Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

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Hindu Mahasabha
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 10/30/19

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Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha
President Veervasanthakumar
Founder Madan Mohan Malaviya
Founded 1915
Headquarters New Delhi
Ideology Hindutva
Colours   Saffron
ECI Status Registered Unrecognised[1]
Seats in Lok Sabha 0
Seats in Rajya Sabha
0 / 245

Image
A group photo taken in Shimoga in 1944 when Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (seated fourth from right, second row) came to address the State-level Hindu Mahasabha conference. The late Bhoopalam Chandrashekariah, president of the Hindu Mahasabha State unit, is seated to Savarkar's left.

The Hindu Mahasabha (officially Akhil Bhārat Hindū Mahāsabhā or All-India Hindu Grand-Assembly) is a right wing Hindu nationalist political party in India.[2][3]

The organisation was formed to protect the rights of the Hindu community in British India, after the formation of the All India Muslim League in 1906[4] and the British India government's creation of separate Muslim electorate under the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909.[5][4]

Name

The organisation was originally called Sarvadeshak Hindu Sabha ("Hindu Assembly for the entire country"). In 1921, it changed to the present name Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha ("All-India Hindu Grand Assembly").[6] It is also sometimes referred to as Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha.

History

Antecedents


Local forerunners of the Hindu Mahasabha emerged in connection with the disputes after the partition of Bengal in 1905 in British India. Under the then viceroy Lord Curzon, the division of the province of Bengal was in two new provinces of East Bengal and Assam, as well as Bengal. The new province of Bengal had a Hindu majority, the province of East Bengal and Assam was mostly Muslim. The division was justified by the British for administrative reasons. However, many nationalist Indians saw it as an attempt by the British colonial administration to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, thereby splitting the burgeoning Indian autonomy movement.[citation needed]

The formation of the All India Muslim League in 1906[4] and the British India government's creation of separate Muslim electorate under the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909[5] was a catalyst for Hindu leaders coming together to create an organisation to protect the rights of the Hindu community members.[4]

In 1909, Arya Samaj leaders Lala Lajpat Rai, Lal Chand and Shadi Lal established the Punjab Hindu Sabha ("Assembly").[7] Madan Mohan Malaviya presided over the Sabha's first session at Lahore in October 1909. The Sabha stated that it was not a sectarian organisation, but an "all-embracing movement" that aimed to safeguard the interests of "the entire Hindu community". During 21–22 October 1909, it organised the Punjab Provincial Hindu Conference, which criticised the Indian National Congress for failing to defend Hindu interests, and called for promotion of Hindu-centered politics. The Sabha organised five more annual provincial conferences in Punjab.[8]

The development of the broad work for Hindu unity that started in the early 20th century in Punjab was a precursor for the formation of the All India Hindu Sabha. Over the next few years, several such Hindu Sabhas were established outside Punjab, including in United Provinces, Bihar, Bengal, Central Provinces and Berar, and Bombay Presidency.[9]

A formal move to establish an umbrella All-India Hindu Sabha was made at the Allahabad session of Congress in 1910. A committee headed by Lala Baij Nath was set up to draw up a constitution, but it did not make much progress. Another conference of Hindu leaders in Allahabad also took the initial step to establish an All India Hindu Sabha in 1910, but this organisation did not become operational due to factional strife. On 8 December 1913, the Punjab Hindu Sabha passed a resolution to create an All India Hindu Sabha at its Ambala session. The Conference proposed holding a general conference of Hindu leaders from all over India at the 1915 Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.[8]

Establishment

Preparatory sessions of the All India Hindu Sabha were held at Haridwar (13 February 1915), Lucknow (17 February 1915) and Delhi (27 February 1915). In April 1915, Sarvadeshak (All India) Hindu Sabha was formed as an umbrella organisation of regional Hindu Sabhas, at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. Gandhi and Swami Shraddhanand were also present at the conference, and were supportive of the formation of All India Hindu Sabha.[8] The Sabha laid emphasis on Hindu solidarity and the need for social reform.[8]

At its sixth session in April 1921, the Sarvadeshak Hindu Sabha formally changed its name to Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha on the model of the Indian National Congress. Presided over by Manindra Chandra Nandi, it amended its constitution to remove the clause about loyalty to the British, and added a clause committing the organisation to a "united and self-governing" Indian nation.[10]

Amongst the Mahasabha's early leaders was the prominent nationalist and educationalist Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who founded the Benaras Hindu University, and the Punjabi populist Lala Lajpat Rai. Under Malaviya, the Mahasabha campaigned for Hindu political unity, for the education and economic development of Hindus as well as for the conversion of Muslims to Hinduism.

In the late 1920s, the Mahasabha came under the influence of leaders like Balakrishna Shivram Moonje and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Savarkar was a former revolutionary who had been banned from anti-British political activities and opposed the secularism of the Congress. Under Savarkar, the Mahasabha became a more intense critic of the Congress and its policy of wooing Muslim support. The Mahasabha suffered a setback when in 1925, its former member Keshav Baliram Hedgewar left to form the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu volunteer organisation that abstained from active politics. Although ideologically similar to the Mahasabha, the RSS grew faster across the nation and became a competitor for the core constituency of the Mahasabha.

Indian freedom movement

While being loyal to the British Raj, the Hindu Mahasabha did not support the Indian freedom movement against British rule in India. Rather Mahasabha choose to be sycophants for the British Government [11]

Civil Disobedience Movement

Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress led several nationwide campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience. The Mahasabha officially abstained from participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930, which tarnished its image at a national level in India.[12]

Alliance with Muslim League and others

The Indian National Congress won a massive victory in the 1937 Indian provincial elections, decimating the Hindu Mahasabha. However, in 1939, the Congress ministries resigned in protest against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's action of declaring India to be a belligerent in the Second World War without consulting the Indian people. This led to the Hindu Mahasabha joining hands with the Muslim League and other parties to form governments, in certain provinces. Such coalition governments were formed in Sindh, NWFP, and Bengal.

In Sindh, Hindu Mahasabha members joined Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah's Muslim League government. In Savarkar's own words,

"Witness the fact that only recently in Sind, the Sind-Hindu-Sabha on invitation had taken the responsibility of joining hands with the League itself in running coalition government[13][14][15]


In March 1943, Sindh Government became the first Provincial Assembly of the sub-continent to pass an official resolution in favour of the creation of Pakistan.[16] In spite of the Hindu Mahasabha's avowed public opposition to any political division of India, the Mahasabha Ministers of the Sindh government did not resign, rather they simply "contented themselves with a protest".[17]

In the North West Frontier Province, Hindu Mahasabha members joined hands with Sardar Aurang Zeb Khan of the Muslim League to form a government in 1943. The Mahasabha member of the cabinet was Finance Minister Mehar Chand Khanna.[18][19]

In Bengal, Hindu Mahasabha joined the Krishak Praja Party led Progressive Coalition ministry of Fazlul Haq in December, 1941.[20] Savarkar appreciated the successful functioning of the coalition government.[13][14]

Quit India Movement

The Hindu Mahasabha openly opposed the call for the Quit India Movement and boycotted it officially.[21] Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the president of the Hindu Mahasabha at that time, even went to the extent of writing a letter titled "Stick to your Posts", in which he instructed Hindu Sabhaites who happened to be "members of municipalities, local bodies, legislatures or those serving in the army...to stick to their posts" across the country, and not to join the Quit India Movement at any cost.[22]

Following the Hindu Mahasabha's official decision to boycott the Quit India movement,[23] Syama Prasad Mukherjee, leader of the Hindu Mahasabha in Bengal (which was a part of the ruling coalition in Bengal led by Krishak Praja Party of Fazlul Haq), wrote a letter to the British Government as to how they should respond, if the Congress gave a call to the British rulers to Quit India. In this letter, dated July 26, 1942 he wrote:

“Let me now refer to the situation that may be created in the province as a result of any widespread movement launched by the Congress. Anybody, who during the war, plans to stir up mass feeling, resulting internal disturbances or insecurity, must be resisted by any Government that may function for the time being”[24][25]


Mookerjee in this letter reiterated that the Fazlul Haq led Bengal Government, along with its alliance partner Hindu Mahasabha would make every possible effort to defeat the Quit India Movement in the province of Bengal and made a concrete proposal as regards this:

“The question is how to combat this movement (Quit India) in Bengal? The administration of the province should be carried on in such a manner that in spite of the best efforts of the Congress, this movement will fail to take root in the province. It should be possible for us, especially responsible Ministers, to be able to tell the public that the freedom for which the Congress has started the movement, already belongs to the representatives of the people. In some spheres it might be limited during the emergency. Indian have to trust the British, not for the sake for Britain, not for any advantage that the British might gain, but for the maintenance of the defense and freedom of the province itself. You, as Governor, will function as the constitutional head of the province and will be guided entirely on the advice of your Minister.[26]


Even the Indian historian R.C. Majumdar noted this fact and states:

"Shyam Prasad ended the letter with a discussion of the mass movement organised by the Congress. He expressed the apprehension that the movement would create internal disorder and will endanger internal security during the war by exciting popular feeling and he opined that any government in power has to suppress it, but that according to him could not be done only by persecution.... In that letter he mentioned item wise the steps to be taken for dealing with the situation .... "[27]


Although it opposed untouchability, the Mahasabha's orthodoxy on other matters concerning Hindu law and customs were a handicap in attracting the support of many Hindus.

Savarkar met Subhash Chandra Bose at his residence in Mumbai in 1940. This was the first and only time Savarkar met him. The meeting was part of Bose's efforts to meet all national leaders across party lines, to build up support for a united effort against the British rule.[28]

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

Main article: Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

In the 1940s, the Muslim League stepped up its demand for a separate Muslim state of Pakistan. Although the Congress strongly opposed religious separatism, the League's great popularity amongst Muslims forced the Congress leaders to hold talks with the League president, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Even though Savarkar agreed with Jinnah and recognised Hindus and Muslims to be separate nations, he condemned the secular Gandhi's overtures to hold talks with Jinnah and regain Muslim support for the Congress as appeasement. After communal violence claimed the lives of thousands in 1946, Savarkar claimed that Gandhi's adherence to non-violence had left Hindus vulnerable to armed attacks by militant Muslims. When the partition of India was agreed upon in June 1947 after months of failed efforts at power-sharing between the Congress and the League, the Mahasabha condemned the Congress and Gandhi for agreeing to the partition plan.

On January 30, 1948 Nathuram Godse shot Mahatma Gandhi three times and killed him in Delhi. Godse and his fellow conspirators Digambar Badge, Gopal Godse, Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare and Madanlal Pahwa were identified as prominent members of the Hindu Mahasabha. Along with them, police arrested Savarkar, who was suspected of being the mastermind behind the plot. While the trial resulted in convictions and judgments against the others, Savarkar was released on a technicality, even though there was evidence that the plotters met Savarkar only days before carrying out the murder and had received the blessings of Savarkar. The Kapur Commission in 1967 established that Savarkar was in close contact with the plotters for many months. Kapur Commission said,


All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder (of Gandhiji) by Savarkar and his group[29].


Aftermath

There was an angry popular backlash against Savarkar, Godse and the Hindu Mahasabha as their involvement in Gandhi's murder was revealed. The Hindu Mahasabha became more marginalised than ever. Its one-time rising star, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, left the party and established the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is today the largest political party in India. The Hindu Mahasabha remains active as an organisation, but only as a marginal presence in some parts of the Indian state of Maharashtra and in negligible instances through the rest of the country.

Attempts at rehabilitation of Godse

In 2014, following the Bharatiya Janata Party's rise to power, the Hindu Mahasabha began attempts to rehabilitate Godse and portray him as a patriot. It requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to install the bust of Godse. It created a documentary film Desh Bhakt Nathuram Godse (Patriot Nathuram Godse) for release on the death anniversary of Gandhi on 30 January 2015.[30] There were attempts to build a temple for Godse and to celebrate 30 January as a Shaurya Diwas ("Bravery Day").[31] A civil suit was filed in Pune Court asking for a ban on the documentary film.[32]

Ideology

Although the Hindu Mahasabha did not call for the exclusion of other religious communities from government, it identified India as a Hindu Rashtra ("Hindu Nation") and believed in the primacy of Hindu culture, religion and heritage. The Mahasabha advocates that Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists are also Hindu in terms of national and political identity. It argues that Islam and Christianity are foreign religions, with their holy places being in Arabia, Palestine and Rome, and that Indian Muslims and Christians are simply descendants of Hindus who were converted by force, coercion and bribery. At various points in its history, the party called for the re-conversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. The Hindu Mahasabha stridently opposes Westernisation, which it regards as a decadent influence on Indian youth and culture. It calls for a revival of the Sanskrit language and the primacy of Hindi. The Mahasabha opposed socialism and communism as decadent foreign ideologies that do not represent India's indigenous needs and conditions.

Although opposed to untouchability and caste discrimination, the Mahasabha continues to support the varna system. Although Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was in favour of abolishing the entire caste system.

Hindutva

The Mahasabha promoted the principles of Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology developed by its pre-eminent leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The Mahasabha identified India as "Hindu Rashtra" (Hindu Nation). Although it broadly supported the Indian National Congress in its efforts to attain national independence, it criticised the Congress commitment to non-violence, civil disobedience and secularism, as well as its efforts to integrate Muslims and engage in dialogue with the separatist All India Muslim League, which the Mahasabha deemed to be appeasement.

Current ideological positions

In 2015 Vice President of All India Hindu Mahasabha, VP Sadhvi Deva Thakur said Muslims and Christians must undergo sterilization to restrict their growing population which was posing a threat to Hindus. She said, "The population of Muslims and Christians is growing day by day. To rein in this, Union will have to impose emergency, and Muslims and Christians will have to be forced to undergo sterilization so that they can't increase their numbers".[33][34]

References

1. http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/ElectoralLaw ... 4.2018.pdf
2. McDermott, Rachel Fell; Gordon, Leonard A.; Embree, Ainslie T.; Pritchett, Frances W.; Dalton, Dennis (2014). Sources of Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Columbia University Press. pp. 439–. ISBN 978-0-231-51092-9.
3. Klostermaier, Klaus K. (1989). A Survey of Hinduism: First Edition. SUNY Press. pp. 403–. ISBN 978-0-88706-807-2.
4. Bapu 2013, p. 16.
5. Bapu 2013, p. 3.
6. Bapu 2013, pp. 20–21.
7. Bapu 2013, p. 17.
8. Bapu 2013, pp. 17-20.
9. Jaffrelot 2011, p. 43.
10. Bapu 2013, p. 20.
11. Prabhu Bapu (2013). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History. Routledge. pp. 40–. ISBN 978-0-415-67165-1.
12. Prabhu Bapu (2013). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History. Routledge. pp. 40–. ISBN 978-0-415-67165-1.
13. Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar (1963). Collected Works of V.d. Savarkar. Maharashtra Prantik Hindusabha. pp. 479–480.
14. Shamsul Islam (2006). Religious Dimensions of Indian Nationalism: A Study of RSS. Media House. pp. 213–. ISBN 978-81-7495-236-3.
15. Mani Shankar Aiyar (1 January 2009). A Time of Transition: Rajiv Gandhi to the 21st Century. Penguin Books India. pp. 75–. ISBN 978-0-670-08275-9.
16. Asian Societies in Comparative Perspective: Papers Presented at the 7th Annual Conference of the Nordic Association for Southeast Asian Studies, Møn, Denmark, 1990. NIAS Press. 1991. pp. 800–. ISBN 978-87-87062-14-5.
17. Abdul Gafoor Abdul Majeed Noorani (2000). The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. LeftWord Books. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-81-87496-13-7.
18. Shamsul Islam (2006). Religious Dimensions of Indian Nationalism: A Study of RSS. Media House. pp. 313–. ISBN 978-81-7495-236-3.
19. Baxter, Craig (1969). The jan Sangh: A biography of an Indian Political Party. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 20.
20. Sumit Sarkar. Modern India 1886-1947. pp. 349–. ISBN 978-93-325-4085-9.
21. Prabhu Bapu (2013). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History. Routledge. pp. 103–. ISBN 978-0-415-67165-1.
22. Prabhu Bapu (2013). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History. Routledge. pp. 103–. ISBN 978-0-415-67165-1.
23. Prabhu Bapu (2013). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History. Routledge. pp. 103–. ISBN 978-0-415-67165-1.
24. Abdul Gafoor Abdul Majeed Noorani (2000). The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. LeftWord Books. pp. 56–. ISBN 978-81-87496-13-7.
25. Mookherjee, Shyama Prasad. Leaves from a Dairy. Oxford University Press. p. 179.
26. Abdul Gafoor Abdul Majeed Noorani (2000). The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. LeftWord Books. pp. 57–. ISBN 978-81-87496-13-7.
27. Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (1978). History of Modern Bengal. Oxford University Press. p. 179.
28. "Netaji's meeting with Veer Savarkar". Archived from the original on 10 August 2014.
29. J.L Kapur. Report of Commission of Inquiry in to Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi (1969). p. 303. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
30. Ghose, Debobrat (21 December 2014). "Hindu Mahasabha head speaks to FP: Godse was a `martyr' and `patriot'". Firstpost. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
31. "Hindu Mahasabha announces Godse temple". Deccan Chronicle.
32. PTI. "Pune court to hear suit against Godse film". The Hindu.
33. "Muslims, Christians should be forcibly sterilisation, says Hindu Mahasabha leader". Deccan Chronicle.
34. "Hindu Mahasabha leader calls for forced sterilisation of Muslims, Christians to restrict growing population". IBNLive.

