1 A REPORT BY THE ADI SHAIVITE MINORITY TRADITION (ASMT) HINDU COMMUNITY JUNE 2021

Introduction

1. The human rights situation for women and children in India is abysmal. Despite tremendous public outcry against crimes against women and children such as ****, sexual violence, gender-based harassment, and female infanticide happen unabated in India. The State of the Republic of India has been either unwilling or unable to curtail these crimes. India is the most dangerous country for sexual violence against women, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation 2018 survey. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau, the **** of minor girls increased by 82% in the year 2016 compared with the previous year. Sexual violence and brutal **** have been weaponized against minority women and children by extremist militant elements at the highest levels of governance. This weaponization of sexual violence targeting women and children is part of a more pervasive and systematic campaign targeting certain indigenous spiritual traditions, minority communities, and their leaders, especially those from linguistic and religious minority groups, and of dark-skinned people of indigenous spiritual traditions, and of ethnic native-Hindu tribes that have existed in India for millennia. One such indigenous spiritual tradition currently targeted for extermination by the Neo-Hindutva extremist militants is the Hindu Adi Shaiva Minority Tradition ("ASMT") in India. The women, children, and young girls of the ASMT community were the most vulnerable target of the Neo-Hindutva extremism.

2. The ASMT explicitly rejects extremism of all types. The extremist militant elements are opposed to ASMT's stance when it comes to the rights of women, including otherwise marginalized Dalit women, and the rights of members of the LGBTQ+ and transgendered communities. The neo-Hindutva terrorists despise Hindu women in monastic and priestly roles. The spiritual head of ASMT has publicly declared himself to be transcendental gender and possessing multiple gender components. The neo-Hindutva extremists see LGBTQ+ rights as immoral. The ASMT freely ordains women into Sannyasa (the monastic order), recognizes 11 genders, and performs specific temple rituals for gay marriage, as per more than 5000-year-old indigenous spiritual scriptures. The ASMT represents one of the most progressive ideologies and is a target of persecution by the neo-Hindutva extremists.

3. ASMT tradition is ancient. Around 3200BCE, the Mahabharata war ended in the Indian sub-continent. At that time, at least 56 nations in Asia gave shelter to more than 10,000 Hindu communities and protected the rights of women. These 56 nations spanned from Gandhara (in Afghanistan) to Kadaram (Kedah in Malaysia). The town of Parshu in present-day Iran finds mention in ancient Hindu scriptures as a Hindu city today has no Hindu men or women. The four thousand indigenous people of Kalash (Chitral Valley, Pakistan), the only survivors of the ancient ASMT tradition in the region though separated over a distance of 10000 KMs, are no different from indigenous Adi Shaivas of Kashmir (North India), or indigenous Adi Shaivas of Tamil Nadu (South India), or the Adi Shaivas of Bali (Indonesia). Although Hinduism is alive as a culture, its political and religious legitimacy was wiped from the geography of Asia, as these nations got invaded and colonized. These invasions caused a genocide, where per estimates 80 million to 400 million people were killed through massacre, mass gang rapes, and torture. Thousands of temples, universities, and libraries were destroyed. The ten thousand Hindu communities which existed by 3200BCE were reduced to three thousand.

4. In Hinduism, the highest reverence is attributed to the Guru (the spiritual guide in the body, or, in principle in the form of teachings as scripture, or a worshipped Deity). Hindu scriptures declared, "Indeed, the Guru is the whole universe….There is nothing higher than the Guru. Therefore, worship the Guru." In Hindu families, the mother is worshipped as the first Guru of the child. In Hinduism, all women are not merely respected as equal to men, rather worshipped as a manifestation of Devi Parashakti (supreme primordial cosmic divinity). In Hinduism, young girls are worshipped from infancy as an incarnation of Divine mother Goddess as worship of it is considered to bring fortune and well-being.

(Oct 2018) As part of the festival of Navaratri, a young ASMT girl receiving Kumari Puja, a ritual where Devi Parashakti (primordial Hindu divinity and supreme God) is invoked in women and small girls, and puja (worship) is offered to them.

