NEW DELHI — At least six people have died in recent days as Indian security forces attempted to enter a heavily fortified compound and arrest a self-styled “godman,” or guru, who had surrounded himself with thousands of followers, including women and children.
Baba Rampal Maharaj, 63, who once worked as a junior engineer in the irrigation department for the northern state of Haryana, considers himself the reincarnation of Kabir, a 15th-century mystic poet. The police in Haryana are seeking to arrest him on charges of conspiracy to murder, incitement to violence and contempt of court in connection with a confrontation in 2006 between his disciples and those of other gurus.
Indian news channels have carried live reports of the standoff for days, as thousands of uniformed police officers have gathered outside the high, steel-reinforced walls of Mr. Rampal’s compound, or ashram, in the city of Barwala, firing tear gas and demolishing the outer wall with a bulldozer.
Numerous godmen, gurus and other spiritualists can be found throughout India, often establishing miniature gated communities complete with hospitals, schools and stadiums. Many of them cultivate relationships with political parties, which call on them to mobilize voters ahead of elections, and are financed by wealthy and influential patrons. Occasionally, the authorities take action against them for alleged crimes, leading to protracted, violent confrontations.
More than 10,000 people fled Mr. Rampal’s compound on Tuesday and Wednesday, but several thousand remained inside, said M. L. Kaushik, the top civil servant in the Hisar district. He said that the authorities had cut off the compound’s supplies of water and electricity about five days earlier, and that many of those who fled said they had been held against their will.
Six people were declared dead, including several whose bodies were brought out of the compound on Wednesday. Though post-mortems had not yet been conducted, Mr. Kaushik said none of the bodies showed marks of external injury.
“Family members said that they were inside the ashram for the last three months for some kind of treatment,” he said. An additional 92 people have been hospitalized, most of them with minor injuries, bone fractures or shock, said Dr. Jugal Kishore of the Maharaja Agrasen Medical College in nearby Agroha.
At a morning news conference, Haryana’s police chief, S. N. Vashisht, said the police had faced a well-organized group of defenders from inside the compound, using “petrol bombs, diesel bombs, acid pouches, illegal arms, stones and sticks as missiles against the police.” He said 100 officers had been injured during the confrontation, some by gunshots, and 430 people had been arrested.
Some of Mr. Rampal’s followers disputed that version.
“The police and administration created all the violence,” said one follower, Saheb Dass, denying that those inside the compound were armed. He said that Mr. Rampal, whom he identified as “Maharaj ji,” had failed to appear in court because he was ill, and would do so when he recovered.
“He is our god,” Mr. Dass said. “We believe him hundred percent. He gives us spiritual knowledge. He explains us the meaning of god. He is our god. Whatever he says proves true hundred percent.”
Mr. Rampal, the son of a farmer, has said he reached a crossroads in his life in his mid-40s, when he met a guru and ascetic named Swami Ramdevanand. He established his first ashram several years later, attracting a following among “retired government servants and other poor people,” Mr. Kaushik said. He has challenged a range of traditional Hindu practices, such as fasting and going on pilgrimages, and said that through his preaching, “thousands of people have got their chronic illnesses cured,” and “ruined families have again become prosperous.”
He preaches with special vigor against the use of alcohol or tobacco.
Those who smoke tobacco, he said in one videotaped sermon, “will be reborn as a dog in the next 70 lives.” Drinkers of alcohol, he said, “could be reborn as a goat or a chicken or somehow have a painful death by having their head cut off, either with an ax or some other instrument used to behead people.”