Sources

• Gordon, Richard (1975), The Hindu Mahasabha and the Indian National Congress, 1915 to 1926, Modern Asian Studies Vol. 9, No. 2 (1975), pp. 145-203, Cambridge University Press, JSTOR 311959
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (2011). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. C Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-1849041386.
• Bapu, Prabhu (2013). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History. Routledge. ISBN 0415671655.
Further reading[edit]
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (6 October 2014). "The other saffron". Indian Express. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
• Jha, Krishna; Jha, Dhirendra K. (2012). Ayodhya: The Dark Night. HarperCollins India. ISBN 978-93-5029-600-4.
• Ghose, Debobrat (21 December 2014). "Hindu Mahasabha head speaks to FP: Godse was a `martyr' and `patriot'". Firstpost. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
• Mukherjee, Aditya; Mukherjee, Mridula; Mahajan, Sucheta (2008). RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi. New Delhi: Sage. ISBN 8132100476.

External links

• Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha official website
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Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 10/30/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

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Image
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Abbreviation RSS
Formation 27 September 1925 (94 years ago)
Founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar
Type Right-wing,[1] volunteer,[2] paramilitary[3][4][5][6][7]
Legal status Active
Purpose Hindu nationalism and Hindutva[8][9]
Headquarters Dr. Hedgewar Bhawan, Sangh Building Road, Nagpur-440032, Maharashtra
Coordinates 21.146°N 79.111°ECoordinates: 21.146°N 79.111°E
Area served
India
Membership
5–6 million[10][11][12]
56,859 shakhas (2016)[13]
Official language
Sanskrit, Hindi, English
Sarsanghchalak (Chief)
Mohan Bhagwat
Affiliations Sangh Parivar
Website rss.org

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, abbreviated as RSS (IAST: Rāṣṭrīya Svayamsevaka Saṅgha, IPA: [rɑːʂˈʈriːj(ə) swəjəmˈseːvək ˈsəŋɡʱ], lit. "National Volunteer Organisation"[14] or "National Patriotic Organisation"[15]), is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation that is widely regarded as the parent organisation of the ruling party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party.[5][2][6][16] The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (the "family of the RSS"), which have presence in all facets of the Indian society. Founded on 27 September 1925, the RSS is the world's largest voluntary organisation.[17] It is the largest NGO in the world,[18] while the BJP is the largest political party in the world.[19]

The initial impetus was to provide character training through Hindu discipline and to unite the Hindu community to form a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation).[20][21] The organisation promotes the ideals of upholding Indian culture and the values of a civil society and spreads the ideology of Hindutva, to "strengthen" the Hindu community.[22][9] It drew initial inspiration from European right-wing groups during World War II.[21] Gradually, RSS grew into a prominent Hindu nationalist umbrella organisation, spawning several affiliated organisations that established numerous schools, charities, and clubs to spread its ideological beliefs.[21]

The RSS was banned once during British rule,[21] and then thrice by the post-independence Indian government, first in year 1948 when a former RSS member[23] assassinated Mahatma Gandhi;[21][24][25] then during the emergency (1975–77); and for a third time after the demolition of Babri Masjid in year 1992.

Founding

Image
Keshav Baliram Hedgewar

RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a doctor in the city of Nagpur, British India.[3]

Hedgewar was a political protege of B. S. Moonje, a Tilakite Congressman, Hindu Mahasabha politician and social activist from Nagpur. Moonje had sent Hedgewar to Calcutta to pursue his medical studies and to learn combat techniques from the revolutionary secret societies of the Bengalis. Hedgewar became a member of the Anushilan Samiti, an anti-British revolutionary group, getting into its inner circle. The secretive methods of these societies were eventually used by him in organising the RSS.[26][27][28]

After returning to Nagpur, Hedgewar organised anti-British activities through the Kranti Dal (Party of Revolution) and participated in independence activist Tilak's Home Rule campaign in 1918. According to the official RSS history,[29] he came to realise that revolutionary activities alone were not enough to overthrow the British. After reading V. D. Savarkar's Hindutva, published in Nagpur in 1923, and meeting Savarkar in the Ratnagiri prison in 1925, Hedgewar was extremely influenced by him, and he founded the RSS with the objective of strengthening the Hindu society.[26][27][28][30]

Image
A rare group photo of six initial swayamsevaks taken on the occasion of a RSS meeting held in 1939[31]

Hedgewar believed that a handful of British were able to rule over the vast country of India because Hindus were disunited, lacked valour (pararkram) and lacked a civic character. He recruited energetic Hindu youth with revolutionary fervour, gave them a uniform of a black forage cap, khaki shirt (later white shirt) and khaki shorts—emulating the British police—and taught them paramilitary techniques with lathi (bamboo staff), sword, javelin, and dagger. Hindu ceremonies and rituals played a large role in the organisation, not so much for religious observance, but to provide awareness of India's glorious past and to bind the members in a religious communion. Hedgewar also held weekly sessions of what he called baudhik (ideological education), consisting of simple questions to the novices concerning the Hindu nation and its history and heroes, especially warrior king Shivaji. The saffron flag of Shivaji, the Bhagwa Dhwaj, was used as the emblem for the new organisation. Its public tasks involved protecting Hindu pilgrims at festivals and confronting Muslim resistance against Hindu processions near mosques.[26][27][28]

Two years into the life of the organisation, in 1927, Hedgewar organised an "Officers' Training Camp" with the objective of forming a corps of key workers, whom he called pracharaks. He asked the volunteers to become sadhus first, renouncing professional and family lives and dedicating themselves to the cause of the RSS. According to scholar Christophe Jaffrelot, Hedgewar embraced this doctrine after it had been reinterpreted by nationalists such as Aurobindo. The tradition of renunciation gave the RSS the character of a 'Hindu sect'.[32] Development of the shakha network of the RSS was the main preoccupation for Hedgewar throughout his career as the RSS chief. The first pracharaks were responsible for establishing as many shakhas as possible, first in Nagpur, then across Maharashtra and eventually in the rest of India. P. B. Dani was sent to establish a shakha at the Benaras Hindu University and other Universities were similarly targeted to recruit new followers among the student population. Three pracharaks went to Punjab: Appaji Joshi to Sialkot, Moreshwar Munje to the DAV College in Rawalpindi and Raja Bhau Paturkar to the DAV College in Lahore. In 1940, Madhavrao Muley was appointed as the prant pracharak (regional missionary) in Lahore.[33]

Motivations

Scholars differ on Hedgewar's motivations for forming the RSS, especially because he never involved the RSS in fighting the British rule. Jaffrelot says that the RSS was intended to propagate the ideology of Hindutva and to provide "new physical strength" to the majority community.[9] An alternative interpretation is that he formed it to fight the Indian Muslims.[34]

Tilakite ideology

After Tilak's demise in 1920, like other followers of Tilak in Nagpur, Hedgewar was opposed to some of the programmes adopted by Gandhi. Gandhi's stance on the Indian Muslim Khilafat issue was a cause for concern to Hedgewar, and so was the fact that the 'cow protection' was not on the Congress agenda. This led Hedgewar, along with other Tilakities, to part ways with Gandhi. In 1921, Hedgewar delivered a series of lectures in Maharashtra with slogans such as "Freedom within a year" and "boycott". He deliberately broke the law, for which he was imprisoned for a year. After being released in 1922, Hedgewar was distressed at the lack of organisation among the Congress volunteers for the independence struggle. Without proper mobilisation and organisation, he felt that the patriotic youth of India could never get independence for the country. Subsequently, he felt the need to create an independent organisation that was based on the country's traditions and history.[35]

Hindu-Muslim relations

The decade of 1920s witnessed a significant deterioration in the relations between Hindus and Muslims. The Muslim masses were mobilised by the Khilafat movement, demanding the reinstatement of the Caliphate in Turkey, and Gandhi made an alliance with it for conducting his own Non-co-operation movement. Gandhi aimed to create Hindu-Muslim unity in forming the alliance. However, the alliance saw a "common enemy", not a "common enmity".[36] When Gandhi called off the Non-co-operation movement due to outbreaks of violence, Muslims disagreed with his strategy. Once the movements failed, the mobilised Muslims turned their anger towards Hindus.[37] The first major incident of religious violence was the Moplah rebellion in August 1921, which ended in large-scale violence against Hindus and their displacement in Malabar. A cycle of inter-communal violence throughout India followed for several years.[38] In 1923, there were riots in Nagpur, called "Muslim riots" by Hedgewar, where Hindus were felt to be "totally disorganized and panicky." These incidents made a major impression on Hedgewar and convinced him of the need to organise the Hindu society.[30][39]

After acquiring about 100 swayamsevaks (volunteers) to the RSS in 1927, Hedgewar took the issue to the Muslim domain. He led the Hindu religious procession for Ganesha, beating the drums in defiance of the usual practice not to pass in front of a mosque with music.[40] On the day of Lakshmi Puja on 4 September, Muslims are said to have retaliated. When the Hindu procession reached a mosque in the Mahal area of Nagpur, Muslims blocked it. Later in the afternoon, they attacked the Hindu residences in the Mahal area. It is said that the RSS cadres were prepared for the attack and beat the Muslim rioters back. Riots continued for 3 days and the army had to be called in to quell the violence. RSS organised the Hindu resistance and protected the Hindu households while the Muslim households had to leave Nagpur en masse for safety.[41][42][30][43] Tapan Basu et al. note the accounts of "Muslim aggressiveness" and the "Hindu self-defence" in the RSS descriptions of the incident. The above incident vastly enhanced the prestige of the RSS and enabled its subsequent expansion.[42]

Stigmatisation and emulation

Christophe Jaffrelot points out the theme of "stigmatisation and emulation" in the ideology of the RSS along with other Hindu nationalist movements such as the Arya Samaj and the Hindu Mahasabha. Muslims, Christians and the British were thought of as "foreign bodies" implanted in the Hindu nation, who were able to exploit the disunity and absence of valour among the Hindus in order to subdue them. The solution lay in emulating the characteristics of these "Threatening Others" that were perceived to give them strength, such as paramilitary organisation, emphasis on unity and nationalism. The Hindu nationalists combined these emulatory aspects with a selective borrowing of traditions from the Hindu past to achieve a synthesis that was uniquely Indian and Hindu.[44]

Hindu Mahasabha influence

The Hindu Mahasabha, which was initially a special interest group within the Indian National Congress and later an independent party, was an important influence on the RSS, even though it is rarely acknowledged. In 1923, prominent Hindu leaders like Madan Mohan Malaviya met together on this platform and voiced their concerns on the 'division in the Hindu community'. In his presidential speech to Mahasabha, Malaviya stated: "Friendship could exist between equals. If the Hindus made themselves strong and the rowdy section among the Mahomedans were convinced they could not safely rob and dishonour Hindus, unity would be established on a stable basis." He wanted the activists 'to educate all boys and girls, establish akharas (gymnasiums), establish a volunteer corps to persuade people to comply with decisions of the Hindu Mahasabha, to accept untouchables as Hindus and grant them the right to use wells, enter temples, get an education.' Later, Hindu Mahasabha leader V. D. Savarkar's 'Hindutva' ideology also had a profound impact on Hedgewar's thinking about the 'Hindu nation'.[35]

The initial meeting for the formation of the Sangh on the Vijaya Dashami day of 1925 was held between Hedgewar and four Hindu Mahasabha leaders: B. S. Moonje, Ganesh Savarkar, L. V. Paranjpe and B. B. Tholkar. RSS took part as a volunteer force in organising the Hindu Mahasabha annual meeting in Akola in 1931. Moonje remained a patron of the RSS throughout his life. Both he and Ganesh Savarkar worked to spread the RSS shakhas in Maharashtra, Panjab, Delhi, and the princely states by initiating contacts with local leaders. Savarkar merged his own youth organisation Tarun Hindu Sabha with the RSS and helped its expansion. V. D. Savarkar, after his release in 1937, joined them in spreading the RSS and giving speeches in its support. Officials in the Home Department called the RSS the "volunteer organisation of the Hindu Mahasabha."[45][46]

History

Indian Independence Movement


After the formation of the RSS, which portrays itself as a social movement, Hedgewar kept the organisation from having any direct affiliation with the political organisations then fighting British rule.[47] RSS rejected Gandhi's willingness to co-operate with the Muslims.[48][49]

In accordance with Hedgewar's tradition of keeping the RSS away from the Indian Independence movement, any political activity that could be construed as being anti-British was carefully avoided. According to the RSS biographer C. P. Bhishikar, Hedgewar talked only about Hindu organisations and avoided any direct comment on the Government.[50] The "Independence Day" announced by the Indian National Congress for 26 January 1930 was celebrated by the RSS that year but was subsequently avoided. The Tricolor of the Indian national movement was shunned.[51][52][53][54] Hedgewar personally participated in the 'Satyagraha' launched by Gandhi in April 1930, but he did not get the RSS involved in the movement. He sent information everywhere that the RSS would not participate in the Satyagraha. However, those wishing to participate individually were not prohibited.[55][56] In 1934 Congress passed a resolution prohibiting its members from joining RSS, Hindu Mahasabha, or the Muslim League.[51]

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M. S. Golwalkar

M. S. Golwalkar, who became the leader of the RSS in 1940, continued and further strengthened the isolation from the independence movement. In his view, the RSS had pledged to achieve freedom through "defending religion and culture", not by fighting the British.[57][58][59] Golwalkar lamented the anti-British nationalism, calling it a "reactionary view" that, he claimed, had disastrous effects upon the entire course of the freedom struggle.[60][61] It is believed that Golwalkar did not want to give the British an excuse to ban the RSS. He complied with all the strictures imposed by the Government during the Second World War, even announcing the termination of the RSS military department.[62][63] The British Government believed that the RSS was not supporting any civil disobedience against them, and their other political activities could thus be overlooked. The British Home Department took note of the fact that the speakers at the RSS meetings urged the members to keep aloof from the anti-British movements of the Indian National Congress, which was duly followed.[64]The Home Department did not see the RSS as a problem for law and order in British India.[62][63]The Bombay government appreciated the RSS by noting that the Sangh had scrupulously kept itself within the law and refrained from taking part in the disturbances (Quit India Movement) that broke out in August 1942.[65][66][67] It also reported that the RSS had not, in any way, infringed upon government orders and had always shown a willingness to comply with the law. The Bombay Government report further noted that in December 1940, orders had been issued to the provincial RSS leaders to desist from any activities that the British Government considered objectionable, and the RSS, in turn, had assured the British authorities that "it had no intentions of offending against the orders of the Government".[68][69]

Golwalkar later openly admitted the fact that the RSS did not participate in the Quit India Movement. He agreed that such a stance led to a perception of the RSS as an inactive organisation, whose statements had no substance in reality.[57][70]

The RSS neither supported nor joined in the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny against the British in 1945.[49]

World War II

During World War II, the RSS leaders openly admired Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.[21][71] Golwalkar took inspiration from Adolf Hitler's ideology of racial purity.[72] This did not imply any antipathy towards Jews. The RSS leaders were supportive of the Jewish State of Israel, including Savarkar himself.[73] Golwalkar admired the Jews for maintaining their "religion, culture and language".[74]

Partition

The Partition of India affected millions of Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims attempting to escape the violence and carnage that followed.[75] During the partition, the RSS helped the Hindu refugees fleeing West Punjab; its activists also played an active role in the communal violence during Hindu-Muslim riots in North India, though this was officially not sanctioned by the leadership. To the RSS activists, the partition was a result of mistaken soft-line towards the Muslims, which only confirmed the natural moral weaknesses and corruptibility of the politicians. The RSS blamed Gandhi, Nehru and Patel for their 'naivety which resulted in the partition', and held them responsible for the mass killings and displacement of the millions of people.[76][77][78]

First ban

The first ban on the RSS was imposed in Punjab Province (British India) on 24 January 1947 by Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana, the premier of the ruling Unionist Party, a party that represented the interests of the landed gentry and landlords of Punjab, which included Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. Along with the RSS, the Muslim National Guard was also banned.[79][80] The ban was lifted on 28 January 1947.[79]

Opposition to the National Flag of India

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh initially did not recognise the Tricolor as the National Flag of India. The RSS-inspired publication, the Organiser,[81] demanded, in an editorial titled "National Flag", that the Bhagwa Dhwaj (Saffron Flag) be adopted as the National Flag of India.[82] After the Tricolor was adopted as the National Flag by the Constituent Assembly of India on 22 July 1947, the Organiser viciously attacked the Tricolor and the Constituent Assembly's decision. In an article titled "Mystery behind the Bhagwa Dhwaj", the Organiser stated

