-creating experts can learn and practice the Invincible
Defense Technology [in essence, Maharishi Effect]," according to its
publicity pamphlet. This new facility will house 500 meditators and
cost NIS 100 million. Funding is currently being sought from a single,
unnamed donor.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm184.html

Just Say 'Om': The Fab Two Give a Little Help to a Cause
New York Times/April 6, 2009
By Jon Pareles
Paul McCartney announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Shears!" Then
Ringo Starr strode onstage at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday night
to sing "With a Little Help From My Friends." The two surviving
Beatles shared a microphone, and then embraces, in their first public
performance together since a 2002 memorial concert for George
Harrison.

For encores Mr. Starr moved to the drums and Mr. McCartney, surrounded
by other musicians on the bill - including Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder
of Pearl Jam, Donovan, Bettye LaVette, Moby and Ben Harper - sang two
more 1960s songs, "I Saw Her Standing There" and a rarity, "Cosmically
Conscious," that Mr. McCartney wrote during a 1968 trip that the
Beatles (and Donovan) took to learn Transcendental Meditation at the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India.

What cause could marshal that much of a Beatles reunion? War and
peace, poverty, human rights, the environment? No. The concert was a
benefit for the David Lynch Foundation, which seeks to teach
Transcendental Meditation to a million students worldwide. "Every
child should have one class period a day to dive within himself,"
reads the manifesto at David Lynch Foundation. "This is the way to
save the coming generation."

It was clearly a Lynch production. The concert began with the composer
Angelo Badalamenti playing his ominous and Romantic theme from Mr.
Lynch's television series "Twin Peaks." A musician stepped onstage to
provide a drumroll on a tom-tom as each performer was introduced. On
an overhead screen "Change Begins Within" was projected over an
abstract, slowly rippling, very Lynchian image of a wave.

As at most benefit concerts, music was interspersed with
proselytizing: testimonials and video clips about the benefits of
meditation. There was an undeclared contest over who had been
meditating longest: 37 years for the comedian Jerry Seinfeld (who did
bits about movie theaters, public toilets, taxis and marriage), 38
years for the radio personality Howard Stern, 41 for the two Beatles
and - the winner - 43 years for the flutist Paul Horn, who also made
the 1968 visit to Rishikesh. That trip ended in acrimony, but the
surviving Beatles held on to the mantras the Maharishi gave them and
said they continued to use them.

Mr. McCartney introduced "Cosmically Conscious" (which was a hidden
track on his 1993 album "Off the Ground") as a song written around two
of the Maharishi's favorite phrases, "cosmically conscious" and "It's
such a joy." It turned into a full-harmony chorale with the assembled
singers.

Although Donovan sang his 1960s hits and Mr. Starr's own brief set
included the Beatles' "Boys" and "Yellow Submarine" (with Mr. Vedder
and Ms. Crow vigorously singing along), many musicians used the
occasion for lesser-known songs about quests for spirituality and
meaning.

Ms. Crow performed "Riverwide," a Celtic-Eastern hybrid. Mr. Vedder
sang a wordless vocal meditation, layering harmonies in repeated
loops, and the pensive "Guaranteed," with lines like "a mind full of
questions, and a teacher in my soul." He was joined by Mr. Harper on
Pearl Jam's "Indifference" and the Queen-David Bowie collaboration
"Under Pressure," a song about seeking love amid "the terror of
knowing what this world is about." Ms. LaVette fronted Moby's band,
bringing soulful fervor to "Natural Blues," a song about "trouble with
God."

But it was also a night for reminiscences of the 1960s and of the
Beatles. Ms. Crow sang George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," and Mr.
Starr spoke about writing "It Don't Come Easy" with Harrison. Mr.
McCartney sang his memorial to John Lennon, "Here Today." Video
footage of the Beatles accompanied Mr. McCartney during his set, and
he played the violin-shaped style of bass he used at Beatles concerts.
Mr. McCartney gave robust performances of songs from his band Wings,
his solo albums and especially the Beatles catalog, revealing that
"Blackbird" was inspired by the civil rights movement and exulting in
the high notes of "Let It Be," "Lady Madonna" and "Got to Get You Into
My Life."

He and Mr. Starr shared the stage lightheartedly, evading all the
dramatic implications of a Beatles reunion. After the encores Mr.
Starr jumped in front of Mr. McCartney waving peace signs. A grinning
Mr. McCartney stepped in front of him, and back and forth it went.
They were old band mates, sharing songs and clowning around,
remembering a trip they took many years ago.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm183.html

And now children, it's time for your yogic flying lesson
The Guardian, UK/January 27, 2009
By Jacqueline Stevens and Patrick Barkham
Never mind the election of Barack Obama: the world will change
"overnight" if film director David Lynch can teach transcendental
meditation to one million children.

Known for his strange and atmospheric movies, the Hollywood director
has announced a "global benefit concert" in New York, featuring Paul
McCartney, Moby, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder and Donovan, to raise funds
to teach meditative techniques to schoolchildren.

If a further 1% can be persuaded to take up yogic flying in groups,
world peace would follow, according to the Transcendental Meditation
Movement, of which Lynch is the public face.

"Every child should have one class period a day to dive within himself
and experience the field of silence-bliss - the enormous reservoir of
energy and intelligence that is deep within all of us," Lynch said in
a message on his website.

The director of Blue Velvet, Eraserhead and Twin Peaks has been
"diving within" himself on a daily basis for 34 years, ever since he
was taught TM by a woman who he once recalled looked like Doris Day.

Beloved of hippie celebrities everywhere since the 1960s, TM's
expensive teaching courses risked it being priced into oblivion until
Lynch was credited with persuading Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - to whom he
became close in 2003 after paying $1m to participate in the guru's
four-week "Millionaire's Enlightenment Course" - to radically reduce
the TM learning fee so that more younger people could learn the
practice.

For the last two years, the director has toured the world, raising
millions for his charity, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-
based Education.

At Mahesh's funeral last year in India, Lynch was pictured bobbing in
a boat on the Ganges river, in his trademark gothic garb, surrounded
by loinclothed sadhus.

He hopes the concert on 4 April at Radio City Music Hall will raise
enough money to teach meditation techniques to 200,000 children in
every continent this year.

For Lynch fans, the wait for his next creative work could end in
disappointment: his next project is a "road movie" about touring TM
around the globe.

Highlights of the film will include Lynch jamming with Moby and joking
with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president - world peace of sorts.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm182.html

Meditation-based Maharishi University expected to settle lawsuit over
student's stabbing death in Iowa
Associated Press/January 8, 2009
Des Moines, Iowa - A federal lawsuit over the stabbing death of an 18-
year-old student from California at a school in southeastern Iowa is
expected to be settled today.

Levi Butler of Riverside County was stabbed to death at the Maharishi
University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, on March 1, 2004 by
fellow student Shuvender Sem of Pennsylvania.

The 24-year-old Sem was a paranoid schizophrenic who had a long
history of violent assault. He had attacked another student earlier in
the day.

Sem was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The lawsuit on behalf of Butler's estate was filed in February 2006,
accusing the school of gross negligence for not preventing his death.

Steve Eckley, an attorney representing the estate, says the
confidential terms of the settlement were reached last night and
needed approval from one additional official with the university's
insurance company.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm181.html

Trial set in 2004 stabbing at Maharishi University
Associated Press/December 24, 2008
Fairfield, Iowa - A trial is scheduled to begin next month in a nearly
5-year-old case of a Maharishi University student stabbed to death in
the school's dining hall.

The family of Levi Butler filed the federal lawsuit, accusing the
school of gross negligence in not preventing Butler's death.

Butler was stabbed to death in March 2004 by fellow student Shuvender
Sem, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

In the lawsuit, Butler's family notes that Sem had attacked another
student earlier in the day but that the matter wasn't reported to
police. Instead, Sem was taken to an administrator's apartment, where
he stole a knife while the official was meditating and later stabbed
Butler.

Trial is set to begin Jan. 12 in Des Moines.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm180.html

David Lynch makes Laura Harring a Goodwill Ambassador
3 News, New Zealand/October 2, 2008
Director David Lynch has named his Mulholland Drive star Laura Harring
a Goodwill Ambassador for his charitable foundation.

The David Lynch Foundation provides funds for transcendental
meditation in schools around the world, and for research into the
benefits of the practice.

Lynch is convinced meditation can be used to boost creativity,
intelligence, academic performance and aid sufferers of learning
disorders, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and eating disorders.

And he has brought Harring - who already works tirelessly for food aid
charity Stop Hunger Now - onboard to help raise awareness of the
foundation.

The actress, whose most famous role was in Lynch's 2001 thriller,
tells WENN: "I have been asked to be the Goodwill Ambassador for the
David Lynch Foundation...I consider it a privilege and an honor, and I
have gratefully accepted."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm179.html

Towns meditate on fate of peace palace project
The Associated Press/September 19, 2008
Kansas City, Missouri: Folks in the Kansas prairie town of Smith
Center were a little skeptical when they were told more than two years
ago that their poor rural county soon would become home to the World
Capital of Peace.

Now they're scratching their heads even more over the spectacle 10
miles (16 kilometers) north of town, where the Transcendental
Meditation movement is either building "peace palaces" or laying the
foundation for a 40,000-student university, depending on who is being
asked.

Sprawled across about 300 acres (121 hectares) of farmland near the
geographical center of the Lower 48 states are huge buildings in
various states of construction, many just bare metal framework jutting
up from the ground.

The TM movement created a stir around Smith Center in 2006 when
leaders announced that the complex of peace palaces and an organic
farm would be finished by year's end.

It didn't happen, and today only one of the buildings is near
completion. Most of the workers are gone, and plans for the World
Capital of Peace project have turned into the Maharishi Central
University, where the proposed school's probable president says at
least 10,000 students will be enrolled when it opens, possibly within
five years.

"It's very much in the developmental stages," said John Hagelin, who
would lead the university. "The ultimate vision is 40,000 students.
We're probably not interested in something smaller than 10,000
students."

Hagelin, who is director of the Institute of Science, Technology and
Public Policy at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield,
Iowa, said the Smith Center project is on hold as the TM organization
deals with the February death of its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

"In terms of big projects, and Maharishi launched many of them,"
Hagelin said, "we really have to prioritize and that takes input from
countries all around the world."

He said it would take more than $100 million to start up the
university - which he had wanted to have open two years after
construction began - and that kind of money isn't easy to find amid a
national banking crisis. Because of that, he said, a more reasonable
estimate would be that the university will open in five to 10 years.

"We really can't move forward to achieve the vision of a university of
10,000 students without the capital infrastructure in place," Hagelin
said. "Until it is I don't think there will be much more activity or
building there because it won't support our goal."

For some Smith Center residents, whose county about 260 miles (418
kilometers) northwest of Kansas City is one of the state's poorest,
there's nothing uncertain at all about the future of a university in
their area.

"In my personal opinion, I'm 60 years old and I'll be damned if I see
a college with 20,000 people, or even 5,000 of them," said Al
Freiling, an auctioneer and the real estate agent who sold some of the
land for the TM complex.

Residents in the town of 1,800 were perplexed when most of the people
working on the peace palaces left the area in the spring.
Communication between the meditators and community virtually dried up,
prompting locals to draw their own conclusions.

"I honestly don't think they're around," Freiling said. "My personal
opinion is that deal may just never finish. There's just not anything
happening."

The Global Country of World Peace picked Smith County for the site of
its $15 million peace capital because its location is a central point
from which the meditators say they can transmit their calming vibes to
create peace.

TMers believe that if enough of them meditate together, they can bring
order and harmony to the collective consciousness in a phenomenon
known as the Maharishi Effect. In essence, they send out positive
"waves of coherence" that influence the behavior of others.

It would take the square root of 1 percent of the world's population
meditating at once to create world peace, the theory goes.

"We consider them to be a cult," said the Rev. Dennis Lambert, whose
church is near where the World Capital of Peace is being built.

Lambert was among a small group of people who in 2006 dug up what they
believe to be a Hindu idol on a rural property that meditators had
once owned about 10 years ago. The figure, a hollow metal animal,
contained fake jewels symbolic of the nine planetary gods, he said.

"The fake jewels were crushed and the metal deal was destroyed with
heat," Lambert said. "It was believed to have demonic influence and
that's the way we dealt with it."

Around the time the Smith County project was in its early stages, the
Global Country of World Peace was announcing plans for peace palaces
in places like Seward County, Nebraska, and Goshen, Indiana.

But chamber of commerce officials in both of those communities say
they haven't heard anything about the palaces.

Elsewhere, lawsuits related to the palaces - both pertaining to local
zoning rules - in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, and Parma, Ohio, have
delayed construction in those communities.

In Smith Center, with a population of about 1,800, residents were told
that about 300 people would initially live in the two-story palaces,
with the potential for that number to grow to 2,000 within three
years.

The announcement led to tension as local pastors readied for a fight
for "the eternal souls" of the people and growers questioned what was
being done with a large chunk of prime farmland. Many also questioned
why the meditators would pick one of the poorest counties in the state
for its grand vision.

"I wish it would have happened someplace else," said Arthur Kuhlmann,
chairman of the Smith County Commission.

From the start, county officials weren't expecting a big economic
impact despite the project's proposed scale. Kuhlmann said the
developers even asked his commission for a reduction in property taxes
because the land was going to be used for educational purposes.

"We didn't give it to them," he said.

Kent Boyum, the Global Country of World Peace's director of government
affairs, assures that the Smith County project remains in the works.
He said problems with financing and utilities have caused delays.

"You have to realize that it's eight or nine miles from Smith Center,"
Boyum said. "There are no utilities there. It takes some time to get
the appropriate amount of electricity eight or nine miles. I always
knew it would take some time for that."

Boyum was one of the group's members at a June 2006 meeting where
plans for development were laid out for the community.

"I think it was ambitious and seeing the large view was definitely the
case," he said. "We have no intention not to do it, that's for sure."

That was before the "vision" was expanded and the goal became to build
a world-class university in a most unlikely spot.

"A 10,000-student university in the middle of nowhere is not going to
happen," Lambert said.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm178.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Need 450 acres near Disney? Get ready to fork over $150M

Orlando Sentinel/September 8, 2008
By Mark Pino

One of Osceola County's grandest tourism visions remains an illusion.

A 450-acre tract planned for a theme park mixing magic and
Transcendental Meditation remains vacant in the tourism corridor.
Almost two decades later, the two men behind the project are dead, and
the land has a $150 million price tag.

"It's a great piece of property," said Hector Lizasuain, who oversees
a tax district created to beautify West U.S. Highway 192. "It's funny
-- over the years, they'll put [for sale] signs up and take them down
again. People call it one of the prettiest sections, maybe because
there are no buildings. But it is prime real estate."

The former plant farm has remained a swatch of green foliage and
wetlands that runs for nearly three-quarters of a mile among U.S.
192's glitz and kitsch, flanked by Old Town and a Cracker Barrel.

Vedaland, which means land of knowledge, was announced with much
fanfare in 1989 by magician Doug Henning and the Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, a guru to The Beatles who introduced the West to Transcendental
Meditation. Henning died of cancer in 2000, and the Maharishi died at
his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop this year.

A Maharishi subsidiary closed on the property in 1990 for $20 million
in cash. In 1996, it was on the market for $60 million after the group
shifted efforts to a site in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The park plan originally included a building seemingly suspended above
water without supports, a "magic flying chariot" that took riders
inside the molecular structure of a rose, and robots that would fly
through the air, performing magic tricks.

The development was projected to cost $1 billion.

The backers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars planning the
project and getting government approvals, which expired years ago.

It is hard to analyze the current asking price by the Maharishi Global
Development Fund, said Linda Goodwin-Nichols, a Realtor who is not
involved with the listing but is a member of the West U.S. 192
Redevelopment Advisory Board.

"That property has been for sale for 25 years," she said. "In today's
marketplace, you don't know if it is a good price because no
commercial property has sold in a long time."

The listing averages about $330,000 an acre, which Goodwin-Nichols
said is "not bad for usable property," but the tract includes wetlands
that would not be worth as much.

While the property is listed on tax rolls as agricultural land because
of a tree-farming operation, an Internet sales listing cites a study
that "suggests potential development scenarios up to 800,000 square
feet of commercial space and as many as 4,300 multifamily residential
units."

While the tract is zoned for a planned development, the original
approvals expired in 2005. A new owner would have to start the process
from the beginning, county officials said.

Goodwin-Nichols said the property might appeal to a buyer with a plan
for a resort with a hotel, condos and a golf course who could acquire
it for the right price and time the process so the project was ready
when the economy improves.

"Now would be the perfect time," she said. "But you don't see a lot of
people doing that. The stuff that is coming out of the ground now has
been on the drawing table and in the process for a long time."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm177.html

Smith Center residents balk at Peace Palaces

NBC KHAS News, Kansas/May 20, 2008
By Robert Price

Two years ago an international peace group chose Smith County, Kansas
for its world capital of peace. Since then, the number of people
against the project has grown larger and more vocal.

Main Street, Smith Center, Kanas - among the restaurants, banks, and
churches, sits the office for Global Country of World Peace.

They are an international organization created to eliminate violence,
disease and poverty through transcendental meditation. But many here
view them in a different light.

"I look at it as a cult," said Helen Hooper.

"I believe they are a cult, yes," Hi Lambert said.

"I think they are a cult," said Stanley Hooper.

"A typical cult, basically," Charlene Lambert said.

Charlene and Hi Lambert have spent the last year or so doing extensive
research on the group. From newspaper clippings to financial records
to conversations with former members.

"Just all of a sudden got a passion to know more about the group.
Learning about the deceitfulness and the scam stuff, that just...I
just wanted people in our community to know what the organization is
really about," said

Global Country of World Peace says it is a non–partisan, non–religious
group. But the people of Smith Center are not so convinced.

"I do feel like it is a religion because there is a temple, they call
it a temple, and they worship the sun," said Tony Peterson.

"They do have religious undertones, the have religious roots. We feel
there are only two spirits represented in this world: the spirit of
God and the spirit of Satan. They are not being of the spirit of God.
We feel the spirit they represent would be Satan - in opposition to
the spirit we represent," said Pastor Dennis Lambert.

"And from a Christian point of view, when I think of young people that
could become involved in this, it is just so contrary to what we as
Christians believe," Helen Hooper said.

"I see a clash ahead of us," said Stan Hooper.

Global Country of World Peace leaders say these structures to the
north of town are for a $60 million college: Maharishi Central
University.

It will combine traditional academic principles with their techniques
of transcendental meditation.

They say they are anything but a cult.

"Well, the people are never taught what to think," Kay Michener said.

Gary Weisenberger has practiced transcendental meditation for 33
years.

"Transcendental Meditation is a relaxation technique that allows you
to get rid of stress, develop your full potential as a human being,"
said Weisenberger.

Three decades later, he remains a firm believer.

"Gotten out of it what I wanted and much more - more than I thought it
would be," Weisenberger said.

But Charlene Lambert said she has talked to countless others who have
left the group with a less favorable opinion.

"I have had several people involved in the organization say they
believe they are a cult," said Charlene. "Quite frankly it is pretty
scary for most of them and just the thought of having that kind of
cult in our area is a concern."

Many in Smith Center have been against the peace project since the
beginning.

"We have always been opposed to them being in our county," Hi said.

Others remained neutral or openly supported the project. Two years
later, finding these people is a lot harder.

"They came in with a real rosey picture of what was going on, and you
look at what is going on, and I do not see it myself," Stanley said.
"Some of the people that were the firmest supporters at first have
kind of backed off a little bit."

And those who have opposed it from the start are only more
passionate.

"We would like to have them abandon the situation and go away, but
that may not happen. Someday it would be nice to see some other
organization get into the buildings and bring something to our
community that would be good for it," said Hi.

Global Country for World Peace leaders told News 5 they are
disappointed they do not have the support of Smith Center.

But they said the group has plenty of resources and support across the
world and they plan to move forward with their college.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm176.html

More pandits arrive, with goal of hosting 1,050

Fairfield Ledger, Iowa/May 18, 2008

In order to foster peace in the world by establishing a large,
coherence-creating group of Yogic flyers on the Maharishi University
of Management campus and in Maharishi Vedic City, 85 more Vedic
pandits arrived in March, bringing the total to 600, and 450 more are
ready to come and will begin arriving later this month.

Those who arrived in March are being temporarily housed on campus, and
construction of modular buildings is beginning on the Vedic pandit
campus in Vedic City in order to house all of the pandits there.

According to M.U.M. officials, the immediate goal is to have a total
of 1,050 Vedic pandits in order to have a total of 2,500 Yogic flyers
in the community.

Studies have shown that group practice of the Transcendental
Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs, including Yogic Flying, can foster
harmony in society and reduce crime, war and other negative tendencies
[sic]. In order to have the influence, research has shown the size of
the group needs to exceed the square root of 1 percent of the
population of a given area. That figure for the United States is
1,743.

Currently funds are being raised to cover the costs of transportation
and personal supplies, as well as the additional housing.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm175.html

Maharishi group faces building fines

Dutch News/May 6, 2008

The Maharishi commune in the Limburg village of Vlodrop faces fines of
up to €10,000 a time for breaking building regulations on its estate,
NOS tv reports on Tuesday.

The former convent occupied by the transcendental meditation group was
raided by building inspectors last autumn, who found 13
infringements.

Now the council says 164 flagpoles surrounding the convent have to be
removed, numerous floodlights taken out of the woods, and illegal
sleeping quarters demolished.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi lived in the Netherlands from 1990 until his
death in February this year.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm174.html

Vedic City woman charges herbs caused lead poisoning

The Gazette, Iowa City/March 8, 2008
By Erika Binegar

Des Moines - A woman who claims she contracted lead poisoning after
taking an herbal preparation marketed as a Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
product is suing Maharishi corporations in federal court.

Frances Gaskell, who lives in Maharishi Vedic City north of Fairfield,
filed the lawsuit in the Southern District of Iowa.

In the lawsuit, she alleges the respondents - Maharishi Vedic
Education Development Corp., Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation and
Maharishi Ayurveda Products Ltd. - are guilty of defective product
design, breach of implied warranties and failure to warn.

Gaskell also charges that those three entities plus a clinic in Delhi,
India, called the Maharishi Ayurveda Arogyadham, and Dr. J.R. Raju, a
master Ayurvedic physician and healer, are guilty of intentional
misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and conspiracy.

Robert Roth, spokesman for the Maharishi Vedic Education Development
Corp., said this week that the company is not involved in the
manufacture, prescription or sale of Ayurveda remedies or herbs.
Ayurveda is a form of alternative health care from India marketed by
the Maharishi and his followers.

"We have no knowledge concerning the preparations Mrs. Gaskell
allegedly obtained directly from India, apparently from another
source," Roth said.

He said the corporation's only role is teaching the Transcendental
Meditation to people in the United States.

Gaskell alleges Raju in December 2006 prescribed the herb Garbhapal
Ras for her when she was four months pregnant. After taking the herb,
Gaskell claims she began to feel lethargic, that her hands and feet
went numb and that she suffered severe back and abdominal pain.

Tests on April 16, 2007, showed she had a blood lead level of 102
micrograms per deciliter - more than 20 times the level considered
safe by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gaskell
underwent chelation therapy while pregnant, but her child was born
with an elevated blood lead level of 60 micrograms per deciliter.

Tests by the Iowa Department of Public Health found the herb Garbhapal
Ras was comprised of nearly 3 percent lead. Maharishi Ayurveda
Products Ltd. is identified on the product bottle as the manufacturer,
the lawsuit states.

Health risks associated with ingesting lead have been known at least
since 1978, when lead paint was banned in the United States.

Roth said numerous companies sell Maharishi Ayurveda herbs and
treatments in the United States and that he understands the
preparations are subject to testing, inspection and quality control to
ensure they are free of toxins.

"These products have been on the market for 30 years, and it's the
first time I've heard of anything like this," added Steve Yellin,
media spokesman for the Maharishi University of Management in
Fairfield.

Gaskell, who is being represented by the Cedar Rapids legal firm Brady
& O'Shea, is asking for a jury trial.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm173.html

Sites for 'Maharishi Effect' (Welcome to Parma) Spread Across U.S.

The New York Times/February 22, 2008
By Sean D. Hamill

Parma, Ohio - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the "giggling guru" who founded
the Transcendental Meditation movement, proclaimed throughout his 50-
year career that he knew the secret to worldwide peace. And now, this
Cleveland suburb is poised to play a role.

The Maharishi promised that if just 1 percent of the world practiced
TM, as it is known, then "the Maharishi effect" would take over and
there would be increased coherence in the collective unconsciousness,
and peace would prevail.

But for decades he struggled to reach enough people, even though he
lowered the necessary figure to the square root of 1 percent. So, in
2000 he created the Global Country of World Peace, a "country without
borders," to build at least one so-called peace palace in or near the
3,000 largest cities in the world as places to train people in TM.

One of the palaces could be completed later this year in Parma, a town
of 83,000 people, where officials were more than a little surprised
when TM leaders outlined the proposal.

"The nature of it was a little unusual," said Brian Higgins, the
city's director of public service. "What do you mean a 'Maharishi
Peace Palace?' We're Parma, Ohio. We eat pirogis and drink draft beer.
We don't get operations like this all the time."

Getting towns like Parma to welcome the palaces - $3 million to $5
million buildings with dormitories, classrooms and shops - has become
even more important to the TM organization in the wake of the
Maharishi's death on Feb. 5. The peace-palace project will continue,
movement leaders say, despite the multimillion-dollar costs and the
limited success so far.

"There will be no change," Robert Roth, a spokesman for the
organization based in the Netherlands, said from Allahabad, India,
where he attended a funeral for the Maharishi on Feb. 11. "It has
always been a top priority of Maharishi, and all the leaders of TM
recognize that."

Some critics, however, have called the palaces nothing more than a way
for the Maharishi's followers to raise money to buy more land for the
group's considerable coffers.

At least three palaces - in Austin, Tex.; Houston; and Lexington, Ky.
- have already been built by private individuals.

At least five others have been built, or are being built, thanks to
donations to various offshoots of the TM organization in Bethesda,
Md., and in towns in Iowa.

Nine more are being built by Global Country itself: three in
Cleveland's suburbs; two in Sullivan County, N.Y.; and one each in
Charlottesville, Va.; Colorado Springs; Smith Center, Kan.; and St.
Paul. Zoning and other issues have prevented the organization from
building right away in at least 18 other cities where it has already
bought land, organization officials said.

After originally hoping to build 2,400 palaces in the United States
alone, the organization now says it hopes to build 100 to 200 here.

Though the movement is admired for its finances, many independent
critics question its belief that large groups of people meditating or
practicing yogic flying - where people meditate and hop while sitting
cross-legged in the lotus position - can spread peace.

The organization cites studies that it says found that large groups of
yogic fliers helped temporarily lower crime in Washington, D.C., end
the cold war and briefly reduce hostilities in the Middle East.

"To the best of my knowledge, it has never been studied truly
independently," said Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the
Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General
Hospital, and a TM practitioner himself. "It's been hypothesized for
many years, but never proven."

The peace palaces are intended to be gleaming white, two-story
buildings, 10,000- to 12,000-square-feet, and to replace the typical
rented space where TM is now taught at more than 200 locations in the
United States.

Each is designed to be large enough to have dormitories, retail space
to sell TM's health products and clothing, and, most importantly,
space for TM classes that currently cost $2,500. (Instruction in yogic
flying costs an additional $2,000.)

They are being built to follow the Vedic architectural guidelines,
which, among other requirements, mean each building faces east to
greet the energizing morning sun.

The result is something like an Indian temple crossed with a Southern
plantation mansion, a look the organization hopes will become a visual
brand, much like the golden arches signify McDonald's the world over.

"The upside to it is in the recognition. In every town where there's a
peace palace, people will realize this is what it looks like," said
Richard Quinn, director of project finance for the Maharishi Vedic
Education Development Corporation, which oversees palace development
in the United States.

The nine palaces being built by Global Country are being financed by
$40 million worth of tax-free bonds backed by the Colorado Health
Facilities Authority - thanks to the asserted individual health
benefits of TM - and secured by some of the more than $250 million in
land TM owns in the United States.

Despite its spiritual leanings, and promises of peace, Global Country
does not make that part of its pitch to towns when it seeks permission
to build a palace, which would be tax-exempt. Instead, it focuses on
the retail and health benefits it would bring.

"My feeling is they're trying to downplay" the world peace goal, said
Mayor Gregory S. Costabile of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, where a palace
may be built this year.

Even when towns do learn about the movement's larger aspirations, it
usually comes down to whether a development fits a site and complies
with zoning.

And despite their skepticism, city and town officials concede, it is
hard not to want what TM offers.

"They're interested in peace and harmony and good vibes, and we're
interested in that," said Robert M. Parry, director of planning for
Westlake, Ohio, where a third palace is planned for the Cleveland
area. "Who isn't?"

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm172.html

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru and tycoon, died on February 5th, aged 91
(probably)
The Economist/February 14, 2008

Visitors entering the World Bank in Washington one sweaty day in 1987
might have been surprised to come upon a team of smiling young men,
legs neatly folded into the lotus position, hopping like frogs. In
fact, most visitors were probably not surprised at all. Like many
happenings connected with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, this display of
"yogic flying" had been well advertised. The only surprise was that
the bank, usually cast as a bastion of hard-headed rationality, should
provide such a ready audience for an event whose aim was not physical
fitness but world peace.

Thirty years earlier the maharishi, who had studied maths and physics
at Allahabad University, had calculated that one person practising the
transcendental meditation he promoted could induce virtuous behaviour
among 99 non-meditators. He had already, in 1944, helped to get 2,000
Vedic pandits, learned followers of one of the four holy books of the
Hindus, to chant mantras in an effort to bring the second world war to
an end. He had again assembled meditators in 1963 to solve the Cuban
missile crisis. But his ambitions were bigger-world peace, no less-and
by the 1980s he had come to realise that to bring harmony to a world
of 5 billion people, he would need 50m meditators.

Undaunted, he did the arithmetic again, this time factoring in
meditation of deep purity and concentration (including yogic flying),
and happily found he needed a number no greater than the square root
of 1%-a mere 7,000 or so. Accordingly, 7,000 flyers were assembled
during the Taste of Utopia conference in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1984.
Annoyingly, though, the "wide range of positive effects worldwide"
ended with the conference. Something similar happened after 7,000
students gathered for yogic flying and Vedic chanting near Delhi in
1988. The Berlin Wall came down all right and the cold war ended, but
the money needed to keep the group airborne ran out and, dammit, "new
tensions" started to arise in the world.

If only the maharishi had had the necessary funds. Actually, he had.
He may not have known how to make peace, but he certainly knew how to
make money. After years studying under a Hindu divine in the late
1950s, he had pronounced himself a maharishi (great seer) and set up
the Spiritual Regeneration Movement. This took transcendental
meditation, which he had trademarked, to the world, with Hollywood one
of the first stops. Disciples paid $2,500 for a five-day course,
learning how to reach a "deeper level" of consciousness by inwardly
repeating a mantra twice a day for 20 minutes.

Real fame came when the Beatles beat a path to his door, seeking
enlightenment and spirituality through good vibrations. George
Harrison had already fallen under the spell of the sitar and the
maharishi's message appealed to John Lennon's angry pacifism. Before
long the Fab Four were ensconced in the maharishi's ashram in the
foothills of the Himalayas. Their stay was only a modified success,
though, with Lennon and Ringo Starr complaining about the food, and
all of them, perhaps, beginning to resent their host's transcendental
interest in using them for publicity, if not an outright percentage of
their earnings.

No matter. Plenty of others were ready to step forward for a dose of
spiritual bliss, and not all were celebrities. In America meditation
was judged to be just the tonic for a variety of people ranging from
underperforming executives to recidivist prisoners. An army general
even joined the board of Maharishi International University, set up in
Fairfield in 1974. All in all, some 5m people are said to have been
taught the maharishi's techniques since 1955.

His other ventures blossomed, too. A property empire was valued at
over $3 billion ten years ago. A television station offered meditation
courses to subscribers in 144 countries. Companies sold unguents,
books, videos and Ayurvedic treatment. His political movement, the
Natural Law Party, which in the 1990s pursued the goal of world
government by fighting elections in America, Britain and several other
countries, was less successful, and eventually folded. This, however,
did not stop the maharishi then launching the raam, a global currency
intended to foster development. Imagine (all the things he didn't do)

Crank? Crackpot? Charlatan? Maybe all three. Yet the maharishi was
generally benign. He did not use his money for sinister ends. He
neither drank, nor smoked, nor took drugs. Indeed, he is credited with
weaning the Beatles off dope (for a while). He did not accumulate
scores of Rolls-Royces, like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh; his biggest self-
indulgence was a helicopter. Nor was he ever accused of molesting
choirboys; his greatest sexual impropriety, it was said, was to make a
pass at Mia Farrow. He giggled a lot, and plainly had no lack of self-
esteem. But his egotism did not mean he was always wringing his hands
at pop concerts or blethering at Davos; after the 1960s he seldom
appeared in public.

Moreover, his message was entirely laudable. He did not promote a cult
[sic] or even a mainstream religion preaching original sin, purgatory
and the likelihood of eternal damnation. He just wanted to end
poverty, teach people how to achieve personal fulfilment and help them
to discover "Heaven on Earth in this generation" [sic]. And yogic
flying, of course.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm171.html

Maharishi's ashes immersed in Sangam

IANS, India/February 12, 2008

Allahabad, India - The ashes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced
the world to the Transcendental Meditation, were immersed in the
Sangam, the confluence of three rivers near his ashram Tuesday
afternoon.

The ashes and funeral flowers, gathered in brass urns and wrapped in
white muslin cloth and garlands of roses, were carried to the Sangam,
where the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Swaraswati meet, in an
elaborate procession led by Vedic pundits from the Jyotirmath of the
Shankaracharya, the spiritual order to which the seer belonged.

They were followed by the 35 'rajas' or kings who are nation heads for
the Maharishi's TM organisation, including his nominated heir Maharaja
Tony Nader or Adi Ram, the name by which he is now known.

Thousands of devotees and local residents accompanied the procession
that set off at 12.30 p.m. from the Shanti Sthal, where the funeral
pyre was lit Monday.

Girish Verma, the seer's kin and a functionary in the organization in
India, and members of the seers' family presided over the ceremony
along with the priests.

Around 1.30 p.m. the ashes were released into the waters of the
Sangam, near his ashram at Arail, 15 km from the city, according to
Vedic rituals.

"The Sangam was beautiful. There were 30 boats, people went on those
boats and the seer's family on one of the boats performed the final
rituals before scattering the ashes all over into the river," said Bob
Roth, in-charge of global publicity at the ashram.

"They were spread out evenly into the water and some of our devotees
took holy dips as part of the final cleansing ritual, integral to
Vedic immersion rites."

The Maharishi died Feb 5 at his home and headquarters in Vlodrop in
the Netherlands and was believed to be in his 90s.

Organisation sources said a part of his ashes would be distributed and
preserved in 192 nations across the globe where the seer set up
centres of meditation and Vedic learning.

Since 10 a.m., the Maharishi's abode on the banks of the Ganga was a
hive of activity.

Though the Maharishi Vidya Mandir in the front quarters of the
complex, where the body was kept in state from Sunday to Monday, wore
a deserted look, the action was on in full swing at the cremation
ground a kilometre away.

Priests chanted mantras as they collected in urns the ashes and the
charred remains.

Clad in white Indian-style kurtas and payjamas, all the 35 kings, wore
their ceremonial golden crowns, the heavy gold medallions and white
shawls, and sat around the pyre in a semi-circle.

They performed the ceremonial circumambulation after the ashes were
collected.

The Global Country of World Peace Tuesday opened its doors to women,
who were there in large numbers to witness the immersion rites.
Barring members of the Mother Divine sect, all women attached to the
TM movement were present.

Unlike Monday, when all of them had decked up in their royal regalia
of heavy Benarasi brocade saris and jewellery, Tuesday found the women
in chiffons, cotton and light silk saris.

"We are happy to be able to see a part of the last rites. I am glad
that Maharishi has been freed of his physical remains, but he will
always remain within us," said Christina Schulze Bradshaw, Maharishi
disciple from Germany.

The Maharishi was a monk as well as an entrepreneur, a visionary, who
was often dismissed as a hippie mystic. The Maharishi started his TM
movement in 1957, though it formally took after a discourse in Madras
(now Chennai) in 1958 and brought it to the US in 1959. At one point,
his disciples included the Beatles among other celebrities.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm170.html

Maharishi inspired Beatles but died leaving £2b and rape rumours

The Mirror, UK/February 7, 2008
By Nick Webster

He inspired the Beatles and promised world peace but died leaving £2
billion amid rumours of rape and murder

He was the Sixth Beatle, a spiritual force with the potential to
create world peace and end famine.

Or he was an avaricious old man with a penchant for young girls who
ruined the greatest pop group in history.

It rather depends on your point of view, but one thing is certain
about the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who died this week aged somewhere
between 91 and 97 - he was one of the richest religious leaders in
history.

The 'giggling guru' - so called because of his high-pitched laugh -
lived in an opulent 200-room mansion, with helicopters and dozens of
cars at his disposal, and was worth an estimated £2billion.

He was the head of a movement with five million followers worldwide,
all seeking a higher consciousness through transcendental meditation.

But while the Maharishi promised world peace, and cynics laughed at
his wacky teachings and yogic flying, sinister stories of sex,
debauchery, and even murder cast dark shadows over his life.

All but one of the Beatles cut their ties with their apparently
celibate guru after it emerged he'd made a pass at Mia Farrow. The
Maharishi's people, on the other hand, insist they simply fell out
when he discovered the band were using LSD.

Later another British disciple, Linda Pearce claimed the Maharishi had
seduced her when he was in his 60s.

"He was a brilliant manipulator," said Mrs Pearce. "I just couldn't
see that he was a dirty old man. We made love regularly. At one stage
I even thought I was pregnant by him. And I don't think I was the only
girl. There was a lot of talk that he'd tried to rape Mia Farrow."

And there was worse scandal to come. In 1987, when the Maharishi was
living in a high security complex on the outskirts of Delhi, India,
the Telegraph newspaper of Calcutta alleged five boys had died after
being used as guinea pigs in the ashram's "medical institute"
searching for cures for cancer, heart ailments and Aids. Nothing was
ever proved.

At the same time the fabulously wealthy guru's employees went on
strike to increase their £10-a-month wages. The Maharishi simply moved
into a five-star hotel in New Delhi until it was over.

Mahesh Prasad Varma (or Mahesh Srivastava, depending on your source)
was born in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, sometime between 1911
and 1918.

The son of a government tax inspector, he initially studied physics
but then trained with a Vedic spiritual mentor, undertaking two years
of silence in the Himalayas where he developed his ideas on
transcendental meditation.

The movement the Maharishi leaves behind, after his death at his
luxurious retreat in Vlodrop in the Netherlands, has been called the
world's richest cult. Yet when he began his first world tour as a
spiritual leader in Burma in 1958, the Maharishi was praised for his
austerity.

One commentator wrote: "He asks for nothing. His worldly possessions
can be carried in one hand."

Meeting the Beatles a decade later changed all that. The band had been
encouraged to attend a lecture by George Harrison's wife Patti, and
were impressed enough by what they heard to accompany him to a weekend
retreat in to North Wales.

Along with Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, they took the train to
Bangor - where the Maharishi assumed the mob of screaming fans were
there for him.

Only a day into the retreat the news broke that the Beatles
influential manager Brian Epstein had died from a suspected drugs
overdose.

Rather than let them grieve for their friend and first mentor, the
Maharishi told them their tears would cause "vibrations" which could
trap Epstein's spirit on this spiritual plane rather than let it
travel to the next. And he instructed them to be joyful and laugh.

Months later all four Beatles, their partners and 60s stars Donovan,
Mike Love of the Beach Boys, and Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence
headed off for a three-month retreat to the Maharishi's centre on the
banks of the Ganges.

Funded by a tithe of one week's wages from each of its students, the
bank balance of the ashram received a massive boost from the world's
biggest pop stars.

They expected to find spiritual enlightenment, but what they actually
found was what Ringo called "a bit like Butlins." He and his then wife
Maureen left after a fortnight, desperate for "egg and chips." Paul
McCartney and his girlfriend Jane Asher quit too.

Then came the stories of the Maharishi's attempt to have sex with Mia
Farrow. John Lennon said later: "There was a hullabaloo about him
trying to rape Mia and a few other women. The whole gang charged down
to his hut and I said: 'We're leaving!' He asked why and I said: 'If
you're so cosmic, you'll know why.' The Maharishi gave me a look that
said: 'I'll kill you, you bastard!'"

But none of this dented the Maharishi's growing global popularity.
Travelling the world in a pink aeroplane, his fame and his movement
grew and he featured on the front cover of Time magazine in 1975. His
transcendental meditation technique involved silently repeating a
Sanskrit mantra for 20 minutes twice a day. And since scientific
studies have now concluded it has some real health benefits, it is
never short of new adherents

And at £1,300 per person for a standard introduction course, it's easy
to see where the Maharishi's cash came from. But there were times when
the guru's ego got the better of him... He once told an audience in
New York that if just one per cent of the world's population adopted
his teaching it would "neutralize the power of war for thousands of
years".

Consequently, he claimed credit for peace in the Lebanon and
Mozambique, and for reducing crime in Washington and Merseyside.

And after the terrorist outrages of September 11, 2001 the Maharishi
claimed ifany government gave him a billion dollars he could end
terrorism and create peace.

His claims were ridiculed - as were his 40,000yogic fliers who, as the
Natural Law Party, promised that levitating while in the Lotus
position would bring peace and enlightenment. In the end it brought
just 0.4 per cent of the votes in the election.

Last month the guru, who lately communicated through a video link,
announced his retirement. His spokesman Bob Roth says:"He'd done what
he set out to do."

Apart from world peace.

Gurus: Good, Bad & Ugly

Osho: The "Rolls-Royce guru" - his followers wanted to buy him one for
every day of the year.

Charles Manson: Serving life after Manson Family killed Sharon Tate,
pregnant wife of Roman Polanski in LA in 1969.

Timothy Leary: Former Harvard professor of psychology championed
psychedelic drugs.

Amma: Mata Amritanandamayi - the Hugging Saint - gives her services
free to all religions. May have given out 26 million hugs.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm169.html

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Spiritual Leader, Dies

New York Times/February 6, 2008
By Lily Koppel

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced transcendental meditation to the
West and gained fame in the 1960s as the spiritual guru to the
Beatles, died Tuesday at his home and headquarters in Vlodrop, the
Netherlands. He is believed to have been in his 90s. Steven Yellin, a
spokesman for the organization, confirmed the Maharishi's death but
did not give a cause.

On Jan. 11, the Maharishi announced that his public work was finished
and that he would use his remaining time to complete a long-running
series of published commentaries on the Veda, the oldest sacred Hindu
text.

The Maharishi was both an entrepreneur and a monk, a spiritual man who
sought a world stage from which to espouse the joys of inner
happiness. His critics called his organization a cult business
enterprise. And in the press, in the 1960s and '70s, he was often
dismissed as a hippie mystic, the "Giggling Guru," recognizable in the
familiar image of him laughing, sitting cross-legged in a lotus
position on a deerskin, wearing a white silk dhoti with a garland of
flowers around his neck beneath an oily, scraggly beard.

In Hindi, "maha" means great, and "rishi" means seer. "Maharishi" is a
title traditionally bestowed on Brahmins. Critics of the yogi say he
presented himself with the name, which he was ineligible for because
he was from a lower caste.

The Maharishi originated the transcendental meditation movement in
1957 and brought it to the United States in 1959. Known as TM, a
trademark, the technique consists of closing one's eyes twice a day
for 20 minutes while silently repeating a mantra to gain deep
relaxation, eliminate stress, promote good health and attain clear
thinking and inner fulfillment. Classes now cost $2,500 for a five-day
session.

The TM movement was a founding influence on what has grown into a
multibillion-dollar self-help industry, and many people practice
similar forms of meditation that have no connection to the Maharishi's
movement.

Over the years since TM became popular, many scientists have found
physical and mental benefits from mediation in general and
transcendental meditation in particular, especially in reducing stress-
related ailments.

Since the technique's inception in 1955, the organization says, it has
been used to train more than 40,000 teachers, taught more than five
million people, opened thousands of teaching centers and founded
hundreds of schools, colleges and universities.

In the United States, the organization values its assets at about $300
million, with its base in Fairfield, Iowa, where it operates a
university, the Maharishi University of Management. In 2001, disciples
of the movement incorporated their own town, Maharishi Vedic City, a
few miles north of Fairfield.

Last March, a branch of the organization, Global Financial Capital of
New York, moved into new headquarters it bought in Lower Manhattan.

The visibility and popularity of the organization can largely be
attributed to the Beatles. In 1968, the band, with great publicity,
began studying with the Maharishi at his Himalayan retreat, or ashram,
in Rishikesh, in northern India. They went with their wives, the folk
singer Donovan, the singer Mike Love, of the Beach Boys, the actress
Mia Farrow and Ms. Farrow's sister Prudence.

They left in the wake of rumors of sexual improprieties by the
Maharishi, an avowed celibate, though no sexual-misconduct suits were
filed and some of the participants later denied that anything untoward
had occurred.

Nevertheless, public interest in the movement had been aroused in the
West, and it continued to grow in the 1970s as the Maharishi took his
movement around the world and as its techniques gained respectability
in the medical world.

Later in life, the Maharishi refused to discuss the Beatles. Another
one of his disciples was the Indian spiritualist Deepak Chopra, who
was a friend of the former Beatle George Harrison and who promotes his
own teachings based on traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine and
meditation.

The Maharishi's movement began losing followers the late 1970s, as
people were put off by the organization's promotion of a more advanced
form of TM called Yogic Flying, in which practitioners try to summon a
surge of energy to physically lift themselves off the ground. They
have never gone beyond the initial stage of flying, described as "frog
hops."

Mahesh Prasad Varma was born near the central Indian town of Jabalpur,
into a scribe caste family. Called Mahesh, he studied physics at
Allahabad University and for the next 13 years became a student and
secretary to a holy man, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, who the young
disciple Mahesh called Guru Dev.

"Right from the beginning the whole purpose was to breathe in his
breath," the Maharishi wrote in his "Thirty Years Around the World:
Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment," published in 1986. "This was my
ideal. The whole purpose was just to assume myself with Guru Dev."

After the death of his master in 1953, Mahesh went into seclusion in
the Himalayan foothills. He emerged two years later and began teaching
a system of belief, which grew into the worldwide TM movement.

"It would appear that Maharishi cobbled together his teaching after
his master died, when he found himself unemployed and out-of-grace
with the ashram," said Paul Mason, a critic of the Maharishi and the
author of a biography, "The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who
Gave Transcendental Meditation to the World." "He reinvented himself
and became a 'maharishi' and wanted to be seen as a messiah."

Since 1990, the Maharishi had lived in Vlodrop with about 50 of his
adherents, including his "minister of science and technology," John
Hagelin, a Harvard-educated physicist, who is expected to oversee the
organization in the United States.

Late in life, the Maharishi tried to breathe new life into TM,
establishing in 2000 his "Global Country of World Peace," with the
goals of preventing war, eradicating poverty and promoting
environmental sustainability. One effort tried to reach young people
across the United States with the support of celebrities like Donovan
and the filmmaker David Lynch, who went on a speaking tour of colleges
to promote the cause.

The Maharishi also sought to rebuild the world according to Vedic
principals. He called for the demolition of all toxic buildings and
unhealthy urban environments, even the demolition of historic
landmarks if they were not built according to "Vedic architecture in
harmony with Natural Law." The Maharishi contended that the White
House was wrongly situated. He said that a more suitable location for
the capital of the United States was the small town of Smith Center,
Kan.

In the last years of his life he rarely met with anyone, even his
ministers, face-to-face, preferring to speak with followers almost
exclusively by closed-circuit television.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm168.html

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi dies
Associated Press/February 5, 2008
By Mike Corder

The Hague, Netherlands - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles
who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died Tuesday at
his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was
thought to be 91 years old.

"He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for
the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded. He
said his death appeared to be due to "natural causes, his age."

Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control
that Maharishi taught, called transcendental meditation, gradually
gained medical respectability.

He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United
States in 1959. But the movement really took off after the Beatles
visited his ashram in India in 1968, although he had a famous falling
out with the rock stars when he discovered them using drugs at his
Himalayan retreat.

With the help of celebrity endorsements, Maharishi - a Hindi-language
title for Great Seer - parlayed his interpretations of ancient
scripture into a multi-million-dollar global empire.

After 50 years of teaching, Maharishi turned to larger themes, with
grand designs to harness the power of group meditation to create world
peace and to mobilize his devotees to banish poverty from the earth.

Maharishi's roster of famous meditators ran from The Rolling Stones to
Clint Eastwood and new age preacher Deepak Chopra.

Director David Lynch, creator of dark and violent films, lectured at
college campuses about the "ocean of tranquility" he found in more
than 30 years of practicing transcendental meditation.

Some 5 million people devoted 20 minutes every morning and evening
reciting a simple sound, or mantra, and delving into their
consciousness.

"Don't fight darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will disappear,"
Maharishi said in a 2006 interview, repeating one of his own mantras.

Donations and the $2,500 fee to learn TM financed the construction of
Peace Palaces, or meditation centers, in dozens of cities around the
world. It paid for hundreds of new schools in India.

In 1971, Maharishi founded a university in Fairfield, Iowa, that
taught meditation alongside the arts and sciences to 700 students and
served organic vegetarian food in its cafeterias.

Supporters pointed to hundreds of scientific studies showing that
meditation reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves
concentration and raises results for students and businessmen.

Skeptics ridiculed his plan to raise $10 trillion to end poverty by
sponsoring organic farming in the world's poorest countries. They
scoffed at his notion that meditation groups, acting like psychic
shock troops, can end conflict.

"To resolve problems through negotiation is a very childish approach,"
he said.

In 1986, two groups founded by his organization were sued in the U.S.
by former disciples who accused it of fraud, negligence and
intentionally inflicting emotional damage. A jury, however, refused to
award punitive damages.

Over the years, Maharishi also was accused of fraud by former pupils
who claim he failed to teach them to fly. "Yogic flying," showcased as
the ultimate level of transcendence, was never witnessed as anything
more than TM followers sitting in the cross-legged lotus position and
bouncing across spongy mats.

Maharishi was born Mahesh Srivastava in central India, reportedly on
Jan. 12, 1917 - though he refused to confirm the date or discuss his
early life.

He studied physics at Allahabad University before becoming secretary
to a well known Hindu holy man. After the death of his teacher,
Maharishi went into a nomadic two-year retreat of silence in the
Himalayan foothills of northern India.

With his background in physics, he brought his message to the West in
a language that mixed the occult and science that became the buzz of
college campuses. He described TM as "the unified field of all the
laws of nature."

Maharishi's trademark flowing beard and long, graying hair appeared on
the cover of the leading news magazines of the day.

But aides say Maharishi became disillusioned that TM had become
identified with the counterculture, and he spent more time at his
ashram in Rishikesh in the Himalayan foothills to run his global
affairs.

In 1990 he moved onto the wooded grounds of a historic Franciscan
monastery in the southern Dutch village of Vlodrop, about 125 miles
southeast of Amsterdam.

Concerned about his fragile health, he secluded himself in two rooms
of the wooden pavilion he built on the compound, speaking only by
video to aides around the world and even to his closest advisers in
the same building.

John Hagelin, a theoretical physicist who ran for the U.S. presidency
three times on the Maharishi-backed Natural Law Party, said that from
the Dutch location Maharishi had daylong access to followers in India,
Europe and the Americas.

"He runs several shifts of us into the ground," said Hagelin,
Maharishi's closest aid, speaking in Vlodrop about his then-89-year-
old mentor. "He is a fountainhead of innovation and new ideas - far
too many than you can ever follow up."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm167.html

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi steps down as head of meditation empire

Reuters/January 28, 2008
By Emma Thomasson

Amsterdam - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who became a guru to the Beatles,
stepped down this month as the head of the organisation that brought
transcendental meditation to the West, an aide said on Monday.

"His work is done and now he'll be concentrating on the field of
silence and dedicating himself more to pure knowledge rather than
administrative matters," Benjamin Feldman, finance minister for the
Global Country of World Peace, told Reuters.

After teaching the Beatles and other 1960s and 70s icons to meditate,
the Indian mystic gained a worldwide following with six million people
taking his courses. He moved his headquarters to the small southern
Dutch village of Vlodrop in 1990.

Transcendental meditation, known as TM by its followers, involves
reciting a mantra that practitioners say helps the mind stay calm even
under pressure.

The reclusive guru with a flowing white beard has periodically
reemerged to appeal for funds to promote world peace, building a
business empire ranging from real estate dealing to a company selling
ayurvedic medicine and cosmetics.

Yogic flying

He has set up universities and schools all over the world and his
Natural Law Party -- which promotes yogic flying, a practice that
involves sitting in the lotus position and bouncing into the air --
has campaigned in dozens of countries.

Reported to be 91, the Maharishi is "fairly well", Feldman said and
plans to stay in the Netherlands for the time being. Maharaja Nader
Raam, a Lebanese doctor who has studied with the Maharishi for 25
years, will take over the organisation.

Feldman said the Maharishi's work would live on because he has trained
tens of thousands of teachers over the years.

His followers broke the ground in Vlodrop on Monday for a "tower of
invincibility" memorial to the Maharishi that will be replicated in 48
countries, Feldman said.

He said the Maharishi was not disappointed that his promotion of group
meditation had not yet achieved its aim of creating universal peace
and prosperity.

"Sometimes it takes time for the world to catch up. The Maharishi is
very, very satisfied that the influence has been created and it will
only expand and become stronger and better known and more widely
applied," Feldman said.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm166.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Gurus Transcend Party Politics

Candidates Meet and Greet Fairfield's Meditators; Yogic Flyers Gather
Tonight
The Wall Street Journal/January 3, 2008
By Christopher Cooper

Fairfield, Iowa -- In the run-up to today's caucuses in Iowa,
candidates have had to scrutinize the issues that move voters here. In
this town, many care less about immigration than meditation.

"Are you familiar with Transcendental Meditation?" Craig Berg, a
bearded man in a faded parka, said as he buttonholed Republican
candidate Fred Thompson during a recent campaign stop here.

Candidates typically arrive here prepared for that question. The
campaign of Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware has let it be
known here that his former chief of staff is an adherent of
Transcendental Meditation. During an outdoor rally here last summer,
Sen. Barack Obama turned his podium east out of respect for the
Transcendental Meditation view that east is the natural direction of
energy flow.

Iowa is widely perceived as a homogenous state of meat-eating corn-
growing white Protestants. But exceptions to the American Gothic
stereotype abound, from the sushi halls of Iowa City and grape
trellises of the Amana Colonies to the ultra-orthodox Jews from
Brooklyn who run a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville. Here in
Fairfield, about 1,700 residents gather each afternoon in a pair of
gold domes for a session of group meditation known as Yogic Flying.

Ahead of today's Iowa caucus, in which even a few dozen votes could
tilt the race in many voting precincts, candidates have been making
special pitches to demographics as small and eccentric as Fairfield's
Transcendental Meditation community. Of this hamlet's 10,000
residents, barely a third of them are transcendental devotees. But
their political influence is outsized. For the past six years the town
has chosen as its mayor a Transcendental Meditation devotee named Ed
Malloy. And for 12 years ending in 2004, Fairfield was home to a peace
party, called the Natural Law Party, which hoped to elect a
Transcendental Meditation practitioner as president.

Fairfield was a typical Iowa farming community until 1973, when the
Maharishi University of Management purchased the bankrupt and
discredited Parsons College, once dubbed "FlunkOut U" by a national
magazine. Some locals regarded with skepticism the construction of two
gold domes wherein Maharishi followers gathered daily for mass
meditations. Natives lived uneasily with the outsiders, dubbing them
"Rus" (pronounced "rooz") -- a shorthand for "Gurus.''

But the election of Mr. Malloy, a silver-haired and personable oil
broker transplanted from Long Island, helped ease those tensions. Also
helpful was that the Maharishi high school began turning out scores of
national merit scholars who played a role in turning Fairfield into
"Silicorn Valley," as it became known around here, home to more than
40 software development and telecom companies.

For politicians, a challenge here is to respect the community's faith
in Yogic Flying, or mass meditation. Derived from a combination of
quantum physics and the proven benefits of meditation, Yogic Flying
occurs each afternoon at 5 p.m. when about 1,700 adherents gather in
the gold domes. Supporters say the number 1,700 roughly represents 1%
of the nation's population divided by its square root. Supporters
believe that when meditation is performed in groups, it confers
benefits not only to its individual practitioners but to society at
large.

On Mr. Thompson's drive into town, neither the Quantum Mechanic
service station nor Utopia trailer park alerted him to the challenges
ahead. And he was initially caught off guard by Mr. Berg's reference
to Transcendental Meditation. [map]

Recovering quickly, however, Mr. Thompson managed to name the founder
of Transcendental Meditation - Maharishi Mahesh - and praise its
benefits. "Rested mind and body, huh?" he said. "I could have used
that a year ago."

Politically, Fairfield leans left. It belongs to the only county in
Iowa that in 2004 placed deep-blue candidate Howard Dean atop the
Democratic field, just ahead of Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, whose vow
to create a federal "Department of Peace" resonated with voters here.

Given those propensities, it's not surprising that barely a handful of
supporters showed up to meet the bus of Republican hawk Mr. Thompson.
But that doesn't mean Republicans aren't welcome here. The town square
is host to several large billboards touting Republican pacifist Ron
Paul, and many residents believe his Libertarian views will propel him
to a win in this county in today's caucuses. Mayor Malloy and his wife
even held a political open house last summer for Mr. Paul, prior to a
large rally staged in the town.

But Mr. Paul, perhaps stung by allegations that his campaign has
already attracted its share of political eccentrics, is making no to-
do of his popularity here. Mr. Paul's deputy campaign manager, Joe
Seehusen, carefully emphasizes that the congressman is only "politely
intrigued'' by the Transcendental Meditation philosophy.

In response, Mayor Malloy - who never actually endorsed Mr. Paul -
says, "Only about 50% of what he says resonates with me.''

Democrats, having the most votes to gain here, are trying hardest to
win them. In a community where factory hog farms are widely criticized
as environmentally hazardous, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took
special pains to bone up on them before attending a town meeting here.
"I'd regulate the hell out of them,'' Mr. Richardson vowed.

John Edwards visited the town this week, as did Mr. Richardson.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has scheduled - and canceled - three stops
here, according to Mayor Malloy. The Clinton campaign didn't respond
to a request for comment.

•Page One: Populist Message Gets Louder as Iowa Kicks Off Race
•Washington Wire: Updates from the campaign trail
•Complete Coverage: Campaign 2008

That seems to have helped Sen. Obama gain an edge. During his visit
here last summer, Sen. Obama assured Mayor Malloy of the candidate's
respect for Transcendental Meditation and the philosophy behind it.
"He said he felt that if there was any candidate in the race to
embrace this technique, he was that candidate,'' says Mayor Malloy.

The real Obama weapon, however, may be his wife, Michelle Obama.
During a visit to Fairfield last month, she had several long
conversations with the mayor's wife. "I think she and my wife are both
very spiritual people,'' the mayor says.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm165.html

How close are the local followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, leader of
the Transcendental Meditation movement, to building three proposed
peace palaces in Northeast Ohio?

Cleveland Plain Dealer/December 21, 2007
By Stan Donaldson

Members of the Global Country of World Peace said they are getting
closer to their goal of starting a $13 million project building peace
palaces in Strongsville, Parma and Mayfield Heights.

Since losing a court battle this year with Mayfield Heights over the
city's refusal to approve variances to build a peace palace on a
commercial development site, the group's followers revised and
submitted another plan. They expect to meet with the city, said Thomas
Murach, director of the Maharishi Invincibility Center in Rocky
River.

Murach said the group hopes to get the green light from the city's
Planning Commission to build a 10,000-square-foot rest and wellness
center where they plan to educate people about Vedic principles and
transcendental meditation.

Maharishi and his followers want to build 3,000 peace palaces across
the globe where participants will be taught about nutrition, yoga and
the cosmic universe.

Murach said the organization has 10,000 to 15,000 followers in Ohio.
It is awaiting approval for site plans and permits to build offices
and educational centers in Strongsville and Parma.

Officials in the municipalities where the group wants to build have
received site planning proposals. Murach said the group hopes to break
ground in the spring or early summer.

Mayfield Heights Mayor Gregory Costabile said he has heard very little
from the organization since it filed a lawsuit against the city.
Costabile said he doesn't mind if the group builds a peace center as
long as it complies with the city's rules.

"We've never had a problem with their plan or their beliefs," the
mayor said. "It's always been because the building they wanted to
build would have been too close to the street and a neighboring lot."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm164.html

Mini Santiniketan, Scotland-style
The Telegraph, UK/November 26, 2007
By Amit Roy

The legendary 1960s singer-songwriter Donovan has announced plans to
set up a new university in his native Scotland where all students will
be taught Indian-style transcendental meditation as part of their
normal curriculum.

He made it sound almost like a new kind of Santiniketan though the
university will be traditional in most respects.

The 61-year-old singer, best known for his debut single Catch the
Wind, now believes he has caught the mood of the moment.

In an emotional aside, he confessed that the Invincible Donovan
University had been "a dream of mine for nearly 34 years".

Donovan, who was born Donovan Philips Leitch on May 10, 1946, in
Glasgow, and whose singing style has been compared with that of Bob
Dylan, has had a genuine interest in meditation since he spent some
very formative weeks with The Beatles and their Indian guru, Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, in Rishikesh in 1968.

Donovan, whose hit songs include Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman,
Happiness Runs and Hurdy Gurdy Man, was one of the top artists of his
day, producing a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and
1970. He became a friend of Joan Baez, Brian Jones and The Beatles,
and was one of the few artists to collaborate on songs with the band.
According to reports, he influenced both John Lennon and Paul
McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in
1968.

Last month, at a hotel in Edinburgh, Donovan was flanked by three
distinguished personalities with an equally firm belief in Indian-
style meditation and who are supporting his university venture -
filmmaker David Lynch, whose own meditation foundation has brought
programmes to schools across the US and Europe, quantum physicist John
Hagelin and Bevan Morris, the president of the Maharishi University of
Management in the US.

Donovan has shortlisted possible sites along the waterfront at the
Firth of Forth and an area between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

He said the university would focus on consciousness-based learning and
the arts. "It will be a normal university but will also be very, very
different because of its potential that will be unfolding because of
an extraordinary technique which I learnt when I was in India with The
Beatles in 1968.

"It's called transcendental meditation."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm163.html

Vedic City's annexation plan approved by state

The Associated Press/October 26, 2007

Fairfield -- The state has approved the annexation of 84 acres into
Maharishi Vedic City, despite urgings against the move from Jefferson
County officials.

The County Board of Supervisors asked the state in September to
prevent the annexation until the city provides municipal services to
its residents.

The state's City Development Board sided with the city last week,
calling the issues raised by the county "growing pains," said City
Development Board Administrator Steven McCann. He said Vedic City
appears to be trying to offer services.

Maharishi Vedic City was established six years ago north of Fairfield
by followers of Transcendental Meditation.

County officials have argued the city should not be allowed to grow
because it has not fulfilled an agreement with the state to organize a
volunteer fire department or establish public streets, among other
projects.

However, Vedic City officials said the annexation should have been
routine because it was voluntary, said Vedic City attorney Maureen
Wynne.

The city of 420 is considered a spiritual center of the Transcendental
Meditation movement in the United States.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm162.html

Songwriter expresses anger over eminent domain issue

The Roady Less Traveled

The Ottumwa Courier/July 29, 2007
By Jeff Hutton

He and his wife were reading some news accounts when they saw the
story about the Maharishi Vedic City eminent domain controversy.

"My wife and I were absolutely appalled," Arnold told the Courier.
"We've seen other similar stories about eminent domain; the idea of
this family's farm having been here for so long and being threatened
by [Vedic City] kept me up at night."

Arnold did some more research on the issue and said he "kept stewing"
about.

But instead of writing a letter to the editor or venting his
frustration at folks he did not know, Arnold wrote a song.

Arnold penned "The Maharishi Vedic City Blues" and the song is part of
his band's most recent album.

"I just wrote the lyrics at my home studio and started messing around
with it," he said.

The song, he said, is representative of of a "textbook example of how
these types of powers can be abused ..."

Part of the song goes like this:

"A hundred years before the Maharishis came to town/One family's farm
began to feed its neighbors from the ground/They're trying to run the
family off/... and we'll pay you for your pain/but if you don't sell,
we'll steal it/ It's called eminent domain."

The song could be interpreted as a protest song, and in some ways, it
has that feel.

Arnold could hardly be called a troublemaker or anti-establishment.
He's a former law enforcement official whose music is a sideline to
his ownership of a book shop in small-town Georgia.

And while the song is featured on his band's newest CD, Arnold said
he's not trying to make money. In fact, the cost of the CD barely
covers production expenses.

He said the song is simply an expression of his frustration at one
local Iowa municipality and support for a Century Farm in Iowa.

"There's too much history, too much at stake/The farmer needs a
living, the farmer needs a break/There's no consideration, no common
sense/Just too much fiber, too much incense."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm161.html

$3.5m city tower
The Advertiser/July 30, 2007

A multi-storey "tower of knowledge" may be built at 190 Greenhill Rd
in honour of Dr Bevan Morris, a leader of the Transcendental
Meditation movement.

His mother, Mrs Dulcie Morris, 94, will turn the sod of what could be
a tower without residents, pending Unley Council consent. No one will
live in the tower and it will be a permanent exhibition of the
scientific research on the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation
program.

David Seymour, director of Maharishi's Global Administration through
Natural Law, said it would not be a temple.

Dr Morris is now the "prime minister" of the Global Country of World
Peace. It is estimated the tower would cost about $3.5 million.

The Iowa, U.S.-based movement has made sketches of the tower and had
preliminary discussions with the council. "We are confident enough to
hold a sod-turning ceremony," Mr Seymour said.

Unley Council mayor Richard Thorne said his meeting with Mr Seymour
was to discuss preliminary plans.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm160.html

Top researchers criticize new meditation and health study

Rush PR News/July 26, 2007

Scientists stated, "A controversial new government-funded report,
which found that meditation does not improve health, is
methodologically flawed, incomplete, and should be retracted. "

New York, NY (rushprnews) July 26, 2007 - This is the consensus of a
growing number of researchers in the U.S. and abroad who have reviewed
the report and are critical of its conclusions.

"Meditation Practices for Health: State of the Research" was a health
technology assessment report conducted at the University of Alberta
and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and
the NIH-National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
The report was released earlier this month.

Respected reviewer urged authors to withhold publication—"Analytical
strategy looked haphazard and ad hoc"

Professor Harald Walach of the University of Northampton and School of
Social Sciences and the Samueli Institute for information Biology in
England reviewed the paper before its release and strongly urged the
authors to withhold publication. "When I looked carefully into the
details of the study, the whole analytical strategy looked rather
haphazard and ad hoc," Walach said.

Relevant studies excluded from AHRQ findings

Robert Schneider, M.D., F.A.C.C., is one of the leading researchers on
the health effects of meditation in the nation. Dr. Schneider has been
the recipient of more than $22 million in grants from the National
Institutes of Health over the past 20 years for his research on the
effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique and natural
medicine on cardiovascular disease. He says that relevant findings
were excluded from the report, including peer-reviewed studies on the
effects of this meditation technique on hypertension, cardiovascular
disease, myocardial ischemia, atherosclerosis, changes to physiology,
and improvements to mental and physical health.

Dr. Schneider cited two studies published in the American Journal of
Cardiology in 2005, which demonstrated that individuals with high
blood pressure who were randomly assigned to TM groups had a 30% lower
risk for mortality than controls. These studies should have been
included in the AHRQ report, Dr. Schneider said, but were inexplicably
excluded. In addition, 75 published studies were overlooked, even
though these were sent to the authors by one of the reviewers.

Dr. Schneider said the AHRQ report incorrectly analyzed studies and
incorrectly rated the quality of the studies while applying
statistical methods poorly, arbitrarily, and unsystematically. The
report also included errors in collecting data from research studies,
in recording data from papers, and in classifying studies. Several
peer-reviewers pointed out major errors and inadequacies in the report
prior to publication. However, these critiques by outside reviewers
were largely ignored. (For critiques of the report, see

http://www.mum.edu/inmp/welcome.html)

Dr. Schneider also cited a study published in the American medical
Association's journal Archives of Internal Medicine in 2006—one year
after the AHRQ review ended in 2005—which confirmed that the
Transcendental Meditation technique lowers high blood pressure in
heart disease patients. The study was conducted at Cedars Sinai
Medical Center in Los Angeles and was funded by a $1.2 million grant
from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Schneider directs the Institute for Natural Medicine and
Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa,
which was supported by an $8 million grant from the National
Institutes of Health as a specialized center of research in
complementary and alternative medicine and cardiovascular disease.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm159.html

Maharishi's Minions Come to Wall Street

New York Times/July 2, 2007
By Maria Aspan

When the Beatles sought guidance from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968,
they traveled to India. Now that the "giggling guru," as he has been
called, is seeking investors, a branch of his organization has come to
the New York financial district.

In March, Maharishi's Global Financial Capital of New York quietly
opened a headquarters at 70 Broad Street, close to the New York Stock
Exchange. The organization had purchased the five-story, 20,000-square-
foot building in May 2004 from Goldman Properties for $5.5 million.

The group was drawn to the building, the former home of the American
Bank Note Company and its first Manhattan property, for reasons both
spiritual and practical.

"It's one of the very few buildings in all of New York City that's
oriented due east," said Paul Potter, the director of Global Financial
Capital, referring to the Maharishi's principles of "Vedic
architecture" that hold that east-facing buildings are spiritually
healthy.

But, Mr. Potter added, the other incentive was the financial district
location and access to the world's moneymakers.

"We've been offering our programs for 50 years," he said, "and now is
the time that we want to create financial support for these programs.
We want to offer a chance for the investment bankers to steer the
finances of the world in this positive direction."

The building required extensive renovations, which continue, and will
cost about $4.9 million, according to the organization, which took out
a mortgage in 2005 to cover them. In addition to donations and income
from real estate assets, the Maharishi's worldwide network is financed
primarily by classes in transcendental meditation, which cost $2,500
for a one-time, five-day session.

The new building's first floor is open for business, with meeting
rooms to welcome the investment bankers and hold videoconferences. The
Maharishi, who is at least 90, conducts many of these Webcasts from a
Dutch village, Vlodrop, where he has established his Global Country of
World Peace.

The building purchase was a canny one considering the financial
district's resurgence, the broker, David N. Lebenstein, director of
the nonprofit division at Colliers ABR, said. "Building prices are at
least 30 to 50 percent more than in 2004 and in some cases 100 percent
more," he said, adding that the Maharishi's choice to buy an entire
building is unusual for nonprofits downtown. Most prefer to avoid
overhead costs by purchasing commercial condos or leasing long-term
office space, he said.

Those overhead costs may yet prove to be a challenge for the
Maharishi, who has had decidedly mixed success in the real estate
business. While he established the Maharishi University of Management
in Fairfield, Iowa, he has stumbled in developing properties including
a Chicago hotel that was eventually sold and a proposed São Paulo
skyscraper that was abandoned after Brazil stalled on approval.

Plans for 3,000 worldwide "peace palaces," which will teach
transcendental meditation and the elusive art of "yogic flying," have
also had mixed reactions. (Four of the projected 200 palaces in the
United States have been completed, while land for 52 others has been
acquired.)

In January, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland published an article
reviewing the Maharishi's history in developing two local properties
that were later sold and questioning whether his palace proposals
would ever come to fruition. And in March, the Maharishi's
organization sued the city of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, saying it
refused to allow a proposed peace palace setback variances given to
local corporate offices.

When asked about these earthly roadblocks, Mr. Potter seemed, well,
serene. "The pursuit of money hasn't really brought real happiness,
real fulfillment," he said. "We hope to be able to rebuild the whole
world to be fortune-oriented buildings, to be heaven on earth."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm158.html

Vedic City considers eminent domain to seize farmer's land

Associated Press/June 26, 2007

Des Moines --- A southeast Iowa city established six years ago by the
followers of Transcendental Meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is
considering a plan to seize a farmer's land to prevent him from
building a hog operation next to the city.

Maharishi Vedic City officials told farmer Bob Palm that they'd like
to buy his 149-acre farm after they heard a few months ago about
Palm's plans to build a hog confinement operation on the land.

City officials drafted a proposal to buy the land and said if that
plan fails, they expect to use eminent domain to force the sale of
Palm's land in the name of public improvement.

On Sunday, Maharishi Vedic City's governing council decided to table a
controversial vote on the property. The council could have chosen to
take the first steps toward buying Palm's farm.

City Attorney Maureen Wynne, who is the wife of Mayor Bob Wynne, said
the proposal is about expansion and ideals.

"It would be a very difficult situation for the city if a hog
confinement is built on its boundaries," Wynne said.

She said a hog confinement operation would be a nuisance to the city
that has declared itself all-organic and bans the sale of anything not
grown organically.

An appraiser for the city valued Palm's land at $2,675 per acre.

Palm, 57, remained steadfast in his refusal to sell.

"It's everything to us," Palm said about the farm on which he grows
corn and soybeans with his brothers Lou and Ron.

Ron Palm said he and his brothers have dropped the idea of a hog
confinement and they said city officials jumped the gun when they
threatened to use eminent domain.

"About all we had done was research into a hog confinement," Ron Palm
said. He said the brothers also considered raising cattle or growing a
vineyard.

The vote on the park plan will be delayed indefinitely while the city
negotiates with the family and with Jefferson County officials.

Sunday's meeting -- held under a tent at Wynne's house -- drew about
200 people, said Jefferson County Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman
Dick Reed, adding that most of them were against the proposed
expansion.

"It's a little shady," Reed said. "When you have a local government
talking about doing condemnation on a farm when they have excess land
themselves is ludicrous. Being able to own land is one of the rights
in this country."

Wynne said adding a hog confinement to the town's border would be akin
to building a landfill.

The proposed park included in the city's plan would include windmills,
soccer fields, a swimming pool and a place to charge electric cars.

Considered a spiritual center of the Transcendental Meditation
movement in the United States, the city of 420 practitioners of TM was
incorporated in 2001. The city has designated Sanskrit, an ancient
language of India, as its official language and adopted a new
currency.

The meditating community has met with resistance and sometimes
hostility from the farmers, residents and business owners of
Fairfield, where Yogi and his TM organizations bought the defunct
Parsons College campus in 1974.

In 2001, a group of the meditators decided to establish their own city
a few miles north of Fairfield. Since its inception, Maharishi Vedic
City has generated local controversy.

In April 2004, city officials hatched a plan to house 500 pandits, or
special meditators, using city money. But Jefferson County residents
opposed the plan on the grounds that the public money from a local-
option sales tax would be used for a religious purpose.

The pandits made it to Maharishi Vedic City in the fall of 2006, but
without the use of public money, Wynne said.

In 2005, the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors unanimously
rejected the city's request for help to get a $132,000 grant from the
state's Community Attractions and Tourism Fund to build a new
visitors' center and make improvements to an astronomical
observatory.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm157.html

Maharishi, Mayfield Hts. head to court

City sued for denying peace-palace plan

Cleveland Plain Dealer/March 19, 2007
By Maggi Martin

Mayfield Heights -- City officials may want to breathe deep and exhale
slowly.

And ponder, perhaps, the merits of heading back to a courtroom again
to fight a developer, this one steeped in the ways of peaceful
meditation.

The Global Country of World Peace wants to build a peace palace and a
private high school on Lander Road in Mayfield Heights. Owned by the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the palace would teach transcendental
meditation and peaceful enlightenment.

But the pacifists say their Mayfield Heights reception has been
anything but peaceful.

The Maharishi people are heading into Cuyahoga County Common Pleas
Court after filing a lawsuit saying the city is refusing to allow them
setback variances that other neighboring corporate offices were
allowed. Both sides have to file briefs by March 31.

The city is still reeling from a 14-year court battle over zoning that
cost residents $3 million to settle last year. Developers of property
near Mayfield Road that later became a Costco warehouse sued the city
when it refused to rezone the land, delaying the store for nine
years.

Mayor Gregory Costabile said the squabble with the Maharishi's
followers is a different issue.

"The city is concerned about safety issues," Costabile said. "They
want a setback variance that will put them too close to neighbors and
too close to the street. And that becomes a fire and safety issue."

Thomas Murach, director of the Maharishi Enlightenment Center in
Cleveland, said that officials in Parma have been very accommodating
about the project the group has proposed in that city and that a
meeting is planned next week to discuss the Parma facilities. But he
said Mayfield Heights has delayed hearings repeatedly since the group
first sought approval last September.

Costabile said the decision has been delayed because the variance for
an 85-foot setback has not been approved. Planning officials denied
the variance, saying the group did not demonstrate an inherent
hardship in complying with zoning rules.

The Mayfield Heights palace is planned on a 4.6-acre lot in a
corporate park where neighboring office complexes have similar
variances, Murach said. The 85-foot setback the group is seeking would
allow it to build 140 feet from the street. Murach said if the group
follows the city's required 200-foot setback, it would shave a
significant chunk off the property, creating an almost worthless
building site. The Maharishi's followers also want to place the school
35 feet away from a residence, rather than follow the city's 100-foot
restriction.

One resident, Yolanda Geraci, complained the 35-foot clearance was too
close to her residential property and would create noise and
disruptions during the school day.

Costabile said that while there may have been some variances granted
elsewhere, the city could not give them out freely without
justification.

The Maharishi's plans call for 3,000 peace palaces, including ones in
Parma and Strongsville and others in Cleveland and Columbus.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm155.html

Ok, kids, chill out: Children as young as 10 are picking up
Transcendental Meditation, and they're not the only ones feeling good
about it

Educators in the U.S. are bringing "ohm" to home room, and some
Montreal schools want to, too

Montreal Gazette/January 13, 2007
By Stephanie Whittaker

Every morning, as soon as she awakens, 13-year-old Joelle Cazeault
sits up in her bed, closes her eyes and performs a ritual unknown to
most children. She spends 10 minutes doing Transcendental Meditation.

"I repeat my mantra and it slows my breathing," says the student at
College St. Maurice in Ste. Hyacinthe.

Ditto for the afternoon. Joelle meditates when she gets home from
school and, she says, it gives her the alertness and focus she needs
to do her homework.

Meditation is a ritual she began three years ago when her parents, who
have meditated since the 1970s, enrolled her in a Transcendental
Meditation course: "They think it's important for my life and that it
can help me become enlightened."

Perhaps it is inevitable that baby boomers, the generation that
learned to chill out in heightened states of consciousness, want their
offspring to experience the same.

Children as young as 10 are learning Transcendental Meditation and are
reaping the rewards at school. "I always had good marks but they got
even better after I learned to meditate," says Joelle.

She's at the forefront of a coming trend. There is a growing push in
the U.S. to put "ohm" in schools by making Transcendental Meditation
part of the curriculum. The movement is poised to take Canada with
it.

A U.S.-based group called Stress-Free Schools has helped set up T.M.
programs in 50 schools south of the border and has piqued the interest
of educators in Canada.

Six Montreal-area schools want the program.

"My students deserve to have this, and it will transform the whole
school," says Marielle Mayers, an elementary school principal in Ville
d'Anjou.

Michele Beausoleil, a Montreal teacher of T.M., is keen to get
started: "We're ready to teach the children, teachers and principals
and I'll work to help the schools find funding from foundations."

Stress-Free Schools was founded in 2004 by a group of meditating
parents in New York City, who were concerned about social problems in
their schools.

Two months ago, the organization held a conference at Montreal's Ritz-
Carlton Hotel to explain to educators how teaching T.M. to children as
young as 10 can benefit their schools.

How Transcendental Meditation is taught in schools:
"It's a seven-step program," says Michele Beausoleil, a teacher of
Transcendental Meditation, which is so specific that it is a
trademarked practice. First comes a lecture on the benefits of T.M.,
then a second lecture to prepare students for the process. Then each
student gets to ask the teacher questions. Next up are 60-minute
lessons, one a day for the next four days. Each student is given a
mantra. It all takes about a week, and there's follow-up by the T.M.
teacher to ensure proper technique.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm154.html

Pandits come for peace
Indian scholars move to Iowa and join hundreds more in meditating for
prosperity and to heal conflict.

Des Moines Register/January 7, 2007
By Mile Kilen

Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa — Only in this southeastern Iowa community
will you see hundreds of men in traditional white garb step off tour
buses and line up to trek across the muddy fields.

The 385 pandits from India were inspecting their new modular homes,
hooked up to utilities just last week and almost ready to occupy.

This is where they will live for two years or more as part of a mass
movement to create world peace and prosperity through meditation.

These Indian pandits - scholars of Transcendental Meditation with
three-year visas - are among 600 advanced-level meditators who began
to arrive in late summer. Another 200 are expected to arrive in the
next month.

They responded to a call from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of a
Transcendental Meditation movement, as well as a university in
Fairfield, Ia., that bears his name.

The maharishi invited all advanced meditators - so-called yogic flyers
- to move to Iowa and meditate eight hours each day, a program he has
developed to reduce conflict and aggression in a war-torn world.

He calls it Invincible America Assembly, his new-age shield against
violence.

The arrival of the pandits has spurred a mini building boom in
Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa's newest city north of Fairfield and the
first city incorporated in 20 years.

Dozens of the Vedic pandits from India will move into 30 pre-
fabricated modular rental units in the next three weeks, once the
final touches are put on a community meditation center and kitchen
nearby.

Three more low-income neighborhoods of rental homes and apartments
await federal and state low-income housing funding.

Each modular unit has about the same space - 800 square feet - as a
double-wide mobile home, but with more sunlight.

All Maharishi Vedic City homes, including the low-income and modular
structures, are required by city code to follow strict rules derived
from ancient principles rediscovered by Maharishi.

The homes are built with nontoxic chemicals and energy-efficient
materials. They face east to take advantage of the sun's power.

Beds, kitchens and gathering areas are all placed in designated
areas.

In the middle of each home is a Brahmastahn, or central core, which is
designed to be undisturbed by foot traffic.

"The environment creates coherence within yourself," said the city's
lead architect, Jonathan Lipman.

Thriving city

Maharishi Vedic City officials say the current population boom goes a
long way toward its goal of generating 2,000 residents by 2008.

Four years after incorporation, the city appears thriving and
prosperous.

It has grown in acreage (1,200 to 2,200) and population (85 to 400-
plus, not counting the new growth).

The settlement of pandits into the housing units is the latest marker
in the 32-year evolution of Maharishi's vision of achieving inner
peace, personal health, world peace and a thriving stock market.

The Invincible America meditators, now totaling 1,900 recruits -
students, longtime practitioners from Fairfield and other states and
the new residents from India - spend eight hours in daily meditation
under the golden-topped dome on the Maharishi University campus.

The number is very near the goal of 2,000 meditators, crucial for a
formula (the square root of one percent of the U.S. population)
calculated to alter the physical reality and create positive forces,
said Ken Chawkin, media relations at the university.

They call it the "Maharishi Effect."

In November, Maharishi spokesmen claimed the mass meditation was
responsible for a surge in the stock market, low unemployment and
dropping oil prices.

They also predict a 20 percent drop in violence in coming months.

The correlation between meditation and positive events has been
dismissed by some skeptics.

Frank Trumpy, a retired physics professor at Des Moines Area Community
College, has researched the group for years.

He says the claims of influencing everything from the lack of
hurricanes this season to economic prosperity are without scientific
support.

"They do what I call painting the bull's-eyes around the arrows," he
said. "Notice they always take credit for events after they happen."

Business sense

But meditators have always tempered a new-age lifestyle and their own
scientific theory with practical business sense.

Maharishi Vedic City and four private developers got the ball rolling
four years ago by purchasing former farm ground north of Fairfield.
Later, much of the land was sold to the nonprofit Global Country of
World Peace.

The organization soon realized that not everyone could afford the
homes, which range from $300,000 to $1 million.

Hada and Hadani of Oregon, advanced meditators who arrived in August
and don't use a last name, didn't have that kind of money.

They had listened to the maharishi's message, uprooted and moved to
Iowa.

"The call came out," said Hada, 70, a noted sculptor of metals who
legally changed his name from Don Potts. "It was irresistible. We had
to come."

It wasn't easy. Hada said he cried standing before the beauty of the
foothills near Ashland, Ore., where he lived on a serene 90 acres.

Now, he says, he gathers even greater positive feelings inside the
gold dome.

"I'm here to be in the middle of this power," he said.

The couple stayed for two weeks before heading home. In Colorado, they
stopped and had a sudden realization: They had to return.

Like many of the advanced meditators who have gathered, they are paid
a small amount to take part in Invincible America.

Quite a few have been assisted by wealthy benefactors who support the
program.

Howard and Alice Settle of Texas, who made their fortune in oil, have
donated $12 million for scholarships toward meditation training for
the Invincible America program.

It costs $2,500 to take the initial TM course and an additional $5,000
for advanced training in what officials call the Sidhis program. That
fee is now being waived to attract more meditators.

In 1983, the couple was part of the Taste of Utopia Assembly
Fairfield, where nearly 8,000 people met for three weeks to meditate
for "global transformation."

Low-income housing
The difference this time is that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his
organization want to make the assembly permanent - thus the flurry of
home construction.

Should the low-income housing grants through the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the Iowa Finance Authority come through, dwellings
ranging from one-bedroom to three-bedroom homes and apartments will be
available for $450 to $550 a month, said Kent Boyum, director of
economic development for Maharishi Vedic City.

Because they are public housing programs, the dwellings will be
available for anyone to rent.

The addition of low-income housing among $1 million homes is not
causing a stir in the city, said Fred Gratzon, who owns an elegant
place in Maharishi Vedic City.

"The opposite is true," he said. "The proximity of these pandits
exponentially increases the value of the homes here.

"Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City now form the epicenter of peace
and enlightenment for the entire world."

Other mass-meditation efforts are occurring on a smaller scale across
the world, most notably in the Netherlands, the maharishi's home
country.

But the Fairfield area is clearly the showpiece.

Fairfield officials claim harmony among meditators and the community's
many business ventures and retail outlets has created a vitality in
the town of 9,602 people.

They also say the latest influx hasn't yet created a measurable
economic impact.

The pandits from India speak little English and rarely leave the
university campus.

"You won't see them roaming around Wal-Mart," said Boyum.

"They lead a very simple life," said Tom Siegel, who provides the food
service for Invincible America at Maharishi University.

"They are very sweet and very happy people."

During a recent sleet storm, one pandit with limited English didn't
complain, Siegel recalled.

Instead, the man declared joyfully: "Good for health. Good digestion.
Makes strong."

Now, that's inner peace.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm152.html

Maharishi sees Peace Palaces; others see pipe dreams

Past failures raise questions about local development plans

Cleveland Plain Dealer/January 7, 2007
By Amanda Garrett

When the Maharishi bought a fading Avon Lake resort in 1993, his
people promised not only to revive the former hot spot but also to
reduce area crime by meditating.

Two months later, when Maharishi bought a shuttered Holiday Inn in the
shadow of Thistledown race track, his people said they wanted to
reopen the 10-story tower as a class hotel catering to nonsmoking, non
drinking vegetarians. Neither plan ever materialized.

The Maharishi's company let both properties languish for years,
racking up building code violations and back taxes. At the Avon Lake
site, not only didn't the tenants prevent crimes, they often committed
them. Ultimately, the properties were sold, but only after frustrated
officials threatened to take both sites via eminent domain.

Now Maharishi - undaunted by his past failures, both to his own
enterprise and to the community - is again asking Greater Clevelanders
to have faith.

Maharishi wants to open 3,000 so-called Peace Palaces around the
world, including three in our area. His organization already has paid
millions for property in Mayfield Heights and Parma and is firming up
deals on parcels in Strongsville and Brecksville.

What's the giggling guru up to?

Maharishi has shrewdly shaped and reshaped his message since the
Beatles embraced him as their spiritual leader four decades ago.

Among other things, he opened an accredited university in Iowa,
promised tantalizing superhuman powers, vowed to bring world peace and
launched a political party, which in 2004 endorsed Cleveland
Congressman Dennis Kucinich's bid for the presidency. He also amassed
a fortune estimated between $5 billion and $9 billion with his web of
businesses and charities.

His latest strategy is to do for yogic flying what Starbucks has done
for a cup of coffee. His chain of Peace Palaces will sell $2,500
classes to study Maharishi's trademarked Transcendental Meditation, a
myriad of his health remedies, and Maharishi-driven architectural
consultation aimed at lassoing all of Earth's powers.

Two local palaces -- in Mayfield Heights and Parma -- also include
plans for private high schools, each teaching 160 teens everything
from algebra to inner consciousness.

And in Brecksville, where the group is negotiating to buy a 48-acre
parcel across from the VA hospital, Maharishi hopes to teach medical
doctors ancient forms of alternative health care because he believes
modern medicine has failed.

So is Maharishi selling religion? A cult? A pile of rubbish?

People have been trying to figure that out for a long time.

The 1960s: Beatles' spiritual guide

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was born in central India some time between 1911
and 1918. The precise date -- as with so many parts of Maharishi's
life -- has never been clear. He graduated with a physics degree from
an Indian university and then moved into the Himalayas where he
studied with a guru.

What happened next is murky, but Maharishi emerged in the West during
the late 1950s and later found rock-star fame in the mid-1960s as the
spiritual guide of the Beatles.

The Fab Four later renounced Maharishi as a fraud, but it didn't
matter. The surging counterculture had already embraced Maharishi and
an earlier appearance on "The Tonight Show" had cemented his place in
pop culture.

Maharishi's message was inspirational:

"Life is bliss."

"Man is born to enjoy."

"Within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence,
and happiness."

Transcendental Meditation -- or TM -- was the key, Maharishi said.

The TM technique was so simple anyone could do it, Maharishi said. But
to learn, you had to take classes from a certified TM teacher. In the
late 1960s, an introductory course cost less than $100. Thousands
signed up.

And Maharishi's spiritual and financial empire was born.

The '70s and '80s: Is TM a religion?

TM was so popular, even parts of the U.S. government bought in, said
the Rev. J. Gordon Melton, who directs the Institute for the Study of
American Religion in California.

During TM's peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Maharishi was
awash in government grants to teach TM in the Army and many schools,
Melton said.

Then someone asked the inevitable: Is TM a religion?

A U.S. federal court said it was in a tax case ruling. U.S. government
funding suddenly dried up. "It was a major blow to TM," Melton said.

Maharishi knew he needed something else to make TM work in the United
States. In the early 1980s, he tweaked his message.

The guru re-introduced TM as a hybrid cross between spirituality and
science -- some would say pseudo-science. And for the first time,
Maharishi promised TM could not only bring peace, but also unleash
super powers.

Human brain-wave physiology was the computer hardware of the cosmic
computer, he said. If programmed correctly -- through the advance
study of TM -- humans could fly like birds, become invisible and
harness the strength of elephants.

Skeptics clamored.

But John Hagelin -- a respected physicist who earned his doctorate at
Harvard -- wasn't among them. Hagelin signed on to chair the physics
program at a university Maharishi had established in a tiny Iowa farm
town.

"Really significant shifts in paradigm, such as those associated
with . . . this more universal view of consciousness, have often
required a new generation of scientists," Hagelin told the Chicago
Tribune in 1985.

Hoping to prove TM worked, Maharishi believers took a very public
stance -- and chance. Legions of TM experts -- called yogic fliers --
moved to the nation's capital, claiming their twice-daily meditation
would lower the city's soaring crime rate.

It obviously didn't work.

About the same time, a few disappointed TM students sued and won after
studying yogic flying but never taking flight.

"It wasn't substantial money," religious scholar Melton said, "but all
of the sudden, TM's credibility in the U.S. was called into account."

The 1990s: Foray into politics

TM next emerged in the United States in the early 1990s with a new
strategy -- politics.

Maharishi's followers formed the Natural Law Party and 800 delegates
held their first convention in April 1992 in Washington, D.C.,
selecting Hagelin, the Harvard-trained physicist, as the party's
presidential candidate.

Hagelin was pummeled, but the Natural Law Party grew, running hundreds
of candidates across the nation, including 53 in Ohio in 1996 alone.

Maharishi made new financial moves, too. In the early 1990s, he began
buying up hotels and resorts across the United States, from Denver to
Hartford, Conn.

Locally, he bought the Aqua Marine Resort -- a once-swanky hotel,
restaurant and 18-hole golf course in Avon Lake -- for $1.5 million in
August 1993. Two months later, he picked up the former Holiday Inn in
North Randall for $1.4 million.

Both properties had seen better days. But Maharishi's representatives
said they planned renovations at both sites. They envisioned first-
class hotels that would cater to TM students.

Officials in Avon Lake and North Randall soon realized that was
unlikely to happen.

Aqua Marine lost its liquor license and couldn't keep up with building
code violations.

In North Randall, the story was much the same. No one even mowed the
grass, recalled Chuck Horvath, the city's building commissioner. The
city considered citing the Maharishi people with fire code violations,
Horvath said, but the owners were scattered in eight different
countries beyond legal reach.

In 1996, North Randall launched an effort to seize the hotel by
eminent domain. Before the case reached court, the village settled
with Maharishi's people, buying the building. The village hoped to
tear it down and build a new village hall on the site. A downturn in
the economy delayed those plans. The vacant hotel still sits, boarded
up.

Officials in Avon Lake also considered seizing the Aqua Marine, but a
developer ultimately moved in, bought the resort and razed it. Luxury
condos are now rising in its place, Mayor Robert Berner said last
month.

If a Maharishi-connected business wanted to do business in Avon Lake
again, Berner said he would be leery. "They basically didn't do
anything they said they were going to do," Berner said.

The 21st century: An emerging religion

In recent years, Maharishi -- now in his late 80s or early 90s -- has
continued to remake his movement. In 2002, he launched the Global
Country of World Peace, a borderless, imaginary land he said was
designed for peace-loving people everywhere.

Two years later, the Natural Law Party closed its U.S. headquarters
and Hagelin opened a branch of Maharishi's mythical country called the
U.S. Peace Government.

Hagelin based the capital on 480 acres in Kansas near the geographic
center of the United States -- a location selected according to
Maharishi teachings to maximize effectiveness.

According to the group's Web site -- uspeacegovernment.org -- the TM
group doesn't compete with the existing U.S. government. Instead, it
works as a complement, promoting peace and TM philosophies
nationwide.

Part of that promotion is launching Peace Palaces -- 2,400 in the
United States. So far, at least four have opened: In Fairfield, Iowa;
Lexington, Ky.; Bethesda, Md.; and Houston. And Maharishi has bought
dozens of building sites.

But his harshest critics doubt many of the palaces will be built.

Rick Ross, who describes himself as a cult researcher, said that once
the aging guru's name is seared into the minds of a whole new
generation and he has brought in lots of money -- Maharishi is in the
midst of a $1 billion fund drive to build the Peace Palaces --
Maharishi will likely change course.

"My guess is in Cleveland . . . maybe you'll see one out of the three
Peace Palaces," said Ross, who believes this is just a money-making
scheme.

Thomas Murach, longtime director of the Maharishi Enlightenment Center
in Rocky River, insists Ross and other skeptics are mistaken.

"Maharishi always has a huge plan that's nearly incomprehensible,"
Murach said. When the Maharishi bought the old Holiday Inn and Aqua
Marine Resort he was merely investing, said Murach, who managed the
local sites.

Now Maharishi is using the money he made from the sale of those
properties and many others to bankroll his new $10 trillion project,
Murach said.

In addition to building Peace Palaces, Murach said Maharishi has
leased "hundreds of millions of acres" of land in Brazil and plans to
hire poor people to grow food there using his farming techniques.

All of this -- the Brazil plantings, the Peace Palaces -- are a
culmination of everything Maharishi has worked for, said religious
scholar Melton.

"Maharishi wants to establish TM as dominant cultural force around the
world," Melton said, comparing it to what Evangelical Christians have
done in the United States.

Evangelicals run bookstores that sell everything from jewelry to CDs;
they have psychologists operating on a Christian platform;
creationists serve on school boards; and the religious right emerged
as a powerful lobbying force in Washington, D.C.

Maharishi wants to do the same thing with TM, Melton said. But about
80 percent of Americans are Christians. And there are 1,000 religious
groups fighting for the remaining 20 percent, Melton said.

Maharishi believes TM will win them over. Melton and others doubt it.

Most people who study TM end up abandoning it. Some followers believe
they learned something. And others, like the Beatles, leave
disillusioned.

As John Lennon wrote after changing the name of a song he originally
called "Maharishi":

Sexy Sadie what have you done/You made a fool of everyone.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm151.html

Transcendental Life
January 2007
By Gina Catena

"John Lennon was shot because he began recording music again, despite
Maharishi’s instructions to maintain a private life." Randy explained
on the morning of December 9, 1980, following Lennon’s murder, while I
aligned spiritual necklaces of brown rudraksha beads, coral and
gemstones in our store’s golden display case. Randy’s devotion to
Maharishi made him a reliable source of "higher knowledge." Bizarre as
that sounds to me now, in 1980 divine retribution for ignoring
Maharishi’s vision seemed perfectly plausible.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, giggling guru to the Beatles was my parents’
spiritual Master. He and his Transcendental Meditation (TM) Movement
influenced my family through three generations over four decades.

Secret initiation ceremonies honor Maharishi’s Master, Guru Dev, with
chants of obeisance to a holy tradition mythically originating in
Northern India. A new "Initiate" carries an offering of fruit, a white
handkerchief, and fresh flowers for ritualized placement upon an altar
during private meditation instruction. When teaching this "non
religious method for rest and release of stress," my parents
explained, "Maharishi teaches this spiritual practice in scientific
terms because we live in a scientific age. People will accept it that
way. Through TM we connect with God inside ourselves in pursuit of
Cosmic Consciousness."

Devotees meditate together for four to eight hours daily inside
Maharishi Enlightenment Centers around the globe and in Iowa's
hallowed Golden Domes, practicing secretive techniques for levitation,
invincibility, and friendliness. Maharishi inspires personal
enlightenment and world peace for all time, beginning with today’s
introductory fee of $2500.00.

In padded white rooms devotees sit cross-legged upon sheets of high-
density foam, provided for protection when falling earthward after
failed levitation attempts. When pressed down, the special foam
rebounds upward.

Maharishi always favored the wealthiest amongst us for their
contributions. The Beatles, Beach Boys, Donovan, Gore Family (of Gore-
TexR), Deepak Chopra, Zimmermans, Kaplans, Settles, and other wealthy
devotees generated global enlightenment partially through financing
real estate for Maharishi Universities, Peace Palaces, herbal products
and Peace Assemblies with thousands of meditators.

TM instructors are "Governors" or "Ministers" of the Age of
Enlightenment, because "they govern in the real of consciousness."
Lofty golden-crowned Rajas are spiritually responsible for large
geographic regions, having paid one million dollars for their "raja
training." TM’s spiritual communities exchange the "Raam" as legal
tender for purchased goods, to avoiding the use of tainted currency
from the outside "world of ignorance." They claim not to be a cult.

Believing with my well-intentioned loved ones, I watched devotees
donate entire trust funds, become psychotic, and decline needed
medical treatment in favor of Maharishi Ayur-Ved (R) medicinals. A few
committed suicide. Our leaders taught us that hardships were brought
upon ourselves. No one blamed over indulgence in trance-like
meditation or a circuitous theology. After all, no one drank Kool-
Aid(R).

"The world is as you visualize it. Meditate to perform spontaneous
right action. You will do less and accomplish more until eventually
you do nothing and accomplish everything from the source of unbounded
pure awareness within."

In 1998 my children and I left our mediation community to enter the
real world, where parents are held accountable for child negligence
and suicide motives are questioned. In the real world, no supreme
authority holds the key to the universe.

Young adults raised in the TM Movement continue to arrive to my San
Rafael home as they struggle to function outside their controlled Ayur-
Vedic lifestyle. We alternately laugh and cry over shared histories,
incomprehensible to outsiders.

One recent October evening in San Rafael, my heart raced with a quiet
rapt audience in the auditorium, listening to a sophisticated
presentation for a pilot stress reduction program. The David Lynch
Foundation selected Terra Linda High School to grant $175,000 for a
Transcendental Meditation(TM) club. I wished they had chosen a school
elsewhere, so I would not have to come forth. My only thought was,
"They cannot have these kids."

Onstage before me, my former cult community unfolded in promotional
film clips of Iowa's TM community. I gasped to watch my old friend
teaching at the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment. Marilyn
is my son’s godmother; I was her maid of honor. Marilyn's Maharishi
teaching job offers no medical benefits; she cannot survive on their
stipend. She had confided fears about speaking her mind, lest her
beloved community ostracize her. Her son had only recently spent a
weekend with me, preparing to enter the outside world. He had
previously learned to fear outsiders who "live in ignorance." Not
surprisingly, San Francisco's warm accepting folks shocked him.

At the high school presentation, David Lynch foundation presenters
failed to mention that twenty-minutes-twice-per-day may create an
addictive state, leading to dependence upon prolonged meditation, or
that increased group involvement may potentially become a suffocating
group dynamic. They explained, "Transcendental Meditation(TM) is not a
religion."

Did the secretive initiation ceremony, higher teachings of God
Consciousness, or mantras derived from Hindu deities cause the New
Jersey Circuit Court of appeals to declare TM a religion in 1979?
After educated objections, legal threats and my letter to the school
board, the Lynch Foundation withdrew from my children's high school.

Now David Lynch promotes his book, "Catching the Big Fish: Meditation,
Consciousness and Creativity," explaining that creative ideas come
during his daily TM sessions. The famed producer fails to mention
proper Transcendental Meditation(TM) instruction, "Pay no heed to
arising thoughts. Gently return attention to the mantra, allowing the
thoughts to leave. You will transcend beyond thought to pure Being,
the source of all thought and creativity." Since Lynch heeds thoughts
in meditation, he practices TM improperly. Does he quietly brainstorm
twice daily, while receiving spiritual accolades for large donations
to spread Maharishi's teachings?

I cannot help but wonder, between creative film endeavors, if Lynch
experienced the lifestyle of those committed to the method he
promotes.

copyright 2007 Gina Catena.

Gina Catena is an early "Child of the Age of Enlightenment," raised in
the Transcendental Meditation organization. She and her children left
the Transcendental Meditation Movement twenty years ago and quietly
recreated their lives in San Rafael, California.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm153.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

David Lynch’s Shockingly Peaceful Inner Life

New York Times/December 31, 2007
By Alex Williams

If you were looking for a Tom Cruise to preach to a new generation the
gospel of Transcendental Meditation, a hippie-era spiritual practice
espousing inner harmony, David Lynch would be one of the least likely
candidates.

As the director who conjured the reptilian mutant baby of “Eraserhead”
and the dancing dwarf of “Twin Peaks,” Mr. Lynch has built his career
by imposing his nightmares on the rest of us.

The idea of the inscrutable David Lynch, Hollywood’s leading
surrealist and eccentric, reborn as the guru of bliss seems a little
odd even to Mr. Lynch himself.

Now 60, he remembers how he recoiled from the concept when he heard
about it in the late 1960s, when the movement — founded by the Indian
spiritual leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi — was experiencing its first
wave of popularity among young people in the West thanks to
proselytizing by pop stars like the Beatles and Donovan.

“The word ‘harmony’ would make me want to puke,” recalled Mr. Lynch,
speaking on a clear, chilly afternoon in the glassed-in painting
studio atop his Modernist concrete-walled house in the Hollywood
Hills. Even as an Eagle Scout and a popular student at a public high
school in Alexandria, Va., he composed paintings, influenced by the
grotesqueries of Francis Bacon, in a studio with walls that he and a
friend painted black.

“Meditation would be a sickening thing to consider, because you want
that edge to create,” he said, wearing worn khaki trousers and a
tattered black sports jacket with a hole in the right elbow the size
of a saucer. “I don’t want to be a namby-pamby.”

Besides, he added, “you would get chicks when you’re angry.”

That all changed in 1973, when the future filmmaker discovered
meditation, which he believes allowed him to quiet — and exploit — his
inner demons. He said that he has not missed a day since.

And now, the low-key auteur is emerging as the most visible, even
fiery, proponent of the resurgent practice, which is being used
increasingly in schools and in the workplace, as well as by a new
generation of stars, including Heather Graham, Laura Dern and the
record executive Rick Rubin.

In July 2005, Mr. Lynch began the David Lynch Foundation, which
finances Transcendental Meditation scholarships for students in middle
schools and high schools to study the practice. Later that year, he
embarked on a series of lectures on college campuses that attracted
significant attention in the news media.

This winter, Mr. Lynch is taking the message to the masses. His
autobiography-cum-self-help book, “Catching the Big Fish: Meditation,
Consciousness, and Creativity” (Tarcher/Penguin), will be released
this week. Next month, he will preside over a series of readings and
discussions, in tandem with concerts by Donovan, at Lincoln Center in
New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Kodak Theater in
Los Angeles.

“It’s weird,” said Mr. Lynch, in the flat folksy accent of his native
Missoula, Mont., speaking of his increasing involvement. “I guess it’s
as simple as this: I wish I had heard it earlier.”

The idea of David Lynch serving as the spokesman for anything is a bit
of a stretch. Mr. Lynch suffers from a lifelong fear of public speaking
— “I still hate it,” he said — and will happily recount how he has
tape-recorded speeches at home for awards ceremonies, then played them
into the microphone at the podium.

“I call him ‘the reluctant yogi,’ ” said Robert Roth, a spokesman for
the Transcendental Meditation organization and the vice president of
the foundation. It was Mr. Roth who initially nudged Mr. Lynch onto
the college lecture circuit. He added: “If I didn’t say, ‘Please ask
questions,’ David would just stand up there. He doesn’t care how
awkward anyone else feels.”

Transcendental Meditation is a trademarked mental technique introduced
by Maharishi in 1958 based on the proposition that a practitioner, by
repeating a private mantra throughout two 20-minute sessions a day,
can achieve a state of “restful alertness”— and, theoretically, tap
into a “unified field” of energy. The training process involves
working with personal instructors over five days at one of about 1,000
Transcendental Meditation centers worldwide, and it costs about
$2,500.

In the ’60s, adherents posed Transcendental Meditation as a natural
alternative to mind-expanding drugs like LSD. Now, proponents,
including Mr. Lynch, argue that it can serve as an antidote to a
stress-filled world, particularly for adolescents. Mr. Lynch cites his
increasing concern for young people as the primary reason he launched
his crusade.

“David has become a huge promoter of T.M.,” said Donovan, whose real
name is Donovan Leitch. Mr. Leitch learned the practice from Maharishi
himself, along with the Beatles, Mia Farrow and Mike Love of the Beach
Boys, in Rishikesh, India, in 1968. Mr. Leitch added that Mr. Lynch
has been able to “capitalize” on his fame and “redirect meditation
back where it belongs, with the students.”

Transcendental Meditation faded from the pop culture landscape after
the ’70s. Before Mr. Lynch, a marquee celebrity advocate was the
illusionist Doug Henning, who died in 2000. But it hardly disappeared.
Maharishi, now believed to be 90, still directs the movement, which
claims more than 6 million adherents, from a log house on a 65-acre
compound in the Dutch village of Vlodrop. The organization operates
the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa; its own
incorporated town, Vedic City (population 325), is nearby.

Over the years, the practice has been the subject of numerous
scientific studies, including one by the University of Michigan Health
System in 2003, which indicated that sixth graders who were practicing
such meditation appeared to score significantly higher on tests of
self-esteem and emotional competence.

But critics allege that it can inspire an unhealthy devotion. Rick A.
Ross, who operates a nonprofit research organization in Jersey City
called the Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults,
Controversial Groups and Movements, said that the evidence he has
studied indicates that Transcendental Meditation can be relaxing when
not practiced excessively. But the movement fits some criteria he uses
to define cults. It is “a personality-driven group, with Maharishi as
its totalitarian leader,” Mr. Ross said, which at its extremes “can be
seen as one in which people lose much of their ability for critical
thinking.”

But Mr. Lynch, who was raised Presbyterian, insisted that
Transcendental Meditation is neither a cult nor a theology, but simply
a practice one learns, then pursues in private.

As an artist, Mr. Lynch said, it has allowed him to unleash his
imagination and be, in a word, weirder. He said that many of his ideas
— the “big fish” of his book’s title — come to him during meditation.
Among these big fish are the sitcom-starring rabbits and the Greek
chorus of prostitutes in his fantastical three-hour new film, “Inland
Empire,” now showing in limited release.

Of course, artists are allowed their quirks, and Mr. Lynch revels in
his. Last month, to campaign for an Academy Award nomination for Laura
Dern, the star of his new movie, Mr. Lynch sat on the corner of
Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea with a cow and a giant poster of Ms.
Dern’s face.

Early in his career, while other Hollywood hopefuls were losing
themselves to cocaine, Mr. Lynch got strung out on milkshakes,
visiting a Los Angeles Bob’s Big Boy almost daily for seven years. Now
more health conscious, he favors the veggie burgers at Astro Burger.
“To be a grown-up and to do what you want to do is the most beautiful
thing,” he said, his gray-flecked hair pomaded into what looked like a
tangle of swaying prairie grass. “But this doesn’t happen for most
people. Sadly, they have to make ends meet.”

For these people, Mr. Lynch argues in the book, meditation can be a
way out. For example, an unhappy insurance salesman who learns to
“dive within” will find his soul-crushing commutes and stale
breakfasts enlivened by ideas. Little by little, Mr. Lynch said, the
salesman will find his weekdays “becoming more like Saturday morning —
the sun is coming out, this beautiful warmth, with his favorite
breakfast, birds chirping.”

“If you were a burglar, you’d become a much better burglar,” he added.
“But after a while, you would probably say, well, wait a minute. You
would probably have compassion for people you were burglarizing. You
might even bring some stuff back.”

The director’s goal is to raise $7 billion to help open seven “peace
universities” around the world. He also endorses Maharishi’s belief
that a mass demonstration of “yogic flying” — a so-called “advanced
technique” in which meditators, seated in the lotus position, begin
hopping in unison and theoretically start to hover — can radiate
peaceful energy out to the world. (Asked if he had tried this, he
responded: “Yes.” Did it work? “No.”)

Mr. Lynch writes in his book that he began meditating on the
recommendation of his sister, Martha. At the time, Mr. Lynch was a
year into a torturous five-year quest to complete his first feature
film, “Eraserhead,” which was released in 1977, and was separating
from his first of three wives, Peggy Lentz.

“There was a hollowness inside,” he recalled. “I thought, something is
drastically wrong.”

He dropped in on a Transcendental Meditation center. After 20 minutes,
he felt a weight lifted.

“The side effect of growing that consciousness,” he explained, “is,
negative things start going away. Like fear. It’s like the suffocating
rubber clown suit begins to dissolve.” Certainly, the teachings of
gentle-voiced Maharishi never made Mr. Lynch go soft. “You don’t have
to suffer to show suffering,” he said of the violence in his movies.
The filmmaker sees no contradiction between inner harmony and external
edginess.

“I heard Charles Bukowski started meditation late in his life,” Mr.
Lynch said, referring to the poet laureate of Skid Row, who died in
1994. “He was an angry, angry guy, but he apparently loved
meditation.”

Of course, just as meditation never got Mr. Lynch over a taste for the
macabre, it never quenched Mr. Bukowski’s famous thirst for whiskey.
“Well, maybe in time, it would have,” Mr. Lynch said with a smile. “In
the meantime — just more enjoyment of the whiskey.”

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm150.html

Filmmaker David Lynch is leading a meditation revival

St. Louis Post-Dispatch/December 29, 2006
By Brooke Sopelsa

David Lynch, the filmmaker whose darkly inspired works have included
"Eraserhead," "Twin Peaks" and "Mulholland Drive," is unsettling
viewers once again with the release of his newest film, "Inland
Empire," which stars Laura Dern as an actress in trouble.

But what's really on the director's mind is not the movie but his new

book, "Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and

Creativity." Much of this autobiographical work, due out in January,
is about Lynch's life as a devotee of Transcendental Meditation.

Lynch says the turbulent, bizarrely off-kilter world he creates in his
films owes much to his daily meditation practice.

"The artist doesn't have to suffer to show suffering," Lynch said.
With meditation, "you enjoy things more, and ideas flow, and you catch
them at a deeper level."

A half-century after the practice was brought to the United States by
an Indian spiritual leader and popularized by the Beatles,
Transcendental Meditation is undergoing a revival of sorts. And in a
twist stranger than one of his own plot lines, Lynch is at the center
of TM's resurgence.

Lynch, 60, has practiced TM for half of his life but has been speaking
out in public to promote it for only the past year.

He's hoping that his book and a foundation he formed last year to
promote TM in schools will bring the practice to others. But there are
critics of his efforts, and some are going so far as to call TM a
cult.

Lynch had been looking into different meditation techniques in 1973
when he got a phone call from his sister. She said she had been
practicing Transcendental Meditation, and Lynch noticed a quality of
happiness in her voice. Shortly thereafter, he went to a TM center in
Los Angeles, where he was taught the technique by a woman he thought
looked like Doris Day. Since then, he claims to have not missed a
meditation in 30 years.

TM practitioners meditate for 20 minutes twice a day, sitting down
with eyes closed and repeating a personalized mantra. Practitioners
say the focused meditation reduces stress levels, increases
intelligence and promotes a deep sense of restfulness. And some
believe that if enough people participated in TM, it could lead to
world peace.

Lynch got the idea for his foundation in early 2005. At a TM
conference, he heard a principal at an inner-city school in Washington
speak about how a program to teach students TM helped reduce violence
and increase academic performance.

That got Lynch thinking: TM could relieve the stress plaguing young
people. He decided to use his name and money to promote and subsidize
the technique he had found so valuable in his own life.

Four months later, in July 2005, he formed the David Lynch Foundation
to get the word out about TM to middle school and high school
students. According to Bob Roth, the vice president of Lynch's
foundation, the organization has already financed TM programs in 30
schools, with roughly 100 more schools waiting for help. About $3
million — including $200,000 of Lynch's money — has been spent on the
programs, and the proceeds of Lynch's book will go to the programs.

"Education today is fact-based, how many facts a teacher can cram into
a kid's brain," Roth said. The foundation strives to complement this
fact-based education by expanding a student's capacity for information
so he or she can learn more with less stress and less pressure, he
said.

Without the foundation's support, learning the TM technique would be a
pricy undertaking for a student. A typical introductory course at one
of the more than 100 TM centers around the country costs $2,500. The
introductory course includes four one-hour sessions, which cover the
history of the practice, first introduced in the United States by
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and how to perform the meditation technique
correctly.

Those associated with TM say the price is relatively high because it
includes a lifetime of follow-up and support, but critics see it
differently. Rick Ross of the Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of
Destructive Cults and Controversial Groups and Movements claims much
of the cash is going to the Maharishi.

"The guru controls a financial empire now reportedly worth between $5
billion and $8 billion," Ross said. "This would make him the richest
purported cult leader of the 21st century."

Roth responded that the Maharishi lives modestly and that TM, a
trademarked form of meditation, is a subsidiary of a nonprofit
organization called Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corp. and
must account for every penny it receives from its courses. He also
said the National Institutes of Health had given grant money to
research the effects of TM.

Despite the controversy, some schools are welcoming TM and the David
Lynch Foundation. At the Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse in Detroit, a
public charter school for kindergarten through eighth grade, more than
100 pupils practice TM twice a day in the school gym.

"I did it because I think it's the healthy thing to do," said
principal Carmen N'Namdi, a longtime TM practitioner. "The students
really have enjoyed it. They like it, and they say they feel more
rested and calmed down."

But other schools have taken a pass on the free program. The Terra
Linda High School in San Rafael, Calif., backed out after a parent
accused the TM group of being a cult.

"The actual meditation itself is absolutely nothing but sitting down,
closing your eyes and counting Hindu sheep," said Susan Crittenden,
the parent who made the charges. But "it's also a philosophy of life,
and that's what you're not told about."

Crittenden should know. After being introduced to TM in the 1970s by a
college professor, her life changed dramatically, and not for the
better. Her increasing involvement in the TM philosophy "really
distracted me from my goals, and I became distant from my family," she
recalled. She dropped out of college to become a TM teacher.

She stopped practicing TM in 1978 after the Jonestown Massacre.

"I knew if the Maharishi passed around Kool-Aid and told us to drink
it, I knew I would have taken it," she said.

But while TM has its critics, Lynch has given the meditation technique
two thumbs up, saying it helps his creativity flow.

" 'Catching the Big Fish' refers to catching ideas," Lynch said.

His book describes how he comes up with ideas for his films, how he
puts his thoughts into action and how consistent meditation has helped
him become one of the world's most famous film directors.

"A side effect of transcending is negativity starts to recede," Lynch
said. "Energy, understanding and appreciation grow and you can get
deeper in a story."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm149.html

A Guru And A Vacant Hotel

With 1 Building Empty, Concern Over Another

Hartford Courant/December 25, 2006
By Kenneth R. Gosselin

At its opening, the hotel on Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford
was described as almost too luxurious for the city.

Today, its owner is marketing the vacant, decaying structure as worth
$10 million - but there are no takers. Hartford's mayor says the
building should be torn down.

The 12-story hotel, empty for a dozen years, has been a troubling
obstacle for those who see the building as part of a crucial gateway
to the city. The sale price set by the Maharishi School of Vedic
Sciences Inc., its owner since 1995, has been too high to make any
redevelopment, hotel or otherwise, financially possible, observers
say.

And now, as WFSB, Channel 3, next door on the plaza prepares to sell
its studios - known as Broadcast House - and move to the suburbs,
there is the concern that yet another building in the same high-
visibility location could go dark.

The two buildings - or at least the land they occupy - are seen as
vital to enhancing riverfront development around Columbus Boulevard.
With both buildings vacant, visitors entering the city would be
greeted with an even more desolate streetscape at the end of the
Founders Bridge.

Mayor Eddie A. Perez said he probably will propose a redevelopment
zone encompassing the two buildings. Rezoning the property would allow
the city to work with whoever buys the WFSB building - and it would
give the city the option of acquiring the hotel by eminent domain, a
highly controversial practice.

In the hotel's place, Perez envisions a 15-story residential tower,
either apartments or condominiums. He's not bothered by slow condo
sales and apartment rentals at new downtown residential developments.
He said that momentum will build, and that any construction on
Constitution Plaza would be a few years away anyway.

Demolition of the 42-year-old hotel figures prominently in those plans
and development could include the Broadcast House property - just
yards away.

Although Perez would prefer that private developers take the lead, he
said the city may have no choice but to take over the hotel site. The
city would then seek development proposals.

"There is the real unpredictability of the owner's desire to sell,"
Perez said. "You're not dealing with a traditional real estate
investor."

`Impossible To Deal With'

The hotel - most recently a Clarion - was bought for $1.5 million by
the school for transcendental meditation, founded by the guru to the
Beatles. Now on the market for $10 million, according to a listing on
the Internet, the price breaks down to about $50 a square foot for the
200,000-square-foot structure.

Similar vacant buildings in the central business district might sell
for about $20 a square foot, according to local architects and
commercial real estate brokers.

Based on that average, the old hotel should be priced closer to $4
million.

Doors along the plaza level of the building are chained shut. Some
graffiti - "SANTA IS REAL," for instance - was evident last week, but
the structure appears to be intact. The ravages of time can be seen
through the windows: Wallboard is crumbling and radiator covers are
falling off.

And now, when the plaza is host to the Festival of Lights, the hotel
is a dark, hulking presence.

Developers have made several attempts to acquire the hotel, which
opened in 1964 as the Hotel America, and was later a Sonesta, then a
Summit. Deals collapsed over the asking price for the property, which
has bounced between $5 and $17 million, according to city officials.

"The Maharishi is impossible to deal with," said David Ong, president
of Acquest Realty Advisors Inc., of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., which
wanted to resurrect the building as a hotel in 2000. "We were never
able to make a deal that made economic sense."

"At the end of the day," Ong said, "they are land speculators."

A representative of the Maharishi did not return several calls seeking
comment.

The Maharishi may be holding out for rising commercial real estate
values in downtown Hartford, but the building is increasingly standing
out as a gaping hole in an area that has been abuzz with
redevelopment.

The air is filled with the sound of construction nearby. Cranes strain
under the weight of steel structural beams at the science center site
across Columbus Boulevard. And, to the west, workers swing hammers as
student housing and apartments rise at the old Sage-Allen department
store site.

Ong, who studied the hotel extensively, said the structure would
require a gutting if it were to remain a hotel, particularly because
the rooms are much smaller than those today.

The renovation of older buildings, particularly vacant ones, are more
expensive than simply erecting a new structure. That's why getting the
lowest sales price is key to making the projects work financially.

Architect Anthony Amenta, of Amenta/Emma in Hartford, said sellers
"practically [would] have to give the building away" for a project to
be viable.

The city saw that earlier this year, when two real estate partners
paid $7 million for the historic Connecticut Mutual headquarters in
Asylum Hill in Hartford, well below the original $13 million asking
price. That 11.2-acre facility features 450,000 square feet of office
space and a 662-space parking garage. The developers plan to spend up
to $30 million on that property.

Some say the hotel site on Constitution Plaza has potential for use as
a hotel or perhaps as a hotel combined with condominiums. The latter
arrangement is gaining high-profile popularity in larger cities such
as New York, where the famed Plaza Hotel is undergoing such a
makeover.

Two Key Parcels
Perez said he believes a fresh start at the hotel site, however, would
benefit the riverfront area, and views from residential units to the
river would be "spectacular."

Demolition would cost about $2 million and would include removing
asbestos believed to be in the building, Amenta said. Without the
building, the land - less than an acre - could be worth between $1.5
and $2 million, according to Cushman & Wakefield of Connecticut, the
commercial real estate firm.

The city also views Broadcast House as just as key as the hotel,
particularly since it is at the corner of Columbus Boulevard and State
Street. The city had sought to acquire the property when it was
negotiating to keep the television station in downtown Hartford.

The city would have gained control of Broadcast House, essentially
swapping it for a city-owned parcel near Main and Trumbull, where WFSB
had considered building a new facility.

WFSB, a CBS affiliate, decided to build a new facility in Rocky Hill,
which is expected to be ready in late spring or early fall.

The station now has a contract with a prospective buyer, and expects
to know in early January if the sale will go through. If that doesn't
happen, the station's general manager said WFSB would consider
restarting talks with the city.

"We would absolutely consider it, with them or anyone else," station
general manager Klarn DePalma said.

The city would be very receptive to those discussions, said John
Palmieri, the city's director of development services.

The success of redevelopment efforts involving Broadcast House and the
hotel are critical not only to the riverfront but to Constitution
Plaza itself, which is starting to put behind it a legacy of failed
1960s urban renewal, observers say.

The two prominent office towers on the plaza have been renovated by
owner Capital Properties of New York. One tower - One Constitution
Plaza - is now 90 percent leased, and the other - 100 Constitution
Plaza - is 65 percent leased, with a major tenant, the insurer XL
America, according to Cushman & Wakefield broker Jonathan K. Putnam,
the leasing agent.

A restaurant - Spris - has been open for six years.

If hurdles over the sale of the hotel could be cleared, Ong said, he
would still be interested in the site.

"I'd be back in a heartbeat," he said. "It's a marvelous location."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm148.html

Montgomery to Maharishi: Thanks but no thanks

Planning Board panel meditates only briefly before rejecting request
to build Global Country of World Peace facility on Cherry Valley
Road.

Princeton Packet/December 5, 2006
By Jake Uitti

Montgomery — Representatives of Global Country of World Peace — an
organization started by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of
Transcendental Meditation, a movement that advocates world peace
through meditation in schools, vedic architecture and herbal remedies
— came before the Montgomery Township Master Plan Committee on Monday
with a request to open a facility off Cherry Valley Road.

Montgomery officials said thanks, but no thanks.

The township's Master Plan Committee unanimously found that the
request violates both the township's zoning and its Master Plan.

"It is an institutional use in a residential zone," said Steven Sacks-
Wilner, chairman of the Master Plan Committee. "And not just any
residential zone — it is an environmentally sensitive, very preserved,
important part of the town and it's our edge with Princeton."

The location of the proposed College of Vedic Medicine is a 60-acre
tract at the corner of Cherry Valley and Mountain View roads.

The practice of Vedic medicine espouses therapeutic measures relating
to physical, mental, social and spiritual harmony. Former students of
the Maharishi include the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Clint Eastwood.

The proposed development was for a college-like facility with students
focusing on transcendental meditation, massage therapy and
preventative healing, among other techniques.

Officials from the organization said the facility would be a research
university for students to meditate, explore the human consciousness
and apply their findings from the meditation to research to better the
world.

The facility would include a spa, an administration building, parking
lots, classroom facilities and housing and dining.

Although the site would be used as an "educational facility," said
Paul Potter, regional director for the New York-based group, it would
not be the type of college with loud parties and other aspects of
college life that often come to mind. Instead, it would be mostly
older people meditating, he said.

Officials from Global Country of World Peace said they liked the site
off Cherry Valley Road because it was quiet, peaceful and embedded in
nature.

They said they were seeking a site in the Princeton area because it
would connect with Albert Einstein's idea of "unified field" — or an
attempt to unify the world's fundamental forces and interactions.

"It would be a very powerful influence of peace to the whole world,"
said Mr. Potter. "We are here to offer that opportunity."

The proposed site includes wetlands and stream corridors, Mr. Sacks-
Wilner said, and it is an area of the township with unpaved roads and
extensive open-space holdings.

Mayor Louise Wilson said she encouraged the organization to look at
other parts of the township that were not zoned residential that may
be more suitable.

Officials from Global Country of World Peace can make an application
before the township's Zoning Board of Adjustment if they wish to
request permission to build on the site, or they can go to the
Township Committee and request a zoning change.

They can seek zoning variances based on special reasons, township
Planner Richard Coppola said, but they would have to demonstrate that
their application does not violate township zoning or the Master
Plan.

Global Country of World Peace officials would have to demonstrate that
the tract is particularly well suited for what they want to do, more
so than other tracts, and that the proposed facility does not have any
adverse impact on the public good, and that it is compatible with
zoning and the Master Plan.

Dozens of Montgomery residents came to Monday's meeting and expressed
concern about the proposed facility, claiming it would take up too
much land and, as a nonprofit organization, would not pay property
taxes.

Global Country of World Peace also recently met with Princeton
officials to informally talk about a location on Bunn Drive in
Princeton Township for an 18-acre facility between Poor Farm Road and
Herrontown Woods.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm147.html

'Peace palace' planned for Springs

Colorado Springs Gazette/December 1, 2006
By Debbie Kelley

“Peace palaces” promoting holistic health programs will be built in
Colorado Springs and 20 other cities across the nation if the Colorado
Health Facilities Authority approves a request for $51 million in
revenue bonds Monday.

A nonprofit headquartered in Fairfield, Iowa, the Global Country of
World Peace, will construct and operate the centers.

The local palace will cost up to $4.5 million and be located on 3
acres adjacent to Maharishi Ayurveda Products International Inc., a
research, manufacturing and distribution center on Elkton Drive off
Garden of the Gods Road. The privately held corporation produces a
holistic health care line of Indian herbal supplements, teas, gourmet
foods and beauty products. It also operates the Maharishi
Enlightenment Center where Transcendental Meditation techniques and
stress-relief programs are available.

Each peace center will be a 12,000 square foot, two-story building
covered in white marble and will feature exhibition and lecture halls,
offices, residential rooms and a dining hall. Health and wellness
classes in the Ayurveda tradition of ancient health-care teachings and
practices that originated in India will be offered. Ayurveda is
Sanskrit for “science of life.”

Some of the other cities that will get peace palaces include St. Paul,
Minn., Long Island, N.Y., Charlottesville, Va. and Mayfield Heights,
Ohio. Three states, New York, Kansas and Texas, will have regional
peace palaces.

Proceeds from the bonds also will be used to finance an 816-acre
organic farm in Goshen, N.Y.

The bonds should be issued by the end of this year, said Jennifer
Dunn, an independent financial advisor with Ponder & Co. in Chicago.

“We’ve done a financial review of the project and model and feel
comfortable with it,” said Dunn, who is advising the authority.

The Colorado Health Facilities Authority, a Denver nonprofit that has
a governor-appointed board but is not a government agency, issues more
than $200 million in revenue bonds each year to health-related
nonprofits, including nursing homes, assisted living centers and
hospitals, according to executive director Corinne Johnson.

Because Colorado is a multi-state issuer of revenue bonds, the
authority can approve bonds to out-of-state borrowers, Dunn said.

“When some of the bond proceeds will be spent on projects in Colorado,
the authority will step up and help finance the whole thing. It’s a
huge benefit to the borrower — otherwise they’d have to go through the
process of issuing smaller bonds.”

Global Country of World Peace will be responsible for paying out the
interest on the debt.

The organization plans to build a total of 3,000 peace centers in
cities around the world.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm146.html

Developer gets OK for Delta expansion

Rutland Herald/November 29, 2006
By Daniel Barlow

Brattleboro -- The owner of the Delta Campus, a 130-acre property on
the edge of town that will combine businesses and homes side by side,
is moving forward with expansion plans, but has temporarily dropped a
controversial plan to develop some open lands.

Delta Campus founder Robert Johnson, who also owns Brattleboro's Omega
Optical, received approval last week amending the site's planned unit
development, allowing him to proceed with plans next year to build new
homes and commercial properties.

The approval from Brattleboro's Development Review Board last week
switches one lot from housing to commercial and splits up another lot
into two parcels. Gordon Bristol, a former state legislator who is
representing Johnson for this project, said Tuesday that it will allow
for further development plans next year.

"With the first phase of the project finished, I would call this phase
1.5," Bristol said. "Phase 2 will include the construction of new
homes at the top of the hill, but we are moving slowly now as we gauge
the conditions of the housing market."

One of the likely tenants at Delta Campus is the Maharishi Peace
Palace, a school that teaches transcendental meditation. The group
recently opened a center in downtown Brattleboro. The Maharishi Peace
Palace is formed around the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a
spiritual leader who captivated the attention of 1960s rock bands such
as The Beatles.

Shirley Boncheff, the director of the local Maharishi school, said she
hopes to break ground in spring 2007 on a two-story, 6,000 square foot
"peace palace" at the Delta Campus.

She said the building will be constructed according to Maharishi
standards, including rooms laid out according to the cardinal points
to create a "harmonizing and peaceful feel."

"We love the location," Boncheff said of the Delta Campus. "We also
love the people involved. And the idea of mixing commercial with
residential properties is very exciting."

Johnson did drop the third part of his PUD change proposal last week
which would have allowed him to develop 25 of the 90 acres of land
that he had previously dedicated as open space. If that part of the
plan was approved, as many as 80 new homes could be built there.

Craig Miskovich, the chairman of Brattleboro's Development Review
Board, said Tuesday that the board had some concerns about that part
of Johnson's plan and requested more information on it before making a
decision.

Instead, the developer returned on Nov. 20 and announced it would
withdraw that request.

"Open space is a valuable element of PUDs," Miskovich said. "So the
board wanted to try and balance the social good of having open space
with the social good of new affordable housing."

Bristol said that proposed development is still being considered and
Delta Campus may return soon to the DRB with that request. He said the
DRB had some questions concerning that part of the plan which he and
others didn't yet have answers for.

"We decided that now was not the time," Bristol said.

Johnson, a graduate of Brattleboro Union High School, founded Omega
Optical nearly 40 years ago in his garage with electronic equipment
salvaged from junkyards. The $10 million company now employs about 125
people and recently moved out of a converted church in downtown
Brattleboro to a 32,000 square foot headquarters at the Delta Campus.

The unique Delta Campus, along the south end of Brattleboro near the
Guilford border at a former automobile dump, combines green building
techniques with state-of-the-art technology, including producing its
own electricity with two biodiesel generators.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm145.html

Guru wants to build peace palace

Arlington: City to decide if holistic institute can be built with tax-
exempt bonds

Dallas Morning News/November 22, 2006
By Jeff Mosier

Arlington – The New Age movement that tried to erect the world's
tallest skyscraper in Denton County and claims to teach its followers
the secrets of levitation and invisibility now wants to construct a
palace in Arlington.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation and one-
time guru to the Beatles, plans to build 3,000 Peace Palaces
worldwide. One of the first is expected to be built on vacant land
that was once home to Arlington's poshest inn and later became a
magnet for drug addicts, prostitutes and arsonists.

Richard Quinn, a representative of Global Country of World Peace, said
people could study transcendental meditation and "Yogic Flying" as
well as receive spa treatments and "Vedic" health care at the palace.
He said the closest comprehensive facility of its type is in Iowa.

"It's the most thoroughly researched program of natural health care in
the world," said Mr. Quinn, a resident of Bay Shore, N.Y. Movement
leaders insist that it's a science, not a religion, although it does
blend elements of ancient Hindu writing and mind-bending quantum
physics.

Ultimately, the group's Web site explains, it expects the Peace Palace
to help reduce crime, make countries invulnerable to attack and create
heaven on Earth.

The Arlington City Council must decide whether to allow the Global
Country of World Peace, which has its own sovereign rule, to construct
the 12,000-square-foot palace with tax-exempt bonds. Arlington
wouldn't be financially liable for the bonds, but federal law requires
the city, county or state to hold a public hearing before the bonds
could be issued.

Rejecting the bonds could make the Peace Palace more costly but
wouldn't necessarily stop it.

Medical concerns

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said he would vote against the project
and hopes the palace doesn't come to his city. As a physician, he's
concerned about their medical claims, especially regarding treatments
for cancer, AIDS and other serious diseases.

"If you have a chronic life-threatening disease, you need to receive
medical attention," Dr. Cluck said. "If you go to alternative
medicine, it's my opinion that you are wasting time. And when you have
a serious illness, time is health."

Supporters point to hundreds of studies, many by mainstream
institutions, that show the benefits of Transcendental Meditation.

Those studies have often said the TM – as it's commonly called – is
beneficial for reducing stress that can play a part in high blood
pressure and other medical problems. However, some research has
disputed the more elaborate claims, and there has been no scientific
proof of claims that advanced mediators can fly, become invisible or
affect world events through mass meditation.

Some accounts of the "Yogic Flyers" describe them as young men,
sitting in the lotus position and bouncing up in the air – "glorified
bum-hopping" as one skeptic called the practice.

At least one Arlington City Council member is concerned about whether
the property would be tax exempt since its owner is a nonprofit.
Maharishi representatives said they would pay property taxes, although
some city officials insist on written assurances.

Easy access

The 19.4 acres on Avenue H East, book-ended by a world-renowned spa
and a Shell gas station, would be considered a desirable location for
a hotel or industrial business because of its easy highway access and
proximity to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Also, a new
interchange at State Highway 360 and Interstate 30 could also make for
easier access and an even bigger bump in property tax payments.

The site has been owned by several different Maharishi companies since
1993 and is valued at $1.27 million by the Tarrant Appraisal
District.

Mel LeBlanc, a City Council member whose district includes the Peace
Palace land, said he needs more information and assurances. He's
concerned about how the organization ran the former Hotel Santa Fe in
Dallas.

For decades, it was the fancy Hilton Inn, with its equally famous
Trader Vic's tiki-themed bar, at Mockingbird Lane and North Central
Expressway. Later, under the management of a Maharishi company, it was
mostly a derelict high-rise with cheap rates and few customers that
once served as a way station for a murderer planning to flee the
country.

The property didn't start turning around until the new owners bought
it for the Hotel Palomar project, with hotel rooms starting at $289
per night, and condos selling for as much as $1.75 million.

"I know there were concerns raised in the past in Dallas," Mr. LeBlanc
said. "I want to make sure they are a good corporate citizen."

The Maharishi Global Development Fund, another business arm of the
Maharishi, was also a high-profile failure in the local real estate
market.

First, the fund vowed to build the world's tallest skyscraper in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, but that failed. Shortly afterward, in 2000, it
proposed constructing a building just as tall in The Colony, a town of
nearly 40,000 that had no skyscrapers.

That failed project also led to an FBI investigation and accusations
of conflict of interest on the part of the former mayor of The Colony,
who was hired by the Maharishi's company as a real estate consultant.

The organization, however, has successfully built a Peace Palace in
the Houston suburbs and a sprawling national headquarters in rural
Iowa. The Raj, an Iowa spa, has received national acclaim.

Now, the group wants to bring a little life and peace to a troubled
area of Arlington.

The site on Avenue H East, in the Great Southwest Industrial District,
sprang to life in 1962 as the Inn at Six Flags.

Once a swanky place
Known as one of the ritziest hotels in town, the occasional celebrity
would stay in one of the VIP villas. President Ronald Reagan, during
his acting days, spoke at an event, and John Wayne moseyed through at
least once.

Its Crystal Palace room was used for formal events and banquets for
Arlington's movers and shakers, but the inn deteriorated over the
years.

In 1993, then called the Flagship Inn, it was purchased by one of the
Maharishi's companies. Later, arson damaged the building and it sat
mostly vacant for years. By the late 1990s, it closed and became a
draw for teens, vagrants, drug users and prostitutes.

Another fire, also arson, gutted part of the hotel in 2001, and it was
torn down the following year.

Now, a couple of tall signs – one proclaims "Flagship Inn
Registration" – stand guard over the empty, wooded field.

Mr. Quinn said he fully expects the palace to be built. He said to
ignore the for sale sign that's still on the property – it's not on
the market anymore.

He also said the existence of the Watson Cemetery across the street
wouldn't block the development. The group's guidelines prohibit
palaces from being constructed on land where a graveyard is visible
from the land or prominently visible when approaching the land.

The Global Country of World Peace Web site says: "If the land does not
meet all the following criteria please do not consider this land as a
possibility."

"People don't need to be thinking about death when they come to a
place to enhance their life," Mr. Quinn said.

But in this case, he explained, it's not a hard and fast rule.

Requirements for peace palace site
The main entrance to the building must be facing east or north.

There is no prominent body of water – river, lake or ocean – near the
land to the south or west. If there is a prominent body of water it
must be to the north or east.

The land is flat or slopes east or north or can be made flat.

There can be no sunrise delay of more than 12 minutes caused by
mountains.

No high-tension power lines may be on the land or near the land.

No graveyards may be visible from the land or prominently visible when
approaching the land.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm144.html

Yogi's group chooses 3 Cuyahoga sites for 'Peace Palaces'

Cleveland Plain Dealer/November 17, 2006
By Joan Mazzolini

The movement founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi plans to build what
it calls Peace Palaces in Parma, Strongsville and Mayfield Heights,
hoping to further its goal of world peace by "unifying all nations in
happiness, prosperity, invincibility and perfect health."

The group, Global Country of World Peace, plans 3,000 such peace
palaces worldwide but chooses sites carefully, based on "harmony with
Natural Law." The sites can't be near graveyards or high-tension
electric lines. They can't be on hills that block the sunrise.

The nearly identical 12,000-square-foot palaces became fodder on
Thursday for an unusual discussion by Cuyahoga County commissioners,
whose approval was needed for the group to get a loan.

The group wants to borrow $51 million to build peace palaces, through
the sale of bonds by the Colorado Health Facilities Authority.

Cuyahoga County is not responsible for the tax-exempt financing.
Global Country of World Peace has already bought four to five acres
each in Parma and Mayfield Heights and is arranging for a site in
Strongsville.

The group is headquartered in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, which was
incorporated in 2001 and is near Maharishi University of Management in
Fairfield, Iowa.

Both the town and school were developed as centers for transcendental
meditation, which gained renown when the Beatles became students of
the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The peace palaces are expected to cost $13 million.

The rest of the $51 million might be used to build palaces elsewhere.
In an advertisement about the bond sale, the group mentioned 13 other
locations, including Arlington, Texas, and St. Paul, Minn., according
to bond attorney Susan Price of Peck, Shaffer & Williams in Columbus.

It's not clear how many of the palaces have opened.

Fifteen people likely would work at each of the centers, which would
focus on helping people with chronic disorders and stress relief.

"The natural health facilities will offer a broad range of 52
programs," Richard Quinn, Global Country representative, said.

Transcendental meditation and other programs would be available, as
would day spa activities. Quinn told the commissioners, who had
numerous questions, that the group isn't a religion and follows
ayurveda, an ancient Indian healing system.

The group bought land on Huffman Road in Parma earlier this year for
$1.025 million, according the Cuyahoga County Auditor's Web site. It
also bought land on Lander Road in Mayfield Heights for $1.3 million.

No Strongsville property is listed. Price said she did not know if the
sale there had been completed.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm143.html

Om on the Grange
They're Seriously Meditating In Fairfield, Iowa

Washington Post/November 12, 2006
By Gary Lee

It was late afternoon in Fairfield, Iowa, and townsfolk were preparing
for the daily ritual.

Marie-Helene Tourenne, who serves up sublime French fare at the Petit
Paris restaurant, removed her apron, left the coq au vin to simmer and
exited the kitchen. Lonica Halley, co-owner of Natural Selections, a
shop offering organic goods, left the store in the care of her
assistant. Even Ed Malloy, the amiable silver-haired mayor, ended a
meeting and strode out of his conference room.

The three joined a flow of more than a thousand people headed about a
mile north of town to the Maharishi University of Management (MUM) and
its pair of golden domes, 25,000-square-foot structures that rise
above the rolling farmland's barns and silos. There, the pilgrims sat
on mats, chairs or the hardwood floor with their backs to a massive
altar, facing eastward toward a blank wall. For 20 minutes they
remained motionless, in silence.

Five o'clock is meditation time in this town of 9,500, about 100 miles
southeast of Des Moines.

While other '70s-era spiritual movements are fading, Transcendental
Meditation -- or TM, a relaxation and awareness technique using
carefully calibrated breathing methods -- is thriving here. Besides
the MUM campus, practitioners can pore over meditation literature at
21st Century Books. They can visit Maharishi Vedic City, a model town
founded by TM followers just outside Fairfield. Or they can shop at
Thymely Solutions, which specializes in homeopathic remedies, and
other boutiques started by meditators.

Fairfielders on different sides of the meditation divide, uneasy with
one another in the early years, now appear to commingle easily. TM
followers point to the ascendance of Malloy -- now serving his third
mayoral term -- as a sign of their acceptance. Most non-meditators
agree.

By Malloy's account, TM disciples make up a quarter of Fairfield's
population. While some prefer to stay in their homes or offices for
the exercise, a growing number take part in the group sessions, which
are also held at 7:30 each morning. (Iowans aren't alone: According to
TM spokesman Bob Roth, the number of those who practice it nationwide
is about 5 million and rising.)

Whatever venue they use for their focused relaxation, Fairfield's
meditators insist that this town should be near the top of every
traveler's destination list, above all for the sense of peace and
positive spirit that meditation brings it.

Camille Jorgenson echoed the kind of endearment most locals hold
toward the place. A 40-something meditator who moved here in the early
'90s, Jorgenson co-owns a company that imports gourmet organic
products from Italy and elsewhere. "The power of group meditation
makes this one of the most positive-spirited places I know," she said.
"Everybody should have the opportunity to see it."

I made a trip to Fairfield and Vedic City last month to do just that.
Although not a meditator, I wanted to see how these two tiny dots on
the Midwest map became a center of meditation. The answer, it turns
out, was simple.

The movement's Iowa roots go back to 1973, when TM founder Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi started a university in Fairfield. Though many questioned
whether it could survive, today MUM (where mediation is a required
subject) is a thriving campus, 850 students strong and best known for
its computer science and sustainable development programs.

In 2001, Vedic City was founded by meditators four miles north of
Fairfield; it now attracts several thousand curious travelers a year,
according to Fairfield tourism officials. "City" is a bit of an
overstatement: Organized around 10 circles, it's a scattering of New
Age wooden buildings that extends across a bit more than a square
mile. Rooms at the Raj, a health spa, and the Rukmapura Park Hotel
have been set aside for meditation.

The town applies Vedic principles, traditions dating to ancient India
that are designed to bring peace, prosperity and spiritual well-being
to those who practice them. TM is one of the best known Vedic
traditions. But it also pertains to a style of architecture in which
the placement of a building and its rooms are oriented in relation to
the sun's movement. All of Vedic City's 200 or so buildings, including
office buildings and homes for its 200 to 300 residents, were built
using those guidelines. Food growing, education and other aspects of
life also have been aligned with the principles of Veda, the holy
scripture of Hinduism.

To an outsider, TM seemed intangible and a bit cultish at first. After
observing the group meditation session at MUM, I met on campus with
Roth and Norman Zierold, another spokesman for the TM movement.

"[It's] not hard or complicated," Roth said. "It's a deep-breathing
technique that helps relax the body and mind. When people really get
engaged in it, many of them want to change other aspects of their
lives, such as diet. But TM doesn't require that." It calls only for
practitioners to meditate for 20 minutes twice a day, he explained.
The training can be received from specialists in almost any American
city and costs $2,500, including four days of lessons and follow-up
consultations.

As I explored the area, the odd marriage of TM culture and folksy
Midwestern mores made for some amusing scenes. In a breakfast stop at
Revelations, a popular cafe in Fairfield, a couple of farmhands sipped
black coffee and discussed plans to repair a broken tractor. At the
next table, two women debated whether reiki therapy might deepen their
meditation experience.

But the alluring aspects of this place eclipsed the quirkiness.
Fairfield, whose low-rise buildings are concentrated around a
sprawling green square, was easy enough to explore on foot. The town's
galleries (there are more than two dozen) and boutiques drew me in and
kept me occupied for hours.

The most accessible venue for viewing the gamut of visual art offered
is 1st Fridays Arts Walk, an open-air display of paintings, live music
and street theater staged around the town square every month. Even the
brisk winters don't stop the show.

Unable to visit during that event, I picked up the flavor of it pretty
easily during a hop through some of the galleries. The best: the
Fairfield Arts Association, a gigantic space that regularly exhibits
shows from the most accomplished painters and sculptors in the area;
Americus Gallery, featuring Monet-like landscapes of France and Italy
by the owner, Christopher Edward Kufner; and Icon Gallery, run by
local art aficionado Bill Teeple, which hosts shows of big names from
across the country and abroad.

Later, in a makeshift theater near downtown, I caught a performance of
the Encore Players' "Musical of Musicals," which cleverly riffed
"Oklahoma!," "Mame" and other well-known Broadway shows. Between the
paintings and the show, the artistic talent here was impressive, high-
spirited -- and a happy surprise.

To see Vedic City, which is ungated and open to the public, you can
book a guided tour in Fairfield or pick up a map and do it yourself.
When Roth offered to show me around, I jumped in his Jeep for a
firsthand look.

It was a Sunday, so we stopped for the weekly brunch offered by Dean
and Christine Goodale on the hilly lawn of their Vedic City organic
farm. The all-you-can-eat gourmet spread, including stuffed crepes and
house-made fruit tarts, is served, weather permitting, on picnic
tables for $15 a head. There I met architect Jonathan Lipman, who
moved from Washington and now designs buildings in Vedic style here
and in other parts of the country. He walked me through the basic idea
behind Sthapatya Ved, the Vedic components of building design.

The key is to align all rooms to take full advantage of the sun as it
moves overhead, he explained. The kitchen is usually best in the
southeast corner; the living room should face west; and the master
bedroom should be in the southwest corner.

Interested to see these rules applied, I was delighted when Jorgenson
and her husband, Chris, invited me to visit their home, a spacious one-
story structure with sweeping ceilings and vast open areas. "It sounds
like a cliche," Chris Jorgenson said, "but living in a place like this
makes you feel healthier and more balanced."

Beyond their living spaces, Vedic City residents are big on healthful
foods. A Vedic City ordinance bans the use of chemicals in plant
production; most of the produce is grown by a few organic farms.

I visited one, a 12-acre sprawl of vegetables perched on a hillside,
and Steve McClaskey, the horticulturalist who runs the farm, guided me
around. In the outdoor garden and adjacent greenhouse, there were
vines hanging heavy with cherry tomatoes, clusters of broccoli and
rows of Swiss chard. With this heavy accent on healthy living, it's no
wonder that Mother Jones magazine, the bible for the ecologically
minded, earlier this year named Fairfield among the dozen best places
to live that you've never heard of.

Back in Fairfield, I met with Malloy and asked how his town had
merited such a distinction. He cited the unusual mood of tolerance for
diversity, the heavy support for the arts and the myriad small
businesses. "If small-town America has a future," he said, "it's going
to look something like this."

It sounded like the kind of thing a mayor would say.

But as the day wound down, I paused to look at the town square with
its gazebo, at a nearby row of ethnic restaurants, at a woman dressed
in a bright blue sari walking past. Perhaps there was something in the
mayor's words, I thought.

And then, suddenly, a parade of cars started moving past in the
direction of the golden domes. It was meditation time again.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm142.html

Another Cult Classic from David Lynch

Radar Magazine/November 9, 2006
By Allison Mooney

If you thought David Lynch was out there, wait until you read his
book. In recent months, the oddball auteur behind Mulholland Drive and
Blue Velvet has been stumping for his spiritual discipline of choice,
Transcendental Meditation. In January, he'll issue a book on the
practice, which critics deride as an Eastern-flavored cousin to
Scientology and Kabbalah.

Lynch makes no secret that Catching the Big Fish is a tool to win
converts. "The book is about his commitment to Transcendental
Meditation and his wish to spread his beliefs in what it can
accomplish," says his editor, Mitch Horowitz. The filmmaker, who
learned the method from His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (who was
famously dismissed as a fraud by his onetime pupil John Lennon), has
said he practices TM for 20 minutes every day.

Of course, for readers to embrace Lynch's convictions, they'll first
have to understand them. Catching the Big Fish's 85 un-numbered
chapters cover such abstruse topics as "The Unified Field" ("It's
there, within, within, within"), "The Fourth State" ("you get a little
jolt of bliss"), and "The Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit" (of
depression and anger, natch). The entire text of one chapter, "The Box
and the Key," consists of this statement: "I have no idea what those
are." Thanks, Dave!

If these musings seem disconnected, it could be because the chapters
are merely transcriptions of comments Lynch made during a speaking
tour of colleges last fall. (At least that's the speculation on some
blogs). Proceeds from the book will go to his foundation, which
promotes "consciousness-based education," and to which Lynch has
already donated over $400,000 of his own money. The David Lynch
Foundation offers scholarships to junior high and high school students
to study TM, and Bob Roth, the foundation's vice president, says it
also plans to establish "universities of world peace" in the next few
years.

Not everybody wants their kids' consciousness tampered with, however.
Parents at a high school in Marin County, California, protested plans
for an intramural meditation club, calling it a form of religion and a
cult. The blowback ultimately forced the foundation to withdraw the
$175,000 it had pledged, which would have provided funds for 250
students and 25 staffers to practice TM.

Readers who buy Catching the Big Fish seeking enlightenment on Lynch's
inscrutable plots (as opposed to the nature of existence) are bound to
be disappointed. In a chapter about his newest film, Inland Empire
(whose release will coincide with the publication of the book), Lynch
writes, "I really had this feeling that if there's a Unified Field,
there must be a unity between a Christmas tree bulb and this man from
Poland who came in wearing these strange glasses." And if you're
wondering what that means, you'll find the answer within, within,
within.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm141.html

Hansen: Iowa meditators shield Lebanon, rally stocks

Des Moines Register/October 24, 2006
By Marc Hansen

If you follow the news, you might have noticed two seemingly unrelated
developments.

One, the hurricane season has been a dud. Last year, it was one killer
tropical storm after another. This year, we're still waiting for the
big one to crash onto the shoreline.

The forecasts were frightening. This hurricane season was supposed to
be worse than the last, when Katrina and her friends led to more than
2,000 deaths and billions of dollars in destruction.

Two, the stock market has moved into record territory, with the Dow
Jones industrial average closing at 12,116.91, its best historical
close.

A coincidence? No, the Maharishi Effect.

It's the 1,200 advanced Transcendental meditators who are camping out
for six hours a day in Fairfield and elsewhere, "creating coherence in
national consciousness" and changing the national mood.

Granted, it sounds flaky. One physicist called similar research on
falling crime rates in Washington, D.C., "voodoo science."

But since the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi himself predicted this would
happen back in July, who are we to argue?

It's important to challenge mainstream thinking. You don't want to be
the guy who told Guglielmo Marconi there was no future in wireless
communications.

The man in charge of the "Invincible America Course" is John Hagelin,
a quantum physicist who graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth,
earned a doctorate from Harvard and was a researcher at Stanford
before moving to Fairfield and becoming the director of the Institute
of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Maharishi University
of Management.

He also ran for president three times as a third-party candidate and
collected lots of votes in Jefferson County.

He isn't running this time, mostly because he's busy making sure the
United States is surrounded with a protective shield of collective
consciousness.

This isn't something a person does in a regular 40-hour work week, so
it took a while to catch up with him. When I did, he was in the
Netherlands on a European speaking tour.

The original idea, he said, was to restore peace in Lebanon.

I wasn't sure how a group of 1,200 "yogic flyers" in Iowa and another
200 in Washington, D.C., could stop the bombing in the Middle East.

But Hagelin is convinced it did. He answers the skeptics by referring
to field-tested, peer-reviewed documentation in 600 studies and 250
independent research institutes around the world.

"We are not disconnected from each other," he said. "We influence each
other. Wars are nothing other than the outburst of pent-up societal
stress in critical hot spots."

Get a large group of hard-core meditators together for six hours at a
time, things happen. The mind settles down, awareness expands ... and
expands ... until it permeates the collective consciousness. The
stress level goes down, people stop shooting each other.

"We weren't using the leverage we have in that part of the world,"
Hagelin said. "We weren't encouraging moderation on Israel's part. We
started this course principally to provide a cooling influence and
sanity in our foreign policy."

It wasn't long before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was
changing her plans and flying to Lebanon. A few days later, the United
States was helping craft a cease-fire.

"It was quite an amazing turnabout," he said.

The good feelings spill over into the economy. Consumer confidence
picks up, which leads to more optimism, a better economy and higher
stock prices.

"The stock market," Hagelin said, "was a side effect, an expression of
the collective mood."

Stocks up, gas prices down. Consumer confidence rises, unemployment
drops.

Stocks won't grow straight to the sky, Hagelin warned. There will be
burps and corrections and mini-panics. But the swings won't be so
extreme.

I asked Hagelin if he made a killing with this really inside
information.

No.

"If we were smart," he said with a laugh, "we would have scraped
together some money and invested it. My limited resources were
invested already outside the market."

All right, then. If meditation works so well in Lebanon, why not
Iraq?

"Lebanon was easier to quell," Hagelin said, "because the political
solutions were easy. Iraq is an entrenched mess. The mistakes that
have been made will take time to unwind. Iraq is a victim of intense
social stress of its own. Saddam was a great contributor to that. It's
there in spades, but it can be unwound. We have to give the Iraqis and
their geographical neighbors a big dose of this stress-reducing
technology. At some point, when tensions are less acute, an act of
violence no longer results in a retaliatory act. Then you suddenly tip
the equation into a state of de-escalating violence."

Iraq won't be as easy, he said, but the union of modern science and
ancient wisdom can be a wonderful thing.

Don't rule it out. Don't be the guy who doubted Marconi.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm140.html

[Sid Harth]

Marin school drops meditation club

Foundation withdraws grant after religious connection emerges

Marin Independent Journal/October 19, 2006
By Tad Whitaker

San Rafael -- A controversial proposal to start a transcendental
meditation program at a Marin County high school was dropped Wednesday
after the David Lynch Foundation withdrew a $175,000 grant.

Terra Linda High School Principal Carole Ramsey said a few people
created such a stir over the issue that it became a distraction.
Nonetheless, she is encouraging students to pursue their interests in
meditation because it remains an effective way to reduce stress.

"I don't regret bringing it (to students) at all," she said. Ramsey
recently announced the school would start a transcendental meditation
club as part of a new wellness program that also encouraged students
to eat better and exercise more. But she abruptly ended an
informational meeting for about 75 parents last week when opponents
raised a ruckus over claims the program is linked to a religious
movement.

Transcendental meditation was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to
improve mental and physical health. Maharishi is perhaps most famous
as a spiritual adviser to the Beatles in the 1960s.

It is not, supporters claim, a religion or philosophy, and
practitioners do not change their lifestyles or experience any type of
mind control even though the founder, Maharishi, is referred to as
"His Holiness." Ramsey attended a lecture by Lynch, an Oscar-nominated
filmmaker who established a nonprofit organization to spread
transcendental meditation in schools, after more than 60 students
expressed interest in a meditation program.

Shortly thereafter, she applied for and received the $175,000 grant,
which would have been the organization's first program in California.
Participants would have taken several workshops, including 90-minute
periods for four consecutive days.

The goal is to sit silently for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day with eyes
closed.

A consultant with the state Department of Education did not see a
problem with the program in a public school.Bob Roth, a 1968 graduate
of Redwood High School who is a spokesman for the Lynch Foundation,
said pulling back was the best thing for his organization and the
school following the outcry. He said the grant will go to another
school."There's a long waiting list," he said.Ramsey said that, aside
from a few opponents, most parents either supported the program or
were open-minded. But the deep-seated beliefs held by critics
threatened to overshadow what she set out to accomplish."This is a
program that was supposed to reduce stress," she noted.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm139.html

California school loses funds over meditation controversy

Associated Press/October 18, 2006
By Marcus Wohlsen

San Francisco -- Marin County may be etched in the public imagination
as a liberal land of hot tubs, aging hippies and free thinkers, but
even a bastion of alternative spirituality apparently has its limits.

Plans for a high school meditation club funded by filmmaker David
Lynch evaporated this week after parents caught wind that students
would be taught Transcendental Meditation, the method developed by a
one-time spiritual teacher to The Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Amid protests that TM was a form of religious practice and therefore
inappropriate for a public school, the David Lynch Foundation on
Tuesday withdrew the $175,000 it had pledged to Terra Linda High
School in San Rafael.

The grant would have provided funds for 250 students and 25 staffers
to practice TM, a meditation style past adherents claimed allowed them
to levitate. Lynch, best known as the director of dark, surreal films
like "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet," has meditated for more than 30
years and credits TM for nourishing his creativity.

"Not only does it reduce stress in the body, but the research shows it
wakes up the brain. So the child is actually able to absorb more
knowledge and do better on exams," said Bob Roth, the Lynch
foundation's vice president. "Also, the child is happier."

But an information meeting for Terra Linda parents about the program
last week turned chaotic, with one parent rushing the stage to
denounce TM as a cult.

Others said they felt TM was too close to a religion and therefore
should not be promoted as a student activity, leading a conservative
legal organization to consider suing the school for violating the
separation of church and state.

Alternative forms of spiritual expression are nothing new in Marin,
just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Flower children
of the 1960s flocked to the county's coastal bluffs and rolling hills
after they decided to settle down and raise families.

In more recent years, Marin County has become one of the most affluent
in the country. That wealth has brought with it the kind of high-
pressure academic environments common to schools in prosperous
communities.

Still, Terra Linda, located in the town of San Rafael, was one of the
last places the Lynch Foundation expected to find resistance.

Since last year, the foundation has given more than $3 million to fund
TM programs at 20 public, private and charter schools from Detroit to
Washington, D.C., without causing a stir, according to Roth.

Terra Linda Principal Carole Ramsey said interest in meditation had
grown recently at the high school. A club started by a school health
instructor there last year attracted 60 students.

"I think it helps them to calm their minds so that they are able to
focus," Ramsey said.

Ramsey blamed "a few individuals" for creating "an environment that
has led to the withdrawal of this grant" and said the school would
encourage students who remain interested in meditation to investigate
alternative programs.

A federal appeals court in 1979 called TM a form of religious teaching
and ruled the practice could not be taught in New Jersey public
schools. The decision is often cited as a precedent in religion-in-
public-schools cases.

Detractors who say TM has religious overtones usually point to an
initiation ceremony where teachers invoke Hindu deities. But
practitioners describe TM as a relaxation technique used by 6 million
Americans of every religious persuasion.

Whether TM is religious or not, state education officials said that
religion clubs are allowed in California public schools under certain
conditions.

"You can have a religious club on campus as long as its student-run
and there's no church affiliation," said Pam Slater, a spokeswoman for
the California Department of Education.

Ramsey said the Terra Linda TM club would have met those criteria.
Students would meditate twice a day - once before school, and once
after school - and not during school hours, and participation was
voluntary, she said. Religious clubs, including a Christian club, have
existed at the school without stirring debate, she said.

Sharing the chagrin of some Terra Linda parents over the TM club was
the Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit legal group that often
advocates for religion to play a greater role in public life. In this
case, though, the group threatened to sue the high school over church-
state boundaries.

"If it's religious in nature and it involves faculty, then you would
have a problem," said Kevin Snider, chief counsel for the institute.

Still, some parents said they fully supported TM at Terra Linda, as
did their kids.

Suzanne Rush of San Rafael has two daughters at Terra Linda, one a
sophomore and the other a junior. She said one daughter planned to
sign up for the TM club, and the other was considering it. Rush, who
tutors elementary school students, had no problem with it

"I work with kids every day that are stressed out," she said. "If can
offer our kids something to help them de-stress and work up to their
potential, then that's what we want."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm138.html

High School's Club Called 'Religion,' 'Cult' By Parents

NBC 11, California/October 13, 2006

Saulsalito, California -- A new club that some are calling a cult or
religion is coming to a Bay Area high school and bringing plenty of
controversy with it, NBC11's Stacey Ciauri reported.

Terra Linda High School principal Carole Ramsey brought Transcendental
Meditation to the school after she saw a film about the meditation
made by David Lynch.

"It's about quieting your mind ... It's actually very good for your
brain," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said TM helps students de-stress.

Supporters of the group and parents met Thursday night at the
Sausalito school to discuss the club.

The meeting ended when a parent denounced the group and refused to
leave the school's stage.

The Department of Education said they have no problem with the club.

Parent Susan Crittendon said the group has raised some concerns.

"Its the beginning of a whole new philosophy of life. They work by
putting people in trances, and when you're in a trance you're more
suggestible," parent Susan Crittendon.

Multiple teachers and 60 students have shown interest in the group.

Some parents have complained that TM is a religion.

"It isn't a religion," Ramsey said. "It's just like people who
practice yoga -- it comes form Hindu tradition."

According to TM.org, the Transcendental Meditation technique is not a
religion.

"The Transcendental Meditation technique is a simple, natural
technique practiced by millions of people of all religions, including
clergy. Practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique does not
require or involve faith or any particular set of beliefs," according
to the site.

Lynch, the filmmaker known for Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and the
television series Twin Peaks, gave the school a $175,000 grant for
starting the club.

"TM really helps. When you’re stressed out from school, it makes you
fresher and brighter. At the end of a long day, I meditate and can
still focus on my homework," said first year college student, Nalina
Loiselle, on TM.org.

"I notice that I get support of nature from meditating. Meditating
regularly just seems to make things work out in school, family, and
every day life. This makes life easier and more enjoyable," said 16-
year-old high school student George Beichert, on TM.org.

TM was founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who was a spiritual advisor
to The Beatles in the 1960s.

According to the group's Web site, the Transcendental Meditation
technique "expands the consciousness of each student, significantly
increasing their intelligence, creativity, confidence, inner calm, and
motivation."

Participating students would use the meditation technique for 20
minutes twice a day, sitting comfortably with their eyes closed.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm137.html

Plans for meditation at Terra Linda High don't soothe everyone

Marin-Independent Journal/October 11, 2006
By Ted Whitaker

Terra Linda High School plans to launch a Transcendental Meditation
program with the help of a $175,000 grant from noted filmmaker David
Lynch.

Lynch established a foundation in his name to spread Transcendental
Meditation to schools as a method of stress management. The Terra
Linda program would be the David Lynch Foundation's first in
California, although others operate in Washington, D.C., and Detroit.

Principal Carole Ramsey became an enthusiastic supporter after hearing
Lynch speak, but some say Transcendental Meditation is rooted in a
religious movement that is inappropriate for public school.

"There's no doubt in my mind that it's religious," said opponent Paul
Powell, whose daughter is a senior at the school.

Lynda Nichols, a history-social science consultant with the state
Department of Education, does not see a problem with the program. She
said it is voluntary, not part of the curriculum required for
graduation, and another way to engage students.

"The parents that are concerned should just not let their children
attend," she said. "The district is certainly within their right to
offer it."

Ramsey will host an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the
school library for parents who want to know more about it.

Transcendental Meditation is one part of a new three-part Terra Linda
High School wellness program; the other parts involve encouraging
students to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of refined and
processed foods, and increasing physical education.

Practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, founded by Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, use it as a way to improve mental and physical health.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is perhaps most famous for being associated with
The Beatles when the group experimented with Eastern religion.

According to Lynch's Web site, students sit silently for 15-20 minutes
twice a day with their eyes closed to settle their minds and
experience different levels of thought until arriving at the source of
their thoughts. It is not, according to the foundation, a religion or
philosophy and practitioners do not change their lifestyles or
experience any types of mind control.

"In today's world of fear and uncertainty," Lynch wrote on the
foundation's Web site, "every child should have one class period a day
to dive within himself and experience the field of silence - bliss -

the enormous reservoir of energy and intelligence that is deep within

all of us. This is the way to save the coming generation."

According to the school, informational meetings for faculty will begin
this month and students will begin meetings in November. The program
has space for 250 students and 25 teachers.

Anyone who enrolls would take 90-minute classes for four days in a
row, followed by about 25, 30-minute sessions during the next couple
years.

Participants would be tested before and after the program to assess
how it affects their grades, blood pressure, discipline and several
other issues. It is not part of the curriculum and would be offered
either before or after school or during breaks.

Ramsey said the proposed program is in response to students who
requested a meditation club at school. Along with physical education
teacher David Garcia, she attended a speech by Lynch at the University
of California at Berkeley in which he explained how Transcendental
Meditation helps students reduce stress and improve their health.

Ramsey said the proposed program would not have any religious or
spiritual elements and is widely respected for reducing anxiety,
depression, behavior problems, insomnia and other problems.

"It's a technique, not a belief system," Ramsey said.

Suzanne Rush, a parent whose daughter plans to enroll, said she
supports Ramsey and the program because children of all ages need to
know how to deal with stress. She is familiar with the program and
thinks the religious issue is unfounded.

"I look at it as another tool to help our children," she said.

Powell, who in addition to being a parent is a certified sport yoga
instructor and stress management specialist, said he applauds the diet
and exercise aspects of the school's wellness program. But, he added,
there are better stress management methods that are not associated
with any religion.

He said Transcendental Meditation is rooted in Hinduism. He said he
supports students who participate in Transcendental Meditation or any
other religion on their own, but not when school administrators get
behind it.

"I don't see how that's appropriate," he said.

Bob Ross, a 1968 Redwood High School graduate who is vice president of
the Lynch foundation, said the program is voluntary and completely non-
religious. He said it is nonsense for anyone to believe the program
has a religious component.

"Some people think we still haven't landed on the moon," he said.

He said the American Medical Association published a study that
concluded the program reduces risk factors for hypertension, diabetes
and obesity.

"There's an enormous amount of research that documents the effect," he
said.

Dr. Edward Oklan, a San Anselmo child and adult psychiatrist whose
children attended Terra Linda High School, said he wasn't too familiar
with Transcendental Meditation.

"Options for relaxation training are good, in general," said Oklan,
who has recommended children deal with stress by participating in
youth groups at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

He said the proposed program is probably fine as long as it is limited
to education and doesn't involve any church-like elements.

"There are a lot of kids under stress and it's good for them to deal
with it," he said.

Filmmaker's devotion

Filmmaker David Lynch is famous for writing and directing feature
films with unusual, surreal plots such the 2001 psychological thriller
"Mulholland Drive," which earned him an Oscar nomination.

Others include films "Eraserhead," "Blue Velvet," "Lost Highway" and
"Wild at Heart," and the television hit "Twin Peaks."

Lynch has practiced Transcendental Meditation for more than 30 years.
He established his foundation to teach Transcendental Meditation to
any child who wants to learn.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm136.html

Outer Peace
New York Times Magazine/October 10, 2006
By Lily Koppel

Encounter

In the 1960's, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - called the giggling guru by the
press - gained a measure of celebrity for promoting his mantra-
repetition technique of Transcendental Meditation around the world and
for serving a brief stint as spiritual adviser to the Beatles. His
message was that with the proper techniques, each individual could
find peace, as one of his disciples, George Harrison, sang, "within."
Today, his organization claims to hold U.S. assets of $300 million and
to have taught six million adherents (training now costs $2,500) in
T.M. centers around the world. It also operates a university in
Fairfield, Iowa.

Maharishi, who is believed to be 89, now confines himself to two rooms
in his golden-hued log house in the small Dutch village of Vlodrop.
Although he has emerged only a few times in the past year - for fresh
air on a chauffeured drive - he contends that his most important work
lies ahead of him. His first 50 years, he says, were merely a "warm-
up" for his goal of creating world peace by, among other things,
rebuilding national capitals according to his harmony-producing
precepts. Inner peace, it turns out, is not enough.

When I visited Vlodrop this spring, Maharishi agreed to a rare
interview. I was permitted in his house but was not allowed into his
upstairs quarters. His followers told me that seclusion preserves his
energy and that he talks in person to only a small circle of
attendants. I spoke to Maharishi by videoconference from a downstairs
room where his red velvet gilded throne sat empty.

Framed in a flat-screen monitor, he appeared more than ever a mystical
creature, his thin face sketched with a white beard. He was dressed in
his customary white silk dhoti, a fresh necklace of yellow petals
around his neck. His aim, he explained in English, is to create
coherence in a world undone by our stressed brains, artificial
national borders, terrorism and irrational violence. "My coherence-
creating groups are going to put out all this mischief-mongership in
the world," he said in a high-pitched voice, holding President Bush up
as the greatest mischief-monger of all. "The world is going to come
out to be a neat and clean world. All these countries will fade
away."

Maharishi regards his own 65-acre enclave as the capital of a Global
Country of World Peace; it even has its own currency, the raam. He
lives here with 50 of his adherents - including his "minister of

science and technology," John Hagelin, a Harvard-educated physicist,

but sees little of the bearded Westerners who come for long meditation
retreats or research projects. The compound is in a parallel universe
to Vlodrop, with its 2,000 locals. One of the few who has crossed over
is the town florist, who practices T.M. and each day removes all the
thorns from the yogi's daily order of bushels of organic roses.

Maharishi is not content to promote peace just inside his compound.
Hagelin has run for president of the United States three times, and
recently, Maharishi chose 40 countries in which to support corps of
"yogic fliers." The human fliers supposedly use surges of energy to
physically lift themselves off the ground. Like a number of aspiring
religious thinkers these days, the Maharishi and Hagelin say they
believe that the physics of quantum mechanics, with its leaping
particles and abundant paradoxes, can be combined with ancient
traditions into a new philosophy that stresses the world-changing
potential of a "transcendental consciousness." Maharishi argues, for
instance, that when the square root of 1 percent of the earth's
population - that is, 8,000 people - meditate all at once, the result
will be the diffusion of a higher state of consciousness into the
atmosphere.

