More The Insecurity, More The Submission to Baba
By Ram Puniyani for
New Age Islam
18 July
2024
In Hathras
in Uttar Pradesh in a stampede nearly 121 people died. Most of these were
women, mostly Dalit and poor. It was at the Satsang (Holy Discourse), organized
for Bhole Baba, short for Narayan Sakar Hari. He was earlier in the police
force. It is alleged that he had charges of rape against him. Later he took
voluntary retirement 28 years ago and turned to preaching. There is an incident
when he claimed that he can bring back the life back of a girl who had died of
cancer. The girl could not be revived and her stinking body made the neighbours
complain to the police. With this background also he clicked later; as a
successful Baba (God man) with increasing number of followers, wealth and
Ashrams.
Representational
Photo
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In the
current episode while many subordinates have been named and are to be charged
Bhole Baba is not in the list of those who are guilty. The reason for the
stampede was the propagation that the earth where Baba treads is a cure for
most of the diseases. As he was leaving Satsang people rushed to collect the
earth where he had put his feet, a stampede took place and people died in the
process. The popularity of the Baba can be gauzed from the fact that there was
permission for 80000 people but 2.5 Lakh people turned up.
As such
baba phenomenon is neither unique nor exclusive to India. Though of course
their following has gone up in recent times. While some Babas come to be known
for specific reasons there a big breed of them scattered all over the country.
The notorious one’s like Asaram Bapu and Gurmeet Ram Rahim Insan are cooling
their heels in jails for charges like rape and murder. The other successful Babas
like Baba Ramdev have been reprimanded by the Supreme Court for his confident
undermining of Modern medicine, Sri Sri Ravishanker was involved in damaging
ecology of river Yamuna, Jaggi Vasudev’s Ashrams have various criminal charges
as well. What is common among these Baba’s is their astounding self-confidence,
wealth and promotion of blind faith.
In India
while strict correlations are difficult it can be safely said that their
prowess and impact has risen during the last few decades. It will not be easy
to correlate their increasing prowess with the rise of politics in the name of
religion. It is true that in other countries also such Charismatic’s (US) and
holy Preachers in some Muslim countries do exist, but the impact of such people
is phenomenal in India. These preachers do wear the garb of religion. They do
not belong to the formal clergy, which is part of institutional religion. Most
of them are self-made and their intelligence in mind reading and taking
advantage of the weaknesses of followers is phenomenal.
The other
side of this is why do people throng to them? Baba’s salesmanship is very
intelligent but the followers have their own weaknesses which land them up in
the lap of these frauds. Mostly people with severe problems, not easily
solvable, look for soothing words, somebody who gives them confidence which
tells them that their problems will be solved by the earth where Baba treads,
or by subjugating themselves to the Baba, or by following some advice which
Baba gives etc. The followers throng to these Babas mainly due to their own
insecurity in the society. There are many other aspects of success of Babas,
their nexus with the political class being one such. Just as an example
Gurumeet Ram Rahim has been mostly on parole, especially when elections are
due. One recalls Manoharlal Khattar took his whole Cabinet to Gurmeet to take
his blessings.
The
insecurity aspect of followers is the key to understanding their psychology.
More the insecurity, more the submission to Baba, the common sense or rational
thinking is given a total go bye by the followers. Insecurity aspect can be
properly understood when we see the global scenario. In the countries where
economic and social insecurity is less, religions are seeing a decline in their
active followership. Key finding from Global Research by PEW shows that, “The
United States is far from alone in this way. Western Europeans are generally
less religious than Americans, having started along a similar path a few
decades earlier. And the same secularizing trends are found in other
economically advanced countries, as indicated by recent census data from
Australia and New Zealand.
Centre for
Political Studies Michigan’s Inglehart in “Giving
up on God,” (pages 110-111) tells us “From about 2007 to 2019, the overwhelming
majority of the countries we studied—43 out of 49 became less religious. The
decline in belief was not confined to high-income countries and appeared across
most of the world. Growing numbers of people no longer find religion a
necessary source of support and meaning in their lives. Even the United
States—long cited as proof that an economically advanced society can be
strongly religious—has now joined other wealthy countries in moving away from
religion.”
The
challenge of combating this is not easy. Contrary to the Values of
Constitution, Article 51 A (h) under the Fundamental Duties, “[It shall be the
duty of every citizen of India] to develop scientific temper, humanism and the
spirit of inquiry and reform”, Babas flagrantly violate this clause, and those
protecting or promoting them do the same?
In India at
social level there are active groups who oppose the Babas scattered all around
by practically exposing them, especially their tricks of taking out ash from
hand or walking on fire. Maharashtra has seen Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti
(Committee for eradication of Blind Faith) associated with Dr. Narendra
Dabholkar. He was brutally murdered by activists of conservative groups
probably like Sanatan Sanstha. Similarly, the murders of Com Govind Pansare,
Gauri Lankesh and Prof. Kalburgi were also done by similar forces. After the
murder of Dr. Dabholkar, Maharashtra Assembly passed a law against blind faith
and magic remedies.
We need to
have similar laws all over the country and promote scientific temper. At the
core can we march towards social and economic security for one and all? The
present system where the poor are becoming poorer and rich are becoming richer
needs to be substituted by Mahatma Gandhi’s vision where the social policies
are planned keeping the last person in the line; in mind That alone can bring
in a sense of security in society.
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Source: Why Babadom Flourishes: Insecurity is the Core
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/insecurity-submission-baba/d/132732
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