5. In ancient Hindu nations, some young girls, who cognized themselves as a manifestation of Divine Mother, chose to never marry any human and dedicated themselves to the administration of Hindu temples and worship of the Deity (or God) of the temple. There were many such monastic traditions, such as Rudrakanyas (Daughters of Lord Rudra) and Devadasis. Colonial views on Devadasi were highly subversive, leading to their socio-economic deprivation and exploitation. The colonial-era government of India ran State-sponsored brothels through several legislations. This practice was severely criticized by citizens of England and other European countries. British Government also established institutions known as Lock Hospitals where women were brought to be treated for venereal diseases. However, many of the women admitted to these hospitals, including many Devadasi, were identified through the registry and were brought to the hospitals against their will. A number of these women were never seen again by their families. Over time through hate literature, the Hindu nuns (Rudrakanyas and Devadasis) were stigmatized as prostitutes during the colonial era. After independence, the State of Tamil Nadu passed legislation criminalizing the tradition. This bill, stereotyped and marginalized the Devadasis by addressing them as prostitutes. The will was opposed by Devadasis but enacted and made into a law. This reinforced the colonial stigma around the tradition undermining the human rights of Hindu nuns.

Challenges face by ASMT women

(a) Shaming of child **** victims by media

6. In 2009, a twelve-year-old ASMT girl was kidnapped and molested by a Neo-Hindutva extremist. The US courts sentenced the child rapist to 57 months imprisonment. This did not remedy the damage. The child rapist filed several vexatious litigations in India and the US. In the US, these false allegations by the child rapist, such as calling the child a "liar", and her parents and community part of a "brainwashing", "cult" etc., were all rejected by the court with a penalty for defamation with cost. This did not deter the neo-Hindutva media from victimizing the child with hours of hate speech on television, for which one Samaya TV was penalized USD 5 Million by a US court. Even this has failed to redress the situation.

(b) Shaming and sexual objectification of women and girls by media

7. In India, the Neo-Hindutva media ran 14,000 hours of hateful programs marginalizing ASMT actress Ranjitha, ASMT nuns, ASMT women, and girls who had been raped by neo-Hindutva militants. The neo-Hindutva media publicly addressed them as "brainwashed", "sodomized disciples", "witches", "prostitutes", "cult worshippers", (child) "sex slaves", and also published violence-inciting prejudicial narratives such as "Hang the Sin Swamis (Hindu monks and nuns)" etc. Previously, before the sensational release of the doctored video, the senior and aged female monks who used to attend phone calls of devotees seeking spiritual counseling were faced to pick up phone calls demanding prostitution from them. Several media houses continue to publish such defamatory articles, causing marginalization of the ASMT women and girls, and dangerously inciting mob violence and **** against them.

8. People have resorted to violence after reading or watching such material, as perpetrators have directly commented on the online versions of these media clips openly accepting that they have "hit one nithyananda people", and also suggesting others should do the same by saying, "I request everyone to hit them nicely. Even don't show courtesy for women in nithyanandha ashram. They are the most dangerous."

9. 18 Jan 2018, young female nun Ma Nithyananditha received death threats over the phone by fans of V. Ramasamy, Ma Nithyananditha had voiced out against defamatory sexualization of Hindu female saint Aandal by V. Ramasamy and politically owned media. Several obscene morphed videos depicting Ma Nithyananditha and other ASMT children were uploaded on social media by followers of Ramasamy.

10. ASMT as a tradition fundamentally respects women as embodiments of divine mother Goddess, and it is extremely painful for the community to witness this smear campaign, on ASMT women. This smear campaign is not just limited to ASMT women, ASMT female monks, but the most vulnerable target of this persecution, are the ASMT girls, especially those minor girls who pursue religious studies to become nuns.

(LEFT) The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam, with a girl child of a pre-monastic family member.

(RIGHT) 17 Oct 2018: As part of the festival of Navaratri, a young ASMT girl waiting for Kumari Puja, a ritual where Devi Parashakti (primordial Hindu divinity and supreme God) is invoked in a small girl, and puja (worship) is offered to Her. (link to album)

11. Many ASMT girls who have now grown up to become nuns, had grown up in the lap of the SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam and strongly relate with Him not just as a Guru but a father figure also. As per the law in India Hindu nuns are allowed to have the name of their Guru in the place of their father in their passports. It is extremely traumatizing for these girls to be sexually linked with the SPH by the Indian media.