Another element of his vision is to rebuild the world according to
Vedic principles. He has called for the demolition of "improperly
oriented" buildings, believing them to be toxic, and includes among
them the United Nations and the White House. There are proposals for
New York and Paris to be cleared to make way for 3,000 marble peace
palaces. (His organization operates such palaces in Bethesda, Md.,
Lexington, Ky., Houston and Fairfield.) Maharishi is also convinced
that every country's capital is wrongly located. In India and America,
his organization has bought land near what it calls each country's
"brahmastan" - or the geographical and energy center. The future
capital of the United States would be Smith Center, Kan., population
1,931.

Despite the support of celebrities from David Lynch to Donovan,
Maharishi has been disappointed in his efforts to recreate the world.
Hagelin's poor showing in the 2000 presidential race did not lift his
spirits. Locked in legal battles, his organization has not gained
permission to raze a Franciscan monastery on its property in Vlodrop.
It was also unable to establish sovereignty on 100 acres of Rota, an
island in the Pacific. But even so, he has managed to transform, if
not the world, then at least his gated utopia into an eerily peaceful
place. At nightfall, the lawn, mowed by robots, lights up with
decorative deer.

Lily Koppel is on the staff of the magazine.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm135.html

A lotus amid the Iowa corn

A new Midwestern town has the teachings of a well-known maharishi at
its heart.

The Los Angeles Times/September 10, 2006
By Carina Chocano

When I booked my trip last April to attend a conference on
Transcendental Meditation at the Maharishi University of Management in
Fairfield, Iowa, I had no idea I would be visiting another country. My
airline ticket clearly indicated Cedar Rapids, and from there I would
rent a car and drive about two hours to a small town 50 miles from the
Mississippi River. I was a longtime fan of filmmaker David Lynch, one
of the conference's keynote speakers, and I was interested in
meditation, occasionally popping in for a guided meditation at a
neighborhood Buddhist temple.

By the time I had made the travel arrangements, I knew I would be
spending two nights at the improbably named Raj, an ayurvedic spa-
hotel improbably located in the middle of a cornfield. I knew I would
be attending a conference entitled "Consciousness, Creativity and the
Brain," where John Hagelin, the onetime Natural Law Party presidential
candidate would also speak. Hagelin once offered to deploy 400 "yogic
fliers" to Kosovo to meditate for peace (then-Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright declined).

What I didn't know is that the Raj is not in Fairfield but just
outside of it, in a brand-new town called Maharishi Vedic City, which
happens to be the North American capital of the Global Country of
World Peace.

So to say that Maharishi Vedic City exists on a plane of its own is
not quite to speak metaphorically. The town, which consists of several
still-sprouting residential developments, is surrounded by cornfields
dotted with barns and gloomy Victorians. The area is no stranger to
sectarian lifestyle experiments: Not far away is the Mennonite
community of Kalona, where bearded men and bonneted women drive around
in buggies.

When I arrived, the sky looked as though it had been carpeted in a
gray Stainmaster Berber. Fairfield proper looked as though it had seen
better days — specifically 1854, when it hosted the first Iowa State
Fair. It has the stately but melancholy air of a once-prosperous
Midwestern town in decline.

By contrast, M.V.C. displays all the architectural characteristics of
a new exurban development: gaudy, oversize construction that has no
stylistic relation to its environment but instead vaguely alludes to a
theme-park version someplace sort of magical and far away.

The first thing that alerted me to the existence of the Global Country
of World Peace was a bright yellow flag with an orange sunburst
design, which I took at first to be an expression of meditator pride,
the TM equivalent of a rainbow flag. Checking in at the Raj, I noticed
a display of the Global Country's paper money, "the ideal currency of
the city" (though they did take my American Express).

Think pink

Steve Yellin, my guide and PR liaison for the weekend, met me at my
room, which was bright and plush, done in a smoothed-over rustic style
I decided to call Santa Barbara Provençal. He was wearing a radiant
pure pink cashmere sweater, which I initially took for a fashion
statement. But it turned out pink was everywhere. It was the color of
the media room at the Raj, where pastel Barcaloungers faced a TV
permanently tuned to the Maharishi Channel. And it was the color of
the private plane that first delivered the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to
rural Iowa in 1971.

Over a vegetarian buffet lunch, I got a brief history of the town. The
maharishi (now an octogenarian billionaire living in the Netherlands)
introduced TM to the West in the 1950s. He founded the Maharishi
University of Management in 1971, around the time he became one in the
long line of "fifth Beatles." (John Lennon would go on to write the
none-too-flattering "Sexy Sadie.")

Vedic City grew around the school, incorporating in 2001. "Vedic"
refers to "Veda," the Sanskrit word for "knowledge," which the
maharishi claims to have distilled into a comprehensive system for
living. TM is just the beginning. The "complete Vedic science of
consciousness" encompasses architecture, education, health,
agriculture, administration, economy and defense.

There are, according to the TM organization, more than 6 million
practitioners worldwide. Fairfield/M.V.C. is home to a few thousand of
them and offers, beyond individual daily practice, an all-inclusive
lifestyle.

After lunch, my guide took me on a tour of the town. All of the
structures in M.V.C. are built in strict adherence to Maharishi
Sthapatya Veda technique, which requires that all buildings face east,
include a central "quiet space," and be adorned with a golden dollop
called a kalash.

The houses cost $200,000 to $800,000, including consultation fees and
royalties, which sounded like a lot for rural Iowa, but I was told
that "people who live and work in these buildings report that they
think more clearly, make better decisions, feel happier and healthier,
feel more alert and refreshed throughout the day, have more restful
and refreshing sleep, have more energy and less fatigue and experience
less stress and greater peace of mind." (Blurting, "Oh, like feng
shui," in response to an initial explanation of how it all works is
the wrong thing to do.)

I came to Iowa on a lark — or as close to a lark as you can come while
on assignment for a major newspaper. The TM organization courts the
press with an interest that borders on ardor and, as a result,
throughout the weekend, I felt less like a fly on the wall than the
elephant in the room.

Because Vedic City wants you to visit. It believes in the creativity-
enhancing, stress-reducing, intelligence-increasing, health-promoting
and world-peace-increasing properties of TM, and it really, really
wants you to believe in them too.

Vedic City also wants you to know that Vedic City is for foodies. It
wants you to sample its desultory smattering of ethnic restaurants and
conclude that here you'll want for nothing. The town of 285 has big
plans for expansion, for attracting tourists and potential meditators.
Mayor Bob Wynne (a longtime meditator) has said that the idea is to
expand to 1,200 residents by 2010, and eventually reach up to 10,000.
Since it incorporated, the city has purchased more than 100 acres of
farmland, which someday will be the site of a theme park, a golf
course and botanical gardens.

There was something about Vedic City's architecture, not to mention
the mammoth vehicles parked in the driveways, that was disconcerting
yet familiar; it was exoticism snugly tucked into a marketable
lifestyle brand. Vedic McMansions, Vedic lodges, Vedic Cape Cod
bungalows and Vedic condos commingled within a short distance of giant
his-and-hers Golden Domes of Pure Knowledge where the yogic fliers
congregate. On the way back to the hotel, I passed a mobile home park
called Utopia Park ("The Homes by the Domes"), which is just off
Heaven and Taste of Utopia streets.

The organic grocery was like the hippie co-op in every college or
lefty town — except the bulletin board was disproportionally dedicated
to guru services and the "for-rent" fliers list Eastern orientation as
an amenity.

After the tour, I went back to the Raj to rest before the weekend's
welcome reception. I wandered around the calming lobby, stopping to
check out the scale model of the Vedic Observatory on my way to the
gift shop. I hung out in the media room for a bit. The maharishi was
on TV, talking about the unified field. (You couldn't spit without
hitting a portrait of the maharishi around here.)

In the gift store, I bought some beautiful Indian-themed notecards.
The woman at the register was very edgy and stressed out for someone
working in a shop where, at that moment, there was only one customer
standing there without so much as a pricing question. When a colleague
came in with a technical problem, she melted down. I went back to my
room, clutching my relaxing bath salts, feeling sort of jittery
myself.

A few hours later, I joined Steve and his wife for dinner at a now-
closed restaurant called Regina's. I ordered the salmon on a plank of
flaming cedar, which, I was surprised to discover, actually came on a
plank of flaming cedar. My fish was on a wood chip that was on fire.
When the flames failed to subside, I smothered them discreetly with
mashed potatoes. It was delicious.

The bulk of the weekend, though, I spent in a big room — something
very much like a hangar, in fact — attending a conference on
"Creativity, Consciousness and the Brain," listening to talks on the
relationship between quantum physics and peace-creating energy fields,
and watching the brain waves of a young student of meditation hooked
up to an EEG as a group of bald men stood around beaming.

The conference constituted the last leg of a 12-campus tour
introducing college students to TM and promoting Lynch's new
scholarship program, "The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-
Based Education and World Peace." If the need for meditation
scholarships sounds strange, considering the ease with which
meditation instruction can be obtained, you should know that the
formal four-day TM instruction and a personal mantra (plus future
adjustments) will run you $2,500.

Early on Saturday morning, Lynch graciously took questions from the
conference-goers, who were encouraged to ask him about anything,
whether it be meditation or movie-making. Judging from the questions,
what many of the young attendees sought were grand unifying answers.

They worried, perhaps prematurely, about how to retain their integrity
and creativity in Hollywood, an industry known for its bone-headedness
and venality. They wanted to know should they shoot on film or digital
video? They wanted to understand what releases creativity, what its
limits are.

"The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi talks about an ocean of creativity and
consciousness," Lynch replied. "Then modern science says it's true —
everything that is emerges from this thing. Quantum physics and the
unified field."

So, what's the secret?

The questions were much like those aspiring filmmakers ask directors
during a Q&A at a film festival. In those sessions, it's generally
been my experience that directors are rarely asked about aesthetics or
ideas.

What people want to know — and sometimes they ask this cleverly,
sometimes clumsily — is how they can stop being themselves and start
being the actor/director/famous person. They want answers, in other
words, on how to transform their lives. They want the secret formula,
the treasure map, the magic phrase, the secret mantra.

There's something indescribably alluring about a "simple, effortless"
daily practice that purports to alleviate everything that ails the
21st century brain. And like most indescribably alluring things,
there's something unsettling about it too. TM sells itself very
aggressively as the one true meditation practice, a practice unlike
other practices that require contemplation or analysis or some other
form of effort.

And here, in southwestern Iowa, just in time for the baby boomers'
twilight years, is their Eastern-philosophy utopia. What 40 years ago
might have been an "alternative lifestyle" is now a marketable
lifestyle product; an entropic mix of spirituality and materialism;
self-betterment and self-absorption as a cure for all of humanity's
ills; consciousness-expansion as a way to building wealth and saving
the world. For the not-so-low price of $2,500, you're offered inner
peace, world peace, reduced blood pressure and the sense of yourself
as a maverick pioneer, a "cultural creative."

Meanwhile, neither the square footage of the average house (in an non-
temperate year-round climate) nor the size of the gas tank of the
average car seems to factor into the peace equation.

As Fred Travis, director of the Psychophysiology Center at MUM, softly
droned on about "the delightful flow of fine feeling and soft
thinking" brought on in the college brain by TM, I wandered off. I
think I was suffering from severe scientific proof fatigue. From the
moment of my arrival, I had been regaled with tales of millions of
dollars in research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the
findings published in prestigious medical journals, the studies
conducted in partnership with major university hospitals. Nearly every
conversation, whether it concerned elementary-school academic
performance or cholesterol or crime-rate reduction, at some point
included the phrase "There was this study…. "

Maybe someday we'll look back on these early years of the 21st century
as the moment when it became clear that money, competent PR and, above
all, frank and unabashed banality have the power to normalize
anything. When life itself transformed into a mall of "lifestyle
choices," laid out end to end on a flat, infinite plane of
possibility.

I wandered into the student union bookstore, which carried no books
except for the maharishi's. In the admissions building, I perused a
display detailing the maharishi's blueprints for an "ideal city." It
is grid-like and built around gardens. Examples of bad cities include
Paris and New York.

Later, another journalist asked one of the PR guys whether the
maharishi would really prefer to see a big square suburb where Paris
is. I mean, it's Paris, she said.

He considered this and then replied, "Well, it might be nice for us to
visit, but think about the people who have to live there."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm134.html

Group's Plan Causes Tension in Kansas Town

Associated Press/June 7, 2006
By Carl Manning

Smith Center, Kansas — Supporters of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi see his
Transcendental Meditation movement as fostering world harmony. But in
this farm town in the heart of the heartland, the movement's plans to
build its "World Capital of Peace" here are creating more tension than
tranquility.

Folks became alarmed when the outsiders bought up large tracts of
land. Nine local pastors warned the movement that it is encroaching on
their spiritual turf. And when a TM representative started throwing
around terms at a meeting like "waves of coherence" and "silent zero
point," the farmers just shook their heads.

"It hasn't split the community, but it has caused a lot of tension,"
said Mayor Randy Archer. "We're an older community, and new things
that come to town are scary for some people."

The TM movement _ whose founder, the Maharishi, was the Beatles' guru
_ has announced plans to spend $15 million to build a dozen marble
"peace palaces" facing east in Smith County. Because TM's
practitioners want to disperse "waves of coherence" as widely as
possible to influence others, they chose a spot just 10 miles west of
the geographic center of the Lower 48 states.

Eric Michener, who works as project coordinator out of a storefront
office on Main Street, conceded his group, the nonprofit Maharishi-
affiliated Global Country of World Peace, probably could have made a
better first impression.

"I don't think we've run into this vibrant level of misunderstanding
before," he said.

Altogether, the Maharishi wants to build 2,400 peace palaces in 250
U.S. cities and has opened ones in Houston, Bethesda, Md., Lexington,
Ky., and Fairfield, Iowa, where his group also has operated the
Maharishi University of Management for three decades.

In Smith County, initial plans call for about 300 people to live in
the two-story palaces, but that could increase to 2,000 over the next
three years, said Kent Boyum, the group's director of governmental
affairs. He said the palaces also could be open to tourists. Work is
expected to begin this summer and be completed by year's end.

TM traces its roots to India. The movement began in the 1950s and is
best known for its celebrity disciples, who have included Clint
Eastwood and the comedian Andy Kaufman. Practitioners repeat a thought
_ a mantra _ over and over to achieve relaxation, typically for 15 or
20 minutes every morning and evening.

Supporters say that TM is a technique, not a religion _ that people
can meditate and still be of any faith they want.

But Pastor Greg Hubbard of the Evangelical Free Church, countered,
"They say they aren't a religion, and I say baloney." In April, he and
other pastors signed a letter to the local newspaper saying: "They are
welcome, but they must understand we are competing for the eternal
souls of people."

Hubbard said freedom of religion or the right to own property aren't
issues here. "The thing that bothers us is what we perceive to be
their blatant dishonesty about who they are. The bottom line is,
dishonest neighbors aren't good neighbors," he said.

Others in Smith Center _ a dwindling town of 1,800 with an aging
population _ are withholding judgment.

"I'm not for them. I'm not against them. You've got to wait and see,"
the mayor said. "If it helps the community, that'll be great, and I
hope it does help the community."

Boyum held out the possibility of an economic boost for the town,
where folks raise wheat, corn, soybeans and cattle about 175 miles
from Topeka, near the Nebraska line: "Our intention is to funnel as
much finances and work through the local community as we can. We all
are consumers and will bring resources into the county."

The Global Country of World Peace bought about 1,100 acres this spring
to erect build the palaces and farm organic produce. Because land is
prized here above just about everything except family and faith,
people sat up and took notice.

"They came in and, boom, here we are," the mayor said. "People thought
they were sneaking in."

David Stortz, who farms near the site of the planned palaces, said he
has "no reason to believe that what they are going to do will hurt us,
but on the other hand what are they going to do to help us?"

Recently, a dozen people showed up at Michener's office for a question-
and-answer session. Some were curious about TM. Others were a little
upset. They wanted to know why Michener didn't show up the night
before for a public meeting, the usual means of hashing out problems
around here.

Michener said there had been some miscommunication and his superiors
had not authorized him to speak to a large gathering. He started using
terms like "silent zero point."

"It's just like they are pulling stories out of the sky," farmer Mark
Overmiller said after the meeting. "Baby, this will split this town
wide open."

Not everyone opposes the new neighbors. The Rev. Sharon Patton of the
First Christian Church grew up near Fairfield, Iowa, and recalled the
same concerns there when the Maharishi opened the university and
supporters moved into town.

"Those who are secure in their faith aren't worried about these people
coming," she said. "We are going through the same thing as the folks
in Fairfield and that passed. In time, it will die out."

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Transcendental Meditation: Bliss! Hippy days are here again

The Times (UK)/May 13, 2006

Sixties survivor Donovan is back but this time, he tells John Naish,
he really is going to change the world with transcendental meditation

Donovan is so sure that the enlightened consciousness of the Sixties
is coming back (and him along with it) that he starts singing "This is
the dawning of the Age of Aquarius" at me. The Scots-born troubadour
of hippy anthems such as Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, and Hurdy-
Gurdy Man is planning a world tour to reawaken us to the mind-
expanding wonders of what he calls the " real flower of those times" -
meditation.

And not just any meditation: Donovan, now still oddly boyish at 60,
travelled along with the Beatles, the actor Mia Farrow and Beach Boy
Mike Love in 1968 to spend a legendary sojourn at Rishikesh in India,
to study transcendental meditation (TM) under the movement's leader,
the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John Lennon fell out with the Maharishi and
wrote Sexy Sadie, about his allegedly materialistic ways. But Donovan
remains a firm devotee.

Indeed, the singer-songwriter, who first hit the charts in 1965 at the
age of 18, appears to have kept staunchly faithful to the whole rag-
bag of that era's counter-cultural ideals of peace, love and flower
power, even to the point of becoming a little fossilised. But perhaps
we should allow that of a surviving pioneer of today's New Age passion
for self-exploration.

"My interest in alternative healing originated when I left school. It
was primed by my father, a working-class bohemian factory worker, with
elevated thoughts of poetry and great poets," he says. "At 15 I was
reading Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, which led me to
discover alternative health and living through Zen meditation. Yet
there were no teachers in the West. They were all in the East."

The Fab Four got there first. George Harrison had become fascinated by
a sitar he'd seen on the set of the Beatles' film Help! He flew to
India to learn to play it from the master, Ravi Shankar. While there
his wife Patti learnt of the Maharishi's work. "When the Maharishi
arrived in Britain to teach TM in Bangor, I saw my friends the Beatles
on the television going down to see him," says Donovan. "I made a note
to look into it."

In fact, the Maharishi came to him, having learnt how pop star
converts could help his crusade to alter the world's consciousness. "I
was in LA doing a concert and two of the Maharishi's aides came to
invite me to see him. He initiated me a few days later. The guys after
me in the queue were the Grateful Dead."

So what did TM do for Donovan? "I had all the Western troubles of the
psyche: anxiety, anger, stress and fear, which all cause illness. Over
the past 40 years I have experienced the way this system has absolute
healing benefits," he says. "Maharishi calls me his 'transcendental
musician'. It's true that I'm unique. I'm a Celtic musician, poet and
actor. My music is rooted in that and was putting people into a
meditative state long before I learnt about meditation. I realised
that you could transcend the world into bliss through music, through
concerts, but it was not sustainable beyond the duration of the
concert. True permanent immersion has to be found through meditation.
I'm surrounded by healers - my wife is a reiki master and a
reflexologist - but I find TM is a supreme healing system. When you
transcend, all the solutions to your problems appear. You dive into
pure consciousness. It's amazing."

Well, hmm. I've practised TM for the past ten years and while I'm
certain it's done good things for my stress levels and helped to
foster my pursuit of things spiritual, Donovan's huge claims have me
thinking: "Eeek!" It's fair to say, too, that TM did not offer a
complete panacea for Donovan either. He admits that his life fell
apart at the end of the Sixties. "I felt displaced and I kind of had a
breakdown. It was just getting ridiculous, too big; the Beatles had
stopped playing in public but I was still out there," he says. "The
tension had increased considerably. There was a slow panic caused by
the question: 'What else is there to do?' I realised it was done. The
Sixties mission was complete. It was an extraordinary experience to
decide that that was it. My father smiled and my agent went crazy."

In fact, he continued to record throughout the Seventies and Eighties,
with albums such as HMS Donovan and Essence to Essence achieving ever-
diminishing sales. He even dabbled in glam rock. But the Seventies
also reunited him with his "wife and muse" Linda Lawrence (who already
had a son by the Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones), and they raised
their own daughters, Astrella Celeste and Oriole Nebula. Now he feels
we are ready for his return. "My comeback is scheduled for the time
when Linda and I feel that the world's consciousness is high enough
again," he declares. "Our bohemian ideas in the Sixties have taken
years to be accepted into the mainstream. Now I have an enormous
amount of festivals to play in the summer."

These include Montrose and two Celtic festivals in France, as well as
two nights at the Jazz Cafe' in northwest London this weekend. But his
renaissance has also been spurred by him licensing his Sixties hits
Mellow Yellow, Catch the Wind and Happiness Runs to be used in TV
adverts for The Gap, Volvo and Delta Airlines. Doesn't he worry about
promoting a globalised clothes chain and gas-guzzling companies?
Absolutely not, he says: "Adverts are now the way that millions of
people encounter my music. I asked myself: 'Should I be selling out?'
And I thought: 'No, I'm selling in.' The enormous number of people who
see Gap commercials (Mellow Yellow) are turned on to my music, and
that turns people on to my message. I don't have to agree with the
product. I agree with the media exposure.

The enormous amount of money that makes for us is put to good
causes."

Indeed, he oversees the Drukpa Trust, which supports Tibetan monks.
Donovan and Linda have just returned from visiting Tibet, Bhutan and
Nepal. "We are supporting a school being made in Ladakh, where the
Dalai Lama and Drukpa Lama have homes," he says. And he is still in
touch with the increasingly reclusive Maharishi. "I went with Linda to
see him four years ago in his converted monastery in Holland. His
retreat there is built on Vedic principles. We didn't realise that
George Harrison had been there a little earlier, before he dropped his
earthly body."

Donovan is not ready to drop his own earthly body yet. "My physical
health is perfect," he beams. "Linda keeps me on a mostly vegetarian
diet, though I eat fish. My wife does yoga but I don't much. I like
swimming, cycling and walking. I've not done TM every day for 40
years. But it permeates your life. At times I would do other types of
meditation such as Tibetan, Buddhist and visualisation. Giving up was
not really changing, it was applying it in different ways and then
returning to TM."

His boundless optimism and immunity to self-doubt belie the fact that
he contracted polio through a childhood vaccination and has had a
withered leg ever since. "Polio made one introspective," he says. "I
still swam and won competitions. Football may not have been my forte
but it never stopped me doing normal dance steps and getting the girls
to come round the back of the school for a snog. It helped in a way
because, when I was ill for a few years, my father read me poetry."

After the summer festivals, he plans a meditation-promoting tour of
universities in America and possibly Britain, alongside fellow high-
profile proponents of TM, the film director David Lynch and the
quantum physicist John Hagelin.

"It's the start of a world tour to reconnect and establish ties with
TM groups in Australia and South Africa," he says. "Last year saw the
release of my autobiography and this year the accent will be on the
jewel of the bohemian Sixties ideas - meditation. Its time is now."

Donovan appears at the Jazz Cafe' on May 18 and 19
(www.jazzcafe.co.uk). The paperback edition of his autobiography The
Hurdy Gurdy Man (Arrow, £7.99) is available from Times Books First at
£7.59 (p&p free). Call 0870 1608080 or visit www.timesonline.co.uk/booksfirstbuy

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm132.html

Dissociative bliss becomes addictive
'A house of cards'

Edmonton Sun, Canada/April 17, 2006

Joe Kellet knows gurus. He says he was one.

For years, Kellett was a disciple of the transcendental meditation
movement, then a teacher. He now runs an anti-TM webpage.

His problem is complicated by the fact that TM is based on - but does
not mirror - 2,000-year-old ayurvedic health rituals from India. That
gives it credibility, as do studies showing it can be good for your
health.

"When TMers say 'TM is not a religion' they are talking about the
purely mechanical mental technique," says Kellett. "However, 'TM the
technique' is never taught without introducing recruits to 'TM the
religion' during three days of instruction following initiation.

"Mahesh initially came out of India openly as a teacher of
spirituality. Then in the early '70s he abandoned that approach and
began disguising his message in the language of scientific analogy.
But the core message is still the same under the semantic covers: do
TM for long enough and you will become 'enlightened.' "

You might also have negative consequences. A compendium of 75 studies
of TM technique in 2000 found that 63% of practitioners suffered long-
term negative mental health consequences from the repeated
dissociation - or disconnection - with reality caused by going into a
trance-like state.

TM counters that by pointing out it can produce 600 studies showing
the benefits to everything from high-blood pressure and stress
reduction to slowing the aging of cells, reducing mental fatigue and
improving clarity of thought.

Health benefits or drawbacks notwithstanding, Kellett argues, TM
teachers were tasked with withholding information from students until
they were susceptible enough to accept dogmatic positions related to
the maharishi's own Vedic Hindu background.

"Dissociative 'bliss' is often an easily produced substitute for true
personal growth," says Kellett.

"As teachers we memorize almost everything we are to tell students. We
were very careful not to tell them too much less they become
'confused' by things that they 'couldn't yet understand'.

"Only after they had the 'experience,' could we start very gradually
revealing TM dogma in easy, bite-sized chunks, always after they had
just finished meditation and were therefore likely to be still in a
dissociative state."

When he left the group, Kellett took direction from cult deprogrammer
Steve Hassan, who established a technique for what he calls "re-
establishing reality testing" - taking people who've been addicted to
the sensation of dissociative bliss and making them critical thinkers
again.

"I realized that everything I had believed and experienced was based
on the premise that Mahesh was truly an enlightened man with the
highest spiritual teaching on the planet," he says.

"When I abandoned that assumption, the whole thing fell like a house
of cards."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm131.html

Maharishi to build World Capital of Peace in Kansas
Associated Press/April 4, 2006

Smith Center, Kansas - Followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, known for
founding the transcendental meditation movement, recently broke ground
on a complex they are calling the World Capital of Peace.

The $14 million project will sit on 480 acres of land in north-central
Kansas, near the Nebraska border and close to the geographical center
of the continental United States.

"I really felt good about it," said Smith Center Mayor Randy Archer,
whose initial reservations about the Maharishi moving to the region
were put to rest at the groundbreaking last week.

"I think they will blend and mesh with the community and the county.
But any time a change comes in, usually it's scary."

The transcendental meditation movement began in India in the 1950s and
is best-known for celebrity disciples that included the Beatles,
comedian Andy Kaufman and actor and director Clint Eastwood.

The Maharishi-affiliated groups at work in Smith Center are nonprofit
organizations known as the U.S. Peace Government and the Global
Country of World Peace. Officials said they chose Smith Center because
of its quiet, rural setting in middle America.

"It's not a closed community that won't let anybody else be a part of
what we are doing," Kent Boyum, an ecologist and the director of
government relations for the Global Country of World Peace, said of
the Maharishi.

Boyum said the Smith Center complex will include 12 to 15 buildings,
each about 12,000 square feet, with living quarters and meeting space.
He said people living in the community will focus on practicing
transcendental meditation and organic farming, but the site also will
be open to tourists.

Smith Center is the centerpiece of a number of "Peace Palaces" the
group intends to build across the Midwest, Boyum said. Two such single
buildings are planned for Lawrence and the Kansas City area.

"The people who practice are all kinds of people - all shapes, all
colors. Some have religion. Some don't," Boyum said. "It isn't an
absolute way of life. Some people just add to their normal way of life
and have less stress."

Like Archer, some people in the area had initial reservations about a
new group of people moving to the area. They point to the lack of
local water and wonder whether there will be enough to support such a
massive increase in development.

But most trepidation is due to a number of misconceptions that
accompany Maharishi.

"The rumors are it's a cult and they are going to make underground
bunkers and build nuclear weapons," said Archer, who estimates about
95 percent of the population is on board for the project. "That's not
what they are about."

While Boyum said the buildings for the World Capital of Peace will be
built mostly in a factory, then erected on site, the economic windfall
for a town with an aging population of about 1,800 is enticing.

"I feel very positive about it. The thought of people coming in and
spending money is very positive," said Charles Sellens, an
administrative assistant for the Smith County Commissioners. "They not
only sound professional, they are professional."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm130.html

Mind Medicine: What Proof?
Washington Post/March 21, 2006
By January W. Payne

A research review published in 2002 in an Australian medical journal
linked transcendental meditation (TM) to decreased hypertension. The
authors concluded that the technique was promising for prevention and
treatment of heart disease.

A similar review published last year in the Journal of Hypertension
found insufficient evidence to conclude whether TM lowers blood
pressure.

Inconsistent results like these leave people understandably baffled
about the value of so-called mind-body treatments, a branch of
alternative and complementary therapy that includes meditation,
hypnosis, imagery and mindfulness-based stress reduction. Each of
these techniques assumes that altering one's mental state can affect
bodily health. Enthusiastic testimonials and gripping media reports
notwithstanding, the research record on mind-body medicine remains
thin and inconclusive.

Still, these techniques are used, both with and without standard
medical treatments, by millions of people seeking relief from
conditions ranging from stress to heart disease. Many users report
benefits; risks are low. The chart below examines the uses and
research findings for several mind-body approaches. Scientific
investigation continues.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm129.html

Maharishi sued for not protecting students

Associated Press/February 28, 2006

Two federal lawsuits claim the Maharishi University of Management in
Fairfield doesn’t protect its students.

The lawsuits were filed separately in U.S. District Court by John
Killian, 23, a former student, and the family of Levi Butler, a
student who was killed in a stabbing on campus in 2004.

Butler was stabbed several times in the chest with a paring knife on
March 1, 2004 in the campus dining hall. The attack came several hours
after Killian was stabbed in the face with a ball point pen.

Shuvender Sem, 26, of Lancaster, Pa., was found not guilty by reason
of insanity in the attacks and committed to the Iowa Medical and
Classification Center at Oakdale.

The lawsuits, filed last Friday, claim the required twice-daily
regimen of meditation was dangerous for a mentally ill student.

‘‘In particular, transcendental meditation can magnify psychological
problems, including the likelihood and severity of aggressive and
violent behavior,’’ the lawsuits said.

The lawsuits say university employees ignored the first attack,
resuming classes and blaming the attack on Sem’s improper meditation.

Sem was placed in the custody of Joel Wynsong, the university’s dean
of men, and taken to Wynsong’s apartment on campus, where he stole a
paring knife, court documents said.

He then fled the apartment and went to the dining hall where he
stabbed Butler, records show.

The lawsuits allege the university was negligent for failing to
recognize the threat Sem posed to students, reporting the initial
attack to authorities and keeping Sem away from other students after
he attacked Killian.

‘‘We are very much looking forward to have the opportunity to bring to
light the events that lead to Levi Butler’s death,’’ said Stephen
Eckley, the Butler family’s attorney.

Bill Goldstein, a lawyer for the school, said he was unaware of the
lawsuits and would have to review them before commenting.

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Maharishi's group announces plans for university, school in Lancaster
Worcester Telegram & Gazette/February 16, 2006
By Jason Feifer

Lancaster— Followers of a transcendental meditation movement plan to
open a grade school and university in town, expanding upon a health
center they’ve operated there since 1985.

When complete, the current Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical Center will be
joined by 13 new buildings. They would serve between 30 and 50
students from kindergarten to Grade 12, up to 500 students working on
degrees, and about 100 staff members, according to Gregory Spitzfaden,
director of the Maharishi group’s New England Reconstruction Office.

The health center sits on 217 acres of land off George Hill Road. The
new buildings would use about 40 acres, Mr. Spitzfaden said.

“All the staff and students would live in these buildings, which are
designed to enhance the creativity and good fortune and mental clarity
of the people who are living and working and studying in them,” Mr.
Spitzfaden said.

The organization is made up of followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
a controversial guru who promotes a wide range of healing and
meditation practices. His group claims the methods are scientifically
tested, but many critics claim otherwise.

The group has two universities in Iowa, as well as a full town devoted
to its teachings there. The proposed university in Lancaster would be
the group’s first American school site outside of Iowa.

The Lancaster project is part of a larger expansion plan for the
Maharishi’s followers, according to Mr. Spitzfaden. The group also
wants to build a university on property it owns in Antrim, N.H., as
well as 28 “Peace Palaces” across New England. The palaces would be
buildings dedicated to practicing the Maharishi’s teachings.

The group has not run into any opposition in town, according to
Lancaster Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco. It has met the initial
zoning requirements, he said.

Mr. Spitzfaden said he hopes construction will begin by the spring.

But the announced plan doesn’t guarantee the new school will ever be
built, according to Rick A. Ross of the New Jersey-based Rick A. Ross

Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and

Movements. He said the Maharishi’s companies have a long history of
announcing grandiose plans and not following through, or simply buying
land in order to sell it for profit.

“Because of so many announced plans that never come to fruition, I’m
deeply skeptical of what they say they’re going to do,” he said.

The Lancaster site was going to be sold in 2000 for a reported $14
million, but the deal eventually fell through.

The Maharishi’s movement has taken many forms since its inception in
the 1950s, and has been bolstered by its affiliation with celebrities
such as The Beatles. It began by promoting basic relaxation
techniques, but has since grown to own and operate facilities across
the world.

It has promoted its teachings as an antidote to the world’s ills, and
claims to have decreased crime and terrorism. At its Web site, www.tm.org,
it offers charts such as one claiming a correlation between three
assemblies of followers and a reduction in global conflict.

Mr. Spitzfaden said the claims are all scientifically sound, but Mr.
Ross believes otherwise.

“It’s a religious belief system,” Mr. Ross said. “It’s based on faith,
not on facts.”

The Lancaster project is expected to cost about $30 million, according
to Mr. Spitzfaden. He said his organization is lining up funding now.

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Maharishi: All you need is love ... and cash

Maharishi's solutions for today's troubled world

Associated Press/February 15, 2006
By Arthur Max

Vlodrop, Netherlands (AP) -- The wizened sage sits alone upstairs in
his secluded wooden house, massaging his temples in fatigue as he
speaks to the camera.

It's late afternoon, and he has been at it since 3 a.m., conducting
his business by video linkup around the world: new schools in India,
new meditation centers in Europe, a new medical curriculum for his
university in Iowa.

At his age -- believed to be 89 -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has no
interest in dwelling on the halcyon days of the 1960s and 1970s when
he was guru to Beatles and Beach Boys and his Transcendental
Meditation movement was the new buzz on college campuses.

Sleeping only two or three hours a day, he is grappling with weightier
problems, his aides say -- translating the theory of meditative power
into a blueprint for feeding the hungry and bringing peace to the
world.

In his metaphysical world, Maharishi -- a Hindi-language title for
Great Seer -- believes the unifying field that Albert Einstein sought
has been within us all the time, in the "unbounded consciousness" of
the mind.

"There is one unity, unified wholeness, total natural law, in the
transcendental unified consciousness," he intones to the camera that
broadcasts his image to a reporter downstairs and to his weekly global
audience by Webcast.

Dressed in white, the elderly man on the screen has lost all but a
fringe of the long hair that once flowed over his shoulders. His full
beard and mustache are still bushy, but have turned silvery.

Physically isolated from all but a handful of attendants, Maharishi
contemplates the lessons of the Vedas, the vast Sanskrit canon
compiled some 3,500 years ago. From it, he evolves solutions for
today's troubled world:

• Tear down major structures -- the White House and the United Nations
among them -- and rebuild them according to Vedic architectural plans
that harmonize construction with nature.

• Send meditation groups to world hot spots as psychic shock troops
whose combined positive energy will dispel negativity, reduce crime,
ease conflict and promote world peace.

• And his latest project: a $10 trillion plan to eradicate poverty
from the Earth.

A prominently displayed advertisement has run daily since mid-December
in the International Herald Tribune seeking investors of a minimum
$60,000 for a World Peace Bond, promising a 10 to 15 percent annual
return.

His idea is to buy 5 billion acres (2 billion hectares) in 100
developing countries for labor-intensive farming, providing employment
and income for the world's poorest people by feeding the First-World
market for organic food.

The ads so far have failed to produce any takers. "We don't expect
anything so soon. Because the project is big, people have to examine
it from their different angles," said project director Benny Feldman,
a Mexican economist.

Governments can't do it, Maharishi believes. Neither can they bring
peace. "To resolve problems through negotiation is a very childish
approach," he says.

A few hundred mediators on either side of a conflict is all that's
needed to create an aura of peace. "We create world consciousness and
coherence. Therefore, fighting will stop all over," he says.

"Don't fight darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will disappear."

Eliminate poverty? End war and create world peace? One wonders whether
an agenda so ambitious can be grounded in reality.

But in Maharishi's nonlinear world, the scales are cosmic and time
frames have little meaning. If it takes 50 or 100 years, so be it.

Yet he operates as if time is running out.

"He runs several shifts of us into the ground," said American John
Hagelin, a physicist who interprets Maharishi's thoughts into science-
based language that falls more easily on a layman's ears. "He is a
fountainhead of innovation and new ideas -- far too many than you can
ever follow up."

Last July Maharishi brought 2,000 people from all over the world to
his Dutch compound to mark 50 years since he began teaching
transcendental meditation, a movement that claims 6 million
practitioners since it was introduced.

"Our time of talking about peace is over. Now it's time for us to
produce the effect," his aides quote him as telling the group. The
first 50 years, instructing people how to meditate, were just a warm-
up, he said.

Transcendental meditation, or TM, is a 20-minute twice daily routine
in which the meditator silently focuses on a sound, or mantra, to
induce relaxation and "dive into a state of pure consciousness."

Practitioners say the technique, which anyone can learn for a fee of
$2,500, taps into the deepest resources of the brain and
intelligence.

Claims of fraud

"Anger, stress, tension, depression, sorrow, hate, fear -- these
things start to retreat," said American movie director David Lynch of
"Twin Peaks" renown, who has practiced TM for 32 years.

"And for a filmmaker, having this negativity lift away is money in the
bank. When you're suffering you can't create," he told hundreds of
students at Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit, or Free University.

The movement claims more than 600 studies have proven the benefits of
TM. Most scientists agree it can ease stress, high blood pressure,
pain and insomnia. But some argue it's no more effective than many
other mind-body relaxation techniques.

But meditation, once dismissed as Eastern mysticism, has gained
legitimacy. The National Institutes of Health has had a Center for
Complimentary and Alternative Medicine since 1998 to research
nonconventional practices.

Maharishi's claims of the power of TM, including the ability to fly,
have led to occasional claims of fraud.

"I let people make remarks about me, but it doesn't touch me, all
those remarks," Maharishi says, dismissing the skeptics.

The Hindu holy man took up residence in 1990 on the 65-acre grounds of
a Franciscan monastery in a secluded forest near Vlodrop, an eastern
Dutch village near the German border.

Inside the security fence, huge satellite dishes provide his daily
link with the world. His wood-and-glass pavilion -- built without a
single nail, his aides say -- has a dozen conference rooms for
visiting experts and researchers who lodge in temporary huts on the
grounds.

No talk of the past

In recent years, Maharishi has rarely left the two rooms he has made
his home. Concerned about preserving his health, he talks by video
with aides and visitors who gather in a separate room around a table
filled with golden vessels, each bearing the flag of a different
country. The red velvet throne he once used in that room now remains
empty.

The two-story building, ringed by yet another security fence, is
dwarfed by the century-old monastery and school of St. Ludwig, which
was abandoned in 1978 after briefly serving as a Nazi storehouse
during the war.

His organization has been locked in courtroom battle for years with
preservationists trying to block him from tearing down the historic
but derelict building, and Maharishi has made few friends among his
neighbors.

"Few local people know anything about them. It's a closed community,"
said Ton Wolswijk of the Roerstreek Heritage Society.

Little is known of Maharishi's early years, and he refuses to talk
about them. It's believed he was born on January 12, 1917, in central
India. He earned a physics degree from Allahabad University, was the
longtime secretary to a leading Hindu sage, then went into silent
retreat for two years in the northern Indian hills.

In 1955, he began teaching transcendental meditation, and brought his

technique to the United States in 1959. But the movement really took

off after the Beatles visited his ashram in India in 1968.

His aides say he was disappointed that TM became identified with the
counterculture, and before admitting a visiting reporter to the camera
room, the sage's aides make it clear he doesn't want to talk about the
past.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm127.html

Too Good to Be True? Dutch Yogis Offer 15% Bond

Bloomberg/January 17, 2006
By Mark Gilbert

The people who taught transcendental meditation to The Beatles are
offering what may be the investment opportunity of a lifetime. As with
yogic flying or Chinese statistics, a certain suspension of disbelief
is required.

Maharishi Global Financing, a Dutch foundation affiliated with the
Indian guru who gave spiritual guidance to the Fab Four in the 1960s,
is marketing as much as $10 trillion of ``World Peace Bonds for
Poverty Removal.'' The three-year bonds, available in either dollars
or euros, offer as much as 15 percent a year in interest, depending on
how big your investment is.

That compares with the 4.3 percent you can get from lending to the
U.S. government for three years, or 2.9 percent on German government
bonds. A 15 percent interest rate is more than double what you can
make for lending dollars to Uruguay until 2009. And $10 trillion is
more than the total annual gross domestic product of the countries in
the euro region. I decide to telephone the Dutch authorities before
filling out the bond application form.

"A 10 to 15 percent interest rate is almost impossible to guarantee,''
says Werner van Bastelaar, a spokesman for the Dutch securities
regulator AFM in Amsterdam. "The amount of $10 trillion looks
impossible. All in all, any investor wanting to put their money in
this should really question whether or not it is too good to be
true.''

When I'm Sixty-Four

So what does Maharishi Global Financing plan to do with my money, and
where will my spectacular returns come from? The cash will develop 2
billion hectares (4.94 billion acres) of "unused land with
agricultural potential in 100 countries,'' the ad says. That's about
an eighth of the Earth's surface, excluding water. "It's really good
business to enjoy profit while eliminating poverty.''

I call Benjamin Feldman, who runs the foundation from a place called
Vlodrop in the Netherlands, to ask how he plans to generate such
humungous yields.

"We are targeting export-orientated organic crops for which there is a
large demand, a growing demand,'' Feldman says. "We do expect to
achieve those returns.''

I ask Feldman how he can be so confident that farming, which is
notoriously prone to crop failures and pestilence and weather shocks
and the like, is a safe place for my pension plan.

The project "involves different areas within one country and in other
countries,'' he says. "Even if there was a disaster sometime, it's
highly unlikely there will be a disaster everywhere all at the same
time.'' The group also plans to buy insurance against crop failure, he
says.

Fool on the Hill

In the current low-yield environment, 15 percent interest on a three-
year deal is an enticing proposition. I download the prospectus, which
details its numbers in euros, and read the small print.

The minimum investment in the European currency is 50,000 euros
($60,500) for 10 percent a year, 12 percent for investments of 500,000
euros to 950,000 euros, and a staggering 15 percent for buyers of more
than 1 million euros of securities. "But wait, there's more,'' as they
say in those late-night U.S. TV advertisements for nasal-hair
clippers, Dial-O-Matic food slicers and five-tray electric food
dehydrators.

That interest rate gets compounded annually, the bond document says.
You have to wait a little longer for your money, since it all gets
bundled together into a single payment when the bond matures rather
than paying you every year.

We Can Work It Out

Your patience is amply rewarded, though, by turning 50,000 euros into
66,550 euros in 2009, under the Silver scheme. The Gold scheme turns
500,000 euros into 702,464 euros in three years. Diamond members
stumping up 1 million euros do even better; their investment is worth
1,150,000 euros after year one, 1,322,500 euros after year two,
climbing to an almost off-the-charts 1,520,875 euros at repayment.

Anyone can see that turning 1 million euros into 1.5 million euros in
the space of three years requires this farming venture to resemble a
leveraged hedge fund running on amphetamines. I know organic produce
is all the rage, though can it really spark such stellar returns?

"It can't be done,'' says John Austin, 57, who helps grow organic
shiitake at Mull Mushrooms on the Isle of Mull, on Scotland's west
coast. "We don't rely on this to make any money. Breaking even would
be good enough.''

Supermarkets are paying less and less to growers, destroying profit
margins. "Sure, there's growing demand for organic food and sales are
going through the roof, so a lot of people think it's a good time to
get in on the ground floor,'' Austin says. "Here at the chalkface, it
looks a bit different.''

Ticket to Ride

Sifting through various links on the Internet, I come across a
biography of Feldman at Maharishi Global Financing. He seems like a
fascinating character. Born in Mexico, he's been teaching
transcendental meditation since 1973. In 2000, he became the finance
minister of something called the Global Country of World Peace. In
2002, his group introduced its own currency, the raam, for use in
Roermond, the Netherlands, and in Maharishi Vedic City in Iowa.

"The raam is a key element in the programs of his Holiness Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi to promote a balanced world economy,'' it says in a 2002
press release on the Web site of the Maharishi Open University. The
press release also refers to constructing 3,000 so- called peace
palaces in the world's biggest cities, and establishing "affiliated
organic farms'' near each city.

Let It Be

Van Bastelaar says the Jan. 5 notice advertising the bonds in the
International Herald Tribune caught the Dutch regulator's attention.
Securities with a minimum investment of 50,000 euros, though, are
exempt from many of the provisions of Dutch law designed to protect
widows and orphans, he says.

"With a value of 50,000 euros, there's not so much that we can do,''
though the regulator will monitor the outcome of the planned sale, he
says.

I ask Feldman how the bond sale is going. "We've had pledges of
several hundred million dollars,'' he says. When my efforts to
persuade him to name some of my potential fellow investors fail, I
decide that I have to agree with van Bastelaar. A return of 15 percent
compounded for three years is just too good to be true.

Oh well. Back to the lottery tickets.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm125.html

Man fails to fly sues Camelot owner

Editor's Note: This is the fourth of a five-part series investigating
the demise and possible future of the Camelot Hotel. Once one of the
most popular gathering places in Tulsa's history, and the host one
time to President Richard Nixon, the building has become an eyesore
and health menace.

Greater Tulsa Reporter/October 24, 2005
By Nancy K. Owens

On August 29, 2002, the Washington Post reported that The Global
Country of World Peace issued bonds which, according to information
provided by Maharishi, the owner of the Camelot in Tulsa, will pay 6
to 7 percent. He has enthusiastically encouraged investors to "Create
world peace – and make money!"

In addition to founding his own country and developing its own
currency, the Maharishi empire has been active and fairly successful
in reaching out to our nation's schools. In a November 13, 2004
article, AP writer Patrick Condon writes that officials from The
Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, a 300 student, private
K-12 academy located in Fairfield, Iowa, have reported "all their
children are above average." The secret, they claim, is Transcendental
Meditation. Advocates for TM are enthusiastic about spreading TM's
success to other schools and have appeared at public schools in New
York, California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and other places.

University of South Carolina sociologist Barry Markovsky, who
researches social networks, has referred to TM as a "stealth religion"
and questioned the benefits of exposing students to it. Maharishi
adherents emphasize that the movement is not a religion. They are
quoted in a Kansas City Star September 27, 1999 article on this
subject: "It is a mental and spiritual exercise that allows the human
mind to come closer to its full potential."

The TM programs advocate, Bob Roth, spokesman for the Consciousness-
Based Education Association is quoted in Condon's article as saying,
"You have 10 million kids on antidepressants, one in five black kids
with hypertension and America not leading the world in test scores.
Transcendental Meditation is not just a way to reduce stress, it's a
way to prepare a student to learn and do well." Despite questions that
have been raised about Maharishi schools' accreditation status, school
officials have pointed out that their students have scored in the 99th
percentile on standardized tests for the last 10 years, 95% of their
students go on to college and that they graduate 10 times the national
average of National Merit Scholars.

The TM program for students has already been adapted into the
curriculum at public schools in Detroit and Washington. George
Rutherford, principal of the Fletcher-Johnson Learning Center in
Washington and TM practitioner himself introduced TM into his school
in 1994 and informed Condon that, thanks to TM, "Johnson has become a
safe haven." Public charter school Nataki Taliba Schoolhouse in
Detroit teaches its students TM and the cost is covered by private
grants and corporate donations from companies such as Daimler-Chrysler
and General Motors. The private funding is helpful because it costs an
average of $625 per student per year to bring TM into the curriculum.

Despite the educational successes claimed by officials at Maharishi
educational institutions, concerns have been raised by some about
issues of violence and drug abuse. The IowaChannel.com reported on
March 4, 2004 that Maharishi University of Management (MUM) student
Shuvender Sim, 24, of Lancaster PA, was charged with first-degree
murder and assault with intent to commit serious injury after the
stabbing death of fellow classmate Levi Butler, 19, of LaQuinta Calif.
The attack occurred in front of dozens of students in the campus
dining hall. Sim was also charged with a stabbing attack that occurred
earlier in the day when he allegedly stabbed a classmate in the cheek
with a ballpoint pen during a class called Teaching for Enlightenment.
School officials intervened after this incident and said they had
"handled the problem" and reminded officials the MUM was a place of
peace and enlightenment. No one could determine what led to the
assaults. Sim was arrested and held on a $1 million dollar bond.

According to the report, Sim, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had been off
his medication for months when he stabbed the two students. According
to a June 8, 2005 report in the Des Moines Register, "Prosecutors, and
defense attorneys for Sim say that he should be found not guilty of
first degree murder because he was insane at the time of the
incident."

The confiscation of drug paraphernalia at MUM in April 2004 raised
more eyebrows among officials. Officers were called to the University
when a campus security guard found an "indoor marijuana growing
operation" in a student's room.

The equipment included grow lights, fans, tubing, dirt, planting pot
and seeds. 195.5 grams of marijuana were also seized. The student,
Robert Paul Anibal, 52, was arrested and charged with manufacturing
marijuana within 1,000 feet of an elementary school; possession of
marijuana with intent to deliver within 1,000 feet of an elementary
school; failure to affix a drug tax stamp; and possession of drug
paraphernalia.

Over the years, Maharishi's movement has been plagued by other legal
problems. In a 1987 case a U.S. District court in Washington D.C.
ordered two TM organizations to pay $137,890 to Robert Kropinski.
Kropinski charged that the organizations falsely promised that he
would learn to fly. He contended that all he learned was to "hop with
the legs folded in the lotus position." Kropinski was not awarded the
$9 million he sought in punitive damages for psychological and
emotional devastation.

The Dutch news service NOS Teletekst reported on February 15, 2003
that the FND labor union filed a lawsuit against the "spiritual
movement" of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The suit, brought by three ex-
employees from India, claimed that they were owed 100,000 gilders
($55, 410.85) for work they had done for three years for the TM
movement. They alleged that they worked seven days a week, were never
given vacation, and hardly any salary.

Some ex-TMs have been particularly outspoken about psychological and
emotional abuse, brainwashing and manipulation that they were exposed
to while members of the TM movement. There have also been allegations
reported by former TM members of psychological, emotional and sexual
abuse of children.

Despite the critical attention and lawsuits, TM followers and citizens
of The Global Country of World Peace are a dedicated, serious and very
active group. Even though Maharishi was quoted in a 2002 Chicago Sun-
Times article as saying, "I have decided to let the governments do
manmade law, but I have knowledge of natural law, God-made law."
Maharishi and his TM movement are serious about achieving his plan for
world peace.

Anyone interested in keeping up to date with the developments of The
Global Country of World Peace and the furtherance of its agenda can
tune in to a press conference every Thursday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
India time, 11:30 a.m. in Europe and 6:30 p.m. in Japan. The weekly
press conference is held live over the Maharishi Channel and via
Internet at the same time, with the opportunity to ask questions from
Maharishi via telephone or instant messaging. The Global Country of
World Peace website indicates that "another press conference will be
held at 11 a.m. East Coast Time every Wednesday, as well." (10 a.m.
for interested Tulsans.)

According to the information taken directly from www.globalcountry.org,
"Maharishi will provide the highlights of Vedic administration for
bringing problem-free prevention-oriented administration in every
country, leading to world peace.

Participating in this one hour weekly conference will be the "most
noted Physicist of the world," Dr. John Hagelin, Minister of Science
and Technology of the Global Country of World Peace, and Dr. Bevan
Morris, Minister of Enlightenment, "most famous for his comments on
the world events."

Dr. Benjamin Feldman, Finance Minister of The Global Country of World
Peace, a new star in the world economy, will also participate in this
conference and, according to the Web site, "will present the program
to bring a new world order of affluence and peace, creating a balanced
world economy, taking the world economy out of the mouth of the dragon—
capitalism, which is famous for causing for the wealthy the heart
palpitations of an unstable economy, while squeezing the life of the
poor."

Additionally, in this global press conference the press will "listen
to the interesting other side of the destructive angle projected by
America, England, Germany and all the war monger nations of the
world."

Dismissing the negative publicity and what his organizations have
referred to as "unsubstantiated claims" made by those who oppose the
TM movement, Maharishi and his six million strong followers, according
to www.globalcountry.org, "remain committed to establishing global

world peace by unifying all nations in happiness, prosperity,

invincibility, and perfect health, while supporting the rich diversity
of our world family."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm124.html

Once Grand Camelot Hotel Had a Quick Demise

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a multi-part series investigating
the demise of the Camelot Hotel. Once one of the most popular
gathering places in Tulsa’s history, and the host at one time to
President Richard Nixon, the building has become an eyesore and health
menace. This series of articles looks at the history of the building
and its possible future.

Greater Tulsa Reporter/July 1, 2005
By Nancy K. Owens

During the Kennedy administration in the early 60s, “Camelot Fever”
swept the nation. It settled in Tulsa in 1965 at 4956 South Peoria
with the construction of The Camelot Hotel. Originally called “The
Camelot Inn,” the name was later changed to “The Camelot Hotel,”
though it was always affectionately known simply as “The Camelot.”

Back then, it seems an eight-story, 330-room building built in the
form of a pink castle, complete with turret, massive iron gates, moat,
drawbridge and a swimming pool shaped like the top of a medieval spear
was the epitome of luxury and class.

Ainsley Perault, a builder and promoter from San Francisco, who later
moved to Tulsa, built the pink castle and oversaw its early reign of
glory. Construction began in 1965 and took two years to complete.
Prior to its opening, it had a large sign that ran atop of the
building that said “Totally Electric.” But because of two electrical
fires the sign was taken down, before the doors, or rather entry
gates, were opened for business. It was sold in 1968 to the Tulsa-
based Kinark Corporation for $68 million. At the time it was the
largest real estate transaction in the history of Tulsa.

The Camelot was known in its early years as Tulsa’s hotspot–the “place
to be.” It certainly was the place to be on Sundays after church. As
Dean Sims, a very active public relations practitioner at the time
remembers it, “The Sunday brunch at the Camelot restaurant was quite
an event and drew between 200 and 300 people regularly.” Those who
could not make it to the Camelot could watch the weekly television
show, broadcast from the Camelot on a cable access channel featuring
Tulsa’s local movers and shakers.

Sims reflects on the stream of famous guests whose presence graced the
hotel over the years, “People today would be surprised to find out
that President Richard Nixon stayed at the Camelot when he came to
Tulsa in 1971 to dedicate the Kerr-McClellan navigation system. Lt.
Governor George Nigh wouldn’t stay anywhere but the Camelot when he
was in town and during the National Governor’s Convention held in
Tulsa: Mike Wallace chose to stay there. A high-ranking member of the
British Parliament even stayed at the Camelot when he visited Tulsa.”
Apparently, the British gentleman was amused by the contradictory
Robin Hood and King Arthur exhibits in the hotel.

The Camelot also drew plenty of high profile local events such as high
school reunions and proms, civic club meetings and family reunions. It
was also a popular destination for honeymoons and wedding receptions.

Many children considered the Camelot to be a real treat with its front
area moat and drawbridge, and the swimming pool, which was centered in
a courtyard in the middle of the U-shaped complex, surrounded by the
many hotel rooms.

To many people, the Camelot is most remembered for the popular Red
Lion nightclub. It was the home of the “in-crowd.” The lights were low
and music played. Everyone mingled, enjoyed cocktails and reveled in
the scene. Longtime Tulsa resident Tena Green remembers her days as a
regular at the popular bar. “Young professionals, myself included,
would often meet after work for a drink at the bar.” She chuckles, “I
even had breakfast at the Camelot restaurant every Saturday morning
with some of the members of the Tulsa Ski Club. It really was the
place to be.” The phrase “the place to be” seems to reverberate the
most in people’s minds when they reminisce about the once special
hotel.

Those were the days. They’re not now. Now, and for years, what was the
glorious Camelot Hotel has become a blight on the landscape of the
fair city of Tulsa.

According to Assistant Fire Marshall Ron Fegaly, “A big concern with
the Camelot is securing the building. It’s a fire hazard and
unsecured. It’s dangerous. Transients are able to move in and occupy
it. In the past they have started small fires. This presents a serious
danger not only to them but also to our firefighters.” He adds,
“Several years ago we contacted the owners and told them they would be
required to secure the property. They’ve done this, but with out-of-
town owners this always presents a concern.” The current owners of the
Camelot list a Kentucky address with the assessor’s office.

A hurricane fence currently surrounds the property and the windows
that aren’t boarded up are punctured by bullet holes. A police
officer, patrolling the outside of the building, said that at one time
vagrants and drug addicts hung out in the hotel, though he noted that
now they do not, as there is full-time security.

The Camelot was condemned in 1996, and many people think that the
building should be torn down. The building that was made nationally
famous with its showing in the movie “Tex” has been deemed by the
Tulsa City–County Health Department as a fire and health hazard. The
City filed liens against the owners every year from 2000-2004 for
cleanup and mowing. The owners paid all outstanding fees in February
2005.

David Gurthet, Inspections Supervisor, Inspections Division,
Development Services, Tulsa Public Works Department, explains why the
building has not been torn down. “The building has been condemned for
habitation. City engineers conducted a thorough investigation of the
building and determined that it is structurally sound. Although no one
can occupy the building, it cannot be torn down by the city because
structurally speaking it is not considered a hazard.

So, the Camelot remains standing as a sad monument to devastated real
estate.

A grotesque parody of its former glory. A tragic leftover of
remembrance of things past.

Better times. What happened to it? What brought it to its present
dilapidated, ruined state? In researching this article I have
discovered that, as Churchill would say, “it is a riddle wrapped in a
mystery inside an enigma.”

Sometime during the mid-to-late 1970s the Camelot started to lose its
regal appeal. New world-class hotels were built in Tulsa, attracting a
fickle and interested public to more modern facilities. By the early
1980s, the oil business had crashed, cutting into the disposable
income of many people. The once spectacular and lively social scene
dwindled away. People became disenchanted. The era of Tulsa’s Camelot
faded away.

The castle languished. The neglected interior, once considered
sumptuous and glamorous, turned shoddy. It became more difficult to
rent rooms. The swinging Red Lion bar and popular hotel restaurant had
lost their appeal. The television show was cancelled. Eventually, by
the mid-1980s, the Camelot was nothing more than a place for various
groups to hold meetings and conferences.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm120.html

Camelot Owners Responsible for National Pattern

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a multi-part series investigating
the demise and possible future of the Camelot Hotel. Once one of the
most popular gathering places in Tulsa’s history, and the host one
time to President Richard Nixon, the building has become an eyesore
and health menace.

Greater Tulsa News/August 1, 2005
By Nancy K. Owens

Many national and local groups held their meetings and conventions at
the Camelot Hotel in Tulsa from its founding in 1965 until the early
1990s. A now-defunct local group called Okon hosted annual science
fiction conventions in Tulsa to raise money for charities. There were
15 Okon conventions, running from 1977 through 1992.

In 1988, Okon moved its convention from another Tulsa hotel to the
Camelot.

According to the Okon information page on www.burningclam.com, “During
the convention at the rapidly decaying Camelot Hotel in 1992, several
room air conditioners exploded over the weekend, and many ‘congers’
refused to swim in the sickly-green swimming pool. Late Saturday
night, someone set off a smoke bomb in one of the video rooms. Nine
Tulsa Fire Department fire trucks responded to the alarm. The entire
second floor was evacuated for several hours, and one person was
treated on the scene for smoke inhalation. Immediately following
closing ceremonies, lightning struck the roof of the Camelot, which
soon closed down for good.”

The Tulsa Green Country Rotary Club began holding its weekly meetings
at the Camelot in the mid-1980s, when the hotel was in decent
condition. By the early 1990s, things had changed dramatically. The
air conditioning in the building began to fail, as did the plumbing
and food service. After a terrible Rotary luncheon meeting, four of
the officers of the club visited the general manager of the hotel to
complain about the poor quality food and other issues. The general
manager replied in a Southern Asian accent, “I wouldn’t know about the
food in this hotel. I refuse to eat it myself.” The Rotary Club moved
the next week to the Trade Winds Central.

At this point, the story of the Camelot takes an intriguing,
interesting turn.

The building, which was built by Ainslee Pauralt in 1965 and sold to
Kinark several years later, was sold by the second owners in 1991 to a
company called Lata Enterprises. Lata was foreclosed on, and the
building changed hands several times until 1995, when the deed was
transferred to the current owner, Maharishi Ayur-ved University, a
school for teaching Transcendental Meditation and the teachings of the
founder of TM, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

TM leapt onto the world stage in 1968 when the Beatles met Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi in India. Their interest fueled the enthusiasm of many,
including celebrities such as Shirley Maclaine, Laura Dern, Heather
Graham, director David Lynch, as well as Mia Farrow, Donovan and the
Rolling Stones, who spent time at Maharishi’s ashram in the late
1960s.

TM followers say that it brings the practitioner to a special state of
consciousness often characterized as “enlightenment” or “bliss.” The
method involves chanting a mantra, said to be unique and specially
devised for the practitioner. One can purchase his or her own mantra
from the Maharishi TM organization for several hundred dollars. There
is much more to the TM story that will be dealt with later.

For now, let’s return to the issue at hand, the Camelot, which is not
alone in its devastation.

Tulsa is not the only city where the Maharishi’s organization has
purchased a property and allowed it to sit for years, only to rot and
decay. In a November 2003 article in The Hartford Advocate, Chris
Harris reports, “In 1994, the bearded popularizer of TM’s enigmatic
and faceless Maharishi Vedic Development Corporation purchased the
Clarion Hotel building on Constitution Plaza, and there, in full view
of the bustle of I-91, the dilapidated edifice has sat—a vacant,
untouched, neglected eyesore, and a billboard advertising Hartford’s
urban ruin.”

Harris goes on to write, “There were plans to convert the hotel into
one of his Maharishi Vedic Universities, where students would be
schooled in the ways of transcendental meditation. But again, no
action, and now, in 2003, the hotel lies in wait, its future
uncertain.” According to Harris’ article, the Maharishi Vedic
Development Corporation purchased the property for $1.5 million and in
1998, after years of decline, put it on the market for $14 million. As
of 2003, it remained unsold, but was still on the market although the
realtor would not discuss the asking price with Harris. The realtor
did offer, though, that he had had several offers coming in from
around the world.

Then there’s Dallas. Jeffrey Weiss, Dallas Morning News, reported in
October 2002, that the Maharishi-owned “old Hilton hotel at
Mockingbird Lane and North Central Expressway was going to be
converted into a ‘holistic living and transcendental meditation
center,’ The hotel is still there but the only trappings of TM are in
the TM Center of Dallas on the fourth floor.”

Chicago is a bit more hopeful. David Roeder of the Chicago Sun Times,
reported in March, 2005 that “there’s a plan to breathe new life into
the landmark Blackstone Hotel at 636 S. Michigan.” In March, The
Blackstone was still owned by the Maharishi. According to Roeder, “He
tried to turn the building into a condo property posher than the Gold
Coast. Without the Gold Coast location, he couldn’t sell any units.”
Negotiations were underway to sell the property to Denver-based Sage
Hospitality Group for $24 million. Sage, however, was looking to the
city for a substantial subsidy for the project due to the need for a
gut rehab which was estimated to cost $100 million. The broker
declined to discuss the deal with Roeder.

In a recent conversation with Roeder, he disclosed that, although it
has not officially closed, Maharishi has a contract and the sale will
most likely go through. He did not know the actual selling price but
did confirm that Sage Development had received a subsidy from the city
to redevelop the property, believing it to be in the $20 million
range.

Unfortunately, no such deal is in the offing yet for The Camelot.
According to David Humphreys, the realtor handling the property,
“We’ve had some interest but nothing concrete yet. It’s still on the
market, priced at $3 million.” The assessed market value is $1.25
million.

Whether The Camelot is sold soon or not, there are plans underway for
the property. Apparently the castle is going to be replaced by a Peace
Palace.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm121.html

Camelot owner hopes for "Peace Palace"

Editor’s Note: This is the third of a multi-part series investigating
the demise and possible future of the Camelot Hotel. Once one of the
most popular gathering places in Tulsa’s history, and the host one
time to President Richard Nixon, the building has become an eyesore
and health menace.

Greater Tulsa Reporter/September 1, 2005
By Nancy K. Owens

The present owner of what was the Camelot Hotel is Maharishi Ayur-ved
University, a school for teaching transcendental meditation and the
teaching of the founder of TM, the Maharishi Mahesh Yoga.

The building or parts of the property may be turned into a “Peace
Palace,” described on www.MaharishiPeacePalace.org, as “a beautiful
modular building that is covered in white marble. The Peace Palace
will include exhibition and lecture halls, offices, residential rooms
and a dining hall.” According to a TM practitioner who recently
relocated to Tulsa, “We will be building a Peace Palace on part of the
land where The Camelot is located.”

Until the Peace Palace comes to fruition, a Maharishi Enlightenment
Center will be opened at 5800 S. Lewis Ave., according to a Maharishi
Ayur-ved spokeperson. The Center will teach TM, sell Maharishi
Ayurveda herbal products (also available at www.mapi.com) and have a
Maharishi Spa for Ladies, whose sister facility can be seen on www.theraj.com.

“Peace Palaces,” similar to the one planned for Tulsa, are an integral
part of the Maharishi’s global philosophy.

According to the Peace Palace website, “Each Peace Palace will offer
to everyone the knowledge and practical programs for peace and
enlightenment, for a healthy, happy, more creative, more fulfilling
and successful life through the Transcendental Meditation program. Its
benefits in the fields of education, health, social behavior and world
peace have been amply documented during the past half-century all over
the world.”

The five to ten most prominent families of every city are invited to
“join us in becoming founders of the Peace Palace.” Peace Palace
construction in the USA is being undertaken by The Global Country of
World Peace, a tax-exempt 501©(3) organization.

The Global Country of World Peace is a “virtual” country (not
physical) and was established on October 7, 2000. It was created by
Maharishi to “establish global world peace by unifying all nations in
happiness, prosperity, invincibility, and perfect health, while
supporting the rich diversity of our world family.” Its stated mission
is to establish Heaven on Earth by raising the quality of life of
every individual to complete fulfillment and affluence in
enlightenment. It will establish a Global Administration through
Natural Law by enlivening the nourishing evolutionary power of Natural
Law in the life of every individual and in the collective
consciousness of the whole world.

The Capital of The Global Country of World Peace is Maharishi Vedic
City, IA, known simply as “Vedic City.”

Maharishi’s goal is to replace what he refers to as “damn democracy”
with the peace inspiring politics of The Global Country of World
Peace, according to their literature.

His thoughts concerning this issue were published in a TM Bulletin.
His opinions are clear from some of his quotes: “Damn the democracy,
which is based on the popular will, vote. It is not based on
knowledge, it is based on number.

“The man-made constitution, that system of self rule called democracy.
They say the Minister is in the cabinet, he has no time to meditate.
What does he do in the cabinet? He does opposition.” “If your religion
tells you to be a devil, then I would advise you to be a devil, but
enjoy life, enjoy life. All those countries who are earning their
livelihood by selling arms, Natural Law will take care of all that.
Time is different now, they will not be able to save themselves from
the fury about the sin they are committing.”

The same TM Bulletin offers Maharishi’s solution to society’s
problems, “So, this is what we’ll do, it is the rise of unifying
principles through education, this will motivate the creation of
leaders in each country, of an ideal character and quality, not like
the monsters or dragons of destruction who dominate in nations
today.”

For those who aren’t familiar with Maharishi, www.tm.org offers a
glimpse of his global achievements during the last 40 years. To list a
few:

1957- founded the worldwide Spiritual Regeneration Movement.
1972- inaugurated his World Plan and created a new science, the
Science of Consciousness.
1975- discovered the Constitution of the Universe.

1978- created the World Peace Project, sending teams of Yogic Flyers
to the most troubled areas of the world, to calm the violence through
TM.

1984- sent the first group of 7,000 Yogic Flyers to Fairfield, Iowa.
(According to the website, scientific research on this assembly
validated Maharishi’s prediction that when the square root of one
percent of the world’s population practices the TM-Sidhi program,
including Yogic Flying, together in one place, positive trends
increase and negative tendencies decrease throughout the whole
world.)
1988- formulated his Master Plan to Create Heaven on Earth for the
reconstruction of the whole world, inner and outer.

1994- introduced programs for prevention in the fields of health and
security creating a Prevention Wing of Yogic Flyers in the military of
every country.
1998- The Maharishi Open University was founded offering Total
Knowledge of Natural Law to everyone accessible via a network of eight
satellites broadcasting to every country on earth.

2003- developed The Global Country of World Peace currency, the
“raam.”

The “raam” is currently used in The Netherlands, the base of
Maharishi’s empire, and in Vedic City, Iowa. It comes in denominations
of one, five and 10. The exchange rate is one raam to ten USD, and one
raam to ten Euros. More than 100 Dutch shops, some of them part of big
department store chains, in 30 villages and cities have accepted the
notes. Shopkeepers can exchange their raam notes at the Fortis Bank
branch in Roermond. According to information provided by The Dutch
Central Bank, it is keeping a close eye on the raam and allows the
raam to be used as long as the notes are not used as legal tender and
it stays within a closed-off circuit of users.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm122.html

[Sid Harth]

Yogic flyers plan palace
$1.2 million site off Nova Scotia to promote global peace

Toronto Sun/October 17, 2005
By CP

Halifax -- The spiritual guru who taught the Beatles transcendental
meditation is planning a peace palace on two islands off Nova Scotia,
where followers will practice yogic flying to promote global peace.

Supporters of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian-born spiritual leader
whose teachings also inspired the Natural Law Party in Canada's 1993
federal election, inaugurated the two islands in a ceremony last
week.

They bought the islands near the town of Canso last year for about
$350,000 and plan a $1.2-million development, including a peace tower,
conference centre and school.

The group considers the area, just south of Cape Breton Island, the
most easterly point on mainland North America -- and the first place
on the continent to see the sun rise.

The islands will be part of the Community of Global Peace, and along
with six other sites around the world, will form the community's so-
called parliament.

Followers of the Maharishi, who is nearly 90, believe that if enough
people around the world practise yogic flying -- achieved by hopping
in the air while sitting cross-legged -- it will create peace and
bring an end to conflict.

The teachings of the Maharishi have inspired a global movement, along
with a multi-billion-dollar industry that includes schools and
businesses across Canada and around the world.

Their plan in the mid-1990s to build a $900-million theme park in
Niagara Falls, Ont., fell through.

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Man who stabbed student sent back to mental facility

Associated Press/September 20, 2005

Fairfield, Ia. — A former Maharishi University of Management student
who was ruled insane in the stabbing death of a classmate has been
sent back to a state mental facility.

District Judge E. Richard Meadows said before issuing his ruling that
Shuvender Sem "continues to suffer a mental deficiency and if
released, would be a danger to himself and others."

Meadows had ruled in June that Sem, 26, was legally insane when he
stabbed Levi Butler, 18, on March 1, 2004.

The judge ordered Sem returned to the Iowa Medical and Classification
Center at Oakdale.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm119.html

World Peace may come to Danbury

'Meditators' seek spot to build prayer palace

Danbury News Times/September 7, 2005
By Eugene Driscoll

Danbury — It is a movement that has influenced Hollywood types ranging
from shock jock Howard Stern to the guy who plays the dad on the
wholesome television show "7th Heaven."

Its leaders have opened countless enlightenment centers, a university
— heck, they've even founded their own city.

The movement is the Global Country of World Peace, headed by an Indian
guru now in his 90s, and it's coming to Danbury. Maybe.

For three months, Terry and Bernie Nevas hjave searched greater
Danbury for a place to build a Maharishi Peace Palace — a place where
people can learn and practice transcendental meditation, a technique
made famous by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru who once served as
spiritual guide to The Beatles.

The Nevases, a married couple from Weston, are part of an
international movement led by the Maharishi to spread peace,
transcendental meditation and ancient teachings from India around the
globe.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Maharishi gave his followers
a mission: to build 2,400 Peace Palaces in the United States and 3,000
palaces worldwide.

The idea is to have powerful, positive, peaceful vibes flow out of the
Peace Palaces and into the surrounding communities, therefore making
the world a more peaceful place.

"What we're offering is all kinds of peace-creating technologies. That
means peace for the individual and peace for the environment.
Transcendental meditation is the primary technique that we teach,"
Terry Nevas said.

Practitioners repeat a mantra silently to reach a state of deep
relaxation and pure consciousness. Studies have shown this reduces
blood pressure, lowers cholesterol, and even strengthens the immune
system.

Not everyone, however, is fond of the Maharishi. In fact, some say
he's the "charismatic leader" of a sprawling group that treats him
like a god.

The Maharishi controls a vast business and real estate empire worth $3
billion to $5 billion, according to various news reports, though some
estimates place the empire's worth as high as $9 billion.

Rick Ross, a cult expert who runs the Rick Ross Institute in New
Jersey and its associated Web site, said the Peace Palace effort is
nothing more than a way for the Maharishi to make money on real
estate.

"Many of these proposed Peace Palaces never come to fruition. Much of
Maharishi's vast fortune is in real estate investments," Ross said.

"Frequently what he does is buy and hold properties. Eventually he'll
dump it and make some money that way."

The two-story, 12,000-square-foot Peace Palace is envisioned as an
enlightenment center where people can practice transcendental
meditation, relax in a "Maharishi spa," take classes in "Maharishi
consciousness-based education" or purchase a book on "Raam Raj organic
clothing."

While Terry and Bernie Nevas are running ads in newspapers that claim
the palace is "to be built in Danbury," they've yet to find suitable
land.

Finding a spot for a Maharishi Peace Palace isn't easy.

The Maharishi gives specific requirements governing what type of land
is suitable. The land can't be too close to high-tension wires or
graveyards. Also, the land can't have large hills that block rays from
the east side of the building for more than 12 minutes after the sun
comes up.

That last requirement is proving to be a real pain in the neck for the
effort to spread peace locally.

The Nevases hope to construct two buildings — one for women, the other
for men. They had their eyes on some land in New Milford, but too many
hills blocked the horizon.

They've also looked in Ridgefield and Danbury.

"The topography of Danbury is very difficult. There are hills all over
the place," Terry Nevas said.

The Maharishi, through myriad non-profit corporations such as the
Global Country of World Peace and the Maharishi Vedic Education
Development Corp., owns land all over the United States.

The Maharishi International University was founded in 1973 in
Fairfield, Iowa. It later changed its name to the Maharishi University
of Management.

In 2001, Maharishi followers incorporated Maharishi Vedic City, five
miles away from the university. All buildings in the burgeoning town
are built according to the principles of Vedic architecture, which is
akin to feng shui. The structures use only nontoxic materials and
solar energy.

Robert Phipps, executive vice president of the Fairfield Chamber of
Commerce, said the "meditators" have transformed the Fairfield area
into a haven for artists, artisans and entrepreneurs.

"I would not say it is a cult," Phipps said. "They have had a
tremendous effect on this city."

In Hamden, five acres of land purchased by the Nevases will hold the
state's first Peace Palace. The application was approved by Hamden
officials, and the Nevases are busy entertaining bids from
contractors.

To secure money for the project, the Nevases are asking developers to
finance the project, then allow Global Country of World Peace to lease
the property for a few years until the organization can purchase it
outright.

They are looking in greater Danbury for interested builders.

Maharishi Peace Palaces have already built in Bethesda, Md., Vedic
City and Lexington, Ky.

Reba Wall lives in Lexington, three miles from a Maharishi Peace
Palace that opened in 2003. It is near several corporate parks.

"I see their picture in the paper quite often about things they do
there," Wall said. "All I know is that it looks very pretty when you
pass it. It spreads a long way out and they have a lot of land around
it."

Terry Nevas said transcendental meditation is not a religion and the
Peace Palace plan isn't a scam.

"It is a technique," she said. "It's taught the same way to everyone.
It doesn't matter what religion you are. It's a simple, natural
technique to learn."

She said U.S. residents are becoming more receptive to eastern
philosophies such as yoga and transcendental meditation.

"People are more accepting of things that come from other cultures."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm118.html

Judge asked to find suspect insane

The man was mentally ill when he stabbed a classmate at Maharishi
University, prosecutors and the defense say.

DesMoines Register/June 8, 2005
By Erin Jordan

Fairfield, Ia. -- Prosecutors and defense attorneys of a former
Maharishi University of Management student say he should be found not
guilty of first-degree murder because he was insane at the time he
stabbed a classmate in March 2004.

Shuvender Sem, 25, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had been off his
medication for months when he stabbed Levi Butler, 19, in the chest on
March 1, 2004, in front of dozens of students in the university's
dining hall, said Virginia Barchman, assistant attorney general.

"Mr. Sem is a person who suffers from an extremely dangerous mental
illness," she said. "We ask the court to find this young man not
guilty by reason of insanity."

The stabbing stunned the Maharishi University campus, founded by
practitioners of Transcendental Meditation and based on principles of
peace and harmony. The murder also angered Butler's family and
friends, who said the university should have reported to police an
attack earlier that day in which Sem stabbed a classmate in the cheek
with a ballpoint pen.

Sem, charged with first-degree murder and assault with intent to
commit serious injury, was scheduled to be tried Tuesday in Jefferson
County District Court. Instead, attorneys submitted notebooks of
psychiatric reports and depositions, saying they agreed on the facts
of the case and wanted Judge Richard Meadows to decide whether Sem is
guilty based on the stipulated evidence.

Meadows said he hoped to issue a ruling within two weeks. If convicted
of first-degree murder, Sem faces a mandatory sentence of life in
prison without parole.

If Meadows finds Sem not guilty by reason of insanity, Sem will go to
the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale under the
custody of the Department of Human Services, said Sem's lawyer,
Alfredo Parrish. The department will issue a report on his condition
in 15 days. If Sem is held, human services will evaluate him every two
months and send a report to Meadows, Parrish said.

Parrish said he recommended Sem waive his right to a jury trial
because juries often don't understand mental illness and might not
acquit his client, even though psychiatrists agree Sem was insane at
the time of the stabbing.

"You could have one juror who says mental illness doesn't mean
anything," Parrish said. "A judge may be more enlightened."

Sem told Meadows he was on two medications for his schizophrenia, but
understood court proceedings.

"There are good and bad effects to the medication," he said quietly.
"I don't hear the voice anymore, but there's also a cloud in my mind
because of the medication."

Before attending Maharishi University, Sem had been hospitalized
between nine and 12 times in 2002 and 2003 for psychiatric problems,
Barchman said. The predominant diagnosis, she said, was paranoid
schizophrenia, which caused auditory and visual hallucinations and
acts of violence.

Butler transferred to the school in fall 2003 from the College of the
Desert in Palm Desert, Calif. Butler's family, who live in La Quinta,
Calif., did not attend Tuesday's hearing. Barchman said she did not
contact them before agreeing not to seek Sem's conviction. The family
is being represented by attorney Larry Scalise, who could not be
reached for comment.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm116.html

Ex-Maharishi student not guilty of murder by insanity
Des Moines Register/June 7, 2005
By Erin Jordan

Fairfield, Iowa. — A former Maharishi University of Management student
will be found not guilty of first-degree murder by reason of insanity
if a Jefferson County judge agrees with prosecution and defense
attorneys.

Shuvender Sem, 25, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had been off his
medication for months when he stabbed Levi Butler, 18, in the chest on
March 1, 2004, in front of dozens of students in the M.U.M. campus
dining hall, said Virginia Barchman, asst. attorney general.

"Mr. Sem is a person who suffers from an extremely dangerous mental
illness," she said. "We ask the court to find this young man not
guilty by reason of insanity."

In an unusual move, Barchman and defense attorney Alfredo Parrish
submitted notebooks of psychiatric reports and depositions instead of
arguing the case, scheduled for trial today in Jefferson County.

They asked District Judge Richard Meadows to decide whether Sem is
guilty based on the stipulated evidence, of which attorneys said they
are in basic agreement.

Parrish said he recommended Sem waive his right to a jury trial
because juries often don't understand mental illness and might not
acquit his client, even though several psychiatrists agree Sem was
insane at the time of the stabbing.

Sem is charged with first-degree murder and assault with intent to
commit serious injury. He is accused of stabbing Levi Butler, a first-
year M.U.M. student from California, in the chest with a paring knife
and stabbing another student in the cheek with a ballpoint pen.

Sem told Meadows that he understood the court proceedings, despite a
"cloud" that hangs in his mind because of his medications. Sem's
parents, who have come from Pennsylvania for regular visits with their
son at the Jefferson County Jail and Oakdale Medical and
Classification Center in Coralville, sat quietly behind Sem in the
courtroom.

Meadows said he hopes to issue a written within two weeks.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm117.html

M.U.M. murder trial set to begin Tuesday

The Fairfield Ledger/June 3, 2005
By Erik Gable

More than a year after Maharishi University of Management student Levi
Butler was stabbed to death with a paring knife in the university's
dining hall, the man charged with killing him is about to stand
trial.

Shuvender Sem, 25, will go on trial beginning at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at
the Jefferson County Courthouse. Because Sem waived his right to a
jury trial, the case will be heard by Judge E. Richard Meadows.

Sem, who was a student at M.U.M. when the killing occurred, faces one
count of first-degree murder and one count of assault for allegedly
stabbing another student with a ball-point pen earlier the same day.

He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

According to court documents, the trial is expected to last two days.
On the evening of March 1, 2004, Fairfield police officers responded
to a report of a stabbing at Annapurna Dining Hall on the M.U.M.
campus. When they arrived, they found Butler, an 18-year-old freshman
from California, bleeding from stab wounds to the chest.

Butler was taken by ambulance to Jefferson County Hospital, where he
died from his injuries. Sem, a transfer student from Pennsylvania who
had been on campus for about six weeks, was arrested and charged with
murder.

After the attack on Butler, police learned of another incident that
had occurred earlier the same day. During a class that afternoon, Sem
allegedly stabbed fellow student John Killian in the face with a ball-
point pen. According to police reports filed at the time, the wound
required seven stitches to close.

Joel Wysong, the university's dean of men, took Sem into his custody
after the attack on Killian and began making arrangements to send him
home. Sem later left Wysong's apartment. In an interview with The
Ledger, Wysong said he went to the dining hall, where he found Sem and
took a seat about 30 feet away to keep an eye on him. After about 10
minutes, Wysong saw a commotion. One student was restraining Sem while
others tried to help Butler and dialed 911 on their cell phones.
Wysong led Sem away from the scene.

Sem appeared calm when police arrived and was taken into custody
without incident. He was booked into Jefferson County Jail and bond
was set at $1 million.

Sem was originally represented by a court-appointed attorney, Les
Lamping of Washington, Iowa, but his family later hired Alfredo
Parrish, a well-known lawyer from Des Moines.

The trial has been delayed by questions about Sem's mental state. In
June 2004, his attorneys said they heard him ask a jail employee for a
notepad because he was hearing voices and wanted to write down what
they were saying. The attorneys also said Sem was confused, apparently
believing he was in a hospital in his hometown of Lancaster, Pa.

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Peace group has big plans for Black Dirt

They own their own city, have their own government and print their own
currency.

Times Herald-Record/May 21, 2005
By John Sullivan

They want to make people physically and spiritually healthy by feeding
them organically grown food.

They believe Transcendental Meditation and flying yogis can promote
world peace.

Town of Goshen residents, welcome your new neighbors.

Global Country of World Peace, the international nonprofit
organization founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the spiritual leader
who taught the Beatles how to meditate, recently bought 818 acres of
Black Dirt farmland in Goshen from three local landowners.

The group plans to use the rich black soil – some of the most fertile
in the region – to grow organic vegetables in greenhouses, said
Richard Quinn, the group's representative in New York.

The sale also includes a cropduster airport, administrative and
storage buildings, packing facilities and a work camp for about 300
workers.

Quinn said his group plans to build an institute to teach organic
farming techniques to local and foreign students as part of the
enterprise.

Steve Perfit, the Kingston real estate agent who brokered the deal,
said Global Country paid $4 million in cash for the 42 parcels of land
located west of Pulaski Highway and the Wallkill River and between
Pumpkin Swamp Road and Indiana Road.

Perfit spoke on behalf of onion farmers and land owners Harold and
Raymond Utter and Charles Gratz, who declined interviews.

"They're just old, and (farming) is a tough business," Perfit said.

The tax-exempt group would not likely pay property taxes, Quinn said.
Exact tax figures for the parcels could not be acquired yesterday.

Headquartered in Vedic City, Iowa, Global Country had $2.9 million in
assets in 2001, according to the group's public tax records. However,
the group has multitudes of affiliated nonprofits that generate
millions of dollars for the organization's mission of achieving world
peace.

Maharashi Vedic Organic Products, the group's agricultural arm, will
start with 75 acres in Goshen and work up to full production in
phases, Quinn said. The nonprofit has a similar farm in Vedic City
that serves the Chicago metro organic food market, he said.

The Goshen farm would sell to the New York metro region while
acquiring machinery, construction materials and labor locally, Quinn
said.

"The present food supply has become very polluted with lab chemicals
and genetic manipulation," he said. "These things hinder the
physiology from having profound experiences."

Quinn said his group educates people on ways to improve their health
and reach enlightenment through proper eating, meditation and other
techniques. By practicing TM-Sidhi, a form of Transcendental
Meditation, yogis can leave their bodies and tap into a higher plane
of human experience that reduces conflict, he said.

To bring about world peace, the group hopes to create a legion of
yogis who would transmit their transcendental energy from spiritual
locations across the globe. The group, which promotes its beliefs
through an international satellite network, does not proselytize,
however, Quinn said.

"We are not religious," he said. "We are not even a philosophy."

Global Country of World Peace

Q: What is it, and what is its mission?

A: It is a borderless country that promotes enlightenment and world
peace through healthy living, Transcendental Meditation and flying
yogi techniques.

Q: What is the RAAM?

A: Global Country's currency, which has an exchange rate of 1 RAAM to
$10.

Q: Who founded the country?

A: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of Beatles lore.

Q: Who is the current ruler?

A: His Majesty Raja Nader Raam.

Q: What is the Vedic City?

A: It is a city near Fairfield, Iowa, that is owned by Global Country.
Incorporated in 2001, the city has hotels, spas, hospitals and
universities dedicated to promoting healthy and spiritual living
according to the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Q: What is Transcendental Meditation?

A: It is a form of meditation that helps achieve a state of
consciousness apart from waking, dreaming and sleeping.

Q: What is the flying yogi technique?

A: It occurs when a yogi leaves his or her body to reach a
transcendental state of consciousness. Global Country citizens believe
that if enough spiritual leaders tap into this plane of experience, a
calming effect occurs over the community, thus reducing violence and
conflict.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm114.html

Authors: Meditate, prolong your life

DesMoines Register/May 2, 2005
By Tony Leys

Transcendental Meditation supporters are publishing a study today
claiming their technique significantly cuts death rates among elderly
people who tried it.

The article is being published in the American Journal of Cardiology,
a medical journal unaffiliated with the movement. The study is being
touted nationwide by meditation practitioners, but its conclusions are
raising questions among other doctors.

Most of the article's authors are at the Maharishi University of
Management in the southern Iowa town of Fairfield, which is a
stronghold of the Transcendental Meditation movement.

The authors looked at two earlier studies of 202 older people, 56 of
whom were asked to try Transcendental Meditation. The rest either
tried other relaxation techniques or were simply given health
information. The researchers checked government death records to see
how many of the participants had died up to 18 years later, and the
causes of death.

They concluded that those who learned Transcendental Meditation had a
23 percent smaller chance of dying of any cause, a 30 percent
decreased risk of dying of heart trouble, and a 49 percent decreased
risk of dying of cancer, the article says.

"People who are interested in something that's scientifically proven
should pay attention to this," said Dr. Robert Schneider, the paper's
lead author. He practices Transcendental Meditation and works for the
university in Fairfield.

The article was questioned last week by Dr. Ted Gansler, medical
content director for the American Cancer Society.

Gansler said the number of people studied is too small to lead to any
conclusions about cancer death rates. He also said it didn't appear to
consider whether the people who tried Transcendental Meditation smoked
or had other risk factors.

Schneider said he hoped the article results in a larger study of
meditation's health effects.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm113.html

Sem waives his right to jury trial

The Fairfield Ledger/April 15, 2005
By Erik Gable

Shuvender Sem, the 25-year-old former Maharishi University of
Management student charged with murdering a fellow student in March
2004, has waived his right to a jury trial.

The decision means Sem will be tried by a single judge rather than by
a 12-person jury.

In court documents filed today, defense attorneys Alfredo Parrish and
Tammy Westhoff-Gentry said Sem appears to understand the decision to
waive his right to a jury trial.

The attorneys said Sem will be evaluated by William Logan, a mental
health expert from St. Louis, Mo., to make sure he is capable of
understanding the decision. They asked the judge to accept Sem's
waiver if the expert believes he understands.

For a complete story, read the April 15 Fairfield Ledger.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm112.html

Bouncing to a higher consciousness

CBC News Viewpoint/March 8, 2005
By Stephen Strauss

Stephen Strauss wrote articles, columns and editorials about science
and technology for the Globe and Mail for more than 20 years. He has
also authored three books, several book chapters, and for his efforts
received numerous awards. Through all his time in journalism, he still
remains smitten by the enduring wisdom of the motto of Austrian writer
Karl Kraus. Say what is.

Several decades ago I spent a strange week in Fairfield, Iowa - as
unlikely a locale as you can imagine for people dedicated to showing
that meditation can not only make you feel good, but if strongly
focused, higher consciousness could change the physical world.

Scientists at the Maharishi International University showed me their
studies indicating that when large groups of meditators congregated,
traffic accidents came down, crime rates lessened and, generally, the
world became a more benign place.

But I was less taken with indirect proofs of the mind's power, than
with what purported to be direct evidence of how yogic consciousness
could trump physics: if you reached a high enough state of mind, I was
told, you could fly, and flyers in training were already on the
campus.

Groovy, I said, let's see them take off. And I was taken to a room
where one and then another fairly athletic young person bounced up and
down on thick rubber mats. Bounced high, I have to admit, but only
bounced, and rebounced, and then bounced again.

Oh, I was told, don't judge yogic flying by what you see. That is only
the first stage of consciousness. Fully conscious people can fly about
the room sort of like birds whose wings are the happy flappings of
their minds.

Where are the true flyers, I asked hopefully. We haven't reached that
level yet. But it should only be a few years until we get there, I was
told.

The experience imprinted itself on me because I realized as I
slouched, not bounced out of the flying room, that I was the sort of
skeptic who would only believe in higher consciousness until flight
trumped bouncing.

Which brings me in a kind of circuitous way to the Global
Consciousness Project. Like the transcendental meditating followers of
the Maharishi, the Global Consciousness Project believes that
consciousness isn't a state but a force.

Initially started at Princeton University by clinical psychologist
Roger Nelson in 1998, its advocates, too, are talking about flying,
but they present bouncing. The bounce occurs in what they term Random
Event Generators, or REGs. These are small - roughly the size of a
couple of packages of cigarettes - machines that use statistical noise
to randomly generate a zero or a one at a rate of roughly 12,000 a
minute Think of it as a computerized coin flip.

If truly random, event generators should produce the same amounts of
heads as tails. Only, report GCP initiators, sometimes the machines
take off. Many, many more ones than zeros, or zeros than ones, occur
in a certain time frame. To explain this the leaders of the project,
who have placed 91 REGs in 41 countries - there are four in Canada -
point to world consciousness events that coincide with the
aberrations.

The bombing of the World Trade Center, the tsunami in Asia, Y2K, the
funeral of Princess Diana, New Year's Eve. They all were coincident
with the numerical bounces. Ergo, everyone thinking about the same
thing creates a psychic field that turns the random in the regular.

Well, maybe. There are a number of problems with the correlation,
chief of which being that something supposedly BIG is always happening
on Planet CNN/Google/e-mail. It used to be that an event of global
reach would happen and it would then take days, weeks and sometimes
months before people elsewhere were aware of it.

Now dumb-head news - Paris Hilton's hacked mobile phone, Janet
Jackson's nipple, fake cloned Raelian babies - traverses the globe
instantaneously. Global media today generate a million leagues more
global consciousness than likely over all the 19th century. If
consciousness does change random physics, then there should be obvious
signs of strange coincidences happening more and more regularly.

Things like, well, I don't know really. Nobody anywhere buying coffee
on a given Tuesday. Everyone laughing at once.

What I am saying is that if the effect is real and not what GCP's
critics such as American physicist Robert Park scornfully characterize
as an indication that "some people can't be happy with a universe that
pays no attention to us," then undeniable real stuff should be
happening.

And as far as I can tell, all that is occurring is statistical
hopscotch and post hoc explanations extraordinaire. Worse, sometimes
the surges occur before the events - 9/11 is a classic example -
forcing GCP advocates to argue that consciousness exists in advance of
the events that focus consciousness. And conversely they have to
explain away how obvious global events - a solar eclipse was a recent
example - didn't toggle REGs.

I say all of this and confess at the same time to a certain softness
for the entire consciousness-measuring enterprise. It seems to me that
if there is a big, big mystery in the world it is how awareness came
into being. What could drive it to higher levels? How does it fit in
with the other physical forces in the universe?

Consciousness does feel somehow like it should be a physical thing and
not an "a-ha, I get it" thing. It feels like that and yet all we get
is bounce, bounce, bounce and a disappointed Stephen Strauss still
slouching out a door marked My Own Much Lower Consciousness.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm111.html

S.E. Iowa town set to run its own college

Des Moines Register/March 3, 2005

Maharishi Vedic City - incorporated four years ago by followers of
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - hopes to open a city university this fall,
town officials said.

The university will offer classes advancing town principles promoting
healthful living and world peace. Students will take courses in
preventive medicine and meditation, organic agriculture, and the
town's style of architecture.

A group is developing curriculum and acquiring a site for the campus
in the town of 200, said Maureen Wynne , the city attorney and one of
the university organizers. The university plans to seek accreditation
from the same group that endorses most universities in Iowa, she
said.

"We think it will be a major attraction for people of all age groups
to move here," Wynne said. "We see more and more that in a community,
people want to keep their minds lively, and this would be a great
community where they could do that."

Maharishi Vedic City University - established under a city ordinance
last year - will become Iowa's only city-run four-year college.

Nationally, city colleges are a dying breed, said Michael Baer, senior
vice president at the American Council on Education. None has been
established in recent memory, he said.

Then again, Maharishi Vedic City is a bit out of the ordinary.

Followers of the Transcendental Meditation movement came to Fairfield
in the mid-1970s to establish a university on the old Parsons College
campus.

In 2001, meditators founded their own city northwest of town,
designating Sanskrit as the official city language and outlawing the
sale of nonorganic food. All buildings face east according to ancient
laws of architecture.

Because state law does not recognize city universities, a bill is
working its way through the Iowa Legislature that would exempt the
university from registering with the Iowa secretary of state's office,
a requirement for many institutions that are neither state-supported
nor private.

Classes are expected to be offered this fall in existing town
buildings, Wynne said. Ultimately, organizers hope the college will
educate thousands on a campus of about 400 acres, she said.

The new school will complement degrees offered at nearby Maharishi
University of Management - a private institution - but not duplicate
them, she said.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm109.html

Maharishi finds buyer for transcendent mess

Chicago Sun-Times/March 2, 2005
By David Roeder

We've heard this before -- there's a plan to breathe new life into the
landmark Blackstone Hotel at 636 S. Michigan. Only this time there
could be real money and skill behind the deal.

The Blackstone, which has been closed since 1999, is under contract to
be sold to Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources LLP. A source said
the contract is for around $24 million and will close in a few weeks
and perhaps sooner.

The seller is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the transcendental meditation
guru whose strange ideas about Chicago real estate included trying to

turn the building into a condo property posher than the Gold Coast.
Without the Gold Coast location, he couldn't sell any units.

But it's really a three-way deal. Sources said Sage Hospitality is in
talks with the city over a substantial subsidy for the project. The
decrepit hotel needs a gut rehab and cost estimates for that have
ranged as high as $100 million.

This time, the Blackstone would remain as a hotel. Art Burrows, the
property's broker and senior vice president at NAI Hiffman, said any
plan to make it residential would require expensive configuration for
internal parking. He declined to discuss anything about the deal.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm110.html

Flyaway peace palaces
Canada Free Press/February 14, 2005
By Judi McLeod

Big-talking flying yogics and their "Peace Palaces" seem to have flown
the proverbial coop in Toronto.

With the formal announcement of a University of Peace promised for
Toronto portlands last March, there are no visible signs of
construction. Rather than hammers, drills and saws, the only sound to
be heard in the portlands is the piercing cry of seagulls.

Ditto for sound coming from construction of the nine peace palaces
planned for Canadian soil, and no word either on the fate of the 2,000
square metre peace palace to have begun construction in Ontario, in
2004.

If actual construction hasn't been completed on Salt Spring Island in
British Columbia, whose peace palace project boasts a local "organic"
golf course, a community Meditation Hall "for all who practice
Transcendental Meditation" was completed. The Salt Spring Island
community is also advertising a World Peace Assembly, to be held March
24-31, 2005.

As described by their advocates, peace palaces are houses with large
rooms where "yogic flyers" can "take off together". Each peace palace
would be home to 100 to 200 "peace-creating" experts.

To the untrained eye or to the cynic, yogic flying may look very much
like awkward cross-legged hopping, but at advanced stages it feels
like flying, advocates insist.

At last count, His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught the
Beatles and Mick Jagger how to meditate, was planning 3,000 peace
palaces for cities around the world.

The Maharishi was not flying solo. Oscar-nominated director David
Lynch and award-winning choreographer Robert La Fosse joined with
business leaders to launch a $1-billion drive to build 100 of the
Peace Palaces and a University of Peace in the United States.

During the 2002 Francophone summit, Lebanese-born meditator Tony Nader
joined the peace palace brigade. "We only need $1 billion," Nader
said. "That's nothing compared to what missiles cost."

Followers of the Maharishi include Mozambique President Joaquim
Alberto Chissano who meditates twice a day. The national leader first
instructed his Cabinet ministers to follow suit, then had his
government officers and the military trained in TM.

"The result has been political peace and balance in nature in my
country," Chissano, a former Marxist bush fighter, told Britain's
Guardian newspaper in 2001.

Closer to home, it was no flight of fancy to former Toronto-Danforth
Liberal MP Dennis Mills, who announced that the United Nations-
sponsored University of Peace would be moving from tropical Costa Rica
to downtown Toronto.

Mills' announcement coincided with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's
address to a special joint parliamentary session in Ottawa.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, Mills said, had given him the go ahead for
his plans to bring UPeace to T.O.

In fact, Mills stressed that bringing the UN to Toronto was his "last
goal" as an elected Member of Parliament.

Mills was defeated in last June's federal election and returned to a
private sector job at Magna International.

Instead of a peace university or peace palace, Toronto residents who
could use a little yogic flying lessons to escape him, got New
Democrat Party leader Jack Layton.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm108.html

Trial Set For Student Stabbing

Associated Press/November 23, 2004

A former student at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield
has been found competent to stand trial on a murder charge.

25-year-old Shuvender Sem of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is charged with
first-degree murder in the stabbing death of another student in
March.

Levi Butler of La Quinta, California, was stabbed with a paring knife
in a campus dining hall.

Sem is also charged with assault for allegedly attacking another
student earlier in the day with a ballpoint pen.

Sem was found incompetent to stand trial last summer. A judge now says
both sides agreed after another evaluation to move forward with the
trial, which is set for June sixth.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm107.html

Meditation advocates hope to convert the schools

Associated Press/November 13, 2004
By Patrick Condon

Fairfield, Iowa -- Here in the American headquarters of Transcendental
Meditation, people like to brag that, much as in Garrison Keillor's
fictional Lake Wobegon, "all the children are above average."

"The children are so enthusiastic to do things - competitions,
academics, and so on," said Ashley Deans, headmaster of Maharishi
School of the Age of Enlightenment, a private K-12 academy with about
300 students.

"And when they enter it, they win it - time and time again."

The secret, school officials say, is Transcendental Meditation - the
practice of invoking a state of deep relaxation by mentally repeating
a word, or mantra.

Advocates say TM, as it is widely known, can spread success at other
schools, and groups promoting it recently have appeared at public

schools in New York, California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and
other places.

But critics - and there are plenty - say Transcendental Meditation in
public schools straddles the line between church and state, and that
other forms of meditation would be just as effective for students.

"I would call it a stealth religion," said Barry Markovsky, a
University of South Carolina sociologist who researches social
networks.

"I would ask whether this is a group I would want to have teaching my
children stress-reduction techniques."

Transcendental Meditation is a trademark technique brought to the
United States by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a Hindu monk who became guru
to the Beatles, Mia Farrow and other celebrities in the 1960s.

In the '70s, he bought the bankrupt Parsons College in this southeast
Iowa city of about 10,000 and established Maharishi University of
Management.

Followers recently formed the Consciousness-Based Education
Association to provide "scientifically validated educational programs,
technologies and consulting service for new schools, existing schools
and after-school organizations," according to the group's Web site.

"You have 10 million kids on antidepressants, one in five black kids

with hypertension, America not leading the world in test scores," said

Bob Roth, spokesman for the Consciousness-Based Education

Association.

"Transcendental Meditation is not just a way to reduce stress, it's a

way to prepare a student to learn."

Roth said his group is not actively approaching schools, but rather
providing information when asked.

"A school day can get pretty stressful," Maharishi School sophomore
Cooper Rose said during a break from math class.

"Being able to meditate every day gives you a chance to settle, and to
get a nice basis for the day on your mind."

Maharishi School officials are quick to point out that their students

have scored in the 99th percentile on standardized tests for the last

10 years; that 95 percent of graduates go to college; and that they

graduate 10 times the national average of National Merit Scholar

finalists.

Critics contend most private schools that charge $12,000 a year for
high school tuition likely would be able to post similar numbers.

University of Iowa education professor Nick Colangelo also notes that
studies indicating benefits of Transcendental Meditation have yet to
break into some of the main education journals and, until that
happens, "I think everybody's going to be a skeptic on it."

Still, public schools in Detroit and Washington have incorporated TM
into their students' daily routines.

Educators there say it helps reduce stress and behavioral problems in
the inner-city schools.

As principal of the Fletcher-Johnson Learning Center in Washington,
George Rutherford introduced TM to his students in 1994.

"We were in a situation where we were at the center of drugs, of
homicides in our area of Washington," said Rutherford, a TM
practitioner himself. "Johnson became a safe haven for our
neighborhood."

A big stumbling block for widespread use in schools could be cost,
with schools having to pay about $625 a year per student for TM
training.

At Nataki Taliba Schoolhouse in Detroit, a public charter school where
students practiced TM, the cost is covered by private donations and
corporate grants from the likes of Daimler-Chrysler and General
Motors.

"It's something that many will carry with them into high school and
adulthood," said Jane Pitt, the TM counselor at Nataki Taliba.

Skeptics say any form of meditation could accomplish the same results
touted by TM advocates - without the religious undertones.

The issue hasn't been widely explored in court, though a federal judge
in New Jersey ruled in 1977 against teaching TM and the Science of
Creative Intelligence, a parallel instruction method, in a public high
school.

"What they're doing is singing praises to Hindu gods," Markovsky
said.

"Are you practicing religion if you don't know it? It's arguable, but
the religious basis is clear for anybody to see."

Rutherford, a Baptist, denies any religious element to Transcendental
Meditation.

"I'm not going to let anything take away from what I believe in," he
said.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm106.html

Meditation enters schools
Deseret Morning News/October 30, 2004
By Patrick Condon

Fairfield, Iowa -- Here in the American headquarters of Transcendental
Meditation, people like to brag that, much as in Garrison Keillor's
fictional Lake Wobegon, "all the children are above average."

"The children are so enthusiastic to do things - competitions,
academics and so on," said Ashley Deans, headmaster of Maharishi
School of the Age of Enlightenment, a private K-12 academy with about
300 students. "And when they enter it, they win it - time and time
again."

The secret, school officials say, is Transcendental Meditation - the
practice of invoking a state of deep relaxation by mentally repeating
a word, or mantra.

Advocates say TM can spread success at other schools, and groups
promoting it recently have appeared at public schools in New York,

California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and other places.

But critics, and there are plenty, say Transcendental Meditation in
public schools straddles the line between church and state, and that
other forms of meditation would be just as effective for students.

"I would call it a stealth religion," said Barry Markovsky, a
University of South Carolina sociologist who researches social
networks. "I would ask whether this is a group I would want to have
teaching my children stress-reduction techniques."

Transcendental Meditation is a trademark technique brought to the
United States by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a Hindu monk who became guru
to The Beatles, Mia Farrow and other celebrities in the 1960s. In the
'70s, he bought the bankrupt Parsons College in this southeastern Iowa
city of about 10,000 and established Maharishi University of
Management.

Followers recently formed the Consciousness-Based Education
Association to provide "scientifically validated educational programs,
technologies, and consulting service for new schools, existing schools
and after-school organizations," according to the group's Web site.

"You have 10 million kids on antidepressants, one in five black kids

with hypertension, America not leading the world in test scores," said
Bob Roth, spokesman for the Consciousness-Based Education Association.

"Transcendental Meditation is not just a way to reduce stress, it's a

way to prepare a student to learn."

Roth said his group is not actively approaching schools but rather
providing information when asked.

"A school day can get pretty stressful," said Maharishi School
sophomore Cooper Rose during a break from math class. "Being able to
meditate every day gives you a chance to settle, and to get a nice
basis for the day on your mind."

Maharishi School officials are quick to point out that their students
have scored in the 99th percentile on standardized tests for the past
10 years; that 95 percent of graduates go to college; and that they

graduate 10 times the national average of National Merit Scholar

finalists.

Critics contend most private schools that charge $12,000 a year for
high school tuition likely would be able to post similar numbers.
University of Iowa education professor Nick Colangelo also notes that
studies indicating benefits of TM have yet to break into some of the
main education journals and, until that happens, "I think everybody's
going to be a skeptic on it."

Still, public schools in Detroit and Washington, D.C., have
incorporated TM into their students' daily routines. Educators there
say it helps reduce stress and behavioral problems in the inner-city
schools.

As principal of the Fletcher-Johnson Learning Center in Washington,
George Rutherford introduced TM to his students in 1994.

"We were in a situation where we were at the center of drugs, of
homicides in our area of Washington," said Rutherford, a TM
practitioner himself. "Johnson became a safe haven for our
neighborhood."

A big stumbling block for widespread use in schools could be cost,
with schools having to pay about $625 a year per student for TM
training.

At Nataki Taliba Schoolhouse in Detroit, a public charter school where
students practiced TM, the cost is covered by private donations and
corporate grants from the likes of Daimler-Chrysler and General
Motors.

"It's something that many will carry with them into high school and
adulthood," said Jane Pitt, the TM counselor at Nataki Taliba.

Skeptics say any form of meditation could accomplish the same results
touted by TM advocates - without the religious undertones.

The issue hasn't been widely explored in court, though a federal judge
in New Jersey ruled in 1977 against teaching TM and the Science of
Creative Intelligence, a parallel instruction method, in a public high
school.

"What they're doing is singing praises to Hindu gods," Markovsky said.
"Are you practicing religion if you don't know it? It's arguable, but
the religious basis is clear for anybody to see."

Rutherford, a Baptist, denies any religious element to TM. "I'm not
going to let anything take away from what I believe in," he said.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm105.html

Big mantra on campus
Associated Press/October 6, 2004

Fairfield, Iowa -- Here in the American headquarters of Transcendental
Meditation, people like to brag that, much as in Garrison Keillor's
fictional Lake Wobegon, "all the children are above average."

"The children are so enthusiastic to do things - competitions,
academics, and so on," said Ashley Deans, headmaster of Maharishi
School of the Age of Enlightenment, a private K-12 academy with about
300 students. "And when they enter it, they win it - time and time
again."

The secret, school officials say, is Transcendental Meditation - the
practice of invoking a state of deep relaxation by mentally repeating
a word, or mantra.

Advocates say TM can spread success at other schools, and groups
promoting it recently have appeared at schools in New York,

California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and other places.

But critics, and there are plenty, say Transcendental Meditation in
public schools straddles the line between church and state and that
other forms of meditation would be just as effective for students.

"I would call it a stealth religion," said Barry Markovsky, a
University of South Carolina sociologist who researches social
networks. "I would ask whether this is a group I would want to have
teaching my children stress-reduction techniques."

Transcendental Meditation is a trademark technique brought to the
United States by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a Hindu monk who became guru
to The Beatles, Mia Farrow and other celebrities in the 1960s. In the
'70s, he bought the bankrupt Parsons College in this southeastern Iowa
city of about 10,000 and established Maharishi University of
Management.

Followers recently formed the Consciousness-Based education
Association to provide "scientifically validated educational programs,
technologies, and consulting service for new schools, existing schools
and after-school organizations," according to the group's Web site.

"You have 10 million kids on antidepressants, one in five black kids

with hypertension, America not leading the world in test scores," said
Bob Roth, spokesman for the Consciousness-Based education
Association.

"Transcendental Meditation is not just a way to reduce stress, it's a

way to prepare a student to learn."

Roth said his group is not actively approaching schools, but rather
providing information when asked.

"A school day can get pretty stressful," Cooper Rose, a sophomore at
Maharishi School, said during a break from math class. "Being able to
meditate every day gives you a chance to settle, and to get a nice
basis for the day on your mind."

Maharishi School officials are quick to point out that their students

have scored in the 99th percentile on standardized tests for the last

10 years; that 95 percent of graduates go to college; and that they

graduate 10 times the national average of National Merit Scholar

finalists.

Critics contend most private schools that charge $12,000 a year for
high school tuition likely would be able to post similar numbers.

Public schools in Detroit and Washington, D.C., also have incorporated
TM into their students' daily routines. Educators there say it helps
reduce stress and behavioral problems in the inner-city schools.

As principal of the Fletcher-Johnson Learning Center in Washington,
George Rutherford introduced TM to his students in 1994.

"We were in a situation where we were at the center of drugs, of
homicides in our area of Washington," said Rutherford, a TM
practitioner himself. "Johnson became a safe haven for our
neighborhood."

A big stumbling block for widespread use in schools could be cost,
with schools having to pay about $625 a year per student for TM
training.

At Nataki Taliba Schoolhouse in Detroit, a public charter school where
students practiced TM, the cost is covered by private donations and
corporate grants from the likes of Daimler-Chrysler and General
Motors.

"It's something that many will carry with them into high school and
adulthood," said Jane Pitt, the TM counselor at Nataki Taliba.

Skeptics say any form of meditation could accomplish the same results
touted by TM advocates - without the religious undertones.

"What they're doing is singing praises to Hindu gods," Markovsky said.
"Are you practicing religion if you don't know it? It's arguable, but
the religious basis is clear for anybody to see."

Rutherford, a Baptist, denies any religious element to TM.

"I'm not going to let anything take away from what I believe in. My
wife is a strong Christian. She's not going to let anything mess with
our Lord," he said.

The question hasn't been widely explored in court, but in 1977, U.S.
District Judge H. Curtis Meanor ruled against Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
and his followers in a lawsuit attempting to block the teaching of TM
and the Science of Creative Intelligence, a parallel teaching method.

"Defendants have failed to raise the slightest doubt as to the fact or
as to the religious nature of the teachings ... the teaching of the
SCI/TM course in New Jersey public high schools violates the
establishment clause of the First Amendment," Meanor wrote at the
time.

Though TM advocates cite numerous studies backing their claims, an
education professor at the University of Iowa said those studies have
not entered the mainstream of education theory.

"Until research makes some of the main journals, I think everybody's
going to be a skeptic on it," Nick Colangelo said. "I think rightfully
so."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm104.html

Windham family finds peace in meditation

The Union Leader/September 27, 2004
By Carol Robidoux

Gloria Norris Schwartz discovered Transcendental Meditation - TM -
five years ago after a mostly fruitless search for a natural remedy
for healing and stress.

Since then she and her husband Jeffrey, a mathematical scientist, and
their two sons, 13 and 11, have trained in the technique described by
TM enthusiasts as the opposite of concentration, completely effortless
and totally life-changing.

How true for the Schwartz family.

They meditate regularly and follow a TM-recommended natural health
program. And as soon as they can sell their home in Windham, they're
moving to Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, a new city built three years ago
in the middle of farm country just beyond the Maharishi University of
Management - a college founded in 1974 by the Maharishi Maheesh Yogi.

Yes, guru to the Beatles during the late 1960s.

"I can't wait to get there. As soon as I heard about it I had to see
it. We've been there twice - I loved it," Schwartz, 50, said.

Although they arrived in New Hampshire from the Washington, D.C., area
already practicing TM, Schwartz wanted to connect with a TM teacher
here.

She met Sherry Levesque, director of Manchester's TM Program Center
and part of the faculty at Maharishi Vedic University in Antrim, which
last year took over the campus of the defunct Nathaniel Hawthorne
College. The organization is looking to build a meditation "Peace
Palace" in the Manchester area, as well.

Tonight Levesque will offer an introductory TM lecture at Manchester
City Library auditorium at 7 p.m. Levesque said her presentation, "The
TM Program: Opening a New World of Knowledge, Health and Quality of
Life," is based on data proving the physical and mental benefits of TM
from more than 600 scientific studies at more than 200 credible
universities and research centers, including Harvard Medical School,
Stanford University and UCLA.

Goal: World peace

Levesque cites benefits ranging from enhanced creativity, memory and
alpha wave brain function (key to taming attention deficit disorders),
to solving blood pressure, cholesterol, anxiety and stress-related
ailments.

"TM provides the mind with the ability to transcend to a place TMers
refer to as the 'universal unified field of intelligence' - called the
unified field, in ultra modern physics," Levesque said.

Albert Einstein was among those great thinkers who first explored the
so-called Theory Of Everything (TOE) in the context of the universe.

Only now are physicists catching up with Einstein and applying TOE to
the current controversial buzz in the scientific community, "String
Theory" by Columbia University physicist Brian Greene.

But make no mistake: TM is a trademarked, worldwide non-profit
educational organization based solely on the sacred teachings of "His
Holiness" the Maharishi. It relies heavily on repetition of a mantra.
And the goal is nothing short of world peace.

"What Maharishi says in the language of science - we call it Natural
Law - in layman's terms might be called the will of God. In whatever
language you use, peace should be the way of the world," Levesque
said.

"For the cost of a B-2 bomber, we could set up a group of 40,000
people in India to meditate and act as peace keepers by creating a
major effect on the unified field," Levesque said.

A $2,500 check

Anyone interested in learning TM must participate in three preliminary
lectures - two group and a one-on-one with a certified instructor.
After that, a $2,500 check buys you a lifetime of instruction at any
trademarked Maharishi Vedic center around the globe.

"The fee may sound high, but it's a standard fee, and actually, it's
the best bargain in America," Levesque said.

Schwartz has borrowed money in order to pay that much, times four, and
agrees with Levesque that it's a wise investment in her family's
future.

"What does a person pay for a course in college? What do you pay for a
one-week vacation for a family of four? How much is a laptop computer
and some software and, in a few years, it's obsolete?," Schwartz
said.

Townies vs. gurus

Meanwhile, in Vedic City, Iowa, it's hard to say whether the city that
chants together achieves world peace together. But it seemed like a
logical question for Jefferson County Iowa Sheriff Jerry Droz.

"This whole county is low crime, has been for years - since before
they got here," Droz said. "Everybody there is involved in TM."
Although he's never tried it, some of his best friends are TM'ers.

He said Vedic City has caused a rift between some Iowa natives and
their new mystical neighbors.

"It's become the 'Townies' and 'Gurus,' a 'we' and 'them' situation,
when it should be 'us.' Although the factions are getting a little
less, you can understand it. When something new comes into your
neighborhood you wouldn't like it," Droz said.

One of the persistent controversies surrounding TM is its connection
to Hinduism through mantras, and the cult-like influence of the
Maharishi over his followers. Some say it undermines traditional
Biblical teachings on the absolute truth of Christian doctrine.

Droz said he would be reluctant to say what he thinks, but offered
this anecdote.

"When Maharishi said all the toilets had to face East, everyone
changed their homes around. All the buildings have to be facing East.
Why? That's what he said to do. There are several things they have to
do, because he says so," Droz said. "Sure, we've had people
disgruntled with the program, but the bottom line is, you can't please
everybody."

A 'destructive cult'

But Andrew Skolnick, a former editor for the Journal of the American
Medical Association and current director of the Commission for
Scientific Medicine and Mental Health, a newly formed New York-based
organization dedicated to debunking overblown alternative medicine and
health theories, is not so diplomatic.

He says TM is nothing but BS.

"It's widely considered by cult experts to be a destructive cult, in
that its followers believe in a divine-like quality or powers of their
leader and they accept his teachings, which are blatantly absurd, self-
contradictory and harmful," Skolnick said. "And it costs a fortune."

He said the Maharishi's rationale is based on his interpretations of
Hindu mysticism wrapped in scientific jargon.

"What he did in the 1950s was he started to rewrite his Hindu
theology, replacing it with scientific words. And that's enough for
the 'believer,' who will not try to see the consistencies or
inconsistencies for himself," Skolnick said.

"You go take a basic TM course that teaches you to meditate. Then you
come back for 'checking' and they say you can't advance in TM without
the checking sessions. And it's during those sessions you're baited
for costly courses. Then, slowly, they reel you in," Skolnick said.

That kind of criticism does not sway Schwartz against her decision to
move her family West, to Vedic City. She's heard it all, and said her
commitment to TM was made for exactly the opposite reason.

"I wanted something that wasn't going to interfere with whatever
religious path I was taking, and that's exactly what you get with TM.
So many of these other methods of relaxation and healing are either
all spiritual or all scientific. This is both," said Schwartz. "And at
the same time, it's not like a religion, like you have to subscribe to
a particular belief system. It's just a technique."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm103.html

Meditation and the art of capital-raising

Sunday Star Times/August 29, 2004
By Lesley Springall

The New Zealand Maharishi Foundation, which seeks to spread peace and
harmony through transcendental meditation, wants Kiwi businessfolk to
contribute $15 million for a "peace palace" in central Auckland.

The Auckland Peace Palace would be the first of eight planned for New
Zealand's cities and one of 3000 sought globally by the five million
devotees of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, made famous by The Beatles in
1968. Since 2000, three of the 3000 have been built - all in the US.

Among those lending their names (but not necessarily their money) to
plans for Auckland's palace are former New York marathon winner and
healthcare product manufacturer Allison Roe, Auckland District Health
Board mental health director Dr Nick Argyle, McKay Shipping chief
executive Craig Harris, former Young & Rubicam boss Peter Scutts,
Auckland property developer Greg Liggins and New Zealand Institute of
Management Canterbury divisional head Reg Garters.

Foundation PR adviser Tony Edmonds said many senior business people
involved in the project are regular meditators.

"But they don't necessarily want to talk about it because if they do,
people start humming the theme to The X-Files and rolling their eyes
because they don't understand . . . But now it's time to talk about
it."

One supporter of the plan is former PSM Holdings chief executive,
North Harbour coach and All Black selector Peter Thorburn. He said he
turned to transcendental meditation more than a decade ago following
the death of his wife.

He dropped it later in the '90s but picked it up again about six
months ago after a stressful tour coaching in England.

AdvertisementAdvertisement"It helps me to relax. It makes a real
difference to your general sense of well-being."

Not involved in the palace plans, though a supporter of the concept,
is Michael Hill of jewellery retailer Michael Hill International. He
says with meditation, the mind can "unleash unbelievably powerful
inner thoughts, particularly business decisions: where one wants to go
and what one wants to do with one's life, all becomes clear."

Hill remains sceptical about Maharishi followers' claim that
meditation can reduce violent crime, ethnic tensions and even
terrorism. Devotees believe that, if enough people meditate in a
community, social tensions ease and crime rates fall.

To achieve this Auckland's Peace Palace must attract regular twice-
daily meditators numbering more than the square root of 1% of the
city's population, or about 100 people.

To sceptics it's far-fetched, but New Zealand Maharishi Foundation
directors Graeme Lodge and Martin Jelley - son of Arch Jelley, coach
of Kiwi runner John Walker - reel off results from 600 scientific
studies they say back the claims.

The palace's $15m price tag includes about $5m for buying the land and
constructing the building, while the rest is earmarked to help pay for
100 to 200 professional meditators. Getting the necessary seed funding
for the project should not be the problem, rather, finding the land,
Lodge said. This should be finalised this year, so building can begin
next year.

Internationally, those who have dabbled with transcendental meditation
include, famously, The Beatles and actor Clint Eastwood; movie
director David Lynch, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, physicist
John Hagelin, comedic actor Andy Kaufman and former US vice president
Al Gore.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm102.html

Maharshi Murder Proceedings Suspended
KCRG-TV9/July 20, 2004

Criminal proceedings against a former Maharishi Uiversity of
Management student accused of murder, are suspended indefinitely.

A Jefferson County District Judge has declared Shuvender Sem, 24,
incompetent to stand trial.

He ordered that Sem be placed in a treatment program at the Iowa

Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale.

Sem is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Levi
Butler, 19, on March 1st.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm101.html

Sem found incompetent to stand trial

The Fairfield Ledger/July 19, 2004
By Erik Gable

Shuvender Sem, the former Maharishi University of Management student
charged in the March 1 stabbing death of fellow student Levi Butler,
is mentally ill and not competent to stand trial, attorneys on both
sides of the case agreed.

According to documents filed today in Iowa District Court for
Jefferson County, Sem was evaluated by two experts -- one chosen by
the defense and one chosen by the state -- and both determined he was
incompetent to stand trial.

The agreement was filed jointly by defense attorneys Alfredo Parrish
and Tammy Westhoff-Gentry and prosecutors Tim Dille and Virginia
Barchman.

"The parties agree that the defendant is suffering from a mental
disorder which prevents the defendant from appreciating the charge,
understanding the proceedings, or assisting effectively in the
defense," the document reads.

Both parties also agreed that Sem "poses a danger to [him]self or to
the public."

Judge Dan F. Morrison signed an order committing Sem to the custody of
the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale, where he will
be placed in a treatment program.

Dille said Sem will be kept at Oakdale until he is found to be
competent, up to 18 months. If he is still at Oakdale in 18 months, a
hearing will be held to determine whether he will remain there for
treatment or be transferred to a state facility for the mentally
impaired.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm100.html

Competency hearing scheduled
for July 19

The Fairfield Ledger/July 9, 2004
By Erik Gable

A judge will hear arguments July 19 on whether Shuvender Sem, the
former Maharishi University of Management student charged in the March
1 stabbing death of university freshman Levi Butler, is competent to
stand trial.

In May, a judge decided Sem was competent to stand trial. However, Sem
has since replaced the public defender assigned to his case with
Alfredo Parrish, a well-known Des Moines defense attorney, and
Parrish's office filed a request for a second competency hearing.

Jefferson County attorney Tim Dille said prosecutors intend to resist
any attempt to have Sem declared incompetent.

In an order filed Wednesday in Iowa District Court for Jefferson
County, Judge Dan F. Morrison set a hearing for 1 p.m. July 19 at the
Jefferson County Courthouse.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm99.html

Spiritual Center tells TM residents to vacate

Watauga Democrat/June 9, 2004
By Jason Reagan

Residents of the Parusha community at the Spiritual Center may soon be
seeking a new residence.

A rift between the group that helped establish the Transcendental
Meditation (TM) movement at Heavenly Mountain and its current
practitioners continued to widen last week when the board of directors
of the Spiritual Center of America demanded full-time meditation
groups leave the center's residential facilities.

After a unanimous decision by its five-member board, center chairman
Earl Kaplan said he sent notices "requesting possession of the
premises"by July 6 to the men's and women's groups (Parusha and Mother
Divine).

The announcement came amid several legal battles against Kaplan and
his twin brother, David, who have both been named in lawsuits by
Heavenly Mountain homeowners.

Last week, most of the lawsuits were dismissed in civil court, but
David still faces one suit by some Heavenly Mountain homeowners, who
claim they bought homesites based on a belief that the development
would remain TM-centered.

Last month, David Kaplan publicly cut all ties with the TM movement.
In a letter, Kaplan said he and his brother investigated the
movement's leader, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the TM movement closely,
and subsequently he could "no longer support or be associated with
Maharishi, his ideas, his knowledge or any of his organizations in any
way whatsoever."

David Kaplan helped start Heavenly Mountain, which is located east of
Boone near Triplett in 1993 by investing $8 million of his own money.

He avidly practiced TM for 25 years, often meditating for several
hours each day, and donated more than $10 million to the
organization.

He began to consider leaving after 1999 when he became so sick he
nearly died. Later, he decided to get married and left the Parusha
program for single men.

"For that I was kicked out of the movement," he said in an earlier
letter. David said he will continue to develop a 5,800-acre parcel of
land he owns privately and said he hopes Heavenly Mountain will become
a "normal development, not a TM development."

At least one Parusha resident, who asked not to be named, said he knew
nothing about the notice to vacate the residential unit and seemed
surprised to hear about it.

Representatives of the Parusha and Mother Divine refused to comment on
the notice, spokesman Bob Roth said.

The TM movement originally established the Spiritual Center "to bring
fulfillment to the spiritual and material aspirations of all Americans
through Maharishi Vedic Science and Technology," according to the
center's Web site, which has now been disabled.

Earl Kaplan said the center would soon be opened to people of all
religious faiths or spiritual beliefs for meditation or worship.

Although it is not known how many men and women live at Parusha and
Mother Divine, most spend several hours a day meditating and
voluntarily segregate themselves from members of the opposite sex.

The campuses, separated by several miles of mountainous terrain and
privacy gates, are surrounded by thousands of acres of undeveloped
forest near the Triplett community.

While it is not known where most practitioners will go after July 6,
the TM movement operates several communities throughout the world,
including a university in Fairfield, Iowa.

Officials claim more than 5 million people practice TM.

Heavenly Mountain consists of two parts: the 500-acre nonprofit
Spiritual Center of America and about 1,000 acres of for-profit
development of private lots and houses.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm98.html

Student Accused Of Fatal Stabbing Stays Put

Judge Rules Maharishi Student To Stay In County Jail

TheIowaChannel.com/May 25, 2004

Fairfield, Iowa -- A judge ruled that a Maharishi University of
Management student charged with stabbing a fellow student to death
must stay in a county jail instead of being transferred to the Oakdale
prison, where his mental health could be more closely monitored.

District Judge Richard Meadows ruled Monday that the defendant was
being adquately treated in county jail and there was no need to move
him.

Prosecutors have charged Sem with first-degree murder in the death of
Levi Butler, 19, of La Quinta, Calif. Butler was stabbed in the chest
in front of dozens of other students in the dining hall at the school,
where both were students.

Authorities have also charged Sem with stabbing another student in the
cheek with a ballpoint pen during a class earlier in the day.

Sem is scheduled to go to trial June 22.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm97.html

Sem to use insanity defense at murder trial

The Fairfield Ledger/May 25, 2004
By Erik Gable

Shuvender Sem, the former Maharishi University of Management student
charged in the March 1 stabbing death of university freshman Levi
Butler, will plead insanity and diminished responsibility, his
attorney said in court documents filed recently.

A notice of Sem's intention to rely on the insanity and diminished
responsibility defenses was filed last week in Iowa District Court for
Jefferson County by his attorney, Les Lamping of Washington, Iowa.
Sem, 24, entered a "not guilty" plea May 4.

Insanity and diminished responsibility are two different defenses,
explained Myron Gookin, a local attorney with experience in criminal
law.

Insanity is a "total defense," Gookin said, meaning if the jury
accepts it, the defendant cannot be found guilty on any of the
charges. But if a jury finds a defendant not guilty of first-degree
murder by reason of diminished responsibility, jurors can still vote
to convict the defendant of a lesser offense.

Gookin said insanity is generally more difficult to prove than
diminished responsibility.

For an insanity defense to succeed, he said, "you have to prove by a
preponderance of evidence ... that you didn't have sufficient mental
capacity to know what you were doing or know the difference between
right and wrong."

If a defendant is found not guilty by reason of insanity, Gookin
noted, it doesn't mean he or she can go free.

State law says that a defendant found not guilty by reason of insanity
must be committed to a state mental health institute or the Iowa
Medical and Classification Center prison at Oakdale. They are released
when they are found to be no longer mentally ill and no longer
dangerous to themselves or others.

An insanity plea generally requires expert testimony, Gookin said.

According to court documents, the defense plans to call Dr. James
Brooks and Dr. Dan Rogers as expert witnesses. In March, a judge gave
permission for the defense to retain an expert witness to perform a
psychiatric evaluation at the state's expense.

Unlike an insanity plea, diminished responsibility does not relieve
the defendant of responsibility for his or her actions.

"You can have diminished responsibility and not be insane," Gookin
said.

In a first-degree murder case, according to Iowa's criminal jury
instructions, diminished responsibility means the defendant was not
capable at the time of forming "a premeditated, deliberate, specific
intent to kill." To get a first-degree murder conviction, the
prosecution must prove the crime was premeditated.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm96.html

Maharishi Vedic School looks to be sold

News-Sun/May 23, 2004
By Barry Foster

Avon Park -- While the closing draws near for the sale of Harder Hall,
another area landmark is up for sale. The former Pinecrest Hotel
property is on the market.

Local Realtor Robert King is handling the listing, He said it has been
on the market for several months now. The asking price for the
historic property has been set at $3.5 million.

Originally built as a luxury resort hotel, the facility on the shores
of Lake Lotela more recently has been known as the Maharishi School of
Vedic Science.

Sam Farling, a co-director at the operation, said the plan is to sell
its current facility south of Avon Park and search for a new
location.

Although he said they would be looking in Central Florida, it might
not be in Highlands County.

"We're looking for a place between here and Orlando," he said. "We'd
like to be in a rolling area with lakes."

Its current location is on 10 acres adjacent to the Pinecrest Golf
Course.

The group is looking to construct its new facilities in consort with
the principals of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi known as stphapatyaved.

"You need to build in harmony with natural law so that you get maximum
support of nature," Farling explained.

He said the building they currently are using does not comply with
some of the ancient provisions.

For instance, the lake should be on the north or the east of the
building. It now sits to the west of the complex.

The Mediterranean Revival-style complex is listed on the National
Register of Historic places. Built in 1925, there were 82 original
rooms, another 24 were added along the lakefront in 1950 with the
addition of 20 motel rooms in 1957

"It's a pretty neat old building and it's still pretty much intact,"
said Realtor Robert King. "All the old fixtures and the like are still
there."

In 1964, the Civil Air Patrol sponsored a school called the National
Aero Space Academy for a year. It then was purchased by a North
Carolina couple who ran the place as the Highlands County Girls School
until 1972.

In 1978, it was sold to the Florida Capital of the Age of
Enlightenment and used for retreats, seminars and instruction on
transcendental meditation.

It was one of the group's proponents from the West Palm Beach area
that found the property and urged the group to purchase it.

Ten years ago it became a preventative health care center with clinics
for pulse diagnosis, massage treatment and nutrition lectures.

The complex also is the home of the Maharishi Vedic Health Center.
According to the group's Internet Web site, it offers both the
Marishi's rejuvenation and vibration technology programs.

Those programs reportedly are purification treatments. The group
claims the plans counteract "the effects of stress, fatigue, improper
diet and environmental impurities" that have accumulated over time.

The facility plays host to meditation retreats, many times during
holiday weekends.

"We'll probably have 25-35 people from Florida and the Southeast over
the Memorial Day weekend for instance," He said.

The building's listing on the National Registry has been a two-edged
sword. Farling said while it has enabled the group to get help with
some of the repairs, it has limited the group in other ways.

"We were able to get funds to re-roof it and take care of the fire
system -- but it limits the kinds of changes you can make," he said.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm95.html

Future of Heavenly Mountain disputed

Watauga Democrat/May 19, 2004
By Jason Reagan

The man who, along with his twin brother, owns most of the land at
Heavenly Mountain Resort, has disavowed the spiritual movement that
helped establish the retreat.

David Kaplan, who owns the largest privately-owned land tract in
Watauga County, publicly repudiated the Transcendental Meditation (TM)
movement and its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in a letter released
Tuesday to Heavenly Mountain residents and the public.

In the letter, Kaplan said he and his brother, Earl, investigated
Maharishi and the TM movement closely, and subsequently could "no
longer support or be associated with Maharishi, his ideas, his
knowledge or any of his organizations in any way whatsoever."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm94.html

Meditation Controversy
The Journal News/May 18, 2004
By Joy Victory

It seems harmless enough: With eyes closed, you sit upright in a quiet
room and mentally repeat a word for 10 to 20 minutes - a technique
known as Transcendental Meditation. When young children practice it
twice a day, according to research provided by the national Committee
for Stress-Free Schools, it decreases their blood pressure, improves
their grades and lowers their stress levels.

Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is just one of many forms of
meditation, a process in which a person narrowly focuses his attention
to clear the mind. But some worry that the committee's claims about
TM's benefits are overblown. Most of the research on TM is skewed
toward positive results, critics say, and the TM movement has
religious overtones.

Still, at least four schools in the United States have implemented TM
into their curriculum, and the committee has been aggressively
promoting its program in major cities, including New York City.

In March, the committee held a conference on TM for New York-area
school administrators. School-age children demonstrated the technique
and researchers shared study results. So far, only private or charter
schools are using TM, according to Joseph Boxerman, a TM teacher and
media liaison for the committee.

"We will go where we're welcome," says Boxerman, who says the school
program would be offered free of charge. "It's a new, emerging trend
that's still below the radar."

However, outspoken ex-members of the TM movement and other critics
would like it to stay that way. They say the mantra, the word that is
repeated silently, is a Hindu-based word, and therefore a possible
violation of the separation of church and state if used in a school
setting. TM critics also are skeptical of the committee's research
about the benefits of TM, which they say is rarely conducted by
independent researchers.

"To hear them speak about this, you would think this is the greatest
thing since ice cream," says Barry Markovsky, a researcher of social
networks and sociology department head at the University of South
Carolina. "It's a way to hoist an actual religion onto unknowing
people and a way to turn a profit."

Committee's origins

The committee is an offshoot of the Maharishi Vedic Education
Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization that promotes the
use of TM for all ages. There are dozens of similar groups around the
world, funded by followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (also known as
"His Holiness"), an Indian mystic who became famous in the 1960s after
teaching The Beatles to meditate.

This celebrity connection popularized Mahesh and TM, and by the early
1970s, TM centers had sprung up across the world. Over the years,
hundreds of groups influenced by Mahesh's teachings have taught the
same technique, under names like the Spiritual Regeneration Movement
and later as the more academic-sounding Science of Creative
Intelligence.

Now Mahesh and his supporters have a virtual empire of nonprofit TM
teaching centers, real-estate ventures and even accredited
universities, such as the Maharishi University of Management in
Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa (residents of the city recently approved
the name through a vote). There are an estimated 5 million people
worldwide who have learned TM, says Bob Roth, a spokesman for the
movement.

TM does not come cheap: It costs $2,500 to learn the technique from a
qualified teacher, Roth says. That money does not go to Mahesh,
however, because he is a monk and lives in poverty, Roth says.
Instead, the earnings help create nonprofit centers owned by his
supporters.

The inner workings of the various organizations and centers aren't
readily disclosed, and what a person learns during TM training is kept
private, Boxerman says.

"The teaching process is a one-to-one experience; that's the reason we
don't discuss it or publish it in book form," Boxerman says. "If
people try it themselves, they don't have the experience to know what
to do under different circumstances."

'Effortless technique'

Boxerman defines TM as "a simple, natural and effortless technique
that allows the attention to automatically settle to more subtle
levels of the thinking process."

The movement's main Web site, www.tm.org, describes it as "the single
most effective meditation technique available for gaining deep
relaxation, eliminating stress, promoting health, increasing
creativity and intelligence, and attaining inner happiness and
fulfillment."

Scientifically, the many forms of meditation, including TM, are
thought to elicit a physical sense of relaxation brought about by a
calm state of mind, also known as the body's "relaxation response," a
term coined by Dr. Herbert Benson, director of the Mind/Body Medical
Institute at Harvard Medical School and author of the bestselling book
"The Relaxation Response."

By slowly repeating a word or activity for 10 to 20 minutes, soothing
hormones and other chemicals are released by the body, making a person
feel rested, according to research by Benson.

While Benson's method for learning the relaxation response is free to
anyone with Web access (www.mbmi.org), followers of Transcendental
Meditation must pay for training from a TM teacher or center. (Benson
declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Of TM's many benefits, the Committee for Stress-Free Schools says that
stress relief would be the most useful for students, thereby
potentially curbing "poor academic achievement, substance abuse,
apathy, depression, school violence and teacher burnout," according to
materials provided by the committee.

In a school setting, TM is taught individually, although students do
meditate together in large groups. The committee plans to use donated
money to teach TM at no cost to taxpayers, but already the National
Institutes of Health has given them close to $20 million to study TM
in mostly minority communities.

The group also has received more than $100,000 from DaimlerChrysler
for the Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse, a Detroit charter school that has
used Transcendental Meditation since 1997. Besides Talibah, the other
schools using TM are in Silver Spring, Md., and Washington, D.C., and
at an elementary school on the campus of the Maharishi University of
Management in Iowa.

The Research

The Talibah school's TM program was studied by University of Michigan
psychologist Rita Benn, who researches alternative medical therapies.
She compared the Talibah students, who meditate twice a day, to a
group of similarly-aged students who didn't meditate. From that, she
concluded that TM helped the Talibah students with self-esteem, stress
management, depression and anxiety.

However, Benn began her research after the students were already
practicing TM, so it's only possible to conclude that the children
were in better mental health than the other group, and not necessarily
because of TM.

"Our study is just one small study. We need more studies with larger
numbers that show its value before widespread implementation should
occur," Benn said. "Again, that being said, most programs are
implemented in schools without solid research behind them."

The committee, however, feels Benn's study and other TM research on TM
proves its value in schools. The committee's literature states there
are more than 500 studies on TM by "200 independent research
institutions worldwide."

But a large-scale literature review published in 2003 in The Middle
European Journal of Medicine found that of 700 studies on TM spanning
40 years, only 10 were conducted in the clinical tradition of using
strict control groups, randomization and placebos. Of those 10, four
of the studies recruited subjects who had already shown an interest in
TM.

"My review concludes it seems that there is a strong placebo effect
going on which probably works through the expectations being set up,"
responded Peter Canter via e-mail. He is a researcher from the
Peninsula Medical School of the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in
the United Kingdom.

The review also stated that many of the authors of the TM studies were
connected to one of Mahesh's universities.

"In effect, they gatekeep who can and who cannot do research on TM,"
Canter says.

Yogic flying

For sure, some of Mahesh's own strange claims have hurt his agenda. In
the '70s, he said meditators could become enlightened enough to float
off the ground, in a trance. He dubbed this "yogic flying" and
released photos showing meditators aloft. It was soon exposed that the
meditators were hopping, not flying.

He also says that if enough meditators meditate or "fly" together, it
can affect world events. In 1988, the group issued a press release
saying that meditators in Texas were able to affect the path of
Hurricane Gilbert, a powerful storm predicted to cause major damage
that ended up hitting rural areas of the Gulf Coast.

Followers of TM have dubbed this the "Maharishi Effect," in which
minds meditating together can have an effect on "global
consciousness." The group has built "peace palaces" around the world
where they can meditate collectively.

Dr. Gary Kaplan, a transcendental meditator and director of clinical
neurophysiology at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island,
says research has proven the Maharishi Effect to be possible.

"It's difficult for the public in general and the scientific community
to grasp these concepts because they are not common in the rest of
scientific literature," Kaplan says. "This whole idea of group and
environmental effect, it's been repeated a number of times (in
studies.)"

That claim irks skeptics like Markovsky, the sociology researcher at
University of South Carolina, who spoke out publicly against the group
when he was a professor at the University of Iowa.

"These are obviously cases of selective evidence," he says, explaining
that the group typically takes credit for something when the result is
positive. "What bothers me more than anything is the way they use
their research as a way to get funding to train new members who become
part of the movement."

Stress relief

It's the simple stress-reducing effects that the New York committee is
primarily interested in, says Sally Rosenfeld, chairwoman of Stress-
Free Schools in Westchester and a TM teacher.

She says it is a mental technique, and nothing more.

"What happens when you meditate is the mind quiets or settles down ...
when the mind settles, the body settles. We call that rest; it's a
very, very deep rest," Rosenfeld says. "Once that stress is gone, of
course what happens is one's own potential blossoms forth."

"As life gets more and more stressful, with kids, it's very hard for
them," Rosenfeld says. "There's a lot of fear everywhere & in the
schools, in the cities. It has gotten completely out of hand. And so
many of these young students are on heavy medication (such as
antidepressants or Ritalin) and really suffering. ... So I think we
all decided we would try to get together to get some attention on this
subject."

The power of TM is evident in the Detroit students, she says, which
inspired the committee to spread their effort to New York.

About 70 people attended the March educators' conference on TM in
Manhattan, says Janet Hoffman, who heads the New York Committee for
Stress-Free Schools. She wouldn't disclose any names of school
administrators in this area that indicated an interest in the TM
program.

Hoffman, a TM teacher, says she watched a video of the Detroit
students meditating and was amazed.

"When you have 160 kids in a gym, it's a recipe for disaster," she
says. "But they go in, take their seats, and there's silence. It's
tangible. It's palpable."

Croton-Harmon schools Superintendent Marjorie Castro doubts the
program will garner much interest. The district briefly offered yoga
as a course, but it was pulled after parents raised concerns that
exercises like the "prayer pose" had religious overtones.

"Children in public schools come from so many backgrounds, and that's
a wonderful thing. But you have to be very careful," she says.

Rosenfeld points out that many activities are potentially religious,
such as bowing before a karate teacher. It's all a matter of
perspective, she says, and she rarely hears complaints.

"We have had all sorts of people from different religions," she says.

An entrepreneur

Cult expert Rick Ross, however, says parents should be extremely wary
of the TM movement. The TM movement is cult-like, if not indeed a
cult, especially in the way members tend to revere Mahesh, he says.

"The personality-driven nature of TM is what leads people to see it
(as a cult)," says Ross, who runs the Rick Ross Institute, a Jersey
City, N.J.-based nonprofit organization that studies cults and
controversial groups. "People involved with the Maharishi have been so
deeply devoted to him."

While devotion is not inherently dangerous, Ross says, he points out
that TM followers have donated millions of dollars to the movement.

"So many people felt that once The Beatles dismissed him (Mahesh),
that he wandered off into obscurity," Ross says. "That is anything but
the truth. ... He's always coming up with something - peace bonds,
peace palaces. He's an entrepreneur."

Ex-TM teacher Don Krieger left the group after his wife was concerned
that it was interfering with their Jewish faith. He estimates he spent
tens of thousands of dollars as a member attending TM sessions,
retreats and teacher training.

He says the mantra is actually a Hindu word, usually the name of a
god. (Boxerman refutes this and says it's a meaningless word, although
he couldn't provide an example, since the mantra is always kept secret
by teachers and practitioners.)

More disturbing, Krieger says, is the religious tone of the "induction
ceremony" for new meditators.

"It's a ceremony with incense, camphor and a candle. There's offerings
on a tray and a little altar with a picture of Mahesh's master (Guru
Dev)," says Krieger, who is a professor of neurosurgery at the
University of Pittsburgh. "At the end, the teacher gets down on their
knees and bows and invites the new meditators to get down on their
knees. It's an act of idolatry ... For a religious person, that's
going to be upsetting."

But many people don't object, Krieger says. Of the 400 or so people he
taught, only two refused to kneel and bow to the picture, he says.

"Only a small percentage will stick with it, but they're really
stuck," he says. "When you hear the lectures, they give you a whole
laundry list of what it does.... If you have any fears, they're going
to get evoked by that lecture. You think, 'What a relief! My health
will be perfect.' "

Religious undertones
Bob Roth, a TM spokesman, denied that TM is in any way religious.

"I find people who don't practice TM tell me that what I'm doing is
religious," Roth says. "They say it has roots in Hinduism. It predates
that."

Ex-member Joe Kellett, who related the same indoctrination process as
Krieger, said leaders of the movement are able to recruit new members
because the teachings and practice are essentially forms of hypnotism
and self-hypnotism.

"Basically, the reason you become relaxed is because you were given a
suggestion to be relaxed. You're in a trance, and if you're
susceptible, you will carry out the suggestion," says Kellett, a
computer consultant in Castro Valley, Calif.

Kellett runs www.suggestibility.org, a Web site critical of TM, which
he hopes will explain the unknown elements of the movement - like the
side effects of TM - to people interested in learning the technique.

Kellett says some people are unable to fully come out of the trance
after they meditate, leaving them groggy, tired and nauseous.

Krieger knows this firsthand. After meditating, he says he often
struggled to stay awake, although he was getting enough sleep. (He was
meditating throughout the day, rather than just twice a day.)

"They tell you it's your fault, or that you're 'unstressing.' They're
not described as negative side effects," Krieger says.

Based on his experience, Krieger is completely against TM in schools.

"I certainly wouldn't recommend TM to anybody, or expose their
children to it," he says. "I consider the organization to be a
predatory cult ... although it's not the most malignant cult."

Boxerman fully denies the allegations that TM is a cult, and is
skeptical of Web sites that criticize TM.

"It's not a cult," he says. "It's a scientifically verifiable
technique where you do the practice and get the results. (The critics)
are people who have crazy ideas, and that's their responsibility. I
don't myself keep track of the Web sites that are critical of TM, but
whatever their makeup is, they have misunderstood what is being
represented. There's no question it's not a cult."

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Charter school eyes Aug. opening

Board will meet tonight to consider mobile units, preparation of land

Charlotte Observer/May 6, 2004
By Gail Smith-Arrants

Carolina International School is moving ahead with plans to open in
August despite some opposition to the school, which organizers
originally wanted to offer Transcendental Meditation for students and
staff.

At a meeting tonight, the school's board is considering contracts to
lease 20 mobile units and prepare a newly purchased 36-acre site in
Harrisburg, school director Richard Beall said Wednesday. Of the 20
units, 18 would be classrooms and two would house a media center and
administrative building.

The property is at 8810 Hickory Ridge Road, south of Rocky River Road.
The school will lease the land from a supporter who bought it
specifically for the school.

The new property owner, Paul Pigue, is a friend "who wanted to support
our school mission," Beall said.

The two met six to eight years ago, Beall said, because Pigue also
practices Transcendental Meditation, a practice advocated by the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a Hindu guru, to relax the mind and reduce
stress.

It was TM that drew criticism from residents who said the school
should not receive public funding because critics considered the
meditation a religious practice -- a contention Beall disputes. TM and
Natural Law Curriculum, which the school also was going to teach, are
part of an educational program founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Charter schools, started by parents or others in the community, are
approved by the state and receive state and some federal funding based
on the number of students they enroll.

Because of opposition from residents, the state's Charter School
Advisory Committee last month directed the school to drop all
curriculum with a religious content.

Last month, the school's board voted to "suspend" TM and Natural Law
from the curriculum and Beall said Wednesday both have been removed
from the curriculum.

Michael Fedewa, chairman of the state advisory committee, said
committee members will meet next Thursday in Raleigh to give final
scrutiny to the school's charter revisions.

"They're supposed to provide for us an updated curriculum that
eliminates all of the religious components," Fedewa said. "It's a
public school, so it can't have any sort of religious connection
whatsoever, at any time."

Because of that change, the school has to show a revised charter plan.
Then it goes to the state Board of Education for final approval.

"They have to comply with what we're asking and the board has to agree
and they have to provide the revisions," Fedewa said.

Despite the loss of TM and Natural Law, Beall said the school "still
will have a very strong academic program" with an international focus,
individual learning plans, an inquiry-based approach to learning and
an environmental science emphasis. He said the 36-acre site, with
streams and wetlands, will enhance the science program.

Although the school won't have TM to reduce stress, Beall said other
relaxation methods will be used, such as quiet time and daily physical
activity.

The school's first-year capacity is 320 students. He said the school
continues to have a waiting list, with more than 550 students
registered. About 60 percent of those are from Mecklenburg County and
the rest from Cabarrus and a handful of other places.

The school is scheduled to open Aug. 16.

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Sem pleads not guilty
Fairfield Daily Ledger/May 4, 2004
By Erik Gable

Shuvender Sem pleaded not guilty today in the March 1 stabbing death
of Maharishi University of Management student Levi Butler.

Sem, 24, appeared in front of Judge E. Richard Meadows this morning
with his court-appointed attorney, Les Lamping of Washington, after
being ruled competent to stand trial.

Lamping told the judge Sem would plead not guilty to both of the
charges against him: first-degree murder for the death of Butler and
aggravated assault for a classroom attack on another student, John
Killian.

In addition, Lamping said, Sem would demand his right to a speedy
trial.

The judge asked if a May 18 trial date was acceptable to the
defendant. Lamping said the defendant would require more time and
asked that trial be set no earlier than June 22. County attorney Tim
Dille, who is prosecuting the case, raised no objection.

Trial was set for June 22 with a pretrial conference June 1.

Sem also had requested a review of his bond, which was set at $1
million after his arrest. The bond hearing was originally scheduled
for today, but will be delayed until 1:15 p.m. May 24.

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Trouble in transcendental paradise as murder rocks the Maharishi
University

Antony Barnett reports on the killing that has shocked the Beatles'
guru's college campus

The Observer/May 2, 2004

The large golden domes of the Maharishi University are an incongruous
landmark for a sleepy Midwestern town close to the Mississippi river.

Even more unlikely are the scenes that take place beneath them as
students from across the globe gather twice a day to meditate and send
out cosmic vibes of spiritual energy that they believe can heal a
stress-stricken world.

But now a murder and allegations of a cover-up have shattered the
tranquillity of the college and of the town of Fairfield, Iowa.

The killing of one student by another has threatened the future of not
only what Maharishi disciples call 'a safe, harmonious campus', but
also undermines the credibility of the one-time guru of the Beatles
and spiritual leader to Hollywood celebrities including film-maker
David Lynch and actress Heather Graham.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the bearded purveyor of world peace, heads a
movement of tens of thousands of people who believe their brew of
transcendental meditation and yogic flying - a kind of bouncing which
devotees claim is akin to levitation - sends out powerful vibes of
harmony that can end conflict across the planet.

In the east-facing buildings of the 272-acre Maharishi University,
some 800 students mix a traditional undergraduate education with a
heavy dose of meditation and yogic flying.

But in the early evening of Monday 1 March an incident occurred which
critics allege makes nonsense of the notion that meditation can bring
world peace.

At 7pm Shuvender Sem, a 24-year-old from Pennsylvania, sat down in the
university dining hall with fellow students to eat his organic
vegetarian dinner. Suddenly Sem stood up, took a knife from his pocket
and plunged it into the heart of 19-year-old Levi Butler.

In the ensuing melee, Sem stabbed Butler at least three more times
before he was restrained. The police were called and Sem, said to be
extremely calm, gave himself up. Butler was taken to Jefferson County
Hospital, where the first-year student from California was pronounced
dead.

The death left many in the college in a state of shock - if yogic
flying brings harmony how could one of their own kill in their midst?
And as further details of that day emerge, more serious questions are
being raised about the Maharishi's theories.

The knife Sem used belonged to the dean, Joel Wysong. Earlier that
day, in a class called Teaching for Enlightenment, Sem attacked
another student, John Killian, stabbing him in the face with a pen.
Killian needed seven stitches. Sem was taken to the dean's apartment
where he was supposed to be under supervision. But it was there that
he stole the knife before going to the dining hall.

Sem has been charged with aggravated assault for the first attack and
first-degree murder for the second. But because the university
authorities did not report the earlier crime, this has led to the
allegation that they intended to cover up the violence.

Critics of the Maharishi - including former students and staff and
Fairfield residents - have been inundating the local newspaper with
calls and emails. They allege that the movement strives to prevent
negative publicity that might halt donations from its wealthy alumni.
Some claim incidents have been hushed up in the past, although no hard
evidence has emerged.

The university defended itself by saying it was not its role to bring
criminal charges and that this is the first such tragedy to happen on
a campus claiming to be the most crime-free in America.

Some members of Butler's family are now considering suing the
university, which could have devastating repercussions for its
international reputation.

Butler's uncle, Benjamin Howard, posted an email which said: 'I am
terribly angry that this organisation places its public appearance
above the safety of its students. The earlier link "Safe Harmonious
Campus" from the [university] web page reveals one major selling point
for the university. Of course an administrator wouldn't wish to call
police when something violent happens on campus. It would ruin that
unblemished record of 30 years with no crime. If a lawsuit is
necessary to teach this campus a lesson, then so be it.'

The Maharishi himself is reported to have blamed the violence on US
foreign policy. Dr Craig Pearson, executive vice-president of
Maharishi University, said: 'Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has made one
comment regarding this event. He said that this is an aspect of the
violence we see throughout society, including the violence that our
country is perpetrating in other countries.'

But the most serious criticism levelled against the movement is that
transcendental meditation may exacerbate existing psychological
problems in students.

Dr Kai Druhl taught physics at the university for 13 years. He has
since left to teach at a college 20 miles away after becoming
disenchanted with the movement.

He said: 'There were certainly initial benefits for some of the
students but the promise of complete enlightenment is just not
true ... it just doesn't happen and I saw how this intense meditation
can damage some students, particularly if they have mental problems.'

Druhl recalled a student with schizophrenia being told to come off his
medication, as meditation along with a herbal remedy would cure him.
The student had a major breakdown.

Druhl described a culture where such events were treated as 'top
secret'. He said: 'There was a definite understanding between staff
members that you must not allow any bad news to leak out. You were
required to keep up this image of a perfect campus at all costs.'

Supporters of the Maharishi claim the murder was a freak tragedy that
could happen anywhere. They say the university did all it could in the
circumstances and has been as open as it can. Some blame the alignment
of the planets for the tragedy, while others believe the 'Maharishi
Effect' was not sufficiently in place to protect Butler because of the
declining number of people meditating in the domes.

Bill Goldstein, the university's lawyer, said: 'In my 22 years as
legal counsel the issue of image is never considered with regard to
reporting incidents on campus. The university reports incidents to the
police every week for their action and has always done so. The fact is
that the university is the most crime free of any in this state. No
incident like this has ever occurred.'

Defending the university's failure to report the earlier stabbing, he
said: 'The injury did not appear serious. The event appeared as a very
short altercation in class with a rather minor wound and its
implications were, very unfortunately, not apparent at the time.
Nevertheless, Sem was removed from class and placed in the custody of
the Dean of Men to consider what immediate disciplinary or
precautionary measures should be taken prior to a customary, full-
scale disciplinary review.'

As the Maharishi and his followers grapple with the ramifications, the
Fairfield newspaper summed up the mood of the community: 'The
university cannot afford to ignore reality. It has an obligation to
step back and take a good, hard look inside - for the sake of its
students, its movement, its town and itself.'

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[Sid Harth]

Weed, meth nabbed
Golden Triangle News Service/April 30, 2004

Fairfield --The Fairfield Police Department made arrests in two
separate drug cases, Wednesday, one on the Maharishi University of
Management campus and one in a Buchanan Avenue apartment.

The first came about when officers were called the M.U.M. campus and
met with a university security official who reported that, while
investigating a threat complaint involving Robert Paul Anibal, M.U.M.
Frat 106, Room 35, a campus security official discovered an indoor
marijuana growing operation in Anibal's room.

M.U.M. officials then seized 195.95 grams of processed marijuana and
called the police department.

Anibal was an M.U.M. employee, not a student, according to the police
department.

After campus security turned the investigation over to police,
according to a police department news release, officers seized growing
equipment consistent with the clandestine manufacture of marijuana, in
addition to another small quantity of the drug.

According to documents filed in Iowa District Court for Jefferson
County, the equipment included grow lights, fans, tubing, dirt,
planting pots and seeds.

Anibal, 52, was arrested and charged with manufacturing marijuana
within 1,000 feet of an elementary school; possession of marijuana
with intent to deliver within 1,000 feet of an elementary school;
failure to affix a drug tax stamp; and possession of drug
paraphernalia.

At about 9:19 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a report of a
domestic altercation at 301 E. Buchanan Ave., Apt. B3.

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Students organizing cultural exchange
The Fairfield Ledger/April 29, 2004
By Erik Gable

High school students from the Scattergood Friends School in West
Branch, a Baha'i youth organization and five American Indian groups
are slated to take part in a cultural peace exchange this weekend at
Maharishi School in Fairfield.

The exchange is being organized by members of the Students Creating
Peace Network, a group founded by Maharishi School students after the
1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado. Originally called End
School Violence Now, the group expanded its focus and changed its name
after Sept. 11, 2001.

Nelina Loiselle, a Maharishi School senior, said members of the group
went to a peace exchange at George Washington High School in Denver,
Colo., last year, and found that "it was a really good way for kids to
get together and talk about peace."

"A lot of what we're doing is modeled [after] the Denver peace
exchange," said junior Divindy Grant.

The students will form breakout groups, with participants from each
location, to discuss questions such as "What is peace?" and "What does
peace mean to you?"

Wes Dearborn, a junior, said the result of the group discussions is
that "you really have to think about ways to create peace and really
make it a reality instead of trying to push it onto the world" with
protests and the like.

Although the Students Creating Peace Network advocates Transcendental
Meditation, which is taught at Maharishi School and which advocates
say creates peace, students said meditation won't be the only focus.
In fact, the guidelines for breakout group leaders say that "it is OK
to talk about meditation, but do not preach it."

"The students are advocating Transcendental Meditation and the TM-
Sidhi program. That's the technique that they know about and they can
talk about from direct experience," said Lynn Kaplan, the group's
faculty advisor. "But they don't say 'this is the only way.'"

Instead, said senior Geoffrey Boothby, participants will be asked
"what have you discovered in your lives to create peace?"

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Vedic City to break ground on housing for 500

Fairfield Daily Ledger/April 22, 2004
By Erik Gable

Members of the Transcendental Meditation movement plan to lay the
cornerstones today for 46 new buildings intended to house 500 Vedic
pandits from India.

Maureen Wynne, city attorney for Maharishi Vedic City, said today is
Akshaya Tritiya, considered to be an auspicious day for starting
projects.

"It's a day in the Vedic calendar where, if you do things, they have a
lasting achievement," she said.

Akshaya Tritiya marks the birthday of Parashurama, the sixth
incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

The buildings are scheduled to go up this summer, Wynne said, and
organizers hope the pandits will be able to arrive in July.

TM advocates say a large number of people practicing the technique in
one place can create peace. The pandits have been described as Vedic
scholars and peace-creating experts by supporters and as Hindu monks
by critics.

Also today, Wynne said, 3,000 little flags will be placed around Vedic
City. She said the flags represent 3,000 "peace palaces" that the
Global Country of World Peace, a TM-linked group, plans to build
around the world.

At some point, Wynne said, the small flags will be replaced with
larger flags, and then when a palace is built, the builder will come
to Vedic City and take the flag corresponding to their palace.

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Vedic City Plans World Peace Meditation

County Residents Fear Sales Tax Funds Religious Activity

Associated Press/April 5, 2004

Maharishi, Iowa -- Not everyone is at peace in Jefferson County with
the possibility of using tax dollars to bring in experts on world
peace. The plan in Vedic City is to attract 500 special meditators --
called pandits -- in an effort to bring about world peace through
meditation. The city already has a building project under way to house
the pandits, and some county residents fear that the local share of
the sales tax proceeds will fund the project.

The city was founded in 2001 by followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
which also has a university in Fairfield to teach the meditation. City
officials say the pandit project is not in any way religious, but
critics say the pandits are essentially Buddhist monks. The city said
it hasn't decided how to use the sales-tax proceeds.

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Proponents want schools to introduce meditation

Associated Press/April 4, 2004

Lexington, Ky -- A group of people who practice Transcendental
Meditation want officials to consider introducing the technique into
Lexington's public schools.

At a news conference Tuesday, Janet Smith, chairwoman of the Committee
for Successful, Stress-Free Schools, cited studies about the benefits
of Transcendental Meditation, including one conducted in schools in
Augusta, Ga.

In that study, black students who meditated 15 minutes at school and
15 minutes at home for several months had fewer discipline problems
and absences than a control group, and lower blood pressure.

Vernon Barnes, a researcher at the Medical College of Georgia who was
the primary author of the study, said in a telephone interview from
Georgia that blacks were chosen because they tend to have more high
blood pressure problems.

Smith said the committee has started making preliminary contacts with
Fayette County school officials but declined to identify the
officials.

Karen Acar, a spokeswoman for Fayette County schools, said she had not
heard of the committee. She referred questions to another official,

who could not be reached for comment.

Schools in Augusta were closed Tuesday for spring break, and officials
there could not be reached for comment. But Superintendent Charles
Larke was identified by the Augusta Chronicle last week as a key
supporter of the studies.

Several people attended the news conference and sang the praises of TM
and its chief practitioner, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

"One thing the maharishi wanted people to know is about the scientific
aspects of TM, because too many people think it's a religion," said
Richard Knittel, a retired chiropractor who lives in Versailles.

"I wouldn't want to live without it," he said.

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Time to reflect called religion

Cabarrus residents question school's plans to teach meditation

The Charlotte Observer/March 28, 2004
By Cristina Breen Bolling and Gail Smith-Arrants

Harrisburg -- What started as an unheralded effort to open Cabarrus
County's first charter school became a battle this month after local
residents raised questions about the school's plans to teach
Transcendental Meditation.

Directors of the planned Carolina International School say they want
to offer 10 minutes of Transcendental Meditation -- commonly called TM
-- to fifth- through 12th-graders each day, to help them center
themselves and learn better.

But about a half-dozen local residents and Cabarrus County
commissioner Bob Carruth contend that TM is rooted in Hinduism, and as
a religious practice, shouldn't be taught in a school that receives
public money.

The meditation, developed from an ancient Indian practice, was
introduced in the United States around 1960 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
known to many for his friendship with the Beatles.

Psychology researchers most often study the physical and psychological
aspects of the meditation rather than a religious component. TM is
practiced by people of many faiths.

School director Richard Beall, who practices TM, defends the
meditation, which he says is just one feature of a school that touts
individual learning plans, small class sizes and the International
Baccalaureate program.

"I'm standing here telling people that this has nothing to do with
religion. It's a mechanical technique," Beall said during a meeting
Thursday night for parents interested in enrolling their children in
the school.

"It requires no religious or philosophical belief. ... Our contract
with the state is our charter, and we're going to obey that."

State officials are talking to experts about TM in response to the
parents' complaints.

Like other schools that receive public money, Carolina International
School isn't allowed to include religion as part of its curriculum and
must give its students the same End of Grade tests that public school
students take.

N.C. law allows up to 100 charter schools, which are privately run and
publicly funded. A Charter School Advisory Committee recommends
schools to the N.C. State Board of Education, which authorizes the
schools with a charter. Carolina International received its charter in
January.

It would be the first charter school in Cabarrus County and the
county's first school to offer the International Baccalaureate program
geared toward students who can do accelerated work. The school has
already enrolled more than 300 students, and more than 200 others are
on a waiting list, Beall said. About 60 percent are from Mecklenburg
County, 40 percent are from Cabarrus County and a few are from Stanly
County, he said.

Beall received several graduate degrees related to education from the
Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, which was
founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In 1981 he helped established
Maharishi Middle and Upper Schools in Iowa, where he served for 10
years as middle and high school principal, social studies teacher and
coach.

People who use Transcendental Meditation learn to focus on a mantra to
let stress and other distractions slip away.

Critics, however, say the trademarked practice can cause depression,
anxiety and other side effects, and say they worry the practice will
involve more than 10 minutes of relaxation.

TM is rare in schools, but not unheard of. Students at one Detroit
charter school practice TM daily. High school students in a Georgia
public school district took part in a study into whether TM could
affect their blood pressure and response to stress.

What qualifies as religion?

N.C. charter school officials say they've heard about a half-dozen
complaints about the Cabarrus County school and are researching
whether the meditation technique has ties to religion."If that has
been determined to be religion, then that can't be part of the school.
It's really that simple," said Michael Fedewa, chairman of the state
charter school advisory committee.

Workers at the state office of charter schools are trying to sort out
whether TM has religious links and will report back, possibly as early
as April 8.

State charter school leaders have questioned the school's plans to
offer TM in the past, but never did outside research on the topic,
Fedewa said. The charter school advisory board asked Beall and other
Carolina International School leaders to come in a few months ago for
a meeting to talk about TM.

"In all cases, they looked us dead in the eye and said `This is not
religion. There is no religion being taught,' " Fedewa said. "They
appear to have answered our questions forthrightly and to our
satisfaction."

That's not enough for Beverly Henley, a Harrisburg parent who said she
doesn't think state charter school officials took the time to
investigate TM fully. Henley said she started looking into the school
for her own children, but now opposes taxpayer funding for it because
she says the religious tie is clear.

"It sounds like the (charter school advisory board) asked him, `Is
this TM a religion?' and he said, `No.' So they said, `It needs to
stay that way.' "

Carruth, the county commissioner, said if Carolina International
School is allowed to open using TM, then he'd encourage Christian
schools to apply for charter school status so they, too, could receive
public funding.

"Why not? To me, that shows that's how they interpret the law," he
said.

Court ruling

Thursday's meeting heated up when critics challenged Beall's
explanation that TM is simply a peaceful moment of reflection and has
nothing to do with religion.

Some questioned whether students would be forced to go further than
meditation, perhaps having to watch teachers undergo a ceremony that
allows them to teach TM.

They also cited a 1977 federal court ruling in which a judge in New
Jersey ruled that Transcendental Meditation was a religious practice
and cannot be funded in public schools.

"It's a restated form of Hinduism. I believe that's the real question
here," said Cindy Picarella, a Cabarrus County resident. "I would like
to put my child here, but I cannot put my child in this school because
I believe it is a religion. ... And I still have to pay for it, but I
don't want to pay for it."

Beall responded: "TM isn't a religious experience for me, and it
shouldn't be for a student....

"We're going to make sure everybody involved in this understands what
it's about."

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Avon Lake mayor wants resort declared blighted

MorningJournal.com/March 28, 2004
By Mike Sakal

Avon Lake -- When the Aqua Marine Resort and Restaurant opened as the
Aquamarine Swim Club at 216 Miller Road in the mid 1950s, it was one
of Lorain County's brightest gems in the rural hinterlands that now
are home to upscale housing and commercial development.

But time has taken its toll on the once pristine resort, an area
landmark that featured an indoor swimming pool, a restaurant and 240
rooms.

Only the 18-hole, par three golf course leased by Phil Gilbert remains
in full swing, and just 150 of the rooms at the resort remain open,
according to a manager at Aqua Marine.

Now Avon Lake Mayor Rob Berner said he is exploring possibilities of
having the deteriorated 57-acre property owned by the Maharishi
Spiritual University, a North Carolina and Texas-based holistic
medicine sect, declared blighted -- so the city would be able to take
it by eminent domain.

The complex has had building, fire and health code violations as well
as criminal activity involving drug dealings in the recent past,
according to Berner.

Ken Miller, chief building inspector for Avon Lake, could not be
reached for comment.

Berner said that the city is compiling a list of the building's
alleged violations to present to Gould and Associates of Cleveland,
who likely will be conducting a blight study of the property.

In September 1999, Avon Lake city inspectors discover 68 problems from
the fire prevention officer, 38 different building code violations
from the chief building inspector and 12 different problems from the
health department, according to an article in The Morning Journal.

Two items in Miller's report -- standing water on the floor of the
boiler rooms coupled with electric power and leaking pumps in the
indoor swimming pool -- were noted as ''dangerous,'' according to the
report.

Only the Aqua Marine Resort property would be blighted, not any of the
other surrounding buildings or property, Berner said.

''We're looking at our options right now,'' Berner said yesterday.
''The last two or three years the property conditions and property
maintenance has gone down, and we're trying to improve what's been
going on in Avon Lake.''

''The whole general area is complaining about the condition of the
facilities and overall property maintenance,'' Berner added. ''Some of
the rooms are uninhabitable.''

And to make matters worse, Berner said it has been ''impossible'' to
get in touch with anyone at the Maharishi Spiritual University to
inform them they need to start making improvements that were discussed
two years ago, Berner said.

''When I met with the heads of Maharishi about two years ago, they
said they wanted to turn the resort into a total mind, body and
spiritual complex where people could live,'' Berner said. ''They never
did, and, when I've tried to get in touch with them, they've been non-
responsive.''

Representatives of Maharishi could not be reached for comment
yesterday.

Attorney Will Herzberger of Cleveland, who Berner said represents
Maharishi, could not be reached for comment.

Residents who live along Miller Road, echoed Berner's sentiments.

''Do improvements need to be made to Aqua Marine?'' asked Robert
Klimkowski. ''That's an understatement. The place is a pig pen. It
used to be a beautiful place, but now it's a dump. The place is
falling down, and nobody is taking care of anything, and there's a lot
of strange people staying there. I know they've had all kinds of
problems with the law there.''

''There were all kinds of junked vehicles in the parking lot without
plates, but those are gone,'' Klimkowski added. ''The police do what
they can, but they can only do so much. We are concerned. I just don't
think there's much you can do with the building at this point.

''It's a prime piece of property, and the city has talked about
building a recreation center. That would be a perfect place to
start.''

Andrew Smith, a three-year Miller Road resident, said that he believes
the site has potential.

''I believe there's much potential there, but it's not being done,''
Smith said. ''In the three years I have lived here, there have been no
improvements. I'd like to see improvements, but there seems to be a
lack of visitation there.''

Edward Kaspar, who has lived on Miller Road with his wife for 47
years, said he'd like to see somebody buy the Aqua Marine property.

''It's been up and down and every which way the last five or six
years,'' Kaspar said. ''I just drive by it, and don't look at it. The
golf course is nice, but I don't know what goes on inside. It'd be
nice if somebody bought it.''

The Lorain County Family YMCA, which operated a facility out of Aqua
Marine, pulled out in late 2002 because Maharishi wouldn't make the
needed repairs to the building, Berner said.

YMCA officials could not be reached for comment last night.

