Religion and sex trade

BY M L Satyan

Bengaluru, Sept 9, 2022: Devadasi literally means “God’s female servant,” where according to the ancient Indian practice, young pre-pubertal girls were ‘married off’, ‘given away’ in matrimony to God or local religious deity of the temple. These girls were not allowed to marry, as they were supposedly married to the temple.

Her duty was to ‘serve’ the priests and other residents of the temple, and the local land lords and other men of money and power, in the town and village. The ‘service’ (sexual satisfaction) given to these men is considered akin to service of God. The Devadasi was dedicated to the service of the temple deity for life and there was no escape for her. If she wanted to escape, the society never accepted her.

Devadasi system was the institutionalized exploitation of women; exploitation of Dalits, the lower class of untouchables. It was the religious sanction given to prostitution of helpless economically and socially deprived women. Inherent in this system was the fascistic belief that a certain section of women population, the lower caste, was meant to serve the ‘higher caste’s superior men’.

Saundatti is a small temple village of in north Karnataka. It is in this village that the Devadasi tradition, one of the most criticized forms of prostitution in India, is still practiced. Despite the governmental ban, hundreds of girls are secretly dedicated to Goddess Yellamma every year. Shockingly, after the annual festival of this temple, many brothel brokers from Mumbai and other major cities come here, buy the girls (offered to Yellamma), take them and compel them to get into prostitution.

The Devadasis are known by different names in different areas. They are called Joginis or Bhogam-Vandhi in Andhra Pradesh; Muralis or Jogateen or Aradhini in Maharashtra; Maharis in Kerala; Natis in Assam; Bhavanis in Goa; Kudikar on the West-Coast and Thevadiyar in Tamil Nadu.

Inherent in the Devadasi system was the feudal-lord-temple-priest-nexus, where the priest, already having a psychological hold over the minds of simple people to the point of dictating their way of life, used his power to give ‘religious sanction’ to the practice by declaring it ‘sacred’, and thus cajole and lure simple minded villagers into this worst form of prostitution. It is sad and unfortunate that the same mindset seems to be prevalent among the Swamis and Gurus. Here are some examples.

In Karnataka Nithyananda was known for sex scandals in his ashram. Reports claim that when the police searched his premises, they found condoms, drugs as well as other contrabands at his ashram. The law failed to punish him. With the blessings of the ruling government, he is now settled in his Kailasha Kingdom.

The recent one to join him is Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru in connection with the sexual exploitation of minor girls. He is the in-charge of Muruga Mutt (Ashram) located in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. Some girl residents of his Ashram have accused him for abusing them sexually. They all have left the Ashram.

Another Lingayat seer was found dead at his Mutt in Belagavi district of Karnataka on September 06, 2022. Basava Siddalinga Swami, seer of Sri Guru Madiwaleshwar Mutt, was found hanging at his residence. He is a disciple of Shivamurthy Sharanaru – the accused seer from Karnataka in a sexual assault case.

If reports are to be believed, the seer was upset over a video in which two women were seen discussing the alleged cases of sexual assaults of Sharanaru. In this discussion the women seem to mention the name of Siddalinga. Police have recovered a purported suicide note and an investigation is underway to ascertain the reason behind his death.

In India several notable self-styled gurus have faced criminal action or are presently lodged in various jails across the country in numerous sexual assault cases. Asaram Bapu allegedly assaulted many victims, including minors as well as ‘sevikas’ (disciples) from his ashram, reports say. Sadly, a host of victims and witnesses have been silenced forever by his followers.

Asaram Bapu’s son Narayan Sai was accused of rape and sexual assault. As per the report Sai had physical relations with eight girls, some of whom were his followers. In early November of 2016, a journalist lodged a case against Narayan for sexually assaulting her when she went to interview him for a local TV channel.

Sant Rampal had been wanted in a murder case for which he had been evading appearance in the court as well as impending custody. That was not all, he shared sexual relationships with select female followers whom he called ‘sadhikayaen’ (disciples).

A study reveals that it is common for the sprawling network of godmen, gurus and swamis in the Hindu-majority country of more than a billion people to commit sexual crimes. Strangely, millions of Indians seem to be in thrall of these smooth-talking “godmen” who have built vast empires preying on their gullibility.

Bhavdeep Kang, author of “Gurus: Stories of India’s Leading Babas” believes that godmen are rarely held accountable, least of all by their devotees. She mentioned “The centrality of the godmen in the lives of their flock – as spiritual preceptors, family confidantes and business advisors – creates a dependency syndrome among the devotees.”

Prabir Ghosh, general secretary of the Science and Rationalists’ Association of India, believes devotees are beholden to these holy men by becoming part of the faithful. “We Indians are great believers in miracles and feel that somebody can get us out of our miseries. This is the prime reason we fall for these godmen,” says Ghosh.

Starting out as small-time preachers from villages and towns in the country’s rural hinterland, these so-called holy men cultivate a relationship with poor locals and over time, they acquire cult status commanding a huge following (and sometimes even political connections) to camouflage their nefarious activities.

Pradeep Singh, a sociologist said, “People everywhere in India are prone to mystics. Many fall prey to the saffron robes these godmen wear believing they are true saviours, and afterwards blind faith takes over.”

Despite the increasing sex scandals and the fall from grace, there is no dearth of self-styled godmen operating in the country. Faith in the unreasonable and irrational remains firm. A lot of “awareness building programs” need to be conducted to save the innocent, ignorant and common people from falling into the traps of the fake godmen.