The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolor but it [will] never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country.— [83][84]



In an essay titled "Drifting and Drafting" published in Bunch of Thoughts, Golwalkar lamented the choice of the Tricolor as the National Flag, and compared it to an intellectual vacuum/void. In his words,

Our leaders have set up a new flag for the country. Why did they do so? It just is a case of drifting and imitating ... Ours is an ancient and great nation with a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our own? Had we no national emblem at all these thousands of years? Undoubtedly we had. Then why this utter void, this utter vacuum in our minds. — [85][86][87][88]


The RSS hoisted the National Flag of India at its Nagpur headquarters only twice, on 14 August 1947 and on 26 January 1950, but stopped doing so after that.[89] This issue has always been a source of controversy. In 2001 three activists of Rashtrapremi Yuwa Dal – president Baba Mendhe, and members Ramesh Kalambe and Dilip Chattani, along with others – allegedly entered the RSS headquarters in Reshimbagh, Nagpur, on 26 January, the Republic Day of India, and forcibly hoisted the national flag there amid patriotic slogans. They contended that the RSS had never before or after independence, ever hoisted the tri-colour in their premises. Offences were registered by the Bombay Police against the trio, who were then jailed. They were discharged by the court of Justice R. R. Lohia after eleven years in 2013.[90][91] The arrests and the flag-hoisting issue stoked a controversy, which was raised in the Parliament as well. Hoisting of flag was very restrictive till the formation of the Flag code of India (2002).[92][93][94] Subsequently, in 2002 the National Flag was raised in the RSS headquarters on the occasion of Republic Day for the first time in 52 years.[89]

Opposition to the Constitution of India

The Rashtriya Swaysevak Sangh initially did not recognise the Constitution of India, strongly criticising it because the Indian Constitution made no mention of "Manu's laws" – from the ancient Hindu text Manusmriti.[95] When the Constituent Assembly finalised the constitution, the RSS mouthpiece, the Organiser, complained in an editorial dated 30 November 1949:

But in our constitution, there is no mention of that unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat... To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing"[53]


The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh did not stop its unrelenting attacks on this issue, and criticised B. R. Ambedkar's public pronouncements that the new constitution would give equality to all castes. On 6 February 1950 the Organizer carried another article, titled "Manu Rules our Hearts", written by a retired High Court Judge named Sankar Subba Aiyar, that reaffirmed their support for the Manusmriti as the final lawgiving authority for Hindus, rather than the Constitution of India. It stated:

Even though Dr. Ambedkar is reported to have recently stated in Bombay that the days of Manu have ended it is nevertheless a fact that the daily lives of Hindus are even at present-day affected by the principles and injunctions contained in the Manusmrithi and other Smritis. Even an unorthodox Hindu feels himself bound at least in some matters by the rules contained in the Smrithis and he feels powerless to give up altogether his adherence to them.[96]


The RSS' opposition to, and vitriolic attacks against, the Constitution of India continued post-independence. In 1966 Golwalkar, in his book titled Bunch of Thoughts asserted:

Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous piecing together of various articles from various Constitutions of Western countries. It has absolutely nothing, which can be called our own. Is there a single word of reference in its guiding principles as to what our national mission is and what our keynote in life is? No![53][86]


Second ban and acquittal

Following Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in January 1948 by a former member of the RSS,[25] Nathuram Godse, many prominent leaders of the RSS were arrested, and RSS as an organisation was banned on 4 February 1948. A Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to the murder of Gandhi was set, and its report was published by India's Ministry of Home Affairs in the year 1970. Accordingly, the Justice Kapur Commission[97] noted that the "RSS as such were not responsible for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, meaning thereby that one could not name the organisation as such as being responsible for that most diabolical crime, the murder of the apostle of peace. It has not been proved that they (the accused) were members of the RSS."[97]:165 However, the then Indian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had remarked that the "RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhi's death".[98]

RSS leaders were acquitted of the conspiracy charge by the Supreme Court of India. Following his release in August 1948, Golwalkar wrote to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to lift the ban on RSS. After Nehru replied that the matter was the responsibility of the Home Minister, Golwalkar consulted Vallabhai Patel regarding the same. Patel then demanded an absolute pre-condition that the RSS adopt a formal written constitution and make it public, where Patel expected RSS to pledge its loyalty to the Constitution of India, accept the Tricolor as the National Flag of India, define the power of the head of the organisation, make the organisation democratic by holding internal elections, authorisation of their parents before enrolling the pre-adolescents into the movement, and to renounce violence and secrecy.[99][100][101]:42– Golwalkar launched a huge agitation against this demand during which he was imprisoned again. Later, a constitution was drafted for RSS, which, however, initially did not meet any of Patel's demands. After a failed attempt to agitate again, eventually the RSS's constitution was amended according to Patel's wishes with the exception of the procedure for selecting the head of the organisation and the enrolment of pre-adolescents. However, the organisation's internal democracy which was written into its constitution, remained a 'dead letter'.[102]

On 11 July 1949 the Government of India lifted the ban on the RSS by issuing a communique stating that the decision to lift the ban on the RSS had been taken in view of the RSS leader Golwalkar's undertaking to make the group's loyalty towards the Constitution of India and acceptance and respect towards the National Flag of India more explicit in the Constitution of the RSS, which was to be worked out in a democratic manner.[3][101]

Decolonisation of Dadra, Nagar Haveli, and Goa

After India had achieved independence, the RSS was one of the socio-political organisations that supported and participated in movements to decolonise Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which at that time was ruled by Portugal. In early 1954 volunteers Raja Wakankar and Nana Kajrekar of the RSS visited the area round about Dadra, Nagar Haveli, and Daman several times to study the topography and get acquainted with locals who wanted the area to change from being a Portuguese colony to being an Indian union territory. In April 1954 the RSS formed a coalition with the National Movement Liberation Organisation (NMLO) and the Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD) for the annexation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli into the Republic of India.[103] On the night of 21 July, United Front of Goans, a group working independently of the coalition, captured the Portuguese police station at Dadra and declared Dadra independent. Subsequently, on 28 July, volunteer teams from the RSS and AGD captured the territories of Naroli and Phiparia and ultimately the capital of Silvassa. The Portuguese forces that had escaped and moved towards Nagar Haveli, were assaulted at Khandvel and forced to retreat until they surrendered to the Indian border police at Udava on 11 August 1954. A native administration was set up with Appasaheb Karmalkar of the NMLO as the Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli on 11 August 1954.[103]

The capture of Dadra and Nagar Haveli gave a boost to the movement against Portuguese colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent.[103] In 1955 RSS leaders demanded the end of Portuguese rule in Goa and its integration into India. When Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru refused to provide an armed intervention, RSS leader Jagannath Rao Joshi led the Satyagraha agitation straight into Goa. He was imprisoned with his followers by the Portuguese police. The nonviolent protests continued but met with repression. On 15 August 1955, the Portuguese police opened fire on the satyagrahis, killing thirty or so civilians.[104]

Goa was later annexed into the Indian union in 1961 through an army operation, codenamed 'Operation Vijay', that was carried out by the Nehru government.

War-time activities

After the declaration of 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence by Indira Gandhi, RSS provided support to the government, by offering its services to maintain law and order in Delhi and its volunteers were apparently the first to donate blood.[105]

Movement against the Emergency

In 1975 the Indira Gandhi government proclaimed emergency rule in India, thereby suspending fundamental rights and curtailing the freedom of the press.[106] This action was taken after the Supreme Court of India cancelled her election to the Indian Parliament on charges of malpractices in the election.[106] Democratic institutions were suspended and prominent opposition leaders, including Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan, were arrested whilst thousands of people were detained without any charges taken up against them.[107] RSS, which was seen as being close to opposition leaders, and with its large organisational base was seen to have the capability of organising protests against the government, was also banned.[108]

Deoras, the then chief of RSS, wrote letters to Indira Gandhi, promising her to extend the organisation's co-operation in return for the lifting of the ban, asserting that RSS had no connection with the movement in Bihar and that in Gujarat. He tried to persuade Vinoba Bhave to mediate between the RSS and the government and also sought the offices of Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's son.[109][110] Later, when there was no response, volunteers of the RSS formed underground movements against the Emergency.[111] Literature that was censored in the media was clandestinely published and distributed on a large scale, and funds were collected for the movement. Networks were established between leaders of different political parties in the jail and outside for the co-ordination of the movement.[112] RSS claimed that the movement was "dominated by tens of thousands of RSS cadres, though more and more young recruits are coming". Talking about its objectives, RSS said, "its platform at the moment has only one plank: to bring democracy back to India".[113] The Emergency was lifted in 1977, and as a consequence the ban on the RSS was also lifted.

The Emergency is said to have legitimised the role of RSS in Indian politics, which had not been possible ever since the stain the organisation had acquired following the Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in 1948, thereby 'sowing the seeds' for the Hindutva politics of the following decade.[111]

Involvement in politics

Several Sangh Parivar politicians such as Balraj Madhok in the 1960s and 1970s to the BJP leaders like L. K. Advani have complained about the RSS's interference in party politics. Though some former Hindu nationalists believed that Sangh should take part in politics, they failed to draw the RSS, which was intended to be a purely cultural movement, into the political arena until the 1950s. Savarkar tried to convince Hedgewar and later Golwalkar, to tie up with Hindu Mahasabha, but failed to do so.[114]

Under pressure from other swayamsevaks, Golwalkar gradually changed his mind after independence under unusual circumstances during the ban on RSS in 1948 after the assassination of Gandhi. After the first wave of arrests of RSS activists at that time, some of its members who had gone underground recommended that their movement be involved in politics, seeing that no political force was present to advocate the cause of RSS in parliament or anywhere else. One such member who significantly suggested this cause was K.R. Malkani, who wrote in 1949:[114]

"Sangh must take part in politics not only to protect itself against the greedy design of politicians, but to stop the un-Bharatiya and anti-Bharatiya policies of the Government and to advance and expedite the cause of Bharatiya through state machinery side by side with official effort in the same direction. [...] Sangh must continue as it is, an ashram for the national cultural education of the entire citizenry, but it must develop a political wing for the more effective and early achievement of its ideals."


Golwalkar approved of Malkani's and others' views regarding the formation of a new party in 1950. Jaffrelot says that the death of Sardar Patel influenced this change since Golwalkar opined that Patel could have transformed the Congress party by emphasising its affinities with Hindu nationalism, while after Patel, Nehru became strong enough to impose his 'anti-communal' line within his party. Accordingly, Golwalkar met Syama Prasad Mukherjee and agreed for endorsing senior swayamsevaks, who included Deendayal Upadhyaya, Balraj Madhok and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a newly formed political party by Mukherjee. These men, who took their orders in Nagpur, captured power in the party after Mukherjee's death.[114]

Balasaheb Deoras, who succeeded Golwalkar as the chief of RSS, got very much involved in politics. In 1965, when he was the general secretary of the RSS, he addressed the annual meeting of Jana Sangh, which is seen as an "unprecedented move" by an RSS dignitary that reflected his strong interest in politics and his will to make the movement play a larger part in the public sphere. Jaffrelot says that he exemplified the specific kind of swayamsevaks known as 'activists', giving expression to his leanings towards political activism by having the RSS support the JP Movement.[114] The importance that RSS began to give to the electoral politics is demonstrated when its units (shakhas) were made constituency-based in the early 1970s, from which the RSS shakhas began to involve directly in elections, not only of legislatures, but also of trade unions, student and cultural organisations.[109]

As soon as the RSS men took over the Jana Sangh party, the Hindu traditionalists who previously joined the party because of S.P. Mukherjee were sidelined. The organisation of the party was restructured and all its organisational secretaries, who were the pillars of the party, came from the RSS, both at the district and state level. The party also took the vision of RSS in its mission, where its ultimate objective, in the long run, was the reform of society, but not the conquest of power, since the 'state' was not viewed as a prominent institution. Hence the Jana Sangh initially remained reluctant to join any alliance that was not fully in harmony with its ideology. In 1962, Deendayal Upadhyaya, who was the party's chief, explained this approach by saying that "coalitions were bound to degenerate into a struggle for power by opportunist elements coming together in the interest of expediency". He wanted to build the party as an alternative party to the Congress and saw the elections as an 'opportunity to educate the people on political issues and to challenge the right of the Congress to be in power.' Jaffrelot says that this indifferent approach of party politics was in accordance with its lack of interest in the 'state' and the wish to make it weaker, or more decentralised.[114] After India's defeat in the 1962 Sino Indian war, the RSS and other right-wing forces in India were strengthened since the leftist and centrist opinions, sometimes even Nehru himself, could then be blamed for being 'soft' towards China. The RSS and Jana Sangh also took complete advantage of the 1965 war with Pakistan to 'deepen suspicion about Muslims', and also en-cashed the growing unpopularity of Congress, particularly in the Hindi-belt, where a left-wing alternative was weak or non-existent.[109] The major themes on the party's agenda during this period were banning cow slaughter, abolishing the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir and legislating a uniform civil code. Explaining the Jana Sangh's failure to become a major political force despite claiming to represent the national interests of the Hindus, scholar Bruce Desmond Graham states that the party's close initial ties with the Hindi-belt and its preoccupation with the issues of North India such as promotion of Hindi, energetic resistance to Pakistan etc., had become a serious disadvantage to the party in the long run. He also adds that its interpretation of Hinduism was 'restrictive and exclusive', arguing that "its doctrines were inspired by an activist version of Hindu nationalism and, indirectly, by the values of Brahmanism rather than the devotional and quietist values of popular Hinduism."[115] Desmond says that, if the Jana Sangh had carefully moderated its Hindu nationalism, it could have been able to well-exploit any strong increase in support for the traditional and nationalist Hindu opinion, and hence to compete on equal terms with the Congress in the northern states. He also remarks that if it had adopted a less harsh attitude towards Pakistan and Muslims, "it would have been much more acceptable to Hindu traditionalists in the central and southern states, where partition had left fewer emotional scars."[116]

The Jana Sangh started making alliances by entering the anti-Congress coalitions since 1960s. It became part of the 1971 Grand Alliance and finally merged itself with the Janata Party in 1977.[114] The success of Janata Party in 1977 elections made the RSS members central ministers for the first time (Vajpayee, Advani and Brij Lal Verma),[109] and provided the RSS with an opportunity to avail the state and its instruments to further its ends, through the resources of various state governments as well as the central government.[117] However, this merge, which was seen as a dilution of its original doctrine, was viewed by the ex-Jana Sanghis as submersion of their initial identity. Meanwhile, the other components of the Janata Party denounced the allegiance the ex-Jana Sanghis continued to pay to the RSS. This led to a 'dual membership' controversy, regarding the links the former Jana Sangh members were retaining with the RSS, and it led to the split of Janata Party in 1979.[114]

The former Jana Sangh elements formed a new party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in 1980. However, BJP originated more as a successor to the Janata Party and did not return to the beginning stages of the Hindu nationalist identity and Jana Sangh doctrines. The RSS resented this dilution of ideology – the new slogans promoted by the then BJP president Vajpayee like 'Gandhian socialism' and 'positive secularism'. By early 1980s, RSS is said to have established its political strategy of "never keeping all its eggs in one basket". It even decided to support Congress in some states, for instance, to create the Hindu Munnani in Tamil Nadu in the backdrop of the 1981 Meenakshipuram mass conversion to Islam, and to support one of its offshoots, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), to launch an enthno-religious movement on the Ayodhya dispute. BJP did not have much electoral success in its initial years and was able to win only two seats in the 1984 elections. After L.K. Advani replaced Vajpayee as party president in 1986, the BJP also began to rally around the Ayodhya campaign. In 1990, the party organised the Ram Rath Yatra to advance this campaign in large-scale.[114][109] Advani also attacked the then ruling Congress party with the slogans such as 'pseudo secularism', accusing Congress of misusing secularism for the political appeasement of minorities, and established an explicit and unambiguous path of Hindu revival.[111]

The 'instrumentalisation' of the Ayodhya issue and the related communal riots which polarised the electorate along religious lines helped the BJP make good progress in the subsequent elections of 1989, 1991 and 1996. However, in the mid-1990s, BJP adopted a more moderate approach to politics in order to make allies. As Jaffrelot remarks, it was because the party realised during then that it would not be in a position to form the government on its own in the near future. In 1998, it built a major coalition, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in the Lok Sabha and succeeded in the general election in 1998, and was able to succeed again in the mid-term elections of 1999, with Vajpayee as their Prime Ministerial candidate. Though the RSS and other Sangh Parivar components appreciated some of the steps taken by the Vajpayee government, like the testing of a nuclear bomb, they felt disappointed with the government's overall performance. The fact that no solid step was taken towards building the Ram temple in Ayodhya was resented by the VHP. The liberalisation policy of the government faced objection from the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a trade union controlled by the RSS. Jaffrelot says, RSS and the other Sangh Parivar elements had come to the view that the "BJP leaders had been victims of their thirst for power: they had preferred to compromise to remain in office instead of sticking to their principles."[114]

