Cultural transvestites, the fake Indians of Europe

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ex-l

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Cultural transvestites, the fake Indians of Europe

Post25 Jul 2016

I was reading a book about the Native American Rights movement, Acts of Rebellion by Ward Churchill and was struck a piece about what were called the "Indians of Europe" ... not 'Indian-Indians in Europe' but Europeans living out fantasy lives as American or "Red Indians" ... and how it related or was similar to the motivations of what the Brahma Kumari call their "Double Foreigners". That is, Westerners adopting Brahma Kumarism as not just their religion but as a fake identity.

An identity as a "Brahmin" or a "Yogi" based on the false construction sold by the Brahma Kumaris leaders, individuals who themselves have no real knowledge or experience of what being Brahmin or "Raja Yoga" or a what Yogi actually means.

During a speaking tour of Germany, the author and specialist on Native American "Indian" rights was repeatedly confronted by the spectacle of what he called "Indian hobbyists", German men dressed up in beaded moccasins, amulets, medicine bags, feathers head dressed and buckskin shirts. A few carried curios given to them by "one of a gaggle of Indian or pretended-Indian hucksters" exploiting their interest after making a hefty monetary contribution.

For "BK Double Foreigners", swop that for dressing up as Indian-Indians in kurta pyjamas or saris, Shiv-Shakti badges, and fake rakhis. Even going as far as adopting Indian accents, words and movements.

These hobbyists had “received instruction” from “Indian spiritual teachers” and had now adopted what he called "various deformed fragments of Native American ritual life" as being both authentic and their own. All of them maintained that they actually considered themselves to be Indians, at least “in spirit.”

Same too with Western BKs who tend to believe, and are encouraged to believe, that they must have been reincarnated Hindus or even "second birth" reincarnated Brahma Kumaris taking birth in the West to promote the religion.

The deeper one studies BKism, one realises that it too is little more than a cobbled together collection of "various deformed fragments of Hinduism and Indian ritual life".
These “Indians of Europe”, as they have been called, were uniformly open as to why they felt this way. Bluntly put ... and the majority were precisely this harsh in their own articulations ... they absolutely hated the idea of being Europeans, especially Germans.

Abundant mention was made of their collective revulsion to the European heritage of colonization and genocide, particularly the ravages of Nazism. Some went deeper, addressing what they felt to be the intrinsically unacceptable character of European civilization’s relationship to the natural order in its entirety.

Their response, as a group, was to try and disassociate themselves from what it was/is they object to by announcing their personal identities in terms as diametrically opposed to it as they could conceive. “Becoming” American Indians in their own minds apparently fulfilled this deep-seated need in a most gratifying fashion.

Yet, when I delved deeper, virtually all of them ultimately admitted they were little more than weekend warriors, or “cultural transvestites”, to borrow another author's [Christian Feest in “Europe’s Indians”] descriptors. They typically engaged in their Indianist preoccupations only during their off hours while maintaining regular jobs—mainly quite responsible and well-paying positions, at that—squarely within the very system of Germanic business-as-usual they claimed so heatedly to have disavowed, root and branch.

So too do BK adherents "engaged in their Indianist preoccupations only during their off hours", only in their case, it's "Indian-Indianist".

Bearing in mind that the original Brahma Kumaris were uneducated Sindhis from a fairly irreligious business castes, and not even mainstream Hindus from a religious caste themselves, that even their knowledge or experience of what Hinduism is was highly limited having come from a region dominated by Islam, are Western BKs not just being fake Indians?

I think one of the secrets of the BKs success is that its primary targets or adherents tend not to know or be informed at all about Yoga/Hindu/spirituality and, hence, can convey their simplistic message and beliefs with the sort of conviction only children, or blinkered and uninformed individuals, can, e.g. lacking in doubts or any ability to make comparisons. For example, BKs can carry on claim to teach "Raja Yoga" and invoke the names of all the Hindu gods primarily because they had no idea what real Raja Yoga or those god actually were in the first place.

There is no influence of outside knowledge on which to base doubts and gaining outside knowledge is discouraged.

When the author inquired as to what these "Indians of Europe" might be doing to challenge and transform the fundamental nature of the German culture, society, and state they professed to detest so deeply, they observed that they had become “spiritual people” and therefore “apolitical.” Queries concerning whether they might be willing to engage in activities to physically defend the rights and territories of indigenous peoples in North America drew much the same reply. What the author describes in his case as, "the dynamics of denial".

So too Westerner Brahma Kumari adherents don't just stray as far away as possible from political activities, especially social reform in India, or looking at the manifest politics of the Brahma Kumaris leaders in India but are clearly guided away from becoming involved in.

One of the great paradoxes about BKism for me is how, in India, the leadership and movement tends towards Right Wing establishmentarians; whilst in the West most of its adherents would more naturally tend towards being Left Wing. I cannot ever remember any open discussion about BK political policies or positions but see much evidence of their cronyism with Right Wing parties and taking the sides of large corporations and repressive agencies, e.g. police, security, military etc. I see next to no involvement on the side of workers, social or civil rights etc.
The upshot of German hobbyism, then, is that, far from constituting the sort of radical divorce from Germanic context its adherents assert, part-time impersonation of American Indians represents a means through which they can psychologically reconcile themselves to it.

