Asaram

Early life

Asaram was born on 17 April 1941, in the Berani village of the Nawabshah District in British India (present-day Berani Town is located in Jam Nawaz Ali Tehsil of Sanghar district Sindh, Pakistan), to Menhgiba and Thaumal Sirumalani, in the Sindhi community. His birthname was Asumal Thaumal Harpalani or Asumal Sirumalani.

Following the partition of India in 1947, he and his family moved to Ahmedabad, then part of the former Bombay State in India (now Gujarat), leaving behind their immovable assets in Sindh, where Asaram's father founded a coal and wood selling business. Asumal ran this business for a short time, after his father's death. He received his formal education at Jai Hind High School, up-till class III, when his father died.

Introduction into spirituality Asumal fled to an ashram eight days before his eventual wedding He was ordained as Asaram

Sources mention him to have been involved in a variety of professions ranging from selling liquors prior to his establishment as a religious leader.

Personal life Asaram is married to Laxmi Devi. They have two children, son Narayan Sai and daughter Bhartishree or Bharti Devi. Asaram remained a householder and was never ordained a monk. Their son Narayan worked with Asaram. In 2019, a sessions court sentenced Narayan to life imprisonment in a rape case filed against him by a former woman devotee in 2013. Laxmi Devi and Bhartishree were also arrested in relation to Asaram's offences, being accused of aiding and abetting the crime. They were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Activities

Rise to prominence According to his official biography, Asaram returned to Ahmedabad on 8 July 1971 and on 29 January 1972, built a hut at Motera, then a village on the banks of the Sabarmati.

He became a popular katha-vachak (narrator of religious stories), combining his discourses with humour, music and dancing. Initially outside of his own Sindhi community, he attracted Other Backward Classes and Dalits. After he became well known, he started attracting the upper-caste listeners also. His ashrams offered free food. In the tribal areas, feasts were organized where utensils and clothes were distributed.

He converted his hut into a small ashram in 1973, and started with 5–10 followers. With successive local governments from across the political divide, paying economic patronage to him including by grant of lands for expansion of his ashrams, and a growing Hinduisation of the Gujarati society in the wake of Hindutva centered politics. Many political leaders went on to visit him to pay him respect through the decades; primarily in lieu of commanding the votes of his followers, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Narendra Modi, Digvijaya Singh, Farook Abdullah, George Fernandes, Raman Singh, Uma Bharti, Kapil Sibal, Ajay Maken, Motilal Vora, Krishna Tirath, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Kamal Nath By 2013, Asaram claimed to have four hundred major and minor ashrams in India and 18 other countries, with over forty million followers.

Teachings and views Asaram's core teachings align with Hindutva-centred views. Ram Puniyani notes overt Brahminical tones in his teachings.

Emphasizing upon the prominence of Brahmcharya and Guru-Shishya relationship, it was instilled among the devotees, to accept Asaram (and his son) as infallible, be blindly obedient to them and not to question them about anything, whatsoever. Shri Yogi Vedanta Seva Samiti organized a Matri Pitri Poojan Divas ("mother-father worship day") on 14 February, as a form of protest against Valentine's Day, which is supposedly symbolic of a Western cultural invasion. Asaram's proposal was supported by many prominent Indian politicians including union ministers and the President of India. In 2015, the Government of Chhattisgarh state even institutionalized the practice, and directed all schools to observe Matru-Pitru Diwas ("mother-father day") every year on 14 February after Asaram urged the Chief Minister Raman Singh in this regard. Similar statement was also issued by Hindu Mahasabha. In 2014 he started Tulsi Poojan Diwas (a day to worship Tulsi - the Holy Hindu plant) to counter the celebration of Christmas.

The teachings are typically pre-recorded and broadcast through mass-media. He has also participated in shuddhi movements, and advocated against conversion to Christianity.

Economic activities Asaram runs an Ayurvedic medicine business.

Tulsi Pujan Diwas Asaram constituted Tulsi Pujan Diwas in 2014. It has been promoted as an alternative to Christmas.

Controversies Land encroachment Asaram had a modus operandi of occupying vacant plots of land, through illegal means including forgery of records

In February 2009, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly had revealed Asaram illegally encroaching upon net land of 67,099 sq. m, in Ahmedabad alone.

Gurukul deaths

By 2008, 40 of Asaram's ashrams had gurukuls (residential schools) attached to them. There were widespread local protests with calls for closure and numerous parents chose to take away their wards as a result, especially after the ashram authorities tried to prevent any telephonic conversation between them. The post-mortem report of the first death did not show any abnormality other than that of accidental death by drowning, and the parents accepted the results whilst giving Asaram and the Ashram authorities a clean chit. Forensic investigation went on to reveal bite marks on the second body; The ashram was soon shut for at least a week. A concurrent CID probe, ordered on the behest of the High Court of Gujarat had already rejected the claims of practice of black magic, in 2010.