After the end of Vajpayee's tenure in 2004, BJP remained as a major opposition party in the subsequent years; and again in the year 2014, the NDA came to power after BJP gained an overwhelming majority in the 2014 general elections, with Narendra Modi, a former RSS member who previously served as Gujarat's chief minister for three tenures, as their prime ministerial candidate. Modi was able to project himself as a person who could bring about "development", without focus on any specific policies,[118] through the "Gujarat development model" which was frequently used to counter the allegations of communalism.[119] Voter dissatisfaction with the Congress, as well as the support from RSS are also stated as reasons for the BJP's success in the 2014 elections.[118]

Structure

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An RSS volunteer taking the oath dressed in an earlier uniform

RSS does not have any formal membership. According to the official website, men and boys can become members by joining the nearest shakha, which is the basic unit. Although the RSS claims not to keep membership records, it is estimated to have had 2.5 to 6.0 million members in 2001.[120]

Sarsanghchalaks

Main article: List of Sarsanghchalaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

The Sarsanghchalak is the head of the RSS organisation; the position is decided through nomination by the predecessor. The individuals who have held the post of Sarsanghchalak in this organisation are:

• K. B. Hedgewar (1925–1930. 1931–1940)
• Laxman Vaman Paranjpe (1930–1931)
• M. S. Golwalkar (1940–1973)
• Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras (1973–1993)
• Rajendra Singh (1993–2000)
• K. S. Sudarshan (2000–2009)
• Mohan Bhagwat (incumbent since 21 March 2009)

Shakhas

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Sangh shakha at Nagpur headquarters

The term shakha is Hindi for "branch". Most of the organisational work of the RSS is done through the co-ordination of the various shakhas, or branches. These shakhas are run for one hour in public places. The number of shakhas increased from 8500 in 1975 to 11,000 in 1977, and became 20,000 by 1982.[109] In 2004 more than 51,000 shakhas were run throughout India. The number of shakas had fallen by over 10,000 since the fall of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in 2004. However, by mid-2014, the number had again increased to about 40,000 after the return of BJP to power in Delhi in the same year.[121][122][123] This number stood at 51,335 in August 2015.[124]

The shakhas conduct various activities for its volunteers such as physical fitness through yoga, exercises, and games, and activities that encourage civic awareness, social service, community living, and patriotism.[125] Volunteers are trained in first aid and in rescue and rehabilitation operations, and are encouraged to become involved in community development.[125][126]

Most of the shakhas are located in the Hindi-speaking regions. As of 2016 Delhi had 1,898 shakhas.[127] There are more than 8,000 shakhas in UP, 6,845 shakhas in Kerala,[128] 4,000 in Maharashtra, and around 1,000 in Gujarat.[129] In northeast India, there are more than 1,000 shakhas, including 903 in Assam, 107 in Manipur, 36 in Arunachal, and 4 in Nagaland.[130][131] In Punjab, there are more than 900 shakhas as of 2016.[132] As of late 2015 there were a total of 1,421 shakhas in Bihar,[133] 4,870 in Rajasthan,[134] 1,252 in Uttarakhand,[135] and 1,492 in West Bengal.[136] There are close to 500 shakhas in Jammu and Kashmir,[137] 130 in Tripura, and 46 in Meghalaya.[138]

As per the RSS Annual Report of 2019, there were a total of 84,877 shakhas of which 59,266 are being held daily; 17,229 are weekly shakhas (58,967 in 2018, 57165 shakhas in 2017, and 56,569 in 2016)[139][140]
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Mission

Golwalkar describes the mission of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as the revitalisation of the Indian value system based on universalism and peace and prosperity to all.[141] Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the worldview that the whole world is one family, propounded by the ancient thinkers of India, is considered as one of the ideologies of the organisation.[142]

But the immediate focus, the leaders believe, is on the Hindu renaissance, which would build an egalitarian society and a strong India that could propound this philosophy. Hence, the focus is on social reform, economic upliftment of the downtrodden, and the protection of the cultural diversity of the natives in India.[142] The organisation says it aspires to unite all Hindus and build a strong India that can contribute to the welfare of the world. In the words of RSS ideologue and the second head of the RSS, Golwalkar, "in order to be able to contribute our unique knowledge to mankind, in order to be able to live and strive for the unity and welfare of the world, we stand before the world as a self-confident, resurgent and mighty nation".[141]

In Vichardhara (ideology), Golwalkar affirms the RSS mission of integration as:[141]

RSS has been making determined efforts to inculcate in our people the burning devotion for Bharat and its national ethos; kindle in them the spirit of dedication and sterling qualities and character; rouse social consciousness, mutual good-will, love and cooperation among them all; to make them realise that casts, creeds, and languages are secondary and that service to the nation is the supreme end and to mold their behaviour accordingly; instill in them a sense of true humility and discipline and train their bodies to be strong and robust so as to shoulder any social responsibility; and thus to create all-round Anushasana (Discipline) in all walks of life and build together all our people into a unified harmonious national whole, extending from Himalayas to Kanyakumari. — M. S. Golwalkar


Golwalkar and Balasaheb Deoras, the second and third supreme leaders of the RSS, spoke against the caste system, though they did not support its abolition.[143]

Golwalkar also explains that RSS does not intend to compete in electioneering politics or share power. The movement considers Hindus as inclusive of Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, tribals, untouchables, Veerashaivism, Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, and other groups as a community, a view similar to the inclusive referencing of the term Hindu in the Indian Constitution Article 25 (2)(b).[144][145][146]

When it came to non-Hindu religions, the view of Golwalkar (who once supported Hitler's creation of a supreme race by suppression of minorities)[147] on minorities was that of extreme intolerance. In a 1998 magazine article, some RSS and BJP members were been said to have distanced themselves from Golwalkar's views, though not entirely.[148]

The non-Hindu people of Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture and languages, must learn and respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but of those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture ... in a word they must cease to be foreigners; or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even citizens' rights. — M. S. Golwalkar[149]


Affiliated organisations

Further information: Sangh Parivar

Organisations that are inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's ideology refer to themselves as members of the Sangh Parivar.[120] In most cases, pracharaks (full-time volunteers of the RSS) were deputed to start up and manage these organisations in their initial years.
The affiliated organisations include:[150]

• Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), literally, Indian People's Party (23m)[151]
• Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, literally, Indian Farmers' Association (8m)[151]
• Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, literally, Indian Labour Association (10 million as of 2009)[151]
• Seva Bharti, Organisation for service of the needy.
• Rashtra Sevika Samiti, literally, National Volunteer Association for Women (1.8m)[151]
• Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, literally, All India Students' Forum (2.8m)[151]
• Shiksha Bharati (2.1m)[151]
• Vishwa Hindu Parishad, World Hindu Council (2.8m)[151]
• Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, literally, Hindu Volunteer Association – overseas wing
• Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Nativist Awakening Front[152]
• Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Nursery
• Vidya Bharati, Educational Institutes
• Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (Ashram for the Tribal Welfare), Organisations for the improvement of tribals; and Friends of Tribals Society
• Muslim Rashtriya Manch (Muslim National Forum), Organisation for the improvement of Muslims
• Bajrang Dal, Army of Hanuman (2m)
• Anusuchit Jati-Jamati Arakshan Bachao Parishad, Organisation for the improvement of Dalits
• Laghu Udyog Bharati, an extensive network of small industries.[153][154]
• Bharatiya Vichara Kendra, Think Tank
• Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Communication Wing, spread all over India for media related work, having a team of IT professionals (samvada.org)
• Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, National Sikh Association, a sociocultural organisation with the aim to spread the knowledge of Gurbani to the Indian society.[155]
• Vivekananda Kendra, promotion of Swami Vivekananda's ideas with Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi as a public policy think tank with six centres of study

Although RSS has never directly contested elections, it supports parties that are similar ideologically. Although RSS generally endorses the BJP, it has at times refused to do so due to the difference of opinion with the party.

Social service and reform

Participation in land reforms


The RSS volunteers participated in the Bhoodan movement organised by Gandhian leader Vinobha Bhave, who had met RSS leader Golwalkar in Meerut in November 1951. Golwalkar had been inspired by the movement that encouraged land reform through voluntary means. He pledged the support of the RSS for this movement.[156] Consequently, many RSS volunteers, led by Nanaji Deshmukh, participated in the movement.[2] But Golwalkar was also critical of the Bhoodan movement on other occasions for being reactionary and for working "merely with a view to counteracting Communism". He believed that the movement should inculcate a faith in the masses that would make them rise above the base appeal of Communism.[141]

Reform in 'caste'

The RSS has advocated the training of Dalits and other backward classes as temple high priests (a position traditionally reserved for Caste Brahmins and denied to lower castes). They argue that the social divisiveness of the caste system is responsible for the lack of adherence to Hindu values and traditions, and that reaching out to the lower castes in this manner will be a remedy to the problem.[157] The RSS has also condemned upper-caste Hindus for preventing Dalits from worshipping at temples, saying that "even God will desert the temple in which Dalits cannot enter".[158]

Jaffrelot says that "there is insufficient data available to carry out a statistical analysis of social origins of the early RSS leaders" but goes on to conclude that, based on some known profiles, most of the RSS founders and its leading organisers, with a few exceptions, were Maharashtrian Brahmins from the middle or lower class[159] and argues that the pervasiveness of the Brahminical ethic in the organisation was probably the main reason why it failed to attract support from the low castes. He argues that the "RSS resorted to instrumentalist techniques of ethnoreligious mobilisation—in which its Brahminism was diluted—to overcome this handicap".[160] However, Anderson and Damle (1987) find that members of all castes have been welcomed into the organisation and are treated as equals.[2]

During a visit in 1934 to an RSS camp at Wardha accompanied by Mahadev Desai and Mirabehn, Mahatma Gandhi said, "When I visited the RSS Camp, I was very much surprised by your discipline and absence of untouchablity." He personally inquired about this to Swayamsevaks and found that volunteers were living and eating together in the camp without bothering to know each other's castes.[161]

Relief and rehabilitation

The RSS was instrumental in relief efforts after the 1971 Orissa Cyclone, 1977 Andhra Pradesh Cyclone[162] and in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.[163][164] It assisted in relief efforts during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and helped rebuild villages.[162][165] Approximately 35,000 RSS members in uniform were engaged in the relief efforts,[166] and many of their critics acknowledged their role.[167] An RSS-affiliated NGO, Seva Bharati, conducted relief operations in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Activities included building shelters for the victims and providing food, clothes, and medical necessities.[168] The RSS assisted relief efforts during the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.[169] Seva Bharati also adopted 57 children (38 Muslims and 19 Hindus) from militancy affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir to provide them education at least up to Higher Secondary level.[170][171] They also took care of victims of the Kargil War of 1999.[172]

In 2006 RSS participated in relief efforts to provide basic necessities such as food, milk, and potable water to the people of Surat, Gujarat, who were affected by floods in the region.[173][non-primary source needed] The RSS volunteers carried out relief and rehabilitation work after the floods affected North Karnataka and some districts of the state of Andhra Pradesh.[174] In 2013, following the Uttarakhand floods, RSS volunteers were involved in flood relief work through its offices set up at affected areas.[175][176]

Reception

India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had been vigilant towards RSS since he had taken charge. When Golwalkar wrote to Nehru asking for the lifting of the ban on RSS after Gandhi's assassination, Nehru replied that the government had proof that RSS activities were 'anti-national' by virtue of being 'communalist'. In his letter to the heads of provincial governments in December 1947, Nehru wrote that "we have a great deal of evidence to show that RSS is an organisation which is in the nature of a private army and which is definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the techniques of the organisation".[177]

Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, said in early January 1948 that the RSS activists were "patriots who love their country". He asked the Congressmen to 'win over' the RSS by love, instead of trying to 'crush' them. He also appealed to the RSS to join the Congress instead of opposing it. Jaffrelot says that this attitude of Patel can be partly explained by the assistance the RSS gave the Indian administration in maintaining public order in September 1947, and that his expression of 'qualified sympathy' towards RSS reflected the long-standing inclination of several Hindu traditionalists in Congress. However, after Gandhi's assassination on 30 January 1948, Patel began to view that the activities of RSS were a danger to public security.[178][179] In his reply letter to Golwalkar on 11 September 1948 regarding the lifting of ban on RSS, Patel stated that though RSS did service to the Hindu society by helping and protecting the Hindus when in need during partition violence, they also began attacking Muslims with revenge and went against "innocent men, women and children". He said that the speeches of RSS were "full of communal poison", and as a result of that 'poison', he remarked, India had to lose Gandhi, noting that the RSS men had celebrated Gandhi's death. Patel was also apprehensive of the secrecy in the working manner of RSS, and complained that all of its provincial heads were Maratha Brahmins. He criticised the RSS for having its own army inside India, which he said, cannot be permitted as "it was a potential danger to the State". He also remarked: "The members of RSS claimed to be the defenders of Hinduism. But they must understand that Hinduism would not be saved by rowdyism."[98]

Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, did not approve of RSS. In 1948, he criticised RSS for carrying out 'loot, arson, rioting and killing of Muslims' in Delhi and other Hindu majority areas. In his letter to home minister Patel on 14 May 1948, he stated that RSS men had planned to dress up as Muslims in Hindu majority areas and attack Muslims in Muslim majority areas to create trouble. He asked Patel to take strict action against RSS for aiming to create enmity among Hindus and Muslims. He called RSS a Maharashtrian Brahmin movement, and viewed it as a secret organisation which used violence and promoted fascism, without any regard to truthful means and constitutional methods. He stated that RSS was "definitely a menace to public peace".[180]

Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa in his speech to RSS volunteers said "RSS is my heart's work. My dear young men, don't be disturbed by uncharitable comments of interested persons. Look ahead! Go ahead! The country is standing in need of your services."[181]

Zakir Hussain, former President of India, told Milad Mehfil in Monghyar on 20 November 1949, "The allegations against RSS of violence and hatred against Muslims are wholly false. Muslims should learn the lesson of mutual love, cooperation and organisation from RSS."[182][183]

Gandhian leader and the leader of Sarvodaya movement, Jayaprakash Narayan, who earlier had been a vocal opponent of RSS, had the following to say about it in 1977:

RSS is a revolutionary organisation. No other organisation in the country comes anywhere near it. It alone has the capacity to transform society, end casteism and wipe the tears from the eyes of the poor.


He further added, "I have great expectations from this revolutionary organisation which has taken up the challenge of creating a new India."[108]

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Welcome from City of Milpitas California, USA to K Sudarshan

Criticisms and accusations

Jaffrelot observes that although the RSS with its paramilitary style of functioning and its emphasis on discipline has sometimes been seen by some as "an Indian version of fascism",[184] he argues that "RSS's ideology treats society as an organism with a secular spirit, which is implanted not so much in the race as in a socio-cultural system and which will be regenerated over the course of time by patient work at the grassroots". He writes that "ideology of the RSS did not develop a theory of the state and the race, a crucial element in European nationalisms: Nazism and Fascism"[184] and that the RSS leaders were interested in culture as opposed to racial sameness.[185]

The likening of the Sangh Parivar to fascism by Western critics has also been countered by Jyotirmaya Sharma, who labelled it as an attempt by them to "make sense of the growth of extremist politics and intolerance within their society," and that such "simplistic transference" has done great injustice to our knowledge of Hindu nationalist politics.[186]

RSS has been criticised as an extremist organisation and as a paramilitary group.[3][4][7] It has also been criticised when its members have participated in anti-Muslim violence;[187] it has since formed in 1984, a militant wing called the Bajrang Dal.[21][188] Along with other extremist organisations, the RSS has been involved in riots, often inciting and organising violence against Christians[189] and Muslims.[6]

Involvement with riots

The RSS has been censured for its involvement in communal riots.

After giving careful and serious consideration to all the materials that are on record, the Commission is of the view that the RSS with its extensive organisation in Jamshedpur and which had close links with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh had a positive hand in creating a climate which was most propitious for the outbreak of communal disturbances.