By pretending to be what they are not — and in fact can never be, because the objects of their fantasies have never existed in real life — the hobbyists are freed to be what they are (but deny), and to “feel good about themselves” in the process.

Now let's translate that for BKs
The upshot of Western BKs' hobbyism, then, is that, far from constituting the sort of radical divorce from Western context its adherents assert, part-time impersonation of Brahmins or Yogi represents a means through which they can psychologically reconcile themselves to it.

By pretending to be what they are not — and in fact can never be, because the objects of their fantasies have never existed in real life — the hobbyist Brahmins are freed to be what they are (but deny), and to “feel good about themselves” in the process.

In the case of the "Indians of Europe", the author went on to note that "this sophistry allows them to contend in all apparent seriousness that they are somehow entirely separate from the oppressive status quo upon which they depend, and which their “real world” occupations do so much to make possible, they thereby absolve themselves of any obligation whatsoever to materially confront it (and thence themselves)".

What I might call in the BK case, of being spiritual without being spiritual. Redefining non-action and impotence as spirituality.

Two questions that are often asked here, that ex-BKs often ask them are ... "how or why on earth did I get sucked into BKism?".

I think, at least in the old days, this element of wanting to escape and feel separate from that which they are unhappy about was part of it, whether at an individual or a national/cultural level. That is to say, there was a hippie, orientalist or counter cultural element to early Western BKs.

I am not sure if that still applies now as even those original hippie, orientalist or counter cultural Western BKs have turned around and whored themselves and their religion out as "corporate coaches" not just "serving" but even boasting about serving the most materialistic "evil" on the planet; Fortune 500 corporations, repressive government, the military etc!

How the whole "fake Brahmin" posing translates to non-Brahmin Indian-Indian BKs, I am not sure. Is it the same? Is there some attraction to lower caste Indians to pretend they are the "real" Brahmins, as the BKs claim? Is there the same desire to separate themselves from Indian society and be free of any responsibility to actually engage with it and reform it ... instead just to fantasise about its Destruction through nuclear and civil war and "steal the butter" afterwards?

If Western BKs are "cultural transvestites", what does that make Indian BKs in the West adopting Western motifs and styles ... "cultural schizophrenics".
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ex-l

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Re: Cultural transvestites, the fake Indians of Europe

Post25 Jul 2016

Talking about the Native American impersonators, the author goes on to state
... since this sophistry allows them to contend in all apparent seriousness that they are somehow entirely separate from the oppressive status quo upon which they depend, and which their “real world” occupations do so much to make possible, they thereby absolve themselves of any obligation whatsoever to materially confront it (and thence themselves).

Voilà! “Wildmen” and “primitives” carrying out the most refined functions of the German corporate state; “warriors” relieved of the necessity of doing battle other than in the most metaphorical of senses, and then always (and only) in service to the very structures and traditions they claim—and may even have convinced themselves to believe at some level or another—their perverse posturing negates.

Applying that to Western BKs, especially their "management leadership" and political schmoozing modes, we would have a situation where
"BK sophistry allows them to contend in all apparent seriousness that they are somehow entirely separate from the materialistic or body conscious status quo upon which they depend and which they support and encourage, they thereby absolve themselves of any obligation whatsoever to confront it (and thence themselves)".

Something like ...
Voilà! “Brahmins” and "Yogis" carrying out the most refined functions of the corporate or political state; “religionists” relieved of the necessity of carrying out anything more than the most metaphorical of activities, and then only in service of the very structures and traditions they claim — and may even have convinced themselves to believe at some level or another — their perverse posturing negates.


In BKism, their "perverse posturing" includes the negation - the Destruction - of all current civilised, democratic or political activities. Literally, in the case of India, the taking over of government.
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Pink Panther

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Re: Cultural transvestites, the fake Indians of Europe

Post25 Jul 2016

Bearing in mind that the original Brahma Kumaris were uneducated Sindhis from a fairly irreligious business castes, and not even mainstream Hindus from a religious caste themselves, that even their knowledge or experience of what Hinduism is was highly limited

There is a similar phenomenon that takes place with other indigenous cultures, the one I know more about is the Australian Aboriginals. Those who are not true custodians of ancient knowledge, those who are outliers, fringe dwellers, mavericks or even outcasts, will trade what they know for recognition and respect form the mainstream society.

But those who are the actual elders and true custodians of the ancient knowledge won’t reveal or pretend to reveal that anyone else knows what they know - or understand it correctly, it is secret. Every nation (tribe/language group) has its own, and then there are shared or common ones.

There are so-called ”secrets” that are shared as part of cultural exchange or as part of cultural tourism and a means to make money, but these are the equivalent of kids stories, e.g. creation myths of the rainbow serpent are told like fairy stories and no inkling is ever given as to the key that allows us to understand what they really mean. Although, for fear of it dying out completely, more are sharing their deeper knowledge with scholars who show themselves able to comprehend.

The BKs, as your statement quoted above shows, were themselves mavericks and outliers, not part of the mainstream or the tradition. They took what they had and traded it for ... what? Maybe for security, narcissism, need for validation or compensation, like the German weekend warriors?

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