Aqua Marine's swimming pool also was closed several months ago, the
restaurant no longer is in operation, and only about 150 of the 240
rooms are being used, said Bill Rosenfelder, general manager of Aqua
Marine since February.

''The city has their reasons for whatever they want to do,''
Rosenfelder said. ''We had hoped to improve the facilities ... such as
resurfacing the parking lot''

''I haven't been aware of the things the city has discussed with the
owners for improvements because I haven't been here very long,''
Rosenfelder added.

Avon Lake City Councilman Mike Stanek, who represents the city's 4th
Ward on the west side where Aqua Marine is, said that there haven't
been as many complaints of the condition of the property lately as
there have been in the past.

''Over time, people have just become resigned to the situation over
there because they're used to it being that way,'' Stanek said. ''But
becoming resigned to something like that isn't good either. There's
just no ability to get in touch with the owners of the property. Even
the manager said he doesn't know how to get in touch with the
owners.''

Stanek went on to say that the property is worth more than the city
could afford to pay, and they would not consider the site for a
recreation center or YMCA.

William Gould of Gould and Associates of Cleveland is putting together
a price proposal package for the cost of a blight study of the
property, Berner said. Berner said he met with William Gould on
Tuesday but said he doesn't know yet when the firm's survey would be
completed.

Gould is the same firm conducting a blight study in the central Lorain
neighborhood near the St. Joseph Community Center to determine whether
it can be blighted so the city would be eligible for state and federal
grants to clean it up.

If it is determined that the Aqua Marine property can be blighted,
Avon Lake City Council will consider whether to move forward with
declaring it as such so the Maharishi Spiritual University can have
the opportunity to make the improvements or sell it, Berner said.

Berner said that if the city were to acquire the Aqua Marine property,
which is close to the new Smuggler's Cove condominiums, it has no
plans for it.

Jim Spevock, who co-owns Nautical Lanes bowling alley with his
brother, Joel, the property adjacent to Aqua Marine, said he'd like to
see resort ''go in a positive direction for the community and family
fun recreation.''

Previous efforts to have the area declared a nuisance by the Ohio
Attorney General's office have failed, Berner said.

Among the problems and incidents that have plagued Aqua Marine,
according to past articles published in The Morning Journal:

In October 1990, 22 people including three firefighters were treated
at St. Joseph Hospital after fumes from an ammonia coolant leak from a
defrosting refrigerator affected them.

A $29,349 bill for outstanding bed taxes and penalties had to be paid
in 1991 after Lorain County Commissioners referred the delinquency to
the county Prosecutor's Office for collection so the Lorain County
Visitors Bureau could benefit from the revenue.

The check from Aqua Marine owners initially bounced, and the debt was
later paid in cash installments.

In March 1999, Avon Lake police broke up a party that attracted more
than 100 high-school students who came to the resort after a dance at
Lakewood High School. Inside the hotel, police found 50 to 75
teenagers and alcohol, according to a police report.

In December 1999, six ''hazardous conditions'' were found at Aqua
Marine during an inspection by the state fire marshal. Exit and
emergency lights and smoke detectors were found in need of repair, and
it was discovered that guests were breaking city rules by staying
longer than 30 days at the hotel.

Cooking appliances and extension cords to connect those appliances
also were found in some rooms, violating the law.

In March 2000, former Avon Lake Mayor Vince Urbin issued an ultimatum
to Maharishi-owned Aqua Marine to shape up or ship out for not paying
a $10,226.79 sewer and water bill. Aqua Marine agreed to a payment
plan.

In May of 2000, Avon police executed a search warrant at the Aqua
Marine Hotel and confiscated marijuana, drug paraphernalia, a .22-
caliber pistol with five bullets in it and more than $1,700 in cash,
netting two arrests.

Avon Lake police initially stopped a car traveling 54 mph in a 35 mph
zone and learned the driver, Ralph McCourt, had a warrant for his
arrest in West Virginia for conspiracy to commit breaking and
entering, according to the search warrant. They had learned he was
staying at the Aqua Marine Hotel and obtained a warrant to search his
room, according to the story.

Maharishi had paid about $1.2 million for the property in 1993 when
they bought it and have been trying to sell it for $3.5 million,
Berner said.

Last year, business partners Richard Erb and Franz Bauer wanted to
purchase and renovate Aqua Marine for $3.4 million, but the deal fell
through, according to published reports in The Morning Journal.

According to the Lorain County Auditor Mark Stewart's office, the
property is valued at $2.6 million, but Berner said it wouldn't be
worth it because of the deteriorated condition it is in.

If the city were to acquire it by eminent domain, it would be required
to pay fair market value for it, but Berner isn't sure what that
amount would be.

Aqua Marine was opened as the Aquamarine Swim Club by Charles W.
Foster in the mid 1950s. The site formerly was a popular hot dog
stand, according to published reports.

Foster, who was a prominent Avon Lake resident, later developed a
treatment for psoriasis, a skin ailment, and sold his discovery to a
Philadelphia pharmceutical firm for $60,000 in 1966. When Foster died
of a heart attack in 1969, the treatment he discovered was under
consideration for distribution on the national market.

Ivan Roberts, a former mailman turned prominent businessman, who used
to sweep the floor of his uncle's general store in South Fork, Pa., as
a youngster, became the second majority owner of Aqua Marine soon
after he had invested $15,000 in Foster's venture in 1960.

Roberts and his wife, Rosemary, owned 55 percent of the business.

During Aqua Marine's heyday under Roberts, it had 250 employees, a
$600,000 payroll, attracted visitors from all over the United States
and Canada and was touted as the ''most glamorous thing to ever hit
Avon Lake.''

Roberts sold Aqua Marine to Arizona-based Ramada Inn in December 1968
for $6 million. The sale was approved by more than 96 percent of Aqua
Marine's shareholders, according to a shareholder who attended the
meeting.

During this time, it became known as Aqua Marine-Ramada Inn.

Aqua Marine also saw new owners in August 1985, when partners Rex
Davis of Dayton and Jackson Tsang of Los Angeles bought it for about
$6 million, according to a story in The Morning Journal.

In October 1986, partners William Duffy and Arthur Ziegler Jr. of
Pittsburgh purchased Aqua Marine for $7 million and expanded the
resort to include more rooms to cater to people seeking getaway
weekends.

In 1990, William Ellis, an Atlanta-based entrepreneur, purchased Aqua
Marine for an undisclosed sum and restored the resort's original sea
horse emblem to its marquee and installed a fountain in one lake.

Maharishi bought Aqua Marine in 1993.

However, Aqua Marine never fully returned to the splendor it was
remembered for, Councilman Stanek said.

''That place was a real jewel at one time,'' Stanek said.

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Tell us about the most money you ever wasted

Editor's Query

Washington Post Magazine/March 21, 2004

My sister once told me transcendental meditation would change my life,
so I went ahead and did it: paid $125 for a mantra. It may not sound
like a lot of money, but (a) this was 1976 and my annual salary as a
budding botanist was $8,000, and (b) no money ever bought less.

Lucky me: There was a TM center in Poughkeepsie, the metropolis
nearest the tiny mid-Hudson Valley town of Millbrook, N.Y., where I'd
moved right after college. The center turned out to be a mostly empty
house furnished in broken-down folding chairs and little else.

The first indoctrination session was free. I wasn't impressed, but my
sister's promise weighed heavily on me, so I paid the dreamy-eyed
"instructors" and continued.

After three or four more visits, I would be entrusted with my mantra
-- mine alone, dispatched from on high through some mysterious
process. Thence out-of-body experiences!

The night the mantra was to be divulged, I was instructed to bring a
fresh piece of fruit and a new handkerchief -- an offering, to whom or
what I knew not.

I promised never, ever, to tell anyone my mantra. Out of a mixture of
obedience and embarrassment, I kept it to myself until joking about
the episode with my sister 20 years later. "Shee-rah," I murmured. She
looked at me. "Mine, too."

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Judge delays murder suspect ruling

Confidential hearing Monday focused on Sem's competency.

The Fairfield Ledger/March 16, 2004
By Erik Gable

The results of Monday afternoon's competency hearing for Shuvender
Sem, the 24-year-old Maharishi University of Management student
charged with killing fellow student Levi Butler March 1, have been
sealed and a judge has delayed a ruling while he seeks more
information.

Jefferson County attorney Tim Dille, who is prosecuting the case, said
he could not discuss details of Monday's hearing, which was held to
determine whether Sem is competent to stand trial. Eighth Judicial
District Judge Michael R. Mullins declared the proceedings
confidential.

Dille said he doesn't know when the judge will make a ruling on Sem's
competency.

"Basically he's asking for more information before he makes a final
decision," Dille said.

For the moment, Sem's scheduled March 29 arraignment is postponed.

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Reporting policies vary at Iowa's private colleges

The Fairfield Ledger/March 5, 2004
By Erik Gable

Some colleges automatically report incidents such as the Monday
afternoon classroom attack at M.U.M. to police; others have no formal
policy.

In the days following Monday evening's fatal stabbing on the Maharishi
University of Management campus, questions arose about the
university's handling of an assault that happened earlier the same
day.

Shuvender Sem, the 24-year-old student from Pennsylvania charged with
stabbing M.U.M. freshman Levi Butler to death in the university's
dining hall, had allegedly attacked another student in class Monday
afternoon, stabbing him in the face with a pen.

After the assault, Joel Wysong, the university's dean of men, took Sem
into his custody. According to Wysong's account, Wysong took the
student back to his own apartment, where they made arrangements for
Sem to return home the following day. After about three hours, while
Wysong was in another room, he heard Sem leave the apartment. Wysong
found Sem in Annapurna Dining Hall and sat down about 30 feet away to
keep an eye on him; about 10 minutes later, the stabbing occurred. The
paring knife used in the stabbing had been taken from Wysong's
apartment.

After the fatal stabbing of Butler, when authorities learned of the
previous incident, they filed an aggravated assault charge against Sem
in addition to the first-degree murder charge.

Critics, many of whom called The Fairfield Ledger or posted their
opinions on the newspaper's Web site at ffledger.com, charged the
university with negligence for not calling the police after the first
incident.

University officials said they had no reason to believe Sem was a
danger to other students. They also said it is not the university's
policy to press criminal charges against its own students.

The Fairfield Ledger asked several private colleges in Iowa about
their crime reporting policies. Of the six who responded to the
request in time for today's paper, some have policies in place
requiring the police to be contacted if a student assaults another
student and some do not. Most of the administrators consulted,
however, said they would probably report such an assault to local
authorities.

At Drake University in Des Moines, if campus authorities are aware of
an assault, they typically involve the Des Moines Police Department.

"If an assault is reported to us," said Capt. Les Wheeler of the Drake
security office, "we're very likely to report it to the police
department."

"Typically, it's been our policy to report assaults to the police,"
said Tom Crady, vice president for student services at Grinnell
College in Grinnell. An exception, Crady said, is sometimes made if
the victim of a sexual assault does not want the incident reported.

Crady said it's difficult to say what action Grinnell administrators
would have taken if they were in M.U.M.'s shoes, but "any time there's
a crime on campus that poses a risk to campus, we want to involve the
police."

"We would certainly take action, there's no doubt about that," he
said, but added it's hard to tell exactly what that action would have
been.

Edie Huss, director of campus safety and security for Loras College in
Dubuque, said Loras would "absolutely" follow up with local police on
an incident such as the classroom attack.

"We definitely would have involved them," she said, adding that
notifying police is written into the college's policy.

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Maharishi Student Accused Of 2 Stabbings In 1 Day

Shuvender Sem Charged With First-Degree Murder In Stabbing Death

TheIowaChannel.com/March 4, 2004

Farifield, Iowa -- The investigation into the stabbing death of a
student at Maharishi University in Fairfield continues, even as school
officials defended their handling of an earlier stabbing involving the
same student charged in the deadly attack.

Shuvender Sem, 24, of Lancaster, Penn., is charged with first-degree
murder in the attack Monday night that killed Levi Butler, 19, of
LaQuinta, Calif.

Authorities say Butler was sitting in the dining hall when Sem stabbed
him with a small paring knife.

Sem is being held on $1 million bond. A preliminary hearing is
scheduled for March 12.

Jefferson County attorney Tim Dille said it's not clear what led to
the assault, but there didn't appear to be a confrontation.

Earlier in the day, authorities say Sem used a ball point pen to stab
another student in the face during a class called Teaching for
Enlightenment.

The university is known for its teachings about peace and meditation.

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Student dies in stabbing at Maharishi University

Associated Press/March 3, 2004

Fairfield -- A student at Maharishi University of Management has been

charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of another

student on campus, police said Tuesday.

Fairfield police were called to the school about 7 p.m. Monday to a
report of a stabbing at a dining hall. When they arrived, they found
Levi Butler, 19, bleeding from stab wounds to the chest.

Butler was taken to Jefferson County Hospital, where he died.

Shuvender Sem, 24, was arrested and charged with murder.

Sem was still on the scene when officers arrived, said Officer Colin
Smith.

"He was taken into custody without incident," Smith said. "He was
actually extremely calm."

Smith estimated there were at least 50 people in the dining hall when
he arrived.

Sem reportedly had been involved in another incident earlier in the
day, police said. He allegedly attacked another student, stabbing him
with a pen in the cheek during a class.

The incident was not reported to police until after Butler was
stabbed.

University administrators were preparing for an all-campus meeting
with students and faculty.

Sem was being held in the Jefferson County jail.

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Iowa legislators consider alternative health care bill

The Fairfield Ledger/February 17, 2004
By Erik Gable

Measure would exempt alternative medical providers from licensing
requirements.

A bill being considered in the Iowa Legislature could have far-
reaching implications for homeopaths, ayurvedic practitioners and
other alternative health care providers in Fairfield and across the
state.

The Consumer Health Freedom Act would exempt people who practice
various forms of alternative medicine from needing to be licensed by
the state. At the same time, it would require those providers to give
patients a written notice disclosing their unlicensed status and
detailing the practitioner's training and the nature of the services
to be provided.

Under current Iowa law, some alternative health care providers run the
risk of prosecution for practicing medicine without a license.
However, physicians, chiropractors and other licensed providers are
allowed to practice alternative forms of medicine as long as they do
not infringe on the area of another licensed group.

Supporters of the bill say it would expand the range of health care
options available to consumers. Opponents say it would jeopardize
consumer safety by allowing anyone to practice alternative medicine
regardless of their level of training.

"There are numerous alternative medicine approaches that Iowans and
Americans have been using for years," said state Sen. Jack Hatch, the
Des Moines Democrat who introduced the bill in the Senate.

Hatch said committees in the House and Senate will have to decide
exactly what forms of alternative medicine would be exempt from
licensing requirements. The most recent draft of the bill lists a
range of therapies including ayurvedic medicine, homeopathy, hypnosis,
reflexology and reiki.

David Sands, a Fairfield physician who practices ayurvedic medicine at
the Maharishi University of Management health center, said people are
already seeking alternative health care from licensed and unlicensed
providers, so "all [the bill] does is legalize what already exists."

Unlicensed practitioners would have to disclose the fact that they do
not have a state license, both directly to their patients and in any
advertising. Patients also would receive a written statement including
the provider's credentials, the nature of the treatment to be
provided, and a reminder that they are free to seek care from a
licensed provider as well.

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TM officials say money is in place for 500 from India

The Fairfield Ledger/February 16, 2004
By Erik Gable

Wynne says the men could move in by late spring; county supervisors to
monitor use of tax money.

Officials in the Transcendental Meditation movement said recently they
have raised enough money to bring 500 young men practicing the TM
program from India to Maharishi Vedic City.

Maharishi University of Management's John Hagelin made the
announcement at a meeting Thursday in one of the golden domes on
campus, according to Maureen Wynne, Vedic Citys attorney.

Wynne said the buildings to house the men, who are also called Vedic
scholars or pundits, should be finished in the next three months. The
500 scholars should be moving in shortly thereafter, she said.

Wynne said the men will spend their days studying, meditating and
reciting literature from the ancient Vedic tradition of India.

Members of the TM movement, which was founded by the Indian guru
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, believe group meditation creates peace.

Although people have been practicing TM in Fairfield ever since
Maharishi International University moved to the town in 1974, Wynne
said, the scholars should "spread out to a larger area and create a
good influence all over the state and the region."

The pundit project was the subject of controversy last year when
Maharishi Vedic City passed a local option sales tax and Jefferson
County supervisors objected to part of the county's local option sales
tax money being used to fund the project.

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Meditate On This
Opinion

Hartford Courant/January 28, 2004

If Hartford is to have the hotel space it needs to support the new
convention center, the Clarion Hotel must be put back into service.

The hotel, built four decades ago as part of the Constitution Plaza
project, was once an outstanding hostelry, known for meticulous
service and an elegant restaurant, the Rib Room.

The hotel closed in 1994, just before it was sold for $1.5 million to
a development company controlled by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the white-
bearded guru who turned transcendental meditation into an estimated $5
billion international fortune.

The acquisition was part of a plan to buy hotels across the country
and use them partly for lodging and partly as meditation and education
centers where followers could immerse themselves in the guru's
teachings on natural health, stress reduction and unified
consciousness.

The realities of the hotel industry threw a wet blanket on these
plans, leaving a trail of empty or underutilized hotels.

The hotel never reopened, and instead became a symbol of the city's
difficulties. The fiasco left city officials in need of stress
reduction.

But times have changed for the better. Constitution Plaza's location
improved markedly with the announcement of the Adriaen's Landing
project on an adjoining 33-acre parcel. The convention center is
scheduled to open next year.

Also, the Plaza itself is coming back to life with new tenants, such
as the University of Connecticut's business school, arriving later
this year. And thanks to Riverfront Recapture, the Plaza has something
it was always lacking, pedestrian access to the river.

The Clarion is in need of extensive, eight-figure renovation. But it's
a precast concrete building that's structurally sound. Real estate
experts say it would best be remodeled from 287 rooms to about 260
rooms.

After some years of transcontinental vegetation, the maharishi's
developers are starting to move some of their hotel properties. The
asking price for the Clarion was an unrealistic $14 million three
years ago, but now it is down to $7 million, and that may be
negotiable. The 397-room Hilton, also in need of thorough
reconstruction and repair, sold for $6 million. As the price on the
Clarion has come down, buyer interest has increased.

Perhaps Mayor Eddie Perez, the city's hotelier-in-chief, can dig up a
buyer, as he did for the Hilton. After the loss of the Hastings Hotel
and Conference Center, 260 new rooms would be a godsend.

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Meditating on a lost party

Times Colonist (Victoria)/January 27, 2004

A lot of bounce has gone out of the next federal election campaign,
even before it begins. The Natural Law party has disbanded -- its
candidates will no longer be yogic flying above the heads of a
startled electorate.

As a political device, buttock-bounding has taken a prat-fall. No NLP
candidate has ever been elected. The party gained more laughs than
votes.

One yogic flyer took on Paul Martin in the 2000 election in LaSalle-
Emard and got 273 votes to Martin's 32,069. NLP candidates finished
last in most of the 50-odd constituencies they targeted, but they
managed to do better than several Marxist-Leninist, Communist and
Action Party candidates, and beat the New Democrats in seven Quebec
ridings.

Natural Law members regarded as the highlight of their political lives
the 1993 federal election campaign when party leader Neil Paterson was
allowed to take part in a political debate on MuchMusic. It's been
downhill since then, and although the party continues to exist in the
U.S., it's thrown in the towel in Canada.

Part of the problem was that candidates for the party didn't always
bother to campaign door-to-door. They said they didn't want to bother
people.

And when they were asked what they promised if they were elected
government, they said things like "bubbling bliss."

The party had, however, an ambitious campaign platform: It demanded
major tax cuts, a ban on genetically modified foods, and remodelling
of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill to remove all South-facing
entrances.

Now the followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi say they're going to
pursue their objective through colleges that teach transcendental
meditation and on the Internet.

They still, apparently, are trying to round up 10,000 people to
meditate through yogic flying to create the positive vibes necessary
to create peace and harmony in the world.

We should wish them better luck than they had on the hustings.

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Trailing in polls, Kucinich gains loyal following in Fairfield area

Fairfield Daily Ledger/January 15, 2004
By Erik Gable

Members of Natural Law Party embrace Democratic candidate.

He doesn't get as much press as Howard Dean or Dick Gephardt, and
polls consistently rank him in the single digits, but Democratic
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has developed a devoted
following in Fairfield, due in part to members of the Transcendental
Meditation community.

He's been endorsed by John Hagelin, three-time presidential candidate
for the Fairfield-based Natural Law Party. Messages to the Natural Law
Party's Fairfield e-mail list update supporters on Kucinich events in
the area. And a house party Saturday afternoon at a Sthapatya-Veda
mansion near Maharishi Vedic City drew a few hundred admirers to watch
a presentation to the Ohio congressman from a group of Maharishi
School students.

Members of the Students Creating Peace Network, an organization
founded by Maharishi School students after Sept. 11, 2001, designed an
award for Kucinich called the Shanti Award. "Shanti" means "peace" in
Sanskrit, which is taught to Maharishi School students and appears
along with English on Maharishi Vedic City's official signs.

The students hope to give the award annually, according to Lynn
Kaplan, Maharishi School public relations teacher and the group's
advisor. They chose Kucinich as its first recipient and designed it
with him in mind.

Kucinich was introduced Saturday by Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy and by
Hagelin, who quipped that as he was entering the room, "I felt a
little like John the Baptist, heralding the coming of a saint."
Kucinich and Hagelin have been friends since they met at a forum on
genetically modified foods in 2000. Two years ago, Hagelin said, he
was walking the halls of Congress lobbying for the Natural Law Party's
platform and found Kucinich, the author of legislation calling for a
cabinet-level Department of Peace, a natural ally.

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Boy Scouts see effects of drug abuse

Computer graphics show long-term effects of different substances on
the human brain.

The Fairfield Ledger/December 4, 2003
By Erik Gable

A group of Boy Scouts got a lesson in drug abuse they wouldn't soon
forget Wednesday night.

Many schoolchildren have heard the standard "drugs are bad" lecture at
some point in their lives. In a presentation to members of Boy Scout
Troop 108 and Pack 108, Alarik Arenander, director of the Brain
Research Institute at Maharishi University of Management, went a step
farther, showing the boys exactly what effect different drugs have on
the human brain.

Arenander used images from a technology called Single Photon Emission
Computer Tomography, in which a person's brain is scanned and "slices"
of the brain are mapped by a computer.

The images showed how much blood was flowing to different parts of the
brain, assigning different colors to different levels of blood flow.

A normal brain has more or less equal blood flow throughout, Arenander
explained, whereas drugs can cause blood flow to be reduced to certain
areas, creating the appearance of "holes" in the computer image.

The areas with reduced blood flow, Arenander said, are the ones that
control decision-making, impulse control and feelings -- and the
effects can last beyond when a person is directly under the
influence.

"Drugs hijack your brain," Arenander told the audience, displaying two
computer images side by side on a television set. "On the left is a
normal-looking brain. On the right is a nasty brain."

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Vedic City voters add Maharishi to name

DesMoines Register/November 20, 2003

The state's newest city has already changed its name.

Vedic City voters approved the new name, Maharishi Vedic City, at the
Nov. 4 city election.

It became official when certified election results were delivered to
the Iowa secretary of state's office Friday.

"The reason we want the name Maharishi on it is because Vedic is a
tradition that goes back thousands of years, but Maharishi has made it
predominant in the world in this generation," said Bob Wynne, the
city's mayor.

Vedic City, population 99, is located about four miles northwest of
Fairfield. It was incorporated in 2001 by followers of Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi. He founded the Transcendental Meditation movement and
first brought his followers to Fairfield in 1974 to establish a
college based on ancient teachings from India.

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The Maharishi's Hotel of Emptiness
Will the Beatles' former guru leave Hartford with a permanent blemish,
or is there hope for the Clarion Hotel?

Hartford Advocate/November 13, 2003
By Chris Harris To some, he's considered a spiritual guide. To others,
a cult leader. But to Hartford city officials, the Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi has been a supreme pain in the ass. In 1994, the 92-year-old
bearded populizer of transcendental meditation's enigmatic and

faceless Maharishi Vedic Development Corporation purchased the Clarion
Hotel building on Constitution Plaza, and there, in full view of the

bustle of I-91, the dilapidated edifice has sat -- a vacant,

untouched, neglected eyesore, and a billboard advertising Hartford's
urban ruin.

Even now, as Hartford's trying to reverse its tarnished image with
tourists, via the mammoth Adriaen's Landing experiment, the future of
this piece of real estate is up in the air, as it has been since the
maharishi added it to his impressive reserve of American land
holdings.

What most folks don't know about the maharishi is he's a big real
estate investor. According to the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper,
the maharishi's combined real-estate and business holdings total out
at $3.6 billion. These days, the maharishi presides over a corporate
empire Indian sources have estimated to be worth more than $5 billion
-- a sort of Wal-Mart of the spirit, encompassing extensive land
holdings in India, hotels in Europe, and publishing houses in the
United States.

So what are the maharishi's plans for the asbestos-filled, mold-laden,
water-damaged Clarion Hotel -- before that, known as the Summit Hotel,
and before that, the Sonesta, and even before that, the regal American
Hotel? Well, there's loads of speculation, but nothing definitive.

At first, when the maharishi, who was guru to the Beatles, paid $1.5
million for the vacated structure, the plan was to restore the 290-
room hotel to its magnificence, and reopen it as the Constitution
Plaza. There were even plans to utilize a portion of the building as a
vegetarian restaurant.

Then, there were plans to convert the hotel into one of his Maharishi

Vedic Universities, where students would be schooled in the ways of
transcendental meditation. But again, no action, and now, in 2003, the

hotel lies in wait -- its future, uncertain. But even back in 1995,
when representatives for the maharishi presented Hartford's City
Council with his intentions, it was a tough sell with former Mayor
Mike Peters.

"We weren't pleased about it," Peters told the Advocate last week,
about the maharishi's acquisition of the Clarion Hotel. "We weren't
sure what the plans would be for the hotel, what he was going to do
with it, which we knew then would be nothing, and we know is
nothing."

Of course, Peters was right to doubt. The Clarion Hotel purchase was
one phase in the maharishi's 40-year plan, according to news accounts,
to open meditation centers in all 50 states. It's unknown just how
many hotels the maharishi has procured over the years, but it's been
reported that the Clarion is one of at least 25 distressed American
hotels he owns -- 25 he has done nothing with.

Take the Berkeley Carteret in Asbury Park, N.J., the historic
Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, the Holiday Inn on Milwaukee's west side,
the Colony Hotel in downtown Dallas, and the former Days Inn in
Detroit -- all prime examples and all of them abandoned hotels owned
by the maharishi who, at one time, provided local officials with the
promise of redevelopment and more visitor dollars, but in time, left
them with yet another blighted piece of devalued real estate.

The Clarion Hotel closed in August of 1994, at what might have been
downtown Hartford's economic rock bottom. City officials have hoped
for years that the maharishi would sell the hotel to someone who could
find a new use for the building, but satisfaction has yet to come. In
1998, things started looking up, as it seemed the maharishi was close
to selling the Clarion -- the hotel went back on the market that
spring, with a $14 million price tag, and yes, the real estate firm
that had listed the hotel claimed numerous, "very serious" offers were
coming in from around the world. But no deal.

Then, in 1999, more optimism came in the form of a Michigan-based
developer, David Ong, who'd expressed interest in the edifice, and had
plans to restore it to an operating, 270-room business hotel. At the
time, though, Ong was seeking investments from local corporations and
the city itself, to the tune of $40.5 million -- an amount that
would've covered the maharishi's asking price as well as needed
renovations at the site. But again, no deal.

At present, the Clarion hotel remains on the market, and is available
to potential buyers, says Jeffrey M. Livingston, managing director for
CB Richard Ellis' Hartford offices, the real estate brokerage firm
with which the maharishi's listed the property. Livingston wouldn't
discuss his client's asking price, but did confirm the hotel is
"available."

The problem with attracting potential investors, says Dan Matos of New
York-based Capital Properties Inc., which owns five buildings on
Constitution Plaza, has always been the building itself. It's
estimated that -- thanks to a total lack of maintenance -- it would
take more than $15 million to bring the hotel up to modern building
codes and standards.

"It would be an extensive renovation job," says Harry Freeman,
Hartford's economic development director. "It's a total gut
rehabilitation." There's a significant amount of asbestos in the hotel
that would need to be expunged, he adds, and a rodent infestation
problem that would need to be addressed.

"It's never sold because the asking price has always been too high,
and to be honest the building is, for all practical purposes,
obsolete," says Matos. "So whoever buys it is going to have in front
of them a significant renovation job, just to bring the value of the
property to zero. That'll cost around $15 million, the renovation. So,
that's pretty daunting to anyone. It's a real tough business deal for
anyone.

"I think the maharishi could sell this building for $2 million, $3
million," Matos continues. "I think if the maharishi knew 10 years ago
that he'd still be holding on to this hotel, still be paying taxes on
it and not using it, he would've walked away from it."

What, if anything, has the city done to take over this concrete
albatross? Well, Peters says that before his fourth term as mayor
concluded two years ago, he, as well as then-City Manager Saundra Kee
Borges, had instructed the city's corporation counsel to explore the
legalities of taking ownership of the Clarion Hotel building under
eminent domain.

The problem with that move, according to one source from the
corporation counsel office who asked not to be identified, is that
such an action would've ended up being a white elephant for Hartford.
"The idea of us taking that on wouldn't make any sense," says the
source. "We could go after it, but with the kind of budget shortfall
we have, we tend to look at these things very cautiously ... . We're
trying to get out of the property-ownership business, because we want
to expand our tax base."

Plus, when it came down to identifying what public use the building
could serve, city officials were at a complete loss, the source
explains.

The city did come close to foreclosing on the property back in 1995,
when the maharishi owed more than $870,000 in delinquent back taxes.
But at the 11th hour, payment was made. Since then, claims Thomas
Morrisson, the city's finance director, it's been the same exact
situation every year -- the maharishi waits until the very last minute
to settle his tax debts with Hartford, preventing the city from
foreclosing.

In fact, two weeks ago, the maharishi settled his 2003 tax debts,
paying Hartford more than $162,000 -- more than $9,000 of that figure,
accrued interest.

Still Freeman says he's optimistic that the Clarion hotel will, in
perhaps even the next few months, be sold to developers. He says he
thinks it will, in time, prove to be an asset.

"The maharishi's expressed more interest in accepting reasonable
offers," Freeman says. "As work has progressed at Adriaen's Landing,
we knew that it would stimulate more interest in the Clarion. ... I
think you're going to see some positive developments there within the
next few months."

Calls to several of the maharishi's Connecticut contacts, seeking
comment for this article, were fruitless.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm70.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Sexual Harassment, abuse, rape, pornography in India.

As in other countries throughout the world, rape is common in India.
Rape is a social disease. Hardly a day passes without a case of rape
being reported in Indian newspapers and media. Women belonging to low
castes, and tribal women are more at risk. What is sad about rape in
India is the lack of seriousness with which the crime is often
treated.Statistics from 2000 showed that on average a woman is raped
every hour in India.

Women's groups attest that the strict and conservative attitudes about
sex and family privacy contribute to ineffectiveness of India's rape
laws. Victims are often reluctant to report rape. In an open court
victims must prove that the rapist sexually penetrated them in order
to get a conviction. This can be especially damaging. After proving
that she has been raped, a victim is often ostracized from her family
and community. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that rape laws
are inadequate and definitions so narrow that prosecution is made
difficult.

Rape is a Crime

If you are raped do not bathe, shower, or change clothes. This is
important to preserve any evidence of the rape. Go to a friend, well
known social worker or to a place where you know someone can help you.
Report the rape to the authorities. Seek counseling; this can help you
deal with the issues you might face after the attack.

What is Pornography?

Pornography is a systematic practice of exploitation and subordination
based on sex that differentially harms and disadvantages women through
dehumanization. Pornography diminishes the worth and civil status of
women and damage mutual respect between the sexes.

Can Pornography Cause Violence Against Women?

If you have ever viewed pornographic material, it is clear that not
only does pornography cause violence against women, but the material
itself is violence against women, the women in the pornographic
material.

Pornography also sends out the message to men that women enjoy being
beaten, abused and raped. It is unfortunate, but over the last few
years the violence portrayed in pornographic material has increased
greatly.

The material also tries to send the message that women secretly enjoy
the abuse. Many studies have proven that pornography can lead to
violence.

Some links :-

Molestation - site offers Information on molestation including useful
contact details.

Molestation

Molestation is the sexual exploitation of a child or a woman by an
adult for sexual gratification or for profit. Sexual abuse may
include:

•Fondling
•Mutual masturbation
•Sodomy
•Coitus
•Child pornography and child prostitution

More often than not, all of these horrible things occur with the
knowledge of an adult beyond the perpetrator. That person and those of
us whose contact is less direct have an obligation to report these
crimes. Thus, molestation is the act of subjecting someone to unwanted
or improper sexual advances or activity (especially women or children)

When the word molestation is used, it is often preceded by the word
“child.” Molestation occurs when someone–either an adult or even
another child has any kind of sexual contact with another individual.
Child molestation occurs when an individual sees a child as a sexual
object and advances on this idea. It is a form of sexual assault or
sexual abuse. It includes fondling or masturbation of the victim or
the abuser, sexual kissing, or forced exposure to sexual media. While
it is natural for children to explore their bodies, a line can be
crossed when a child is forced or coerced into doing something they do
not want to do.

Molestation is a heinous crime; it shows the mentality of the men
living in the society. Stricter laws should be made against women’s
violation to keep women safe and maintain a healthier environment.

If the Union Women and Child Development Ministry has its way,
molesters will face a hard time as the Government is planning to make
the laws stricter for the culprits.

Molestation other than covering everything mentioned earlier may also
cover Eve teasing. Eve teasing refers to all forms of harassment women
face in public spaces that are considered trivial, funny and a part of
day to day life, and reduce the modesty of the victims.

http://www.molestation.in/

The National Commission For Women - A must visit site. Organisation
for helping and protecting women in India. Help for dowry issues,
female foeticide, child marriage, sexual harassment, and legal advice.

Domestic violence - Indian site on domestic violence

Types Of Sexual Harassment - India

Death penalty for rapists.

Effects Of Harassment On Women
http://netsafety.nic.in/

Official Government of India site to fight online Pornography.

Internet pornography, Cyber Laws, Tools to combat Cyber - Porn, Whom
to Report in India

http://www.asianlaws.org/fact/index.htm -

To tackle the abuse of children through the misuse of modern
technology, Asian School of Cyber Laws (India) has launched FACT
(Freedom from Abuse of Children through Technology). FACT is a five-
pronged programme that includes Educating the children, Educating the
parents, Schools awareness program, Creating Media awareness, and
Establishing a FACT Help Line.

Signs of MolestationWhen an adult is molested, there are certain signs
which may suggest that Molestation took place.

Signs of Molestation in Adults:

Physical Signs:

•Bruises or Lacerations on parts of the Body.
•Unexplained injuries on parts of the body.
•Torn, strained or bloody clothing or undergarments.
•Irritation or pain in the genital area.
•Symptoms of a Sexually transmitted disease or a venereal disease.
•Difficulty in urinating
•Symptoms of pregnancy

Behavioral Signs:

•Depression or loneliness
•Self Abuse or suicidal behaviour
•Drug or Alcohol Abuse
•Nightmares
•Unexplained or unpredicted behaviour patterns
•Sudden loss or increase in sexual behaviour

In the case of Children it is difficult to identify because they may
be scared to talk about such an incident. It is important to be very
supportive of them as they might feel that it is their fault and would
shudder from the experience.
Signs of Molestation in Children:

•Behavioral changes like unpredictable mood swings, depression and
excessive crying.
•Sleep Disturbances like Bed-wetting, nightmares and lack of sleep.
•Unusual interest in sexual activity.
•A sudden act of aggressive or rebellious behavior in school or at
home.
•Infantile behavior like sucking of thumb and clinging.
•Strained or torn undergarments or clothes.
•Changes in toilet-training habits.
•A fear of certain places or certain types of people.
•Bruises, lacerations, cuts, limping, poorly explained injuries
•Pain, itching, bleeding, redness or rawness in the private areas

http://www.molestation.in/signs-of-molestation

Laws against MolestationIn cases where the accused molests or insults
the modesty of a woman by way of obscene acts or by means of words,
gesture, or acts that are intended to insult the modesty and dignity
of a woman, he shall be punished under the following sections.

Under Sec.294 the obscene act must cause annoyance. The annoyance
should be done in a public place and cause mental harassment.

Section.509 of IPC, comes into effect when there is an intention to
insult the modesty of any woman by the offender by uttering any word,
making any sound or gesture or by exhibiting any object, with the
intention that such word or such sound be heard, or that such gesture
or object be seen by such a woman, or by intruding upon the privacy of
such a woman.

Section 354 of the IPC considers the assault or criminal force to
woman with the intention to outrage her modesty. This offense is
considered less serious than Rape.

Punishment: Upto two years imprisonment or a fine or both.

Section 323 punishes anyone causing voluntarily hurt(non cognizable)

Punishment: Upto one year or Rs. 1000 or both.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act has substantially changed Sections.375
and 376 of the IPC. Several new sections have been introduced therein-
viz.

Section. 376(A) punishes sexual intercourse with wife without her
consent by a judicially separated husband.
Section. 376(B) punishes for sexual intercourse by a public servant
with a woman in custody.

Section. 376(C) punishes sexual intercourse by superintendent of jail,
remand house, etc. whereas

Section. 376(D) punishes sexual intercourse by any member of the
management or staff of a hospital with any woman in that hospital.

Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury, who held a
meeting with officials from the National Commission for Women and a
group of lawyers said

“The laws are being examined with an aim to ensure that they are
implemented properly,” she said.

http://www.molestation.in/laws-against-molestation

Mind of a Molester

A person would generally molest out of lust. But many wrongdoers also
do it just for fun. In our society women are looked upon as just
objects of lust and not given the due respect that they deserve in
society. A Molester may perform the action for one or more of the
following reasons:

Lust: Men would often be overcome by a hunger for lust and hence would
stoop to the level of molesting any woman around. Generally
molestation could also result in rape in this case.

To embarrass the woman: In crowded place when men see that the woman
is alone then he may molest her to embarrass or ridicule her in front
of the entire crowd.

To take revenge: If the molester has a skirmish with the woman then
molestation may occur as a sign of aggression from the Molester’s
side.

Just for Fun: This is perhaps the most inexplicable and horrifying
reason. A molester does not understand what the woman goes through and
he would molest just for a laugh for him or his friends.

When Drunk: In an inebriated state, a person would not be in his
senses and would resort to molestation under the effect of Alcohol.

Sign of the Male Dominance: In our society, women are unfortunately
called the Weaker Sex and Men believe that they can easily dominate
the Women. Sometimes the Molester performs the actions just to prove
his dominance over the women.

Can get away with it: Generally Women are targeted at such places that
they cannot look for help and thus the Molester feels that he can
easily get away with it as the woman would be too scared or
embarrassed to report it to the police.

http://www.molestation.in/mind-of-a-molester

How to report MolestationMostly women would want to forget about
incident or feel too embarrassed to pursue the issue with the police.
But the police can do nothing to curb this social evil unless the
women report or lodge an FIR with the police. A woman who has the
courage to complain when her dignity has been challenged would be a
beacon of hope for other women and help punish the disgusting
perverts. The society would appreciate these courageous women who
pursue the matter with the police as it acts as a severe deterrent for
future occurrences. If Women remain scared now they will remain scared
forever.

The women should follow the following procedure :

•Assess the situation first, if it was a casual pass then it maybe
ignored.
•Discuss it with family members and decide the course of action.
•While reporting it to the police, demand anonymity.
•If you cannot approach the police then approach local NGO’s who can
help you cope up with the incident and also get the accused punished.
In the case of Child Molestation cases extra care needs to be taken.
•Talk to the child politely and also make him forget about the whole
incident.
•Parents or close relatives should report the matter to the police.
•If the accused is a closed one, then the parents of the child should
confront the accused and get him punished to ensure that such an
incident is not repeated again.

http://www.molestation.in/how-to-report-molestation

Practical Tips to avoid molestationMolestation could happen to girls
if they are generally at crowded places or at lonely places.
Molestation could happen anywhere though. We can not rely on the
police to be present everywhere and hence we need to take care of
ourselves. The following tips may help us to avoid going through such
an experience.
1) Avoid going in a very crowded bus or train. If in a local train
avoid traveling in the gents compartment. Once it gets really crowded
around you, it becomes impossible to protect yourself from molesters.

2) If you are returning home late then make sure that you have male
company to drop you or you have your own car or vehicle to get home
safely.

3) Avoid going to places where there is a large crowd of people like
Festivals, Sporting events etc If you do visit such places then there
is every chance of being pushed, touched or groped in a crowd.

4) If you are all alone in a public place and you have people passing
lewd comments or staring at your private parts then it is advisable to
either leave or inform any police officer or any decent gentlemen who
are around. But if you see a gang of miscreants passing comments at
you, then you should leave from the place before it gets uglier.

5) If you are partying or at a pub, stay away from strangers who maybe
under the influence of alcohol. Be careful of strangers and don’t
reveal contact details easily. Teach kids to follow the basic tips on
cyber safety.

6) Avoid too much skin show or unnecessary exposure at an
inappropriate place. It will just invite stares or lewd comments from
people.

7) Do not share a rickshaw or a cab with unknown people at a deserted
location. Avoid taking lifts from strangers.

All in all be alert wherever you are. If people do pass comments, eve
tease when you are alone then its advisable to get away from that
place first and then report the matter to the concerned authority.
Even cases on domestic violence or child labor should be reported. But
if you are touched, groped or molested then do raise the issue with
the police so that the miscreants do not go unpunished.

http://www.molestation.in/practical-tips-to-avoid-molestation

Consequences of MolestationStudies have shown that molested victims
may develop problems relating to Depression, Fear, Anxiety and Sexual
dysfunction. The consequences may be short lived but can also last for
a long time if the emotional trauma faced by the victim is large.
There are evidences that suggest that the victim also suffers from
mental health problems after victimization.

In the case of Child Molestation, the consequences or the
repercussions may be more severe. Sexually abused or molested children
often withdraw themselves from their daily activities. They have a
feeling of guilt within them for having witnessed such an incident.
They are too young to understand what it was and also refrain from
discussing it with parents or teachers. Sometimes the perpetrators of
the Crime are from the inner circle of the family and hence the
children are too scared too talk to their parents about it.

In some rare unfortunate cases it so happens that the child who gets
molested may actually begin to enjoy the experience and thus maybe on
the lookout for more of them.

Thus at a very young age, they might get interested in sexual activity
and hence may lose focus at studies. Such children need to be
counseled and made to understand that what they went through was
criminal. It also may happen that the molested of today becomes the
molester of tomorrow. As he had gone through the experience as a
child, he might want to try it in the future. These cases have to be
curbed and can be done by proper guidance and counseling at a young
age itself.

http://www.molestation.in/consequences-of-molestation

Sexual Harassment and MolestationSexual harassment and molestation are
two sides of the same coin. Both have victims like women and children.
Both have the same objective, to undermine the integrity of the
victim, physically as well as mentally.

Sexual harassment is harassment or unwelcome attention of a sexual
nature. It includes a range of behavior from mild transgressions and
annoyances to serious abuses, which can even involve forced sexual
activity. It has been suggested that the term “sexual harassment” was
coined in 1974 at Cornell University in USA. It was only in 1997 that,
in the realm of juridical interpretation, the object sexual harassment
of working women was named and defined. Here, the case of Vishaka Vs.
State of Rajasthan in 1997 has been credited with establishing sexual
harassment as illegal.

Sexual Harassment in India is unwelcome sexual gesture or behaviour
whether directly or indirectly as sexually coloured remarks; physical
contact and advances; showing pornography; a demand or request for
sexual favours; any other unwelcome physical, verbal/non-verbal
conduct being sexual in nature. The critical factor is the
unwelcomeness of the behaviour, thereby making the impact of such
actions on the recipient more relevant rather than intent of the
perpetrator

The United Nations General Recommendation 19 to the Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women defines
sexual harassment as:

“Such unwelcome sexually determined behavior as physical contact and
advances, sexually colored remarks, showing pornography and sexual
demands, whether by words or actions. Such conduct can be humiliating
and may constitute a health and safety problem; it is discriminatory
when the woman has reasonable ground to believe that her objection
would disadvantage her in connection with her employment, including
recruitment or promotion, or when it creates a hostile working
environment.”

http://www.molestation.in/sexual-harassment-and-molestation

Facts about Molestation

•India is home to the largest number of sexual abused children in the
World.
•It is estimated that one of every three girls and one of every five
boys before the age of 18 have been sexually molested.
•A nationwide survey conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child
development threw light on the amount of Child Abuse that children
suffer in our country.
•53% of the children surveyed in the survey reported Sexual Abuse.
•Sexual abuse of the children is highest at work followed by those at
Institutional care.
•The number of cases of Sexual Harassment in India in 2002 were
10,155, an increase of 4.2 per cent over the previous year (9746).
•There has been a steady increase in the number of women reporting
sexual harassment, from 4,756 in 1995 to 11,024 in 2000.
•A survey by the National Women’s Commission reports that 46.58% of
women report sexual harassment in the work place; only about 3.54%
report the matter to authorities; 1.4% reported it to the police.
•In 2001, a five-state survey of workplace sexual harassment
undertaken by Sakshi, a NGO in New Delhi, reported that 80% of the
respondents said sexual harassment existed in their work place. Only
23% had heard of the Vishaka Guidelines; 66% of these said that the
institutions had not effectively implemented these guidelines. When
they had been implemented, redress seemed to be biased.

•In India every 26 minutes, a woman is molested
•In India every 34 minutes, a woman is raped.
•In India every 93 minutes, a woman is killed.
•Till December 2007, in Mumbai there had been 160 cases of rape
reported and there were about 1100 cases of molestation, eve teasing
and other crimes against Women.
•In Delhi in 2007, there were 587 reported cases of rape. Of the
people arrested in rape cases, 340 were neighbours, 94 were friends
and 62 were relatives. Only in ten cases, the accused were strangers

http://www.molestation.in/facts-about-molestation

Treating Women molested in ChildhoodIf a woman was molested as a Child
then she should not continue to live with the trauma for the rest of
her life. It is important to make her realize that it is not the end
of the World for her. We have to increase her focus on her day to day
activities. We have to ensure that we don’t remind her of the incident
again. We can also encourage the victim to seek emotional help from a
professional counselor and we have to emphasize to the victim the need
to empower themselves through taking back control of their lives
because Life doesn’t stop there.

The victim may get into depression, but Happiness can find its way
through even in the darkest hours of our lives. The victim must start
resolving their feelings about themselves and their experience. She
should no longer be a victim of child abuse but a survivor.

We should encourage her not to be the prisoner of the past but the
architect of the future. She may latch on to a friend or a Family
member for security and inspiration. We should make her shift her
focus away from the Incident and make her realize that it no longer
controls her life. We should provide support and encouragement to her
in all her endeavors and should make her set short term and long term
goals for herself.

If the woman had undergone any physical injuries then it is important
to get her regular medical attention from a certified Doctor. All said
and done as a society we need to mature and not look down upon at such
victims. They need our support and not sympathy.

encouragement to her in all her endeavors and should make her set
short term and long term goals for herself. If the woman had undergone
any physical injuries then it is important to get her regular medical
attention from a certified Doctor. All said and done as a society we
need to mature and not look down upon at such victims. They need our
support and not sympathy.

http://www.molestation.in/treating-women-molested-in-childhood

Mumbai Molestation IncidentOn January 1st, 2008, all of Mumbai woke up
to gory images of two women being molested and hounded by a mob of
about 60 people outside Mumbai’s most posh hotel, the J.W. Marriot in
Juhu. The mob tore up the woman’s clothes and groped her for as the
girl’s male companions tried helplessly to protect them. The men were
completely overpowered by the strong mob. A Hindustan Times lensman
was present and captured the gory images on his Camera. A big posse of
police personal posted close to the venue was later alerted by the
Lensman and drove away the miscreants but not before they had molested
the girls for about 15minutes.

The incident occurred at about 1.45 am on December 31st night when the
two girls were returning from the Hotel and were heading towards Juhu
Beach, located in the suburbs of Mumbai. A similar incident had shamed
Mumbai exactly an year ago,a girl was molested by New Year’s eve
revelers at the Gateway of India. That incident too was captured on
film by another popular tabloid in Mumbai. Mumbai used to be regarded
as the safest city for Women in India. But this reputation seems to be
diminishing as crimes against Women are reported daily. The New Year’s
molestation incident was an eye opener for the “Safest City” in India.
About 14 men who were part of the mob were imprisoned by the Police
but later let off as they were not the actual molesters. The women who
were on the receiving end were NRI’s and came forward to help the
police to nab the miscreants.

But what was shocking was that the , Police Commissioner D N Jadhav
downplaying the incident accused the Media of making a “Mountain of a
Molehill” He went on to add, “Such things can happen anywhere anytime.
Here also where I am. It is just an offence. Why are you blowing it
out of proportion?”

http://www.molestation.in/mumbai-molestation-incident

Useful Contacts/ NGO’s1).

WomenPowerConnect (WPC) is a national level organization of women’s
groups and individuals working together for formalizing the process of
legislative coordination.

A1/125, First Floor
Safdarjung Enclave
New Delhi 110029
Telefax:011 42705170
Tele: 011 42705171/72
Email: ma...@womenpowerconnect.org

2) Saprem
11 Panchashil Bldg. Katemanivali. Dyrgamata Mandir Road. Kalyan (E)
Thane 421306
Contact Person: Mr. Prakesh Gaikwad
The NGO Works towards preventing child abuse

3) Co Ordinators Committee for Vulnerable Children (CCVC)
C/O Bandra East Community Centre
341/ A Siddhrath Colony. Bandra (E) Mumbai 400051
Contact Person: Mr. Savio Mathew
Fax: 022 26515029
Email: cc...@indya.com
The NGO Fights against child abuse

4)Terres De Homes
5/ B 104 Asmita Mogra Co- Op Hsg. Society. Andheri (E). Mumbai 400093
Contact Person: Ms. Vidya Apte
Tel: 022 28353291
Email: tdi...@vsnl.com
Website: www.childrenrightsindia.org

It supports basic child right activities of different organisations in
their fight against child abuse, child trafficking etc The Progressive
Organisation for Women

5) Alochana

A Pune based NGO

It has been conducting a programme called Muskan for spreading
awareness about child sexual abuse

6) Akshara

An NGO working for women in Mumbai.
http://www.aksharacentre.org/

7) APNE AAP WOMEN COLLECTIVE
http://www.apneaap.info/

BOMBAY MOTHERS AND CHILDREN WELFARE SOCIETY
http://www.bmcws.com/

9) CORP
http://www.corpindia.org/

10) MAVA
http://www.mavaindia.org/

11) WOMEN’S INDIA TRUST
http://www.wit.org.in/

Other NGO’s:

•RESCUE FOUNDATION
•VIDYA
•HUMSAFAR
•MANTHAN
•Cybercrime in India

http://www.molestation.in/useful-contacts-ngos

Child Labor

The term Child Labor is used for employment of children below a
certain age, which is considered illegal by law and custom. The
stipulated age varies from country to country and government to
government. Child labor is a world phenomenon which is considered
exploitative and inhuman by many international organizations.

Child Labor began to be considered a human rights issue and became an
issue of public dispute, when the foundation of universal schooling
was laid. Historically the transformation came with the industrial
revolution and the emergence of concepts like children’s rights and
worker’s right’s. Child labor is widely prevalent in some form or the
other, all over the world. The term is used for domestic work, factory
work, agriculture, mining, quarrying, having own work or business’
like selling food etc, helping parent’s business and doing odd jobs.
Children are regularly employed to guide tourists, sometimes doubling
up as a marketing force to bring in business for shop owners and other
business establishment. In some industries children are forced to do
repetitive and tedious work like weaving carpets, assembling boxes,
polishing shoes, cleaning and arranging a shops goods. It is seen that
children are found working more in the informal sectors compared to
factories and commercial registered organizations. Little children are
often seen selling in the streets or working quietly on domestic
chores within the high walls of homes – hidden away from the eyes of
the media and labor inspectors.

According to the statistics given by International Labor Organization
there are about 218 million children between the age of 5 and 17
working all over the world. The figure excludes domestic labor. The
most condemned form of child labor is the use of children for military
purpose and child prostitution. Child agricultural works, child
singers and child actors outside of school hours during season time
are more acceptable by champions of human rights and law. The
phenomenon of child labor is a complex development issue worthy of
investigation. The fact that vulnerable children are being exploited
and forced into work, which is not fit for their age, is a human
rights concern now. India and other developed and developing countries
are really plagued by the problem of child employment in organized and
unorganized sectors.

Child labor is a human rights issue of immense sensitivity. Child
labor is considered exploitative by the United Nations and
International Labor Organization. The article 32 of the UN speaks
about child labour as follows-“States parties recognize the right of
the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from
performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere
with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.” To sum up,
most countries of the world consider it highly inappropriate when a
child below a certain age is put to work. People should be prohibited
from hiring labor below a certain age. However, the minimum age at
which a human can be put to work differs from country to country. In
the US the child labor laws have set the minimum age to work in an
organization without the parents consent at sixteen.

http://www.childlabor.in/

Sexual Violence
on 08.30.09

Under domestic violence, one of the most common forms of violence that
is seen in the country and throughout the world is sexual violence.
Due to the nature of this problem, very few in depth research have
been conducted on it. Research that was done in South Africa and
Tanzania suggests that nearly one in four women may experience sexual
violence by an intimate partner, and up to one-third of adolescent
girls report their first sexual experience as being forced. In India
too, sexual violence during first night after wedding is very common
especially with the submissive nature of Indian women and the
dominance of Indian men.

Sexual violence has a profound impact on physical and mental health of
an individual. Not just that it also has both immediate and long term
consequences. It can have an impact on mental health as on physical as
well. Sexual violence can also profoundly affect the social life of
the victim. In India especially, with the orthodox mentality
prevailing strongly in the rural parts, individuals may be stigmatized
and detested by their families and others in the society and the
neighborhood.

Sexual violence, especially in domestic violence, is usually a result
of the expression of power and dominance of one sex over another in
most cases, dominance of the husband over his wife. The problem
aggravates when men think that their actions are legitimate just
because they are married and that they have full control and power
over their wives. Also in our country, women really do not talk about
domestic sexual violence because they too think that their husbands
have a right to torture them and rape them and that all they can do is
shed some tears. This is seen in remote rural areas of the country.
Many of the women and men are also be raped when in police custody or
in prison. The common consequences of sexual violence are those
related to mental health and social wellbeing being disrupted.

http://www.domesticviolence.in/

[Sid Harth]

National Commission for Women Women's panel wants Ruchika case
reopenedRuchika case
Vineeta Pandey / DNA
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 19:01 IST

New Delhi: The National Commission for Women (NCW) has told the
Haryana government to reopen the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case by
adding more stringent charges against the accused and those who
shielded him.

The NCW pressed for adding 16 sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),
which include abetment to commit suicide, attempt to murder, and
giving and fabricating false evidence.

Based on a preliminary report of a committee of lawyers formed by the
NCW, the women's group has told the government to make a fresh
application in court but before that the sections should be added to
the first information report.

The Haryana police filed two fresh FIRs in the case.

The Punjab and Haryana high court had quashed section 306 (abetment to
commit suicide) against accused SPS Rathore due to lack of evidence.

Among those facing criticism for shielding Rathore are former Haryana
chief ministers Hukum Singh, Bhajan Lal, Bansi Lal and Om Prakash
Chautala. Besides, a huge police and bureaucratic machinery is
believed to have supported him.

The NCW wants the home minister to take cognisance of Rathore's
misconduct. "Any person involved in criminal conspiracy and subversion
of justice should also be tried in the case. We do not want anybody to
go scot-free," NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_national-commission-for-women-asks-haryana-to-reopen-ruchika-case_1328827

Women living alone were godman's targets
Eklavya Atray / ANI
Thursday, March 11, 2010 0:58 IST

New Delhi: Young women living alone in Delhi were the ripest targets
for Shiv Murat Dwivedi’s prostitution racket. Dwivedi operated under
the guise of Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanandji Maharaj
Chitrakootwale, 39, a self-proclaimed godman.

He used to lure girls by giving them expensive gifts. “Dwivedi used to
target girls living in PG accommodation and shower them with costly
gifts. Gradually, he used to earn their trust and involve them in his
inner circle. Then he used to persuade the girls to join his racket
and make easy money,” said a police officer.

According to Dwivedi, he used to visit Delhi just twice a year. Rest
of the time, he used to stay in his village, or travel to remote
areas, organising satsangs.He even denied owning the ashram where the
sex racket was being run. “I hardly stayed in Delhi. The ashram is not
mine. I was not involved in any of the things the police are
claiming,” Dwivedi said. “I only sing the Lord’s praises. I can’t even
think of ruining a girl’s life. This is a story created by the
media.”

According to police, many of the women Dwivedi trapped were smitten by
him. “He used to have an emotional connect with many of his targets.
Many of them wrote him love letters and even expressed their anger
when he stopped meeting them,” said an officer. “We want them to
testify against him.”

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_women-living-alone-were-godman-s-targets_1357848

Nityananda ashram rejects charge of rape
PTI
Monday, March 8, 2010 19:43 IST

Bangalore: Rejecting rape charge and doubts raised over death of a
foreign devotee of self-styled godman Paramahamsa Nityananda, his
ashram here today said he would make a public appearance soon and
answer all allegations.

The charges were part of a "conspiracy to malign the image of the
swami and impede ashram's social activities," the ashram spokesperson
Nitya Sachidananda told reporters at the Nityananda Ashram near
Bidadi, about 40 km from here.

A 23-year-old woman, an inmate of the Bidadi ashram, had alleged that
Nithyananda had raped and sexually harassed dozens of women in the
ashram.

Chennai police have registered a rape and cheating case against
Nityananda, days after video footage of his alleged sleazy acts were
telecast by TV channels.

Sachidananda also denied a charge that mystery shrouded the death of
foreign national Melvyan Boyd Diamond, a Yoga teacher in the ashram.

"Diamond had family history of cardiac problems and he died following
an accidental fall from the second floor of the building he lived in,"
he said, adding that the ashram had arranged for his cremation.

The operation to malign Nityananda had been done in "a surgical
precision" and "Swamiji himself will come and comment on all the
issues. As his "personal security" was at risk "we have advised him to
come after some days," the spokesperson said.

The ashram, which faced violent protests after telecast of the video,
has so far not lodged any police complaint.

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_nityananda-ashram-rejects-charge-of-rape_1356852

Karnataka High Court stays TV channels from telecasting Nityananda
video
PTI
Thursday, March 11, 2010 18:59 IST

Bangalore: The Karnataka High Court today restrained local television
channels from airing "obscene, uncensored and private bedroom scenes"
relating to self-styled godman Swami Nityananda's alleged sex scandal.

Scuffle in RS,anger in BJP follows as Liberhan report tabled

A bench of justices V Gopala Gowda and BS Patil ordered issue of
notice to the state government and several TV channels on a PIL by
former BJP MLA and advocate KN Subba Reddy.

According to Reddy, some channels on March 3 had telecast video
clippings of alleged illegal and immoral activities of Nityananda and
a Tamil actress. Soon this was telecast in all channels across the
country.

He submitted that the clippings contained obscene and immoral scenes
and this would have a definite bearing on young children and had an
impact on the elders.

Such telecast would degrade several persons and also harm young minds,
the petitioner said and prayed for a direction to the respondent media
to stop and refrain from telecasting "the obscene, uncensored and
private bedroom scenes".

Noting that he was neither defending Nityananda nor the activities, he
said he was interested in upholding the great Indian culture and
heritage.

After passing the interim order, the judges adjourned the hearing on
the petition to March 17.

Following violence targeting Nityananda's ashram near Bangalore and in
Tamil Nadu and complaints of rape and cheating against him, the ashram
had called the clippings a conspiracy to malign him, claiming they
were morphed.

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_karnataka-high-court-stays-tv-channels-from-telecasting-nityananda-video_1358055

Six detained in rape, murder of 9-year-old girl in Kurla
PTI
Monday, March 8, 2010 17:58 IST

Mumbai: Six persons have been detained in connection with the rape and
murder of a nine-year-old girl, whose body was found in police
quarters in suburban Kurla yesterday, police said here today.

"We have detained six persons and are gathering cicumstancial
evidence. A special team has been formed to trace the accused at the
earliest," said deputy police commissioner Dilip Sawant.

The body of a nine-year-old girl, who went missing since Saturday
evening, was found raped before being murdered and her body was
discovered on the terrace of building No 109 at the police quarters on
Sunday morning, they said.

Ironically, Nehru Nagar police station's senior inspector Prakash Kale
stays in the same building, that is merely 10 metres away from his
police station.

The deceased's father had on Sunday at 12.30 am filed a missing
person's complaint after his daughter went missing since Saturday
evening.

The girl's body was discovered at around 9 am on Sunday morning, when
the son of a cop staying in the building went to the terrace.

This is the second such incident in a month time in Kurla area. On
February 8, a five-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered at a
construction site.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_six-detained-in-rape-murder-of-9-year-old-girl-in-kurla_1356788

Reaching Out

Problem of violence against women is multifaceted.

NCW has adopted a Multi-Pronged strategy to tackle the problem:

Generation of legal awareness among women, thus equipping them with
the knowledge of their legal rights and with a capacity to use these
rights.
Assisting women in redressal of their grievances through Prelitigation
services.
Facilitating speedy delivery of justice to women by organizing
Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats in different parts of the country.
Review of the existing provisions of the Constitution and other laws
affecting women and recommending amendments thereto, any lacunae,
inadequacies or short comings in such legislation's.
Organizing promotional activities to mobilize women and get
information about their status and recommend paradigm shift in the
empowerment of women.
Investigate and examine all matters relating to the safeguards
provided for women under the Constitution and other laws;
Review, from time to time, the exiting provisions of the Constitution
and other laws affecting women;
take up cases of violation of the provisions of the Constitution and
of other laws;
look into complaints and take suo moto notice of matters;
deprivation of women's rights;

special studies or investigations into specific problems or situations
arising out of discrimination and atrocities against women;
undertake promotional and educational research so as to suggest ways
of ensuring due representation of women in all spheres and identify
factors responsible for impeding their advancement;
advice on the planning process of socio-economic development of
women;
evaluate the progress of the development of women under the Union and
any State;
inspect or cause to inspected a jail,remand home,women's institution
or other place of custody where women are kept as prisoners or
otherwise and take up with the concerned authorities for remedial
action, if found necessary;
fund litigation involving issues affecting a large body of women;
The various cells of the commission:-

Complaint & Counselling Cell

The Complaints and Counseling Cell of the commission processes the
complaints received oral, written or suo moto under Section 10 of the
NCW Act.

The complaints received relate to domestic violence, harassment,
dowry, torture, desertion, bigamy, rape, refusal to register FIR,
cruelty by husband, deprivation, gender discrimination and sexual
harassment at work place.

The complaints are tackled as below :-

Investigations by the police are expedited and monitored.
Family disputes are resolved or compromised through counseling.
For serious crimes, the Commission constitutes an Inquiry Committee
which makes spot enquiries, examines various witnesses, collects
evidence and submits the report with recommendations. Such
investigations help in providing immediate relief and justice to the
victims of violence and atrocities. The implementation of the report
is monitored by the NCW. There is a provision for having experts/
lawyers on these committees.
The State Commission, the NGOs and other experts are involved in these
efforts.

The complaints received shows the trend of crimes against women and
suggests systemic changes needed for reduction in crimes.

The complaints are analyzed to understand the gaps in routine
functioning of government in tackling violence against women and to
suggest corrective measures.

The complaints are also used as case studies for sensitization
programmes for the police, judiciary, prosecutors, forensic
scientists, defense lawyers and other administrative functionaries.

As per the 1997 Supreme Court Judgment on Sexual Harassment at
Workplace, ( Vishakha Vs. State of Rajasthan ) every employer is
required to provide for effective complaints procedures and remedies
including awarding of compensation to women victims. In sexual
harassment complaints, the concerned organization are urged to
expedite cases and the disposal is monitored.

Here's what you will find in this section.

http://ncw.nic.in/frmComplaintUnit.aspx

Legal Cell

Some provisions of the NCW Act specifically requires the commission
to :

Investigate and examine all matters relating to the safeguards
provided for women under the Constitution and other laws;
Present to the Central Government, annually and at such other times as
the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those
safeguards;
Make in such reports recommendations for the effective implementation
of those safeguards for improving the conditions of women by the Union
or any state;
Review, from time to time, the existing provisions of the Constitution
and other laws affecting women and recommend amendments thereto so as
to suggest remedial legislative measures to meet any lacunae,
inadequacies or shortcomings in such legislation;
Take up the cases of violation of the provision of the Constitution
and of other laws relating to women with appropriate authorities;

The primary mandate of the Commission is to review the constitutional
and legal safeguards provided for women, recommend remedial
legislative measures, felicitate redressal of grievances and advice
the Government on all policy matters affecting women.

http://ncw.nic.in/frmLegalUnit.aspx

Research & Studies Cell

The Research & Studies Cell is responsible for issues related with
socio economic conditions of women in the country and calls for
special studies or investigations into specific problems or situations
arising out of discrimination against women and undertakes promotional
and educational research so as to suggest ways of ensuring due
representation to women in all spheres.

Social mobilization, maintenance and divorcee women, Panchayati Raj in
action, women labour-under contract, gender bias in judicial
decisions, family courts, gender-component in the various Commissions'
reports for women, violence against women, women's access to health
and education in slums etc. to help in formulation of NCW's policies
for recommendations.

The Cell evaluates the progress of the development of women for which
clear gender profile for different states is being prepared. This Cell
also conducts seminars and workshops in collaboration with state
governments for understanding the various problem areas in the field
and to suggest action plan/ remedial measures to resolve these
problems.

Here's what you will find in this section.

http://ncw.nic.in/frmResearchStudiesUnit.aspx

PUBLIC RELATION CELL

The National Commission for Women is committed to the protection of
the rights of women in the country and to their welfare and
development. To attain these aims, the Commission organizes
countrywide campaigns, workshops and consultations. The PR Cell throws
light on the activities under taken by the Commission to full fill
its mandate to participate, advice on the planning process of socio-
economic development of women and evaluate the progress and
development of women under the Union and the State Government

http://ncw.nic.in/frmPRCell.aspx

RTI Cell

Right to information ACT, 2005.
http://ncw.nic.in/PDFFiles/NCWRTIACT2005.pdf
RTI Manuals & Guidelines
http://ncw.nic.in/frmRTI_Manual.aspx
RTI Officers Details
http://ncw.nic.in/frmRTI_Officers.aspx
Organizational Chart
http://ncw.nic.in/frmRTI_OrgChart.aspx
Salary Description of NCW staff

Delegation of Power of NCW Officers
Service Rules of the Commission, 1992
List of RTI Applcants
Frequently asked questions (FAQ's)
http://ncw.nic.in/frmRTI_FAQs.aspx
Notification (Hindi) (English)
http://ncw.nic.in/frmRTI_FAQs.aspx
Information under Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, 2005
http://ncw.nic.in/frmRTI_4(1)(b).aspx

Annual Return Form

2007 - 2008
http://ncw.nic.in/PDFFiles/AR2007-08.pdf
2008 - 2009
http://ncw.nic.in/PDFFiles/AR2008-09.pdf

http://ncw.nic.in/frmReachingOut.aspx

Other useful links

List of State Women Commissions
http://ncw.nic.in/frmListStateCommission.aspx
National Commission for Protection of Child rights
http://ncpcr.gov.in/
National Human Rights Commission
http://nhrc.nic.in/
Women & Child Development
http://wcd.nic.in/
Childline India
http://www.childlineindia.org.in/
Solution Exchange for Gender Community
http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/Gender/introduction.html

http://ncw.nic.in/frmReachingOut.aspx

[bademiyansubhanallah]

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/8a1efe054a3bf157/1b416b79cddb669b

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/8a1efe054a3bf157/39078a38d2496b48

...and I am Sid Harth

Prostitution in India.

Article 6: States Parties shall take all appropriate measures,
including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and
exploitation of prostitution of women in India. According to a 1994
report in Asian Age there are at least 70,000 women sex workers in
Delhi, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore and Hyderbad. 30% of these women
are under 20 years of age. 40% are 20-30 years of age, and
approximately 15% of them became prostitutes as children under the age
of 12.
In India, many innocent victims are forced into prostitution by their
husbands or relatives. Some are tricked or enticed into prostitution.

http://www.indianchild.com/prostitution_in_india.htm

This traffic does not stop
The bondage of cross-border sex-workers

Lucknow, February 15, 2002: When 12-year-old Rupa, a Dalit girl from a
village near Varanasi, said that she had been raped by the landlord's
son and friends, the village panchayat (village council) refused to
believe her. Instead, the panchayat maintained that she was concocting
stories. Rupa's problems did not end here. On the pretext of helping
her, Rupa's neighbour offered her domestic work in Kolkata. But
instead of taking her to this eastern Indian city, he brought her to
Delhi and sold her to a brothel for Rs 10,000 (1US$= Rs 48). According
to Rupa, there are many other girls from her village and her caste in
this brothel.

Like Rupa, 20-year-old Mala was lured to come to Uttar Pradesh from
Nepal when she was 10 years old. She was raped by her custodians who
held her captive for over a month and then took her to Mumbai. She has
been working in this city as a sex worker for the last decade, often
servicing six to 10 clients every night This bestial, sleazy world of
intra-country and trans-border trafficking in women and young girls
was highlighted recently in a workshop organised in Lucknow by the
BETI Foundation, UNDP.

Trafficking in human beings is more lucrative than trade in arms or
narcotics according to Roma Shyamsundar, Vice President of STOP, a
Delhi based non-governmental organisation (NGO) actively involved in
the rescue of trafficked girls. According to Shyamsundar, a lifelong
exploitative situation is established when a woman or a girl is
trafficked: she is forced into prostitution and thus begins a vicious
cycle of paying the brothel owner for whom she works. Even if she is
rescued, her plight does not improve because she is not accepted
either by her family or by society. And she has no means of survival.
Consequently, many rescued victims have no choice but to go back to
sex work.

Given the abysmal poverty in Bangladesh and Nepal, the porous borders
with India and even culturally sanctioned prostitution like the
Devdasi system, the business of trafficking girls has fertile soil on
which to grow in the region. Expectedly, it is highest in border
regions with high poverty and low women's literacy. The new state of
Uttaranchal too is a popular hub, especially along the porous borders
at Pithoragarh and Champawat.

A 1994 UN definition of trafficking limits it to the clandestine and
illegal movements of persons across national borders with the goal of
forcing women and children into sexually exploitative situations.
Today, this definition in its wider sense also includes internal
trafficking through kidnapping, migration and luring women and girls
to cities for better work prospects.

What is causing alarm both in governmental and NGO circles is the
escalation in trafficking of young girls in the last decade. NGOs like
STOP and MAITI in Nepal report that most trafficking in India (both
trans-border and in-country) is for prostitution. And 60 per cent of
those trafficked into prostitution are adolescent girls in the age
group of 12 to 16 years. Still more alarming is the fact that the
average age of trafficked girls, which was 14 to 16 years in the
1980s, came down to between 10 and 14 years in the 1990s. These
figures are corroborated by a study done by the Department of Women
and Children in 13 sensitive districts of Uttar Pradesh. It reveals
that all sex workers who formed a part of this survey had entered the
profession as young girls.

Globalisation, professionalisation of trafficking syndicates,
feminisation of poverty and rise in sex tourism - all have contributed
to an increase in trafficking. This problem is further compounded
because of two factors: linkages of trafficking with the spread of HIV/
AIDS and the clandestine nature of the activity.

Studies now show that while women of all ages are more vulnerable to
the infection than men, young girls are even more at risk because
their genital tracts are immature. In addition, they have absolutely
no control over sexual relations and sexual health. So a physical
vulnerability is compounded by a gender vulnerability. Says a Nepali
child rescued from a brothel by STOP, "Clients don't like condoms and
the owner of the brothel tells me to do what the clients want. If I
refuse then the man chooses another girl and not only do I lose out on
making money, I am also beaten up."

The clandestine nature of trafficking, which is often undertaken with
familial consent, means that there are no action plans either at the
governmental or the NGO level to deal with the problem. For instance,
the study done in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh shows that in a sample
of 1,341 sex workers, brothel-based prostitution was 793 and family-
based prostitution came close at 548.

However, progress -- though very little -- is being made. Efforts at
rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked women and girls have now
turned from a welfare to a rights-oriented approach. Interventions are
increasingly based on issues like combating stigma related to HIV/
AIDS, developing empowering strategies for victims and involving
communities in the rehabilitation of rescued women and girls.

But there is a lot that still needs to be done. Involvement of
communities is of the greatest significance here since it has been
seen that rescued women and girls are not accepted by their families
and communities. The situation becomes worse if someone tests positive
for HIV because she is immediately labeled a prostitute - a perception
that creates a complex situation in the rehabilitation programmes.
Even if trafficked returnees can avoid such treatment, they have few
options for survival. There are very few rehabilitation centres that
provide physical, mental and emotional support or legal and literacy
expertise. Consequently, many young HIV positive girls and women
return to sex work, thereby continuing the transmission of HIV
infections. Says Shyamsundar, "We believe that all brothel children
have to be rescued. A 10-year-old is expected to take on 10 or 12
customers a day. It is worse than rape."

What is needed is a multi-pronged strategy which can help in curbing
trafficking and empowering communities and which also has scope for
rescue and rehabilitation processes. The task is not just daunting,
given the political priorities of most governments it is not given the
importance it deserves.

Radha Rastogi
February 2002

Radha Rastogi is a Lucknow based journalist with over 25 years
experience with mainstream media. She specialises in development
issues and has specifically worked in the field of education in the
state of Uttar Pradesh. This opinion on India Together is provided by
the Women's Feature Service.
Feedback: Tell us what

http://www.indiatogether.org/women/opinions/traffic.htm

MAITI in Nepal
http://www.maitinepal.org/

UNDP homepage
http://www.undp.org/

http://www.indiatogether.org/women/opinions/traffic.htm

Fantasies of city life attracts minor girls !!! - 2010-01-21

A fresh incident of interception of eight minor girls from Information
and vigilance booth of Maiti Nepal Nagdhunga unraveled the extremity
to which capital city, Kathmandu attracts innocent girls from rural
areas. Observing their dress up and behavior reveals the fact that
they were attracted by the fashion vibes and sense of freedom posed
by the capital city.

On 12th January, 2010 ,eight innocent girls were intercepted at
Nagdhunga for being at a high risk of trafficking. All eight girls
were minors, age varying from 9 years to 18 years. All of them
belonged to Tanahu district and were traveling to Kathmandu to find
jobs. After series of counseling sessions, they said that five of
them lied to their parents saying that they were going for a movie
while three of them ran away from school. They had sold their gold
nose stud to get money for bus fare.

While questioned at the check post, they had no clue about where they
were staying in Kathmandu. Thaey said they were traveling to Kathmandu
to find "a nice job" and earn their livelihood. Although all of them
are literate to a certain grade, they were aloof about human
trafficking. During counseling sessions, it was observed that their
interest was mainly on pursuing material satisfaction like cell
phones, nice dress, shoes and cosmetics, etc. Their prime focus was on
earning money and fulfilling their fantasy rather than going to the
school.

This incident manifests the burgeoning gravity between the capital
city and remote districts. Undoubtedly, Kathmandu is soaring high on
creating fashion and as a consequence it is luring innocent girls
towards a so called city lifestyle which further generates hazardous
upheavals and risks in their life.

On 17th January, 2010 their respective family members were contacted
and brought together for family counseling. All the girls were handed
over to their respective parents Maiti Nepal is committed to provide
every kind of support to these girls that may be required for their
successful reintegration

http://www.maitinepal.org/ndetails.php?option=News&cid=127

Internal trafficking as an escalating challenge to a civilized
society!!! - 2010-01-10

The number of girls entrapped in sexual exploitation is atrocious.
Undoubtedly, the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu holds a lot of job
opportunities. What attracts these girls to the capital city is the
superficial conception, that they could change their lifestyle by
merely changing their city. With a commitment to themselves of
improvising their life situations, they travel to Kathmandu with risks
and hazards. In fact, they are “trafficked” to Kathmandu. In the guise
of dance bars, cabin restaurants and massage parlors, these innocent
girls are sexually and physically exploited. Most of these girls are
easily lured, molded and convinced and hence they are trafficked
at minor age.

In a recent incident of a raid operation conducted by Nepal Police at
various so called “Prostitution hubs” of the capital city, number of
girls were rescued and kept for inquiry at Hanuman Dhoka Metropolitan
Police Range. Maiti Nepal provided psychosocial counseling to the
girls and minors were referred to Maiti Nepal for rehabilitation and
family re-integration. Officials of Maiti Nepal visited the custody
wherein the girls were handcuffed and kept in a dreadful condition.

Currently, Maiti Nepal's rehabilitation home Kathmandu is providing
safe shelter to nine girls. At the shelter home, the girls are
receiving counseling, life skills trainings and medical
supervision.The girls revealed that they had adopted the profession
just to keep them alive as other livelihood opportunities seemed a far
cry for them. Maiti Nepal is keen on finding alternative livelihood
opportunities for them .Their family members are being located and
provided with family counseling.

Data of girls at the shelter home:

Age Range: - 15 years – 22 years http://www.undp.org/

Districts: - Dhading, Dharan, Argakhachi, Nuwakot, Kavrepalanchowk

http://www.maitinepal.org/ndetails.php?option=News&cid=126

Helping women - by reaching out to men
by Rajeev Narayan

UNV volunteer Rajeev Narayan (left, with notebook) in discussions with
youth groups on issues of Gender-Based Violence and masculinity in
Uttar Pradesh, India. (UNV)UNV volunteer Rajeev Narayan (rear centre
left, in orange shirt) engages with youth. "A central focus of my work
is MASVAW (Men’s Action for Stopping Violence Against Women) which has
initiated campaigns urging boys and men to raise various issues of
safety and violence against women in their communities," he says.
(UNV)01 March 2010

New Delhi, India: In 2008, an innovative UN joint programme in the
Asia-Pacific region was launched, called 'Partners for Prevention:
Working with Boys and Men to Prevent Gender-Based Violence'. Given the
strong potential volunteerism has to support and champion violence
prevention, especially at the community level, UNV saw a unique
opportunity to contribute.

UNV joins with UNDP, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and
the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in this initiative.
'Partners for Prevention' (P4P) incorporates volunteerism both through
the placement of UNV volunteers at P4P’s regional secretariat, and
with national partners working on violence prevention to document,
share, and support country-level initiatives.

Each volunteer supports the programme in different ways. For my part,
I am a national UNV volunteer Network and Outreach Coordinator based
at the Centre for Health and Social Justice (CHSJ) in India.

There is a growing movement which calls for dynamism from youth and
adult men to reduce the rapid rate of violence against women. My host
organization, CHSJ, is at the centre of this movement in India. CHSJ
is a policy resource centre working on issues of health, gender
equality and social justice and currently holds the network
secretariat for the Forum to Engage Men (FEM), a national network
working with boys and men for eliminating Gender-Based Violence.

I have been working with issues of masculinity, including what it
means to be a man in my culture, and on Gender-Based Violence
prevention for the last couple of years. My role as a UNV volunteer
has allowed me to gain vital experience at the community level in
India, and document best practices and learning. I then in turn have
the exciting opportunity to connect with partners across the region
through Partners for Prevention to share this learning.

A central focus of my work is MASVAW (Men’s Action for Stopping
Violence Against Women) which has initiated campaigns urging boys and
men to raise various issues of safety and violence against women in
their communities. MASVAW is unique in that it is a volunteer-driven
movement and works with a chain of volunteers taking responsibility at
the individual level and at each of the respective districts
throughout the state. We count on these men and prepare them for
future leadership roles.

I have been actively participating in MASVAW activities, mobilizing
volunteers, assisting the secretariat in documenting case studies,
challenges, and learning to be shared within the Forum to Engage Men
network. Through Partners for Prevention, I also work with other
organizations in the region that are interested in building similar
volunteer movements in their countries.

My knowledge of the local dialect has helped me a lot in connecting
with the people in the local communities of Uttar Pradesh where
Bhojpuri is the common language.

I am also involved in the development of Partners for Prevention’s
social media campaign pilot in India. The campaign aims to raise
awareness and build sensitivity among youth on issues of violence and
prevention.

The campaign will reach out to youth through online social media
applications (like Facebook) and also link them with real world events
and volunteer activities promoting violence prevention to get them
actively involved and engaged in a meaningful way. And I have been
working together with P4P staff and partners in India to build
partnerships with local universities and youth volunteer groups for
the campaign.

Overall my work as a volunteer with Partners for Prevention has helped
me to understand the importance of community-based approaches to
create knowledge and raise public awareness on sensitive issues such
as gender discrimination, marginalization, the gender division of
labour and Gender-Based Violence.

Through my experiences with Men’s Action for Stopping Violence Against
Women I have been able to regain strength, courage and confidence in a
clear-cut message: 'Not all men are violent'. I have also had the
opportunity to participate in international and regional workshops and
events providing me with a range of inspiring and educational
experiences as well as the opportunity to share the work being done in
India.

Given these rewarding experiences, I can say that I feel proud to
serve as a UNV volunteer with Partners for Prevention and CHSJ. Day by
day I believe that my commitment can really lead to concrete results
in my area of work, wherein a society free of violence exists.

http://www.unv.org/en/news-resources/news/doc/helping-women-by.htmlPreventing
gender-based violence by working with boys and men
by Rizwan Latif

UNV volunteer Rizwan Latif (standing) works as Outreach & Capacity
Development Officer at ROZAN, an Islamabad based NGO working on issues
related to emotional and psychological health, gender, violence
against women and children, and the psychological and reproductive
health of adolescents. (UNV)11 March 2010

Islamabad, Pakistan: I’m a national UNV volunteer working as Outreach
and Capacity Development Officer at ROZAN, an Islamabad based NGO
working on issues related to emotional and psychological health,
gender, violence against women and children, and the psychological and
reproductive health of adolescents. ROZAN is a partner organization of
Partners for Prevention (P4P), a UN Regional Joint Programme on the
“Prevention of Gender-based Violence by Working with Boys and Men” of
UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM and UNV in Asia-Pacific.

I believe individual self-growth is the key to bringing changes to
society for the promotion of human development. Pakistan is a country
where the majority of the population is comprised of youth. Access to
basic necessities and knowledge is a very big challenge and youth is
the most vulnerable segment of society. Engaging youth for gender
equality is possible only when both men and women realize their
individual roles and responsibilities to contribute to a society free
of violence.
Being a UNV volunteer gives me the opportunity to engage men and boys
in order to stop violence against women and promote gender equality.
The main objective of the promotion of volunteerism is to achieve
peace and development and to turn global development challenges
around. Through the promotion of volunteerism and volunteers, there
are opportunities to prevent gender-based violence in general and
violence against women in particular. I feel gender equality or
violence issues are my own issues and this is my motivation. It is
great to fight for a cause and involve individuals and groups to bring
changes in society, particularly on the gender-based violence issue.

Women in Pakistan are the most marginalized segment of society. The
main problem women are facing is the negligence of their role by their
own partners, family and state. There are cultural barriers and
strictness, which prohibit women from competing and promoting self-
awareness and growth. Several issues are associated with women only,
i.e. lack of education, of basic health facilities, violence
(physical, sexual, psychological) etc. State level policies especially
related to violence against women exist, but proper implementation is
still a big challenge.

To assign a UNV volunteer to support a local organization is a very
innovative idea. This particular UNV assignment through P4P and ROZAN
will provide me with an opportunity for self-growth to understand and
gain knowledge on this specific issue of male involvement to prevent
gender-based violence. In our society, men will be the main active
agents to bring about change, since due to lack of understanding and
persistent traditional cultural practices, women have still a very
limited space.

Volunteers engaging men and boys for gender-based violence prevention
will be a major resource for interventions and activities to stop and
put an end to gender-based violence. The volunteers will make a
difference through the dissemination of relevant knowledge, and by
demonstrating in a practical way their commitment and willingness to
initiate self-actions to end gender-based violence, and violence
against women in particular. Through the involvement of media,
volunteers will be able to effectively communicate and involve every
part of society to stop gender-based violence.

At ROZAN, I am associated with a project called “Hamqadam – male
involvement initiative to address gender-based violence”. It aims to
initiate and sustain change in male (men and boys) attitudes about
themselves and their role in society, sensitizing them about the issue
of violence against children and women.

Patriarchal society and its links to gender-based violence are very
pressing issues, particularly in Pakistani society. It’s a very
interesting and unique work to highlight and understand the factors
responsible for gender-based violence and violence against women. A
formative research, which was conducted by ROZAN focusing on male
dominance and its link to violence, gave me an insight into how male
dominance is constructed by society. The gender equitable men (GEM)
scale adaptation system, which was implemented in the intervention
areas of the Hamqadam project by ROZAN, is a very effective tool to
measure the perception and attitudes of the community.

ROZAN believes in the essence and importance of volunteers for human
development. Within the organization, a volunteer management system is
functioning effectively. A volunteer coordination committee is working
within the ROZAN programmes. Every programme by ROZAN has established
a volunteer network engaging volunteers to prevent gender-based
violence and violence against women.

There are also other implementation strategies in the Hamqadam project
activities under the umbrella of ROZAN. Prevention of gender-based
violence and violence against women is a very interesting and
distinctive area of work and I feel a great pleasure to be part of it.
Addressing complex issues around core thematic areas, with focus and
dedication, to bring about change in society gives me great
motivation.

http://www.unv.org/en/perspectives/doc/preventing-gender-based-violence-by.html

UNVs help the women of Orissa rebuild their lives
by Anita Katyal*

03 June 2000

Orissa, India: The state of Orissa in eastern India was devastated by
a cyclone on 29 October 1999. High-velocity winds accompanied by
massive tidal waves left behind a trail of destruction and human
misery. A total of 19,000 villages were fully or partially destroyed,
affecting an estimated 13 million people. The official death toll is
just under 10,000 while thousands of cattle have been killed and
thousands of hectares of land destroyed.
Six months have elapsed since that fateful night. Efforts have been in
full swing to help the affected people of Orissa first through
immediate relief measures and later through long-term rehabilitation
schemes. Several agencies under the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in New Delhi have come together here to work jointly
towards helping the victims. The UN's mission in Orissa, however,
could not have been such a success were it not for the efforts of the
13 national United Nations Volunteers (NUNVs).

Seven women UNVs have proved particularly invaluable in these efforts.
Now that attention is focused on rehabilitation for victims, the UNV
district support officers as they have been designated, are
concentrating on how they can help the women most affected in the
natural disaster.

Abha Mishra of India joined as a UNV in December and has since served
in the Balasore district. With the flood waters rising to over nine
feet and entire villages submerged, her first task was to document the
extent of damage, monitor the movement of relief materials and assess
conditions in the field. "I toured the affected villages extensively,
spoke to the villagers, the village headmen, the local authorities and
especially the women to find out their problems," she explains.

In addition, she was also asked to pitch in with the United Nations
Children's Fund's ongoing rural water and sanitation programme that
was expanded after the cyclone ravaged the district. "This involved
long conversations with the women as I tried to explain to them the
benefits of proper sanitation and hygiene," says Abha.

"The women were remarkably enthusiastic and assured me that they would
pay greater attention to their personal hygiene and would not hesitate
to fetch water even if they have to walk a kilometre." The women were
motivated enough to set up mahila mandals (women's groups) to educate
the other women. Like her counterparts, Abha has drawn up elaborate
plans to organize the women in remote villages into self-help groups
and is currently in the process of putting them in place. At the same
time, she has also held regular meetings with the community workers in
the affected villages. These community workers, or anganwadi workers
as they are referred to, provide basic services like nutrition and
immunization for children and neonatal care to pregnant mothers at the
government-run community centres. Most of these centres were destroyed
in the cyclone but they have started functioning in temporary tent
structures.

"I am motivating the anganwadi workers to organize the village women
into self-help groups. After all, we are here for a short time and it
will be difficult for us to follow up on these activities. Therefore,
I am involving the local NGOs and anganwadi workers since they will be
here even after we leave," says Abha.

Sandhaya, a 27-year-old anganwadi worker in Talanagar, recalls when
Abha first came to their village. "She told us how these groups would
help the women in sharing their problems and also told us how we could
set up a thrift fund and start some income-generating schemes," she
says. More importantly, she adds, Abha's visit helped them air their
grievances. For instance, she says, the foodgrains at their anganwadi
centre were badly damaged and they brought this to Abha's attention
who, in turn, asked the local authorities to take immediate remedial
measures. "When Abha came to our village and discussed our problems,
we felt that finally our grievances would be relayed to the right
quarters," she says.

Radhamani Singh, who supervises 48 anganwadi centres under her charge,
says the sessions with Abha proved extremely helpful. The workers told
how they are working in makeshift structures with virtually non-
existent infrastructure. Abha listened attentively, gave them useful
tips on checking malnutrition and keeping track of the health of women
in general. "After this meeting, the anganwadi workers felt more
confident and more capable of handling all the problems thrown up in
the post-cyclone period," says Radhamani.

Talking to outsiders who are not part of the official machinery also
helps, she explains. When a government official comes, people are
generally hesitant to talk because they run the risk of annoying
somebody. "But with UNVs, there are no such problems and so it is easy
to talk. It is also good to know that somebody is genuinely interested
in our problems and will do something about them, " she adds.

UNV Rita Missal, located in the Cuttack district, has managed to get
the women in Nodaarisol village to discard their veils and became
active participants in the development plans of their village. "Women
in this village are traditionally not supposed to step out of their
homes but after several meetings with them, I have persuaded them to
sit on the village committee where decisions are taken about the
future rehabilitation plans of the village," she says.

Similarly, women's participation in reconstruction work was nil but
here again, she convinced them that their participation will mean
extra income for the family. The women have also constituted a mahila
mandal, or a self-help group, which has not only set up a thrift fund
but has become involved in such diverse activities as distribution of
relief materials to the monitoring of sanitation and immunization
programmes.

Kalika Mohapatra, who is responsible for the Khurda district, has been
working as a UNV since December - weeks after the cyclone hit Orissa.
She remembers her initial visits to the villages when people were
living under hastily-erected tents and tarpaulins, eating from
community kitchens and fighting for the relief materials being
distributed.

Since the crops were severely damaged by the cyclone and it would be
some time before agricultural activity could be resumed, Kalika helped
the women set up groups to explore income-generating activities.

"After several discussion sessions, the women became gradually
receptive to forming self-help groups when they realized that they
could also contribute to the family income," says Kalika. "A lot of
them showed interest in starting kitchen gardens which would provide
them a steady income. In fact, we found that after several such group
discussions, the women became more vocal and confident and voluntarily
discussed their problems... they became more aware of their
difficulties but also realized they could also contribute in making a
difference," she says, adding that they also started seeking
information about immunization programmes and how they could keep
their communities clean.

As part of their mandate, UNVs also coordinate the activities of NGOs
working in the field and help them in the implementation of their
programmes. Soon after she joined, Kalika says she was approached by a
local NGO, Childcare, which works in a group of villages, about 35
kilometres from Orissa's capital Bhubaneswar. The villages, she says,
were destroyed during the cyclone and its inhabitants had, by some
mistake, been overlooked in the relief and rehabilitation programmes
launched by the government.

Childcare, she says, had already been working in these villages and
after the cyclone the people were keen to expand their activities.
However, funding was proving to be a problem as they came up against a
wall each time they tried seeking resources. Kalika says she
approached a governmental funding agency which gives money for rural
programmes and also got in touch with an Italian NGO, CESUI, which had
evinced interest in undertaking a worthwhile programme for the
victims.

Gradually, these efforts paid off as an integrated development
programme has been put in place in the village of Bhalunka. A non-
formal centre for children has been set up which is proving quite a
relief to the women who can now leave their children there knowing
they will not be wandering around aimlessly in the fields and will
instead be looked after.

At the same time, the women themselves, who earlier earned a pittance
working as casual labourers, have been given special training in
mushroom cultivation.

"We had lost everything in the cyclone but we are now trying to
rebuild our lives. Learning mushroom cultivation has really helped me
in this process....earlier I did not earn more than Rs. 35 a day and
then, again, work was not regular. Today, my income has nearly
doubled," says Urmilla Singh, 30. Urmilla is among 20 women from the
village who have received this training. "Earlier, there was never
enough money to meet the needs of the family. Today, with this
additional income, I am able to look after my four sons a little
better," says 28-year-old Gauri Singh, who is also getting health
services that were earlier not available to her. Gautmi Singh says she
now enjoys a increased, regular income and better working conditions.
"Besides, we have more time to look after our families," she explains.
The women have organized a group that meets once a month to discuss
their common problems and also established a thrift fund to be used
for emergency purposes, explains group secretary Gautmi Singh.

*Anita Katyal is a journalist based in New Delhi.

http://www.unv.org/en/what-we-do/thematic-areas/gender/doc/unvs-help-the-women.html

Restoring Punjab's cultural heritage, UNVs foster a sense of community
by Dr. Savyssachi and Gurmeet S. Rai

07 September 2000

BONN: In the northern Indian State of Punjab, the historical landscape
bears testimony to the fact that people from different communities
have interacted from ancient to modern times.
In the recent past, however, violence and terrorism have fragmented
the State's social and cultural fabric. Cultural Heritage and the
Promotion of Understanding in Punjab, a joint project supported by the
UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV),
seeks to restore cultural heritage and develop a sense of community
amongst people from different religious and social traditions. The
overall objective is to foster a culture of peace. To that end,
restoration efforts have been interlinked with community development
activities. Seven national UN Volunteers -- social scientists, art
restorers and conservation architects -- are part of the project. It
is implemented by the Cultural Resources Conservation Initiative
(CRCI), a voluntary group of conservation architects.

On what ground can the people be engaged as members of a community?
How can it be ensured that the physical restoration of building
structures is simultaneously a restoration of the sense of community?
What are the necessary social conditions for extending the life of
these buildings?

With these considerations in mind, three old religious shrines, Kishan
Mandir (Krishna's Temple) in Kishankot Village, Guru Ki Masjid (the
Mosque of the Master) in Sri Hargobindpur Village and Massania Dargah
of Baba Shah Badar Diwan in Massania Village, were selected for
restoration. Of these, Kishan Mandir was chosen as the first project
for the UN Volunteers.

In Kishankot, 50 per cent of the population are Sikhs, 25 per cent are
Hindus and 25 per cent Christian. The walls of the temple are
decorated with paintings depicting Hindu and Sikh themes. It was
obvious that the UNV social scientists and conservation specialists
had to work hand in hand.

The temple restoration could only be successful and lasting if the
community was flourishing. This however, was not the case. "The
village had no facilities", recalls Zamrooda Khanday, one of the UNV
social scientists. "The school was ill-equipped, there was no
qualified doctor and a large majority engaged in gambling and was
consumed by alcohol." In addition, a large number of men migrate
seasonally to different parts of India in search of work -- mostly
agricultural -- as there is no opportunity for productive work at
home.

UNV specialists identified health, education and horticulture
activities to be linked to the restoration process. They successfully
worked together with women, children and the elderly members of the
community. "Initially, people of the village seemed laid back,"
recalls Asif Iqbal, another UNV social scientist. "However, in the
course of our work it emerged that they were willing to do many
things, and given an opportunity would not let it go by."

Children and youth are now engaged in gardening, the local library, a
recreation and sports club and in non-formal education (NFE). The UNVs
took part in supportive classes for education, detoxification and
counselling work with families as the building blocks of community. At
present, efforts are being made to facilitate public participation and
generate awareness regarding political rights in order to facilitate
the functioning of the panchayat, or the local governing council.

Every household was given an opportunity to contribute to the
restoration of the Mandir, either in cash or in kind. The link between
temple restoration and sustainable community development began to
emerge. For instance, the art conservators organized workshops with
children on clay modelling and drawing. The workshops were to be
organized before the completion of the restoration to strengthen the
link between the community and the temple. "I am encouraging most of
the younger guys to learn on-site how to take care of the temple,"
says UNV art restorer Prashant Gadpaile, who works on preserving the
temple's precious, yet deteriorating paintings. Part of his work is
raising awareness within the community: "I have to guide people
regarding the code of conduct. For instance, they should not write on
the temple walls, they should not smoke in the temple area and they
should not touch the paintings."

Mohalla, or street corner meetings, were organized together in
cooperation with the UNV social scientists to explain about the
restoration work. "People responded in a very positive manner and
showed greater interest in the process after the meetings," recalls
Munish Pandit, a UNV conservation architect. Furthermore, the mohalla
meetings serve as a forum where apart from temple restoration other
social issues can be discussed.

"In one of the mohalla meetings, an old lady complained about her bad
eyesight. Many others attending stated that this was a general problem
for all ladies in the village. On further discussion it emerged that
smoke from the chulha (a cooking stove) damages their eyes. We then
suggested the smokeless chulha," says Munish Pandit.

Through the community's participation facilitated by the UN
Volunteers, a sense of belonging to the Kishan Mandir has evolved.
While this is crucial to ensure the temple's maintenance once the
restoration work is completed, the UNVs also see to it that the
necessary technical skills are passed on. Conservation architect
Munish Pandit, for instance, trains two local masons in restoration
work. He is confident about the temple's future.

"They have shown great interest and aptitude to learn more about the
traditional techniques, materials and methods of construction," says
the national UN Volunteer. "They will be able to maintain the temple
in an appropriate manner without the need of a specialist."

http://www.unv.org/en/what-we-do/countries-and-territories/india/doc/restoring-punjabs-cultural-heritage.html

FILM REVIEW
Documenting the flesh trade

"I wanted to show not just a few victims, but to help viewers
understand the mechanics and the politics of trafficking and
migration," says Ananya Chatterjee. Shoma Chatterji revies
Understanding Trafficking.

19 July 2009 - Eighty seven minutes is rather long for a serious
documentary on one of the ugliest realities of life - the tracking of
young women, usually turned into sexual slaves. But Understanding
Trafficking does not drag because it embarks on a journey of shocking
discoveries about girls who are made to cross their Lakshman Rekhas by
physical force, by diabolic manipulation, sometimes, even by their
parents and close ones to be sold like cattle in the flesh markets of
Nepal, Bangladesh and India. Are these girls 'bad'? Or are they
'good'? Ananya Chatterjee's film drives us to redefine the
implications of what 'good' or 'bad' mean for these tragic victims.

The film tracks the trade across Nepal, Bangladesh and West Bengal in
India, through interviews with NGO workers, victims of trafficking,
victims who have been rescued and rehabilitated, some pimps and agents
who pretend to be social activists, and some women who head
organisations working to stop trafficking and rescue innocent victims
from this illegal trade. Through captive audiovisual shots that go
into forbidden ghettoes of the trade, it shows how trafficking is an
integral part of organized crime with a long human chain that begins
with the girl's family, including her parents, and reaches her to the
brothel she has been sold to, to live and die there as a sex worker.

"The project was part of a competition floated by IAWRT (International
Association for Women in Radio and Television) over three years ago. I
won that competition along with two other international film makers.
It is funded by FOKUS, a women and child welfare organisation in
Norway. I always wanted to make a film on trafficking ever since I
came into film making in 1991. I would like to extend this project
both geographically and deeper than its present form," says
Chatterjee, who had honed her skills in documentaries with her earlier
films on the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, on sexual harassment of
women at the workplace, and other topics.

Although human trafficking is illegal in almost every country,
thousands of girls become sexual slaves each year. The human
trafficking industry has a reported annual income of $8 billion, and
the UN estimates that it may employ as many as 40 million women.

What is trafficking? Who is trafficked, by whom, where and how? Are
the victims aware that they are being trafficked? What role do the
families play? Do they play a positive and reassuring role in the
rehabilitation of the girls when and if they come back home? What are
the reasons that lead to trafficking? Is it poverty or is it easy
money? Is it ignorance - true or pretended, or is it greed? Does it
result from lack of education and any earning skills? These are some
of the questions Understanding Trafficking raises. It also stresses on
the sad fact that no separate and exclusive law exists to punish the
trafficking of girls and women for prostitution. Also, no social or
governmental infrastructure exists for their rescue, rehabilitation,
education, training and mainstreaming of these girls.

Why did she name the film Understanding Trafficking? "I wanted to show
not just a few victims, but to help viewers understand the mechanics
and the politics of trafficking and migration," says Chatterjee. The
film opens with graphics designed and created by Anirban Ghosh. It
then moves on to Farah Gherda, a young girl studying in St. Xavier's
College, Kolkata, planning to go abroad to pursue her interests in
professional photography. She has the backing of her parents to seek
fresh pastures. She is distanced from the Lakshman Rekha. - maybe not
even aware of its existence. But she is one of the lucky few among the
millions of little girls who do have choices to make.

The film tries to explore the differences between sex work and
trafficking, migration and trafficking, etc. Through captive
audiovisual shots that go into forbidden ghettoes of the trade, it
shows how trafficking is an integral part of organized crime with a
long human chain that begins with the girl's family, including her
parents, and reaches her to the brothel she has been sold to, - to
live and die there as a sex worker.

"I have used the metaphor of the Lakshman Rekha because generally,
trafficking victims are handled from a welfare-based approach. Women
are thought to be weak and vulnerable, needing protection, and it is
expected that they should not attempt to venture out. Women and girls
are dissuaded from migrating, even to find work, since they might get
trafficked. This limits women from exploring their full potential. And
if a woman does get trafficked, it becomes extremely difficult for her
to reintegrate into society, which blames her for crossing the line.
As a feminist, however, I feel there should be no such man-made
boundaries to define or confine

Photo: A teenaged girl rescued from being trafficked now learns
music.

The narrative in the film focuses on both individual lives as well as
institutional issues. Juhi, a pretty girl who was trafficked by her
'mother' is shown being rescued from the notorious Sonagachi district
of Kolkata and educated by a city NGO Sanlaap, only for her 'mother'
to again sell her off to the brothel after claiming her from the NGO.
Indrani Sinha, Sanlaap's president, says the organisation works with
victims of trafficking, who they try to rehabilitate and put back into
the mainstream. One is also introduced to a self-proclaimed social
activist named Dipak Prahladka who steps in to 'rescue' Juhi from
Sanlaap itself - traffickers often disguise themselves as do-gooders,
says Sanlaap.

One of the highlights of the film is a wonderful rehabilitation
programme for trafficking victims ventured into by Jabala, a West
Bengal-based NGO which works on prevention and rehabilitation of
trafficking victims. They regularly organise football camps for the
girls. Survivors of trafficking have a lot of anger in them, which
they need to take out. So kicking the football is a therapeutic
process for them, and playing gives them confidence and becomes a
route to empowerment. The camps take place in Murshidabad.

The film includes an exploration of Nepal's attempts to protect its
women from being exploited in India, primarily through the Foreign
Employment Act, which imposed a ban on foreign employment for single
Nepali women. However because of the conflict situation in Nepal and
opportunities in the international labour market, many Nepali women
migrated through illegal channels. These women remained undocumented
in official records. Research has shown that migrant Nepali women
contribute 8 per cent towards the country's national budget. In 2002,
a modified FEA stated that women seeking foreign employment required a
permission letter from their fathers or husbands. In 2008, the FEA of
Nepal was again modified due to sustained activism by women's groups.
It now allows women to seek foreign employment independently.

Technically, the film stands out because of its aesthetic music and
lyrics, penned by the late Gautam Chatterjee. Two beautiful songs on
the sound track lend themselves into the ambience of the film - its
context and its visualisation. The imaginative background score and
difficult editing are by Saikat Sekhareswar Roy. Sukanta Majumdar has
done the sound design and Joydeep Bose has done the cinematography
that is restrained and refrains from sensationalizing facts and
incidents. ⊕

Shoma Chatterji
19 Jul 2009

Dr. Shoma A Chatterji, freelance journalist and author, writes on
cinema, media, human rights, cultural issues and gender.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/jul/rvw-traffic.htm

BOOK EXCERPT
Karma Sutra

With the closure of the dance bars, the sex industry has another arm.
Thousands of women without education have lost their livelihood. They
have to cash in on their looks before the passage of time wrinkles it.
Excerpts from Rajendar Menen's book.

26 June 2008 - The ladies bars, which shot into the media spotlight
with their closure, are expensive and most men who visit them have a
drink and spend a lot of money to watch beautiful women dance. It is
an extravagant and harmless way to spend time. The women charge
enormous amounts for more private sessions and very few men can afford
them.

And those who can are only getting rid of ill-gotten wealth. Most
business transactions in India involve payments under the table and
ladies bars are a good way to get rid of the money that can't be
stored in banks or used with credit cards and cheque books. The
parallel economy in India is colossal. There has to be some way to
spend the money that can't be kept legitimately. It will make good
economic sense for the government to support a proliferation of such
bars. It will generate employment and the money that needs to be
hidden will surface. It is an excellent way of mopping up black money.
The morality issues that have been raked up to support the ban won't
cut a denture anywhere because the girls simply disappear and find
similar employment with a different calling card.

At the bars the women dance energetically and with an imaginative show
of skin to loud Hindi film music rich in innuendo and beat. They are
in sarees and other traditional Indian costumes and their dances look
far less obscene than the 'item' numbers that sell Hindi cinema at the
box-office. Men shower the girls they fancy with currency notes that
are picked up by attendants and dropped into boxes set aside for such
collections. The dancers take a portion of the largesse. The
management decides what to do with the rest.

Several people in positions of power have to be paid to allow all this
to happen. It is widely accepted that hundreds of thousands of rupees
are dropped into the boxes in the ladies bars every single night. It
is quite a spectacle: non-stop dancing, strobe lights, loud music and
scores of men seated around tables drinking, eating and ogling away. A
Hijra dance is also added to the scream of offerings if the management
feels like it. A compilation of both genders in one form, neither
fully masculine nor covertly feminine, stretching wildly to music,
always meets with requests for an encore. It adds variety to the
choreography. The garden has a new flower.

At erratic intervals, a man beckons a girl with currency notes or he
just walks over to the dance floor and garlands her with money. Some
men join the dancers too to the accompaniment of wolf whistles and
loud appreciation. Everyone has a great time. Bouncers keep a close
watch and there is never any ruffle in the proceedings. Its all owned
and run by unlikely bedfellows brought together by the lure of quick
and big money born without a chartered accountant's whistle or a
padre's conscience.

The author's book Karma Sutra: Essays from the Margin was published
by Saga Books in February 2007.

Now, with the closure of these bars, the sex industry has another arm.
Thousands of women without education have lost their livelihood. They
have to cash in on their looks before the passage of time wrinkles it.
So they have slipped into the flesh industry in every corner of the
city, moved to other states in India and even to different countries.
Sex workers have a very short shelf life. They have to mint the moment
even if the sun has temporarily blighted it in eclipse mode.

I have interviewed several bar girls. Most of the interviews have
taken place in the green room. It is a little room with mirrors and
benches, painted in innocuous cream or pastel shades, with a toilet
attached to it. It is very basic. There are containers of talc, soaps,
makeup kits, a few combs and towels. You finish your dance, rush in,
change clothes and prepare for another round. You adjust your make-up
in the large mirror, ask the others how you look, take a final glance,
and you are off. There is no time even for gossip.

After the show, the girls change into ordinary, everyday clothes, if
they have the time, and finally get a chance to yak away. They will
talk about the money earned and about the customers. Some of them will
accompany clients for the night, but most of them will go home to
families that they look after with their earnings.

It is very late at night when they pack up, early morning really, and
they don't need more attention on the way home. So make-up, jewellery
and all the glamorous outfits are removed and they get into dowdy
salwar kameez if they can. Groups of women don't always travel at this
time of the night and so they are a visible presence. Cabs wait
outside the bars. They share it to their destinations somewhere in
this lonely, dreary city or to the nearest railway station if they are
living far away. A spate of rapes and robberies has made the
authorities place an armed policeman in the ladies compartment. If the
policeman behaves himself, this can be a deterrent to crime.

Lata is from Agra, from a basti near the Taj Mahal. She says she is
twenty-seven and married with two children. Her husband left her, the
children are in school and she takes care of old and sick parents. She
is slightly built and wears spectacles when she isn't dancing. Her
features are soft. She isn't garrulous like the others and can pass
off as a chemistry teacher at some municipal school. She has a stern
look and a commanding air. You will never imagine that she makes a
living dancing to currency notes.

"I make good money," she tells me. "But it is hard work. You know how
it is. Dancing for so many hours every day is not easy. My feet pain
every night and I need to be massaged. I have varicose veins and take
medicines. Every man thinks we are game. I haven't been to anyone till
now. I dance, collect the money and go home. I have many
responsibilities. My children are in an English medium school and my
father has lakva (paralysis). I have to look after them. If something
happens to me, they are finished. I can't even afford to fall sick for
a day. I pray to God that nothing happens."

Several people in positions of power have to be paid to allow all this
to happen.

I ask her if she has given a thought to marriage again. "No, I will
never marry again," she retorts fiercely. "It is no use. I will have
more kids and more problems. I am very happy without a man. Who needs
a man anyway? I am earning well. I can also get sex anytime I want, so
why do I need a husband? Marriage is just legal prostitution."

Rani is also from Uttar Pradesh. She is also in her twenties and is
married with children. Her husband is still with her but doesn't
contribute to the household. "He drinks all the time and doesn't work.
If I don't give him money, he hits me. I don't really care about him,
he can leave me and go if he wants to, but I am worried for my
children. Nothing should happen to them. I should secure their future.
That's my only concern."

Both girls have bank accounts and have made small investments. They
met in Mumbai and have become good friends. They dance at the same
bar, live in the same building, go shopping together and help look
after each other's families. There is great bonding. They understand
one another well. They also go home to their villages together, along
with their families, at least once a year. They don't have to tell the
world what they do for a living. It's their secret. The job provides
for the family and gives them the dignity that money can buy.

Shama is glamorous and very attractive. Even while talking to me, she
keeps checking her make-up and looks into her little mirror. She knows
she is beautiful. She has the look of a woman who enjoys the attention
of men. She is also about twenty-seven and married with kids. She is
from Delhi. All of them are from poor families. They have studied till
the third or fourth standards and then dropped out. Educating girls is
considered unnecessary in poor Indian families. They will anyway get
married and leave home. They are paraya dhan, - someone else's wealth.
So they are taught housework.

All of them have been married off in their teens and their parents
have rustled up huge amounts of dowry and elaborate wedding
arrangements. Grown up, unmarried girls are not appreciated in Indian
families and so when a girl is born all attention is directed to
getting her a spouse. Unfortunately, all the three husbands have
turned out to be useless, good for nothing jerks. They have spent the
dowry and taken to drink, gambling and womanising. The girls are the
only earning members in their families and, worse, they run the risk
of contracting a sexual disease from their husbands!

I met these girls while talk was on about the impending ban on
bargirls. They had read about it and heard about it and were obviously
worried. What will you do if the bars really shut down, I ask. (As I
write this, the bars have shut indefinitely). "We will have to go to
other cities or somewhere else in Mumbai. We don't know what to do
really. But something will have to be done. Whatever is written in our
naseeb (destiny) will happen." They know that they can't dance forever
and have to make quick money and bank it somewhere, possibly even
start a small shop or enterprise. The sooner they do this the better.
It all depends on how much money they have to kick-start a new
venture. For now, prostitution is the only recourse and they recognise
that fact. It is lucrative.

"We will have to take to dhandha," they tell me without sounding
alarmed. They have obviously thought about it. "What else can we do?
We have no other skill?" Some girls have made contacts with bar owners
in neighbouring states. Some have also decided to move out of the
country. The sex industry all over the world has sent feelers to the
bar girls. Most of the girls are very attractive and dance
exceptionally well. They are checking out options. The girls and their
managers meet up frequently to discuss plans.

Their lives will be disrupted. Children's schooling, parents' medical
treatment, new employers and clients, a new country altogether; every
aspect of their lives will be turned upside down. It's a big move and
they are very uncomfortable with it. But there is no choice. If they
don't dance, fast and furious now, the wide net of everyday, unkind
prostitution will eventually suck them into its intricate folds. ⊕

Rajendar Menen
26 Jun 2008

This article is extracted from Rajendar Menen's book "Karma Sutra:
Essays from the Margin", published by Saga Books in February 2007.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/jun/wom-karma.htm

BOOK REVIEW: A LIFE LESS ORDINARY
A journey of courage

Baby Halder's life is like that of millions of poor, exploited women.
What is different, and astoundingly so, is that she has written a book
about it - a story which saddens us with its matter-of-fact narrative
of a life of tribulation, but also makes us rejoice vicariously in its
extraordinary triumph, writes Neeta Deshpande.

29 November 2006 - "Many days have passed; Only a few remain now."
Simple, candid words. Words which say little, yet span a lifetime. It
is in these sparing words that sixty-five year old Bai - who was
employed to care for me during my childhood - sums up her life of
privation and suffering. As a little girl, my days were enlivened by
moments with her - listening to her hilarious aphorisms, eating her
delicious laddus of leftover rotis, ghee and sugar, and warming myself
around her wood fires in the winters.

But despite our close relationship, I am ashamed to admit that I know
very little about Bai's life before she moved into our house as a
domestic help. Fleeting statements from her have hinted at a childhood
of penury, marriage at a precariously early age to an abusive man, an
early widowhood, and the hardship which followed. "Listen to me - I
have seen it all. I have gone to bed on an empty stomach", she would
tell me on rare occasions. Though I wanted to know more, I did not
have the courage to ask her to summon up memories of all the sadness
she had endured. So when I came across the much acclaimed
autobiography of Baby Halder - a domestic worker - I gravitated
towards it for my own reasons. Perhaps I would find Bai in the book,
speaking through the author's voice.

I was not wrong. Baby Halder's life seemed to traverse a similar
trajectory to Bai's, or for that matter, millions of poor, exploited
women in an India where they are treated as lesser human beings.
Victims of an endless cycle of poverty, their needs are routinely
ignored, their aspirations systematically thwarted. Like Bai, Baby too
was married off at a tender age. Her husband - twice as old as she was
then - also turned out to be violent, abusing her verbally and beating
her often. Soon, she was forced into a life of drudgery as a domestic
worker, her days filled with mindless chores in other people's homes.
However, here the similarities end, for Baby Halder, unlike most women
of her background, can read and write. Her schooling up to the seventh
standard equipped her to recount her life in her Bengali book Aalo
Aandhari (Light and Darkness), a story which saddens us with its
matter-of-fact narrative of a life of tribulation, but also makes us
rejoice vicariously in its extraordinary triumph.

Childhood

Translated into English as A Life Less Ordinary, Baby's memoir begins
like an innocent school essay, interspersed with swirling snowflakes,
flowering hills and an occasional, joyous rainbow - elements of her
life as a little girl in Dalhousie. However, in tune with her short-
lived childhood, these happy reminiscences are numbered as well. For
soon, we find her drawing sketches of an often absent, abusive father,
and a frustrated mother who abandoned the family, pressing a coin into
the four-year-old Baby's palm before walking away. The coin served as
an unforgettable memory of a mother whom she saw only years later. She
received no love from her step-mother either, who beat her often.

The author looks back on her childhood in these evocative lines,
peculiarly written in the third person, perhaps in an effort to
distance herself from painful memories. "Poor Baby! What else could
one say of her? Imagine a childhood so brief, so ephemeral, that you
could sit down and the whole thing could unravel in front of you in
barely half an hour! And yet her childhood fascinates Baby. Perhaps
everyone is fascinated by the things they've been deprived of, the
things they long for. Baby remembers her childhood, she savours every
moment of it, she licks it just as a cow would her newborn calf,
tasting every part."

However, despite their adverse circumstances, Baby's mother earnestly
wanted her to go to school, and her father encouraged her to study. On
her part, the little girl loved school as much as she hated home,
worked hard, and never missed a day. Her precarious life sowed many
hurdles in her schooling, but she persisted and managed to study.

Marriage and motherhood

At the naive age of thirteen, Baby was hastily married off to a 26-
year-old man, her evanescent childhood relegated to her memories. Soon
after she entered her new home, her husband roughly pulled her towards
him one night. Little Baby just "shut her eyes and her mouth tightly
and let him do what he wanted". At the age of fourteen - a child
herself - she had to endure an excruciatingly painful delivery. The
poignancy of her state is expressed by an incident during her
pregnancy. Tired of staying within the four walls, she would venture
out to watch the children at play. She alone knew how desperately she
wanted to play with them. One day, when their gulli landed at her
feet, she picked it up, and without being fully aware of what she was
doing, ran into the field to join them. Only when a woman chided her
that she should be careful lest she hurt her stomach, did she run back
into the house in embarrassment.

Despite bearing children at a ridiculously young age, Baby clearly
understood her responsibilities as a mother. She wanted a good life
for her children, including a proper education. According to her, it
was not enough to give birth, for parenthood brought with it a
responsibility to enable a person to grow into a human being.

These were not mere words; she would soon act on them too. Her
husband, who had initially been negligent of her - desisting from
answering her queries and even refusing to take her to the hospital in
time for her delivery - now turned abusive, and would beat her
regularly. One such instance, during her second pregnancy, caused an
agonising miscarriage. Eventually, his violence pushed her to the
brink of desperation, when she firmly decided to part ways. Soon, she
boarded a train for distant Delhi for the sake of her children. Later
in a newspaper article, she would explain that she was glad she moved,
because there were no good schools for her children back home.

The author looks back on her childhood in evocative lines, peculiarly
written in the third person, perhaps in an effort to distance herself
from painful memories.

To feed herself and her three little ones, she found work as a
domestic help, work which entailed slogging from dawn until midnight.
Her employer would shout at Baby's children who would be locked up on
the roof all day, and did not even allow her to meet her eldest son
who was working and living elsewhere. Fed up with such inhuman
treatment, she left, and by a stroke of serendipity found a new
employer - one who would transform her life in unimaginable ways.

Writing

Baby's new 'Sahib', former professor of anthropology Prabodh Kumar,
whom she would later call 'Tatush' - the name that his sons used for
him - helped her in more ways than one. He provided her a room when
her house was broken down by bulldozers, reunited her with her eldest
son, found a school for her children, and supplied them with the
necessities of life. But over and above all his help, he would talk to
her, asking her to think of him as a "father, brother, mother,
friend ..." Baby was touched when he treated her as a human being,
given that most people behave callously towards servants and pay them
precious little - the employers taking advantage of the desperation of
domestic workers to subsidise their own lives.

His most significant contribution to her life, however, enabled her to
transgress the boundaries drawn around her, bringing forth an aspect
of her personality that she would never have been aware of. After he
saw her peering at a Bengali book while she dusted his bookshelves, he
asked if she could read. The next day, he pulled out a book for her,
and asked her to read out its name. With his encouragement, she
blurted out Amar Meyebela, the first book she read on her way to
writing one herself. When he found her making progress with reading
the book, he provided her a notebook and pen, and prodded her to write
the story of her life. The astonishing result - Aalo Aandhari - is her
story of darkness and light, the travails and joys in a journey of
courage.

Progressive outlook

Baby's book is peppered with her thoughts on various aspects of her
life, including the size of her family and the education of her
children. Upon realizing that she might be following the 'local
custom' in her neighbourhood of three to four children per couple, she
had the foresight to undergo a family planning operation after her
third issue. Her views on the status of women and the discrimination
they face are also worth noting. When her husband turned the house
into a dirty, horrible mess whenever she was away, she questioned a
neighbour as to why the woman of the house had to be around to keep
the place clean.

Now writing her second book, Baby told a newspaper that in her
autobiography, she simply wrote about all that she had faced. This
time, she would be more analytical and try to find out why she was put
in those situations in the first place.

A rare voice

The people behind the book must be congratulated for bringing out this
unusual life-story of a person who would otherwise have been relegated
to the background of her employers' houses, condemned to a furtive,
silent existence. Prabodh Kumar translated the manuscript from the
original Bengali into Hindi, cleaning it up as required, but leaving
Baby's own voice intact. Publisher and writer Urvashi Butalia of
Zubaan translated the narrative from Hindi into English.

While reading the book, one is struck by Baby's courage to resolutely
live as a single woman with three children in faraway, unfamiliar
Delhi, where she painstakingly carved out a new life for herself.
Though she does not ask uncomfortable questions of her readers, the
mere narration of her life leaves us to ponder why she should have had
to suffer through the ordeals of a child marriage, an abusive husband
and exploitative employers.

Though this is not a book to be read for its literary merit, it should
be valued for its powerful story of survival and success in the face
of relentless, overwhelming odds - a story which will remain etched on
our minds for its author's grit and determination to refuse to accept
defeat. This down-to-earth memoir stirs and delights, saddens and
overpowers, humbles and uplifts us with its direct, unpretentious take
on the universal experience of being human. ⊕

Neeta Deshpande
29 Nov 2006

Neeta Deshpande is a student of Hindustani vocal music based in Goa. A
Life Less Ordinary by Baby Halder, translated by Urvashi Butalia, is
published by Zubaan in collaboration with Penguin Books, 173 pp., Rs.
195.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/nov/rvw-halder.htm

WISDOM SONG
A life of conviction

The book serves a felt need, as also the purpose of getting Baba Amte
under the reader's skin. But the author does not tease out historical
and sociological connections, and ask questions of broader relevance.
The definitive interpretation of Amte's life and its significance is
still awaited. Neeta Deshpande reviews Wisdom Song: The life of Baba
Amte.

24 October 2006 - One does not need glorious words to portray the work
of Baba Amte. Be it enabling victims of leprosy to live a life of
dignity, or buttressing the movement of people being displaced by the
Sardar Sarovar dam, his actions have always spoken eloquently for
themselves. However, despite his remarkable life of courage,
conviction and endurance, there isn't a good biography of this
tireless crusader. Neesha Mirchandani's book, Wisdom Song: The Life of
Baba Amte attempts to fill this void, narrating the story of his life
in simple prose.

Peppered with quotes and remembrances from Amte and the many
committed men and women he inspired, Mirchandani recounts the
extraordinary stories of his lifelong endeavours. The narrative
encompasses the celebrated Anandwan - a sprawling rehabilitation
centre for the leprosy-affected and physically challenged - in
Maharashtra (1951 onwards), Amte's advocacy on behalf of the tribals
affected by the Bhopalpatnam and Icchampalli dams (1984), the Bharat
Jodo yatras (1985-86 and 1987-88), and finally, the decade he spent on
the banks of the Narmada, putting his moral weight behind the Narmada
Bachao Andolan (1990-2000).

Amte's defining moment came one rainy night, when he encountered a man
dying of leprosy. "It was like being sucked into the eye of a
hurricane. Everything went blank and in that moment, the social
justice work, the evening prayers, my wife, children ... everything
lost perspective and meaning," he reminisces vividly. Thus, in 1951,
began the unbelievable story of Anandwan, painstakingly hewn out of
barren, rock-strewn land infested by wild animals, by Amte, his wife
Sadhana and their fellow workers afflicted by leprosy. It took six
weeks of severe toil to cut through the rock while digging the first
well, a task accomplished by a few crippled persons along with Amte.
With poverty and extreme hardship as constant companions, the group
transformed their harsh surroundings into verdant fields. Since then,
Amte has never looked back. Dedicating his entire life to the
downtrodden, despite suffering an excruciatingly painful degeneration
of the spine, this cheerful nonagenarian defiantly marches on.

Amte has often said that one can live without fingers, but not without
self-respect. True to this maxim, beyond healing people's wounds, he
restored their dignity by providing them with work. Thus, those
shunned by society and condemned to a life of begging were enabled to
work in the fields and vocational training centres of Anandwan. A
veteran resident recalls that when he visited Warora - a nearby town -
during the early days of Anandwan, no one would give him water to
drink. Now, as Amte proudly reiterates in an interview, people call
Anandwan residents to help install water pumps and other devices. Over
the years, his dream has evolved into a town with hospitals, schools,
homes, agricultural land and occupational training centres, built and
run by the leprosy-affected and physically challenged themselves.

continue reading article ...

In the process of reconstructing Amte's life, Mirchandani's narrative
is enlivened by the reminiscences of his family and co-workers, who
carry his work forward. One such recollection is that of Bharati Amte,
his daughter-in-law who runs a hospital at Anandwan. "He taught me
that the first thing I should ask a patient is, 'Have you eaten?' Many
people who came to Anandwan have to walk for miles - they are tired,
hungry and poor. They don't teach this humanity at medical school."
The book also provides perspectives of people who have benefited from
his work. Devram Kanera, from a village to be submerged in the Narmada
Valley, elaborates that only when Amte came to the region did people
begin to understand the broader canvas of their struggle and its
motives.

"He taught me that the first thing I should ask a patient is, 'Have
you eaten?' Many people who came to Anandwan have to walk for miles -
they are tired, hungry and poor. They don't teach this humanity at
medical school."

Prior to relocating to the Narmada Valley to bolster the efforts of
the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Amte led a movement of tribals who would
have been displaced without rehabilitation by the Bhopalpatnam and
Icchampalli dams in 1984, had it not been for his intervention. He
believes that the big dams which he opposed "pillaged from the poor to
provide luxuries to the select rich, destroying natural resources in
the process for short-term financial gain." Living by his conviction,
he fought for the tribals and farmers who would be dispossessed of
their homes and agricultural lands in the name of development.

Although it serves a felt need, Mirchandani's book has its
limitations. While her broad sympathy to Amte's cause is well-placed,
the author fails to maintain a critical distance, which would have
made the biography more well-rounded. Given that rehabilitating the
leprosy-affected was Amte's calling, a chapter providing the medical,
historical and social background of the disease would have helped. At
times, the biography comes across as casual; the author includes her
scribbled notes of conversations with Amte before elaborating on these
notes. At others, it is sentimental. The first chapter could have done
without a romanticized juxtaposition of Amte's birth in 1914 with a
'Christmas truce' between German and British soldiers during the First
World War. Crucially, the book does not go beyond the story of Amte's
life, to tease out historical and sociological connections, and ask
questions of broader relevance. For instance, it would have been
useful to understand how Amte's efforts have influenced social
perception of leprosy at a wider level.

As the Marathi litterateur P.L. Deshpande cautions us, "... once Baba
Amte gets under your skin, you will never be the same again." The book
serves the purpose of getting Baba Amte under the reader's skin. But
the definitive interpretation of his life and its significance is
still awaited. ⊕

Neeta Deshpande
24 Oct 2006

Neeta Deshpande is a student of Hindustani vocal music based in Goa.
"Wisdom Song: The Life of Baba Amte", by Neesha Mirchandani, is
published by Roli Books, p.280, Rs.395.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/oct/rvw-babaamte.htm

NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR WOMEN
A gallery of failures

A former member of the National Commission for Women, Syeda Hameed
records the powerlessness of the institution in her new book, They
hang: Twelve women in my portrait gallery. Deepti Priya Mehrotra notes
the chilling refusal of the system to defend women against
atrocities.

19 May 2006 - Women's activists throughout the country have reported
the hostile attitude of the police and the judiciary when it comes to
punishing perpetrators of violence. But when a high-placed government
functionary faces similar hostility, and finds herself powerless to
deal with it, it is indeed an eye-opener.

Planning Commission member Syeda S Hameed is one such person. In her
recent book, 'They Hang - Twelve Women in My Portrait Gallery', she
narrates her personal experience of trying to help 12 wronged women
get justice. Syeda Hameed's book, based on her work as Member of the
National Commission for Women (1997-2000), is an explosive account of
the impotence of this institution. Not only does she document, in
brutal detail, the violence committed on women in a range of contexts,
but also the chilling refusal of `the system' to bring the guilty to
book.

The atrocities Syeda recounts are not unusual, nor are they unknown to
us. Several have been in the public eye during the late 1990s. For
instance, Ila Pandey's case against her husband Rajneesh Pandey, who
was repeatedly raping their 10-year-old daughter in Karvi, Uttar
Pradesh. Or the story of Lalita Oraon, raped by Amrit Lugan, India's
First Secretary, Economic Affairs, Paris, while she worked in his
house as a maid and nanny.

Syeda provides information from her role as investigator in these
cases: she took down testimonies of hundreds of people, and wrote
detailed reports. Her Karvi report clearly indicated the culpability
of Rajneesh as well as the virulent campaign launched by his
supporters against local women's groups who took up the case. Entitled
`Case of Child Sexual Abuse and Targeting of Women's Rights Groups',
the report received media coverage and "momentarily shook the
establishment". Years later, however, Rajneesh remarried, while the
case filed by Ila drags on.

Similarly, Syeda wrote an NCW report entitled `The Alleged
Exploitation and Abuse of Lalita Oraon in Paris, France' and sent it
to all relevant government departments authorised to present an Action
Taken Report on the issue. But the report was stillborn. Says Syeda,
in the book: "I was anxious to begin taking action, but the matter
never saw the light of day. No matter how I tried, I could not get the
report released. It disappeared mysteriously from the scene, fell
between the cracks of procedure and protocol.... Lalita Oraon vanished
into thin air. Years passed without a word about Lalita."

One NCW report, `Come In, but One by One: Sexual Harassment at Delhi
Public School' - connected with the alleged harassment of women by the
DPS NOIDA principal Varma, was released at a crowded press conference
in New Delhi. It got media attention, but soon vanished from the
public sphere. The school protected its principal, despite concrete
evidence of sexual harassment of at least three women teachers (whose
services he had terminated as soon as they refused to comply with his
wishes). Varma served his full term and, after superannuating, was
given an extension for another three years. Syeda notes bitterly, "My
report probably still lies (in NCW), carefully preserved in files
which no one ever opens, or it may have been shredded with all other
five-year-old documents...."

Syeda's book displays strong personal commitment as well as rare
honesty. The book is uncompromising in its recording of experiences.
At places she moves beyond precise facts into an imaginative
reconstruction of events and persona - always clarifying which of the
writing is fact, and which is `faction'.

One disturbing aspect emerging from her accounts is the nasty role
played by `society' - families, relatives and neighbourhoods - in
instigating violence. In Haryana's Sudaka village for instance, 15-
year old Maimun's family forced her to marry Aijaz. This was to
protect their `izzaat' (honour) that was compromised by Maimun's
affair with Idris, a man from her own village. Aijaz and his cronies
gang-raped Maimun, slashed her with a knife from neck to midriff, and
left her to die.

"My report probably still lies carefully preserved in files which no
one ever opens, or it may have been shredded with all other five-year-
old documents..."

• By choice and circumstance

Later, strangers found and nursed Maimun, and then Idris located her.
Her parents filed a case against Idris, and the police arrested
Idris's old parents. When Maimun and Idris came to NCW, Syeda and her
colleagues were moved and angry, and immediately drove to Sudaka
village. There they faced an extremely hostile mob of villagers, who
dragged Maimun out of the vehicle. The Haryana police did not move a
muscle to prevent this. The NCW team returned empty-handed - no
justice delivered. Instead, they had actually handed over the lamb for
slaughter.

All the 12 stories indicate that NCW lacks infrastructure, back-up,
and `teeth'. Although it is the apex body for women in India, it is
powerless to actually move the administration, police and judiciary,
to make them take appropriate action. Gross violations of women's
human rights carry on with impunity. Everybody knows that the guilty
are seldom punished. Even though, NCW members and hundreds of other
women's groups might work tirelessly to handle the deluge of cases
that pour in, their efforts could still end up in vain.

In the same book, Syeda also highlights the stories of fighting women,
those who speak out against exploitation - file First Investigation
Reports (FIRs); refuse to succumb to brutal backlash; and refuse to
kowtow to the powers-that-be. Thus, one elderly trustee of DPS,
refused to condone the principal's misconduct, rather she testified
that the principal "used his power and position to extract sexual
favours from women teachers...." Sometimes, Syeda `imagines in' a
woman who fights back - Rajneesh Pandey's second wife perhaps; or
Chaddo, who becomes a lawyer after her elder sister Shaddo was killed
by in-laws. She imagines Sajoni - a tribal woman from Bagjori village,
Bihar, branded a witch, thrashed by villagers after she ploughed her
fields - leaving the village with her five children to find a better
place to survive in.

Sheila Rani, a sweeper in DPS, provides incisive analysis as well as
ground-level strategy. When the principal tried to molest her, she
fought back, and later told a teacher of the school, "Every dog in
this place wants a piece of flesh.... We can fight our battles in our
own way. We can kick and bite and scratch. Your court-kacheri will
never get us a scrap of justice." She asked for a transfer saying,
"There is no dearth of toilets to clean. If not here, I will find them
in other schools. But the shit has become JK cement on these haramis
('bastards' in Hindi); only a bolt of lightning can shatter it. I am
going where, if I clean hard enough, the dirt will come off!"

Sadly - nay, tragically - the NCW has been unable to send the bolts of
lightning needed to shatter the concrete structures sheltering
criminals and routinely abetting crimes against women.

Syeda wrote the book because she doesn't want these stories of
terrible violence to disappear from public memory. She also wanted to
highlight that NCW is unable to achieve justice in these cases because
it is toothless: "The Commission's reports are not binding on anyone,
and its jurisdictions stops at its front door." (Courtesy: Women's
Feature Service) ⊕

Deepti Priya Mehrotra
19 May 2006

Deepti Priya Mehrotra is a Delhi based freelance journalist "They Hang
- Twelve Women in My Portrait Gallery", Syeda S. Hameed, Women
Unlimited, New Delhi, 2006, 183 pp, Rs 275.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/may/wom-ncw.htm

By choice and circumstance
Uma Chakravarty turns the pages of Deepti Priya Mehrotra's stories of
single mothers.

October 2003 - New Delhi, (WFS) - One day, recently, I checked in a
bit early to catch a flight at the Bangalore airport. As I sat getting
bored, I decided to browse at the bookstall, something I almost never
do because of the peculiar mix of books airport stalls have - travel,
oriental India, spiritual India, Jeffrey Archer - that I neither have
the time nor money for.

I was both surprised and pleased to find many copies of Home Truths,
Deepti Priya Mehrotra's recently published book on single mothers, on
one of the shelves. And I began wondering at the many transformations
this could represent. Is it because Penguin, which has a wide reach in
the market, has published the book? Are 'single moms' an important
part of today's reality? Has the women's movement created a space for
thinking about issues in new ways? Or is it merely that the title of
the book is eye-catching?

Whatever the reason, it is good to know that a feminist rendering of
an emerging facet of life has a readership beyond the already
converted communities. Home Truths is a narration of the experiences
of single mothers as they cope with multiple emotions and challenges
in a world defined by the nuclear-extended family, which is regarded
as the norm in India. Even in the post-globalisation, market oriented,
consumerist metropolitan India, the family (as shown in
advertisements), is the nuclear family plus dad's mother and father on
the one hand, and 'couple-dom' on the other. The single mother
phenomenon is an aberration in such a situation and there are almost
no institutional supports available for women to mediate their
difficulties, as Mehrotra notes in her afterword.

Single mothers face problems and overwork, yet they also savour a
sense of autonomy and independence.

The experiences of single mothers constitute the main part of the
book - a series of stories of women from different social locations.
Although the number of narratives is small, the women are drawn from
different communities, regions and professions. Single mothers face
problems and overwork, yet they also savour a sense of autonomy and
independence.

I was particularly drawn to some of the narratives. Nafisa of
Hyderabad for instance, just walked out of a bad marriage one day. She
took courage from women she had seen on TV - those who refused to
accept that their lives would continue to be determined by men who
tried to victimise them - and arrived at the dargah (shrine) of
Nizammudin, in Delhi. Meena, a nautanki (song-dance-drama) artist,
recognises that for one like her "there is no one when she is old";
her daughter too has become a nautanki artist and dances for a living.
Then there is the narrative of Sapna, a widow who says quite matter-of
factly, "I am the mother, I am the father". There is no place for self-
pity in her approach; she insists on living by a code that she has
evolved. And because Sapna has become part of a newly forged community
of women activists in a working class area, she has a protective
shadow of women friends falling over her. And so, she is not alone.

Pratima's husband died in an accident; she struggled for years to be
independent, to feed her children on her own earnings and is finally
able to craft a new life where she is at peace because now, she can
add curry to the rice that the family managed on, earlier.

These are stories of extreme fragility - of survival, of choices
denied and others consciously made, of anger and bitterness at
betrayals, and of pleasure gained at achieving autonomy. No two
stories are similar, even as there are many common threads. The
narratives in the book can be read separately, as they stand on their
own. The prologue pegs the book and an afterword seeks to address some
of the issues the narratives throw up. Yet, there are many other
issues that the individual reader can relate to, or draw out from the
richly woven tapestry of experiences that women recount as they
generously let you into their lives, their difficulties, their sorrows
and their fears as well as their dreams and hopes.

Mehrotra has also tried to bridge the distance and the hierarchy that
is inherent in a relationship when one person talks about her own life
and another writes it down, even as the book binds the two together as
single mothers. The author includes an account of her own life as a
single mother - which she taped - becoming for that duration, both the
narrator and the listener. The author's narrative is a very honest
account, one of the rare retellings of complex emotions in the book -
of anger and rage, and a sense of betrayal at the break up of a
marriage. Toward the end of the narrative, there is an equally honest
recognition that her ex-partner is not a villain but rather another
person with his own needs and shortcomings. Finally, she has got to a
stage where she sees herself as part of a flow of people, work, music
and laughter, of being able to finally savour her space and freedom.

In the author's personal narrative, we see that she has got to a stage
where she sees herself as part of a flow of people, work, music and
laughter, of being able to finally savour her space and freedom.

Not all the narratives are about reaching some kind of resolution to
difficulty. There is an implicit understanding that there is
considerable insecurity in their lives. But equally, there is the
insight that 'security' usually goes along with economic dependence,
and accepting arbitrariness as an aspect of the relationship with a
partner. As Mehrotra puts it, the price of security could also be the
condition that "no home is forever". And when that home breaks up -
through death, abandonment or choice - you could be left feeling that
as a single woman there is no one for you. Or, that although it's been
a long, tough journey, you have created your own secure kind of place.
⊕

Uma Chakravarty
October 2003

Uma Charavarty writes on gender and history; she taught history in
Miranda House, Delhi University for many years.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2003/oct/wom-singlemom.htm

FEMALE ILLITERACY
Educating India

The Annual Status of Education Report, 2009 points out yet again that
what stands between rural girls and a good education is often basic
facilities like transport and proper toilets, writes Kalpana Sharma.

14 February 2010 - Swati and Anita are two young women from rural
Maharashtra. They have one thing in common. Both dropped out of school
once they completed Standard VIII. They wanted to complete their
schooling. Both spoke passionately to me when I met them about their
desire to study. Even their parents wanted them to study further. But
circumstances would not permit this.

Both girls faced an identical dilemma. While the school up to Standard
VIII was in their village or close by, the high school was some
distance away. The only way to go there was by the local State
Transport bus. While going to school was not such a problem as it was
during the day, at the end of the school day, they had to wait several
hours before they could catch the bus back. If for some reason the bus
was cancelled, and this would happen with alarming frequency, they
would have had to walk back to the village in the dark, something
their parents would not contemplate. Hence, the only option was to
drop out of school.

In contrast, the brother of one of the girls faced no such problem. As
soon as he was through with his classes, he would hitch a ride on a
passing truck and make his way back. This was not an option open to
the girls.

Tragic situation

What is tragic is that both these girls are as bright as any you would
meet in a city like Mumbai. The only reason they will not become the
engineers and doctors of the future is because there is no reliable
transport linking their village to the nearest school. And theirs are
not remote villages in the interior of Maharashtra. Swati lives a mere
hour away from Pune. If this is the story of Swati and Anita, think
how many millions more like them must be chafing at being deprived for
no other reason than a safe mode of transport.

In 2009, ASER surveyed 16,000 villages, 300,000 households and 700,000
children. There is nothing on this scale done by an agency outside
government, hence its importance. (click here for ASER web site).

We also know that many more girls drop out even before Standard VIII
for another reason: the lack of toilets in schools. The latest ASER
(Annual Status of Education Report) 2009, a comprehensive survey of
government and private schools in 575 out of 583 rural districts in
India, revealed that only 50 per cent of government schools have
toilets and that four out of 10 government schools did not have
separate toilets for girls. Even where there were separate toilets for
girls, as many as 12-15 per cent were locked and only 30-40 per cent
were "usable". I visited a school in Bihar where toilets had been
constructed but within days their doors had been stolen and the toilet
pans smashed making them unusable.

If girls dropout when they reach adolescence, it is often for no other
reason than the lack of toilet facilities. Even in a city like Mumbai,
the dropout rate amongst girls attending municipal schools is markedly
higher than that of boys because of the absence of toilets for them.

The annual ASER study, facilitated by the NGO Pratham, is a constant
and important reminder of the state of education in this country. In
2009, ASER surveyed 16,000 villages, 300,000 households and 700,000
children. There is nothing on this scale done by an agency outside
government, hence its importance. But each year, when ASER results are
made public, we are reminded that education is not just about
quantity, or the number of children who enrol in school - a number
that is increasing - but the quality of the education these children
get. And that, although it is getting better in some states, is still
shockingly poor.

Conducting simple reading and mathematics tests in schools, the survey
reveals that a little over half of all children in Standard V in
government schools cannot read a Standard II text book. This means a
10-year-old cannot read what a seven-year-old is supposed to be able
to read. What then are these children learning even if they become a
statistic showing increased enrolment and attendance in schools?

Disturbing trend

Precious little, it would seem. What they cannot learn in school, they
do so by paying for private tuitions. One of the more disturbing
statistics in the survey reveals that one in four children in Standard
I in private schools is sent for private tuitions as are 17 per cent
of Standard I students in government schools. Can you imagine that?
Little six-year-olds being sent for private tuition. By the time they
reach Standard VIII, over one third try and learn what they are
clearly not taught in school through private tutoring. An analysis of
the budget of poor people would reveal what a chunk of their earnings
goes into such tuitions because they hold on to the belief that
education will pull them out of poverty. But given the poor quality of
education in these schools, their children will never be able to
compete with those with ability to pay for better quality schooling.

Fortunately, not the entire ASER report is gloom and doom. One of the
brighter moments in it is the fact that in Bihar, the state considered
a basket case on most counts, the dropout rate for girls in the 11-14
age group has reduced from 17.6 per cent in 2006 to 6 per cent in
2009. So Bihar must be doing something right. In fact, one of the
striking sights in Bihar today is of girls on bicycles, given by the
government if they clear Standard VIII, going to the nearest high
school.

The desire to ensure that children get a good education runs deep in
most Indian families. Parents will sacrifice and save to invest in
their children's future. Even poor families, including the homeless
with no secure shelter, find a way of sending their children to
school. The increase in the enrolment rate in India - 96 per cent of
children between the ages of 6-14 are enrolled in school, government
and private - is proof of that.

What urgently needs to be tackled is the quality of education, basic
facilities like toilets and running water, and transport, particularly
for girls. Even this will not suffice unless there is a notable change
in the status accorded teachers who ultimately decide whether and what
children learn. Instead of the inordinate amount of attention that
continues to be paid to institutes of higher learning, or private
institutions that promise to prepare rich children for studies abroad,
something much more simple and basic can and needs to be done to
educate India and Indians. ⊕

Kalpana Sharma
14 Feb 2010

Kalpana Sharma has been Chief of the Mumbai Bureau and Deputy Editor
with The Hindu. Her opinions, which appear in a regular column with
The Hindu, are concurrently published in India Together with
permission.

Comments (1)
Posted by Usha Gupta,

I fully agree that the educational scenario can improve only if we pay
attention at providing quality primary education. I believe that the
Govt primary schools, whether in rural or urban ares, if not
delivering, should be handed over to NGOs or private societies who are
eager to educate the young children at a low cost or free, if
required. Unless we take our education system seriously ,things at
economic, social & even at political level will not improve. We have
made education a fundamental right without trying to make it a viable
reality. It is high time we stop thinking in terms of building
statistics only, & start making qualitative difference.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/feb/ksh-educate.htm

[chhotemianinshallah]

October 1995 Vol. 12, No. 5 (A)

RAPE FOR PROFIT

Trafficking of Nepali Girls and Women to India's Brothels
Copyright ©June 1995 by Human Rights Watch
All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 95-78059
ISBN 1-56432-155-X

Human Rights Watch/Asia

Human Rights Watch/Asia was established in 1985 to monitor and promote
the observance of internationally recognized human rights in Asia.
Sidney Jones is the executive director; Mike Jendrzejczyk is the
Washington director; Robin Munro is the Hong Kong director; Jeannine
Guthrie is NGO Liaison; Dinah PoKempner is Counsel; Zunetta Liddell
and Patricia Gossman are research associates; Mark Girouard and Shu-Ju
Ada Cheng are Luce fellows; Diana Tai-Feng Cheng and Jennifer Hyman
are associates; Mickey Spiegel is a research consultant. Andrew Nathan
is chair of the advisory committee and Orville Schell is vice
chair.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Research for this report was undertaken in Nepal by Jeannine Guthrie,
research associate for Human Rights Watch/Asia and in India by a
research consultant who must remain anonymous. It was written by these
researchers and edited by Sidney Jones, executive director of Human
Rights Watch/Asia and by Jeri Laber, senior advisor to Human Rights
Watch/Asia, with additional editorial advice from Sarah Lai of the
Women's Rights Project, Andreas Stein of Human Rights Watch, and Juan
Mendez, Human Rights Watch General Counsel. Jennifer Hyman, associate
with Human Rights Watch/Asia prepared the manuscript for publication.
We wish to express our gratitude to the many organizations and
individuals in Nepal and India who helped make this report possible,
many of whom must remain anonymous. Special thanks are due the staff
and members of the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), Child
Workers in Nepal (CWIN), INHURED International, ABC Nepal, the
Creative Development Centre, and Women Acting Together for Change
(WATCH), and to Meena Sharma, Shisam Mishra, and Shiva Hari Dahal for
their invaluable assistance and advice during our visit to Nepal. We
would also like to express our sincere thanks and admiration to S.A.
Lalitha, of the Joint Women's Programme of India; Preeti Pai Patkar of
Prerana, Anju Pawar, Farida Lambay, and the staff of Indian Health
Organization for their aid and guidance to our researcher in India.

I. INTRODUCTION

At least hundreds of thousands, and probably more than a million women
and children are employed in Indian brothels. Many are victims of the
increasingly widespread practice of trafficking in persons across
international borders. In India, a large percentage of the victims are
women and girls from Nepal. This report focuses on the trafficking of
girls and women from Nepal to brothels in Bombay, where
nongovernmental organizations say they comprise up to half of the
city's estimated 100,000 brothel workers. Twenty percent of Bombay's
brothel population is thought to be girls under the age of eighteen,
and half of that population may be infected with the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV).1
Trafficking victims in India are subjected to conditions tantamount to
slavery and to serious physical abuse. Held in debt bondage for years
at a time, they are raped and subjected to other forms of torture, to
severe beatings, exposure to AIDS, and arbitrary imprisonment. Many
are young women from remote hill villages and poor border communities
of Nepal who are lured from their villages by local recruiters,
relatives or neighbors promising jobs or marriage, and sold for
amounts as small as Nepali Rs.200 [$4.00] to brokers who deliver them
to brothel owners in India for anywhere from Rs.15,000 to Rs.40,000
[$500-$1,333]. This purchase price, plus interest (reported to be ten
percent of the total), becomes the "debt" that the women must work to
pay off -- a process that can stretch on indefinitely. Only the
brothel owner knows the terms of the debt, and most women have no idea
how much they owe or the terms for repayment. Brothels are tightly
controlled, and the girls are under constant surveillance. Escape is
virtually impossible. Owners use threats and severe beatings to keep
inmates in line. In addition, women fear capture by other brothel
agents and arrest by the police if

they are found on the streets; some of these police are the brothel
owner's best clients. Many of the girls and women are brought to India
as virgins; many return to Nepal with the HIV virus.

Both the Indian and Nepali governments are complicit in the abuses
suffered by trafficking victims. These abuses are not only violations
of internationally recognized human rights but are specifically
prohibited under the domestic laws of both countries. The willingness
of Indian and Nepali government officials to tolerate, and, in some
cases, participate in the burgeoning flesh trade exacerbates abuse.
Although human rights organizations in Nepal have reported extensively
on the forced trafficking of Nepali girls to Indian brothels, and
sensationalist coverage of trafficking issues is a regular feature of
the local press, the great majority of cases is never publicized, and
even when traffickers have been identified, there have been few
arrests and fewer prosecutions.

In India, police and local officials patronize brothels and protect
brothel owners and traffickers. Brothel owners pay protection money
and bribes to the police to prevent raids and to bail out under-age
girls who are arrested. Police who frequent brothels as clients
sometimes seek out under-age girls and return later to arrest them --
a way of extorting bigger bribes. Girls and women who complain to the
police about rape or abduction, or those who are arrested in raids or
for vagrancy, are held in "protective custody" -- a form of detention.
Corrupt authorities reportedly allow brothel owners to buy back
detainees.

In Nepal, border police are also bribed to allow traffickers to
transport girls to India. In many districts, traffickers exploit
political connections to avoid arrest and prosecution. On return to
Nepal, the few women who escape the brothels and appeal to the police
for help, or who are returned by the Indian police, are shuttled from
one police station to another as they make their way back to their
home districts. Some remain in police detention for weeks until their
guardians come and collect them. Women who have managed to survive the
system of debt bondage frequently become recruiters to fulfill their
owners' requirement that they find another girl to take their place.
If women who return home have managed to earn money, they are more
easily accepted back into their communities, and may eventually marry.
2 Those who escape the brothels before they have paid off their debts,
who return without money, or who are sick and cannot work, are shunned
by their families and communities. Many will return to India.

Existing laws in both countries have had virtually no effect on
curbing

trafficking.3 Poor training, corruption and the lack of political will
among senior government officials on both sides of the border means
that the laws go unenforced. Officials also try to evade
responsibility for the problem by categorizing trafficking as purely a
social problem. Lack of transborder cooperation between India and
Nepal compounds the problem. Apathy on the part of both governments,
the highly organized nature of trafficking networks, police corruption
and the patronage of influential government officials means virtual
impunity for traffickers.

This report is based on interviews conducted with trafficking victims,
most of them Nepali women in their twenties who were trafficked to
India as teenagers or older women in Bombay who were still involved in
the industry. The interviews are supplemented with case material and
interview transcripts provided by social workers, human rights
activists and representatives of other nongovernmental organizations
who work on trafficking and AIDS-related issues, and interviews with
government officials and police officers in Nepal and India between
March and September 1994.

In Nepal, researchers visited the capital city of Kathmandu, villages
in Nuwakot district and in the Pokhara valley, and the border towns of
Birganj, Butwal and Bhairahawa. Human Rights Watch/Asia conducted
interviews with police officers, activists and with seven women who
had returned from India, all but one of whom stated that they had been
forcibly trafficked for the purposes of prostitution. Methods of
coercion ranged from false job or marriage offers to drugging and
kidnapping. Four of these women were alleged to be HIV positive by
neighbors or aid workers. Of the interviews, four are detailed
accounts by women who had returned to Nepal within the last year.
These four testified to the methods of force and coercion used by
traffickers and provided information about areas of origin of victims
and routes travelled, conditions in the brothels, the role of the
Indian police, methods of escape and return, and treatment upon
return, both by the authorities and by relatives.

In India, Human Rights Watch/Asia interviewed Nepali women still
working in brothels, brothel owners, local doctors, activists, and
lawyers in both Bombay and Delhi. We found that the nature of the
business of forced prostitution directly affects research. The red-
light districts in Bombay are the locus of a wide range of organized
criminality, including smuggling, drugs, extortion, and trafficking.
The network of underworld activities with their hierarchies of
"dons"and their agents pervades the business of forced prostitution.
In the brothels, fear of madams and pimps makes women reluctant to
talk substantively with outsiders for any length of time. It is
extremely difficult for researchers to speak to women alone, without
the presence of a senior member of the brothel. Local activists who
have spent years building up trust told Human Rights Watch/Asia that
the information they receive appears to be amended as time passes and
greater levels of trust are attained. We found many women were wary of
requests for personal information. Ages were routinely masked by girls
who were under the legal age of consent for sexual activity. Women who
had escaped the industry reported having been coached by brothel
owners to give set responses to questions about their ages, homes,
villages and queries about how they ended up in prostitution. In
addition to fear of retaliation from brothel management, a sense of
shame and the sense that they lack any alternative to prostitution may
also lead women to give misleading information about their route to
this life.

While Nepalis are trafficked into many Indian cities, Human Rights
Watch/Asia chose to focus on Bombay because it appears to have the
highest concentration of Nepali girls and women in prostitution. In
Bombay, according to the calculations of an organization of Nepali
brothel staff,4 there are about 20,000 Nepalis in the city's flesh
trade -- other agencies estimate that the actual number is closer to
50,000. Most of these women and girls work for Nepali gharwalis
(madams), and almost all are illiterate. Seventy percent are thought
to belong to ethnic minority groups such as the Tamang, Gurung, Magar,
and Sherpa. Women and girls from Nepal's Hindu majority communities
comprise about ten to fifteen percent. Sixty percent of these girls
and women are thought to have contracted HIV.5

In both Nepal and India, women who were or had been sex workers were
hesitant to speak with researchers and reluctant to discuss their
experiences except in the most general of terms, fearing reprisals
from pimps, police and brothel owners, and the social stigma
surrounding prostitution. Although most women with whom we spoke had
some idea that forcible trafficking was illegal, and some had even
attempted to make complaints against their traffickers after they
returned to Nepal, few knew much about the legal process, or had been
kept informed about the progress of their cases. Women who are
trafficked into forced prostitutionquickly learn to see police as
their enemies, and to accept society's judgment that they themselves
are criminals because they have engaged in prostitution, even if they
have been beaten and raped into compliance.

While there has been some acknowledgement by government officials in
both countries about the magnitude of the problem and the need for
action, neither India nor Nepal has taken serious measures to stop
trafficking. Despite a plethora of national and international legal
instruments that address trafficking and abuses common in the
industry, the trade continues to prosper. The burden of responsibility
rests with India to stem the demand for new victims, and to protect
the women and girls whose rights are violated on its territory. It
must investigate and prosecute all those involved in trafficking and
brothel operations, including police and other government agents who
profit from the abuse. Nepal and India together should cooperate in
police training for border operations. All reports of border police
involvement in trafficking should be investigated and those
responsible punished.

The international community also has a responsibility to see that both
India and Nepal uphold their international obligations to prevent
trafficking. Unfortunately, few governments have recognized this as a
government responsibility, preferring to view the flesh trade as an
unfortunate social evil with its roots in poverty. Trafficking in
women and children has become an enormously profitable industry -- one
that will not be stopped without international scrutiny and pressure.

II. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC BACKGROUND

Nepal's extreme poverty and its economic and political relationship
with India have facilitated the trafficking of Nepali women and girls
to brothels in India. Nepal is a small, landlocked country that shares
borders with two powerful nations -- China and India -- and depends on
them for development assistance and trade; it also borders the tiny
kingdom of Bhutan, approximately one sixth of whose population of some
600,000 currently reside as refugees in eastern Nepal.1 Nepal is
mountainous, with little infrastructure or industry. Ninety percent of
its population of some nineteen million people reside in rural areas,
dependent on subsistence agriculture.2

Nepal's large ethnic variety reflects its geography and includes
people from the subtropical lowlands of the Terai on the Indian
border, who have much in common with the people of northern India. The
central hill dwellers share a mixture of Indian and Tibeto-Burman
roots, and mountain people trace their origins to Central Asia and
Tibet. For decades, members of these largely Buddhist communities like
the Tamangs (the preponderant majority), Sherpas, Lamas and Gurungs
have been targeted by brokers who supply women and girls to Indian
brothels, children of both sexes for work in carpet and garment
factories in Nepal and India, and people of all ages for road building
and construction. The Tamangs live in large numbers in the remote hill
villages of Nuwakot, Sindhupalchowk, Kavre and Dhading districts, but
the search for jobs has scattered them in small numbers throughout the
country.

Trafficking of women from Nepal's hill communities began in the
nineteenth century, when the feudal Rana family, a line of prime
ministers who ruled Nepal from 1846 to 1951, began recruiting Tamang
girls from the Helambu (Yolmo) region of Sindhupalchowk, northeast of
Kathmandu, to serve as

concubines for the ruler and his family. Owning concubines, or
"Helambu girls," became a mark of high social status. The oligarchical
Rana regime was overthrown by the hereditary monarchy in 1951, but the
recruitment of women and girls continued, only now they were sold to
brothel owners in India's red-light districts. The
internationalization of trafficking in girls and women was due in part
to a political alliance forged between Nepal and India in the last
days of the Rana regime that opened the border between the two
countries for travel and trade. Nuwakot, Sindhupalchok and other hill
districts in the Bagmati Zone around Kathmandu became particularly
notorious for trafficking. But as Indian demand for Nepali prostitutes
grew, and the threat of AIDS increased the demand for new girls, girls
from many castes3 and communities and from other regions of Nepal were
recruited for sale in Indian brothels. Today, instances of forced
trafficking of women and girls for prostitution in India have been
reported in virtually every district of Nepal and from all castes and
ethnic groups.

POLITICAL STRUCTURE

Despite Nepal's transition to multi-party democracy in 1990, its towns
and villages remain tightly controlled by powerful local leaders, many
of them members of wealthy families who have traditionally dominated
village life. Under the previous single-party system, termed
"panchayat democracy," these local bosses gained political influence
beyond their home districts, nurturing the growth of a complex network
of political patronage.

The panchayat system, which was established by King Mahendra in 1962,
was a four-tiered system which provided for popular elections only at
the local level, where the electorate was easily controlled by local
landowners.4 The 1962Constitution also provided for a prime minister,
nominated by the king, and prohibited political parties. Nepal was
declared an "independent, indivisible, and sovereign Hindu state" with
the king as the ultimate source of executive, legislative and judicial
powers.5

From the start, the power of the panchayat was land and caste-based
and plagued by local rivalries and factionalism. Poor and landless
villagers were compelled by necessity to choose sides, allying
themselves with a patron who could provide them with work. This
created an ideal environment for the development of trafficking
networks and criminal gangs. According to one scholar:

Once in power, group leaders...traditionally used political positions
to strengthen private networks by dispensing patronage, in addition to
enriching themselves.

These patron-client hierarchies were also reflected in the ties
between Rastriya [National] Panchayat ... members and their local
factions. The absence of political parties exacerbated the formation
of personality-based coalitions among members of the Rastriya
Panchayat. These nation-level factions were generally geographically
oriented, centered on assembly members with large government-run
facilities or projects in their districts. At every level, politics
under the Partyless Panchayat System was characterized by intra-elite
struggles for control of government resources.6

In 1972 King Mahendra was succeeded by his son, King Birendra. The
panchayat system, altered in 1980 to provide for the direct election
of the Rastriya Panchayat based on universal adult suffrage, remained
in force until April 1990, when a massive pro-democracy movement led
to the adoption of a multi-party system. Since then, other political
forces have begun to make inroads into local administration. The
government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, of the Nepali
Congress Party, was elected by popular vote in May 1991. On July 10,
1994, Koirala resigned after his government lost an important
parliamentary vote.Elections were held November 13, 1994, two years
ahead of schedule, and a Communist government under Manmohan Adhikary
took power.

But former panchayat members still wield substantial power locally and
allegations of corruption and political patronage of criminal gangs --
traffickers of human beings, drugs, and precious metals in particular
-- persist and are apparently well-founded. Politicians who have
gained power through the electoral process are also now accused of
engaging in similar activities.7

Under the 1990 constitution, the king retains executive power, and
appoints the leader of the parliamentary party commanding an elected
majority in the House of Representatives as his prime minister. The
political relationship between royalists (largely former panchayat
members), who still wield significant power at the local level, and
the elected leadership remains uneasy. The government appears to have
insufficient control over the police force, the principal violator of
human rights in Nepal.

ECONOMIC FACTORS

The flourishing trade in Nepali women and girls in India must be
understood in the context of economic conditions in both countries.
Nepal's extreme poverty makes recruiting in its rural villages easy
and profitable. Because of its economic dependence on India and the
political ties between the powerful Nepali Congress Party and the
Indian government8 the previous government of Nepal was inhibited from
regulating the border or actively combating cross-border crime unless
the Indian government also committed itself to stemming demand by
enforcing anti-trafficking laws.

In the past decade Nepal has undergone increased industrialization in
urban areas such as Kathmandu and in towns in the Terai, the lowland
area along Nepal's southern border with India. This growth was made
possible by trade agreements between India and Nepal and reflects much
Indian investment. Many new businesses in Nepal are Indian-owned or
employ Indian workers. Indianindustries south of the border recruit
large numbers of Nepali workers who bring currency back into Nepal.9
Import of Indian products and export of Nepali resources, including
timber, is growing rapidly.

Despite this growth in urban areas, there has been little change in
Nepal's rural economy, which remains largely dependent on subsistence
agriculture. Many rural villages are very far from urban markets where
crops could be sold if a surplus existed. In most cases there is
little surplus and hill villages suffer lean periods at the end of
each growing season -- hence the attraction of work in the city. In
addition, despite government efforts at land reform, most tillable
land in rural Nepal is owned by a few influential, often high caste
families. Members of lower castes and poorer ethnic groups have
difficulty sustaining themselves on their meager landholdings and are
engaged in a continuous search for new ways to generate income.

Tamang peasants are among Nepal's most impoverished minority groups.
Today, according to Jyothi Sanghera, an activist who presented her
findings to the U.N. Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery in
1991, an average Tamang family owns less than one hectare of
unirrigated land. Most were already tenants before Nepal implemented a
series of land reform acts in the 1950s, at which time the vast
majority were evicted -- left landless or with small plots of arid
land on steep hill slopes. No longer able to survive on subsistence
farming, and with virtually no access to education or other means of
entry into a cash-based economy, the Tamang were forced to migrate in
search of other means of support. They found it in low-paying seasonal
work as porters or manual laborers in the lowlands, or on road
construction sites in India. Tamang men were also recruited for the
Gurkha regiments of the British and Indian armies. But these
communities soon found there was another, more lucrative way to earn
money. "A commodity... has been created that sells, and sell[s] very
well at that, in the labour market of the sex industry: the body and
sexual labour of the Tamang woman..."10

Border towns on both sides are bustling markets, catering to residents
from both countries seeking jobs and bargains. They also provide a
natural market for smuggling and prostitution, serving as a nexus for
brokers and agents who take advantage of the crowds of anonymous
travellers, the guest lodges, and the easy access to transportation.

A 1950 treaty with Nepal provided for free passage and trade across
the Nepal/India border.11 Article 7 of the treaty reads:

The Government of India and Nepal agree to grant, on a reciprocal
basis, to the nationals of one country in the territories of the other
the same privileges in the matters of residence, ownership of
property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and other
privileges of a similar nature.12

Successive governments of Nepal expressed dissatisfaction with the
treaty several times, but although either country could terminate the
treaty with a year's notice, India has not wished to lose the
privileges it enjoys, and Nepal cannotafford the consequences of a
deterioration in its trade relationship with India.13 On February 9,
1995, India announced that it was ready to hold talks with Nepal's new
government on amending the forty-five-year-old treaty.

The effect of the open border policy on the prevention of trafficking
of women is clear. No passports, visas or residence permits are
required for nationals traveling between India and Nepal. Because
people pass freely between the two countries for work, shopping and
business (according to Nepali police, up to 100,000 people per day
through one popular border post), it is extremely difficult for border
police to check illegal activity. Traffickers and their victims move
easily across the border, and the onus is on individual police
officers to stop and question suspicious-looking travellers. The
problem is compounded by consistent reports of police corruption on
both sides of the border.

In India's red-light districts, the demand for Nepali girls,
especially virgins with fair skin and Mongolian features, continues to
increase. It is impossible to say how many girls and women are
employed in the sex industry in India or what percentage of the total
is from Nepal. Estimates have been based largely on the numbers of
women employed by brothels in urban areas, but prostitution exists in
every city and town in India and in many villages, and statistics vary
enormously. Dr. I.S. Gilada, general secretary of the Indian Health
Organization (IHO), estimated in various studies conducted between
1985 and 1994 that there were between 70,000 and 100,000 prostitutes
in Bombay, 100,000 in Calcutta, 40,000 in Delhi, 40,000 in Pune and
13,000 in Nagpur. Based on his statistics, Nepali social workers
estimate the number of Nepali girls and women now working in Indian
brothels at about 200,000 and believe that between 5,000 and 7,000 new
Nepalis end up in Indian brothels every year. The Indian Council of
MedicalResearch estimates the total number of prostitutes in India at
about one million.14 By contrast, the Bharatiya Patita Udhar Sabha
(Indian Association for the Rescue of Fallen Women), a voluntary
organization dedicated to the welfare of the country's sex workers,
estimates that in 1992 there were more than 8 million brothel workers
in India and another 7.5 million call girls.15 There is simply no way
to verify these statistics, but it is clear the percentage of Nepali
girls in Indian brothels is very high, that their numbers appear to be
increasing, and that the average age at which they are recruited is
significantly lower than it was ten years ago, dropping from fourteen
to sixteen years in the 1980s to ten to fourteen years in 1994. Dr.
Gilada of IHO told our researcher that the youngest girl he had seen
in a Bombay brothel was nine years old.

While Human Rights Watch/Asia has chosen to focus on Bombay because it
is the city which appears to have the highest percentage of Nepali
prostitutes, Nepali women are trafficked into many other Indian
cities. Of the roughly 3,500 women in prostitution in Delhi's red-
light district of G.B. Road, activists estimate that about 150 are
from Nepal.16 In Calcutta, various studies conducted by the All India
Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIHPH) in 1993 estimate that
20 percent of the 5,000 sex workers in the Sonagachi red-light area
are Nepali. According to one AIIHPH expert, over 500 Nepali girls
arrived in Sonagachi in 1993 alone.17 In the state of Gujarat, which
borders Maharashtra, a survey undertaken by the International Society
for Research on Civilisation Diseases and Environment estimates that
of the total number of persons in prostitution in Suratcity, 80
percent were from outside the state, with 10 percent of these persons
from Nepal. The voluntary organization also found that many persons in
prostitution in Bombay periodically visited Surat because of the
market for prostitution there.18

Although tourism is an important industry in both countries, and sex
tourism appears to be on the increase in India, tourism is less a
factor in the sex industry than local demand. All of the women Human
Rights Watch/Asia interviewed reported that most of their customers
were Indian. Some were also Nepali, although in at least one case
Nepali customers were discouraged, for fear they would help Nepali
girls escape.

Brothels are big business. Despite expenses incurred in employing a
network of agents to recruit new workers in Nepal (some procurers are
reportedly paid up to Indian Rs.6,000 [about $200] per trip) and
protection money that is paid weekly to police and local crime bosses
(said to total Rs.200 [$6.60] per brothel inmate per week), even the
cheapest of brothels can turn a substantial profit, generally
collecting from Rs.50-Rs.100 [$1.66-$3.33] per client, with much more
for special services. A brothel may employ anywhere from four to fifty
workers, and an inmate may serve more than fifteen clients a day, on
an average of twenty-six to twenty-eight days a month. The brothel
owners generally provide no more than two meals a day and most workers
are allowed to keep only the tips from their clients, Rs 2 to 5
(fifteen cents or less) per man. With these meager resources, they
must cover their own expenses for food, clothing, and personal
effects. The cost of medical care is typically paid by the owner, and
then added to a inmate's "debt" --sometimes with interest. The owner,
who frequently owns more than one brothel, clearly stands to make a
profit, but agents, local police and others involved in the industry
also benefit. As one former prostitute told Human Rights Watch/Asia,
"Police, doctors, dalals (pimps), they are all fed by the brothels."

III. PATTERNS OF ABUSE
There are two distinct patterns to the trafficking of girls and women
from Nepal. The best known and oldest involves the enticement of
mainly Tamang girls from hill districts where the flesh trade has
become an almost traditional source of income. But the incidence of
forced trafficking from other parts of Nepal is also on the rise.1
Poor migrant women and children whose families have moved to Nepal's
urban areas in search of employment are the principal victims. These
girls and women come from all castes and ethnic groups. Human Rights
Watch/Asia visited Nepal and interviewed women from several areas of
Nepal who had been trafficked to India and had returned. In all cases,
families, neighbors and friends play an active role in forced
trafficking by concocting fictitious marriage and job offers,
contacting recruiters and brokers, or simply luring girls away from
home on outings or errands, kidnapping and selling them. Regardless of
the victims' origins, their reports of abuse in Indian brothels are
remarkably consistent.
The average age of the thousands of Nepali girls recruited every year
for prostitution in brothels in India has reportedly dropped in the
past decade 0from fourteen to sixteen years in the 1980s, to ten to
fourteen in 1991, despite new laws promulgated in both countries in
1986 designed to stem trafficking and child prostitution.2 Police in
areas with a high incidence of trafficking state that the average age
of new trafficking victims is about thirteen. However, trafficking
victims are frequently coached by captors to conceal their true ages.
Girls forced into prostitution in Bombay's brothels may remain trapped
in the brothel system formore than ten years, during which time they
may be sold from one brothel to another many times.

CASE HISTORIES

The following cases, based on interviews conducted by Human Rights
Watch/Asia in March 1994 with young women in Nepal who had returned
from Bombay, and in July 1994 with women still employed in Bombay's
brothels, describe some of the patterns typical of trafficking between
Nepal and India. The first, "Maya" represents a case of simple
abduction. Although she filed a complaint against her traffickers, no
one was ever prosecuted.

"Maya"

"Maya" is from a small village in Nuwakot district. She is twenty-
three, but looks much older. She has dark circles under her eyes; her
skin is dry and lined. A local health worker thinks she was ejected
from a brothel in Bombay after testing positive for HIV, a story Maya
denies. Maya said she first left her village when she was eighteen and
returned to her village in July 1993, after spending three years in an
Indian brothel.

Maya was married to a man from a nearby village when she was around
thirteen. Soon after, her husband began seeing someone else. He moved
out when Maya was sixteen, married a second wife and took her to
Kathmandu. Maya had lived alone for two years when her father-in-law
told her she should follow her husband to Kathmandu. He took her
there. At her husband's house she was beaten and treated very badly.

In 1990 a fellow villager began visiting the house. The second time he
came to visit, he brought another man along. They invited Maya and her
husband to come out to see a movie. Maya's husband told her to go
ahead without him. The three of them boarded a bus, which Maya said
kept going farther and farther from Kathmandu. Eventually, they went
through the border at Kakarbhitta. They were never stopped or
questioned by the police.