In the first instance, the speech of Shri Deoras (delivered just five days before the Ram Navami festival) tended to encourage the Hindu extremists to be unyielding in their demands regarding Road No. 14. Secondly, his speech amounted to communal propaganda. Thirdly, the shakhas and the camps that were held during the divisional conference presented a militant atmosphere to the Hindu public. In the circumstances, the commission cannot but hold the RSS responsible for creating a climate for the disturbances that took place on 11 April 1979.[190][191]


Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation for human rights based in New York, has claimed that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the BJP have been party to the Gujarat violence that erupted after the Godhra train burning.[192] Local VHP, BJP, and BD leaders have been named in many police reports filed by eyewitnesses.[193] RSS and VHP claimed that they made appeals to put an end to the violence and that they asked their supporters and volunteer staff to prevent any activity that might disrupt peace.[194][195]

Religious violence in Odisha

Christian groups accuse the RSS alongside its close affiliates, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal (BD), and the Hindu Jagaran Sammukhya (HJS), of participation in the 2008 religious violence in Odisha.[196]

Involvement in the Babri Masjid demolition
According to the 2009 report of the Liberhan Commission, the Sangh Parivar organised the destruction of the Babri Mosque.[187][197] The Commission said: "The blame or the credit for the entire temple construction movement at Ayodhya must necessarily be attributed to Sangh Parivar."[198] It also noted that the Sangh Parivar is an "extensive and widespread organic body" that encompasses organisations that address and bring together just about every type of social, professional, and other demographic groupings of individuals. The RSS has denied responsibility and questioned the objectivity of the report. Former RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan alleged that the mosque had been demolished by government men as opposed to the Karsevak volunteers.[199] On the other hand, a government of India white paper dismissed the idea that the demolition was pre-organised.[200] The RSS was banned after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, when the government of the time considered it a threat to the state. The ban was subsequently lifted in 1993 when no evidence of any unlawful activity was found by the tribunal constituted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.[201]

Swayamsevaks

Main article: RSS swayamsevak

Political leaders

• Deendayal Upadhyaya
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee
• L. K. Advani
• Murli Manohar Joshi
• Narendra Modi
• Rajnath Singh
• Ram Nath Kovind
• Venkaiah Naidu
• Nitin Gadkari
• Manohar Parrikar
• Amit Shah
• Vijay Rupani
• Devendra Fadnavis
• Ram Madhav
• Shankersinh Vaghela
• Keshubhai Patel
• Pramod Mahajan
• Gopinath Munde
• Biplab Kumar Deb
• Manoharlal Khattar
• Dilip Ghosh

Pracharak

• Eknath Ranade
• Dattopant Thengadi – Trade Union leader
• Ashok Singhal – VHP president

Image
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, first swayamsevak to become the Prime Minister of India

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Narendra Modi, second swayamsevak to become the Prime Minister of India

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Ram Nath Kovind, first swayamsevak to become the President of India

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Venkaiah Naidu, first swayamsevak to become the Vice-President of India

See also

• Sangh Parivar
• Rashtra Sevika Samiti
• Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh

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177. Jaffrelot, Hindu Nationalist Movement 1996, pp. 87, 88.
178. Jaffrelot, Hindu Nationalist Movement 1996, pp. 86-.
179. Graham; Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics 2007, p. 12.
180. Patel, Prasad and Rajaji: Myth of the Indian Right 2015, pp. 113.
181. Damle, Shridhar D. (1987). The Brotherhood in Saffron. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism. New Delhi: Vistaar Publications. p. 56. ISBN 0-8133-7358-1.
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Bibliography

Sources


• Bakaya, Akshay (2004), Anne Vaugier-Chatterjee (ed.), "Lessons from Kurukshetra the RSS Education Project", Education and Democracy in India, New Delhi: Manohar, ISBN 8173046042
• Bapu, Prabhu (2013), Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Construction Nation and History, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415671651
• Basu, Tapan; Sarkar, Tanika (1993), Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags: A Critique of the Hindu Right, Orient Longman, ISBN 0863113834
• Bhatt, Chetan (2001), Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths, Berg Publishers, ISBN 1859733484
• Chitkara, M. G. (2004), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: National Upsurge, APH Publishing, ISBN 8176484652
• Curran, Jean Alonzo (1951), Militant Hinduism in Indian Politics: A Study of the R.S.S., International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, retrieved 27 October 2014
• Frykenberg, Robert Eric (1996), Martin E. Marty; R. Scott Appleby (eds.), "Hindu fundamentalism and the structural stability of India", Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies and Militance, University of Chicago Press, pp. 233–235, ISBN 0226508846
• Graham, Bruce Desmond (3 December 2007), Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-05374-7
• Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1998), Hitler's Priestess: Savithri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth and the Neo-Nazism, New York University, ISBN 0-8147-3110-4
• Goyal, Des Raj (1979), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Delhi: Radha Krishna Prakashan, ISBN 0836405668
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (1996), The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, ISBN 978-1850653011
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (2007), Hindu Nationalism - A Reader, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-13097-2
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• Sirsikar, V. M. (1988), Eleanor Zelliott; Maxine Bernsten (eds.), "My Years in the RSS", The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharastra, SUNY Press, pp. 190–203, ISBN 0887066623
• Stern, Robert W. (2001), Democracy and Dictatorship in South Asia: Dominant Classes and Political Outcomes in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-275-97041-3
• Venkatesan, V. (13 October 2001). "A pracharak as Chief Minister". Frontline. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
• Anand, Adeesh (2007), Shree Guruji And His R.S.S., Delhi: M.D. Publication Pvt. Ltd.
• Andersen, Walter (1972), "The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: I: Early Concerns", Economic and Political Weekly, 7 (11): 589–597 (591–2), JSTOR 4361126
• Andersen, Walter K.; Damle, Shridhar D. (1987), The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, Delhi: Vistaar Publications
• Basu, Tapan (1993), Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags: A Critique of the Hindu Right, Orient Blackswan, ISBN 978-0-86311-383-3
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Books

• Bhishikar, C. P. (1979), Keshave: Sangh Nirmata, New Delhi: Suruchi Sahitya Prakashan
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• Jelen, Ted Gerard (2002), Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: The One, The Few, and The Many, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65031-3
• Chitkara, M. G. (2004), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: National Upsurge, APH Publishing, ISBN 9788176484657

Publications

• "Panchajanya" (in Hindi). RSS weekly publication.
• "Organiser". RSS weekly publication.
• Bunch of Thoughts, Bangalore, India: Sahitya Sindhu Prakashan, 1966, ISBN 81-86595-19-8, archived from the original on 28 January 2007, retrieved 29 October 2006 (A Collection of Speeches by Golwalkar).
• Weekly Swastika (A Nationalist Bengali News Weekly)
• Biographies of Dr. Hedgewar The founder of RSS (in Hindi and English)

External links

• Official website
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Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Postby admin » Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:04 am

Occult Secrets of the Dalai Lama
by David Livingstone
Sun, 03/23/2014 - 21:07

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Image

Shambhala

As reported by Tim Cummings in The Guardian, the man credited with “almost single-handedly bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West,” was the Dalai Lama's emissary, Gerald Yorke, a personal friend and secretary to Aleister Crowley, the godfather of twentieth century Satanism.[1] Yorke also wrote an original foreword to a secret book on the Kalachakra initiation, and Aleister Crowley, the Golden Dawn, and Buddhism. Yorke also served as consultant to Lucifer Rising, by experimental film-maker Kenneth Anger, based on the concept from Crowley’s Book of the Law. Anger, who was at the center of the bizarre nexus of rock ‘n roll and occultism in Laurel Canyon during the 60s, was also closely associated with Anton LaVey, head of the Church of Satan and members of the Mason clan.

Also, in October 1998, the Dalai Lama's administration acknowledged that it received $1.7 million a year in the 1960s from the US government through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[2]

Sound like an incongruous mix? Not when you consider the real history of the Dalai Lama, distinct from the phantasm that has been portrayed in the mainstream media.

The popularity of the Dalai Lama, as an expression of the wisdom of Buddhism is actually related to the occult myth of Shambhala, which has its origin in the geopolitical antics of the Great Game, the strategic rivalry and conflict for supremacy in Central Asia, between the British Empire and the Russian Empire in the eighteenth century. Not to say that the rival Empires battled for control of a shibboleth, but rather that occult myth seems to have been nurtured to serve imperial ambitions.

Shambhala, the legendary home of the Aryan race, was derived originally from the notion first proposed by Emanuel Swedenborg and popularized by Scottish Rite Mason, Chevalier Ramsay, of the Hindu Tantra as an expression of an “Asian Kabbalah,” which provided the opportunity to propose an origin of the occult tradition in a people other than the Jews, and to identify them as the purported ancestors of the Europeans.

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Kalachakra in union with his consort Vishvamatr

There is some substance of Swedenborg’s claims, as Gershom Scholem also noticed that the Kabbalah bore a marked resemblance to those of both Indian Yoga and Muslim Sufism.”[3] However, instead of ancient Aryan migrations, such similarities can be attributed more likely to later Gnostic influence in India. In other words, it was Jewish Kabbalah that influenced Indian Tantra, not the other way around.

Tantra is a style of occultism recognized by scholars to have arisen in medieval India no later than the fifth century AD, after which it influenced Hindu traditions and Buddhism.
The Gospel of Thomas, discovered among the Gnostic gospels near Nag Hammadi, in 1945, is named for the apostle Thomas, who is traditionally believed by Christians in Kerala, in south-west India, to have spread Christianity among the Jews there. Edward Conze, a British scholar of Buddhism, pointed out that Buddhists were in contact with these Thomas Christians.”[4] Elaine Pagels mentioned that, "Trade routes between the Greco-Roman world and the Far East were opening up at the time when Gnosticism flourished (A.D. 80-200); for generations, Buddhist missionaries had been proselytizing in Alexandria."[5]

In 1833, Csoma de Körös was the first to report of the legend of Shambhala in the West. Based on the linguistic affinities between Hungarian and the Turkic languages, de Körös felt that the origins of the Hungarian people were in “the land of the Yugurs (Uighurs)” in Xinjiang, a province of Northwestern China. In a 1825 letter, Csoma de Körös wrote that Shambhala is like a Buddhist Jerusalem, and believed it would probably be found in Kazakhstan, close to the Gobi desert. Others later would also locate it more specifically either in Xinjiang, or the Altai Mountains.[6]

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H. P. Blavatsky

Csoma’s knowledge of Shambhala was derived from the Kalachakra Tantra of Tibetan Buddhism, a superstitious and highly ritualized set of beliefs that evolved from an amalgam of Buddhism, Hindu Tantra and the pre-Buddhist shamanistic religion of Bön. Developed in the tenth century, the Kalachakra is farthest removed from the earlier Buddhist traditions. In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, it is claimed that the Buddha taught Tantra, but that since these were “secret” teachings, transmitted only from guru to disciple, they were generally written down long after his other teachings. However, historians argue that assigning these teachings to the historical Buddha is “patently absurd.”[7]

The Kalachakra Tantra is considered by the lamas to be the pinnacle of all Buddhist systems, but there have traditionally only been individual experts who truly command its complicated ritual. For the Yellow Hats (Gelugpa), these are the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. In public, as revealed in the comprehensive study of Victor and Victoria Trimondi, the Dalai Lama performs only the seven lowest levels of initiation, while the secrets of the upper eight degrees may not, under pain of torturous punishment, be discussed with the uninitiated. In these upper degrees, extreme mental and physical exercises are used to push the initiate into a state beyond good and evil. Mirroring tendencies found among the Gnostics, the Kalachakra Tantra requires the initiate to indulge in killing, lying, stealing, infidelity, the consumption of alcohol, and sexual intercourse with “lower-class” girls.[8]

Csoma de Körös’ mention of Shambhala became the basis of the mystical speculations offered by H. P. Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Society, and came to be regarded as an oracle of Freemasonry and the godmother of the occult. Blavatsky became largely responsible for initiating the popularity of Buddhism as a font of the Ancient Wisdom. More specifically, Blavatsky saw Tibetan Buddhism as the only true preservation of ancient shamanism and the traditions of magic.


The White Tsar

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Gérard Encausse (aka Papus)

The exploitation of the myth of Shambhala was in alignment with the new political directions of the Great Game, that would feature actors connected to the Theosophical Society and the Martinist Order, headed by Gérard Encausse, also known as Papus. As a young man, Encausse studied Kabbalah and later joined the French Theosophical Society, and was also a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and the Golden Dawn.

Papus had also founded the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix (OKR+C) along with Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, Grand Master of the Martinist Order, who proposed the political philosophy of synarchism, which became the bedrock of much twentieth century fascism. Synarchy came to mean “rule by secret societies,” serving as priestly class in direct communication with the “gods,” meaning the Ascended Masters of Agartha [Agarttha], a legendary city that is said to reside in the hollow earth.

Agartha was connected to the myth of Shambhala, popularized by Blavatsky as the legendary home of the Aryan race, and derived its influence from Bulwer-Lytton’s occult novel, The Coming Race or Vril: The Power of the Coming Race. It was probably through Martinist channels that the Polish explorer Ferdynand Ossendowski learned of the legend of Agartha. Ossendowski wrote a book in 1922 titled Beasts, Men and Gods, in which he tells a story he claims was imparted to him of a subterranean kingdom which exists inside the earth. This kingdom was known to the Buddhists as Agharti, which is associated with Shambhala. Ossendowski was told of the miraculous powers of the Tibetan monks, and the Dalai Lama in particular, which foreigners could barely comprehend, and continued: “But there also exists a still more powerful and more holy man… The King of the World in Agharti.”[9]


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Ferdynand Ossendowski

In establishing the OKR+C, which came to be regarded as the “inner circle” of the Martinist Order, Papus dreamed of uniting occultists into a revived Rosicrucian brotherhood, as an international occult order, in which he hoped the Russian Empire would play a leading role as the bridge between East and West.[10] Papus believed that the vast Russian Empire was the only power capable of thwarting the conspiracy of the “Shadow Brothers,” and to prepare for the coming war with Germany. Papus served Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra both as physician and occult consultant. Through Papus the Imperial family became acquainted with his friend and spiritual mentor, the mystic Maître Philippe who exercised an important influence on the royal family before Rasputin. He was believed to possess remarkable healing powers, as well as the ability to control lightning, to travel invisibly. The purported forgers of the Protocols of Zion were also said to have made use of an earlier version of the work discovered by Papus.[11]

Among these circles, the city of St. Petersburg became a hotbed of plots surrounding the Great Game, of confused British and Russian interests. As reported by Richard B. Spence in Secret Agent 666, in the summer of 1897, Aleister Crowley had also travelled to St Petersburg in Russia, under the employ of the British secret service, aiming to gain an appointment to the court of Tsar Nichoals II.

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Lama Agvan Dorjieff

A key actor in these intrigues was the Lama Agvan Dorjieff (or Dorzhiev), chief tutor of the Dalai Lama XIII, who became his ambassador to the court of the Tsar Nicholas II. In 1898, only a few months after Crowley’s visit, Dorjieff himself travelled to St. Petersburg to meet the Tsar.

Dorjieff’s meeting with Nicholas II was arranged by the Tsar’s close confidant, Prince Esper Ukhtomskii (1861 – 1921). A Theosophist, Ukhtomskii’s closest ally was Count Sergei Witte, Russia’s Minister of Finance and first cousin to Blavatsky. When Ukhtomskii accompanied Nicholas II while he was on his Grand tour to the East, he made contact with Blavatsky and Olcott at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, India, and promised to use his influence to push forward their projects.[12] Hinting at the nature of the Russian ambitions he represented, Ukhtomskii wrote, “in our organic connection with all these lands lies the pledge of our future, in which Asiatic Russia will mean simply all Asia.”[13] As he explained,


The bonds that unite our part of Europe with Iran and Turan [Central Asia], and through them with India and the Celestial Empire [China], are so ancient and lasting that, as yet, we ourselves, as a nation and a state, do not fully comprehend their full meaning and the duties they entail on us, both in our home and foreign policy.[14]


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Roman von Ungern-Sternberg

By the 1890s, Dorjieff had begun to spread the story that Russia was the mythical land of Shambhala, that Nicholas II was the White Tsar that would save Buddhism, raising hopes that he would support Tibet and its religion. By 1903, both Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, and Francis Younghusband became convinced that Russia and Tibet had signed secret treaties threatening the British interests in India and suspected that Dorjieff was working for the Russians. The fear of Russia drawing Tibet into the Great Game to control the routes across Asia was therefore a reason for the British invasion of Tibet during 1903-4. According to legend, Dorjieff then fled to Mongolia with the Dalai Lama.

It is possible that Dorjieff was also involved in a later plot to carve out a huge Mongol empire in Central Asia, by the “Mad Baron” Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, who in 1921 established a short-lived regime in Outer Mongolian during the Russian Civil War. A self-proclaimed warrior Buddhist who dreamed of leading a holy war in Asia, the Baron adhered to the “Shambhala” myth, believed himself to be a reincarnation of Kangchendzönga, the Mongolian god of war, and allegedly tried to contact the “King of the World” in hopes of furthering his scheme. Dorjieff’s disciple was Sternberg’s supply officer, and Ferdinand Ossendowski was also a key advisor, having joined the baron’s army as a commanding officer of one of the self-defense troops.

Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg: (1885-1921) Russian cavalry officer of Baltic German origin with family roots tracing back to an old lineage of Teutonic knights. He lives by warfare and for warfare and is also fond of Tibetan Buddhism. Harboring a deep hatred of modern Western civilization, Ungern believes that salvation will come from the East. After 1917, he embarks on a utopian project of restoring monarchies from the East to the West.

-- Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia, by Andrei Znamenski


Dorjieff was widely suspected as being one and the same as George Gurdjieff, a charismatic hypnotist, carpet trader and spy, who worked as a Russian secret agent in Tibet during the early part of the twentieth century. Having been in contact with the Bektashi Sufis of Turkey, Gurdjieff also put forward the myth of Central Asian Shamanism as the source of the occult tradition.

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George Gurdjieff

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Agvan Dorzhiev

Rom Landau wrote a book called God is My Adventure dealing with a number of contemporary religious figures and movements, including the Graeco-Armenian mystic George Gurdjieff. In it, he speculates that Gurdjieff, who is known to have spent time in central Asia, and believed to have been engaged in spying, was Agvan Dorzhiev (under the spelling "Aghwan Dordjieff"). The claim has been criticised by some of Gurdjieff's biographers, such as Paul Beekman Taylor and James Moore, who argues that the two men were of different age and appearance.[37]

-- Agvan Dorzhiev, by Wikipedia


The Green Dragon Society

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George Gurdjieff

Gurdjieff also had alleged ties to British intelligence.[15]

In Istanbul, Gurdjieff also met his future pupil Capt. John G. Bennett, then head of British Military Intelligence in Constantinople, who describes his impression of Gurdjieff as follows:

It was there that I first met Gurdjieff in the autumn of 1920, and no surroundings could have been more appropriate. In Gurdjieff, East and West do not just meet. Their difference is annihilated in a world outlook which knows no distinctions of race or creed. This was my first, and has remained one of my strongest impressions. A Greek from the Caucasus, he spoke Turkish with an accent of unexpected purity, the accent that one associates with those born and bred in the narrow circle of the Imperial Court. His appearance was striking enough even in Turkey, where one saw many unusual types. His head was shaven, immense black moustache, eyes which at one moment seemed very pale and at another almost black. Below average height, he gave nevertheless an impression of great physical strength.
....

John G. Bennett (1897–1974) was a British intelligence officer, polyglot (fluent in English, French, German, Turkish, Greek, Italian), technologist, industrial research director author and teacher, best known for his many books on psychology and spirituality, particularly the teachings of Gurdjieff. Bennett met both Ouspensky and then Gurdjieff at Istanbul in 1920, spent August 1923 at Gurdjieff's Institute, became Ouspensky's pupil between 1922 and 1941 and, after learning that Gurdjieff was still alive, was one of Gurdjieff's frequent visitors in Paris during 1949. See Witness: the Autobiography of John Bennett (1974), Gurdjieff: Making a New World(1974), Idiots in Paris: diaries of J. G. Bennett and Elizabeth Bennett, 1949 (1991).

-- George Gurdjieff, by Wikipedia


And there has also often been the suggestion that he and Joseph Dzhugashvili, later known as Stalin, met as young students while attending the same seminary in the Caucasus. Gurdjieff’s family records contain information that Stalin lived in his family’s house for a while.[16] There are also suggestions that Stalin belonged to an occult “eastern brotherhood,” which consisted of Gurdjieff and his followers.[17]

Louis Pauwels, a former student of Gurdjieff, in his book Monsieur Gurdjieff, asserts that one of the “Searchers After Truth” that Gurdjieff speaks of in his book Meetings with Remarkeable Men, was Karl Haushofer who, through his student Rudolf Hess, influenced the development of Adolf Hitler's geopolitical strategies. Haushofer was also a leading member of the Thule Society, from which evolved the Nazi Party, and which was founded by Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorf, who had studied Kabbalah in Turkey under Bektashi Sufis who were also Freemasons. Haushofer was supposed to have been with Gurdjieff in Tibet, supposedly advised Haushofer to adopt the swastika.[18]

The Thule Society also was to have established contact with secret monastic orders of Tibet through a small colony of Tibetan Buddhists, which was established at Berlin in 1928. According to Pauwels and Bergier, in The Morning of the Magicians, the Thule Society sought to make a pact with Shambhala, but only Agarthi agreed to help. Haushofer believed, following occult legend, that subsequent to a global cataclysm, the Aryans split into two groups. One went south and founded Agarthi, the holder of the right-hand path and positive vril. The other tried to return to Hyperborea-Thule, founding instead Shambhala, a city of the degenerate left-hand path and negative forces.

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Karl Haushofer & Rudolf Hess

Already by 1926, explained Pauwels and Bergier, there were colonies of Hindus and Tibetans in Munich and Berlin, called the Society of Green Men, in astral connection with the Green Dragon Society in Japan, to which Haushofer belonged. The leader of the Society of Green Men was a Tibetan lama, known as “the man with green gloves,” who supposedly visited Hitler frequently and held the keys of Agharti.[19]

Mel Gordon in Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant discusses the career of an occult figure in late Weimar Berlin, sometimes referred to as the “Magician with the Green Gloves,” in the service of the Nazis. He was not a Tibetan, but a Jew who went by the name of Erik Jan Hanussen. A devotee of Asiatic and tantric traditions, he enjoyed the company of Germany’s military and business elite. In March 1932, when Adolf Hitler’s political future seemed doomed, Hanussen predicted a resurgence of the Nazi Party. Dr. Walter C. Langer, a psychoanalyst, prepared a psychological profile of Hitler for the Office of Strategic Services in 1943, according to which: “…during the early 1920’s Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from a man named Hanussen who was also a practicing astrologer and fortune-teller. He was an extremely clever individual who taught Hitler a great deal concerning the importance of staging meetings to obtain the greatest dramatic effect.”[20]

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Erik Jan Hanussen

A 1933 book, Les Sept Tetes du Dragon Vert (The Seven Heads of the Green Dragon) by Teddy Legrand, also makes mention of the same society. “Teddy Legrand” was a pseudonym, the author's real name being Pierre Mariel. Under the name Werner Gerson, he would also later write Le Nazisme: Societe Secrete (“Nazism: Secret Society”), one of the first books on Nazi occultism. Mariel was also a one-time French grand master of Antiquus Mysticusque Ordo Rosae Crucis (AMORC), founded in 1915 in New York, and which was developed from the of Aleister Crowley, and borrowed heavily from Theosohy and the Golden Dawn. Mariel was also a member of the Martinist Order, which he hinted might have had links to the Green Dragon.[21]

The book presents the Green Dragon, or simply “The Greens,” as an insidious international cabal who seek world domination. Mariel also implies that connected with this conspiracy was also Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophical Society, a breakaway organization from the Theosophical Society, through his connections to pan-German secret societies. Mention is also made of Gurdjieff and Blavatsky’s successor, Annie Besant.

In the book, two brother spies are inspired by their shared curiosity about an object supposedly found on the executed Tsarina Alexandra’s body, which bears an enigmatic inscription in English: “S.I.M.P. The Green Dragon. You were absolutely right. Too late.” They quickly determine that the first element, which is accompanied by a six-pointed “Kabbalistic” symbol of the Martinists, stands for “Superieur Inconnu, Maître Philippe.” As reported by Legrand, after the murder of the Russian imperial family in 1918, a judicial investigator, Nikolai Sokolov, concluded that German intelligence had been active in both the Tsarist and the Bolshevik camps.

The Tsarina had apparently adopted the symbol of the swastika as her personal signature, which seems to have been used to communicate with an organisation attempting to support them. The leader of the organisation, Boris Soloviev, was Rasputin’s son-in-law and also a triple agent for the German secret service. Soloviev deceived the Tsarist camp by pretending to work for their cause, while actually delivering them all to the Bolsheviks. Rasputin was an agent in this scheme, receiving letters from his handlers in Sweden signed “The Green.” Supposedly then, Maître Philippe had tried to warn the Tsarina of the threat of the Green Dragon, represented by Rasputin, who eventually replaced him at the court.

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Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln

During their quest, the two spies also sought the assistance of Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln (1879-1943), a real-life character who was a Jewish adventurer of Hungarian origin, who for a time had also been a Christian priest, as well as British Member of Parliament, convicted fraudster, German right-wing politician and triple-agent, and Buddhist abbot in China. He was initiated to the occult by Harold Beckett, an ex-Indian Army officer who allegedly had ties with Maître Philippe and Papus, after which Trebitsch-Lincoln went on to join numerous secret societies including the Freemasons, the OTO and Chinese triads.[22] In 1925, Trebitsch-Lincoln underwent a “mystical experience” in a hotel room in China, after which he embraced Theosophy. His revelation opened his interest in Tibet and Buddhism, and he received initiation as Dordji Den at a monastery outside Lhasa.[23]

Among the secrets Beckett supposedly revealed to Trebitsch-Lincoln was that there are only seventy-two “True Men” for each generation. These are identified with the Green Dragon or, more simply, “The Greens,” who number precisely 72 conspirators, who were, presumably, the “72 unknown superiors” of occult legend. They are also considered the same as mentioned by Walter Rathenau, a Jewish politician who served Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic.[24] Just before he died, he blamed the “seventy-two men who control the world,” as responsible for his assassination on June 24, 1922, two months after the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo which renounced German territorial claims from World War I.

Trebitsch-Lincoln himself was suspected of being the “Man (or Lama) with the Green Gloves.”[25] According to Trebitsch-Lincoln, the society of the Green Men, the parent of the Thule Group, originated in Tibet.[26] In 1939, Edouard Saby published Hitler et les forces occultes, in which he depicts Hitler as a medium, a magician and initiate, and also refers to the connection with Tibet: “Wasn’t it Trebitsch-Lincoln, the friend of the Tibetan Badmaiev, who initiated Hitler, by revealing to him the doctrine of Ostara, a secret school of India, where the lamas teach the supremacy of the Aryan?”[27] The Mongol Dr. Piotr Badmaev, a practitioner of Tibetan herbal medicine, was an associate of Lama Dordjieff, Ukhtomskii and Sergei de Witte in St. Petersburg, at the court of Nicolas II, whom they envisioned as the “White Tsar of Shambhala.”[28]

Trebitsch-Lincoln even won the confidence of the Gestapo’s local representative, SS Colonel Joseph “The Butcher of Warsaw” Meisinger, who he convinced he could rally the Buddhists of the East against any remaining British influence in the area. Meisinger urged that the scheme receive serious attention, and sent him to Berlin, where Heinrich Himmler was enthusiastic for it, as was Rudolf Hess, but it was abandoned after his flight to Scotland in May 1941.

Expeditions to Tibet

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Ernst Schäfer expedition to Tibet (1938)

Haushofer, therefore, apparently acquainted Hitler with the teaching of the Society of the Green Dragon, and taught him the techniques of Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way, which were ostensibly based on the teachings of the Sufis and the Tibetan Lamas. Under the influence of Haushofer, Hitler authorized the creation of the Ahnenerbe in 1935, that sponsored expeditions to locate the Aryan forefathers in Shambhala and Agartha. The 1939 expedition was said to have gone to Tibet with the specific purpose of setting up vital radio contact between the Third Reich and the lamas in 1939, and Blavatsky’s Stanzas of Dzyan were used as a code for all messages between Berlin and Tibet during the War.[29] Pauwels and Bergier argue that Hitler sent the expedition out of his desire to find Agarthi, which he had been made aware of from his relationship with “the man with the green gloves.”

Ernst Schäfer, a German hunter and biologist, participated in three expeditions to Tibet, in 1931, in 1934 – 1935, and in 1938 – 1939, supposedly for sport and zoological research. Among the expedition was Dr. Bruno Beger, a member of Himmler’s personal staff, who was the actual “expert” who pushed forward the racial studies of the Ahnenerbe.[30] In 1939 he went to Tibet as a member of the SS Expedition, when measured the skulls of more than 400 Tibetans in order to investigate a possible relationship between the Tibetan and Aryan “races.” In 1943, he was sent to Auschwitz where he took the measurements of 150 mainly Jewish prisoners. In 1971 he appeared in a German court and was sentenced to three years imprisonment on probation for his crimes as a Nazi.

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Dalai Lama & Bruno Beger

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Dalai Lama & Heinrich Harrer

Beger was also connected to the current reigning Dalai Lama XIV, who was revered as representing a special connection between the Nazis and Tibet.[31] Acting as the young Dalai Lama’s personal tutor until the early 1950s, was former SS officer, Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber, competition skier, geographer, and author.[32] He is best known for his books, including Seven Years in Tibet (1952), which was the basis of a film in 1997, starring Brad Pitt in the role of Harrer. A strong friendship developed between Harrer and the Dalai Lama that would last the rest of their lives.[33]

Coinciding with the Schäfer expedition of 1934 – 1935 was another conducted by Nicholas Roerich in search of Shambhala, in inner Mongolia, Manchuria and China, organized by the US Department of Agriculture.[34] According to some researchers, Roerich became a member of Papus’the Ordre Martiniste while in St. Petersburg prior to World War I.[35] There, Roerich was involved in the construction of the Buddhist temple under the guidance of Lama Agvan Dorjieff.[36]

Roerich’s affinities to Martinism and synarchy were also found in his link with Harvey Spencer Lewis, who was keen on making Roerich a legate of AMORC on his expedition to Tibet, which apparently Roerich never was. Nevertheless, AMORC claims to this day that Roerich communicated certain occult techniques from Tibet which were since integrated in their Rosicrucian teachings. Lewis boasted of the correspondence he received from Roerich’s second expedition.[37]

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Nicholas Roerich

In Shambhala: In Search of a New Era, Roerich also hinted at a similarity between Shambhala and Thule, and mentioned the association of Shambhala with the underground city of Agharti, reached through tunnels under the Himalayan mountains. Heinrich Müller, who was in charge of a Gestapo section of the Nazis, claimed that Roerich was known to the Gestapo under the code word “Lama,” and that he had contacted the Nazi regime in 1934 to ascertain whether they were interested in supporting his undertakings in Inner Asia.[38]

One of Roerich’s followers was a young Russian Theosophist, Vladimir Anatol’evich Shibaev, an agent for the Communist International (Comintern) working with Indian nationalists. Shibaev introduced the Roerichs to other Soviet officials and encouraged their plans to move to India as a first step towards their Great Plan. Roerich held close ties to the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police (later renamed OGPU, NKVD and eventually KBG). The head of the OGPU’s “Special Department” was G. I. Bokii, a former member of Papus’ Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix (OKR+C), who belonged to Badmaev’s circle in St. Petersburg, that included Lama Dorjieff.

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G. I. Bokii

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Aleksandr Barchenko

During the Stalinist purge trials, Bokii confessed to having been part of a Masonic lodge in 1909 that had been founded by Gurdjieff and that included Nicholas Roerich and his wife.[39] Bokii was an associate of Aleksandr Barchenko, also a former member of the OKR+C, and former student of Gurdjieff. Bokii was also a member of the Edinoe Trudovoe Bratstvo (ETB), founded by Barchenko, whose primary aim was establishing contact with Shambhala, and included numerous other current or former Chekists and British double-agents.[40] The ETB lasted until it was disbanded by Stalin in the late 1930s, following charges leveled against Bokii, Barchenko and their associates, that their occult activities were part for treasonous plots associated with British intelligence in the Far East.

It was Bokii and Barchenko who were charge of the OGPU’s effort to exploit the services of Nicholas Roerich. Roerich’s expeditions began in 1925, attended by OGPU agents. According to his wife Helena, they were also under the guidance of one of one of Blavatsky’s “Mahatmas,” Master Morya, or Master Allal Ming. As Markus Osterrieder explains:

It cannot be denied that they seriously interpreted themselves and their "mission" as part of some larger spiritual Plan that ultimately should serve the advance of human evolution, especially since Master Allal Ming warmed them up by revealing their illustrious previous incarnations, thereby freeing vanity and arrogance – a phenomenon that occurs not exclusively in esoteric circles, but finds a especially fertile grounds among adepts – and politicians.[41]


Their ultimate objective, usually referred to as the “Grand Plan,” like Dorjieff and von Ungern-Sternberg, was to establish a pan-Buddhist, transnational “New Country” spanning from Tibet to southern Siberia, including territory that was then governed by China, Mongolia, Tibet, and the Soviet Union, to be ruled by the Panchen Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, who had been forced to flee the country in 1923 because of disagreements with the then Dalai Lama, the country’s secular leader. It was prophesied that the Panchen Lama's return would signal the beginning of a new age.

