[Numerous spiritualists can be found
throughout India
Baba Rampal Maharaj, 63, who once worked as a junior engineer in
the irrigation department for the northern state of Haryana, considers himself
the reincarnation of Kabir, a 15th-century mystic poet.
The police in Haryana sought to arrest him on charges of
conspiracy to murder, incitement of violence and contempt of court in
connection with a confrontation in 2006 between his disciples and adherents of
another sect.
Indian news channels have carried live reports of the standoff
for days, as thousands of uniformed police officers gathered outside the high,
steel-reinforced walls of Mr. Rampal’s 12-acre ashram in the city of Barwala
According to local news media
reports, Mr. Rampal was arrested in his chamber and was expected to appear in
court on Thursday. Before the arrest, the authorities charged him with treason
and dispatched an additional paramilitary force of 500 troops from New Delhi
More than 10,000 people fled Mr. Rampal’s compound on Tuesday
and Wednesday, but several thousand remained inside, said M. L. Kaushik, the
top civil servant in the Hisar District. He said that the authorities had cut
off the compound’s supplies of water and electricity about five days ago, and
that many of those who fled said they had been held against their will.
Six people died in the compound, including several whose bodies
were brought out on Wednesday. Though post-mortem examinations had not yet been
conducted, Mr. Kaushik said none of the bodies showed marks of external injury.
At least 92 people were hospitalized.
“Family members said that they were inside the ashram for the
last three months for some kind of treatment,” he said.
At a news conference Wednesday,
Haryana’s police chief, S. N. Vashisht, said the police had faced a
well-organized group of defenders from inside the compound, using “petrol
bombs, diesel bombs, acid pouches, illegal arms, stones and sticks as missiles
against the police.” He said 100 officers had been injured during the
confrontation on Tuesday, some by gunshots, and 430 people had been arrested.
Some
of Mr. Rampal’s followers disputed that account.
“The police and administration
created all the violence,” said one follower, Saheb Dass, denying that those
inside the compound were armed. He said that Mr. Rampal, whom he identified as
“Maharaj Ji,” had failed to appear in court on the contempt of court charges
because he was ill, and would do so when he recovered. “He is our god,” Mr.
Dass said. “We believe him one hundred percent. He gives us spiritual
knowledge. He explains us the meaning of God. He is our God. Whatever he says
proves true one hundred percent.”
Mr. Rampal, the son of a farmer, has
said he reached a crossroads in his life in his mid-40s, when he met a guru and
ascetic named Swami Ramdevanand and left government service.
He established his first ashram several years later, attracting
a following among “retired government servants and other poor people,” Mr. Kaushik
said.
He has challenged a range of traditional Hindu practices, like
fasting and going on pilgrimages, and courted controversy by attacking the
doctrines of more established sects.
The 2006 charges stem from a bloody clash between his followers
and those of Arya Samaj, and he considered that episode a great boost to his
image, noting on his website that he was jailed at the time and, “in this way,
in the year 2006, Saint Rampal Ji Maharaj became famous.”
He preaches with
special vigor against
the use of alcohol or tobacco. Those who smoke tobacco, he said in a videotaped
sermon, “will be reborn as a dog in the next 70 lives.”
Drinkers of alcohol, he said, “could be reborn as a goat or a
chicken or somehow have a painful death by having their head cut off, either
with an ax or some other instrument used to behead people.”