After two days traveling by bus, they reached Bombay and the men left
Maya at a house and told her they would pick her up the next day. They
never came back. Maya realized she was in a brothel when she saw that
the house was occupied by about twenty-five women, all but three of
whom were from Nepal. Two or three were girls she had known from her
own village. The brothel where Maya worked was called a "pillow
house," lowest in the brothel hierarchy where most new girls start
out. It was a large building, with several rooms where thewomen lived,
slept and worked. There were eight beds in each room and curtains
dividing the beds. All of the girls' and women's earnings were turned
over to the brothel owner, a woman named Renu Tamang from Urleni in
Nuwakot district. The women worked from noon to 1:00 a.m. They were
given no days off. After a year,

the owner told Maya that the broker had been paid for her and that she
was responsible for paying back her purchase price, but she was never
told how much she owed. The owner told her she could go home only
after she paid off her debt. Maya noted that another brothel inmate, a
woman from Trisuli, had worked there for thirteen years and had never
managed to pay off her debt.

Maya was beaten severely for the first four or five days she was held
in the brothel because she refused to have sex with customers. They
continued to beat her until she submitted. Later on, she was beaten
with bottles and thick sticks because she was not earning enough. She
said that all the brothel inmates were beaten if they did not earn
enough. Her customers included Indians and foreigners -- Germans,
Singaporeans, Filipinos and Saudi Arabians. The customers would select
the women they wanted, and the women could not refuse, or they would
be beaten.

In the three years Maya was held in the brothel, she never received
any form of contraception. Girls who became pregnant would be given
abortions. The brothel did not provide condoms, but occasionally
customers brought their own. Maya said that she never asked clients to
use condoms because she did not know they could prevent AIDS. She said
she had heard about AIDS, but did not know anything about it. Because
she stayed in the brothel only a short time, she did not know the
symptoms.

After one year in Bombay, Maya began to get sick. She developed a high
fever and was taken to the doctor who gave her an injection, but she
did not know what it was. She then returned to work. Maya told Human
Rights Watch/Asia that she and two other girls, one from Sindhupalchok
who was sick, and one from Gorkha, decided to escape from the brothel.
All of them had been beaten often and thought they should flee to save
their lives. Maya said that while some police officers often came as
clients to the brothel, one branch of the police force frequently
raided the brothel looking for child prostitutes. The three women
appealed to these police to help them escape, and the police took them
to the border and handed them over to the Hanuman Dhoka police station
in Kathmandu. Maya was sent on to the police in Ranipowa and then
Trisuli, where she was held in detention for ten days. From there it
took her six days to reach Nuwakot. As Maya understood the police
policy on returnees, the police inform the girl's family by letter and
then hold her until relatives come to collect her.

Maya and the two other women filed complaints at the Hanuman Dhoka
police station in Kathmandu, and the police told them that they would
be informed once the traffickers were found, but as far as she knows,
no one was ever arrested.

Maya's health deteriorated after her return. She lost weight and
suffered from diarrhea, high fevers and stomach aches. Since returning
to the village, her health has improved slightly. In January 1994, she
was treated with traditional medicine and feels that she has been
cured, although she remains very tired and weak and cannot work. Local
health workers suspect Maya may not have escaped but was ejected from
the brothel in India because she had contracted HIV.

"Tara"

At thirty-four or thirty-five years old, "Tara" is a senior woman in a
brothel in Bombay. She was described as the "in-charge" of the younger
brothel inmates by a local activist. Senior women like Tara are
frequently used by gharwalis to keep track of newer inmates. They
watch for escape attempts, listen for forbidden conversations with
customers, and accompany younger girls when they leave the premises
for medical treatment. The interview with Tara was instructive because
it reflected both her experiences as a young trafficking victim, and
her attitudes now which are closer to those of brothel management.

Tara arrived in Bombay eighteen or nineteen years ago when she was
sixteen years old. She told Human Rights Watch/Asia that she grew up
in Nuwakot jilla [district] and got trapped into prostitution when she
went with two girlfriends to see the cigarette factories at Janakpur,
on the Nepal/India border.

We fell into the clutches of a dalali [procuress] -- a Nepali dalali
at that. We were three girls together, in the beginning. We spent two
years together, but then we were separated. I don't know what happened
to the other two girls. I often wonder what happened to them. When I
was captured, I could not escape or return to my home: they would have
caught me for sure. If I had known what was to happen to me, I would
have killed myself halfway. [But] leaving this life is not an option
for me, I simply cannot think about it. My purity was violated, so I
thought: why go back, go back to what? I may as well just stay here.
If I ever catch that damn dalali, I don't know what I would do to her.
If I ever catch her, you have simply no idea what I will do to her.

Tara described her bewilderment upon arrival in Bombay:

When they brought me here, it was in a taxi. I kept looking around,
wondering what kind of work was going on in this area of this big
city. Everywhere I looked, I saw curtained doorways and rooms in this
area. Men would go and come through these curtained entrances. People
on the street would be calling out, "Two rupees, two rupees." I asked
the other Nepali women if these were offices; it seemed the logical
explanation. In two days I knew everything. I cried.

The building in Bombay where Tara lives and works has two floors, and
probably houses about fifty women. There are two "maliks" [bosses] for
the building. Tara said there were four rooms on her floor, and four
Nepali girls and two Indian in her room. She said that when she first
came, there were mostly Nepali girls working there, and a Nepali
gharwali. Now both Indian and Nepalis work together. She said that
like her, these younger Nepali girls came from the mountain areas of
Nepal.

Despite the fact that Tara was herself an unwilling victim of the
industry, she remained caught in the system for nearly twenty years
and is now a senior inmate with management responsibilities. Her
testimony, bitter when referring to the past or to women who have
managed to escape, was generally sympathetic to her gharwali -- with
whom she probably shares a similar history. The fact that she has not
attempted to return to Nepal or to open her own establishment suggests
that she has not escaped the cycle of debt.

Many girls return to their home area, build houses. Money is
everything. It gets you acceptance in the village. There is no one in
Nepal who does not know about Bombay, and this business, not one
person in Nepal. The gharwali is good to the girls and does not harm
them. She makes the food arrangements, takes care of their needs. It
is when a girl falls into the clutches of bad men, thugs, goondas
[thugs], that she is defiled by them, and ill-treated in many ways.

Tara's testimony reflects some of the most persistent myths of the
trafficking industry -- that all prostitution is voluntary and driven
by economic hardship, and that many prostitutes become rich and return
home. Brothel inmates report being coached to give stock answers to
questions from investigators andcurious customers, and oft-repeated
success stories help keep inmates striving to earn. "Santhi," a woman
whose case is described below, told Human Rights Watch/Asia "In the
brothels we were told by the owner to tell the police we came by
ourselves because we didn't have food. We were told to say we were
twenty-five years old. If we didn't say that we would be beaten." A
relief worker who had done research in Bombay and knows Santhi says
brothel inmates she interviewed gave her similar answers when she
questioned them about their past.

THE PATH TO BOMBAY

The Nepali girls and women who were interviewed by Human Rights Watch/
Asia were forcibly trafficked into India. They did not work as
prostitutes voluntarily but were held in conditions tantamount to
slavery. Promises of jobs and marriage are common techniques by which
recruiters entice their victims to leave home. But other, more overtly
coercive tactics such as kidnapping are also reported. Girls who are
already in debt bondage in other industries, particularly carpet
factories, are particularly vulnerable.

The Traffickers

Traffickers are most typically men in their twenties or thirties or
women in their thirties and forties who have travelled the route to
the city several times and know the hotels to stay in and the brokers
to contact. Traffickers frequently work in groups of two or more. Male
and female traffickers are sometimes referred to as dalals and
dalalis, (commission agents) who are either employed by a brothel
owner directly, or operate more or less independently. Professional
agents who recruit for the bigger brothels reportedly may be paid up
to Rs.6,000 [$200] per girl. But most traffickers are small-time,
local recruiters who earn considerably less. In either case, to stay
in business they need the patronage of local bosses and the protection
afforded by bribes to the police.

Female traffickers are referred to as didi or phupu didi (literally,
paternal aunt). In Nuwakot district, according to local activists, the
majority of didis are returned prostitutes from five or six Village
Development Committees (VDCs) ineastern Nuwakot.3 The peak trafficking
months in Nuwakot and Sindhupalchowk are between June and late August
or early September when the didis return to the villages to
participate in local festivals and to recruit girls to bring back to
the cities. These months precede the harvest, when poverty is felt
most acutely, making it easy to recruit.

People become especially vulnerable every year from June to August,
which are known as the "hungry months." At this time, every mountain
village of Nepal suffers from more than the usual level of poverty,
while they wait for the new harvests. Villagers have depleted their
store of grains, and their hunger drives them to the local moneylender
and feudal lord. This impossible situation has forced many young
people from the mountain villages to urban centres, where they search
for employment and a better future. Most young men work in factories,
transportation, and construction, whereas the young girls and women
work in garment and carpet factories, and in domestic service. A
proportion of the young women will disappear to India.4

Family members -- uncles, cousins, stepfathers -- also act as
trafficking agents. Of seven trafficking victims interviewed by Human
Rights Watch/Asia in March 1994, six were trafficked to India with the
help of close family friends or relatives. In each case, the victim
complained of deception.

Girls are recruited in a number of ways. Village girls and their
families are often deceived by smartly dressed young men who arrive in
the village claiming to have come from Kathmandu and offering marriage
and all the comforts of modern urban life. They go through a local
ceremony and leave the village never to be seen again. The girls end
up in Indian brothels.

Sometimes older men promise the girls employment in the city. Another
avenue is through distant relatives or friends who pretend to arrange
a marriage with relatives or friends in another village, but instead
abduct the girl and send her to India. Sometimes a trusted individual
abducts the girl on the pretext of educating her in India.5

Trafficking appears to be on the increase throughout Nepal and to be
growing most rapidly in areas where it has so far received the least
attention --towns and villages along the east-west highway, border
towns, tourist centers and, according to some reports, the camps that
house Bhutanese refugees in Jhapa district in eastern Nepal.6

Local women who have returned from India are also employed as
recruiters. These women are exceptionally well-placed to identify
potential trafficking victims because they already know the local
girls and their families.

Women who are already in the sex trade and have graduated to the level
of brothel keepers, managers or even owners travel through the
villages of their own and neighboring districts in search of young
girls. Though not very typical, the following story encapsulates the
essence of the dream of success and glamour that these women symbolize
to the simple village girls.

Only a short time before my visit, a madam had alighted upon this
remote hill village in Sindhupalchowk in a helicopter rented from
Kathmandu, for which she must have had to pay a sum of about $1,000.
She descended like a celestial fairy mother in the midst of these poor
village folk, in all her resplendent finery, and doled out little
gifts of baubles and cosmetics to the starry-eyed adolescent
girls....When this madam left the village, seven young girls
disappeared with her.7

The typical agent is far less glamorous, and the number of Nepali
prostitutes who manage to become wealthy in India is minuscule. Most
recruiters are women desperately trying to escape the abuse and debt
bondage of the brothel system themselves.

Perhaps the most pernicious and lamentable examples in this category
are those women who are themselves forced into prostitution and who
have been told by their brothelkeepers that the only way they can
procure their release is by furnishing a substitute. At any given
time, several of these women travel to their villages in the hope of
cajoling a younger female relative, a friend or just another village
woman to accompany them. Most often they are successful...and return
with another victim, in lieu of themselves. However, once free they do
not make an exit from the prostitution market, they merely end up
working as... [independent] prostitutes and finally hope to set up
their own little shop with five women working under them...8

These local agents buy girls from their families, sometimes for as
little as Nepali Rs.200 [$4], or tempt them with promises of future
earnings, and take them to the Indian border where they are sold to a
broker or for anything from IndianRs.1,000-Rs.8,000 [$22-$266]. These
middlemen then sell them to brothel owners in Bombay and elsewhere for
Rs.15,000-Rs.50,000 [$500 - $1,666], depending on the girl's age and
beauty. Virgins command higher prices.

"Padma"

"Padma" is the gharwali of a small brothel in Bombay. She told Human
Rights Watch/Asia that like many others, she came to India as a young
girl, from a remote village in the mountains of Nepal. After twenty
years in the profession she now runs a brothel which employs between
three and six girls.

It took us six days of trekking to get to Kathmandu. Nowadays there is
a bus service, so it is not so bad. Can you imagine: Six days! That
was really bad. I don't know anyone else in the profession from my own
village, but I know others, a couple of others, from neighboring
villages. In my house [`ghar'], there are usually three or four girls.
Sometimes there are six, but that is the maximum. There is no fixed
number. In fact, there really is no telling from moment to moment.
Just last month, two new girls arrived.

Carpet Factories

Carpets are Nepal's most important export and, along with tourism, one
of its most essential industries. Besides being notorious in their own
right for appalling working conditions, the pervasive use of child
labor and debt bondage,9 Kathmandu carpet factories have been
important recruitment centers for Indian brothels. In 1994 it was
estimated that half of all Nepal's carpet workers arechildren. Girls
and boys from poor rural hill families, 47 percent of them Tamang,10
are recruited from their villages and sold or apprenticed to factory
owners. Brokers working within the carpet factories select likely
girls and entice them into leaving the factory with offers of better
jobs elsewhere -- a relatively easy task since many carpet workers are
themselves caught in a state of debt bondage where they receive no
wages. The brokers then arrange for their transport to India,
frequently with the complicity of friends and family members.

Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN), a Kathmandu-based
organization dedicated to the rights of children, reported in 1994
that of 300 Nepali prostitutes interviewed in Bombay, 40 percent had
been trafficked from carpet factories.11 In March 1994, A.R. Panday,
the chief district officer of Nuwakot confirmed that the trafficking
network that operates in Nuwakot district used the carpet industry in
Kathmandu as a secondary point of recruitment.

Guardians will send girls to Kathmandu as laborers. There they learn a
more sophisticated life, and then will be tempted by a broker who
takes them up to the border. The carpet industry employs backward
castes -- Danuwar, Himal, Tamang.... Girls are attracted by idea of
work in the city, they are ambitious. The broker works from inside the
factory, selects a girl and convinces her to go with him and then
takes her to the border and sells her.12

Sexual abuse of girls in carpet factories is commonplace. Almost half
of the more than twelve hundred girls under sixteen working in carpet
factories in 1992 who were interviewed by CWIN complained of frequent
sexual abuse, including rape by adult co-workers, managers and brokers
for the factories. According to children's rights advocates,
underground brothels operate out of some of Nepal's carpet factories.

[S]ome carpet factory brokers...roam in the villages to lure young
girls to work in the carpet factories of Kathmandu where many of them
are forced into prostitution and even trafficked to Bombay. These
girls are abused and exploited by storekeepers, loom masters and
checkers before they give up and agree to do the "night shifts." And
they sell themselves for Rs.20-50 [0.40-$1.00] per trick. The
customers are arranged by the pimps in the factory who take
commissions from the girls. In Kathmandu's many garment factories,
too, the girls do one kind of work during the day and another kind at
night.13

The following cases of women interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Asia
demonstrate the link between the carpet industry and trafficking.

"Neela"

In 1989, when she was fourteen, "Neela's" stepfather took her from
their village in Sindhupalchowk to Bhaktapur, a suburb of Kathmandu,
where a friend of his got her a job in a carpet factory. A few months
later, in January 1990, a young male co-worker who had been introduced
to Neela as her "cousin" suggested that they leave the Bhaktapur
factory and go to Kakarbhitta, a town on the Indian border, where, he
claimed, working conditions were better and they could earn more
money. Neela agreed, and was taken out of the factory by her
stepfather, her stepfather's friend and this young man. After six
days, traveling by bus and by train, they arrived in Bombay.

There, Neela was taken to the grounds of a temple where the men
introduced her to two women. She was told to go home with the women;
the men would join them later. Neela was taken to a house that she
later discovered was the home of the brothel manager. She stayed there
overnight, and at 6:00 the next morning she was taken to another house
where sixteen or seventeen girls were asleep on the floor. Because she
was so young, Neela was taken to a separate"training" room where she
was kept for three months, after which she was told she had been sold
for Rs.15,000 [$500] and would have to work there until she paid off
her debt. Her first customer was a middle-aged man who paid Rs.5,000
[$166] for her because she was a virgin. Neela said the manager always
charged more money for new girls, but she was never told how much the
regular customerspaid; all the money was given directly to the owner.
Nor was she told how long it would take to repay her debt.

As the youngest in the brothel, Neela's treatment was better than for
many of the girls and women working there. She was not beaten, even
when she was caught trying to escape one night by pretending to go to
the toilet which was outside behind the brothel. However, she was
insulted and threatened, and saw others who worked there frequently
beaten severely, "until blood came from their mouths," for trying to
escape and for fighting.

Many other girls in the brothel were under-age and all were Nepali.
Neela told Human Rights Watch/Asia that the brothel was frequently
raided by police in search of underage girls and that when the police
came, the brothel owners would try to hide the newcomers, because "not
all police were the same." Sometimes police who came in civilian dress
as paying customers and sought her out specifically would raid the
brothel later.

Neela said condoms were not available in the brothel where she worked
although customers sometimes brought their own. She never asked a
customer to use a condom.

After about a year in the brothel Neela was picked up in a police raid
and taken to an ashram, a shelter, for children because she was
underage. In the ashram she tested positive for HIV. After two years
there, when Neela was eighteen, the police asked her if she wanted to
go home. She said she did, and the Indian police informed the Nepali
police and she was taken to Kathmandu. She was brought first to
Hanuman Dhoka police station in Kathmandu, then to Bhaktapur police
station. She was held for eight days in Bhaktapur police detention.
During that time the police took her to Teku Hospital14 for an HIV
test. She was not told the reason for the test; the police only told
her that they were taking her for a check-up because she was returning
from Bombay. Afterwards she was told she had tested positive for HIV.
Neela said a journalist interviewed her just two days after she
arrived in Kathmandu -- while she was still in police custody -- and
her photo and story were published in a local paper, but she did not
know which one. Because of this she decided not to try to locate her
family. She now lives in a shelter.

Sanumaya Chaudhary

Sanumaya (Sanu) Chaudhary, age fifteen, was trafficked to India in
1991, also by a co-worker in a carpet factory, and rescued in January
1992. Her case was first published by the Independent, a Kathmandu-
based English-language newspaper, in September 1992, soon after she
lodged a complaint with the policeagainst a twenty-year-old woman who
had taken her to India. Since then, Sanu's story has been reprinted by
several organizations who worked with her.15 Sanu's parents were
migrants from Bara district in south-central Nepal who had come to
Kathmandu to work in a carpet factory. Sanu's parents placed her in a
small boarding school for destitute girls near the factory, but she
was expelled for her suspected romantic involvement with the factory
manager. Back in the carpet factory, Sanu, who had just turned
fifteen, became friendly with an older girl who told her there were
better paying jobs available in a carpet factory in Raxaul, just
across the Indian border. The two girls talked it over with Sanu's
parents and decided to go to Raxaul. Sanu took a only a change of
clothes. She borrowed bus fare from her new friend.

After three days of traveling by bus and by train, the two girls
arrived in a city Sanu thought was Raxaul. It turned out to be Bombay.
The girls went directly to a building Sanu's companion said was the
carpet factory and met the manager. Sanu was told she could have a
bath; when she finished bathing, she found her friend had disappeared.
Sanu was taken to a large room with five beds separated by curtains.
She was given a nightgown and her clothes were taken away. Several
older girls wearing thick make-up came into the room with men and drew
the curtains behind them. The noise the couples made frightened Sanu.
Then one of the men she had seen at the entrance to the building came
into the room and ordered Sanu to go to bed with him. When she
refused, he raped her and beat her for resisting. For the next week,
Sanu was subjected to repeated rapes and beatings by brothel guards --
a "breaking in" period that is routine in many brothels. After a week
of this abuse, she stopped fighting and began taking customers. Sanu
was told she could leave the brothel when she repaid the Rs.50,000
[$1,666] the proprietor claimed had been paid to her parents.

"Santhi"

In addition to actual recruitment from the factories, false offers of
employment in Nepal's carpet factories are a common ruse used to
entice potential recruits. In an interview with Human Rights Watch/
Asia in March 1994, "Santhi", age twenty-nine, told interviewers that
after she was tricked into going to India by traffickers who offered
her work in a carpet factory, she spent more than ten years in Bombay
brothels before finally making her way back to Nepal. In Bombay, she
contracted HIV.

Santhi, who returned to Nepal in 1991 after more than ten years in a
series of brothels in Bombay, ran away from her home in Sindhupalchowk
when she wasa teenager. She went to Kathmandu where she first found
work as a domestic servant. A male cousin came to Kathmandu to visit
her and offered to help her get a job in a carpet factory in Birganj,
a town on the Indian border. He told her that if she worked in the
factory for two months she would begin earning a salary. Santhi left
the house where she had been working and went with him. They travelled
by bus, and then by train and then by taxi, going from Kathmandu to
Birganj to Bombay. Midway, they were joined by an older man whom
Santhi did not know.

When they reached Bombay they stopped in a park. Santhi was told to
wait with her cousin. The older man left them in the park, and
returned with a woman he introduced as his sister and said that they
should go with her. They all got in a taxi and went to a house. Santhi
was put in one room and the men were given another. That was the last
time she saw them. Santhi found out later that a month after she
arrived in Bombay, her cousin took her sister from their village and
brought her to Bombay as well. Her sister and she were bought by the
same person, but were kept in different brothels.

Marriage Offers

Fraudulent marriage offers are another common ruse employed by
recruiters. In some cases, the traffickers actually go through a
marriage ceremony. In others, the marriage offer itself is enough to
lure a woman away from home. A police officer in Butwal told Human
Rights Watch/Asia that in 1989 he arrested a very handsome youth in
Jhapa district in eastern Nepal who had trafficked nine girls to
Bombay by marrying them. He took each to Bombay and abandoned them in
a crowd. An accomplice would then approach them, offer to help them
find the missing young man and lead them to a brothel. The following
case is typical of this kind of deception.

"Sita"

"Sita", thirty-one, returned from India in October 1993 after working
for ten years in a Bombay brothel. She is a high-caste Hindu from a
small village in Tanahu District, near Pokhara. Sita was married when
she was fourteen. After two years of marriage, she became pregnant and
her husband went to India in search of work. Her in-laws mistreated
her so Sita returned to her parents' home. In 1983, when she was
twenty and her son was four, a neighbor (who was also a relative and a
close friend of Sita's) commented that Sita's husband had been gone a
long timeand probably was not coming back. She asked Sita if she would
be willing to remarry, because there was a man from India who wanted
to marry her.

Soon after, the neighbor came to the house and told Sita that the man
from India was waiting for her on the bridge at the main road and that
he wanted to elope. It was around noon; Sita told her family she was
going to the fields to work and went instead to the bridge, perhaps
ten minutes away. She brought her son with her.

The man was waiting for Sita as the neighbor had said. They caught a
bus to Pokhara, the nearest town. In Pokhara he offered Sita a
cigarette. Sita said she had learned to smoke from a friend in the
village and so she took it. After smoking the cigarette, she remembers
very little and thinks she may have passed out. Sita said she
remembers boarding another bus and then waking up in a large cement
room with a ceiling fan and three beds with curtains around them. The
door was closed. There were six or seven other women in the room and
she asked them where she was, but they spoke to her in a language she
did not understand.

The man who brought her there took Sita's son and said he would show
him around town. They never returned. Sita was frantic. She wanted to
go out and search for them, but the owner, a woman from eastern Nepal,
told her she had been sold to a brothel and could not leave. Sita
never saw her son again.

Sita escaped to Nepal in October 1993 with the help of a Nepali
vegetable seller she befriended in the brothel. Everyone in her
village thought she was dead. When Sita returned to Nepal, she was
afraid to go directly home -- worried her family would not accept her
-- so she sent a message from Pokhara saying she had returned. It was
the time of the Teej festival, when married daughters return to their
home villages to visit their families. Everyone in the village came to
the place where she was staying and hugged her and cried. Sita lives
in her parents' home, where we were able to interview her. She says
her family treats her well, because they know she was taken to India
against her will. According to a lawyer familiar with her case, her
brothers are less welcoming, and Sita may face problems when her
elderly parents die.

Abductions

Simple abductions also occur, although they are less common than cases
of fraud. Several women mentioned that they, or other women in the
brothels where they worked, had been drugged by their abductors.

"Devi"

"Devi," age twenty-seven, lives with her parents in a small house in a
village on the outskirts of Pokhara. She is a high-caste Hindu. Devi
is married, but her estranged husband is said to be working in Korea,
and she has not heard from him in years. Devi was trafficked to India
in early June 1993. She returned to Nepal in December 1993. During
that time, she was sold to three different brothels in less than four
months because she refused customers and repeatedly tried to escape.
When she finally did escape she worked in a textile factory for three
months before the owner of the factory brought her home.

Devi was taken to India by neighbors, a mother and daughter, whom she
knew quite well. They told her that they had to go to a market far
from their village to pick up something and asked her to come along.
Devi often went places with them, but usually they travelled by bus.
That day there was a taxi waiting for them. They travelled a long way,
and it was very late when they finally arrived in Badi Bazaar. They
got in another taxi and arrived at a village house like her own. She
was put in a room and the door was locked. Devi had no idea where she
was.

A woman called Nithu told Devi that the woman she came with had gone
out and would be back later, but she never came back. After three
nights, Nithu made Devi travel with her by taxi and then train to
another town. When Devi pleaded with her to let her go, she was told
"No, you have been sold and have to work. All Nepali girls have to
work."

Devi was taken to a room where she saw five girls from Pokhara whom
she knew and four others. She asked the other girls there to help her
escape, and eight days later when the brothel owner found out, Devi
was sold to another brothel. After three or four days she attempted to
escape again, this time by appealing to a Nepali client for help. She
was overheard by another girl in the brothel who informed the owner.
Devi was sold late that night to a third brothel. There were underage
girls in all the brothels in which she worked. In the first two the
average age was fifteen or sixteen. In the third brothel there were
fifty girls and women of all ages; the two youngest were fourteen.
Devi was never told how much the first two owners paid for her. The
last owner told her she had paid Rs.40,000 [$1,333] for her and that
she would have to work it off.

"Kamala"

"Kamala", age twenty-six, returned to Nepal in September 1993 after
spending nine years in India. She was drugged and abducted by her
stepfather's elder brother and his son and trafficked to India when
she was seventeen. Kamala had been visiting her uncle and his three
children, who lived in Biratnager, a town very near the Indian border.
Once when she was visiting he suggested that theymake a trip to
Jogvani. The uncle, his wife and eldest son went along. Along the way
they stopped for tea. Kamala was given milk. The milk smelled bad, but
she drank it anyway. The next thing she remembers is waking up
slightly on a train and then perhaps again in a taxi. When she really
woke up she was in a big hall with a lot of lights, which turned out
to be a hotel lobby, but she does not know the name of the hotel.

Her cousin and uncle were with her. They told her that they needed to
go to the bank and left her alone in the hotel lobby. While they were
gone Kamala overheard two men speaking Hindi; they were talking about
taking someone to a brothel. She asked the men what they were talking
about and who they were taking to a brothel. She asked where her
relatives had gone. The men told her she had been sold. She started to
cry and said that it was impossible, she did not believe it. They
asked her if she could read and when she said she could (she had
studied up to the seventh standard), they showed her a receipt for Rs.
40,000.

The hotel owner told her that this was not the first time her uncle
and cousin had brought girls there. They had brought two other girls
previously -- one was Nepali, one looked Indian and was from the
Terai.

The men tried to put her in a taxi. She said she had to go to the
toilet first and a small boy showed her where it was. She locked
herself in and would not come out. She said she was able to lock
herself in because the hotel owner did not know she was there and
there were a number of stalls, so she hid. That was at about 9:00 p.m.
She hid in the toilet until about 4:00 a.m. By then she was sure the
men had given up. She slipped out of the hotel and escaped. She was
taken in by a woman who lived in a nearby slum who got her a job as a
domestic servant in the home of a couple who worked at a hospital. But
as is the case with many domestic workers, her employers "held" her
salary for her so that when she left their service, she had no money.
It took Kamala nine years working as a domestic servant in two
different households to make her way back to Nepal.

The Routes

The trafficking industry in Nepal is remarkable not only because it
represents the work of large and well-organized criminal gangs and
preys on very young victims, but also because the villages from which
girls and women are trafficked are so remote. Most are far from the
nearest road. Much of the journey from the hill villages to Kathmandu,
which can take more than two days, must be covered on foot over rugged
mountain paths. Villagers say that despite this, it is not uncommon
for traffickers to travel these paths on nights with a full moon
withseveral girls in tow. Police intervention is extremely rare. From
their villages, girls are first taken to Kathmandu, either to guest
houses or carpet factories, and from there to border towns like
Birganj, Kakarbhitta, Bhairawaha or Biratnagar where they are sold to
brokers. The going rate is said to be about one thousand Nepali rupees
[$20].

Girls abducted from the Terai and eastern Nepal are usually taken
directly to the border. The brokers then travel by bus or by train to
India -- to Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi or to smaller cities -- and sell
these girls to a brothel owner or madam for up to Rs.50,000 [$1,666].
According to researchers in Kathmandu, most brokers travel by local
bus to Delhi, and then by bus or train to Bombay. Buses, they say, are
preferred because they are less obvious than trains.

Local police in Birganj told Human Rights Watch/Asia that although
their town was a well-known border crossing for traffickers, the
routes change frequently:

Lately, the girls have changed their route. Now they go through Gaur
and Thori (to the east and west of Birganj respectively), two places
with minimal Nepali customs and some Indian customs police who are not
very vigilant.

Activists note that trafficking routes also appear to be changing with
migration to the Terai. While there is still much trafficking from the
hills of the Bagmati zone, as families migrate in search of work, more
girls are being sold from urban areas and villages along the
highways.

IN THE BROTHELS

Nepali women in India's red-light areas remain largely segregated in
brothels located in what are known to their Indian counterparts and
their customers as "Nepali kothas" or compounds. The concentrations of
Nepalis vary from city to city, but appear to be highest in the Bombay
neighborhood of Kamathipura. Brothels vary by size, physical
configuration, ethnicity of sex workers, and price. But in all cases,
movement outside the brothels is strictly controlled, and inmates are
subjected to both psychological and physical abuse. The cheapest
brothels, nothing more than dark, claustrophobic rooms with cloth
dividers hung between the beds, are known among Nepalis as "pillow
houses." About one-fifth of all Bombay's brothel workers, or
approximately 20,000 women, work in squalid brothels like these on
numbered lanes (or gallis) in Kamathipura. Certain lanes, likethe 11th
and the 13th, are known particularly as Nepali gallis.16 Many
customers seek out Nepali prostitutes specifically, because of their
looks and their exotic reputations.

The segregation of Nepali girls and women in these gallis exposes them
to a wider range of clients, and a wider and more unpredictable range
of sexual expectations, treatment, and disease. Nepalis are sought out
by customers who think their "golden" skin make them more attractive.
Brothel owners say Nepalis' faces and bodies stay youthful longer. The
Nepalis also suffer from a reputation of sexual compliance among both
Indian sex workers and customers, who say Nepalis engage in higher-
risk sexual acts, such as anal intercourse and sado-masochistic sex,
than their Indian counterparts, who may have more control over the
terms of sexual contact. Consequently, kotha managers and their
clients view Nepali women in prostitution as a special case, and
madams routinely receive special requests for Nepalis. Foreigners from
outside India, particularly the Middle East, are also said to view
Nepalis as special within the sex industry.

Most girls and women start out in these cheap brothels where they are
"broken in" through a process of rapes and beatings. They are
frequently then resold to other brothels where they can bring in more
money for the owner. Some women are also resold as punishment for
escape attempts. An activist in Nepal who has counselled many returned
prostitutes related what he knew of the Indian brothel system.

There are several grades of prostitutes, based on beauty, hard work,
"talent." The top are call girls. Then comes "bungalow," which is a
higher grade of regular brothel, then comes "pillow house," which is
the lowest. Most girls start out in pillow house and work up if they
do well....Some girls receive training, how to approach customers,
languages. During training girls are beaten and locked in a room like
a jail, but a very small one, until they stop fighting. At first a
girl gets two or three clients a day, then it escalates.... In pillow
house girls can have as many as forty customers a day. But they earn
no money until they havepaid off their debt. After they have paid off
their debt, one part of their earnings goes to gharwali, one part to
"local taxes," and one part to herself.

It is one or two years before a girl is allowed out of the brothel and
then, after they have confidence she won't try to escape, she is
allowed to go to the cinema or shopping with a guard from the
brothel....If a girl manages to escape, she is illiterate, she knows
nothing about the city. She will fall victim to local people or the
police.

Both psychological and physical means are used to "break in" new girls
purchased for the brothels. Indian activist Preeti Pai Patkar of the
organization Prerana (inspiration), which works for Bombay sex
workers' rights, told Human Rights Watch/Asia that there were special
interior lanes in areas like Falkland Road in Bombay where rooms and
even whole buildings were maintained especially for torturing newly-
procured women. Younger girls and children are reportedly hidden in
attic spaces in these buildings.

Psychological abuse, threats and intimidation are an integral part of
the process and are used exclusively with girls who are purchased as
virgins and can therefore be sold for higher prices if their
"training" does not include rape. This psychological abuse continues
well beyond the first customer, however, with brothel staff using
conflicting messages to break down the victim's resistance and build
dependency. A common tactic involves certain brothel staff treating
the victim abusively, telling her repeatedly that she is dirty or
defiled, for example, while another -- often the gharwali herself --
consoles her and tells her that she is among family.17

When the psychological approach does not work, the brothel staff
resorts to physical abuse, or allows customers to do so. This abuse
can include beatings, gang rapes, and torture with burning
cigarettes.

Debt Bondage

Debt bondage, prohibited under The Supplementary Convention on the
Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices
Similar to Slavery, is defined as a situation in which debtors pledge
their personal services against a debt they owe, but the person to
whom they owe it fails to deduct the value of their services from the
debt, or the length and nature of those services are not respectively
limited and defined.18 The debt bondage which supports the trafficking
nexus is also tantamount to forced labor, defined by the ILO as, "All
work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of
any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself
voluntarily." Slavery and forced labor are prohibited by other
international law19 and under Nepali and Indian laws. India enacted
the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in 1976 which outlaws all
forms of bonded and slave labor. In addition, article 374 of the
Indian Penal Code makes it a crime to compel unlawfully any person to
labor against his or her will.

Every Nepali girl or woman with whom we spoke said that the brothel
owner or manager forced her to work by invoking her indebtedness. This
supposed debt, and the threats and beatings that accompanied it, were
the major obstacles between her and the possibility of freedom. For
most of the women interviewed, the debt was the amount of money the
brothel owner said she paid a broker when the girl was purchased, plus
the costs of medical care and protection money or payoffs to police
and local thugs. Men interviewed in Nepal who were familiar with the
brothel system said the girls were also charged 10 percent interest on
their purchase price.

The Delhi-based welfare organization, Bharatiya Patita Udhar Sabha,
charged in a 1993 letter to the Home Minister that some madams in
Delhi even compelled girls to sign forms stating that they were
voluntarily working as maid servants and also as bonded laborers until
they repaid the loans they had purportedly undertaken. Although
occasionally the gharwali may pay for food, clothes and medicine,
these costs are frequently added to the debts. In any case, a girl's
indebtedness to the gharwali is based on the gharwali's own expenses.
For example, a gharwali who has paid Rs.15,000 [$500] to purchase a
girl, plus an additional Rs.5,000 [$166] to the police so she will not
be arrested under theImmoral Traffic in Persons Prevention Act of 1986
(ITPPA), would calculate the girl's "debt" at Rs. 20,000 [$666], plus
interest. The owners then take one hundred percent of her earnings
until that amount is paid off.

A woman's earnings depend on the type of brothel in which she is
employed, her age and appearance, and the nature of the sex acts she
is compelled to perform. Devi said that all the women and girls where
she worked were dependent on tips for food to supplement the meager
meals provided by the brothel, but that as a newcomer without regular
customers, and an older woman at that, she got few tips. Devi told
Human Rights Watch/Asia that although she was never allowed to handle
any money in the pillow houses where she worked, she heard from other
women that the owners charged Rs.30 [$1] for five minutes. In the
bungalow, where she took the money from customers beforehand and
turned it over to the management, the rate was Rs.110 [$3.66], again
for a very short time.

A villager in Nuwakot district who had travelled to Bombay several
times told Human Rights Watch/Asia that in his experience a typical
pillow house charged Rs.50 [$1.66] for fifteen minutes, and that a
woman earned between Rs.1500-2500 [$50-83] a day which she turned over
to the owner. In a day she might have more than twenty-five customers
and she could earn small tips of Rs. 2-5 [five to fifteen cents] from
customers. A bungalow-style brothel charged about Rs.100 [$3.33] for
an hour and the girls kept the tips.

Although most business is conducted in the brothel, and is charged by
the minute or hour, customers can pay extra to take women outside.20
For Rs. 500-1000 [$16-$33] a girl will be sent to a client's house or
a hotel for the night. If a customer buys a woman's services for a
longer period her debt resumes upon her return. For example, one
Bombay customer paid Rs.12,000 [$400] and kept a woman in his home for
two weeks. He returned her to the brothel, where she worked to repay
the remaining debt.

A girl who has managed to escape, but finds that she has no way to
support herself may negotiate her return to a gharwali, resulting in a
fifty-fifty division of her earnings. Sometimes the woman attaches
herself to a local thug to support her in her negotiations with the
gharwali. However, this type of an agreement frequently results in
indebtedness of a different sort, since the girl is often convinced to
take a loan from the gharwali to see herself through.

None of the Nepali girls or women we interviewed knew about the
monetary arrangements between the brothel owner, the agents and their
families. Because the women did not know how much money had been
exchanged or how much they earned, they did not know the amount of
their debt. But all were frequently reminded that they had to work to
pay off their debts, and many were threatened or beaten for not
earning enough.

· "Santhi" said she worked in three low-grade brothels or "pillow
houses" and one fancier brothel commonly called a "bungalow." In the
pillow house she had fifteen to twenty customers a day and, except for
regulars, customers paid Rs.15 [50 cents] for five minutes. She also
worked for four months in a bungalow which charged Rs.100-Rs.300 [$3-
$10] per hour. Some customers would pay to take the girls out all
night, or sometimes for days at a time. If they were taken out to a
hotel they were paid at least Rs.1,000 [$33.]. Although Santhi does
not know how much she was originally sold for, she was told that each
time she was sold it was for a higher price. None of the owners ever
told her how much she had to repay, but the brothel managers kept
track of how many customers each girl served per day and claimed to
figure that against their debt.

Some of the women had a vague understanding that they would have to
work for a specific length of time to pay off the debt, and that there
was an agreed-upon amount of payment given at the end of the time. We
were told both by returnees from brothels and other people from their
villages that there were rules in Bombay brothels about how long girls
should work and how much they would be paid. But although this was a
persistent rumor, none of the girls we spoke with earned anything like
the amounts typically mentioned, or knew anyone who had.21

· "Santhi" had heard there was a rule that the brothel can keep you
three years, but after three years they have to give you Rs.20,000
[$666], gold and clothes. But they did not give heranything like that.
Most of the money she brought out with her was her tips, and she
managed to send a box of clothes to her father. After she was there
seven years, her father came to see her, but the owner said she had to
stay another two years before she could leave. After two more years,
her father came to the brothel and brought her out. When she left the
brothel she was given Rs.5,000 [$166] which she turned over to her
father.

· "Sita" was told that she had to pay off her purchase price of Rs.
20,000 [$666], and that was used to force her to work when she did not
want to. She worked in the same brothel for ten years and was never
told she had paid off her debt.22 She told Human Rights Watch/Asia,
"Nobody was allowed to leave after four years like people say they
are." Sita had no idea what the brothel charged her customers because
the money was given to the owner. She had nine or ten customers a day
and worked from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sometimes customers gave the girls
tips, which they were allowed to keep. The owner provided one meal a
day and they had to pay for the second meal with their tip money. They
also had to pay for clothes and make-up with tip money they saved. The
owner paid for treatment at a private clinic when they were sick, and
added it to their debt. They received injections once a month, but
Sita did not know what they were for, and they were given pills to
induce abortions. The price of the monthly injections was also added
to their debt.

According to "Maya," brothel inmates got about five days leave after
an abortion before they had to start working again. One woman she knew
had abortedtwice. The cost of abortions, plus interest, was added to
the debt. One owner said that the abortions had cost her Rs.1,000
[$33] each time and then charged interest on top of it, increasing the
woman's debt by Rs.4,000 [$133].

In addition to the money earned by parents from the sale of their
daughters (a few hundred rupees if she is sold to a local recruiter,
or several thousand if the family sells her directly to a broker),
male relatives also make periodic trips to India to collect the girls'
earnings. In villages in places like Nuwakot and Sindhupalchowk, if a
village has several women in Bombay brothels, a prominent member of
the village may be appointed to travel to India, collect the money
they earn and bring it back to their parents. For the girls, this
means that not only are they under pressure to pay off their debt to
the brothel owner, but out of whatever earnings they do receive, in
the form of tips primarily, they are expected to help support their
families.

Illegal Confinement

There are other aspects of the work in brothels which reinforce its
non-voluntary nature. One of these is illegal confinement. Debt
bondage is enforced by the near total confinement of the women and
girls to the brothel premises. Women and girls are generally not
allowed to leave the brothel or its immediate surroundings without
escorts and are threatened with a range of consequences, including
arrest by the Indian police or capture by other brothel owners, should
they attempt to do so. The women and girls we interviewed explained
that they would be beaten severely if they tried to escape.23

With few exceptions, the Nepali women are unable to communicate with
anyone outside of the brothel and some are even forbidden to take
Nepali clients out of fear that the latter might be more likely to
help the women escape. Even conversation with customers is sometimes
forbidden. A villager in Nuwakot who was familiar with Bombay's
brothels told Human Rights Watch/Asia, "Only girls who pay off their
'loan,' have gone on a holiday to their village and come back, are
allowed to leave the brothel alone. Before that they are not allowed
out alone."

In Sita's case, no one in the brothel was allowed to go out
unescorted. Everything was brought by vendors into the brothel to sell
-- food, clothes, evenvideos. They were allowed no contact with their
families. Sita, who could not read or write herself, said that none of
the women in the brothel were permitted to write or to have pens and
paper. Santhi also stated that the girls in her brothels were never
allowed out for fear they would run away. Everything was brought to
the house, and shopkeepers charged very high prices.

None of the interviewees were in regular communication with their
families, none were from villages with telephones and several were
illiterate. One woman was lucky enough to find a customer who was
willing to send word to her family. A Nepali man she met in the
brothel wrote a letter to her family telling them what had happened to
her, and her brother went to Bombay to try and see her there, but he
was not allowed to do so. Her family then brought charges against her
trafficker, who was arrested and then released on bail after a month
and a half. The case was proceeding, but she was not informed of its
progress.

Fear of beatings, arrest or recapture by other brothel agents keeps
many girls from trying to escape. Devi stated that the brothel had a
window so that all the girls could be observed by the management. When
she was seen trying to escape, she was beaten. Whenever there was a
police raid the owner would hide all the girls; those who tried to
come out would be beaten. Devi said that only newcomers tried to run
away; the older ones would not try to escape. "Maybe they know that
those who run away would be sold to another brothel by men on the
street, so they don't run." The girls were also afraid of the police.
In September or October 1993, a girl who had escaped was taken into
custody and raped by the police. The next day the police brought her
back to the brothel and told the owner to bring out all the new girls
and leave only the "licensed" ones. The owner gave the police Rs.
10,000 [$333,] and they went away.

Working Conditions

Tips provide the only source of income for most newcomers to the
brothels. Without tips, girls are entirely dependent on the brothel
owner for food, sometimes only one meal a day, and the women have to
supplement the meager food and clothing provided by the brothel by
using their own tips. Most owners permit girls to keep tips, which
amount to only a few rupees per customer, but in some cases even this
avenue of earning is restricted.

· For the first two or three years "Santhi" was in the brothels she
was forbidden to ask for tips. In one house where she worked, the
girls were supposed to give the owner any tips they received.They were
made to swear in front of the brothel altar that they would not keep
tips from customers. But Santhi said the brothel owner provided only
one meal a day, in the morning, and girls would secretly hoard their
tip money to pay for an evening meal. Sometimes customers would bring
them special food, like chicken, which was a treat because meat in the
brothel was very rare. But they had to hide the food or the owner
would become angry. In one brothel where Santhi worked, girls were
only allowed to sleep in a bed if they had a customer, otherwise they
slept on the floor.

· "Devi" did not get many tips because newcomers got fewer regular
customers. The brothel owner provided them with two meals a day, but
the food was not very good. With tips they could buy tea and snacks.

· "Sita's" owner gave the women in her brothel one meal a day. They
had to pay for the second meal. They also had to pay for clothes and
make-up. For all these things they would save up their tips, and buy
from vendors who would come to the brothels and who charged very high
prices.

None of the women interviewed by Human Rights Watch/Asia was allowed
to refuse customers. In some cases they were not even allowed to speak
to them. Their days were spent waiting in line for customers or
serving them, and they were beaten and humiliated for refusing.

In the bungalow where Devi worked, the girls stood or sat in a row in
their make-up and the customers, who also stood in a queue, chose the
girl they wanted. They were given only a very short time with each
customer and sometimes, if customers tried to ask newcomers too many
questions, they ran out of time before they had time to have sex. If
the owner found out that a customer had been asking a new girl about
herself, the girl would be beaten. In the pillow houses in which Devi
worked, the day started at 8:00 a.m. and they worked until late at
night. In the bungalow, the day started at 4:00 p.m. and went until
2:00 a.m. The girls were expected to stand or sit in line the entire
time, whether or not there were customers. They were given no time
off, even when they were menstruating. Devi said the happier you made
the owners, the nicer they were to you, so sometimes if she was
menstruating she took the customer's money first and then told him she
wasmenstruating. If she was lucky, he would go away. Girls very rarely
refused a customer, because those who refused were beaten.

Sita also said the women in her brothel were not allowed to refuse
customers. They were made to sit in a room and the customers would
choose the girl they wanted. If the girls refused, they were hit and
verbally abused by the owner in front of the customer: "If you won't
go, maybe your mother will."

Besides being compelled to serve customers, brothel owners sometimes
force workers to perform personal housework or childcare chores.
Santhi said that the brothel madams lived in separate rooms with their
husbands and children. Santhi and the others were sent to clean these
rooms. Every Saturday they had to clean the room, wash the family's
clothes and bathe the children. Devi said that besides sleeping with
customers, the women and girls in the brothels were expected to do
housework for the owner, including washing the floors at the owner's
house and doing her laundry, which they brought to the brothel to
wash.

IV. THE ROLE OF THE NEPALI AND INDIAN GOVERNMENTS
Despite the fact that both Nepal and India have numerous laws
criminalizing trafficking and prescribing severe penalties for
abusers, trafficking in women and girls flourishes between the two
countries. Human Rights Watch/Asia's investigation reveals the
involvement of police and other government officials at various points
along the trafficking routes, but there has been little effort on the
part of either government to investigate charges of official
complicity or to punish those responsible.
Police demand bribes as payment for not arresting traffickers and
brothel owners, or are themselves involved in trafficking. Government
officials protect traffickers who are politically influential.

POLICE CORRUPTION AND COMPLICITY

The Bharatiya Patita Udhar Sabha, in its letter to the Home Minister
in 1993, charged that police regularly extorted large sums of money in
red-light areas in the name of protection -- up to Rs. 26,000 [$866]
per day in Delhi alone. The organization president, Khairati Lal
Bhola, complained that out of the Rs.55 [$1.83] paid by a customer in
one of the city's better brothels, Rs.10 [.33] went to the police. On
a daily basis, he charged, the local police station received cuts
according to rank: a constable could expect Rs.25 [$.83], a head
constable received Rs.40 [$1.33], and an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI)
received Rs.80 to Rs.100 [$2.66-$3.33]. The groups charged that the
Station House Officer (SHO) received Rs.500 [$16.66] per month, and
the district special branch police, which addresses special categories
of crimes, collected monthly payments of about Rs.300 [$10] per kotha
[brothel compound] of ten girls, and Rs.500 [$16.66] for larger kothas.
1

In the case of recently trafficked girls and women, the organization
charged that police were involved in the staged process called
"registering" the victims. In this process, the madam would notify the
police of the arrival of a new victim in her establishment and pay a
bribe for their silence. The madam routinely paid between Rs.5000 and
Rs.25,000 [$166-$833] to the police station on scale with her purchase
price. In the case of a minor, the police took their bribe from
themadam, kept the girl for a day in lock-up, and produced her in
court the next day along with a falsified First Information Report
(FIR) attesting to her adult status, thereby protecting the brothel
owner from any future charges related to the prostitution of a minor.
The released minor girl, newly registered with the authorities as
twenty-one years of age or older, would be handed back to the madam.
For this service, the madam paid the police Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000. [$16-
$33] Sometimes the girl was given falsified papers and brought before
the magistrate on a trumped-up charge of seduction in a public place,
and handed back to the madam on payment of a fine of about Rs. 1000
[$33] for her release. Thus, for a fee, the madam is assured of police
collusion in keeping the trafficking victim captive, while the
performance of a few legal routines protects the police from
complaints of negligence.

In the words of one Indian journalist:

The entry of Nepalese girls into the flesh market is an ingeniously
conceived mouse-trap. The exchange of money takes place under the eyes
of the girl. A pimp in the G.B. Road area was fairly glib about it.
"The money is paid to the concerned area's cops for registering an FIR
(so that if the girl is a minor, her age is entered as 18 officially),
and a fine of Rs. 1,000 is paid to the magistrate for her release --
the charge is fabricated as seduction in a public place."

This total cost of the transaction, including a heavy packet for the
police --is entered by the "madam" of the brothel in her ever-
thickening notebook as "karz" (debt) on the girl, which she will,
through selling her body, repay along with 10 percent interest. Thus,
she has to work for five or six years in the brothel as no-wage
worker, after which she can save and send back home something.2

The testimony of Devi, Tara and other women interviewed by Human
Rights Watch/Asia supported charges of police collusion with pimps and
brothel owners to profit from the trafficking and arrest of minor
girls. Judging from Devi's testimony, the Bombay police also appear to
participate in a similar "registration" or "licensing" charade to that
described in Delhi's red-light areas.

Bharatiya Patita Udhar Sabha also charged that to set up a new
brothel, large amounts of money ranging from Rs. 50,000 [$1,666] and
Rs. 200,000 [$6,666] had to be paid to the police. The purchase of a
new kotha of fifty or more inmates by a well-to-do owner required a
police payoff of about Rs. 300,000 [$10,000].3

While they know that police corruption occurs, the trafficking victims
themselves are often kept in the dark about the details of these
transactions. "Padma" said she thought that the Criminal Investigation
Department (CID) at Marwari Chowk and Dilli Darbar (neighborhood
police stations in Bombay) were each paid Rs. 60 per month. She said
that CID cars came by the brothel every five or six months, and that
fines of Rs.100 [$3.33] had to be paid by the brothel keeper for each
girl they picked up in order to get them released.

The "Tulasa case" of 1982, which involved the rescue of a young Nepali
girl who was abducted into the brothels of Bombay and subsequently
infected with multiple sexually-transmitted diseases, first revealed
to the general Indian public the extent of police complicity in
trafficking from Nepal into India. In 1982, a thirteen-year-old girl,
Tulasa, was abducted by an acquaintance from her home village of
Thankut, near Kathmandu, and smuggled into Bombay via the border town
of Birganj. She was beaten into submission by the acquaintance and his
colleagues. She was sold to three different brothels in Bombay, at
prices ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,500. In addition to the sex
work she was forced to do in the brothel at a minimum of three
customers per night, she was sent to various city hotels to entertain
mostly Arab customers, for Rs.180 a night. The abuse of the girl
continued until she collapsed with three venereal diseases and
tuberculosis. Rescue efforts began when she was brought to Bombay's
J.J. Hospital for treatment in November 1982. At the hospital, Tulasa
was given police protection against possible reprisals from the
prostitution industry. After a period of stay in the Dongri Remand
Home, she returned to Nepal to take up residence in the Cheshire Home
for the disabled in Jorpatti. Doctors evaluated Tulasa and found her
to be severely damaged physically and psychologically. Over the years,
she remained incoherent and rambling in her speech. She was confined
to a wheelchair and complained that her stomach hurt all the time, and
that she could not go to the toilet. Her family no longer visited her.
In 1994 Tulasa broke her leg in a suicide attempt.

Tulasa's story supported what everyone in the business understood as
the norm: police were involved in the highly organized and systematic
business of trafficking. One of the leaders of the team that rescued
Tulasa, Dr. I.S.Gilada of the Indian Health Organisation (IHO), noted
the help of the then Police Commissioner and the local police station
in the arrest of thirty-two persons -- including three brothel owners
-- implicated in Tulasa's ordeal, and concluded that the police had
known all along what was transpiring in the trafficking industry.4

The IHO's records on the Tulasa case demonstrate the longevity of
several patterns of trafficking which Human Rights Watch/Asia has
documented in Nepal and India to date, notably: abduction carried out
on home ground in Nepal, violence used to break down the trafficking
victim, exchange of money at all levels of trafficking transactions,
victim's high-level exposure to disease and lack of medical treatment,
and complicity of police and other governmental authorities at various
levels in Nepal as well as in India.

Activists attribute the successful prosecution and stiff penalties
given in Tulasa's case to the wide publicity accompanying her rescue
and rehabilitation. Tulasa's abductors were given twenty years in
prison. Following the public outcry, the governments of India and
Nepal signed a 1985 cooperation agreement addressing the rescue and
repatriation of Nepali girls trafficked into brothels in India.5

THE RESPONSE OF THE COURTS

The Indian courts have occasionally recognized official complicity in
the sex trade. For example, in February 1994, a division bench of the
Supreme Court found two police officers -- Additional Superintendent
of Police Pratap Singh and Circle Officer B. K. Chaturvedi -- in Uttar
Pradesh guilty of contempt for disobeying the court's December 1993
order to rescue a twenty-year-old woman named Nasreen from a local red-
light area after it had been shown that her husband had sold her into
prostitution, and that she had been kept captive with police
collusion. Two other police officers, Senior Superintendent of Police
R. N. Kataria and Sub-Inspector Prempal Singh, were ordered to show
cause for lying to the court. The court also warned the police against
intimidating and harassing Nasreen's family, which had filed the
initial complaint. Nasreen's mother had contended that the police
refused to act when she first approached them, and in fact one officer
demanded a bribe of Rs. 4,000 before throwing her out of the police
station. Court proceedings showed that the police colluded in moving
Nasreen out of the red-light area and across state lines until the
Supreme Court ordered that she be produced. Chief Justice M.N.
Venkatachalliah was reported to have opined that harassment "seems to
be the police culture," and expressed determination to impose
"constitutional culture on the police force." However, the court did
let off several police officers and constables on their unconditional
apology, including Senior Superintendent of Police Mr. Jamal Ashraf,
Deputy Superintendent of Police S. N. Singh, and Inspector S. N. Yadav.
6

In the November 1993 disposal of a twelve-year-old case, Justice G. N.
Ray of the Indian Supreme Court noted that important local politicians
were involved in trafficking in the Morena-Dholpur zone which falls in
three states, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The case
under review had been filed ten years earlier, when a journalist
proved the ease with which women could be bought and sold by
purchasing a woman called Kamala and subsequently writing about it. At
the time, the deputy inspector general of the Criminal Investigation
Department had submitted a report in which he had asked that
sympathetic police officers posted in the sex market areas ought to be
given an assurance that they would not be transferred out for at least
three years. The report maintained that this was necessary to prevent
interference in the police officers'work from politicians and other
influential persons who were involved in the sex trade.7

POLICE RAIDS IN INDIA

Activists and trafficked women told Human Right Watch/Asia that
although police harassment of commercial sex workers in Bombay was
commonplace, the Bombay police rarely undertook formal raids or
"rescues" in the city's red-light districts. Activist Preeti Pai
Patkar said that when these raids did occur, they appeared to be made
to fulfil police quotas or to carry out political vendettas. She
thought international pressure also sometimes led to raids, but that
on the whole women in prostitution were viewed as criminals by the
police and by society at large and were not thought worthy of extra
rescue efforts.

Police in Bombay maintained that they did conduct regular raids on
brothels, although high-level criminal cases took precedence.8 But
most law enforcement against prostitution appears to be aimed at the
arrest of individual sex workers for solicitation and other public
offenses, rather than against traffickers, brothels owners or pimps. A
press report from March 1993 estimated that more than forty women were
charged every week under Section 110 of the Bombay Police Act in the
jurisdiction of the Victoria Terminus Railway Station for misbehavior
in a public place.9 Figures for the total number of brothel raids and
prosecutions of individuals for trafficking and brothel keeping have
not been made public by Bombay's Vigilance Cell [ vice squad] since
the mid-1980s, but statistics in a widely-referred-to study by
sociologist Jean D'Cunha in 1986 indicated that between 1980 and 1985,
almost six times as many women were arrested for soliciting and
"indecent behavior" as men or women were for trafficking, pimping or
running brothels. According to police records, during that five-year
period, 44,663 women were arrested for "indecent behavior" under
Section 110(b) of the Bombay Police Act, and an estimated 7,600 were
arrested under Sections 7 and 8of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic
in Women and Girls Act of 1956 (SITA) which prohibit soliciting and
prostitution "in or near a public place." (Of those arrests, 6,845
were confirmed by the authorities; statistics for women arrested under
Section 8(b) for 1980 were not available, but the average number of
arrests per year for the following four years was 830.)10 In contrast,
of the 409 brothel keepers arrested between 1981 and 1985, only two
were convicted. One was fined Rs. 150 or one day of rigorous
imprisonment; the other was fined Rs. 10. In all, 469 brothel keepers
and 1,116 pimps were arrested between 1980 and 1985 under SITA and the
Bombay Police Act respectively; 304 "procurers" were also arrested
under SITA between 1980 and 1984.11

...To be continued...

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/India.htm

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Team Gadkari looks lacklustre
17 Mar 2010, 0214 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: A little less than a month after he formally took over as
BJP president, Mr Nitin Gadkari announced his team of office-bearers
and national executive here on Tuesday. In keeping with the party’s
new mantra, he has given 33% representation to women, but was
hamstrung with the acute talent deficit and pulls and pressures from
various quarters, including the RSS and the top brass, in preparing
the list.

A look at the composition of the new team would make it obvious that
the notorious ‘quota system’ — so far associated only with Congress,
with each top leader managing to get his nominees squeezed in — has
found its way into the BJP too. Members identified with front-ranking
leaders have been given more-than-adequate representation.

If the new BJP president was expected to announce a team capable of
taking on a youthful, resurgent Congress led by Mr Rahul Gandhi, it
has been belied. While a few fresh, younger faces have been inducted
in Mr Gadkari’s team, his task of building a team for the future has
been rendered that much more difficult by his failure to look beyond
the pool that was already available before him.

Thus, many leaders who failed to make their mark in the previous team
have been included in the new list of office-bearers. Also, leaders
whose performances were dubbed as disastrous in their respective home
states have been rehabilitated at the national level, lending credence
to the perception that Mr Gadkari did not exactly have a free
hand.

After holding wide-ranging consultations, the BJP president came out
with a list of 39 office-bearers. It includes, besides Mr Gadkari, 11
vice-presidents (two slots have been left vacant), 10 general
secretaries and 15 secretaries.While Mr Ram Lal has been retained as
general secretary in-charge of organisation, Mr Anant Kumar, Mr Vijay
Goel and Mr Thawar Chand Gehlot, who were there in the previous team,
too have been given a fresh innings.

Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, former Jharkhand
chief minister Arjun Munda, Mr J P Nadda, minister for parliamentary
affairs,
forests and environment in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh BJP chief
Narendra Singh Tomar, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, secretary in the previous
team, and Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad are the new general
secretaries.

In what is being considered as recognition of his performance, Mr
Prasad will also be the chief spokesman of BJP. He will be assisted by
six more spokespersons, including Mr Prakash Javadekar and Mr Rajiv
Pratap Rudy, who were performing the job in the previous regime too.
The new spokespersons include former Union minister Syed Shahnawaz
Hussain, former Rajya Sabha member Ramnath Kovind, former Organiser
editor Tarun Vijay and Ms Nirmala Sitharaman, a party leader hailing
from Andhra Pradesh.

While former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar and Mr
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will continue as vice-presidents, Mr Vinay Katiyar
has been elevated. The new vice-presidents are former Uttarakhand
chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Rajya Sabha member Najma
Heptullah, Lok Sabha member Bijoya Chakravarti, former MPs Karuna
Shukla and Hema Malini, Bihar MLC Kiran Ghai and former Gujarat BJP
chief Purushottam Rupala.

There will be 15 secretaries, including popular TV actress Smriti
Irani, Lok Sabha members Varun Gandhi, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Saroj
Pande, former Union ministers Santosh Gangwar, Ashok Pradhan and Kirit
Somaiya, former MPs Tapir Gao and Kiran Maheshwari and Mr Murlidhar
Rao. Former Delhi mayor Arati Mehra too has been made a secretary. Mr
Piyush Goyal is the new treasurer.

The party’s central parliamentary board, the top policy-making body,
has been left more or less untouched, with Mr Gadkari being the only
new member. The president simultaneously released the new list of
national executive comprising 81 members. It includes 26 women. The
chief ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal
Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttarakhand and the deputy chief ministers of
Bihar and Jharkhand have been named as permanent invitees.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Team-Gadkari-looks-lacklustre/articleshow/5692141.cms

Political yoga: A new phase in our democracy
17 Mar 2010, 0619 hrs IST, ET Bureau

It is a rather curious mix, our ready veneration of sundry godmen and
the equally-prompt readiness to push them off their pedestals when we
find
that they, well, aren’t so godly after all. Perhaps we haven’t yet got
to the stage where we can quite accept that men and matters spiritual
can really have anything to do with the material world.

Or, rather, we feel a greater sense of betrayal when that supposedly
personalised link to the spirit-realm turns out to have baser
moorings. A bit unlike other parts of the world, where godmen or cults
openly make a virtue out of, what for us, are vices. No experiments,
for us, sorry. Thus the scorn heaped upon the one who was recently
supposedly taped frolicking with an actress.

His excuses that he was in some sort of trance or merely
‘experimenting’ with stuff didn’t quite wash. We like our trances to
be more unearthly, thank you. But that does posit the curious
phenomenon of our preoccupation with such godmen . Perhaps the search
for deliverance, some sort of sense of agency.

Sure, there are any number of genuine worthies, people who really can
be what they say they are. But then, the whole thing is also open to
abuse. Just consider the number of such people over the years who have
come crashing to the ground, or are behind bars now.

But deliverance is at hand: a spiritual/health guru who wants to
expand our horizons and jump into the fray to improve the lot of the
nation. In a possible first of its kind, a well-known yoga guru has
just announced his intention to form a political party. Which, given
his stress on physical exercise, might give a new twist to his stated
intention of ‘cleansing’ the wider body politic.

Well, nothing wrong with that per se, as with his calls to crack down
on fake religious gurus. This would certainly at least make a
difference from our usual spectrum of left-centre-right politics. More
like a ‘save the nation, hold your breath’ kind of situation . The age
of the political asana might be upon us.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Political-yoga-A-new-phase-in-our-democracy/articleshow/5692365.cms

Stop the Vedanta Project in Orissa
17 Mar 2010, 0617 hrs IST, ET Bureau

In the long-term interest of internal security, survival of an
endangered primitive tribe and justice and fairness , the government
should withhold
clearance to the bauxite mining project spread over Orissa’s Kalahandi
(South) and Rayagada forest divisions, proposed by minerals major
Vedanta.

The core issue is violent disruption of a tribal people’s life for the
sake of mineral extraction in a manner that would mock the ruling
ideology of inclusive growth, and give legitimacy to the Maoists.
Maoists represent themselves as the only champions of India’s
dispossessed and exploited rural masses, especially the scheduled
tribes.

The state has identified Maoists as India’s primary internal security
threat, and launched an offensive , labelled Operation Green Hunt,
against them. Its premise is that Maoists obstruct the reach of the
uplifting arms of the state as they delve deep into rural India’s
swamps of underdevelopment. If only the Maoists would step aside, in
peace or at the point of a bayonet, the state would take care of the
poor.

This claim would be blown to smithereens if the state were to
facilitate a classic case of development that impoverishes a
defenceless populace, perhaps to extinction. Vedanta’s treatment of
the Dongria Konds, who live on and off the land sought to be mined,
has led many ethics-sensitive large investors in Britain to exit the
company. A fact-finding team of the ministry of environment and
forests has come up with findings that discourage further progress in
the project.

India can progress with some of its bauxite continuing to lie
underground for some more time. India cannot progress with a growing
internal security threat, fed by the state’s failure to live up to its
commitment to the common people. One of the UPA government’s major
legislative achievements, in its previous term, was the Forest Rights
Act, whose sincere implementation would deprive Maoists of a crucial
support base.

The law is being subverted all over the country, for want of political
mobilisation in its support. The Lanjigarh bauxite mining project, if
it goes through, would be yet more subversion of a key instrumentality
of inclusive growth.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Stop-the-Vedanta-Project-in-Orissa/articleshow/5692364.cms

Sidhu in Gadkari’s team
Express News Service

Posted: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 0031 hrs
Chandigarh:

Member of Parliament (MP) from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu is among
the 15 national secretaries appointed by BJP national president Nitin
Gadkari on Tuesday. With his elevation, Sidhu will find himself in a
greater organisational responsibility as part of the core team of the
party. The Indian Express had on January 20 this year reported Sidhu’s
likely prospects of elevation to the plum post.

Navjot Sidhu’s new political assignment comes as a breather for him,
given that his equation with the BJP state leadership headed by
Rajinder Bhandari, who relinquished charge last month, has been
persistently waning. At one point, Sidhu even contemplated to quit as
an MP.

Sidhu now finds himself on this post despite the fact that his
adversaries in the saffron party have been promulgating Sidhu as a non-
cadre leader without a Sangh background. Sidhu, a three-time MP from
Amritsar, was the lone legislator from the BJP to win the Lok Sabha
seat last year.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Sidhu-in-Gadkari-s-team/591688

Ramdev may join politics, takes dig at Maya
ANI

Posted: Tuesday , Mar 16, 2010 at 1615 hrs
Lucknow:

Yoga Guru Swami Ramdev on Tuesday hinted at entering politics, saying
that he would join with the objective of cleansing the system.

"I will join politics to cleanse the system," said Ramdev. Ramdev said
he would not stand for elections personally, but would field
candidates in all 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Earlier, commenting on the giant currency garland controversy, Ramdev
criticized Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of doing business
through politics. Some people are doing business over politics," said
Ramdev.

Raising questions over the giant garland, used to honour Mayawati
during the Bahujan Samaj Party's silver jubilee celebrations on
Monday, Ramdev said, "Money that should be used for the upliftment of
Dalits is seen being worn as a garland."

40 Comments |

We are with you pls go ahead.
By: Prabhulal buj | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 9:56:45 AM

Dear, Swami Ramdev ji, we need such a great person who can take to
india's ranking No.1 in the world.I have seen almost all head
politician but I haven't seen who can lead the biggest loktantrik
country(india). The all indian politicain are corrupted.We never
expect from them that india will comes out as a devlop country in few
centuries. So I just requiest to you(Swami ji) that pls be positive we
are with you please go ahead. God bless you.

Guide Followers to believe in Democracy
By: Ganesh Singh | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 9:44:24 AM

Baba Ramdev is doing gr8 job no doubt about it. But what I think his
followers are middle class people who doesn't go for vote. The people
who vote are poor people who still leaves in villages and think of
their survival. They vote according to their casts or who ever
provides them monetary benefits. My view is that Babaji inspite of
starting his new party should guide and teach this middle class people
to believe in democracy, vote and to vote for right candidates without
any influence. If he makes new party, one more party in indian
democracy will come and divide the votes nothing else.

Good Idea
By: mukesh | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 9:43:48 AM

Hello Ramdev Baba, This is very good idea for you to handle politics
from out side. We need India purification movement and make Bharat out
of India. All the best and go ahead.

Let us Support Baba Ramdev's Cause
By: Leeladhar Sharma | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 8:22:31 AM

Baba Ramdev has tailked about practical problems being faced by the
Indian Democracy. He has identified problem areas and is planning to
cleanse the system of its evils- a huge task to to make India a less
corupt country. Honest and Hardworking people need to whole-heartedly
come together for the first and last lest it is too late.

I would vote for him
By: Asit | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 8:18:47 AM Rep

Hi four loksabha elections have been over since I was 18 years old .
Never ever i had the urge to vote for any one or any political party
in India but if Baba contests in the election of 20-14 definitely I
would vote for him and contribute as a party worker taking 5-7 days
leave from my organization. I belive in what he says and does and am
happy that he took such a necessary step to clean the system . God
save the current politicians from jail if he wins :)

Power Corrupts
By: Spirit | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 8:15:00 AM

Politicians don not become corrupt, it's the corrupt people who become
politicians. Baba Ramdev should not take a plunge in the dirty waters
of politics. No one can change the world neither the already
established society, ecpect a World War 3. All change has to be at an
individual level and every individual is responsible for bringing that
change in him/herself. Baba Ramdev could and may have been acting as a
catalyst to bring about that change on the individual level of human
beings, but joiing politics he is looking for power now. Surely, power
corrupts.

How About Nikhilananda?
By: Dr. Verma | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 6:30:49 AM

Personally, I would prefer a real-blooded human like Nikhilananda
rather than a cold, fundamentalist fish of Ramdeva's ilk. If he cannot
correct the strabismus in his eyes by yoga, what hope does realpolitik
have?

Colonel
By: Shashi Sharma | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 2:24:07 AM

He is trying to bite more than he can chew. He is a good yoga guru and
he should stick to that. YES indian political system is corrupt and
democracy seems to be dead. But politics and democracy has its own
form in India and is very deep rooted.Ushering in revolutions is
easier said than done. He can contribute by bringing in good health
and that should be it. Leave the politics to the politicians.

be decisve
By: sonam | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 1:13:14 AM

if Ramdev baba really want to do something for indian society he
should continue with his job and make indian citizens healthy!!when he
can't influence people for accepting yoga what he will do in
politics??

Baba Ramdevji, Most Honest In India
By: Sudhir | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 1:03:02 AM

Baba Ramdevji is the Most Honest Person in India. His vision of India
& the World is very Practical. His ideas are very close to Real
Democracy where People are important, Hindus, Jains, Buddhists,
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Adivasis etc The very rich & corrupt
politicians are not helping Poor & Middle Class people. Ramdevbaba's
Party will help Indian People to achieve Health, Happiness, Equality.
His Party will deal with the problem of Terrorism very effectively.

kalki has come
By: jai_hind | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 0:53:29 AM

oh the so called intelluctuals do not even know about the bharat
swabhiman andolan, to all the people i would like to inform that
shradey swami ramdev's strength is no match for these puny
politicians... shradey swami ramdev's power 1.by 2013 there would be
one yoga teacher in every village of india, almost 50% work has been
done in the present 2.many polticians such that madhya pradesh chief
minister shivraj singh chouhan have bowed down to the power of swami
ramdev and have introduced bhagvat gita in the school's on swami
ramdev's suggestion even nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav had come to
patanjali yogpeeth and also wanted baba ramdev to set a yog peeth in
nepal.. 3.there is going to be atleast 10 patanjali yogpeeths with an
area of thousand's of acres to be set up in india till 2014 4.the
bharat swabhiman andolan has 1 lakh members who have dedicated their
lives for the independence of common people from this dark politics.
jai hind

Come on!!!!!!!
By: Vivek | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 0:43:58 AM

Good to know his intentions, but I am sure COngress will ask Muslims
that he has saffron coloured dresses (what ever he wears) and others
like BJP/Shiv Sena/VHP etc ride onto his back about the very name of
Ramdev baba, and at the end he will be found that it was a mistake by
our beloved Swami Ramdev......people will do some yoga in his rally
but will not vote for him despite of him being honest and un
corrupted....reason: he is not going to distribute liqour and dresses
or money at the time of elections...

We are with you
By: N Gulati | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 0:43:03 AM

Baba Ramdev Ji, the path is full of thorns but you have the guts to
travel and take us along. You know the real India. You are our future.
There are millions who want India to be number 1. We have fortotten
our great past and lost confidence and our leaders are running scared
of small countries like Pakistan. Our soldiers are not afraid but
leaders are. You are the one who make a Rana Pratap out of an Indian.
May God be with you. Jai Hind

Yoga guru
By: Salim | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 22:29:00 PM

I like Baba Ramdev. If he can spread yoga and its truthfullness to
everyone in India and abroad world would automatically be clean of
corruption But if he joins politics it would make him dirty But i will
still work for him

correction
By: Girish | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 7:25:23 AM

He wont join politics he has only shown interest to help create a
political party with respectable agenda and practice, that it.

Ramdev baba only saviour
By: K Parameswaran | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 21:14:46 PM

it is a welcome decision from baba ramdev.Good people like babaji
should join politics so as to cleanse corrupt political system.It is
also necessary to change constitution because present one is lenient
to create corrupt people and criminals.

Welcome Ramdev ji
By: Ajoy | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:51:34 PM

I am surprised to see people advising Ramdev ji no to contest polls,
as if it is a birth right of fake Gandhis only. And someone also told
about progress. Well we can all see the progress under Abu Azmis of
SP,Mamtas and Pawars of UPA,Raj Thakreys of MNS,Yadav brothers,commies
and fake Gandhis. Great progress indeed. If Ramdevji's intentions are
clean, he is welcome.

Some hope at last?
By: Dr. Ranjana Bajpai | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:41:46 PM

Welcome to the murky Indian Politics, Ramdevji. Wish you add a dash of
honesty, nationalism, spiritualism and accountability replacing the
current blend of crime, lineage, money and muscle power. Whatever said
and done, Indian politics is going to witness some real interesting
drama in the lower and upper houses of the parliament.

Bye old politicians, and religion politics
By: Ash | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:39:40 PM

Indians in the past was conquered by Mughals, and then British because
they were not united. Congress has been using religion politics to
divide religions, and rule Indians. It is high time that an ethical
leader like Baba Ramdev emerges who unites Indians. A leader who does
not play religion, or regional politics. We hope that all the
religions rally behind him, and throw out unethical Congress, BSP etc.
and start enjoying clean politics. All religions will thrive, instead
of being made to fight each other. It is time for peace, and clean
politics!

Cleaning up Indian politics
By: Padam Singh | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:34:44 PM

How does Ramdev expect to clean politics - something God cannot do.
Nehru, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi were personally honest people but
corruption flourished. Nehru was too weak, although people like Kairon
were children in the world of corruption compared to the present day
politicians. Indira encouraged it as did Rajiv. Today Manmohan Singh,
though personally incorrigble, has to allow corruption - the Shibu
Sorens, Mayawatis, the Yadavs, the Khodas, Gogois etc. We may, like
the people who write letters like mine condemning corruption, keep
commenting and suggest action, but then we are the ones that bring
these parasites to power. Let's face facts we Indians, if not corrupt
abet it otherwise what is there stopping the honest public coming out
on the streets and forcing a showdown with the powers that be. No. We
would rather come out in force for the Gymkhanna Club elections or a
Twenty 20 game of cricket. Asked to describe an Indian I said - lazy
and indifferent to others

Ask an average indian
By: Subrata Mahanty | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:34:02 PM

The views of Mr.Ramdev are very natural and are practicable in Indian
society, which will make us filth-proof. Be it the debate on currency,
gay-sex or any legitimate debate which comes in the day to day life of
an average Indian, Baba's stance remains above all. He should motivate
enthusiastic youth to join politics and make india corruption free. It
should not be the case to diplomatize the situation into a religious
matter, otherwise we are losing a very good leader. We have already
losed Mr.APJ Abdul Kalam, Mr.AB Bajpayee from the leadership list
because of some leg-pulling politics. Politics is not bad, It has
become bad...Let's make it clear; so that evry one in my country can
utter... SAARE JAHAAN SE ACCHHAA HINDUSTAAN HAMAARA JAI HIND

Babaramdevji on Maya
By: Reddy | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:12:04 PM

YES only BABARAMDEVJI can give great governence to our country(BHARAT)
we all r with u BABA just kick this bloody corrupt polictican from our
country (Maya,sonia,all other parties) must be kicked out our country.
THis country belongs to only Indians not for outsiders. BABA suggested
to take out Rs.1000 and 500n notes should be rollback so that we can
control the corruption. if this so called governemnt run by (Manmohan
singh(remote controlled by Sonia)) why dont u rollback. u dont have
guts to do reason u have u r share in that. go ahead BABA we r with u
we need very badly for this country. Jai Hind Vandaymataram
Bharatmataki ji. Reddy

Good news
By: naresh | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:06:24 PM

I think there is only one person who can do for our india which has
power of people. Most of people know him very well. I am ready to be a
member of his party.

Koshti
By: Anil Kumar Koshti | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 19:53:43 PM

Ram Dev ji is a grate man and he can do something to our country. His
thinking and way of life should be followed by everyone. we know every
politician is currupt in our country but some body is low or high. but
when everyone can't do as well as he say then we can beleave Baba Ram
Dev. everybody's have two face one is good (according to only me) or
Bad (according to only me)but I believe this man and support to
everyside for win to cleance politics.

Baba Ramdem to enter politics to cleanse
By: shanthanu | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 19:38:44 PM

My humble request to him is, whether you touch the filth or filth
falls on you it is you who is affected as filth remains as abhorring
as ever. Please keep a distance and involve yourself in the noble
cause you are busy with. You dealing with people like Mayawathi is
unthinkable.
RIGHT TO FORM PARTY IN DEMOCRACY BUT MUD-SLINGING SHOULD BE BANNED
By: RAJAT KUMAR MOHINDRU .JALANDHAR CITY .PUNJAB | Tuesday , 16 Mar
'10 19:37:32 PM

World's biggest democratic country India where every person has the
right of freedom and expression , there are different Political
Parties who's representatives contest Elections . As Baba Ram Dev
vision to go ahead with formation of Political Party , it is his
fundamental right whether he is interested in forming a party or to
give support to another Political Party . It depends upon his vision ,
his ideology . As the need of time is of Two Party system in the
country or the Election commission of India should provide Negative
voting if the number of Political Parties go on increasing ,to bring
down the number of Political Parties through Negative Voting by the
voters issue may kindly be considered. The Mud -slinging on each other
by Political Leaders should strictly refrain to make democratic
process more healthy.

We Dont Need Him.....
By: kirankulkarni | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 19:36:45 PM

No BABA can save India from getting screwed by the Islamic Extremists
and I dont think somebody can do the damage control act for all the
things that Indian National Congress has done over a period of six
decades. I suggest Swami Ramdev to stick to his "YOGA school" and help
some obess and diabetic guys rather than doing some endless-hopeless
marathon running with 550 mentally upset tranglodites in the
parliament.. I also suggest people not to back Babaji since the first
thing he would do in case he tastes power, is banning BRANDED food and
beverages, which will paralyse economy. I also believe that this
country needs more of a HARD Stern Faced Ruler,perhaps a dictator who
ll "flush the shit" from this Society. DEMOCRACY IS IN A STATE OF
COMA.

Ramdev may join politics
By: alka | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 19:15:29 PM

Baba Ramdev should get elected and make a rule for all politicians and
policemen in his state to lose weight and get medically fit within a
year. It is amazing how politicians become gain weight sitting on
peoples money.

Only India Baba with clean image
By: Mohanjit | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 18:38:01 PM

Baba Ramdev is required with his mass public support to root out evils
in the society as Raj / Bal Thackerey's. Baba is spreading message of
health, Indian culture, swadeshi things etc. thru his daily
discourses. VOTE HIM TO POWER.Ramdev never says he is GOD but beleives
in karma, he never uses teachers to teach yoga but sweats daily
himself so that his followers get rid of dangerous diseases. We like
him even if he resembles a caveman.

IT IS HIGH TIME ENGLISH MEDIA HIGH LIGHT THE AIMS OF BABA RAM DEVJI
MAHARAJI
By: n.r.i. | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 17:53:32 PM

IT IS HIGH TIME ENGLISH MEDIA LIKE I.E. GIVE COVERAGE TO BABA RAM
DEVJI MAHARAJ .MY COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS BLOCKED . LETS HOPE BABA RAM
DEVJI MAHARAJ WIN WITH TOTAL MAJORITY AND CLEAN POLITICS AND ENGLISH
MEDIA . JAI HIND

ram dev.
By: vijai lugani | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 17:44:17 PM

baba ram dev should not join politics. what he is doing namely
spreading yoga in nook and corner of world , treatment through aruveda
and teaching moral values to the people and more ever politics is
dirty game and he shoul not waste his energy in this. many swamis
tried in politics from the arya samaj which he is follower , namely
parkasveer, swamy agnivesh ect.uma bharti have been failed.swami must
know door ke dhol suhvane hote he

India needs cavemans like this
By: Raj Thackrey | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 17:26:25 PM

I am sure looking at the twenty first century and progress, india
deserves cavemans like this to take india forward i mean back to
middle ages lol. More than seventy percent of indians are brain washed
by this man so they deserve to be like him in future.

cavemen
By: bal | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 18:53:42 PM

you are insulting ayogi calling him cavemen cavemen must be your
ancestors whom you dont have any regards

Cavemen
By: Arvind Mathur | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 22:14:56 PM

If this person can brain wash 70% indians that is better than what the
current political parties do. He will unite 70% Indians to do what is
right for India. Besides why do you discriminate against the
traditional attire of Yogi Baba's - they are not going to wear Pants
and Coats - why should they ?

Inida needs more than just yoga
By: haris | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:35:15 PM

baba ram dev's might have a good intention ie to cleanse the system.
But this lacks the STUFF to lead this nations in this modern age.
Ruling a big nation is not like teaching Pranayamam, it is a bit more
complex

Baba Ramdev hints of Joining Politics
By: P L Bajaj | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 17:19:48 PM

Suggest the political party of Baba Ramdev to start contesting
election at lower level, so that the party will be experienced &
matured by the time of Lok Sabha elections. I would like to see a
corruption free India. Hope Baba Ramdev will achieve this target in
future.

Jai ho Neta ji
By: Dr. Ram Chander Sharma | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 17:08:10 PM

The gullible Indian voter will soon see the tricks of another Swami,
who is exlointing the religious sentiments of public. The Indian
political system is open to illiterates, musclement, hoarders,
religious leaders, tantricks, dacoits, filim wallahs and now another
money minter. There must be reservations for technocrates in the
parliament and the state lagislators to keep the political chors at
bay Siot Sunderbani Jammu.

Political Thieves
By: Arvind Mathur | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 22:19:45 PM

I wonder why you believe that technical people are not political
thieves ? We have lots of Engineers in the government who are total
Chors or even Maha Chors.

Educated illiterates
By: Ash | Tuesday , 16 Mar '10 20:46:14 PM

India has problems because some of it educated illiterates are not
able to understand clean politics from unethical politicians. It is
probably ignorant people like you in the past who invited British to
India, and they ruled us.

NEW MAXIM
By: NIRANJAN | Wednesday , 17 Mar '10 8:31:58 AM

I LIKE YOUR NEW MAXIM, OR WHATEVER IT CAN BE CALLED: 'THE EDUCATED
ILLITERATE'. IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT INDIA IS FULL OF PEOPLE WHO ARE
ONLY EDUCATED IN A UNIVERSITY OR SCHOOL, BUT ARE TOTALLY IGNORANT OF
THE WORLD AS A WHOLE. MEMBERS OR BSP, SS, SP, MNS ARE ONLY A FEW
EXAMPLES OF SUCH GROUP OF PEOPLE.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-needs-cavemans-like-this/591533/#postComment

Row over Maya mala, I-T to probe money source
ENS Economic Bureau

Posted: Tuesday , Mar 16, 2010 at 2340 hrs
New Delhi:
Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati being offered a garland made up of 1000
rupee notes during BSP's Maharally in Lucknow.

A day after the BSP’s maharally, the Income Tax (I-T) department said
on Tuesday that it would probe the “source of money” of the huge
currency-note garland presented to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati.

Sources said the I-T department would investigate the ownership of the
Rs 1,000 notes used in the garland, the bank from which the money was
sourced, whether the money used was from disclosed income sources.

After a preliminary investigation, the department would accordingly
make a case for tax evasion.

Under the Income Tax Act, 1967, the department has power to suo motu
initiate inquiries into suspicious transactions. It can issue summons
under Section 131 and impound and retain in its custody any books of
account or other documents for the purpose. It can also call for any
information required for the case under Section 133(6).

The sources said the intelligence department would also be asked to
look into the entire funding of the rally organised by Mayawati for
the silver jubilee function of the BSP.

The Congress, meanwhile, accused Mayawati of failing to control
communal riots in Bareilly and compared her with Roman emperor Nero.

“What kind of a government is this? Bareilly is burning and there is
celebration in Lucknow,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said,
demanding a judicial inquiry into the riots. “The Nero sitting in UP
has a big role. Without administrative support, no riot can continue
for two weeks,” he said.

Tewari said there was an attempt to “polarise” the people in UP and it
was the BJP that had taught the BSP the “politics of riots”.

Comments (4) |

Maya Ki Mala ki Maya
By: Ashok K Gupta | 17-Mar-2010

Mala makes Mayas and Mayas make malas.This is how our political wheel
is running.Mayas & malas are inseprable in our
legislation,executive,.........We have silent endorsement in our
mandate,so why hue & cry now.

It is biased news from Media
By: Chandra | 17-Mar-2010

Media never made news about when fraud is committed by Congress. INR
60000 crore scam by our telecommunication Minister. Who cares. Penny
wise and Pound Foolish.

All eyewash
By: anand | 17-Mar-2010

Nothing is going to happen.Any scam tainted politician or neta got
harsh punishment in this country.A big no. For 2-3 days this is
another scoop news for channels and media,that's all. The citizens of
this country is getting fooled again and again.

Maya mala versus italian bofors Q mals
By: ramdev | 17-Mar-2010

Atleast for bad or worse Maya appeared with the mala. How about the
Bofors mala wore by the Quttorachi? How was he allowed to go free with
thousand of crores mala? Indian media especially congress channels
like NDTV only make noise of the Maya mala and silent about the
Italian Q mala

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/row-over-maya-mala-it-to-probe-money-source/591635/

Pune blast a blot, advisories ignored: Chidambaram
Express news service

Posted: Tuesday , Mar 16, 2010 at 2336 hrs
New Delhi:

Describing the Pune blast as a “blot on our record”, Home Minister P
Chidambaram stated in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that there was no
intelligence failure.

Chidambaram, who was replying to queries by Shiv Sena member Bhavana
Gawali Patil and Supriya Sule during question hour, said, “Despite the
intelligence shared, despite the advisories issued, the Pune blast
occurred... I regard that as a blot on our record.”

The Home Minister said enough information had been shared with the
Maharashtra Government about the terrorist threat.

He said consequently, the Pune Police had issued an advisory to all
establishments in the Koregaon Park area of Pune on October 9, 2009.
German Bakery manager Praveen Pant had acknowledged the receipt of the
advisory. The advisory was repeated in December. However,
establishments in the area did not pay any heed to the advisories.
These establishments, according to him, had to take their own minimal
security measures, which was not done.

Responding to queries of members, the minister said the Centre was
encouraging all states to set up anti-terrorist squads and NSG hubs,
modernise their police forces and procure advanced weapons.

Regarding the inadequacy of bullet-proof jackets in Maharashtra
Police, the Home Minister said the Centre planned placing an order for
their purchase for the central forces and the state could either
piggyback the Centre or make its own procurement.

Comments (1) |

Issue
By: ravi | 17-Mar-2010

Issue advisories every day like bhel puri, papri chhat & when the
blast occurs, say that advisory was issued. wow what gems we have as
Home Ministers!

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pune-blast-a-blot-advisories-ignored-chidambaram/591631/

DP cracks corrupted Godman's pan India network
Agencies

Posted: Tuesday , Mar 16, 2010 at 1625 hrs
New Delhi:

The Delhi Police submitted before a court that self-styled Godman Shiv
Murat Dwivedi was running a huge network of flesh trade involving more
than a hundred brokers and thousand prostitutes across the country.

Appearing before Special Judge S K Sarwaria, the investigating agency
pleaded for extension of his custodial interrogation to unearth the
vast network.

"We have to unearth the whole network in which more than hundred
brokers and thousand prostitutes are involved. He has also amassed
huge property in Mumbai, Noida, Kolkata, Varanasi and Gowardhan," the
police contended, also placing eight diaries and five CDs seized by it
before the court.

It further contended that the dairy contains information pertaining to
money transactions contact details of more than three thousand persons
which has been written in coded language.

The court after hearing the police's contention accepted its plea and
extended Dwivedi's custodial remand for four more days. Dwivedi, is
accused in four cases under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and
one case of robbery. He was arrested on March nine under the
provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Dwivedi is alleged to have earned crores of rupees through the sex
racket.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/dp-cracks-corrupted-godmans-pan-india-network/591536/

Godman, 7 held in sex racket
Express News Service

Posted: Saturday , Feb 27, 2010 at 0024 hrs
New Delhi:

Shiv Murat Dwivedi and seven others at the office of the DCP (South)
in Hauz Khas on Friday.

He organised satsangs, composed spiritual music, constructed a temple
and has now been arrested for running a prostitution racket.

Following the arrest of the self-styled spiritual guru, his accomplice
and six sex workers on Thursday, the South Delhi police claimed to
have unearthed a major prostitution racket.

The police said the accused — his real name is Shiv Murat Dwivedi, but
he was also known by many others, including Rajiv Dwiwedi, Shiv Murti
and Shiv Roop and Swami Ichadari Sant Swami Bhimanandji Maharaj
Chitrkootwale — arranged for sex workers in upscale areas of the
Capital as well as five-star hotels.

Of the six arrested, two are working with airlines and one is a
management student, the police said.

Yet another is a former student of a South Delhi school, the police
said. The arrested associate has been identified as Parveen Kumar
(28).

“On Thursday, Sub-Inspector Sanjay Sharma was sent to Dwivedi as a
decoy customer. After he struck a deal at Saket with him, we arrested
the group. The cars they were travelling in — a Honda Civic and a
Honda City — were also seized,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police
(South), H G S Dhaliwal.

Dwivedi came from Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, to Delhi in 1988 and
began working as a security guard at a hotel in Nehru Place. Later, he
worked at a massage parlour in Lajpat Nagar and began a prostitution
racket, for which he was arrested in 1997.

After being released on bail, he transformed himself into a spiritual
leader.

“He soon began a flesh trade racket. He also constructed a 200-bed
hospital in Chitrakoot, a temple in Khanpur and began holding
satsangs,” DCP Dhaliwal said. The hospital and the temple were meant
to further sex trade in the garb of charity, he added.

The police recovered Rs 1.55 lakh, besides copies of a magazine
containing Dwivedi’s articles on spirituality as well as video CDs of
his sermons in the impounded cars.

Comments (5) |

Take it easy guys
By: Nick | 28-Feb-2010

Hey guys relax, its not only in India it is all over the world. When
it happens in India involving some thing like a Guru its splashes
world over, when such things happen in Catholic and Evangelist
churches those just go under the carpet helped by the same media. He
just used that as front to run his business, that's all about it.

think
By: pravin tarhal | 28-Feb-2010

this is very common today. but most fustrating is that we the people &
media are supporting these kind of things to happen like all leading
newspapers in delhi or all over india are full with classifieds of
massage parlours, friendship networks, with phone numbers & openly
indicating what they are trading of using sentenses like"hot body to
body" pujabi,russian,collage girl,foreigners,"full
satisfaction,moksh,full enjoyment" You(IE)can Claim that i have wrote
offenssive words above.but the classifides & the peoples cant be
stopped. this is fustrating. If somebody call on those numbers got
directly got asked about the requirement of the type of girl , period
& place of delivery. that means the police is slipping or acting like
they are in slip.ALL THESE THINGS ARE SUPPORTED BY US PEOPLE & THE
MEDIA. CAN WE STOPP THIS ? I DONT THINK SO BECAUSE THERE IS LOSS OF
EASY MONY......... THE TIME HAS COME TO THINK ABOUT THE SOCIETY

GODMEN AND RELIGION
By: NIRANJAN | 27-Feb-2010

OVERALL WE INDIANS ARE CONSIDERED VERY SMART PEOPLE. WE ALWAYS LOOK
BEFORE WE LEAP AND DON'T TRUST ANYONE EASILY. HOWEVER, WHEN IT COMES
TO RELIGION AND GODMEN TALKING ABOUT RELIGION, WE BECOME SO NAIVE THAT
WE ARE READY TO DO ANYTHING THAT THESE GODMEN ASK US TO DO. THIS IS
THE RESULT OF THE SUPERSTITIOUS NATURE OF OURS WHICH MAKES US TOO
STUPID WHEN WE SEE A PERSON IN SAFRON OR WHITE CLOTHES PREACHING LIKE
HE KNOWS IT ALL. I WISH AND HOPE THAT ALL THESE GODMEN BE SCRUTINIZED
BY SOME AUTHORITY OR EVEN NGOs AND EXPOSE THEIR SCAMS.!

The Scam artists
By: deepak | 27-Feb-2010

In order to expose these rascals you need an expert who is an
authority on the subject matter of religion.In my experience vast
majority of the general public and the so called 'spiritual gurus' do
not even know the meaning of the word 'religion',or who is God? or
what is the relationship between us and God? or what is the activity
that we should perform and the goal of that realtionship? In my
opinion only a Vaishnava can be deemed as an authority in spiritual
matters. Rest all must be rejected. deepak

Godmen
By: nihichsu | 27-Feb-2010

This is to respond to Mr. Niranjan's comments. It is not only that we
Indians trust fully these Godmen and get fooled. This is happening
everywhere in the world including USA, Europe, China etc. Religion and
its Godmen have indulged into nefarious activities all over the world.
Hindus are not the only scapegoats. This is happening amongst Roman
Catholics, Protestants, other Christian sects, Islam and its various
sects, Buddism etc. True that Karl Marx said "Relgion is the opium of
the masses".

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/godman-7-held-in-sex-racket/584978/0

Godman’s ashrams face public fury after footage with starlet
Express news service

Posted: Thursday , Mar 04, 2010 at 2350 hrs
Chennai:

A day after a private TV channel and a vernacular weekly showed
visuals claiming them to be of popular spiritual leader Paramahamsa
Nithyananda with a film actress of yesteryears, his ashrams, statues
and even posters were targeted by angry protesters.

A group of advocates in Chennai and Coimbatore approached the police
commissioners in the cities with the demand that the police book the
godman under criminal charges even as his organisation blamed
“conspiracy, graphics and rumour” for the controversy.

The controversy began on Tuesday when Sun News aired video clippings
that showed the godman allegedly in a compromising position with the
actress. The Nakkeeran weekly followed up with screenshots and news in
its latest issue that hit stands on Wednesday.

The video enraged fringe Hindu outfits like Hindu Makkal Katchi and
atheistic Dravidar Kazhagam alike, both attacking the properties
managed by Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam in their boroughs of strength.

While the former demanded action against Nithyananda for bringing
disrepute to religion, the latter raised similar demands for duping
people. Protests were staged across the state, including in
Tiruvannamalai, Namakkal, Coimbatore and Salem.

Meanwhile, the Dhyanapeetam issued a statement stating that the
'defamatory' video was a mix of conspiracy, graphics and rumour. "We
are working on a legal course of action and will come up with updates
in due course," said the statement.

Comments (6) |

What conspiracy ?
By: syArjun | 04-Mar-2010

People who are commenting here are fools or his die hard supporters.
It is Nithyanada in the video -if you cant see then ur blind. Second -
No one is trying to defame the Hindus , it is the 'Love Gurus' who are
destroying hinduism. True some elements may be acting to bring
disrepute to hinduism but here we have the Proof of swamigal(Swami
Gal). Anyways , it is the fools money that nithyananda is getting so
who cares. Hindus will learn by example who is true and who is fraud.
Nithyanada should have married and indulged in these pleasures, he has
brought disrepute to the Ochre robe and should be punished for it.
People see the robe and fall at the feet of the wearer ..we have so
much respect for that robe! I have seen his videos .. his lectures are
prepared by a team of writers and his organisation is run by an expert
management team. They charge huge amount and guarantee you realisation
after a 21 days program. Bah ! wake up all of you.

No confirmation yet.
By: Ayarn | 04-Mar-2010

The fellow in the video could be a good actor paid by some opposition
to defame the swami. Who knows? Who can confirm or not whether it is
really nithyananda? You can't jump to conclusion based on low
resolution video clip, it can very well be a setup to discredit the
organisation because they have too much power and support in south
india.

be selfish
By: shanthakumar | 04-Mar-2010

whatever it may be ,we should not look on the world, we should be very
clever in this cheating world work for our family, thats
enough,angrily if we do something it will not affect us ,surely it
affects our family ,in the most populated country such as india these
godman will not stop cheating people, our life is in our hand, be
clever have a happy life to all my indians

are you people blind?
By: raj | 04-Mar-2010

why is it so hard to beleive that the guy in the video is who he
is?..Nithyanandam is just another common man, a very intelligent
fraudster who has basic needs like every human being. It is so clear
from the video that he has some physical relationship that woman,
which is not an issue. The real issue is that - he is leading a double
life and fooling his followers..he is just a egomaniac and a cheat.

Blasphemy
By: vyasa | 04-Mar-2010

Misbehavior of the actual culprits in certain religions doesn't get
publicized whereas as history has proved Hindu Saints,Gods are always
target of the certain elements that belong to certain religions whose
main ambition is increasing headcount by indulging in
blasphemy,conversions through abuse and deceit( they take advatage of
peoples poverty,(give people some amount of money if they give up
Hinduism and take up their religion),illiteracy,ignorance).

Conspiracy
By: Brhamanda | Thursday , 4 Mar '10 1:19:37 AM

Just 2 days back there was a so called scandal about another spiritual
guru.Looks like whoever is behind all these TV shows is pretty
desperate to curb the popularity of Hinduism and Hindu spiritual
masters. We all know how alike the characters look even in all those
60's movies where hero does double action right? We are talking about
today where the technology has advanced rapidly than even in 60's. It
is not even confirmed if the person in the video is Swamiji so people
need not jump to conclusions by watching the video.We are talking
about Nithyanada who doesn't even eat onions,garlic,green chillies and
the vidoe says he's drinking liquor.That shows what a joke that video
is. Abusing an enlightened master is the worst sin which stays with
the soul making it suffer for life(s) together.Those who have
attempted to malign Swamiji and did the video have made their
choice.You don't make your choice by just watching or even reading
about a stupid video.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Godman-s-ashrams-face-public-fury-after-footage-with-starlet/586430/

From MP to DM, ‘godman’ played host to all at his Chitrakoot ashram
Vijay Pratap Singh

Posted: Monday , Mar 01, 2010 at 0251 hrs

Allahabad:

Former DM of Chitrakoot, Hridesh Kumar, inaugurates a function at
Dwivedi’s ashramFlower & Cake DeliveryValentine
Gift'sDiscussionBlogsHeadley is smart - By Arun

Self-styled godman Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi alias Swami Bhimanandji
Maharaj alias Swami Ichchadhari Sant — arrested on Friday for
allegedly running a sex racket — has links with several influential
people back home in Chitrakoot district, Uttar Pradesh.

A four-day programme he organised at his ashram at Chamrauha village
in October 18, 2009, was inaugurated by Hridesh Kumar, then district
magistrate of Chitrakoot. The Samjawadi Party (SP) MP from Banda, RK
Singh Patel, SP Member of Legislative Council Yuvraj Singh, and slain
dacoit Dadua’s son and zila panchayat chairman Veer Singh were special
invitees on the occasion. In hoardings, Rural Development minister
Daddu Prasad was named as the chief guest for the programme. He did
not attend. But local BSP leaders like Vinod Kumar Dwivedi, the block
pramukh of Manikpur, did attend and stayed for the cultural programme
by girls from Delhi.

A month after the programme, Manikpur police lodged an FIR against the
godman and three others for a clash during the dance programme, said K
K Mishra, Station House Officer of Manikpur.

Officials said Hridesh Kumar, who inaugurated the programme, also
issued a rifle licence to the godman. Kumar, who is currently the
District Magistrate of Ghazipur, refused to comment.

Lok Sabha member R K Singh Patel said he did not know the godman
personally. “But I know his father Bachcha Lal,” he said. “Being the
MP from the area, I accepted the invitation. If he is running a sex
racket, he must be punished. I don’t have any connection with him.”
MLC Yuvraj Singh said: “Our society respects godmen. I was invited by
Dwivedi, so I went. It was the first and the last time I saw
him.”

BSP block pramukh Vinod Kumar Dwivedi said he went to the ashram
because, “like others, I was also invited. I did not know that he was
involved in such activities.”

The godman often visited Chamrauha which he has renamed “Sai Nagar”.
He is building a large temple in his ashram — the work has been on for
two years.

On Sunday, the Delhi Police sent a team to Chitrakoot to collect
evidence against him and information about his past. “Shiv Murat
Dwivedi was first arrested in Lajpat Nagar in 1997 for running a
prostitution racket in a massage parlour,” said DCP (South) HGS
Dhaliwal. “He had worked at a massage parlour in the area in 1990.
During the job, he came in contact with pimps and started the sex
racket. He has links with several influential persons and leaders in
Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.”

The Chitrakoot police, too, have started collecting details of the
criminal activities of his family. His father Bachcha Lal Dwivedi is
named in five criminal cases— these include murder, dowry death, theft
and patronising dacoits. His elder brother Ram Murat Dwivedi was
booked for the murder of his wife; younger brothers Sanjay and Krishna
Dwivedi were booked in theft cases in 2001. In spite of their criminal
past, several members of the family had managed to get arms licences.
Bachcha Lal has a licence for a double-barreled gun. Shiv Murat
Dwivedi and Sanjay Dwivedi got licences for rifles in 2009. Chitrakoot
SP Veer Bahadur Singh said he had asked the Manikpur police to probe
how these were issued.

Comments (1) |

Swami Chakar Dhar
By: Harbans Lal | 01-Mar-2010

He should be nominated as a member Rajya Sabha.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-mp-to-dm-godman-played-host-to-all-at-his-chitrakoot-ashram/585664/0

In UP hometown, ‘godman’ Dwivedi sports political ties
Vijay Pratap Singh

Posted: Monday , Mar 01, 2010 at 0041 hrs
Allahabad:

Months before his arrest in sex racket, a programme at the Chitrakoot
ashram of Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi attended by SP parliamentarian, BSP
leader and the then District Magistrate

Self-styled godman Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi alias Swami Bhimanandji
Maharaj alias Swami Ichchadhari Sant — arrested on Friday for
allegedly running a sex racket — has links with several influential
people back home in Chitrakoot, UP.

A four-day programme he organised at his ashram at Chamrauha village
in October 18, 2009, was inaugurated by Hridesh Kumar, then district
magistrate of Chitrakoot. The Samjawadi Party (SP) parliamentarian
Banda, RK Singh Patel, SP Member of Legislative Council Yuvraj Singh,
and slain dacoit Dadua’s son and zila panchayat chairman Veer Singh
were special invitees on the occasion. In hoardings, Rural Development
minister Daddu Prasad was named as the chief guest for the programme.
He did not attend. But local BSP leaders like Vinod Kumar Dwivedi, the
block pramukh of Manikpur, did attend and stayed for the cultural
programme by girls from Delhi.

A month after the programme, Manikpur police lodged an FIR against the
godman and three others for a clash during the dance programme, said K
K Mishra, Station House Officer of Manikpur.

Officials said Hridesh Kumar, who inaugurated the programme, also
issued a rifle licence to the godman. Kumar, who is currently the
District Magistrate of Ghazipur, refused to comment.

Lok Sabha member R K Singh Patel said he did not know the godman
personally. “But I know his father Bachcha Lal,” he said. “Being the
MP from the area, I accepted the invitation. If he is running a sex
racket, he must be punished. I don’t have any connection with him.”

MLC Yuvraj Singh said: “Our society respects godmen. I was invited by
Dwivedi, so I went. It was the first and the last time I saw
him.”

BSP block pramukh Vinod Kumar Dwivedi said he went to the ashram
because, “like others, I was also invited. I did not know that he was
involved in such activities.”

The godman often visited Chamrauha which he has renamed “Sai Nagar”.
He is building a large temple in his ashram — the work has been on for
two years.

On Sunday, the Delhi Police sent a team to Chitrakoot to collect
evidence against him and information about his past.

“Shiv Murat Dwivedi was first arrested in Lajpat Nagar in 1997 for
running a prostitution racket in a massage parlour,” said DCP (South)
HGS Dhaliwal. “He had worked at a massage parlour in the area in 1990.
During the job, he came in contact with pimps and started the sex
racket. He has links with several influential persons and leaders in
Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.”

The Chitrakoot police, too, have started collecting details of the
criminal activities of his family. His father Bachcha Lal Dwivedi is
named in five criminal cases — these include murder, dowry death,
theft and patronising dacoits. His elder brother Ram Murat Dwivedi was
booked for the murder of his wife; younger brothers Sanjay and Krishna
Dwivedi were booked in theft cases in 2001.

In spite of their criminal past, several members of the family had
managed to get arms licences. Bachcha Lal has a licence for a double-
barreled gun. Shiv Murat Dwivedi and Sanjay Dwivedi got licences for
rifles in 2009. Chitrakoot SP Veer Bahadur Singh said he had asked the
Manikpur police to probe how these were issued.

Comments (3) |

what a shame!
By: Shraddha | 04-Mar-2010

After having all these facts published, still there is no action.
People should stand up against such phony men of god and treat them
humanly. With justice! Jail these sick men, not godmen!

GODMAN
By: Tota Ram | 02-Mar-2010

India has a great civilization and has had great religious teachers
like Swami Ramkrishna, Swami Dayanand etc. Like any other country we
do also have scoundrels in our country posing as Saints. I suggest
public cateration of these people.

GODMEN AND POLITICIANS
By: NIRANJAN | 01-Mar-2010

ON ONE HAND POLITICIANS ARE SMART ENOUGH TO FOOL THE AAM AADMI FOR AT
LEAST FIVE YEARS. ON THE THE OTHER HAND THEY ARE GULLIBLE ENOUGH TO
BELIEVE IN SUCH GODMEN WHO, I AM SURE, PROMISE THEM THE 'GADDI' IN
DELHI OR SUCH THINGS BY THEIR 'TANTRIK' POWERS. SUPERTITIONS IS THE
ROOT CAUSE OF THE EVIL IN INDIA. UNFORTUNATELY THE NETAs FOSTER THESE
KINDS OF PEOPLE AND THE THE REAL SUFFERES IS THE AAM AADMI!

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-up-hometown-godman-dwivedi-sports-political-ties/585556/0

In UP village, devotees stop cops from probing ‘godman’ property
Express News Service

Posted: Sunday , Mar 07, 2010 at 0109 hrs
New Delhi:

Followers of self-styled godman Shiv Murat Dwivedi formed a human
chain around his property in his village in Uttar Pradesh on Friday
and thwarted attempts by a Delhi Police team from entering the
premises for probe into the alleged multi-crore sex racket he ran.

“We believe Dwivedi’s henchmen learnt about our arrival and got locals
to form the human chain,” DCP (South) H G S Dhaliwal said.

The team was supposed to take Dwivedi to the ashram and an upscale
house he built for his parents in Manekpur area of Chitrakoot in Uttar
Pradesh, but a crowd of around 2,000 did not let them enter, the
police said.

The police need to establish in court that Dwivedi accumulated
property and wealth from his crime syndicate to initiate the stringent
Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Dwivedi.
MCOCA also gives police the right to seize property built with money
from such a syndicate.

Dhaliwal said the police are in the final stages of filing an
application to invoke provisions of MCOCA in court.

In Chitrakoot, Dwivedi reportedly claimed innocence and alleged that
some politicians had framed him in the sex racket case. Asked by the
media about his alleged links with slain dacoit Dadua, Dwivedi
accepted that he knew Danua but denied involvement in any crime.

In another development, police said they have found Dwivedi had at
least four bank accounts under his ‘real’ name: Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi.
The daily or monthly transactions ranged between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1
lakh in each account, officers said.

“He ran his empire very professionally,” DCP Dhaliwal said. He
purportedly gave his staff and call girls allegedly working under him
“proper holidays” and weekly breaks.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-up-village-devotees-stop-cops-from-probing-godman-property/587733/0

Chitrakoot police begin process to strip ‘godman’ of his arms licence
Vijay Pratap Singh

Posted: Thursday , Mar 04, 2010 at 0306 hrs
Lucknow:

The temple which is under construction at Chitrakoot’s Chamrauha area.
express photo

Self-styled ‘godman’ Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi alias Swami Bhimanandji
Maharaj alias Swami Ichchadhari Sant, who was arrested in Delhi on
February 26 for allegedly running a sex racket, is all set to be
stripped of his arms licence.

The Chitrakoot police today began proceedings to cancel his licence
that was issued by former district magistrate Hridesh Kumar.

“Taking cognizance of media reports and his arrest by the Delhi
Police, I have initiated the cancellation proceedings. Following an
inquiry, it came to light that the Manikpur police had ignored two
cases against him and made recommendations for the licence. I have
sent a report to the district magistrate to cancel his licence,” said
SP Veer Bahadur Singh.

Singh added that three licences had been issued to Swami and his
family members, including his father, Bachcha Lal, and brother Sanjay
Murat Dwivedi.

“The inquiry is on against his father and brother who possess licences
for a double barrel gun and rifle, respectively. If the police find
their involvement in criminal cases, their licences too will be
cancelled,” he added.

A team of five policemen from Delhi, led by Station House Officer of
Saket, Bhrama Deo, has arrived in Chitrakoot to collect information
about the ‘godman’.

“We have started verifying the statements of the ‘godman’ and are
inspecting his properties. We have also learnt that he was
constructing a multi-crore temple at Chamrauha under Manikpur police
station in Chitrakoot,” said Deo. The police team has inspected the
temple, the godman’s ashram and the residence of his father. “After
physical inspection, we will obtain the papers of his properties and
assets from the district magistrate,” said Deo.

The Delhi Police have intitiated proceedings to invoke Maharashtra
Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the ‘godman’.

Under MCOCA, stringent punishment is awarded to a person or gang
operating as part of a crime syndicate, said Deputy Commissioner of
Police (South) H G S Dhaliwal.

Give copy of custodial interrogation plea to Dwivedi: Court to cops
NEW DELHI: A city court on Wednesday asked the Delhi Police to provide
a copy of their application, seeking to interrogate ‘godman’ Shiv
Murat Dwivedi in custody, to the accused.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ravinder Singh, who was approached by the
police for permission to question Dwivedi (39), said: “the accused
(should) be provided a copy of the remand application”. “Once an
accused is remanded in judicial custody, the police cannot seek his
custody unless there are special reasons,” the counsel appearing for
Dwivedi said. The accused has a right to know the grounds for his
detention and custodial interrogation, he added.

The police said custodial interrogation of Dwivedi was required to
unravel the case. “Fix the application for arguments tomorrow,” the
court said after hearing the arguments. pti

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/chitrakoot-police-begin-process-to-strip-godman-of-his-arms-licence/586626/0

From driver to godman’s deputy, Praveen was on a roll for two years
Sahim Salim

Posted: Saturday , Mar 06, 2010 at 0030 hrs
New Delhi:

The self-styled godman Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi, arrested from South
Delhi for allegedly running a multi-crore sex racket, took good care
of the people loyal to him.

The police said Dwivedi elevated the financial standing of his second-
in-command, Parveen Kumar, also arrested along with him on February
25.

Sources said Kumar, a native of Jhajjar in Haryana, would drive an
auto-rickshaw till 2008. Two years after he started working with
Dwivedi, Kumar drove a Honda City — it was seized by the police during
his arrest.

“He was Dwivedi’s face in the racket. He was in charge of the
logistics; he also made and finalised the deals. Whenever Dwivedi was
busy giving sermons, Kumar took charge of the racket,” a senior police
officer said.

A police team, meanwhile, recovered a rifle and other weapons
purportedly belonging to Dwivedi from his residence in Chitrakoot,
Uttar Pradesh, after a raid on Friday. Sources said it also came to
light during the raid that Dwivedi's personal bodyguards carried
firearms.

“We first need to assess and seize his property. He has many areas
within the Capital where he functioned. We need to investigate whether
the house owners knew about his operations,” a senior police officer
said.

The police are, meanwhile, also probing the allegations made by the
father of a Jaipur-based girl who said Dwivedi was behind the
abduction of his daughter. The 22-year-old woman is missing since
December 23 last year.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/From-driver-to-godman-s-deputy--Praveen-was-on-a-roll-for-two-years/587397/

MCOCA likely to be invoked against ‘godman’
Express News Service

Posted: Wednesday, Mar 03, 2010 at 0105 hrs
New Delhi:

The South Delhi police are likely to invoke provisions of the
Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the 39-year-
old ‘godman’ Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi, arrested on Friday for
allegedly running a high-profile sex racket.

Under MCOCA, stringent punishment is awarded to a person or gangs
operating as a syndicate.

Dwivedi was arrested along with an accomplice and six women, including
two air-hostesses, for allegedly running a multi-crore sex racket.

“We are looking at the possibility of whether Dwivedi can be slapped
with charges under the provisions of MCOCA,” Deputy Commissioner of
Police (South), H G S Dhaliwal said. MCOCA allows the police to adduce
as evidence the confession of the accused made before a senior police
officer not below the rank of a DCP.

Police officials said that in all, Dwivedi has four cases registered
against him. In 1997, Dwivedi was arrested on charges of running a
prostitution racket in Lajpat Nagar. The next year, he was arrested
for dacoity in Badarpur. In 2003, he was arrested from Noida Sector 24
— charges under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act and the
Gangster Act were slapped.

The police said Dwivedi undertook charity activities as a guise to
explain the flow of money — he earned close to Rs 2 lakh every month
through his criminal activities. DCP Dhaliwal said they will seek
police custody to take Dwivedi to Chitrakoot for verifying the
ownership of his properties and investigate if his activities extended
to UP.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mcoca-likely-to-be-invoked-against-godman/585961/

‘Godman’ booked for abduction
Express News Service

Posted: Monday , Mar 08, 2010 at 0104 hrs
Ghaziabad:

A self-styled godman in Ghaziabad has been booked for abducting his
cousin.

The police said the accused, Anup Kumar Sahay, is a resident of Vijay
Nagar. According to a complaint filed by the victim’s mother Subha
Srivastava, the accused, along with his brother Ashok Kumar Sahay, had
abducted her daughter, Priyanka. “Priyanka has been missing since
February 15, when she went to purchase milk,” Subha Srivastava has
stated in the complaint. The police said the two accused are
Priyanka’s cousins and often visited her house in Raj Nagar.

Superintendent of Police (City) Ghaziabad Avdhesh Kumar Vijeta said
the police received the complaint on Saturday. “Sahay has been booked
under Sections 363, 313 and 366 of the IPC which pertain to kidnapping
and forcing a woman to undergo abortion without her will.”

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/godman-booked-for-abduction/588008/

Caught on camera, godman held for extortion
Express News Service

Posted: Friday , Mar 13, 2009 at 2249 hrs
Mumbai:

Them & US From ABCD to almightyHealth dangers of GM FoodsStand on Bt
Brinjal

The Pydhonie police arrested a godman on Holi on charges of extortion
after the victim recorded the threat in a camera embedded in a pen.
One Mohammad Ashfaq Qureshi, a gold-dust contractor, had lodged a
complaint that godman Mohammad Gulzar had threatened to kill him
either by cursing or stabbing if he did not leave his job. Sheikh then
told Qureshi that he must pay him Rs 2 lakh if he wanted to keep his
business.

Acting on Qureshi’s complaint, the police set a trap and sent Qureshi
with Rs 25,000 in marked notes, to pay Sheikh. However, the clinching
evidence in the case was the video clip Qureshi had recorded with a
video recording pen. Sheikh was arrested on Wednesday. The police
believe that a business rival must have approached Sheikh to threaten
the complainant and are investigating into his identity.

“Sheikh is the typical godman. He began threatening Qureshi on
February 28, saying that if he didn’t leave his business, he would use
black magic to kill him. He said that if he wanted to continue with
his business, he should pay him Rs 2 lakh,” said a police officer from
Pydhonie police station. “Qureshi agreed to meet Sheikh and recorded
his threats on a video recording pen. We asked him to contact Sheikh
and pay him so that we could to trap him,” said the officer.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/caught-on-camera-godman-held-for-extortion/433787/

Godman stages suicide drama at police station
Rajeev P I
Posted: Sunday , May 18, 2008 at 2341 hrs
Kochi, May 17:

Kerala's latest screwball comedy starring yet another godman was
played out right inside a police station at Aluva here on Saturday
morning. This was staged by Swami Himaval Bhadranandaji, an
engineering course dropout-turned-political prophet, godman and maker
of fine holy ashes from thin air.

The Swami had the whole state watching him live on TV as he pranced
about in the police station with a fully loaded .32 revolver pressed
to his own head, vowing to pull the trigger to teach the local media a
deadly lesson for daring to give him a bad press.

All through the two-hour drama hogging all TV channels in the state,
the cops made no attempt at all to disarm the godman lording over
their police station — he even had the cops help recharge his mobile
so that he could keep calling up people with his free hand and held
the gun with the other. Senior police officers kept pleading with him
to go easy on the trigger.

The drama ended with the Swami pulling the trigger, finally. But
instead of shooting the reporters or himself, he shot through the
police station roof. A bullet grazed his own left hand and the godman
collapsed in a howling heap, leaving startled cops in the room to run
for their lives. The police, however, picked up a media reporter who
screamed and went down as soon as the swami fired. The police rushed
him to hospital while TV channels began saying he had been shot. But
the man soon came to, only to say he had fainted in fright.

Swami Bhadranandaji, who runs an outfit called “Karma” in Kochi, began
falling out with the media after some local newspapers began poking
into his activities after the fall of another high-profile local
godman, Swami Amritachaitanya last week. The latter was exposed to
have been a fraudster wanted by Interpol — besides a porn video star
and producer, mostly using under-age girls from poor families, many
lured in with educational sponsorships.

Bhadranandaji, who loved dropping names and claiming high political
connections, even fixed an official red beacon of the kind ministers,
high court judges and senior officials use, on the dome of his
personal car. He had a sizeable following in Kochi and Kozhikode, and
had often been hogging attention with his predictions and claims,
including his political prophesies, until reports hinted at a darker
side too.

The swami had barged into a local newspaper office on Friday and
threatened the staff there for printing some unedifying reports, and
the police had promptly filed a case against him. On Saturday morning,
he called the media to his home to announce his protest suicide, and
the police had got him to shift the drama to the police station
instead.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the swami appeared to have
got a gun license from the local administration without police
verification. Though the swami had claimed the minister was his close
pal, Balakrishnan denied it.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/godman-stages-suicide-drama-at-police-station/311137/0

Fifth case against ‘godman’
Express News Service

Posted: Friday , Mar 05, 2010 at 0128 hrs
New Delhi:

The police have unearthed yet another case of immoral trafficking
against self-styled godman Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi — arrested last
Friday for allegedly running a sex racket in the Capital — taking the
total number of cases against him to five.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), H G S Dhaliwal said Dwivedi was
arrested under the ITP Act in Srinivaspuri in 1998. “He was convicted
and a monetary fine was slapped against him. This is the fifth case
against him. In 1997, Dwivedi was arrested on charges of running a
prostitution racket in Lajpat Nagar. The next year, he was arrested
for dacoity in Badarpur. In 2003, he was arrested from Noida Sector-24
under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act and was also charged
under the Gangster Act.”

Police said they have two convictions and five cases against Dwivedi
and enough evidence to invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of
Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against him. A court, meanwhile, sent
Dwivedi to police custody till March 9.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Fifth-case-against--godman-/587114/

Namesake on terror list, Kerala godman on the run
Rajeev PI
Posted: Saturday , May 10, 2008 at 2305 hrs
KOCHI, MAY 10 :

The next time you ask what’s in a name, consider this: A one-time
temple priest-turned astrologer-turned alleged NRI fraudster-turned
Godman-cum-benami real estate operator (and much more), is the latest
news sensation in Kerala, his face and profile hogging front pages and
almost all local TV channel now panting to come up every hour with
more dark tidbits and legends about him. All this because the media
here took to believing, and still insists, that he is really his far
more notorious namesake accused of a lot more potent stuff, including
smuggling sophisticated weapons for extremist outfits linked to the
1993 Mumbai blasts.

The man in the headlines, Santosh Madhavan, used to be a school
dropout turned priest for many years in local temples in Kochi, before
he took on an astrologer’s image and flew off to Dubai, only to end up
in a financial fraud. Before Interpol Dubai put out a red corner alert
for him, Madhavan made his way back to India, grew a beard, put on
white robes, courted the local glitterati including top film stars and
promptly turned himself into

Swami Amritachaitanya. The 2004 Interpol alert for him and his
sidekick Saifuddeen Ali Kannu who fled with him, says both are wanted
in Dubai for fraud and mentions his date of birth as 18 March, 1973.

The other Santosh Madhavan, who too had a red corner Interpol notice
for him pending since 1993, was declared wanted by the Mumbai Police
after his brother Trikesh Madhavan was arrested following the seizure
of some imported weapons soon after the Mumbai blasts. The brother
named him as the kingpin and he was charged, in police language, of a
“criminal conspiracy to commit terrorist acts with the use of
sophisticated fire arms, with the intention to adversely affect
communal harmony”. This Santosh Madhavan was born on 7 June, 1960, and
UAE cops had finally caught him in Abu Dhabi by end-2003, at the
instance of the Interpol in India.

Things began getting tough for Santosh Madhavan alias Swami
Amritachaitanya after a Malayalam magazine put out a cover story
saying the Swami running his celebrity-studded posh ashram in Kochi
was his gunrunner namesake, and mistakenly superimposed the latter’s
profile on him. With almost the entire local media taking it up
together, the man vanished, only to go to both the cops and the CBI in
Kochi a couple of days ago offering to surrender, while maintaining he
was not the other Madhavan. Neither the cops nor the CBI took him in
and he went away.

A day later, the cops had some afterthought and began raiding the
ashram and looking up his suspected benami real estate deals, claiming
they were following up media reports. They claimed they had nothing
yet to arrest him for. Remarkably, the local cops say they are
ascertaining only if he was actually the wanted gunrunner, as was
being reported.

The investigating officer, Shaneel Babu, claimed to have no clue if
there really were two different Interpol red corner alerts for both
the Madhavans still available on the Internet, that both were
distanced by some 13 years in age—or even that that the gunrunner
Madhavan had a brother that this one did not. He also did not want to
comment on why the police began raiding Madhavan’s premises after
letting him off when he voluntarily offered to surrender a day
earlier.

Senior cops did not wish to comment on the possibility of arresting
this Madhavan since there is a Dubai Interpol alert out for him, and
India has an extradition agreement in force with the UAE.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/namesake-on-terror-list-kerala-godman-on-the-run/307537/0

Move to strip Godman of arms licence
Vijay Pratap Singh

Posted: Thursday , Mar 04, 2010 at 0136 hrs
Allahabad:

Self-styled ‘godman’ Swami Shiv Murat Dwivedi alias Swami Bhimanandji
Maharaj alias Swami Ichchadhari Sant, who was arrested on February 26
for allegedly running a sex racket in the Capital, is set to be
stripped of his arms licence.

The Chitrakoot police on Wednesday began proceedings to cancel
Dwivedi’s licence, issued by former district magistrate Hridesh
Kumar.

“I have initiated the cancellation proceedings and have sent a report
to the district magistrate for the same. Following an inquiry, it came
to light that the Manikpur police had ignored two cases registered
against him and put in recommendations for the licence,”
Superintendent of Police Veer Bahadur Singh said.

Singh added that three licences had been issued to Dwivedi, his father
Bachcha Lal and brother Sanjay Murat Dwivedi. “An inquiry is on
against his father and brother. If the police find their involvement
in criminal cases, their licences will also be cancelled,” he added.

A team of five policemen, led by Station House Officer of Saket Bhrama
Deo, went to Chitrakoot to collect information on Dwivedi.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Move-to-strip-Godman-of-arms-licence/586562/

http://www.indianexpress.com/gsearch.php?cof=FORID%3A10&ie=ISO-8859-1&cx=partner-pub-9517772455344405%3Aovx9qn9iau0&q=Godman&sa=Search#905

[Sid Harth]

Category:Political scandals in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.

B
[+] Bofors scandal (10 P)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bofors_scandal

Pages in category "Political scandals in India"
The following 14 pages are in this category, out of 14 total. This
list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).

1
Indian political scandals
1971 Nagarwala scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Nagarwala_scandal

B
Barak Missile scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barak_Missile_scandal
Bofors scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors_scandal

C
Cash-for-votes scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-votes_scandal

F
Fodder Scam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fodder_Scam

H
Hawala scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala_scandal

M
Harshad Mehta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harshad_Mehta
Haridas Mundhra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haridas_Mundhra

Q
Ottavio Quattrocchi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottavio_Quattrocchi

S
SNC Lavalin scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNC_Lavalin_scandal
Sukh Ram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukh_Ram

T
Taj corridor case
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_corridor_case
Tata Tapes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Tapes_controversy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Political_scandals_in_India

1971 Nagarwala scandal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On May 24, 1971 , INR 60 lakh (= £330,000) (was withdrawn from the
State Bank of India (Parliament Street branch) and given to a
Bangladesh ka babu or "man from Bangladesh" after the chief cashier,
Ved Prakash Malhotra, got a call purportedly from Indira Gandhi then
Prime Minister of India asking him to do so.

Later it was discovered that former army captain, Rustom Sohrab
Nagarwala, then attached to Indian intelligence or R&AW, collected the
money from Malhotra, by "mimicking the voice of Mrs. Indira Gandhi",
presumably for being diverted to the Mukti Bahini in its guerrilla-
liberation campaign from West Pakistan. Nagarwalla, it was later
alleged, was about to leave that same evening for Nepal. He was
arrested, however, after Malhotra went in person to collect a receipt
from P. N. Haksar, Indira Gandhi's personal secretary, informing him
that the requested payment was done. A stunned Haksar informed
Malhotra that Mrs Gandhi had instructed nothing of the sort and urged
him to inform the police immediately.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%26AW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukti_Bahini

The opposition parties suspected that the money belonged to Indira
Gandhi. They also alleged that it was not an isolated case.

The investigating officer, D. K. Kashyap, investigating the case was
killed in a car attack. Nagarwala was sentenced for four years and
died in prison in February, 1973. This was due to deliberate neglect
of his increasing ill-health, a point in fact later confirmed in an
official enquiry.

A Commission of Inquiry was set up by Janata Party under Justice P.
Jagan Mohan Reddy on June 9, 1977, to probe into the Nagarwala case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Jagan_Mohan_Reddy

Justice Jaganmohan Reddy listed four "incontrovertible facts" - one of
them being the fact that Indira Gandhi did not have any account in
that branch - but concluded that they were not sufficient to hold that
the money belonged to her. "There were several lacunae," he said, and
listed them. "To supply an answer to these (lacunae) would force me to
leave the safe haven of facts which required to be established by
evidence and enter the realm of conjectures and speculation." (p.
176).

External links

[1]

India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU
Vol. 15 :: No. 17 :: August 15 - 28, 1998

JAIN COMMISSION REPORT
A law unto itself

The Jain Commission has run amuck, flouting the Commissions of Inquiry
Act, its own terms of reference, the rules of natural justice and the
norms of the judicial function.

A. G. NOORANI

JUSTICE M.C. JAIN has driven a coach and four through the law in his
Final Report. Let us consider first the law and, next, Jain's conduct.
Section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act puts a strong fetter on
the Government as well as the Lok Sabha's power to appoint a
Commission of Inquiry. A Commission can be appointed only "for the
purpose of making an inquiry into any definite matter of public
importance." In the case of a former Chief Minister of Bihar, K. B.
Sahay, the Supreme Court said: "If the charges were vague or
speculative suggesting a fishing expedition, we would have paused to
consider whether such an inquiry should be allowed to proceed." (AIR
1969 S.C. 258 to 262; emphasis added, throughout).

The Royal Commission on Tribunals of Inquiry headed by Lord Justice
Salmon noted realistically that "as the agitation for an inquiry is
very often the result of nothing more than general allegation and
rumour, it is necessary to keep the Tribunal within reasonable
bounds... The Act lays down ... that what is to be inquired into shall
be a 'definite matter'. Accordingly, no Tribunal should be set up to
investigate a nebulous mass of vague and unspecified rumours. The
reference should confine the inquiry to the investigation of the
definite matter which is causing a crisis of public confidence. (1966;
Cmnd. 3121, p. 30, para 78). The Commissions of Inquiry Act of 1952 is
based on the British statute, the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act,
1921.

The Jain Commission did just that - launch a fishing expedition spread
over seven years. Similar violations of the law by the Thakkar
Commission that inquired into Indira Gandhi's assassination and the
Thakkar-Natarajan Commission that inquired into the Fairfax case have
gone unnoticed. Secondly, appointed to inquire into a "definite"
matter of public importance, the Commission's report must be based on
legal evidence and it must either give a finding of fact or decline to
do so if the evidence is inadequate. It is utterly impermissible for
it to voice "suspicion", whether directly or indirectly. To mention
mere "possibilities" as distinct from probabilities and refuse to
"rule out" some is calculatedly to raise a suspicion that they did
occur, the lack of evidence notwithstanding. No judicial exercise, be
it in a court of law or an inquiry, can indulge in such an exercise.

The third violation of the law is as gross and occurs despite an
important but overlooked ruling of the Supreme Court. No Commission of
Inquiry has any right to recommend prosecution or interrogation of any
individual. On December 11, 1956, the Government of India set up a
Commission of Inquiry to go into the affairs of companies controlled
by Ramkrishna Dalmia and his associates. Clause 10 of the terms of
reference of the Commission directed it to inquire into "any
irregularities" in those firms, except those in respect of which
criminal proceedings were pending in a court of law and to recommend
thus "and the action which in the opinion of the Commission should be
taken as and by way of securing redress or punishment or to act as a
preventive in future cases."

This part of Clause 10 was struck down by the Bombay High Court and
the Supreme Court. In the High Court, Chief Justice M. C. Chagla ruled
that it was not open to the Commission "to point out to the Union
Government what civil or criminal action can be taken with regard to
these breaches of law" under the new Companies Act. That was "beyond
the legislative competence of Parliament". The Commission was asked
"to inform the Government in order that Government should launch civil
or criminal proceedings. Now, such an investigation can only be
instituted by means of the judicial process and not through the device
of a Commission."

Justice Chagla amplified: "It is not open to the Government by this
notification to put any individual in the position of an accused, to
constitute a Commission to investigate into any offence that he might
have committed, and to place before it materials collected so that on
the strength of those materials a prosecution could be launched.... it
would be competent to Government to get information with regard to
breaches of law, so that legislation may be passed to prevent such
breaches in future, and there is no reason to suggest why breaches of
law referred to in the first part of Clause (10) were to be
investigated into only for the purpose of instituting civil or
criminal proceedings and not also for the purpose of legislation. In
our opinion, therefore, the last part of Clause (10) from the words
"and the action" to "in future cases" is ultra vires of the Act and
the Government is not competent to require the Commission to make any
report with regard to these matters (Ram Krishna Dalmia vs. Mr.
Justice S. P. Tendulkar 59, Bom.L.R. 769 at 775).

The ruling was upheld by a unanimous judgment of a Constitution Bench
of the Supreme Court delivered by Chief Justice S. R. Das. He held
that "there can be no objection even to the Commission of Inquiry
recommending the imposition of some form of punishment which will, in
its opinion, be sufficiently deterrent to delinquents in future. But
seeing that the Commission of Inquiry has no judicial powers and its
report will purely be recommendatory and not effective proprio vigor
and the statement made by any person before the Commission of Inquiry
is, under Section 6 of the Act, wholly inadmissible in evidence in any
future proceedings, civil or criminal, there can be no point in the
Commission of Inquiry making recommendations for taking any action 'as
and by way of securing redress or punishment' which, in agreement with
the High Court, we think, refers in the context to wrongs already done
or committed; for redress or punishment for such wrongs, if any, has
to be imposed by a Court of law properly constituted exercising its
own discretion on the facts and circumstances of the case and without
being in any way influenced by the view of any person or body,
howsoever august or high-powered it may be. Having regard to all these
considerations it appears to us that only that portion of the last
part of Clause(10) which calls upon the Commission of Inquiry to make
recommendations about the action to be taken 'as and by way of
securing redress or punishment' cannot be said to be at all necessary
for or ancillary to the purposes of the Commission." (AIR 1958 S.C.
538).

If the Jain Report is invalid on this score, the Action Taken Report
(ATR) falls with it. Section 3(4) of the Act was amended in 1971 to
bind the Government to lay before the Lok Sabha (or the State
Assembly, as the case may be) the Commission's report "together with a
memorandum of the action taken thereon within a period of six months
from the submission of the report by the Commission..." The
Government's ATR must be based on the Commission's Report
("thereon").

Fourthly, while Commissions of Inquiry are not bound by the Indian
Evidence Act, 1872, they are not free to disregard the principles
underlying it. The Law Commission's 24th Report (1962) on the Act
quoted G.W. Keeton's remarks in his classic Trial by Tribunal (1960):
"When the question of the involvement of a particular person in a
particular transaction is under consideration, however, the Tribunal
restricts itself to the facts admissible under the normal rules of
evidence." The Law Commission said approvingly: "We recommend that the
same practice should be followed in our country also." It did not
recommend any statutory provision lest "a rigid provision may defeat
the very object of the Act; namely, to find out the truth." But in its
pursuit, speculation cannot be substituted for evidence.

In 1970, Justice Y. V. Chandrachud said in his report on the
circumstances relating to the death of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya: "I have
to grapple with quite a mass of irrelevant and hearsay evidence.... I
could not reject that evidence on the ground of its inadmissiblity
under the Evidence Act but that does not mean that I must accept it as
good evidence" (p. 7). For instance, the Evidence Act makes
inadmissible opinion evidence except in some specific cases such as
handwriting or expert evidence (Sections 45 to 51). It is not open to
a person to say, for instance, that in his opinion, X conspired to
murder Y. He can only depose to facts within his personal knowledge.
Jain declared open season on assassination "theories". The Radcliffe
Tribunal, set up to probe into allegations in the press on espionage
and breaches of security in the Admiralty, noted that "most of these
statements, it turned out, were either pure comment expressed in the
form of assertion of fact or else inferences put together from other
readily accessible sources... Our only function, as we have seen it,
is to try to report on the facts coming before us in our inquiry..."

Fifthly, if the Report must be based on facts, not opinions, what must
be the standard of proof of the facts? Section 3 of the Evidence Act
simply says that "a fact is said to be proved when, after considering
the matters before it, the court either believes it to exist, or
considers its existence so probable that a prudent person ought, under
the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition
that it exists." There is a similar formulation in regard to a
situation in which a fact is "disproved". In contrast is the
definition of "not proved" - "neither proved nor disproved". That is
the honest course when evidence is inadequate. To seek refuge in
suspicion when there is no proof is unjudicial. To arraign people on
suspicion is unjust.

IT is all right to decide civil disputes on a balance of
probabilities. But no "prudent man" will inflict punishment save on
the basis of proof beyond reasonable doubt, the rule in criminal
cases. The S.R. Das Commission on Partap Singh Kairon insisted on the
stricter standard of proof. For, "No individual shall be condemned on
suspicion, however strong. " The Evidence Act does not apply but its
fundamentals do.

The J. R. Vimadalal Commission's Report (1978) on J. Vengala Rao,
former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, opted for a lower standard
but held that "the graver the consequence of a finding in regard to a
particular allegation, the higher should be the preponderance of
probability which a Commission of Inquiry should require to be
established, before it holds a fact to be proved and arrives at a
finding to that effect."

T.A. HAFEEZ
D.R. Karthikeyan, chief of the Special Investigation Team and later
Director of the CBI.

These Commissions were concerned with charges of abuse of power by
Chief Ministers. How much more stringent must be the standard of proof
in a case in which the allegation is culpable neglect that leads to
murder or actual complicity in it? No prudent person would accept any
other test but proof beyond reasonable doubt.

There was a Commission of Inquiry which had to probe into a bizarre
case seven years later. It was honest enough to pronounce "not proved"
despite proven indications that could legitimately create suspicion in
a layperson's mind. The Judge refused to endorse suspicions despite
the fact that he detested the policies of the person under suspicion,
Indira Gandhi. Justice P. Jaganmohan Reddy, one of the finest judges
to have sat on, was appointed as Commission of Inquiry on June 9,
1977, to probe into the Nagarwala case. On May 24, 1971, R. S.
Nagarwala was able to take out Rs. 60 lakhs from the State Bank of
India's Parliament Street branch by "mimicking the voice of Mrs.
Indira Gandhi" to Chief Cashier Ved Prakash Malhotra. Nagarwala died
of heart attack in prison. Neglect by the authorities was patent. The
investigating officer, D. K. Kashyap, was killed in a car attack. If
Milap Chand Jain had been let loose on the case at the behest of the
Government, a mountain of suspicion would have been raised. Justice
Jaganmohan Reddy only listed four "incontrovertible facts" - one of
them being the fact that Indira Gandhi did not have any account in
that branch - but concluded that they were not sufficient to hold that
the money belonged to her. "There were several lacunae," he said, and
listed them. "To supply an answer to these (lacunae) would force me to
leave the safe haven of facts which required to be established by
evidence and enter the realm of conjectures and speculation." (p.
176). He did not talk of "needles of suspicion" nor direct a "finger
of suspicion".

Lastly, a Commission's report is very much open to judicial review. It
can be quashed by the High Court or the Supreme Court if, among other
things, it has failed to abide by the rules of evidence or if its
reasoning is illogical grossly. The Privy Council set aside the Report
of a New Zealand Royal Commission set up under the Commissions of
Inquiry Act, 1908. It applied the established rules of evidence, that
is, ".... the person making a finding... must base his decision upon
evidence that has some probative value.... What is required... is that
the finding must be based upon some material that tends logically to
show the existence of facts consistent with the finding and that the
reasoning supportive of the finding, if it be disclosed, is not
logically self-contradictory." Judicial review is allowed in relation
to "primary facts... not supported by any probative evidence" and to
"reasoning by which the decision-maker justify inferences of fact that
he had drawn (but) is self-contradictory or otherwise based upon an
evident logical fallacy."

Jain's Report would collapse if these six legal principles were
applied to it. Courts in India have for over a century decided
conspiracy cases. Jain could not apply the law because it would
demolish his suspicions or conspiracy theories. Nor could he
articulate them without contradicting himself. Sample this from Volume
VI (p.29): "The standard proof is very high in criminal trial and it
is difficult to collect such evidence in a case where people feel that
there is deeper conspiracy, national and international. The theory of
conducting the investigation from the scene of crime to the criminal
may sometimes unearth the whole conspiracy but it is also very likely
that the whole conspiracy may not be unravelled even after reaching to
the executors of the conspiracy from the scene of the crime. In a case
of the present nature, in which even the main culprits were not
available as they have consumed cyanide and died or are absconding, it
is all the more difficult to unearth the conspiracy if any behind the
LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)." Mark the words "if any."

ANU PUSHKARNA
Justice Milap Chand Jain.

This special pleading is followed by these bold assertions: "In a
Commission of Inquiry, the inadmissible evidence in a Court of Law can
form the basis of factual findings and the standard of proof is not so
strict before the Commission of Inquiry. The factual findings can be
recorded on the basis of even probabilities."

THE entire Volume II on "persons/agencies responsible for the
assassination" rests on opinions aired and theories spun heedless of
implausibilities and contradictions. The Khalistan Guerilla Force
(KGF) issued a press note on May 22, 1991, the day after the
assassination, claiming responsibility for the crime jointly with the
LTTE. The blast, it said, was made with '''satellite wave control'
with the help of computer at a distance of 60 kms... about 90
persons... have been killed." Instant rejection would have been a
sound response even in 1991. In 1998 no sensible person would waste a
minute on this.

Jain dwells on it at length and ties himself up in knots: "The press
note may be fake but it does point to a link with the LTTE." A fake
provides guidance: "The Sikh militant group solely has not claimed
responsibility. Any group by the name of Khalistan Guerilla Force may
be non-existent. The group could have claimed the sole responsibility
but it has not done so. If a fake responsibility was to be claimed,
the group could have come out with claiming sole responsibility. But
the note clearly makes out that it is not only the job of LTTE but
there is some other force also behind the LTTE." So, whether the KGF's
press note was fake or not, it "proves" a "wider conspiracy" to Jain's
satisfaction. Such logic surfaces again on page 118: "Unless there is
some link, it is inconceivable that such a claim would have been made
in the press release that the assassination has been done in
collaboration with the LTTE. It is quite possible that this may be
with a view to mislead the investigation and instead of directing
investigation towards the LTTE, it may take up investigation against
the Khalistani extremists. But the question is how such a press
release appeared on 22-5-1991 claiming assassination by the terrorist
groups mentioned therein... The information contained therein
regarding the method of blast with a satellite control system, may
also be incorrect and this information may also be incorrect that
Chintamani Raman has been baptised Sikh by taking Amrit at a
Gurudwara."

"Without attaching any significance to these informations (sic.), the
very fact of the press release having been issued the same night
involving the two different terrorist organisations becomes relevant
and assumes importance from the point of view of establishing link
between the two, and therefore it is quite possible that they may have
acted in concert on the basis of which the press release was issued."
Such contradictions invalidate the Report.

The record shows that in December 1990, Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar
sent Mahant Sewa Dass Singh to London at government expense to bring
around Jagjit Singh Chohan and score a "victory" by "settling" the
Punjab problem. The Mahant claimed that Chohan told him of a plan to
assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. On May 28, 1991, he wrote to the President:
"The anti-India forces are diverting the attention from the killers by
blaming the Tamils or LTTE. The LTTE has repeatedly denied that they
have hand in the killing of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. So I request to your
goodself to ask the Government to direct the energies towards the real
killers." Which Judge would waste his time on such a witness?

This letter was produced by D. R. Karthikeyan, then Joint Director of
the Central Bureau of Investigation and head of the Special
Investigation Team (SIT), when he appeared before Jain on September
19, 1997. It did not worry Jain one bit. The Mahant also said: "The
theory about the human bomb is all non-sense." Why? Because Chohan
"himself told me this when I spoke to him on telephone after the
assassination."

A professional investigator, Karthikeyan saw through the Mahant as any
educated person would. Yet, Jain pressed him to accept other
"possibilities". He writes: "On being questioned as to whether he
rules out any possibility of any conspiracy beyond LTTE, or is there
any conspiracy behind LTTE or behind the persons who have been
prosecuted, the witness replied that Shri Rajiv Gandhi being a dynamic
leader taking bold decisions in many fields, there may have been many
groups inimical to him and many conspiracies also. Thus, there are any
number of possibilities of any one of those numerous inimical groups
targeting him. As an investigator, what he can speak about is about
the conspiracy that actually fructified in the killing of Shri Rajiv
Gandhi on 21-5-1991 at Sriperumbudur. He, however, stated that he
agrees that there are possibilities of other groups inimical to Shri
Rajiv Gandhi joining hands with an organisation like the LTTE to
eliminate him but his submission is that he is talking about
probabilities and not possibilities, and according to him involvement
of any other terrorist group was most improbable and stated that LTTE
is not just a mercenary who can be made to do a task by somebody else
looking to their thinking, the making and the philosophy of the LTTE,
and he expressed his firm opinion that in this operation, LTTE acted
alone."

The contrast between the two attitudes emerges starkly and to the
Judge's disadvantage in Volume V on the 21 suspects, in Chapter X on
the SIT's stand "on theories (sic) beyond LTTE." Karthikeyan told him
that "there is hardly anything either in its investigation or from
intelligence from any quarter to lend credibility to and sustain such
theories and hypothesis. In the absence of any evidence they have to
remain as such for ever in the realm of endless speculation." He said
emphatically: "I, as the leader of the Team, my officers and the
prosecutors are confident that there is very little scope of
involvement of any person or group beyond the LTTE and the 41 persons
charged by us" - notwithstanding the difficulties in investigating a
conspiracy several of whose participants were dead or beyond reach.
Jain's comment on this defies belief: "His statement does not
completely rule out the possibility of involvement beyond LTTE and
beyond the 41 charge-sheeted accused persons." This deliberate
misconstruction is followed by the admission that "the Commission has
done that exercise to the extent possible" - a pursuit of
"possibilities" followed by airing of suspicions.

It is in this context that Jain criticises the SIT for not
interrogating six public figures, including Chandra Shekhar and
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi. Regardless of that
"failure" by the SIT, "the evidence and circumstances on some theories
examined by the Commission do point some accusing finger on some
agencies, organisations, outfits or individuals. The Government may
adopt such course of action as it may think fit in respect
thereto." (Volume V; Page 361). In law, a Commission of Inquiry can
only return a finding based on evidence or decline to do so because
the evidence is inadequate, as Justice Jaganmohan Reddy did. No
Commission has the right to point "an accusing finger" on the basis of
"theories" it has examined. No Government is entitled to act on such
suspicion and launch a witchhunt.

But the "accusing finger" is waved all over the Report and
recommendations for action by way of investigation or interrogation
abound (Volume II, pp. 202 and 231). This is not the remit the
Commission was given. It is unable to give a finding after years of
inquiry and expects others to do better. "No definite clinching
evidence establishing the link between Khalistani extremists and LTTE
has come before the Commission but the circumstances as considered
above do warrant further probe. "But, surely, there was to be some
finality to the Final Report. The Commission's order of July 2, 1993
said that "a thorough probe is needed leaving no areas including the
areas covered by the charge-sheet". That was five years ago. After
nearly seven years of labour, the Jain Commission can do no more than
urge "further scrutiny, examination and action in accordance with
law," in respect of the 21 suspects it names. But, as Jain himself
admitted, "This Commission is required to prove the criminal
conspiracy. It has to find out the persons and agencies responsible
for conceiving, preparing and planning the assassination of Shri Rajiv
Gandhi and whether there was any conspiracy behind it."

THE ATR is motivated. Tongue firmly in cheek, it quotes the Interim
and Final Reports together on some points to establish, without
comment, Jain's inconsistencies. On his quaint notions of evidence,
the ATR says: "While noting this observation of the Commission,
Government understand that any probe must eventually result in
judicially admissible evidence." Yet the "foreign hand" will be
"examined in depth" by the Ministries of External Affairs and Home,
and the I.B. and the RAW, all of which have nothing better to do,
apparently. The ATR accepts the stand of the CBI and the judgment of
the Designated Court generally and specifically, on the 21 suspects
except in regard to Kumaran Padmanathan and Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan,
oddly enough. The MDMA will also target Karunanidhi on the basis of
"serious observations" in the Interim Report although the Final Report
declares that "there is no indictment in the Interim Report of any
individual" (volume VI, p. 60). The MDMA will be an instrument of the
Government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has good reason to be happy with Jain. He
brought down the United Front Government and has this to say of the
Godse case: "There was a conspiracy theory in the assassination of
Mahatma Gandhi. The RSS was banned and Savarkar was charged-sheeted
and finally the political leaders were exonerated. The conspiracy as
to who was responsible for the assassination of the Father of the
Nation - not the particular Nathu Ram Godse who pulled the trigger -
remains yet to be unveiled." He is wrong. The RSS was accused even by
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - who would have liked it to join the
Congress - of spreading "communal poison". On September 11, 1948,
Patel wrote to RSS chief M. S. Golwalkar: "As a final result of the
poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life
of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government or of the
people no more remained for the RSS. In fact, opposition grew.
Opposition turned more severe when the RSS men expressed joy and
distributed sweets after Gandhiji's death." Patel wrote to Hindu
Mahasabha leader Shyama Prasad Mookerjee on July 18, 1948: "Our
reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two
bodies (RSS and Hindu Mahasabha), particularly the former, an
atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy
became possible..." Mahasabha president V. D. Savarkar was acquitted,
despite the fact that the approver badge was found to be a reliable
witness only because there was no independent corroboration of the
approver's evidence as the law strictly required.

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:ENOMQMcZZccJ:www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1517/15171170.htm+nagarwala+60+lakhs&hl=en&gl=nz&ct=clnk&cd=1

[2]
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030627/asp/nation/story_2107442.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Nagarwala_scandal

Hawala scandal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hawala scandal or hawala scam was an Indian political scandal
involving payments allegedly received by politicians through hawala
brokers, the Jain brothers. It was a US$18 million bribery scandal
that implicated some of the country's leading politicians. There were
also alleged connections with payments being channelled to Hizbul
Mujahideen militants in Kashmir.[1]

Those accused included L. K. Advani, Madhav Rao Scindia, Arjun Singh,
V. C. Shukla, P. Shiv Shankar, Moti Lal Vora, Ajit Panja, Sharad
Yadav, Balram Jakhar and Madan Lal Khurana. Many were acquitted in
1997 and 1998, partly because the hawala records (including diaries)
were judged in court to be inadequate as the main evidence.[2] The
failure of this prosecution by the Central Bureau of Investigation was
widely criticised.[3]

See also

Vineet Narain, the journalist who broke the story

Further reading

Kapoor, S. (1996), Bad Money, Bad Politics: The Untold Hawala Story,
Har–Anand Publications, Delhi - cited (p.22) by Ashok V. Desai in The
Economics and Politics of Transition to an Open Market Economy: India,
OECD Working Paper 155 accessed at [4] Nov 2, 2006
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/3/1921937.pdf
Hawala. An Informal Payment System and Its Use to Finance Terrorism by
Sebastian R. Müller (Dec. 2006), ISBN 3-8655-0656-9

Notes

^ Open letter to Prime Minister of India Narsimhanrao, Canadian
Journalists for Free Expression, July 16, 2001 accessed at [1] Nov 2,
2006
http://www.cjfe.org/protestlets/2001/indiag16.html
^ Sudha Mahalingam, Jain Hawala Case: Diaries as evidence, Frontline
magazine, Vol.15: No.06: Mar 21 - Apr 3, 1998, accessed at [2] Nov 2,
2006
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1506/15060270.htm
^ A glaring CBI failure, editorial, The Tribune, Feb 2, 2000 accessed
at [3] Nov 2, 2006
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000202/edit.htm#1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala_scandal

A glaring CBI failure

EVEN by its own abysmal standard, the CBI hit a new low of
incompetence on Monday. The hawala case involving Jains and several
top leaders and a few bureaucrats just disappeared into history
without leaving any scar. The last chargesheet has been thrown out by
a court. In Delhi again, a sessions judge reprimanded the agency for
trying to distort records to secure the release of a person from whose
house it had recovered nearly a kilo of opium. In Calcutta, it found
its case against the only Indian link in the Purulia arms dropping
case was thrown out a the court, which lamented that there was nothing
on record to link the Ananda Marg with the frightening operation
although it is apparent that it was the intended recipient. For one
day it is a distressingly long list of fiascos and worse. For those
who are struggling to come out of the shock acquittal of the accused
in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case, the latest clutch of failures must
be a painful reminder.

The hawala case once appeared to be clear cut but the CBI succeeded in
converting it into a ridiculously porous one. It had the dairy of
Jains, several computer disks and it also had a detailed confessional
statement by one of the brothers. All it had to do was to collect
circumstantial evidence by painstaking leg work and, yes, its
homework. Instead it sent in for its hack writer and wove a story on
the basis of the diary, some loose sheets and the confession. The
court held the paper proof as inadmissible thereby nearly killing the
prosecution case. When Mr S.K. Jain retracted his statement the CBI
charge looked flat like a table without legs. Only the last rites
remained and they were performed on Monday. In the West, money-
laundering and tax fraud are considered serious economic offences and
there are independent investigating agencies to chase and punish the
guilty. Big names had been jailed within a very short time. The hawala
case would have most certainly ended in a string of conviction if the
CBI had pursued the leads with a degree of diligence and commitment.
For instance, it hurled very serious allegations against Mr Arif
Mohammed Khan but failed to find any evidence to prop them up. It
means that either the charges were flippand and false or the agency is
lazy and stupid.

The arms dropping case is as serious in terms of national security as
the hawala case is in terms of economic security. Yet only a bunch of
mercenaries face a jail term and the real criminals are free. It is
like shooting the messenger for bringing an unpleasant message. Who
organised the gun running, which the court says, could disturb the
entire region? In other words, what was the purpose or the motive?
Again, who or what stood to gain by receiving this deadly cargo? Those
who read the escapades of Sherlock Holmes in their school days will
know that the clue to solving a crime is to search for the motive and
the likely beneficiary. The CBI obviously has not learnt this basic
lesson. It has a weak alibi in the fact that seven other accused are
absconding and they are all, apart from Davy, avaduts and anands,
meaning members of the Anand Marg cult. As the judge has curtly
remarked, the CBI had conveniently concluded that the cult had ordered
the arms and since its three-storeyed white building in the area was
the focus of dropping, the charge stood established. But the court
cannot go only on circumstantial evidence even if it is as compelling
as in this case; there must be strong basis to accept it as
substantial evidence. So he acquitted a local cult member and for the
present cleared even the Ananda Marg of any link with the gun running.
India is wracked by armed insurgency and yet a bunch of amateurs are
able to sneak into the country to dump several crates of arms and
ammunition with precision and the CBI, thanks to their chance arrest
at Mumbai airport, can only proceed against five wretched crew members
and a flamboyant sub-leader. What is the message the CBI is sending to
potential economic pirates and arms smugglers? It is terrifying.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000202/edit.htm#1

His Excellency Atal Behari Vajpayee
Prime Minister, Republic of India
Office of the Prime Minister
New Delhi, India
110 011
Fax: +91 11 301 6857
July 16, 2001

Your Excellency,

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-
governmental organization dedicated to fighting for freedom of
expression as stipulated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, wishes to protest the recent prosecution of Vineet
Narain, editor of the New Delhi-based investigative journal Kalchakra.

Contempt of court charges issued by the Jammu and Kashmir State were
brought against Narain as a result of the paper's investigation into
Jammu and Kashmir High Court justice T.S. Doabia's involvement in
resolving a land dispute. The article in question was published in the
December 16, 2000 issue of Kalchakra. In it, it was suggested that a
friendship with Indian Supreme Court chief justice A.S. Anand (former
chief justice of the Jammu/Kashmir High Court) had unjustifiably
influenced Doabia's decisions to help Anand secure legal victories for
close family members and associates in various property disputes.

Mr Narain made a request to the High Court for a venue change (to New
Delhi) for the court hearing, yet was instead granted relocation to
Jammu, a place he feels threatened for his life. Mr Narain says he
fears threats posed by militant groups in Kashmir who were angered by
his investigations into their underground funding networks. Mr Narain
is well known in India for exposing the so-called hawala scam, a US$18
million dollar bribery scandal that implicated some of the country's
leading politicians. He reported that some of those allegedly involved
in channelling payoffs to politicians were also responsible for
transferring money to militant groups in Kashmir, including the Hezb-
ul Mujahedeen. The Indian government acknowledged the potential threat
to Mr Narain's safety by providing him with special security
protection between 1996 and 1998, at the height of efforts to
prosecute those involved in the hawala scandal. Now, however, Mr
Narain feels that local officials have essentially ignored all
requests for his protection while in Kashmir.

CJFE believes that this case demonstrates an abuse of the contempt of
court law, which should never be used to shield members of the
judiciary from scrutiny by the press. CJFE asks for a prompt inquiry
into the possible political motivations behind Mr Narain's prosecution
as well as to provide him with protection if required to appear in
court in Jammu.

Sincerely,

Sharmini Peries

Executive Director

http://www.cjfe.org/protestlets/2001/indiag16.html

JAIN HAWALA CASE

Diaries as evidence

The Supreme Court has acquitted L.K. Advani and V.C. Shukla in the
Jain hawala case. However, in admitting that the Jain diaries are
admissible evidence, the court has paved the way for prosecution in
cases where the payoffs indicated are corroborated by other evidence.

SUDHA MAHALINGAM

THE acquittal of L.K. Advani and V.C. Shukla of the charges of
corruption and criminal conspiracy in the Jain hawala case
overshadowed certain other important aspects of the Supreme Court
verdict that was delivered on March 2. One of these is the reversal of
the position the Delhi High Court had taken on the admissibility of
the Jain diaries as evidence. A three-member Bench of the apex court,
comprising Justices M.K. Mukherjee, S.P. Kurdukar and K.T. Thomas,
ruled that one of the diaries presented by the prosecution was
admissible as evidence under Section 34 of the Indian Evidence Act,
1872.

Justice M. Shamim of the Delhi High Court, who too had acquitted
Advani and Shukla, had taken the view that the entries made in the
Jain diaries "can be used only by way of corroboration to other pieces
of evidence" that the prosecution had at its disposal. In other words,
the diaries could not be used as lead or sole evidence. The Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which investigated the cases, had
appealed to the apex court against this order.

While reversing this position of the High Court, the apex court held
that the entries in one of the diaries, MR 71/91, would be admissible
under Section 34 of the Indian Evidence Act. In doing so, the court
interpreted the provisions of Section 34 to give them their "ordinary,
natural and grammatical meaning" and not a restrictive meaning since
the context or the principle of construction did not warrant it.

According to Section 34, "entries in books of account, regularly kept
in the course of business, are relevant" as evidence. Both prosecution
and defence counsel placed emphasis on the interpretation of the key
words in the section. Defence counsel Kapil Sibal argued that while
the diaries and spiral pads recovered from the residence of the Jains
were "books" within the meaning of Section 34, they were not
admissible as evidence since neither were they "books of account" nor
were they "regularly kept" in the course of "business". Sibal argued
that "account" meant a formal statement of money transactions between
parties arising out of a contractual or a fiduciary relationship. His
contention was that these "books of account" did not relate to a
"business" nor were they "regularly kept".

SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
L.K. Advani

Additional Solicitor-General Altaf Ahmed, who appeared for the
prosecution, argued that the High Court's interpretation of the words
"books of account" and "business" in the above section was a truncated
view. It disabled law from "dealing with illicit business and
situations connected therewith, such as the case in hand where a
conspiracy was hatched to receive money through hawala channels and
other sources and to distribute it as bribes to politicians to
influence favourable decisions from them."

He argued that the word "business" under Section 34 should receive the
widest possible meaning and should be understood and construed to mean
and include all such efforts of people, which, by varied methods of
dealing with each other, were designed to improve their individual
economic conditions and satisfy their desires.

The apex court interpreted the words "account", "books of account",
"business" and "regularly kept" in a general sense. Since the entries
made in the document in question were totalled and balanced, the court
held that the document was a "book of account" recording monetary
transactions that were duly reckoned, rather than a memorandum book.
While interpreting the word "business", it upheld earlier judgments to
mean a real, substantial and systematic or organised course of
activity or conduct with a set purpose. Since the Jains carried on
their activities continuously in an organised manner with a set
purpose (be it illegal) to augment their own resources, the court
ruled that MR 71/91 was a book of account kept in the course of
business. In deciding that the "books of account" were indeed
"regularly kept", the court relied on the relevance of the nature of
occupation of the parties involved.

However, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the CBI on the
ground that there was no independent evidence to indicate that the
amounts paid by the Jain brothers, were actually received by the
"recipients". Hence, the Bench observed that the recipients could not
be held liable under Section 34. The Judges observed: "Since, however,
an element of self-interest and partisanship of the entrant to make a
person - behind whose back and without whose knowledge the entry is
made - liable cannot be ruled out, the additional safeguard of
insistence upon their independent evidence to fasten him with such
liability has been provided for in Section 34 by incorporating the
words 'such statements shall not alone be sufficient to charge any
person with liability'."

Referring to the statements of the four witnesses who had admitted
receipts of payments as shown against them in MR 71/91, the Supreme
Court held that they could at best be proof of reliability of the
entries so far as they were concerned and not others. In other words,
it maintained that the statements of the witnesses could not be
independent evidence under Section 34 as against the two respondents
in this case.

One important implication of the apex court's ruling is that it has
changed the perception about the cohesiveness of the Jain diaries/
hawala case in which, it was believed, all the accused would stand or
fall together. In admitting that the diaries are admissible evidence,
the court has paved the way for the prosecution to proceed at least in
those cases where the payoffs indicated in the diaries have been
corroborated by other evidence. The CBI had filed 34 charge-sheets in
the court of the Special Judge against powerful individuals across the
political spectrum. While the investigative agency claims to have
obtained corroborative evidence against most of the accused either
through independent investigation of their bank accounts, passports,
official documents, circumstantial evidence or in the form of evidence
relating to favours rendered as quid pro quo for payments, it remains
to be seen which of these will stand fresh judicial scrutiny in the
light of the present judgment. The Special Courts dismissed most of
these cases, some of them at the stage of charge-sheeting itself, on
various grounds. The CBI has appealed to the higher courts in respect
of every case.

SANDEEP SAXENA
V.C. Shukla

The apex court also went into the conspiracy theory under Section 10
of the Indian Evidence Act, 1972. Counsel for the CBI had submitted
that material collected during the investigation and placed on record
clearly established the existence of a general conspiracy among the
accused Jains to promote their economic interest by corrupting public
servants. He had also contended that a number of separate conspiracies
with similar purpose had been hatched between the Jains and various
public servants. However, since the agency had failed to file a charge-
sheet against the Jains for having entered into a criminal conspiracy
among themselves, the court did not even consider the matter.
Statements made by certain witnesses, which were furnished by the CBI,
were found to be either irrelevant to the charges of conspiracy or
insufficient as reasonable ground to believe that all of them had
conspired together.

The CBI appears to have bungled in not having framed a charge of
conspiracy among the accused Jains to offer illegal gratification to
Advani and Shukla. It had framed charges of two separate conspiracies,
in both of which the Jains together figured as the common party and
Advani and Shukla as the other. Advani had been accused of receiving
Rs.25 lakhs from the Jains when he was a member of Parliament (besides
the Rs. 35 lakhs he allegedly received when he was not an MP). In the
charge-sheet filed against Shukla and the Jains, it was alleged that
during 1988-91, when Shukla was an MP and a Cabinet Minister, he
allegedly received Rs. 39 lakhs from the Jains. The Jains were charged
with abetment under Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act
(PCA).

The court held that since it found no prima facie evidence of
corruption under Section 7 of the PCA against Advani and Shukla, the
question of abetment did not arise. Advani's name did not even figure
in M 71/91, the diary admitted as evidence and in the case of Shukla,
the evidence was insufficient, the court said. The Bench held that
where no offence had been committed, the question of aiding or
abetting it did not arise.

Since no prima facie case had been established against the two
respondents, the Bench did not deem it necessary to go into the
question of whether an MP came within the definition of a 'public
servant' under the PCA so as to make the respondents liable for
prosecution for alleged commission of offences that attracted the
provisions of the Act.

India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU
Vol. 15 :: No. 06 :: Mar. 21 - Apr. 3, 1998

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1506/15060270.htm

Vineet Narain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vineet Narain (born 1956) is a prominent Indian journalist and anti-
corruption activist. His exposure of the 1990s Hawala scandal led him
to use a public interest petition to apply pressure on the Central
Bureau of Investigation. The CBI was widely criticised when its
prosecutions collapsed, and the Supreme Court of India in deciding the
Vineet Narain Case made directions that included new supervision of
the CBI by the Central Vigilance Commission.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bureau_of_Investigation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Vigilance_Commission

Family and early life

Born in 1956, Vineet Narain had his primary education in Western Uttar
Pradesh and did his higher studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University in
New Delhi. His father was an academician and served as the Vice
Chancellor of two prominent universities in U.P. He fought against
interference of the political masters in the admission procedure of
some of the professional courses in the state.[citation needed] His
mother was active in students politics at the Lucknow University. Her
father was then the Secretary of the UP Legislative Council.

Narain married outside his caste. His wife is an assistant professor
of Russian language at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She
was educated at Modern School in New Delhi. His eldest son Azeez
Narain is a manager in Tata Administrative Services (TAS). His younger
son, Eeshit Narain is an independent film maker based in Delhi
<ShreeJee Productions>.

Narain was drawn to social work from his early youth. He worked in a
village at the age of 18 years with an NGO.

Hawala Scam

Vineet Narain was responsible for bringing the Hawala scandal to light.
[citation needed] 115 top bureaucrats were identified as having
participated in the scam.[citation needed] Case No.340-43 of 1993,
Supreme Court of India

The case got a momentary boost up as a result of a PIL (Public
Interest Litigation) filed in the Supreme Court.[citation needed] In
1996 for the first time in Indian history, several cabinet ministers,
chief ministers and governors were charge-sheeted.Out of them the
person who is still on the run is EX-M.P -Chandravijay Singh from
Moradabad for land scams and legal paper forgery-booked under the high
court NEW-DELHI.[citation needed] Several landmark decisions were
passed by the Supreme Court of India in the Vineet Narain Vs Union of
India and Ors case.[unreliable source?][2]

In July 1997, Mr. Narain compelled the Chief Justice of India comment
on the Hawala case. He wrote a book on the case entitled Hawala ke
Deshdrohi or Dangerous Silence.

Indian Judiciary

Narain brought out a series of land scams involving of one of the
sitting chief justices of India.[citation needed] As a result,
contempt of court proceedings were initiated against him and he fled
the country.[3] Later on, due to the intervention of various
international organisations like Committee to Protect Journalists, all
the proceedings against him were withdrawn.[4]

TV Journalism in India

He launched Kalchakra, the first Hindi-language video magazine, in
1989. He faced hurdles due to financial crisis and by the government
controlled censor board. He writes a weekly syndicated column in
several regional daily newspapers.

Earlier he worked as a correspondent of national dailies and has
appeared in programmes on several international television networks.
[citation needed] He began investigative TV journalism in 1980. TV &
Video World reported, "It may sound surprising, but men of principles,
willing to take tough stand and unwilling to compromise on basic
ideals, still exist in our society. When, in April 1987, one of his
programmes in the Sach Ki Parchhain series was arbitrarily stopped by
Doordarshan authorities, its producer, TV and newspaper journalist
Vineet Narain vowed never to present anything on the government-
controlled network until it was made autonomous and functioned more
democratically."[citation needed]

Current Activities

Vineet Narain writes a syndicated column in over 22 national dailies
on a weekly basis. Vineet Narain gives a weekly news report from India
on telephone to SBS Radio, Australia and also contributes to weekly
columns in two dozen popular dailies of India.[citation needed]

Through Kalchakra Investigative News Bureau, he, along with his
associates, undertake investigative journalism in India. He is also
the founder Secretary of People’s Vigilance Commission, a group headed
by J F Ribeiro, Ex-DGP, Punjab. Narain has been involved in the wider
restoration works in Braj.[5]

Notes

^ Vineet Narain Case, Directions of the Court accessed at [1] Nov 2,
2006
^ Vineet Narain's web-site
^ INDIA: Vineet Narain contempt trial postponed, August 10, 2001,
Committee to Protect Journalists, New York accessed at [2] Nov 2,
2006

^ India annual report 2002, Reporters Without Borders accessed at [3]
Nov 2, 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Without_Borders
^ www.brajfoundation.org

External links

Vineet Narain's Website
http://www.vineetnarain.net/
Kalchakra's Website
http://www.kalchakra.org.in/
Current Activity
http://www.brajfoundation.org/
Supreme Court Judgement Vineet Narain & Ors Vs. Union Of India & Anr
http://www.rishabhdara.com/sc/view.php?case=13530

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vineet_Narain"

Case DetailsVINEET NARAIN & ORS versus UNION OF INDIA & ANR
Supreme Court Cases

1996 SCC (2) 199 JT 1996 (1) 708 1996 SCALE (1)SP31
Case Law SearchIndian Supreme Court Cases / Judgements / Legislation

Judgement

VINEET NARAIN & ORS V. UNION OF INDIA & ANR [1996] RD-SC 158 (30
January 1996)

VERMA, JAGDISH SARAN (J) VERMA, JAGDISH SARAN (J) BHARUCHA S.P. (J)
SEN, S.C. (J)

CITATION: 1996 SCC (2) 199 JT 1996 (1) 708 1996 SCALE (1)SP31

ACT:

HEADNOTE:

O R D E R The true scope of this writ petition has been indicated
during the earlier hearings. At this stage, when some charge sheets
have been filed in the Special Court and there is considerable
publicity in the media regarding this matter, with some speculation
about its true scope, it is appropriate to make this order to form a
part of the record.

The gist of the allegations in the writ petition are that Government
agencies, like the CBI and the revenue authorities, have failed to
perform their duties and legal obligations inasmuch as they have
failed to properly investigate matters arising out of the seizure of
the so called "Jain Diaries" in certain raids conducted by the CBI.

It is alleged that the apprehending of certain terrories led to the
discovery of financial support to them by clandestine and illegal
means, by use of tainted funds obtained through 'hawala' transactions;
that this also disclosed a nexus between several important
politicians, bureaucrats and criminals, who are all recipients of
money from unlawful sources given for unlawful considerations; that
the the CBI and other Government agencies have failed to fully
investigate into the matter and take it to the logical and point of
the trail and to prosecute all persons who have committed any crime;
that this is being done with a view to protect the persons involved,
who are very influential and powerful in the present set up; that the
matter discloses a definite nexus between crime and corruption in
public life at high places in the country which poses a serious threat
to the integrity, security and economy of the nation; that probity in
public life, to prevent erosion of the rule of law and the
preservation of democracy in the country, requires that the Government
agencies be compelled to duly perform their legal obligations and to
proceed in accordance with law against each and every persons
involved, irrespective of the height at which he is placed in the
power set up.

The facts and circumstances of the present case do indicate that it is
of utmost public importance that this matter is examined thoroughly by
this Court to ensure that all Government agencies, entrusted with the
duty to discharge their functions and obligations in accordance with
law, do so, bearing in mind constantly the concept of equality
enshrined in the Constitution and the basic tenant of rule of law: "Be
you ever so high, the law is above you".

Investigation into every accusation made against each and every person
on a reasonable basis, irrespective of the position and status of that
person, must be conducted and completed expeditiously. This is
imperative to retain public confidence in the impartial working of the
Government agencies.

In this proceeding we are not concerned with the merits of the
accusations or the individuals alleged to be involved, but only with
the performance of the legal duty by the Government agencies to
fairly, properly and fully investigate into every such accusation
against every person, and to take the logical final action in
accordance with law.

In case of persons against whom a prima facie case is made out and a
charge sheet is filed in the competent court, it is that court which
will then deal with that case on merits, in accordance with law.

However. if in respect of any such person the final report after full
investigation is that no prima facie case is made out to proceed
further, so that the case must be closed against him, that report must
be promptly submitted to this Court for its satisfaction that the
concerned authorities have not failed to perform their legal
obligations and have reasonably come to such conclusion. No such
report having been submitted by the CBI or any other agency till now
in this Court, action on such a report by this Court would be
considered, if any when that occasion arises. We also direct that no
settlement should be arrived at nor any offence compounded by any
authority without prior leave of this Court.