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Henry A. Wallace

Hearing that Roerich's expedition was nearing the Tibetan border, the British counseled the Dalai Lama not to allow him to reach Lhasa. Roerich then set out again on a second expedition, this time with the support of the Vice President Henry A. Wallace, who was also a member of the Theosophical Society. It is widely suspected that it was Roerich who inspired Wallace to add the Great Seal of the United States, first designed in 1782, on the reverse side of the dollar bill, featuring an unfinished pyramid and the Illuminati symbol of the All-Seeing Eye.[42]

With Wallace’s help, the Roerichs were also able to gain the support of President Roosevelt, who had become a member of the high grade Scottish Rite in 1929. FDR was deeply fascinated by the geography and history of Inner Asia, from Tibet to the Siberian border, what he called “the chess board of international politics.” This attitude is reflected in the series of eight letters addressed to him at the instigation of “the Masters,” and written by Elena Roerich between late 1934 and early 1936. The “Master” communicated to the President that:

…a Great State will be created in the East. This beginning will bring that equilibrium, which is so urgently needed for the construction of the great Future. America was since long linked with Asia. [...] Thus one must accept that the peoples occupying the larger part of Asia are destined to respond to the friendship of America. [...] The alliance of the nations of Asia is decided, the union of tribes and peoples will take place gradually, there will be a kind of Federation of countries. Mongolia, China and the Kalmuks will constitute the counterbalance of Japan and in this alliance of peoples, Your Good Will is needed, Mr. President.[43]


Roerich’s true ambition was to prepare the coming of a New Age of “peace,” which would be ushered in by Rigdenjyepo, the earthly manifestation of Maitreya, who is the prophesied Lord of the New Era of Shambhala. He is the “Ruler of the World,” and Maitreya himself, the Last Avatar who brings the Kali Yuga, and whose representative on Earth is the Dalai Lama. The Roerichs did not expect to wait long to witness these events. Helena Roerich, channeling “Josephine Saint-Hilaire,” gave the heralds of Northern Shambhala five years to arrive, and a lama predicted to them “someone of greatness will come” in 1936.[44] Tenzin Gyatso was born in 1935, and identified as the incarnation of the Dalai Lama in 1937, becoming the current Dalai Lama XIV.

Esoteric Hitlerism

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Savitri Devi

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Bal Gangadhar Tilak

The Dalai Lama continued to maintain important ties to fascists, particularly Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano (1917 – 2009, who was an important exponent of what is called Esoteric Nazism. Serrano was inspired by Savitri Devi (1905 – 1982), who achieved wide influence among neo-Nazi circles through her development of a religious form of Nazism that assimilated many notions from Hinduism and glorified the Aryan race and Adolf Hitler. She linked these ideas to the Hindu notion of the avatar, who incarnates the periodic descent to earth of the deity, typically Vishnu.

Savitri’s ideas concerning the origins of the Aryans were drawn from the books of Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856 – 1920), the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derisively called him “Father of the Indian unrest.” He also helped found the All India Home Rule League in 1916–18, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Annie Besant. Tilak was an accomplished scholar of ancient Hindu sacred literature. In 1903, he wrote the book The Arctic Home in the Vedas, in which he argued that the Vedas could only have been composed in the Arctic, and that Aryan bards had brought them south after the onset of the last ice age.

After the defeat of the Third Reich, Serrano continued to believe that Hitler had escaped from the ruins of Berlin and found a refuge in Antarctica. The idea was widely rumored in the Latin American press during the summer of 1945. In The Golden Thread: Esoteric Hitlerism, Serrano claimed that Hitler was in Shambhala, formerly at the North Pole and Tibet, but which had been relocated to an Antarctic base in New Swabia. There, Hitler was in contact with the Hyperborean gods, and he would someday emerge with a fleet of UFOs to lead the forces of light over the forces of darkness in a last battle and to inaugurate a Fourth Reich.

Serrano’s assertions are a reflection of the claim of Nazi contact with the Society of the Green Dragon. German conspiracy author Jan Udo Holey, who chose as his nom de plume “van Helsing,” after he read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, offers details of the mythos. In Secret Societies and their Power (1993), Helsing claims that Tibetan monks worked on the establishment of the Third Reich with Templar Knights who were organized in the highest lodge of the “black sun,” which purportedly continued to maintain an underground base in the Himalayas. The ruler of the underground kingdom is said to be “Rigdenjyepo,” with his representative on Earth being the Dalai Lama.

Similar claims were put forward by the controversial Trevor Ravenscroft’s The Spear of Destiny (1973). According to Ravenscroft, the Nazi missions to Tibet had the aim of establishing contact with the Aryan forefathers in Shambhala and Agharti, adepts who were the guardians of secret occult powers, especially Vril, and also mentions the recurring story of the establishment in Berlin of the Society of Green Men, and their mysterious leader the “Man with the Green Gloves.”

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UFOs in Antarctica

Although these claims do not ring with much plausibility, Allen H. Greenfield, who was also Bishop within the Gnostic Catholic Church–Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), purportedly corroborated the story. Greenfield claims to have personally interviewed an anonymous Knight of Malta who met with the esoteric leadership of the Third Reich in 1937, attended by Haushofer, to “sell” the Nazi regime on contact with what he called “the coming race.” When asked by Greenfield in 1979 to explain what he meant, he explained, “the Ultraterrestrials, of course. The Germans had noted their ‘ghost rockets’ in Sweden, and were aware of their power. Most of the older Nazis present, though, were former members of the Thule Society or the archaic Vril Society, and took me to be talking about Tibetans or Aryan supermen or some such bunk. Except Haushofer, who knew better, and the ‘Man with the Green Gloves’ who, though supposedly a Tibetan himself, was certainly an Ultraterrestrial.”[45]

Through his diplomatic appointments, Serrano met many leading Indian personalities, becoming a personal friend of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s closest collaborator, who became the first Prime Minister of independent India (1947 – 64), was recruited by Annie Besant at the age of only thirteen, herself presiding at his initiation ceremony.[46]

During his ambassadorial postings in Vienna and subsequently in Switzerland, before he was dismissed from the Chilean diplomatic service in 1970s by President Salvador Allende, Serrano cultivated ties of friendship with Arnold Toynbee, Arthur Koestler, Aldous Huxley and leading former Nazis and international fascists like, among many others, Otto Skorzeny, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Hanna Reitsch, Herman Wirth (ex-director of the Ahnenerbe), Ezra Pound and Wilhelm Landig.[47]

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Black Sun

Wilhelm Landig was the leader of the Landig Group, also known as the Vienna Lodge, formed in 1950 to revive the Aryan mythology of Thule. Described in Göten gegen Thule, at what he refers to as Point 103 is a secret base that has been established by the SS elite in Arctic Canada, with a large underground complex equipped with advanced technology including flying saucers. Many foreign delegates attend a great conference held in the assembly hall of the base, decorated with astrological symbols and an enormous icon of Mithras slaying the Bull. The delegates who have all been flown to the base by flying saucer include a Tibetan lama, Japanese, Chinese, and American officers, Indians, Arabs, Persians, an Ethiopian, a Brazilian officer, a Venezuelan, a Siamese and a Mexican Indian. The Arabs belong to secret Islamic brotherhoods, the Indians and Persians to ancient Aryan traditions, and the Orientals allude to their occult orders and a mysterious world center. Attired in their uniforms or national dress, many of the delegates make speeches identifying their national myths and ideals with those of the Thule and pledge their full support when the time comes for action.

Serrano also boasts of being “good friends” with the Dalai Lama XIV, and provides his explanation of the curious relationship as follows:

I also met the Dalai Lama at the moment he escaped from Tibet during the Communist Chinese invasion. He was very young, 25 years old. I went to meet him at the Himalayas. He never forgets that. And when we met again during the funeral of Indira Gandhi in Delhi. He invited me to go to Dharmasala, where he lives now. We had a very interesting talk. It is good to know that before Buddhism was introduced in Tibet, Tibetans were a warrior's race and their religion, the Bo, used also the same swastika of Hitlerism. Until today Intelligence Services of England and United States have been unable to discover the real mysterious links that existed between Tibet and Hitlerist Germany.[48]


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Dalai Lama & Miguel Serrano

As was the case with most Nazi assets, the Dalai Lama passed into the hands of the CIA after World War II. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, the CIA began training Tibetan resistance fighters against the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China. A CIA-financed front, the American Society for a Free Asia, publicized the cause of Tibetan resistance, with the Dalai Lama's eldest brother, Thubtan Norbu, playing an active role in the organization. The Dalai Lama's second-eldest brother, Gyalo Thondup, established an intelligence operation with the CIA as early as 1951.[49]

As explain Victor and Victoria Trimondi, for over more than 25 years, many hundreds of thousands have been “initiated” by the Dalai Lama XIV through the mysteries of the Kalachakra Tantra and Shambhala, which have become central pillars in the mythology of religious neo-Nazism.[50] Serrano incorporated the Fourteenth Dalai Lama into the formulation of his esoteric myths around Hitler. His “skill,” he said of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is “closely linked with that of Hitler’s Germany… on the basis of not yet discovered connections.”[51] The Dalai Lama has never distanced himself from Serrano. Instead of opposing fascism, he recently called for the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to be spared a trial, making reference to the need for “forgiveness.”[52]

See also:

Paul Vallely, "I was a Tantric Sex Slave." The Independent (February 10, 1999)

Michael Nenonen. "A different Tibetan Buddhism." (September 29 to October 12, 2005, No 123)

Notes:

[1] Tim Cummings, "Beyond belief," The Guardian, (Saturday 10 July 2004).

[2] “World News Briefs; Dalai Lama Group Says It Got Money From C.I.A.” The New York Times, (2 October 1998).

[3] Kabbalah, p. 180.

[4] E. Conze, "Buddhism and Gnosis," Le Origini dello Gnosticismo: Colloquio di Messina 13-18 Aprile 1966 (Leiden, 1967), p. 665.

[5] Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage/Random House, 1979), p. xxi.

[6] Alexander Berzin, "The Nazi Connection with Shambhala and Tibet,” The Berzin Archives, (May 2003)

[7] Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa, The Religious Traditions of Asia: Religion, History, and Culture, (Routledge, 2002) p. 80.

[8] Dalai Lama – The Kalachakra Tantra – Rite of Initiation (London, 1985), S. 348 ff.

[9] Ferdinand Ossendowski, Beast, Men and Gods, (1922), p. 118.

[10] Mehmet Sabeheddin, "The Secret of Eurasia: The Key to Hidden History and World Events," New Dawn, No. 68 (September-October 2001).

[11] Cesare G. De Michelis. The Non-Existent Manuscript: A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion, trans. Richard Newhouse, (Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2004) p. 115.

K. Paul Johnson, Initiates of Theosophical Masters, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), p. 133.

[13]Ukhtomskii, Travels in the East of Nicholas II Emperor of Russia when Czarewitch 1890-91. Translated by Robert Goodlet, edited by James Birdwood. (Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1896), p. 60.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Richard B. Spence, "Red Star Over Shambhala: Soviet, British and American Intelligence & the Search for Lost Civilisation in Central Asia,” New Dawn, (September 25, 2005).

[16] Luba Gurdjieff, A Memoir with Recipes (Berkely, CA: Ten Spead Press, 1993, p. 3; cited in Paul Beekman Taylor, Gurdjieff and Orage: Brothers in Elysium, (Weiser, 2001), p. x.

[17] Margarita Troitsyna, “Joseph Stalin's occult knowledge and experiments,” Pravda (June 23, 2011).

[18] Gary Lachman, Politics and the Occult; James Webb, The Harmonious Circle (Thames and Hudson: London, 1980).

[19] The Morning of the Magicians, (London: Souvenir Press, 2001) p. 189.

[20] A Psychologial Profile of Adolph Hitler; see also Walter C. Langer, The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report, (New American Library, 1972), p. 40. Langer originally mistyped his name as “Hamissen,” but in the same sentence subsequently spelled the name correctly two times as Hanussen. In the 1972 reprint of the document by New American Library, the name "Hanussen" is spelled correctly.

[21] Oleg Shishkin, Ubit’ Rasputina, (Olma Press: Moscow, 2000); cited in Dr. Richard B. Spence, "Behold the Green Dragon: The Myth & Reality of an Asian Secret Society." New Dawn No. 112 (January-February 2009).

[22] Serge Hutin, Governantes Invisiveis e Sociedades Secretas (Sao Paulo: Hemus, 2004), p. 28, 46, cited in Richard B. Spence, "The Mysteries of Trebitsch-Lincoln: Con-man, Spy, ‘Counter-Initiate’?" New Dawn No. 116 (Sept-Oct 2009).

[23] Jean Robin, Hitler: l’elu du dragon (Paris: Guy Tredaniel, 2009), p. 95-96.

[24] Jean Robin, Hitler: l’elu du dragon (Paris: Guy Tredaniel, 2009), p. 95-96.

[25] Richard B. Spence, "The Mysteries of Trebitsch-Lincoln."

[26] The Morning of the Magicians, (London: Souvenir Press, 2001) p. 189.

[27] Edouard Saby, Hitler et les forces occultes: La magie noire en Allemagne. La vie occculte du Fuhrer (Paris: Société d’Éditions Littéraires et de Vulgarisation, 1939): 131, trans. N. Goodrick-Clarke in T. Hakl, Unknown Sources, p. 26.

[28] Fr. L, "Esotericism and Espionage: the Golden Age, 1800–1950,” Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, No. 16, Vol. 2. Vernal Equinox 2009.

[29] Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935. (Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press, 1985) p. 221.

[30] Victor & Victoria Trimondi. "The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part II – 12. Fascist occultism and it’s close relationship to Buddhist Tantrism."

[31] Ibid.

[32] "Rolf Magener.” The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 January 2012.

[33] "His Holiness the Dalai Lama said Heinrich Harrer Will Always be Remembered by the Tibetan People.” Central Tibetan Administration. Retrieved 15 January 2012.

[34] Alexander Berzin, "Mistaken Foreign Myths about Shambhala,” The Berzin Archives, (November 1996, revised May and December 2003)

[35] Markus Osterrieder, “From Synarchy to Shambhala,” p. 15.

[36] Frank Joseph & Laura Beaudoin, Opening the Ark of the Covenant: The Secret Power of the Ancients, the Knights Templar Connection, and the Search for the Holy Grail, (Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books, 2007) p. 28.

[37] Ibid., p. 16

[38] Markus Osterrieder, "From Synarchy to Shambhala,” p. 15. [PDF]

[39] Paul Beekman Taylor, Gurdjieff's America: Mediating the Miraculous, (Lighthouse Editions, 2004), p. 164.

[40] Oleg Shishkin, Bitva za Gimalai (Moscow: Eksmo, 2003), p. 48; cited in Richard B. Spence, "Red Star Over Shambhala,” New Dawn, September 25, 2005.

[41] Ibid., p. 1.

[42] Ibid.

[43] Dnevnik, 10 November 1934, t. 40: 15.08.1934–03.02.1935; cited in Markus Osterrieder, "From Synarchy to Shambhala,” p. 12.

[44] Joscelyn Godwin. Arktos: The Myth of the Pole in Science, Symbolism and Nazi Survival, p. 102.

[45] Allen Greenfield, Secret Rituals of the Men In Black, (Lulu.com, 2005), p. 28.

[46] Meyer, Karl Ernest & Brysac, Shareen Blair, Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game And the Race for Empire in Central Asia, p. 459.

[47] Goodrick-Clarke, Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, p. 177.

[48] “Dalai Lama's Depressing Past, Disappointing Politics,” Foreign Confidential, (Monday, March 31, 2008).

[49] Loren Coleman, Tom Slick and the Search for the Yeti (London: Faber and Faber, 1989).

[50] Victor & Victoria Trimondi, “The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Annex: Critical Forum Kalachakra.”

[51] Miguel Serrano, Das goldene Band, p. 366.

[52] “Forgive Pinochet, says Dalai Lama,” CBC News, (Friday, November 10, 2000).
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Gerald Yorke
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NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

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Major Gerald Joseph Yorke (10 December 1901 – 29 April 1983) was an English soldier and writer. He was a Reuters correspondent while in China for two years in the 1930s, and wrote a book China Changes (1936).[1][2]

Life

Gerald Joseph Yorke was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on 10 December 1901; the second son of Vincent Wodehouse Yorke [Yorke was the son of John Reginald Yorke and Sophia Matilda de Tuyll de Serooskerken] and Hon. Maud Evelyn Wyndham.[3]

John Reginald Yorke (Conservative politician)
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/1/19

John Reginald Yorke (25 January 1836 – 2 March 1912) was an English landowner and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1864 and 1886.

Background and education

A member of the Yorke family headed by the Earl of Hardwicke, he was born in Marylebone, London, the son of Joseph Yorke, of Forthampton Court, Gloucestershire[1] and his wife Frances Antonia, daughter of Reginald Pole-Carew. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.[2] Yorke was a second cousin of Charles Lyttelton, 5th Baron Lyttelton, whose mother dowager Lady Lyttelton referred to Yorke as "tall and magnificent and promising as ever".[3]

Political career

Yorke was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Tewkesbury in 1864 but in 1868 representation for the seat was reduced to one member. He was elected MP for East Gloucestershire between 1872 and held the seat until it was abolished in 1885. He was then elected M.P. for Tewkesbury again in 1885 until 1886. He was a Justice of the Peace for Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, and in 1892 he was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire and captain in the Tewkesbury Rifle Volunteers. He was also a Fellow of the Geological Society.[4] Yorke died at the age of 76.

Family

Yorke married Augusta Emmiline Monteath Douglas at St Georges Hanover Square on 4 March 1862. They had a son but Augusta died on 19 February 1863. He married, secondly, to Sophia Matilda de Tuyll de Serooskerken, daughter of Baron Vincent de Tuyll de Serooskerken, on 11 January 1868 and they had four children. His son Vincent Wodehouse Yorke was the father of Henry Vincent Yorke, better known as the novelist Henry Green.[5][6] Another son, Ralph Maximilian Yorke, reached the rank of brigadier-general during the First World War.