It was reported that after this event, Narendra Modi had warned the Vishwa Hindu Parishad not to support Asaram in any public forum. Asaram's supporters attempted to a patch-up with Modi, but were unsuccessful. VHP was critical of Narendra Modi for abandoning Asaram. Modi later in 2013 asked BJP not to defend Asaram. Modi also ordered an investigation into his ashram properties.

Delhi gang rape comments In January 2013, while addressing a gathering of his followers, Asaram commented of the 2012 Delhi gang rape victim to be as guilty as her rapists: "The victim is as guilty as her rapists… She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop… This could have saved her dignity and life. Can one hand clap? I don't think so." He went on to opine against harsher punishments for the accused in the Delhi rape victim case (under retrospective provisions), as he felt that the law had the potential to be misused.

The comments were widely criticized. Asaram states that his statements were distorted and misrepresented.

Jodhpur rape convictions and imprisonment In August 2013, a 16-year-old girl who was staying at Asaram's ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur, The girl's parents, who were disciples of Asaram, filed a complaint with the police in Delhi, and a case was registered after the medical examination of the girl confirmed sexual assault. The issue was discussed in Indian Parliament and a strict action was demanded. Asaram was in one of his ashram(s) in Indore when clashes broke out between his disciples and the journalists and policemen. Eventually, the Jodhpur police arrested him on 1 September 2013 from his ashram, and flew him to Jodhpur, where he was imprisoned. Asaram was charged under Sections 342, 376, 506 and 509 of the IPC, as well as under Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and sections 23 and 26 of the Juvenile Justice Act. Ashok Singhal and Pravin Togadia, presidents of Vishva Hindu Parishad deemed the arrest to be an attack on Hindu religious sentiments; Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the ruling party and the Hindu Jagruti Manch organised violent demonstrations across the country, in protest. News reports claimed Asaram had accused Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to have conspired against him but was also quoted as saying "No, I don't accuse anyone. I am just saying what I heard". In 2015, Subramanian Swamy repeated same allegation citing Asaram has been framed in this case for his work against conversions.

Asaram had dismissed the girl's allegations and claimed impotency (which was subsequently proved to be untrue). Asaram had submitted to the court citation letters from former presidents KR Narayanan and APJ Abdul Kalam, former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal to buttress his claim of having performed charitable acts over the years. However, the court, which sentenced him to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl, dismissed the citations. He has since been in jail and was denied bail 12 times. The family of the victim allege that they received threats from Asaram's followers wanting the charges against him dropped. He and the other co-accuseds went on to appeal for a suspension of the sentence in the Rajasthan High Court. On 29 September 2018, the Court suspended the sentence of one of the co-accused; however, on 23 September 2019, Asaram's plea for suspension was rejected. Appeal said the trial court ignored many facts in its decision, "The present case is a clear and disturbing illustration of trial by media." A separate appeal on the premises of the merits of the judgement, is ongoing.

Asaram continues to evoke blind devotion from his followers, who believe that he has been the victim of a conspiracy.

Surat rape case In December 2013, Asaram's son Narayan was arrested on charges of rape, after two sisters from Surat alleged that he and his father had raped them in Asaram's ashram during the mid-2000s. The elder sister accused Asaram of repeated sexual assaults during 1997–2006 at the Motera ashram, whilst the younger sister accused Narayan of sexually assaulting her during 2002–2005 at the Surat ashram. One of the sisters also alleged that Asaram's wife and daughter helped the two men exploit the girls. In January 2023, a Gandhi Nagar court convicted him of this charge and sentence him to life imprisonment.

On April 26, 2019, Narayan was convicted under Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 323 (assault), 506-2 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (conspiracy) by Surat Court and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Attacks against witnesses From 2014 to 2015, there have been numerous attacks against various witnesses and relatives of victims, in the Asaram case.

A former devotee and Asaram's videographer was fired at by vehicle-borne assailants in March 2014. Narendra Yadav, a vernacular journalist who profiled multiple stories on Asaram's exploits, was attacked in September 2014; he survived. Another of Asaram's former personal assistants, who turned witness in the Jodhpur as well as Surat cases, was victim of a stabbing by one of Asaram's follower after a court-session in February 2015; he alleged the act to have been green-lit by Asaram himself. Months later, the man went missing and police have failed to find any trace, till date; he had filed a plea in the Supreme Court for police protection, after being subject to a bevy of death threats by Asaram's followers, having mentioned about bringing more victims into the limelight. Another ex-personal-assistant and witness in both the cases narrowly missed an attempted murder in May 2015 and now lives under state protection.