We may add that on account of the great public interest involved in
this matter, the CBI and other Government agencies must expedite their
action to complete the task and prevent pendency of this matter beyond
the period necessary.

It is needless to observe that the results achieved so far do not
match the available time and opportunity for a full investigation ever
since the matter came to light. It is of utmost national significance
that no further time is lost in completion of the task.

Copyright

Reproduced in accordance with s52(q) of the Copyright Act 1957 (India)
from judis.nic.in, indiacode.nic.in and other Indian High Court
Websites

http://www.rishabhdara.com/sc/view.php?case=13530

Vineet Narain contempt trial postponed

http://cpj.org/2001/08/vineet-narain-contempt-trial-postponed.php

New York, August 10, 2001—Yesterday's scheduled contempt of court case
against journalist Vineet Narain has been postponed due to violence in
Jammu and Kashmir State, the trial venue. It is not known when the
next hearing will be held.

Narain is the founding editor of the New Delhi­based investigative
journal Kalchakra. He faces contempt charges based on a December 16,
2000, Kalchakra article in which Narain alleged that Jammu and Kashmir
High Court justice T.S. Doabia had been unduly influenced by his
friendship with Indian Supreme Court chief justice A.S. Anand in
deciding a land dispute.

http://www.kalchakra.org.in/

Jammu City was placed under curfew after three Muslim militants opened
fire at a local train station on August 7, killing 11 people,
according to international press reports. The curfew went into effect
on August 8 and prevented Narain from reaching the court, the
journalist told CPJ via e-mail.

Narain, who is currently in hiding, said that the Jammu and Kashmir
High Court could not convene as planned due to "hostile conditions in
Jammu."

The curfew was lifted yesterday, August 9, according to Indian and
international press reports.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has not yet responded to a July 6
letter from CPJ and Human Rights Watch urging him to order an
immediate inquiry into possible political motivations behind Narain's
prosecution, and to provide him with adequate security protection
during the trial. CPJ reiterated these requests in a separate letter
that was faxed to the prime minister on August 8.

http://cpj.org/2001/08/vineet-narain-contempt-trial-postponed.php

Committee to Protect Journalists
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an independent,
nonprofit organization based in New York, New York, United States,
that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.

History

A group of U.S. foreign correspondents founded CPJ in 1981 in response
to harassment from authoritarian governments.

Operations

CPJ organizes vigorous public protests and works through diplomatic
channels to effect change. CPJ publishes articles, news releases,
special reports, a biannual magazine called Dangerous Assignments[1],
and an annual worldwide survey of press freedom called Attacks on the
Press[2].

CPJ also administers the annual CPJ International Press Freedom
Awards, which honor journalists and press freedom advocates who have
endured beatings, threats, intimidation and prison for reporting the
news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPJ_International_Press_Freedom_Awards

Each year, CPJ compiles a list of all journalists killed in the line
of duty around the world. Since 1992, the first year that CPJ began to
statistically monitor deaths, 661 journalists have been killed[3]

CPJ is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression
Exchange (IFEX), a global network of more than 70 non-governmental
organizations that monitors free expression violations around the
world and defends journalists, writers and others who are persecuted
for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Freedom_of_Expression_Exchange

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_expression

Active engagements

On December 26, 2007, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
appealed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to forthwith bring to
justice the killers of Davao City broadcaster Ferdinand Lintuan, who
was murdered on December 24.[4]

Staff and directors

The current (2009) executive director of CPJ is journalist Joel Simon,
who assumed the position in July 2006 after having served as deputy
director since 2000.[5] His predecessor was veteran foreign
correspondent Ann Cooper, who served as executive director from 1998
to 2006.[6]

CPJ's board of directors includes prominent American journalists,
including Christiane Amanpour, Tom Brokaw, Anne Garrels, Charlayne
Hunter-Gault, Gwen Ifill, Jane Kramer, Anthony Lewis, Dave Marsh, Kati
Marton, Michael Massing, Victor Navasky, Andres Oppenheimer, Clarence
Page, Norman Pearlstine, Dan Rather, John Seigenthaler, and Mark
Whitaker.

See also

CPJ International Press Freedom Awards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPJ_International_Press_Freedom_Awards
List of journalists killed in Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia

External links

Committee to Protect Journalists website
http://www.cpj.org/
International Freedom of Expression Exchange
http://www.ifex.org/

References

^ [1]
http://cpj.org/Briefings/2005/DA_spring05/DA_spring_05.pdf
^ [2]
http://cpj.org/attacks04/pages/attacks04index.html
^ [3]
^ GMA NEWS.TV, Aggressively pursue Lintuan killers, NY media group
urges Arroyo
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/74305/Aggressively-pursue-Lintuan-killers-NY-media-group-urges-Arroyo
^ CPJ Staff bios
http://cpj.org/about/staff.php
^ Poynter Online Forums
http://www.poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11487

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_Protect_Journalists

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Caste-related violence in India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caste-related violence and hate crimes in India have occurred despite
the gradual reduction of casteism in the country.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, "Dalits and indigenous
peoples (known as Scheduled Tribes or adivasis) continue to face
discrimination, exclusion, and acts of communal violence. Laws and
policies adopted by the Indian government provide a strong basis for
protection, but are not being faithfully implemented by local
authorities."[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch

Phoolan Devi

Main article: Phoolan Devi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoolan_Devi

Phoolan Devi (1963 – 2001) was an Indian dacoit (bandit), who later
turned politician. Born in a lower-caste Mallaah family, she was
mistreated and abandoned by her husband. She was later kidnapped by a
gang of dacoits. The upper-caste Thakur leader of the gang tried to
rape her, but she was protected by the deputy leader Vikram, who
belonged to her caste. Later, an upper-caste Thakur friend of Vikram
killed him, abducted Phoolan, and locked her up in the Behmai village.
Phoolan was raped in the village by Thakur men, until she managed to
escape after three weeks.

Phoolan Devi then formed a gang of Mallahs, which carried out a series
of violent robberies in north and central India, mainly targeting
upper-caste people. Some say that Phoolan Devi targeted only the upper-
caste people and shared the loot with the lower-caste people, but the
Indian authorities insist this is a myth[2]. Seventeen months after
her escape from Behmai, Phoolan returned to the village, to take her
revenge. On February 14, 1981, her gang massacred twenty-two Thakur
men in the village, only two of which were involved in her kidnapping
or rape. Phoolan Devi later surrendered and served eleven years in
prison, after which she became a politician. During her election
campaign, she was criticized by the women widowed in the Behmai
massacre. Kshatriya Swabhimaan Andolan Samanvay Committee (KSASC), a
Kshatriya organization, held a statewide campaign to protest against
her. She was elected a Member of Parliament twice.

On July 25, 2001, Phoolan Devi was shot dead by unknown assassins.
Later, a man called Sher Singh Rana confessed to the murder, saying he
was avenging the deaths of 22 Kshatriyas at Behmai. Although the
police were skeptical of his claims, he was arrested. Rana escaped
from Tihar Jail in 2004. In 2006, KSASC decided to honor Rana for
"upholding the dignity of the Thakur community" and "drying the tears
of the widows of Behmai."[3]

Andhra Pradesh

This state is considered to be one of the least caste-crime infested
places of India which has not had many Dalit Massacres.

Ranvir Sena

Main article: Ranvir Sena
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranvir_Sena

Ranvir Sena is an caste-supremacist fringe paramilitary group based in
Bihar. The group is based amongst the forward-caste landlord, and
carries out actions against the outlawed naxals in rural areas. It has
committed violent acts against Dalits and other members of the
scheduled caste community in an effort to scuttle reform movements
aimed at their emancipation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheduled_caste

Tamil Nadu

The state of Tamil Nadu has witnessed several caste-based incidents
both against Dalits and Brahmins[citation needed]. In 2000, three
young men belonging to the Dalit undercaste were killed in the
Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. This fuelled some localized violence
in the caste-sensitive region, which has seen numerous caste-related
incidents in which the majority of the victims have been Dalits. Six
of the killings have been registered as murders under the Indian Penal
Code and others as "Deaths under suspicious circumstances". No arrests
have been made in these cases.

However, several Dalits have been arrested as goondas (hoodlums). The
Chief minister of Tamil-Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, has been accused of
having an "anti-Dalit" bias by the radical organization "Dalit
Panthers of India". Theories concerning these crimes against Dalits
range from "alcohol bootleggers opposing prohibition movements among
Dalits" to "inter-caste relations between an upper-caste Vanniya boy
and a Dalit girl"[citation needed]. Political parties sympathetic to
the Dalits have protested against these incidents[4] and have alleged
systemic biases against Dalits in several parts of the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_bias

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Penal_Code

Bant Singh case of Punjab

On the evening of January 5, 2006 Bant Singh, a poor Sikh Dalit, was
attacked by unknown assailants. His injuries necessitated medical
amputation. He alleges that this was in retaliation for actively
working to secure justice for his daughter, who was gang raped by
upper caste members of his village in Punjab five years earlier.[5][6]

A 55-year-old Dalit Sikh woman, Sawinder Kaur has been tortured,
stripped and tied to a tree in Ram Duali village of Punjab because her
nephew eloped with a girl from the same community. The police arrested
four persons for allegedly committing the crime on 9 September 2007.
[7]

In January, 1999 four members of the village panchayat of Bhungar
Khera village in Abohar paraded a handicapped Dalit woman naked
through the village. No action was taken by the police, despite local
Dalit protests. It was only on July 20 that the four pancha yat
members were arrested, after the State Home Department was compelled
to order an inquiry into the incident.[8]

A Dalit Sikh woman, Sukhwinder Kaur of Sumel Kheri village was
molested and beaten up by an octroi contractor of Malaudh when she
resisted his attempt to sexually exploit her.[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit

Kherlanji massacre

Main article: Kherlanji Massacre

On September 29, 2006, four members of the Bhotmange family belonging
to the Dalit underclass were slaughtered in Kherlanji, a small village
in Bhandara district of Maharashtra. The women of the family, Surekha
and Priyanka, were paraded naked in public, then allegedly gang-raped
before being murdered[1]. Although initially ascribed by the media and
by the Human Rights Watch to upper castes, the criminal act was
actually carried out by Kunbi[10] caste (classified as Other Backward
Classes[11] by Government of India) farmers for having opposed the
requisition of the Dalit land to have a road built over it.

On November 23, 2006, several members of the Dalit community in the
nearby district of Chandrapur staged a protest regarding this
incident.The protesters allegedly turned violent and pelted stones.
The police had to resort to baton charging to control the situation.
Dalit leaders, however, denied that they had sparked the violence and
that they were "protesting in peace".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kherlanji_Massacre

2006 Dalit protests in Maharashtra

Main article: 2006 Dalit protests in Maharashtra

In November-December 2006, the desecration of a Ambedkar statue in
Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) triggered off violent protests by Dalits in
Maharashtra. Several people remarked that the protests were fueled by
the Kherlanji Massacre[12]. During the violent protests, the Dalit
protestors set three trains on fire, damaged over 100 buses and
clashed with police[13]. At least four deaths and many more injuries
were reported.

Later, the Kanpur Police arrested a Dalit youth Arun Kumar Balmiki for
desecrating the Ambedkar statue. According to the police, the youth
had "admitted to having damaged the statue in a drunken state along
with two friends"[14]. Earlier in a similar case, a Dalit youth was
held for desecrating an Ambedkar statue in Gulbarga, Karnataka[15].

In response to these protests, Raj Thackeray drew attention to another
incident in Kherlanji, in which a Dalit allegedly raped a girl and
killed her. Thackeray demanded action on those responsible for the
rape and the subsequent death of the girl, and also remarked that
nobody helped the girl's family[16].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Thackeray

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kherlanji_Massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Dalit_protests_in_Maharashtra

Rajasthan

In the Indian province of Rajasthan, between the years 1999 and 2002,
crimes against Dalits average at about 5024 a year, with 46 killings
and 138 cases of rape.[17][18] In January 2007, a Jat girl was thrown
into a canal near the border with Haryana for marrying a Dalit boy,
although she swam to shore and was rescued by strangers.[19]

See also: 2008 caste violence in Rajasthan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_caste_violence_in_Rajasthan

Punjab

On 25 May 2009, violence and rioting broke out when thousands of
protesters took to the streets in almost all major towns and cities in
the Indian state of Punjab after a dalit preacher, Sant Ramanand, was
attacked in a temple in Vienna, Austria. He was among 16 people
injured, including another preacher Sant Nirajnan Dass, and later died
in hospital. Both the preachers were from a low-caste Sikh sect which
has a large following in parts of Punjab and had travelled to Vienna
to conduct a special service. Several high-caste Sikh groups had
apparently opposed his presence and threatened violence. This happened
after the preacher had reportedly made remarks about the Sikh groups.
[20]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_Nand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna

Other incidents

On September 1, 2007 some Yadavs poured steaming dal on a Dalit woman
and her infant daughter, and beat up several other Dalits, for
allowing their children to play in the premises of a temple at
Shivayalay Mushari, on the outskirts of Patna.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yadav

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patna

See also

Communalism (South Asia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communalism_(South_Asia)
Religious violence in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence_in_India

References

^ "India Events of 2007". Human Rights Watch.
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/englishwr2k8/docs/2008/01/31/india17605.htm.
^ "Phoolan Devi: Champion of the poor". BBC News. 2001-07-25.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1456441.stm. Retrieved
2006-12-11.
^ "Kshatriya Samaj to honour Phoolan's killer". The Tribune,
Chandigarh. 2006-05-21. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060501/nation.htm#5.
Retrieved 2006-12-11.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060501/nation.htm#5
^ Victims of bias,The Hindu
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1712/17121060.htm
^ Paying a price for securing justice for his daughter, The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/16/stories/2006011608190500.htm
^ Bant Singh can still sing, Tehalka Magazine
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main16.asp?filename=Cr020406do_bigha.asp
^ Dalit woman tied naked to a tree
http://www.aiccindia.org/newsite/0804061910/news/Dalit_woman_tied_naked_to_tree_in_Punjab_11_Sep_2007.htm
^ Down and out in Punjab By Praveen Swami
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1626/16260650.htm
^ Dalit woman molested, beaten up Malaudh (Ahmedgarh), April 27
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050428/ldh1.htm
^ "Dalit blood on village square". Frontline.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=20061201004713000.htm&date=fl2323/&prd=fline&.
Retrieved 2006-12-10.
^ "Age old rivalry behind Khairlanji violence". NDTV.
http://origin.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Age+old+rivalry+behind+Khairlanji+violence&id=96718&category=National.
Retrieved 2006-12-10.
^ "Khairlanji to Kanpur". The Indian Express. 2006-12-02.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/17707.html. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/khairlanji-to-kanpur/17707/
^ "Maharashtra: Dalit anger leaves 4 dead, 60 injured". Rediff.com.
2006-11-30. http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/30statue.htm.
Retrieved 2006-12-02.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/30statue.htm
^ "Dalits force police to let off suspect in Kanpur". Business
Standard. 2006-12-01. http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=18172.
Retrieved 2006-12-02.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?tp=on&autono=18172
^ "Dalit youth held for desecrating Ambedkar statue". Deccan Herald.
2006-09-26. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/Sep222006/district1711462006921.asp.
Retrieved 2006-12-02.
^ "Situation in Mumbai, state back to normal". The Times of India.
2006-12-02.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/Situation_in_Mumbai_state_back_to_normal/articleshow/678044.cms.
Retrieved 2006-12-02.
^ http://www.indiatogether.org/dalit/articles/bidwai1002.htm
^ BBC NEWS | South Asia | Dalits in conversion ceremony
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6050408.stm
^ (Hindi)CNN/IBN Video
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/55743/girl-escapes-honour-killing-now-fights-a-lonely-battle.html

^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8066783.stm

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste-related_violence_in_India"

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/111615/revered-godman-accused-of-land-grabbing.html

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/111608/baba-ramdev-forays-into-politics-forms-new-party.html

VIDEO AND AUDIO NEWS
Low-caste Hindus hold mass conversions

SEE ALSO

Indian Dalit leader passes away
09 Oct 06 | South Asia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6032563.stm
Kanshi Ram: Champion of the poor
09 Oct 06 | South Asia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6034823.stm
Anger over Gujarat religion law
20 Sep 06 | South Asia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5362802.stm
Conversions harder in India state
26 Jul 06 | South Asia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5215696.stm
Furore reflects India's caste complexities
20 May 06 | South Asia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4998274.stm
India mourns Dalit ex-president
10 Nov 05 | South Asia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4424216.stm
India dalits protest arson attack
05 Sep 05 | South Asia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4216290.stm
Country profile: India
31 Aug 06 | Country profiles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1154019.stm

RELATED BBC LINKS

Hindu caste system - BBC religion and ethics
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbreligion/F2213234

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbreligion/F2213239

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbreligion/F2213233

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbreligion/F2213236

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbreligion/F2213237

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/living/caste.shtml

RELATED INTERNET LINKS

National Conference of Dalit Organisations
http://www.nacdor.org/
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights
http://www.dalits.org/

See also:

25 Jul 01 | South Asia
'Bandit Queen' shot dead
29 Jun 01 | South Asia
Indian bandit offers to surrender
07 Mar 00 | South Asia
Court rules out caste differences
28 Sep 99 | South Asia
Dalits' political awakening
12 Oct 00 | South Asia
Analysis: India's criminal politicians

Internet links:

US article on the Bandit Queen
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96nov/bandit/bandit.htm

See also:

25 Jul 01 | South Asia
'Bandit Queen' shot dead
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1456178.stm
29 Jun 01 | South Asia
Indian bandit offers to surrender
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1412944.stm
07 Mar 00 | South Asia
Court rules out caste differences
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/669285.stm
28 Sep 99 | South Asia
Dalits' political awakening
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/459591.stm
12 Oct 00 | South Asia
Analysis: India's criminal politicians
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/701360.stm

See also:

26 Feb 00 | South Asia
Analysis: Bihar's pivotal politician
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/658347.stm
25 Feb 00 | South Asia
Jayalalitha will face corruption trial
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/657030.stm
21 Feb 00 | South Asia
Net shame for corrupt officials
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/650952.stm
11 Feb 00 | South Asia
Guide to Indian state elections
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/638134.stm

Internet links:

Central Bureau of Investigation
http://www.cbi.gov.in/index.php
Election Commission of India
http://www.eci.gov.in/
Indian Elections 99 - BBC News Online
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/special_report/1999/08/99/indian_elections/default.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/701360.stm

India's "Untouchables" Face Violence, DiscriminationHillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
June 2, 2003

More than 160 million people in India are considered "Untouchable"—
people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them
impure, less than human.

Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion.
A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells
their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit
tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in
Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in
caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped,
paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits".

"Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same
temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from
the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher
with Human Rights Watch, and author of Broken People: Caste Violence
Against India's "Untouchables." Human Rights Watch is a worldwide
activist organization based in New York.

India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in
constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and
raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in
their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a
life-threatening offense.

Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the
illiterate Indians are Dalits, according to figures presented at the
International Dalit Conference that took place May 16 to 18 in
Vancouver, Canada.

Crime Against Dalits

Statistics compiled by India's National Crime Records Bureau indicate
that in the year 2000, the last year for which figures are available,
25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits are
assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are
murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched.

No one believes these numbers are anywhere close to the reality of
crimes committed against Dalits. Because the police, village councils,
and government officials often support the caste system, which is
based on the religious teachings of Hinduism, many crimes go
unreported due to fear of reprisal, intimidation by police, inability
to pay bribes demanded by police, or simply the knowledge that the
police will do nothing.

"There have been large-scale abuses by the police, acting in collusion
with upper castes, including raids, beatings in custody, failure to
charge offenders or investigate reported crimes," said Narula.

That same year, 68,160 complaints were filed against the police for
activities ranging from murder, torture, and collusion in acts of
atrocity, to refusal to file a complaint. Sixty two percent of the
cases were dismissed as unsubstantiated; 26 police officers were
convicted in court.

Despite the fact that untouchability was officially banned when India
adopted its constitution in 1950, discrimination against Dalits
remained so pervasive that in 1989 the government passed legislation
known as The Prevention of Atrocities Act. The act specifically made
it illegal to parade people naked through the streets, force them to
eat feces, take away their land, foul their water, interfere with
their right to vote, and burn down their homes.

Since then, the violence has escalated, largely as a result of the
emergence of a grassroots human rights movement among Dalits to demand
their rights and resist the dictates of untouchability, said Narula.

Lack of Enforcement, Not Laws

Enforcement of laws designed to protect Dalits is lax if not non-
existent in many regions of India. The practice of untouchability is
strongest in rural areas, where 80 percent of the country's population
resides. There, the underlying religious principles of Hinduism
dominate.

Hindus believe a person is born into one of four castes based on karma
and "purity"—how he or she lived their past lives. Those born as
Brahmans are priests and teachers; Kshatriyas are rulers and soldiers;
Vaisyas are merchants and traders; and Sudras are laborers. Within the
four castes, there are thousands of sub-castes, defined by profession,
region, dialect, and other factors.

Untouchables are literally outcastes; a fifth group that is so
unworthy it doesn't fall within the caste system.

Although based on religious principles practiced for some 1,500 years,
the system persists today for economic as much as religious reasons.

Because they are considered impure from birth, Untouchables perform
jobs that are traditionally considered "unclean" or exceedingly
menial, and for very little pay. One million Dalits work as manual
scavengers, cleaning latrines and sewers by hand and clearing away
dead animals. Millions more are agricultural workers trapped in an
inescapable cycle of extreme poverty, illiteracy, and oppression.

Although illegal, 40 million people in India, most of them Dalits, are
bonded workers, many working to pay off debts that were incurred
generations ago, according to a report by Human Rights Watch published
in 1999. These people, 15 million of whom are children, work under
slave-like conditions hauling rocks, or working in fields or factories
for less than U.S. $1 day.

Crimes Against Women

Dalit women are particularly hard hit. They are frequently raped or
beaten as a means of reprisal against male relatives who are thought
to have committed some act worthy of upper-caste vengeance. They are
also subject to arrest if they have male relatives hiding from the
authorities.

A case reported in 1999 illustrates the toxic mix of gender and
caste.

A 42-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped and then burnt alive after
she, her husband, and two sons had been held in captivity and tortured
for eight days. Her crime? Another son had eloped with the daughter of
the higher-caste family doing the torturing. The local police knew the
Dalit family was being held, but did nothing because of the higher-
caste family's local influence.

There is very little recourse available to victims.

A report released by Amnesty International in 2001 found an "extremely
high" number of sexual assaults on Dalit women, frequently perpetrated
by landlords, upper-caste villagers, and police officers. The study
estimates that only about 5 percent of attacks are registered, and
that police officers dismissed at least 30 percent of rape complaints
as false.

The study also found that the police routinely demand bribes,
intimidate witnesses, cover up evidence, and beat up the women's
husbands. Little or nothing is done to prevent attacks on rape victims
by gangs of upper-caste villagers seeking to prevent a case from being
pursued. Sometimes the policemen even join in, the study suggests.
Rape victims have also been murdered. Such crimes often go
unpunished.

Thousands of pre-teen Dalit girls are forced into prostitution under
cover of a religious practice known as devadasis, which means "female
servant of god." The girls are dedicated or "married" to a deity or a
temple. Once dedicated, they are unable to marry, forced to have sex
with upper-caste community members, and eventually sold to an urban
brothel.

Resistance and Progress

Within India, grassroots efforts to change are emerging, despite
retaliation and intimidation by local officials and upper-caste
villagers. In some states, caste conflict has escalated to caste
warfare, and militia-like vigilante groups have conducted raids on
villages, burning homes, raping, and massacring the people. These
raids are sometimes conducted with the tacit approval of the police.

In the province Bihar, local Dalits are retaliating, committing
atrocities also. Non-aligned Dalits are frequently caught in the
middle, victims of both groups.

"There is a growing grassroots movement of activists, trade unions,
and other NGOs that are organizing to democratically and peacefully
demand their rights, higher wages, and more equitable land
distribution," said Narula. "There has been progress in terms of
building a human rights movement within India, and in drawing
international attention to the issue."

In August 2002, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (UN CERD) approved a resolution condemning caste or
descent-based discrimination.

"But at the national level, very little is being done to implement or
enforce the laws," said Narula.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html

SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES

National Campaign on Dalits Human Rights
http://www.dalits.org/

Crimes Against Dalits

These are JUST SOME of the Crimes committed on Dalits from April 2000
to December 2002, reported in National Daily's. Hundreds of Such
crimes go unreported. If you find any such crimes happening in your
neighbourhood, please send the details of such crimes to us.
dal...@ambedkar.org
Please check this page for updates. Meanwhile THINK what YOU can do to
stop this madness.

• Exclusive Report:Five Dalits Lynched in Haryana (06 Nov)
• Dalit elopes with Jat girl, death stalks Haryana village (30 Oct)
• Untouchability, The Dead Cow And The Brahmin (23 Oct)
• A Dalit damned for defying her village (07 Aug)
• Dalit burnt alive, tension brews in Mansura village (29 May)
• Pakistani Dalits protest genocide of Dalits (29 May)
• Dalit hanged for having illicit ties (15 May)
• 6 Dalits shot dead in Bihar (09 May)
• Dalit houses attacked in Salem village (02 May)
• Attack on Dalit youth in Bellary (26 Apr)
• Dalits face wrath of upper castes in UP village (24 Apr)
• Dalit teenager raped in Rajasthan (24 Apr)
- 18-year-old girl raped, murdered (21 Mar)
- Crime in Chennai (21 Mar)
- Couple hounded by cops for inter-caste marriage (04 Feb)
- Students demonstrate against sexual harassment (04 Feb)
- Dalit woman raped (26 Jan)
- Caste Discrimination in Hyderabad Central University (15 Jan)
- Dalit women molested near Davangere (15 Jan)
- Another youth killed by lover's parents (15 Jan)
- Koli girl's gang-rape infuriates ministers, MLAs (15 Jan)
- 3 Dalits Shot Dead (08 Jan)
- Dumb girl accuses cop of rape (07 Dec)
- Woman Paraded Naked For Playing Cupid (07 Dec)
- Alleged rape of Dalit minor (27 Nov)
- Atrocity on SC girl in Karnataka (27 Nov)
- Dalit woman beaten to death by excise officials in Kerala (27
Nov)
- Yet another life sacrificed at the altar of love (27 Nov)
- Custodial death sparks protest (1 Nov)
- Landless woman stripped, beaten up (29 Oct)
- 2 dalit girls raped (29 Oct)
- Dalit girl raped (11 Oct)
- SC hostel inmates left in lurch (6 Oct)
- JNU girl alleges molestation, casteist slur (22 Sept)
- Goan Dalit denied equality even in death (13 Sept)
- Dalit student in Delhi University beaten up by upper caste hostel
mates (10 Sept)
- Naked assault Crime: Dalit woman is stripped and paraded for two
hours in Karnataka (3 Sep)
- Discrimination against Dalits in Chhattisgarh (3 Sep)
- Stripping of Dalit by cop: Panel orders probe (2 Sep)
- Dalit gang-raped in Kankipadu mandal (31 Aug)
- Dalit woman gang-raped in Vijayawada (30 Aug)
- Dalit woman paraded naked in Bellary village (29 Aug)
- Raped Dalit woman ends life (27 Aug)
- Three tribals killed (9 August)
- Caste Hindus terrorise Dalits in MP's Mugalia (8 August)
- Caste's cruel: lovers hanged in UP (8 August)
- Dacoits rape 2 tribal women (29 July)

- Gang-rape of Dalit woman in Rohtak (24 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/GangrDalit.htm
- TD men attack Dalits for voting for Congress (19 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/TDmenattack.htm
- Liberty, Equality etc --- but not for Dalits (17 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/LibEqualityetc.htm
- Castes and killings in Jehrana and Hasanpur (16 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Cakillings.htm
- Bihar panchayats deny Constitutional reservations (13 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Bihar_panchayats_deny.htm
- Landlord urinated in my mouth, alleges Dalit (11 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Landlord_urinated_in.htm
- Dalit hacked, ban order in Bellary village (6 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalit_hacked_ban.htm
- Harassed Dalit woman fights for justice (3 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/harassed_dalit_woman.htm
- Dalit family spends year in hut looking for justice (3 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/dalit_family_spends.htm
- Stripping of women: DM orders probe (1 July)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/stripping_of_women.htm
- Caste row in Indian school (30 Jun)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/941496.stm
- Dalits banished for drawing water from village well (29 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalitsbanished.htm
- Six people massacred in Bihar (29 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Sixpeople.htm
- Dalit leader blames Jehrana carnage on casteism (28 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalitleader.htm
- Four Dalits lynched in Bhojpur (26 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/FourDalits.htm
- Discrimination in promotions alleged (26 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Discriminationin.htm
- Punish the guilty (22 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Punishthe.htm
- Sexual assault on Dalit woman (15 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Sexualassault.htm
- 5 dalits shot dead in UP (14 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/5dalits.htm
- Dalit woman gang raped (14 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalitwoman2.htm
- Dalits don’t redraw the village map here, those who do get killed
(12 Jun)
- Untouchability faces no threat here (11 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Untouchabilityfaces.htm
- Dalit killed for entering temple (10 Jun)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalitkilled.htm
- Villagers still terrified (25 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Villagersstill.htm
- Police atrocities (23 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Policeatrocities.htm
- Dalits barred from temple (21 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalitsbarred.htm
- No justice for tortured labourer (21 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Nojustice.htm
- Well divides Dalits and upper castes (21 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Welldivides.htm
- Rape victim dies due to doctors' negligence (17 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Rapevictim.htm
- ‘Atrocities on SC/STs on the rise’ (17 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Atrocitieson.htm
- Officials accused of harassing Dalits (12 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Officialsaccused.htm
- Tribal dies due to starvartion (4 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Tribaldies.htm
- Leaders allege harassment of tribals (4 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Leadersallege.htm
- Minor Dalit girl raped at Kallipalli village (1 May)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/MinorDalit.htm
- Inter-caste marriage claims girl (26 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Inter-caste.htm
- Caste-based segregation at JNTU hostels: SFI (26 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Caste-based.htm
- Atrocities against Dalits surface in village near Bhopal (26 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Atrocitiesagainst.htm
- Clashes as Dalits stopped at tap (23 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Clashesas.htm
- Voting rights still elude most Dalits (23 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Votingrights.htm
- Stripped nude for offering water (19 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Strippednude.htm
- Untouchability in AP (18 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Untouchabilityin.htm
- Denial in death (16 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Denialin.htm
- 3 tribals killed in police firing (7 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/3tribals.htm
- `Untouchable' fined, beaten for entering Orissa village temple (7
Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Untouchablefined.htm
- Old Dalit couple attacked at home (2 Apr)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/OldDalit.htm
- Vigil for Kamballapalli (14 Mar)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Vigilfor.htm
- Custodial Torture of Dalit Youths (14 Mar)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/CustodialTorture.htm
- Dalits houses torched, 15 arrested (7 Mar)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalitshouses.htm
- Lashes greet caste student (5 Mar)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Lashesgreetl.htm
- Starving the poor (27 Feb)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Starvingthe.htm
- Dalit Girl Victimised at Cochin University (19 Feb)
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/DalitGirl.htm
- Discriminating the distressed (19 Feb)
http://www.ambedkar.org/research/Discriminatingthe.htm
- Youth dies in custody,constable booked
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Youthdies.htm
- Quake can't shake caste system
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Quakecan.htm
- Ten Dalit Houses Set On Fire
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/TenDalit.htm
- Three Dalits hurt in attack
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/ThreeDalits.htm
- Dalit community alleges social boycott by villagers
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Dalitcommunity.htm
- 14-year-old Dalit girl raped
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/14-year-old.htm
- Booked for raping Dalit
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Bookedfor.htm
- Dalit beaten up for seeking money back
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitbeaten1.htm
- 'Dalits denied entry in many temples'
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitsdenied.htm
- 150 dalit families rendered landless
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/dalitfamilies.htm
- Four Dalits gunned down in Bihar
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitsgunned.htm
- 3 Orissa tribals killed in police firing
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Orissatribals.htm
- SC woman raped
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/SCwoman.htm
- Alleged attacks on Dalits
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Allegedattacks.htm
- Court pulls up police for custodial torture
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Courtpulls.htm
- IITs: Doing Manu Proud
http://www.ambedkar.org/research/IITs.htm
- Discrimination against Koluru Dalits alleged - Dalit commits
suicide, Shinor tense
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Discriminationagainst.htm
- Assertion, Co-option and Marginalization of Dalits
http://www.ambedkar.org/research/Assertion.htm
- An instance of untouchablility in Channagiri taluk
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Aninstance.htm
- Scavengers: Mumbai's Neglected Workers
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Scavengers.htm
- Gang rape of dalit housewife flayed
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Gangrape.htm
- Witches exorcised with Bajrang Dal help
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Witchesexorcised.htm
- 15-year-old Dalit girl raped
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/15-year-oldDalit.htm
- Caste system main barrier to India's IT superpower ambitions?
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Castesystem.htm
- Dalit samiti condemns Neelur incident
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/samiticondemns.htm
- Acid attack on Dalit
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/overfishing.htm
- One held for raping Dalit girl
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Oneheld.htm
- Tribal schoolgirls sexually assaulted
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Tribalschoolgirls.htm
- 'Police atrocities' on tribals condemned
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Policeatrocities.htm
- Bihari girls sold to work in Punjab
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Biharigirls.htm
- Boy stripped, assaulted in Orissa village
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Boystripped.htm
- Dalit 'killed' in lock-up at Kurnool
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitkilled.htm
- Dalit beaten up for stoning dog
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitbeatenup.htm
- Solidarity With Sardar Buta Singh
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Solidarity.htm
- Three dalits killed in Bihar
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Threedalits.htm
- Dalit students humiliated
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/studentshumiliated.htm
- Orissa tribal group gheraos police station after attack
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Orissatribal.htm
- Sexploitation of an alarming nature
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Sexploitationof.htm
- Dalit students forced out of classrooms
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitstudents.htm
- Deep prejudice
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Deepprejudice.htm
- Four dalits burnt alive in Rajasthan
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Fourdalits.htm
- Attack on Dalits: action sought against culprits
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Attackon.htm
- Atrocity against magistrate opens can of worms
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Policeatrocity.htm
- RPI activist shot dead in Mulund
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/RPIactivist.htm
- Dalit village still deserted
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitvillage.htm
- Dalit branded witches, one dies after `torture'
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitwidows.htm
- The bells of Guruvayoor
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Thebells.htm
- Vayalar Ravi to move court on temple issue
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/VayalarRavi.htm
- Dalit tortured by cops for three days
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalittortured.htm
- SC, STs face higher risk of poverty due to caste
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/facehigher.htm
- AIIMS chief biased against SC/STs
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/AIIMSchief.htm
- Dalit MLA's outrage over veedu remark
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20MLA.htm
- Minister accused of raping tribal girl
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Ministeraccused.htm
- Dalits decry bid to hush up death casem
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitsdecry.htm
- 'Discrimination' made IAS officer quit
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Discrimination.htm
- Death does not come as the end
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Deathdoes.htm
- Bihar's landless landlords die watching others..
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Biharslandless.htm
- 'Witch' paraded naked in Bihar
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Witchparaded.htm
- Dalit's death after police torture alleged
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitsdeath.htm
- 'Govt apathy' towards women leads to suicide
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Govtapathy.htm
- Atrocities against Dalits high in Punjab
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Atrocities%20against.htm
- ABVP attack Dalit prof at varsity
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/ABVP%20attack.htm
Aurangabad, Aug 15: The 15-day-long lull of student activism at Dr
Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University ended on Monday when students
belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad barged into the
cabin of professor of social sciences, Dr B H Kalyankar, a renowned
intellectual from the Maratha community and blackened his face, `to
teach him a lesson for attacking Hindusim.'

- Dalit judge moves SC over courtroom 'purification'
NEW DELHI: A Scheduled Caste judge in Allahabad has appealed in the
Supreme Court against his compulsory retirement in the aftermath of an
incident in which his courtroom was washed with `Ganga jal' by his
`upper' caste successor.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20judge.htm
- Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers
BAREILLY: A teenaged Dalit boy was allegedly beaten to death by the
nagar panchayat President of Fateh Ganj for plucking some flowers from
his garden
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalitbeaten.htm
- Girl tortured, burnt to death in UP
Lucknow: History probably repeated itself when a strikingly similar
incident, as Phoolan Devi's physical torture and humiliation two
decades ago, was reported from Azamgarh district in Eastern Uttar
Pradesh.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Girl%20tortured.htm
- Caste groups clash; cops use force
JALANDHAR, July 30 (UNI) -The demand for the release of a suspect in a
theft case from police custody snowballed into an inter-caste tension
at a city police station last night when two warring caste groups
exchanged brickbats and the police used force to quell the clash.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Caste%20groups.htm
- Five Dalits hacked to death
HYDERABAD: In a gruesome incident, five Dalits were hacked to death at
Surampalli village under Tekmal police limits of Medak district, some
100 km from here, on Thursday night
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Five%20Dalits.htm
- Communal clash sparks tension
AYAMKONDAN, JULY 20. Tension prevailed in Meensuriti village near
Jayamkondan in Perambalur district late last night following a
communal clash between Vanniyars and Dalits of the village.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Communal%20clash.htm
- Tribal family stripped for shooing away hens
BHUBANESWAR: Four members of a tribal family were stripped, beaten up
and made to parade naked before their fellow villagers in Chhatam, in
Orissa's tribal-dominated Sundergarh district.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Tribal%20family.htm
- Bihar Minister sacked
EMBARRASSED BY the charges of torture of two Dalits by Minister of
State for Cooperatives Lalit Yadav, Chief Minister Rabri Devi on
Monday promptly sacked him.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Bihar%20Minister.htm
- 32 kids rescued from bonded labour
MUMBAI: Following a raid by police officials along with Samarthan, a
Mumbai-based NGO, 32 children were rescued from Walope village near
Chiplun in Ratnagiri district.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/32%20kids.htm
- Life in Chains
Bonded Labour: Tortured and terrorised, five men suffered in fetters
in a stone quarry for two years
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Life%20in.htm
- A cry for justice
At the National Public Hearing on Dalit Human Rights in Chennai, the
country's most oppressed section narrates its tales of woe.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/A%20cry.htm
- Four-year-old girl beheaded for sacrifice
A 40-YEAR-old man allegedly 'sacrificed' a four-year-old girl on
Monday in Miragpur village, 30 km from Roorke. Only the head of the
victim has been recovered so far
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Four-year-old.htm
- Dalit girl hostel for sexual exploitation
PALAKKAD, JULY 2. The shocking revelations of sexual exploitation of
some inmates of the Government-run Agali Tribal Girls Hostel in the
tribal heartland of Attappady in Palakkad district resulting in a few
of them becoming pregnant has rocked Kerala, the most literate State.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20girl.htm
- Action to be taken in killing of two Adivasis
he National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has
directed the collector and the superintendent of police of Dhar
district in Madhya Pradesh to take action against the police officials
responsible for killing two Adivasi youths in June.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Action%20to.htm
- Gujarat tribals fear losing grants
IN ITS eagerness to keep an eye on any possible conversions, the
Social Welfare Department of the Gujarat Government has made changes
in the application form for seeking grants.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Gujarat%20tribals.htm
- Dalit colony razed in Sonepat
SONEPAT: More than 100 kutcha and pucca houses were razed to the
ground by officials of the demolition squad with the help of the
police in RK Colony on the GT Road about eight km from here, on
Wednesday night.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20colony.htm
- Becoming A ‘Servant Of God’
June 25 — You can tell the “servants of God” from the other Dalit
women outside the Hindu temple in Manvi, a village in northern
Karnataka, by their jewelry. They’re wearing red beaded necklaces with
silver and gold medallions.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Becoming%20A.htm
- Caste Struggle
June 25 — On paper, the people in the slum on Delhi’s Lodi Road don’t
even exist. The Dalits, or literally “broken people,” as members of
India’s Untouchable castes are now called, don’t show up on electoral
rolls, ration cards or water bills.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Caste%20Struggle.htm
- Brutal Murder of 3 Dalits
M.Puliangudi is a Village situated in Cuddalore District in Tamilnadu.
This village has a population of around 3000 in which about 300 people
are be Dalits and the remaining population belongs to Vanniyar
community. Vanniyars are the landed population.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Brutal%20Murder.htm
- Return to an abhorrent past
The shankaracharya of Puri, Nischalanand Saraswati, has said that neo-
converts to Hinduism should pray in separate temples. These swastik
temples, as they will be called, are to be for the exclusive use of
all those who have joined or rejoined the Hindu fold. Those 'lucky'
enough to be born Hindus can, of course, continue to pray in the
existing temples across India and the globe.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Return%20to.htm
- Low - cost for low caste
SHANKARACHARYA of Govardhan Peeth in Puri Jagatguru Nischalananda
Saraswati was in the news for "reconverting" 72 tribal Christians in
the same area where Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two
minor sons were roasted alive. Presumably, the conversions did not
contravene the special laws that exist in Orissa. Nobody should grudge
His Grace for his mission as long as he uses persuasion, and not
force.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Low%20-%20cost.htm
- Charges filed in Kambalapalli Dalit killings
BANGALORE: The Civil Rights Enforcement Cell (CRE) filed the
chargesheet last Thursday in the court of Civil Judge, Chintamani,
indicting 32 persons, including one Maddi Reddy, as the main accused
in the burning of seven dalits in Kambalapalli village in Chintamani
taluk of Kolar district in March this year. All the accused are now in
judicial custody.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Charges%20filed.htm
- 15 killed in Bihar caste violence
Fifteen persons were killed in two separate incidents of caste
violence in Nawada district of central Bihar last night.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/15%20killed.htm
- Two cases of Rape
Woman panch stripped for being raped in MP
NCW to intervene in Biswas rape case, Lalita
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Two%20cases.htm
- The drumbeats of oppression
In a village in Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai district, Dalits are
subjected to a vicious attack for refusing to subject themselves to
rites of social oppression.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/The%20drumbeats.htm
- Murder of three Dalits in Cuddalore
The recent murder of three Dalits in Cuddalore district shows that
caste oppresion is a living reality in rural Tamil Nadu.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Murder%20of.htm
- Dalits and land issues
ON December 25, 1927, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar led a historic
mahasatyagraha to defy a ban imposed by caste Hindus on Dalits drawing
water from public sources. More than 10,000 Dalits participated in
it.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalits%20and%20land.htm
- Dalit killed by 4 upper caste persons
Police officials interrogate people witness to the murder of a dalit
youth in Amraiwadi area of Ahmedabad.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20killed.htm
- Landlords exploit the drought-hit Dalits
Drought is driving Dalit women into the arms of landlords and
contractors. As most of their men have migrated in search of a
livelihood or been forced into bonded labour, the Dalit women fall
back on Thakurs, Chaudhary-Patels and Rabari-Desais in these trying
times.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Landlords%20exploit.htm
- Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked
FARIDKOT: A married, Dalit woman was gang-raped and paraded naked in
the village Tharajwala of Muktsar district because of her brother's
alleged involvement with a girl of the village.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20woman.htm
- DSS activist says he was kidnapped
Dalit Sanghrasha Samiti activist Manjunath Kundar, who was missing for
about 15 days and later found near Sakaleshpur, has alleged that his
political opponents in connivance with the police, masterminded his
''kidnapping``
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/DSS%20activist.htm
- Dalit farm worker killed in caste conflict
MEERUT: A 40-year-old dalit agricultural labourer was tortured and
humiliated before being shot dead in front of his wife and others at
Kabaraut village, 35 km from Muzaffarnagar, allegedly by some
influential persons, on Tuesday evening.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/worker%20killed.htm
- Nailing evidence-Police cap under a dead man
Uttar Pradesh: The scene at the wheat fields along the national
highway in Basai village was gory on May 2 morning. Villagers going
for work saw five bodies soaked in blood. Vijay Singh, Jaipal Singh,
Satbir Singh and SugreevÑall Dalits of the villageÑwere dead, but
another Dalit, Santhosh was still hanging on to life, though his neck
had a deep gash. He was rushed to hospital.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Nailing%20evidence.htm
- 7 hurt in caste clash near Hoskote
Seven persons were injured and two huts destroyed following clashes
between Caste Hindus and Dalits in Hoskote Taluk, the hotbed of
political and caste-based conflicts in Bangalore Rural dis-trict, on
Tuesday night.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/7%20hurt.htm
- Dalit killings cause concern in Uttar Pradesh
Two recent incidents involving killing of dalits by members of the
upper caste have brought under fire the Bharatiya Janata Party-led
coalition government in Uttar Pradesh.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20killings.htm
- SI guns down four Dalits in Uttar Pradesh
Angry at his daughter eloping with a Dalit, a police sub-inspector
avenged the humiliation by killing four of the latter`s family.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/SI%20guns.htm
- The carcass collectors of Rann
Ever since animals started dying in the drought, the only way to
collect the carcasses and get it surveyed has been through people from
this Dalit community.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/carcass%20collectors.htm
- Caste off!!
One of the tragedies of our history books is that they do not look at
history holistically, but rather as specific events of battles won or
lost and so on. In the bargain, we fail to learn our lessons
completely, which is perhaps the primary purpose of reading history.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Caste%20off.htm
- Water shortage re-ignites caste clashes
AMRELI (Gujarat), APRIL 27. As the mercury soars and water resources
dry up, clashes over collecting water in the drought- hit areas of
rural Gujarat are becoming common. And with that has returned with a
bang the caste consciousness, which was slowly getting blurred.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Water%20shortage.htm
- Double infliction on Dalits
Drought has failed as a great leveller of the financial status of
individuals here, as farmers who take to agricultural or manual labour
stand divided. Even in hunger, the Dalits are not equal to the upper
castes in the backward Rangareddy district in Telangana.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Double%20infliction.htm
- Four Dalits gunned down in Bihar
At least 4 Dalits were gunned down, 3 others received serious injuries
and more than a dozen houses were burnt by upper castes in Khairahni
village under the jurisdiction of Nokha police station in Rohtas
district of central Bihar during the wee hours today.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Four%20Dalits%20gunned.htm
- Deprived of their due
A study highlights the flouting of the norms of reservation for the
Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in appointments to
institutions of higher learning.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Deprived.htm
- Dalit bridegroom dismounted from mare
Riding a mare in a wedding procession still proves to be a nightmare
for many a Dalit bridegrooms in Rajasthan. A Dalit bridegroom was
reportedly dismounted from the mare and stones were thrown at the
'baaratis` injuring four of them at Sardada village of Deoli tehsil in
Tonk district on Wednesday.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Dalit%20bridegroom.htm
- Untouchables remain victims of persecution
MADRAS, Apr 21: India's dalits, or "untouchables," remain wide-spread
victims of persecution, of-ten with state collusion, a two-day public
hearing here concluded Thursday, reports AFP.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/RS%20adjourned.htm
- Landlords attack dalits, burn houses
CUDDAPAH, APRIL 19. Upper caste landlords have attacked dalits and set
ablaze 30 houses belonging to the latter, near Rajupalem in B. Kodur
mandal.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/Landlords%20attack.htm
-7 Dalits burnt alive in Karnataka caste clash
KOLAR: Seven persons, including three women, were burnt alive and one
person was stabbed to death in a major flare-up of caste-related
violence at Kambalpally village in Karnataka's Kolar district on
Saturday night, police said on Sunday.
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/hl/7%20burnt%20alive.htm
Woman Stripped, Killed
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Woman%20Stripped_Killed.htm
20 Dalits injured in mob attack
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/20_Dalits_injured_in_mob_attack.htm
Priest slaps Dalit, ties him with rope
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/_ties_him_with_rope.htm
A temple entangled in clash between castes
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/A_temple_entangled_in_clash_between_castes.htm
Another batch of bonded labourers set free
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Another_batch_of_bonded_labourers_set_free.htm
Caste factor in delivery of justice highlighted
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Caste_factor_in_delivery_of_justice_highlighted.htm
Cry of the oppressed goes unheard
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Cry_of_the_oppressed_goes_unheard-Deccan.htm
Dalit mother raped for son’s ‘criminal’ affair
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/DALIT_MOTHER_RAPED.htm
Tragic end to inter-caste marriage
http://www.ambedkar.org/News/Tragic_end_to_inter-caste_marriage.htm

http://www.ambedkar.org/crime.htm

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/india/index.htm
Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/features-news-and-updates

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html

[Sid Harth]

Debt bondage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Bonded labor)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or
discuss these issues on the talk page.

Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since August 2009.
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Debt bondage (or bonded labor) is an arrangement whereby a person is
forced to pay off a loan with direct labor in place of currency, over
an agreed or obscure period of time. When a debtor is tricked or
trapped into working for very little or no pay, or when the value of
their work is significantly greater than the original sum of money
borrowed, some consider the arrangement to be a form of unfree labour
or debt slavery. It is similar to peonage, indenture or the truck
system.

Legal Definition

Debt bondage is classically defined as a situation when a person
provides a loan to another and uses his or her labor or services to
repay the debt; when the value of the work, as reasonably assessed, is
not applied towards the liquidation of the debt, the situation becomes
one of debt bondage. See United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention
on the Abolition of Slavery.

[edit] Historical background to bonded labor
Prior to the early modern age, feudal and serfdom systems were the
predominant political and economic systems in Europe. These systems
were based on the holding of all land in fief or fee, and the
resulting relation of lord to vassal, and was characterized by homage,
legal and military service of tenants, and forfeiture.[citation
needed]

A modernization of the feudal system was "peonage", where debtors were
bound in servitude to their creditors until their debts were paid.
Although peons are only obliged to a creditor monetarily.[citation
needed]

Historical peonage

Peonage is a system where laborers are bound in servitude until their
debts are paid in full. Those bound by such a system are known, in the
US, as peons.[citation needed] Employers may extend credit to laborers
to buy from employer-owned stores at inflated prices.[original
research?] This method is a variation of the truck system (or company
store system), in which workers are exploited by agreeing to work for
an insufficient[original research?] amount of goods and/or services.
In these circumstances, peonage is a form of unfree labor. Such
systems have existed in many places at many times throughout history.

Historical examples

The American South - Such a system was often used in the southern
United States after the American Civil War where African-American and
poor white farmers, known as sharecroppers, were often extended credit
to purchase seed and supplies from the owner of the land they farmed
and pay the owner in a share of the crop.
In Peru a peonage system existed from the 1500s until land reform in
the 1950s. One estate in Peru that existed from the late 1500s until
it ended had up to 1,700 peons employed and had a jail. Peons were
expected to work a minimum of three days a week for their landlord and
more if necessary to complete assigned work. Workers were paid a
symbolic 2 cents per year. Workers were unable to travel outside of
their assigned lands without permission and were not allowed to
organize any independent community activity.
Thousands of such laborers were sold into slavery during the West
African slave trade and ended their lives working as slaves on the
plantations in the New World. For this reason, section 2 of the Slave
Trade Act 1843 enacted by the British Parliament declared "persons
holden in servitude as pledges for debt" to "be slaves or persons
intended to be dealt with as slaves" for the purpose of the Slave
Trade Act 1824 and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

It continued to be very common in Africa and China, but was suppressed
by the authorities after the establishment of the People's Republic of
China.[citation needed]. It persists in rural areas of India, Pakistan
and Nepal.[citation needed]

In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study
found that almost 8% of the population are still slaves.[1] Descent-
based slavery, where generations of the same family are born into
bondage, is traditionally practised by at least four of Niger’s eight
ethnic groups. The slave masters are mostly from the nomadic tribes —
the Tuareg, Fulani, Toubou and Arabs.[2]

According to some claims, 40 million people in India, most of them

Dalits, are bonded workers, many working to pay off debts that were

incurred generations ago. Rise of Dalit politicians in India, and
their overwhelming support by non-Dalits, as well as Government
commitment to overall improve education, communication and living
standards in India has resulted in rapid decline of bonded labor in
India. Penalties for those indulging in employing bonded labor are
severe and Human Rights Groups are very active in curbing these
practices. Television media and increased penetration of cheap
satellite television has spread awareness to the most remote areas and
made people aware of the rights, hence the evidence of forced labor in
India is rapidly declining.

These claimed figures are comparable to ones in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru
and Philippines.

There are no universally accepted figures for the number of bonded
child labourers in India. Again, Government's commitment to universal
education and poverty eradication programmes have resulted in
significant decrease in number of bonded labors. In the traditional
industries of high quality hand-woven fabrics and handicrafts,
increased awareness by international buyers and stringent checks put
in place by multinational corporations on their suppliers has resulted
in suppliers and manufacturers to replace bonded child labor by
instead offering educational facilities to children of their employees
and workers. International Tourists to places like Rajasthan also play
their part and have at many times reported instances of child labor to
authorities who swiftly act to curb any child labor. In contrast, of
20 million bonded labourers in Pakistan 7.5 million are children.

Modern views

See also: Human trafficking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Slavery_International

According to Anti-Slavery International, "A person enters debt bondage
when their labor is demanded as a means of repayment of a loan, or of
money given in advance. Usually, people are tricked or trapped into
working for no pay or very little pay (in return for such a loan), in
conditions which violate their human rights. Invariably, the value of
the work done by a bonded laborer is greater that the original sum of
money borrowed or advanced."[citation needed]

Some see the term as also applying to inhabitants of countries who
must work to repay extensive national debt, but which incurrance of
debt they did not agree to, and (arguably) have not benefited from.[3]

According to the Anti-Slavery Society:

Pawnage or pawn slavery is a form of servitude akin to bonded labor
under which the debtor provides another human being as security or
collateral for the debt. Until the debt (including interest on it) is
paid off, the creditor has the use of the labor of the pawn.[4]

At international law

Debt bondage has been defined by the United Nations as a form of
"modern day slavery" [5] and is prohibited by international law. It is
specifically dealt with by article 1(a) of the United Nations 1956
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. It persists
nonetheless especially in developing nations, which have few
mechanisms for credit security or bankruptcy, and where fewer people
hold formal title to land or possessions. According to some
economists, for example Hernando de Soto, this is a major barrier to
development in those countries - entrepreneurs do not dare take risks
and cannot get credit because they hold no collateral and may burden
families for generations to come.[citation needed]

Where children are forced to work because of debt bondage of the
family, this is considered not only child labor, but one of the worst
forms of child labor in terms of the Worst Forms of Child Labour
Convention, 1999 of the International Labour Organization.[citation
needed]

Despite the UN prohibition, Anti-Slavery International estimates that
"between 10 and 20 million people are being subjected to debt bondage
today."[citation needed] Other estimates place the number as high as
40 million. Researcher Siddharth Kara has calculated the number of
slaves in the world by type, and determined the number of debt bondage
slaves to be 18.1 million at the end of 2006. [6] He has updated this
number for the end of 2009 to be 18.4 million, the increase primarily
as a result of the 2007 global commodity bubble, followed by the
global economic crisis of 2008 and 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_(economist)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worst_Forms_of_Child_Labour_Convention,_1999

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labour_Organization

Modern examples

Prostitution - News media in western Europe regularly carry reports
about one particular kind of debt bondage: women from Eastern Europe
who are forced to work in prostitution as a way to pay off the "debt"
they acquired when they were illegally smuggled to destinations in
Western Europe. This form of debt bondage also takes place in other
parts of the world, such as women moving from Southeast Asia or Latin
America.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America

Marxist analysis

According to Marxist economists, debt bondage is characteristic of
feudal economies, where families are considered the responsible unit
for financial relationships, and where heirs continue to owe parents'
debts upon their deaths. Fully capitalist economies are characterized
by the individual taking all responsibility, and such mechanisms as
bankruptcy and inheritance taxes reducing creditors' rights (while
increasing the power of the state). Heirs are freed from the creditor,
but at the cost of a drastically increased power accruing to the state
itself.

Debt bondage is often a form of disguised slavery in which the subject
is not legally owned, but is instead bound by a contract to perform
labor to work off a debt, under terms that make it impossible to
completely retire the debt and thereby escape from the contract.
[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_economists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_taxes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt

See also

Bonded Labour Liberation Front, India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonded_Labour_Liberation_Front
Bondage in Pakistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondage_in_Pakistan
Debtor's prison
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtor%27s_prison
Karl Marx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
Peon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peon
The State of Bonded Labor in Pakistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_of_Bonded_Labor_in_Pakistan
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worst_Forms_of_Child_Labour_Conventionhttp:
References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or
external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline
citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise
citations where appropriate. (September 2009)

^ [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4250709.stm
^ [2] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/10013271.html?page=3
^ Debt Bondage Or Self-Reliance, GATT-Fly
^ [3] http://anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/pawnage.htm
^ The Bondage of Debt: A Photo Essay, by Shilpi Gupta
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/asiaproject/Gupta.html
^ Kara, Siddharth (January 2009). Sex Trafficking - Inside the
Business of Modern Slavery. Columbia University Press. ISBN
978-0231139601.

External links

Photo-story on modern-day slavery (debt-bondage) in Brazil by
photographer Eduardo Martino
http://www.eduardomartino.com/pages/slavery_brazil.html
Human Rights Watch report on Thai women tricked into debt bondage in
Japan
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/japan/6-sec-6-7-8.htm
1996 Human Rights Watch report on bonded child labor in India
http://www.ilo.org/sapfl/lang--en/index.htm

http://anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/bclab.htm

http://clpmag.org/article.php?article=Twenty-First-Century-Slavery_146

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1996/India3.htm

Anti-Slavery International
Common Language Project article on bonded labor in Pakistan

Bonded child labor
The ILO Special Action Programme to combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonded_labor

THE SMALL HANDS OF SLAVERY
Bonded Child Labor In India
Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project

Human Rights Watch/Asia
Human Rights Watch

Copyright © September 1996 by Human Rights Watch.
All rights reserved.
rinted in the United States of America.
ISBN 1-56432-172-X
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-77536

This is the half report. (The last part)
The first part would follow in the next post...

Another writer, a human rights lawyer with extensive experience
working with bonded laborers, put it more bluntly. "A bonded labourer
who becomes free without the means to survive," he wrote, "becomes
free to die."30

As of 1996, a bonded laborer identified and released by the state is
entitled to a rehabilitation allowance of 6,250 rupees. The 1994-1995
annual report of the Indian government's Ministry of Labour reported
that in August 1994, state and central government labor officials
agreed to raise the rehabilitation allowance to 10,000 rupees.31
Nonetheless, as of July 1996, this raise had not been effectuated.

The failure of state governments to comply with their legal
obligations under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act-
particularly the formation and adequate functioning of the district-
level vigilance committees-is one of the primary reasons behind the
low enforcement rate of the law and the continuing high prevalence of
bonded labor. (Indeed, by some accounts, bonded labor is actually
increasing during the 1990s.32) Another contributing factor, mentioned
previously in the context of child labor policy, is the failure of the
government to gather and maintain accurate or even plausible
statistics.

The statistics problem is as acute in the bonded labor context as it
is in the child labor context. According to credible estimates, the
number of bonded laborers in India is approximately sixty-five
million, representing slightly more than 7 percent of the country's
total population.33 Certain individual states alone are estimated to
have bonded labor populations of one to two million people; a report
from Tamil Nadu, based on extensive research conducted at the
direction ofthe Supreme Court, concluded that there were "well over 10
lakhs" (one million) bonded laborers working in that state.34 Other
states known to have high rates of bondage include Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh, Haryana, and Bihar.

In contrast to the figures used by social scientists, the Indian
government's figures regarding bonded labor are unconvincingly low.
The central Ministry of Labour relies on the state Ministries of
Labour-which are charged with enforcing the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act-to report the number of bonded laborers identified,
released, and rehabilitated. Based on information submitted by the
states, the central Ministry of Labour's 1994-1995 Annual Report
stated that the nationwide target for 1994-1995 was the rehabilitation
of 2,784 bonded laborers-a figure representing less than .005 percent
of all estimated bonded laborers. The figure for the total number of
bonded laborers identified, when viewed in contrast to the same
figures provided in 1989, illustrate the lack of implementation of the
Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act. In 1989, the total number of bonded
laborers identified was 242,532.35 By 1995, this number had risen to
251,424.36 These figures indicate that from 1988 to 1995, only 8,892
bonded laborers had been identified throughout the country, at a time
when nongovernmental sources were reporting that there were as many as
sixty-five million bonded laborers in India by 1994.37 Ironically, in
the paragraph following the presentation of statistics in the 1994-95
Annual Report, the report states that "[t]he [state] Governments are
attaching the highest priority to the total eradication of the bonded
labour system in the country."38

The central government's reliance on and acceptance of state
government statistics regarding bonded labor is misplaced and
irresponsible. The majority ofstate governments vastly underreport the
incidence of bonded labor within their borders. For instance, the
government of Tamil Nadu, where an independent commission recently
concluded that there existed more than one million bonded laborers,
stated in a sworn affidavit to the Supreme Court that "in Tamil Nadu,
only stray cases of bonded labour are noticed..."39 Twelve other state
governments made the same assertion to the court, which expressed its
disbelief by ordering independent investigations into the matter.40

In interviews with Human Rights Watch, top labor officials from the
states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, both states with high levels of debt
bondage, asserted that there was no bonded labor in their states. "I
frankly don't think it [bonded labor] exists in Rajasthan," said Ashok
Shekhar, Labour Commissioner for Rajasthan; one of his subordinates
added that, "there is no case of bonded labour in Rajasthan."41 When
asked about the reports of widespread bondage from journalists and
activists, Commissioner Shekhar conceded, as noted, that there might
exist "technical bonded labour," whereby an advance is paid to secure
a worker's labor, but he insisted that this practice was "not really
bondage." He also said that activists who organize against bonded
labor practices in the stone quarries of Rajasthan are not acting on
behalf of the bonded laborers, but rather are hoping to be paid off by
the owners in order to stay quiet. Ashok Bhasin, the Deputy Labour
Commissioner for the neighboring state of Gujarat, concurred
withCommissioner Shekhar's statements. As for his own state, he
asserted that "bonded labour does not exist in Gujarat... neither
among women, men, or children."42

Dr. Manoj Dayal, a professor at the University of Allahabad described
how the government of Bihar "abolished" bonded labor:

As soon as the issue of abolishing bonded labour was raised in Bihar,
the State Government outrightly persisted that there was no system of
bonded labour prevailing in the State; that what exists in the State
is a system of attached labour and that the labourers are assured of
remuneration, cultivable and homestead land, clothing, interest-free
loans and so on. The Bihar Government thus abolished bonded labour by
redefining it and by terming it as "attached labour system."43

Given this willful denial of one of the country's most pressing social
ills, it is not surprising that government officials' efforts on
behalf of bonded laborers have remained meager at best. The failure to
address the issue is doubly egregious in the case of bonded child
laborers, who, without intervention, will be doomed to pass their
entire lives in a state of virtual slavery.

FAILURE OF THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO ENFORCE THE LAW

An analysis of data indicating the number of prosecutions launched
under [the Child Labour] Act and convictions obtained would clearly
indicate that this act ... has achieved very little.44

The government's failure to enforce the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act and the government's failure to enforce the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act-not to mention the failure to enforce
the several other laws protecting child workers-are twin
manifestations of the same set ofphenomena. These phenomena include
apathy, caste and class bias, obstruction of enforcement efforts,
corruption, low prioritization of the problem, and disregard for the
deep and widespread suffering of bonded child laborers.

Enforcement Statistics

A glaring sign of neglect of their duties by officials charged with
enforcing child labor laws is the failure to collect, maintain, and
disseminate accurate statistics regarding enforcement efforts. Human
Rights Watch met with a top official of the Ministry of Labour, but he
was unable to provide any statistics regarding enforcement of the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act or other legislation
protecting the rights of child workers.45 We attempted to meet with S.
S. Sharma, the Director General of Labour Welfare and, as such, the
official entrusted with enforcement of the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act. Director-General Sharma refused to grant an interview
to Human Rights Watch while we were in New Delhi, suggesting instead
that we fax him a set of questions, which we did. Unfortunately, we
received no response.46 The enforcement statistics that follow have
been gleaned from a variety of sources, including public government
documents, news reports, and interviews with government officials.

Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act

At the national level, from 1990 to 1993, 537 inspections were carried
out under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. These
inspections turnedup 1,203 violations. Inexplicably, only seven
prosecutions were launched.47 At the state level, the years 1990 to
1993 produced 60,717 inspections in which 5,060 violations of the act
were detected; 772 of these 5,060 violations resulted in convictions.
48

At the state level during the 1993 to 1994 year, the latest period for
which data are available, 1,596 cases were filed against employers.49
The number of convictions is unknown; many of these cases may still be
pending.

When convictions are obtained under the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act, the fines are light. The vast majority of adjudicated
offenders receive fines of five dollars or less-just a few hundred
rupees, as opposed to the 10,000 to 20,000 fine stipulated by the act
itself.50 To the knowledge of Human Rights Watch, not a single case
brought under the act has resulted in imprisonment, to date, although
the act allows for sentences of three months to a year for first-time
offenders and six months to two years for repeat offenders.51

Some information is available from various states of India regarding
enforcement of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. In
Tamil Nadu, the act was not enforced until 1994-eight years after its
passage-when a casewas filed in North Arcot district.52 In the two
years since then, according to a senior state official, there have
been fifteen or sixteen convictions under the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, and another fifty cases or so are
pending.53 To date, no one has been imprisoned in Tamil Nadu for
violation of either the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
or the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act. According to activists in
the state, on the rare occasions when prosecutions of Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act offenders are mounted by the state,
some judicial magistrates are quick to dismiss the charges, ostensibly
for lack of evidence, but in fact because of corruption or sympathy
with the defendant employers.54

In the Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh, more than 50,000 children
are estimated to be working in glass factories in violation of the
Factories Act and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.55
Nonetheless, in 1995 there were only two convictions for child labor
law violations in Firozabad, and the assistant labour commissioner,
Mr. B. K. Singh, told a journalist that "[t]here is no child labour in
the district now."56 According to the Secretary General of the
National Human Rights Commission, the enforcement problem, in
Firozabad and elsewhere, is "just a matter of people not doing their
work."57

Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act

Official statistics reflecting enforcement of the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act are equally difficult to obtain. Statistics regarding
application of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act to children
are nonexistent. Indeed, at least some government officials
interviewed by Human Rights Watch appeared to be laboring under the
conviction that the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act does not
apply to children, an interpretation that has no basis in the law
itself nor in Supreme Court cases interpreting the law.

As of March 1993, the latest date for which official figures are
available, state governments had reported the identification and
release of a total of 251,424 bonded laborers. This number indicates
all bonded laborers identified and released since the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act was passed in 1976.58 Of this number, 227,404
were reported to have been rehabilitated.59 If this number includes
any rehabilitated bonded child laborers, that fact has not been
reported.

State governments' statistics grossly under-report the current
incidence of bonded labor. As mentioned, the Supreme Court has been
examining the incidence of bonded labor in thirteen states.60 These
thirteen states, chosen by the court for investigation because of
their reputation for high rates of debt bondage, all claimed in
affidavits to the court that there was little or no bonded labor
within their jurisdictions.61 The court, skeptical of these claims,
appointed teams of investigators to study the issue in each state.62

When districts and states do report on statistics regarding the
identification and rehabilitation of bonded laborers, these numbers
are frequently unreliable. The team investigating bonded labor in
Tamil Nadu, for example, found that"[s]tatutory registers relating to
bonded labour were not maintained in many districts."63 Simple neglect
or lack of resources is not the only or even the primary reason for
lack of accurate statistics. According to the investigative team,
"Details provided by the state government and the district
administration do not tally in most districts and even appear
fabricated."64

This can be seen in states' statistics on bonded labor which are
submitted to the central government. For example, there are at least
three examples from 1988 to 1995 where states have reported that the
number of bonded laborers that have been rehabilitated are greater
than the number of bonded laborers that have been identified. In 1988,
the state of Tamil Nadu reported that 34,640 bonded laborers had been
rehabilitated, but they also reported that 33,581 bonded laborers had
been identified, meaning that the state claimed it had rehabilitated
1,059 more people than it had ever identified as bonded laborers.65 In
the 1989-90 report to the Ministry of Labour, the state of Orissa
reported that 51,751 bonded laborers had been rehabilitated, but only
48,657 had been identified.66 The state of Tamil Nadu reported in the
1994-95 Ministry of Labour Annual Report that 39,054 bonded laborers
had been rehabilitated, but they had identified 38,886.67 In total,
these three examples indicate that 4,321 more people were
rehabilitated than were identified as bonded laborers.

These statistics are disturbing for two reasons. The first is that
these statistics are cumulative totals, meaning that every year, new
cases are added to the cases from previous years, dating back to 1976,
when the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act became law, so that the
yearly statistics represent the total number of bonded laborers that
have ever been identified, released, and rehabilitated. The second
factor that makes the statistics suspect is that before bonded
laborers can be eligible for rehabilitation, they must be identified
as bonded laborers. Because ofthis methodology, the cumulative totals
for rehabilitation can never be more than the cumulative totals for
identification and when this occurs, such as the previous three cases,
it indicates a serious flaw in reporting. This may be due to several
factors: state governments may be arbitrarily determining bonded labor
statistics, or the inaccuracies may be due to simple error, or people
who were not bonded laborers are being rehabilitated as bonded
laborers. In one example of the latter, a survey of 180 bonded
laborers who had been officially rehabilitated by the Bihar government
found that 120 had never been bonded.68

Another indication that the law is not being enforced is the fact much
of the money allocated for the rehabilitation of bonded laborers is
unspent and reabsorbed by the government. Funding for rehabilitation
is allocated through a fifty-fifty matching grant in which the states
undertake rehabilitation and the central government matches their
expenditures.69 It is administered through several schemes under the
Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) and Jawahar Rozgar Yojana
(JRY). Records of expenditures for these programs show that in
1989-90, only 76.16 percent of the funds were utilized. In 1990-91,
78.41 percent of funds were utilized. And in 1991-92, only 47.83
percent of funds available were utilized for rehabilitating bonded
laborers.70 On March 14, 1996, the Parliamentary Committee on Labour
and Welfare reported that only 38.39 percent of the funds available
for the rehabilitation of bonded laborers had been utilized. The
reason given was that "the state governments failed to submit
certificates in regard to the expenditure incurred by them. Because of
this lapse, the Central government did not release funds to them."71
The failure to report expenditures indicates a failure to enforce the
law.

A Supreme Court lawyer closely connected to bonded labor litigation
corroborated the unreliable nature of the district collectors'
reports, saying there is "no mechanism to ascertain [the collectors']
veracity."72 According to thisadvocate and others familiar with the
issue, corruption in application of the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act and dispersal of act-related rehabilitation funds is
common. "A collector may receive 100,000 rupees for rehabilitation
efforts but disperse only 10,000 of it. Embezzlement is difficult to
track, but we all know it happens. For example, a bonded labourer
comes in, puts his thumb print on the document saying he will receive
6,250 rupees, but receives only 3,000 rupees."73

Corruption and neglect are not the only reasons for bad statistics
regarding bonded labor. Another is passivity on the part of enforcing
officials, who too often take no affirmative steps to discover and
root out debt bondage in their districts. Whether this is due to
simple apathy or to a misunderstanding on their part of their official
duties, the effect is disastrous for bonded laborers, who are left in
their state of enslavement indefinitely. In Tamil Nadu, for example,
the investigators found that "most District Collectors... had one
basis to assume that bonded labour does not exist-No one is coming
forward [to report that they are in bondage]."74

Human Rights Watch was unable to obtain any statistics on prosecution
under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act after 1988.75 Up to
1988, there were 7,000 prosecutions under the Bonded Labour
(Abolition) Act throughout India, of which 700 resulted in convictions.
76 It is certain that prosecution under the act is rare. In Tamil
Nadu, the first prosecutions under the twenty-year-old act occurred in
1995, when eight beedi employers were arrested by the North Arcot
District Collector.77 The case, which drew headlines in the regional
press, was depicted as a bold "get tough" measure. The agents spent
one night in jail andwere fined 500 rupees each.78 The Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act allows for punishment of three years in prison
and a 2,000 rupee fine.

Obstacles to Enforcement

Apathy

The endemic apathy among government officials charged with enforcing
India's labor laws is apparent at all levels: national, state, and
district. While undoubtedly there are many committed men and women
among their ranks-including, for example, the district collector of
North Arcot in Tamil Nadu, whom Human Rights Watch interviewed-such
commitment is not the norm. From India's top labor officials all the
way down to the local level, where tehsildars (community leaders) use
their influence to support the status quo, Human Rights Watch and
other researchers have found a profound lack of concern for the plight
of bonded and child laborers.

There are many concrete examples of government neglect. The Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, signed into law in 1986,
requires each state to formulate rules for its implementation. Until
this is done, the law cannot be applied in those states. As of July
1996, a full ten years after the act's birth, the majority of states
have failed to formulate and implement these necessary rules.79 It is
a sign of the government's disregard of this issue that we are unable
to report the exact number of India's twenty-five states that have
made rules for the act's application. When we asked a very senior
official of the central Ministry of Labour-who spoke only on condition
of anonymity-how many states had made rules under the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, he said "I don't know." He then
said, "Laws don't matter. Economics do," and went on to assert that,
until rural prosperity increases, nothing can be done about child
labor.

Clearly, states are receiving no pressure from the national government
to implement the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. Nor,
for the most part, are they themselves taking the initiative to push
for greater enforcement of child labor legislation. It is at the
district level that most enforcement efforts are coordinated and
carried out, and these efforts are managed and overseen by the
district magistrates. The district magistrates, or collectors as they
are also called, are civil servants appointed by the state ministers,
and are the top law enforcement and administrative authorities at the
district level. At a 1995 conference of district magistrates and
collectors in New Delhi, various district heads told a journalist that
child labor was "very low" on their list of priorities, ranking about
twenty-fifth (investment in high-tech industries was first).80

Regarding the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, the government's
egregious neglect of the law is most evident in the nearly universal
failure of districts to form the requisite vigilance committees, much
less ensure that the committees function meaningfully. The vigilance
committees form the core of act enforcement-if implemented as
intended, these committees could contribute dramatically to the
eradication of bonded labor. For overburdened district collectors,
they would provide resources; for corrupt district collectors, they
would provide oversight; and for all district collectors, they would
provide essential liaison possibilities to the bonded laborer
population, whose interests are usually at odds with the interest and
sympathies of their local leaders.81

Nonetheless, notwithstanding the act's unambiguous requirement that
vigilance committees be formed and active, as well as numerous supreme
court rulings emphasizing the importance of the committees for act
enforcement, Human Rights Watch has learned of no functioning
vigilance committee anywhere in India.

Apathy, or at least a low prioritization of child and bonded labor
issues, is also evident in the slow pace at which complaints are
adjudicated-enforcement in the courts is very slow. One attorney told
us of a case he filed with the Supreme Court under the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act in 1984. A fact finding committee was not
appointed until 1991 and, although arguments and submissionsbefore the
court concluded in 1994, as of 1996 no decision had yet been issued.82
The time table is not much better for the bonded labor case before the
Supreme Court, People's Union for Civil Liberties v. State of Tamil
Nadu, et al., which was filed in 1985 and as of 1996 was under
consideration by the court.

Delays in prosecuting cases under the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act are also not uncommon. One such case, filed in 1986
shortly after the act took effect, was reported to be still pending at
the prosecution stage eight years later, in 1994, with the accused
continuing to engage in prohibited practices. The delay in processing
the complaint, filed against an owner of a glass and bangles factory
in Firozabad, is all the more startling in view of the fact that the
complaint was filed by then-Labour Minister P. A. Sangma.83

Caste and Class Bias

A key element of enforcement is the attitude and the tendency toward a
subjective interpretation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act,
1976 by government officials, including district magistrates, police
officers, labor inspectors, and judges. Too often, because of their
own backgrounds and the climate in which they work, those officers
entrusted with enforcement are more sympathetic to the employers than
to the child or bonded laborers. This phenomenon has been noted
repeatedly in the context of enforcement of the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act.

We had some time back a case before us where pursuant to a direction
given by the Collector as a result of an order made by this Court, the
Tehsildar went to the villages in question and sitting on a dais with
the landlords by his side, he started enquiring of the labourers
whether they were bonded or not and when the labourers, obviously
inhibited and terrified by the presence of the landlords, said that
they were not bonded but they were working freely and voluntarily, he
made a report to the Collector that there were no bonded labourers.84

In the rare instances where vigilance committees or similar bodies
have been formed, according to one researcher, they have been composed
of people who themselves, either directly or through their families,
employ bonded labor.85 District collectors and other civil servants
assigned to bonded labor enforcement are also more often than not
aligned with the property-holding-including the holding of bonded
laborers-class. One researcher told Human Rights Watch of working with
a team of three Indian Administrative Service officers, who had been
assigned by the Supreme Court to investigate a case of bonded labor
affecting between 2,500 and 3,000 people. The investigators were urban
middle-class men from land-owning families in the region; in private
conversations, they made it clear that they considered the use of
bonded labor to be an acceptable practice.86

Many bond masters are themselves government employees, including
teachers, railway workers, and civil administrators.87 Because of
their steady income, these people are more likely to own land-which
they need someone to cultivate-and are more likely to have money
available for lending purposes. They are also more likely to be local
leaders and to have ties to the local and district administration,
both factors which tend to inhibit prosecution.

Despite the obvious limitations of relying on high-caste and local
landowning officials to attack bonded labor, outreach by the
government to affected populations and collaboration with grass-roots
social actions groups have not yet been implemented to any significant
degree.

Obstruction

It is not uncommon for those accused of violating labor laws to engage
in overt obstruction of the legal process. This ranges from
intimidation of thecomplaining workers, to bribery of government
officials, to physical threats and violence against the bonded
laborers and their advocates.88

Those who file suit against employers of bonded labor are frequently
harassed, according to a New Delhi lawyer who has been engaged in
bonded labor cases for more than a decade.89

The danger is greatest to those who work in rural areas, where bondage
is often the norm and is employed by powerful and ruthless owners.
According to another attorney closely related to bonded labor
litigation, the advocates and especially the workers who complain
about their status are "risking their lives... they are putting their
lives on the line, and the state officials have turned a callous eye
to it."90

Government officials may do more than just turn a "callous eye" toward
violence against the bonded laborers and their advocates. Several
activists told Human Rights Watch of police collusion with local
employers, including returning escaped workers to the employers and
intimidating, through force or threat of force, workers who are
attempting to organize for improved conditions.91

Corruption

As noted in previous chapters, corruption among government officials
charged with enforcement of labor laws is notorious and widespread.
Labor inspectors, medical officers, local tehsildars (representatives
of the district magistrates at the local level), and judges and
judicial magistrates are all known to be susceptible to bribery.

Lack of Accountability

Under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, district magistrates
are supposed to report to the state government periodically regarding
the number of cases of bonded laborers identified, released, and
rehabilitated. Most districtmagistrates either do not make these
reports at all, or make them sporadically. Furthermore, no mechanism
is in place whereby the accuracy of the district-level reports can be
ascertained, including such important issues as how many of the
identified workers have actually been released, and whether any
released workers have relapsed into bondage. Often, the district
magistrates will simply report that identified bonded laborers, or
formerly released bonded laborers, are "unavailable for
rehabilitation." That is to say, that their whereabouts are unknown.
Hence the central government's figures for 1994-1995, which state
that, of 251,424 bonded labourers identified between 1976 and 1995,
17,127 are "not available for rehabilitation."92

The rate of return into bondage by previously released bonded laborers
is neither studied nor recorded by the government; the effectiveness
of the rehabilitation scheme is therefore unknown. Various
nongovernmental sources believe the relapse rate to be very high.93
Part of the reason for return may be the long delays between
identification of bonded laborers and dispersal of rehabilitation
monies to them.94 Another factor may be the reportedly widespread
corruption among enforcing officials, who are accused of siphoning off
funds earmarked for rehabilitation purposes.

Lack of Adequate Enforcement Staff

Yet another obstacle to enforcement is the failure to devote
sufficient resources to the issue of bonded child labor. This failure
includes inadequate training of labor inspectors, an insufficient
number of inspectors,95 and anoverburdening of the district
magistrates.96 At both the state and the district level, the number of
personnel devoted to enforcement of child and bonded labor laws is
blatantly inadequate. In Tamil Nadu, for example, "there is only one
Assistant Section Officer dealing with the bonded labour issue for the
whole State... [and he] also holds other responsibilities.97

VII. CONCLUSION: COMBATING BONDED CHILD LABOR

The eradication of bonded child labor in India depends on the Indian
government's commitment to two imperatives: enforcement of the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act, and the creation of meaningful
alternatives for already-bonded child laborers and those at risk of
joining their ranks.

In addition to genuine government action, it is essential that
nongovernmental organizations be encouraged by the government to
collaborate in this effort. The government has the resources and
authority to implement the law, while community-based organizations
have the grass-roots contacts and trust necessary to facilitate this
implementation. Furthermore, nongovernmental groups can act as a
watchdog on government programs, keeping vigil for corruption, waste,
and apathy. The elimination of current debt bondage and the prevention
of new or renewed bondage therefore requires a combination of
concerted government action and extensive community involvement.
Neither standing alone is sufficient. Bonded labor is a vast,
pernicious, and long-standing social ill, and the tenacity of the
bonded labor system must be attacked with similar tenacity; anything
less than total commitment is certain to fail.

ENFORCEMENT OF THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM

(ABOLITION) ACT

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act was passed into law in 1976.
Twenty years later, Human Rights Watch has found that the goals of
this law-to punish employers of bonded labor and to identify, release,
and rehabilitate bonded laborers-have not been met, and efforts to do
so are sporadic and weak at best. The bonded labor system continues to
thrive.

The district-level vigilance committees, mandated by the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act and constituting the key tool of act
enforcement, have not been formed in most districts. Those that have
formed tend to lie dormant, or, worse yet, are comprised of members
unsympathetic to the plight of bonded laborers, in direct
contravention of Supreme Court orders interpreting the act.

Without effective vigilance committees to assist, guide, and oversee
their efforts, district collectors are left alone in their efforts to
enforce the law. Collectors interested in enforcement are limited in
these efforts by competing administrative and prosecutorial duties;
without vigilance committees to share the work, meaningful enforcement
of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act is difficult. Other
collectors are not interested in enforcing the act; for them, the lack
of a good vigilance committee means there is no pressure to do so.

Whether for lack of will or lack of support, India's district
collectors have failed utterly to enforce the provisions of the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition)Act. If collected statistics regarding
prosecutions under the act after 1988 exist, Human Rights Watch was
unable to obtain them. The only attempted prosecutions we learned of
occurred in Tamil Nadu in 1995, when eight employers of bonded child
labor were arrested, kept in jail over night, and fined a nominal
amount. The state of Tamil Nadu has an estimated one million bonded
laborers; according to the North Arcot District Collector, these were
the first charges ever brought under the act in Tamil Nadu.

In addition to prosecuting violators, district collectors are directed
by the act to identify, release, and rehabilitate bonded laborers.
India has an estimated fifteen million bonded child laborers alone.
The Indian government's Ministry of Labour, however, estimated in 1995
that there were just 2,784 bonded laborers of all ages identified and
awaiting rehabilitation. It made no mention of any bonded laborers yet
to be identified. Non-enforcement of the law is virtually guaranteed,
of course, so long as the government engages in a willful denial
regarding the existence and pervasiveness of bonded labor.

The mandated rehabilitation of released workers is essential. Without
adequate rehabilitation, those who are released will quickly fall
again into bondage. This has been established repeatedly, among both
adult and child bonded laborers. Nonetheless, the central and state
governments have jointly failed to implement required rehabilitation
procedures. Rehabilitation allowances are distributed late, or are not
distributed at all, or are paid out at half the proper rate, with
corrupt officials pocketing the difference. One government-appointed
commission found that court orders mandating the rehabilitation of
bonded laborers were routinely ignored.98

Finally, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act directs vigilance
committees and district collectors to institute savings and credit
programs at the community level, so that the impoverished might have
access to a small loan during financial emergencies. This resource is
crucial. Just as enforcement of the law against employers would work
to terminate the demand for bonded labor, so would available credit
work to end the supply. Nearly every child interviewed by Human Rights
Watch told the same story: they were sold to their employers because
their parents were desperate for money and had no other way to get it.
For some, it was the illness or death of a parent, for others, the
marriage of a sister, and for others still, the need to buy food or
put a roof over their heads. In most cases, the amount of the debt
incurred was very small.

A community-based savings and credit program has been introduced in
North Arcot district, and early indications are that it will strike a
significant blow against bonded child labor. The program was launched
by the district collector for North Arcot, who claimed that sufficient
funds and personnel were available from existing rural development
programs. Similar initiatives should be instituted in all areas where
bonded child labor is prevalent.

CREATING ALTERNATIVES TO BONDED CHILD LABOR

Bonded child labor must be attacked from many fronts. Enforcement of
the law is essential, but it is not enough. The bonded child laborer
must have someplace else to go. The child's parents must have other
options available. The community must support the end of debt bondage
for children. In sum, the attack must be holistic-it must work to
change the system of debt bondage. Elements already in use by
community activists and some government officials include: education,
including vocational training and popular education, and rural
development.

The availability of free, compulsory, and quality education is widely
regarded as the single most important factor in the fight against
bonded and non-bonded child labor. The correlation between illiteracy
and bonded labor is strong, with researchers reporting that literacy
rates among bonded child laborers are as low as 5 percent.99 The
majority of children interviewed by Human Rights Watch had been
schooled for three years or less, and many said they could not read or
write.

Article 45 of the Indian Constitution commits the state to
"endeavor[ing] to provide, within a period of ten years from the
commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education
for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years." The
constitution came into force in 1950. Recognizing the central
importance of education, India's leading non-governmental
organizations have called for the implementation of universal, free,
and compulsory education. Among them are: the Child Labour Action
Network (CLAN), the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), the Centre
for Rural Education and Development Action (CREDA), and the Bonded
Labour Liberation Front (BLLF). UNICEF-India and Anti-Slavery
International have likewise called on the Indian government to
implement education for all.

At the same time, alternate efforts to at least minimally educate
bonded children are already underway in a few areas. CREDA in the
carpet-belt, the MV Foundation in Andhra Pradesh, and the Indian
Council on Child Welfare (ICCW)in North Arcot, are all involved in non-
formal education initiatives. Some of these programs utilize modest
financial support to attract children, including small cash stipends
and periodic grain allowances. In addition to classic schooling,
children on the verge of adulthood may benefit from concrete skills
training as well.

CREDA and the MV Foundation also emphasize popular education for all
members of the community, in which community teachers stress the
importance of education for children and the deleterious effects of
exploitative child labor. Such outreach to the community as a whole is
necessary in order to chip away at the thick web of myths and
justifications that support the exploitation of child workers. These
myths contend that children must be trained at the "right" age or they
will never learn a skill; children must be trained in a profession
"appropriate" to their caste and background; children are well-suited
for certain kinds of work because of their "nimble fingers;" and child
labor is a natural and inevitable function of the family unit. These
views are widely shared by parents, educators, government officials,
and the public at large, with the result that talk of children's
rights in regard to labor is dismissed summarily. It is necessary to
change these views in order to change the system.

In sum, the fight against bonded child labor must be carried out on
two fronts: enforcement and prevention. Those employers who continue
to bind children to them with debt, paying just pennies for a
hazardous and grueling work day, must be prosecuted under the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act. Employers or agents that physically
abuse, kidnap, unlawfully confine, threaten with violence, or expose
to dangerous conditions, within the context of the bonded labor
system, should be prosecuted for these crimes under the Indian Penal
Code and the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986. Children must be removed from
bondage and rehabilitated to avoid a subsequent return to bondage.
Finally, the educational and survival needs of all children at risk
must be addressed in order to stop the cycle of bondage.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Selected Articles of the Indian Constitution

Article 21. Protection of life and personal liberty-No person shall be
deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure
established by law.

Article 23. Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour-
(1) Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of
forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this prohibition
shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

(2) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing
compulsory service for public purposes, and in imposing such service
the State shall not make any discrimination on grounds only of
religion, race, caste or class or any of them.

Article 24. Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc.-
No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in
any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

Article 39. Certain principles of policy to be followed by the State-
The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing-

(a) that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an
adequate means of livelihood;

(b) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the
community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;

(c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the
concentration of wealth and means of production to the common
detriment;

(d) that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women;

(e) that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the
tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced
by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or
strength;

(f) that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in
a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that
childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against
moral and material abandonment.

Article 39A. Equal Justice and free legal aid-The State shall secure
that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of
equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid,
by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that
opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by
reason of economic or other disabilities.

Article 41. Right to work, to education and to public assistance in
certain cases-The State shall, within the limits of its economic
capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the
right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of
unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of
undeserved want.

Article 42. Provision for just and humane conditions of work and
maternity relief-The State shall make provision for securing just and
humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.

Article 43. Living wage, etc., for workers-The State shall endeavour
to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any
other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise,
work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of
life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural
opportunities and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to promote
cottage industries on an individual or cooperative basis in rural
areas.

Article 43A. Participation of workers in management of industries-The
State shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way,
to secure the participation of workers in the management of
undertakings, establishments or other organizations engaged in any
industry.

Article 45. Provision for free and compulsory education for children-
The State shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from
the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory
education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen
years.

Article 46. Promotion of educational and economic interests of
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections-The State
shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests
of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the
Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from
social injustice and all forms of exploitation.

APPENDIX B: The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976

(No. 19 of 1976)

[9th February, 1976]

An act to provide for the abolition of bonded labour system with a
view to preventing the economic and physical exploitation of the
weaker sections of the people and for matters connected therewith or
incidental thereto

Be it enacted by Parliament in the Twenty-seventh Year of the Republic
of India as follows:

CHAPTER I

Preliminary

1. Short title, extent and commencement.-(1) This act may be called
the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

(2) It extends to the whole of India.

(3) it shall be deemed to have come into force on the 25th day of
October, 1975.

2. Definitions.-(1) In This act, unless the context otherwise
requires,-

(a) "advance" means an advance, whether in cash or in kind, or partly
in cash or partly in kind, made by one person (hereinafter referred to
as the creditor) to another person (hereinafter referred to as the
debtor);

(b) "agreement" means an agreement (whether written or oral, or partly
written and partly oral) between a debtor and creditor, and includes
an agreement providing for forced labour, the existence of which is
presumed under any social custom prevailing in the concerned
locality;

Explanation.-The existence of an agreement between the debtor and
creditor is ordinarily presumed, under the social custom, in relation
to the following forms of forced labour, namely:

Adiyamar, Baramasi, Bethu, Bhagela, Cherumar, Garrugalu, Hali, Hari,
Harwai, Holya, Jolya, Jeeta, Kamiya, Khundit-Mundit, Kuthia, Lakhari,
Munjhi, Mat, Musish system, Nit-Majoor, Paleru, Padiyal, Pannaayilal,
Sagri, Sanji, Sanjawal, Sewak,, Sewakis, Seri, Vetti;

(c) "ascendant" or "descendant" in relation to a person belonging to
matriarchal society, means the person who corresponds to such
expression in accordance with the law of succession in such society;

(d) "bonded debt" means an advance obtained, or presumed to have been
obtained, by a bonded labourer, or in pursuance of, the bonded labour
system

(e) "bonded labour" means any labour or service rendered under the
bonded labour system;

(f) "bonded labourer" means a labourer who incurs, or has, or is
presumed to have, incurred, a bonded debt;

(g) "bonded labour system" means the system of forced, or partly
forced labour under which a debtor enters, or has, or is presumed to
have, entered, into an agreement with the creditor to the effect
that,-

(i) In consideration of an advance obtained by him or by any of his
lineal ascendants or descendants (whether or not such advance is
evidenced by any document) and in consideration of the interest, if
any, due on such advance, or

(ii) in pursuance of any customary or social obligation, or

(iii) in pursuance of an obligation devolving on him by succession,
or

(iv) for any economic consideration of the interest, if any, due on
such advance, or

(v) by reason of his birth in any particular caste or community, he
would-

(1) render, by himself or through any member of his family, or any
person dependent on him, labour or service to the creditor, or for the
benefit of the creditor, for a specified period or for an unspecified
period, either without wages or for nominal wages, or

(2) forfeit the freedom of employment or other means of livelihood for
a specified period or for an unspecified period, or

(3) forfeit the right to move freely throughout the territory of
India, or

(4) forfeit the right to appropriate or sell at market value any of
his property or product of his labour or the labour of a member of his
family or any person dependent on him

and includes the system of forced, or partly forced, labour under
which a surety for a debtor or has, or has, or is presumed to have,
entered, into an agreement with the creditor to the effect that in the
event of the failure of the debtor to repay the debt, he would render
the bonded labour on behalf of the debtor;

Explanation.- For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that
any system of forced, or partly forced labour under which any workman
being contract labour as defined in Cl. (b) of subsection (1) or Sec.
2 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (37 of
1970), or an inter-State migrant workman as defined in Cl. (e) of sub-
section (1) of Sec. 2 of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation
and of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 (30 of 1979),
is required to render labour or service in circumstances of the nature
mentioned in sub-clause (1) of this clause or is subjected to all or
any of the disabilities referred to in sub-clauses (2) to (4), is
"bonded labour system" within the meaning of this clause.

(h) "family", in relation to a person, includes the ascendant and
descendant of such person;

(i) "nominal wages", in relation to any labour, means a wage which is
less than,-

(a) the minimum wages fixed by the Government, in relation to the same
or similar labour, under any law for the time being in force; and

(b) where no such minimum wage has been fixed in relation to any form
of labour, the wages that are normally paid, for the same or similar
labour to the labourers working in the same locality;

(j) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act.

3. Act to have overriding effect.-The provisions of this act shall
have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained
in any enactment other than this act, or in any instrument having
effect by virtue of any enactment other than this act.

CHAPTER II

Abolition of Bonded Labour System

4. Abolition of bonded labour system.-(1) On the commencement of this
act, the bonded labour system shall stand abolished and every bonded
labourer shall, on such commencement, stand freed and discharged from
any obligation to render any bonded labour.

(2) After the commencement of this act, no person shall-

(a) make any advance under, or in pursuance of the bonded labour
system, forced labour, or

(b) Compel any person to render any bonded labour or other form of
forced labour.

5. Agreement, custom, etc. to be void.-On the commencement of this
act, any custom or tradition or any contract, agreement or other
instrument (whether entered into or executed before or after the
commencement of this act), by virtue of which any person, or any
member of the family or dependent of such person, is required to do
any work or render any service as a bonded labourer, shall be void and
inoperative.

CHAPTER III

Extinguishment of liability to repay bonded debt

6. Liability to repay bonded debt to stand extinguished-(1) On the
commencement of this act, every obligation of a bonded labourer to
repay any bonded debt, or such part of any bonded debt as remains
unsatisfied immediately before such commencement, shall be deemed to
have been extinguished.

(2) After the commencement of this act, no suit or other proceeding
shall lie in any civil Court or before any other authority for the
recovery of any bonded debt or any part thereof.

(3) Every decree or order for the recovery of bonded debt, passed
before the commencement of this act and not fully satisfied before
such commencement, shall be deemed, on such commencement, to have been
fully satisfied.

(4) Every attachment made before the commencement of this act, for the
recovery of any bonded debt, shall, on such commencement, stand
vacated; and where, in pursuance of such attachment, any moveable
property of the bonded labourer was seized and removed from his
custody and kept in the custody of any Court or other authority
pending sale thereof such moveable property shall be restored, as soon
as may be practicable after such commencement, to the possession of
the bonded labourer.

(5) Where, before the commencement of this act, possession of any
property belonging to a bonded labourer or a member of his family or
other dependent was forcibly taken over by any creditor for the
recovery of any bonded debt, such property shall be restored, as soon
as may be practicable after such commencement, to the possession of
the person from whom it was seized.

(6) If restoration of the possession of any property referred to in
sub-section (4) or sub-section (5) is not made within thirty days from
the commencement of this act, the aggrieved person may, within such
time as may be prescribed, apply to the prescribed authority for the
restoration of the possession of such property and the prescribed
authority may, after giving the creditor a reasonable opportunity of
being heard, direct the creditor to restore to the applicant the
possession of the concerned property within such time as may be
specified in the order.

(7) An order made by any prescribed authority, under sub-section (6),
shall be deemed to be an order made by a civil Court of the lowest
pecuniary jurisdiction within the local limits of whose jurisdiction
the creditor voluntarily resides or carries on business or personally
works for gain.

(8) For the avoidance of doubts, it is hereby declared, that, where
any attached property was sold before the commencement of this act, in
execution of a decree or order for the recovery of a bonded debt, such
sale shall not be affected by any provision of this act:

Provided that the bonded labourer, or an agent authorized by him in
this behalf, may, at any time within five years rom such commencement,
apply to have the sale set aside on his depositing in Court, for
payment to the decree-holder, the amount specified in the proclamation
of sale, for the recovery of which sale was ordered, less any amount
as well as mesne profits, which may, since the date of such
proclamation of sale, have been received by the decree-holder.

(9) Where any suit or proceeding, for the enforcement of any
obligation under the bonded labour system, including a suit or
proceeding for the recovery of any advance made to a bonded labourer,
is pending at the commencement of this act, such suit or other
proceeding shall, on such commencement, stand dismissed.

(10) On the commencement of this act, every bonded labourer who has
been detained in civil prison, whether before or after judgement,
shall be released from detention forthwith.

7. Property of bonded labourer to be freed from mortgage, etc.-(1) All
property vested in a bonded labourer which was, immediately before the
commencement of this act under any mortgage, lien, charge, or other
incumbrances in connection with any bonded debt shall, in so far as it
is relatable to the bonded debt, stand freed and discharged from such
mortgage, charge, lien or otherincumbrances in connection with any
bonded debt, and where any such property was, immediately before the
commencement of this act, in the possession of the mortgagee or the
holder of the charge, lien or incumbrance, such property shall (except
where it was subject to any other charge), on such commencement, be
restored to the possession of the bonded labourer.

(2) If any delay is made in restoring any property, referred to in sub-
section (1), to the possession of the bonded labourer, such labourer
shall be entitled, on and from the date of such commencement, to
recover from the mortgagee or holder of the lien, charge or
incumbrance, such mesne profits as may be determined by the Civil
Court of the lowest pecuniary jurisdiction within the local limits of
whose jurisdiction such property is situated.

8. Freed bonded labourer not to be evicted from homestead, etc.- (1)
No person who has been freed and discharged under this act from any
obligation to render any bonded labour, shall be evicted from any
homestead or other residential premises which he was occupying
immediately before the commencement of this act as part of the
consideration for the bonded labour.

(2) If, after the commencement of this act, any such person is evicted
by the creditor from any homestead or other residential premises,
referred to in sub-section (1), the Executive Magistrate in charge of
the sub-division within which such homestead or residential premises,
is situated shall, as early as practicable, restore the bonded
labourer to the possession of such homestead or other residential
premises.

9. Creditor not to accept payment against extinguished debt.-(1) No
creditor shall accept any payment against any bonded debt which has
been extinguished or deemed to have been extinguished or fully
satisfied by virtue of the provisions of this act.

(2) whoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1), shall be
punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three
years and also with fine.

(3) The Court, convicting any person under sub-section (2) may, in
addition to the penalties which may be imposed under that sub-section,
direct the person to deposit, in Court, the amount accepted in
contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1), within such period
as may be specified in the order for being refunded to the bonded
labourer.

CHAPTER IV

Implementing Authorities

10. Authorities who may be specified for implementing the provisions
of this act.- The State Governments may confer such powers and impose
such duties on a District Magistrate as may be necessary to ensure
that the provisions of this act are properly carried out and the
District Magistrate may specify the officer, subordinate to him, who
shall exercise all or any of the powers, and perform al or any of the
duties, so conferred or imposed and the local limits within which such
powers or duties shall be carried out by the officers so specified.

11. Duty of District Magistrates and other officers to ensure credit.-
The District Magistrate authorized by the State Government under Sec.
10 and the officer specified by the District Magistrate under that
section shall, as far as practicable, try to promote the welfare of
the freed bonded labourer by securing and protecting the economic
interests of such bonded labourer so that he may not have any occasion
or reason to contract any further debt.

12. Duty of the District Magistrate and officers authorized by him.-It
shall be the duty of every District Magistrate and every officer
specified by him under Sec. 10 to inquire whether after the
commencement of this act, any bonded labour system or any other form
of forced labour is being enforced by, or on behalf of, any person
resident within the local limits of his jurisdiction and if, as a
result of such inquiry, any person is found to be enforcing the bonded
labour system or any other system of forced labour, he shall forthwith
take such action as may be necessary to eradicate the enforcement of
such forced labour.

CHAPTER V

Vigilance Committees

13. Vigilance Committees.-(1) Every State Government shall, by
notification in the Official Gazette, constitute such number of
Vigilance Committees in each district and each sub-division as it may
think fit.

(2) Each Vigilance Committee, constituted for a district, shall
consist of the following members, namely:

(a) The District Magistrate, or a person nominated by him, who shall
be the Chairman;

(b) three persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled
Tribes and residing in the district, to be nominated by the District
Magistrate;

(c) two social workers, resident in the district, to be nominated by
the District Magistrate;

(d) not more than three persons to represent the official or non-
official agencies in the district connected with rural development, to
be nominated by the State Government;

(e) one person to represent the financial and credit institutions in
the district, to be nominated by the District Magistrate.

(3) Each Vigilance Committee, constituted for a sub-division, shall
consist of the following members, namely:

(a) The Sub-Divisional Magistrate, or a person nominated by him, who
shall be the Chairman;

(b) three persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled
Tribes and residing in the sub-division, to be nominated by the Sub-
divisional Magistrate;

(c) two social workers, resident in the sub-division, to be nominated
by the Sub-divisional Magistrate;

(d) not more than three persons to represent the official or non-
official agencies in the sub-division connected with rural
development, to be nominated by the State Government;

(e) one person to represent the financial and credit institutions in
the sub-division, to be nominated by the Sub-divisional Magistrate.

(f) one officer specified under Sec. 10 and functioning in the sub-
division;

(4) Each Vigilance Committee shall regulate its own procedure and
secretarial assistance as may be necessary, shall be provided by-

(a) the District Magistrate, in the case of Vigilance Committee
constituted for the district;

(b) the Sub-divisional Magistrate, in the case of a Vigilance
Committee constituted for the sub-division.

(5) No proceeding of a Vigilance Committee shall be invalid merely by
reason of any defect in the constitution, or in the proceedings, of
the Vigilance Committee.

14. Functions of Vigilance Committees.-(1) The functions of each
Vigilance Committee shall be-

(a) to advise the District Magistrate or any officer authorized by him
as to the efforts made, and action taken, to ensure that the
provisions of this act or any rule made thereunder are properly
implemented;

(b) to provide for the economic and social rehabilitation of the freed-
bonded labourers;

(c) to co-ordinate the functions of rural banks and co-operative
societies with a view to canalizing adequate credit to the freed-
bonded labourers;

(d) to keep an eye on the number of offences of which cognizance has
been taken under this act;

(e) to make a survey as to whether there is any offence of which
cognizance ought to be taken under this act;

(f) to defend any suit instituted against a freed-bonded labourer or a
member of his family or any other person dependent on him for the
recovery of the whole or part of any bonded debt or any other debt
which is claimed by such person to be bonded debt.

(2) A Vigilance Committee may authorize one of its members to defend a
suit against a freed-bonded labourer and the member so authorized
shall be deemed, for the purpose of such suit, to be the authorized
agent of the freed-bonded labourer.

15. Burden of proof.- Whenever any debt is claimed by a bonded
labourer, or a Vigilance Committee, to be a bonded debt, the burden of
proof that such debt, is not a bonded debt shall lie on the creditor.

CHAPTER VI

Offences and Procedure for Trial

16. Punishment for enforcement of bonded labour.-Whoever, after the
commencement of this act, compels any person to render any bonded
labour shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to three years and also with fine which may extend to two
thousand rupees.

17. Punishment for advancement of bonded debt.-Whoever advances, after
the commencement of this act, any bonded debt shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and also with
fine which may extend to two thousand rupees.

18. Punishment for extracting bonded labour under the bonded labour
system.-Whoever enforces, after the commencement of this act, any
custom, tradition, contract, agreement or other instrument, by virtue
of which any person or any member of the family of such person or any
dependent of such person is required to render any service under the
bonded labour system shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term
which may extend to three years and also with fine which may extend to
two thousand rupees; and out of the fine, ifrecovered, payment shall
be made to the bonded labourer at the rate of rupees five for each day
for which the bonded labour was extracted from him.

19. Punishment for omission or failure to restore possession of
property to bonded labourers.-Whoever, being required by this act to
restore any property to the possession of any bonded labourer, omits
or fails to do so, within a period of thirty days from the
commencement of this act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a
term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to
one thousand rupees, or with both; and, out of the fine, if recovered
payment shall be made to the bonded labourer at the rate of rupees
five for each day during which possession of property was not restored
to him.

20. Abetment to be an offence.-Whoever abets any offence punishable
under this act shall, whether or not the offence abetted is committed,
be punishable with the same punishment as is provided for the offence
which has been abetted.

Explanation.-For the purpose of this act, "abetment" has the meaning
assigned to it in the Indian Penal Code.

21. Offences to be tried by Executive Magistrates.-(1) The State
Government may confer, on an Executive Magistrate the powers of a
Judicial Magistrate of the first class or of the second class for the
trial of offences under this act; and on such conferment of powers,
the Executive Magistrate, on whom the powers are so conferred, shall
be deemed, for the purposes of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2
of 1974), to be a Judicial Magistrate of the first class, or of the
second class, as the case may be.

22. Cognizance of offences.-Every offence under this act shall be
cognizable and bailable.

23. Offences by companies.-(1) Where an offence under this act has
been committed by a company, every person who, at the time the offence
was committed, was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company
for the conduct of the business of the company, as well as the
company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be
liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where any
offence under this act has been committed by a company and it has been
proved that the offence has been committed with the consent or
connivance of, or is attributable to, any neglect on the part of, any
director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company, such
director, manager, secretary or other officer shall be deemed to be
guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and
punished accordingly.

Explanation.-For the purposes of this section,-

(a) "company" means any body corporate and includes a firm or other
association of individuals; and

(b) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.

CHAPTER VII

Miscellaneous

24. Protection of action taken in good faith.-No suit, prosecution or
other legal proceeding shall lie against any State Government or any
officer of the State Government or any member of the Vigilance
Committee for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be
done under this act.

25. Jurisdiction of Civil Courts barred.-No Civil Court shall have
jurisdiction in respect of any matter to which any provision of this
act applies and no injunction shall be granted by any Civil Court in
respect of anything which is done or intended to be done by or under
this act.

26. Power to make rules.-(1) The Central Government may, by
notification in the official Gazette, make rules for carrying out the
provisions of this act.

(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the foregoing power, such
rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:

(a) the authority to which application for the restoration of
possession of property referred to in sub-section (4), or sub-section
(5) of Sec. 6 is to be submitted in pursuance of sub-section (6) of
that section;

(b) the time within which application for restoration of possession of
property is to be made under sub-section (6) of Sec. 6, to the
prescribed authority;

(c) steps to be taken by Vigilance Committees under Cl. (a) of sub-
section (1) of Sec. 14, to ensure the implementation of the provisions
of this act or of any rule made thereunder;

(d) any other matter which is required to be, or may be prescribed.

(3) Every rule made by the Central Government under this act shall be
laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each House of
Parliament while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days
which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive
sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately
following the session or successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses
agree in making any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that
therule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only
in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so
however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without
prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that
rule.

(1) The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Ordinance, 1975 (17 of 1975),
is hereby repealed.

(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything or any action taken under
the Ordinance (including any notification published, direction of a
nomination made, power conferred, duty imposed or officer specified)
shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding
provisions of this act.

APPENDIX C: The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Rules, 1976

(Published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section
3(i),

February 28, 1976)

In exercise of powers conferred by sub-section (1), read with sub-
section (2) of Sec. 26 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act,
1976 (19 of 1976), the Central Government hereby makes the following
rules, namely:

1. Short title and commencement.-(1) These rules may be called the
Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Rules, 1976.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the
official Gazette.

2. Definitions.-In these rules, unless the context otherwise
requires,-

(a) "Act" means the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 (19 of
1976);

(b) "District Vigilance Committee: means a Vigilance Committee
constituted for a district under sub-section (1) of Sec. 13;

(c) "section" means a section of the act;

(d) "Sub-divisional Vigilance Committee" means a Vigilance Committee
constituted for a sub-division under sub-section (1) of Sec. 13.

3. Term of office, and vacation of seat members of District Vigilance
Committees.-(1) Every member of a District Vigilance Committee,
nominated under Cls. (b), (c), (d) and (e) of sub-section (2) of Sec.
13 shall hold office for a period of two years from the date on which
his nomination is notified in the official Gazette and shall, on the
expiry of the said period, continue to hold office until his successor
is nominated and shall also be eligible for re-nomination.

(2) Every member referred to in sub-rule (1), -

(a) may, by giving notice in writing of not less than thirty days to
authority which nominated him, resign his office and, on such
resignation being accepted or on the expiry of the notice period of 30
days, whichever is earlier, shall be deemed to have vacated his
office.

(b) shall be deemed to have vacated his office,-

(I) if he fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the District
Vigilance Committee without obtaining leave of the Chairman of such
absence:

Provided that the authority, which nominated him, may, if he is
satisfied that such member was prevented by sufficient cause from
attending the three consecutive meetings of the Committee restore him
to membership;

(ii) if he becomes subject to any of the following disqualifications,
namely:

(1) is adjudged insolvent;

(2) is declared to be of unsound mind by a competent court;

(3) is convicted of an offence which, in the opinion of the authority
which nominated him, involves moral turpitude;

(c) may be removed from office, if the authority, which nominated such
member is of the opinion that such member has ceased to represent the
interest to represent which he was nominated:

Provided that a member shall not be removed from office under this
clause unless a reasonable opportunity is given to him for showing
cause against such removal.

(3) A member, nominated to fill a casual vacancy shall gold office for
the unexpired portion of the term of his predecessor.

4. Term of office, and vacation of seat of members of Sub-divisional
Vigilance Committees.-(1) Every member of a Sub-divisional Vigilance
Committee, nominated under Cls. (b), (c), (d) and (e) of sub-section
(2) of Sec. 13 shall hold office for a period of two years from the
date on which his nomination is notified in the official Gazette and
shall, on the expiry of the said period, continue to hold office until
his successor is nominated and shall also be eligible for re-
nomination.

(2) Every member referred to in sub-rule (1), -

(a) may, by giving notice in writing of not less than thirty days to
authority which nominated him, resign his office and, on such
resignation being accepted or on the expiry of the notice period of 30
days, whichever is earlier, shall be deemed to have vacated his
office.

(b) shall be deemed to have vacated his office,-

(i) if he fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the Sub-
divisional Vigilance Committee without obtaining leave of the Chairman
of such absence:

Provided that the authority, which nominated him, may, if he is
satisfied that such member was prevented by sufficient cause from
attending the three consecutive meetings of the Committee restore him
to membership;

(ii) if he becomes subject to any of the following disqualifications,
namely:

(1) is adjudged insolvent;

(2) is declared to be of unsound mind by a competent court;

(3) is convicted of an offence which, in the opinion of the authority
which nominated him, involves moral turpitude;

(c) may be removed from office, if the authority, which nominated such
member is of the opinion that such member has ceased to represent the
interest to represent which he was nominated:

Provided that a member shall not be removed from office under this
clause unless a reasonable opportunity is given to him for showing
cause against such removal.

(3) A member, nominated to fill a casual vacancy shall gold office for
the unexpired portion of the term of his predecessor.

5. Prescribed authority under sub-section (6) of Sec.6.-An application
under sub-section (6) of Sec. 6 for restoration of possession of any
property referred to in sub-section (4) or sub-section (5) of that
section shall be made to the Executive Magistrate, on whom the powers
of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class or of the second class
have been conferred under sub-section (1) of Sec. 21, and within the
local limits of whose jurisdiction the said property is, or the
applicant has reason to believe is, situated at the time of making the
application:

Provided that where there are two Executive Magistrates, on one of
whom the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class and on the
other the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of thesecond class have been
conferred under sub-section (1) of Sec. 21 having jurisdiction to
entertain the application for restoration of possession of property
referred to in sub-rule (1), the application shall be made to the
Executive Magistrate on whom the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of
the second class have been conferred.

6. Time within which an application under sub-section (6) is to be
made.-

An application under sub-section (6) of Sec. 6 for restoration of
possession of any property referred to in sub-section (4) or sub-
section (5) of that section shall be made within a period of ninety
days from the date on which these rules come into force.

7. Records to be maintained by District Vigilance Committees to ensure
the implementation of the provisions of the act and rules.-In order to
ensure the implementation of the act and rules, every District
Vigilance Committee shall maintain the following registers in respect
of freed-bonded labourer with the local limits of its jurisdiction,
namely:

(a) a register containing the name and address of freed bonded
labourer;

(b) a register containing the statistics relating to the vacation,
occupation, and income of every freed-bonded labourer;

(c) a register containing the details of the benefits which the freed-
bonded labourers are receiving, including benefits in the form of
land, inputs for agriculture, training in handicrafts and allied
occupations, loans at differential rates, interest of employment in
urban or non-urban areas;

(d) a register containing details of cases under sub-section (6) of
Sec. 6, sub-section (2) of Sec. 8, sub-section (2) of Secs. 9, 16, 17,
18, 19, and 20.

APPENDIX D: The Children (Pedging of Labour) Act, 1933

(Act No. 2 of 1933)

[24th February, 1933]

An act to prohibit the pledging of labour of children

Whereas it is expedient to prohibit the making of agreements to pledge
the labour of children and the employment of children whose labour has
been pledged;

It is hereby enacted as follows:

1. Short title, extent and commencement.-(1) This act may be called
the Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933.

(2) It extends to the whole of India

(3) This section and Secs. 2 and 3 shall come into force at once, and
the remaining sections of this act shall come into force on the first
day of July, 1933.

2. Definitions.- In this act, unless there is anything repugnant in
the subject or context,-

"an agreement to pledge the labour of a child" means in agreement,
written or oral, express or implied, whereby the parent or guardian of
a child, in return for any payment or benefit received by him,
undertakes to cause or allow the services of the child to be utilized
by him, undertakes to cause or allow the services of the child to be
utilized in any employment:

Provided that an agreement made without detriment to a child , and not
made in consideration of any benefit other than reasonable wages to be
paid for the child's services, and terminable at not more than a
week's notice, is not an agreement within the meaning of this
definition;

"child" means a person who is under the age of fifteen years; and
"guardian" includes any person having legal custody of or control over
a child.

3. Agreement contrary to the act to be void.-An agreement to pledge
the labour of a child shall be void.

4. Penalty for parent or guardian making agreement to pledge the
labour of a child.-Whoever, being the parent or guardian of a child,
makes an agreement to pledge the labour of that child, shall be
punished with fine which may extend to fifty rupees.

5. Penalty for making with a parent or guardian agreement to pledge
the labour of a child.-Whoever makes with the parent or guardian of a
child shall be punished with fine which may extend to two hundred
rupees.

6. Penalty for employing a child whose labour has been pledged.-
Whoever, knowing or having reason to believe that an agreement has
been made to pledge the labour of a child, in furtherance of such
agreement employs such child, or permits such child to be employed in
any premises or place under his control, shall be punishable with fine
which may extend to two hundred rupees.

APPENDIX E: The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986

Number 61 of 1986

[23rd December 1986]

Statement of Objects and Reasons

There are a number of acts which prohibit the employment of children
below 14 years and 15 years in certain specified employments. However,
there is no procedure laid down in any law for deciding in which
employments, occupations or processes the employment of children
should be banned. There is also no law to regulate the working
conditions of children in most of the employments where they are not
prohibited from working and are working under exploitative
conditions.

2. This Bill intends to-

(i) ban the employment of children, i.e., those who have not completed
their fourteenth year, in specified occupations and processes;

(ii) lay down a procedure to decide modifications to the Schedule of
banned occupations or processes;

(iii) regulate the conditions of work of children in employments where
they are not prohibited from working;

(iv) lay down enhanced penalties for employment of children in
violation of the provisions of this act, and other acts which forbid
the employment of children;

(v) to obtain uniformity in the definition of "child" in the related
laws.

3. The Bill seeks to achieve the above objects.

An act to prohibit the engagement of children in certain employments
and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain other
employments.

Be it enacted by Parliament in the Thirty-seventh year of the Republic
of India as follows:

PART I

PRELIMINARY

1. Short title, extent and commencement.-(1) The act may be called the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.

(2) It extends to the whole of India.

(3) The provisions of this act, other than part III, shall come into
force at once, and part III shall come into force on such date as the
Central Governmentmay, by notification in the Official Gazette,
appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different states and
for different classes of establishments.

2. Definitions.- In this act, unless the context otherwise requires.

(i) "appropriate Government" means, in relation to an establishment
under the control of the Central Government or a railway
administration or a major port or a mine or oil field, the Central
Government, and in all other cases, the State Government;

(ii) "child" means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year
of age;

(iii) "day" means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at mid-
night;

(iv) "establishment" includes a shop, commercial establishment,
workshop, farm, residential hotel, restaurant, eating house, theatre
or other place of amusement or public entertainment;

(v) "family" in relation to an occupier, means the individual, the
wife or husband, as the case may be, of such individual, and their
children, brother or sister of such individual;

(vi) "occupier", in relation to an establishment or a workshop, means
the person who has the ultimate control over the affairs of the
establishment or workshop;

(vii) "port authority" means any authority administering a port;

(viii) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under Section 18;

(ix) "week" means a period of seven days beginning at mid-night on
Saturday night or such other night as may be approved in writing for a
particular area by the inspector;

(x) "workshop" means any premises (including the precincts thereof)
wherein any industrial process is carried on, but does not include any
premises to which the provisions of section 67 of the Factories Act,
1946, for the time being, apply.

PART II

PROHIBITION OF EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN CERTAIN OCCUPATIONS AND
PROCESSES

3. Prohibition of employment of children in certain occupations and
processes.-No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of
the occupations set forth in Part A of the Schedule or in any workshop
wherein any of the processes set forth in Part B of the Schedule is
carried on:

Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any workshop
wherein any process is carried on by the occupier with the aid ofhis
family or to any school established by, or receiving assistance or
recognition from, Government.

4. Power to amend the Schedule.-The Central Government after giving,
by notification in the Official Gazette, not less than three months
notice of its intention so to do, may, be like notification, add any
occupation or process to the Schedule and thereupon the Schedule shall
be deemed to have been amended accordingly.

5. Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee.-(1) The Central
Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, constitute an
advisory committee to be called the "Child Labour Technical Advisory
Committee" (hereafter in this section referred to as the Committee) to
advise the Central Government for the purpose of addition of
occupations and processes to the Schedule.

(2) The Committee shall consist of a Chairman and such other members
not exceeding ten, as may be appointed by the Central Government.

(3) The Committee shall meet as often as it may consider necessary and
shall have power to regulate its own procedure.

(4) The Committee may, if it deems necessary so to do, constitute one
or more sub-committees, and may appoint any such sub-committee,
whether generally or for the consideration of any particular matter,
any person who is not a member of the Committee.

(5) The term of office of, the manner of filing casual vacancies in
the office of, and the allowances, if any, payable to, the Chairman
and other members of the Committee, and the conditions and
restrictions subject to which the Committee may appoint any person who
is not a member of the Committee as a member of any of its sub-
committees shall be such as may be prescribed.

PART III

REGULATION OF CONDITIONS OF WORK OF CHILDREN

6. Application of Part.-The provisions of this Part shall apply to an
establishment or a class of establishments in which none of the
occupations or processes referred to in section 3 is carried on.

7. Hours and period of work.-(1) No child shall be required or
permitted to work in any establishment in excess of such number of
hours as may be prescribed for such establishment or class of
establishments.

(2) The period of work on each day shall be so fixed that no period
shall exceed three hours and that no child shall work for more than
three hours before he has had an interval for rest for at least one
hour.

(3) The period of work of a child shall be so arranged that inclusive
of his interval for rest, under sub-section (2), it shall not be
spread over more than six hours, including the time spent in waiting
for work on any day.

(4) No child shall be permitted or required to work between 7 p.m. and
8 a.m.

(5) No child shall be required or permitted to work overtime.

8. Weekly holidays.-Every child employed in an establishment shall be
allowed in each week, a holiday of one whole day, which day shall be
specified by the occupier in a notice permanently exhibited in a
conspicuous place in the establishment and the day so specified shall
not be altered by the occupier more than once in three months.

9. Notice to Inspector.-(1) Every occupier in relation to an
establishment in which a child was employed or permitted to work
immediately before the date of commencement of this act in relation to
such establishment shall, within a period of thirty days from such
commencement, send to the Inspector within whose local limits the
establishment is situated, a written notice containing the following
particulars, namely:-

(a) the name and situation of the establishment;

(b) the name of the person in actual management of the establishment;

(c) the address to which communications relating to the establishment
should be sent; and

(d) the nature of the occupation or process carried on in the
establishment.

(2) Every occupier, in relation to an establishment, who employs, or
permits to work, any child after the date of commencement of this act
in relation t such establishment, shall, within a period of thirty
days from the date of such employment, send to the Inspector within
whose local limits the establishment is situated, a written notice
containing the particulars as are mentioned in sub-section (1).

Explanation.-For the purposes of sub-sections (1) and (2), "date of
commencement of this act, in relation to an establishment" means the
date of bringing into force of this act in relation to such
establishment.

(3) Nothing in sections 7, 8 and 9 shall apply to any establishment
wherein any process is carried on by the occupier with the aid of his
family or to any school established by, or receiving assistance or
recognition from, Government.

10. Disputes as to age.-If any question arises between an Inspector
and an occupier as to the age of any child who is employed or is
permitted to work byhim in an establishment, the question shall, in
the absence of a certificate as to the age of such child granted by
the prescribed medical authority, be referred by the Inspector for
decision to the prescribed medical authority.

11. Maintenance of register.-There shall be maintained by every
occupier in respect of children employed or permitted to work in any
establishment, a register to be available for inspection by an
Inspector at all times during working hours or when work is being
carried on in any such establishment, showing-

(a) the name and date of birth of every child so employed or permitted
to work;

(b) hours and periods of work of any such child and the intervals of
rest to which he is entitled;

(c) the nature of work of any such child; and

(d) such other particulars as may be prescribed.

12. Display of notice containing abstracts of sections 3 and 14.-Every
railway administration, every port authority and every occupier shall
cause to be displayed in a conspicuous and accessible place at every
station on its railway or within the limits of a port or at the place
of work, as the case may be, a notice in the local language and in the
English language containing an abstract of sections 3 and 14.

13. Health and safety.-(1) The appropriate Government may, by
notification in the Official Gazette, make rules for the health and
safety of the children employed or permitted to work in any
establishment or class of establishments.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions,
the said rules may provide for all or any of the following matters,
namely:-

(a) cleanliness in the place of work and its freedom from nuisance;

(b) disposal of wastes and effluents;

(c) ventilation and temperature;

(e) artificial humidification;

(f) lighting;

(g) drinking water;

(h) latrine and urinals;

(i) spittoons;

(j) fencing of machinery;

(k) work at or near machinery in motion;

(l) employment of children on dangerous machines;

(m) instructions, training and supervision in relation to employment
of children on dangerous machines;

(n) device for cutting off power;

(o) self-acting machines;

(p) easing of new machinery;

(q) floor, stairs and means of access;

(r) pits, sumps, openings in floors, etc.;

(s) excessive weights;

(t) protection of eyes;

(u) explosive or inflammable dust, gas, etc.;

(v) precautions in case of fire;

(w) maintenance of buildings; and

(x) safety of buildings; and machinery.

PART IV

MISCELLANEOUS

14. Penalties.-(1) Whoever employs any child or permits any child to
work in contravention of the provisions of section 3 shall be
punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than
three months but which may extend to one year or with fine which shall
not be less than ten thousand rupees but which may extend to twenty
thousand rupees or with both.

(2) Whoever, having been convicted of an offence under section 3,
commits a like offence, afterwards, he shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but
which may extend to two years.

(3) Whoever-

(a) fails to give notice as required by section 9; or

(b) fails to maintain a register as required by section 11 or makes
any false entry in any such register; or

(c) fails to display a notice containing an abstract of section 3 and
this section as required by section 12; or

(d) fails to comply with or contravenes any other provisions of this
act or the rules made thereunder, shall be punishable with simple
imprisonment which may extend to one month or with fine which may
extend to ten thousand rupees or with both.

15. Modified application of certain laws in relation to penalties.-(1)
Where any person is found guilty and convicted of contravention of any
of the provisions mentioned in sub-section (2), he shall be liable to
penalties as providedin sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 14 of this
act and not under the acts in which these provisions are contained.

(2) The provisions referred to in sub-section (1) are the provisions
mentioned below:-

(a) section 67 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948);

(b) section 40 of the Mines Act, 1952 (35 of 1952);

(c) section 109 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (44 of 1958); and

(d) section 21 of the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961 (27 of 1961).

16. Procedure relating to offences.-(1) Any person, police officer or
Inspector may file a complaint of the commission of an offence under
this act in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(2) Every certificate of as to the age of a child which has been
granted by a prescribed medical authority shall, for the purposes of
this act, be conclusive evidence as to the age of the child to whom it
relates.

(3) No court inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a
Magistrate of the first class shall try any offence under this act.

17. Appointment of Inspectors.-The appropriate Government may appoint
Inspectors for the purposes of securing compliance with the provisions
of this act and any Inspector so appointed shall be deemed to be a
public servant within the meaning of the Indian Penal Code (45 of
1860).

18. Power to make rules-(1) The appropriate Government may, by
notification in the Official Gazette and subject to the condition of
previous publication, make rules for carrying into effect the
provisions of The act.

(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the
foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or any of the
following matters, namely:-

(a) the term of office of, the manner of filing casual vacancies of,
and the allowances payable to, the Chairman and member of the Child
Labour Technical Advisory Committee and the conditions and
restrictions subject to which a non-member may be appointed to a sub-
committee under sub-section (5) of section 5;

(b) number of hours for which a child may be required or permitted to
work under sub-section (1) of section 7;

(c) Grant of certificates of age in respect of young persons in
employment or seeking employment, the medical authorities which may
issue such certificate, the form of such certificate, thecharges which
may be thereunder and the manner in which such certificate may be
issued:

Provided that no charge shall be made for the issue of any such
certificate if the application is accompanied by evidence of age
deemed satisfactory by the authority concerned;

(d) the other particulars which a register maintained under section 11
should contain.

19. Rules and notifications to be laid before Parliament or State
legislature.-(1) Every rule made under this act by the Central
Government and every notification issued under section 4, shall be
laid, as soon as may be after it is made or issued, before each House
of Parliament, while it is in session for a total period of thirty
days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more
successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session
immediately following the session or the successive sessions
aforesaid, both Houses agree that the rule or notification should not
be made or issued, the rule or notification shall thereafter have
effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may
be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be
without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under
that rule or notification.

(2) Every rule made by a State Government under this act shall be laid
as soon as may be after it is made, before the legislature of that
State.

20. Certain other provisions of law not barred.-Subject to the
provisions contained in section 15, the provisions of this act and the
rules made thereunder shall be in addition to, and not in derogation
of, the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948), the
Plantations Labour Act, 1951 (69 of 1951), and the Mines Act, 1952 (35
of 1952).

21. Power to remove difficulties.-(1) If any difficulty arises in
giving effect to the provisions of this act, the Central Government
may, by order published in the Official Gazette, make such provisions
not inconsistent with the provisions of this act as appear to it to be
necessary or expedient for removal of the difficulty:

Provided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of a period
of three years from the date on which this act receives the assent of
the President.

(2) Every order made under this section shall, as soon as may be after
it is made, be laid before the Houses of Parliament.

22. Repeal and savings.-The Employment of Children, Act, 1938 (26 of
1938) is hereby repealed.

(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or any action taken or
purported to have been done or taken under the act so repealed shall,
in so far as it is not inconsistent with the provisions of this act,
be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding
provisions of this act.

23. Amendment of Act 11 of 1948.-In section 2 of the Minimum Wages
Act, 1948,-

(i) for clause (a), the following clauses shall be substituted,
namely:-

(a) "adolescent" means a person who has completed his fourteenth year
of age but has not completed his eighteenth year;

(aa) "adult" means a person who has completed his eighteenth year of
age;

(ii) after clause (b), the following clause shall be inserted,
namely:-

(bb) "child" means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year
of age;

24. Amendment of Act 69 of 1951.-In the Plantations Labour Act,
1951,-

(a) In section 2, in clauses (a) and (c), for the word "fifteenth",
the word "fourteenth" shall be substituted;

(b) section 24 shall be omitted;

(c) in section 26, in the opening portion, the words "who has
completed his twelfth year" shall be omitted.

25. Amendment of Act 44 of 1958.-In the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958,
in section 109, for the word "fifteen", the word "fourteen" shall be
substituted.

26. Amendment of Act 27 of 1961.-In the Motor Transport Workers Act,
1961, in section 2, in clauses (a) and (c), for the word "fifteenth",
the word "fourteenth" shall be substituted.

THE SCHEDULE

(See section 3)

PART A

Occupations.-Any occupation connected with -

(1) Transport of passengers, goods or mails by railway;

(2) Cinder picking, clearing of an ash pit or building operation in
the railway premises;

(3) Work in a catering establishment at a railway station, involving
the movement of a vendor or any other employee of the establishment
from one platform to another or into or out of a moving train;

(4) Work relating to the construction of a railway station or with any
other work where such work is done in close proximity or between the
railway lines;

(5) A port authority within the limits of any port.

(6) Work relating to selling of crackers and fireworks.*

(7) Abattoirs/Slaughter houses.**

PART B

(1) Beedi-making.

(2) Carpet-weaving.

(3) Cement manufacture, including bagging of cement.

(4) Cloth printing, dyeing and weaving.

(5) Manufacture of matches, explosives and fireworks.

(6) Mica-cutting and splitting.

(7) Shellac manufacture.

(8) Soap manufacture.

(9) Tanning.

(10) Wool-cleaning.

(11) Building and construction industry.

(12) Manufacture of slate pencils (including packing)*

(13) Manufacture of products from agate.*

(14) Manufacturing processes using toxic metals and substances such as
lead, mercury, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and
asbestos.*

(15) "Hazardous processes" as defined in section 2(cb) and `dangerous
operations' as notified in rules made under section 87 of the
Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948).**

(16) Printing as defined in section 2(k) (iv) of the Factories Act,
1948 (63 of 1948).**

(17) Cashew and cashewnut desaling and processing.**

(18) Soldering processes in electronic industries.**

*Inserted by notification No. SO. 404 (E) dated 5th June, 1989
published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary.

**Inserted by notification No. SO.263 (E) dated 29th March, 1994
published in Gazette of India, Extraordinary.

1 All names have been changed.

2 All dollar amounts refer to U.S. dollars.

3 The estimate of fifteen million bonded child laborers is
conservative. Anti-Slavery International reported in 1991 that India
had fifteen million bonded child laborers working in agriculture
alone. Anti-Slavery International, Children in Bondage: Slaves of the
Subcontinent (London: 1991), p. 30. Given that agriculture accounts
for approximately 52 to 87 percent of all bonded child laborers (see
chapter on agriculture), there could be millions more working in non-
agricultural occupations. "Indians form panel to stop child labor,"
United Press International, November 18, 1994. Other activists and
academics estimate that one quarter of all working children, that is,
between fifteen and twenty-nine million, are bonded laborers. Based on
these and other coinciding estimates, Human Rights Watch considers
fifteen million to be a reliable minimum indicator of the prevalence
of bonded child labor in India.

4 The United Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to
Slavery, 1956, defines debt bondage as "the status or condition
arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or those of
a person under his control as security for a debt, if the value of
those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards the
liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are
not respectively limited and defined." It should be noted that many
Indian activists consider all child labor to be a form of bondage,
given the child's powerlessness and inability to freely choose to
work. This report, however, considers bonded child labor to be that
which conforms to the definition of the U.N. Supplementary
Convention.

5 Between $15 and $220, at the late 1995 exchange rate of thirty-four
rupees to the U.S. dollar.

6 Iqbal Masih was shot and killed on April 16, 1995. Initially blamed
on the carpet industrialists of Pakistan, the murder was later
attributed to a villager whom Masih reportedly discovered involved in
an illicit act.

7 See chapter on handwoven carpets.

8 Neera Burra, Born to Work: Child Labour in India (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1995), p. xxii.

9 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-95 (New Delhi: Government of
India, 1995), p. 95. The actual quote is: "Out of India's total
workforce of 314 million, about 80% (249 million) are in rural areas.
About 64% of the workers (200 million) are engaged in agriculture.
About 85% of the workers (267 million) are self-employed or on casual
wages. Only about 15% (47 million) have regular salaried employment."

10 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Part I,
Section 2(ii).

11 There is no universal definition of a child under Indian law. The
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, the Minimum Wages
Act, 1948, the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, the Apprentices Act, 1961,
and Article 24 of the Indian Constitution define "child" as any person
under the age of fourteen. The Shops and Establishments Act, 1961
allows the definition to be set by the states and in thirteen states,
the minimum age is twelve, and in eleven states, the minimum age is
fourteen. The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1993 defines a child
as anyone below the age of fifteen. The Juvenile Justice Act, 1986
defines "juveniles" as any male under sixteen or any female under
eighteen.

12 Bonded child labor is convenient, cheap, compliant, and dependable.
It depresses wages. It is easily replenishable. Bonded labor among
both adults and children is not a new phenomenon in India. It is an
old arrangement, and a convenient one for the lucky top layers of
privilege. Those who have the power to change this arrangement are, by
all measures, uninterested in doing so.

13 United Front Coalition's Economic Program, presented June 6, 1996,
pp. 3-4. From MakroIndia Business Page sponsored by Amrok Securities
Private Limited at www.macroindia.com/hlight1.htm.

14 See Human Rights Watch/Asia, Contemporary Forms of Slavery in
Pakistan (New York: Human Rights Watch, July 1995); Anti-Slavery
International, Children in Bondage: Slaves of the Subcontinent
(London: Anti-Slavery International, 1991); INSEC, Bonded Labour in
Nepal under Kamaiya System (Kathmandu: INSEC, 1992); and Report of the
Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery (18th Session, June
1993), UN DOC E/CN.4/1993/67.

15 Asia Watch and Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Project, A Modern
Form of Slavery: Trafficking of Women and Girls into Brothels in
Thailand (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1993); Americas Watch, "Forced
Labor in Brazil Revisited," vol. 5, no. 12, November, 1993; Middle
East Watch and Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Project, "Rape and
Mistreatment of Asian Maids in Kuwait," vol. 4, no. 8, July 1992;
Americas Watch, The Struggle for Land in Brazil: Rural Violence
Continues (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1992); Americas Watch,
"Forced Labor in Brazil," vol. 2, no. 8, December 1990; and National
Coalition for Haitian Refugees, Americas Watch, and Caribbean Rights,
Harvesting Oppression: Forced Haitian Labor in the Dominican Sugar
Industry (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1990).

16 Human Rights Watch/Asia, Rape for Profit: Trafficking of Nepali
Girls and Women to India's Brothels (New York: Human Rights Watch,
June 1995).

17 All dollar amounts in this report are in U.S. dollars.

18 Pradeep Mehta, "Cashing in on Child Labor," Multinational Monitor,
April 1994.

19 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-95, p. 95.

20 K. Mahajan and J. Gathia, Child Labour: An Analytical Study (New
Delhi: Centre of Concern for Child Labour, 1992), p. 25. Citing the
Indian Council for Child Welfare, Mahajan and Gathia report that
"slavery is on the increase among children below the age of 15 years."
Gathia also notes, in another study, that the number of children in
India who will not be in school by 2000 may be as high as 144 million,
indicating there may be tens of millions more child laborers in India
by 2000. (See: Child Labour Action Network (CLAN), Political Campaign
for Compulsory Primary Education (New Delhi: Child Labour Action
Network, 1996), p. 2.

21 Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, Child
Labour in India: A Perspective, June 10, 1995, p. 32.

22 In 1984, the Operations Research Group-Baroda, an independent
research organization based in Baroda and Madras, estimated there were
forty-four million child laborers in India. Taking into account
population growth and employment trends, that figure would be
approximately sixty million in 1995. Another frequently cited figure
is one hundred million child laborers, a number that corresponds to
the government's estimate of all non-school-going children, who are
assumed to be working more than eight hours a day. Peace Trust and
Bhagwati Environment Development Institute, From the South, vol. 2,
no. 1, January-March 1995, p. 1. Anti-Slavery International confirmed
this estimate of 115 million in a telephone interview on August 14,
1996. Official government figures on the working child population, on
the other hand, are based on the 1981 census and are absurdly
inaccurate, with the government claiming there are only about
seventeen million child laborers. (See chapter on the role of the
Indian government.) A 1994 report by the Indian government's
Department of Women and Child Development, the Indian Council for
Child Welfare, and UNICEF-India concluded that "the number of working
children is closer to 90 million than the figure of 20 million assumed
by the government." Department of Women and Child Development, Indian
Council for Child Welfare, and UNICEF, India Country Office, "Rights
of the Child: Report of a National Consultation," November 21-23,
1994.

23 There are no accurate statistics that give the number of street
children in India. In 1983, the Operations Research Group stated that
there were forty-four million working children in India of which
eleven million were street children. This number must be considered
significantly low, given the fact that the study is now thirteen years
old. The government of India's 1991 Census estimated that eighteen
million children live and work in India's urban slums (huts,
tenements, pavement dwellings), which by the nature of their residence
and the fact that they were considered working, qualified them as
street children. The estimated population of India's street children
is between eleven to eighteen million, based on the Operations
Research Group's 1983 estimate and the 1991 Census estimate.

24 Peace Trust and Bhagwati Environment Development Institute, From
the South, Vo. 2, No. 1, January-March 1995, p. 1.

25 At a non-formal education center run during the evenings (as are
most, to accommodate the work schedules of the children), Human Rights
Watch asked one group of working children what they did for fun. The
boys perked up and rattled off a variety of activities: playing with
friends, going to the movies, riding a bicycle. The girls, however,
were puzzled by the question. Finally a teacher stepped in to explain:
the girls do not have the opportunity to do anything for fun; when
they are not working for wages or against a loan, they are working for
the family.

26 Mahajan and Gathia, Child Labour..., September, 1992, p. 24.

27 Human Rights Watch interview with social activist, November 21,
1995, Madras, Tamil Nadu. Advances in the beedi industry of Tamil Nadu
range from 500 to 5,000 rupees. These figures were confirmed by Human
Rights Watch interviews with dozens of bonded child beedi rollers.

28 There are an estimated 327,000 child workers in the beedi industry
(Burra, Born to Work p. xxiv); 300,000 child carpet weavers (Mehta.,
"Cashing in on Child Labor..."); and more than 200,000 children
working in silk weaving (see chapter on silk for details and
citations).

29 According to a 1991 study of child labor in India, these training
centers include "many [children] well below age fourteen." The manager
of one government program claimed that a ban on child labor in the
carpet industry would be "suicidal" for exports. See Myron Weiner, The
Child and the State in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1991), p. 86

30 Tanika Sarkar, "Bondage in the Colonial Context," Patnaik and
Manjari Dingwaney, eds., Chains of Servitude: Bondage and Slavery in
India (New Delhi: Sangam Books, 1985), p. 97.

31 See generally Uma Chakravarti, "Of Dasas and Karmakaras: Servile
Labour in Ancient India," Chains of Servitude . . .

32 Manjari Dingwaney, "Unredeemed Promises: The Law and Servitude,"
Chains of Servitude . . ., pp. 312-313.

33 For example: "The children were frequently beaten with iron
rods . . . and wounded with scissors . . ., if they were slow in work,
or if they asked for adequate food, or if they so much as went to the
toilet without the owner's permission." Appendix XV, "Reports on Child
Labour of Mirzapur," Law Relating to the Employment of Children
(1985), p. 160. Another report detailed a woman's attempt to rescue
her youngest son after his brother died on the job in a carpet-weaving
factory; the employer of her son threatened to kill the boy if she
attempted to meet him. "Bonded labourers' mothers want to see PM,"
Times of India, August 14, 1995.

34 Y. R. Haragopal Reddy, Bonded Labour System in India (New Delhi:
Deep and Deep Publications, 1995), p. 82. Similar incidents took place
across India in the mid-1980s. See, e.g., Ajoy Kumar, "From Slavery to
Freedom: The Tale of Chattisgarh Bonded Labourers," Indian Social
Institute, 1986, p. 8, reporting that bonded agricultural laborers who
attended meetings with labor activists were publicly beaten and driven
from their homes.

35 Human Rights Watch interview with rural activist, Dec. 13, 1995,
Rajasthan.

36 R. K Misra., Preliminary Report on the Child Labour in the Saree
Industry of Varanasi, Human Rights Cell, Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi, 1995, p. 13.

37 Convention on the Suppression of Slave Trade and Slavery, signed at
Geneva, September 25, 1926; Protocol Amended the Slavery Convention,
signed at Geneva, September 25, 1926, with annex, done at, New York,
December 7, 1953, entered into force, December 7, 1953. A slave is
someone "over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of
ownership are exercised." Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to
Slavery, done at Geneva, September 7, 1956; entered into force, April
30, 1957 (Supplementary Convention).

38 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery.

39 Ibid.

40 Forced Labour Convention (No. 29), 1930, adopted at Geneva, June
28, 1930, as modified by the Final Articles Revision Convention,
adopted at Montreal, October 9, 1946.

41 International Labour Organisation, Conventions and Recommendations
1919-1966 (Geneva: ILO, 1966), p. 891. The ILO also passed the
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105) in 1957; India,
however, chose not to sign this convention.

42 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. Res.
2200 (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966)
(entered into force March 23, 1976).

43 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16), U.N. Doc. A/6316
(entered into force January 3, 1976).

44 Convention on the Rights of the Child, G.A. Res. 44/125, U.N. GAOR,
44th Session, Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/44/736 (1989) (entered into
force September 2, 1990).

45 Ibid. India ratified the Convention subject to a reservation that
these economic and social rights will be "progressively implemented,"
"subject to the extent of available resources."

46 Ibid.

47 See chapter on carpets; see also Human Rights Watch/Asia, Rape for
Profit: Trafficking of Nepali Girls and Women to India's Brothels
(Human Rights Watch: New York, 1995).

48 Convention on the Rights of the Child, G.A. Res. 44/125, U.N. GAOR,
44th Session, Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/44/736 (1989) (entered into
force September 2, 1990).

49 See S. K. Singh, Bonded Labour and the Law (New Delhi: Deep and
Deep Publications, 1994), pp. 48-51.

50 People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India [Asiad
Workers' Case], AIR 1982 S.C. 1473, paragraph 1486.

51 Ibid., paragraph 1490. For a discussion of Supreme Court decisions
affecting bonded labourers, see Y. R. Haragopal Reddy, Bonded Labour
System in India (New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications, 1995), ch. 4.

52 People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, (1982) 3
SCC 235, paragraphs 259-260.

53 Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 3 SCC 243, paragraph
255 (1984).

54 "No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work
in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment."
Constitution of India, Article 24.

55 Consequently, post-act social action litigation on behalf of bonded
laborers is brought under both the Bonded Labour System (Abolition)
Act and the Constitution of India. For a discussion of cases see
Reddy, Bonded Labour System in India, ch. 4.

56 The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, Sec. 4, 5, 6, and
14. See Appendix for full text.

57 Ibid., Sec. 16. The maximum penalties for a first-time offender
under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act are weaker
than the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in terms of potential
length of incarceration (one year), but significantly stronger in
terms of monetary punishment (ten to twenty thousand rupees). See the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, Sec. 14 (1).

58 Ibid., Sec. 2(1)(I)(a) and (b). Because no minimum wages have been
set by the government for children's work, the second prong of this
definition applies. See also People's Union for Democratic Rights v.
Union of India, (1982) 3 SCC 235, paragraphs 259-260, in which the
Supreme Court ruled that "where a person provides labour or service to
another for remuneration which is less than minimum wage, the labour
or service provided by him clearly falls within the scope and ambit of
the word `forced labour'..." All forms of forced labor are forbidden
under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.

59 "It shall be the duty of every District Magistrate and every
officer specified by him under Sec. 10 to inquire whether after the
commencement of this act, any bonded labour system or any other form
of forced labour is being enforced by, or on behalf of, any person
resident within the local limits of his jurisdiction and if, as a
result of such inquiry, any person is found to be enforcing the bonded
labour system or any other system of forced labour, he shall forthwith
take such action as may be necessary to eradicate the enforcement of
such forced labour." Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, Sec.
12.

60 Human Rights Watch interview with Mirzapur District Collector Mr.
Bachittar Singh, December 19, 1995, Mirzapur. A 1994 study describing
the multifarious duties of district magistrates notes that "[n]o
district magistrate can properly perform all the assignments given to
him." See also S. K. Singh, Bonded Labour and the Law, p. 124-125,
142, 147.

61 Ibid., Sec. 11 requires the district magistrate to "as far as
practicable, try to promote the welfare of the freed bonded labourer
by securing and protecting the economic interest of such bonded
labourer so that he may not have any occasion or reason to contract
any further bonded debt."

62 Ibid., Sec. 14.

63 Reddy, Bonded Labour System in India, p. 163.

64 Ibid., citing, inter alia, Lr. No. Y-11011/4/84-BL, dated February
14, 1986, Director General (Labour Welfare), Ministry of Labour,
Government of India.

65 Ibid., p.166.

66 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-1995, p.97.

67 The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933, Sec. 2. "Child" is a
person less than fifteen years old.

68 Ibid., Sec. 4 - 6.

69 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Part I,
Section 2(ii).

70 The twenty-five occupations and industries where child labor is
prohibited are: beedi-making; carpet-weaving; cement manufacture;
cloth printing, dyeing and weaving; manufacture of matches, explosives
and fireworks; mica-cutting and splitting; shellac manufacture; soap
manufacture; tanning; wool-cleaning; the building and construction
industry; manufacture of slate pencils; manufacture of agate products;
manufacturing processes using toxic metals and substances; "hazardous
processes" as defined by the Factories Act, Sec. 87; printing as
defined by the Factories Act, Sec. 2; cashew and cashewnut processing;
soldering processes in electronic industries, railway transportation;
cinder picking, ashpit clearing or building operations in railway
premises; vending operations at railway stations; work on ports; sale
of firecracker and fireworks; and work in slaughter houses. Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Part II (Prohibition of
employment of children in certain occupations and processes), Sec. 3,
Schedules A and B; as amended by Government Notification Nos. No.SO
404(E) (June 5, 1989) and No. SO. 263(E) (March 29, 1994).

71 Myron Weiner, The Child and the State in India (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1991), pp. 80-81.

72 Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, Child
Labour in India..., p. 40.

73 Ibid.

74 The prevalence of corruption among factory and labor inspectors and
other charged with enforcing child labor laws was confirmed to Human
Rights Watch by multiple sources, including an official of the
national government. See also Commission on Labour Standards, Child
Labour in India... , p. 40.

75 The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Sec. 3.

76 See chapter on handwoven carpets.

77 Ibid., Sec. 10.

78 According to R. V. Pillai, the Secretary General of the National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC), there is frequent collusion between
medical officers of the government and employers of child labor, who
bribe the medical officers in order to obtain certificates stating the
children working for them are above the age of fourteen. Secretary
General Pillai stated that some medical officers are "notorious" for
engaging in these acts, to the extent that the NHRC has recommended to
some district magistrates that they file criminal charges against
corrupt medical officers. Human Rights Watch interview with Secretary
General Pillai, December 28, 1995, New Delhi.

79 "No child who has not completed his fourteenth year shall be
required or allowed to work in any factory." The Factories Act, 1948,
Sec. 67.

80 Ibid., Sec. 2(m)(I) and (ii).

81 To get around this restriction, factory owners have been known to
"partition their premises and isolate the areas where work is being
done with power." See Burra, Born to Work, p. 75.

82 According to Burra: "In order to evade the Factories Act, ninety
per cent of the units show that they have less than nine workers. In
some factories I visited, I noticed around fifty workers. But when I
asked the employer, he said there were only eight people working
there!" Ibid., p. 136.

83 The Scheduled Castes and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989, Section 3(1).

84 The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and
Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, ch. II - ch. VI.

85 The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, Sec. 6,
10, and 64.

86 Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), "Reference Kit on Child
Labour for Media Persons," January 1995.

87 All testimonies in this report are from children interviewed by
Human Rights Watch researchers in November and December, 1995, except
where otherwise noted. All names have been changed.

88 "50,000 cr beedies consumed annually," Indian Express, February 1,
1995. One crore, abbreviated as "cr," is equal to ten million.

89 Ibid.

90 Burra, Born to Work, p. xxiv. Another account estimates 248,000
child beedi workers in Tamil Nadu. See R. Vidyasagar,"A Status Report
on Child Labour in Tamil Nadu," Madras, 1995, p. 8.

91 "Children shall be free," The Hindu, September 24, 1995; "50,000 cr
beedies consumed annually," Indian Express, February 1, 1995.

92 "Ragi" is a type of grain, commonly given to South Indian
agricultural laborers instead of cash wages. See R. Vidyasagar, "Debt
Bondage in South Arcot District: A Case Study of Agricultural
Labourers and Handloom Weavers," Chains of Servitude, p. 146.

93 L. R. Jagadheesan, "Whole families are pledged for paltry sums,"
Indian Express, April 25, 1995.

94 The minimum wage for beedi rolling varies from state to state. The
wage is slightly lower in Karnataka than in Tamil Nadu, while in the
neighboring state of Kerala it is significantly higher, at forty-two
rupees per thousand beedi rolled. "50,000 cr beedies consumed
annually," Indian Express, February 1, 1995. The minimum wage does not
apply to children, but is a good indicator of the market value of
labor, and non-bonded children in the beedi industry appeared to be
receiving wages comparable to the government-set minimum wage. Many
activists and some government officials are pressing for legal reform
to apply the same minimum wage to adults and children, on the grounds
that such a move would decrease child labor and increase adult
employment.

95 This wage is actually 3.65 rupees more than the government set
minimum wage for beedi rolling (30.90 rupees per 1,000 beedies).
Regardless of whether adults or children roll beedies, they are paid
the same on a piece-rate basis. The only wage differentials
occurbetween bonded and non-bonded beedi rollers. This indicates that
there would be no significant difference between adult and child wages
when bondage is not a factor or when payment is solely based on
production (piece-rate) which is a very common way of paying people in
informal occupations where the majority of Indians, children and
adults, work. There are other examples of this. For example, in
stainless steel factories in Madras, adults and children receive the
same piece-rate wages. In Pakistan, where bonded labor is also
endemic, adults and children have been paid on the same piece-rate
basis in the country's soccer ball industry. These findings call into
question a commonly held tenet about child labor: that children's
wages depress adult wages in the same industry and that removing
children from work would automatically lead to an increase in adult
wages. In addition, Neera Burra notes that the piece-rate wage
structure in home-based, informal work actually provides an incentive
to use children, as their help increases the production, which in-turn
provides a higher family income, and says "Unless the issue of home-
based, piece-rate workers is resolved and minimum wages and social
security provided to this sector, children will continue to be
exploited." See Burra, Born to Work, p. 255. Removing children from
employment would not necessarily result in raising adult wages unless
the problems of piece-rate wages and other forms of payment based
solely on productivity are addressed as well.

96 Human Rights Watch interview with longtime social welfare activist,
November 21, 1995, Madras.

97 Jacob Varghese, "Freedom at Mid-Day," Worldvision: A Worldvision of
India Magazine, Monsoon 1993, p. 6-7.

98 National Children's Day in India is celebrated on November 14, the
birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the founding fathers and the
first prime minister of India.

99 Human Rights Watch interview with social welfare activist, November
21, 1995, Madras.

100 Ibid.

101 Vidyasagar,"A Status Report...," p. 9.

102 Ibid. Vidyasagar cites a study of one beedi manufacturing village
that found 25 percent of all beedi rollers to have tuberculosis.

103 Human Rights Watch interviews, North Arcot district, Tamil Nadu,
November 25, 1995.

104 Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966, Sec.
2(I).

105 Asha Krishnakumar, "Reprehensible by any name: Children in beedi
industry," Frontline (Madras), November 17, 1995, p. 87.

106 Vidyasagar, "Status Report...," p. 8.

107 Local government authorities estimate there are 45,000 bonded
child laborers in the North Arcot district alone, most working in the
beedi industry. "Child Labour Abolition Support Scheme (A proposal
submitted to the International Labour Organisation)," North Arcot
Ambedkar District, 1995, p. 1. An estimated 30,000 bonded children
work in the beedi industry in North Arcot. See Vidyasagar, "A Status
Report...," p. 8. Unlike most beedi-producing areas, where 90 percent
of the workers are women and children, North Arcot district has a
significant percentage of adult male beedi workers. Vidyasagar
attributes the high rate of bondage in North Arcot to the presence of
men workers in the same industry, hypothesizing that "men use
children's labour to augment their income by keeping them under
bondage by paying low wages." Ibid.

108 "Child labour census in Tamil Nadu district," The Hindu, April 28,
1995.

109 "Child Labour Abolition Support Scheme (A proposal submitted to
the International Labour Organisation)," North Arcot Ambedkar
District, 1995, p. 8.

110 Ibid. pp. 1, 8-12, and 25.

111 Human Rights Watch interview with North Arcot District Collector
M. P. Vijaykumar, November 27, 1995, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

112 Depending on the circumstances of the case, a bondmaster could be
charged under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, or the Factories Act. As of
1995, the collector had initiated a limited number of prosecutions
under all three laws, including a handful of cases against parents who
had bonded their children. Human Rights Watch interview with North
Arcot District Collector M. P. Vijaykumar, November 27, 1995, Vellore,
Tamil Nadu; "Project Proposal for Community-Based Convergent
Services," North Arcot Ambedkar District, June, 1995, p. 15 Most
activists agree that prosecution of parents is misguided. Among
prosecuted employers, as of December 1995 the collector had not aimed
for prison sentences, but instead sought only modest fines.

113 North Arcot Ambedkar District, "Child Labour Abolition Support
Scheme (CLASS)," Proposal submitted to International Labour
Organisation, 1995, p. 10.

114 Reddy, Bonded Labour System in India, p. 56.

115 Human Rights Watch interview with North Arcot District Collector
M. P. Vijaykumar, November 27, 1995, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

116 Vidyasagar, "A Status Report ...," p.9.

117 The "silver" referred to throughout this discussion is not pure
silver, but a blend of silver and lesser metals.

118 The figure of 100,000 working children in Salem is based on a
social scientist's finding that Salem district accounts for 10.93
percent of all child workers in the state of Tamil Nadu, and the 1981
census figures of 975,055 working children, below the age of fourteen,
in Tamil Nadu. See Vidyasagar, "A Status Report...," pp. 2 -3. Based
on more reliable statistics and analyses, however, Vidyasagar himself
estimates that there are four million working children in Tamil Nadu,
which would indicate about 400,000 child laborers in Salem district
alone. Ibid., p. 5.

119 Ibid., p. 14.

120 Human Rights Watch interview with the chief of a village near
Salem, Tamil Nadu, November 30, 1995.

121 Background information on the silver industry of Salem was
provided during a Human Rights Watch interview with staff members of a
local nongovernmental organization, November 30, 1995. It requested
anonymity in order to avoid possible repercussions against its
programs or staff.

122 Human Rights Watch interview with a social worker who works with
the children in this industry, Salem, November 28, 1995.

123 Human Rights Watch interview with a small-scale silver smithy
owner who, at the time of the interview, had three bonded children
working, Salem, November 30, 1995.

124 See chapter on applicable law.

125 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Project Officer J. L.
Poland, December 1, 1995, Salem, Tamil Nadu. The district government's
goal was to establish twenty such schools, with one hundred working
children in each.

126 Ibid. Instead of prosecuting, the office is employing a
"cooperative approach" and "working with the companies [that employ
child laborers]," according to the project officer. A local activist
put this another way. "He [the district collector] is collaborating
with the big mill and factory owners.... They [government officials]
will never worry about the welfare of the child labourers." Human
Rights Watch interview, November 30, 1995.

127 Ibid.

128 Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamilnadu, submitted
to the Supreme Court for Supreme Court Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of
1985. October 31, 1995, Madras, Tamil Nadu, p. 75.

129 Vidyasagar, "A Status Report...," p. 12.

130 Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamilnadu, p. 76.
Those few gem workers who are not scheduled caste members are members
of lower castes.

131 "A training centre on synthetic diamonds production," The Free
Press Journal, January 16, 1996.

132 Ibid.

133 Ibid.

134 Ibid.

135 There have been several other problems with this initiative.
According to the director of a local social welfare organization, the
new machines, which the government encouraged people to buy, were very
expensive (valued at 8,000 rupees each) and were sold to participants
by government agents at an inflated price (up to 16,000 rupees each).
These purchases were financed by bank loans set up with government
assistance, and buyers were then saddled with long-term bank debts. A
second problem was over saturation of the market as a direct result of
the gem park scheme. More than 6,000 people bought these machines and
were trained to use them. Many of these buyers were entering into the
industry for the first time, enticed by government promises of steady
earnings. With more and more American diamonds being produced, a glut
in the market soon developed. Within a year, many of the machines
stood idle, their owners having defaulted on the loans and begun
looking for other means of income generation. Another accusation
against the program is that the training process has been inadequate,
with the result that some participants never even learned how to use
their machines. Some machines, then, were idle from the start. That
the production glut happened anyway underscores an even greater
potential for market flooding.

136 Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamilnadu, p. 76.

137 There are five distinct stages of gem production: slicing,
shaping, preforming, faceting, and polishing. Each of these stages
requires minute and sustained attention to detail. Report of the
Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamilnadu, p. 75.

138 Vidyasagar, "A Status Report...," p.13, citing eye specialist Dr.
Jaiswal. According to Dr. Jaiswal, eyeglasses are not usually required
by the general population until after the age of thirty-five.

139 "Silk Exports May Fall 20 Percent," Business Line, March 7, 1996.

140 Ibid.

141 "Indo-German Trade Surges By 20% to DM 8.17 Billion," Business
Standard, June 12, 1996.

142 See Sanjay Sinha, The Development of Indian Silk: A Wealth of
Opportunities (New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.,
1990), p. 46-47, 56-59; government subsidies as of 1990 totaled $20
million annually; The Hindu, "Sericulture project for 7 more
districts," November 21, 1995, p. 5. The article reported that World
Bank funding of sericulture projects would continue and the annual
production of silk was expected to more than double by end of eight-
year project. "Sericulture" refers to the culture of the silkworm.

143 "Silk Exports May Fall 20 Percent," Business Line, March 7, 1996.

144 Public Interest Research Group, The World Bank and India (New
Delhi: Public Interest Research Group, 1994), p. 81.

145 Ibid., p. 82.

146 "Karnataka to Have 7 Integrated Silk Growth Centres," Business
Line, January 31, 1996; "Silk-Mixed Fare on the Cards for the Future,"
Economic Times, February 3, 1996.

147 The World Bank, India-UP Diversified Agriculture Support Project
(DASP), Project Identification Number INPA35824, Proposal Date: March,
1995.

148 The World Bank, Working With NGOs (Washington D.C.: The World
Bank, 1994), p.5.

149 There is also a significant amount of bonded child labor in the
silk powerloom industry, with at least 35,000 bonded children working
the powerlooms of Tamil Nadu alone. This area demands further
investigation and action on the part of government authorities, but is
beyond the scope of the present report.

150 Human Rights Watch interview with researcher R. Vidyasagar,
November 17, 1995, Madras; Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour
in Tamilnadu, October 31, 1995, Madras, submitted in connection with
Supreme Court Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of 1985, p. 73; R.K. Misra,
Preliminary Report on the Child Labour in the Saree Industry of
Varanasi, Human Rights Cell, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 1995,
p. 10.

151 Misra, Child Labour in the Saree Industry of Varanasi, p. 3.

152 Human Rights Watch interview with director of government cocoon
market, December 7, 1995, Magadi, Karnataka.

153 No systematic study has been undertaken on child labor in the silk
industry of Karnataka. Nonetheless, a detailed study of one Taluk
(subdivision of a district) near Bangalore found 10,000 bonded child
silk workers in that Taluk alone. Based on this figure,an overall
estimate of 100,000 is conservative.

154 Sinha, The Development of Indian Silk: A Wealth of Opportunities
(New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., 1990), p. 11.

155 Ibid., p. 31.

156 Ibid. at 31.

157 Memorandum to Human Rights Watch from author Rudi Rotthier and
photographer Marleen Daniels, November 1, 1995 (Rotthier/Daniels
memorandum).

158 Human Rights Watch interviews, December 6, 1995, Ramanagaram,
Karnataka.

159 Results of a 1995 survey conducted by social service organization
in Magadi Taluk, rural Bangalore District, Karnataka.

160 Rotthier/Daniels memorandum.

161 Human Rights Watch interview with social activist, December 7,
1995, rural Bangalore district.

162 Human Rights Watch witnessed many children working in the twining
factories and spoke with several of them briefly, usually in view of
their employers. We were unable to gain access to the children in a
setting more secure and conducive for interviews. Instead, we relied
largely on information provided by a local social welfare
organization. Although the particulars of these three testimonies were
confirmed repeatedly by our own conversations and observations, the
testimonies themselves were recorded by this organization and not by
Human Rights Watch.

163 Rotthier/Daniels memorandum.

164 Sinha, The Development of Indian Silk, p. 63.

165 A researcher who undertook a detailed study of the industry
reported that girls who work in the silk factories tend to have
irregular and very painful menstrual periods, and may suffer other
reproductive problems. Human Rights Watch interview with social
activist in a village in Rural Bangalore district, Karnataka, December
7, 1995. A female leather worker interviewed in Ambur, Tamil Nadu,
reported the same phenomenon in the shoe factories of that town. To
Human Rights Watch's knowledge, there has been no effort by the
government to investigate these or other health problems experienced
by working children.

166 Ibid.

167 Human Rights Watch interview with researcher R. Vidyasagar, Nov.
17, 1995, Madras; Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour in
Tamilnadu, Oct. 31, 1995, Madras, submitted in connection with Supreme
Court Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of 1985, p. 76.

168 Misra, Preliminary Report on the Child Labour, p. 8.

169 Sinha, Development of Indian Silk, p. 34.

170 On November 24-25, 1995, Human Rights Watch interviewed forty
people in four of the Kanchipuram area regarding the use of bonded
child labor in the silk handloom industry. Most of those interviewed
were bonded child laborers; others were parents of working children,
non-bonded child workers, owners, employers, and agents. Except where
otherwise noted, all information regarding the practices of the
Kanchipuram silk industry was obtained during these interviews. All
information regarding the practices of the Varanasi silk industry is
from Misra, Preliminary Report on the Child Labour, except where
otherwise noted.

171 Human Rights Watch interview with researcher R. Vidyasagar, Nov.
17, 1995, Madras, Tamil Nadu.

172 Misra, Preliminary Report on the Child Labour, p. 8.

173 Misra, Preliminary Report on the Child Labour, p. 11.

174 Ibid., p. 30.

175 Ibid., pp. 10-11.

176 One wealthy employer told Human Rights Watch researchers, in an
interview in Kanchipuram on November 23, 1995, that he has suffered
losses totaling 200,000 rupees because of children running away. While
he declined to specify how many children ran away or over what period
of time this loss occurred, this figure is a clear indicator of the
desperate conditions and deep suffering of the bonded child laborer's
life.

177 B.N. Juyal, Child Labour: The Twice Exploited (Varanasi: Gandhian
Institute of Studies, 1985).

178 Jagaran, Dec. 14, 1994 (cited by Misra, Preliminary Report on the
Child Labour, p. 5).

179 Ibid.

180 Misra, Preliminary Report on the Child Labour, p. 47.

181 "Thousands of persons are committing offenses under this act every
year. However not one person is known to have been convicted in
Varanasi." Ibid., p. 44. Nor have there been any convictions in the
Kanchipuram area.

182 See chapter on applicable law.

183 Human Rights Watch interview with North Arcot District Collector
M. P. Vijaykumar, Nov. 27, 1995, Vellore, Tamil Nadu; Misra,
Preliminary Report on the Child Labour, p. 42.

184 Human Rights Watch interview with director of government cocoon
market, Dec. 7, 1995, Magadi, Bangalore Rural District, Karnataka.

185 Sinha, Development of Indian Silk, pp. 47, 57.

186 "By the Skin of Its Teeth - Indian Leather Industry," Financial
Express Investment Week, August 9, 1995; "Indian Shoe Manufacturers
Increased Exports Rs. 9.14 Bil in 1994-95, Compared With Rs. 5.23 Bil
in 1992-93," Reuters, March 27, 1996.

187 Prakash Mahtani, Chairman of the Council for Leather Exports,
predicted exports valuing seven billion dollars by the year 2000.
Sharika Muthu, Times of India, Shoe Fair Supplement, "Global Giants
Stepping into Indian Shoes," Oct. 17, 1994.

188 The Factories Act, 1948, Sec. 2(m)(i) and (ii); The Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Sec. 3. (The act does not
apply to workshops where occupier is assisted by family).

189 See chapter on the role of the government.

190 Based on our observations of the Bombay leather shoe industry,
girl workers comprise approximately 5 percent of the child workers
overall.

191 Human Rights Watch interview with local resident and shoemaker,
January 16, 1996, Bombay.

192 A small percentage of the boys are brought in from Uttar Pradesh
and other parts of Maharashtra. These children make wooden heels for
shoes, while the children from Rajasthan make the leather sandals
known as chappals. Times of India, "Children toil for 12 hours in
chappal units," February 12, 1996.

193 The information on Rajasthani shoemaking communities was gathered
during several Human Rights Watch interviews in villages near
Viratnagar, Rajasthan, Dec. 13-14, 1995.

194 At the same time, their daughters are being forced into carpet-
weaving. See chapter on carpets.

195 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, Sec. 2(1)(g)(I)(1).

196 Ibid., Sec. 2(1)(I)(a) and (b). Because no minimum wages have been
set by the government for children's work, the second prong of this
definition applies.

197 People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, (1982) 3
SCC 235, paragraphs 259-260.

198 Times of India, "Children toil for 12 hours in chappal units,"
February 12, 1996.

199 According to the Ministry of Labour, 84.98 percent of child labor
is in agriculture. Ministry of Labour, Government of India, "Children
and Work," produced for Workshop of District Collectors/District Heads
on "Elimination of Child Labour in Hazardous Occupation," New Delhi,
September 13-14, 1995, p. 3. For statistics on bonded child laborers,
see Burra, Born to Work..., pp. 32-33, the range is so great because
no definitive study has been undertaken to determine the number of
bonded child laborers in agriculture. The 85 percent of all bonded
laborers was confirmed by Anti-Slavery International in a telephone
interview with Human Rights Watch on August 14, 1996; but like other
statistics on bonded and child labor, no comprehensive survey has been
taken to document this.

200 Dalit groups have largely rejected the terms "untouchable" and
"harijan" (children of God) to describe their communities. They are
also referred to as "scheduled castes," a term which like "scheduled
tribes" refers to groups designated on a schedule attached to the
Indian Constitution as entitled to special consideration, including
some quotas for educational and career opportunities, in recognition
of their historically disadvantaged status. Many, if not the majority
of India's bonded laborers are members of the Dalit communities, or
are "scheduled tribes"-indigenous tribal people, also known as
adivasi. However, in some industries, Dalits occupy positions other
than bonded laborers. In the silk industry, for example, some loom-
owners and weavers are also Dalits.

201 See for example, A.R. Desai, ed. Repression and Resistance in
India, (Bombay: Popular Prakashan Private Ltd., 1990).

202 All interviews by Human Rights Watch, December 9, 1995, Anekal
Taluk, Bangalore Rural District.

203 Kiran Kamal Prasad, "Bonded Labour in Anekal Taluk, Bangalore
Urban District, Karnataka" (Guddhati village: Self published, March
12, 1991), p.4.

204 Ibid.

205 Government of India, 8th Five Year Plan: 1992-1997 (New Delhi:
Cosmos Bookhive (P) Ltd., 1992), pp. 64-65.

206 Kiran Kamal Prasad, "Bonded Labour in Karnataka," (Bangalore: Self
published, 1995), p. 4.

207 Ibid.

208 Ibid.

209 Ministry of Labour statistics on bonded labour are cumulative
totals. For a further discussion of these statistics and their
methodology, see below.

210 Kiran Kamal Prasad, "Bonded Labour...", p. 3.

211 Ibid, p. 2.

212 "23 Children Rescued from Bondage," The Statesman, January 26,
1996.

213 Pradeep Mehta, "Cashing in on Child Labor."

214 Ela Dutt, "Rug Firms With No Child Labor Need Help," India Abroad,
February 3, 1995.

215 See Hamish McDonald "Boys of bondage: Child labour, though banned,
is rampant," Far Eastern Economic Review, July 9, 1992, p. 19 (with
arrival of Nepali children, including girls, reports of sexual abuse
and rape increasing).

216 "Mirzapur Carpets - Taking Exports to a New High," Economic Times,
June 10, 1996.

217 Since 1994, the carpet industry has been experiencing a decline in
terms of global market share. It declined to a 17 percent share of the
global market in 1995, from 21 percent in 1994. Most reports attribute
this to increased competition from China and Iran. "Hand-Knotted
Carpet Units Losing Out to China, Iran," Financial Express, March 12,
1996; "Mirzapur Carpets - Taking Exports to a New High," Economic
Times, June 10, 1996.

218 "Steps taken to Curb Child Labour in Carpet Industry," Times of
India, December 11, 1995.

219 India's total exports in 1995 were $26.2 billion; carpet exports
were valued at $650 million, or about 2.5 percent of the total
exports.

220 "Steps taken to Curb Child Labour in Carpet Industry."

221 Edward A. Gargan, "Bound to Looms by Poverty and Fear, Boys in
India Make a Few Men Rich," New York Times, July 9, 1992.

222 "Mirzapur Carpets - Taking Exports to a New High."

223 Molly Moore, "Factories of Children; Youth Labor Force Growing in
Asia to Meet Export Demand, Help Families," Washington Post, May 21,
1995. Although the highest concentration of carpet villages is in
Mirzapur district, carpet manufacturing is also a dominant industry in
the neighboring districts of Allahabad, Varanasi, and Jaunpur.

224 Neera Burra, Born to Work, p. xxii.

225 According to one 1995 report, carpet manufacturers have found a
new way to exploit the poverty of the Bihar inhabitants: in addition
to bringing Bihar children into bondage in the carpet belt,
manufacturers are beginning to bring bondage to the children, setting
up hundreds of looms in the poorest districts of Bihar. See "Ex-child
labourers make a fresh start," Times of India, July 31, 1995.

226 Anti-Slavery International (ASI), "Slavery Today in India,"
Factsheet B, July 1994. According to ASI, 10,000 boys have been
kidnapped from the boys' district (Chichoria, Bihar) alone.

