Asaram
Asumal Sirumalani Harpalani, known by devotees as Asaram, is an Indian spiritual leader and convicted rapist, who started to come into the limelight in the early 1970s. By 2013, he was estimated to have established over 400 ashrams and 40 schools in India and abroad.
Multiple legal proceedings have been initiated against him, in connection with illegal encroachment, rape, and tampering of a witness. In 2018, Asaram was found guilty of the rape of a minor girl by Special Judge Madhusudhan Sharma of a special Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe court in Jodhpur and is currently serving life imprisonment in Jodhpur. Asaram's counsel has filed an appeal in the Rajasthan High Court challenging the judgment of the special court. The counsel argues that the trial court ignored significant facts and claims that the case is a clear and disturbing illustration of trial by media.
In January 2025, Asaram Bapu was granted interim bail by Supreme Court till 31st March 2025 on medical grounds. The bench noted that he was suffering from various age-related health conditions and had previously suffered a series of heart attacks. In October 2025, he was granted an interim bail of six months by Rajasthan High Court on medical grounds.
In 2024, Supreme Court lawyer and activist of the 'Fight for your Right' organisation, Kirti Ahuja alleged significant deficiencies in the legal proceedings in Asaram Bapu case. She said that the trial courts in Jodhpur and Ahmedabad failed to address several lacunae within the case, leading to a potential miscarriage of justice.
Early life
Asaram was born on 17 April 1941, in the Berani village of the Nawabshah District in British India, to Menhgiba and Thaumal Sirumalani, in the Sindhi community. His birthname was Asumal Thaumal Harpalani or Asumal Sirumalani.Following the partition of India in 1947, he and his family moved to Ahmedabad, then part of the former Bombay State in India, leaving behind their immovable assets in Sindh, where Asaram's father founded a coal and wood selling business. Asumal ran this business for a short time, after his father's death. He received his formal education at Jai Hind High School, up-till class III, when his father died.
Introduction into spirituality
Asumal fled to an ashram eight days before his eventual wedding but was persuaded by his family to return. He left home at age of 23 after marriage, but returned after meeting his spiritual guru Leelashahji Maharaj in Nainital. He was ordained as Asaram in 1964 by his guru whose spiritual lineage is said to include Vedavyasji, Adi Shankaracharyaji, Dadu Dayalji.Sources mention him to have been involved in a variety of professions ranging from selling liquors and tea to repairing cycles and trading sugar, prior to his establishment as a religious leader. In December 2017, Asaram was declared as a fake baba by Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, an organisation of Hindu Sants and Sadhus in India.
Personal life
Asaram is married to Laxmi Devi. They have two children, son Narayan Sai and daughter Bhartishree or Bharti Devi. Asaram remained a householder and was never ordained a monk. Their son Narayan worked with Asaram. In 2019, a sessions court sentenced Narayan to life imprisonment in a rape case filed against him by a former woman devotee in 2013. Laxmi Devi and Bhartishree were also arrested in relation to Asaram's offences, being accused of aiding and abetting the crime. They were acquitted for lack of evidence.Activities
Rise to prominence
According to his official biography, Asaram returned to Ahmedabad on 8 July 1971 and on 29 January 1972, built a hut at Motera, then a village on the banks of the Sabarmati. Although his official biography does not mention it, Asaram had lived in Motera's Sadashiv Ashram for two years, before setting up his own hut adjacent to it.He became a popular katha-vachak, combining his discourses with humour, music and dancing. Initially outside of his own Sindhi community, he attracted Other Backward Classes and Dalits. After he became well known, he started attracting the upper-caste listeners also. His ashrams offered free food. In the tribal areas, feasts were organized where utensils and clothes were distributed.
He converted his hut into a small ashram in 1973, and started with 5–10 followers. With successive local governments from across the political divide, paying economic patronage to him including by grant of lands for expansion of his ashrams, and a growing Hinduisation of the Gujarati society in the wake of Hindutva centered politics.
Many political leaders went on to visit him to pay him respect through the decades; primarily in lieu of commanding the votes of his followers, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Narendra Modi, Digvijaya Singh, Farook Abdullah, George Fernandes, Raman Singh, Uma Bharti, Kapil Sibal, Ajay Maken, Motilal Vora, Krishna Tirath, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Kamal Nath By 2013, Asaram claimed to have four hundred major and minor ashrams in India and 18 other countries, with over forty million followers.
Teachings and views
Asaram's core teachings align with Hindutva-centred views. Ram Puniyani notes overt Brahminical tones in his teachings.Emphasizing upon the prominence of Brahmcharya and Guru-Shishya relationship, it was instilled among the devotees, to accept Asaram as infallible, be blindly obedient to them and not to question them about anything, whatsoever. Physical violence is advocated for against any dissident.