12. The media targeted ASMT minor girls by publishing their pictures in the national newspapers with vulgar captions. Young ASMT female monks were sexually linked with their Guru (spiritual guide and leader), the SPH, by entire cover page and several pages of yellow tabloids being dedicated to malign sacred sentiments of disciple hood. The media published fake interviews of ASMT actress Ranjitha defaming her for being a disciple of the SPH. Nakkheeran Gopal and other media heads pressured Ranjitha to commit suicide and circulated false news of the same in media as a rumor.

13. Such targeted persecution of Hindu nuns and female religious leaders is not limited to the ASMT but is aimed at destroying the rights of indigenous female spiritual leaders. Vexatious litigations have been used to persecute female Hindu spiritual leaders of minority communities on absurd allegations of indecent dressing booking it under anti-superstition laws.

(c) Intersectional sexual abuse of ASMT nuns especially targeting those from Dalit communities

14. An ASMT female monk from Dalit origin, Ma Nithya Supriyananda Swami, has faced intersecting discrimination for multiple reasons (1) ASMT origin (2) Dalit origin (3) Female monk (nun). Ma Nithya Supriyananda heads the Tamil language publication department of an ASMT monastery. On 9 May 2010, she and her team were addressed as "sex slaves" by Tamil yellow Tabloid writer Charu Nivedita. She filed a defamation case against the magazine and writers, which has been pending in the courts for a decade.

7 June 2012: Ma Nithya Jnanatmananda Swami protecting herself with a chair while Suvarna TV channel journalists and associated Nav Nirman Sene militants molest and attempt to **** her.

8 June 2012: Ma Nithya Achalananda Swami was molested and groped by Suvarna TV channel journalists and associated Nav Nirman Sene militants. (See Video clip)

15. 7 Jun 2012, BJP owned Suvarna TV's chief editor Ajith and the militants sexually assaulted female monks beat up ASMT members present on the campus. They gang-raped ASMT nun Ma Nithya Jnanatmananda Swami. This criminal act was live broadcasted on national and regional television. 28 Oct 2015, an ASMT female monk was molested and escaped an attempted **** by a neo-Hindutva militant who was declared innocent in a subsequent court trial. Ma Nithya Jnanatmananda Swami watching her sister monks being raped and denied justice was forced to flee India because of blackmail by terrorists threatening her to withdraw the case. The case filed by the ASMT nun is still pending in courts as of 2021. In the same attack of June 2012, Ma Nithya Achalananda Swami was also sexually and physically assaulted by Ajith and other militants who groped her chest and recorded it on camera to blackmail her and used it to publicly shame her. The summons issued by the court for Ajith to appear has not been delivered by the police.

(d) Image morphing deepfake technology to publicly shame women and girls

16. In the last decade, especially in India, there has been an alarming trend in the mainstream media and social media of sensational screening and manufacture of misinformation and hate speech that is marginalizing minority communities, especially targeting women with the use of image morphing and deep-fake videos. Although there are many instances of attacks against followers of the ASMT and their spiritual leader, a particular focus of attacks has been a fabricated video of 2010 of the ASMT actress Ranjitha. The video was repeatedly and sensationally broadcasted by Sun TV and various media channels to defame her character, and to delegitimize her Guru the Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism (SPH), Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam (JGM), His Divine Holiness (HDH) Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. Forensic examinations have shown the video to be fabricated, super-imposing videos of the two individuals. The Chief Operations Officer of the Sun TV, a politically owned media house run by the DMK party, gave a media interview and affidavit in a US court acknowledging the detailing the history and methodology of the blackmail and extortion followed by the channel, particularly in targeting the ASMT community and its leader the SPH involving the fabricated video. This confession and affidavit did not remedy the situation as the channel kept victimizing the actress.