227 Prem Bhai, "The Working Conditions of the Child Weaver in the
Carpet Units of Mirzapur and Summary of Findings," Law Relating to
Employment of Children, 1985, p. 146.

228 Shamshad Khan, "Migrant Child Labour in the Carpet Industry of
Mirzapur-Bhadohi," (undated).

229 A detailed 1984 study found that approximately 50 percent of
migrant child weavers were paid only in food; another 40 percent of
them received only one or two rupees per day. Prem Bhai, "Working
Conditions of the Child Weaver..." p. 151.

230 Except where otherwise noted, all child testimonials from the
carpet belt are drawn from Human Rights Watch interviews, December 19,
1995, in several rural villages of Mirzapur district, Uttar Pradesh.

231 See especially Prem Bhai, "The Working Conditions of the Child
Weaver in the Carpet Units of Mirzapur and Summary of Findings," Law
Relating to Employment of Children, 1985.

232 See, e.g., "Ex-Child Labourers make a Fresh Start," Times of
India, July 31, 1995.

233 Information on health risks from Human Rights Watch interviews in
Mirzapur district, Uttar Pradesh, and Jaipur district, Rajasthan; also
McDonald, "Boys of bondage...," July 9, 1992, p. 18; Shamshad Khan,
"Improvement in Health, Hygiene and Nutritional Status of Child Labour
in Carpet Industry: Experience of CREDA," February 26, 1990.

234 Molly Moore, "Factories of Children; Youth Labor Force Growing in
Asia to Meet Export Demand, Help Families," Washington Post Foreign
Service, May 21, 1995.

235 "19 Children Rescued from Bonded Labour," Indian Express, Nov. 9,
1995.

236 Bhai, "The Working Conditions of the Child Weaver...", p. 151.

237 Ibid., p. 152.

238 Pradeep Mehta, "Cashing in on Child Labor."

239 See McDonald, "Boys of Bondage...," p. 19.

240 See chapter on leather for a more detailed discussion of the
Rajasthani shoemaking communities.

241 Approximately 80 percent of the child carpet-makers in Rajasthan
are female (Human Rights Watch interview with social activist,
December 14, 1995, Viratnagar). This is quite different from the
pattern in the Uttar Pradesh carpet belt, where 95 percent of the
carpet-makers are male.

242 Human Rights Watch interview, December 13, 1995, village near
Viratnagar, Jaipur district, Rajasthan.

243 Ibid.

244 Anti-Slavery International, "Slavery Today in India," Factsheet B,
July 1994.

245 Ibid. As of 1991, the number of government-run carpet-training
centers was reported as approximately two hundred. Weiner, The Child
and the State in India, p. 86.

246 Human Rights Watch interview with local children's rights
activist, December 13, 1995, Viratnagar, Rajasthan.

247 B. N. Juyal, "Official Schemes Exacerbate Situation in Northern
States," Vigil India, No. 69, August 1995, p. 6.

248 Ibid.

249 Ibid. Under the Emergency of 1975-1977, then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi suspended civil liberties, arrested hundreds of opposition
leaders and activists, and attempted to push through a number of
economic reforms, including new development programs.

250 Indian Constitution, Article 24.

251 Gargan, "Bound to Looms..."

252 McDonald, "Boys of bondage ..." p. 19 .

253 Ibid.

254 Human Rights Watch interview with Mirzapur District Collector
Bachittar Singh, December 19, 1995, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh.

255 Human Rights Watch interview with Rajasthan Labour Commissioner
Ashok Shekhar, December 15, 1995, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

0 S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 263/1995, Ugam Raj Mohnot v. State of
Rajasthan and Others, filed January 18, 1995, before the High Court of
Judicature for Rajasthan, Jaipur Bench, Jaipur. The writ requests,
inter alia, that the Court "direct the State Government to make Rules
under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and to
implement the provisions of this act forthwith strictly..." The
petitioner is coordinator of the Rajasthan branch of the Centre of
Concern for Child Labour (CFCCL) and he filed the petition on behalf
of the organization.

1 Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of 1985 with Civ. Writ Petition No. 153
of 1982, Record of Proceedings, August 7, 1995.

2 Human Rights Watch interview with Ms. Srilata Swaminathan, Rajasthan
Kisan Sangathan, December 13, 1995, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

3 Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, Child Labour
in India..., p. 41.

4 This section discusses the government's child labor programs. These
are not programs designed specifically to address the needs of bonded
child laborers; as of July 1996, the Indian government has no such
program.

5 UNICEF, "Child Labour: UNICEF India Position," 1995, p. 4. There are
467 districts in all of India.

6 See Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, Child
Labour in India..., p. 42-45 (describing eighteen policies, laws,
committees, etc. established by central government since 1921).

7 Ibid., p. 45.

8 Ibid.

9 "Non-formal education" is typically part-time instruction that
emphasizes basic literacy and life skills. It is geared toward working
children.

10 The majority of the funds for this program were provided by the
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), a
program of the International Labour Organisation. IPEC focuses on "the
worst abuses of child labour: hazardous work, forced labour, the
employment of working children who are less than 12 or 13 years old,
girls and street children." The NGO Group for the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 1993, "Eliminating the Exploitation of Child
Labour: International, national and local action," May 1993, p. 8.

11 Commission on Labour Standards, "Child Labour in India," p. 49
(source: Ministry of Labour). Additional IPEC programs serve nearly
55,000 children. Ministry of Labour, Government of India, "Children
and Work," Workshop of District Collectors/District Heads on
"Elimination of Child Labour in Hazardous Occupations," New Delhi,
September 13-14, 1995, p. 11.

12 Ministry of Labour, "Children and Work," p. 5.

13 "Data on Child Labour yet to be Compiled," The Hindu, April 10,
1995, p. 13. The article uses the figure of 850 crore rupees; one
crore is equal to ten million.

14 Ministry of Labour, "Children and Work," p. 5.

15 "India has told the International Labour Organisation it requires
no external financial assistance for the various remedial measures it
is taking [to eliminate children from the workforce in hazardous
industries]." "Collectors Meeting on Child Labour," The Statesman
(Calcutta edition), September 10, 1995; "Government today informed the
Rajya Sabha that it had rejected the offer by some countries to help
India check the problem of child labour, saying it preferred to depend
on its own resources." "India rejects aid to tackle child labour," The
Statesman, March 12, 1996; "India spurns aid to abolish child labour,"
Times of India, February 11, 1996.

16 The issue of foreign aid also underscores the government's
sensitivity to external critiques of child labor in India. According
to one diplomat in New Delhi, "the Indian government is known to have
discouraged suggestions, including one from the European Union, for
financial assistance." The diplomat attributed this stance to a desire
by the government "to avoid any meddling in its programme for
abolition of child labour," pointing out that international funding
brings with it accountability for the use of funds, something the
Indian government may wish to avoid. "India spurns aid," Times of
India, Feb. 11, 1996. Others believe that the government is
positioning the issue of external aid as a bargaining chip in the
ongoing debate over a linkage between trade and labor. Under this
view, "[i]f the developed countries demand that the pace of compliance
with international labour standards should be faster... India could
then ask for a substantial part of the cost of the programmes to be
shared by the developed countries." Ibid.

17 The twenty million figure was used by then-Prime Minister Rao on
August 15, 1994, when he announced the government's goal of releasing
two million child workers from hazardous industries by the year 2000.
Campaign Against Child Labour, "Reference Kit for Media Persons,"
January 1995, p. 8.

18 Department of Women and Child Development, Indian Council for Child
Welfare, and UNICEF, India Country Office, "Rights of the Child:
Report of a National Consultation, November 21-23, 1994, p. 102.

19 N.K. Doval, "Double-speak on child labour," The Hindu, December 28,
1994; Ministry of Labour, Children and Work, September 13-14, 1995.
Based on 1981 figures, the Planning Commission for the Census of India
estimated that there were seventeen and a half million child laborers
under the age of fourteen in 1985, eighteen million in 1990, and 20
million in 1995 See Commission on Labour Standards, Child Labour in
India, p. 3

20 Gerry Pinto, UNICEF, "Child Labour in India: The Issue and
Directions for Action," 1995, p. 2; UNICEF et al., "Rights of the
Child," p. 101.

21 Ministry of Labour, Children and Work, September 13-14, 1995, p. 2.
Preliminary numbers released from the 1991 census include a total
population of 844 million people, 298 million of whom are children
under the age of fifteen. Of these children, 221million live in rural
areas and seventy-one million in urban areas. These numbers are
already considered out of date, with most sources reporting an overall
population of more than 900 million. India's population is expected to
cross the one billion mark by the turn of the century.

22 Human Rights Watch interview with National Human Rights Commission,
Secretary General R. V. Pillai, New Delhi, December 28, 1995.

23 This chapter discusses only certain aspects of the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act. For a more comprehensive overview, see the
chapters on the legal context of bonded child labor and on the beedi
industry. The full text of the act may be found in the appendix.

24 Bonded Labour (System Abolition) Act, Ch. IV, Art. 10, Art. 12 and
Ch. V, Art. 14. There are twenty-five states in India and 467
districts. Stanley Wolpert, India (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1991), p. 199; UNICEF, "Child Labour: UNICEF India Position,"
1995, p. 4.

25 See chapter on applicable law for details of the committees'
duties.

26 Judgement in Writ Petition No. 1187, 1982 (cited in Vivek Pandit,
"Prevention of Atrocities (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes): Bonded
Labour, Their Rights and Implementation", 1995), p. 7.

27 Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 3 SCC, paragraphs
243, 255 (1984).

28 For details, see chapter on applicable law.

29 Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 3 SCC 243, paragraphs
245-246 (1984).

30 Pandit, "Bonded Labour," p. 18.

31 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-1995, p. 97.

32 See, e.g., Mahajan and Gathia, Child Labour: An Analytical Study,
p. 25. Not only is the incidence of bonded child labor increasing, but
the wages paid to bonded laborers are steadily decreasing in real
terms. S.P. Tiwary, "Bondage in Santhal Parganas," Chains of
Servitude..., p. 206.

33 "Citizen's [sic] Body on Bonded Labour," Times of India, November
18, 1994.

34 Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamilnadu, October 31,
1995, Madras, p. 208, Part VIII, para. A. This report was submitted by
order of the Supreme Court in connection with Supreme Court Civ. Writ
Petition No. 3922 of 1985 (Public Union for Civil Liberties v. State
of Tamil Nadu and Others).

35 Sarma, Welfare of Special Categories of Labour, p. 55, citing
1989-90 Ministry of Labour statistics.

36 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-95, p. 97.

37 "Citizen's [sic] Body on Bonded Labour," Times of India, November
18, 1994.

38 Ibid.

39 Affidavit on behalf of the State Government of Tamil Nadu, October
7, 1994. This affidavit was submitted by order of the Supreme Court in
connection with Supreme Court Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of 1985
(Public Union for Civil Liberties v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others).

40 The case that sparked this inquiry, Public Union for Civil
Liberties v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others, was filed in 1985. Much
of the delay in its resolution is due to the state governments'
failure to respond to court directives in a timely manner. In its
order requiring the states to report on bonded labor practices, the
court noted that "It does appear to us that no significant progress
has been made by the concerned authorities and it is not unlikely that
the attitude of the concerned authorities is not enthusiastic as one
would expect in a matter of such significance." Record of Proceedings,
May 13, 1994. As of August 1996, Human Rights Watch has been unable to
find out whether the case has been resolved.

41 Human Rights Watch interview with Ashok Shekhar, Labour
Commissioner for Rajasthan, December 15, 1995, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

42 Human Rights Watch interview with Ashok Bhasin, Deputy Labour
Commissioner for Gujarat, December 15, 1995, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

43 Manoj Dayal, "Abolition of Bonded Labour an Eye-wash in Bihar,"
Patrika, December 26, 1995.

44 Department of Women and Child Development, Indian Council for Child
Welfare, UNICEF-India, "Rights of the Child: Report of a National
Consultation, November 21-23, 1994, p. 102.

45 The inability to come up with basic statistics regarding
enforcement was not an aberration, but rather just one example of a
chronic failure to keep-and make public-this information. See, e.g.,
"Scheme to divert kids from hazardous units," Indian Express, February
27, 1995.

46 The questions we asked of the Director General of Labour Welfare
included questions regarding: agency estimates of the number of bonded
child laborers in India; the number of district vigilance committees
currently in operation, and their activities to date; the number of
cases prosecuted under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and
the results of these prosecutions; the number of people rehabilitated
under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act; whether any bonded
child laborers have ever been rehabilitated under the act; and the
agency opinion regarding the case of bonded labor currently before the
Supreme Court, in which thirteen states are accused of allowing
widespread bonded labor to flourish.

47 Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, Child
Labour in India: A Perspective, June 10, 1995, p. 33. Inspections by
the national government presumable took place in New Delhi and other
centrally-administered territories.

48 Ibid.

49 N.K. Doval,"Double-Speak on Child Labour," The Hindu, December 28,
1994.

50 Molly Moore, "Poverty Weaves Harshness Into Lives," Guardian
Weekly, June 4, 1995, p. 19 (reprint from Washington Post) (of 4,000
convictions reported under the Act since 1986, 3,500 offenders got off
with a fine equivalent to five dollars or less; figures from report by
an Indian Chamber of Commerce and the International Labour
Organisation). The assertion that there have been 4,000 convictions
under the act does not coincide with the data released by the
government regarding 1990 to 1993 convictions, reported above. The
government's figures of 772 convictions for one three year period
indicate that, since the act was passed in 1986, total convictions
probably number 2,500 or less.

51 Hema Shukla, "India Insincere in Ending Child Labor," United Press
International, September 12, 1994.

52 Human Rights Watch interview with North Arcot District Collector M.
P. Vijaykumar, November 27, 1995, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

53 Human Rights Watch interview with senior state official, a former
district collector of Tamil Nadu, November 22, 1995, Madras, Tamil
Nadu.

54 Human Rights Watch interviews, November 17 - December 1, 1995,
Tamil Nadu.

55 Human Rights Watch interview with social activists, December 22,
1995, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh. See also Burra, Born to Work, p. xxiii
(of 200,000 glass workers in Firozabad, 50,000 are children).

56 Srawan Shukla, "Childhood goes up in Smoke in the `Land of Glass,'"
Times of India, November 19, 1994.

57 Human Rights Watch interview with R. V. Pillai, Secretary General,
National Human Rights Commission, December 28, 1995, New Delhi.

58 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-1995, pp. 96-97.

59 Ibid., p. 97.

60 The case, Public Union for Civil Liberties v. State of Tamil Nadu
and Others (Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of 1985), is investigating the
practice of bonded labor, and the states' failure to eradicate that
practice, in the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Meghalaya.

61 Public Union for Civil Liberties v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others,
Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of 1985 with Civ. Writ Petition No. 153 of
1982, Record of Proceedings, August 7, 1995, p. 2.

62 Ibid., p. 3.

63 G. V. Krishnan,"TN has 10 Lakh [one million] Bonded Workers, says
Panel," Times of India, March 1, 1996.

64 Ibid.

65 Reddy, Bonded Labour System in India, p. 153. Citing 1988-89
Ministry of Labour statistics.

66 Sarma, Welfare of Special Categories of Labour, p. 55, citing
1989-90 Ministry of Labour statistics.

67 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-95, p.97.

68 Manoj Dayal, "Abolition of Bonded Labour an Eye-wash in Bihar,"
Patrika, December 26, 1995.

69 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-95, p. 97.

70 Hoshiar Singh, Administration of Rural Development in India (New
Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1995), pp.165-188.

71 "Allocations for Labour Schemes Unutilised," Times of India, March
15, 1996.

72 Human Rights Watch interview, December 29, 1995, New Delhi.

73 Ibid. See also Reddy, Bonded Labour System in India, p. 171.

74 Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamil Nadu, October
31, 1995, Madras, submitted for Supreme Court Civ. Writ Petition No.
3922 of 1985, Part V, p. 1.

75 We asked the Director General of Labour Welfare for India for these
statistics, but he declined to respond.

76 Reddy, Bonded Labour System in India, p.161.

77 Human Rights Watch interview with District Collector M. P.
Vijaykumar, November 27, 1995, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

78 Ibid. See also "8 Beedi Agents held under Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act," Indian Express, September 10, 1995.

79 Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, Child
Labour in India..., p. 9 ("There is also apathy amongst State
Governments. Most states do not have yet in place the framing of rules
for the enforcement of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation)
Act of 1986, nearly a decade later!"). The Commission on Labour
Standards and International Trade was appointed by the Indian
government in August 1994 for the purpose of studying "Issues
Concerning the Protection of Labour Rights and Related Matters."
Ibid., appendix 1.

80 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Belgian journalist Rudi
Rotthier, October 19, 1995.

81 The Supreme Court noted this in directing states to include social
action groups in their efforts against bonded labor, stating that
"patwaris and tehsildars [local leaders] [are] either in sympathy with
the exploiting class or lacking in social commitment or indifferent to
the misery and suffering of the poor . ." Crim. Writ Petition No. 1263
of 1982, Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 3 SCC
paragraphs 243, 251 (1984).

82 Human Rights Watch interview with attorney Jose Varghese, November
15, 1996, New Delhi.

83 Child Workers News, Vol. 2, No. 2, April-June 1994.

84 Crim. Writ Petition No. 1263 of 1982, Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of
Madhya Pradesh, 3 SCC 243, paragraph 252 (1984).

85 Tiwary, "Bondage in Santhal Parganas," Chains of Servitude, p.
207.

86 "Bonded labour is employed by powerful landlords from whom the many
political parties draw political support and this poses a major
obstacle to implementation of the legislation. The power of those
opposed to the eradication of bondage ensures the continuation of the
economic conditions which nurture the system." See Mahajan and Gathia,
Child Labour: An Analytical Study, p. 25.

87 Human Rights Watch interviews with local social activists, December
1, 1995, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, and December 18, 1995, Varanasi, Uttar
Pradesh.

88 These phenomena are discussed in previous chapters.

89 Human Rights Watch interview with Jose Varghese, November 15, 1995,
New Delhi.

90 Human Rights Watch interview with Supreme Court attorney, December
29, 1996.

91 For example, see Ajoy Kumar, "From Slavery to Freedom: The Tale of
Chattisgarh Bonded Labourers," Indian Social Institute, 1986, pp.
12-13.

92 Ministry of Labour, Annual Report 1994-1995, p. 97.

93 See G. Satyamurty, "Trouble Dogs Freed Bonded Labourers," The
Hindu, October 27, 1994; also, in a memorandum to Human Rights Watch,
journalists Marleen Daniels and Rudi Rotthier reported their discovery
in a rural village that, of twenty-one children liberated from bondage
in 1993, nineteen had been returned to bondage one year later.
(Rotthier/Daniels memorandum to Human Rights Watch, November 1,
1995).

94 For example, in Tamil Nadu, the rehabilitation allowance for a
bonded laborer released in December 1992 was not approved for
distribution until March 1994. Report of the Commission on Bonded
Labour in Tamil Nadu, October 31, 1995, Madras, submitted in
connection with Supreme Court Civ. Writ Petition No. 3922 of 1985, p.
18.

95 See Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, Child
Labour in India..., p. 40.

96 See Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of Madhya Pradesh, paragraph 251.

97 Report of the Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamil Nadu, October
31, 1995, Madras, submitted in connection with Supreme Court Civ. Writ
Petition No. 3922 of 1985, p. 137.

98 Sreedhar Pillai, "Of Inhuman Bondage: The Supreme Court Indicts the
Tamil Nadu Government for Failing to Abolish Bonded Labour," Sunday
Magazine (Calcutta), April 7-13, 1996.

99 Tiwary, "Bondage in Santhal Parganas," Chains of Servitude..., p.
205.

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1996/India3.htm

[Sid Harth]

THE SMALL HANDS OF SLAVERY
Bonded Child Labor In India
Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project
Human Rights Watch/Asia
Human Rights Watch

Copyright © September 1996 by Human Rights Watch.
All rights reserved.
rinted in the United States of America.
ISBN 1-56432-172-X
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-77536

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project and Human Rights
Watch/Asia are indebted to numerous individuals and organizations for
their valuable and generous assistance in the course of researching
this report. We thank the following: Belgian journalists Rudi Rotthier
and Marleen Daniels; Mike Dottridge of Anti-Slavery International;
author and researcher Neera Burra; Joseph Gathia of the Centre of
Concern for Child Labour; Hamida Habibullah of the Indian Council on
Child Welfare; Shamshad Khan of the Centre for Rural Education and
Development Action; J.P. Solomon of the Campaign Against Child Labour,
Bangalore; Ratan Katyayni of Mukti Dhara Sansthan; U.R. Mohnot of
Centre for Concern for Child Labour; Ossie Fernandes of the Human
Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation; Felix Sugirtharaj of the
Association for the Rural Poor; M. Siraj Sait, Advocate; Swami
Agnivesh of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front; Colin Gonzalves,
Advocate; Kiran Kamal Prasad of JEEVIKA; and Kailash Satyarthi of the
South Asian Coalition Against Child Servitude.

We also thank the many people who prefer, for reasons of their own
well-being and that of their organizations, that their names not be
mentioned. This list would be significantly longer than the list above-
an unfortunate indicator of the volatility surrounding the issue of
child labor in India. Finally, we thank and honor the many brave
children who spoke with us, recounting their personal experiences of
hardship and bondage. They made this report possible.

This report was written by Lee Tucker, a consultant to Human Rights
Watch, and is based on research conducted by Ms. Tucker and Arvind
Ganesan, also a consultant to Human Rights Watch, from November 1995
through January 1996. Mr. Ganesan also provided additional research
and contributed to the writing of Chapter V. Jeannine Guthrie, NGO
Liaison for Human Rights Watch/Asia provided additional research
assistance. The report was edited by Lois Whitman, director of the
Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project, Patricia Gossman, senior
researcher for Human Rights Watch/Asia, Sidney Jones, executive
director of Human Rights Watch/Asia, and Michael McClintock, deputy
program director of Human Rights Watch. Production assistance was
provided by Paul Lall and Olga Nousias, Human Rights Watch/Asia
associates.

Shame upon such crimes!

Shame upon us if we do not raise our voices against them!

Samuel Gompers, U.S. labor activist, 1881

I. SUMMARY

My sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven she goes to the
bonded labor man, and every night at nine she comes home. He treats
her badly; he hits her if he thinks she is working slowly or if she
talks to the other children, he yells at her, he comes looking for her
if she is sick and cannot go to work. I feel this is very difficult
for her.

I don't care about school or playing. I don't care about any of that.
All I want is to bring my sister home from the bonded labor man. For
600 rupees I can bring her home-that is our only chance to get her
back.

We don't have 600 rupees . . . we will never have 600 rupees.

-Lakshmi,1 nine year-old beedi (cigarette) roller, Tamil Nadu. Six
hundred rupees is the equivalent of approximately $17.2

*******

With credible estimates ranging from 60 to 115 million, India has the
largest number of working children in the world. Whether they are
sweating in the heat of stone quarries, working in the fields sixteen
hours a day, picking rags in city streets, or hidden away as domestic
servants, these children endure miserable and difficult lives. They
earn little and are abused much. They struggle to make enough to eat
and perhaps to help feed their families as well. They do not go to
school; more than half of them will never learn the barest skills of
literacy. Many of them have been working since the age of four or
five, and by the time they reach adulthood they may be irrevocably
sick or deformed-they will certainly be exhausted, old men and women
by the age of forty, likely to be dead by fifty.

Most or all of these children are working under some form of
compulsion, whether from their parents, from the expectations attached
to their caste, or from simple economic necessity. At least fifteen
million of them, however, are workingas virtual slaves.3 These are the
bonded child laborers of India. This report is about them.

"Bonded child labor" refers to the phenomenon of children working in
conditions of servitude in order to pay off a debt.4 The debt that
binds them to their employer is incurred not by the children
themselves, but by their relatives or guardians-usually by a parent.
In India, these debts tend to be relatively modest, ranging on average
from 500 rupees to 7,500 rupees,5 depending on the industry and the
age and skill of the child. The creditors-cum-employers offer these
"loans" to destitute parents in an effort to secure the labor of a
child, which is always cheap, but even cheaper under a situation of
bondage. The parents, for their part, accept the loans. Bondage is a
traditional worker-employer relationship in India, and the parents
need the money-perhaps to pay for the costs of an illness, perhaps to
provide a dowry to a marrying child, or perhaps-as is often the case-
to help put food on the table.

The children who are sold to these bond masters work long hours over
many years in an attempt to pay off these debts. Due to the
astronomically high rates of interest charged and the abysmally low
wages paid, they are usually unsuccessful. As they reach maturity,
some of them may be released by the employer in favor of a newly-
indebted and younger child. Many others will pass the debt on, intact
or even higher, to a younger sibling, back to a parent, or on to their
own children.

The past few years have seen increasing public awareness-in India
itself, but particularly in the international arena-of the high
incidence of child servitude in the carpet industry of South Asia. As
a consequence, the international public has come to associate "child
servitude" with the image of small children chained to carpet looms,
slaving away over the thousands of tiny wool knots that will
eventually become expensive carpets in the homes of the wealthy.
International concern for the carpet weavers reached a peak in April
1995, when children's rights activist Iqbal Masih, a twelve-year-old
ex-carpet weaver in Pakistan, was murdered.6

This attention and the outrage it has provoked are entirely warranted-
the use of bonded child labor in the production of carpets for export
is extensive, and conditions in that industry are horrendous.7 But it
is vital that the public's concern for children in servitude not begin
and end with carpets. More than 300,000 children are estimated to be
working in the carpet industry,8 the majority of them in bondage. This
is a large number, but it represents only about 2 percent of the
bonded child laborers of India.

The great majority of the carpet weavers' bonded brothers and sisters
are working in the agricultural sector, tending cattle and goats,
picking tea leaves on vast plantations, and working fields of sugar
cane and basic crops all across thecountry. Apart from agriculture,
which accounts for 64 percent9 of all labor in India, bonded child
laborers form a significant part of the work force in a multitude of
domestic and export industries. These include, but are not limited to,
the production of silk and silk saris, beedi (hand-rolled cigarettes),
silver jewelry, synthetic gemstones, leather products (including
footwear and sporting goods), handwoven wool carpets, and precious
gemstones and diamonds. Services where bonded child labor is prevalent
include prostitution, small restaurants, truck stops and tea shop
services, and domestic servitude.

The practice of child debt servitude has been illegal in India since
1933, when the Children (Pledging of Labour) Act was enacted under
British rule. Since independence, a plethora of additional protective
legislation has been put in place. There are distinct laws governing
child labor in factories, in commercial establishments, on
plantations, and in apprenticeships. There are laws governing the use
of migrant labor and contract labor. A relatively recent law-the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986-designates a child as
"a person who has not completed their fourteenth year of age."10 It
purports to regulate the hours and conditions of some child workers
and to prohibit the use of child labor in certain enumerated hazardous
industries. (There is no blanket prohibition on the use of child
labor, nor any universal minimum age set for child workers.)11 Most
important of all, for children in servitude, is the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act, 1976 which strictly outlaws all forms of debt
bondage and forced labor. These extensive legal safeguards mean
little, however, without the political will to implement them. In
India, this will is sorely lacking. All of the labor laws areroutinely
flouted, and with virtually no risk of punishment to the offender.
Whether due to corruption or indifference-and both are much in
evidence-these laws are simply not enforced. In those rare cases where
offenders are prosecuted, sentences are limited to negligible fines.

Why does India-the Indian government, the ruling elite, the business
interests, the populace as a whole-tolerate this slavery in its midst?
According to a vast and deeply entrenched set of myths, bonded labor
and child labor in India are inevitable. They are caused by poverty.
They represent the natural order of things, and it is not possible to
change them by force; they must evolve slowly toward eradication.12

In truth, the Indian government has failed to protect its most
vulnerable children. When others have stepped in to try to fill the
vacuum and advocate on behalf of those children, India's leaders and
much of its media have attributed nearly all "outside" attempts at
action to an ulterior commercial motive. The developed world is not
concerned with Indian children, this view holds, but rather with
maintaining a competitive lead in the global marketplace. Holding to
this defensive stance, some officials have threatened to end all
foreign funding of child labor-related projects.

This nationalist rhetoric has been largely a diversionary tactic. What
the government has hoped to hide is the news that, no matter how the
data are analyzed, official efforts to end the exploitation of child
laborers are woefully deficient. Former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha
Rao, for example, made much of his initiative, announced in 1994, to
bring two million children out of hazardous employment by the year
2000. Two million represents only 1.7 to 3.3 percent of the nation's
child laborers; the fate of the other 58 to 113 million children was
not addressed. In a welcome move, the United Front government, elected
in May 1996, has promised to eradicate child labor in all occupations
and industries, and has stated that the right to free compulsory
elementary education should be made afundamental right and enforced
through suitable statutory measures.13 It remains to be seen what
measures the government will take to fulfill these promises.

By focusing primarily on child labor in export industries and the
threat of sanctions on exports, the international community has sent
the unfortunate message that only child labor in export industries
must be addressed. In response, the Indian government has accused its
international critics of protectionism and has adopted superficial
remedies designed to assuage their concerns while continuing to ignore
its legal obligation to identify, release and rehabilitate bonded
laborers.

Multilateral lending institutions have failed in their obligations as
well. By neglecting to ensure that the projects they fund do not
involve the use of bonded child labor, they have exacerbated the
problem of bonded child labor. These institutions, and their funders
should take every measure to ensure that aid does not result in child
slavery.

This report, based on two months of field investigations, reveals only
a glimpse of the vast suffering caused by the bonded labor system.
This glimpse alone, however, is proof enough that it is time for
India's new government to accept responsibility for the slavery in its
midst, to admit that it is not inevitable, and to end it. India is the
world's largest democracy, a nuclear power, the world's second most
populous country, and, although a poor nation, one of the six largest
economies of the world. It is possible to end child servitude. The
only thing lacking is will.

*******

This report is the result of an investigation conducted by two Human
Rights Watch researchers from November 1995 to January 1996. More than
one hundred bonded child laborers were interviewed. Children were
chosen for interviews on the basis of their willingness and ability to
speak freely with researchers; no interviews were conducted in the
presence of employers or in circumstances that presented the risk of
retaliation. In addition to the children, Human Rights Watch spoke
with more than fifty government officials, employers, social workers,
community activists, attorneys, and religious leaders. Some of the
government officials interviewed requested that their comments be kept
off the record and many human rights activists requested anonymity.
These requests, which highlight the sensitive nature of the issue of
child bondage, have beenhonored. The investigation took place in the
states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Uttar
Pradesh.

While India leads the world in the number of bonded child laborers,
debt servitude is a significant problem in Pakistan and Nepal as well.
14 Nor are contemporary forms of slavery confined to South Asia;
previous Human Rights Watch reports have documented forced labor in
Kuwait, Brazil, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic.15 Regarding
India, a prior Human Rights Watch report documented slavery-like
conditions in Bombay brothels.16

II. RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations to the Government of India

The government of India should demonstrate its commitment to the
eradication of bonded child labor by implementing the following
recommendations at the earliest possible date:

General Recommendations

* Design and implement a multi-pronged effort to end bonded child
labor, composed of both persuasive and mandatory means. At a minimum,
this effort should include stepped-up enforcement efforts, free,
compulsory, and quality public education, and financial support for
children to go to school.

* Implement measures designed to bring current practice into
compliance with Article 45 of the constitution which mandates free and
compulsory education for all children up to fourteen years of age.

* Pressure states and districts to constitute and oversee bonded labor
vigilance committees, as required by the Bonded Labour (System)
Abolition Act, 1976. Ensure that a sufficient number of investigators
can be included in the committee to guarantee implementation of the
act. Given the massive numbers of children involved, nongovernmental
organization (NGO) representatives, lawyers, social workers, teachers,
civil servants, and others with ties to bonded laborers and their
families should be enlisted as investigators. Provide in-depth
training to district officials charged with enforcing the act, as
directed by the Supreme Court in Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of Madhya
Pradesh, 1984.

* Establish an independent monitoring agency at the state and national
level to oversee the enforcement of the Bonded Labour (System
Abolition) Act, 1976. For full implementation of the Act, this body
should be statutorily empowered to receive and address complaints of
Act violations and complaints of official misconduct. It should also
be able to file First Information Reports (FIRs), the first step in
prosecution of a criminal charge, when bonded child laborers are
identified.

* Establish a similar independent monitoring agency to oversee the
enforcement of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act,
1986.

* Ensure the active involvement of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes Commission in the process of identifying, releasing, and
rehabilitating bonded child laborers.

* Establish and make public a master list or national register of
children released from bondage, including how they were rehabilitated
(provided with schooling, vocational training, or other alternative
measures).

* Establish and make public a master list or national register of
people prosecuted under the Bonded Labour (System Abolition) Act, 1976
and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and
include information on the nature of sentences given to guilty
parties.

* Establish and make public up-to-date and accurate information
regarding the incidence and distribution of bonded child laborers, and
the industries in which such children work.

* Investigate the abuse and exploitation of children by agents and
employers, and prosecute such agents and employers under the relevant
domestic law such as Chapter VI of the Juvenile Justice Act, or
Chapter XVI of the Indian Penal Code.

* Condition all entitlements, subsidies, special tax allowances, and
other concessions currently extended to industries that employ bonded
child labor on compliance with the Bonded Labour System (Abolition)
Act, 1976 and other relevant laws.

* Condition all new subsidies and incentives on industry compliance
with applicable domestic laws banning bonded labor.

* Launch a nationwide public awareness campaign regarding the legal
prohibition of bonded child labor. This campaign should explain in
simple terms what actions are legally prohibited and what recourses
and resources are available to bonded child laborers and their
families.

* Amend relevant legislation, including the Child Labour (Prohibition
and Regulation) Act, to bring it into compliance with the requirements
of the Indian Constitution.

* Add to the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act additional punishments for violators,
including forfeiture of operating licenses, seizure of manufacturing
equipment, and short and long-term closure of plants. Amend the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 to significantly increase fines
and allow the fines to be paid as compensation to the freed bonded
laborers. Amend Section 10 to require all employers to have and show
on demand proof of age of all children working on their premises.
Failure to have adequate proof should constitute a separate violation
of the act. In the event of a dispute regarding a child's age, the
burden of proof should be on the employer to prove that the child is
above the age of fourteen years.

* Amend the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 so
that household enterprises and government schools and training centers
are no longer exempted for prohibitions on employing children; rules
formulated by the central government will apply until replaced by
rules formulated by the states themselves; and coverage under the act
should be expanded to include agriculture and informal sectors.

* Amend the Beedi and Cigar Workers Act so that exemptions for
household-based production are eliminated.

* Amend the Children (Pledging of Labour) Act so that fines to
employers, agents, and creditors are increased, the funds collected
are contributed to the compensation and rehabilitation of the children
exploited; imprisonment as a sentencing alternative is added; and
specify which governmental department is responsible for enforcement
of this act.

* Amend the Factories Act to cover all factories or workshops
employing child labor, not just those with twenty or more workers, or
ten or more workers where power is used.

* Meet International Labour Organisation norms of one Ministry of
Labour inspector for every 150 factories and establishments.

* Amend the Trade Union Act to allow children to form and participate
in trade unions as an interim measure pending the elimination of
bonded child labor. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which
India has ratified guarantees the children the right of freedom of
association.

* Promptly submit the Indian government's report on compliance with
the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child, as this has been overdue for
more than one year.

* Continue cooperation with international organizations working to
abolish bonded child labor, in particular the International Labour
Organisation's International Programme to Eliminate Child Labour

Recommendations to United Nations Agencies

* The United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
should press the United Nations Human Rights Commission to examine the
government of India's compliance with international laws and standards
outlawing bonded labor, and to censure non-compliance. As a step
toward ending bonded labor in India, Human Rights Watch recommends
that the working group undertake a fact-finding mission to India and
make recommendations designed to eliminate bonded labor.

* The ILO should send a technical mission to India to make
recommendations with the understanding that India would develop an
action plan for abolishing bonded child labor over a specific time
period, either through the International Program to Eliminate Child
Labor (IPEC) or other ILO programs.

* UNICEF should make the elimination of bonded child labor a stated
priority of its efforts in India and elsewhere. It should formulate a
consistent institutional policy regarding bonded child labor, and work
with local, state, and national government officials toward the
achievement of the stated goals.

* WHO should investigate and publicize the adverse health consequences
for children of bonded child labor, and promote measures to eliminate
the exposure of children to hazardous conditions and labor practices.

* WHO should formulate a policy on the elimination of bonded child
labor, and collaborate with other UN agencies toward this end.

Recommendations to the World Bank and Other International

Lending Institutions

* Condition receipt of loans and other subsidies on verified
compliance with all domestic legal prohibitions on the use of bonded
and child labor.

* Suspend the flow of aid to the sericulture (silk) industry until the
government of India has taken concrete steps to identify, eradicate,
and rehabilitate children in bondage.

* Prior to approval of projects, investigate the effect of proposed
policies and programs on the incidence of child servitude.

* Provide funding for a program with NGOs and the Indian government to
effectively implement India's Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act,
and to assist in identifying, releasing, and rehabilitating bonded
child laborers, with a priority on industries which have previously
received aid. Establish an institutionalized mechanism for
incorporating local NGO ideas and opinions into projects at all stages
of the decision making process-before a loan is released, while the
project is being implemented, and in the course of any post-project
evaluation.

Recommendations to the International Community

* India's international donors should suspend funding for any
projects, such as sericulture, that are known to employ bonded child
labor unless the project includes specific programs for the
elimination of bonded child labor, education and rehabilitation of the
affected children, and for improving the social welfare of the
children and their families.

* Donors should explore the possibility of funding a program with NGOs
and the Indian government to effectively implement India's Bonded
Labor (Abolition) Act and accompanying rehabilitation scheme.

* Trade benefits provided under the Generalized System of Preferences
in both the United States and in Europe are prohibited to countries
where forced labor is tolerated. Accordingly, Human Rights Watch/Asia
calls upon the United States Trade Representative and the European
Union to initiate an investigation into the use of bonded child labor
in India and into the Indian Government's enforcement of the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. India's trading partners should
use the leverage ofGSP trade benefits to encourage the government to
eradicate bonded child labor and to provide rehabilitation and
education to the children involved.

Recommendations to Retailers, Suppliers, and Indian and

International Consumers

* When making purchases from industries known to employ large numbers
of children in bonded labor, such as the silk, carpet, beedi, silver,
leather and agricultural sectors, consumers in India and abroad should
require their retailers to pledge to reject goods from suppliers which
employ bonded child labor in the manufacture of these goods and to
support a good faith program to phase children out of bondage,
offering them financial assistance and access to formal education.
Consumers should also require retailers to guarantee that they and
their suppliers offer full access to independent monitors to all
facilities and supplier facilities to check on the incidence of bonded
child labor.

* Corporations should incorporate a monitoring process for bonded
child labor into their quality control procedures and in setting
standards for selecting suppliers and products.

* Indian consumers should appeal to their members of the legislative
assembly (MLA), district magistrates, and district collectors to
demand that vigilance committees be established and strengthened, and
demand that the government of India identify, release, and
rehabilitate all bonded laborers (including children) as required
under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976, and accompanying
rehabilitation scheme.

* International consumers should appeal to their own governments to
press the Government of India to abide by its own law by administering
in good faith the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976, and
accompanying procedures for the identification, release, and
rehabilitation of bonded laborers.

III. THE CONTEXT OF BONDED CHILD LABOR

It is commonly asserted that poverty is the cause of bonded and other
forms of child labor. In fact, poverty is only one of many factors at
play in creating and sustaining the conditions that facilitate endemic
bondage.

In India, other key elements behind bonded child labor include: an
ancient tradition of slavery and debt bondage; the lack of alternative
small-scale loans for the rural and urban poor and the lack of a
concerted social welfare scheme to safeguard against hunger and
illness; a noncompulsory and unequal educational system; the lack of
employment opportunities and living wages for adults; corruption and
indifference among government officials; and societal apathy. A final
element is caste-based discrimination, which is closely intertwined
particularly with agricultural debt bondage.

*******

A new economic policy introduced in 1991 is transforming the Indian
economy, supporting a burgeoning middle class and a thin layer of the
ultra rich. The liberalization package includes lower import duties,
access for foreign investors to India's growing industrial sector,
privatization of previously state-run industries and services, and
increased competition. India's total exports, valued at twenty-six
billion U.S. dollars in 199417 (most of this in consumer goods), are
expected to triple by the year 2000, pushing India into fourth place
among the world's largest economies. (With over 900 million
inhabitants, in 1996 India was the second largest country in terms of
population.)

The benefit to the poor and working classes-who comprise a large
majority of India's population-is less clear. Along with economic
liberalization has come a structural adjustment program, and,
according to many Indians, the repercussions of structural adjustment
are battering the poor. The cost of living is rising in both urban and
rural areas. Unemployment among adults remains high, with more than
fifty-five million estimated to be jobless.18 In the informal sector,
which employs 85 percent of Indian workers,19 including children, work
conditionsare widely considered to be worsening, and the rate of
bonded child labor is actually rising.20

This trend was noted in a 1995 report by the government-appointed
Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade. According to
the commission, child labor has been increasing in India at the rate
of 4 percent a year, "while the working conditions of the children
have remained unchanged, if not deteriorated."21 Workers and social
activists interviewed by Human Rights Watch across India confirmed
this trend.

Social scientists estimate the number of India's working children to
be between sixty and 115 million.22 About 85 percent of these children
work in the agricultural sector; the rest work in small-scale
industries and the service sector,including a large but uncounted
number of girls working as domestic servants. About eleven to eighteen
million working children are street children,23 some of whom are self-
employed as shoeshine boys or newspaper vendors, railway porters and
ragpickers. Others are forced laborers, working as prostitutes,
beggars, drug sellers and petty criminals.24

While both boys and girls work as child laborers, the girl child is
often subject to even more dismal treatment than her brothers. Girls
consistently earn less money than boys (as women earn significantly
less than men in India), and are subject to gender-specific forms of
abuse from their employers, including rape. In addition to lower pay
and greater abuse, girls suffer from the higher demands placed on them
within the Indian household. Girls have to work in the house-they tend
to the other children, they clean, they go to market, they cook-even
if they are also working long and grueling hours outside the home.25
Furthermore, girls are over represented in some of the most brutal
industries to employ child labor. There are twice as many girls as
boys laboring in India's quarries and factories, and the majority of
children working in the construction industry are girls.26

OVERVIEW OF BONDED CHILD LABOR

Approximately fifteen million children work as bonded laborers in
India. Most were put into bondage in exchange for comparatively small
sums of money: two thousand rupees-equal to about thirty-five U.S.
dollars-is the average amount "loaned" in exchange for a child's
labor. To India's vast numbers of extremely poor, however, this money
can be, literally, a life-saver. With scant alternative sources of
credit available-few rural banks, cooperative credit schemes or
government loans-the poor are forced to turn to the local moneylender,
who extracts the only collateral available: the promise of their labor
or the labor of their children.

Two players create the debt bondage arrangement: the creditor-
employer, who offers money to an impoverished parent in an attempt to
secure the extremely cheap and captive labor of his or her child, and
the parent who accepts this money, agreeing to offer the child's labor
as surety for the debt. The child is a commodity of exchange. She or
he is powerless to affect the agreement or its terms and-whether
willing or unwilling to serve the bond master-powerless to refuse.

The arrangements between parents and contracting agents are usually
informal and unwritten. The number of years required to pay off such a
loan is indeterminate. Many of the children interviewed by Human
Rights Watch had already been working for several years, and even
among those relatively new to their jobs, none said that they expected
to be released prior to maturity. Some intended to walk away from
their bondage when they married, leaving a younger sibling to take
over the labor-payment or a parent to somehow extinguish the debt-
perhaps by a new loan from a different creditor-employer.

In many industries marked by the use of debt bondage, the child's
labor does not function to pay off the original loan at all. Instead,
the child's labor serves as both interest on the loan-for the children
are paid only a fraction of what their labor would bring them on the
open market-and as a surety for the loan's repayment. The original
amount loaned to the parent must be repaid in full in a single
installment; only then will the child be released from servitude.

The making of beedi cigarettes is one such industry. The average
advance in the beedi industry is 1,500 rupees.27 The average number of
beedies a bonded child laborer rolls in a day is 1,500, for an average
daily wage of nine rupees. Were the value of the child's labor to be
counted as gradual payment of the moneyadvanced-and were it calculated
honestly, at the official minimum wage established for beedi rolling
(30.9 rupees per thousand beedies)-the agent-employer would recoup in
labor value the original debt in about six weeks. But the beedi
worker's debt is not set off against the value of the labor, and the
labor's value is not compensated honestly. If it were, the child would
be earning forty to fifty rupees a day instead of nine, and would be
able to save enough to quickly fulfill the lump-sum payment
requirement of the original advance. As it is, this requirement,
together with the abysmally low "wages" paid, virtually ensure that
the bonded child will not escape servitude. Most children work many
years for their agents, for which the agents, and particularly the
owners of the beedi companies, profit handsomely. It is, simply, a
severe form of economic exploitation.

Industries that do allow for gradual repayment of the original debt do
not provide an easier escape from bondage. First, employers may
increase the principal of the loan by adding on to it miscellaneous
costs and expenses-the cost of materials, the loss of "defective"
goods, meals given to the children, or medical care, on the rare
occasions that it is provided. Second, the low wages paid may spur the
child's parent to seek an additional loan from the employer. Finally,
and most significantly, the value of the child's labor as against the
loan is decided by the employer. The bonded children and their parents
have virtually no bargaining power with the bond master, with the
result that interest rates of 1,200 percent a year, taken out in labor
value, are not uncommon.

Regardless of which of these debt structures the child labors under,
the end result is the same: it is very difficult to escape bondage.
The underlying reason for this difficulty is the grossly unequal power
relationships between the child workers and their parents on the one
hand and the creditors-cum-employers on the others. The former are
frequently low caste, illiterate, and extremely poor. The latter are
usually higher caste, literate, comparatively wealthy, and powerful
members of the community. Often, these creditors-employers are the
only money lenders in town, and as such are extremely influential.
They are also frequently connected, by caste and by the social and
political hierarchy of the community, with local officials, including
police officers, factory inspectors, and other local authorities who
might normally be expected to safeguard the rights of children.

Although the exact circumstances of work vary from industry to
industry, the hours tend to be long, the pay nominal, and the
conditions abysmal. In some industries, children work twelve or more
hours a day, seven days a week, receiving only two holidays a year.
During their first few years of work they may receive no wages at all,
or infrequent pocket change known as "incentives." They are required
to work constantly and at a rapid pace; if they work slowly, talk to
another child,or make a mistake in their work they will be severely
scolded and possibly beaten by their employer, and pay may be deducted
from their wages.

Work conditions are dangerous to the health of the child. In the beedi
industry, the long hours spent hunched over the basket of tobacco
causes growth deformities, and the constant proximity to tobacco dust
causes and exacerbates lung diseases; there is a very high rate of
tuberculosis in communities dedicated to the manufacture of beedi. In
carpet weaving the occupational diseases are similar: the children sit
in a cramped space all day long, inhaling wool fibers and dust. As a
result, the carpet weavers are prone to emphysema and tuberculosis;
they also suffer frequent cuts to their hands and fingers, which may
be "cured" by cauterizing them with burning sulphur. Silk workers face
similar long and short-term hazards.

The silver workers suffer frequent burns on their hands and arms, the
leather workers exposed to toxic chemicals long banned in developed
countries, and the gemstone polishers are subject to both cuts and
toxic contamination. All of these workers, given their cramped and
unsanitary work places, suffer a high risk of contracting tuberculosis
and other diseases of poverty.

Three of the industries studied in this report-carpet weaving, beedi
rolling, and cloth (silk) weaving-have been classified as "hazardous"
under India's Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986.
Employment of children under fourteen years of age is illegal in these
industries. Despite this prohibition, children continue to form the
backbone of all three industries, which together employ approximately
850,000 children.28 Not only has the government failed to enforce this
protective legislation, but the government itself is guilty of
violating it-the central government's Handloom and Handicrafts Export
Corporation runs approximately two hundred "training centers" for
child laborers in the carpet industry.29

FACTORS BEHIND BONDED CHILD LABOR:

POVERTY AND TRADITION

A significant use of forced labour has marked the entire spectrum of
production in India at all historical periods.30

Slavery in India dates back at least 1,500 years.31 Various forms of
debt bondage coexisted with formal slavery, and while the British
abolished slavery legislatively through the Anti-Slavery Act of 1843,
large numbers of former slaves traded their status for that of
perpetually bonded servitude. This was in part due to the fact that
the British did not abolish debt-bondage; instead they regulated it.
The Workman's Breach of Contract Act, 1859 (13 of 1859) enforced the
obligation to provide labor in lieu of an advance, and Section 200 of
the Civil Procedure Code, also enacted in 1859, allowed landlords and
moneylenders to seize the property of bonded laborers and provided for
imprisonment of bonded laborers who did not honor their obligations
when they received advances. The Workman's Breach of Contract Act was
repealed in 1925, and Section 200 of the Civil Procedure Code was
amended in 1879 to remove punishments for bonded laborers.32

The difference between slavery and debt bondage is often rather small,
particularly in the context of agriculture. In both systems workers
may be considered to be attached to the land, with ownership of them
transferred as part of land sales or exchanges. Both slavery and debt
bondage grant significant powers of ownership to the master: the
worker cannot seek employment elsewhere, the worker cannot refuse to
work, the worker is subject to the master's demands twenty-four hours
a day, and the master controls the worker's family. A worker who
resists this is subject to severe mistreatment, including beatings and
torture. Many grass-roots organizations, including children's
advocates and low-caste and tribal groups, oppose the practice of
bonded labor and other forms ofcontemporary slavery. Nonetheless, debt
bondage is tolerated by large segments of society who accept it as the
normal and proper state of affairs.

Those who stand to gain from the abolition of debt bondage, on the
other hand, are precisely those who are least likely to be in a
position to exert pressure or claim their rights. Bonded laborers are
extremely vulnerable to negative repercussions should they attempt to
organize or otherwise agitate for enforcement of the law. Even
requests for minimal improvements can lead to a violent response from
employers. Bonded laborers have been severely beaten after asking for
a raise of a few cents a day, or asking the employer to fulfill a
promise to give them a few sacks of grain each year, or for other
relatively mild "challenges" to the status quo.33 Scores of children
told Human Rights Watch that their master would beat them if they
brought up the subject of wages.

More serious challenges to the master's authority may be met with a
more violent or even deadly response. During a much-publicized series
of events in 1985, in the state of Haryana, protesting quarry workers
were beaten by their employers' hired thugs while uniformed police
officers looked on. One of the workers was beaten to death and thirty-
four others were seriously wounded. Police later took the injured
workers from the hospital to the police station, where they were
arrested and fingerprinted.34

According to a regional activist in the state of Rajasthan, mine
owners continue to respond to labor disputes with unchecked brutality.
"Murder and mayhem is nothing to these people. If they are challenged,
they will kill theworkers and bury the bodies in the quarries."35 The
same activist told Human Rights Watch that most government officials
in the region have ties to the industry, making legal remedies out of
the question.

Poverty is inextricably linked to bondage and the combination of
poverty and the lack of access to credit is another essential factor
behind bonded labor. Hundreds of millions of India's people are
extremely poor and live hand-to-mouth. When additional financial needs
arise-to compensate for seasonal declines in earnings or crops, to pay
for medical expenses, or to pay for wedding or funeral ceremonies-
there is no store of resources available, and the money must be
borrowed.

There are very few borrowing options for a poor rural Indian. Even if
a bank or cooperative society is accessible-and for most they are not-
the poor laborer cannot qualify for a loan, having no security or
collateral to offer. With no institutionalized credit sources to turn
to, the laborer is forced to take loans from other sources, namely,
the local moneylender or local employers or landlords. Often, the
village moneylender and the village employer are the same person.

Moneylenders charge 20 percent monthly interest or more. Bond masters
charge a much higher rate, but it is less visible since it is taken
out in labor value. Many laborers fall into debt bondage as a direct
result of borrowing from moneylenders: they borrow the money, are
unable to pay it back because of the accelerated interest rate, then
find themselves forced to submit to debt bondage-of themselves or of a
child-to obtain enough money to repay the original loan.

"NIMBLE FINGERS," AND OTHER MYTHS OF CHILD LABOR

A number of myths underlie and perpetuate child labor, justifying it
on the grounds that the system "benefits" everyone involved: the
country, the community, the family, the craft and the child. Children

must be trained at the right age or they will never learn a skill;
children must be trained in a profession appropriate to their

background and class; children are particularly suited for certain

kinds of work because of their "nimble" fingers; and child labor is a

natural and desirable function of the family unit. These myths have
widespread support.

The "nimble fingers" theory is applied to some of the harshest
industries employing children, including the carpet, silk, beedi and
silver industries. It asserts that children make the best products in
these occupations thanks to their nimble fingers which are, according
to the myth, better able to tie the tiny knots of wool, unravel thread
from boiling silk cocoons, and solder tiny silver flowers to a chain.
In this view, child labor is not an evil, but a production necessity.
Thisrationalization is a lie. In fact, children make the cheaper
goods; only master weavers make the best quality carpets and saris.

The myth that children must be trained at the "right" age-at six or
seven years of age, or younger-contends that children who go to
school, postponing their craft training until adolescence, either will
be unable to adequately learn a skill or will be at an irreparable
disadvantage in comparison with those who did begin working as young
children. A study on child labor in Varanasi summarized the
calculation behind this logic:

Any number of justifications are available at the community level in
support of children taking up a job at an early age. It is said that
in order to learn the craft properly one has to start working away
from the family. Further, in order to become an accomplished artisan
one has to start working at an early age. Those who start working at
the "late" age of 12 years might pick up the craft within a few months
but they would never be able to pick up speed in their work. As
against this, those starting at the "right" age of six or seven years
become very good workers after an apprenticeship of 5 to 6 years.
Whatever be the truth behind the general belief, it ensures continuous
availability of child labour at low wages.36

IV. LEGAL CONTEXT

APPLICABLE INTERNATIONAL LAW

The practice of bonded child labor violates the following
international human rights conventions; India is a party to all of
them, and as such is legally bound to comply with their terms.

Convention on the Suppression of Slave Trade and Slavery, 1926

This convention requires signatories to "prevent and suppress the
slave trade" and "to bring about, progressively and as soon as
possible, the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms." It also
obligates parties to "take all necessary measures to prevent
compulsory or forced labor from developing into conditions analogous
to slavery."37

Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade,
and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956

The supplementary convention on slavery offers further clarification
of prohibited practices and refers specifically to debt bondage and
child servitude as institutions similar to slavery. It requires States
Parties to "take all practicable and necessary legislative and other
measures to bring about progressively and as soon as possible the
complete abolition of... debt bondage... [and] any institution or
practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years, is
delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian
to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the
exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour."38 The
convention defines debt bondage as follows:

Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from a

pledge by a debtor of his personal services or those of a person under

his control as security for a debt, if the value of thoseservices as

reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt
or the length and nature of those services are not respectively

limited and defined.39

Forced Labour Convention, 1930

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Forced Labour Convention
requires signatories to "suppress the use of forced or compulsory
labour in all its forms in the shortest period possible."40 In 1957,
the ILO explicitly incorporated debt bondage and serfdom within its
definition of forced labor.41

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966

Article 8 of the ICCPR prohibits slavery and the slave trade in all
their forms, servitude, and forced or compulsory labor. Article 24
entitles all children to "the right to such measures of protection as
are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family,
society and the State."42

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

(ICESCR), 1966

Article 7 of the ICESCR provides that States Parties shall "recognize
the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable
conditions of work." Article 10 requires Parties to protect "children
and young persons... from economic and social exploitation."43

Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989

The following three provisions mandate protections that are
particularly relevant for the bonded child laborer:

Article 32: "States Parties recognize the right of the child to be

protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that

is likely to be hazardous or... be harmful to the child's health or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development."44 States
are directed to implement these protections through appropriate
legislative, administrative, social and educational measures. In
particular, they are to:

(a) provide for a minimum age or minimum ages for admissions to
employment;

(b) provide for appropriate regulation of the hours and conditions of
employment; and

(c) provide for appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure the
effective enforcement of this article.45

Article 35: "States Parties shall take all appropriate. . . measures
to prevent the abduction, the sale of or traffic in children for any
purpose or in any form."46 A significant portion of the bonded child
laborers of India are trafficked from one state to another, and some
are sold outright.47

Article 36: "States Parties shall protect the child against all other
forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child's
welfare."48

APPLICABLE DOMESTIC LAW

A plethora of national laws, some dating back to the 1930s, offer
protection from exploitation to India's working children. The Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976 is, for the purposes of this
report, the most significant and far-reaching of these laws-it outlaws
all debt bondage, including that of children, and it requires
government intervention and rehabilitation of the bonded worker. It is
further set apart from the other laws by the fact that it has none of
the exemptions from compliance that virtually nullify many of India's
other labor laws. Unfortunately, lack of loopholes is no guarantee of
enforcement. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, and the other pieces of
protective legislation that apply in varying circumstances to the
situation of the bonded child laborer, are betrayed by an extremely
low rate of enforcement. This lack of enforcement is discussed in the

chapter on the role of the Indian government.

Every industry discussed in this report, and every individual case
referred to, violates the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and the
constitutional provisions that underlie such an act. These violations
represent the most severe and egregious of the many legal failings
contributing to the persistence of bonded child labor in India. All of
the cases and all of the industries mentioned in this report also
violate the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act: they all
violate its regulatory provisions, and the largest and most
significant industries-beedi, carpets, and silk-also violate its
prohibitory provisions. In addition to violating these two
centerpieces of protective legislation, most industries also violate
one or more of the following laws: the Factories Act; the Beedi and
Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act; the Contract Labour
(Regulation and Abolition) Act; and the Inter-State Migrant Workmen
(Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act. All cases
documented in this report also violate the Children (Pledging of
Labour) Act, which is similar in its protections to the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act.

In addition, under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) rape, extortion,
causing grievous hurt, assault, kidnapping, abduction, wrongful
confinement, buying or disposing of people as slaves, and unlawful
compulsory labor are criminal offences, punishable with up to ten
years imprisonment and fines. Under the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986,
cruelty to juveniles and withholding the earnings of a juvenile are
criminal offences, punishable with up to three years imprisonment and
fines.

Indian Constitution

Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees the right to life
and liberty. The Indian Supreme Court has interpreted the right of
liberty to include, among other things, the right of free movement,
the right to eat, sleep and work when one pleases, the right to be
free from inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to integrity and
dignity of the person, the right to the benefits of protective labor
legislation, and the right to speedy justice.49 The practice of bonded
labor violates all of these constitutionally-mandated rights.

Article 23 of the constitution prohibits the practice of debt bondage
and other forms of slavery both modern and ancient:

Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced

labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be
an offence punishable in accordance with the law.

Begar is an ancient caste-based obligation, a "form of forced labour
under which a person is compelled to work without receiving any
remuneration."50 "Other similar forms of forced labour" was
interpreted expansively by the Supreme Court in 1982, when it ruled in
the seminal Asiad Workers' Case that both unpaid and paid labour were
prohibited by Article 23, so long as the element of force or
compulsion was present in the worker's ongoing services to the
employer. Examples of force include overt physical compulsion and
compulsion under threat of legal sanction (as for example in the case
of an allegedly unpaid debt), as well as more subtle forms of
compulsion, including "compulsion arising from hunger and poverty,
want and destitution."51

Given the dire economic straits of most Indians, this definition could
bring hundreds of millions of people within its scope. The Supreme
Court went on, however, to provide a helpful rule for determining
exactly what situationsconstitute forced labor. "[W]here a person

provides labour or service to another for remuneration which is less
than minimum wage, the labour or service provided by him clearly falls

within the scope and ambit of the word `forced labour'..."52 All labor
rewarded with less than the minimum wage, then, constitutes forced
labor and violates the Constitution of India.

In another landmark case, this one brought on behalf of a group of
bonded quarry workers in the early 1980s, the Supreme Court ruled that
"[i]t is the plainest requirement of Articles 21 and 23 of the
Constitution that bonded labourers must be identified and released and
on release, they must be suitably rehabilitated.... [A]ny failure of
action on the part of the State Government[s] in implementing the
provisions of [the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act] would be the
clearest violation of Article 21 [and] Article 23 of the
Constitution."53

Article 24 prohibits the employment of children in factories, mines,
and other hazardous occupations.54 Together, Articles 23 and 24 are
placed under the heading "Right against Exploitation," one of India's
constitutionally-proclaimed fundamental rights.

Article 39 requires the state to "direct its policy toward securing":

(e) that the health and strength of workers... and the tender age of

children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic

necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength.

(f) that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in
a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that
childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against
moral and material abandonment."

Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act purports to abolish all debt
agreements and obligations arising out of India's longstanding bonded
labor system. It is the legislative fulfillment of the Indian
Constitution's mandate against begar and forced labor.55 It frees all
bonded laborers, cancels any outstanding debts against them, prohibits
the creation of new bondage agreements, and orders the economic
rehabilitation of freed bonded laborers by the state.56 It also
criminalizes all post-act attempts to compel a person to engage in
bonded labor, with maximum penalties of three years in prison and a
2,000 rupee fine.57 The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act offers
the following definition of the practices being abolished.

Sec. 2(g) "bonded labour system" means the system of forced, or partly
forced labour under which a debtor enters...or is presumed to have

entered, into an agreement with the creditor to the effect that,-

(i) in consideration of an advance obtained by him or by any of his

lineal ascendants or descendants (whether or not such advance is
evidenced by any document) and in consideration of the interest, if
any, due on such advance, or

(ii) in pursuance of any customary or social obligation, or

(iii) in pursuance of an obligation devolving on him by succession,
or

(iv) for any economic consideration received by him or by any of his
lineal ascendants or descendants, or

(v) by reason of his birth in any particular caste or community, he
would-

(1) render, by himself or through any member of his family... labour

or service to the creditor, or for the benefit of the creditor, for a
specified period or for an unspecified period, either without wages or
for nominal wages, or

(2) forfeit the freedom of employment or other means of livelihood for
a specified period or for an unspecified period, or

(3) forfeit the right to move freely throughout the territory of
India, or

(4) forfeit the right to appropriate or sell at market value any of
his property or product of his labour or the labour of a member of his

family or any person dependent on him...

This definition is meant to, and does, cover all of the many
permutations of the bonded labor system in modern India. There are
differences from one part of the country to the next and from one
industry or landlord to another in terms of wages paid, the amount
advanced, whether the advance is considered a type of loan or a type
of wage, the hours worked per day and days worked per year, and
whether the worker has some freedom from the bond master or is kept
under constant control. Some bonded laborers receive no wages at all,
apart from meager food stipends and a yearly change of clothing; some
receive extremely low wages, constituting as little as 10 percent of
the mandated minimum wage; some receive a standard wage in theory, but
in fact lose 70 or 80 percent of it, sight unseen, back to the
employer as "interest" on the advance. Some laborers are working to
pay off a 500 rupee loan, others a 15,000 rupee loan. Some inherited
their debt from their parents; others have contracted for a ten-month
period of servitude. Some work sixteen hours a day, 365 days a year,
every year of their lives. Others work ten hours a day, six days a
week. Despite these differences, all are bonded laborers within the
definition of the act.

It is what they have in common that determines their bonded status:
they are working for nominal wages in consideration of an advance, and
they are not free to discontinue their work. These three elements-an
advance, low wages, and compulsion-are at the core of all bonded
labor. The act defines "nominal wages" as those that are less than
minimum wages or, where no minimum wage has beenset, less than wages
normally paid for the same or similar work in the same locality.58

District magistrates-called district collectors, or deputy
commissioners, in some states-are responsible for enforcement of the
Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.59 The district magistrate, an
appointed civil servant, is the top authority at the district level
and as such oversees government administration, including the
administration of justice. His duties are varied and many, and include
overseeing the work of fifty to sixty distinct departments.60 In
addition to these duties, he is required by the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act to identify all cases of bonded labor occurring in his
district, free the laborers, and initiate prosecution under the act.
He is also charged with making sure available credit sources are in
place, so that freed laborers will not be forced into bondage again.61
Finally, the district magistrate is to constitute and participate in
the functioning ofa district-level "vigilance committee." The
statutory functions of this committee are:

(a) to advise the District Magistrate . . . as to the efforts made,
and action taken, to ensure that the provisions of this act... are
properly implemented;

(b) to provide for the economic and social rehabilitation of the freed

bonded labourers;

(c) to coordinate the functions of rural banks and cooperative

societies with a view to canalizing adequate credit to the freed

bonded labourers;

(d) to keep an eye on the number of offences of which cognizance has

been taken under [the] act;

(e) to make a survey as to whether there is any offence of which

cognizance ought to be taken under the act;

(f) to defend any suit instituted against a freed bonded labourer or a
member of his family... for the recovery of the whole or part of any
bonded debt...62

Very few such vigilance committees have been formed, and Human Rights
Watch knows of no district in which such a committee is currently
operative.

References to rehabilitation of freed bonded laborers occur twice in
the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act-once in reference to the
district magistrate's duty to "secure and protect the economic
interests" of the bonded laborer (Sec. 11), and once in stipulating
the vigilance committees' duty to provide for the "economic and social
rehabilitation" of the bonded laborer (Sec. 14). The act itself,
however, does not specify of what this rehabilitation should consist
and left implementation of rehabilitation up to the state governments,
and largely dependent on the initiative of District Magistrates.

In 1978, the Ministry of Labour launched a scheme that specified a
"rehabilitation allowance" in order to assist state governments with
rehabilitation.63 Under this scheme, the central government
contributes half of the rehabilitation assistance allowance due to
every freed bonded laborer, and the state where the bonded laborer
resides pays the other half. The allowance, determined by a Ministry
of Labour Planning Commission, was originally set at 4,000 rupees.
Ithas been raised once, to 6,250 rupees, in 1986.64 In 1982, cognizant
of the reasons that lead to bondage and possibility of relapse if
those released are not rehabilitated, the government expanded this
program by adding guidelines for rehabilitation under Ministry of
Labor Direct Order No. S.11011/20/82-BL, which stated that:

(i) Psychological rehabilitation must go side by side with physical
and economic rehabilitation;

(ii) The physical and economic rehabilitation has fifteen major
components namely allotment of house-sites and agricultural land, land
development, provision of low cost dwelling units, agriculture,
provision of credit, horticulture, animal husbandry, training for
acquiring new skills and develop in existing skills, promoting
traditional arts and crafts, provision of wages employment and
enforcement of minimum wages, collection and processing of minor
forest products, health, medical care and sanitation, supply of
essential commodities, education of children of bonded labourers and
protection of civil rights;

(iii) There is scope for bringing about an integration among the
various Central and Centrally Sponsored Schemes and the ongoing
schemes of State Government for more qualitative rehabilitation. The
essence of such duplication, i.e., pooling resources from different
sources for the same purpose. It should be ensured that while funds
are not drawn from different sources for the same purpose, [funds]
drawn from different sectors [schemes] for different components of the
rehabilitation scheme are integrated skillfully; and

(iv) While drawing up any scheme/programme of rehabilitation of freed
bonded labour, the latter must necessarily be given the choice between
the various alternatives for their rehabilitation and such programme
should be finally selected for execution as would need the total
requirements of the families of freed bonded laborers to enable them
to cross the poverty line on theone hand and to prevent them from
sliding back into debt bondage on the other.65

In its 1994-95 Annual Report, the Ministry of Labour stated that funds
for rehabilitation assistance would be increased from Rs. 6,250 to Rs.
10,000 for each bonded laborer, and that "respective State Governments
will undertake further surveys to identify bonded labourers as may
still be in existence and report to the Government of India. The State
Governments have also agreed to undertake selective follow-up studies
to assess whether rehabilitated bonded labourers have relapsed into
bondage and to set up Vigilance Committees, wherever they are not in
existence."66

However, the extent to which bonded laborers have been identified,
released, and rehabilitated by government officials has been
negligible; this is discussed in the chapter on the role of the
government.

Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933

This act predates Independence but remains in force. It is rarely used
and rarely mentioned in discussions of bonded labor and child labor,
probably because the more recent laws carry penalties that, while
lenient themselves, are nonetheless stiffer than those of the Children
(Pledging of Labour) Act.

The act calls for penalties to be levied against any parent,
middleman, or employer involved in making or executing a pledge of a
child's labor. Such a pledge is defined as an "agreement, written or

oral, express or implied, whereby the parent or guardian of a child,

in return for any payment or benefit received or to be received by

him, undertakes to cause or allow the services of the child to be

utilized in any employment."67 Lawful labor agreements are limited to
those made in consideration of reasonable wages and terminable at
seven days' or less notice. The fines for violating this law are fifty
rupees against the parent and two hundred rupees against either the
middleman or employer.68

Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986
and defines a child as "a person who has not completed their
fourteenth year of age."69 It does not prohibit child labor per se,
nor does it set a minimum age for the employment of children. Instead,
it regulates the hours and conditions of work for child laborers,
while prohibiting the employment of children in twenty-five hazardous
industries.70 Three of the enumerated hazardous industries rely
heavily on bonded labor and were included in the Human Rights Watch
investigation. These three industries are the beedi (hand-rolled
indigenous cigarettes) industry, carpet-weaving, and cloth printing,
dyeing and weaving. The other industries discussed in this report are
subject to the regulatory aspects of the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act. However, implementation of the regulatory provisions
of the act require each state to formulate an act-specific set of
rules and regulations; the majority of states have not done so as of
1996, ten years after passage of the act.

For first convictions under the hazardous industries prohibition, the
act prescribes imprisonment of three to twelve months or a fine of
10,000 to 20,000 rupees. Second offenses are to be punished with a
mandatory six months to two years in prison. There are no standing
requirements for the filing of a complaint under the Child Labor Act.
Any person, including but not limited to any police officer or
government inspector, is authorized to file a complaint before any
court of competent jurisdiction.

The act also authorizes central and state governments to appoint
inspectors charged with securing compliance with the act. Rather than
do this, most states have added responsibility for enforcement of the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act on to the already-
existing ranks of the labor inspectors. This is an undesirable
arrangement for two reasons. First, requiring the labor inspectors to
also investigate violations of the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act saddles them with an unrealistic work burden. Even
before the 1986 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was
added to their responsibilities, a 1979 report by a government-
appointed Committee on Child Labour found the inspectors overwhelmed
by their duties:

The jurisdiction of individual inspectors was too extensive for them
to keep a regular watch on activities within their purview. In several
States one inspector was required to cover a group of several
districts. He was also burdened with very wide ranging other
responsibilities pertaining to labour legislation. [As a result of]
this situation...there were practically no prosecutions... of any
violation of existing laws pertaining to child labour.71

In practice, some labor inspectors enforce the Factories Act while
others enforce the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, a
not very efficient division of labor.72 Furthermore, a 1995 government-
mandated report on child labor found that "many inspectors were
unclear about the import of laws."73

In addition to being overextended, factory and labor inspectors in
India are notoriously corrupt and susceptible to bribery.74 Against
this background, thereis little reason to expect them to vigorously
find and root out instances of illegal child labor.

Even if inspection were reliable, glaring loopholes in the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act allow manufacturers to escape
application of the law quite easily. First, the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act applies to all workshops which make
use of child labor in prohibited processes, except those workshops

"wherein any process is carried on by the occupier with the aid of his

family..."75 The vast majority of child labor takes place in
agriculture and cottage industries in the informal sector. Often, the
employer does have one of his own children or a niece or nephew
working alongside the rest of the children, and this is enough to take
his shop out of the purview of the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act. Even if he does not have a family member working on
the premises, he is likely to say that he does, according to labor
inspectors, social welfare activists and others familiar with the
informal sector.

This exception gives tacit government approval to the use of child
labor, when the child is a relative of the family, under conditions
that would otherwise be illegal. This exception includes the use of a
child labor in hazardous occupations or industries. Nor is this the
only exception to the application of the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act. The act is also inapplicable to government-sponsored
schools or training programs. Again, this means that work and
conditions ordinarily deemed harmful to children are considered non-
harmful so long as they take place under the auspices of an official
government program. The best examples of this exception are the
approximately two hundred government-run carpet weaving training
centers.76 Carpet weaving is a hazardous and therefore prohibited
industry under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.
Under the exception for government schools, however, thousands of
children are enrolled in this industry, not only with government
approval, but with government facilitation and encouragement.

These exceptions are clear violations Article 24 of the Indian
Constitution, which states that "no child below 14 shall be employed
in any factory or mine or engaged in any hazardous employment."

Another major loophole in the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act concerns the proof of age of the child worker. One
would expect the employer to carry the burden of proof that the
working child is of legal age. This is not the case. Instead, the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act effectively putsthe onus
of proof on the state, stipulating that, in the event of a dispute
between the employer and the government inspector as to the age of the
working child, "the question shall... be referred by the Inspector for
decision to the prescribed medical authority."77 What this means in
practice is that on those rare occasions when labor inspectors do pay
a visit to production sites, they must pay a doctor to accompany them
and evaluate the age of the children. Even then the truth of the
matter of age is not necessarily settled, as manufacturers are known
to bribe the medical authorities-not to mention the inspectors
themselves-in order to obtain favorable results.78

These loopholes create daunting enforcement difficulties in the beedi,
carpet, and silk industries-the three industries that are both heavily
bonded and where child labor of any sort is outlawed by the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. The same difficulties would
be noted in the other prohibited industries of the act.

Every industry studied by Human Rights Watch thoroughly violates the
protective regulations of the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act. These violated provisions include the right to an
hour of rest after three hours of work; a maximum work day of six
hours; a prohibition of child work before 8:00 a.m. or after 7:00
p.m.; a prohibition on overtime; a mandatory day of rest every week;
and the requirement that various health and safety precautions be
observed.

Factories Act, 1948

The Factories Act strictly forbids the employment of children less
than fourteen years old in factories.79 It also includes a sizable
loophole, in that the act only applies to factories employing ten or
more people with the use of electric or other forms of generated
power, or twenty or more people without the use ofpower.80 Many small
scale industries intentionally fragment the manufacturing process into
separate units in order to circumvent application of the Factories Act.
81 Others only employ small numbers of people on the books, bringing
in dozens of others as unofficial "extras."82

Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966

See chapter on beedi cigarettes.

Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989

This act defines any kind of forced labor, including bonded labor, as
an "atrocity" if the victim is a member of a scheduled caste or tribe.
Committing an "atrocity" is punishable with up to five years
imprisonment and fine.83

Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions

of Service) Act, 1979

This law regulates the employment of inter-state workers migrant
workers. It requires that establishments employing such workers be
registered, that contractors be licensed and keep records of all
migrant workers recruited, that migrant workers be paid at the same
rate as non-migrant workers, and that inspections be carried out to
ensure compliance with these provisions.84

Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970

This act regulates the use of contract labor and provides for its
abolition in certain industries, at the discretion of the appropriate
government (state or central ). Among its provisions are a requirement
that no wage period exceed one month.85

Minimum Wages Act, 1948

The Minimum Wages Act sets the minimum wage for certain enumerated
occupations and requires that overtime be paid to all workers who work
beyond a "normal working day." In the case of children under fourteen,
a "normal working day" is four and a half hours.

Plantation Labour Act, 1951

This act regulates the work and wage conditions of plantation workers,
including children over the age of fourteen.

Apprentices Act, 1961

The Apprentices Act regulates the rights and work hours of
apprentices, and sets the minimum age for apprenticeships at fourteen
years.

Shops and Establishments Act, 1961

This law, which applies to shops, hotels, restaurants, and places of
amusement, regulates the hours of work and prohibits the employment of
children below a certain age, to be determined by the states. In
eleven states, the minimum age for a child worker is fourteen years;
in thirteen states, the minimum age is twelve years.86

V. CHILDREN IN BONDAGE

BEEDI

Sumathi, a twelve-year-old girl, is the oldest sibling of five; three
of the five are girls, and the three sisters all roll beedi. The
youngest, eight years old, works at home as a tip closer. The second,
nine years old, was bonded to an agent three years ago for an advance
of 1,000 rupees; she works full time as a tip closer, earning only
three rupees a week.

Sumathi herself was bonded when she was seven in exchange for a 1,000
rupee advance. She rolls 1,500 beedies a day, for which she earns five
rupees. She told Human Rights Watch:

My father and mother force me to go to work with the agent. The agent
often beats me. If I tell my father, he allows me to stay home the
following day, but then they are pushing me to go again. My father and
mother say I have to go. I don't want to go. I am afraid of my agent.
But my parents force me to go, if I don't go they scold me and beat
me.

Every week the agent gives my wages to my parents. If it is less money
than usual, they beat me.

In my family there are seven members, so it is difficult to even get
enough food to eat. That's why my father goes to the agent-to ask for
more money. But the agent won't give it, because he says I don't work
hard enough. But every day I am being sent back to the agent.87

*******

"Beedi" is a domestically-produced and consumed Indian cigarette.
Though cheaper than manufactured filter-tip cigarettes, it is a
relatively expensive product-a pack of twenty-four beedies costs
between ten and twenty rupees-and one that is heavily consumed, with
more than 500 billion beedi cigarettes producedand smoked each year.88
With annual sales worth forty billion rupees, beedi is one of India's
most significant domestic products.89

More than 325,000 children labor in the beedi industry, most in the
southern state of Tamil Nadu.90 Other states with beedi production are
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh (in the district of Allahabad).91 Human
Rights Watch investigated bonded child labor in the beedi industry of
Tamil Nadu only.

Beedi rolling is stationary work; the children sit cross-legged on the
ground or floor all day, with a large and smoothly-woven shallow
basket in their laps. The basket holds a pile of tobacco and a stack
of rectangular rolling papers cut from the large leaves of the tendu
plant. The child takes a paper, sprinkles tobacco into it, rolls it up
tightly, and ties it with string. The tips are closed either by the
roller herself or by a younger child, typically four to seven years
old; young children often begin their beedi careers by working as tip
closers.

The pace is rapid, with practiced children rolling and tying each
beedi cigarette in a matter of seconds. Most of the older children-
those over ten-roll 1,500 to 2,000 beedies each day. In order to
encourage speed, employers keep close vigil over the child workers,
scolding them or hitting them if they slow down. Some children have
been forced to work with a matchbox tucked between their chin and
their neck; in order to hold the box in place, they must keep their
head down and focused on the work. If the matchbox falls, the employer
knows the child has looked away and will punish her or him.

Children working under bondage in the beedi industry work between ten
and fourteen hours a day, with short breaks for lunch and dinner. They
work six and a half days a week year-round, but are only paid for six-
the half day on Sunday is a designated "catching up" day. When
children fail to report to work,either because of sickness or out of
rebellion at the harsh conditions, their employer typically will go to
their house and return them to the workplace under force.

The structure of work and bondage

Entire families are dedicated to the production of beedi. Usually it
is the children who work as bonded laborers, with adults managing to
buy their own freedom by the time they reach maturity or marry. For
these poor families, bondage is a cyclical phase, a defining
characteristic of childhood and youth. Generations repeat the steps:
as children they are bonded; as young adults they buy or win their
release; as mature adults (thirty or thirty-five years is middle-aged
in India) they face growing economic pressures-illnesses, weddings and
funerals, crop failures, housing needs, alcohol addiction. At the same
time that financial need increases, they find their earning power
decreasing, as the years of childhood labor take their toll on
physical strength and capability. The moneylender-employer offers an
advance for the rights to the parent's child, the advance is accepted,
and the cycle begins anew.

In other cases, the entire family works in bondage. A regional paper
carried the following story:

When she was six years old, she was pledged for two measures of ragi92
by her parents to a beedi-rolling agent in their village... Day after
day, from dawn to dusk, she rolled beedies for twelve long years.
There was no play, no school.

Today, at thirty, she is still in bondage, rolling beedies. She did
have a brief period of respite though. Before marriage, her parents
redeemed her. Gouramma was eighteen years old then. But her new found
freedom was lost as her alcoholic husband pledged her for Rs 3,000,
even before he actually tied the knot. (He had first pledged himself
for Rs 4,000.)

Today the couple has four children, three of them already bonded
labourers [aged ten, seven, and five]. If the parents had their way,
they would have pledged two year-old Vijayalakshmi, too, but she has
no value in the bonded labour market at present. The parents need not
worry: in a year's time the three year-old's nimble fingers will be
ready for the work.

The "staggering" sum fetched by the pledging of the entire family is
Rs 14,000. "What a life I have led! And what a life I have given my
children!" says Gouramma.93

The structure of the debt arrangement in the beedi industry is
different from that of most other bonded industries, where at least a
fraction of the value of the child's labor serves to whittle away at
the principal amount owed, at least in theory. (As we will see in
discussing the other industries, additional charges and punishments
often mean that the debt goes up instead of down.) In beedi, however,
the "advances" given to secure the child workers are not paid off by
the child's labor, no matter how long she or he works for the
bondmaster. In fact, they are not really advances at all, but loans,
against which the child's labor functions as both surety and
interest.

Whether they are 500 rupees or 4,000 rupees, these loans must be paid
back in one lump-sum payment. The child will not be released
otherwise, no matter how many thousands of rupees her labor brings to
the agent over the years. The lump-sum payback requirement is an
extremely harsh condition for the poor, and difficult to meet. Often,
the only way a parent can come up with that kind of money is through a
loan with another agent or by bonding another child. Bonded beedi
rollers are paid between 20 and 30 percent of the wages they would be
entitled to on the open market. The remaining 70 to 80 percent of the
value of their wages is kept by the agents, nominally as interest.
This system results in effective annual interest rates ranging from
300 to 500 percent. The meager daily wages of the children are further
reduced by "penalties," often bogus, for sloppy work or other alleged
infractions of workplace rules.

A look at the production and earnings of bonded beedi rollers
demonstrates just how lucrative this arrangement is for the bond
master.

Twelve-year-old Raju was pledged at the age of eight in exchange for a
1,500 rupee loan. He told Human Rights Watch that he rolled 1,000
beedies a day, for which he earned six rupees. The government-
established minimum wage forrolling beedi in Tamil Nadu is 30.90
rupees per thousand beedies.94 After paying Raju his six rupees, then,
the agent would have cleared a some twenty-five rupees of profit every
day if compensated at the minimum wage rate, enough to compensate him
for the original loan in a mere two months. Instead, Raju worked for
the agent for four years, netting his employer up to 40,000 rupees in
the process.

Kalidasbhai, thirteen years old, told Human Rights Watch that she
earned ten rupees a day for rolling 2,000 beedies, possibly netting
his agent more than fifty rupees daily. This is enough money to clear
the original debt of 2,000 rupees in a month and a half. Instead,
Kalidasbhai is in his seventh year of working for the bond master.

Twelve-year-old Katankari earns five rupees a day for rolling 1,500
beedies-her agent keeps the other forty rupees to which she is
entitled. Were the value of her labor applied against her parents'
original loan of 1,000 rupees, she would be free in three and a half
weeks. She told Human Rights Watch that she was in her fifth year of
bondage.

These are typical cases. Other children suffer even more severe
exploitation. Ten year-old Kumar earned only two rupees a day for
rolling 1,500 beedies. The loan taken against him was for 500 rupees.
At his rate of production, his original debt obligation should have
been canceled in less than two weeks. He worked for his agent for four
years before his father, concerned by the agent's abuse of the boy,
managed to free him. Several other children interviewed also earned
only two or three rupees a day.

Children selling their labor freely earn four, five, or six times as
much as their bonded counterparts. Sixteen-year-old Appanraj rolls
1,500 cigarettes a day and earns fifty rupees.95 Fourteen-year-old
Mamta earns forty rupees a day; beforeher liberation by a
nongovernmental organization, she earned five to ten rupees a day for
the same amount of work. Prabhu, fifteen, was also freed three years
ago and saw his earnings quadruple overnight, from nine a day to forty
a day. Now that he is compensated for his work, he is able to both pay
back the loan that freed him and support his family.

Even these best-off beedi-rolling children lead difficult lives.
Prabhu began working in the beedi industry at the age of four in
exchange for a 1,500 rupee loan. Initially, he earned one rupee a day.
Now he is "free" and works at home; nonetheless, he is marked by
exhaustion and defeat.

I have been working since I was a small child. There is no freedom for
me. I want to study-that is my desire, but my parents can not permit
it. If I am not working, my family will not live. They are depending
on my wages.

Employer abuse

Panjaran, a ten-year-old boy pledged at the age of six for a 500 rupee
advance, told Human Rights Watch:

The agent would beat me with a stick if I was not there on time, he
beat me if I could not roll 1,500 beedies a day, and he beat meif I
was tired. I had to roll eight beedies a minute. If I failed he would
beat me. If I looked around, he beat me. He made me put a matchbox
under my chin; if it fell, he would beat me.

Punishment is common for a variety of infractions: arriving late,
working slowly, making a mistake in the work, talking to other workers-
even missing work because of illness can lead to punishment. With very
few exceptions, the children we interviewed all complained of being
beaten and severely scolded. The beatings consisted of being hit,
usually by the agent's open hand, on the arms or head. A few children
reported being beaten by sticks on their arms. The children clearly
resent and fear their agents as a result of this verbal and physical
mistreatment, and the emotional damage of long-term abuse was much in
evidence. Other researchers have found more extreme examples of abuse
at the hands of employers. Until the early 1990s, the matchbox-under-
the-chin form of compulsion and control was quite common, and even
measures such as chaining children in place were not unusual.96 As
recently as 1993, a social worker found a fourteen-year-old beedi
roller who was kept shackled in leg irons. The boy, who had been
bonded for 2,000 rupees, had once attempted to escape, and his
employer had kept him in shackles ever since.97 Although these forms
of abuse have decreased significantly in villages where social
activists have been working to increase public awareness, there is no
evidence to suggest the practices have changed significantly in more
remote villages, where outside intervention has not taken place.

Sangeetha, an eleven-year-old girl, has been in bondage to a beedi
agent for one year, in exchange for an advance of 500 rupees. She
works fourteen hours a day, six and a half days a week, and earns four
rupees a day. On November 14, 1995, Sangeetha went to a Children's
Day98 function in a neighboring town, where participating activists
spoke of freeing bonded child laborers. Her agent learned of
Sangeetha's participation and beat her when she returned. Now she is
terrified of him.

Health hazards

Kumar: "Rolling beedi is so hard. We sit all day. My back hurts. I
want to be able to play."

Beedi is one of the twenty-five industries classified by the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act as hazardous. Beedi rollers
suffer chronic back pain from sitting hunched over their work all day.
The long hours of maintaining this unnatural position sometimes
interfere with normal growth patterns, causing stunted growth or
physical deformities among those who spend their childhoods rolling
beedi. As adults, these children will be restricted in the types of
work they are physically able to do; they will not be able to perform
hard manual labor and may in fact be restricted to beedi rolling for
their entire productive lives.99 Large muscle groups are neglected and
atrophy during years of sitting six and a half days a week, for twelve
or more hours a day. In the words of one local beedi activist, the
children grow up "small, puny, and malnourished."100

In addition to back ailments, many of the children interviewed by
Human Rights Watch complained of pain in their hands and wrists, which
suffer from the constant repetitive motion of rolling and tying the
cigarettes. "My hands would hurt so bad sometimes I thought I couldn't
work," said Chintamani, a twelve-year-old boy who had been rolling
beedies for three years. But, as Chintamani's mother pointed out, he
had to work despite the pain. "If the child misses work because he is
in pain or sick with fever or disease, the agent will beat him and
take him back," she told Human Rights Watch.

The damage to the body is cumulative and progressive. "As the worker
gets older her/his fingers become numb and, unlike a young worker, an
older worker has to make three or four attempts to roll a beedi. The
nature of beedi work is such that a worker cannot take his/her eyes
off it even for a moment if he/she is to make the required number of
beedies for a day. This takes its toll on people's eyesight as they
grow older."101

The most serious health hazard of the beedi industry is lung disease.
Beedi rollers spend their lives constantly inhaling tobacco dust, and
study after study has shown them to suffer a high rate of
tuberculosis, asthma, and other lungdisorders.102 Of the twenty-six
child beedi rollers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, six (23
percent) had parents who were either dead or dying as a result of
tuberculosis.103 If the cycle continues unchanged, in twenty-five
years these children will themselves be dying, while their own sons
and daughters breathe tobacco dust and grow feeble.

Applicable domestic law

The trend over the last three decades has been one of increasing
decentralization of beedi production. The main reason for this has
been the evasion of legal obligations, since nearly all legislative
safeguards and restrictions apply only to formal work sites-factories,
"industrial premises," and the like. Beedi rolling that occurs in a
home environment-whether it be the home of the worker or not-is not
covered by the two primary labor welfare laws affecting beedi rollers:
the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986, and the
Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act of 1966.

The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment)

Act of 1966

The Beedi and Cigar Workers Act (Beedi Act) was enacted by the central
government in response to a beedi workers' movement mounted in the
early 1960s in Tamil Nadu. The Beedi Act prohibits the employment of
children under fourteen in any beedi or cigar factory. It also sets
maximum hours of work (nine hours a day and forty-eight hours a week),
prescribes half-hour rest intervals after five hours of work, and
limits the work week to six days. In the case of child workers, the
Beedi Act puts the onus of proof of age on the employer-an example the
writers of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
inexplicably and unfortunately chose not to follow.

For the child laborer, however, and for most adult beedi rollers as
well, these protections are for naught. The Beedi Act safeguards the
rights only of those working in "industrial premises," defined as "any
place or premises (not being aprivate dwelling-house)," (emphasis
added) where the beedi process is carried on, with or without the use
of power.104

Not surprisingly, after passage of this protective measure, the beedi
manufacturing units began to disperse. Large rolling centers were
disbanded and the contract system grew.105 Under this system, the
owner distributes tobacco and tendu leaves to middlemen, who in turn
contract local agents. These agents either employ beedi rollers
directly, in the agent's home, or farm the work out to daily wage
laborers. Those who work out of their own homes usually do so with the
help of family members (the youngest child may close the tips, another
may cut the leaves, and so on). These extremely decentralized
processes free the owner and his agents from worrying about compliance
with the law.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act

As with the Beedi Act, glaring loopholes in the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act allow manufacturers to escape
application of the law quite easily. After passage of the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, the beedi industry intentionally
fragmented itself even further in order to avoid coming within the
terms of the act. By 1996, approximately 90 percent of beedi rolling
took place in private homes, either the house of a contracted worker
or the house of the contracting agent. In the former case, a child
working with one or both parents would not be protected by the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. In the latter case, a child
worker would theoretically be protected by the act. However,
contracting agents frequently lie, claiming that the children are
relatives in order to avoid application of the law.

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act

The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act

Both acts are violated by the practice of debt servitude in the beedi
industry.

Enforcement: the North Arcot District Collector's scheme

The North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu is home to some of the worst
and most extensive bondage of child beedi rollers in the country.106
Of the 150,000 beedi workers in that district, an estimated 30,000 to
45,000 are bonded child laborers.107 Entire clusters of villages are
given over to the production of beedi, and to walk through these
villages is to see evidence of the industry everywhere. Children sit
rolling cigarettes under trees and in doorways, to catch the light.
Large baskets stuffed full of bundles of beedies sit near agents'
doors. Stacks of uncut tendu leaves and piles of tobacco in the
morning become a box full of thousands of cigarettes by the night. It
appears that every second person on the street, from the very young to
the very old, has the tips of his or her fingers stained a deep orange
brown. Beedi is a way of life in these towns of North Arcot, and so is
bondage.

In the spring of 1995, the district collector for North Arcot
initiated a scheme for combating this high rate of child bondage.
Denominated CLASS, for Child Labour Abolition Support Scheme, the
program pulls together resources from already-existing government
programs, such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme, the
Drought Prone Areas Programme, and the Development of Women and
Children in Rural Areas program, and directs them toward a focused
attack on bonded child labor in the beedi industry. It is the first
and only program of its kind currently in operation in India.

District Collector M. P. Vijaykumar began the CLASS campaign by
organizing a child labor census. Ten thousand village literacy
volunteers were mobilized, and on April 14, 1995, they conducted a one-
day survey of 313,940 households in North Arcot. The overall results
of the census have not yet been released, but the collector did make
public the data for one representative beedi village, Kasikuttai,
which was chosen to be a model for the scheme'simplementation. The
survey found that 159 of Kasikuttai's 174 families were engaged in the
beedi industry; sixty-six of these families had children under the age
of fourteen working in the production of beedi; and, of these 102
child beedi workers, forty-one were in bondage.108

The collector estimated that in 1995, 1,000 of the 5,000 hamlets in
North Arcot district had a significant bonded child labor problem.109
His immediate goal was to establish CLASS programs in one hundred of
these villages, working on behalf of an estimated 7,000 bonded child
laborers.110 When Human Rights Watch met with District Collector
Vijaykumar in late November 1995, he claimed to be operating CLASS
initiatives in forty-three villages. In these project areas of North
Arcot, 1,455 children reportedly had been released from bondage by the
end of October 1995.111

Whether those children ostensibly released from bondage under the
collector's scheme actually go free, or are able to remain free, is
another matter. Human Rights Watch visited several of the beedi
villages where CLASS was operative and spoke with children "liberated"
under the program, as well as with local activists, schoolteachers,
and government administrators. We discovered that approximately 30
percent of all the children "freed" by the collector were in fact
still working in servitude to their bond masters. Some of these
children worked full-time for the agents, as before, while others
worked before and after school, beginning their days at 6:00 a.m. at
the agent's house and ending there at 9:00 p.m. With only one
exception, the length of additional servitude was indeterminate and at
the agent's discretion.

When the CLASS program began in the first few villages, the collector
approached agents employing bonded child labor and offered to
compensate them at 50 percent of the original loan amount in exchange
for the release of the bonded children. (The money was to be paid not
by the government, but out of a local women's savings and loan scheme
facilitated and supported by the government, with some government
financial contributions.) The amount of 50 percent wasproposed not as
a compromise between full repayment (honoring the status quo) versus
zero repayment and prosecution of the offending agents (strict
application of the law), but as an amount that purported to reflect
what the agents would be entitled to had they offset the original
loans against a reasonable value of the children's labor. Collector
Vijaykumar threatened to prosecute those bond masters who did not
accept this offer.112

In the villages visited by Human Rights Watch, the agents had accepted
the offer, but not all of them had honored it.

The continuing compulsion of children whom the collector had
purportedly freed was common knowledge, including among the CLASS
administrators and teachers. When we told District Collector
Vijaykumar about the ongoing bondage in his model villages, he
admitted knowing that children were still working mornings and nights
to pay the other half of the original loans, but seemed undisturbed by
this state of affairs. He revealed no intention of prosecuting these
recalcitrant agents, or even of going to the nearby village to talk to
them. In fact, despite this knowledge of ongoing servitude, both he
and CLASS staff continued to refer to these villages as "bonded labor-
free. "The high failure rate of the collector's scheme can be
attributed to the traditional acceptance of debt bondage by all
sectors of society. It can be attributed as well to the collector's
own participation in the system, a participation revealed by his
reluctance to prosecute, his refusal to free the children outright
despite having the legal mandate to do so, and his conciliatory
approach to the bond masters, including treating the bond debts as
valid and legitimate.

The following description of the CLASS program reveals its
conservative and timid nature. That this is the boldest program in the
country is a discouraging testament to the government's low
prioritization of recovering children from bonded labor.

The CLASS program has four prongs, of which rehabilitation of the
child worker is only one. The other three are: improving the incomes
and savings of at-risk families, fostering social and attitudinal
changes in these families, and placing the liberated children into
educational or vocational training programs. The overall thrust of the
program is not to bring an immediate halt to the illegal bondage and
exploitation of child workers by their agents, for example through
enforcement of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act. Instead, the
emphasis is on a long-term transformation of the poorest beedi-rolling
families: encouraging them to save, providing support to their
attempts to free their daughters and sons, and making greater
educational opportunities available to their children. The scheme is
attempting to break the cycle of poverty that results in endemic
bondage.

In all this, the initiative is important and laudable. At the same
time, it is alarmingly acquiescent to the agents and owners of the
beedi industry and to the status quo.

The CLASS project proposes to rehabilitate children from bondage by:

Staggered repayment of the borrowings from middlemen with the aid of
loans from the Group Support Fund made up of the mothers' savings and
the matching grant from the project.

Institutional support in dealings with the middlemen and in eliciting
their cooperation.

Attitudinal changes within the families about the need and the ability
to dispense with bonded child labour in favour of primary education
and vocational training.113

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act is unequivocal. It declares
illegal any agreement purporting to exchange labor for a loan, and
where such debts do exist, it extinguishes them. It subjects employers
or others who attempt to make or enforce debt bondage agreements to a
fine of up to 2,000 rupees, or three years in prison, or both.
Furthermore, and most significant for this discussion, "[b]y making
the offences cognizable under the act, the State has undertaken the
direct responsibility for the implementation of the act, and . . .
doesnot leave it to the initiative of the affected individuals."114 In
fact, the act can only by applied by government officials in the form
of criminal proceedings-the act specifically precludes civil court
jurisdiction. In other words, the state has adopted full
responsibility for eradicating bonded labor. This obligation is not
being met in the vast majority of districts, where absolutely no
attempts have been made to thwart the bondmasters. Nor is it being met
in North Arcot district, the model district of the state of Tamil Nadu
and of the country overall.

At the same time, the CLASS program has created a positive precedent
for at least some government action. District Collector Vijaykumar and
the numerous civil servants working with him to create and sustain the
CLASS program together constitute an irrefutable example that it is
possible for government to combat bonded child labor. What is more,
the collector has insisted that other government administrators cannot
excuse their inaction as a function of lack of resources. "Resources
are not the issue," he told Human Rights Watch. "The existing schemes
provide enough money and personnel. The issue is commitment."115

Mani, a thirteen-year-old boy, has been in bondage since the age of
six, when his parents accepted a 2,000 rupee loan in order to build a
house. He spent seven years working ten hours a day, six and a half
days a week.

Mani was one of the children in his village to be released in late
1995 under the North Arcot District Collector's scheme. After his
ostensible release, the agent he worked for came to his house and told
him that he still owed 1,000 rupees and that he must work mornings and
nights to pay it off. Consequently, Mani now works for three hours
before school and for three hours after, rolling 1,000 beedies a day,
for which he is paid five rupees. He also works Sundays half days,
without pay. He told Human Rights Watch:

I have to work until the debt is settled; I don't know when that will
be. My father is disabled. The agent takes advantage of me because he
sees that there is no support. My income is the only income we have,
that is why I have to work. My family scolds me for going to school.

Munirathna, a twelve-year-old girl, was sold into bondage when her
father died in 1993. Like Mani, she was one of the children freed by
the collectorin late 1995; he arranged for payment of half of the
1,000 rupee advance given for Munirathna. Also like Mani, Munirathna's
agent refused to release her, claiming that she still owed him the
other 500 rupees. She continues to work for the bond master ten hours
a day, six and a half days a week. She is paid twenty rupees a week.

There are six children in Munirathna's family: two boys and four
girls. One boy studies and one is an electrical worker. Munirathna is
the oldest of the girls, all of whom roll beedi. Five of Munirathna's
friends also continue working in servitude despite the intervention of
the collector.

I am very sad that my father died; so is my mother. Whenever I go to
work for the agent he scolds me. I am very sad with my life.

Ramesh, a thirteen-year-old boy, was put into bondage in 1993 for a
2,500 rupee advance; his parents took the money so they could build a
house. Ramesh was working six and a half days a week, from 7:00 a.m.
until 9:00 p.m., rolling 1,500 beedies a day. If he rolled less than
1,500 cigarettes, the agent would beat him.

Although "freed" by the collector, Ramesh continues to work for the
agent before and after school. Instead of working fourteen hours a day
he now works from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. and from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.,
rolling 500 beedies a day and earning five rupees. Ramesh told Human
Rights Watch:

I don't like to roll beedies-my hands get stiff and hurt, and I would
rather be studying. But the collector only settled half of the debt,
so I have to work to pay the rest.

In 1991, the Supreme Court of India ordered that child labor in
tobacco manufacturing units, which threaten childrens' health, should
be prohibited. In addition, the court ordered state governments to
formulate a plan to either end child labor immediately or phase
children out of the beedi industry, within three years. By mid-1996,
no such plans had been implemented.116

SILVER

The city of Salem, Tamil Nadu has been a major producer of
domestically-consumed silver jewelry117 since 1980. Of the 100,000
child laborers working in Salem district,118 an estimated 10,000 are
working in silver smithies.119 These workers are concentrated in towns
given over largely to the silver industry, augmenting the dwindling
possibilities of subsistence agriculture. In the town Human Rights
Watch visited, there were five hundred residents, two hundred of whom
were children under the age of fifteen. One hundred and thirty-five of
these children were laboring in the production of silver.120 It is
reported to be an entirely bonded industry.121

Boys and girls enter the industry in equal numbers, usually between
the ages of six and eight but occasionally as young as five years old.
Most remain bonded and continue working in the silver industry
throughout childhood and adolescence. During this time, they may move
from employer to employer, receiving a bigger advance from their new
employer so that they might both pay off their previous employer and
enjoy a small-and temporary-boost in their cash flow. This new and
higher debt must then be worked off, or passed on to a younger sibling
when the worker leaves the employer. All girl workers expect to leave
their jobs at the time of marriage. Young men may try to eke out a
living throughagriculture, or stay in silver and work their way up the
wage scale. The maximum pay for a non-bonded man with twenty-five
years of experience is forty rupees a day.

In addition to maintaining a cheap and compliant workforce, another
impetus for bondage is the silversmiths' desire to maintain a skilled,
productive worker. In many cases, an advance is not immediately
offered to the parents of the child. Instead, parents contact agents
or agents offer to "train" children on the pretense of teaching
children a marketable skill. Parents, believing this will be
beneficial for their children, agree. The child is then made to work
as an apprentice for approximately six months to a year. The length of
the training period is largely based on the child's ability to learn.
During this time, the child is paid about two rupees per day. The
advance is not offered to the parents until after the initial training
period. This training period allows owners to spot children that may
be especially productive or who have a natural aptitude for the work.
In this respect, the bonded labor system in the silver industry has
evolved to the point of incorporating a screening process for children.
122

The average advance for a six-year-old is 5,000 rupees. Although
interest is not added to the principal amount owed, the disparity
between the extremely low rate of wages paid and the minimum wage is
equivalent to an effective annual interest rates in the range of 300
percent. Beginning children earn one to five rupees a day, while
accomplished child workers earn ten rupees a day. Bonded workers
fifteen and older can make as much as twenty or twenty-five rupees a
day; these wages reflect ten years or more of experience.

Unlike beedi, agents in the silver industry do allow gradual repayment
of the initial advance. Given the low wages paid, however, only the
oldest and most skilled workers stand a chance of actually paying back
their loans. In some cases, the ability for a child to pay back the
loan is largely based on the silversmith's opinion of the child, as
one employer told us:

If the child is good and works hard and is reliable we let them pay
back the loan on time, but if they are lazy or don't do enough work,
it will take them a lot longer to repay it.123

Depending on the employer, children work six days a week, six and a
half days a week, or twenty-eight days a month, with the days of the
new and full moon off. The typical work day is twelve hours long, from
8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. This increases by up to four hours a day during
the two or three months preceding Diwali, the "festival of the
lights." Diwali usually falls in late October or early November.

Health hazards and employer abuses

Children work in a variety of jewelry-making phases. They create
linked chains by cutting circles of silver from a tightly coiled rod
and hooking them into each other. They flatten chains with heavy
hammers, preparing them to be decorated with silver flowers and other
adornments. They solder the decorations on to the jewelry, and they
weld on hooks and screws and other fasteners. Children also polish and
finish the pieces of jewelry, turning them from dark brown metal into
gleaming trinkets. Each one of these processes carries its own risk.
Several children interviewed showed us their work scars: cuts and
burns on their fingers, hands, arms, legs, and feet. These injuries
are caused by the metal and metalworking tools used to cut and fashion
jewelry, the blowtorches used to weld it, and the acid mixes used to
polish the final silver product.

The detail work of cutting and fashioning chains creates eye strain
and headache. This is exacerbated by the requirement that the children
remain still for long periods of time and work quickly, with intense
concentration. One boy showed us how to make a chain. In less than two
minutes he had created four inches of chain, rapidly snapping the tiny
circles off the rod and just as quickly pinching them together with a
pair of pincer pliers. Children are expected to maintain this pace
during their twelve hours or more of work. In addition to the damage
this causes to the eyes, there is a constant danger of cuts to the
children's hands and fingers, which are continually exposed to sharp
tools and to the points and edges of unfinished metal.

Welding poses a more serious threat to the eyes. The children are
given no protective masks or goggles of any kind, and the blowtorches
used are primitive contraptions, fueled by kerosene and with an
unregulated flame. Because it is detail work, as the children weld
they must keep their eyes near the point of junction, looking straight
into the flame. Welders' eyes sting and tear and their vision becomes
blurry. Several children told us that this was their primary health
concern. Burns from welding and falling pieces of hot metal are other
routine workplace dangers.

The jewelry-polishing process is extremely hazardous. It requires
children to drop the completed pieces into sulfuric acid (H2SO4) until
they turn the brightwhite of silver. Wearing no protective gloves,
they have to mix the acid as well, and during both the mixing and the
polishing stages suffer chemical burns on their hands, arms, legs, and
feet. Other children told of hammer heads flying off without warning
and of sparks flying into their eyes during welding.

Long-term health hazards include lung diseases, caused by breathing
the sulphuric acid fumes; tuberculosis, caused by the cramped and
unsanitary conditions; and physical deformities, particularly of the
back, caused by the long years of working in a hunched and still
position.

Applicable domestic law

The Factories Act

Although silver is a cottage industry in Salem, the size of the
manufacturing units is sometimes large enough to bring them under the
purview of the Factories Act.124 Several of the children interviewed
reported working in factories of more than ten employees, and one
reported working in a factory employing twenty-five children and a
number of adults. Because even small shops rely on the use of power
for soldering, the Factories Act would apply in both such cases.

The act not only prohibits the employment of children, but also sets
forth health and safety guidelines that are routinely violated by the
conditions and practices of the silver smithies. These include
ventilation requirements where injurious fumes are present (Sec. 14);
a prohibition on the use of dangerous machines by children and
adolescents (Sec. 23); and limitations on exposure to chemical and
toxic substances (Sec. 41-F). Stipulated working hours and periods of
rest (Secs. 51 - 55, Sec. 71) are also flouted as a matter of course.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act

Silver working is not a prohibited occupation for children under the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. The Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act's regulations regarding the
conditions of work by children do apply, however, and are violated
across the board by the employer practices described above. Provisions
violated include the right to an hour of rest after three hours of
work; a maximum work day of six hours; a prohibition on child work
before 8:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m.; a prohibition on overtime; a
mandatory day of rest every week; and the requirement that various
health and safety precautions be observed.

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act

The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act

Both acts are violated by the practice of debt servitude in the silver
industry.

Enforcement

As of December 1995, there had been no effort by any government
official to inspect or control these factories or to enforce the legal
prohibitions on bonded labor. According to local activists, the Salem
district collector was planning to start a "special school" for child
laborers in 1996, with financial assistance from UNICEF.

Speaking on behalf of District Collector Hans Rej Verma, the Salem
district project officer for child labor confirmed that the district
had begun a program of five non-formal education centers, each to
attend to fifty child workers.125 The schools were to provide these
250 children with three hours of non-formal schooling in the evenings
after work, teaching them "practical and useful" skills. The
beneficiaries would be drawn from the four main industries employing
child labor in the area: beedi, textiles, silver jewelry, and
tapioca.

This initiative-for part-time "practical" education for a relative
handful of child workers-appeared to be the district's only initiative
vis à vis its child labor problem. According to the collector's
office, as of December 1995 there had been no prosecutions under
either the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act or the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, and no prosecutions for child labor
violations under the Factories Act.126

The district's project officer on child labor told Human Rights Watch:
"In Salem totally there are no bonded labourer children. Definitely
not."127

Testimonies Given to Human Rights Watch by Bonded Child Silver Workers
in Salem

Selvakumar, a twelve-year-old boy, was sent by his parents to the
silversmith at the age of eight because he was "not studying
properly." They received a 3,000 rupee advance for their son; his
mother later approached the employer for additional loans, which he
gave her. Selvakumar's work schedule varied according to the season.
During the months leading up to the holiday of Diwali, the workers are
driven at a furious pace, and Selvakumar worked from 7:30 a.m. until
midnight or 1:00 a.m. the following morning. After the holidays, the
demand for silver drops, and the silver shops return to an 8:00 a.m.
to 8:00 p.m. schedule. At the time he left the shop, Selvakumar was
earning 350 rupees a month.

He described the work as very difficult and very hot. His job was to
solder small decorative flowers to the jewelry and solder screws on to
earrings. "Very small pieces have to be placed in very small and
precise spots. We used a small wire for this job, like a bicycle
spoke. Sometimes the owner would beat me with this hot wire if he
thought I wasn't working properly. He would take the wire and beat me
on the arms."

After three years, Selvakumar ran away from the factory. The first
time he ran away, an older brother found him and brought him back. The
second time, the owner found him at a shelter for street children, but
the shelter's director refused to turn him over to the man. His mother
then came and took him back to the factory, but he did not last long.
He ran away a third and final time. Selvakumar did not return to his
parents' house and assumed that they had to pay back the original
loan. Selvakumar was interviewed by Human Rights Watch at a shelter
for street children.

Manojan, also twelve, could not remember when he began working, only
that it was a long time ago. When Human Rights Watch interviewed him,
he worked as a solderer, sitting in one spot all day long, from 8:00
a.m. until 8:00 at night. He worked with a crude blowtorch, welding
together the tiny silver links and decorations of bracelets and
necklaces. He had no mask to protect him from the flame, and his eyes
teared continuously from staring at the junction of flame and fine
metal pieces. He earned ten rupees a day.

Manojan's four brothers also worked in the silver smithies. His
sister, the eldest child, also worked in silver, until she married.
Then she left the industry and a young brother was brought in to
assume her duty of debt. Manojan became bonded for a 2,000 rupee
advance, his sister for one of 3,000 rupees. She was bonded eight
years ago. Despite her eight years of work for wages one-third of
theaverage minimum wage, her debt to the bondmaster was never reduced;
when her younger brother took her place, he inherited her full
original debt.

Manojan sang a song, which he learned at the non-formal education
center:

My mother is crying;

I'm working in a silver smithy at the age of six.

When I went to school the teacher opposed me-"You can't study here! Go
home!"

Now I am as if blind.

You send me to the factory because we are poor. But we will always be
poor.

You send me to the factory to earn a regular income. But instead of
regular income, I carry the heavy burden of a loan.

This loan burden is my poison.

Vennila, a fifteen-year-old girl, had been working in the silver
industry for five years when Human Rights Watch interviewed her.
Twenty-five people worked in her factory (enough to bring it under the
provisions of the Factories Act). The workers ranged in age from five
to fifteen and earned between five and twenty-five rupees a day. She
herself earned twenty rupees a day.

She and her brother were bonded at the same time in exchange for a
10,000 rupee advance. Her parents needed the money to pay off a loan
from the local moneylender, who charged an interest rate of 20
percent. She worked from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., six days a week. She
planned to stop working when she married, leaving her brother to repay
the total debt.

We lost all our chances at an early age. When I'm working in the shop,
I can see the children going by to school. I wish I were with those
school-going children.

Dhanraj, a nine-year-old, showed us the burn scars on his arms. He
began working at the age of six. Dhanraj was bonded together with his
three siblings after his father fell ill from emphysema. The four
children together netted an advance of 14,000 rupees.

Ramchandran, working in silver since the age of five, was fifteen
years old when interviewed by Human Rights Watch. He earned twenty
rupees a day,working eleven hours a day, six days a week. He was taken
to his first master by his father, who received 100 rupees in
exchange. In late 1995 he owed 4,000 rupees, which he was paying back
at the rate of 300 rupees a month-half of his salary. He hated the
work but knew he could not leave until the debt was cleared.

Papu claimed to be seven but had the body of a four-year-old. He
worked eleven hours a day, for which he earned two rupees. He knew
that his father received some money when Papu was first taken to the
master, but he did not know how much it was.

Shabnam, a thirteen-year-old girl, had been working in the silver
factories for eight years. She worked all day, with a half-hour for
lunch, and earned thirteen rupees. She was pledged together with her
brother for an 8,000 rupee advance. If the master had applied but one
and a half rupees per day of work toward liquidation of their debt-an
amount that would have still left him with the lion's share of unpaid
market-rate wages-both she and her brother would have been freed after
eight years. Instead, she told Human Rights Watch that they could see
no end in sight to their bondage.

SYNTHETIC GEMSTONES

Gem cutting and polishing is a traditional cottage-based industry. The
introduction of synthetic gems is fairly recent, however, with the
Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) synthetic gem industry dating back only to
the late 1980s. Approximately 95 percent of the total workers in this
industry are bonded and non-bonded women. Even though this is a
relatively young industry, the bonded labor system has managed to
adapt and evolve with it as an estimated 100,000 of the 160,000
workers in this industry are believed to be bonded.128 Bonded child
laborers in the synthetic gem industry number between 8,000 and
10,000.129 Nearly all of them are members of the scheduled castes.130

Synthetic gemstones are cut and polished in two districts of Tamil
Nadu- Trichy and Pudukottai. The industry produces for both domestic
and exportmarkets; its main product, the "American diamond" (cubic
zirconium), generates annual revenues of 100 million rupees, or about
three million U.S. dollars.131

The government of India has actively promoted the growth of the
synthetic gem industry. In 1990, it launched a scheme announced to be
intended to combat unemployment in the Trichy area while boosting
production of American diamonds. The scheme included the establishment
of a "gem park" in the city, an institution devoted to "introducing
the latest technology in cutting and polishing of American
diamonds."132 This new technology was brought in to replace the
traditional methods, which were deemed to be unacceptable to the
international market.133 The government offered local artisans
"scientific training" in the new methods, marketing support, and
financial "assistance" in buying "the latest semi-automatic
machines . . to make uniform calibrated stones."134 Most of the
participants in this scheme have been rural women.

A serious government oversight in undertaking this scheme was the
failure to foresee its practical effect of increasing child labor.135
There is a tendency forwomen workers' children to work alongside them,
assisting in the process and thereby boosting the piece-rate wages,
and frequently gem workers' young children accompany them and assist
them with their work. In this case, the government encouraged more
women to enter the gem industry without taking steps to limit the
influx of child workers. Safeguards against increasing child labor
could have included the facilitation of school attendance, the
providing of incentives for women to refrain from using their children
in the workplace, or ensuring that the development of this industry
was in compliance with Article 43 of the Indian Constitution, which
states:

The State shall endeavour to secure, by suitable legislation or
economic organization or in any other way, to all workers,

agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions
of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of
leisure and social and cultural opportunities and, in particular, the
State shall endeavour to promote cottage industries on an individual
or cooperative basis in rural areas.

There are a minimum of four layers in the production of synthetic
gemstones: the jewelry merchant; the producer, who ensures available
product for the market; the middleman, who secures the workers, often
through debt bondage or an essential analog; and the worker.
Production is decentralized, taking place primarily in small workshops
and private homes.

The gem industry is labor intensive, with every stage of the process
requiring careful attention. Some workers labor on their own machines
(see "government scheme," below), while others work in factories of up
to twenty machines. Older children are likely to be themselves bonded
and working independently for a master. This practice of family "help"
is encouraged by the piece-rate wage system.

[Sid Harth]

Judicial & crime statistics, facts and figures

Following are various stats, facts and figures on crime in India and
judicial data , picked out of newspapers (mainly Hindustan Times),
magazines (mainly India Today), the BBC and various sources on the
web. These figures are not meant to be comprehensive lists, but rather
statistical trivia or factual snippets. For basic general facts and
figures about India as well as several Indian states, please see the
Quick Reference popups on the right hand side of this page, or go to
the main page of India statistics, facts and figures . For a full list
of links to our statistics pages, see the About India index or the
bottom of the right navigation bar on this page.

Lines marked with an asterisk (*) are recently added entries.

stats on court cases, murder and jails in India

- pending court cases country wide: more than 20 million (end of
2002)
- persons in jail waiting for trial: over 1 million (end of 2002)
- conviction rate of court cases: around 1 percent (according to Prem
Shankar Jha)
- number of murders in India between 1998 and 2000: 37,170
- murders committed in Uttar Pradesh: 7,200 to 7,500 per year [HT Jun
04]
- occupancy of Muzzafarnagar district jail in UP: 1,155 prisoners
(oct 03)
- capacity of Muzzafarnagar district jail in UP: 530 prisoners (oct
03)
- number of prisoners jailed in 60 prisons in Uttar Pradesh: 50,939
(oct 03)

various crime statistics and data

- people who died instantly in Bhopal on 2-3 Dec 1984 from the Union
Carbide gas
leak: 1,700 [HT May 04]
- people who have died since Dec 1984 from after effects from the
Union Carbide
gas leak in Bhopal: 22,000 [HT May 04]
- people who continue to suffer from varied diseases affecting
respiratory,
reproductive systems as a result of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak
in Bhopal:
570,000 [HT May 04]
- * number of persons reported missing in Nithari (impoverished area
in Noida, Delhi): 41 within 2 years [REU Jan 07]
- * number of cases of kidnapping, murder and rape registered by the
CBI in
Noida relating to suspected serial killers Moninder Singh Pandher
and
Surendra Koli: 19 (CBI: (Central Bureau of Investigation) [REU Jan
07]
- * number of polythene bags containing body parts found in drains
near the
suspect: 40 [REU Jan 07]
- number of policemen in Delhi: 59,077 [HT Jun 04]
- number of finials missing at the Red Fort Delhi Gate: 10 (originals
could fetch each
about 33,600 Euro on black market)
- drop in crime in Delhi Nov 2003 (compared to Nov 2002): murder: -36
% --
robbery: -23 % -- extortion: -73 % -- rioting: -70 %
- number of crimes in the Chambal ravines (UP) within past 5 years:
approx 4,000
kidnappings & 180 murders (The UP government has proposed to combat
crimes and
bandits in the Chambal ravines by setting up a 371 acre lion safari
park with 5 lions to
attract tourists) [BBC, Aug 2005]

crime in Government / corruption

- candidates facing criminal charges in the Oct 2004 Maharashtra
election: 91 out
of 163 Shiv Sena party candidates -- 45 out of 111 BJP candidates
-- 31 out of 124
Nationalist Congress party candidates -- 30 out of 157 Congress
candidates [BBC Oct 04]
- number of UP candidates with a criminal record who made it to the
14th Lok
Sabha: at least 12 [HT May 04]
- number of Uttar Pradesh's MLAs who have been through processes of
the law
reserved for criminals: 205 (of a total of 403 MLAs - Member of the
Legislative
Assembly) [HT beginning 2004]
- amount of money taken by MPs in recent "cash for questions"
scandal:
232 - 10,000 US Dollars in bribes for asking questions in
parliament [BBC, Dec 2005]
- number of MPs suspended by India's main political parties for
taking bribes,
end 2005: 9 (Congress: 1 -- BJP: 5 -- BSP: 3) [BBC, Dec 2005]

some facts on laws, sentences & Court rules

- legal sentence for homosexuality: 10 years prison [BBC, Jan 2006]
- age of the colonial Indian Penal Code dealing with homosexuality:
145 years
[BBC, Jan 2006]
- year in which a petition for legalising homosexuality was dismissed
by the High
Court in Delhi: 2004 [BBC, Jan 2006]
- year in which the High Court in Delhi overturned the 1914
legislation and ruled
that women should be allowed to serve alcohol in public: 2005 [BBC,
Jan 2006]

"missing person" tourist stats

- number of registered "person gone missing" in the Kulu Valley (HP)
since 1992: 15
- estimated foreigners disappearance in the Kulu Valley (HP) for the
past decade: 50
(estimate by UK based pressure group Fair Trials Abroad)
- "mysterious" tourist deaths in Goa (jan 2003 - apr 2004): 59

data on crime against women

- official punishment for sex selection (i.e. abortion if child is
female): 3 years jail +
50,000 Rupees fine (equiv to 960 Euro)
- loss of female births within past 2 decades caused by abortion and
sex selection:
estimate of more than 10 million [BBC, Jan 2006]
- annual 'girl deficit' due to prenatal sex selection and selective
abortion: 500,000
according to researchers for the Lancet Journal [BBC, Jan 2006]
- rape cases pending in courts across the country: 56,000 [Oct 2003]
- * registered cases of rape in Delhi 2004: 550 [BBC, Aug 2005]
- rape cases in Delhi 2002: convicted: 98 -- acquitted: 344
- age of rape victims in Delhi: 75% are minors, and of those 25 % are
below 12 years
- registered cases of eve-teasing for Mar - Aug 2003 in Indian
metropoles: Delhi: 744
-- Mumbai:27 -- Kolkata:30 -- Chennai:143
- cases of rape for Mar - Aug 2003 in Indian metropoles: Delhi: 262
-- Mumbai: 40
-- Kolkata: 18 -- Chennai: 21
- officially recorded dowry deaths in major cities combined (Delhi,
Mumbai, Calcutta,
Chennai): 2002: 181 -- 2001: 121
- cases of crimes against women registered with the police in
Himachal Pradesh
2002: 920 (including 137 for rape, 138 for kidnap, 6 for dowry)
- Haryana cost of buffalo: 18,000 - 24,000 Rs (approx 345 - 460 Euro)
- Haryana cost of girl (human trafficking): 4000 Rs (approx 77 Euro)

some crime statistics of Himachal Pradesh
- number of cases of crime in HP from Apr 2003 to May 2004: 1,617
registered cases
- top on the Human Rights violators' list in Himachal Pradesh: Police
(HP Human
Rights Commission received 148 complaints involving police, that is
43 percent of the
complaints)
- cases registered under the NDPS Act in HP: 2002: 312 -- 2003:310
(NDPS: Narcotics, Drugs & Psychotropic Substances) [HT Mar 04]
- amount of drugs recovered by police in HP: 2002: 720 kg charas, 35
kg opium
-- 2003: 420 kg charas, 35 kg opium, 1.5 kg brown sugar
- number of police personnel involved in the annual "Destroy
Cannabis" operation
in the village of Malana in HP Sep 2004: team of 200 people from
Narcotics Control
Bureau, Kullu police and Home Guards [HT Sep 04]

stats on "Destroy Cannabis" operation in Malana Sep 2003 in HP
- cannabis growing area destroyed in Malana and surrounding: 1,100
bigha
(1 hectare = 12 bigha)
- duration of operation "Destroy Cannabis": 8 days (15 - 23
september)
- number of police or soldiers or helpers: 250 or more
- longest cannabis plant found: 15 feet 7 inches
- possible production from destroyed area: 300 kg charas
- area of destruction of cannabis fields in previous years: 1998: 939
bighas
-- 1999: 224 bighas -- 2000: 1,200 bighas -- 2002: 676 bighas (1
hectare = 12 bigha)

data sources & key:

AT: Asia Times, BBC: BBC online, BRIT: Britannica 2002, BSNL: BSNL
Telecom Trends, BSt: Business Standard, CIA: CIA Factbook India, CIN:
censusindia.net, CNEI: Chandigarh Newsline, c/net: c/net news, ConSu:
Content Sutra DI: Daily India, DNA: DNA India, EB: EquityBull, EI:
ExpressIndia, EW: EconomyWatch, FE: Financial Express, FL: Frontline,
GG: Gujarat Global, GTF: Global Technology Forum, GBoWR: Guinness Book
of World Records, HT: Hindustan Times, ID: IndiaDaily, IInfoLine:
India InfoLine IND: The Independent, ITo: India Today, NPBS: Nature
PBS, PhO: PhysOrg, RED: Rediff, REU: Reuters, Sify: Sify Broadband,
TH: The Hindu, TNJ: The News (Jang), ToI: Times of India, TT: The
Tribune,

http://www.neoncarrot.co.uk/h_aboutindia/india_crime_stats.html

Specimen Data Tables : Crime and Law

Cognizable Crimes Registered in India
(1995 to 2001)

Year Num.of Offences Ratio (IPC : SLL) Rate/100000 Inhab. Total

1995 1695696 4297476 1:2.53 5993172 -

1996 1709576 4586986 1:2.68 6296562 675.6

1997 1719820 4691439 1:2.73 6411259 671.2

1998 1778815 4403288 1:2.47 6182103 636.7

1999 1764629 3198902 1:1.78 4911730 497.8

2000 1771084 3396666 1:1.92 5167750 515.7

2001 1769308 3575230 1:02:02 5344538 520.4

Abbr.: IPC : Indian Penal Code.
SLL : Special and Local Laws.

Crime against Women

Figures at All-India / State level : (Currently showing India with
State Level consolidated figures) Andaman & Nicobar Islands |
Arunachal Pradesh | Assam | Chhattisgarh | Delhi | Goa | Himachal
Pradesh | Jharkhand | Kerala | Madhya Pradesh | Maharashtra | Manipur
| Orissa | Punjab | Rajasthan | Tamil Nadu | Tripura | Uttar Pradesh |
Uttaranchal | West Bengal |

(Data table headings are shown Year-wise in descending order)

Number of Cases Registered at National Commission for Women (NCW)
Related to Alleged Attacks on Women/Girl by Nature of Complaints in
India (01.11.2008 to 31.10.2009)

State/Age-Group-wise Victims of Total Rape Cases in India (2007)

Crime Head-wise Incidents of Crime Against Women in India (2001 to
2006)

Incidents of Custodial Rape in Police Custody in India (1995 to
2006)

Proportion of Crime Against Woman (Indian Penal Code) toward total
Indian Penal Code Crimes in India (1996 to 2006)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (Women and Children) under
Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 in India (2004 to 2006)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered for Atrocities against Women
and their Status in India (2006)

State-wise Number of Missing and Traced Men, Women and Children in
India (2006)

Number of Cases Detected and Persons Arrested in Flesh Trade in
India (2003 to 2005)

Selected City-wise Number of Crime Committed Against Women in India
(2005)

State/Selected City/Age-Group-wise Victims of Other (Rape) Cases in
India (2005)

State-wise Cases Registered and Case Charge Sheeted under Cruelty
by Husband and Relatives against Women in India (2001 to 2005)

State-wise Number of Cases of Procuration of Minor Girls, Selling/
Buying of Girls for Prostitution in India (2001 to 2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered for Atrocities against Women
and their Status in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered of Harassment (Molestation)
and Sexual Harassment of Women in India (2002 to 2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered Under Procuration of Minor
Girls in India (2003 to 2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered under Rape, Molestation and
Sexual Harassment in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Complaints for Harassment of Women at Work
Place Received and Disposed by National Commission for Women in India
(2002 to 2005)

State-wise Number of Complaints for Harassment of Women at Work
Place Received and Disposed of by Department of Women and Child
Development in India (2002 to 2005)

State-wise Number of Dowry Deaths Reported in India (1999 to
2005)

State-wise Number of Missing and Traced Men, Women and Children in
India (2005)

Cases Filed Against Clinics/Doctors for Communication of Sex of
Foetus in Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab (As on
31.3.2004)

Different Types of Crimes Committed Against Women in India (2001 to
2004)

Month-wise Number of Complaints Received by National Commission for
Women in India (April 2003 to March 2004)

Number of Complaints of Sexual Harassment Received in Prasar
Bharati in India (2001-2002 to 2003-2004)

State/Month-wise Atrocities Complaints Received Against Women by
National Commission for Women in India (2004)

State/Month-wise Atrocities Complaints Received Against Women by
National Commission for Women in India (2004)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered for Atrocities against Women
and their Status in India (2004)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered under Rape, Molestation and
Sexual Harassment in India (2002 to 2004)

State-wise Number of Complaints for Harassment of Women at Work
Place Received by National Commission for Women and Department of
Women and Child Development in India (2002 to 2004)

State-wise Number of Missing and Traced Men, Women and Children in
India (2004)

Number of Cases of Eve-Teasing and Rape Reported in Metropolitan
Cities of India (As on 1st March 2003 to 31st August, 2003)

Category/Month-wise Complaints Received in National Commission for
Women in India (2001-2002)

City-wise Number of Rapes and Rapes with Murders in India
(2000-2002)

Different Type of Crimes Committed Against Women in India (1998 to
2002)

Nature and Number of Complaints Received Against Women in India
(January 2000 to March 2002)

State-wise Cases Reported, Persons Arrested, Charge-Sheeted and
Convicted in Custodial Rape in India (2001 and 2002)

State-wise Number of Complaints Received regarding Crime against
Women in India (1997 to 2002)

State-wise Number of Missing Girls (14-18 Years) in India (2000 to
2002)

Category/Month-wise Complaints Received in National Commission of
Women in India (April, 2000 to March, 2001)

Missing Women Registered and Percentage of Women Recovered in Six
Metropolition Cities in India (1999 to 2001)

Number of Dowry Death Cases Reported in India (During 2000-2001)

State-wise Cases Disposal of Cruelty (Husband and Relatives) by
Police and Court in India (1999 to 2001)

State-wise Disposal of Dowry Prohibition Act Cases by Police and
Court in India (1999 to 2001)

State-wise Incidence of Incest Rape Cases Registered in India (1999
to 2001)

State-wise Incidence of Molestation and Percentage Variation Over
Previous Year in India (1999-2001)

State-wise Incidence of Procuration of Minor Girls, Selling/Buying
of Girls for Prostitution in India (During 2000 to 2001)

State-wise Incidence of Total Crime Committed Against Women in
India (1999 to 2001)

Crime Head-wise Incidents of Crime Against Women in India (1990 to
2000)

Different Types of Crimes Committed Against Women in India (1990 to
2000)

Disposal of Custodial Rape Cases by Courts in India (1995 to
2000)

Disposal of Custodial Rape Cases by Police in India (1995 to
2000)

State-wise Cases Reported, Persons Arrested, Charge-Sheeted and
Convicted in Custodial Rape in India (1998 to 2000)

State-wise Incidence of Rape (upto Available Month) in India (1998
to 2000)

State-wise Incidence of Sexual Harassment and Total Crime Committed
Against Women in India (1998 to 2000)

State-wise Number of Complaints handled by the National Commission
for Women in India (1998 to 2000)

State-wise Rape Cases Reported, Chargesheeted and Convicted in
India (During 1999-2000)

State-wise Trade of Girls for Prostitution in India (1999 and
2000)

Disposal of Crimes Against Women Cases by Courts in India (1997 to
1999)

Disposal of Crimes Against Women Cases by Police in India (1997 to
1999)

State-wise Incidence of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, Indecent
Representation of Women (Pre.) Act, Dowry Prohibition Act Committed
Against Women in India (1999) - Part III

State-wise Incidence of Molestation, Sexual Harassment (Eve-
Teasing), Importing of Girls Committed Against Women in India (1999) -
Part II

State-wise Incidence of Procuration of Minor Girls, Selling/Buying
of Girls for Prostitution in India (During 1998 to 1999)

State-wise Incidence of Rape, Kidnapping and Abduction, Dowry
Deaths and Cruelty by Husband and Relatives Committed Against Women in
India (1999) - Part I

Percentage Distribution of Various Crimes against Women in India
(1998)

State/Cities-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide Not
Amounting to Murder (C.H.) in India (1998) - Part I

State/Cities-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide Not
Amounting to Murder (C.H.) in India (1998) - Part II

State-wise Incidence of Immoral Traffic (P) Act, Indecent Rep. Of
Women (P) Act, Dowry Proh. Act Committed Against Women in India (1998)
- Part III

State-wise Incidence of Molestation, Eve-Teasing, Importing of
Girls and Sati-Prevention Act Committed Against Women in India (1998)
- Part II

State-wise Incidence of Rape, Kidnapping and Abduction, Dowry
Deaths and Cruelty by Husband and Relatives Committed Against Women in
India (1998) - Part I

Incidence and Rate of Crime Committed Against Women

Offenders Relation and Proximity to Rape Victims

Victims of Rape under Different Age Group

Releted Links
Indicators on Other Attainment

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/incidenceofcrime/130/crimeagainstwomen/17911/stats.aspx

Foetiside

Figures at All-India / State level : (Currently showing India with
State Level consolidated figures) Rajasthan |

(Data table headings are shown Year-wise in descending order)

Selected State-wise Number of Ultra-Sound Machines Sealed for Non-
Maintenance of Records/Non-Registration under Pre-Conception and Pre-
Natal Determination Techniques Act (PC & PNDT) in India (2005 and
2006)

State-wise Incidence of Female Foeticide in India (1994 to 2007)

State-wise Incidence of Female Infanticide in India (1999 to
2007)

State-wise Number of Bodies Registered, Court/Police Cases and
Machines Seized/Sealed under Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act 1994, in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Complaints Filed in Courts against Violators
of PC and PNDT Act/Rules in India (As on 31.7.2005)

State-wise Number of Bodies Registered, Court/Police Cases and
Machines Seized/Sealed under Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act 1994, in India (As on
31.3.2004)

State-wise Cases of Foeticide/Female Infanticide in India (2001 to
2003)

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/incidenceofcrime/130/foetiside/207039/stats.aspx

State/City-wise Incidence and Rate of Crime Committed
Against Women in India

(2000)

1 State/City
2 Incidence
3 % of Contrib.to All-India Total
4 Est.Mid -Year Pop.(In Lakh)
5 Rate of Cognizable Crimes
6 Rank*
7 Rank**

Andhra Pradesh

1 2 3 4 5 6

14299 10.1 758.5 18.9 4 3

Arunachal Pradesh

143 0.1 12.0 11.9 16 21

Assam

3732 2.6 263.0 14.2 11 13

Bihar

6299 4.5 1005.6 6.3 25 8

Goa

100 0.1 16.1 6.2 26 24

Gujarat

6140 4.3 484.9 12.7 14 9

Haryana 2.3 199.3 16.6 7 14

Himachal Pradesh

842 0.6 67.4 12.5 15 18

Jammu & Kashmir

1634 1.2 99.9 16.4 8 17

Karnataka

5852 4.1 523.0 11.2 19 10

Kerala 3.5 323.5 15.4 9 11

Madhya Pradesh

17902 12.7 802.3 22.3 2 2

Maharashtra

13177 9.3 914.3 14.4 10 5

Manipur

74 0.1 25.4 2.9 29 25

Meghalya

69 0.0 24.5 2.8 30 26

Mizoram

133 0.1 9.6 13.9 12 22

Nagaland

22 0.0 17.0 1.3 32 28

Orissa

4717 3.3 359 6 13.1 13 12

Punjab

2156 1.5 236.2 9.1 21 16

Rajasthan

12942 9.2 538 7 24.0 1 6

Sikkim

21 0.0 5.6 3.7 28 29

Tamil Nadu

13732 9.7 619 3 22.2 3 4

Tripura

330 0.2 38.1 8.7 24 19

Uttar Pradesh

18920 13.4 1715.4 11.0 20 1

West Bengal

7043 5.0 793.3 8.9 22 7

Total States

138572 98.0 9852 4 14.1 - -

Total (All-India)
141373 100.0 10021.4 14.1 - -

Cities

Ahmedabad
510
3.0
42.8
11.9
18
10

Bangalore
1255
7.5
57.1
22.0
7
3

Bhopal
320
1.9
16.9
19.0
10
15

Chennai
4037
24.0
67.5
59.8
1
1

Coimbatore
283
1.7
13.0
21.8
8
17

Delhi (City)
2122
12.6
120.6
17.6
11
2

Hyderabad
1227
7.3
71.5
17.2
12
4

Indore
372
2.2
14.6
25.6
5
13

Jaipur
804
4.8
22.1
36.4
3
7

Kanpur
956
5.7
24.8
38.6
2
5

Kochi
125
0.7
18.3
6.8
21
23

Kolkata
558
3.3
130.6
4.3
23
9

Lucknow
683
4.1
26.7
25.5
6
8

Ludhiana
289
1.7
17.3
16.7
13
16

Madurai
380
2.3
12.8
29.6
4
12

Mumbai
888
5.3
187.1
4.7
22
6

Nagpur
443
2.6
20.9
21.2
9
11

Patna
212
1.3
13.0
16.3
14
21

Pune
352
2.1
35.9
9.8
20
14

Surat
243
1.4
24.4
10.0
19
19

Vadodara
240
1.4
16.6
14.5
17
20

Varanasi
206
1.2
13.1
15.7
16
22

Vishakhapatnam
282
1.7
17.8
15.8
15
18

Total (Cities)
16787
100.0
985.4
17.0
-
-

Note : * : Rank on the basis of rate of total cognizable crime.
** : Rank on the basis of Percentage share.

http://www.indiastat.com/6/specimen.aspx

Crime against SC/ST

Figures at All-India / State level : (Currently showing India with
State Level consolidated figures) | Andaman & Nicobar Islands | Andhra
Pradesh | Arunachal Pradesh | Assam | Bihar | Chandigarh |
Chhattisgarh | Dadra & Nagar Haveli | Daman & Diu | Delhi | Goa |
Gujarat | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | Jharkhand |
Karnataka | Kerala | Lakshadweep | Madhya Pradesh | Maharashtra |
Manipur | Meghalaya | Mizoram | Nagaland | Orissa | Pondicherry |
Punjab | Rajasthan | Sikkim | Tamil Nadu | Tripura | Uttar Pradesh |
Uttaranchal | West Bengal |

(Data table headings are shown Year-wise in descending order)

Selected State-wise Central Assistance Released and Utilised under
Provision of Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989) in India
(2005-2006 to 2007-2008)

Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Scheduled Tribes by Court in India (2006)

State-wise Incidence (I), Rate (R) and Percentage Contribution (P)
of Crime Committed Against Scheduled Tribes in India (2006) - Part I

State-wise Number of Cases Ending Conviction under Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act. 1989) in India
(2004 to 2006)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered under Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in India (1998
to 2006)

Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Scheduled Tribes by Court in India (2005)

State-wise Funds Released Under Protection of Civil Rights Act,
1955 and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of
Atrocities Act, 1989) in India (1997-1998 to 2004-2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under Hurt of Scheduled
Castes (SC) (In Conjunction with SC/ST (P) of Atrocities Act) and PCR
Act in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under Hurt of Scheduled
Tribe (ST) (In Conjunction with SC/ST (P) of Atrocities Act) and PCR
Act in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under Kidnapping and
Abduction and Dacoity of Scheduled Tribe (ST) (In Conjunction with SC/
ST (P) of Atrocities Act) in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under Murder and Rape of
Scheduled Tribe (ST) (In Conjunction with SC/ST (P) of Atrocities Act)
in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under Robbery and Arson of
Scheduled Castes (SC) (In Conjunction with SC/ST (P) of Atrocities
Act) in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under Robbery and Arson of
Scheduled Tribe (ST) (In Conjunction with SC/ST (P) of Atrocities Act)
in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under SC/ST (P) of
Atrocities Act Only and Other Crimes Against Scheduled Castes (SC) in
India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered (CR), Persons Arrested (PA),
Persons Chargesheeted (PC), Total Persons Tried (PT), Persons
Convicted (PV) and Persons Acquitted (PQ) under SC/ST (P) of
Atrocities Act Only and Other Crimes against Scheduled Tribe (ST) in
India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered , Persons Arrested , Persons
Chargesheeted , Total Persons Tried , Persons Convicted and Persons
Acquitted under Kidnapping and Abduction and Dacoity of SC (In
Conjunction with SC/ST (P) of Atrocities Act) in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered, Persons Arrested, Persons
Chargesheeted, Total Persons Tried, Persons Convicted and Persons
Acquitted under Murder and Rape of SC (In Conjunction with SC/ST (P)
of Atrocities Act) in India (2005)

State-wise Number of Murder Cases Registered Against Scheduled
Caste and Scheduled Tribe in India (2005)

Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Scheduled Tribes by Court in India (2004)

State-wise Number of Atrocities Cases Registered under Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in
India (2002 to 2004)

Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Scheduled Tribes by Court in India (2003)

Number of Cases Registered under SC/ST (POA Act 1989 and PCR Act,
1955) in India (1997 to 2003)

State-wise Cases under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in Regard to Disposal of Cases by
Courts, Cases Ending in Conviction and Cases Pending in Courts in
India (1999 to 2003)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered by Police, Charge Sheeted in
Courts and Cases Disposed Off by Courts under Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in India
(2003)

Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Scheduled Tribes by Court in India (2002)

Selected State-wise Showing Disposal of Cases by Exclusive Special
Courts Booked Under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention
of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in India (31.12.2002)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered by Police, Charge Sheeted in
Courts and Cases Disposed Off by Courts under Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in India
(2002)

State-wise Police Atrocities Against Tribals in India (2000 to
2002)

State-wise Murder Committed Against SC/ST by Non-SC and ST in India
(2001 Upto available Months)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered by Police, Charge Sheeted in
the Courts and Cases Disposed off by Courts Under the Scheduled Castes
and the Secheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) in India Act,
1989 (2001)

Number of Crimes Against Scheduled Castes in India (1991 to 2000)

Percentage Share and Variation in IPC Crimes Against Scheduled
Castes in Total IPC Crimes in India (1992 to 2000)

State/UT with Maximum Percentage Contribution to Crimes against
Scheduled Caste in India (2000)

States with Maximum Percentage Contribution towards Various forms
of Crimes Committed against Scheduled Tribes (2000)

State-wise Number of Cases Acquital under Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in India (During
1998 to 2000)

State-wise Number of Cases Chargesheeted in Courts under Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in
India (During 1998 to 2000)

State-wise Number of Cases Conviction under Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in India (During
1998 to 2000)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered, Charge Sheeted in the Courts
and Cases Disposed off by Courts Under the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) in India Act, 1989 in
India (2000)

State-wise Number of Cases Registered, Charge Sheeted in the Courts
and Cases Disposed off by Courts Under the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) in India Act, 1989 (1999)

Cases Registered with Police under Different Crimes Head and
Atrocities on Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in India
(1995 to 1997)

Disposal of Cases for Committed Crimes Against Scheduled Castes by
Courts/Police

Disposal of Cases for Committed Crimes Against Scheduled Tribes by
Courts/Police

Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes Against
Scheduled Castes by Courts/Police

Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes Against
Scheduled Tribes by Courts/Police

Incidence of Crimes Against Scheduled Castes

Incidence of Crimes Against Scheduled Tribes

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/incidenceofcrime/130/crimeagainstscst/17913/stats.aspx

Juvenile Courts

Figures at All-India / State level : (Currently showing India with
State Level consolidated figures) Gujarat | Maharashtra | Meghalaya
|

(Data table headings are shown Year-wise in descending order)
Crime Head-wise Juveniles Apprehended under IPC and SLL Crimes by
Age-Group and Sex in India (2007)
Incidence and Rate of Juvenile Delinquency under IPC in India (1988
to 2007)
Juveniles Apprehended Under IPC and SLL Crimes By Age Groups in
India (1993 to 2007)
Crime Head-wise Juveniles Apprehended under IPC and SLL Crimes by
Age Groups and Sex in India (2006)
Crime-wise Juvenile Delinquency IPC Cases in India (1995, 2000 to
2006)
Juvenile Delinquency (SLL) Under Different Crime Heads in India
(2000 to 2006)
Juveniles Apprehended by Age Group and Sex in India (1971, 1981,
1986, 1987, 1988 and 1991 to 2006)
State-wise Number of Juvenile Justice Boards and Homes Setup under
Provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act,
2000 in India (2006)
State-wise Number of Juveniles Staying in Observation Homes Set up
under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 in
India (August, 2006)
Crime Head-wise Juveniles Apprehended under IPC and SLL Crimes by
Age Groups and Sex in India (2005)
Disposal of Juveniles Arrested under IPC and LSL Crimes in India
(1988 to 2005)
Juveniles Apprehended under Congnizable Crime in India (1971, 1981,
1986, 1987, 1988 and 1991 to 2005)
Juveniles Arrested under IPC Cognizable Crime and Offences under
Local and Special Laws in India (1968, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1988 and 1991
to 2005) - Part I
Juveniles Arrested under IPC Cognizable Crime and Offences under
Local and Special Laws in India (1968, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1988 and 1991
to 2005) - Part II
Crime Head-wise Juveniles Apprehended under IPC and SLL Crimes by
Age Groups and Sex in India (2004)
Juvenile Delinquency in India (1971 to 2004)
Crime Head-wise Juveniles Apprehended under IPC and SLL Crimes by
Age Groups and Sex in India (2003)
Crime-wise Juveniles Apprehended by Age Group and Sex in India
(2003)
Juvenile Delinquency under Local and Special Laws (Cases Reported)
in India (1971, 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1991 to 2003)
State-wise Central Assistance Released under Programme for Juvenile
Justice in India (1997-1998 to 2002-2003)
Crime-wise Juveniles Apprehended by Age Group and Sex in India
(2001)
State-wise Number of Juvenile Courts and Junvenile Welfare Boards
in India (2000-2001)
Crime-wise Juvenile Delinquency IPC Cases in India (1991 to 2000)
Juveniles Apprehended by Age Group and Sex in India (2000)
State/City-wise Disposal of Juveniles Arrested under IPC and LSL
Crimes in India (2000)
State/City-wise Juvenile Delinquency IPC Cases in India (2000)
State/City-wise Juvenile Delinquency under Local and Special Laws
(Cases Reported) in India (2000)
State/City-wise Juveniles Delinquency Under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (2000) - Part I
State/City-wise Juveniles Apprehended Under Congnizable Crime in
India (2000)
State/City-wise Juveniles Arrested under IPC Cognizable Crime and
Offences under Local and Special Laws in India (2000) - Part I
State/City-wise Juveniles Arrested under IPC Cognizable Crime and
Offences Under Local and Special Laws in India (2000) - Part II
State/City-wise Juveniles Delinquency Under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (2000) - Part II
State/City-wise Juveniles Delinquency Under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (2000) - Part III
State/City-wise Juveniles Delinquency Under Different Crime Heads
(SLL) in India (2000) - Part I
State/City-wise Juveniles Delinquency Under Different Crime Heads
(SLL) in India (2000) - Part II
State-wise Juvenile Delinquency under IPC in India (During 1998 to
2000)
Juveniles Apprehended by Age Group and Sex in India (1999)
State/City-wise Juveniles Apprehended under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (During 1999) - Part I
State/City-wise Juveniles Apprehended under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (During 1999) - Part II
State/City-wise Juveniles Apprehended under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (During 1999) - Part III
States/City-wise Juvenile Delinquency under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (During 1999) - Part I
States/City-wise Juvenile Delinquency under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (During 1999) - Part II
States/City-wise Juvenile Delinquency under Different Crime Heads
(IPC) in India (During 1999) - Part III
States/City-wise Juvenile Delinquency under Different Crime Heads
(SLL) in India (During 1999) - Part I
States/City-wise Juvenile Delinquency under Different Crime Heads
(SLL) in India (During 1999) - Part II
States/City-wise Juveniles Apprehended under Different Crime Heads
(SLL) in India (During 1999) - Part I
States/City-wise Juveniles Apprehended under Different Crime Heads
(SLL) in India (During 1999) - Part II
States/UTs/Citywise Classification of Juveniles Arrested under IPC
and SLL Crimes by Economic-Setup and Recidivism in India (During
1999)
States/UTs/Citywise Classification of Juveniles Arrested under IPC
and SLL Crimes by Education and Family Background in India (During
1999)
States/UTs/Citywise Juveniles Apprehended under IPC Crimes by Age
Group and Sex in India (1999)
States/UTs/Citywise Juveniles Apprehended under SLL Crimes by Age
Group and Sex in India (1999)
State-wise Disposal of Juveniles Arrested under IPC and SLL Crimes
and Sent to Courts in India (1999)
State-wise Number of Juvenile Homes/Observation Homes/Special Homes/
Aftercare Institutions in India (1997-1998)
Crime Head-wise Juveniles Apprehended under IPC and SLL Crimes by
Age Groups and Sex in India (1996)
State-wise Juveniles Apprehended by Sex for Committing Crime under
IPC and SLL in India (During 1996)
State-wise Juveniles Apprehended under Different SLL Crimes in
India (1996) - Part I
State-wise Juveniles Apprehended under Different SLL Crimes in
India (1996) - Part II
State-wise Juveniles Apprehended under SLL Crimes by Age Group and
Sex in India (1996)
Crime Head-wise Juveniles Apprehended by Age Groups and Sex in
India (1995)
Juveniles Arrested under IPC Cognizable Crime and Offences under
Local and Special Laws in India (1968, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1988, 1991 to
1995) - Part III
State-wise Institution under the Juvenile Justice Act in India
(1994-1995)
Crime-wise Juvenile Delinquency IPC Cases in India (1968, 1971,
1981, 1986 and 1988)
State-wise Institutions for Neglected and Delinquent Children under
the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 in India
State-wise Welfare Boards and Juvenile Courts under the Juvenile
Justice Act, 1986 in India

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/juvenilecourts/148/stats.aspx

Crime against Child

Figures at All-India / State level : (Currently showing India with
State Level consolidated figures) Andaman & Nicobar Islands | Andhra
Pradesh | Arunachal Pradesh | Assam | Bihar | Chandigarh |
Chhattisgarh | Dadra & Nagar Haveli | Daman & Diu | Delhi | Goa |
Gujarat | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | Jharkhand |
Karnataka | Kerala | Madhya Pradesh | Maharashtra | Manipur |
Meghalaya | Mizoram | Nagaland | Orissa | Pondicherry | Punjab |
Rajasthan | Sikkim | Tamil Nadu | Tripura | Uttar Pradesh |
Uttaranchal | West Bengal |

(Data table headings are shown Year-wise in descending order)
State/Sex-wise Number of Children Traced in India (2005 to 2007)
State-wise Number of Children Missing (upto Age of 0-18 Years) in
India (2004 to 2007)
State-wise Persons Arrested under Kidnapping and Abduction in India
(2007)
Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committed Crimes
Against Children by Court in India (2006)
Number of Cases of Murder, Rape and Kidnapping of Abduction of
Children in (NCR Regions of Delhi) India (2004 to 2006)
State-wise Cases Registered Under Child Marriage Restraint Act in
India (March to June, 2006)
Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committed Crimes
Against Children by Court in India (2005)
State-wise Cases Registered, Charged sheeted, Trial Completed,
Convicted and Person Convicted Under Child Marriage Restraint Act in
India (2003 to 2005)
Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committed Crimes
Against Children by Court in India (2004)
Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Children by Court in India (2003)
State-wise Cases Registered, Charged sheeted, Trial Completed,
Convicted and Person Convicted Under Child Marriage Restraint Act in
India (2001 to 2003)
Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Children by Court in India (2002)
Victims of Child Rape in India (1992-2002)
Crime-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committed Crimes
Against Children by Court in India (2001)
State-wise Child Rape Victims (upto 14 years) in India (2001)
State-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committing Crimes
Against Children by Court in India (2001)
State-wise Disposal of Persons Arrested for Crimes Committed
Against Children by Police in India (2001)
State-wise Number of Cases Reported under Child Marriage Restraint
Act, 1929 in India (1999 to 2001)
Disposal of Cases for Committed Crimes Against Children by Courts/
Police
Disposal of Persons Arrested for Committed Crimes Against Children
by Courts/Police
Incidence and Rate of Committed Crimes Against Children

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/incidenceofcrime/130/crimeagainstchild/17912/stats.aspx

Violent Crimes

Figures at All-India / State level : (Currently showing India with
State Level consolidated figures) Delhi | Punjab | Tamil Nadu |

(Data table headings are shown Year-wise in descending order)

State/Age Group-wise Victims of Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to
Murder in India (2007) - Part I
State/Age Group-wise Victims of Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to
Murder in India (2007) - Part II
State/Age Group-wise Victims of Murder in India (2007) - Part I
State/Age Group-wise Victims of Murder in India (2007) - Part II
State/City-wise Number of Unidentified Dead Bodies Recovered and
Inquest Conducted in India (2000 to 2007)
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2007) -
Part I
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2007) -
Part II
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2007) -
Part III
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2007) -
Part IV
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2007) -
Part V
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2007) -
Part VI
State-wise Incidence and Rate of Violent Crimes in India (2007) -
Part I
State-wise Incidence and Rate of Violent Crimes in India (2007) -
Part II
State-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to
Murder (C. H.) in India (2007) - Part I
State-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to
Murder (C. H.) in India (2007) - Part II
State-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to
Murder (C. H.) in India (2007) - Part III
State-wise Number of Cases Registered /Disposed under Violation of
Human Rights in India (2004-2005 to 2006-2007)
State-wise Number of Victims Murdered by Use of Fire Arms in India
(2007)
State/Age Group-wise Victims of Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to
Murder in India (2006 ) - Part I
State/Age Group-wise Victims of Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to
Murder in India (2006 ) - Part II
State/Age Group-wise Victims of Murder in India (2006) - Part I
State/Age Group-wise Victims of Murder in India (2006) - Part II
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2006) -
Part I
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2006) -
Part II
State-wise Disposal of Violent Crimes by Courts in India (2006) -
Part III
State-wise Incidence and Rate of Violent Crimes in India (2006) -
Part I
State-wise Incidence and Rate of Violent Crimes in India (2006) -
Part II
State-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide not Amounting to
Murder (C.H.) in India (2006) - Part I
State-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide not Amounting to
Murder (C.H.) in India (2006) - Part II
State-wise Motives of Murder and Culpable Homicide not Amounting to
Murder (C.H.) in India (2006) - Part III
State-wise Number of Victims Murdered by Use of Fire Arms in India
(2006)
State-wise Number of Victims Murdered by Use of Fire Arms in India
(2003 to 2005)
Violent Crime (2004 and 2005)
Age Group/Gender-wise Victims of Culpable Homicide not Amounting to
Murder in India (2002 to 2004)
Age Group/Gender-wise Victims of Murder in India (2002 to 2004)
Age Group-wise Victims of Kidnapping and Abduction in India (2001
to 2004)
Crime Rate for Violent Crimes under IPC in India (1996 to 2004)
State/Age Group/Sex-wise Victims of Culpable Homicide Not Amounting
to Murder in India (2004) - Part I
State-wise Percentage Share of Violent Crimes to Total IPC Crimes
in India (2000 to 2004)
Victims of Murder by Fire-Arms in India (1999 to 2004)
Violent Crimes Reported in India (1996 to 2004)
State-wise Murder Cases Pending Investigation in India (1991 to
2003)
Violent Crime (2002 and 2003)

State-wise Number of Victims Murdered by Use of Fire Arms in India
(2001 and 2002)

Age/Gender-wise Profile of Victims of Murder in India (1999 to
2001)

Age/Gender-wise Victims of C.H. not amounting to Murder in India
(1999 to 2001)

State-wise Left Wing Extremist Violence in India (During 2000 and
2001)

Violent Crime (2000 and 2001)

Age-wise Victims of Kidnapping and Abduction in India ( 1999 and
2000)

Violent Crimes (1999)

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/incidenceofcrime/130/violentcrimes/17910/stats.aspx

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/incidenceofcrime/130/stats.aspx

http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/stats.aspx

...and I am Sid harth

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Crime in India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crime is present in various forms in India. Organized crime include
drug trafficking, gunrunning, money laundering, extortion, murder for
hire, fraud, human trafficking and poaching. Many criminal operations
engage in black marketeering, political violence, religiously
motivated violence, terrorism, and abduction. Other crimes are
homicide, robbery, assault etc. Property crimes include burglary,
theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Corruption is a significant
problem.

Crimes against women

Main article: Women in India

Police records show high incidence of crimes against women in India.
The National Crime Records Bureau reported in 1998 that the growth
rate of crimes against women would be higher than the population
growth rate by 2010.[1] Earlier, many cases were not registered with
the police due to the social stigma attached to rape and molestation
cases. Official statistics show that there has been a dramatic
increase in the number of reported crimes against women.[1]

Sexual Harassment

Half of the total number of crimes against women reported in 1990
related to molestation and harassment at the workplace.[1] Eve teasing
is a euphemism used for sexual harassment or molestation of women by
men. Many activists blame the rising incidents of sexual harassment
against women on the influence of "Western culture". In 1987, The
Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act was passed[2] to
prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisements or in
publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner.

In 1997, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of India took a
strong stand against sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The
Court also laid down detailed guidelines for prevention and redressal
of grievances. The National Commission for Women subsequently
elaborated these guidelines into a Code of Conduct for employers.[1]

While public urination is not practised by men of all ages in India,
it is socially unacceptable for girls and women to publicly urinate
when restrooms are unavailable. In other countries such as Laos,
Cambodia, and Vietnam public urination is practised by women when
there are no toilets. This leads to harassment and UTI in women.

[3] [4] [5] [6]

Dowry

Main articles: Dowry and Dowry law in India

In 1961, the Government of India passed the Dowry Prohibition Act,[7]

making the dowry demands in wedding arrangements illegal. However,
many cases of dowry-related domestic violence, suicides and murders
have been reported. In the 1980s, numerous such cases were reported.
However, recent reports show that the number of these crimes have
reduced drastically.[8]

In 1985, the Dowry Prohibition (maintenance of lists of presents to
the bride and bridegroom) rules were framed.[9]

According to these rules, a signed list of presents given at the time
of the marriage to the bride and the bridegroom should be maintained.
The list should contain a brief description of each present, its
approximate value, the name of whoever has given the present and his/
her relationship to the person.

A 1997 report[10]

claimed that at least 5,000 women die each year because of dowry
deaths, and at least a dozen die each day in 'kitchen fires' thought
to be intentional. The term for this is "bride burning" and is
criticized within India itself. Amongst the urban educated, such dowry
abuse has reduced dramatically.

Child Marriage

Child marriage has been traditionally prevalent in India and continues
to this day. Young girls live with their parents until they reach
puberty. In the past, the child widows were condemned to a life of
great agony, shaving heads, living in isolation, and shunned by the
society.[11]

Although child marriage was outlawed in 1860, it is still a common
practice.[12]

According to UNICEF’s “State of the World’s Children-2009” report, 47%
of India's women aged 20–24 were married before the legal age of 18,
with 56% in rural areas.[13]

The report also showed that 40% of the world's child marriages occur
in India.[14]

Female infanticides and sex selective abortions

India has a highly masculine sex ratio, the chief reason being that
many women die before reaching adulthood.[1]

Tribal societies in India have a less masculine sex ratio than all
other caste groups. This, in spite of the fact that tribal communities
have far lower levels of income, literacy and health facilities.[1]

It is therefore suggested by many experts, that the highly masculine
sex ratio in India can be attributed to female infanticides and sex-
selective abortions.

All medical tests that can be used to determine the sex of the child
have been banned in India, due to incidents of these tests being used
to get rid of unwanted female children before birth. Female
infanticide (killing of girl infants) is still prevalent in some rural
areas.[1]

The abuse of the dowry tradition has been one of the main reasons for
sex-selective abortions and female infanticides in India.

Domestic violence

The incidents of domestive violence are higher among the lower Socio-
Economic Classes (SECs). There are various instances of an inebriated
husband beating up the wife often leading to severe injuries. Domestic
violence is also seen in the form of physical abuse. The Protection of
Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 came into force on October 26,
2006.

Trafficking

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act was passed in 1956.[15]

However many cases of trafficking of young girls and women have been
reported. These women are either forced into prostitution, domestic
work or child labor.

Illegal drug trade

India is located between two major illicit opium producing centres in
Asia - the Golden Crescent comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran
and the Golden Triangle comprising Burma, Thailand and Laos.[16]

Because of such geographical location, India experiences large amount
of drug trafficking through the borders.[17]

India is the world's largest producer of licit opium.[18]

But opium is diverted to illicit international drug markets.[18]

India is a transshipment point for heroin from Southwest Asian
countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan and from Southeast Asian
countries like Burma, Laos, and Thailand.[19]

Heroin is smuggled from Pakistan and Burma, with some quantities
transshipped through Nepal.[19]

Most heroin shipped from India are destined for Europe.[19]

There have been reports of heroin smuggled from Mumbai to Nigeria for
further export.[19]

In Maharashtra, Mumbai is an important centre for distribution of drug.
[20] The most commonly used drug in Mumbai is Indian heroin (called
desi mal by the local population).[20]

Both public transportation (road and rail transportation) and private
transportation are used for this drug trade.[20]

Drug trafficking affects the country in many ways.

Drug abuse: Cultivation of illicit narcotic substances and drug
trafficking affects the health of the individuals and destroy the
economic structure of the family and society.[21]

Organized crime: Drug trafficking results in growth of organized crime
which affects social security. Organised crime connects drug
trafficking with corruption and money laundering.[21]

Political instability: Drug trafficking also aggravate the political
instability in North-West and North-East India.[22]

A survey conducted in 2003-2004 by Narcotics Control Bureau found that
India has at least four million drug addicts.[23]

The most common drugs used in India are cannabis, hashish, opium and
heroin.[23]

In 2006 alone, India's law enforcing agencies recovered 230 kg heroin
and 203 kg of cocaine.[24]

In an annual government report in 2007, the United States named India
among 20 major hubs for trafficking of illegal drugs along with
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Burma. However, studies reveal that most of
the criminals caught in this crime are either Nigerian or US nationals.
[25]

Several measures have been taken by the Government of India to combat
drug trafficking in the country. India is a party of the Single
Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961), the Convention on Psychotropic
Substances (1971), the Protocol Amending the Single Convention on
Narcotic Drugs (1972) and the United Nations Convention Against
Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988).
[26]

An Indo-Pakistani committee was set up in 1986 to prevent trafficking
in narcotic drugs.[27]

India signed a convention with the United Arab Emirates in 1994 to
control drug trafficking.[27]

In 1995, India signed an agreement with Egypt for investigation of
drug cases and exchange of information and a Memorandum of
Understanding of the Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Drugs with
Iran.[27]

Arms trafficking

According to a joint report published by Oxfam, Amnesty International
and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) in 2006,
there are around 40 million illegal small arms in India out of
approximately 75 million in worldwide circulation.[28]

Majority of the illegal small arms make its way into the states of
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Madhya
Pradesh.[28]

In India, a used AK-47 costs $3,800 in black market.[29]

Large amount of illegal small arms are manufactured in various illegal
arms factories in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and sold on the black market
for as little as $5.08.[28]

Chinese pistols are in demand in the illegal small arms market in
India because they are easily available and cheaper.[28]

This trend poses a significant problem for the states of Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal,
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which have influence of Naxalism.[28]

The porous Indo-Nepal border is an entry point for Chinese pistols,
AK-47 and M-16 rifles into India as these arms are used by the
Naxalites who have ties to Maoists in Nepal.[28]

In North-East India, there is a huge influx of small arms due to the
insurgent groups operating there.[30]

The small arms in North-East India come from insurgent groups in
Burma, black market in South-East Asian countries like Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, black market in Cambodia, the
People's Republic of China, insurgent groups like the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Indian states like Uttar Pradesh
and pilferages from legal gun factories, criminal organizations
operating in India and South Asian countries and other international
markets like Romania, Germany etc.[30]

The small arms found in North-East India are M14 rifle, M16 rifle,
AK-47, AK-56, AK-74, light machine guns, Chinese hand grenades, mines,
rocket-propelled grenades, submachine guns etc.[30]

The Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs drafted
a joint proposal to the United Nations, seeking a global ban on small-
arms sales to non-state users.[28]

Poaching and wildlife trafficking

Illegal wildlife trade in India has increased.[31]

According to a report published by the Environmental Investigation
Agency (EIA) in 2004, India is the chief target for the traders of
wildlife skin.[32] Between 1994 and 2003, there have been 784 cases
where the skins of tiger, leopard or otter have been seized.[32]

Leopards, rhinoceros, reptiles, birds, insects, rare species of plants
are being smuggled into the countries in Southeast Asia and the
People's Republic of China.[31]

Between 1994 and 2003, poaching and seizure of 698 otters have been
documented in India.[32]

Kathmandu is a key staging point for illegal skins smuggled from India
bound for Tibet and PRC.[32]

The report by EIA noted there has been a lack of cross-border
cooperation between India, Nepal and the People's Republic of China to
coordinate enforcement operations and lack of political will to treat
wildlife crime effectively.[32]

The poaching of the elephants is a significant problem in Southern
India[33]

and in the North-Eastern states of Nagaland and Mizoram.[34]

The majority of tiger poaching happen in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.[35]

Following is a comparison of reported cases of tiger and leopard
poaching from 1998 to 2003:

Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Reported cases of tiger poaching[36] 14 38 39 35 47 8
Reported cases of leopard poaching[36] 28 80 201 69 87 15

Samir Sinha, head of TRAFFIC India, the wildlife trade monitoring arm
of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation
Union (IUCN), told Reuters in an interview "The situation regarding
the illegal trade in wildlife parts in India is very grim. It is a
vast, a varied trade ranging from smuggling of rare medicinal plants
to butterflies to peafowls to tigers and it is difficult to predict
how big it is, but the threats and dimensions suggest that the trade
is increasing".[31]

Project Tiger, a wildlife conservation project, was initiated in 1972
and was launched by Indira Gandhi on April 1, 1973.[37]

With 23 tiger reserves, Project Tiger claimed to have succeeded.[37]

But according to critics like conservationist Billy Arjan Singh,
temporary increases in tiger population were caused by immigration due
to destruction of habitat in Nepal, not because of the widely
acclaimed success of wildlife policy in India.[37]

Cyber crime

Cases of spam, computer hacking, cyber stalking and email fraud are
rampant in India.[38]

The Information Technology Act 2000 was passed by the Parliament of
India in May 2000, aiming to curb cyber crimes and provide a legal
framework for e-commerce transactions.[39]

However Pavan Duggal, lawyer of Supreme Court of India and cyber law
expert, viewed "The IT Act, 2000, is primarily meant to be a
legislation to promote e-commerce. It is not very effective in dealing
with several emerging cyber crimes like cyber harassment, defamation,
stalking and so on".[38]

Although cyber crime cells have been set up in major cities, Duggal
noted the problem is that most cases remain unreported due to a lack
of awareness.[38]

In 2001, India and United States had set up an India-US cyber security
forum as part of a counter-terrorism dialogue.[40]

In 2006, India and the US agreed to enhance cooperation between law
enforcement agencies of the two countries in tackling cyber crimes as
part of counter-terrorism efforts.[40]

A joint US-India statement released in 2006 after talks between US
President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
stressed that in view of the importance of cyber security and cyber
forensic research, the two countries are also carrying out discussions
on a draft protocol on cyber security.[40]

Corruption and police misconduct

Main article: Corruption in India

Corruption is widespread in India. It is prevalent within every
section and every level of the society.[41]

Corruption has taken the role of a pervasive aspect of Indian politics.
[42]

In India, corruption takes the form of bribes, evasion of tax and
exchange controls, embezzlement, etc.

Despite state prohibitions against torture and custodial misconduct by
the police, torture is widespread in police custody, which is a major
reason behind deaths in custody.[43][44]

The police often torture innocent people until a 'confession' is
obtained to save influential and wealthy offenders.[45]

G.P. Joshi, the programme coordinator of the Indian branch of the
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi comments that the
main issue at hand concerning police violence is a lack of
accountability of the police.[46]

In 2006, the Supreme Court of India in a judgment in the Prakash Singh
vs. Union of India case, ordered central and state governments with
seven directives to begin the process of police reform. The main
objectives of this set of directives was twofold, providing tenure to
and streamlining the appointment/transfer processes of policemen, and
increasing the accountability of the police.[47]

In 2006, seven policemen were charge sheeted and eleven were
convicted[48]

for custodial misconduct.

Crime over time

Incidence of cognizable crimes in India 1953-2007[49]

A report published by the National Crime Records Bureau compared crime
rate from 1953 to 2006. The report noted that burglary declined over a
period of 53 years by 38% (from 1,47,379 in 1953 to 91,666 in 2006),
whereas murder has increased by 231% (from 9,803 in 1953 to 32,481 in
2006).[50]

Kidnapping has increased by 356% (from 5,261 in 1953 to 23,991 in
2006), robbery by 120% (from 8,407 in 1953 to 18,456 in 2006) and
riots by 176% (from 20,529 in 1953 to 56,641 in 2006).[50]

In 2006, 51,02,460 cognizable crimes were committed including
18,78,293 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 32,24,167 Special & Local
Laws (SLL) crimes, with an increase of 1.5% over 2005 (50,26,337).
[48]

IPC crime rate in 2006 was 167.7 compared to 165.3 in 2005 showing an
increase of 1.5% in 2006 over 2005.[48]

SLL crime rate in 2006 was 287.9 compared to 290.5 in 2005 showing a
decline of 0.9% in 2006 over 2005.[48]

Year[50] Total cog. crimes under IPC Murder Kidnapping Robbery
Burglary Riots
1953 6, 01, 964 9,802 5,261 8,407 147,
379 20, 529
2006 18, 78, 293 32,481 23,991 18,456 91,
666 56, 641

% Change in 2006 over 1953
212.0 231.0 356.0
120.0 -38.0 176.0

SOURCE: National Crime Records Bureau[50]

Crime by locale

Location has a significant impact on crime in India. In 2006, the
highest crime rate was reported in Pondicherry (447.7%) for crimes
under Indian Penal Code which is 2.7 times the national crime rate of
167.7%.[48]

Kerala reported the highest crime rate at 312.5% among states.[48]

Kolkata (71.0%) and Madurai (206.2%) were the only two mega cities
which reported less crime rate than their domain states West Bengal
(79.0%) and Tamil Nadu (227.6%).[48] Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore have
accounted for 16.2%, 9.5% and 8.1% respectively of the total IPC
crimes reported from 35 mega cities.[48]

Indore reported the highest crime rate (769.1%) among the mega cities
in India followed by Bhopal (719.5%) and Jaipur (597.1%).[48]

Jammu & Kashmir (33.7%), Manipur (33.0%), Assam (30.4%) and Daman and
Diu and Pondicherry (29.4%) reported higher violent crime rate
compared to 18.4% at national level.[48]

Uttar Pradesh reported the highest incidence of violent crimes
accounting for 12.1% of total violent crimes in India (24,851 out of
2,05,656) followed by Bihar with 11.8% (24,271 out of 2,05,6556).[48]

Among 35 mega cities, Delhi reported 31.2% (533 out of 1,706) of total
rape cases.[48]

Madhya Pradesh has reported the highest number of rape cases (2,900)
accounting for 15.0% of total such cases reported in the country.[48]

Uttar Pradesh reported 16.9% (5,480 out of 32,481) of total murder
cases in the country and 18.4% (4,997 out of 27,230) total attempt to
murder cases.[48]

Crimes against foreigners in India

There are several instances of violent crime against foreigners in
India.[51]

Many of the crimes occur against foreigners only. Scams involving
export of jewels occur in India, which target foreign citizens.[51]

Political demonstrations are common in India. These demonstrations
often turn violent and routinely cause disruption of transportation
services, causing great inconvenience to foreign tourists in India.
Traveling alone in remote areas after dark is of particular risk to
foreigners.[52]

Because U.S. citizens' purchasing power is relatively large compared
to the general Indian population, they the preferred target for
robbery and other serious crime.[53]

In April 1999, Swaraj Damree, a tourist from Mauritius was befriended
by a group of Indians who later held him in 25 days of captivity. They
robbed him of cash amounting to US $1,500, took his travellers'
cheques, wrist watch, gold chain, bracelet, two bags and suitcase.
[54]

In 2000, two German trekkers were shot in Himachal Pradesh. A few
weeks later, two Spanish tourists were killed in Himachal Pradesh by
robbers.[55]

Many foreign tourists are victims of violent crime in Kolkata.[56]

In September 2006, criminals robbed the wallet of a British woman in
Kolkata.[56] The same month, a Japanese tourist was robbed on his way
to Sudder Street.[56] In October 2006, a foreigner was robbed in
daylight on Park Street.[56]

Petty crime

Petty crime, like pickpocketing, bag snatching etc. are widespread in
India. Theft of valuables of foreigners from luggage on trains and
buses is common. Travelers who are not in groups become easy victims
of pickpockets and purse snatchers. Purse snatchers work in crowded
areas.[57]

Passport theft

In India, stealing passports of foreigners from their luggage on
trains and buses is widespread.[51]

Theft of U.S. passports is very common, especially in major tourist
areas.[53][58]

Scam incidents

Many scams are perpetrated against foreign travelers, especially in
Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.[53]

Scams usually target younger foreign tourists and suggest them that
money can be made by privately transporting gems or gold or by taking
delivery abroad of expensive carpets avoiding customs duties.[53]

Such incidents pull the traveler over the course of several days and
begin with a new scam artist who offers to show the foreign traveler
the sights. They also offer cheap lodgings and meals to foreign
travellers so that they can place the traveler in the physical custody
of the scam artist and can leave the foreigner with threats and
physical coercion. In the due process, the foreigner loses his
passport.[53]

Taxi scam

There are also taxi scams present in India, whereby a foreign
traveler, who is not aware of the locations around Indian airports, is
taken for a ride round the whole airport and charged for full-fare
taxi ride while the terminal is only few hundred yards away.[57]

Overseas Security Advisory Council in a report mentioned the process
about how to avoid taxi-scam.[57]

Rape and sexual assault against foreigners

Incidents of rape and sexual assault against foreign tourists at
popular tourist spots is increasing in India. Many of the alleged
perpetrators are children of senior government officials or
politicians.[59][60]

In September 1994, Gurkirat Singh, grandson of the then CM Beant
Singh, was accused of abducting and molesting a French tourist Katia
Darnand in Chandigarh[61][62].

