Until more is done to bring the marginalised into mainstream, more godmen will emerge
India is correctly recognised as the most spiritual country in the world, along with the levant, it is the birthplace of religion. The oldest surviving spiritual and religious texts come from India, the Vedas are a mix of spirituality and philosophy. Yet, Indian spirituality has been corrupted, and this is not just about the antics of Gurmeet Ram Rahim or Sant Rampal and countless other perverts and predators. Spirituality has been replaced with a lure of lucre and has been thoroughly commercialised. There is a ‘godman' industry right now in India which seems to resemble European Christianity in the middle ages where favours and forgiveness were exchanged for money. But it is not just the lack of spirituality that has led to the rise of the godman industry, after all, these godmen and godwomen command considerable followings. And that, for a large part is because of the failure of the state to integrate or even provide for those who are marginalised socially, economically and educationally. There is no doubt that some of these godmen provide for these subalterns what the state does not, be it education, healthcare and jobs all combined with a heavy dose of revisionist religion, some even casting themselves as the ‘parmatma'. But there have always been religious movements in India, for centuries, that have taken care of the downtrodden, one could argue that religions such as Buddhism began that way, but the soul of many such movements in the modern age is corrupt to the core.
But the recent rise of these cults in areas which one would consider relatively affluent is also because they tend to attract not the poorest of the poor but those who have less. Clearly, many of the followers of the convicted rapist Gurmeet Ram Rahim came from middle class families and many had tertiary education as well. The perversion of some of these cults was possibly a result of the massive egos of their leaders and we are fortunate that none of these cults acquired the malevolence of previous movements such as Bhindranwale-led movement that led to Punjab's lost decade. In some other States in India, the marginalised have found a route to political power, even though the leaders of such political movements have been no less corrupt and perverted than some of the cult leaders undergoing trial. But the definition of what one would term as marginalised, is changing rapidly, historically marginalised classes and risen in India, thanks to affirmative action programmes and some communities previously privileged find themselves as the ‘have less'. The Patidar movement in Gujarat and the Maratha movement in Maharashtra are evidence of this. The emergence of cult leaders in both these movements and other such movements across this heterogeneous nation might not just lead to another perverted godman but also potentially the next Bhindranwale. If the state starts slowing down economically, this problem will only exacerbate. Along with job creation and availability of Government services such as education and healthcare in every nook and corner of this nation can keep these cults at bay. The next cult may not be headed by a perverted rapist but by someone who challenges the authority of the state. We have been there before and we could easily go down that rabbit hole once again.