Faith, Godmen and Undermining Rationalism

We regularly read news about Asaram Bapu; a rape convict and Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan, a murder and rape convict; getting parole. These two ‘Babas’ are a leading brand currently with huge property and a network of ashrams and large number of devotees ready to do anything for them. These are the two most well-known among the “gang of frauds” who wear the cloak of holiness and do the most depraved things.

The number of Babas seems to have gone up during the past few decades. No doubt, there have been others of their ilk who have proliferated through different mechanisms to rise and establish their empires of wealth and devotion. As such, what we see is just the tip of the iceberg of ‘faith-blind faith’ empires flourishing on the rising insecurity in the society.

While Jeffrey Epstein types are indulging in this society through other mechanisms, the ones in India have seemingly strong roots in blind faith, and many of them use it to exploit the people at large for wealth and women.

One such case surfaced recently in Nashik, in Maharashtra. One Ashok Kumar Kharat has been sent to police custody for his fraudulent use of faith. He was visited by the high and mighty of Maharashtra and one of his devotees is the chief of the Maharashtra Women’s Commission, Rupali Chakankar, whose purported video shows her washing his feet and carrying an umbrella to protect him from the sun. Kharat claims to be an ex-merchant navy captain “endowed with divine powers” and was playing the role of an astrologer and numerologist. He also used to sell polished seeds of tamarind that were sold as precious gems apart from other money-spinning activities. Many women who initially suffered his assaults were keeping quiet as his connections with high-ups were strong.

This is another hateful addition to the number of flourishing godmen, who have been given a place of respect. We had godmen earlier, too, such as Chandraswami, Dhirendra Brahmachari, Acharya Rajneesh, Mahesh Yogi, who commanded a large presence in the political and religious sections. In between, the rise of Satya Sai Baba dominated the scene with his “magic tricks” of bringing forth ash with the flick of fingers, which was challenged by rationalists. His divine powers were restricted to ash and small rings and he refused to produce melons from this trick. In his cases, too, there were allegations of sexual abuse. Ma Amritanandamayi has been another divine power, who is called the “kissing Amma”. Nirmal Baba, Benny Hinn and many Bangali Babas also stroll the streets claiming to solve the problems of all and sundry.

On the top of all this, currently there are the likes of Jaggi Vasudev and Baba Ramdev. Vasudev has coined the miraculous word ‘inner engineering’ and has followers among the IT generation also. Sri Sri Ravishankar has his own unique political influence after promoting the Anna Hazare movement and organising a festival that caused great harm to ecology particularly around Yamuna River. The list is long and inexhaustible. But we cannot overlook Baba Ramdev, who began as a yoga preacher and went on to become a very successful businessman. He had promised that if we elect Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, petrol will become cheap (Rs 35 a litre) and rupee will become stronger against dollar.

One can clearly see that as economic insecurity and inequality rise in the society, the hold of faith-based gurus is also sky-rocketing. This is accompanied by the rise of faith-based knowledge in the society. One recalls that using mythology to undermine rational thought is not restricted to India. I recall in one of the meetings in Pakistan, research on mythological djinns was presented as the solution to the energy shortage in the country.

While India had much better foundations in science and rational thinking leading to an excellent chain of institutes doing valuable work contributing richly to Indian progress, the trends of the past few decades are very disheartening.

Prime Minister Modi himself laid the foundation of ‘Mythology as Science’ while inaugurating a modern hospital, when he stated that there must have been a plastic surgeon in ancient India who could transplant elephant head on human torso. So many such ‘mythological stories’ like pushpak viman capable of interplanetary travels are already there. A whole series of leaders from Modi’s stable started claiming that all the genetic science, space craft, and the internet were present in our traditions!

At a time when the country needs to focus on malnutrition and infectious diseases, it is investing in Panchagavya, a mixture of cow products, urine, dung, milk, ghee and curd! Faith-based understanding is being promoted, as the Prime minister calls the Bageshwar Dham Baba, who claims to have mystic powers of telling the past of the person, as his “younger brother.”

We can see in history that faith-based knowledge is related to political systems that promote status quo or throw society back to earlier times when rational thinking was not so strong. Keeping all this in mind, even Darwin’s’ Theory of Evolution of Species’ is being dumped and the Periodic table, the foundation of chemistry, has been removed from the New Education Policy curriculum.

The Indian Constitution, through Article 51 A (h) (added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976), mandates as a fundamental duty that every citizen must develop scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform. It promotes a rational, evidence-based approach to life to overcome superstition and promote social progress. Our present direction is totally contrary to this, where the ruling party promotes blind faith, as seen in the changes in the NEP. This will be extremely harmful for the coming generations, and the likes of Kharat, Bageshwar Baba will keep flourishing. The likes of rationalists, such as the late Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, will have a tough time to carry on their enlightening work for rational thought at the cost of their lives.

The writer is a human rights activist, who taught at IIT Bombay. The views are personal.