The violence and clashes following Ram Rahim's conviction in a long-running rape case on Friday raises one pertinent question – the question of the existence of godmen, a phenomenon that appears uniquely Indian.
A column published by veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta in Business Standard answers this question and shows that Punjab and Haryana hold the maximum influx of godmen and their cults.
While he says that not all of these godmen are crooks, with many in fact operating within the ambit of law and public service, quite a few of them are involved in land-mafia, political power-games and the like.
Sant Ram Pal's Sect
Within the two states, the man-of-the-hour Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan has the maximum number of followers in his Dera Sacha Sauda, followed by Hisar-based Sant Rampal.
Currently in jail, his arrest in a murder case in 2014 saw huge hordes of his followers gherao his Satlok ashram in Hisar in protest of conviction. By then, Ram Pal had already evaded arrest 42 times, and was given ‘exemption from arrest’ after his followers repeatedly caused disruptions. In fact after his arrest in November that year, then Haryana D-G of Police SN Vashisht is reported to have said that "the police had to deal with a hostile army of Ram Pal’s commandos."
The Radha Soami Sect
Gupta describes the Radha Saomi as a largely 'non-controversial' sect, whose head is currently suffering from cancer. Headquartered near Punjab's Beas river, the sect does not have a successor yet.
The Nirankari Sect
Marginally more colourful than the Radha Soamis, the Nirankaris' head Baba Gurbachan Singh was killed by members of the Damdami Taksal, a Sikh organisation, as he claimed to be a 'guru'. Gupta says that the Sikhs of Punjab hold the Guru Granth Sahib as their only guru and any other claim is considered blasphemous.
Going to the past, Gupta says that Taksal members in fact rose in protest against the Nirankaris when in 1978 they were fired at by Baba Gurbachan's supporters on Baisakhi day, at a Nirankari conference, killing 16. Following this, the Golden Temple's Akal Takht issued a hukumanama banning any relations with the Nirankaris.
The Namdhari Sect
Gupta calls the Namdharis the 'friendliest' and 'gentlest' of the sects, and says that it was run by the heirless Jagjit Singh who named one of his nephews Uday Singh as the successor.
The sect made headlines when Uday Singh's mother 'Baba' Chand Kaur was assassinated by gunmen in April 2016, starting a blame game between Uday Singh and his estranged brother Dalip Singh.
The Bhaniara Baba Sect
Described by Gupta as a small but tight-knit cult in Punjab’s Rupnagar district, the followers of Bhandara Baba include Congress leader Buta Singh. However, Bhaniara Baba met an untimely end when he was stabbed by a Babbar Khalsa assassin. He was making a court appearance in Haryana and had lost his popularity among the Sikhs after he published a compilation of his miracles in 2001 titled Bhavnagar Granth.
‘Freezer Baba’
What lies after death? Samadhi, that’s what the followers of Ashutosh, also known as ‘Freezer Baba’ believe. After his death in January 2014, they haven’t allowed his body to be cremated and put his body in deep freeze. As a case in high court decided what to do with his body, ‘Freezer Baba’ still gets crowds of devotees every day, writes Gupta.
(Sources cited: Business Standard)
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