(e) No Legal Recourse Available in India especially for women from a marginalized background

17. The ASMT actress, Ranjitha, petitioned in the Karnataka High Court and all available forums for several years. Although the courts ordered in her favor restraining the misinformation and telecast of fabricated deep-fake videos, the neo-Hindutva media kept pushing the implementation of the order to various quasi-legal institutions (self-regulatory bodies run by the media itself). Finally, the media self-regulatory quasi-legal body, the NBSA ordered its member channels to remove fabricated defamatory videos from their websites. None of the media houses complied with the order and kept reuploading, re-telecasting the same footage, and continue the misinformation propaganda to date. Any complaint on media in the High Court is redirected to NBSA, BCCC, or other such bodies which do not even have a website listing their policies to self-regulate. The NBSA as a self-regulatory body is toothless and is known to disregard its own guidelines and orders even when the member channels ridicule and shame dead celebrities. The NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) has maintained silence on the subject and pushed the responsibility on the State executive. A politically owned neo-Hindutva media channel aired a media report where it accused the ASMT leader SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam of raping His own biological mother (a Hindu nun) on the occasion of His father's sad demise. The channel went on to justify their sadist sexual objectification of Hindu nuns terming it as "unbiased reporting". Indian Courts are unwilling or unable in protecting ASMT women, especially nuns and children.

18. Even where ASMT nuns, ASMT women, and girls have won legal battles, it has been futile as these court orders were never executed as seen in the case of Ranjitha versus several media houses. The ordeal of Ranjitha or other ASMT women and nuns is not unique – court orders are not executed by the government executive, especially in absence of political motivation. The Indian government and Indian State departments are perceived as one of the most corrupt in the world. The mainstream Indian media and social media influencers exercise a massive influence on the masses and even the Court judges. The media is easily able to sway public opinion and even sway the opinion of judges. In a court proceeding directly involving the ASMT, the court explicitly mentioned how the court was prone to prejudice by this negative media propaganda. Though media can influence the judiciary in India, the court judgments are toothless in curbing the media's hate propaganda. Neo-Hindutva media wilfully dishonors court orders without any consequence. Though there is a possibility of legal recourse outside India, wherein 2017, a US Court penalized a neo-Hindutva media to the tune of $USD 5 Million for civil conspiracy, defamation targeting the ASMT community, and secondary victimization of an ASMT child-rape victim, such avenues are neither accessible to most nor legally tenable in all situation.

(f) State Terrorism

19. 17 Sep 2013, the Karnataka State Department of Women and Children forcibly, cruelly, and illegally interrogate children in the ASMT school (Gurukul). The interrogation was done without the consent of the parents, with no video recording of the examiners, late-night beyond the time permissible by law. The State interrogators shamed and ridiculed the children, particularly girls for their dress, pressured them to quit their spiritual-religious lifestyle, and forced children to eat unhealthy substances avoided in the ASMT lifestyle. The lawyer of the school was sued by the State for intervening in the violation of the rights of children and parents. Several such raids were done by the State and many vexatious legal proceedings and orders were executed by the State to forcibly shut down the school.

20. In November 2019, the Gujarat State government (CWC) Child Welfare Commission officials raided the female monastery and molested the children studying there. The CWC officials were pulled up by the parents of these children in the High Court. The police complaint against the State authorities was closed without investigation and the petition to the Court was forced to be withdrawn by the Court. Instead, a false case was charged against the women monk heads, and they were kept under custody for almost 3 months. The only women monastery and Hindu University were demolished. The false case is still not closed.

Recommendations

(a) Study the use of media for negatively stereotyping women, girls and female monks

21. While the use of information and communications technology has contributed to the empowerment of women and girls, its use has also generated new forms of violence against women and girls. The use of media (both conventional and social) for negative stereotyping and persecution of women, girls and female monks, especially from marginalized communities should be studied, added to the scope of Women Observatories, and brought to check.

(b) Recognize other forms of hate speech

22. Apart from discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, hate speech such as dehumanization and other forms of hateful and degrading expression of free speech should be brought under check by social media and internet intermediaries.

(c) International condemnation of deep-fake and other sophisticated smear campaigns

23. The victims of this new form of persecution, which involves deep-fake and sophisticated smear campaigns should be supported by condemnation of the violence and propaganda waged against them. The use of deep-fake videos for targeting women should be brought to check and condemned internationally.

(d) Stop detribalization of indigenous girls in the name of modernization

24. Tribal and indigenous girls should be protected from detribalization and persecution by the State as highlighted in this report. This persecution is often difficult to understand as it waged in the guise of women empowerment and child protection, which is essentially a new form of the civilizing mission.