In March 2006, Biti Mohanty, son of a senior police official in
Orissa, raped a German tourist in Alwar, Rajasthan.[63][64]

A Japanese woman was raped in Pushkar, Rajasthan on April 2, 2006.[65]
[66] In June 2007, a South Korean was raped near Manali.[63]

In September 2007, two Japanese women were gang-raped in Agra,[63]

a popular tourist-spot in India where the Taj Mahal is situated. The
Indian state of Rajasthan, which is a popular destination among
foreign tourists with one out of every three foreign travellers
visiting the state, have been rattled by rape cases of foreign
tourists.[67]

On December 5, 2009, a Russian woman was raped in Goa by a local
politician John Fernandes. In February 2008, Scarlett Keeling, a
British national aged 15 was raped and killed in Goa [68].

In January 2010, a Russian girl aged 9 was raped in Goa [69];

referring to this and earlier cases, Russia threatened to issue an
advisory asking its citizens not to travel to the coastal state [70].

The US Bureau of Consular Affairs has warned women not to travel alone
in India.[58]

However in contrast the British Foreign office only advise women to
take normal precautions.[71]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Consular_Affairs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Foreign_office

See also

Caste-related violence in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste-related_violence_in_India
Corruption in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_India
Indian mafia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mafia
Indian political scandals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_political_scandals
Law enforcement in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_India
Mafia Raj
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_Raj

Religious violence in India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence_in_India

Kala Kaccha Gang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_Kaccha_Gang

Notes

^ a b c d e f g Kalyani Menon-Sen, A. K. Shiva Kumar (2001). "Women in
India: How Free? How Equal?". United Nations. http://www.un.org.in/wii.htm.
Retrieved 2006-12-24.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._K._Shiva_Kumar http://www.un.org.in/wii.htm
^ "The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1987".
http://www.wcd.nic.in/dowryprohibitionrules.htm. Retrieved
2006-12-24.
^ http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/node/255611
^ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Battambang/blog-325432.html
^ http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=149258&go=tasha
^ http://radicalchange.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/cambodia-a-wayfarers-journey/
^ "The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961".
http://www.wcd.nic.in/dowryprohibitionact.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-24.
^ (2006-12-19)"Women of India: Frequently Asked Questions".
2006-12-19.
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/women/faq.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-24.
^ "The Dowry Prohibition (maintenance of lists of presents to the
bride and bridegroom) rules, 1985".
http://www.wcd.nic.in/dowryprohibitionrules.htm. Retrieved
2006-12-24.
^ Kitchen fires Kill Indian Brides with Inadequate Dowry, July 23,
1997, New Delhi, UPI
^ Jyotsna Kamat (2006-12-19). "Gandhi and Status of Women".
http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/gwomen.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-24.
^ BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Child marriages targeted in India
^ http://www.unicef.org/sowc09/docs/SOWC09_Table_9.pdf
^ http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/18/stories/2009011855981100.htm
^ "The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956".
http://www.wcd.nic.in/act/itpa1956.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-24.
^ P. J. Alexander (2002). Policing India in the New Millennium. Allied
Publishers. pp. p658. ISBN 8177642073.
^ Caterina Gouvis Roman, Heather Ahn-Redding, Rita James Simon (2007).
Illicit Drug Policies, Trafficking, and Use the World Over. Lexington
Books. pp. p183. ISBN 0739120883.
^ a b "CIA World Factbook - India". CIA World Factbook.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html.
Retrieved 2007-12-01.
^ a b c d India
^ a b c "Drug trade dynamics in India".
http://laniel.free.fr/INDEXES/PapersIndex/INDIAMOLLY/DRUGSDYNAMICSININDIA.htm.
^ a b P. J. Alexander (2002). Policing India in the New Millennium.
Allied Publishers. pp. p659. ISBN 8177642073.
^ Alain Labrousse, Laurent Laniel (2002). The World Geopolitics of
Drugs, 1998/1999. Springer. pp. p53. ISBN 1402001401.
^ a b "Mechanism in States".
http://narcoticsindia.nic.in/Mechinstates.htm.
^ Airports get scanners to check drug trafficking
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1680312.cms
^ "US names India among 20 major hubs for drug trafficking".
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=5f7ed0c7-60a5-40fc-bbf1-7e9b4c070f59&&Headline=India+among+20+major+drug+hubs%3a+US.
^ Daniel J. Koenig (2001). International Police Cooperation: A World
Perspective. Lexington Books. pp. p172. ISBN 0739102265.
^ a b c Daniel J. Koenig (2001). International Police Cooperation: A
World Perspective. Lexington Books. pp. p173. ISBN 0739102265.
^ a b c d e f g India home to 40 million illegal small-arms
^ "Small Arms Trafficking".
http://www.havocscope.com/trafficking/smallarms.htm.
^ a b c A Narrative of Armed Ethnic Conflict, Narcotics and Small Arms
Trafficking in India's North East
^ a b c Illegal wildlife trade grows in India
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSDEL8332720070817?sp=true
^ a b c d e The Tiger Skin Trail
http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports85-1.pdf
^ R. Sukumar (1989). The Asian Elephant: Ecology and Management.
Cambridge University Press. pp. p210. ISBN 052143758X.
^ Charles Santiapillai, Peter Jackson (1990). The Asian Elephant: An
Action Plan for Its Conservation. pp. p30. ISBN 2880329973.
^ The situation in India
http://www.internatyearofthetiger.org/india.htm
^ a b Poaching & Seizure Cases
http://projecttiger.nic.in/poaching.asp#
^ a b c At least one tiger is killed by poachers every day
http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/oct/02tiger.htm
^ a b c Byte by Byte
http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/feb/18crime.htm
^ India cyber law comes into force
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/978231.stm
^ a b c India-US to counter cyber crime
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/978231.stm
^ Where will corruption take India? People's Union for Civil Liberties
http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Human-rights/2002/corruption.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Union_for_Civil_Liberties
^ Corruption in India
http://www.indianchild.com/corruption_in_india.htm
^ Torture main reason of death in police custody The Tribune
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070313/punjab1.htm#7
^ Custodial deaths in West Bengal and India's refusal to ratify the
Convention against Torture Asian Human Rights Commission 26 February
2004
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2004statement/146/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Human_Rights_Commission
^ Custodial deaths and torture in India Asian Legal Resource Centre
http://www.alrc.net/pr/mainfile.php/2004pr/41/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Legal_Resource_Centre
^ Police Accountability in India: Policing Contaminated by Politics
http://www.hrsolidarity.net/mainfile.php/2005vol15no05/2448/
^ The Supreme Court takes the lead on police reform: Prakash Singh vs.
Union of India, CHRI
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/aj/police/india/initiatives/writ_petition.htm
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Snapshots – 2006 National Crime Records
Bureau
^ "Incidence of cognizable crimes (IPC) under different crime heads
during 1953-2007". National Crime Records Bureau.
http://ncrb.nic.in/cii2007/cii-2007/1953-2007.pdf. Retrieved
2009-11-08.
^ a b c d Snapshots (1953—2006) National Crime Records Bureau
http://ncrb.nic.in/cii2006/cii-2006/Snapshots.pdf
^ a b c "TRAVEL REPORT India".
http://www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/report-en.asp?country=128000.
^ "India". http://www.canadiancontent.net/profiles/India.html.
^ a b c d e "India 2007 Crime & Safety Report: New Delhi".
https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=62883.
^ Foreign tourist drugged, robbed, tortured, released after 25 days
http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990420/ige20118.html
^ India's valley of death
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/909877.stm
^ a b c d "Shudder street".
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070218/asp/calcutta/story_7406290.asp.
The Telegraph
^ a b c "Crime & Safety Report: Chennai".
https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=62882.
^ a b "Consular Information Sheet: India".
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1139.html. Bureau of
Consular Affairs
^ Handle foreign tourists with care, DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_handle-foreign-tourists-with-care_1124186
^ Crimes against tourists alarm tour operators, DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_crimes-against-tourists-alarm-tour-operators_1123611
^ <http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?207483
^ http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/34517/
^ a b c "Main accused arrested in Agra tourist rape case".
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070924/211/6l4pp.html.
^ Biti Mohanty's father gets showcause notice, DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_biti-mohanty-s-father-gets-showcause-notice_1075743
^ Another foreign tourist cries rape, The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1497108.cms
^ Japanese tourist alleges rape, The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/20/stories/2006042006481000.htm
^ West India state troubled by rape case of foreign tourist
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/20/content_4451686.htm
^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3529865.ece
^ http://www.hindustantimes.com/goa/Russian-rape-case-Goa-women-s-panel-to-seek-details/502950/H1-Article1-502942.aspx
^ http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100128/jsp/nation/story_12036988.jsp
^ (15 February 2010)"India travel advice". British Foreign Office. 15
February 2010. http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/asia-oceania/india.
Retrieved 22 February 2010.

References

New trends in drug trafficking
http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/19/stories/2008011956120300.htm
India becoming hot bed for drug trafficking: Expert
http://expressbuzz.com/edition/default.aspx
http://www.cyberlawsindia.net Cyber Crime in India
Mumbai mafia is using more sophisticated weapons then police

Further reading

Edwardes, S M (2007), Crime in India, READ BOOKS, ISBN 1406761265 .

Broadhurst, Roderic G.; Grabosky, Peter N. (2005), Cyber-Crime: The
Challenge in Asia, Hong Kong University Press, ISBN 9622097243 .

Menon, Vivek (1996), Under Siege: Poaching and Protection of Greater
One-Horned Rhinoceroses in India, TRAFFIC International, ISBN
1858501024 .

Vittal, N. (2003), Corruption in India: The Roadblock to National
Prosperity, Academic Foundation, ISBN 8171882870 .

Gupta, K. N. (2001), Corruption in India, Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd,
ISBN 8126109734 .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_India

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Volume 23 - Issue 01, Jan. 14 - 27, 2006
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

CINEMA
Keezhavenmani revisited
S. VISWANATHAN

The Keezhavenmani massacre of December 25, 1968, by landlords and
their henchmen, which was all but ignored by the mainstream press, is
poignantly brought to life in a documentary film.

TIME, they say, is the best healer. But certain wounds, especially
those that remain in the collective memory of a society, defy the
saying. This was quite in evidence at a function held in Chennai on
December 18 to mark the release of a documentary film, perhaps the
first ever, on the massacre of 44 people, mostly women and children
belonging to families of Dalit agricultural workers, nearly 40 years
ago at Keezhavenmani village, 25 km from Nagappatttinam in Tamil
Nadu.

The film, Ramiahvin Kudisai (The Hut of Ramiah), narrates how they
were burnt alive in a hut where they had taken refuge. The story is
told by some of the survivors, who break down, unable to contain their
grief and anger, even after such a long time. It is a detailed account
of the violence perpetrated by landlords intolerant of the growing
strength of the agricultural workers' movement in the region. Most of
the invitees, who watched in silence the one-hour film produced by The
Roots and directed by Bharathi Krishnakumar, were seen wiping their
tears at the end of the screening.

Keezhavenmani has gone into the history of the country's agrarian
movement not only as an example of the supreme sacrifice of the
toiling masses in their struggle for liberation from economic
exploitation and social oppression, but also as a frightening reminder
of the ruthless ways in which their oppressors try to protect vested
interests. Thousands of people, including activists of the Left and
Dalit parties, gather at the village on December 25 every year, the
day on which the tragedy took place in 1968, to pay their respects at
the martyrs' memorial.

Strangely, however, the coverage of the incident in the mainstream
newspapers was inadequate. The reports were even misleading in certain
respects. For instance, many newspapers described the incident as a
clash between two sections of kisans, or between two groups of
agricultural workers, all for a wage hike of just half a measure of
rice. The incident was apparently seen in isolation of the
developments during the preceding months. The larger socio-economic
aspects of it were by and large ignored. The documentary fills the gap
to a great extent. It answers many questions, such as why and how the
massacre happened and what roles the police, the State government and
political parties played.

The documentary brings to light many a hidden fact through the
personal accounts of some of the accused in the case relating to the
arson, their close relatives, and a retired police official. The
documentary, with the help of a lot of meticulously collected
background material, presents the incident as part of the decades-long
struggle by under-paid and under-fed agricultural workers for a better
living. In this perspective, any study of the Keezhavenmani massacre
has to be made in the light of the agrarian movement in the rice-rich
undivided Thanjavur district during the preceding three decades.

THANJAVUR district, prior to its division, accounted for nearly 30 per
cent of the State's paddy production, thanks to its rich irrigation
facilities. Thousands of acres of land were in the possession of
temples, Hindu religious mutts and zamindars, a class of people
created by the British to collect land revenues for the government.
Thirty per cent of the cultivable land was in the possession of 5 per
cent of the landholders. Fifty-five per cent of the temple and mutt
lands were under the control of the cultivating tenants. There were
also small and marginal farmers. The district had a large presence of
agricultural workers, most of them Dalits who were treated as slaves
(pannai adimaigal). Dalits were therefore oppressed both socially and
economically. They suffered the worst forms of untouchability, being
denied access to public wells, rivers, streets and temples.

It was under these circumstances that the communist movement struck
root in the district. With agricultural workers being mostly Dalits
and a significant number of marginal and small landholders being from
the socially backward castes, the communists had to integrate the
fight against economic oppression and social oppression with the
cooperation of both these sections. Under the guidance of leaders such
as A.K. Gopalan, B. Srinivasa Rao and Manali C. Kandasami, the
communists first organised the cultivating tenants, who were at the
mercy of zamindars, temples and mutts, and then agricultural workers.
Long struggles by them for protection from eviction led to the
abolition of the zamindari system with the adoption of the Tamil Nadu
Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948; the
Tanjore Pannaiyal Protection Act, 1952 (later repealed) and the Tamil
Nadu Tenants Protection Act, 1955.

The Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants (Payment of Fair Rent) Act, 1956,
was meant to ensure that the tenants paid a fair rent. With the
abolition of the zamindari system, a new class of marginal farmers
emerged, besides the small farmers. Similarly, the mechanisation of
agriculture that came with large allotment of funds for agriculture in
the First Five-Year Plan brought in the daily-wage earners. In the
1950s a Minimum Wages Act fixing wages for farm workers came into
being. The communist agricultural workers' unions demanded agreements
on payment of wages for both cultivation and harvest periods. In the
1960s, thanks to developments such as border wars, steep fall in food
production and certain actions of the Union government, such as,
devaluation of the Indian rupee in 1966, there was a spurt in prices
of agricultural commodities giving fillip to demands for higher wages
in several places. A separate organisation for championing the cause
of agricultural workers were later formed.

The peasant movement in the State also agitated for reducing the
concentration of land in the hands of a few by fixing a ceiling on
holdings and for redistributing the surplus land among the landless
agricultural workers. The Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of
Ceiling) Act, 1961, came into being. It is another matter that the
Act, riddled with loopholes, ensured that not much land was declared
as surplus.

Before achieving these, however, the tenants, small and marginal
landholders and agricultural workers had to confront the money power
and political influence of the landowners at several levels. The
confrontation often led to violence and loss of lives. The police were
invariably on the side of the landowners. Many people, including some
frontline leaders, were killed in police firings. Interestingly, in
the early years of the agitations for increased wages, agricultural
workers and agriculturists signed wage accords in the presence of the
police. The workers intensified their struggles when landholders
refused to pay the wages agreed upon and threatened to replace them
with workers from other places.

The Paddy Producers Association, a militant organisation of
landholders, emerged. The association not only refused to pay higher
wages but also threatened landholders intent on implementing the wage
accord with dire consequences. In 1966, the union organised rallies
and a strike in the district demanding appointment of a tripartite
committee. But the Congress government in the State refused to yield.
Next year, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came to power in
alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The union
renewed the plea for a tripartite committee to settle the wage issue,
but the DMK government also was in no mood to accept it. However,
following the death in police firing of a union worker who was trying
to protect the union flag from attack allegedly by the men of
landlords at Poonthazhangudi village on October 6, 1967, the State
government convened a tripartite conference at Mannargudi, which fixed
the wages for the short-term crop. It was valid only for a year.
Meanwhile, the Nagappattinam taluk unit of the Paddy Producers
Association came under the control of Irinjur Gopalakrishna Naidu, a
landlord, who formed a brigade of volunteers allegedly to oppress the
workers through intimidation, undertake harvest operations, and let
loose terror.

THIS was the situation when the Keezhavenmani carnage happened. The
major issue was the refusal of landlords to yield to the agricultural
workers' demand for higher wages since the earlier agreement had
lapsed. The workers demanded six litres of paddy for every 48 litres
harvested, but the Paddy Producers Association did not agree. Wherever
workers insisted on the higher wage, the association arranged for
carrying out harvest operations with "outside" labour in violation of
the understanding between the disputants under earlier wage accords.

K.BARANIDHARAN

A glass urn containing the remains of the victims, collected a few
days after the incident by freedom fighter I. Maayandi Bharathi. The
urn is now kept at the memorial for the victims at Keezhavenmani.

Wherever the landlord offered to pay higher wages, the Producers
Association protested and warned of counter action. The association
allegedly threatened the agricultural workers in Keezhavenmani around
December 10 that their huts would be torched. Leaders of agricultural
workers said that the taluk secretary of the CPI(M) and party
legislator K.R. Gnanasambandan had written to the State Chief
Secretary about the threat and asked for protection to them. (But a
communication from the Chief Secretary, however, reportedly stated
that the legislator's letter had reached him only in January.) Both
the letters were of no avail.

The apprehensions of the labour leaders were proved right on December
25. The Hindu's lead story on December 27, 1968, reported that 42
persons, mostly Harijans (as Dalits were called then), were burnt
alive on the night of December 25, and that the gruesome incident
followed a clash between two groups of kisans. It said: "Twenty-five
huts in all were burnt to ashes. The victims are said to have taken
refuge in a hut, which was among those destroyed." The report gives
the information that the landowners refused to concede the demand of
"Marxist kisans" that they be paid a harvest wage of six litres of
paddy and went ahead with harvesting that day engaging labour from a
neighbouring village. When these "outside" workers were returning
after work in the evening, the report said, "a group of about 200
persons attacked them, armed with deadly weapons". In the clash that
followed, Pakkirisami Pillai, a farm worker, sustained stab injuries,
which proved fatal. The "outside" workers ran away and the attacking
mob chased them. According to the report, around 10 p.m., another
group of about 200 persons were said to have marched to Keezhavenmani,
where a clash followed. Gunshots were also heard during this clash.
Twenty-five houses were set on fire. The inmates of huts ran out and
were said to have taken refuge in a single hut, which was among those
burnt down, the report said. Nineteen persons injured in both the
clashes were hospitalised. The report said that Gopalakrishna Naidu
was among those taken into custody. The report refers briefly to the
kisan trouble in East Thanjavur district for two months.

Although a police station was within 5 km from the village, the police
came to the spot hours after the incidents. Senior police officials
reportedly came only the next morning. Despite prohibitory orders,
hundreds of people visited the village.

Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai observed: "The incident is so savage and
gruesome that words fail me to express my agony and anguish" and
deputed two Ministers, M. Karunanidhi and S. Madhavan, to visit the
village and report to him. The eighth congress of the CPI(M), then
being held in Kochi, expressed its shock over "the inhuman act of
vandalism of the landlords' goondas" and directed P. Ramamurti, member
of the party's Polit Bureau and Member of Parliament, K.R.
Gnanasambandam, member of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, to rush to the
village. Ramamurti visited the village and later held discussions with
the Chief Minister.

Two days later, Annadurai announced that a one-man commission, headed
by Justice Ganapathia Pillai, would inquire "into the problems of
agricultural labour, the relationship between the labourer and the
landlord, and connected issues in East Thanjavur". Another immediate
action taken by the government was to bifurcate the Thanjavur police
district and appoint Walter Devaram Superintendent of Police for East
Thanjavur with Nagapattinam as headquarters.

Protest meetings and demonstrations by workers of the Left parties
were held all over the State. Leaders condemned the massacre and the
police administration's failure to protect the lives of the poor Dalit
agricultural workers.

B.T. Ranadive, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, wrote in a long article on
the tragedy in the party's official organ People's Democracy, in its
January 12, 1969 issue: "It must be stated that had the DMK Ministry
been alert, the wage question could have been settled long ago. But
blackmailed by Congress propaganda about the breakdown of law and
order, and pressurised by the landlords within its own party, the
Ministry allowed things to drag on thereby encouraging the latter's
offensive against the workers." He stated that the DMK Ministry could
not escape the guilt of connivance at the growing crimes of the
landlords. "In the last few months at least three murders of leaders
of agricultural workers had taken place and neither the Ministry nor
the local police had taken any action to counter this campaign of
murder and terror and bring the criminals to justice," wrote Ranadive.
The veteran Marxist also gave a graphic account of what he saw at
Keezhavenmani when he visited the village a few days after the
tragedy.

A long article by D. Pandian in the official organ of the Communist
Party of India (CPI) also threw more light on the tragic incident. He
wrote: "The latest mass murder of women and children is the
continuation of this reign of terror of mirasdars [landlords]. All
these murders took place in a taluk where special police reinforcement
is sent to `protect the crops' according to the Ministry. And, yet on
December 25, at about 7 p.m. this savagery was enacted with impunity."
He said that the police went there only around 10 a.m. the next day
only to collect the charred remains of the victims. "The mirasdars set
fire to the hut and butchered the innocent victims; the police
completed the `cremation'," the article said.

"From all evidence," Pandian wrote, "it is clear that it was a pre-
planned, calculated murder." He also faulted the State government for
its "callousness and failure to protect the kisans, poor Harijans,
even after a series of murders in the area."

THE documentary, succeeds to a fairly large extent in revoking the
memories of the mass murder as one of the most heinous crimes against
women and children, by recreating the mood of that fateful night and
restating the tales of woe of those less fortunate and deprived
sections of the people by their survivors and those who stood by them
in those hours of crisis in their own words. It goes further and makes
some bold statements by going deeper into the issues involved.

For instance, it attempts to establish that the massacre of the
innocents was an `avoidable' crime. It adduces evidence to show that
had the government acted on the alerts from the kisan and labour
leaders about the threats from the landlords and their henchmen, the
carnage could have been averted.

A letter to the Chief Secretary from Gnanasambandam, written 15 days
before the incident reportedly reached its destination late - around
January 5,1969. Another appeal to the government from legislators such
as N. Sankariah to convene a meeting of the Assembly to discuss the
worsening situation in respect of relations between agricultural
workers and a section of landlords failed to provoke any response. A
warning from Ramamurti to the State government that if the activities
of the Paddy Producers Association president were not checked by the
police and the administration, the agricultural workers' organisation
also might have to think of an army of volunteers to protect
themselves as had been done by Gopalakrishna Naidu was also of no
avail. In the process of revealing this, the documentary raises
questions about the policy of the then DMK government in using the
police while dealing with issues relating to labour and also about a
possible nexus between the police and the landlords. What results is
an expose of the government's inefficiency in managing crises.

Another aspect that is highlighted by Krishnakumar's short film is the
unbelievable attachment of the people of that little village not only
to their soil but also to the movement that grew with them in that
region. Ignoring threats to their lives and casting aside offers of
allurement, an affected person states in the documentary that they
refused to pull down the flags and switch sides. Nor did they accept
the offer to be resettled in a nearby village. The documentary also
exposes the weakness of the judicial system. One of the accused in the
main mass murder case confesses how he could escape punishment by
claiming alibi with the help of an obliging doctor. (Although 10 of
the accused, all landlords, were convicted and sentenced to 10 years'
imprisonment, the High Court quashed the sentence on appeal and the
Supreme Court confirmed it.)

A striking contribution of the documentary is perhaps that it
highlights the point that the fight for liberation from economic
exploitation and social oppression has necessarily to be an integrated
one and Dalit liberation is inseparably linked to the fight against
exploitation of all sorts, which many of the interviewees vouchsafed
for from their own experience in East Thanjavur.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2301/stories/20060127001608400.htm

Volume 22 - Issue 04, Feb. 12 - 25, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

SPOTLIGHT

Crushed by the crowd

The stampede and fire at the Mandhardevi temple in Maharashtra, in
which some 300 people died, provides an occasion to look at the safety
measures at India's many pilgrim centres.

AFP

At the Mandhardevi temple at Wai, victims of the stampede on January
25.

"I couldn't see anything except the head of the person in front of me
but all of a sudden there was shouting and the crowd started pushing.
I resisted but it was like a powerful wave. The ground was slippery
and people started falling. I fell and people fell on me... the air
went out of me in one shot. I thought my chest would be crushed. I
could not breathe and thought I would die. AlI I wanted to do was
place my offering before the Devi. That's what all of us wanted and
this is what we got."

- Nababai, a Wai stampede survivor.

THE most tragic fact about the stampede at the Mandhardevi temple at
Wai in Maharashtra's Satara district on January 25 was that it was at
once avoidable and inevitable. For the three-lakh devotees nothing
mattered - not the steepness of the climb to the temple, the narrow
entrance, or the small size of the temple compound. They were many
more than the usual number for the doubly auspicious full moon day
because it was a Tuesday, a rare combination. By the time the police
officer in charge realised, close to noon and the auspicious hour,
that the sea of humanity was swelling fast and asked for more
policemen it was too late. Thirty men arrived but the situation had
gone out of control.

In the space of a couple of hours an estimated 300 people died and
property worth lakhs was burnt. Instead of a line of enthusiastic
devotees winding their way up the hill, all that was visible was a
giant head of fire. Rescue teams that arrived from Pune, 200 km away,
could see the fire from miles afar but it took them four hours to
negotiate the 12-km ghat road to reach the site atop a 1,200-metre-
high hill. There they were faced with treacherously slippery steps,
burning stalls, mangled bodies and the prospect of an occasional gas
cylinder bursting.

Doctors at the rural and mission hospitals in Wai said that judging by
the expression on the faces of most of the dead persons, death seemed
to have been instantaneous. It was an important indicator for the
investigators as it showed the rapidity with which things happened.

The State government's response was to announce cash aid to the
survivors and to set up a judicial inquiry into the causes of the
tragedy. In the blame game that followed, everything, from the death
toll to the possible cause, came under dispute. The authorities say
251 people died - 157 women, 88 men, five boys and a girl - while the
local people say the toll is much higher and that the bereaved took
away bodies to avoid paperwork with the authorities.

Eyewitness accounts of the tragedy vary. The most plausible sequence
of events suggests that some devotees slipped on a mix of water from
broken coconuts and blood from sacrificed goats, and that triggered
panic and a stampede. Packed beyond capacity in a compound, people
struggled to find a way out and surged towards the two openings of the
compound, one of which had been earmarked for entry and the other for
exit. The 30 or so policemen on duty inside were powerless to do
anything.

RAHUL DESHPANDE/AP

A fire rages in the stalls near the temple.

What happened next is not clear. The fire that started has been
attributed to an electric pole that fell and sent shock waves through
the coconut water, adding to the panic. Another version is that as
word spread of possible deaths, angry people burnt some shops on the
road. As the fire spread, gas cylinders started exploding - 25 were
counted in the space of two hours. Doctors confirmed that there were
no deaths from the fire or the explosions. All the deaths were caused
by suffocation.

Reconstructing the sequence of events will certainly assist the
investigation, but even a cursory survey exposes many inadequacies.
The Mandhardevi temple is atop a hill and is reached after a steep
climb that culminates in narrow steps. A narrow gateway opens out into
a compound large enough to accommodate about 250 people. On this
occasion there were reportedly close to a thousand devotees inside.
There are two access points to the temple and for the occasion it was
decided to use one as an entry and the other as an exit. This attempt
at crowd control came to nought when the crowd stampeded.

The Shakambhari Paush Purnima is an annual event and attracts
thousands of devotees, many of them from the farming community eager
to pay obeisance to the goddess for the good harvest. Devotees first
break coconuts at the Mangirbaba temple near the entrance to the main
temple, sacrifice goats, offer oil at the deepmal and dance holding
aloft Goddess Kalubai's idol.

Despite this being the time-honoured tradition, no attempt has been
made to cordon off space for the breaking of coconuts. Blood from the
sacrificial goats flows freely. The sacrificed animal has to be cooked
and eaten immediately but no special spot has been marked for this and
people camp anywhere, setting up stoves and fires. The place also
lacks accommodation or conveniences for those who have come for the 15-
day festival.

Basic precautions were not followed and this magnified the extent of
the tragedy. If fewer people had been permitted at a time into the
compound, the likelihood of a stampede would have been reduced. The
availability of a public address system could have restored order
faster and the panic could have been quelled. If there had been a
watchtower, the authorities would have been able to anticipate and
control the problem.

Furthermore, despite knowing that the day was an extra special one,
there were only 300 policemen for a gathering of three lakh. There was
not even one fire tender or ambulance. At least 300 makeshift stalls
had come up on the hillside, selling pooja materials and serving
snacks. How were these unlicensed shops allowed to use gas cylinders?

Said an official of the local administration: "Our hands are tied when
it comes to religious matters. It is so difficult to make suggestions,
leave alone enforce precautions, even of basic safety, when it comes
to religious fairs. If the S.P. [Superintendent of Police] insists on
limiting the numbers who enter a small area then people complain that
we are interfering with their worship. If we try to clear the stalls
on the road, the stall owners say their livelihood is being taken
away. What are the alternatives? We are forced to stand back and wish
for the best."

THE Kumbh Melas at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and Haridwar in
Uttaranchal may offer him quite a few lessons in crowd management.
Allahabad is currently hosting the month-long Magh Mela (January 14-
February 14). Over 25 lakh people gathered at the confluence of the
Ganga and the Yamuna on January 14; around 80 lakh are expected to
take a dip in the sangam on Febuary 8, Mauni Amavasya.

ROY MADHUR/REUTERS

At the Kumbh Mela at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik in Maharashtra on
August 27, 2003, pilgrims fall as they try to break through barricades
during the "Shahi Snan" (grand bath).

Crowd management is not a worry for B.S. Ojha, Kumbh Mela officer in
Allahabad. Huge crowds gather now and then on the banks of the Ganga
for a holy dip but Ojha claims that the city has never witnessed a
stampede. "This has been made possible by the scientific crowd
management adopted by the administration. We constantly keep an eye on
the movement of the crowd. If we see crowd pressure increasing on a
particular route, we divert people to another route," said Ojha.
"Besides, there are clear incoming and outgoing routes, which are far
away from one another, to avoid stampedes." A well-managed public
address system advises people on the route they should take to go in
or come out and there are enough police personnel to guide the crowd.

Over three crore people gathered in Allahabad for over a month during
the Purna Kumbh in 2001, to take a holy dip in the Ganga. It passed
without incident even on the important bathing days when around 80
lakh people gathered on a single day for a holy dip. In Haridwar, too,
barring 1986, when more than 50 people died in a stampede, there has
been no untoward incident during the Purna or Ardh Kumbh Melas.
Incidently, the last time there was a stampede at a Kumbh Mela was in
2003 in Nashik in Maharashtra. More than 40 people died in it.

The secret to successful crowd management lies in proper assessment of
the crowd pressure, chalking out of entry and exit routes, round-the-
clock vigil on crowd movement on important bathing days using cameras
mounted on watchtowers, deployment of adequate numbers of the police
forces, and an alert management capable of reacting quickly at the
first sign of trouble.

Said Ojha: "Police and paramilitary forces are deployed at every nook
and corner to control the crowd. Divers are on standby and so are
water police personnel who keep an eye on people in the river."

A strict vigil on crowd behaviour ensures that nothing untoward
happens. Said Allahabad District Magistrate Mahabir Yadav, who is in
charge of the overall administration of the sprawling mela ground:
"There are 10 police stations and 24 police chowkis only for the mela
ground, besides the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and the Provincial Armed
Constabulary (PAC) to manage the crowd. Administrative officials camp
there round-the-clock on important bathing days." Cameras mounted on
three watchtowers constantly scan the ground for any unusual crowd
behaviour.

The supervision is much the same in Haridwar too. There is a proper
traffic plan, both for vehicles and for pedestrians, on important
bathing days and it is adhered to strictly even if the crowd is not as
big as expected, according to Navin Chandra Sharma, mela officer in
Haridwar. "At times this exposes us to ridicule that there are more
policemen than pilgrims, as happened during the ardh Kumbh in February-
May last year, but we allow nothing to disturb our traffic plan," said
Sharma. Besides, only a specific number of pilgrims are allowed into
the river at any given time. "The rest are made to walk around
barricades in order to slow down their approach to the river," said
Sharma.

ONE of the most sophisticated systems of queue regulation and crowd
management in temples is the one at the hill temple of Venkateswara at
Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh. But that has not allayed fears about the
safety of pilgrims in the event of a situation arising out of, say, a
fire from a short-circuit. At any given time there are around 3,000
people in queues, besides around 50,000 waiting in the massive
complexes constructed outside the temple.

CH.K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR

The semi-circular queue complex for pilgrims at the Venkateswara
temple in Tirumala.

The queue-complexes are divided into spacious and airy compartments
with seating arrangements and closed-circuit television, which
telecast the rituals going on inside the temple. The Tirumala Tirupati
Devasthanams (TTD) has also introduced the computer bar-coded
wristband called `Sudarshanam token', which indicates the time of
darshan for each pilgrim. This, besides easing the congestion at the
temple, gives the pilgrims the opportunity to visit other nearby
temples and places of tourist interest instead of waiting endlessly in
the queue.

To handle the crowds on special days such as New Year's Day and annual
festivals, when more than a lakh people congregate, the TTD initiated
land acquisition proceedings and evicted all the residents,
shopkeepers and hawkers around the temple after a protracted legal
battle. The TTD, with a Rs.600-crore annual budget, rehabilitated all
the displaced persons at the foothills at an enormous expenditure.

The safety of pilgrims, particularly inside the temple, remains a
concern considering the fact that entry and exit are through one
passage, the `Mahadwaram', the main door. But on the question of
making modifications to the main structure the TTD's hands are tied.
The Agama Sastras, which deal with temple architecture and the rituals
to be performed in a temple, do not permit any tinkering with the
temple structure under any pretext. A few years ago the TTD thought in
terms of a second entry/exit point to the main temple complex but
dropped the plan after the Mathadhipathis and Peethadhipathis cried
sacrilege and pointed out that it would be a violation of the Agamic
principles.

In fact, the religious heads are against even the modification of any
structure situated outside the main temple. A case in point is the
controversy over the recent demolition of the 1,000-pillar mandapam
outside the temple to meet the increasing pilgrim influx. While the
TTD argued that the demolished mandapam had no religious significance,
Tridandi Ramanuja Jeeyar, who spearheaded a movement against the
demolition, insisted that it was nonetheless a heritage structure that
had to be protected. A few court cases on the demolition and a probe
initiated by the government have put a damper on the TTD's
initiatives.

THE resistance at Vaishno Devi, the seven-century-old shrine in
Udampur district of Jammu and Kashmir, is from environmentalists, who
are against the blasting of rocks in the picturesque Trikuta hills to
carve out new routes to the shrine. In the last 20 years there has
been a manifold increase in the number of pilgrims - it was 6.1
million in 2004 - trekking the approximately 14 km to the shrine, and
the authorities have responded by carving out new routes for them. For
instance, a new route has halved the time taken to trek between
Adhkawari (midway between Katra and Bhavan) and Bhavan but it is prone
to landslides. A constant reminder of this fact is the barren
mountains along the route. The authorities have built temporary tin
sheds along the tract for pilgrims and also put up warning signs.

Officials of the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board say they are carrying out
massive afforestation to arrest the instability of the hills, but
Sohan Singh, former Chief Conservator of Forest of Jammu and Kashmir
and eminent environmentalist, says the damage is irreparable.

The nine-member Vaishno Devi Shrine Board was set up in 1986 with the
Governor as the head to ensure that the more than 20,000 pilgrims who
visit the shrine every day met with no accident. Among its other
members are the State Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary to
the Governor. So far the Board has invested over Rs.125 crores to
provide infrastructure and other facilities.

The Board, through a set of guidelines, regulates the pilgrimage. It
issues yatra slips at Katra town, which is the base camp, and these
have to be produced at Bhavan in order to enter the shrine. The Board
has limited the number of slips to 25,000 a day. "This is the best
guarantee to avoid a rush, which can become unmanageable near the
shrine complex," says Rohit Kansal, additional chief executive officer
of the Board.

Two hundred pilgrims are sent into the shrine at a time and they are
not allowed to carry coconuts for reasons of security - explosives
could be hidden in them. Coconuts are also not allowed to be broken
near the holy cave. Pilgrims deposit the coconuts at a counter in the
main waiting hall and are given a token. They can reclaim their
coconut from a separate counter once they come out of the cave after
worship.

GAURAV VIVEK BHATNAGAR

At Vaishno Devi, security personnel check offerings brought by
pilgrims.

To meet any eventuality, there is a medical dispensary every 4 km on
the route and at Sanjichat, 4 km from the shrine and the highest point
of the pilgrimage, there is an intensive care unit. For any trekker
who requires immediate specialised treatment, the Board has a free
helicopter service to Katra town.

At Vaishno Devi and Tirumala, the threat of militant attacks adds a
new dimension to the task of crowd management. At Vaishno Devi, which
is located close to the militant-infested areas of Udhampur district,
besides the Jammu and Kashmir Police, six companies of the Central
Reserve Police Force provide security for pilgrims. The deployment of
such a large number of personnel followed the July 21, 2003, killing
of six persons, including an infant, in a grenade attack by Lashkar-e-
Taiba militants. Now, at various points on the trekking route,
pilgrims have to pass through X-ray machines that detect explosives.

The authorities at Tirumala have been on high alert following the
terrorist attacks on Parliament House (December 13, 2001), the
Askharadam temple in Gandhinagar, Gujarat (September 24, 2002), and
Vaishno Devi. The assassination attempt on Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri, on the Tirupati-Tirumala ghat road, on
October 1, 2003, led to a further tightening of security at the temple
to the extent of making it virtually impregnable. Heavy metal
barricades have been installed in front of the `Mahadwaram' and armed
guards have been posted at the entrance. At the foothills at Alipiri
sophisticated security gadgets have been installed.

At the end of the day, however, one false step, as perhaps happened at
the Mandhardevi Temple, could bring to nought the best-laid safety and
security plans. That is the eternal challenge before the authorities
dealing with crowd control.

Reports from
LYLA BAVADAM
in Wai
PURNIMA TRIPATHI
in New Delhi
A. DEVARAJAN
in Tirupati
LUV PURI
in Jammu

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2204/stories/20050225002803400.htm

Volume 19 - Issue 22, October 26 - November 08, 2002
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

EDUCATION

The wrong lessons
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
in New Delhi

The new social science textbooks of the NCERT for Classes Six and Nine
are flawed in terms of factual details, content and historical
interpretation.

NEVER before in recent history has any national educational body been
embroiled in successive controversies of the kind that the National
Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has. Most of the
credit for this goes to the current dispensation in the Ministry of
Human Resource Development and those in positions of authority in the
Council. Now, once again, the Council is the centre of attention in
educational circles, for all the wrong reasons. This time, the new
social science textbooks prescribed for Classes Six and Nine have been
found flawed in terms of factual details, interpretation, content and
historical understanding. The books were brought out after a Supreme
Court stay on the implementation of the National Curriculum Framework
for Secondary Education (NCFSE) in the areas of "Social Sciences,
History and Hindi" was lifted on September 12.

What is surprising is that despite apprehensions of alleged distortion
of history and misrepresentation of facts in these textbooks, the
NCERT has not done much to mollify its critics. If anything, the books
contain any number of bloomers and apparent instances of political
bias. Another embarrassing dimension is that with only a few months
left for the end of the academic session, the books have come rather
late and therefore constitute a fait acccompli.

Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took charge at
the Centre three years ago, the HRD Ministry under Murli Manohar Joshi
and allied departments have made intense efforts to alter the
trajectory and interpretation of historical knowledge at any cost.
Obsessed with the notion that the existing history textbooks for
schools contained the Leftist interpretation of history, the BJP-led
government — the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituents on
the whole have had little to do with this ideologically motivated
exercise — set about purging individuals from institutions and
material from textbooks. The material removed, according to it, did
not portray historical facts correctly and sometimes even hurt the
sentiments of certain communities. The NCFSE 2000 became the blueprint
for preparing new syllabi and textbooks with a view to reducing the
burden on children. Textbooks authored by prominent historians such as
Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, Bipan Chandra and NCERT historians
Arjun Dev and Indira Dev became the casualties.

The content and language of the new books sadly lack the basic
intellectual appeal that earlier books had. Topics have been dealt
with cursorily. It appears that the new authors have taken extra pains
to highlight certain ideas of the present government at the Centre, as
for instance, those in the arena of foreign policy, the relations with
the United States in particular. But what is more serious is the
preoccupation with projecting a civilisational (and cultural)
antiquity and drawing seemingly endless parallels between the Harappan
and Vedic civilisations.

To begin with, in the textbook "India and the World", prescribed for
Class Six, Chapter Ten entitled `Indian Civilisation-Harappan
Civilisation', betrays a deliberate effort to imply that contemporary
religious beliefs and practices of Hindus, such as worshipping the
Siva linga or the pipal tree prevailed in that period as well. Some
terracotta figurines and seals of the Harappan period have been
depicted as the kamandala, Siva linga and the swastika, icons of
present-day Hindu worship. A terracotta figurine is shown with
vermilion in the parting of the hair to further emphasise the religion
of the Harappans, but at no point is it categorically stated. The
inference throughout this section is that the Vedic and Harappan
civilisations were one and the same, a theory being propounded by a
select group of historians and archaeologists.

Therefore, right from the beginning, the civilisation is referred to
as the Harappan, Indus or Indus-Saraswati civilisation. Even while
elaborating the geographical spread of the civilisation, nowhere is it
mentioned that its two most important sites, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa,
are located in Pakistan. On the possible reasons for the decline of
this civilization, nowhere is it mentioned that the advent of the
Aryans could have been a factor. Some ideas mooted in this chapter are
laughable. The presence of an elaborate drainage system was one of the
most impressive features of the Harappan period, but the NCERT would
like one to believe that this was because the Harappans gave
importance to sanitation and not because some sort of a municipal
structure existed. The possibility of a municipal structure having
existed was pointed out by historian D.N. Jha in his book Ancient
India - An Introductory Outline (People's Publishing House, New Delhi,
1977).

Chapter 11, titled `The Vedic Civilisation', introduces a new concept
of Vedic geography, perhaps to drive home the fact during the Rig
Vedic times people were settled in the same area that was the centre
of the Harappan civilisation. Readers are also informed that "the
largest number of Harappan settlements are found on the Saraswati
river."

There are some obvious omissions in this chapter, especially in the
sections on economic and social life and food habits of the Harappan-
Vedic times. Though cattle rearing was the chief occupation, as was
pointed out by Jha, the cow was not held sacred then. Beef was a
delicacy offered to the guest. The cow was an important economic
resource, a fact that has been conceded by all groups of historians.
But the NCERT historians make the cow a sacred animal in the Vedic
period itself, probably to drive home the fact that contemporary Hindu
beliefs and practices were an offshoot of Vedic systems. The
subsequent deterioration in the status of women, the strong
patriarchal order, the rigidity of the Varna order and the dominance
of certain castes over others do not find mention anywhere in the
book.

In Chapter 16 of the same book, which deals with India's cultural
contacts with the outside world, there is a picture of the Buddha
statue at Bamiyan, with the caption: "The Buddha statue at Bamiyan was
destroyed in 2001 by religious fanatics headed by the Taliban. They
destroyed all the relics kept in Kabul Museum." If the handiwork of
religious fanatics was to be described at all, the authors need not
have gone as far as Afghanistan but looked for equally recent examples
in India. It would have been easier for students to relate to the
demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya to understand what religious
fanaticism is all about.

Chapter 17, on `Major Religions', reminds the reader that some
scholars believe that the Harappan and Vedic civilisations are the
same. One is also informed that Hinduism, apart from being a Sanatana
Dharma (that which is eternal), "does not believe that there is only
one way of achieving salvation like other monotheistic religions." But
there have been sects, the Arya Samaj for instance, that are opposed
to the idea of Sanatana Dharma, writes a historian.

To highlight the distinct identity of Hinduism vis-a-vis other
"monotheistic religions" smacks of nothing but pure bias. It is also
not a coincidence that while disagreements in Christianity and the
formation of sects in it find mention, Hinduism is portrayed as a
relatively conflict-free religion. That several sects emerged on
account of the conflict with various Vedic religious practices does
not find any reference in the textbook.

No distinction is being made between theology and philosophy in the
new books, says Arjun Dev. No basic historical perspective of Hinduism
is given especially to explain the process of change over a period of
time. Also flawed is the explanation about the emergence of Jainism
and Buddhism. According to the new textbook, these two religions
simply emerged out of a quest for salvation through knowledge which
had already been initiated by the philosophical tradition and six
philosophies of the Upanishads. That these two religions denied the
authority of the Vedas and opposed animal sacrifice, thus bringing
them into conflict with the brahmanical orthodoxy, does not find
mention.

THE social science textbook prescribed for Class Nine is equally
deficient in terms of facts and understanding. Entitled "Contemporary
India", the book has three units. In Unit I, which is the history
component of the textbook and which deals with India in the 20th
century, the reader is informed that one of the most noteworthy
developments of the century was the "coup" in Russia. To write off the
October 1917 Revolution as a coup is only to undermine its historical
importance and its significance for the working class struggle.
Fascism and Nazism are described as dictatorial tendencies. Communism
is also described in the same vein, to have "represented a similar
trend in the sense that it stood for the dictatorship of a particular
class". Regarding the former two, there is no mention of the
Holocaust, the responsibility for the World War and the systematic
persecution of certain people in Nazi Germany, including social
democrats, trade unionists and socialist and Communist leaders.

AS for bloomers, on Page 4 of the textbook, Madagascar, which is an
island in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of South Africa, is
mentioned as being in the Arabian Sea. The editor of the book is a
retired Professor of Geography. There are more serious errors, such as
the one suggesting that Stalin was the first European leader to enter
into a peace agreement with Hitler, to buy temporary peace. It is
amazing that the authors should conveniently forget the Munich Pact
where one of the most shameful acts of appeasement and betrayal was
enacted, says Arjun Dev.

From Chapter Two to Six, beginning with British policies and ending
with the Independence struggle in India, there are innumerable
references to the Muslim League and to Muslim communalism, such as:
"In short, the Muslim League communalised the country's political
situation which, in turn, produced disastrous results." There is no
mention of Hindu communalism with particular reference to the Hindu
Mahasabha or the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. But statements like the
"only political elements who did not support the Quit India Movement
were the Indian communists and the followers of Jinnah" abound. The
RSS is not perceived as a "political element" here. Interestingly,
there is no reference at all to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by
a Hindu fanatic.

If certain exclusions appear odd, then certain inclusions are even
stranger. In Chapter Seven, entitled `Democratic Republic, Integration
and International Relations', there is a reference to Osama bin Laden
and "similar other persons" who are said to have changed the world.
The current hegemony of the U.S. and its support of repressive regimes
in a unipolar world do not seem to merit mention. In fact, Indo-U.S.
relations finds a prominent place in the chapter; the relations are
described rather nostalgically as a "tale of some kind of mistrust as
against the story of a natural friendship that should have existed
between the world's two most celebrated democracies".

In a statement, the NCERT has challenged historians to a debate on the
historical veracity of the facts given in the textbooks. It has
justified the antiquity of zero, the sindoor on terracotta figurines
and the sacredness of the cow as "findings of contemporary historical
research". While the meat of the buffalo, the bull and the calf were
eaten, the cow was held sacred throughout, stated Makhan Lal, a
retired Professor of History and one of the authors of the Class Six
textbook. The NCERT director, J.S. Rajput, has defended the use of the
word "coup" in the context of the Russian Revolution. "It is a
surprise that students were taught otherwise because this fact is
recorded in contemporary reports and almost every history textbook
published in the free world," Rajput stated. He said that the Council
would respond positively when genuine mistakes are brought to its
notice.

The debate took a new turn on October 16, when in a show of unanimity,
leaders from eight Opposition parties rejected the NCFSE and the new
textbooks on Social Science published by the NCERT. The initiative for
the meeting was taken by the Communist Party of India (CPI), and the
parties who were present included the Congress (I), the Communist
Party of India (Marxist), the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata
Dal, the Lok Jan Shakti, the All India Forward Bloc and the
Revolutionary Socialist Party. They demanded that the Central
government immediately constitute the Central Advisory Board on
Education and hold a conference of State Education Ministers as
education was a subject under the Concurrent list. A.B. Bardhan,
general secretary of the CPI said that the new textbooks needed to be
reviewed and withdrawn as a good part of the current academic session
had elapsed and schools continued to use the old books. The meeting
exhorted political parties, including the allies of the NDA, not to
implement the NCFSE and to reject the use of the textbooks.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1922/stories/20021108002004300.htm

Should we ban animal sacrifice in temples?

DO WE need to ban the practice offering animals and birds as sacrifice
during prayer in Hindu temples?

Does the State have the authority to police and ban animal sacrifices
of one religious group while allowing another to perform offering of
animals at prayer time.

Lord Krishna while listing the types of devotees based on the kind of
offering/kind of rituals one performs categorises them into (1) satvic
(peaceful, compassionate and calm), (2) rajasic (aggressive and
restive) and (3) tamasic devotees (very selfish and not concerned
about hurting others for one's own joy) based on the sankalpa
(intention), devatha invoked (name and form of the god invoked),
offering to the Lord and the method of prayer.

Not all devotion is satvic; therefore not all offerings are satvic.
From time immemorial the practice of offering animals during worship
as sacrifice is prevalent.

If one is allowed to kill a bird or an animal for his personal
consumption, there can be no extra harm to the animal or bird if it is
killed for the sake of offering.

The only thing that must be debated is the sensibilities of the satvic
person, who may be offering his prayers at that time, being offended
by the offering of animals or birds by those who choose a non-satvic
method based on his sankalpa and nature.

This is certainly very important. Just as smoking in public places is
banned, offering animal sacrifice in temples where predominant style
of praying is satvic is perfectly in order and needs to be done.

Just as certain places are reserved exclusively for smokers, certain
temples where traditionally animal sacrifices are done should be
allowed to continue the practice.

We should accept the fact that it takes all kinds of people to make
the world and we should frame rules and regulations taking this fact
into consideration.

If persons from other faiths can offer animals, if we can display
skinned animals sometimes with its tail intact in meat shops in public
shopping area in villages and small towns, how can we prevent animal
sacrifice in village temples where it is a time immemorial tradition?
What is necessary is proper regulation so that the majority of the
temples where the persons offering prayers choosing the satvic method
are free from animal sacrifices and allow the practice to continue
where traditionally it is much prevalent.

Hinduism is an all-inclusive way of life and therefore cannot exclude
non-satvic methods of offering prayers.

MANIKAM RAMASWAMI

http://www.hindu.com/op/2003/09/09/stories/2003090900130300.htm

Animal sacrifice: a corrective

WITH REFERENCE to Manikam Ramaswami's article "Should we ban animal
sacrifice in temples?" (Open Page, September 9), the matter has to be
put in a broader, more humane perspective transcending ritualistic
religion or sacred scriptures.

Hinduism is supposed to be a way of life. It is possible to link
virtually every practice and belief to religion. Where do we draw the
line between religion and social practice? Is it to be left
exclusively to those few who can read and interpret ancient Sanskrit
texts or to be decided by collective social thinking informed by
modern humanistic values?

I am sure that millions of Hindus once believed (hopefully not now!)
that sati was a religiously ordained act and would take the victim
straight to heaven. Even now we read now and then about cases of
children being sacrificed before undertaking construction work, and
there was this case of children being temporarily buried alive in
Madurai district purely as a religious belief. Is it true religion or
civilised social norm to brush all these aside, even justify them, as
normal examples of `non-satvic' worship sanctified by Lord Krishna, or
to say that as long as these are done in a predominantly non-satvic
social context it is all right? Are we supposed to take a vote and
decide every time to see whether the non-satvics or the satvics have a
current majority? Is active propagation of such non-satvic practices
desirable (as propagation of one's religion is a fundamental right
under our Constitution)?

Not essential for survival

It is possible, especially in our country, that other religions have
equally reprehensible practices and the government conveniently
ignores them. What needs to be done is to mobilise opinion in favour
of action to check reprehensible practices irrespective of which
religion it is and not to defend such practices merely because others
are doing it. Why not lead all other religions in eliminating such
practices and strengthen our moral right to demand such action
elsewhere? Could Raja Rammohan Roy have fought against sati and child
marriage if he had taken the stand that it should be done after the
Christian and Muslim rituals and laws were reformed?

A comparison is often made between animal sacrifice and non-
vegetarianism. This is not the place to discuss the pros and cons of
non-vegetarianism. Whether it is right or not, fortunate or
unfortunate, human beings are embedded, along with all other living
beings, in a food chain which is part of evolution. (Even eating
plants can be regarded as killing living beings). But sacrifices are
not essential or inevitable for survival. When a cannibal was told
that 20 million people were killed in World War II, he said, "what a
waste of food!" Even cannibals or animals kill only to eat and do not
indulge in sacrifice.

A human rights group has recently issued a statement that banning
animal sacrifice is a violation of the human right of poor people. How
sad that human rights groups, which are otherwise so essential to
society, have evolved such a narrow, irrelevant and barbarous
conception human rights to the callous exclusion of animal rights!
According to them, Buddha, as we usually read in stories, who saved a
lamb from slaughter, may qualify as the first of human rights violator
in history!

A practical view

As an extreme libertarian view or as a practical administrative view,
it is quite possible for one to argue that such matters should be left
to public education and not coercive legislation as, in practice,
trying to prevent such incidents often leads to law and order problems
as I have myself faced once as a Sub-Collector. But these views at
least admit in principle that such practices are bad and need to be
eliminated. But unfortunately, Mr. Ramaswami has not taken this view
but projects it as the essence of the so-called all-inclusiveness of
Hinduism.

Mr. Ramaswami starts by quoting the Supreme Court of Hinduism — the
Bhagavad Gita, the implication being that there is no further appeal!
According to the Gita, yajna or sacrifice does not refer to the
ceremonious Vedic ritual of physical killing but dedication of one's
all to the service of the `One Life' that is in all. People with such
a sacrificial spirit will accept even death gladly, though unjustly
meted out to them, so that the world may grow through their sacrifice
(Dr. Radhakrishnan's Bhagavad Gita, Allen & Unwin, 1970). In this
view, when birds and animals are slaughtered, it is they that perform
the real sacrifice a la Gita and not the slaughterers!

P.K. DORAISWAMY

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 16, 2003

http://www.hindu.com/op/2003/09/16/stories/2003091600290300.htm

Volume 19 - Issue 24, November 23 - December 06 2002
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

COLUMN

Savaged by tradition
HARSH MANDER

The Jhajjar tragedy is a pointer to the unending plight of Dalits who
are kept ensnared in the most socially degrading traditional
occupations.

R.V. MOORTHY

The mother and daughter of Tota Ram, one of the Dalits who were
slaughtered for allegedly skinning a cow in Duliana village in Jhajjar
district of Haryana. Significant numbers of Dalit families are
routinely subjected to violence and brutal humiliation.

THE nation was shamed and stunned once again, this time by the
merciless slaughter of five Dalit men within the boundary of a police
station in Duliana village in Jhajjar district of Haryana. There is
justified, widely shared outrage at the brutality spurred by vicious
pseudo-religious communal mobilisation and unashamed state
partisanship.

However, the ensuing debate needs also to focus on the reality of the
on-going hidden violence and brutal humiliation to which significant
numbers of Dalit families are routinely subjected in villages and
towns across the country, because of their engagement owing only to
their birth in the traditional occupations that are culturally
considered degrading and polluting. These occupations continue to be
in most parts of India the monopoly of a few Dalit castes, a grotesque
perverse legacy for people shunned as the lowest of the low. They are
born into the dishonour of these occupations, and die in it,
frequently, with no path of escape.

On the evening of October 15, 2002, Devendra and Dayachand,
traditional leather-workers, were skinning a dead cow close to the
Duliana police station. With them were animal skin trader Kailash, and
the driver and conductor of the hired vehicle in which the carcass was
transported, Tota Ram and Raju. All of them were Dalits.

A crowd of villagers gathered near the Duliana police station,
infuriated by a rumour that a cow was being skinned alive. They
attacked and gravely injured the Dalit men, who were later dragged to
the police station. The policemen failed to evacuate the critically
wounded men to safety and render medical attention even after the
passage of four hours.

Meanwhile, a tractor-load of young men, who were returning from Dasara
celebrations, converged on the police post, and lynched the men, in
the presence of three magistrates and at least 60 to 70 police
personnel who had been summoned by then. The assembled police force
did little to save the lives of the five. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad
took out a procession in Jhajjar the following day in defence of the
killings, and demanded that no arrests be made. The police have since
dragged its feet in making arrests, claiming that it was too dark at
the time of the incident to identify the murderers.

Dalit women working as municipal sweepers in Delhi. Manual removal of
human waste survives as a deeply humiliating vocation in India despite
it having been outlawed.

The defence of the attackers was that the cow was alive while being
skinned by the Dalits, and that it was this outrage of their religious
sentiments that fuelled the mob fury. The State administration
remained callous and indifferent. Not a single Minister visited the
site or condoled with the bereaved families. Dayachand's brother
Jogendra broke down while testifying before a joint delegation of Left
parties investigating the massacre. "They treated us as though we were
families of the criminals, not the victims," he said. "They gave us
the brutalised body of our brother - naked. We are poor Dalits,
therefore they did not think it necessary to even cover the body of my
brother."

AT the heart of their collective tragedy and angst is the trap in
which the most oppressed communities among the Dalits continue to find
themselves even as the country surges into the 21st century.
Tradition, feudal coercion and economic compulsions continue to entrap
Dalit families across the length and breadth of the country into the
most humiliating and despised occupations.

An ambitious national survey of the status of the practice of
untouchability in 12 major Indian States was recently conducted by
ActionAid India, with the collaboration of leading social scientists
Ghanshyam Shah, Sukhdeo Thorat, Satish Despande and Amita Baviskar and
Dalit activists from across the country. One of the findings of the
survey was that Dalits in every State continue to be ensnared into
categories of work that are culturally regarded as most intensely
polluting, unclean and socially degrading. Most of the so-called
unclean occupations are associated in one way or the other with death,
human waste or menstruation, all of which are engulfed by the dense
cultural beliefs of pollution.

The unclean occupations forced upon Dalits that are related to human
death include the digging of graves, collection of firewood for the
cremation of dead bodies and setting up the funeral pyres. Death is
considered so impure and unclean that, in many regions it is Dalits
alone who are required even to communicate the news of any death to
the relatives of the deceased person, whatever maybe the distance.

There are a large number of unclean occupations that derive from the
death of animals. In every State that was surveyed, villagers expect
Dalits to dispose of carcasses of animals that die in their homes or
in the village, whether cattle or dogs or cats. They skin the bodies
of dead animals, flay and tan these and develop them into fine
leather, and sometimes even turn them into footwear and drums. The
pollution associated with leather is so pervasive that in States such
as Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and
Maharashtra, even the beating of drums at weddings, funerals and
religious festivals is considered polluting and imposed only on
Dalits. The logic is carried further in States where public
announcements are made in villages by the beat of drum - even this
occupation is considered polluting and is the monopoly of Dalits.

In Andhra Pradesh, animal sacrifice is a polluting task entrusted to
Dalits. The most humiliating custom, observed in 12 per cent of the
villages surveyed, is Gavu Pattadam. This is a ghoulish forced ritual,
by which Dalits are required to bite the neck of the animal to kill
it. The blood of the animal is then mixed with rice and sprinkled all
over the village to keep evil spirits at bay.

A third category of unclean occupations derives from the culturally
polluting character of human waste. In every State surveyed, the
manual removal of human excreta, often with bare hands, survives as a
deeply humiliating vocation despite it having been outlawed. This
pollution extends in many cases to cleaning of sewage tanks, drainage
canals and the sweeping of streets. The beliefs related to the
pollution by menstrual blood results in midwifery and the washing of
clothes deemed as unclean occupations in States such as Uttar Pradesh,
Karnataka, Bihar and Maharashtra.

The survey revealed that continued bondage to unclean occupations
creates not only deep psychological scars but also physical health
problems. In Upale Dumala village in Solapur, Maharashtra, an elderly
Mang man engaged in carcass cleaning developed huge boils and rashes
on his shoulders as a result of carrying carcass. A range of health
problems were reported from elsewhere as well, as a result of the
intensely unsanitary character of their vocations, unmitigated by
modern technology.

The sturdy beliefs in the polluting nature of certain occupations
adapt regressively to a range of potentially liberating contemporary
developments.

For instance, the establishment of leather factories and tanneries has
freed Dalits significantly from traditional hereditary occupations,
but Dalits still lift and skin carcasses to sell at a price to these
companies.

It is also interesting that leather and tanning factories have a very
high proportion of Dalit workers. In cases where the modern economy or
municipal management requires the transport of solid waste or
cascasses, even the drivers of these vehicles are drawn from the Dalit
community. Municipal authorities routinely employ only Dalits for
scavenging.

Veterinary and medical doctors, unwilling to pollute themselves by
touching corpses, use Dalits to perform post-mortems, whereas they
only sign the reports.

Some unclean occupations are non-voluntary and unpaid, or paid a
pittance.

The bearing of death messages and temple cleaning in Tamil Nadu,
cleaning up after marriage feasts in Kerala and Karnataka, making
leather chappals for people of higher castes as a sign of respect in
Andhra Pradesh, and drum-beating and the removal of carcasses in many
States are unpaid tasks. Orissa reports payments of leftover food, old
clothes, fistfuls of food grains or petty cash.

The survey in most States reported that Dalits, who still engage in
hereditary polluting occupations, unless they are also bonded, today
usually negotiate some level of wage payment in cash or kind, although
these tend to be low and at times humiliating. The Karnataka survey
reports the payment of arrack, a meal and some cash for drum-beating,
and fixed cash payments for other tasks like mid-wifery and the
lifting of carcasses. Scavengers may be employed on monthly salary by
local bodies, otherwise families pay them cash or stale food.
Similarly, in Orissa the survey showed that the Ghasis, Panos and Doms
involved in leather work and scavenging are landless and most non-
Dalits and even some of the Dalit farmers refuse to employ them for
agricultural wage work. The researchers from Rajasthan reported that
in most villages, cash is rarely paid for traditional unclean work
expected from the Dalits, instead they are usually given food (usually
two rotis).

In several cases, Dalits who persist in unclean occupations do so as
they feel powerless to resist, or even because they accept their caste
roles. In Babufasad village in North Orissa, the elected ward member,
Chamayu Pathar Khamia, who belongs to the Ghasi caste, sweeps the
roads, removes the carcasses and skins dead cattle. In return, he is
given a handful of rice, and occasionally money, by the villagers. "If
I do not do this kind of work, the non-Dalits will threaten me and
force me to leave the village. And because of my work, even Dalits of
the Ganda caste despise me even though we are all Scheduled Castes."

Economic compulsions prevent most Dalits from escaping humiliating
hereditary occupations. They may earn Rs.200 from skinning a dead
buffalo. Scavenging may secure them regular employment in the local
bodies.

These secure earnings contain the seeds of the cruel dilemma of the
most socially disadvantaged and oppressed Dalits who are trapped in
hereditary `unclean occupations'. Adherence to occupations such as
scavenging or disposal of carcasses and human bodies, which are
indispensable for any society, but which no other group is willing to
perform, bestows them with a monopoly status that gives them greater
economic security than many other disadvantaged groups. But this is at
the price of the most savage and extreme social degradation. Yet, if
they seek to escape this social degradation to achieve dignity, they
have to abandon the economic security of their despised occupations to
join the vast ranks of the proletariat. This, then, is the core of
their dilemma: if they seek economic security, they must accept the
lowest depths of social degradation; but if they wish for social
dignity, they must accept the price of economic insecurity and
deprivation.

Despite the threats of pauperisation, sporadic individual and
collective resistance have led to a steady decline in the numbers of
Dalit families engaged in unclean occupations in most parts of the
country. In Tamil Nadu, in 80 per cent of the villages surveyed, only
Dalits perform the uncleanest of occupations such as carcass removal,
grave digging and the cleaning of garbage after festivals. However,
the major change reported is that in many cases, these activities are
now performed by few, rather than all. The older generation is more
obliging whereas younger Dalits resist.

An interesting example was reported from Beguru village in Karnataka.
Dalits have negotiated with non-Dalits to release them from unclean
obligations.

The panchayat itself now employs just three Dalits on a monthly wage
of Rs.700 each, to perform the polluting occupations of drum beating,
scavenging, sweeping and removing of dead animals. The remaining
Dalits in the village have been freed, and have shifted to
agricultural wage work, industrial work or have migrated to the cities
for work that may liberate them from the indignities of the caste
system.

However, escape to the anonymity of cities does not always guarantee
liberation from the stigma of unclean occupations. Research in Orissa
observed that Dalits in rural unclean occupations sometimes migrate to
towns, but even there find work mainly as road sweepers and drain
cleaners. There seems no escape for them from social ostracism. The
same trends are reported from other states like Tamil Nadu.

Where hereditary unclean occupations for Dalits remain entrenched in
the rural social system, cracks are developing. There are many reports
of successful resistance from many parts of the country. Some
inspiring case studies have come to light even from the feudal
outposts of Rajasthan.

In Palri village of Sirohi, the Dalits collectively resolved to refuse
to remove the carcasses. The caste Hindus retaliated with a social and
economic boycott and violence, but the Dalits held their ground. Today
they have freed themselves from this legacy of shame. Likewise, in
2001, the Regar community in Sujanpura village of Sikar refused to
lift carcasses. Non-Dalits negotiated and a breakthrough was achieved
when in a major rupture from tradition, it was agreed that two persons
from each caste would take turns to carry the carcass outside the
village. However, it is still left to the Regars to skin the animals.

Likewise, the survey from Tamil Nadu reported that until recently,
refusal to perform unclean activities was met with fines, violence or
excommunication. However, collective resistance has grown over the
past decade, forcing non-Dalits to accept the mobility of these Dalits
into the more respected caste-neutral category of agricultural
workers.

Young Dalit men in a meeting with the Left parties in Jhajjar to mourn
the massacre of the five leather workers at the hands of the bigoted
mob, gave words to the depths of their mortification and anger. "These
Hindus, they make us do their dirty work and then deprive us of even a
minimum of dignity." Another added: "If they love their animals so
much, let them pick up the carcasses and bury them with full rites."
The extent to which his words unknowingly echoed those of Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar decades earlier reflects how sub-born is the
survival of the most oppressive elements of our troubled tradition. He
had said: "You take the milk from the cows and buffaloes, and when
they are dead, you expect us to remove the dead animals. Why? When you
can carry the dead bodies of your mothers, why can you not carry the
dead bodies of your `mother cows' yourselves?" To our sisters and
brothers, who are entrapped and enslaved to the most disgraceful
elements of our shared legacy, do we have an answer?

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1924/stories/20021206003009400.htm

Volume 20 - Issue 20, September 27 - October 10, 2003
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

THE STATES

A decree on animal sacrifice

S. VISWANATHAN
in Chennai

The Tamil Nadu government's ban on animal sacrifice in temples,
imposed in an effort apparently to please Hindutva forces, attracts
widespread protests.

K. GANESAN

A scene of animal sacrifice at the Pandi Muneeswarar temple in
Madurai.
THE All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu
seems to have converted the State into a testing ground by
experimenting with legislative and administrative measures that would
please the champions of neo-liberal reforms and the hard-core Hindutva
elements in the ruling dispensation at the Centre. Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa won the approbation of reforms pundits for getting tough
with government employees and teachers who struck work seeking
restoration of certain rights they were deprived of in the name of
pruning expenditure.

At the social level, a couple of initiatives taken by the government
brought much joy to Hindu fundamentalists. The first was the passing
of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Act,
2002 (Frontline, November 8, 2002). The latest is the order to
District Collectors and police officials to put an end to animal
sacrifice in temples by enforcing strictly a 1950 State law against
such sacrifice. Hindutva forces would like to believe that the AIADMK
government had succeeded in areas where even the Bharatiya Janata
Party-led governments at the Centre and in some States could not make
much headway. While the first measure is seen as yet another step
towards realising their long-term objective of Hinduising the multi-
religious Indian society, the second, they believe, will go a long way
in achieving another of their cherished goals - homogenising the
pluralistic Hindu fold.

If the threat by a section of Dalits to leave Hinduism in protest
against casteist oppression apparently provoked the State government
to bring in the anti-conversion law, the order on ending animal
sacrifice in temples came in the wake of the reported `sacrifice' of
500 buffaloes at a village temple in Tiruchi district. Jayalalithaa,
in her communication to officials in the last week of August, advised
stringent action against violators of the Tamil Nadu Animals and Birds
Sacrifices Prevention Act, 1950. She asked them to advise people
against following the practice and prevent them from performing "such
cruel acts". Only two days earlier the Chief Minister had ordered a
compulsory `one-month rest' for all temple elephants every year.
Expectedly, animal lover and former Union Environment Minister Maneka
Gandhi congratulated Jayalalithaa on her initiatives. Among the others
who supported the move were K. Veeramani, general secretary of the
Dravidar Kazhagam, founded by rationalist leader E.V. Ramasami and
leaders of the BJP and most other constituents of the Sangh Parivar.

The reactions of political parties such as the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK), the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party
of India (Marxist) were mixed. Although animal sacrifice was not
acceptable to them, they questioned the wisdom of seeking to end an
age-old practice by the mere enforcement of a law. The Pattali Makkal
Katchi (PMK), felt that the move was unwarranted. Puthiya Tamizhagam,
a Dalit party, demanded a ban also on yagnas conducted by caste Hindus
at the mainstream temples constructed and run under agama rules.
During yagnas, gold coins, diamonds, expensive silk sarees, ghee and
foodgrain are offered to Agni (fire) as `sacrifice', the party said.
The Dalit Panthers of India (Viduthalai Siruthaigal in Tamil) saw the
ban as an interference in the religious rights of the oppressed people
and called for an agitation to protest against it.

Dalits and people belonging to backward and most backward communities,
for whom animal sacrifice is an integral part of worship, expressed
their resentment in no uncertain terms. Within days of the order,
devotees in several parts of the southern districts went ahead with
the customary practice at the local temples in defiance of the ban.
August-September is the time of the annual or biennial `Kodai'
festivals at these temples, and the mood among these people was one of
anger, despair and defiance. In Madurai, devotees of the Pandi
Muneeswarar temple performed animal sacrifice "in fulfilment of their
vow" and shared the meat with relatives in com<147,1,7>munity feasts.
Scores of goats and fowls were reportedly sacrificed. In Tirunelveli
and Tuticorin districts, which have a large number of temples of
village deities, goats and cocks were offered in sacrifice, though a
few metres away from the temples. Thousands of people throng these
temples, particularly on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

A devotee of the Sudalai Madasami temple at Sirumalanji in Tirunelveli
district challenged the ban in the Madras High Court on the grounds
that the Act was violative of Articles 19 and 25 of the Constitution.
The government's action was arbitrary and an unwarranted interference
with the religious faith of various Hindu sects, the petitioner, S.
Senthivel Nadar, said in his public interest litigation (PIL) petition
filed on September 5. He stated that the ban sought to end a widely
prevalent practice among a particular community in many parts of the
State. The petitioner feared that the "sudden enforcement" of the Act
would hurt the sentiments of lakhs of people, particularly devotees
who had reared goats and hens for sacrifice at the biennial festival
in fulfilment of their vows. He pleaded for an interim injunction
restraining the police and other authorities from taking action
against devotees participating in the temple festival, pending
disposal of the petition. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice B.
Subhashan Reddy and Justice A. Kulasekaran ordered notice to the
government and an `understanding' was reached that no arrests would be
made.

The next day, the police frustrated efforts to conduct a mass
sacrifice at the Sirumalanji temple, but devotees did offer sacrifice
at some distance from the temple. The `Samiaadi' (trance-dancer) of
the temple, M. Muthuraj, was kept in his house "under the control" of
the police and prevented from visiting the cremation ground at
midnight for the ritual that precedes the sacrifice as practised for
centuries. A number of devotees were reportedly arrested for offering
animal sacrifice.

When these developments were brought to the notice of the Chief
Justice at the High Court on September 8, he reminded Advocate-General
N.R. Chandran of the earlier `understanding'. Chandran clarified,
relying on information from the Superintendent of Police, that no
arrest had been made.

Meanwhile, another PIL petition challenging the Act was also admitted.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice sought to know the motive behind
the "urgency" in enforcing the Act now. He asked the Advocate-General
whether it was correct to ban, all on a sudden, an activity practised
for generations. The Advocate-General said animal sacrifice was a
social menace like sati and untouchability and had to be brought to an
end at some stage. Both the petitions are pending disposal.

A. SHAIKMOHIDEEN

A lone goat at the Oththapanai Sudalai Andavar temple at Sirumalanji
in Tirunelveli district, where animal sacrifice takes place.

THE motive behind the sudden move to refurbish an Act kept in cold
storage for five decades is a mystery. If the desire to ban animal
sacrifice is based on the love for animals, the question arises why
the killing of animals at homes, abattoirs and restaurants for food
should be left untouched. In fact, given the extent of rural poverty
and the skyrocketing meat prices, for lakhs of deprived people the
community feast, which follows the ritual sacrifices at temples, is
the only occasion to eat meat. If the idea is to liberate people from
superstitions, how could one explain the fact that the yagnas held in
mainstream temples, where "upper caste" Hindus offer jewels and other
valuables to be consumed by a fire and numerous other forms of
irrational beliefs have been spared?

Whatever the answers to these questions, according to researchers and
social activists, the beneficiaries of the move are the Hindutva
forces, which are only too willing to "cleanse" temples of village
deities which are "polluted" by "undesirable" practices that are not
acceptable to the temples based on the agamas. Some researchers have
pointed out for years that organisations such as the Hindu Munnani and
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have been working among the rural
communities with a view to "homogenising" Hindu society (Frontline,
April 9, 1999).

Professor A. Sivasubramanian, who has done intensive studies on folk
deities, the forms of worship and the practices followed in the
temples of the "people's gods" in the southern districts, told
Frontline that these deities have some special characteristics. For
instance, most of them are "slain heroes" among the devotees'
ancestors. These deities, he said, were kept in the open, unlike in
the mainstream temples, only to provide easy access to the poor and
the socially deprived sections, which were generally denied entry into
caste Hindus' temples in many areas. The poojaris (priests) of the
village deities normally belong to the caste group that controls the
temples. The rules were kept flexible in order to suit the local
people's needs. For instance, unlike in the mainstream temples, there
is no rigidity about the timing of worship, keeping in mind the
village poor, who are mostly wage-earning agricultural workers.

Sivasubramanian said that in many villages the `kodai' festivals
played a unifying role among caste-ridden rural communities of varied
backgrounds and conflicting interests. Animal sacrifice was practised
not only in Hindu folk temples, but also in darghas and
church<147,2,7>es, although without the approval of the clergy. He
cited the Anthoniyar "temple" at Puliyampatti, 35 km from Tuticorin,
where Hindus join Christians in offering worship and animal sacrifice
"in fulfilment of vows". Referring to the prevalence of animal
sacrifice among Muslims, the professor said the practice among them
was to donate the hide to the dargha and partake the meat with others
in community feasts.

Any attempt to homogenise the temples of folk deities would only lead
to the end of the plurality of Hindu society, Sivasubramanian said.
The Sangh Parivar had already brought under its control several
temples. In these temples they have fixed the worship timings,
appointed Brahmin poojaris, made the rules rigid and installed idols
of mainstream gods such as Siva (in the form of Linga), Vinayagar and
Murugan. A few years ago, when a Brahmin poojari objected to animal
sacrifice in one such temple for a village deity in Coimbatore on the
grounds that it could not be done in a temple that had a Linga, the
people removed the Linga and went ahead with the sacrifice. At the
temple of a folk deity in Tuticorin, when the newly appointed Brahmin
poojari objected to animal sacrifice because the temple now also had
an idol of Murugan, devotees performed the sacrifice after hiding the
idol behind a curtain. Such developments would only create further
divisions in village communities in the southern districts, which are
known for caste-related violence.

A study by the Tirunelveli-based Human Rights Organisation on the
practices in 564 temples in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts
revealed that the "kodai" festivals had some positive elements.
Although Dalits were normally denied entry into 240 of these temples,
they were allowed to participate in the festivals. Dalits shared the
meat of the sacrificed animals with the people of the Thevar
community, with which they are at loggerheads most of the time. Any
attempt to disturb the balance may aggravate the caste-related
problems in these sensitive areas, the study felt.

The Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Association has said that the State
government's action against animal sacrifice would affect the right to
worship of Dalits and other backward sections of the people and would
only unwittingly help the Sangh Parivar bring thousands of village
temples under its control.

After sensing the all-round protest against the move, the Federation
of Village Temple Priests, believed to be a Parivar organisation, has
urged the State government not to enforce the ban on animal sacrifice
in temples, since the move is "impractical". "Animal sacrifice can be
banned only if the majority of people stopped eating non-vegetarian
food," said federation president S. Vedantam. CPI(M) State secretary
N. Varadarajan said in a statement that there could be no two opinions
about the irrational nature of the belief in animal sacrifice. "All
the same, it is an age-old belief with cultural overtones, involving
the right to worship of Dalits and people from other backward
communities and also the religious sentiments of these people," he
said. "Attempts at educating these people and improving their social
and economic status should necessarily precede efforts to put an end
to such superstitious beliefs," observed Varadarajan.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2020/stories/20031010001205000.htm

Animal sacrifice

The article on the Tamil Nadu government's ban on animal sacrifice was
timely ("A decree on animal sacrifice", October 10). Animal sacrifice
by Hindus is not limited to Tamil Nadu. The practice prevails in
Nepal. All those raising a hue and cry over animal sacrifice should
first try to eliminate such antiquated Hindu practices like "widow-
sacrifice" called sati. There still exists a temple for Rani Sati and
a school in which students sing praises of her.

Historic and literary records show that cattle sacrifice was practised
by priests in the Vedic period. It was competition from Jainism that
inspired a section of Hindus to take to vegetarianism. There is
nothing in Hinduism that prohibits animal sacrifice.

The ban cannot be enforced because it is difficult to send policemen
to each and every temple in the State. The Tamil Nadu Village Temples
Priests Association has already expressed its displeasure over the
ban.

G. Raja Bharathi
Chennai

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2023/stories/20031121006212200.htm

Gadhimai Festival: Nepal Mass Animal Sacrifice Festival To Go Ahead
Despite Protests
BINAJ GURUBACHARYA | 11/20/09 12:45 AM |

KATMANDU, Nepal — A Hindu festival in which hundreds of thousands of
animals are expected to be sacrificed will go ahead as scheduled in
southern Nepal despite protests, organizers said Friday.

The Gadhimai festival, celebrated every five years, is attended by
many Hindus from India as well as Nepal. More than 200,000 buffaloes,
pigs, goats, chickens and pigeons are expected to be slaughtered this
year on Nov. 24 and 25.

Organizers said they will not bow to "interference" from animal rights
and religious groups that have held protests in Katmandu and in the
festival area in Bara district, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south
of the capital.

"We will not stop this centuries-old tradition now. This is our
religion, belief and tradition and we will continue with it no matter
what," said Motilal Kushwa of the organizing committee.

Kushwa said thousands of people have already arrived at the site with
animals meant for sacrifice next week.

Participants believe that animal sacrifices for the Hindu goddess
Gadhimai will end evil and bring prosperity. Many join the festival
from the state of Bihar in India, where animal sacrifices have been
banned in some areas.

Critics say the killings are barbaric and conducted in a cruel manner.

Government administrator Taranath Gauram said hundreds of extra
policemen have been sent to the area to maintain security and
officials do not expect trouble during the festival.

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, a Nepalese teenager revered by many as a
reincarnation of Buddha, has joined the campaign against the animal
slaughter and plans to visit the festival area to appeal directly to
participants to stop the sacrifices.

Bamjan's followers believe he has been meditating without food and
water in the jungles of southern Nepal since 2005. Believers say he
spends months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a
tree

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/20/gadhimai-festival-nepal-m_n_364790.html

Gadhimai Festival (PHOTOS): Mass Animal Sacrifice Begins In Nepal
First Posted: 11-24-09 02:37 PM | Updated: 11-24-09 07:28 PM

(AP) BARIYAPUR, Nepal -- The ceremony began with prayers in a temple
by tens of thousands of Hindus before dawn Tuesday. Then it shifted to
a nearby corral, where in the cold morning mist, scores of butchers
wielding curved swords began slaughtering buffalo calves by hacking
off their heads.

Over two days, 200,000 buffaloes, goats, chickens and pigeons will be
killed as part of a blood-soaked festival held every five years to
honor Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.

While cows are sacred and protected by law in Nepal, animal sacrifice
has a long history in this overwhelmingly Hindu country and parts of
neighboring India. The Bariyapur festival has become so big, in part,
because such ceremonies have been banned in many areas in the
neighboring Indian state of Bihar.

And while it is criticized by animal-rights protesters, the festival
is defended as a centuries-old tradition.

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS

Butchers with butcher knives participate in religious rituals before
slaughtering buffalos during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai
temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu,
Nepal.

Many Nepalis believe that sacrifices in Gadhimai's honor will bring
them prosperity. They also believe that by eating the meat, which is
taken back to their villages and consumed during feasts, they will be
protected from evil.

Taranath Gautam, the top government official in the area, estimated
that more than 200,000 people had come for the ceremony in Bariyapur,
some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Katmandu. Some brought their own
animals to sacrifice.

"I am here with my mother who had promised the goddess she would
sacrifice a goat. It was her wish and promise and I am glad we were
able to fulfill it," said Pramod Das, a farmer from the nearby village
of Sarlahi. "I believe now my mother's wishes will come true."

Animal rights groups don't have much power in Nepal, but they have
staged repeated protests in recent weeks. Local news reports say some
activists set up stands in towns on the way to the Bariyapur temple,
offering Hindu pilgrims coconuts and other fruits to sacrifice instead
of animals.

There was no sign of them Tuesday.

"We were unable to stop the animal sacrifices this year but we will
continue our campaign to stop killings during this festival," said
Pramada Shah of the group Animals Nepal.

The ceremony, which goes back for generations, has enormous resonance
in a country where per capital income is about $25 a month, illiteracy
is widespread and vast social divides have left millions working as
tenant farmers for feudal landlords.

Even many educated Nepalis see value in the tradition.

Om Prasad, a banker from the nearby city of Birgunj, brought offerings
of fruit and flowers to the festival, but said he believed people
should be able to sacrifice animals if they want.

"It is their tradition and it is fine if they continue to follow it.
No one should try to tell them they can't follow what their ancestors
did," he said.

Experts say it will take many more years before there are changes in
these deeply rooted traditions.

"They continue these animal sacrifice rituals because they believe it
is a tradition that can't be broken," said Ram Bahadur Chetri, an
anthropology professor at Katmandu's Tribhuwan University. "The people
who follow these traditions believe that if they discontinue, then the
gods will get angry and there could be catastrophe in the country."

Buffaloes, goats, chicken and ducks are sacrificed at most Hindu homes
in Nepal during the Dasain festivals, which fell in September this
year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/gadhimai-festival-photos_n_369446.html

Buddhists and Animal Rights Activists Against Hindu Sacrifice to
Gadhimai
From all-creatures.org

Buddhists and Animal Rights Activists Against Hindu Sacrifice
By Kalpit Parajuli, AsiaNews.it

More than a million Hindus are preparing to sacrifice half a million
animals during the festival of Gadhimai Mela.

In Bara district, where the ‘living Buddha’ meditates, more than a
million Hindus are preparing to sacrifice half a million animals
during the festival of Gadhimai Mela. Actress Brigitte Bardot wants
the inhumane practice stopped. More than 12,000 police agents are
mobilized for the occasion.

Hundreds of Buddhists and animal rights activists are protesting
against the Hindu festival of Gadhimai Mela in Bayapur, Bara district
(southeastern Nepal). During the event, half a million animals will be
slaughtered. More than a million Hindu pilgrims are expected to gather
for the occasion on 25 November. Nepali authorities have deployed more
than 12,000 police officers.

Gadhimai Mela is one of the most important festivities on the Hindu
calendar and the largest sacrificial happening in the world. It
usually lasts a week, ending on the third Friday of November.

During the celebrations, the faithful sacrifice animals like
buffaloes, sheep and chickens in honour of the god Gadhimai. According
to Hindu belief, such offerings reduce the god’s anger, and bring
people luck and prosperity.

However, Bara district is also a major Buddhist pilgrimage site. This
is where Ram Bahadur Bomjan, known as the living reincarnation of the
Buddha, meditates year round.

At present, hundreds of Buddhists and activists are praying with him
to stop the animal sacrifice.

“The killing of animals in the name of sacrifice is the most serious
crime. So it must be stopped immediately,” said Rinpoche Sange
Rangjung, a Buddhist monk and protest leader. “In no religion are
animal sacrifices prescribed”.

Demonstrators, who are backed by French actress and animal rights
activist Brigitte Bardot, are calling on the Nepali government to
legislate in the matter to ban the practice in the future.

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-sacrifice.html

The Gadhimai sacrifice is grotesque

The ritual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals runs counter
to Hindu principles of reverence for life

Anil Bhanot guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 November 2009 12.00 GMT

Yesterday, Mangal Chaudhary and Dukha Kachadiya, descendants of a
feudal landlord and a village healer adept in the Hindu occult, who in
the 18th century started a mass animal sacrifice to the goddess
Gadhimai, presided over a ceremony to begin this year's festival by
beheading 10,000 buffalo. Their deaths are being followed by the
slaughter of a further quarter of a million animals and birds today.
It is all happening in Bariyarpur, a village in the south of Nepal,
bordering the state of Bihar in India. The region is well known as the
homeland of the Bhojpuri people, a close-knit ethnic community devoted
to the worship of Gadhimai.

The history of this bloodthirsty event began when Bhagwan Chaudhary,
the feudal landlord, a imprisoned in Makwanpur fort prison about 260
years ago. He dreamed that all his problems would be solved if he made
a blood sacrifice to Gadhimai. Immediately upon his release from
prison he took counsel from the local village healer whose descendant,
Dukha Kachadiya, started the ritual yesterday with drops of his own
blood from five parts of his body. Apparently then a light "appeared"
in an earthenware jar, and the gory sacrifice began.

To me it all seems utterly abhorrent. Yet the Nepalese government made
a ridiculous decision to give 4.5 million rupees to the organisers to
build an abattoir so as to avoid pollution and disease but undoubtedly
also to hold on to Bhojpuri votes. The whole incident has quite
rightly sparked an international outcry from animal welfare
campaigners, Indian politicians like Menaka Gandhi and religious icons
like the "Buddha Boy" Ram Bahadur Bomjan, among others.

Personally, I see this practice as one utterly opposed to the non-
violent principles of my Hindu religion. Five to six thousand years
ago our Vedic seers recognised that we can only survive by taking life
from a lower level of consciousness to ours as is the case with plants
and animals, but never did they condone senseless and purposeless
killing. In Hinduism all life is sacred and the whole idea of animal
sacrifice in those ancient days was based on the principle that we
must pray to God before killing an animal for food – by reciting Vedic
mantras to God – and simply put that we think twice before taking a
life for our own consumption.

Many Hindus may not like it, because we like to think we are tolerant,
but I see several superstitious practices in what otherwise is a wise
and profound religion, and issues such as this which should be
robustly challenged are instead allowed to pass.

The Gadhimai sacrifice is grotesque | Anil BhanotThis article was
published on guardian.co.uk at 12.00 GMT on Wednesday 25 November
2009.

Comments in chronological order (Total 37 comments)

BaalChaamon
25 Nov 2009, 12:20PM
Anil is right in saying that Hinduism does not condone the sacrifice
of animals or any blood sacrifice in honour of our Gods, instead we
offer flowers and fruits.

Recommend? (9)

ImranAhmad
25 Nov 2009, 12:54PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be
deleted. blackadder2001
25 Nov 2009, 1:10PM
While I respect the author's views on the horror of the sacrifice, you
must understand that Hinduism is not a uniform religion, it is a
compendium of practices followed by thousands of disparate
ethnicities. While there is a commonality of some over arching
beliefs, the rituals and practices of every day life and worship vary
significantly. The differences cut across caste or linguistic
boundaries, for example, Kashmiri and Bengali Brahmins are often non-
vegetarian, a practice that would be taboo among other Brahmin
communities. Plus, animal sacrifice, especially the Ashvamedha Yagna
was a well documented practice even in the highest echelons of Hindu
society in the past. Neither is this practice unique to any religion,
even today Muslims sacrifice goats and other cattle on the occasion of
Eid-ul-Azha. With greater education and development, one can hope that
some of these practices we find abhorrent die out. Till then, I don't
think we can dictate to anyone how to lead their lies

Recommend? (8)

Mauryan
25 Nov 2009, 3:02PM
I have said many times on this forum that there is no such thing as
"Hinduism." The term Hindu is a geographic term, much like the term
American or Chinese is. There are myriad of religions, cults,
philosophies, practices, rituals, scriptures and so on. The diversity
amongst people and their practices in this land are mind boggling to
perceive and understand. On one side is this high level of tradition
that deals directly with the inner spirit, renunciation, meditation
and love for all. On the other end are practices such as those
practiced by tribals and others where animals get slaughtered and
there are gory rituals including human sacrifice in some cases.

After independence, India is slowly making progress on many fronts
that include education, better awareness and interaction between
different people. It will probably take a hundred years or more of
steady progress for practices of this kind to lose their momentum.

India is one place where primitiveness and advancement exist side by
side. But spiritual traditions of India have always kept the lamp of
enlightenment burning. Hopefully, India will rediscover its glory and
practices of this kind will disappear with sustained progress.

Recommend? (4)

LittleCowLover
25 Nov 2009, 4:21PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be
deleted. CaspianSmith
25 Nov 2009, 4:55PM
LittleCowLover,

What about the blood sacrifice of Jesus to purchase redemption from
sin, through his blood? How is that different, in theory?

And Abraham and his only son? How is that different?

Recommend? (4)

Kahabaali
25 Nov 2009, 4:58PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be
deleted. Kahabaali
25 Nov 2009, 5:06PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be
deleted. Kahabaali
25 Nov 2009, 5:24PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be
deleted. LucyQ
25 Nov 2009, 8:41PM
This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be
deleted. blackadder2001
26 Nov 2009, 7:09AM
As a libertarian when it comes to freedom of speech, I must protest
the practice of deleting comments, these deletions are arbitrary and
go against the spirit of a board titled "Comment is Free". Is this a
British newspaper or one of those squalid rags from Pakistani
madrassas? Plus, they deprive us of the entertainment we derive from
reading Kahabaali's post. Kahabaali's ramblings remind me of perverts
who go flashing their privates at old ladies, I guess he doesn't get
to do much of that in Pakistan so he's taking out his frustrations on
this board. Let him have his catharsis and allow us to enjoy the
disjointed ramblings of this depraved lunatic.

Recommend? (7)

ChrisQ
26 Nov 2009, 9:53AM
I take the point that Hinduism is not a uniform belief, but the
original article gave the impression that animal sacrifice was part of
mainstream Hinduism. It is not. About 70 to 80% of Hindus are
Vishnavites, who condemn animal sacrifice, and of the rest about 10 to
15% are Saivites who also condemn them. Of the rest there are Shaktis,
Vedantists, and neo-Hindus. The animal sacrifices are in fact only
supported by a minority of the Shaktis.

Anil's article is much more representative of Hindu mainstream views,
and far from being a "substitute" cracking of coconuts is a
traditional form of sacrifice that is much more common than animal
sacrifice.

Chris (a Western follower of Hinduism)

Recommend? (5)

m1dlander
26 Nov 2009, 10:01AM
Why has LucyQ been moderated? I've never seen her post anything
offensive

Recommend? (2)

m1dlander
26 Nov 2009, 10:10AM
This is a barbaric act of selfishness, those buffalo must be
terrified; just waiting for their turn to be butchered.

It seems to me the temples are doing this to generate funding to
sustain them by perpetrating the lie that people watching will have
their wishes granted 'within 5 years'.

That's very specific, how can it be tested, how can it be proved or
disproved?

It's a bloodbath to titilate, a spectacle and a money-spinner.

The words "the Goddess needs blood" sounds like something from the
dark ages, not the 21st century!

Recommend? (4)

Britistani
26 Nov 2009, 10:19AM
I am also very dissappointed on hearing this news. We are Punjabi
Muslims and our ancestors were Hindu and Sikh. To this day we do not
eat beef or pork and rarely is lamb cooked in our house, our cuisine
is still mainly vegetarian or chicken as is the custom of Punjabi
country folks.

I used to dread the Hajj Eid were so many goats would be sacrificed,
but at least the meat went to poor people who could not afford it
(small consolation) - and i would never eat it.

The Vedic culture is the core culture of all of South Asia regardless
of religion, and killing animals like this is definaltely not the
Vedic way. It sounds awful and as m1dlander said it sounds like its
from the dark ages.

I hope the people in Nepal see sense.

Recommend? (7)

VSBI
26 Nov 2009, 2:08PM
Could someone remind me how many turkeys have been slaughtered this
last week for US thanksgiving? And for UK Christmas. 40 million?
That's the figure I've read. Puts this Nepali issue in some
perspective. We have massive animal slaughter industries in the West
that are equally brutal, but just kept behind closed doors to spare
our guilt.
Anyone else detect more than a hint of hypocrisy in this outrage?

Recommend? (4)

Arrowhead
26 Nov 2009, 4:31PM
One of the founding beliefs of Hinduism is that
"All Life Is Important" this act is an abomination to Hinduism as is
the caste system the Indian government should act against the Indian?s
who attended the festival in Nepal.
I?ll pray for those animals.

Recommend? (1)

mischelove
26 Nov 2009, 4:44PM
I'm really sorry for those animals and for those people either. There
is no way they get better by murdering and cruelty. It's disgusting
and there is no reason to defend it whatsoever. This is not religion.

Recommend? (1)

Vulpus
27 Nov 2009, 2:51AM
It is refreshing and dare I say it, restorative of my faith in human
nature to read not only this article above but also the comments
written herein, by persons not only of the Hindu faith but of the
Muslim faith and others, which are filled with compassion and without
the conceitedness and ignorance displayed by other commentators that
is unfortunately so often the case on other threads.

One of my relatives was a soldier out in India before the last war,
and he was deeply moved by the sight of Indian villagers there, some
of whom had very little in material terms, but who would nonetheless
feed the ants and other insects every morning. He found their attitude
to be a highly civilised one indeed, which it is of course, as well as
their respect for all life. As a Brahmin friend of mine once told me
'A man who is cruel to animals in our faith is not a real man'. I only
wish that more people from a Western background felt the same way. In
this respect the comment by VSBI was correct, a sad fact indeed.

Recommend? (4)

wetanddry
27 Nov 2009, 8:09AM
If anybody is interested in seeing the lie of the land there, please
see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpb1001/4137245289/sizes/o/

It is a grotesque site. It is the day after the ritual slaughter. Here
you have the 3m high wall (abattoir). Within the walls of the compound
you can see local Dalits (untouchables) skinning the slain beasts,
removing the offal and carting away the carcasses and the best meat in
sacks to villages within meat carrying distance.

Far from all of the buffalo carcasses were 'used' in this way and the
sun and nature beat the locals to the rest. The stench at the end of
this day could be described as 'large', but only to leave room for the
necessary adjectives for day three or four.

It seems not a million miles from the image below.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.xlarge1.jpg"
rel="nofollow">
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.xlarge1.jpg

add some poverty, superstition, religion and local party politics to a
world wide love of meat and you have jumped the divide.

wetanddry
27 Nov 2009, 8:10AM
Sorry:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.xlarge1.jpg

julianabanana
27 Nov 2009, 11:10AM
blackadder2001 said
"With greater education and development, one can hope that some of
these practices we find abhorrent die out. Till then, I don't think we
can dictate to anyone how to lead their lies' (I presume he meant
lives)

But we do dictate to other people how to live their lives. We do it
all the time, in our own country and at European level and on the
international stage. It's called the law. We make it a criminal
offence to sexually abuse children, to rape or beat other people, to
steal, to murder, to engage in was crimes etc etc. And in this country
we regulate abbatoirs (not very well, in my opinion, but at least the
intention to minimise suffering is there). Of course, it all starts to
break down as soon as you introduce moral relativism. So you make
religious exceptions to animal welfare laws so Halal and Shechita
slaughter methods are tolerated in the UK. Why not go further and say
it's ok to take a child bride. It's fine to abuse women. Why not? It's
a cultural thing, so it must be ok for some people to have much lower
standards of behaviour, yes? Obviously that's bollocks. I'm happy to
condemn what has happened to these defenceless animals in Nepal, and
condemn the people who did it to them, because its just plain damn
wrong. I only wish we could protest more effectively, but then we're
up against apologists for brutality like blackadder2001.

julianabanana
27 Nov 2009, 11:10AM
blackadder2001 said
"With greater education and development, one can hope that some of
these practices we find abhorrent die out. Till then, I don't think we
can dictate to anyone how to lead their lies' (I presume he meant
lives)

But we do dictate to other people how to live their lives. We do it
all the time, in our own country and at European level and on the
international stage. It's called the law. We make it a criminal
offence to sexually abuse children, to rape or beat other people, to
steal, to murder, to engage in was crimes etc etc. And in this country
we regulate abbatoirs (not very well, in my opinion, but at least the
intention to minimise suffering is there). Of course, it all starts to
break down as soon as you introduce moral relativism. So you make
religious exceptions to animal welfare laws so Halal and Shechita
slaughter methods are tolerated in the UK. Why not go further and say
it's ok to take a child bride. It's fine to abuse women. Why not? It's
a cultural thing, so it must be ok for some people to have much lower
standards of behaviour, yes? Obviously that's bollocks. I'm happy to
condemn what has happened to these defenceless animals in Nepal, and
condemn the people who did it to them, because its just plain damn
wrong. I only wish we could protest more effectively, but then we're
up against apologists for brutality like blackadder2001.

Recommend? (1)

m1dlander
27 Nov 2009, 12:27PM
VSBI
26 Nov 2009, 2:08PM
Could someone remind me how many turkeys have been slaughtered this
last week for US thanksgiving? And for UK Christmas. 40 million?
That's the figure I've read. Puts this Nepali issue in some
perspective. We have massive animal slaughter industries in the West
that are equally brutal, but just kept behind closed doors to spare
our guilt.
Anyone else detect more than a hint of hypocrisy in this outrage?

Nope

m1dlander
27 Nov 2009, 12:28PM
sorry

VSBI
26 Nov 2009, 2:08PM
Could someone remind me how many turkeys have been slaughtered this
last week for US thanksgiving? And for UK Christmas. 40 million?
That's the figure I've read. Puts this Nepali issue in some
perspective. We have massive animal slaughter industries in the West
that are equally brutal, but just kept behind closed doors to spare
our guilt.
Anyone else detect more than a hint of hypocrisy in this outrage?

Nope

Recommend? (1)

m1dlander
27 Nov 2009, 1:31PM

We have massive animal slaughter industries in the West that are
equally brutal

We also have laws that stipulate all animals should be killed in a
humane manner, meaning they are stunned first and don't feel any pain,
(and minimal fear).

(Excluding Halal slaughterhouses who have special dispensation to
cause suffering - but that's another issue)

Now how many strikes with one of those machetes do you think it takes
to kill a bull let alone sever its head? This while all the others
watch, waiting their turn in terror.

All turkeys who are killed will end up as food, as wetanddry states
above, a huge amount of the meat from these baffalo will be wasted.

Turkeys are killed to order in an efficient manner (you may be a
vegitarian and disagree morally with this, but it is the case); the
huge numbers of buffalo killed can't possibly be processed, so it's
wasteful in the very least!

The main problem I have with this, however, is that it is done as a
spectacle to entertain people and on the patently untrue premise that
spectator's wishes will come true!

If simple peasants are told this by their priests, who they respect,
then of course they're going to believe it. Once it becomes a
tradition it's difficult to stop - but that doesn't mean it shouldn't
be stopped!

Superstition should be rooted out as the harmful, regressive,
blinkered, morally-retarded evolutionary baggage that it is

blackadder2001
27 Nov 2009, 2:50PM
@julianabanana, you're going down a very slippery slope here, your own
example of abbatoirs belies what you're saying. Abbatoirs are no less
brutal than crude animal sacrifice and the end result for the poor
animal is no different. The more a society tries to regulate people's
behaviour, the more opposition it occurs because quite frankly dearie,
what may be just plain damn wrong to you might not be to others. Plus,
unless you're a saint, am sure there are aspects of your lifestyle
that are just plain wrong when viewed from different paradigms. What
would you say about laws against homosexuality? Many people believe
that that's just plain damn wrong, would you support laws banning that
as well? Do you know how Parsees and Tibetans dispose of their dead?
Is that plain damn wrong too? Try not to be wooly headed when debating
about absolute right and wrong, far brighter people have given up
trying to define or even confirm the existence of these concepts

Recommend? (3)

iZenmaster
27 Nov 2009, 3:18PM
"Human kills human just to prove that Killing is BAD" [~Anonymous)

We humans are very unreasonable kind, yet we believe we are very
reasonable!!

We called those atrocity as INHUMAN, but don't you think thats so
HUMAN!!
can you show me any ANIMAL (other than HOMO SAPIENS) who kills like
us?
and yet we call those act INHUMAN!!

I NEITHER SUPPORT ANIMAL SACRIFICE NOR I'M JUSTIFYING WHAT WE DID IN
NEPAL (GADIMAI MELA) WAS RIGHT OR WRONG!!

The fact is, that atrocity happened in the open public, hence the
loud
cry!! otherwise ANIMALS get SLAUGHTERED everywhere in the WORLD, yeah
in very HUMANLY WAY!! So what are we JUST HYPOCRITE ?? United States,
will consume 45 million turkeys for Thanksgiving alone

Only Difference is those animals were killed in PUBLIC, otherwise THE
MEAT
will get CONSUMED and THE SKIN will go for LEATHER PROCESSING!!

There is nothing called RIGHT or WRONG....cause we believe ourselves
to be
very REASONABLE, yet act HYPOCRITE.. ..on the OTHER side we are
nothing
but a RISEN APE!!

"Human
beings are animals....We may prefer to think of ourselves as fallen
angels, but in reality we are risen apes." ~Desmond Morris

anu47
27 Nov 2009, 4:41PM
Rather than pander to the ?sensitive? middleclass Guardian readers who
abhor fox hunting and other blood sports, Mr Bhanot should question
whether the method by which these animals are slaughtered makes an
iota of difference. Well whether a melon is dropped onto a sharpened
knife or if the knife is intentionally thrust into it; it is the melon
that suffers injury. The karma of killing an animal whichever way it
is done is the same. Perhaps the horror of seeing an animal hacked to
death is what is needed to stop others like Mr Bhanot here in the ?
civilized? west from eating their flesh to satisfy our palate.

It is sheer intellectual pomposity to condemn these Nepalese (for what
we consider) their atypical traditions and on the other hand pick up a
pre-packed chicken from the supermarket thereby supporting the annual ?
sacrifice? of 750 million animals in this country alone. Was it 40
million turkeys slaughtered this year for thanksgiving? How many more
are meeting a similar fate this Christmas? The author must be feeling
quite smug and should have known better than to condemn Nepali Hindus
so unashamedly, as a purported ?Hindu leader?; given what sacrifices
the Gurkhas have made for this country. Tut-tut.
Anu

Recommend? (1)

julianabanana
27 Nov 2009, 6:14PM
blackadder2001, I don't see what homosexuality has to do with this
argument at all. But for the record, no I wouldn't support laws
banning it. Last time I looked homosexuality was legal in the UK. As
for people disposing of their dead, as long as they don't leave the
bodies outside my house, I'm fine with sky burials or whatever.

Now, back to the point. Have you actually seen the graphic images of
this mass slaughter? There were lots on the BBC. Many have now been
pulled, presumably because of the disturbing content To describe the
scenes as horrific really doesn't do them justice. Animals being
butchered in plain view of each other, running round a huge enclosure
desperately trying to escape from men wielding huge knives. Pools of
blood with stricken animals lying there not yet dead. How is that
remotely connected with an attempt (granted, an imperfect one) to
minimise animal suffering by keeping the killing rooms and the holding
pens separate and the animals in ignorance of their fate for as long
as possible? By stunning before bleeding and beheading? I'm no
apologist for abbatoirs. I haven't eaten meat for over 20 years. But
what happened in Nepal was sickening beyond my comprehension. If you
really think the end result is no different for the animals, let's try
an experiment. 1) A week or so ago a judge gave the parents of a very
sick baby the right to switch of his life support machine to end his
suffering. The baby died soon afterwards. Baby P was beaten repeatedly
and neglected to the point where he died from his injuries. According
to your logic there is no difference in the treatment of these two
babies by their parents because they both died, so it didn't really
matter how and in what circumstances they died. We should condemn
both, or neither. Or try this. Your granny is very old and frail.
She'd like to die in her own bed, surrounded by her loved ones but
instead you put her in a busy hospital ward where she is left lying in
her own piss and shit and dies hungry, thirsty, alone and afraid. But
hey, what does it matter, because she was going to die anyway? Do you
begin to see a tiny problem with your own position? Maybe you're the
one who's not so bright, dearie?

wetanddry
27 Nov 2009, 7:24PM
Well it is certainly an emotive subject.... for a few days at least.
See you all in Gadhimai in 5 years time minus a couple of months for
the next repeat of this debate.

wetanddry
27 Nov 2009, 8:00PM
Juliana: The animals were not running around trying to escape. They
went like the proverbial lambs to the slaughter. Shooting fish could
possibly be a more useful metaphor. It was a pathetic scene, from the
utterly docile animals' point of view and from the point of view of
the faintly macho men given the task of wielding the knives. There was
distress though certainly and quite a lot of it was mine.

The heavy knife on the back of the neck seemed to be stunningly
effective though. Within a split second it was over for all but the
very biggest of animals.

However. They could radically change this ritual slaughter. It would
be possible to properly feed and water the animals while waiting. They
could segregate the living, the presently condemned and the dead with
some kind of barriers. They could hire people to shepard animals from
one zone to another. In the final zone they could manage the skinning
and cleaning and shipping to the local community, meat dealers and
skin traders.

They could even set up a temporary meat drying facility for making
jerky (sekuwa) which is the favour manner of preservation.

In this way you have all the superstitious sacrifice nonsense which
keeps the masses happy as their wishes will come true, the business
people are happy as the locals don't throw rocks at the trucks coming
to take their meat away so they make some money and the animal rights
people should be happier as it approximates the work-flow of the
massive, anonymous flesh industries of back home.

Or not?

julianabanana
27 Nov 2009, 9:24PM
Wetanddry

Not.

You obviously did not see the same pictures or read the same reports
as me. Unless you were actually there I will not defer to your account
of events. Amongst other atrocities, I saw a picture of a bullock
sitting up, wounded, in a pool of blood amongst the dead bodies of
other bullocks, waiting to have its head hacked off. So much for it
being over in a split second.

As for the people's wishes coming true, five years ago they must have
all wished to remain in squalid poverty and ignorance, because five
years down the line that's all their bloodthirty goddess seems to have
granted them. We compel children to go to school in the UK, to protect
them from ignorance.Why is it wrong for mainstream Hindus to want to
educate these people not to indulge in this barbaric practice in the
name of their religion?

blackadder2001
27 Nov 2009, 9:25PM

@julianabanana, you're missing the wood for the trees, the point is
that moral relativism is the basis of all societies and laws. The
point of bringing up the homosexuality example was to show that the
same behaviour can be viewed as 'right' by one group of people and
'barbaric' by another. Sure homosexuality is legal in Britain now but
Britain was at the forefront of some of the most repressive anti
buggery laws in the world, which claimed the lives and careers of men
like Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing. But societies evolve and as they do,
so do their laws. The suffering of the animals in the Gadimai massacre
is horrific no doubt, but industrial slaughterhouses are no different.
I also request you to visit some authentic Chinese restaurants where
prawns are boiled alive and snakes are sliced while still breathing.
You may find that disgusting but the Chinese don't. Good to know that
you don't eat meat but am reasonably sure there are other indirect
ways in which your lifestyle harm the environment. What makes your
ways of living less damn right than those of others? Do you drink
milk? Do you know how calves are starved so that the mil of their
mothers reaches your table? Don't give me stupid tangential arguments
and try and understand the points being made here. And you still
haven't answered (and I suspect even understood) the core point that I
have been making all through my posts viz. that in a world devoid of
absolute truths, right and wrong are determined only by societies
believing they are so. I suggest enrolling yourself in a few
philosophy courses asap.

Recommend? (1)

julianabanana
28 Nov 2009, 12:15AM
blackadder2001

So, what you are saying is you are right and I am wrong. Yes?

blackadder2001
28 Nov 2009, 8:43AM
@julianabanana - no

wetanddry
28 Nov 2009, 3:56PM
@julianabanana. Yes I was there.

I don't know how young buffaloes think, but their treatment could have
been vastly improved. You did not answer my suggestion of upgrading
this slaughter venue to something equating to the minimum standards of
the meat industry. Would this be better or still unacceptable?

Superstition is rife in this country. You get sick, their must be
spirits in the house. A young box is fat, he must be having sex. Watch
people drinking the sewage from the Ganges river, because its holy.
After giving birth, a woman should not eat vegetables for fruit for
about a month. The list goes on.

Many attending this festival still shit outdoors. They don't know why
toilets are important. Animal welfare is known here, but for the
poorest of the poor, its a long way down the list of priorities.

I think comments are closed so I'll stop here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/25/gadhimai-animal-sacrifice-nepal

Festival of Mass Animal Sacrifice Under Way in Nepal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsNKc8dOfvQ

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Sachhidanand on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:20pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news1_02.html

Trivedi must have been sanctioned by Didi
Post by Mahesh shah on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:21pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news2.html

Main points of disagreement
Post by Lets talk in open on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:21pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news4.html

Five areas of contention between Pankaj Trivedi and Didi.

According to Mahesh shah old Swadhyayee and good friend of Pankajbhai
there were five main areas of disagreement.
1. If Swadhyay claims to rebuild 40,000 houses, where are this houses.
Only 4-5,000 houses were rebuild.
2. Bhav Nirzar is a temple and should be accessible to any devotee.
3. Accounting of various trusts that hold funds from Swadhyay
activities. What is the purpose of accumulating wealth?
4. Dada had promised all the money received from Templeton Award to
use of Swadhyay activities, why it was diverted to family?
5. Love letters between Ashok Joshi and Didi - both were married at
the time of letters.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Archana on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:23pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news7.html

another foreign trip for Jayshree T ? Let us see if she goes to
Gujarat or runs away?

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ranjeet on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:25pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news15.html

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Dear Vijaybhai on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:26pm

FYI ... The "BAHURUPIA" person who assumed more than half a dozen
names on YAHOO PUBLIC GROUPS for SWADHYAY is compalining about someone
else using his name...

Herambuster=Trueswadhyayi1=HIRDIP=MukundM=mptshah=Janmohammed2003 just
to name a few.

Nilesh, do you want me to post the threatening messages you had posted
on YAHOO PUBLIC GROUPS?

Review of last 50 posts have revealed that
Post # 384, 408, 413 posted under "Paying tribute to Pankajbhai'
Post # 389, 403, 407, 410 posted under Mukesh,
Post # 391 posted under "Indian Citizen"
Post # 385 posted under "Asheet

are likely to be one and the same person according to my webmaster.
Please refrain from posting under different names. I am sure others
are doing the same thing. - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by The swadhyayee on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:28pm

Dear Brother A SWADHYAYEE(Brain Washed),

Still you want to say police will catch the culprits; police already
declared they caught hands and they are looking for Brains....Iam
sorry yours already washed out

next she want to face it calmly coz now she cant be able to give
threaten or what?

next you cant do whatever you want just see what's happening around.

Bahurupia..
Post by Roma on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:29pm

on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:26pm, Guest-Dear Vijaybhai wrote:FYI ... The
"BAHURUPIA" person who assumed more than half a dozen names on YAHOO
PUBLIC GROUPS for SWADHYAY is compalining about someone else using his
name...

Herambuster=Trueswadhyayi1=HIRDIP=MukundM=mptshah=Janmohammed2003 just
to name a few.

Nilesh, do you want me to post the threatening messages you had posted
on YAHOO PUBLIC GROUPS?

Please post those messages and let people know how nilesh has adopted
to swadhyay thoery in real life. Let people know how swadhyay
represntative talk to others.

You are also posting under Roma # 445, Ajay Doshi # 446; Rakesh # 447
and Rajesh Parikh # 448!
Why can't you post all that in one post?
- Vijay Mehta,

Jayshree's love letters were not a script
Post by Ajay Doshi on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:35pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news13.html

Bhagawanano Bhag used for helping criminals
Post by Rakesh on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:38pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news20.html

Swadhyay now fighting in court to save thier people. Kona baap ni
diwali? Who will pay to fight the case? They could not use the trust
funds for earthquake relief but now to protect Jayshree from going to
jail the Swadhyay is spending money like there is no to morrow.

Hitesh Chudasama goes underground
Post by Rajesh Parikh on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:42pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060707/guj/gujarat/news6.html

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 6th, 2006, 5:13pm

Dear Vijaybhai,

Why two of my last messges were deleted?

Sorry, I can not tell you out of many that were deleted what post urs
was. Please send to me at vija...@aol.com or post it again. Please
make sure to avoid name calling and discussing topics not related to
Pankajbhai. Remeber one man is dead and his family and friends do
visit this frequently. - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 6th, 2006, 5:57pm

Is there any internet savvy person who can make sure that articles
published by Gujarati Newspapers on "Pankaj Trivedi Murder" comes in
search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN.

There are lot of non-Gujaratis interested in these articles.

Link to Information In English:

http://www.swadhyayee.org/download/EnglishDocs/

http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.php?id=808&cattype=NEWS

http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.php?id=809&cattype=NEWS

http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.php?id=814&cattype=NEWS

http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.php?id=804&cattype=NEWS

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Swadhyayee on Jul 6th, 2006, 7:01pm

I

Re: Bahurupia..
Post by Swadhyayee on Jul 6th, 2006, 7:05pm

Vijaybhai - thanks for exposing these Bahrupia who has posted messages
under different names in your forum.

on Jul 6th, 2006, 4:29pm, Guest-Roma wrote:Please post those messages
and let people know how nilesh has adopted to swadhyay thoery in real
life. Let people know how swadhyay represntative talk to others.

You are also posting under Roma # 445, Ajay Doshi # 446; Rakesh # 447
and Rajesh Parikh # 448!
Why can't you post all that in one post?
- Vijay Mehta,

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Nilesh Sahita on Jul 6th, 2006, 7:12pm

Vijaybhai,

Yes - indeed it was a nice conversation that we had a while ago.

Yes, please send me IP addresses of messages that were posted under my
name (I will email you my email address separately).

I will arrange to speak with a US Attorney to see what action I can
and should take.

I appreciate your prompt and firm action with respect to this.

To all who are posting messages under my name:

We all live in post 9/11 era and do not think you can not be found
out. You have committed act of "Identity Theft" which is a crime and
you may have landed yourself into a legal mess without realizing it.

Just remember ignorance is not an excuse and Prison has no broadband
service

Regards,- Nilesh

on Jul 6th, 2006, 2:49pm, Guest-Nilesh Sahita wrote:Dear Vijaybhai,

Someone has been using my name to post article like below to defame
me.

As the owner of the forum I trust you will take necessary action to
act on it and remove from your forum immediately.

Regards,
- Nilesh

Dear Nileshbhai,
I have posted a clarifying message on that post. Obviously you feel
totally differently than the post under your name. If you need we may
be able to give you the IP address of that person using your name.
Thank you for nice conversation. - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Unbelievable on Jul 6th, 2006, 7:39pm

Vijay...you have been doing a great job moderating this discussion
board..keep up the good work.

Nilesh, you're quite a tough guy. Threatening lawsuits sometimes works
just fine, but remember, the USA is the land of litigation. You're
going to contact and pay a US based lawyer to file suit against
somebody who posted a single message on an anonymous message board, a
message that was nowhere near dangerous? Good luck...

If you have something to say, then say it without making empty
threats....oh wait, you probably have already using one of your many
alias usernames, since I highly doubt you just started monitoring this
thread.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 6th, 2006, 7:50pm

Here are few illegal doing of one of the swadhyayi MOTABHAI Chandrashi
Jadeja involved in kiling of Pankaj Trivedi. Can some one translate
the into english Please?? Are all so called Motabhai in real
Khotabhai?? Where did they learn to snatch land from others? Is this
topic included into swadhyay Parivar 101 teachings, or are they doing
the same what KAVRAV did 5000 years ago!

As I understand back in June, 1992 There was a prime land in
Padadhari. There was 750 Sq ft of prime land. Panchayat voted for
15x10 size cabins. Chandrasinh Jadeja, a Motabhai and Swadhyayi (who
now in jail for Pankajbhai’s murder), applied under different names
and got the land for 11 months. Now many years later he owns a complex
valued at 40 Lakh Rupees!

Ravi Patel
ravi_pa...@yahoo.com

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Nilesh Sahita on Jul 6th, 2006, 7:50pm

Dear Unbelievable,

Identity Theft is a crime.

Whoever is committing this crime - stop it or be prepared to face the
music.

Let me repeat - post 9/11 - there is no such thing as 'anonymous'.
Every thing can be tracked.

My suggestion to Vijaybhai is - please do not allow anonymous posting
on this forum. Let people who are willing to write their name and who
are willing to stand by what they write participate in this forum.

It will make this forum truly useful and beneficial to everyone.

- Nilesh

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Unbelievable on Jul 6th, 2006, 8:11pm

Nilesh,

The only reason most people are posting anonymously is that they don't
want the same fate (for themselves and their families) as Pankaj
Trivedi or the 10 others.

If the threat of physical or emotional backlash towards my family was
not there, I would be the first to use my real name.

P.S Someone posting a message on an anonymous board using your name is
not identity theft. Who says there aren't other Nilesh Sahita's out
there?

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 6th, 2006, 8:35pm

Can we list all trust that were and are operated under "swadyay
Parivar" those currently in operation and those closed after filing
bankruptcy (in this case the money or land was transfered to another
trust owned by the owners of swadhyay parivar main trust or sold for
profit). I want the location or the town name where the trust were
registered or were just run.

Thanks

Ravi Patel
ravi_pa...@yahoo.com

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Nilesh Sahita on Jul 6th, 2006, 8:46pm

Brother Unbelievable,

I will be more than happy if you can find another Nilesh Sahita in the
world

Seriously speaking - posting message on my name is a serious matter
and once again I request all indulging in such acts to think carefully
before what they do.

on Jul 6th, 2006, 8:11pm, Guest-Unbelievable wrote:Nilesh,

The only reason most people are posting anonymously is that they don't
want the same fate (for themselves and their families) as Pankaj
Trivedi or the 10 others.

If the threat of physical or emotional backlash towards my family was
not there, I would be the first to use my real name.

P.S Someone posting a message on an anonymous board using your name is
not identity theft. Who says there aren't other Nilesh Sahita's out
there?

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 6th, 2006, 9:28pm

1.How about all the false cases filed against Pankajbhai which your so
called 'Parivar' lost and got a stricture from High Court Judge for
misusing the system? Any apology or slightest of remorse will show
that you have some 'swadhyay' quality left.

2. For moral matters-Dadaji has more standing than anyone else. You
are entitled to your opinion. However this is again a characteristic
of a typical cult memeber who does not want to see any evil of a
person for whom he has been brain-washed.

3.I have spoken to many villagers myself who go to swadhyay and they
speak good about everybody who go to them with any religious pretext.
That type of ignorance is what makes business of religion thrive in my
beloved Gujarat. I have also spoken to villagers who go to
Swaminarayan in Gujarat and they do not speak well about Swadhyay.

Today it will be your worth before you open your mouth and go to
villages in Gujarat and find out what villagers are talking about Didi
and her brand of Swadhyay.

I am only hoping that Gujarat Government does not succumb to greed(as
some media have reported that crores of rupees bribes are offered to
remove Didi's name from chargesheet) as I am sure that by now they
have realized that there is nothing to fear from Didi and her blind
faith follower like you.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 6th, 2006, 9:45pm

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Nilesh Sahita on Jul 6th, 2006, 9:59pm

1.How about all the false cases filed against Pankajbhai which your so
called 'Parivar' lost and got a stricture from High Court Judge for
misusing the system? Any apology or slightest of remorse will show
that you have some 'swadhyay' quality left.

Please refer to the statements issued by Swadhyay Parivar in this
matter.

2. For moral matters-Dadaji has more standing than anyone else. You
are entitled to your opinion. However this is again a characteristic
of a typical cult memeber who does not want to see any evil of a
person for whom he has been brain-washed.

As I said before you are entitled to your opinion and so are we.

3. I have spoken to many villagers myself who go to swadhyay and they
speak good about everybody who go to them with any religious pretext.
That type of ignorance is what makes business of religion thrive in my
beloved Gujarat. I have also spoken to villagers who go to
Swaminarayan in Gujarat and they do not speak well about Swadhyay.

I do not want to go in to Swadhyay v/s Swaminarayan war here. They do
what they think is best and we do what we think is best. This may not
be zero sum game - may be society needs both.

It is clear to me that you have never put a foot in any Gujarat
village in your lifetime. Let me tell you this - Swadhyay message has
reached each and every village in Gujarat. Obviously some part of the
population has picked it up and some part has not. For those people
who are part of Swadhyay Parivar - this latest crisis has not affected
them. For those who were not part of Parivar (for whatever reason and
we respect their choice) - obviously this has given them one more
reason to do so and that is fine with us.

4. Today it will be your worth before you open your mouth and go to
villages in Gujarat and find out what villagers are talking about Didi
and her brand of Swadhyay.

Do not give me Bull!$#@ of what villagers are talking about, OK?
Instead of relying on cheapo Gujju media, it will be worthwhile for
you to go to villages and check the situation yourself.

In any case - Swadhyay has never been afraid of what some section of
society is talking about.

I remember that even back in 80's also there were Swadhyay Critics and
there will always be sections of society which doesn't find Swadhyay
acceptable because Swadhyay doesn't allow them to fulfill their
personal ego. For e.g. if one goes to Swadhyay and do Swadhyay work
for 10/20 years - no where his/her name is mentioned on the stage but
even if someone give $1,000/- to local community, they are happy to
announce his/her name on the stage. To some people this (prestige)
gives more gratification than path that Dadaji has shown - and they
should follow the path according to their level of development/
understanding.

In Swadhyay one has to sublime their ego and work with everyone in the
Yagniya spirit which is not everyone's cup of tea.

5. I am only hoping that Gujarat Government does not succumb to
greed(as some media have reported that crores of rupees bribes are
offered to remove Didi's name from chargesheet) as I am sure that by
now they have realized that there is nothing to fear from Didi and her
blind faith follower like you.

Hmmm.... crores of rupees bribes offered to remove Didi's name from
chargesheet? Are you nuts? Do you think Indian state machinery and
judiciary is Timbuktu state?

You can call me blind faith follower and I can call you blind faith
critic and we can keep doing this namecalling until cows come home. I
suspect you have not met many people who are in Swadhyay and you like
to believe all of us in Swadhyay are because of blind faith follower.
Well... I leave it for your wisdom to decide and in any case I and our
Swadhyayees do not care about your certificate anyway.

I have said enough about what I wanted to stay and I am going to be
away for few days. If time permitting I may revisit this forum after
few days / weeks.

Thank you and May God bless us all.

Jay Yogeshwar.

PS - Vijaybhai once again thanks for your help. I have emailed you
separately.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 6th, 2006, 10:06pm

Nileshbhai,

How about all the false cases filed against Pankajbhai which your so
called 'Parivar' lost and got a stricture from High Court Judge for
misusing the system? Any apology or slightest of remorse will show
that you have some 'swadhyay' quality left.

Please refer to the statements issued by Swadhyay Parivar in this
matter.

Before you go away for few days/weeks, Pl. post these statements by
Swadhyay Parivar.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by OO7 on Jul 6th, 2006, 10:39pm

Does anyone know where is Jayshree Talwarkar? She was in Tamilnadu and
supoosed to go to Gujarat. Is she going? It is raining hard here so I
feel she may not come. I think she should make another foreign
trip

you Dont know anything
Post by Kamal on Jul 7th, 2006, 12:37am

dear Vijaybhai,

Just read below whatever you have posted......

Five areas of contention between Pankaj Trivedi and Didi.
According to Mahesh shah old Swadhyayee and good friend of Pankajbhai
there were five main areas of disagreement.

1. If Swadhyay claims to rebuild 40,000 houses, where are this houses.
Only 4-5,000 houses were rebuild.
2. Bhav Nirzar is a temple and should be accessible to any devotee.
3. Accounting of various trusts that hold funds from Swadhyay
activities. What is the purpose of accumulating wealth?
4. Dada had promised all the money received from Templeton Award to
use of Swadhyay activities, why it was diverted to family?
5. Love letters between Ashok Joshi and Didi - both were married at
the time of letters

This is the proof that you dont know about Swadhyay. Why are wasting
your time here. (see No.5)

Here, 99 % men (?) are against swadhyay. only 1% used to read you
'Bakvas' forum. and by your forum , 'Kai tuti sakvana nathi' (nothing
will break). We have no any effects by your 'bakvas' . Anybody can
understand You are all FAKE swadhyayee. Everybody from you tries to
draw out Ego.

Brothers, Just stop this 'bakvas' and go to Indian Village and see the
spirit of swadhyay, result of the swadhyay.

The aim of this forum is only to show Ego.

By your all post anybody can understand you are most egotistic.

You are only barking. and remember barking dog never hurt you.
Dear Kamal,
The five contention I have listed is from that article for those who
can not read Gujarati.
This is the forum to discuss the Murder of Pankajbhai and assult
(beating up) of more than 12 people. If you think this is Bakwas than
we hope you wont come here anymore.
This 'ego' line is getting old as is the 'asking the people from
village.' Ask the people from Padadhari who found out that one of the
murder has a 40 lacs complex on land obtained illegally and he was a
motabhai close to Didi.
Even if you have done everything you claim to do, that does not
justify killing of maiming anyone disagreeing with you.
Many years ago, there were more than 700 people killed by Jim Jones in
Guana, and few years ago 87 people burned to death in Waco. Texas. All
these followers had what they thought God leading them. Of course he
lead them to death. History is full of people who thought they had a
Godly leader only to find out the truth later on. Sometimes too late!
We are simply curious - just as any good God loving Swadhyayee would
be - what happened to 40,000 new houses that were to be built. Can
anyone give us the address?
Why with every passing day more and more motabhai in India are found
to be corrupt and using public land and money for their own purpose?
If the Swadhyay was as strong and pious as you guys claim why it did
not stop Motabhai's (Khotabhai) from committing fraud, theft, assult
and violence?
We are not interested in harming Swadhyayee movement but we are
interested in giving a voice to those who want to speak up. Apprently
speaking up in Swadhyay has dire consequenses.
'Kai Tuti Sakawana Nathi" line was used by Manishbhai who is enjoying
the hospitality of prison system for past two weeks, it was used by
these five goons who thought they had to commit murder to protect
Swadhyay. If the movement is good it does not need any Gujdagiri to
protect it. It should not need any Dhamaki and Dadagiri. It should not
be afraid to listen to dissenting voices. Unfortunately, so far anyone
speaking against party line has been threatened and punished.
Like it or not .. Pap no Dhado Futi Gayo Chhe. There comes a time when
your sin catches up with you.
Good Bye and go find another forum where you can sing virtues of Didi
and others - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by You Have Got to Be Kidding on Jul 7th, 2006, 03:38am

Kamal, are you serious?

The truth doesn't really matter anymore - ego would drive one to prove
that they are right. Do you really think it matters whether Pankaj
Trivedi was correct or whether Didi is guilty of conspiring to kill
him?

The damage is done. Over done.

Didi is hiding, Swadhyay is telling everyone around the world what to
say, people are relating the situation with other religious wars
likening Swadhyay to Krishna and Ram, the Pankaj Trivedi crowd is
saying everything negative about Didi and Dada that they can come up
with.

We are just going to sit around and whine that "you are a barking dog"
or that "you don't know the truth" or that "Didi must be innocent"
WHY? so that we can feel like we didn't waste our life by going to
Swadhyay?

Yes, Swadhyay has been a tremendous influence in villages. By
recognizing that the Swadhyay organization isn't perfect and that Didi
may have flaws in her ability to lead, we are not reducing the value
of Swadhyay.

This is not "all or nothing"

But the very fact that intelligent people are not willing to look at
facts that suggest how desperate Swadhyay is to be in control shows us
exactly how ridiculous Swadhyay is becoming.

Don't be a loyalist to the people, be a loyalist to the idea.

Respecting free speech is important, and the only 'bakvas' around here
are those who believe everything they hear from Swadhyay as something
that cannot be questioned.

I agree. If there is gangrene of the foot and you realize that foot is
beyond repair. You must amputate the foot to save the rest of the
body. Vast majority of Swadhyay is great. But if the gangrene is
allowed to spread the bacteria and poison to rest of the body the
whole body may suffer.
This forum is to encourage everyone who loves Swadhyay to
constructively think and speak as to what are the different option the
gangrene can be cured. What can be done so that few bad apples do not
use name, fame and power of Swadhyay for their selfish reason. The way
many of motabhai (khotabhai) have used their connection to Swadhyay
will open eyes of many. Only thru ope dialogue a new more powerful
movement will emerge. - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 05:57am

True Believers or so called brain washed swadhyayi,

There is no way to educate true believers. They judge information by
whether it agrees with what they already believe. (And this of course
is by definition prejudice.) The right-wing of conservatism continues
to provide true believers, and Political Correctness has given us a
new generation of true believers. Islam is another prime example of
true believers.....

None of these people want anyone to know what prejudice is. This is
why prejudice is no longer talked about or taught to swadhyayee
although they hear ad nauseum about racism. And since students are
taught to reject the concept of evidence, and fooled in the name of
GOD.

I was born and raised in a small village in Gujarat, so I know the
psychology of poor and uneducated villagers. Most of them dont even
know the meaning of psychology, their brains are been hijacked by
mastermind Sadhu's and Dadaji's (grandfather's or big brother's) or
Bhai's. Even if we get rid of dadaji's(grandfather's or big brother's)
ideas off their mind there is another Didi(sister) or kaka(uncle)
ready to take his place.

Read the Paragraph below its from swadhyay.org
http://swadhyay.org/krishi.htm

"It is the practice of collective farming of a single field (normally
of three to five acres taken from poor villagers in the name of GOD
transfered the land into trusts name and sold later, most of the farms
used for "yogeshwar krishi" are sold, and poor villagers dont even
know where the money has gone to) in a village by the villagers who
each offer devotional labour, possibly for one or two days per
cropping season. The resulting crop belongs to no one except God."

Which GOD?? Who is GOD?? Where the money goes?? and above all you
canot ask questions to GOD, let him do whatever he wants to.

Ravi Patel

ravi_pa...@yahoo.com

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Unbelievable on Jul 7th, 2006, 06:24am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 03:38am, Guest-You Have Got to Be Kidding
wrote:Kamal, are you serious?

Yes, Swadhyay has been a tremendous influence in villages. By
recognizing that the Swadhyay organization isn't perfect and that Didi
may have flaws in her ability to lead, we are not reducing the value
of Swadhyay.

This is not "all or nothing"

But the very fact that intelligent people are not willing to look at
facts that suggest how desperate Swadhyay is to be in control shows us
exactly how ridiculous Swadhyay is becoming.

Don't be a loyalist to the people, be a loyalist to the idea.

Wow...I cannot agree with you more..these paragraphs probably are the
best written and to the point of any other message that exists in this
thread. Again....Wow.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by RAVI PATEL on Jul 7th, 2006, 06:28am

GUYS I WANT YOU TO DISCUSS IT HERE TOO, LET THE WORLD KNOW THE SINS...

http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=152

RAVI PATEL

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by the irish robin hood on Jul 7th, 2006, 06:48am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 06:28am, Guest-RAVI PATEL wrote:GUYS I WANT YOU TO
DISCUSS IT HERE TOO, LET THE WORLD KNOW THE SINS...

http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=152

RAVI PATEL

I think you have what is termed an unhealthy fixation. Where you not
even good enough to become a krutishil ? was bhavpheri too daunting
for you ?

Its not even about pankajbhai for you is it ?
Its more to do with pushing your own personnel crusade. Its all to
abudnatley clear theres some thing missing in your life.

May you find peace if not in this life than the next.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by reality on Jul 7th, 2006, 07:11am

Hi,

It is not like that nobody know about Didi.

But, Lac of people still in Swadhyay. Why ?

They are not blind follower.

The reality is, Everybody from Swadhyay is Selffish.

Everybody sees their developement under swadhyay.

They dont care about your coments, they dont care about DIDI, they
want to remain in swadhyay.

We know what is the foundation of this quarral, Two love letter.

TJust a few minutes ago you posted as Kamal and thought this forum is
a Bakwas and now you can not keep away form it? Come and write here
again? Why dont you go back to your prayers?
No you do not see anything. Foundation of quarrel is that many people
dedicated their Tan Man and Dhan for a very long time thinking that
Dada & Didi were embodiment of virtues and knowledge and decent human
beings. They started suspecting otherwise, they started asking
questions. That lead to "How dare you ask any question."
So same Pankajbhai who was addressed as a captain by Dada lovingly
became a Rakshash.
Pankajbhai was not to be intimidated. He knew that there might be
danger pursueing truth. He kept questioning, kept wanting Bhav Nirzar
Mandir for all devotees. He must be getting close to the nerve center
so after five years few people decided to kill him. He became such a
big threat from nuisance.
Now that there is so much light on every aspect of Swadhyay, many of
facts are coming out such as the Hitesh had illegally seized prime
land in Padadhri and made a complex there worth 40 Lacs. You think his
position as Motabhai helped him get this?

I hope you would not waste your time with all this Bakwas and people
with ego!!!
Jai Yogeswar - Vijay Mehta

Then what ??????
Post by Kamal on Jul 7th, 2006, 07:29am

Yes, You are right and Didi may be wrong, then what ?

you u believe Didi is killer and must be arrested and send to jail.
Then what

Re: Then what ??????
Post by the irish robin hood on Jul 7th, 2006, 07:34am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 07:29am, Guest-Kamal wrote:Yes, You are right and
Didi may be wrong, then what ?

you u believe Didi is killer and must be arrested and send to jail.
Then what

then the healing begins, by looking back at what is wrong on a
national and kendra level. What the key elements that worked and which
were good what they were and going back to them and refocusing on
them.

The only way forward now is for Mrs talwaker to resign and then let
people answer the finacial questions. Before moving forward. If that
happens the parviar will be in a much stronger place in years to come.

As long as Mrs Talwaker is the head, these matters will keep cropping
up and taking focus away from the actual good that the parivar does.

Didi must step down or come to terms that she is holding back the
parivar. Resign resign resign......
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 08:08am

Dear Nileshbhai,

Before you go away for few days/weeks, Pl. post these statements by
Swadhyay Parivar.

I believe your motabhai ( in a typical cult style) have asked you to
stay away for few weeks as from whatI read in Akila, Didi and her 27
cronies are in big trouble.

Honestly, I think, Nileshbhai you are a good person but like many
others still in Swadhyay you are too shocked at the turn of events on
Pankajbhai's killing and finding Parivar members involved in it.

Jayshree finds out being a 'Don' has downside
Post by Ramki on Jul 7th, 2006, 08:41am

Jayshree loses sleep.. Will she be spending time in big house? Would
government have guts to put noose around her neck?

DADA was a 'Don' too but no one knew it!
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 08:41am

Dada was a smart manipulator and he spared no effort to crash any
opposition during his life time. He had perfected the technique of
Sham - Dam -Dand - Bhed and anyone trying to question him was swiftly
given punishment that no one else would even dare repeat the mistake.

JAY YOGESHAR

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by GUEST on Jul 7th, 2006, 08:46am

We all should be focusing on the THE REAL ISSUES here.
Lets make sure that Late Pankajbhai's sacrifice does not go in vein.

I know that Swadhyayi people will not answer any questions in an
HONEST and STARIGH FORWARD manner but they always try to use tactics
such as "personal attacks", "character assasination", "lies",
"abusive language" etc to derail the discussion so these questions can
be avoided.

Can you prove it to me that 100% of the money collected in USA for
earthquake victims were sent to INDIA and used to BUILD houses?

Can you deny the FACT that the cash balance on DAY's books had been
consistently inceasing for over a decade? What is DAY's current cash
balance?

Can you tell us who gets the profits made by selling books, picture
frames, audio cassetts and CDs?

Can you deny the FACT that "SHRADHDHA" trust exists and only Athvale
family members are sole trustees in this trust?

Can you tell us how many different trusts Swadhyay has and who are the
trustees?

Can you tell us how many crores Swadhyay has accumulated in different
trusts?

Can you tell us the total value of land, including Bhav-Nirzar land
that Swadhyay acquired?

Can you deny the FACT that questions are not allowed in any meetings
and if someone dare to ask questions, he or she is intimidated to set
an examples so other people do not even dare to ask questions in
future?

Can you deny the FACT that brainwashing, manipulation and exploitation
have been going on for years?

Can you deny the FACT that fabricated stories are feed to the innocent
followers to potray Athvale as an "AVATAR"?

Can you deny the FACT that DAY's financial books were NEVER opened for
the followers for inspection?

Can you deny the FACT that if someone writes a letter to DAY asking
for the detailed information on earthquake donation issue, DAY's
attorney replies and denies the request for information?

Can you deny the FACT that Shibirs and camps are used mainly for
brainwashing and recruit more volunteers?

Can you deny the FACT that Dada's Putri-Moha is the same as
DRUTRASHTRA's Putra-Moha and Dada's act of GADI-PRATHA establishment
is fundamentally wrong and is betrayal of trust of unsuspecting
followers?

Who pays for Didi's frequent trips overseas every year in summer when
it is hot in INDIA?

Can you ADMIT that it is inappropriate that you use poor swadhyayis
for FREE MARKETING, I mean LAV-FERI and Didi spends charity money
collected as a result of hard work, dedication and bhav-samarpan of
poor fellow swadhyayees?

Has Dada ever worked in his life? How did he managed his finances?

Has Didi or her husnabd ever worked? How do they manage their finance?

What kind of business Didi's husband is in?

Can you prove it to us that the drama "TUMHARI-AMRITA" was ever played
by swadhyay?

Please answer these questions FIRST in CLEAR TERMS and a STRAIGHT
FORWARD manner before I ask many more questions.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by motabha on Jul 7th, 2006, 08:54am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 08:51am, Guest-the irish robin hood wrote:so whats
the point of asking ? . unless you happen to like the sound of your
own voice, like some sort of broken record.

Great reply. As per swadhyay policy, we do not answer real questions
but confuse people by telling rubbish.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by RAVI PATEL on Jul 7th, 2006, 08:59am

Can you deny the FACT that swadhyay Motabhai's in Gujarat and
Maharashtra were bain washed by Dada and Didi, who filed false cases
in court against Pankaj Trivedi and others trying to expose the Land/
Money making scandal Dadaji started in the name of GOD. Ultimately,
resulted into death of Mr. Pankaj Trivedi by few swadhyayi's who were
made to think they were doing God's deed. Whats different between
Islamic Jihad and swadhyayi Jihad??

If the killers of Mr. Pankaj Trivedi are compared to Mohmmad Atta (and
others) who flew into WTC in new York, Swadhyayi leaders are no less
then Osama Bin Ladin.

Ravi Patel
ravi_pa...@yahoo.com

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Hindustani on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:01am

I agree with you. I hope swadhyay leaders will get punished by law.
Lets see.

cover up to protect Bharat Bhatt
Post by RAVI PATELS DADA on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:02am

Murderers are hiding their whereabouts to protect big wigs in
Swadhyay. Now that they have already admitted to committing murder why
are they not telling the truth as to where exactly they all were in
hours preceding the murder. Police strongly suspect they are trying to
cover up big wigs in Swadhyay who apparently met them to give final
instructions.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by the irish robin hood on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:13am

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by the irish robin hood on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:15am

on Jul 6th, 2006, 2:25pm, Guest-Come ON Guys wrote:I am detecting lots
of messages from USA and also from India.

Where are the guys from UK

Have they worn 'BANGLES' & SAREES so that they are shy/frightened to
come out and express their anger/view/opinion??

Or they think what's happening is all fine as long as it does not
affect them.

Come on gyus..........at least ......be brave enough, to expree your
solidarity.....

Didi will not kill you by doing so.

Well if they are wearing bangals and sarees, they are alsready
expressing themselves you muppet

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:24am

Who are Yatin Oza and Reshmi jani? trying to defend the killers of Mr.
Pankaj Trivedi. Are they Brain wahed swadhyayi or mean lawyers wanting
more money? See what the killers have to say "we are innocent, we are
into police's trap only because of our negative image from the media"

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:30am

Yatin Oza is lawyer by profession and a politician by brain. I guess
he is trying to defend the killers in order to get voted from
swadhyayi's. He has already shown his way of politics by jumping from
BJP to Congress...

http://www.rediff.com/election/2002/nov/28guj.htm

Also he is known as "Giant Killer" How appropriate for a lawyer to be
known as Giant Killer and defend most famous murderers! - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by the irish robin hood on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:31am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:24am, Guest-Ravi Patel wrote:Who are Yatin Oza
and Reshmi jani? trying to defend the killers of Mr. Pankaj Trivedi.
Are they Brain wahed swadhyayi or mean lawyers wanting more money? See
what the killers have to say "we are innocent, we are into police's
trap only because of our negative image from the media"

[img]http://www.akilaindia.com/daily/news_img/main019.gif[/mg]

Well the police caving into solving a crime as quickly as they can due
to media pressure never ever happens. Well not in your world. As long
as the mob gets justice ..who cares about civil liberties....damn
human rights....just put someone in jail and make us feel safe in our
homes.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Hindustani on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:33am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:30am, Guest-Ravi Patel wrote:Yatin Oza is lawyer
by profession and a politician by brain. I guess he is trying to
defend the killers in order to get voted from swadhyayi's. He has
already shown his way of politics by jumping from BJP to Congress...

http://www.rediff.com/election/2002/nov/28guj.htm

I thought killers of Pankaj Trivedi already admitted crime. I saw it
on TV. Now what happened?

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by the irish robin hood on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:39am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:33am, Guest-Hindustani wrote:I thought killers of
Pankaj Trivedi already admitted crime. I saw it on TV. Now what
happened?

they admitted to the crime under duress

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:40am

on Today at 09:30am, Guest-Ravi Patel wrote:Yatin Oza is lawyer by
profession and a politician by brain. I guess he is trying to defend
the killers in order to get voted from swadhyayi's. He has already
shown his way of politics by jumping from BJP to Congress...

http://www.rediff.com/election/2002/nov/28guj.htm

I thought killers of Pankaj Trivedi already admitted crime. I saw it
on TV. Now what happened?

May be the lawyer defend them did not see it!

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by ravi patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:49am

"they admitted to the crime under Pressure"

May be they Murdered Mr. Pankaj Trivedi under Pressure, they might
have not even knew that they were actually killing him.

Thanks
-Ravi

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Hindustani on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:52am

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by the irish robin hood on Jul 7th, 2006, 10:00am

on Jul 7th, 2006, 09:52am, Guest-Hindustani wrote:May be killers
realised mistake they made and now talking as lawyer told them. Lets
wait and watch now what happen next. I am sure Jayshree is keeping
close watch on this case.

Well lets see the next time your beaten into a making a confession,
lets see how strong your resolve is. The police through their own
incompetnace may have screwed up the case big time.

Dhongi ko Gujarat Bhalo
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 10:01am

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Chitralekha on Jul 7th, 2006, 10:07am

I read inChitralekha too about corruption and misuse of power in
swadhyay. Now atleast follwing media has written about swadhyay case
and exposed them

1> Aarpar
2> Gujarat Samachar
3> Akila
4> mumbai Samachar
5> sandesh
6> Times Of India
7> Divya Bhaskar
8> Zee TV

Lets see if swadhyay leaders decide to take any action against them.

Root cause of this evil was the greatman himself
Post by Chitralekha on Jul 7th, 2006, 10:13am

Chitralekha did an expose of Swadhyay back in July 2002. Documenting
as to what was going on behind the closed doors, how Dada transferred
millions of rupees to his adopted daughter and suddenly all those long
time dedicated Swadhyayees like Mahesh Shah and Rudhani etc became a
target of 'hate campaign' Even Chitralekha took a big risk of standing
up to the big bully. Link may not work, please see the images posted

http://www.chitralekha.com/content/Friday1.asp#3

http://www.chitralekha.com/content/Friday1.asp#4

http://www.chitralekha.com/content/Friday1.asp#1

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by An Observer on Jul 7th, 2006, 11:09am

1. People listed by Pankajbhai as potential killers are banned by
court, not to leave India. Is this true?
2. Manish Savsani is in Jail. Does anybody have his photo behind the
bars in Jail uniform?

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Sunil on Jul 7th, 2006, 11:28am

Check all the preachings of DADA & analyse his acts you will find them
exactly opposite.So there are no opponents of DADA as he himself is
his biggest opponent.
All the procedures of funds collection are devised ,applied & followed
up by DADA why to blame DIDI only
Before this present crises in DADA's reggime people like Haribhai
Kothari,Dayhabhai Jani,Manibhai Amin etc. were tortured, threatened &
excommunicated.They were called asuras & were also beaten by the then
blind followers of DADA.

DADA is the mastermind behind all false stories like Japan
Conference,Invitation of Mr.Compton,Vinoba etc.

He had copied other's books (Hindunche Samajrachna Shastra,Gita Tatwa
Vimarsh,Geeta Purusharthprabhodini,Geeta Pravachans by Vinoba,Kuransar
etc.He copied it To To but never mentioned their Names (Krudanyata?)
but the blind swadhyayi is forced to say after the Chintanika that all
the thoughts are of DADA & nothing is mine.

So dear open your eyes, study the history, find out why all the old
vetrens have left Swadhyaya.

If you want to continue Swadhaya nobody can stop you because Swadhyaya
is Study of self & is not owened by greedy Athawales.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 12:28pm

Sunil says.. "DADA is the mastermind behind all false stories like
Japan Conference,Invitation of Mr.Compton,Vinoba etc."

I Truely agree with Sunil, not only that but some followers say that
his leg was 300 years old and he is Avtar of Krishna.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by You Have Got to Be Kidding on Jul 7th, 2006, 12:49pm

Let us all take a step back for a second and wonder what we are out to
do:

(1) Do we want Didi to admit to all of these things? Would that make
everything better?

(2) Do we want all of the Swadhyay leadership to resign? Is that
possible? All of these years we beamed about Swadhyay's structure-less
structure and now that we don't like the way it works we scream
treason?

(3) Do we want Swadhyay to disappear? Would that make us feel like we
succeeded in bringing something down that was making us feel down?

Trying to make everyone believe that Didi is awful and she has cronies
(who are intelligent people) is just as ignorant as what you fight.

Trying to make it seem like Pankaj Trivedi and crew are ideal martyrs
is also just as ignorant - they don't have a spotless record of
integrity in the language or methods they use.

Is it true that things in Swadhyay's operations and governance should
be better? Absolutely.

Whether directly responsible or not, is Didi responsible? If a good
leader, she should feel so (even if she has nothing to do with it).

Is all of Swadhyay a big hoax? Of course not. Use your own brain, you
weren't duped by going to Swadhyay - you just feel like it now.

It is our philosophy as much as it is Didis or anyone else. Step and
say something useful that we keep the best of Swadhyay intact and the
worst of Swadhyay less damaging.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by An Observer on Jul 7th, 2006, 12:51pm

Avtar Of Krishna?
I think people should know the facts re" Kusumbahen" and "Kum kum
Pagla"
Lord Krishna was known for paltonic love and not..

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by You Have Got To be Kidding on Jul 7th, 2006, 12:58pm

Irish Robin Hood:

All confessions in India come with a beating; police brutality is
tolerated and acceptable, it is not an excuse for a technicality to
make it seem like this was a conspiracy.

Would a technicality vindicate Swadhyay/Swadhyayees from being party
to the conflict with Pankaj Trivedi?

It doesn't matter whether they killed him or not. Say he was still
alive: Is it acceptable to you that Swadhyayees wanted him dead?

Is it acceptable to you that die hard Swadhyayees will do anything
(including deferring their own intellect) to prove Swadhyay's
innocence? Are we puppets?

The problem isn't his murder, it is the escalation and obsession with
this conflict that is ruining the essence of Swadhyay.

One more kendra is closed
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 1:53pm

Aaradhana School in Amadawad shuts down the Swadhyay at their
property. They had given permission to conduct Swadhyay meeting under
impression that it was for a good cause but after the arrest of
several of prominent leaders they have decided not to allow Swadhyay
meeting at their place. Article in Gujarati.

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060708/guj/gujarat/news3.html

Shocking report by auditors..
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 1:55pm

Suryakant Mehta Institute of Charter Accounting has revealed
sensational and damaging information.
They were auditors for project "Matsya Gandha" Basically there are
four trusts under this project - Arnav Mandir, Agasti Pujan, Ratnakar
Pujan, Arnan Pujan.

Matsya Gandha Project was started with a vision of upliftment of
fisherman community. Expert fisherman and women were to work on
fishing boat and the income generated was to be used for loan and
scholarship of fisherman community. It was said that there will be 100
boats for this purpose.
But the real fact is..
There is not a SINGLE fishing boat under the name of any of these
trusts. All fishing boats are under the name of one person (Swadhyay
leader) and he is using them as his personal property. Not a single
instance of loan or scholarship is evident in any of the four trusts.
All these fishing boats are being used as commercial properteis but
they have not paid any income tax.
They found no evidence of any prior audit of any of these trusts and
if it was audited there is no evidence of any publication of it.
On Feb 27, 2004 it was announced at Tatognan Vidyapith after the Aarti
that " We have 100 boats in Arabian sea in Gujarat and Maharashtra, in
one more year we shall have 100 more."
Not a single trust has shown any income from fishing.
Charity commissioner, tax authorities and general public are entitled
to know
Whose name are all these boats under?
What is the registration numbers?
Where is the office?
Who if anyone has audited accounts and where has it been filed?
Partial translation of sensation article in Gujarati. - Vijay Mehta

So it seems like poor fisherman thought they were helping community by
fishing to help scholarship for their community but they were helping
some Motabhai?
For full article in Gujarati go to:
http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060708/guj/national/anu.html

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 3:56pm

http://www.aarpar.com/web%20246/pdf/c1.pdf

http://www.aarpar.com/web%20246/pdf/marinajare.pdf

http://www.aarpar.com/web%20246/pdf/c2.pdf

http://www.aarpar.com/web%20246/pdf/c3.pdf

http://www.aarpar.com/web%20246/pdf/c4.pdf

http://www.aarpar.com/web%20246/pdf/kankarichalo.pdf

http://www.aarpar.com/web%20246/pdf/newsium.pdf

Shrutiben's Interview
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 4:11pm

Pl. read Shrutiben's interview on Sandesh. When you are a victim of
Mafia, victims often choose to stay quiet rather than seek justice.
Same way Shrutiben and Himanshu did not have the courage to stand up
and ask for justice. How much fear they must have to control their
anger and frustration. This gives you some idea of what Swadhyay is as
seen by those who really know it.

Didi is the mastermind behind the murder - Shah
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 4:24pm

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Amit on Jul 7th, 2006, 6:05pm

Does any one have recorded interview of Didi which was aired on Star/
DirecTV? I was asked by one swadhyayi to record today but I don't have
STAR/DirecTV.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 6:47pm

Translation of Didi's ( with two D's) interview on Star TV as given on
Akila:

1. Me and Swadhyay Parivar is sorrowed by Pankaj Trivedi's death!
However as matter is in court she refused to say anything more!

It is a brutal murder and we all know you ordered it.

2. Love letters are part of drama script.

Sure! You must be a very relaxed person to write drama script than to
worry about how to instill 'sanskars' in millions of people.

3. Swadhyay Parivar have not lost its cool in spite of many incidents.

Sure! You never expected such a back-lash from Society and Media. It
is not coolness! You have become speechless.

4. All our accounts are audited and hence there is no financial
irregularities.

Sounds like audited accounts of 'Enron' to me!

5. I am not President of Parivar. I am part of it.

Sure. The same way Dawood is part of 'D' gang.

6. Swadhyayees are showing tremondous patience and unity.

They all are so shell -shocked. Because of her they are branded Goonda-
Parivar by Sacchidanand. What unity she is talking about? That
Swadhyayees are not talking against her? It is a false assumption.

The way she has spoken smells of 'understanding' between Gujarat
Government and her.

Well, she can escape Gujarat Government but she will not escape God's
anger for killing an innocent man.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Unbelievable on Jul 7th, 2006, 6:55pm

So true...karma's a b**ch, as they say...

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 7th, 2006, 7:52pm

The way she has spoken smells of 'understanding' between Gujarat
Government and her.

Well, she can escape Gujarat Government but she will not escape God's
anger for killing an innocent man.

Aagee agee deekho hota hain kya.....

I cheated on you,
YOU cheated on me
I can't believe we are still together,
how can this be?

I suppose to leave you,
you suppose to leave me.
But cheating on eachother didn't set us free.
Now we are here, screwing everybody.
No it doesn't hurt and we don't mind,
cuz that what they say, Beliving is blind.
So you honestly think this is true SWADHYAY or
just a MASS MOVEMENT? Beacause cheating on
eachother really proves alot.

-PUJYA DIDIJI

Heat is on!!!
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 7th, 2006, 8:02pm

27 Motabhai's have been served summons. They had filed identical
wrongful cases against Pankajbhai. Police is suspecting higher up in
Swadhyay behind the murder.

Amadawad: Ex Swadhyay member Bhupendra Patel has written a letter to
Chief High Court Judge and demanded justice. If not on Aug 1e has sent
a copy of this letter to President of India, The prime minister, Ch he
will start "fast until death" at Income Tax Circle.
Hief minister of Gujarat, Chief justice of supreme court of India and
Governer of Gujarat.

Based on the sensational information obtained from five people so far
arrested f
or Pankajbhai's murder Police commissioner and DCP has met with Home
Minister of Gujarat. On other hand rumors are flying that Didi might
be on verge of getting a notice. Didi was said to have given a speech
at Madhav Baugh in Mumbai on Friday July 7th.
27 Motabhai's in Gujarat have been told not to leave the country.
(partial translation)

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by RAVI PATEL on Jul 7th, 2006, 8:20pm

Mukhda Dekh Le DIDI jara darpan main..

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/pVm7Q6IxUt.As1NMvHdW/

The Greatest swadhyayi of all time.... Every swadhyayi musty listen
this.

God Bless Us all..

Ravi Patel
ravi_pa...@yahoo.com

To listen more songs from this great swadhyayi click this...

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/29/s/album.5581/

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 8:46pm

http://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/newsfromgujarat/newsfromahmedabad/ahmedabadnews_03.asp

Didi's show of Power. Will Gujarat Government be scared?

Didi said 'We need to continue Manushya Gaurav Work'.

Is she planning to make more people 'Krantikari' and 'Shahid' like
Pankajbhai?

When will Police take action?

US Based Swadhyayee speaks...
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 7th, 2006, 8:54pm

US based swadhyayi blasts Gujarat Global in defense of Parivar

2006-06-27 23:50:54
Gujarat Global News Network, Ahmedabad

For last couple of days we have been receiving number of e mails and
telephone calls about the activities of Swadhyay Parivar, both for and
against. A day before, we received a letter which shows the approach
of those who claim that there is nothing wrong with the Parivar and it
is being wrongly dragged into a controversy involving the murder of a
swadhyayi, Pankaj Trivedi.

We have nothing to say since the tone and tenor of the letter shows
prejudiced and parochial approach which is very characteristic of
followers of sects. What we have reported is already on our website.
But to claim that only loyalists know the truth is to give a go by
progressive and open minded outlook which is necessary for the healthy
growth of anyone whether an individual or an organization.

We would like to quote Osho to describe the situation of the followers
"In thousands of years we have made Gautam Buddha, the Buddha, Christ
a Christian, but we have remained same!" Deification of a person or
organization leads only to hypocrisy and all other associated evils.
Here is an e mail Shreyas Patel of Bank of America Charlotte NC USA
has sent to me the editor ofwww.gujaratglobal.com.

Since the death of Mr. Pankaj Trivedi you have published articles
blaming and defaming the entire Swadhyaya Parivaar. You have not tried
to verify your information or print it objectively. One would expect a
newspaper to print only facts and not unduly prejudge. You have not
taken into account a clean track record of Swadhyaya work and its
service to people. Your articles have hurt all the members of
Swadhyaya Parivaar and we are pained to understand the motive behind
this. I am submitting this response aimed at answering some of the
questions and clarifying facts.

Swadhyaya is a spiritual movement founded by Rev. Pandurang Shastri
Athavale, fondly known as "Dadaji", which means elder brother. Born in
1920, Dadaji took a resolve to uplift human life through the means of
self-introspection ('Swadhyaya'). He looked deeply into the problems
that plague humanity. He noted that these problems were the result of
alienation of man from his creator. His solution to these inherent
issues, therefore, included the concept that we are all sons and
daughters of the same god. Hence the Swadhyaya philosophy and work are
based upon the belief that god is present in each of us and we are, as
a result, related by this divine relationship. Dadaji has coined this
concept as "the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God"; hence
it is indeed a parivaar, a family, which now includes tens of
millions.

It strongly emphasizes dignity of all human beings. It transcends the
boundaries of caste, creed, and religion. It welcomes anyone to join
unconditionally, without any membership requirements, and it allows
any member the total freedom to leave at any time. It has brought
about a multifaceted revolution encompassing all aspects of human
life; these include spiritual, social, economical, emotional, and
political elements. Dadaji calls this the five-colored revolution.
This is a peaceful revolution that has been described by a prominent
educator as "a silent yet singing revolution". It does not support,
encourage or condone any violence. It has never solicited any money
nor has it accepted funds from anyone who is not an active member.

Dadaji and Didiji have always preached and practiced love and unity of
all. They have never sought any recognition, prestige or awards.
Swadhyaya work has been studied by many research scholars, economists,
politicians, and social thinkers. The United Nations (UN) has also
taken a keen interest in this work. Many laurels and awards have been
given to Dadaji and Didiji from around the globe, including the Sir
John Templeton Award for Progress in Religion, the Ramon Magsaysay
Award from the Phillipines, and the noteworthy Padma Vibhushan title
from the government of India.

Dadaji single-handedly started his work by visiting the entire Indian
subcontinent, along with many other areas of the world. It has
transformed countless lives in tens of thousands of villages in India.
Dadaji worked incessantly through his demise, which occurred in late
2003. During all these years of work, as Dadaji went from "heart-to-
heart" and "hut-to-hut" in thousands of villages of India, Mrs.
Dhanashree Talwalkar, Dadaji's daughter, was his constant companion.
With her own efforts, love, and dedication, she has become the heart
and soul of the "Swadhyaya parivaar". In his later years, Dadaji
delegated the full responsibility of his work to Mrs. Talwalkar,
affectionately known as "Didiji", which means "elder sister".

Unfortunately, when Dadaji delegated Didiji to take on the
responsibility of the massive Swadhyaya work, there were a few members
of the Swadhyaya family who did not accept this decision. Because of
their longstanding relationship with Dadaji, they felt a sense of
entitlement to this responsibility. Begrudged by the appointment of
Didiji to take the responsibility, they and a few of their cohorts
began a concerted effort to destroy Didiji's image and tarnish
Dadaji's life.

The main purpose of these people, the "anti-Swadhyayees", was to usurp
the control of the work. Once it was clear that this purpose would not
be served, persons like Mr. Pankaj Trivedi set out to destroy the
verywork they were once a part of.

Mr. Trivedi and a few others chose to engage in antagonistic activity
and false accusations against Didiji and the Swadhyaya parivaar. They
alleged that the Swadhyaya parivaar and Didiji asked for funds during
the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat (a state in India). This is an entirely
false statement. To begin with, Dadaji and Didiji have never solicited
funds from anyone, directly or indirectly. They have also instilled
this mentality in the entire Parivaar. In the aftermath of the
earthquake in 2001, a total of 5058 houses were built through the
efforts of 76 non-government organizations (NGOs). Of these, 4534
houses were built by the Swadhyaya Parivaar alone, according to a
report by the United Nations Development Board. In addition,
accusations that have been leveled at the management of trust funds of
Swadhyaya Parivaar are completely unfounded.

Further efforts to damage Swadhyaya work led a few anti-Swadhyayees to
allege to the home ministry of India's central government in 2002 that
"Swadhyaya is a terrorist activity". In response, the Indian
government's intelligence bureau conducted a thorough investigation in
Swadhyayee villages throughout India. This investigation revealed
absolutely no basis for the accusation. Other facet of anti-Swadhyaya
propaganda has included the repeatedfiling of police cases against
many devoted Swadhayees over the last five years. Police
investigations have found each and every one of these complaints to be
completely untrue and without merits.

The media has reported that Mr. Trivedi was a prominent Swadhyayee,
that he donated 1.5 crore (15 million) rupees, and that Pujya Dadaji
used to visit him at hishome often. All these reports are completely
untrue. At the current time, it is the media's responsibility to
report only the truth, instead of reporting and sensationalizing
completely baseless allegations in an attempt to tarnish the image of
Dadaji, Didiji, and Swadhyaya work. It is important to consider who
benefits by misleading the police and by harassing the Swadhyaya
Parivaar. In the end, it is society and devoted Swadhyayees who are
hurt when attempts are made to tarnish the image of holy work such as
Swadhyaya.

Link to lots of articles in English
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 7th, 2006, 9:03pm

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=swadhyay&btnG=Search+News

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 7th, 2006, 9:10pm

Aaj to Brahmin ki bhi hatya hoti hai........

Dur Kahin Kone mein Majhab Rota hain.............

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 7th, 2006, 9:19pm

Daes Liya (bite) Sare Desh Ko Jahrili Nagin (poisonous snake) Ne...

Ghar Ko laga di Aag Ghar Ke Chirago ne...

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 7th, 2006, 9:37pm

It is very important that future generations remember Pankajbhai's
sacrifice and learn a lesson of not falling in a trap of any organized
religion.

Please write to Government of Gujarat to dedicate a monumnet in the
memory of "Krantikari Pankajbhai".

May be rename Ellisbridge to "Pankajbhai Trivedi Bridge."

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 7th, 2006, 9:53pm

I believe Swadhyay should start " Krantikari Pankajbhai Trivedi"
Scholarship for needy students and open up a college and dedicate it
to " Krantikari Pankajbhai Trivedi".

I am sure that even after doing that, crores of rupees will be
available which can be used to build a charitabl hospital dedicated to
Pankajbhai.

Shri Satya Sai Baba had been doing noble humanatarian work for decades
and its time that Swadhyay learn some lessons on humanity and charity
from this organization.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 7th, 2006, 9:56pm

I think it will be a great disservice to soul of Pankajbhai if we go
the route of naming any bridge or other monument after him.

All we know is that he wanted Society to know true face of Didi's
brand of Swadhyay.

When Government of Gujarat does not listen to person of Swamiji's
stature, I doubt if they will ever pursue justice for Pankajbhai's
killer.

May be some investigative Journalist can find out real story behind
tall claims of Didi's brand of Swadhyay, and issues which Pankajbhai
have raised and reported elsewhere in this forum.

Only 'fourth Jagir (Press)' can take up this challenge and show the
true face of Didi's brand of Swadhyay to Society.

Didini Diary
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 7th, 2006, 9:57pm

Gunawant Shah on Pankajbhai's Sahidi
Post by Unbelievable on Jul 7th, 2006, 11:10pm

Renowned philosopher and writer Gunawantbhai Shah appeals public to
wake up. The degree of blind following in Swadhyay is a black mark
against Hinduism. Back in 1992 he wrote "Blind faith manufacturing
company unlimited is Swadhyay" Dada had put his image between Shiva
and yogeswar and everyone would offer Aarti to DADA. He was the one to
criticise this deification of Pandurang Athawale. How lacks of
Swadhyayees can not see the difference between God and Pandurang and
now Didi? No wonder this has given Didi an opportunity to do anything
she pleases.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Karan on Jul 8th, 2006, 05:25am

Aaj yeh shehar kaisee sanwar aayee hai,
Har taraf bikeree ek khaak nazar aayee hai!
rang lagee hai ye khoon-e-jiger (pankaj bhai)ki taaseer,
yaad jab aati hai to aankhe bhar aayee hai!!

ye aag har khafan ko jalaakar rakh karegi,
dhuvaan ek din teri galee(madhav bagh) me aayegi!
ek ek saans me yahaa behroopiya (khota bhai)mile hai,
ye sholey lipte rahee saneeha ka khabhar aayee hai!!

tumharee nakse-kadam ne sab ko gumraah kardiya,
kitna behtar ye kaary tha usko mitti me milaadiya!
kaise maafi milega bhagwan ko bhee parwaa na kiyaa,
sang-e-lehad pe tumne jhootee aansu bahaadiya!!

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by An Observer on Jul 8th, 2006, 06:54am

I hear that Gujrat Govt is in the process of changing the name of
A'bad to either Pandurang Sastri Nagar or Pandurang Sastri Dham (as in
Gnadhi Nagar / Gandhi Dham).

Is it true??

Prime reason given is that it is a tribute to DADA & its present
leader. They have worked tremendously hard to uplift the communities
of Gujarat and the whole state of Gujrat. and have succeeded in doing
so.

After Gandhiji, its now DADA, the only person who can be said to
deserve this tribute!

Although Gujrat has so many prominent Kathakars and is home to one of
the most famous religious sect - Swaminarayan, but so far they have
failed to match the sort of upliftment DADA gave to this state.

It is for this reason Ahmedabad will now have a new name.

Please share your hearsay here.

You have a great sense of humor or imagination! - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Unbelievable on Jul 8th, 2006, 07:43am

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Karan on Jul 8th, 2006, 08:14am

Sunil posted a nice msg

Swadhyaya is not just to follow some one blindly
Swadhyaya's literal meaning is study, self-study

But at the same time a Swadhyayee should be cautious
Instrumental Devotion means .... its not anybody can use him atleast
he should know that he is not getting victimised in an organised trap.

Now its the time to have a kind of transperancy in all trusts, The
governement should work on it atleast Gujarat government.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 8th, 2006, 08:44am

Gujarat Global News Network, Ahmedabad

Jayshree Talwalkar 'Didi' suddenly surfaced on Friday night in a TV
News Channel where she spoke about some controversies and Swadhyay
Parivar but refused to speak about the famous Pankaj Trivedi murder.
She said that she was pained by the murder but avoided questions on
the issue saying that the matter was sub-judicious.

Describing media reports as her character assassination she said that
people who are against her and wanted to remove her were indulging in
such activities. Didi who spoke for the first time 24 days after
murder of Trivedi said that she was not the head of Swadhyay Parivar
"I am a member of the Parivar. I, my family and the entire Swadhyay
Parivar is sad over Trivedi's murder and we protest the incident. No
individual has the power in Parivar but all the members work in co-
operation", she said.

About funds in Pariver she said that the accounts of Parivar are
audited regularly. People asking about Rs.2,000 crore should first ask
NRIs where they have sent this money, Didi said in an irritating
tone.

About her alleged love letters Didi said that they were letters about
a project and her opponents had misused them. "I have not written any
love letter to anyone", she said.

Furious over media reports Didi said that they are hammering
Swadhyayis. They are misleading people. She appealed Swadhyayis to be
tolerant and spread the message of peace. "Parivar members are
brothers and sisters and I am one of them. I am not a saint", Didi
reiterated

Parivar members are brothers and sisters and I am one of them. I am
not a saint", Didi reiterated.

'We all know you are not a saint but you are not even a good human
being'.

You shall be with 5 Parivar memebers in Jail for killing Pankajbhai.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 8th, 2006, 09:08am

"After Gandhiji, its now DADA, the only person who can be said to
deserve this tribute!"

If Gandhiji is BAPU is he was DADA (most of Gujarati's following him
blindly dont even know y he is called DADA) It means Big Brother in
Marathi, they think it ment Grandfather.... lol

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 8th, 2006, 09:16am

"Swadhyaya is not just to follow some one blindly
Swadhyaya's literal meaning is study, self-study"

If it means self study! selfstudy could be done in the corner of ur
room, bringing 10000 or 15000 people together for selfstudy!

