First, let me say bluntly that @doppelgangerr is peddling an unsavoury and underhanded line of misinformation, hinting that these are minority Sikhs who are being oppressed, or whose religious leader is being framed and has been convicted with insufficient evidence.
No that is obvious even to me who knows nothing about this case. The two issues have no relation to each other. Its the same as branding a " payment of compensation strike" into a secessionist movement. No relation with each other and forceful joinder.
His name gives it away; he is a professional for-profit religionista in it for the sake of the money.
As these fraudia pirs are. Leeches wouldn't even cover it. I have seen and read many cases like this over here. You wouldn't believe half of them. To this extent that I joke with my mother that if I create a fake grave at night and tomorrow scream that this grave suddenly appeared and a saint used to live here thus its his grave, then the masses will come here and they will pay me to pray by the grave and I will have a following. At this point I blame the pirs and the followers more. The pirs are scam artists. Its the idiots who follow them blindly who are at fault.
To summarise the case, this utterly bizarre individual preached an utterly bizarre philosophy, that more or less projected himself as a uniquely privileged human being to whom God spoke personally and distinctively, and who was blessed with near-divine insight and understanding. I am not using the P***het word so as to keep away the lunatic fringe that will twist this incident into a blasphemy trial with effortless ease.
Tch. And they Bought it. At this point what can one say.
He used rape on women as a purifying rite, and that shows how bizarre the whole thing is. His conviction was based solidly on the rules of evidence, and on the testimony of victimised women devotees. For men, his prescription was the opposite; in an apparent effort (one can only hazard guesses about his distinctly odd views) to purify them, he encouraged them to castrate themselves (historically interested members reading this may read up on the practices of the Cathars), and around a couple of hundred idiots actually did castrate themselves, or got themselves castrated. Frankly, I did not care, and do not care to go into the details of these operations. He has got into trouble with the Sikhs in the past. Calling him a Sikh leader is a total misreading of the situation, and displays total ignorance of the facts.
Castration for men and rape for women. I am gonna take a wild guess that since he was exempt from the castration bcz he was sent to purify women by raping them whereas as every other male in the world should be castrated and every female has to be raped by him for purity.
I don't have words anymore. Its the same thing. The pirs don't start their religion but its the same bullshit.
Naturally. Only a fool would call him a Sikh leader. The guy has created his own messed up religion. It doesn't matter if his following are Hindu, Sikh, Muslim. When you deviate from the religion like this then you are inventing your own religion and your followers who believe in you have deviated themselves thus are members of that new religion.
His followers won't even be classified as Hindus. They would be and should be classified as followers of this mad religion. They can revert back but as long as they believe in this idiot, then they are followers of this new religion.
This doesn't even classify as a sect. A sect is based on the major and main tenents with disagreement or following of different interpretation. Over 90% of sects are similiar. However when you change the main theme of a religion then you make a new religion.
Sectarian difference. Shias saying imamat or caliphate should have been hazrat Ali ( RA) and the interpretation of these verses and hadeeth create these laws. Sunnis disagreeing. The theme is same, the belief is same. Slight differences.
Religious difference. Christianity saying Christ is some of god and Muslims saying that no. God is one and Christ was simply a profit. Huge difference means a separate religion.
Mass difference means that its a religion separate.
So calling this baba a Sikh or Hindu is wrong. Same for his followers.
As for the idiots who castrated themselves. Well at least they won't breed.
In a European or American context, he might have been committed to medical or psychiatric treatment; as it is, in the Indian legal system, the court quite correctly threw the book at him.
I am with the courts here. Infact frankly I don't support psychiatric treatment in legal system for criminals ( unless they take the insane plea). Sorry he knew what he was doing when he did those things and rather than wasting money on finding out what childhood issues led him to this, the money would be better spent on other things.
It is entirely the fault of the wretched administration, whose ministers are busy renaming cities, preserving cows by liquidating potential human threats to cows, such as killing any non-caste Hindu found near them, proclaiming that cows produce more oxygen than they consume, and other such breathtaking insights into the natural state of things, and have too little time to do what they ought to have been doing, maintaining law and order and promoting the prosperity and well-being of their constituencies.
It always is which allows such characters power. The administration and even police are not blind to such things and often lower level administration and police are paid by such characters a percentage share. If subcontinent had great administration of state which focused on pressing issues then we would be like Japan a nation devastated by atomic bomb in 1945 and has left the entire sub continent in the dust. In fact its so far ahead, we can't even see him.
No. There are times when they troll in an ignorant manner, and at those times, they need to be corrected in full detail, so that others don't get taken in by their very plausible phrases and expressions.
I applaud your efforts.