Asaram has been long vocal against increasing sexual liberation of the society and deemed the adoption of Western culture artifacts as corruption of morality. Shri Yogi Vedanta Seva Samiti organized a Matri Pitri Poojan Divas on 14 February, as a form of protest against Valentine's Day, which is supposedly symbolic of a Western cultural invasion. Asaram's proposal was supported by many prominent Indian politicians including union ministers and the President of India. In 2015, the Government of Chhattisgarh state even institutionalized the practice, and directed all schools to observe Matru-Pitru Diwas every year on 14 February after Asaram urged the Chief Minister Raman Singh in this regard. Similar statement was also issued by Hindu Mahasabha. In 2014 he started Tulsi Poojan Diwas to counter the celebration of Christmas.
The teachings are typically pre-recorded and broadcast through mass-media. Asaram has also organized spiritual discourses all over India, whence his disciples are accorded diksha by him. Around 20,000 students visited his satsang in Ahmedabad in December 2001. He has also participated in shuddhi movements, and advocated against conversion to Christianity.
In 2024, thousands gathered at Asaram's Ahmedabad Ashram for Spiritual Awakening shivir organized during Diwali. The annual seven day event aimed to promote holistic development through Vedic knowledge, yogic practices and cultural revival.
Economic activities
Asaram runs an Ayurvedic medicine business. Two magazines—RishiPrasad, a monthly and Lok Kalyan Setu, a fortnightly—sold about 14 lakh copies every month in 2008, incurring a net annual earning of around INR 7.50 crore. Around three to four Gurupurnima functions, held per year, received donations ranging into crores of rupees. Frontline valued his assets at about INR 5000 Crore.Gross economic mismanagement has been documented.
Tulsi Pujan Diwas
Asaram constituted Tulsi Pujan Diwas in 2014. It has been promoted as an alternative to Christmas.Controversies
Land encroachment
Asaram had a modus operandi of occupying vacant plots of land, through illegal means including forgery of records and unleashing a throng of devotees, when resisted by the state machinery. A number of his ashrams have faced legal challenges, on grounds of illegal encroachment. Multiple state governments have razed ashrams to reclaim lands, that were illegally encroached upon and there are multiple pending cases and investigations.In February 2009, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly had revealed Asaram illegally encroaching upon net land of 67,099 sq. m, in Ahmedabad alone. In February 2013, Serious Fraud Investigation Office recommended his prosecution in land encroachment worth INR 700 crore.
Gurukul deaths
By 2008, 40 of Asaram's ashrams had gurukuls attached to them.On 3 July 2008, two boys went missing from Asaram's gurukul in Motera. The boys' parents alleged that the ashram administration initially tried to restrain them from lodging a complaint with the police and that the police harassed them on receiving cues from ashram heavyweights. On 5 July 2008, the boys' mutilated bodies were found on the banks of the Sabarmati River near the Ashram, with the ashram having conducted several futile religious efforts in locating them. The incident led to unprecedented state-wide public agitations, with allegations that the boys had been sacrificed by Asaram and his followers through black magic.
Around the same time, two more boys were found dead at a sister-gurukul in Chhindwara. There were widespread local protests with calls for closure and numerous parents chose to take away their wards as a result, especially after the ashram authorities tried to prevent any telephonic conversation between them. The post-mortem report of the first death did not show any abnormality other than that of accidental death by drowning, and the parents accepted the results whilst giving Asaram and the Ashram authorities a clean chit. Forensic investigation went on to reveal bite marks on the second body; however, the parents chose to not hold the Ashram authorities of any negligence, and instead wanted a probe into an alleged conspiracy to defame the ashram. A magistrate-level inquiry was subsequently ordered, which held a fourteen year old fellow student of murdering both the children. The ashram was soon shut for at least a week.
The Narendra Modi-led Gujarat state government set up the Justice D.K. Trivedi Commission to probe the deaths in the Motera ashram and allotted a time-frame of three months. The commission had been criticized by the High Court for its procedural biases towards Asaram; the final report was submitted in 2013, but were only disclosed in 2019 by the state legislature, essentially exonerating Asaram of all charges but holding the ashram authorities responsible for negligence. A concurrent CID probe, ordered on the behest of the High Court of Gujarat had already rejected the claims of practice of black magic, in 2010.
It was reported that after this event, Narendra Modi had warned the Vishwa Hindu Parishad not to support Asaram in any public forum. Asaram's supporters attempted to a patch-up with Modi, but were unsuccessful. VHP was critical of Narendra Modi for abandoning Asaram. Modi later in 2013 asked BJP not to defend Asaram. Modi also ordered an investigation into his ashram properties.