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 8th, 2006, 09:23am

It is a known fact in Madhav Baug Pathshala since 2001 that people are
called from distance so when Didi gives her 'Bakwas' hall looks full.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by An Observer on Jul 8th, 2006, 09:47am

I think Ravibahi & Unbelivable have missed my point.

Gujrat Govt is considering changing name of A'BAD.

No other state Govt is even thinking of doing this & why should they?

On of the reasons given is that the mass upliftmnet has taken place in
Gujrat, not in Mumbai.

Therefore Guj Govt feels that this is the best tribute they can bestow
on DADA.

This is what I have heard and may not be true.

Maharashtra state has not seen the so caled upliftment in its state.
Its the Gujratis who have benefited from this movement and therefroe I
think modi govt (sarkar) may be correct in thinking on this changes.

May be DIDI has MADE some FINANCIAL (or otherwise (promised to use her
VOTE Bank) as part of POLITICAL deal to change the
name.............who knows!

This is wild speculations.

I am simply asking if anyone has heard about this.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 8th, 2006, 10:13am

WE ARE AL EQUAL IN SWADHYAY, DO I NEED EYE CHECKUP?

-Ravi Patel
ravi_pa...@yahoo.com

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Paying Tribute to Pankajbhai on Jul 8th, 2006, 10:18am

I think Didi is in the process of doing something like Sonia Gandhi,
Bal Thackeray etc.

Denounce that she is dictator of Parivar. Appoint group of cronies
till controversy dies down and control every thing from behind the
curtain.

These group of cronies will later day come out and tell that since
Dada have appointed you, you must take it over again!

This way she can fool her blind faith followers that she is Tyag ni
Murti.

I hope before she succeds in doing so, Gujarat Government does
something rather than renaming Ahemadabad as 'Andheri nagari' and CM
as 'Gandu Raja'.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 10:20am

I have heard that all khotabhais are considering changing their last
name to "Athvale".......

How many khotabhais call their REAL elder sister "Didi"?

How many khotabhais from US went to India for their parents "ASTHI-
VISARJAN"?

How many khotabhais helped their needy relatives in India?

How many khotabhais who worked for FREE at MADHAV KENDRA farm had
helped their relatives on their farms in India?

How many khotabhais went to see their relatives when they were in
Hospital?

How many khotabhais went to attend a Birthday Party of their relatives
in India?

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 8th, 2006, 10:23am

DADAJI SAID
"BETI MAIN BHI INKA DADA HU, KAISA ULLU BANAYYA DEKH, KAHA DEKHNA AANA
WALLA HAIN YEAH GORA INDIA MAIN ......JO LEKHKER DIYA INHONA MAAN
LIYA"

DADA EK NUMBERI TO BETI DUS NUMBARI..

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 10:31am

Lies, Lies and more Lies...

Most of the khotabhais had been feeding lies and fabricated stories to
potray Athvale into an " AVATAR" for YEARS.

Some of the stories are so ridiculous that even any one with a half
brain can tell that it is an outright lie.

One person told me a story about the Murti of Yogeshwar. Read this
funny story.

Once, Yogeshwar Bhagavan appeared in Dada's dream and talked to him.
The way Yogeshwar Bhagvan was standing in Dad's dream is exactly the
same as the Murti of YOGESHWAR is made. Dada had called an expert
artist to make the MURTI and described the pose that he saw in his
dream.

While the artist was making the MURTI, Dada stopped him many times and
corrected his mistakes. After so many iterations and trials, the final
shape of the Murti was developed.

This person also claimed that no one in this world has an exact
imagination of Yogeshwar as Dada had as he had seen Yogeshwar Bhagvan
in his dream.

Propaganda is so powerful that any one can take an ordinary Pandu and
trnsform him into an "AVATAR".

Like Mirza Galib said,

"Murkhon kin Kami Nahi Galib,

Ek dhundho Hajar Milte Hein.........."

We shall rape you in front of ur Sasara - Swadhyay
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 8th, 2006, 11:59am

Jalgaon,
Retired professor S. K. Joshi shared terror on his family during a
visit with Gujarat Samachar.
S. K. Joshi had worked with Dada and Swadhyay for more than two
decades. Back in 1995 several tall and heavy men entered his house. In
front of everyone including women in the house they told my daughter
in law, "We shall rape you in front of your husband and your father in
law. Tell your father in law to keep his mouth shut about Swadhyay."

One time Mr. Joshi was travelling in his car with his son and suddenly
at one stop they found themselves surrounded by 8-10 men. Luckily his
son used his quick judgement and steered his car away from this
goons.
Article in Gujarati.

Jagruti - staunch Swadhyayee are wondering
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 8th, 2006, 12:17pm

Last night Didi finally gave an interview to media- setting was
interview by a private channel at an undisclosed location.
She said that there is a conspiracy against Swadhyay. She has nothing
to do with murder of Pankajbhai.
There is no financial irregularities in Swadhyay.
She is just another member of Swadhyay and everyone is equal in
Swadhyay.
She is saddened by the death of Pankajbhai but she can not talk about
it due to the legal process.
She appealed to all the Swadhyayees to stay focused.

Some of staunch Swadhyayees were totally disappointed that:
1. Interview was from an undisclosed location. Why?
2. If she is innocent, why she does not come out and say that she &
other members of Swadhayay are willing to co-operate with poilice
investigation in any way they can.
3. Why it took so long to come out and make a statement.
4. Why interview was given to a private channel.

It seems that many Swadhyayees are disappointed and now wondering as
to what is being hidden? There is a possibility that of current
members there will be two groups, one supporting current stratagy to
"keep quiet and it will go away" and the other group supporting "those
who do not have any thing to hide - hide nothing!"
Jagruti continues. Biggest challenge will come not from police and
outsiders but from true Swadhyayees within.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 12:31pm

http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.php?id=814&cattype=NEWS

Swadhyay parivar has become goonda parivar: Sacchidanand

2006-07-06 10:05:42

Gujarat Global News Network, Ahmedabad

At a meeting held in the city on "Religion Terrorism" number of
leading personalities launched a scathing attack on Swadhyay Parivar
and described its head, Didi, with a variety of adjectives like a
tigress donning the skin of cow. These persons were of the view that
the mafia of religious leaders was more dreadful than the underworld
of Dawood.

Referring to the murder of NRI swadhyayi Pankaj Trivedi, Swami
Sacchidanand said that Swadhyay Parivar had become goonda parivar. The
fear of terror created by it can never be tolerated, he added. Pankaj
Trivedi, a staunch critic of Didi , was murdered on June 15 and police
have arrested five swadhyayis in this connection.

He said that the fault of Trivedi was just that he had sought details
of account of the Parivar, a multi billion rupee voluntary
organization founded by Pandurang Shastri. He also blasted the Modi
government for not responding to the requests of Trivedi for
protection though he had feared attack from members of Swadhyay
parivar. He said people worshipped Didi as a holy cow, but in the skin
of cow she is a tigress.

Noted activist Prakash N Shah said that the activity of spreading
terror in the name of religion should be checked. He suggested that
there should be a social audit of such organizations. Writer Rajnikant
Joshi said Dada, founder of Parivar, was a good man but not a straight
man.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Karan on Jul 8th, 2006, 12:33pm

Dear Vijay Bhai

Jagruthi will be there, atleast some "Yuwan" will think and an in-side
revolt will be there. But what do you say this Khota Bhai will
realise?
They may be forgot The Virtues which (said) will acquires by Swadhyay
1) Gratitude (Kritaznata) : Told to appreciate saints but they are
busy in appreciating ****
2) Asmita (self-awareness): but unfortunatly they are not aware of
their own ability, it was told in last shibir that you are a
donkey ,who is carrying statue.
3)Brilliance (Tejaswita): He should not be a puppet but they feel
Chamchagiri is not puppetism.
4)Boundless love: in this situation we dont want to talk about any
Love!!!!
5)Samarpan(offering); yah its going on

so i think they wont change

Unlike you, I think there will be radical changes in Swadhyay. It may
come by design or default. Now that more and more stories come out,
true swadhyayee (majority of them) will suddenly wonder. This may
prompt them to do one of two things. 1. Move away from Parivar and
join some other group. 2. Be bold enough to address the irregularity
and make parivar stronger.
At least in USA Parivar I have found that this bond and sense of
common goal is extremely strong. How can one walk away from the
family? I shall venture to predict that most of them will be in group
2 here. Currently they are behaving as if nothing has happened. But in
their head and conscious the debate has started. Next, they will feel
comfortable with discussing their feeling to nearest Swadhyayee
friends followed by discussion with rest of them. Process will take
time but it shall happen.
Of course now after being duped before the flow of money will slow
down tremendously and when it start they shall demand voice in it.
For the Khotabhai's back home this was like Mafia. Too much power just
by having the title. They will have to be thrown out by others to save
the movement. I think process will take 1-2 years but it will bring
accountability and Samaj seva back in the focus.
Unlike India, I shall venture to predict that it is much less likely
that the Motabhai's abusing power here. With very small tight neat
community, people do know who you really are. There are lot more ways
for people to earn then to resort to deceit in this country.
I am sure other sampraday's are also looking at this and doing some
introspection as how they can avoid same fate. I think devotees of
other Sampraday's might develop courage to ask, what is being done
with the money.
Sahid Sri Pankajbhai has served Hinduism as very few people in recent
history has. - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 12:58pm

I agree with Karan. The puppets WILL NOT CHANGE.

They choose to poke in their own eyes and became BLIND FOLLOWERS, they
are beyond repair.

If they were to wake up, they would have done so in past when
countless newspapers and magazines published countless articles on all
wrongdoings and when Justice B.J.Diwan resigned. But no, they THINK
know Athvale more than Justice Diwan and Pankajbhai Trivedi.

The funny thing is that most of the swadhyayis have not even spent
five minutes with Athvale, then how can they know him that well? The
false image of an AVATAR in their BHAVUK mind is the result of years
of Brainwashing, propaganda and manipulation.

We can only help people who are starting to develope "cataract" (Not
blind yet) and have their cataract surgically (thru open discussion).

It is much easier to be an Avatar by minimizing contact. Human being
has weakness. It is much easier to hype someone up by edited videos
and managed exposure to general public. Only the inner group knows
real person. And you can keep inner group quiet because they have a
vested interest in Avatar. I am impressed with how many staunch
Swadhyayees are now asking questions, not openly of course. I think
this is defininig moment in the life of Swadhyay. - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 1:06pm

Maheshbhai Shah consoling Shrutiben Trivedi. Maheshbhai is concerned
he might be next on the list.

How to tell a spiritual movement from cult?
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 8th, 2006, 1:38pm

Here is an issue of Aar Paar. This may offend you if you are not able
to handle the truth. Your motabhai may say 'they' are jealous of our
success - the fact is no one has to be jealous of your success, if
Swadhyay is indeed the movement of uplifting the human spirits we all
are beneficiary of it being one of you. The motabhai may tell you not
to pay attention to media - you need to wonder why all the media have
tried to expose the wrongdoings or more important you may tell your
motabhai -why not we publish our point by point rebuttal of all these
concerns. If we have built houses why not make a website with the
pictures of all those houses, roads, schools and hospitals. In this
day and age it is not too expensive to put your information on network
(and they have crores rupees sitting in several trust accounts) for
everyone to see and decide for your self. Remember, the way mind
control works is to avoid answering question and tell followers to
have faith or shradhha in Dada. That is your cue to run out of that
movement no matter how good it may feel you to belong to it at
present. -Vijay Mehta

http://vmehta.conforums3.com/index.cgi?board=Religions&action=print&num=1150555879

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Mailesh on Jul 8th, 2006, 1:46pm

Vijaybhai,

First off, you have done a commendable job of creating and moderating
this board.

This unfortunate event has exposed pariwar internals big time and am
optimistic that this WILL trigger a change

First thing that comes to mind is the fact that now media and public
in general know more and have more questions than the so called
motabhai's actually know

Due to their blind follower mentality, they have never questioned
their superiors and so on and now they will feel awkward facing
members and outsiders. Once this questioning starts, the ball starts
rolling

I doubt if someone in US can think, plan and pull off a criminal act
against someone who asks questions as easily as it may be possible in
India

Simple questions like

1. why the focus on 'others' and not 'me'
2. why the focus on numbers
3. why are some members more previlaged to inside information than
others
4. what happened t the norm of taking joint decisions
5. why huge gatherings for events
6. Does a local motabhai ever question their superiors?
7. Who makes those large sankalps? Sankalps should be from within -
when someone else tells me to achieve some number it is called target
not sankalp
8. how can I access local financial accounts?

Answers:
1. Focus on others and not me: If there is not much good about me, I
can distract you by talking bad about others like Pankajbhai, they are
out to destroy us etc. It keeps focus away from me.
2. For some of them it was all about the numbers. Problem is that more
they got more they wanted. Had they only taken out 10% of Bhagawanano
Bhag no one would have ever been able to prove anything.
3. Motabhai's have invested more and are williing to do more for
Swadhyay than Chhotabhai. They are willing to maime or kill anyone for
parivar. If you are not that loyal why should you have the same
privilege?
4. Joint decision: Trust me they are taking joint decision. But you
and I are not at that level to be part of decision making. Remember
humility is a virtue.
5. Large gatherings are good for morale and publicity. It impresses
people in thinking - if so many people believe in it ... it must be
great.
6. If you start questioning the superiors you are not right material
to be a Motabhai in first place. And if you do, we need to make Asura
out of you, You can not go back to Chhotabhai from Motabhai because
now you know too much. Many of victims of violence had to suffer
because they knew too much. Had they been ordinary Swadhyayee they
could have been easily ignored as common ashuras. Loyalty and ability
to understand without asking anyone is important qualifying
characteristics for Motabhai.
7. There are some chosen devine among us and they help us by making
Sankalps on our behalf. The mere fact that we joined the group without
ever asking or questioning shows that we are not capable to making
independent decision. They are just being helpful.
8. Forget asking for local accounts. They were simply forwarded to
head quarter. Once you offer coconut to God you do not inquire what
happens to it, do you?

I have a feeling that Swadhyayees from USA eventhough in numbers we
may be miniscule compared to those in India, will be instrumental in
providing leadership.
Living in this open society does change who we are. There is more
courage to ask questions. We have learnt that open society is
strength. We have witnessed Jim Jones and David Kuresh. We have seen
financial or sexual scandals destroying prominent churches. Hopefully
we have learned that you can not suppress disinformation too long once
it starts coming.

I think at this time asking financial account will be taken as you
being a traitor or Swadhyay destroyer (Ashura).
What you can do is to generate discussion as how in future we can
establish credibility? What checks and balance do we place to prevent
abuse by select few? At the end of the day, your future depends on
credibility among young Swadhyayees. With all the horror stories that
has come out and likely to come out let me tell you, your younger
generation is confused and concerned. Their loyalty to what we fed
them so far can only last so long.
Good luck. Keep us posted if you have any ideas or how your attempts
are received by others. Remember, the spirit should be one of "I love
Swadhyay there for I am willing to speak up" - Vijay Mehta

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 1:56pm

Now people have all kind of question...

look at this

I think now police have to open them eye..

I have heard this theory too and it may make sense.

Dadaji worked all his life to start his projects. People show a man
with ability to interpret Gita at the same time man with passion to
uplift the poor and backward communities. Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga
to gather is a strong combination. No acquisition of real estate in
terms of Mandir basically made the expense side of balance sheet very
small. Money grew, fame grew. He must have thought for a long time
that this all can be turned over to some one with same passion.

Then came the aging, failiing health and amputation left him in hands
of his daughter. She suddenly realizes the opportunity to step into
his chair. She has to remove all good Swadhyayees surrounding him. The
access to Dada is limited. Basically he is in "Nazar Ked" so only
message Dada can get is what is approved by Didi. Tai would also like
the power go to someone in family than outsider. Only the inner core
can see the change. Because for millions of them all they see is the
video that comes in mail.

Dada behaves in un-Dada like fashion and suddenly claims that
Swadhayay belongs to him. Now all loyal Swadhyayees needs to be thrown
out one by one. Some of them knew too much. So they became threat. One
by one they were disgraced and thrown out. If they kept posing threat,
they were threatened and to teach a lesson bones were broken.

Earthquake in Gujart proves to be a windfall. Large amount of
donations flowing from all over, no need to account for it. Everyone
at the top could get a piece of the pie as long as they keep the mouth
shut. Few trouble makers need to be silenced.

Arrogance lead to mistakes. We can get away with anything. Police or
Government and Media will think ten times before doing anything
against us. Few people with broken bones became a lesson for many
others who were thinking of speaking their mind. Well it all went well
until...

Until one fateful day.. Pankajbhai Trivedi was brutally murdered. And
suddenly 'Jan Prakop' is beyond anyone's expectation. Police was lucky
to find a strong clue by one cell phone, he opens his mouth and now
the amount of information that out is too much to cover it all up.
Daily headlines exposing more and more stories. Many Swadhyayees start
seeing a pattern. As much as they do not want to believe all these
they have to admit that there are some problems.

The question is how this moves on from this point...
-Vijay Mehta

Would Didi run to USA if noose comes closer?
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 2:01pm

Didi might have avoided being questioned or arrested for this crime
more than three years. But there is no statute of limitation on
murder. So all her life she will have to worry, what if some evidence
pops up? What if someone talks? There are many many crimes in history
books where years after the crime the law catches up with you. Let us
be patient and pray to God at the end justice may prevail and
sacrifice of Panjakbhai does not go in vein.

Na Muh Chhupake Jityo...
Post by Guest on Jul 8th, 2006, 2:04pm

Didi has paid a price for Pankajbhai murder. Now she avoids limelight
and media.

Na Muh Chhupake Jiyo
No Sar jhukake Jiyo
Jo paap kiye hai tumne
woh Karmoki Kimat chukake Jiyo..

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by sunil on Jul 8th, 2006, 2:16pm

Dear NRI Swadhyayees,
Please listen to what DIDItold to SAHARA SAMAY TV
She said we recd.Rs.1 crore & spent 1.5 crores for Kutch EQ relief.( I
have seen this twice)

Now isn't this a lie? They have collected alltogether 37 crores
+cash(only Yogeshwar knows the amount)
You still want to call her a Satyanishtha?

who siphoned the money?

Will you dare to ask your motabhais about this?

In an another reply on this forum today these blind fellows are still
saying that the pariwar constructed 4534 concrete houses in Kutch when
it is very clear to everybody (exceot their Blind counterparts in
India)
that the pariwar has not constructed even a single house is this
another example of Satyam Vada?

The Pariwar has become so proficient in lieing & so shameless that
even after the murder of Pankajbhai they published a nivedan is all
gujarati news papers on
19th June stating that they have constructed 5058 houses if this is
Swadhyay then why someone should join or if has joined stay?

Earthquake Relief by Swadhyay Gujarati Article
Post by Vijay Mehta on Jul 8th, 2006, 4:34pm

http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/20060625/guj/national/anu.html

How much money was collected by Swadhyay and how much was used for
actual house building in Kutch area has been the biggest point of
argument. Swadhyayees will point that they have built 4500 plus
houses. While others will say that there is not a single house by
Swadhyay! This Article looks at what could be the explanation.
Gujarati article.
Partial translation to follow;

According to the letter by Pankajbhai Trivedi to Chief Minister of
Gujarat DAY Trust, Chicago had deposited 2,4000,000 (2.4 Million
Dollars( between 1978 to 2000. Due to the Gujarat Earthquake 3,890,000
(3.89 Million Dollars were collected from Swadhyay in USA) While Vinoo
Sachania (Who was later beaten up) sent Two Crores from England.

On 6/24/2006 Dr. Rajesh Parikh said in response to a question that
"Swadhyay Parivar has built 4534 houses in Kutch, and there is no
doubt about it." When asked if he had seen personally this houses
being built he said he has not. Than based on what is he making this
statemet? In response Dr Parikh showed a report by UNDP and 2003
report by ILO (International Labor Organization), where it was
mentioned that Swadhyay Parivar had built 4534 houses. Dr. Parikh was
asked if Swadhayay has their report of all these houses? He responded
that Swadhyay Parivar has a report of work performed at 112 villages
and that report is in Mumbai and we are getting in Amadawad. But in
this report we do not have details of work performed, just which
village had how many houses is mentioned.

Sri Mansi Anand fron Navnirman office in Kutchchh, Bhuj explained that
ILO report has no value since it is a copy of UNDP report. He
explained that in June of 2001 when Prime Minister came to visit
Kutchchh we asked all the organization to report of relief work. We
put an ad in the paper asking everyone to supply the information.
Based on what they reported we published those figures. We DID NOT
CHECK ACCURACY OF ANY OF THESE FIGURES!
Based on the information received (that was never varified by anyone)
we published reports. Few months later we published updated report
again based on the information received. This way by 2003 we had
published five reports.
September 2001 report had 75 organizations reporting. All of them
combined reported 4272 houses while Swadhyay ALONE REPORTED 4534
HOUSES!
When questioned in this regard Bhav Sarjan Trust informed that they
merely provided 'MATERIAL FOR CONSTRUCTION"
Abhiyan felt that if only material was provided than how many houses
were built? were they earth quake proof? In contrast to all other
organization Bhav Sarjan trust did not have any M U (? Memorandum of
understanding) with GSDMA of Gujarat Government.
Based on all these facts mention of Bhav Sarjan Trusts was taken out
of alphabetical order and placed last. And it was noted that this
organization is working independently (polite way of saying that we
can not varify facts)
Kutchchh Navnirman Abhiyan had asked for detail report from all the
organization but Swadhyay did not provide this list. (I guess they
believe that when right hand donates left should not know!). They had
also asked them to provide with financial report of earth quake
related activities (how much received and how much spent) but that was
not provided.
Of note is the fact that In any Government report there is no mention
of a SINGLE HOUSE BUILT BY BHAV SARJAN! COLLECTOR AND MAMLATDAR IN
KUTCHCHH HAS REPORTED THAT BHAV SARJAN TRUST - SWADHYAY PARIVAR HAS
NOT BUILT A SINGLE HOME.
According to Dr. Ramesh Parikh after the earthquake all the
responsibility was managed by Sri Vasanbhai Aahir. According to
Kutchchh Nirman Abhiyan Mr Aahir has been supplying all the
information.
When Mr Aahir was asked on 6/24 he said all the Parivar had provided
all the roofing material, wood, cement etc and laborers came from
Maharashtra. When he was asked to give specifics he answered from
moral high ground When a brother helps another brother in times of
need, do we need to keep an account? When he was asked as to how come
Swadhyay was able to build more houses than all other 75 combined in
such a short period of time? He said "DADA" wanted us to build quickly
so we did!!!
Basically what he is saying is trust me, if we say we built than we
built. Of course we can not tell you which particular house we have
built.

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Fabricated Stoies about Dadaji on Jul 8th, 2006, 7:09pm

1)Dada had once gone to USA. Dada used shaving soap and brush to
shave. During this visit, Dada forgot to take along with him, his
shaving soap and brush. Dada was habituated to use shaving soap and
brush and so he was un-comfortable. He mentioned it to one of the
Motabhais of USA while they were driving on a trip to Ohio. They
started looking for shaving soap and brush. They tried about 15 stores
but could not find it. When they were passing through a small town,
Dada pointed to a store and asked to inquire there for shaving soap
and brush. Fortunately this time, it was available in the store.

The whole story seems like fabricated and this common incident was
glorified and told to all swadhyayees of USA as and when chance came
by one of this Motabhai. He used to tell, he did not believe in
miracles, but narrated the story driving the point that Dada was
Avatar - incarnation of Lord and hence he could tell where the shaving
soap and brush was available?

Question: when followers were trying to find the brush at different
places and if an AVATAR knew that they were not going to find it
there, why he didn’t stop them in first place? An AVATAR can not
adjust with the situation and use shaving cream instead?

2) The second incident is related to Anuts
I-VANDANA program in BHARUCH. One of the motabhai told fellow
swadhyayees in a meeting that we don’t believe in miracles but since
we are a FAMILY (What a Joke), he would like to share this incident.
At the end of the program, NARMADA Maata changed the flow direction,
the water level raised up to the stage where Dada was sitting, NARMADA
Matta touched Dada’s feet and then slowly water level came down. I am
sure you should have a video to prove this as you take video of every
little thing and won’t forget to capture this “miracle”, right?
(Swajan Re Juth Mat Bolo, Khuda Ke pas Jana Hein)

If you were an Avatar, would you choose failing health, amputation of
leg because it was not treated in time and your followers in disarry
after your death?

Re: Krantikari Pankajbhai pays ultimate price
Post by Ravi Patel on Jul 8th, 2006, 7:12pm

"Last night Didi finally gave an interview to media- setting was
interview by a private channel at an undisclosed location.
She said that there is a conspiracy against Swadhyay. She has nothing
to do with murder of Pankajbhai."

DADI HAS BEEN TELIN HER FOLLOWERS TO STAY AWAY FROM THE MEDIA BECAUSE
THEY LIE, IS SHE LYING TOO?

http://vmehta.conforums3.com/index.cgi?board=Religions&action=print&num=1150555879

This material presented is but one/tenth of what is presented in the
link above. Most is in Gujarati and some in Hindi. It is a sad saga of
Hindu morality breakdown under the very haughty noses of Gujarati,
Marathi Hindu hoodlums parading under a panoply of real and phony
nomenclatures. Hindutva brigade led by self styled protectors of
mytholoy based religion keeps a close score of who is an "Un-Indian,"
" A Traitor," "A Terrorist," "A Pseudo-Secular," "A Secular," and by
bunch of other pet-names these Hindu hound dogs give to anyone and
everyone who speaks, writes and expresses their opinions, truthfully
and with all the evidence under the sun, yours truly included.

These bastards don't want the truth to be told. Not privately, not in
words or actions.

"Viswa Hindu Parishad" and their paid and unpaid co-conspirators fish
out all the dirt that they can find on other religions and spill all
over the creation, especially, on the internet newsgroups such as this
one. These concerted efforts on the part of such idiots as Dr Jai
Maharaj, and especially him has put the free speech in jeopardy.

This low-level skunk, a slum-dog, takes words from Ashok Chowgule, an
industrialist from Goa. A very rich man and very vicious man indeed.
This man is a Vice-President of the "Vishwa Hindu Parishad." The
another is S. Kalyanraman. This hoodlum is portrayed as a former
director of the World Bank.

There are many who are either of high ranking "RSS" members or their
famous "Parivar." It is not necessary to make a list of who they
affiliate with. Their venom is deadly and dangerous. Why would Hindu
religion or the religious beliefs of almost eighty-three million
people be defended? If they are as good as they claim to be, why, all
the sane people of the world would want to be Hindu in a jiffy.

The lies these fake Hindus tell may become their coffins.

[chhotemianinshallah]

Nityananda ashram rejects charge of rape

PTI, Mar 8, 2010, 06.55pm IST
Article Comments (14)

Sex video: Ashram defends NityanandaBANGALORE: Rejecting rape charge
and doubts raised over death of a foreign devotee of self-styled
godman Paramahamsa Nityananda, his ashram on Monday said he would make

a public appearance soon and answer all allegations.

The charges were part of a "conspiracy to malign the image of the
swami and impede ashram's social activities," the ashram spokesperson
Nitya Sachidananda told reporters at the Nityananda Ashram near
Bidadi, about 40 km from here.

A 23-year-old woman, an inmate of the Bidadi ashram, had alleged that
Nithyananda had raped and sexually harassed dozens of women in the
ashram.

Chennai police have registered a rape and cheating case against
Nityananda, days after video footage of his alleged sleazy acts were
telecast by TV channels.

Sachidananda also denied a charge that mystery shrouded the death of
foreign national Melvyan Boyd Diamond, a Yoga teacher in the ashram.

"Diamond had family history of cardiac problems and he died following
an accidental fall from the second floor of the building he lived in,"
he said, adding that the ashram had arranged for his cremation.

The operation to malign Nityananda had been done in "a surgical
precision" and "Swamiji himself will come and comment on all the
issues. As his "personal security" was at risk "we have advised him to
come after some days," the spokesperson said.

The ashram, which faced violent protests after telecast of the video,

has so far not lodged any police complaint.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Nityananda-ashram-rejects-charge-of-rape/articleshow/5659498.cms

Nityananda ashram rejects charge of rape

Article Comments 14

Bidadi ashram
Mohan USA 09 Mar, 2010 07:48 AM

All these guys disguised con people. Any basterd who still defends him
should be throiwn in jail as well. Why don't people check such idiots'
background before follow them. The laws should be strict so that such
crooks must ne hanged in public to make an example.revin malaysia 09
Mar, 2010 02:37 PM

Relax My dear friend..... if you dont know about him plz dont put such
commen. He teaching has transform many ppl life. thounds of ppl is
alive bcoz of his helling do u now haw many cancer patient has cured
and thy are alive 2day..... plz dont throw words will regret
ltr.Mansoor Dubai 09 Mar, 2010 01:53 PM

There are two type of godmenMark Canada 09 Mar, 2010 06:53 AM

Thank You Swami for all your help. You have been the greatest blessing
in my life. Mark.Arun Bangalore 09 Mar, 2010 04:44 AM

I find it curious that Sachitananda cites safety and security as being
the reason for Nithyananda's absence, while claiming that he is at the
Kumbha Mela. I would imagine an ashram with police protection is much
safer than mingling with lakhs of people in public.musing us 09 Mar,
2010 01:22 AM

The whole case against the swami seems manufactured. I would not be
surprised if the govt. is behind all this. At least the state govt. I
would also not be surprised if TOI takes perverse pleasure in
splashing this news all over their front pages for the next month. How
boring and predictable.Indian India 09 Mar, 2010 12:49 AM

India is fit only for Jihadi, Communists,Christian missionaries and
DMK Goons and their contribution for Indian Independence is NIL. Now
they are running the country by proxy for their foreign masters.aaa
bangalore 09 Mar, 2010 12:10 AM

As it is we live in a very cunning world.No one can believe anyone
henceforth.Natarajan Canada 08 Mar, 2010 08:30 PM

We need to monitor cases of sexual abuse at religious places. There
are several cases worse than this, involving children. Unfortunately
the cases involving children's sex abuse happen mostly at churches and
hence cannot be touched by our secular government.Shyam USA 08 Mar,
2010 08:19 PM

Is this framed by the Christian missions and the SUN TV who are PRO-
christians?Anand UAE 08 Mar, 2010 07:47 PM

If the swami could proove that the whole scandal is a conspiracy with
active connivance of some inmates like Lenin Karuppan, will the media
apologise to the public for the sensation created thru their column?
Medias should restrain from sensational journalism and should ensure
fair play.Jeevan Dubai 08 Mar, 2010 07:42 PM

Watch out.This fraud swami might use his power using the Politicial
parties and the top guys that he had in his list of followers.There is
no doubt that he is not involved in all the wrong things and he should
be given the severest of punishment so that the other fraud swami's
should learn a lesson.Daljit kuwait 08 Mar, 2010 07:26 PM

its our problem that we are treating these so called godman as
GOD .its time to show that they cannot play more with the sentiments
of people.Ashwani Hyderabad 10 Mar, 2010 05:03 PM

Like these ashrams/swamis, in many life saving institutions
(hospitals) these scandles do take place. Particularly super
speciality hospitals need to be monitored,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/5659498.cms

Quepem man held for raping daughter
TNN, Mar 22, 2010, 12.49am IST

MARGAO: In a macabre incident, the Quepem police on Sunday arrested
one Agnelo Pedro D'Costa, 48, from Catemol, Quepem, on charges of
raping his 17-year-old daughter.

What makes the crime ghastlier is the fact that the accused had
recently fathered a child through incestuous relations with the same
victim-his eldest daughter. Police sources said that the accused had
raped his daughter in April 2009, after threatening her with dire
consequences, following which she became pregnant and delivered a male
child on January 6, 2010.

"The victim, along with her newborn baby, was staying at Mother Tereza
Ashram, Panaji. Her father, meanwhile, would coerce his wife into
inviting their daughter home," Quepem PI Sudesh Narvekar said.

She finally came home on Saturday, only to be raped again by her
father.

The accused's wife is learnt to be working as a domestic help in
another village. "On Sunday, ensuring that his wife had gone to work
and her daughter was home alone, the accused raped her," Narvekar
added.

Based on the complaint lodged by the victim, the Quepem police
arrested the accused. Both the accused and the victim have been sent
for a medical examination, police sources added.

Significantly, the accused is the father of three sons and three
daughters. The victim had not reported the matter to the police when
her father had raped her earlier, police sources added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Quepem-man-held-for-raping-daughter/articleshow/5709578.cms

Give regard to rape victim's wish to marry rapist: CJI
IANS, Mar 7, 2010, 03.33pm IST
Article Comments (1)

NEW DELHI: In a radical suggestion, India's Chief Justice K G
Balakrishnan on Sunday said that judges, lawyers and social activists
should give "due regard" to the wishes of a rape victim if she chooses
to marry the rapist or have the baby conceived from the crime.

"Judges, lawyers and social activists should also ensure that they do
not take an overtly paternalistic approach when they have to make
decisions for the welfare of rape victims," he said at a seminar.

"Due regard must be given to their personal autonomy since in some
cases the victim may choose to marry the perpetrator or choose to give
birth to a child conceived through forced intercourse," he said.

He was speaking at the seminar on "Access to Justice, Relief and
Rehabilitation of Rape Victims" organised by the ministry of women and
child development.

Others who addressed it included Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily and
Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath.

"We must also keep in mind that the interests of the victim are not
protected by punishing the offenders alone," said Balakrishnan,
referring to a law ministry move to enact a law to set up fast-track
courts to try sex-related offences.

"Adequate attention should also be drawn to suggestions for
compensatory remedies and the rehabilitation of rape victims through
the provision of shelter, counselling services, medical and legal
aid."

He also referred to the "secondary victimisation", which a rape victim
often has to suffer during the trial of the accused due to
inconvenient, probing and often indecent questions by the defence
counsel.

"There is a very real phenomenon described as ‘secondary
victimisation' wherein the victim of a crime faces additional
harassment and humiliation in the course of investigation and trial.
Especially when the perpetrators are in a position of power over the
victims, there is a strong distrust of the credibility of the
investigation itself," pointed out Balakrishnan.

"Some recent cases highlighted in the press have shown how the
investigative machinery can often be manipulated to protect
influential persons, howsoever reprehensible their crimes may be," he
said without naming the Ruchika Girhotra molestation and suicide case
involving former Haryana police chief S P S Rathore.

"The investigators, prosecutors and defence counsels must exhibit an
appropriate degree of sensitivity to the victims," he said.

"Especially during the trial proceedings, judges need to be proactive
in order to restrain the aggressive cross-examination of rape
victims."

The CJI also highlighted recent changes in law, which provides that
the past sexual history of victims must be ignored.

"The Indian Evidence Act was amended some years ago and a provision
was inserted to ensure that the past sexual history of a victim cannot
be given weightage in a trial for the offence of rape," pointed out
the CJI.

"What is needed now is for judges and lawyers to internalise the
principle that facts relating to the past sexual history of a victim
should not even be brought up in the first place, since the purpose of
a trial is to decide whether or not an offence took place as alleged,"
said Balakrishnan.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Give-regard-to-rape-victims-wish-to-marry-rapist-CJI/articleshow/5654327.cms

Rituparna’s marital rape trauma
TNN, Feb 28, 2010, 12.00am IST

Rituparna SenguptaRituparna Sengupta says that getting under the skin
of the character can sometimes cause a lot of trauma. That is
precisely what the light eyed actress realised recently, while
shooting for Karan Razdan’s Mittal Versus Mittal.

Playing a marital rape victim in the film, Rituparna got so involved
with her character that she felt it was really happening to her. After
shooting the marital rape sequence, she not only burst into cold
sweat, but continued to shiver for days after that. “It was
terrifying,” admits Rituparna and says, “I kept seeing the sequence
for days in my sleep and woke up startled.”

Such dedication is really impressive. Wonder after all this why
Rituparna hasn’t got very far in her career, here in Bollywood? Can
you tell us why please?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/regional/news-interviews/Rituparnas-marital-rape-trauma/articleshow/5624418.cms

Girl set on fire for resisting rape attempt
TNN, Mar 18, 2010, 03.48am IST
Article Comments (37)

HYDERABAD: A 15-year-old girl was set on fire allegedly by three men
who attempted to rape her at a house in Sai Nagar near Kushaiguda on
Wednesday. The victim, a class VI dropout, suffered 60 per cent burns
and is battling for life at Gandhi Hospital.

Malkajgiri assistant commissioner of police (ACP) P V Padmaja said:
“As per the statement of the girl, three persons (all bachelors) tried
to rape her at a house in Sai Nagar and when she resisted their
attempt they set her ablaze. The incident took place around 11 am.”
Locals informed the Kushaiguda police about the incident and she was
shifted to Gandhi Hospital.

The victim stays at Padmaraonagar with her parents. Her father is an
auto driver, while her mother is a domestic help.

The girl and her friend used to frequent a tea joint near a three-
storied building in Padmaraonagar when two bachelors staying in the
building befriended them, the ACP said.

“On March 9, the victim left home without informing her parents. A
missing case was registered at the Chilkalguda police station by her
father on the same day. The girl said she had gone to Vijayawada on
March 9 along with three persons. The trio used to frequent their two
friends residing in the three-storied multi building at
Padmaraonagar.” the assistant commissioner of police said.

The victim refused to reveal information on when they returned to the
city and the whereabouts of the three persons. Special teams have been
pressed into service to arrest the culprits, the ACP said.

A case was registered under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 342
(wrongfully confining a person), 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) r/w
511 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Kushaiguda inspector A Muthyam
Reddy said.

Girl set on fire for resisting rape attempt
Article Comments 37

girl set on fire
Ajay US 18 Mar, 2010 04:49 AM

I pray that this 3 culprit gets caught soon and get enough punishment.
Atleast for 15 years each.Kalpana Chennai 18 Mar, 2010 04:34 AMOh My
God!zenith coimbatore 18 Mar, 2010 03:54 PM

so sadkavita hyderabad 18 Mar, 2010 03:40 PM

why this girl has gone with that person its her mistake as well,
without telling her parents see what happen she is the only
sufferingsohail hyderabad 18 Mar, 2010 07:46 PM

she is just a childrox fiji 18 Mar, 2010 02:02 PMevery one want to
have sexMohan-US USA 18 Mar, 2010 05:59 PM

No wastage of money and time.... this should be closed in 15
minutes... drag them to a public place and get the crowd to throw one
stone each.... end of the story and a GREAT "case study"Anmol
Bangalore 18 Mar, 2010 05:29 PM

The punishment should be more seviour for rapists, and those who
attempt to rape.Kiran USA 18 Mar, 2010 05:29 PM

This is nothing new in India. Basically, a way of life. It's always
girls from the poor families get raped by the better offs. Rarely,
perpetrators of the crime get punished. Police are more than willing
to bungle the report for bribe. This is our great culture. I'm glad to
be out of jungle rajChandan Bangalore 19 Mar, 2010 02:11 PM

Pls don't comment if you can't resist/rectify. Kindly pls don't come
back to India again.sai bang 18 Mar, 2010 05:06 PM

there is no way of punishing just by killing the three guys infront of
all is the solution ...so next time no guy should repeat such kind of
attemptsfahad Pakistan 18 Mar, 2010 04:56 PM

They should be hanged till death in the middle of the townvishal pune
18 Mar, 2010 04:45 PM

where is the so called education of Indian Parents these days,gaurang
US 18 Mar, 2010 04:39 PM

i dont think there are chances of them not being caught,but i would
pray that they are brought to justice and given a life term for
attempt to rape and attempt to murder. i fear they may end up free
considering the fact that the victim comes from a poor family and our
legal system favors rich oneskavita hyderabad 18 Mar, 2010 03:50 PM

its a girls mistake as well y she has gone with that person without
telling her parents and now see who is suffering feels so sad for
her.Nadeem Amsterdam 18 Mar, 2010 03:46 PM

There should be an "Eye for an Eye"norbert ksa 18 Mar, 2010 03:23 PM

they must hangDeepak Vizag 18 Mar, 2010 03:21 PM

This again tells us that India is not safe for women. I pray that
justice is done to the girl though chances are bleak.Vishal Beijing 18
Mar, 2010 02:56 PM

Its absolutely horrible and shameful to hear such stories in today's
day and age. Who should we blame? Men, women, society, or the govt.?
anita bangalore 18 Mar, 2010 02:31 PM

going to vijayawada from hyderabad without informing her parents.
hm...this is how kids get into trouble. the people who put her on
flames needs to be punished.Ravi hyderabad 18 Mar, 2010 01:57 PM

Culprits should be punished severely.Aslam Dubai 18 Mar, 2010 01:35 PM

I pray to god that this 3 culprit, Get punishment for the Law as well
as from the God too..Prakash Bangalore 18 Mar, 2010 01:31 PM

Kill those people ........david singapore 18 Mar, 2010 01:29 PM

Really these 3 culprits should be hangedPrafull mumbai 18 Mar, 2010
01:19 PM

I wonder why the girl has,or by whom the names of the 3 have been
witheld.SURESH Mumbai 18 Mar, 2010 01:00 PM“On March 9, the
victim left home without informing her parentsjgkmfmb dutidfgjk 18
Mar, 2010 12:53 PM

give the culprits death sentence. Life for life - they should give
their life for taking the victim's life.jadeja India 18 Mar, 2010
12:38 PMthis only happens in india jay hindMurali-Devavrata Bengaluru
18 Mar, 2010 12:37 PM

While culprits should be brought to justice and given death penalty,
there is no doubt that our cultural values are being degraded due to
Western influence. Girls are taking too much liberty with their
freedom and are suffering. Freedom comes with a price. We should think
about this.nitu hyd 18 Mar, 2010 12:31 PM

what the hell is going on in hyd? law should be so strict dat such
cases would never repeat. god know why such people think of raping a
child(doesn't mean that they can have in view of adults)samuel london
18 Mar, 2010 12:30 PM

I hope the three idiots don't have any political connections nor are
they from influential families otherwise such cases are swept under
the carpet and police would call it an cooking stove accident or even
suicide attempt.Vincent Thailand 18 Mar, 2010 12:02 PM

Since the victims is surviving, the culprits will soon be caught and
here-in lies a chance for the guardians of law and order to set an
example. The three perpetrators should be castrated and their
photographs published in newspapers. Let us remove the blindfold over
the eyes of Statue of Law !Vikrant Melbourne 18 Mar, 2010 11:46 AM

Why girls born in India?Sana Mumbai 18 Mar, 2010 11:02 AM

It's sad that this happened but what amazes me the most is that its
still happening. If not in Hyderabad then probably in some other
city.rahul Pune 18 Mar, 2010 09:45 AM

castrate the culprits and parade them naked to be stoned...javeri
mumbai 18 Mar, 2010 09:28 AM

Our Indian legal system has not generated any fear in the minds of the
offenders. they can do anything they want and walk free. By the time
our law takes its cource they might die their natural death. Go back
to the law of the jungle.Tooth for a tooth and eye for an eye. No FIR,
No Report. Burn themhari india 18 Mar, 2010 09:09 AM

kill them

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Girl-set-on-fire-for-resisting-rape-attempt/articleshow/5696150.cms

Rape Ruckus
Mar 9, 2010, 12.00am IST
Article Comments (3)

On the eve of International Women's Day, Chief Justice of India K G
Balakrishnan came up with a strange suggestion. Addressing a meet on
justice for rape victims, the CJI said that "due regard" must be given
to the wishes of a rape victim if she wants to marry the rapist or
give birth to a child conceived following the crime. The CJI's
statement sends out mixed signals. It almost makes it appear that
marriage is an alternative to punishment for perpetrators of rape.
Indeed, it could have the unfortunate effect of minimising the
seriousness of rape which is a fundamental violation of a woman's
body. Besides, it does not take into account that rapes can occur
within marriages too.

The courts or the state shouldn't have any say on the course of action
that a rape victim intends to take. It is paternalism - something that
the CJI has accused activists and lawyers of - to decide on behalf of
rape victims. What should be of utmost importance for law-enforcing
agencies is to ensure that rapists are convicted and handed the
maximum possible punishment. At present, rape figures in India tell a
sorry story. According to some statistics, only one in 69 rapes is
reported, and out of these the conviction rate is a pathetic 20 per
cent. Law enforcement agencies should be looking at ways to increase
the conviction rates as well and put in place conditions where victims
feel comfortable to report rapes. This is a big ask. Let's not deflect
from the real task at hand by suggesting marriage between a rape
victim and the perpetrator.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Rape-Ruckus/articleshow/5659944.cms

Uttar Pradesh tops list of child rape cases
PTI, Mar 4, 2010, 05.04pm IST

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh tops the list of States and Union territories
with the highest number of 900 child rape cases in 2008 followed by
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

According to the latest data by the Ministry of Home Affairs for three
years, cases of child rape continue to rise as a total of 4,721 cases
were registered during 2006, 5,045 in 2007 and 5,446 in 2008 across
the country.

Police have arrested 5,489 people in 2006 for their involvement in
such crimes, 5,756 in 2007 and 6,363 in 2008.

Madhya Pradesh registered 892 such cases, Maharashtra (690), Rajasthan
(420) and Andhra Pradesh (412) in 2008, the data said.

A total of 411 such cases were registered in Chhattisgarh, 301 in
Delhi, 215 in Kerala, 187 in Tamil Nadu, 129 in West Bengal, 106 in
Punjab and 104 in Tripura, it said.

Whereas, Gujarat has registered 99 cases, Karnataka 97, Bihar 91,
Haryana 70, Himachal Pradesh 68, Orissa 65 and Goa 18.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Uttar-Pradesh-tops-list-of-child-rape-cases-/articleshow/5641124.cms

Teen girl, who alleges rape by Maoist, shot at
IANS, Mar 5, 2010, 12.04pm IST
Article Comments (21)

RANCHI: A teenage girl was shot by Maoist rebels in Jharkhand's
Latehar district for slapping rape charges on a Maoist leader, police
said Friday. The victim is struggling for life in a hospital here.

Maoist guerrillas shot three bullets into 17-year-old Anju Kumari on
Thursday. She was injured critically and has been admitted to the
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science
(RIMS).

"Anju sustained three bullets in her stomach. Her condition is
critical," a doctor said.

Anju was shot when she was riding her bicycle in an area close to
Latehar railway station. She was stopped by three motorcycle-borne
Maoist rebels including the Maoist commander Pappu Lohra, who
allegedly pumped three bullets into Anju's stomach and then fled,
police said.

According to police, Anju was shot because she was bold enough to
lodge a first information report (FIR) against Lohra for abducting and
raping her.

"Anju was shot because she dared to raise a voice against Maoists. She
had lodged an FIR against Pappu Lohra. Anju had accused Pappu of
raping her for two days in a jungle after abducting her," a police
official told IANS.

According to local journalists, Maoist rebels alleged it was the
handiwork of the police to lodge fake rape charges against Lohra.

Teen girl, who alleges rape by Maoist, shot at
Article Comments 21

rape maoist
Rajagopal Delhi 05 Mar, 2010 03:37 PM

Dont arrests maoists criminals just shot dead them immediately on
seeing. Thee is no sin doing so. The Government shold try aerial
survey of maoists and bombard their hide outs without hesitation to
prevent further strikes.R india 05 Mar, 2010 03:36 PM

If it was a fake charge, why did this goonda shoot the girl? Maoists
might have started off as rebels for a true cause, but now they are
nothing but terrorists. I hope these rapists and murderers get their
just desserts from the police and para military forces.Raj Mumbai 05
Mar, 2010 03:27 PM

But its a handiwork of Maoist Rebles to Kill a 17 Year
female...Doesn;t he feel anything kill a Teenage Girl..Aks USA 05 Mar,
2010 03:15 PM

Now a days there are far too many pseudo naxals and all are fake and
they intimidate the tribals into submission and loot the police and
others. They do not have ideologies but only money minded looters.She
was a stumbling block and fear of getting exposed made them to stop
the voice, so was shotBrijendra Russia 05 Mar, 2010 03:05 PM

What is going on in India? Is it a jungle raaj or some law exist
there.After reading this story u realy feel shame being an Indian. A
young girl shot three times by so called mesihah of poor and dalits
started raping their daughters and sisters.These same people will take
arms against them.vishnu satara 05 Mar, 2010 03:04 PM

No commnets here...... Indian are busy cursingNarendra Singapore 05
Mar, 2010 02:39 PM

Well this news shows without doubt that at the end maoist does not
follow any philosophy. In the beginning they like others are
pretending to protect and be voice of poors. Now they are aiming their
gun to them. It makes me wonder Pappu Lohra is, a coward who tried to
kill innocent girl.rkr459 rkr...@yahoo.com.au 05 Mar, 2010 01:43 PM

It is high time ,the national Government take military action to get
rid of this radical elements for once and all.P.R.S.Bhasker Hyderabad
05 Mar, 2010 07:18 PM

I fully agree with the comment of sri Rajagopal of Delhimlechha
timbuctoo 05 Mar, 2010 06:59 PM

... that PCAPA leader Lalmohan Tudu had led an attack on their camp @
Silda, with a Maoist dalam. Later, the police claimed there had been
no attack on Silda, that Tudu was most probably killed in a false
encounter. Ironically, Tudu was the person who had fought for
elections to be held in Lalgarh.Siva TN 05 Mar, 2010 06:03 PMI

s this maoism,Very sad,these group appear like terrorist and criminals
without any causeAnant Nigeria 05 Mar, 2010 06:02 PM

Maoists stand against oppression of the weak by others.faisal dhahran
05 Mar, 2010 05:49 PM

The maoista are nothing but criminals and hoodlums out killing and
stealing. They are thugs terrorising the local populations. They MUST
be destroyed without any mercy for they are only killers and murderers
of the worst kind.Nitin Belgium 05 Mar, 2010 05:46 PM

What is the goverment doing? They cant even ensure the security of a
victim from indian terrorists, how can anybody trust them with
security of the country???Vivek NY 05 Mar, 2010 09:28 PM

Now the so called human activisits will not utter a word. India should
extensively use army againsts these murderers and these hyppocrate
human activist in jail. With the army strenght we have shouldn't take
more than a week to clean up India from these people.aa del 05 Mar,
2010 10:01 PM

Jaago Bharat Jaago.jeff Australia 06 Mar, 2010 06:05 AM

This is shocking to the whole world when india is looked upon as
developing emerging economy gettinon par with the world. It is truly
shockingren bhopal 06 Mar, 2010 11:15 AM

shoot thiose murderers and rapists right at their head!!! no need for
enquiries to police....kill those bastards immediately!!!Anil Delhi 06
Mar, 2010 12:34 AM

I won't name names here but this has been going on around my village
since decade.. Maoist just to slight people's respect kidnap unmarried
girls do whatever they like with her and send them back to their
parents.sajan dub 06 Mar, 2010 12:20 AM

How you can tell the rape alligation is right. Now a days it is a
passion of women to make false complaint to molestation and rape also
IPc 498 for looting money from man.Anant Nigeria 05 Mar, 2010 11:36 PM

Maoists stand against oppression of weak by others.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/5645977.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Teen-girl-who-alleges-rape-by-Maoist-shot-at/articleshow/5645977.cms

Father, daughter gun down 2 over incest taint
Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN, Oct 6, 2009, 12.06am IST

LUCKNOW: For once, panchayat members of a western UP village were
thrown on the defensive. On Monday, a man and his daughter — cleared
of charges of having incestuous relationship — picked up a gun and
fired at the panchayat members, killing two persons, one of them being
the accuser.

According to the police, they did so to ‘‘punish the panchayat members
for their failure to act against the real culprits.’’

The drama was reported from the Kambhore village, Bijnor. The village
panchayat had earlier ordered ‘expulsion’ of the father-daughter duo
following charges of incest against the man, which reportedly turned
out to be baseless. Agitated that the panchayat did not give them a
chance to defend themselves, the two reportedly reached the panchayat
gathering and opened fire after the members refused to initiate action
against those who had levelled false charges against them.

According to reports reaching the police headquarters in Lucknow,
about a month back, Haseenuddin, a resident of Kambhore village under
Kotwali police station of Bijnor approached the village panchayat and
accused a local resident Akhtar of sexually abusing his daughter
Fatima alias Fato for the past several years. Haseen maintained that
he was an eye-witness to the crime along with another local resident,
Afzal.

The panchayat then summoned the duo and questioned them in public.
Though the two said they were innocent, the panchayat ordered them to
leave the village forever.

As a result, Akhtar sold off his house and shifted to a relative’s
place in an adjacent district. On September 23, Akhtar happened to
meet Afzal and enquired about the charges that he and Haseenuddin had
levelled. When Afzal denied that he was even aware of any such
accusations, the latter forcibly took him to the house of the
‘panchas’ to testify before them.

According to the police, on the request of Akhtar, a panchayat meeting
was convened on Friday last where he and his daughter were absolved of
the charges. However, when the panchayat members announced that there
was no need for action against Haseenuddin, Akhtar whipped out a gun
and fired indiscriminately.

Father, daughter gun down 2 over incest taint
Article Comments 19

Manoj India 06 Oct, 2009 12:37 AM

Think the whole article is quite confusing.Bobby Dayton 06 Oct, 2009
12:48 AM

very good. very great act. The panchs should have acted against
Haseenuddin, but if they did not, then Akhtar didnt do anything by
taking law in his hand. I hate all those preaching about not taking
law in ones hand, just because there would be no difference between
accuser and accusee. But if its once moral at stake, one should do
such things. Bravo.Sajid USA 06 Oct, 2009 12:50 AM

The man should not have taken the law in his hands. But there is great
need in India to do something about those who accuse others falsely.
Many times, police accuse someone and when that man is found innocent
after many years, the police officers who framed the charges are left
alone without any charges against them. There are serious errors in
Indian laws.Shalin Agrawal Ahmedabad 06 Oct, 2009 01:07 AM

I agree with what Akhtar did. If justice is denied then the person may
have the right to take such action if the allegations are of these
level. Panchayat members should take rational decision and law should
be equal for all. VD US 06 Oct, 2009 01:17 AM

This is eerily similar to 'A time to Kill' movie though victims are
different. The 2 should not charged with any crime and should be set
free. The Panchayats other members should be kept in prison. What
agony thefather and daughter must have gone thru when these charges
were leveled against them. Thankfully they were all muslims otherwise
who knows what would have happened on the name of religion.SVR Chennai
06 Oct, 2009 01:20 AM

I don't see anything wrong in it. Failure to give justice, will result
in these kind off actions. Pradeep Bangalore 06 Oct, 2009 01:23 AM

For once, the justice is done. Kudos to the father for taking the
action.Vivek Mumbai 06 Oct, 2009 01:53 AM

It is shocking that the Panchayat acted in a haste on such a sensitive
matter. The report can be true or false but if true then the panchayat
seems to have done a grave mistake by not correcting the 2nd
time,which needed punishment. The sad part is our law doesnot permit
normal humans to do justice and the law would not take action too. The
honest man is suffering today and a collusion of evil minds are
striving. A shock treatement is the only solution that can bring
balance to this crude world but at what cost is for us to judge.
Nilesh California, US 06 Oct, 2009 02:08 AM

Older "Panchayat" judiciary system should be abandoned and must be
taken over by court. It's very must needed as foolish, biased and non
democratic people make the decisions lives of innocent people.Rajendra
Boston 06 Oct, 2009 02:35 AM

Good job by Mr. Akhtar. These Panchayat people should learn to behave
more responsibly.Sanjana Blore 06 Oct, 2009 03:25 AM

Guess this is something our Judges need to be reading for not
supporting Justice rather being baiased.CoolStuff Delhi 06 Oct, 2009
04:30 AMGreat job! Same way we need punish dirty politicians as
well...Umesh USA 06 Oct, 2009 06:12 AM

That is what happens when you don't have redress to your grivences.
Indian government and politicians need to wake up - they are cheating
Indian people for so long and Indian people are running out of
patience. Before people take law in hand for speedy settlement and it
becomes wild west, Indian courts need to hand out speedy
justice.Sharad US 06 Oct, 2009 06:26 AM

The panchas deserved to die. Who gave them the right to punish a
family with an evidence thats so flaky and how come when time comes to
make the family get even by just some punishment to the perpetrators
they step back. This is just a clear case of victimising one family
and though killing in righteous civil society is bad, in this case, I
would say it was the best choice. The art of living in a community is
something we all think is leanrt naturally. We focus on learning
english, science, maths. Nagrik shartra and laws of living in the
society and rights in the society and duties of the society to its
members are things that need to be taught. In villages (and even in
cities) these kind of bitching keeps happening, any family needs to
lean on how to keep their weight and still be responsible. Well, that
would be a start towards creating a utopian soceity.Prashant Dhiman
USA 06 Oct, 2009 06:50 AM

What is wrong about picking a gun when nobody listens to the reason?
he did a great thing, I would have done the same in those
circumstances.shyamal Missouri, USA 06 Oct, 2009 07:23 AM

Well done. If you bring false charges, you deserve bullets. I also
think that if an innocent person is incarcerated and later the real
criminals are found, the innocent person must be compensated Rs 1
Crore for every year of incarceration from the state budget. This is a
penalty for the state government and the police authorities who got
him imprisoned. Today the person just gets a dry apology from the
state.Manoj Delhi 06 Oct, 2009 09:27 AM

I think he did the right thing to take the law on his own hands as the
panchayat's law was already denied for him. This man is innocent and
actions must be taken against 'so-called-panchs' in this case!vimal
noida 06 Oct, 2009 10:48 AM

Bravo, Kudos all words are small in front of there brave act. This is
the true definition of save owns pride. Hats of to you.Joseph Dubai 06
Oct, 2009 11:39 AM

Compliments to the Duo - Father and the daughter, when the Law does
not protect them what other choice you have ?..The panchyat system
does not function, so doesn't Indian Democracy. It is a Mafia System !
Sixty years have passed since our independence and aren't we still
convinced ? Our politicians in Delhi are sleeping and filling their
pockets ! They care a damn about you and me - the common poor guys.See
where China has gone in 60 years. They are the 3rd World Economy from
nothing. And we Indians ? We talk about 10% growth but where is it
reflected, for the Politicians and for the rich of course ? Children
are being raped and burnt (latest moda) and the culprits behind the
political heavyweights are walking free. Where is justice, where is
the law to protect you,me our defenceless children and where are the
bloody netas ? It is time we woke up Indians and do away with all
these useless systems and traitors of the country. We fought for
freedom from British and our leaders died in vain. At least we were
not that bad under the foreigh rule I guess ! India needs a Hitler -
one man one rule. If you don't deliver you perish. Even dictatorship
is bad, but at least we would have punished those bastards and brought
them to book. With this system at least 60 years hence, we will have
advanced much more. Otherwise with the present system of governance we
will see other nations passiing by us, injustice will prevail in walks
of life and our own government will walk on us as it is happening.
Will I say "jai ho" or "Jai no?"

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/5091724.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Father-daughter-gun-down-2-over-incest-taint/articleshow/5091724.cms

3 Indian-origin men in UK jailed for raping kin
PTI, Oct 18, 2009, 01.20am IST
Article Comments (3)

LONDON: Three Indian-origin men, residents of Cardiff, who repeatedly
raped a woman in their family for several years have been convicted
and sentenced to long years in prison.

The three persons sentenced by the Cardiff Crown Court are the 27-year-
old victim's step-father, step-uncle and brother-in-law. The step-
uncle and step-father are illegal immigrants, and will deported at the
end of their sentences.

The 55-year-old step-uncle, and 50-year-old step-father were jailed
with minimum recommended terms of 20 and 15 years respectively, while
her 27-year-old brother-in-law was jailed for 12 years.

The step-uncle admitted before the court that he was the father of the
child conceived when the victim was 14 years old. He was convicted of
seven counts of rape, three of indecency with a child, and one of
indecent assault.

During the hearing, the court was told that the victim's ordeal began
at the age of five when she was raped by her step-uncle. She became
pregnant at 14, but was locked in a wardrobe so that visitors would
not see her condition.

Prosecuting lawyer Marion Lewis told: "The girl was already seven
months pregnant when she first saw a doctor about her condition. When
the baby was born, the girl's parents told friends and neighbours it
was their own, before flying their daughter to India for an arranged
marriage."

Judge Patrick Curran told the step-uncle: "Not content with your own
sexual abuse on her, you encouraged the others to treat her like an
unpaid and unwilling prostitute. You all then involved yourselves in a
group rape on her."

The judge said the continued presence of the two older men in the UK
was "detrimental to public interest."

The prosecuting lawyer said the girl was frightened and also believed
her mother knew what was going on.

"When aged 14 and still a pupil at school, her stomach was expanding
and a scan revealed she was seven months pregnant," Lewis said.

"Her mother beat her all over her body apart from the face with a
curtain pole. She was hidden, sometimes in a wardrobe and visitors
were told she'd gone back to India."

The victim later told the jury that her mother beat her when it was
found out that she was seven months pregnant. She said her mother had
not believed her when she had tried to tell her that she was pregnant
by a member of her own family.

"When she went to the doctors, checked me out, she realised I was
seven months pregnant, she still didn't believe me. She hit me with a
rod and stuff like that so she never believed me".

"She always said to me 'they can't do that to you, they're your
family, they can't do it' but unfortunately they did," the victim
said.

The step-uncle admitted in court he was the father of her child, but
told the jury he had not found out until much later once DNA tests
were carried out.

After the sentence was pronounced yesterday, detective inspector Chris
Mullane of South Wales Police said the victim had been "extremely
courageous" in approaching the police.

Reader's opinions (3)

Praful R Shah Houston, Texas USA 20/10/2009 at 10:55 am

What type of animals are they. They should be hanged.
uma shankar vajpeyi london 20/10/2009 at 08:47 pm

SEND THEM FOR 27 YEARS PLUS IN JAIL AT LEAST ...THIS IS AFTER THE TORY
LEADER RECENTLY INDIANS IN UK ARE LEAST PRESENT IN JAILS
Pamela Weber Quinn England United Jingdom 20/10/2009 at 10:05 pm

Thank goodness this young lady had the courage and support from her
fellow Britains to report this dreadful crime. I think her mother
should have also received a custodial sentance, for beating her
daughter abusing her. The trauma this young lady has endured will be
with her for a very long time. I know she will recieve help and I wish
her all the best from hence forth.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/indians-abroad/3-Indian-origin-men-in-UK-jailed-for-raping-kin/articleshow/5135088.cms

NRI held for raping minor daughter in Punjab
IANS, Mar 28, 2009, 09.32pm IST

JALANDHAR: In a third shocking case of its kind in the country in the
last two weeks, an NRI father was arrested by the Punjab police on
Saturday for allegedly raping his 13-year-old daughter.

A medical examination has confirmed the rape of the minor who lives in
a village in Phillaur town, 40 km from here.

Surinder Singh, who works in Dubai and has three children, was
arrested following a complaint by the victim and her mother. The
victim, the eldest among her siblings, later recorded her statement
before a magistrate, accusing her father of raping her.

Police officials said the father raped his daughter on Thursday night
in an inebriated state. He had come to his village on annual leave.

Earlier this week, a 20-year-old girl from Ajnala town near Amritsar
complained to the police that her father, who is a Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leader, had raped her for the last eight years.

The father, Ashok Taneja, was arrested by the police after registering
a rape case against him.

Last week, the Mumbai police arrested a 49-year-old businessman who
allegedly raped his daughter for over nine years on the advice of a
black magic practitioner to get "rich quickly".

Reader's opinions (1)
mohammed waseem uae 29/03/2009 at 01:47 pm
i have no words.no need to show in public this kind os cases.just take
them in silent place and encounter to all.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/indians-abroad/NRI-held-for-raping-minor-daughter-in-Punjab/articleshow/4328379.cms

AMRITSAR: Emboldened by the story of the Mumbai sisters who went
public against their rapist father, a 21-year-old college student in
Amritsar has gone to the police with her own horror story about her
father, a local BJP leader, who she accused of raping her for eight
years.

The man, arrested on Wednesday night, was on Thursday sent to 14-day
judicial custody. Police booked the accused, also a well-off
businessman, under section 376 (rape) of IPC. Medical examination of
the girl confirmed sexual abuse.

A student of Guru Nanak Dev University, the ravaged girl drew courage
from the Mumbai victims and spoke of her trauma to relatives from her
mother's family. They then took her mother into confidence.

"I want this man to be put behind bars or shot," the girl said, crying
bitterly. "My father, for that's what I have to call him, has crossed
all limits of human behaviour. He started sexually abusing me since
childhood. Whenever I resisted or refused to bow down to his wishes,
he would threaten to burn me with acid or kerosene."

Wiping tears with her black dupatta wrapped around her face, she said,
"I told my mother that if they (Mumbai victims) can, so can I. All my
relatives have supported me in this. After all, it can't get more
sinful than this, can it?"

The traumatised mother said, "My husband would always find a pretext
to send me away so he could be alone with our daughter. He never
allowed both of us to leave home together. In fact, I am forced to say
that my husband had physical relations with other girls in the family
as well."

The accused, who complained of failing health and admitted himself to
a hospital, in his defence, labelled his daughter and wife
"degenerates with bad character.

"My daughter had good character till two years ago but ever since she
joined university she fell in bad company and got full support of my
wife. They just want me sorted out because they're after my property,"
he said, his face covered by the blanket on his hospital bed. "I am
hurt at the allegation. I would not have minded had they blamed me for
beating them but this is something I cannot do in my wildest dreams."

BJP spokesperson Som Dutt Sharma blamed the Congress for defaming them
"during election time."

"To make matters worse for the victim, the whole family, including her
younger brother, slept in the same room. Day in and day out the girl
would have her rapist by her side, she said. Can you imagine that?"
said a neighbour.

Another rapist dad exposed, this time in Amritsar
Article Comments 68

Praveen Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 10:52 AM

If the Girl is saying true then kill these kind of persons is the good
judgement for this case.Swapnil Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 10:59 AM

Party with difference. It certainly has different stance on
incest.Manoj Delhi 26 Mar, 2009 11:01 AM

Shame on you TOI. This is a pathetic attempt from you to please your
masters in Congress. Where did BJP figure in all this? Were his deeds
known to the world so that BJP could sense that this is what he was
doing to his daughter? He is a normal criminal and should be treated
as such. Somebody occupying a block level position in BJP is being
highlighted by you as if the whole BJP is involved in this crime.
Journalism at its worst... selective sensationalization is the worst
kind of yellow journalism that can be perpetuated. Seems, in this
election not only political parties, even media is going to scale new
depths of irresponsible journalism. Dare you to publish this
comment.shakti singh chundawat bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 11:06 AM

incest is in vogue! :-)Ram Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 11:08 AM

An individual person is doing rape and why is the news dragging his
party here. DO you want to communicate that BJP leaders are like this
raping their daughters? Please communicate responsibly as it is one of
the core principles of journalism. The title is misleading and
irresponsible.hashimi chennai 26 Mar, 2009 11:09 AM

india has become the incest capital of world... shame..!!San Delhi 26
Mar, 2009 11:18 AM

What is the cause for all these nuisances happening these days. We are
so detoriating that In some cases Father(s) are raping these own
daughters ??? Hell or worst than Hell... Who is to blame ??? Do not
you think TOI or so called Media, Films, TV Serials are not
responsibile for instigating or provoking our Lust... Whenever you
open any site (even News Sites like TOI), so many articles to boost
your SEX life or blah, blah... you find on screen. What is all these,
We want to know the news of world. Not how to enjoy our sex or boost
our sex. Are you (TOI) a sex boosting magzine or a nice newspaper.
Shame on you.. Kindly think judiciously and act accordingly. Do not
sell sex just to Be No 1. Peter Vaz Oman 26 Mar, 2009 11:24 AM

Shame after fame is disgusting and the sermons of these top leaders
must by exposed to a great lengths beyond borders by TOI.Are these
people barbarians or monsters of the stone age? SC must create a
stringent laws or life imprisonment or stoned to death by the public
for these cases. Nupur Pune 26 Mar, 2009 11:33 AM

Now is this Indian Culture?? Are these men out of their minds!! Dont
they have any conscience!! 8 years, 9 years...its disgusting!! We go
aorund telling the world that we are a culturally rich country...and
we have cases in Mangalore where men are hitting women..n now this!!
Totally horrifyingsabir bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 11:34 AM

Whats happening, what is moral policing doing now. Is this the
religion teaches. Come-on wake up. Come-on learn the basics of family.
a n k | t az, usa 26 Mar, 2009 11:35 AM

Its a DISGRACE, I am totally DISGUSTED!!!! We Indians speak highly of
our family and cultural values and this just goes to shows how
misinformed and clueless we are. Its a shame. bloreboy bangalore 26
Mar, 2009 11:40 AM

where was the mother all the while...she was a passive participant in
this crime & needs to get her share of the punishment.. also...these
stories if exploited for 8 years are coming up now...why not 8 years
back...the victim needs to provide proper details as to why they were
party to the game till nowRam Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 11:40 AM

The title needs to be changed immediately. Do not name the political
party the person is affiliated to. The political party is not
preaching the person to do rape his daughter. What is the neccessity
of this news in the front page. Please act responsible.Harshal India
26 Mar, 2009 11:45 AM

This can be congress conspiracy as its just Election time, Election
commisioner should take a note of this.Ram Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009
11:48 AM

Are the COngressmen raping their mothers ? WHy drag the party's name
when an Individual is doing a criminal act. IRRESPONSIBLE reporting.
STOP THIS NEWS channel first.Naresh Dhiman Kuwait 26 Mar, 2009 11:51
AM

He and other such fathers should be punished with extreme limits so
that this becomes a examplary punishment which will deter others from
commiting such crime.Sasi Muscat 26 Mar, 2009 11:54 AM

Its disparagement!!!!!!!!! The civic should be heedful. This is
utterly deplorable.Nirmal Jain Bhopal 26 Mar, 2009 11:55 AM

Shame on these people, who talk of sanskars to others claiming
themselves as the sole preserver of Indian Sanskriti (Culture), by
vandalising pubs and terrorising the lovers on Valentine's Day. Will
not be surprised if he is also supported as Varun Gandhi was for his
wrongdoings.Vishal D'Souza Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 11:58 AM

Each & every small incidents of BJP leaders are highlighted on
National Media, but it's a great achivement by the BJP to win
elections even after all media houses are writing against them. Really
BJP a great performer, shame on media which is tarnishing natinal
partiotic party BJP's image in each & every aspect. But BJP's
popularity growing day by day throughout the country.Vishal D'Souza
Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 12:00 PM

Each & every small incidents of BJP leaders are highlighted on
National Media, but it's a great achievement by the BJP to win
elections even after all media houses are writing against them. Really
BJP a great performer, shame on media which is tarnishing national
patriotic party BJP's image in each & every aspect. But BJP's
popularity growing day by day throughout the country.Vaibhav S Pune 26
Mar, 2009 12:00 PM

Sick....Anonym Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 12:01 PM

I do not think BJP endorses this too as part of their agenda like you
people say BJP endorses communal or whatever. This is a criminal case
and should not be related to any political party while referring. The
headline is quite flashy and diverged. Nikesh Kumar Shukla Delhi 26
Mar, 2009 12:02 PM

Yes!!! This is only possible in the BJP the party with the difference.
They are so called and self declared custodian of Indian culture and
the hinduism.Bindu Bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 12:07 PM

It is absolutely revolting to read these stories, which one gets to
read too often now a days. Where is the world headed to; why is it
that the daughters are not being spared by their own fathers; where
will they find comfort and safety if not their own homes? At least one
positive aspect is that the girl had the courage to come out in the
open - women/girls have to raise their voices...so much that the
judiciary takes some strict measures against such dastardly
crimes.Rammy Sydney, Australia 26 Mar, 2009 12:10 PM

Amazing what the other readers are saying: the girl has to prove why
she kept silent? Why bring up the political party the member is
associated with? Must be election ploy? Simply amazing! Its takes a
great amount of courage to report rape, let alone incest. That is even
more so in a country like India. What will happen to this girl? Who
will marry her? Despite all these she still had the courage to tell
her relatives and all we can give her is suspicion and disdain. Where
are our morals and compassion? We should be ashamed to treat this news
this way!Riz Sydney 26 Mar, 2009 12:11 PM

funny, TOI is pro-BJP ; pls dont be mislead..SRG Mumbai 26 Mar, 2009
12:12 PM

Can't expect better from a BJP leader! All of them are either rapist
or provoke rape and murder!KRRamesh Chennai 26 Mar, 2009 12:13 PM

All this cultural damage is happening in India after the Invaders
occupied Indian Land and dominating with the Political clout. Original
Indians are now suffering! The foreign elements to be thrown out of
Our Country!ckg bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 12:15 PM

If there is anything which can be called as National Shame then it is
such news which make us hang our head. Earlier we used to eulogise our
family culture and tradition and criticise the western about there
nuclear mind, when i read such stories i feel that we are no better in
our moral degradation than others. As far as naming a political party,
it is true that one single person can not be equated with the party as
a whole, but it is necessary for the party involved to immediately
initiate action and come clean. Indian USA 26 Mar, 2009 12:17 PM

Everybody has got something to do in their day to day life. Does that
mean whatever he/she will do in their personal life will be the
resposibility of the organization he/she i working for? I am a
congress supporter but ,where is BJP involved in this shameful
incident and what they are suppsed to do in this case? Sivaram S
Pondicherry 26 Mar, 2009 12:19 PM

In continuum to the comment from manoj, delhi :: Mr. Manoj - what do
you mean by he is a normal criminal ? and you seem more bothered about
the mentioning of the party than the degree of crime involved.
However, I agree that such articles should not be featured on the
first page as it would corrupt innocent minds (if any). Though am an
atheist, I hate it when such fellows (the accused) blame it on
astrology or religion.G S wagle bangalore 26 Mar, 2009 12:22 PM

It looks like there is a well knitted propaganda to show BJP in poor
light. No need to say that all in congresswallahs are "Mahatmas".
Poeple have not forgotten the infamous Tandoori Murder episode in the
heart of the capital of the country.All the electronic media now a
days showing nothing but BJP Hatred.Is there an end for this?I find
the journalism at its worst.meeran singh ahluwal Patiala 26 Mar, 2009
12:22 PM

why you are taking only one instance of BJP leader raping his own
daughter, almost 65% of BJP leaders and workers are regularly doing
this insane thing since years but so far no one of them has been
arrested why coz of politicalconnections as every body is aware
of..the govt and public should bring this to show the world thier
cheap and vulgar mentality and they claim to rule the nation.....ha !
ha ! aks USA 26 Mar, 2009 10:16 PM

Thats very sickening to say the least. If daughters are not protected
by their own fathers who else will. Where does it leave the poor girl?
Why is the mother quiet on this? Castrate all this people who cannot
control their urges..Rape is a beastly act and that too on their own
daughter..man this guy must be sick and insane and should be treated
and put behind bars and asked to work for social welfare organisation
or home for the aged but do not leave this man on the roads for God's
sake. As it is there are so many criminals in many disguises roaming
around and we can ill afford another.vishwas india 27 Mar, 2009 12:37
AM

this is nothing but a propaganda againstt BJP, earlier it was Ramsene,
then Varun and now this case which has nothing to do with BJP. voters
should not be misled with such news.Vishal Agrawal Mumbai 27 Mar, 2009
12:48 AM

It is really sad that girls are treated so badly in our country. More
girls should come out to these victims. India needs a women revolution
but of course not legally like reservation etc because that would only
empower them to do injustice. Something like misuse of dowry act by
girls. India is in a very interesting times.Salim usa 27 Mar, 2009
01:06 AM

Hang Him nowLucas Podolski Chennai 27 Mar, 2009 01:06 AMTOI has just
put a word mentioning BJP. Instead of talking about the main topic,
most of you are talking about TOI or politics. This only shows the
narrow mindedness of most of our people.Tally World 27 Mar, 2009 01:08
AM

Sad to see that people are more worried about BJP rather than the
girl. Are you all out of your minds ? A young girl has been physically
tortured by her own father for years. Think about what she must be
going through. These kind of crimes go beyond party lines, castes and
nationalities. Go look up human rights and dignity in a dictionary.Raj
Delhi 27 Mar, 2009 01:09 AM

The act is reprehensible and the man deserves a severe punishment.
However, I think the act is completely personal and BJP should not be
dragged into it. At the same time, if BJP were smart, it would
immediately issue their own condemnation of the act. That they have
not done so shows how poor the party's PR is. I am a Congress
supporter (simply because it seems to offer better leaders and it
doesn't invoke the Hindutva message again and again). But I am a
bigger believer in democracy and for any democracy to function, we
need more than one competitive party at the national level. BJP has
failed miserably in being that party (more so post Mahajan-Vajpayee
era). I sure hope they get their act together and offer us a thriving
alternative to the Congress. Somnath New York 27 Mar, 2009 01:17 AM

Why doesnot TOI ever print the Accused side of the story? TOI should
start making another section for Rapist dads, women's newspaper,
domestic abuse. The media, people, laws every one beleives women are
innocent in this world and men are the only culprits, in fact women
drive men to do the crime.Emanuel D. Samuel Toronto, On. Canada 27
Mar, 2009 01:29 AM

Child molestation is a common phenomenon all over the world. The weak
preyed on by the strong; betrayal of trust; misplaced affection. In my
experience, it is a sickness based on a deviant love and will not stop
regardless. The main reason is the closeness of the parties and the
high percentage probability it will never be exposed. It is not
considered wicked, immoral, rather rationalized by the existence of an
immense, albeit misplaced, love.Dinkar London 27 Mar, 2009 01:37 AM

what's wrong with this world? An Indian London 27 Mar, 2009 02:04 AM

My heart goes out to this young girl and the other victims in her
family . As a nation we should support her , applaud her incredible
courage for speaking out , give her and the other victims all the
support we can and make sure the monster who perpetrated these crimes
is brought to justice . Anyone who seeks to support this monster who
dares to call himself a '' father '' on this site or any other form of
media should be condemned by right minded viewers . This is a horific
crime that deserves punishment of the stiffest kind although no
punishment would ever be enough for what this man has done . Amit
California 27 Mar, 2009 02:04 AM

As sad as the story is, I am glad that women are finally speaking up
about the abuses that they have to live with. Bravo for getting this
matter out. I share the daughters sentiment that this rapist should be
either jailed or shot. Also, Dear Editor, it is laudable that you are
printing these stories, I would however be wary or partisan politics.
In my opinion, it was completely unnecessary to state the rapists
Party Allegiance - this will only help more with vote-bank
politics...just my 2 cents..Rajkumar Patil Toronto 27 Mar, 2009 02:05
AM

What the hell you guys are talking about? A monster father raped her
daughter for a decade, and instead of pressuring the govt for harsh
punishment for such crimes, you people are takling and playing
polytics here. If allowed and encouraged, many thousands of such
victims will come forward, who were pressured and threatened by their
own family members for years. Such criminals do not belong to any
religion, party or country. They do that hinious crime with all their
conscious and do it repeatedly, to those who are most weak and
vulnerable elements of the society:the children. I hate the so called
Sharia law, but when i read such stories, i really feel that these
criminlas should be treated and punished unhumanly;Jatin London 27
Mar, 2009 02:06 AM

I am shocked after this news in India we are finding new ones
everyday, our law should set very tight punishment for this kind of
crime so it can be a learning lesson for all Fritzl's growing in India
& anywhere in the world, Its shame we have got 2 of same kind in our
own country. Its a shame people are still talking this as Congree v/s
BJP war guys please grow up and is this what we are going to leave for
our future generations....Pls all should get together and do sumthing
about victims and help them in every way to restabilise thier life, if
they are not safe in their own houses then we can forget about
everything else..We need to first look at the core of the problems why
are people turning to their daughters as a sex object and I would say
their other family members are equally responsible for this crime who
knew about it.Jasbir Singh Sydney 27 Mar, 2009 02:10 AM

It is a normal Indian psyche, everything they do have link with
politics. Criminals can use any platform. Shankaracharia was charged,
many swamis went to jail, things happened in Aasa Ram's Ashram, Many
Mullahs or Granthis were also found engaging in immoral activities.
The real thing is getting corruption out of Police and court so that
people feel free to approach them. A website should be started where
anyone can list their problems and seek help. Pedophiles are using
everything in India including SMS, internet etc but they are going
undetected.Prasad Gowda London 27 Mar, 2009 02:17 AM

Dear editor, I am ashamed by the way your reporter has reported this
incident. There is no need to mention ones political inclination to
their personal life and the sins commited at a personal level. I am
sure a corrupt politician is as bad as this sinful man and surely you
can find many in every political party in the country!RK B'lore 27
Mar, 2009 02:27 AM

This is rediculos. There is not much to do with BJP in this case.
There are lots of MLA/MPs are horrible things including raping kids of
things. This is the part of thier culture. You go and investigate the
poltical leaders, you will find much more worst than these. There
stupid ppl here they just go on BJP. I would say, only BJP will do
better govt in the current situation for India. Rest all the parties
are hopelessinderjit U.S.A. 27 Mar, 2009 02:27 AM

Per story, the father is a FAMOUS LEADER, the obvious question will be
of what PARTY, so,the media was bound to name the party,same is with
VARUN GANDHI, he shot the lime light because of BJP, otherwise such
speeches of communal hatred are the ORDER OF THE DAY in India and WHO
CARES without the name of the party. This incident should be condemned
by all including sitting MP from Amritsar who belongs to BJP. Margo
Russia 27 Mar, 2009 02:43 AM

The burning question is MENTALITY and it has nothing to do with any
political party. Lack of openess leads to crime. In school teachers
should explain about child abuse and how kids should react. Education!
Education! Education!Thats sad .... Switzerland 27 Mar, 2009 03:04 AM

Small girls being raped by their fathers uncles or grandfathers. Its
happening since ages and its very hard to control. Small girls are
afraid to come out in public and make noise. Mothers wants to keep
their family name.. In India its happening more then we think. Shame
on you all.ae india 27 Mar, 2009 03:05 AM

It seems Indian culture died long back. What a pity thing happening in
our society. Where is human rights group? parents should see that no
tears in his /her daughter. It is very urgent for the govt to form
commission to take the task. where is relation, what relation. now
everything is dissappearing .It is difficult to express anything about
this ghastly incidents.Vikram Bangalore 27 Mar, 2009 03:23 AM

India should become the first country to award death sentence for
raping minors.Raghu Prabhu melbourne 27 Mar, 2009 03:25 AMKeep
politics out of it. Let the police do their job with out any
interference. If the man has done the worng thing, let him be tried in
the proper manner. Does not matter if he is BJP or
Congress.P.M.G.,pillai Mannar, AllaPUZHA KERALA 27 Mar, 2009 03:43 AM

Because no one care for any basic ethic principles.Male memebers in
home must maintain a distance between thefemale members to prevent
these unwanted relations being developed unknowningly.Code of
behaviour for homes also is very essential to maintain proper
relationship. Original Indian India 27 Mar, 2009 03:43 AM

This is no lies, as it were a lie this man would have not complained
of chest pains. Chest pain complaints are only made by the guilty who
know its imminent of them going to jail. This man is a monster and a
threat to public safety, imagine how could someone ever do this to a
minor and keep doing it. He will surely rot in hell but the big
question is will he rot in life or get away with it? This is indeed a
rarestr of rare cases and the punishment should be rare and extreme;
Gallows or bullet (his daughter or should I say victims wish).on the
fence canada 27 Mar, 2009 04:05 AM

Well I truly sympathize with the girl and accused should be hanged to
death if proven so....but we should also spare a thought that the
accused could well be a victim of conspiracy till it is not proved.
This girl and mother may not be getting along well with this
man....could be family dispute or whatever and they could have got a
perfect plot from Mumbai event to settle the score with him....in
India, we seem to take woman's word over man pretty easily....this
social attitude can easily be exploited by some. Just a thought. Umesh
Korea 27 Mar, 2009 04:08 AM

For last few times these type of news are becoming common in developed
cities like mumbai etc....But I heard same news earlier many times
from Punjab only.......Even in 1999 I heard such type of case first
time the place was Punjab & I was shocked even I did not believe for
sometime..but the truth...Ranjan Singh Noida 27 Mar, 2009 04:16 AM

I hope this is one of the rarest incident ever heard. I am also of the
opinion that it haas nothing to do with the party but then why every
time BJP leadres blames other's for such incidents.. Take on the
example of Mr Varun Gandhi..Who other than Varun would have courage
and guts to challenge that whatever that is being shown on news
channels have been docotred..Insane...the party stand by him. Isn't
that shows the kind of ideology these political parties have...I think
these incidents are coming in otice at the right time because you know
whom you are choosing for next 5 years...atleast you know the one you
have voted for is a rapist who raped his own daughter so atleast you
need to take extra care for your relatives..nick sharma melbourne 27
Mar, 2009 04:30 AM

Everyone over here is think from political aspect. And nearly 70%of
the messages are related to politics. what about that girl who has
been in great pain bcoz of this in human behaviors. Think like a human
being not like insane. J.S. North America 27 Mar, 2009 04:47 AM

Hold your breath mothers of India, there are more rapist fathers
hiding under a screen of pretense of being good fathers. There is a
need for mothers to talk and discuss confidential matters with their
daughters. Do not be afraid to ask if their Dads have made seductive
approaches or even rape them. Do not say it cannot happen to my
daughter and do not blame your daughter if such an incident happen. It
is all the fathers' fault and lack of disrespcet. India I believe, has
become the rape capital of the world. It is a shame to learn that
another father who should have known better raped his daughter for 8
years. There are a lot more incidents in India, which have not been
exposed because mothers and daughters depend on fathers to take care
of them. I storngly urge the government to set up shelters to take of
abused women and children. So much young lives are being destroyed and
so much of innocense and purity are being lost. People who commit such
crimes against the young should be severely punished. ABC Mumbai 27
Mar, 2009 07:28 AM

Related to this incident, I want to express one incident happened. To
one girl (my relative girl) after her marriage, her father in-law
asked her husband (ie his son) to go abroad soon after marriage. After
he (son) went abroad, one day (that time her mother-in law went to
market)that father-in-law asked her to obey for him. When she denied,
suddenly he removed her dress and touched her private part of the body
and told her that he arranged marriage for his son with her, only for
he liked her and loved her. she shouted and cried. Finally he left and
told her, "if you tell this to my son or to my wife, I will separate
you from my son. My son believe whatever I tell him". After that he
did not allow any of her relatives to talk with her in person (its
like house arrest). After one year, his son (that girls husband) came
from gulf country. The girl told all this incident to him. He was
shocked and he did not take any action. Just asked her a promise not
to tell this to anybody. Because all their property is in his fathers
name. If he go aganist his father, he may not give any property to
him. In India many girls are suffering like this. God only can save
the pity girls...... KS INDIA 27 Mar, 2009 08:23 AM

Now the man has become like an animal. Because of these few animal
men, the whole men will be looked with doubt. THEY SHOULD BE BOOKED,
TRIED IN A COURT OF LAW AND PUNISHED VERY FAST AND NOT TAKING EVEN FEW
MONTHS. What a shame to the country?A Ray Burdwan, WB 27 Mar, 2009
08:29 AM

Such incidents give us a glimpse as to how many other weak-willed
humans are hiding. And even worse, there are definitely some mothers,
too, who rape their sons and are under cover. The latter are very
rarely exposed because of the inability of the man to speak out. Men
can never be accepted in society as victims to women. Just imagine
their dolour.Abdullah Malaysia 27 Mar, 2009 09:10 AM

The role of mother is very crucial in preventing this kind of
incidents. After a certain age, mother should keep their daugthers
away from unwanted mingling with males.madhulika hyderabad 27 Mar,
2009 09:50 AM

This is the most heinous act did by a father.It is really shameful
that these types of father do exist in our society...............There
is not a single place on earth which is really safe for girls untill
unless they will come out on their own and onus the responsibility of
themselves and their siblings.This is the only possible solution of
this great ever existing problem..........So girls come out of your
limitations and bondages and be ready to make this world feel that
girls are really capable and competent enough to face all these
problems.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/4317364.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Another-rapist-dad-exposed-this-time-in-Amritsar/articleshow/4317364.cms

Businessman raped daughter for 9 years
Sandhya Nair , TNN, Mar 20, 2009, 02.34am IST
Article Comments (179)

MUMBAI: The sprawling township of Mira Road on the outskirts of the
metropolis woke up to the bizarre news of the arrest of a businessman
for allegedly raping his daughter over nine years, drawing macabre
parallels with Joseph Fritzl of Austria who raped his daughter over 24
years.

Ashok Chore (name changed), aged 60, was arrested by the Mira Road
police on Wednesday night from his apartment for sexually abusing his
daughter over nine years on the advice of a `tantrik' who promised
that doing so would make him prosperous.

Arrested along with Chore was the tantrik, Hasmukh Rathod (60), who
posed as an astrologer, and Chore's 47-year-old wife, who has been
charged with abetting the heinous crime. The three were remanded to
two-day police custody by the Thane sessions court on Thursday whereas
the cops had sought a 14-day remand.

The traumatised girl, now 21, had been silent about her ordeal all
these years but mustered the courage to approach the police after her
father, she alleged, attempted to rape her 15-year-old younger sister
on the advice of the same tantrik.

The elder sister, who works for a private firm in Mumbai, had become
the target of sexual abuse at the age of 12 'when Rathod had advised
Chore to have sex with her in order to prosper. Chore and Rathod were
neighbours in Vile Parle. The maternal uncle of the young girls, who
helped them lodge a complaint, said his sister had been brainwashed by
Rathod.

Chore first sexually abused his elder daughter in 2000 when his
interior designing business failed. According to police, Chore used to
undress his daughter in front of his wife and have sex with her.

The fact that his business did not flourish did not prevent Chore from
continuing with his depraved act. Rathod apparently had great
influence on the Chores. He had, in 2002, managed to get the couple's
consent for sex with the elder daughter.

Chore is believed to have borrowed large amounts of money for his
business. Last November, when Chore once again confided in Rathod
about his failing business, he was advised to have sex with his
younger daughter, a class 10th student. The couple is believed to have
even taken her to Rathod's Vile Parle home for sexual encounters to
avoid the elder daughter's wrath. But when the elder daughter learnt
about it last week, she told her maternal uncle. Both the girls are
currently with their maternal uncle and grandmother.

Chore's advocate Edgar Braganza alleged that his clients were being
framed by the two siblings. ``The elder of the two daughters has
complained that she was threatened and sexually exploited by her
parents and Rathod since 2000. This girl is 21 and till date there has
been no complaint or resistance by her. Is it possible for a father to
rape a daughter for nine years and live under the same roof? Where is
the question of medical examination of the accused since it's not a
recent incident?'' Braganza argued in the court.

The police told the court that they would require a 14-day remand as
there is a possibility that the accused may be connected to a gang
involved in prostitution. (With inputs from Nitin Yeshwantrao)

Dev Kumar Dutta Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 11:37 AM

Why're you hiding the bastard's name? Publish his picture and name
ASAP...we want to see him gaurav mubai 19 Mar, 2009 11:42 AM

This is psycho cause, people doing and thinking like this are mentally
ill. The main cause of this type scenario is arisen due to illegal
porn sites and movies which not make us mentally ill but also produce
adverse effect on our social life gaurav mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 11:43 AM

This is psycho cause, people doing and thinking like this are mentally
ill. The main cause of this type scenario is arisen due to illegal
porn sites and movies which not make us mentally ill but also produce
adverse effect on our social life vaidya pune 19 Mar, 2009 11:44 AM

kill them in public...sudhir Ahmedabad 19 Mar, 2009 11:44 AM

It would be of interest to see the opinion of the self appinted
protectors of Hinduism know about the Tantrik. Would they oppose it or
would their blind love for anything remotely hindu make them shy away
from even uttering a few words against such incidents.pramod nagpur 19
Mar, 2009 11:45 AM

aise father ko zinda rahne ka koi adhikar nahi hai aur jo 'tantrik'
aise suggestions deta ho use to beech churahe par zinda jala dena
chahiye.Mehrunnisa Farooq Qatar 19 Mar, 2009 11:48 AM

Is our Indian Culture Slowly dying ? Betiyan to baap ki Izzat thi, aab
baap hi izzat se khilwad kare. This is the worst of human crimes, on
daughters fathered by himself, the parents should be punished
severly.ilyas bharuch 19 Mar, 2009 11:49 AM

Just kill this bastered in publicS W Kamath Secunderabad 19 Mar, 2009
11:54 AM

These type of cases should not be considered as isolated ones
involving depraved individuals, if we really hope to think of India as
a modern nation in the 21st century. Why can't we have the will, at
least in such cases, for demanding the death penalty for the rapist.
Imagine if this is the scenario in Mumbai, one shudders to think of
what would be happening in rural areas. Mr.Rationality USA 19 Mar,
2009 11:55 AM

If the tantrik would have told the father to parade his daughters in
the nude, he would have done that too!. That is why I always say
"DON'T FOLLOW ANY GURUS" AS 99% OF THEM ARE FAKE!Aks USA 19 Mar, 2009
11:56 AM

Stupid belief. These may be an excuse for that fellow also, who knows.
Really some of the absurd stories are slowly coming out due to media
coverage etc. Put them all the accused behind the bars for lifetime
without parole or leninency including the 'tantrik'. Shruti Ggn 19
Mar, 2009 11:59 AM

What a shame!!! These people should be hanged.Mark India 19 Mar, 2009
12:02 PM

He should be hanged to death..this is devil's job,there could be
several such cases in India,but going undercover...due to fear of
shame and disjust.puvathi pukuvathi ksa 19 Mar, 2009 12:04 PM

send this bastard also to Austria,his very own elder brother
JosefFritzl it seems both has come out from the same tunnel, shoot
them from guns from point blank range so that thier parts get blown
out , send them to the gallows,they will spoil the younger
generation ...... or dont publish such reports please!!!!!!Anuj U.P 19
Mar, 2009 12:05 PM

what a shame.... these animals should be hanged to death in public ..
they defy all morals that any society is biult on... if girls aren't
safe in thier own homes.. where else will they be safe. ?J.Mukund
Hyderabad. 19 Mar, 2009 12:07 PMSuch type of persons should be given
capital punishment. Hang them untill death.naro delhi 19 Mar, 2009
12:09 PM

This extremely appalling behaviour is surely comparable to the hedious
josep fritzl crime,send them,both husband & wife to life
imprisonment.No sane person would have an incestuous relationship
wether at the advice of a 'tantrik'or not.It defies nature and only
extremely sick minded people would resort to this kind of behaviour.I
do hope that the courts will mete out the same punishment to both
husband/wife duo as she is equally gulity of abatting this heinous
crime against her daughters.Deb Kolkata 19 Mar, 2009 12:11 PM

This types of most hatred crimes are increasing every day and it can
break the social bonding and trust and thus can result in complete
failure of a state very soon. These filthy criminals should be
punished in a way that others do not dare to think about these in
future.harees dubai 19 Mar, 2009 12:12 PM

i wonder why didnt u guys put the names of the parents n the
tantrikAsh USA 19 Mar, 2009 12:22 PM

This so sick, as bad as it can get. How can a parent do this to his
own flesh and blood just for the sake of money. He should get life in
prison.RK India 19 Mar, 2009 12:22 PMPlease Plublicly trash this
bastard and kill him...Thameem Nairobi 19 Mar, 2009 12:23 PM

Why still we are believing the astrology? If you want to get rid off
your problems, work hard and pray to god. Not to individuals like Sai
Baba, these are thieves, we are living in 21st century, they are just
spiritual guys they can't do anything. can they live for ever? why we
need to trust them? Stop. Believe yourself. Jyoti Sunnyvale, CA 19
Mar, 2009 12:25 PM

How disgusting! We need to spread more awareness among young children
in schools about matters such as incest. Maybe each school can have a
special cell which helps students who face such problems in their own
homes and escalates the case to the police if necessary.Theresa Dubai
19 Mar, 2009 12:25 PM

I was traumatized this last few days hearing the details of incest
case in Austria. Hearing of a similar story in my own city really
makes me sad. I'm sure there are many more cases which are not
reported due to social stigma. I pray that reading about these stories
other kids will break their silence and expose these evil deeds of
their parentsCapt. Brian Fernandez Bandra, Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 12:29
PM

This is what happens when we make wealth and money the one and only
principle in our lives!RG Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 12:30 PM

Found guilty, hang this guy..this is really bad.Kamal Gurgaon 19 Mar,
2009 12:31 PM

Totally Disgusting, This old businessman of 60 years should be hanged
for this heinous crime. Zaheer Australia 19 Mar, 2009 12:33 PM

hard to swollow..some tantrik say something and this dumbhead spoils
the whole meaning of fatherhood. its a shame that todays women has no
burrow left to hide. whom do they trust now?shabana Bangalore 19 Mar,
2009 12:33 PM

It is even more revolting and diabolic than Josef Fritzl's case.
Fritzl is diagnosed as psychotic and a pervert and he did all that in
a secret way till he was caught. Unbelievable greed and perversion is
evident in this case than just superstition.Any adjective will fall
short to explain this heinous act. Both the parents are a classic
example of inhumanity and a shame for term "parent".we can only
imagine the mental state of the child in this case whose trust and
faith in her parent as well as life is so ruthlessly breached. There
is no punishment which is enough for such a crime...capital punishment
is perhaps the easiest way out for the accused shabana Bangalore 19
Mar, 2009 12:33 PM

It is even more revolting and diabolic than Josef Fritzl's case.
Fritzl is diagnosed as psychotic and a pervert and he did all that in
a secret way till he was caught. Unbelievable greed and perversion is
evident in this case than just superstition.Any adjective will fall
short to explain this heinous act. Both the parents are a classic
example of inhumanity and a shame for term "parent".we can only
imagine the mental state of the child in this case whose trust and
faith in her parent as well as life is so ruthlessly breached. There
is no punishment which is enough for such a crime...capital punishment
is perhaps the easiest way out for the accused vicky uae 19 Mar, 2009
12:34 PM

how come he raped his own daughter .this guys hast to punished with
sex torture to them.jalaluddin palekar. UAE. 19 Mar, 2009 12:37 PM

Have islamic Laws to protect the society from such Evil acts.
Jalaluddin Palekar. UAE.mmalbari Kochi 19 Mar, 2009 12:37 PM

When there is a question of Rape and Molestation, We Indians cannot be
behindPinaki Sengupta Rishra 19 Mar, 2009 12:37 PM

A law should now be framed and exemplary punishment to be given to all
the accused so nobody will even dare to do such a crime ever.santosh
sinha beijing 19 Mar, 2009 12:38 PM

It can happen only in mumbai in Indiasaj thomas dubai 19 Mar, 2009
12:39 PM

crime against women are increasing ,,,,and there is no one to voice
against it ,,,,,,,its the poor and the oppressed who are left to the
fate... no one.. is there to raise voice where are the moral police
who raised so many issues ....about culture ,,,, i have decided not to
vote ...anyone ...who are good for nothingGaurav Delhi 19 Mar, 2009
12:40 PM

Before any thing is done to the father i want that bloody, Tantrik to
be punished. And also the father must be given as harsh punishment as
any one could ever getKobita Bangalore 19 Mar, 2009 12:44 PM

How disgusting can one get. Really pains me to note the extent one can
go to gain wealth. The culprits should be punished appropriately.Avi
Australia 19 Mar, 2009 12:45 PM

Highly obnoxious act. Shame on such dads.ajaz bangalore 19 Mar, 2009
12:47 PM

This is totally inhuman the father and the tantrik should be burnt
alive ...............it is totally inhuman JJJJJ Pak 19 Mar, 2009
12:48 PM

This is what you are indians..anne India 19 Mar, 2009 12:49 PMGive him
sever punishment so that in futher no father can do this. This is
really a shame. How can a father do this to his own flesh. I request
and appeal all the girls come forwards when this things start
happenning with them.dont keep quite, it is shame, but instead of
suffering, better to complain and get rid of this devil fathers. It is
big shame when mother who support her husband.We read this all
happening in foreign country, but this thing happening India. Now no
one will come to protect this types of issues which is against our
culture.Sabeera Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 12:53 PM

This rapist dad should be hanged along with his wife. Severe
punishment should be given to both. In Mumbai all this sort of things
happens. Even many daughter in-law's are suffering from issues like
this. I am one person from Mumbai faced by father in-law (but somehow
saved myself), but my husband did not believe. Many pity girls are
living in the world. dr.anupam rajasthan 19 Mar, 2009 12:57 PM

that tantrik and father must be hang on,how anybody can even think
just for moneydr.anupam rajasthan 19 Mar, 2009 12:57 PM

that tantrik and father must be hang on,how anybody can even think
just for moneydr.anupam rajasthan 19 Mar, 2009 12:57 PM

that tantrik and father must be hang on,how anybody can even think
just for moneyshoukat firfiray NRI 19 Mar, 2009 12:57 PM

both (culprit and tantrik should be given capital punishment (hang to
death in public) for lesson to masses. There should not be any lapses
in passing the verdict from judiciary. Rajehs Chennai 19 Mar, 2009
12:58 PM

He is not a human being.....I think may be an animal..Only animals do
see such a difference in sexfaisal dhahran 19 Mar, 2009 01:01 PM

What if this is NOT true? What if the girls wanted money or something
from their parents, like to marry someone they did not like, etc? Why
are people being areested just on the word of someone without any
evidence???? If this is another case of lying, like so many are in
India, then the parents should use every legal means to sue the
government and the police.Nikit Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 01:01 PM

This sought of people humiliates our society and even the man kind,
they should be sentenced to death and especially the tantrik in
public. These guys are humiliating all of us.dr.anupam rajasthan 19
Mar, 2009 01:01 PM

that tantrik and father must be hang on,how anybody can even think
just for moneydr.anupam rajasthan 19 Mar, 2009 01:01 PM

that tantrik and father must be hang on,how anybody can even think
just for moneyRaj Chennai 19 Mar, 2009 01:05 PM

Those men should be cut downAN INDIAN Abroad 19 Mar, 2009 01:05 PMT

his person his wife and the "TANTRIK" all are animals, they should be
punished severely. Shame on him for committing such a heinous crime.
No lawyer shoudl help these people and no police officer should
support them. Shame on them for bringing disgrace on India and Indian
people.s. wadhwa new delhi 19 Mar, 2009 01:06 PM

The laws in our country need to be flexible enough to warrant instant
punishment in such heinous cases.Ramanpreet Delhi, India 19 Mar, 2009
01:09 PM

such a shame full incident. it appears we indians have lost our
cultural values which is always being cherished by others. i am so
disappoited with this factRaj USA 19 Mar, 2009 01:11 PMSick.R.KUMAR
NCR 19 Mar, 2009 01:14 PM

photographs of such crimnals should be published prominantly in the
media and then the punishment should be --hanging them upside down in
a public place till they die and their dead bodies thrown to dogs &
vultures.DONALD ALMAS DUBAI 19 Mar, 2009 01:17 PM

THE FATHER AND THE TANTRIK SHOULD BE CASTRATED AND THE MOTHER
IMPRISONED FOR LIFE.IT SURE WOULD BE THE PUNISHMENT IF THIS WOULD
HAPPEN IN SAUDI ARABIA.NOW THAT THE FATHER IS A BUSINESS MAN HE WOULD
SQUASH THE MATTER PAYING MONEY.SHAME ON THE INDIAN LAW AND ORDER AND
THE CORRUPTION INVOLVED. H K Bhargava Bangkok Thailand 19 Mar, 2009
01:18 PM

Do not bring religion into this. The Girl's Father needs to be
executed as he actually performed the crime. Tantric comes next and
also needs a VERY HARSH punishment.S.L.J.Gallyot Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009
01:19 PM

No leniency should be shown to such a pervert. The crime is worse
because it has violated the safety and security that a father brings
to his family. the tantrik is equally guilty and should face the same
life imprisonment.We have perverts masquerading as tantrics and
swamis. The Parivar has been obstructing the introduction of the
Superstitious practices bill for obvious reasonsNitin Valecha Delhi 19
Mar, 2009 01:21 PM

The case presents the levels of superstition(s) that are still
embedded in our society and the influence of it on even the educated
masses. The culprit(s)(Father & Tantrik) should be given the severest
punishment as it defames and clobbers the "Parent-child" relationship
and falls inot the "rarest of rare" category.Dr. M M Tiwari Raipur 19
Mar, 2009 01:28 PM

No words to condemn the henious crime.How can one even think such
inhuman acts that too from literate persons.Where our society is
leading to?There may be many other cases which are not reported.This
is just superstition,no Tantrik can ever do anything except befooling
persons to make his money.Exemplary punishment must be given to
Father,Mother and the Tantrik. Qaari Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 01:29 PM

The problem here is two fold. Tantrik or occultist can not be banned
because many people have faith in them. These people may feel deprived
of the gain if there is ban on practices based on supernatural powers.
All the money spent on CHANDRAYAN project is waste if the BABAS can
bring moon on palm of your hand. But the BABAS can be watched for
criminal acts. Second problem is INCEST. This can be controlled simply
if the police support is guarunteed which is for what ever reason
absent in many cases. The victims in many cases may not have sense,
mental or physical strentgh to oppose the criminal act. Neighbours
surely become aware of such acts if it continues for long time. They
don't intervene for not buying trouble in case there is no
administrative support to them. To have sympathy for victim may cost
dear and that is the reason no one comes near. Kunal Pune 19 Mar, 2009
01:29 PM

Horrible! Put aside culture stuff, it just shows to what extent a
human mind can go for some selfish benefitssahil india 19 Mar, 2009
01:34 PM

please let us know the name of that criminalAlihusain Mira Road 19
Mar, 2009 01:34 PM

It is a shame for Mira road residents to have such type of acts. As a
resident of Mira Road I feel that these people should be punished in
public by the people. Abdul Azeez Ullal Mangalore, Karnataka 19 Mar,
2009 01:35 PMOnly animals can do like this. Hang this bitch as soon as
possibleamer hyd 19 Mar, 2009 01:36 PM

The case has to be interogated as soon as possible Courts should not
delay such a things for long periods. Which can give rise to such a
criminals as per the tantriks this are very foolish people spoiling
lifes of innocent people for their sake and livelibood if they found
guilty their heads must be cut in public. so that any body with
thoughts of gaining powers or wealth should not believe such a
tantriks who are ready to murder the humanity.Ghanav sydney 19 Mar,
2009 01:41 PM

its funny hw a freakkin antrik can mislead a father to rape his own
daughters... to hell with him n da couple. dese guys hav no right 2
livekasmur hyderabad 19 Mar, 2009 01:41 PM

he should be fired in front of the public.he is not a father he is a
mad dog and mad dogs should not be left kill himSanjit Bal Gurgaon 19
Mar, 2009 01:42 PM

Such a person does not deserve a trail or has any right to recourse of
law. This person deserves the death penalty for completely depraving
the image of a parent and runining the life of his own daughters.
Callous, self centered and depraved people like him and his wife have
no right to live in civilized society.Tauseef Ahmed Delhi 19 Mar, 2009
01:43 PM

Such a shameful incident like this not only put a dent in our culture
but also made mockery of father child relation. A person like him
should be hanged in public so that nobody else could even dare to
think about such henious thing.Rajesh Qatar 19 Mar, 2009 01:43 PM

These crimnals must be punished as per Islamic Law (Shariyah). stone
them and cut the head publically for the lesson of people like Saudi
Arabia. Saudi Arabia has the lowest crime (tend to zero) in the world
due to Islamic Law. Thanks to all om US 19 Mar, 2009 01:44 PMhow some
one can rape some one for 7 years....is this possibleAbhishek MEERUT
19 Mar, 2009 01:50 PM

Ofcourse such a man should be hanged to death if he has committed such
a heinous crime. But, addition to this, Common man has his/her mind
set to believe such incidence to be absolutely truth without any
proofs and evidences and at once get sympathesised with the victim.
Truth must be Explored first!!vinod pune 19 Mar, 2009 01:51 PM

the father should be shot at sight..Samad Khan Bangalore 19 Mar, 2009
01:53 PM

This is sick!! Rape your own child for greed of money. Indian society
was known for its modesty, principals and values.Somewhere along the
recent way, we Indians have lost it all and have become a very
greedy,insensitive and a shallow society. Why take the man to court??
Hang him at Ghandi chowk along with the tantrik.SMF Dubai,UAE 19 Mar,
2009 01:52 PM

India should adopt the Sharia law(Islamic law).This is the only answer
to such henious crimes.People will think twice even before they think
of such evil acts. Think about it India.It will make difference.This
is the true Law.Neel Gagan New Delhi 19 Mar, 2009 01:53 PM

This is just rubbish...they have not done it just becoz Tantrik has
told..or for money...root cause may be non-fullfillment of sexual
desires. It is shameful that Mother was knowing all about it....and
she did nothing to stop it... Bose Delhi 19 Mar, 2009 02:02 PM

If this comes out to be true ultimately, then the only punishment for
these beasts is a single shot at the back of their
head....PERIOD.....Its sickening to the stomach...SMF Dubai,UAE 19
Mar, 2009 01:52 PM

India should adopt the Sharia law(Islamic law).This is the only answer
to such henious crimes.People will think twice even before they think
of such evil acts. Think about it India.It will make difference.This
is the true Law.Neel Gagan New Delhi 19 Mar, 2009 01:53 PM

This is just rubbish...they have not done it just becoz Tantrik has
told..or for money...root cause may be non-fullfillment of sexual
desires. It is shameful that Mother was knowing all about it....and
she did nothing to stop it... lenna kanpur 19 Mar, 2009 01:55 PM

for everything..ranging from terrorism to lack of morality...we
Indians tend to blame the west...now this episode of a father raping
his daughters...let us blame western countries
again.....ha..ha........ha...zh7272 south africa 19 Mar, 2009 02:04 PM

Apply sharia law to correct these greedy and crook so that we can be a
good example to the whole world.neha india 19 Mar, 2009 02:05 PMdnt
knw hw a father can do this to his own daughters.. Amol Bangalore 19
Mar, 2009 02:09 PM

This is an example of what these tantriks are doing to our society.
Why not pass on a law to make this illegal, so these practices can not
be carried out. There are thousands of tantriks today in any city of
India. Also, another thing that happens is astrology, although not
this bad, but it definately influence people to take decisions based
on some stupid stars, we should come out and ban these things once and
forever from our country. People are openly allowed to offer advise
without any scientif support. This is stupid and if we tolerate this,
its going to make us look like real stupid society. I am sure there
are thousands of such cases in various forms hiding throughout India.
Time to pass a law to make this illegal.Peter Oman 19 Mar, 2009 02:10
PM

Signs of our times and deeds of these parents are difficult for us to
digest in reading this article.Life for those kids will be deplorable
and unthinkable.It's a crime before God and Humanity and TOI must
publish the photos of these culprits.Money is still God for many until
this day.How come are these fraudsters caught by the media during the
Global recession period?Nanoti S.K. Nasik 19 Mar, 2009 02:12 PM

It is really shamful that father is raping his own daughters.
Undoudtebly, only punishment for the father should be hanged to death.
In the same time, all sympathy should be extended to the victims, who
have suffered such a crime in their early childhood from their own
father.Rashmi Bangalore 19 Mar, 2009 02:12 PM

This is a ridiculous thing , how one can even think of doing this. he
should be punished as hang till death that also in front of
public.Girish Delhi 19 Mar, 2009 02:13 PM

We should not let this guy die simply by hanging or shooting him. We
should first break his 2-3 bone here and there and then cut his flesh
at multiple places. Remember, do not let this guy. Keep breaking his
bones but keep him alive so that he beg for death.J D Barman India 19
Mar, 2009 02:13 PM

is he a father and most astonishing that is he a human being or a wild
animal. He and his associates should not be forgiven and should be
rewarded with an appropriate punishment.INDIAN INDIA 19 Mar, 2009
02:15 PM

GUYS PLS STOP DISCUSSING, N MAKE A SOLUTIONS.. WE HAV TO WAKE UP TO
WORK ON IT. ITS NOT THE FIRST TIME, IF U GO THROUGH VILLAGES U WILL
FIND SUCH SIMILAR CASES.. GOVRNMENT IS NOT GOING TO ACT ANY THING, END
OF THE DAY THEY WILL GET BAIL, THATS FOR SURE.. SO LETS TAKE EACH OF
US A RESPONSIBALITY TO SAVE OUR COUNTRY OUR CULTURE TO GET RID OF THIS
SMAMEFULL ACTS. isar mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 02:16 PM

Mulsim law is great on this count. India should adpot the mulsim law
against all such crimes for every such criminal irrespective of
religionR C SHAH MUMBAI 19 Mar, 2009 02:16 PM

HE SHALL BE HANGED UNTIL DEATHR C SHAH MUMBAI 19 Mar, 2009 02:16 PM

HE SHALL BE HANGED UNTIL DEATHRahul Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 02:16 PM

What a shame. Madhukar Bengaluru 19 Mar, 2009 02:17 PMBoth the father
as well as the mother should be hanged.Soumitra Noida 19 Mar, 2009
02:19 PM

burn his whole body with cigarette... give him antibiotics ... let
those wounds heal ... burn him again ... repeat it for the rest of his
life. Prakasam Bharat 19 Mar, 2009 02:21 PMHang that father, mother
and Tantrik, after whipping them for 90 days.sorry4victims Kolkata 19
Mar, 2009 02:24 PM

i m really sorry for the victims of such heinous crimes. Joseph Fritzl
in Austria can now at least hold his head high knowing that he is not
the only person committing such crimes. May God Help the world. May
Peace prevail.joson mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 02:27 PM

Only solution for Humanity .. An end to evil acts, an end to crime ,
and for a peace all over the world . , implement Islamic law.. Today
Saudi Arabia has the lowest crime rate .. owing to Islamic law
onlyIndian Dubai 19 Mar, 2009 02:29 PM

Sickening act. All the three deserve a killing by throwing stones at a
public place. No lawyer should take their case. TAHER EBRAHIM JEDDAH
19 Mar, 2009 02:29 PM

First collect hard evidence and proof him as he did this heinous crime
against his own daughters then only hang him along with his "TANTRIK".
Kumar UAE 19 Mar, 2009 02:31 PM

Why produce in court and creat tension in everybody. Please kill the
husband and wife.Indian Mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 02:33 PM

Error!!! this happened in Mumbai as says the headlines.. but the
article is begin with NEW DELHI: .. delhi is on tis reporter's mind
too much for such stuff?? Suman Kashyap Hong Kong 19 Mar, 2009 02:39
PM

To, those advocating Sharia law, as per Sharia they need four eye
witnesses to prove a rape, which is very difficult to get. Hence if
Sharia is applied the beats will be more encouraged as there will
almost never be 4 people watching a rape.Surendran Middle East 19 Mar,
2009 02:40 PM

Extremely shameful for every Indian. This men-shaped animal must be
hanged until death alongwith his wife and tantrik. Government must
concentrate on finding such tantrik working throughout the country
which badly damage a community altogether.seema chembur 19 Mar, 2009
02:40 PM

Its realy horrible incident to see Father raping his own daughters
with his better half help How can mother of 2 tell her husband to have
sex with their daughter They both father and mother of the sibling
should be hanged Thats the best punishmentRafeeq London 19 Mar, 2009
02:48 PM

How long will tantriks and religious extremistis hijack us? Its ironic
and pathetic that even the educated people get trapped by these
senseless people. Give them a punishment no one ever can dare to even
think of commiting such crimes. Tabi Dubai 19 Mar, 2009 02:52 PM

Father, Mother & all other persons involved in this crime, should be
hanged till death that too in some public area. This will give a great
message to the other criminals.....Vijay Hyderabad 19 Mar, 2009 02:56
PM

this kind of acts should be condemned and the culprits should be
punished. Our laws has to be changed so that people will not hide
behind the loopholes and escape from punishment. I request the
concerned authorities to wake up and take action againist them without
wasting much time.rene fernandez bahrain 19 Mar, 2009 02:58 PM

with reference to the rape of women in India, what has L.K.Advani/
Sonia Gandhi done to change the law ? Advani wanted to bring in
tougher punishments to the rapists. Why did he not push for life
imprisnment ? This issue must be raised in this elections and vote
ONLY for the candidates promise to support this legislation. We must
try to stop crimes against women/children AJAY BADIYAL NOIDA 19 Mar,
2009 03:09 PM

incedences like this will destroy relationship of father and
daughter.hussain mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 03:09 PM

three of them should be hanged till death....but other than this our
police should start strict action/investigation against such type of
tantrik ; there are lots in india...Ahmed Sharif Dubai 19 Mar, 2009
03:12 PM

These joseph fritzls must be awarded deaths. what kind of world we are
living in, ladies please beware of outsiders as well as insiders. THE
WORLD HAS CHANGED A LOT. In the name of faith it is an insult to
religion by these creepy TANTRICS.Shabu Dubai 19 Mar, 2009 03:13 PM

This is relly Shamefull for all indians and we are sorry for the
victims and we want immidiate actian agains this bastard no need to
put him in jail for years. he should kill by stones in front of people
and should be live telecast on all chanells then in future any body
even don't think like this . He want more money for whome ???? and
it's my requset to indian Govt give Authority to Victim Girls for
giving punishment to that bloody Tantrik .Shabu Dubai 19 Mar, 2009
03:14 PM

This is really Shamefull for all indians and we are sorry for the
victims and we want immidiate action against this bastard no need to
put him in jail for years. he should be killed by stones in front of
people and should be live telecast on all chanells then in future any
body even don't think like this . He want more money for whome? and
it's my requset to indian Govt give Authority to Victim Girls for
giving punishment to that bloody Tantrik .AH Syndey 19 Mar, 2009 03:14
PM

I too have been dreaming of becoming wealthy for a long time. Does
this Tantrik also offer his daughter (or wife, depending upon who can
take it) for such services? When will people give up superstition in
India?sadeq Duabi 19 Mar, 2009 03:24 PM

Now we need to stop this type of crimes in our society, only possible
by beheading these criminals in front of public to make society aware
what'll happen before committing this type crimesAnonymously_Yours
Europe 19 Mar, 2009 03:28 PM

It is stunning that everyone seems to comment on how the accused party
should be dealt with. People have suggested overtly sadist cruelties
too, providing an insight into the natural mindset of the human
community. Oddly, no one seems to have mentioned any sort of monetary
help, psychological counseling or shelter and future support
commitment for the victims, one of whom happens to be at a tender age
below 18. Once again, it's exciting to note how frustrated and
carnally active the society is, given a chance to vent our anger, most
of us would turn into savage beasts to punish the guilty...yet few or
none would stand to help the deceasedShyam Noida 19 Mar, 2009 03:32 PM

The tantrik stuff has been added just to save the man from his crime.
It seems to be a ploy by his lawyer. I a sure there was no outsider to
instigate the accused.GSM MUMBAI 19 Mar, 2009 03:32 PM

Kill this man and tantrik. There is no other punishment for guys like
these. DEEPAK GHOSH FARIDABAD 19 Mar, 2009 03:41 PM

ALL THE THREE, THE TANTRIK,BUSINESSMAN AND HIS WIFE BE LINED UP IN
PUBLIC AND MUST BE ORDERED TO A FIRING SQUAD TO SHOOT THEM IN ONE GO
OR MUST BE HANGED IN PUBLIC.THIS MUST BE THE LAW OF OUR COUNTRY NOW.
EVEN RAPIST MUST BE HANGED,SHOT OR THEIR PRIVATE PART SHOULD BE CUT
OFF. THIS MUST BE THE LAW NOW.Illur Iqbal Bangalore 19 Mar, 2009 03:42
PM

Please do Insert a Burning Rod to the beloved Parents for doing this
CrimeRubi London 19 Mar, 2009 03:51 PM

What a shame!!I really feel sorry for the girl,this man should be
given such a punishment by law,that the whole world eyes will be open
and no one will dare to do this again after seeing the
punishment.sharda goregaon 19 Mar, 2009 03:56 PMcut his private part
completelyAnita Dsilva Dubai 19 Mar, 2009 04:06 PM

This is really a VERY SHAMEFUL act. Have we human beings lost our
moral values? to top it all, a Mother encouraging such an act gives me
goosebumps, a I am a mother of 2 girls myself but in my sane head I
would give up my life but save my children from such ordeal. This is
actually a SORRY state of today's world. GOD HELP US!!!SJ dubai 19
Mar, 2009 04:09 PM

I can only say that this is the result of getting in love with western
civilization...progress and modernization does not mean that we leave
our values & culture..incest is a normal thing in west as we all know
and sadly it is entering into our society just coz we feel that
whatever west does is good..we need soul searchingAmrit Lal Toppo
Ahmedabad 19 Mar, 2009 04:20 PM

This is absolutely shamful to the society,father is raping his own
daughters more than 3000 thousand time. he is not worthy to be called
father by his daughters. he should be punished. he has turned satan he
is no more human being. Amrit Lal Toppo Ahmedabad 19 Mar, 2009 04:20
PM

This is absolutely shamful to the society,father is raping his own
daughters more than 3000 thousand time. he is not worthy to be called
father by his daughters. he should be punished. he has turned satan he
is no more human being. rajeev gurgaon 19 Mar, 2009 04:43 PM

This kind of crimes should be dealt with only one kind of punishment.
Take them in full public view, cut the pvt part of this man and the
tantrik into pieces and offer it to the dogs!! Hang the lady! The
entire activity should be lively telecast to prevail deterrent for any
prospective criminal!!!Mohammed bombay 19 Mar, 2009 04:49 PM

Tantrik said and father raped his own daughter for 9 long years..WOW.
even hollywood can't make this kind of sense less Movie it could
happen only in indiaReader Pune 19 Mar, 2009 04:51
PMSHAMEFUL.........Asim Ali Khan Jeddah 19 Mar, 2009 04:54 PM

No need to produce them before the court. Straight hang them. Dont
give time to investigate. Both the parents should be hanged till
death.Clive Kuwait 19 Mar, 2009 05:02 PM

I agree that the faces of Such criminals have to be shown in the media
as soon as their crime is established. Even their names should be
shown in bold. And they should not be hanged immediately. They have to
be tortured for years so that they repent for their crimeSrikanth Bhat
Chennai 19 Mar, 2009 05:03 PM

Rape, molestation, child abuse and many such in-humane acts have been
hitting the headlines of late. The legal proceedings get dragged for
years owing to the loop holes in our legal system. Why doesn't our
judicial come out with a ruthless punishment as a reply to this
devilish act. Amputate hands, legs & organ and hang till death. Human
Rights may have their reservations on this, but HR is for Humans
(victims) and not for the devils (criminals).Srikanth Bhat Chennai 19
Mar, 2009 05:04 PM

Rape, molestation, child abuse and many such in-humane acts have been
hitting the headlines of late. The legal proceedings get dragged for
years owing to the loop holes in our legal system. Why doesn't our
judicial come out with a ruthless punishment as a reply to this
devilish act. Amputate hands, legs & organ and hang till death. Human
Rights may have their reservations on this, but HR is for Humans
(victims) and not for the devils (criminals).Blank India 19 Mar, 2009
05:15 PM

I am at loss of words...on how to condemn this ...this what...my mind
goes blank on hearing acts like this what's wrong man...where is this
going...even if one person is doing this, -what are the reasons, how
can someone stoop so low -Is there something that can be done
here...punishing/killing them is just a reaction..how can it solve the
problem - Are they mentally so sick?? Manasakanthi, Konanakunte,
Bangalore 19 Mar, 2009 05:16 PM

Its disgraceful to the indian community and we feel sorry for the poor
girl who when thru this commotion all these years. People of strange
attitude are still in existence.Both the father and mother should be
punished and the punishment should be viewed in all the TV channels
(Breaking news). A new law should be framed for such people. There
might be still more People who are behaving similar to this and it
will teach them a lesson that they cant escape the law. Shaindil
bangalore 19 Mar, 2009 05:20 PM

The daughter and mother should have murdered this opportunistic and
dirty guy long back. If the tantric tells this guy to eat shit, will
he do that? This is the truth India 19 Mar, 2009 05:28 PM

Incest-raping your own kids- is rampant in India, rural and urban. It
has always been a 'family secret' where the mother actually provides
the daughter to her husband. Please do not blame the West, instead
praise them. They widely publicize any incest, whereas Indian
politicians and goons silence the victims. No one hears of their
cries, all pretend that everything is hunky dory in our nation. Wake
up, look around, there will always be examples right under your nose.
Why else to praise the West? because they teach our kids to have guts
to speak up. Ask any older gynecologist, they have been seeing this
for decades.GE Australia 19 Mar, 2009 05:56 PM

India is truly the rape capital of the world.sanjay dubai 19 Mar, 2009
06:01 PM

i am totally in favour of what rajeev from gurgaon has mentioned. it
will be a lesson for those cases which are not out in public
yet.jahangir houlader maldives 19 Mar, 2009 06:06 PM

I think the man should be handed over to the people and tell the mob o
do whatever they like to do.Muhammad MN 19 Mar, 2009 06:11 PM

This is shameful.Adnan Oman 19 Mar, 2009 06:35 PM

Isn't this unbelievable? The heinous act depicts the greed of an
mentally ill individual & to what extent he can fall for the sake of
his worldly desires. All three should be tortured to death for
resorting to one of the worst crime. They have not only ruined their
daughters life but also defamed the father - daughter relationship.
kumar mumbai 19 Mar, 2009 06:37 PM

Even the judiciary would shed tears for the innocent girls. The so
called business man and his wife have no place to live in the human
habituate and so is the tantrik. all this three should get the capital
punishment with no right to appeal. God knows how many people this
tantrik must have brain washed. The police should investigate this
angle too.GANI AHMED SHAIKH DUBAI 19 Mar, 2009 07:27 PM

this kind of people should be hanged in public, this so called
tantriks take people for a ride. COMMON FOLKS WE ARE IN MODERN WORLD
DON'T BELIEVE IN THIS THINGS.Sule Paritosh Plano 19 Mar, 2009 07:28 PM

please try to understand that Merely Beating a Single person wont stop
such activities from happening in future. A businessman has no
religion / ethics. His only intention is money. I also feel that his
Wife is equally responsible for the Crime. Please dont publish the
name of the culprit, as people can Backtrace to their daughters and
make their life miserable Agniyah Shaikh Sharjah 19 Mar, 2009 08:12 PM

International Women's Day was celebrated all over the world recently
with great pomp and show! In the heart of Mumbai these two girls
suffered meanwhile. And how many suffer daily in the same manner!
Girls must be given the courage to openly protest any wrong done to
them. The mother seem to be an impossible person- She should be given
the toughest sentence for her 'silence' and approval for this criminal
act.Abu Abdullah USA 19 Mar, 2009 08:35 PM

Absolutely appalling. What were these middle-aged "adults" thinking?
The Austrian "incest dad" was enough as a pervert in this
world.Tanveer London 19 Mar, 2009 08:37 PM

stupid comment from SJ, Dubai 'incest is a normal thing in west as we
all know and sadly it is entering into our society'. One must be an
idiot to thing incest is 'normal' in any society. In no society incest
is normal. Stop this hatred for west. By that logic, the 60 yr old and
the tantrik was influenced by the west to do such thing!!!!!! what a
laugh!!!! stop blaming the west. this things happens in any society
and we must admint that our indian society also has such incest,
though its not common. Most of the cases are suppressed because of
loss of family honor (the so-called izzat), reputation to the society/
comminuty/country etc.Somnath New York 19 Mar, 2009 09:02 PM

There is no real upliftment of women, such issues would have never
occurred if govt provided more jobs and education than making laws in
favour of women. The laws need to be gender neutral and govt should
promote more jobs and education for women and make them independent.
Govt's policies are just eye wash and at the ground level it never
reaches the general public.Raj Orlando, Florida 19 Mar, 2009 10:01 PM

Media is more active nowadays and due to which more cases will come
out like this incidence. There may be many more incidences like this
in India but victim do not come out. My suggestion : every school must
be visited by two to three psycratist, once in 3 months where all the
students are being checked for any personal problems. These problems
could be rape, bitting by parents, torture, children are having lack
of attention in class, poor health effecting their school activities.
Such psychartist prepare report on each student with all facts and
suggest right remedy or if necessary police complain. This kind of
routine check will encourage children to come out with the fact of any
kind of personal suffering or any kind of psychological problems
disturbing them. Prevention is better for children and for their
natural growth. Nitasha Chennai 19 Mar, 2009 10:33 PM

The lack of education causes people to behave in such a hienous
way.Can you imagine any sane,sensible family consulting a 'tantrik' &
not straight away delivering him to the nearest police station when he
comes up with this vile remedy?I salute the girl for having the
courage in going against her parents & protecting her
sister.Unfortunately,it will leave severe scars on her mind which no
punishment to the parents & the great tanrik can cure.Abhay Dang
Delhi, India 19 Mar, 2009 10:35 PM

Religion does destroy common sense.Abhay Dang Delhi, India 19 Mar,
2009 10:38 PM

One day a woman commits suicide because her daughter refused to study.
And now this. Really, Indians have lost their brains!!Manoj Gupta
Bangalore 19 Mar, 2009 10:52 PM

Oh My God!!! It has happened in India also!!!Shame shame.kg india 20
Mar, 2009 12:18 AM

Another Fritzel!!!kg india 20 Mar, 2009 12:20 AM

Another Fritzel!!!SUMIT DELHI 20 Mar, 2009 12:21 AMwell this is
disturbing thing but do not over highlight this story otherwise that
will give a big impact on father and daughter relationship
universal.amit california 20 Mar, 2009 12:23 AM

Incest laws in the west are more stringent that in the East. In the
west - marrying a first cousin in illegal, it happens in India all the
time. As far as this case - it is a shameful act. The government
should do something about this quick, hopefully they are able to get
the case to hearing before the girl dies of old age...pathetic..monika
glasgow 20 Mar, 2009 12:47 AM

The real culprits in cases like these are indian wives cum
mothers,they have only one mission in their lives which is to keep
evil husbands happy,he might be an addict,a convict,an abuser,but she
will always protect his image and think she will go to heaven if she
does his seva,such women can sacrifice anything even children ,and
because of them india now has a land of courageous abusers who take
pride in their sins, I am a women and I am ashamed of what happened
just because of a coward mother,perhaps time has come to teach all
wives,bhaus,daughters,the real meaning of seva and sacrifice.We have
to stop blaming literacy for everything, our values are corrupted, and
noone can change values,only parents can. So lets be honest with
eachother and be brave enough to stop men when they do wrong not
support them when they speak ,behave,act,wrong and abuse defenceless
children. Sandeep London 20 Mar, 2009 12:58 AM

I have no words...people are so greedy for money & sex that they dont
even see if that's outsider or their own daughter. Religion got
nothing to do with this nor education its an individual and not about
a country, city, religion nor eastern or western countries. People
like them should not be hanged coz that would be too easy...cut their
private part that's the best option & that should be enforced as
global law...shame what a sick human being.Raghunathan Sharjah, UAE 20
Mar, 2009 01:12 AM

I read all the comments. I have no words to say. I am feeling so
shameful and angered by the act of these three bastards. Even a
punishment of death will not solve this issue. This man (father)
should witness his wife being raped by the Tantric. Tantric should
witness his wife being raped by the businessman and the businessman
should pay him 1 Rupee as the cost of the action. Only this could be
the worst of unimaginable punishment to all the three. In India??????
which taught the value of Astrology and all the other remedial
measures to cure the problems by prayers?????????? Where is God?????
Where are these insane people???? All my friends and my family are
very upset and sad. What will happen to these girls? Will anyone marry
them? Can they live a moderate genuine life hereafter? God only can
answer and save their lives. I and my family and all my friends prayed
for them this evening. May God show them a better life from this
evening. Raghunathan, Sharjah.SALMAN RIYADH 20 Mar, 2009 02:15 AM

PRAY TO ONE GOD''ALLAH"WHO CREATE WORLD AND HUMAN NATURE.....ASK HELP
FROM ALLAHsaad uddin saudi arabia 20 Mar, 2009 02:15 AM

dear sir, through your esteemed daily i want to convey my feeling like
any other value loving indians. India is known for its cultural and
religious values across the world but the reality is,as the Mumbai
businessman's case shows that we are deviating very fast to an unknown
limit of moral devastation for which unbridled media is responsible to
a large extent.Sexual harassmment has become regular appearences in
the news papers.And I believe the cases behind the screen are
certainly larger than the noticed ones.So to give a halt or at least
to minimise this kind of heinious crimes the law making agencies
should amend the existing laws towards some tougher ones and convicts
are to be punished puclicly. yours smartindian US 20 Mar, 2009 02:51
AM

Parents and Tantrik must to be killed in public. Freddie Pereira
Sydney 20 Mar, 2009 04:41 AM

This is Insane, After Slum Dog's success all over the world...this
story is very shocking. What has happened to all the so called "Indain
Traditional Culture" which is always Portrayed as a Big Strength
compared to the rest of the world. I am ashamed to call myself an
Indian after this devestating act by the Indian Parents ! Kishore
California, USA 20 Mar, 2009 05:56 AM

The father, mother and Tantrik trio should be shot dead on the
spot. .Derek Canada 20 Mar, 2009 06:34 AM

Surprising none has written that it is the influence of western
culture that is the cause of this heinous crime. Are you guys
surprised that this happens in India too?Suhail USA 20 Mar, 2009 06:34
AM

what a narrow minded and stupid guy. No wonder his business failed,
thomson Abudhabi 20 Mar, 2009 07:19 AMshoot the both stupid husband
and stupid mother&tanric in the public.Crescentman Assam 20 Mar, 2009
09:37 AM

People believe in fast bucks rather than hard work. This mindset has
been taken advantage by jothids and tantriks which needs to be
arrested immediately. Behind everything, the economic considerations
are the root cause. I appeal to the Govt. to come up with
comprehensive, transparent and inclusive 33% reservations to women
immediately without any delay.pankaj khatwani china 20 Mar, 2009 09:37
AM

india police should be very hard with this type of tantrik!!!! and
this type of parents if they dont know meaning of children ,why were
they born , she is so great she geve birth to her doughter and felt
pain for 9 monthskiran pune 20 Mar, 2009 09:54 AM

Dear folk why dont u see whats going under your skin . recently there
was a news of a female australian teacher who torchered their male
student for having sex for marks ?? where r u staying ????archana
delhi 20 Mar, 2009 10:05 AM

It is shame on us ..such an incident is happening in India now.Shame
on such fathers and the co-supporters.He should be punished and
sentenced to death so that others learn.Vipin Chennai 20 Mar, 2009
11:01 AM

The only way to stop rape crimes in India is not by just bringing
those case into light and imprision them that to for how many years
4-6 max.They wont pay nor such crimes can ever be stopped. If the
government and judicial system is realy looking for an answer to stop
then Death sentence have to be imposed for this crime. I tell you
there will be more than 100 case which will fall under this but even
if it becomes 1000 justice must be served. DEATH CAN ONLY DEAL WITH
RAPE CHARGES. People fighting for human rights must understand for
what they are fighting for and most importantly for whom.I hope some
day the judical system of our country will pass with LAW without
debating in our parliment.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/4285650.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Businessman-raped-daughter-for-9-years/articleshow/4285650.cms

[karolandre...@gmail.com]

El miércoles, 10 de marzo de 2010 13:05:39 UTC-5, Sid Harth escribió:
> National Magazine | Aug 20, 2007
>
> Irfan Hussain
>
> Scandals
>
> Sixty Years On, More Sinned Against...
>
> The great political scams of the last 60 years reflect their times,
> but also fit a timeless definition of corruption: abuse of public
> power for private gain. A trip down murky memory lane.
> Smita Gupta
>
> Special Issue: India At 60
>
> The great political scams of the last 60 years reflect their times,
> but also fit a timeless definition of corruption: abuse of public
> power for private gain. They rolled out decade after decade--the
> Mundhra scandal, the Kairon embarrassment, the mysterious Nagarwala
> case; in the 1980s, big defence scams kept pace with India's growing
> defence needs. In the 1990s, as the economy liberalised, stockmarket
> and hawala scams erupted. Ironically, while political reputations were
> ruined and a government was brought down--in 1989, on the Bofors issue--
> very few allegations have ever been proved. The recent scandals, like
> the Taj Corridor case involving Mayawati, and the Telgi fake stamp
> paper scam, are still fresh in the public mind. Here, we take you on a
> trip down murky memory lane.
> ***
>
> The Mundhra Scandal
>
> The timing was disastrous. Less than a year after the government
> nationalised life insurance in 1956--on the grounds that it was not
> being managed well--the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) produced
> independent India's first scam. Pressured by the Union finance
> ministry, LIC bypassed its investment committee and purchased shares
> worth Rs 124 lakh in six--mainly dud--companies belonging to Calcutta
> industrialist Haridas Mundhra. Feroze Gandhi, Prime Minister
> Jawaharlal Nehru's son-in-law, dramatically disclosed the deal in
> 1958, leading to a nationwide furore, and an investigation. The guilty
> were punished, and Union finance minister T.T. Krishnamachari had to
> resign.
>
> Kairon and Sons
>
> For independent India, this was a first-of-a-kind scandal. Later, of
> course, it was to become almost a cliche in political life: a chief
> minister accused of aggrandising himself and his family at public
> expense. The S.R. Das Commission, tasked to investigate these charges
> against Punjab chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon, exonerated him in
> 1964, saying a father could not be held legally responsible for the
> actions of his grown-up children. But a caveat--that a chief minister
> could not escape moral responsibility for his children's' actions--was
> indictment enough. Kairon quit.
>
> "Man from Bangladesh"
>
> The case, straight out of a political thriller, captured public
> imagination and continues to raise unanswered questions. On May 24,
> 1971, former intelligence agent R.S. Nagarwala, posing as a "man from
> Bangladesh", withdrew Rs 60 lakh from the Parliament Street branch of
> New Delhi's State Bank of India, following a purported call from then
> prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to the chief cashier.
> Nagarwala had apparently "mimicked" Indira Gandhi's voice. In the
> course of the probe that followed, investigating officer D.K. Kashyap
> was killed in a mysterious car accident and Nagarwala died in prison.
> The Janata Party, alleging that the money belonged to Indira Gandhi,
> set up the Jaganmohan Reddy commission in 1977, but found insufficient
> evidence to indict her.
>
> "Rajiv Gandhi chor hai"
>
> "Gali gali mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai!" As the scandal over
> the Bofors gun deal became a symbol of corruption in high office, this
> slogan was heard across the country. The alleged kickback involved was
> Rs 60 crore, small change as such scandals go, but it helped V.P.
> Singh's National Front trounce Rajiv's Congress in 1989. Since then,
> the Delhi High Court has acquitted Rajiv Gandhi and the Hinduja
> brothers. 'Middleman' Ottavio Quattrocchi's name has not yet been
> cleared, but investigators have not come up with anything conclusive
> either. Yet, 18 years later, the ghost of Bofors continues to haunt a
> forever tainted Congress--and Rajiv Gandhi's widow, Sonia.
>
> St Kitts Forgery Scandal
>
> Chandraswami, a godman with greasy locks and mighty political
> connections, was the central figure in the 1989 tit-for-tat "scam"
> intended to tarnish V. P. Singh. He, along with then external affairs
> minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and another minister, K.K. Tewary,
> reportedly organised forged documents to show that VP's son Ajeya
> Singh had deposited $21 million in the First Trust Corporation Bank in
> the Caribbean island of St Kitts, with his father as beneficiary.
> After Rao's term as PM ended in 1996, the CBI formally charged him for
> the crime. But later, the court acquitted Rao for lack of evidence.
> All the other accused were also eventually let off. However, the scam
> punctured Chandraswami's colourful career. Politicians kept clear of
> him from then on.
>
> Sukh Ram Telecom Scam
>
> He came to be known by the epithet, minister of tele-'phony'. In 2002,
> a CBI special court sentenced former Union communications minister
> Sukh Ram to three years RI, and fined him Rs 1 lakh for purchasing
> poor quality radio system equipment from a company in 1991, causing
> the public exchequer to suffer losses totalling Rs 1.68 crore. The
> buzz was that Sukh Ram, under whose bed dhobi bundles of cash were
> found, was involved in several other deals, but nothing was proved. A
> senior telecom official, Runu Ghosh, and Hyderabad-based businessman
> Pataru Rama Rao, were also sentenced to two and three years
> imprisonment respectively. A tortuous legal battle continues.
>
> Stockmarket Scam, 1992
>
> He was toasted and celebrated by investors and the media alike. But
> like the stockmarket, he too crashed, leading to one of the biggest
> financial scandals in independent India. 'Big Bull' Harshad Mehta,
> held to be largely responsible for the stockmarket crash of '92, was
> arrested by the CBI in November that year for "misappropriating" more
> than 27 lakh shares--worth Rs 250 crore--of about 90 companies,
> including Sensex heavyweights like ACC and Hindalco, through forged
> share transfer forms. Blacklisted in the stockmarket, he reportedly
> caused a loss of more than Rs 4,000 crore to various entities and
> eventually died in custody in December 2001, before all the legal
> issues were sorted out. The stock scam reverberated through the
> country, with several people committing suicide after losing their
> life savings and going bankrupt overnight.
>
> PV in a Pickle
>
> Close on the heels of the stock scam came Harshad Mehta's sensational
> allegation that he had paid Rs 1 crore in cash to the personal
> secretary of then prime minister Narasimha Rao. He even displayed a
> suitcase, offering a symbol for venality, but the allegation was never
> proved. Rao was also embarrassed by the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating
> scandal. Pickle king Pathak, a UK-based Indian businessman, alleged
> that he had paid Chandraswami and his associate K.N. Aggarwal alias
> Mamaji (who were close to Rao) $100,000 in return for a paper pulp
> supply contract in India, a "promise" that was not kept. Rao and
> Chandraswami were acquitted of the charges in 2003 due to lack of
> evidence. Despite this, the case remained a blot on Rao.
>
> Jain Hawala Scam
>
> Some of the country's leading politicians were implicated in the Rs 64-
> crore hawala scandal, involving payments allegedly received by
> politicians through the Jain brothers, who were hawala brokers. The
> media went into overdrive over a diary, which apparently contained the
> names of top politicians. These included the BJP's L.K. Advani and
> Congressmen Balram Jakhar, Madhavrao Scindia and Arjun Singh. However,
> they were all cleared. Advani was let off in 1997, while Jakhar and
> the Jain brothers were also let off in 1999 for want of credible
> evidence. The CBI was severely criticised for its inefficient
> investigation of the scandal.
>
> Fodder Scam
>
> In 1996, Bihar CM Laloo Prasad Yadav became the focus of the Rs 950-
> crore fodder scam in the state's animal husbandry department,
> notorious for financial irregularities involving powerful politicians
> (across parties) and officials. In April 2000, Laloo was chargesheeted
> in the case, with wife Rabri Devi as co-accused. In December '06, they
> were acquitted, but the CBI and the Bihar government, now under the
> JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar, opposed the decision in the Patna high court.
> Till date, 250 persons have been convicted. But the scandal's severest
> toll has been on Laloo's reputation.
>
> Petrol Pump Scam
>
> Shortly after the NDA came to power in '98, the BJP was quick to prove
> it was not "a party with a difference". By '02, it was evident that
> most petrol pump, LPG and kerosene allotments during the NDA regime
> had favoured BJP functionaries, Sangh activists and selected governors
> and bureaucrats. Then prime minister A.B. Vajpayee was forced to
> cancel all 3,158 allotments, with effect from January 2000. However,
> the SC quashed the order. In 2005, an apex court-appointed panel
> recommended that 296 of the 409 allotments be cancelled.
>
> Operation West End
>
> Tehelka.com sent shockwaves throughout the country when it released
> secret video footage of senior politicians, including then BJP
> president Bangaru Laxman and Samata Party national president Jaya
> Jaitly, bureaucrats and army officers accepting bribes for defence
> deals. This was the first major sting operation in Indian journalism.
> From then on, getting 'Bangarued' came to mean being caught with your
> hand in the till. The scandal forced Bangaru and then defence minister
> George Fernandes to resign. The CBI filed charges against Bangaru and
> two of his aides in July '06 and against Jaitly in December '06.
> Chargesheets were also filed in 2006 against some of the other accused
> in the Union ministry of defence and the army. R.K. Jain, former
> treasurer of the Samata Party, was finally arrested in 2006 on charges
> of receiving huge payoffs in defence deals.
>
> Bu Smita Gupta with Debarshi Dasgupta
>
>
> Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 22 Gulam:>>" Who are "we" here?
> All those involved in fighting the terrorists."
>
> All those now involved in 'protecting/training' the terrorists should
> also sincerely join the fight against terrorists and their
> elimination. Otherwise, these may well be the first, though
> unintended, casualties in the terrorist explosions. Perhaps, you may
> be able make them realize this, before it is too late.
>
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 21 Seshadri,
>
> >> Who are "we" here?
>
> All those involved in fighting the terrorists.
> Ghulam Y Faruki
> New York, United States
> Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 20 Ghulam:>>"We should kill them at a faster rate than they can train
> their recruits."
>
> Who are "we" here? The major OIC countries, especially Pakistan,
> Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, should help non-OIC terrorist-
> targetted countries like, India, UK, US in detecting and exterminating
> terrorists. Will they? Pakistan is sheltering the Bombay bomber and
> Bin Laden and denying it all the time. God Allah will help these
> moslems only if they help in eliminating islamic terrorists. Will
> they ?
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 19 "The expansion of the ummah and the killing of "kafirs" are both
> ideas that do not cross the minds of the bulk of the Muslim
> community."
>
> Most of the muslims nourish ideas of ummah expansion and how it can be
> brought about. Many of them express it shamelessly, in schools,
> offices etc. One of the reasons why the rest of the Indians despise
> Muslims in general.
> chaitanya
> chennai, India
> Aug 17, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 18 Seshadri,
>
> >> It means 5 million can be killed or maimed, in due course, by these.
>
> Not if we are killing them at the same time. We should kill them at a
> faster rate than they can train their recruits. The terrorists have
> done more harm to Muslims than to anyone else.
>
> >> you will agree that all moslems consider non-moslem khafirs could justifiably be killed, if they come in the way of the expansion of the UMMA.
>
> Not true. The expansion of the ummah and the killing of "kafirs" are
> both ideas that do not cross the minds of the bulk of the Muslim
> community. I have never heard of them from anyone I know. The only
> time I hear them is from the sanghis, zionists and from rabid jehadis
> who somehow or other have become the favorites of British TV crews.
>
> Ghulam Y Faruki
> New York, United States
> Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 17 Ghulam:>>"The best estimate of American and British experts in the
> field on the total number of terrorists in the world is less than
> 10,000."
>
> I see it was Joseph who mentioned the number of jihadis as only a few
> millions out 1.3 billion moslems in the world. I wrongly attributed it
> to you, sorry. You say the ''trained' terrorist jihadis' are only
> 10,000; each has a potential for killing or disabling 500 persons,
> with today's terrorism technology. It means 5 million can be killed or
> maimed, in due course, by these.
> More are being trained, in the mean time. IF the moslem states
> cooperate with the non-moslem states, the menace can be contained.
> Otherwise, the number of terrorist jihadis may grow exponentially with
> time and become uncontainable, as it is becoming in Iraq.
>
> >>"You were implying that all Muslims, that is 1.3 billion, were trained to kill non-believers. That is patently untrue."
>
> I did not imply that all the moslems were "trained" to kill the other
> non-believers. But, you will agree that all moslems consider non-
> moslem khafirs could justifiably be killed, if they come in the way of
> the expansion of the UMMA. Even this is against the basic human rights
> of non-moslems also as humans, with a right to exist. If devout
> moslems believe that only believers in Allah will go to heaven in
> after-life, I have no objections to that.
>
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 16 Seshadri,
>
> >> You have yourself stated earlier that the 'few' jihadis amount to a few millions.
>
> What we were discussing was what percentage of Muslims may be
> terrorists. The best estimate of American and British experts in the
> field on the total number of terrorists in the world is less than
> 10,000. You were implying that all Muslims, that is 1.3 billion, were
> trained to kill non-believers. That is patently untrue.
> Ghulam Y Faruki
> New York, United States
> Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 15 Ghulam:>>"Not true, except perhaps for a few jehadis "
>
> You have yourself stated earlier that the 'few' jihadis amount to a
> few millions. If each suicide bomber can kill 100 and disable another
> 100, most of them moslems of slightly different sects, the few million
> jihadis can finish off most of the billion-plus moslems in the moslem
> world today. Is it desirable or permissible ?
> Moslem govts should themselves monitor their madarsas, modernize their
> education, reduce inter-sect hatreds, liberalize the moslems' world-
> view and jail the die-hard jihadis in isolated islands, if reqd.
> Mesa'potamia' is burning, George Bush on the 'Potamac' river in
> Washington is not able to do much about it. Only Man Mohan Singh's
> kind heart may be bleeding for the berieved, disabled, displaced and
> refugees of Iraq, especially the children. I wonder why the OIC or the
> moslem-welfare organization you have in US are not doing anything
> about it. The OIC should itself organize a CIA type secret service to
> identify hard-core suicidal jihadis among moslems and arrest them and
> put them off.
>
> The idea that 72 'virgins' are waiting to please martyrs in heaven
> must be re-explained to the moslems in general and jihadis in
> particular. What Narada {Gaapriya=Gasbriel] told Mohammed [Ravana]is
> that there is a non-gravity region in Jupiter [St. Peter's 'heaven']
> neighbourhood; soul-will in that neighbourhood can bring about the
> 'joining' of appropriate free elements of the periodic table, seen as
> the 272 joiners or yoginees [spiritual virgins, in tantra saastra on
> the sree chakra, wheel of creation] to form bodies to experience some
> life and apples to eat and so on. 72 of the more significant elements
> are indicated by Narada to Ravana. Bhagavat Geeta also talks about
> swarga where souls can have some happiness before returning on a new
> birth to the earth. If these things are explained and sexual
> interpretation of the enjoyment of virgins etc is removed, jihadi
> enthusiasm may come down; they may choose to have some good lives on
> the earth itself.
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 16, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 14 Seshadri,
>
> >> Moslems are brought up to consider all nonmoslems as khafirs fit for elimination only.
>
> Not true, except perhaps for a few jehadis who miss the main thrust of
> religious teaching and memorize just a few paragraphs out of context.
> Ghulam Y Faruki
> New York, United States
> Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 13 >>" corruption: abuse of public power for private gain. They rolled
> out decade after decade"
>
> Corruption will continue to mar the nation's politics and
> administration until politics ceases to be the first choice as 'money-
> making profession' for scoundrels and scoundrel families. Perhaps, the
> grandchildren of corpotate-succeess families now may loose the lure
> for lucre and seek to enter politics for purely 'national service' and
> not to make money, which they may have in abundance.
>
> But, there is one aspect which popular will can enforce on corrupt
> politicians/bureauocrats, even now, namely quick, early and proper
> punishments when prima facie crime has been established. The Chinese
> have recently given death sentence to a senior official found
> responsible for non-enforcement of pharma-product qualities. We may
> not go that for, but we may at least confiscate the properties of
> politicians and bureauocrats found guilty by the first courts, on
> fodder scam, stamp-paper scam etc; they could go in appeal to higher
> courts, as per law, but leaving them in power and with ill-accumulated
> wealth already declared illegal still with them only makes it easier
> for them to employ the most expensive lawyers and win the appeals
> somehow, or delay eventual sentences by decades. Karunanidhi now
> questionably celebrates halfcentury in politics, only because the case
> against some ex-judge who held his black money benami could not end
> even before the said judge himself died ! If confiscation of property
> pending appeals becomes the norm, such confiscated wealth could be
> held in trust and the income proceedings from it can be used for
> health and education of the poor in the country; trust can be closed
> and wealth returned to appellant, if and when he wins the appeal at
> the higher court.
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 12 Shenoy: Moslems are brought up to consider all nonmoslems as
> khafirs fit for elimination only. But, practising christians like
> Joseph could be expected to be even-handed between hindus and moslems,
> but he is very partial to islam, favouring its growth and eventual
> domination of world, to eliminate other cultures and civilizations
> from the world, because of its basic intolerance. But he forgets that
> such intolerant culures usually meet their nemesis, by internal feuds
> and conflicts, besides acts of God like earthquakes and volcano
> eruptions and tsunamis, since arrogance violates God's expectation
> from mankind; the Roman civilization met with its end for such reasons
> only.
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 11 Joseph:>>"So-called Islamic Fundamentalists or so-called Jehadis
> total a few million people "
>
> Today's news is that over 170 people died and over 200 injured in Iraq
> in one or two suicide bombings. Thus, each jihadi claiming heaven's
> vigins makes life extinct or impossible for over 200 people, most of
> them moslems also. You say there are only a few million jihadi
> moslems. But, 5 million jihadis are enough to kill or disable a
> billion moslems, if my arithmatic is right, 7 million enough to take
> care of all moslems. Are you happy with the situation? Perhaps, you
> are happy about it, as a practising christian, so long as the people
> killed are only moslems, jews, hindus, not christians. But moslems
> must consider the fact jihadism is wiping out moslems at a rate faster
> than procreationism is proliferating it. Moslems should learn to live
> in harmony with other cultures all over the world, enlarging and
> ennobling quranic laws into humanistic
> welfare laws, by give-and-take adjustments with the laws of other
> cultures also, which are also human.
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 10 Joseph:>>"the President and the Prime Minister of India will always
> be Hindus."
>
> Since you insist on proportionate representation for moslems, i.e,
> increasing representation for them, as their population increases
> disproportionately every decade, they will increase their political
> power in all the legislatures and the parliament; chances of moslem
> presidents and prime-ministers for India would only increase.
> Recently, all 3 candidates for VP's post were moslems. Nothing wrong,
> if they are like Zakir Hussein, Abdul Kalam or Ansari. The word,
> moslem, sanskritized, stands for mukta-Sreemaan, liberated well-fare-
> minded person. All moslems should live upto their names.
>
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 15, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 9 Joseph:>>"Secularism without Equity and proportionate representation
> is, Mr. Seshadari, Sham-Secularism. I stand by my observations and
> forecast that, henceforth, the President and the Prime Minister of
> India will always be Hindus."
>
> A secular democracy can only provide equality of 'opportunity' to all
> creeds and castes in the country, people have to utilize them and come
> up.
>
> Pak and B-desh drove out nonmoslems. Earlier the moslems 'destroyed'
> all persians in Iran and buddheists in Afghanistan, you seem to have
> no regrets on that. They would have done the same in India, but the
> hindu 'cast' system saved them from annihilation, as a bad blessing in
> disguise; only the 'fighting caste' faught and died, 'traders' fled
> and came back; priest-caste were either pushed into temples [those not
> destroyed] or pushed out of villages as the new 'dalits', the
> 'workers' started working for the new masters, without change of
> religion. Only the older dalits could be persuaded to become moslems.
> Women, of all castes, if not too old and not married, were all taken
> into harems of the sheiks; child-marriage of girls saved India's
> ancient civilization for posterity.
>
> Compared to this, free India's treatment of the non-hindu minorities
> has been more humanistic and less demonaic; in fact the privileges
> given in set-up, staffing, charging etc of minority institutions for
> education in India have been such that, minority college-lords have
> prospered fleecing the hindus on education; hindus are trying to get
> minority college status on language basis; RKMutt is seeking minority
> status for convenience, knowing Paramahamsa will not approve it ! My
> late friend Varghese of HCE in Chennai was hoping his college wealth
> will beat the Birlas! But now, lay christians in Kerala are raising
> their voice against greedy churchian priests running colleges for
> profit there. Commerce stands for 'kaama' and 'eershaa', desire and
> jeaolousy; hence it leads to corporate behaviour, 'sarpa-reetih',
> serpentine behaviour.
>
> Sanskrit apart, you should admit that, opportunity-wise, minorities in
> India have been treated more than fairly. Christians have benefitted
> and prosperred, because they have left the bible behind and grown up
> with science and technology for progress in this world, like their
> counterparts in the west, other than the catholics of south America;
> but moslems have used their educational priviliege only to deepen
> quranic education and thinking in madarsa children. Result is that
> moslem children shun science and technology, grow up to be either
> traders or tailors or artisans or money-lenders, [perhaps they could
> get into police/army, but they probably think defending India will be
> quranic sin] They keep their women in coverage, concentrate more on
> procreation than creativity, demand larger power in politics because
> of increasing numbers in population. Post-1973 rise in oil prices gets
> them more Arab dollars for madarsas, making them imagine that God is
> for the UMMA to eventuyally take over the world. But, money can buy
> things only if someone in the world 'produces' goods other than
> children. If the whole world has only procreators, the increasing
> population will die of hunger and overpopulate the heaven.
>
> Friends of islam, like you, should advise modernisation of madarsa
> education, instead of hate-hindu ideas. Then, moslems can take all
> sorts of jobs and prosper in all fields. I have taught in an IIT and
> elsewhere for over 50 yrs, had only very few moslem students in most
> classes, but those who were there were very studious, courteous and
> competant; given good education, they can equal and excel all other
> cultures, and deserve the fact that Lord Skanda [same as Apollo/Jesus]
> appeared as Sikandar for the moslems to save them from extinction by
> the crusaders. God has only mercy and goodwill for all mankind. It is
> for humans to utilize it.
>
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 8 Secularism without Equity and proportionate representation is, Mr.
> Seshadari, Sham-Secularism. I stand by my observations and forecast
> that, henceforth, the President and the Prime Minister of India will
> always be Hindus.
>
> Going by the Caste situation in India, to an out side mind, it is
> difficult to accept that Hindus will accept non-Hindus as equals when
> Hindus themselves are discriminated against by fellow Hindus.
> Joseph
> Karachi, Pakistan
> Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 7 Dear Mr. B. V. Shenoy, I take serious umbrage at your addressing me,
> a practicing Christian, as one who does not afford space for other
> Religions and for alleging that I am steeped in Islamic
> Fundamentalism, whatever that may mean.
>
> Please allow me to recapulate my basic premises about Islam and
> Muslims which are as Follows.
> a. As Muslims number 1.37 billion which is about one-fifth of the
> World's people, it will serve no useful purpose to browbeat them or
> subjugate them as is being attempted in Afghanistan, Iraq and
> Palestine and elsewhere to a lesser degree.
> b. So-called Islamic Fundamentalists or so-called Jehadis total a few
> million people out of a total 1,370 Million people.
> c. The more the West adopts the present strategy, more number of
> Muslims will become antagonistic to it.
> d. Islam is growing while other Faiths are either static or losing
> followers.
> e. Muslims are far more ardent in following their precepts and
> practices and as such are a far more dynamic whole.
> f. It is better to 'live and let live'
> g. From (f.) above must follow a just and equitable solution of the
> socio-political issues relating to Muslims in the Philippines,
> Thailand, Myanmar, Indian-Administered Jammu and Kashmir, the South-
> West Regions of China and Palestine.
>
> Iam quite clear in my mind that the continuinf presence of foreign
> invading forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 'cruel approach' of
> Israel to Lebanon and Palestine is only exacerbating the problems.
> This appraisal is seconded by a House of Commons Committee as may be
> seen below.
>
>
> Let us not use exaggeration and negative observations against some
> one, just because his or her views are unpalatable.
>
> Joseph
> Karachi, Pakistan
> Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 6 I have to thank you Mr. Pathasarathy for telling me what I always
> knew that the Minorities in India are no better off than their
> counterparts in Pakistan. As a matter of fact, in the political sphere
> we are far better off in that we have Joint Electorate with Special
> Reserved Seats as well.
> Joseph
> Karachi, Pakistan
> Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 5 Dear Sheshadri, you are wasting your admittedly deep knowledge about
> the Hindu scriptures and holy books on people like Joseph who are
> steeped in Islamic fundamentalism which refuses to acknowledge living
> space for other religions. You may be a great savant or a pundit, but
> for Joseph, you are only a kafir. Pl keep this in mind.
> B.V.SHENOY
> BANGALORE, India
> Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 4 Joseph:>>" India is a Hindu Country masquerading as a Secular One"
>
> You are being unfair to hinduism and India and you know that.
> Secularism, pluralism etc. are respectable words in India's politics,
> only because the majority of population in India is still hindu,
> despite higher-than-average proliferation rate of moslems and rapid
> increases in churchians by open and crypto-convesions. Hunduism in
> India still respects secular values for India, because the bhagavat
> Gita, accepted by all sections of hinduism. requires that hindus
> should respect all godheads faithully believed in by people anywherem,
> since the formless and hence all-forms-possible Absolute will respond
> to them in any form faithfully worshipped. Even the RSS/BJP/VHP are
> fighting only for the survival of primordial hinduism in India, in
> harmony with all other world religions, NOT for the removal of other
> religionists from India, or the curtailment of their citizenship
> rights in India's dynamic democracy, temporarily operating as if it is
> a dynastic demonarchy.
> v.seshadri
> chennai, india
> Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 3 When will the U. P. A. Government fall, Miss. Chitra of Mangalore?.
> Rather, more precisely, when will Sardar Manmohan Singh be asked to
> resign?.
>
> We are coming closer to the situation where the President and Prime
> Minister will always be Hindu, which is how it should be as India is a
> Hindu Country masquerading as a Secular One. Sixty years is, indeed,
> to long to carry on with a myth.
>
> By the way, were you at St. Agnes'?.
> Joseph
> Karachi, Pakistan
> Aug 13, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 2 Congress and secular brigades are known as mother of all scams and
> scandals. Today india is fast moving to occupy the world's most
> corrupt nation. Let us hope that we stand first at least in some area.
> Shameless secular leaders are running in the government in the name of
> secularism and showing ghost of the hindu nationalists. Our democracy
> have failed to punish corrupt politicians. UPA government is full of
> corrupts, anti-nationals and hardcore islamists.
>
> Miss Chitra
> Mangalore, India
> Aug 12, 2007 12:00 AM
>
> 1 Man u guys are liar.. after investigation it was found only 7% of
> petrol pump went to peopel with BJP support.. given BJp usually nets
> around 26% popular vote if anything bjp suporter should cry foul that
> they didn;t get their proper share..
> Rahul
> Delhi, India
>
> http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?235369
>
> National Magazine | May 01, 1996
>
> Focus
>
> Settling A Score
>
> Nina Pillai's mission is to defeat the Congress
> Ajith Pillai
>
> Focus
>
> The Political Option
>
> M'esco Managing Director Rita Singh hits the campaign trail
> Bharat Ahluwalia
>
> EVER since the gruesome death last July in Tihar jail of her biscuit
> tycoon husband Rajan Pillai, Nina Pillai has been threatening to get
> her back on "friendly" politicians who "deserted" her in her husband's
> time of need. So it did not come as a surprise when she filed her
> nomination as an independent candidate for the Lok Sabha from her
> husband's hometown of Kollam, 70 km from Thiruvananthapuram.
>
> Though she does not admit it, Nina's immediate mission seems to be not
> to win herself but to ensure the defeat of Congress candidate and
> Union Minister of State S. Krishna Kumar. "Krishna Kumar was supposed
> to be our friend," she says. "But he refused to even come on the phone
> when Rajan was dying." However, she is quick to add that it is not
> Krishna Kumar she is fighting. "I am fighting his boss."
>
> The 39-year-old former air hostess is also using her political status
> to embarrass the Congress. Her revelation at a press conference in
> Thiruvan-anthapuram on April 17 that her husband had been cheated by a
> political nexus, with the controversial godman Chandraswami at its
> core, will not help the Congress. She has alleged that about $2
> million was paid to the godman between November '94 and February '95
> by her husband. Chandraswami had promised to sort things out for Rajan
> Pillai but finally failed him. Points out Nina: "The money was paid to
> him because even senior Union ministers we approached told us that
> Chandraswami was the man who could move things at the Prime Minister's
> level".
>
> She also sees sinister machinations in the troubles she has been
> facing in claiming her shareholdings in various companies owned by her
> late husband. She suspects the hand of a rival business group which
> she alleges is acting with the blessings of Chandraswami. Says Nina:
> "Rajan is gone. Now this friend of the Prime Minister wants to torture
> a helpless widow." She says her husband fell out of favour with a
> section of Congressmen after the '91 elections. It was then that her
> husband, she claims, on the request of a senior Congress leader from
> Maharashtra, approached K. Karunakaran and Satish Sharma, asking them
> not to support Narasimha Rao as the candidate for prime minister-ship.
> "Ever since this came to the notice of Chandraswami, we have been in
> trouble," she says.
>
> Though Nina Pillai is not likely to emerge even as a marginal leader,
> local Congress leaders did their best to persuade her not to contest.
> Among them: Chief Minister A.K. Antony, Union Industries Minister K.
> Karunakaran and PCC President Vylar Ravi. The Pillais are influential
> in Kerala and traditional Congress supporters.
>
> The only cause for comfort in the Congress camp is that Nina is a
> novice in politics and as an independent she lacks the backing of any
> political organisation. The BJP has come forward to support her but
> the party's infrastructure is not fully committed to campaign for her,
> perhaps because Nina has made it clear that she will not join any
> party. Says she: "Don't think I am part of the BJP. I am not. They
> (BJP) came forward to help and I said fine. I want to be an
> independent".
>
> Her campaign involves meeting people directly rather than holding
> meetings. However, Nina says she is trying to rope in Arjun Singh,
> Kiran Bedi and friends in the film industry in Bombay to attend a
> rally in Kollam. But despite such plans, her campaigning is patchy.
> She is the first to admit that she is a reluctant politician. "I never
> dreamt of getting into politics. I have literally been forced to fight
> this election. I am fight-ing it for my survival and the survival of
> my children".
>
> Though her husband's family was opposed to her entering politics they
> have now come around and her in-laws who command much respect in
> Kollam have extended support. Early estimates put it that Nina will
> corner enough votes to ensure Krishna Kumar's defeat. That, in a
> sense, will be victory for her.
>
> May 29, 1996
> 1 No Place for Revenge
>
> It was saddening to learn that people enter the electoral fray revenge
> (Settling a Score, 1). Nina Pillai has admitted that her husband Rajan
> had tried to bribe himself of the mess he was mired presumably one of
> his own creation, by offering Rs 2 crore Chandraswami. Business people
> like them exploit and a corrupt system to further eir ends and, in the
> rare instances when they don't succeed, cry themselves hoarse bout
> corruption.
>
> Nina Pillai contested the elections not to serve the electorate, but
> to ensure the down- of Krishna Kumar, who (I be wrong) is one of the
> Congress politicians who is clean and, what's more, who proved himself
> an able administrator and an efficient minister. It is not that I
> don't sympathise with Nina Pillai. she has suffered is traumatic. But
> it is, to a large extent, the effect of the actions of her own ilk
> that nurtured such a system. The only thing that can be said in her
> favour is that she is honest and makes no bones about her intentions.
>
> N.J. Thomas, Dehra Dun
>
> http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201281
>
> SC's Poser on Chandraswami's Role in Rajiv Assassination
> New Delhi | May 26, 2009
>
> The Supreme Court put a query why no proceedings were initiated
> against controversial godman Chandraswami if the government really
> suspected him of funding the assassination of former Prime Minister
> Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE.
>
> "If he has funded the assassination, then why did you not proceed
> against him?" a vacation bench of Justices VS Sirpurkar and RM Lodha
> asked ED's counsel Wasim Ahmed Qadri.
>
> The bench made the passing reference after the ED opposed
> Chandraswami's plea to travel abroad on the ground that he had several
> criminal cases registered against him and is suspected of funding the
> assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
>
> Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the controversial godman,
> however, told the court that Chandraswami was never an accused in the
> case unlike the slain LTTE chief V Prabhakaran and others like the
> organisation's intelligence wing chief Pottu Amman.
>
> To another query from the bench, Quadri said it appears the case
> against Prabahakaran might be closed in India in view of his killing
> by the Sri Lankan Army.
>
> Rohtagi earlier strongly pleaded that Chandraswami be permitted to
> travel abroad as he had been acquitted of all the criminal cases
> registered against him, except the nine-odd cases registered against
> him by ED.
>
> http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?660446
>
> National / Politics / Interviews Magazine | Dec 08, 1997
>
> Exclusive
>
> "Chandraswami Was Sivarasan's Godfather"
>
> J. Ranganath, who sheltered Sivarasan, Rajiv's assassin, speaks to
> Outlook on One-eyed Jack's last few days
>
> A.S. Panneerselvan Interviews J. Ranganath
>
> Jayaram Ranganath, 40, is accused No. 26 in the Rajiv Gandhi
> assassination case. A Kannadiga Tamil from Bangalore, he was married
> to Mridula and owned a workshop in the garden city. An unwitting
> player after Rajiv's assassins--kingpin Sivarasan alias one-eyed Jack,
> and Shubha, part of the killer squad at Sriperumbudur, along with five
> others--knocked on his backdoor and allegedly forced entry into his
> house on August 6, 1991. The LTTE operatives stayed on till August 20
> when the CBI raided the house and found them dead. The deaths, says
> the police, was by suicide, although there are doubts about this
> theory.
>
> Ranganath was arrested on August 18, 1991, for sheltering Sivarasan
> and Shubha. Ironically, it was Ranganath who informed the police about
> the fugitives in his house and is the only witness to the CBI's break-
> in operation. And he and his estranged wife are the only ones to have
> heard Sivarasan and Shubha speak about the crime.
>
> Ranganath's recent affidavit filed before the Jain Commission accuses
> the CBI of deliberately hiding key facts and shielding several
> culprits. His major contention is that his information that Sivarasan
> and his team were promised a safe passage to the West by Chandraswami
> and details pertaining to the god -man and some Congress leaders were
> not recorded by the CBI. According to him, the CBI was determined not
> to widen the net beyond the role of the LTTE in the plot to kill
> Rajiv. "As the only living witness and the only one with no political
> axe to grind, my words should be taken seriously," he declares.
>
> As a key witness, the information he has is important, to say the
> least. A.S. Panneerselvan sought an interview through Ranganath's
> lawyers. The questions were sent to him at the high security
> Poonamallee sub-jail located within the designated court complex where
> the Rajiv assassination case is being heard in Chennai. Ranganath's
> answers have been duly attested by the additional superintendent of
> the jail. Excerpts:
>
> Did Sivarasan and Shubha tell you about their connections with
> Chandraswami and an AICC functionary?
>
> They did speak about their connections with Chandraswami and also with
> a Congress leader from Karnataka who was a member of Rajiv Gandhi's
> cabinet. They used to say that it was through this leader that they
> got the details of Rajiv Gandhi's election tour programme. They talked
> about the AICC functionary as their close associate. During his stay
> with me, Sivarasan also informed me that Chandraswami was his
> godfather.
>
> (In his affidavit submitted to the Jain Commission on November 4,
> Ranganath speaks of Sivarasan and Shubha naming Aswath Narayan, a
> local Congress leader, as one of their friends. Both Shubha and
> Sivarasan pointed out that Narayan was close to the AICC functionary
> in Delhi who helped them with Rajiv's tour programme.)
>
> What was the safe passage promised to Sivarasan by Chandraswami?
>
> Sivarasan wanted to go abroad directly from Bangalore. This was the
> reason why he came to Bangalore. But he said that if he went to Jaffna
> he could be killed and that the 'Jain...