Jaspal Singh Sidhu looks at the genesis of Sant Rampal and ‘Satlok Ashram’ the religious centre he established.
The arrest of former public servant -turned-godman 63-year-old Rampal from his Barwala (Hissar) ashram seems to have ended the two-week long much publicized drama enacted by the Haryana police, but it has, rather, widened social and religious gulf among the people of the area . The police operation took life of five women and a child, injuring of many others including two dozen media persons covering the event. Technically, Rampal’s arrest was sought by the Punjab and Haryana high court in a case of ‘criminal contempt of court’ following his persistent in refusal to appear before the court.
The Barwala event signals much more than what one gathers from the media. Rampal’s abortive defiance appears to be (consciously or unconsciously) challenging the hegemony of the Sangh Privar ideology based on Aryans and non- Aryans divide which uses the Vedic literature as manifestation of the Aryan race. The media story, invariably, only covers the present happenings. And, it is meant for the consumption of general public only interested in the day-to-day developments. For obvious reasons, such reporting suits both the government of the day and the media outlets. By and large, the media (newspapers and TV channels) reels out largely that information (official version) which police and official machinery serves them with punctuation of a little-bit material on the root cause of the controversy which has climaxed to the dramatic custody of Rampal by the police.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
This is such an eye-opening account. I had this feeling that something was totally disturbing in the narrative of media, when I learnt he was a ‘Kabirpanthi’ and mostly a godmen of low castes. Now I know better. While the law is supreme and should take its course, one can’t help but feel sorry for another light fading out, that could have challenged the new found hegemony of Sangh parivaar and their puritanical ‘Hindutva’. Sigh!
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Thanks to all who pointed out that the link did not work. It’s corrected now.
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A tale of two Rams’ – One got Z-grade security, another got stick. Arya samaj is the ideological fount of RSS. Does this mean that all the group that have ideologies different from Arya Samaj will be similarly prosecuted or the have make individual deals ala Dera Sacha Sauda? Is this another step in homogenising India in the Image of alleged Aryavarata?
The way corporate media is working overtime to hang him even before the trial has started (deja vu from different elections and non-BJP scams), the question arises that whether they are trying to crush Rampal or the dignity of his Kabirpanthi followers?
All the allegations and cases of other Ram has been conveniently swept under the carpet.
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I beg to differ , if Arya Samaj is the ideological found of Hindutva , then I guess Shankaracharyas would have been dead . You while saying this had Arya Samaj’s pre-partition communal tirades against Muslims , just as Deoband’s Tablighis.had their own tirades against Hindus. You perhaps forget that before developing itself into a movement calling for “Hindu Identity” (similar to the Aligarh Movement) , their founder Dayanand Saraswati had fought & was ostracised by the Shankaracharyas . Arya Samaj remains the only Hindu movement that remains pro-reforms & its founder decried Hindu superstitions vehemently unlike Gandhi who defended them , name any Hindu movement ,esp. in North India that even comes close enough to it?? Even Vivekananda did not.
I do not support BJP but I support anything done by anyone to crush these godmen & please do not add caste argument blindly (without evidence) to defend him, because that would also be applicable to Asaram.
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Annihilate the Hinduism from Earth all problems in India will solve in no time. Hindus had produced cock and bull stories and nothing else
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