Spiritual Fascism and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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ex-l

ex-BK

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Spiritual Fascism and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Post22 Jul 2013

I've always argued that the Brahma Kumaris, who used to call themselves a religio-political movement, are Right Wing and Conservative by nature; and that most of their Left leaning Western adherents have been duped by their clever self-promotion and sweet talking in the West.

But perhaps their political leanings go even further?

For the BKs, inequality in the real world is not natural and pre-destined as the old caste born Brahmins believe, it is eternally pre-destined. Escape from samsara is impossible. The Brahma Kumaris have actually exaggerated caste into an eternally bringing system of which they, the Kirpalani Klan of Karachi, are eternally at the top of and to be accepted and obeyed at the price of being outcaste from their totalitarian cult ... and to lose spiritual status for eternity ... if you do not.

Such inequalities and obeisances ... many based on nothing more than wealth and status in the outside world they consider "impure" and yet are financially dependent on ... were constructed in the name of God and spirituality, and are constantly reinforced socially and politically through ritual and their leaders' self-advertising.

Within BKism, any attempts to question or change the spiritual realm are forbidden. Followers are encouraged to fear stepping outside the Kirpalani Klan's norms. They are encouraged to have a fear of the very philosophy of equality itself. They are born unequal into the BK system, and live unequally. It is a system of blaming the victims for their victimhood ... even the victimisation that happen within the Brahmakumari movement.

Democracy is seen as an impure, degraded state. The lowest and most corrupt ebb of humanity.

This is language and theory not just of a Right Wing politio-religious movement but of a sort of 'spiritual fascism' in which the individual is assimilated not as equal but as a slave ... in which women and girls are forced to surrender (along with their money/dowry or property) like the Devadasis of olden times. Individuals for whom any ripples of challenging of that hegemony, "the rule of Dadi", produces an actual fear psychosis that stops them thinking never mind acting.

Paulo Freire in 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' wrote that in such systems, the oppressors also suffer from the fear of freedom because they too live in a process of dehumanisation, and that dehumanised self survives in a constant fear of future. A fear they visualise in the form of an End of the World "Destruction".

A Destruction looking far more likely to be their own now rather than that of the outside world.

The Brahma Kumaris in aping the Brahmins of the past, and audaciously taking on their titles to climb to the top of the dung heap, have become part of the old repressive Brahminical forces of India. An India in which caste is a phenomenal powerful psychological device of control. It manifests at all level of Brahma Kumarism, from the leaders' skillful and subtle put downs of their attractive courtesan Western BKs; to bossy center-in-charges demanding ordinary Indians give their wealth and jewellery to them ..."for their own good".

In a caste system, whoever is the source and decider of it can accuse the other, even blame the victim themselves for their condition. They were the most fortunately, the most divine to have spend the entire Cycle with Lekhraj Kirpalani and to be still living with him in their last birth; you having been born poor, too late or too far are clearly of a lower spiritual status.

It is of course an entirely false construction created by many layers of falsehoods and decades of deceptions.

Just as in Hinduism, when an attempt is made to oppose the philosophy of inequality, Right Wing Hindu leaders use different devices (yuktis) to destroy such opposition in every possible ways, so too within Brahma Kumarism.

Indeed, that is one of the reasons the BKWSU has a dedicated team following this forum ... not to reform any weaknesses or corruptions we expose, but to disarm them in advance before such thoughts and questions arise within their following.

Critics look at the inanimate symbols chosen by Hindu spiritual fascists, and also the Brahma Kumaris, and note that the central ones such as the swastika, the trishul (trident) and the mace are all symbols of violence and domination.

Where, for example, are is the farmers' sickle or the workers tools of production? Where is the mother's fertile breasts or wombs, symbols of nourishment worshipped in older religions? Note how Brahma Kumari Durga tames and subjugates that which is natural and wild, e.g. riding on the back of the tiger, not walks beside it equally in harmony. Why the tiger, a image of a great fear and danger to villagers even today, and not the buffalo who gives them life and with whom they labor step by step? Why the automobile, a symbol of the elite for only the elite could afford them, and not the bus or bicycle ... realities for the majority of Indians?

Do the Brahma Kumaris study such books and issues, or do they just study how to exploit such strategies for themselves?

See: Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism and the work of Dr Ambedkar.

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ex-l

ex-BK

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Re: Spiritual Fascism and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Post22 Jul 2013

A short footnote from history.
    "India" was conquered not by the British generals but by the army of Indian Untouchables who fought for them against their self-appointed and abusive overlords.
What's so cool about being a Brahmin? (*) Why would the Kirpalani Klan want to use the carrot of becoming a Brahmin as a marketing device?

For example, Gandhi was murdered by a Brahmin from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing, paramilitary, volunteer Hindu nationalist group who had let hate campaign of vilification against Gandhi in the time leading up to his killing.

That's what fascists are good, e.g. creating hatred and fear among a population in order to instigate a violent reaction. His killers' descendants still exist today within Indian society are making such statements as ...
Hemani Savarkar wrote:“We must declare ourselves a Hindu (nation) where everyone is a Hindu. Anyone who isn’t should be declared a second-class citizen and denied voting rights. Those who have problems with this should leave and settle in other countries.”

How could we translate that into Brahmakumari-ese?
BKWSU wrote:“We declare ourselves to be a global nation in which everyone is our follower. Anyone who isn’t is declared a second-class citizen and denied any rights. Those who have problems with this should leave.”

    "One people, one empire, one leader!" ... now, who said that?
* Apologies to good good Brahmins or ex-Brahmin caste members ... but I suspect you will be able to agree with these sentiments.

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