References

• Parishes:Forthampton, A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 8 (1968), pp. 196-208 Date accessed: 8 March 2009
• Debrett's House of Commons 1881
• The Barons Lyttelton of Frankley
• Debrett's House of Commons 1881
• Molten Treasure (1949)- TIME
• the Peerage.com

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Yorke


He attended Eton College, and then Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts. He joined the Territorial Army and was commissioned in the 21st (Gloucestershire Hussars) Armoured Car Company, Tank Corps in 1922,[4] later gaining the rank of Major. He married Angela Vivien Duncan, and the pair had three children: John Sarne, Vincent James and Michael Piers.[3]

The travels of Yorke together with his manservant Li through often bandit-stricken areas were part of China Changes and also commented on by adventurer and Special Correspondent to The Times Peter Fleming in his One's Company, a travelogue of a journey to China in 1933.[5]

Back in Britain at Forthampton Yorke was also the personal representative to the West of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (died 1933) and the author of an original foreword to a secret book on the Kalachakra initiation.[6] Yorke was also a member of the A∴A∴, the magical order established by Aleister Crowley (died 1947), and towards the end of Crowley's life was known as his chief disciple.


Bibliography

• China Changes, New York, C. Scribnerʼs Sons, 1936.
• Bibliography of the works of Aleister Crowley by Gerald Yorke. Mandrake Press, 1991.
• Aleister Crowley, the Golden Dawn and Buddhism: reminiscences and writings of Gerald Yorke, ed. Keith Richmond, Teitan Press, 2011.
• The Great Beast: the life of Aleister Crowley, by John Symonds with Gerald Yorke, 1951.

Cricket

Gerald Yorke
Personal information
Full name Gerald Joseph Yorke
Born 10 December 1901
Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England
Died 29 April 1983 (aged 81)
Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England
Relations VW Yorke (father)
Domestic team information
Years Team
1925 Gloucestershire
Only First-class 27 June 1925 Gloucestershire v Glamorgan
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 1
Runs scored 6
Batting average 3.00
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 6
Catches/stumpings 0/–
Source: CricketArchive, 10 January 2011

He was also a keen cricketer who made a single first-class appearance for Gloucestershire, against Glamorgan during the 1925 season. From the middle order, he scored a duck in the first innings in which he batted, and 6 runs in the second.

References

1. The New York Times Book Review - Volume 1 1936 - Page 37 "A Reporter Observes China's Changes Mr. Yorke, a Reuters Correspondent, Spent Two Recent Years There come acquainted with the situation which was contributing to such a sweeping success of the invader. Some of the extraordinary ..."
2. Now & Then: A Journal of Books and Personalities 1935 "This is what the Sunday Times said of Mr. Gerald Yorke's China Changes: This is a vital and absorbing book, which will give Western readers a far better understanding of the Chinese and their difficulties than many more pretentious volumes, .."
3. Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, page 1778.
4. "No. 32739". The London Gazette. 18 August 1922. p. 6098.
5. Gareth Jones (journalist) : JOURNEY FROM CANTON TO CHANGSHA "(see Peter Fleming's One’s Company for a description of Li and of Gerald and also of the journey I did, except that Fleming and Gerald came with his Chinese servant Li from Changsha to Canton while I did it from Canton to Changsha)."
6. HYMENAEUS BETA, ed. (19 December 2001). "MAGICK LIBER ABA, Book Four – Parts I–IV" (PDF). Retrieved 10 January 2011.

External links

• Gerald Yorke at Cricket Archive
• Gerald Yorke at Cricinfo

*********************

Gerald Yorke
by Astrum Argenteum
Accessed: 11/1/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


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Gerald Joseph Yorke (1901 – 1983) An English author who was instrumental in the publication of many important works regarding the occult, yoga and Buddhism. As a young man, Yorke served as a Major in the Tank Corps of the British military. Later in life he served as the personal representative in the West of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

Yorke met Crowley on New Year’s eve in the year 1927. He had previously been reading Crowley’s work and became interested in meeting him. He was put in contact with Crowley through a mutual associate, J.G. Bayley [James Gilbert Bayley].

Image

An amusing and revealing holograph list of errands which Crowley prepared for his disciple J. G. Bayley to undertake on his behalf. December 1 [1943].

Written on both sides of a single sheet of tall, narrow, note-paper, (approx. 8" x 3 1/4"). A charming list - Crowley details six errands that he wishes Bayley to do for him. They included delivering a message and making telephone enquiries, shopping: "Old Compton St. (shop on N. side) Get ugliest, vulgarest, dirtiest birthday or greeting card you can find," "try shops for up-to-date Latin Grammar ..... try Marks and Watkins for the Equinox No. V," searching out Shetland cloth (the preferred material for his suits), and delivering "shoes, slippers and a pouch" to a shop (possibly for repair?). In an unusual demonstration of kindness, Crowley also instructs Bayley to find one William Churchill (possibly the photographer Crowley used on occasion) and "give him packets of cigarettes, make sure that he is looking after himself properly; help him if required." An interesting testament to the day to day concerns of "the Beast."

-- Weiser Antiquarian Books


James Gilbert Bayley joined the A...A... on March 22, 1910, taking the motto "Perfectio et Ministerium" (Perfection and service). Although Crowley initially considered him a doubtful member, having been brought in under [Herbert Edward] Inman, he would stand by Crowley throughout his life, serving as his British liaison while he was out of the country in the 1920s and staying in close touch through his final years.30....

Herbert Edward Inman was an engineer who had been elected to the Liverpool Engineering Society on November 29, 1905; he would go on to serve as a private with the Royal Engineers during World War I, receiving the Allied Victory and British War medals.79 Inman joined the A...A... on October 22, 1909, as Frater Amor Clavis Vitae (Love is the Key to Life). Although he recruited one other member, he soon faded from the A...A...'s ranks. Athough Inman reportedly broke with Crowley over a bad debt,80 the two remained in touch even in the 1940s.81

-- Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley, by Richard Kaczynski


Yorke was immediately impressed with Crowley and within a months’ time signed the Probationer Oath of the A∴A∴ taking the motto Volo Intellegere meaning, I will to Understand.

Yorke would go on to become one of Crowley’s closest associates. Though initially a student, Yorke would eventually become a confidant of Crowley’s, at times acting as his agent and at other times simply providing him with sound advice. Yorke also aided with publications; he would pay for a typist to copy Crowley’s manuscripts and often provided funds towards printing. He was one of the few that Crowley would trust to read over his work prior to publication. Yorke would in fact help Crowley critique Liber OZ prior to its publication, and is likely the only person to have contributed in such a manner.1

When Yorke joined the A∴A∴ in January of 1928 there were only eight remaining members, and Yorke took it upon himself to write to each. He hoped to re-ignite the Order and provide Crowley with a means of financial support, via membership subscriptions, so that Crowley could focus on his writing. However, only one aspirant responded—but with his aid, along with that of Yorke and Germer’s contributions, Crowley was afforded a furnished flat in Paris.

[Gerald Yorke was born] in 1901, the second of three sons to landowner and industrialist Vincent Wodehouse Yorke (1869-1957) and Hon. Maud Evelyn Wyndham (1874-1963), daughter of Henry Wyndham, the second Baron Leconfield.22

The Milner Group could never have been built up by Milner's own efforts. He had no political power or even influence. All that he had was ability and ideas. The same thing is true about many of the other members of the Milner Group, at least at the time that they joined the Group. The power that was utilized by Milner and his Group was really the power of the Cecil family and its allied families such as the Lyttelton (Viscounts Cobham), Wyndham (Barons Leconfield), Grosvenor (Dukes of Westminster), Balfour, Wemyss, Palmer (Earls of Selborne and Viscounts Wolmer), Cavendish (Dukes of Devonshire and Marquesses of Hartington), and Gathorne-Hardy (Earls of Cranbrook). The Milner Group was originally a major fief within the great nexus of power, influence, and privilege controlled by the Cecil family....

Sir Ivor, a good friend of Milner's, was the husband of Mary Caroline Wyndham, daughter of Baron Leconfield and niece of Lord Rosebery....

Another intimate friend of Balfour's, George Wyndham, was Parliamentary Under Secretary for War (1898-1900) and Chief Secretary for Ireland (1900-1905)....

The youngest son of the fourth Baron Lyttelton, Alfred, whom we have already mentioned, married twice. His first wife was Laura Tennant, whose sister Margot married Herbert Asquith and whose brother Baron Glenconner married Pamela Wyndham....

Almost as ramified as the Lyttelton clan were the Wyndhams, descendants of the first Baron Leconfield. The Baron had three sons. Of these, the oldest married Constance Primrose, sister of Lord Rosebery, daughter of Lord Dalmeny and his wife, Dorothy Grosvenor (later Lady Brassey), and granddaughter of Lord Henry Grosvenor and his wife, Dora Wemyss. They had four children. Of these, one, Hugh A. Wyndham, married Maud Lyttelton and was a member of Milner's Kindergarten. His sister Mary married General Sir Ivor Maxse and was thus the sister-in-law of Lady Edward Cecil (later Lady Milner). Another son of Baron Leconfield, Percy Scawen Wyndham, was the father of Pamela (Lady Glenconner and later Lady Grey), of George Wyndham (already mentioned), who married Countess Grosvenor, and of Mary Wyndham, who married the eleventh Earl of Wemyss. It should perhaps be mentioned that Countess Grosvenor's daughter Lettice Grosvenor married the seventh Earl of Beauchamp, brother-in-law of Samuel Hoare. Countess Grosvenor (Mrs. George Wyndham) had two nephews who must be mentioned. One, Lawrence John Lumley Dundas (Earl of Ronaldshay and Marquess of Zetland), was sent as military aide to Curzon, Viceroy of India, in 1900. He was an M.P. (1907-1916), a member of the Royal Commission on Public Services in India (1912-1914), Governor of Bengal (1917-1922), a member of the Indian Round Table Conference of 1930-1931 and of the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on India in 1933. He was Secretary of State for India (1935-1940) and for Burma (1937-1940), as well as the official biographer of Lord Curzon and Lord Cromer....

Countess Grosvenor's sister-in-law Mary Wyndham (who married the Earl of Wemyss) had three children. The younger son, Guy Charteris, married a Tennant of the same family as the first Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, the second Mrs. Herbert Asquith, and Baron Glenconner....

After the split in the Liberal Party in 1886, it was the members of the Cecil Bloc who became Unionists — that is, the Lytteltons, the Wyndhams, the Cavendishes....

Hugh A. Wyndham also remained in South Africa after 1910 and was a member of the Union Parliament for ten years (1910-1920). He had previously been secretary to Milner. In spite of the prominence of his family and his own position as heir presumptive to the third Baron Leconfield, it is difficult to obtain any adequate information about him. His biography in Who's Who does not mention his experiences in South Africa or his other connections with the Milner Group. This is obviously the result of a deliberate policy, since editions of Who's Who of thirty-five years ago do mention the South African connection. Wyndham wrote Problems of Imperial Trusteeship (1933); Britain and the World; and the chapter on "The Formation of the Union of South Africa, 1901-1910" in volume VIII of the Cambridge History of the British Empire (1936). He was, like all the members of the Milner Group, a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, wrote many book reviews for its Journal, and at the outbreak of war in 1939 became the usual presiding officer at its meetings (in the absence of Lord Astor). When publication of the Journal was resumed after the war, he became chairman of its editorial board, a position he still holds. Married to Maude Lyttelton, daughter of Viscount Cobham, he is also a brother-in-law of Sir Ivor Maxse (the brother of Lady Milner) and a nephew of Lord Rosebery.

-- The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden, by Carroll Quigley


Attending Eton and graduation with distinction from Cambridge, he had played cricket for Gloucestershire in 1925, making a first-class appearance in a game that season against Glamorgan.23 His youngest brother, Henry Vincent (1905-1973), was an aspiring writer, his first novel Blindness (1926) having appeared the previous year; he would go on to renown under the pen name Henry Green, his sixth book Loving (1945) making Time magazine's list of the "100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005."24

After graduation, Gerald began to study The Equinox and Crowley's other magical writings. He was bright enough to distrust the rumors circulating about Crowley and judge the man for himself, so he contacted Crowley through J. G. Bayley and received an invitation to meet the Master in Paris. What he encountered impressed him immensely: Crowley struck Yorke as a brilliant and talented man with tremendous unrealized potential. His unpublished manuscripts testified to the many important lessons Crowley still had to teach the world ... he only lacked a business manager to make a success of his work. Crowley took Yorke's enhusiasm as an offer and accepted. While The Book of the Law prophesied a rich man from the west, he found isntead a benefactor from Germany and a rich boy from Gloucestershire.

In January 1928 Yorke took the name Volo Intellegere (I will to understand) upon joining the A...A..., and he devoted his spare time to managing Crowley's finances. He sold his Chinese paintings and ivories to raise money and, that spring, put 400 pounds into a publication account to rehabilitate Crowley's name and publish his works. From this fund, Yorke paid Crowley a weekly allowance of 10 pounds. He also wrote the eight remaining A...A... members -- including Jacobi, Wolfe, Olsen, and Smith -- to regularize their membership subscriptions and permit Crowley to continue writing without monetary concerns; of these, only Jacobi regularly contributed $20 a month to the cause, forcing Crowley to rely on the Germers for much of his support. Nevertheless, this permitted Crowley a furnished flat at 55 Avenue de Suffren in Paris.

Yorke also paid a typist to copy Crowley's manuscripts for publication. One of these new projects was AC's magnum opus, part three of Book Four, Magick in Theory and Practice. Of this manuscript, Crowley wrote to Yorke:

Montague Summers appears to know what he is talking about. People generally do want a book on Magick. There never has been an attempt at one, anyhow since the Middle Ages, except Levi's.25


Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustuc Montague Summers (1880-1948), occult scholar, offered a curious contrast to AC. Whereas the latter identified with the infernal trappings of the Great Beast while explicating the holy quest for one's divine nature, the former was an ordained deacon of the Church of England who specialized in demonology and black magic. Nevertheless the two men shared a mutual respect. Eliphas Levi, also cited in the above quote, Crowley claimed as his previous incarnation, and a translation of his book, The Key of the Mysteries, appeared as a supplement to The Equinox I(10). Crowley correctly states the literary primacy of his book: whereas Montague Summers, A.E. Waite, and even Francis Barrett (The Magus, 1801) were primarily purveyors of medieval traditions, Magick in Theory and Practice was the first modern textbook on the subject in English. How big a market existed for such a book was another matter entirely.

-- Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley, by Richard Kaczynski


In 1932 Crowley and Yorke fell out over a financial disagreement in which Crowley was being entirely unreasonable. This ultimately led to Yorke resigning from the A∴A∴. Yorke, a man of true integrity, had two students at the time, both Probationers, and he made sure to pass on their records before leaving. Yorke, however, continued to pursue his spiritual interests. He set out for China where he travelled, studied Buddhism, and eventually took a job working as a correspondent for Reuters.

On his return to England, Yorke resumed contact with Crowley, though their relationship was fundamentally changed. Yorke, who Crowley would refer to as the “Rat”, was now treated as a friend rather than a student. Nonetheless, Yorke still labored to preserve Crowley’s work and in doing so assembled what is likely the most significant collection of Crowley-related material. Without Yorke’s archive, now held at the Warburg institute in London, there is no question that a great deal of Crowley’s personal writings would be lost to us, as this archive makes up the bulk of the historical record as we have it today. Even after Crowley’s death in 1947, Yorke kept his promise to preserve the Beast’s legacy and his many annotations in the Warburg archives continues to aid scholars even today.


When Yorke passed away in 1983, what remained of his private collection fell to his son, and the family today is still in possession of many rare items including original art works and the personal Janus wand of the Great Beast.

Note:

[1] Crowley would send Yorke and three others a copy of the completed Liber OZ on December 1st, 1940.

*********************

Letter from Gerald Yorke to Karl Germer
March 7, 1948

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


Dear [Karl] Germer

I enclose latest letter from and to Achad, I can get no more out of him, and pass the buck to you. I also enclose copy of a will which he sent me. A typescript of part of the working with Virakam has arrived from Jones, and I am having a copy made for you. I suggest that you write thanking Achad for this.

Achad wrote me on May 9 "Meanwhile I have had time to look up further records which had been stored away in various trunks etc. and to which I had not referred for many years. These included my own original diaries, and so on. But they also included a small carton which contained a number of items which A.C. handed to me personally shortly before we parted in Detroit ... In the nineteen twenties. These items consisted os ome note books relative to the old Golden Dawn, which formed links with the past, and some note books of special interest to me as his magical son, such as the one containing the record of his discovering his "begetting" in 1915, and a few items relative to the Sanctuary of the Gnosis which he wished me to keep in proper hands as G.R. and his representative.

"Until a couple of days ago I had no occasion to look through these items in the last 10 years ... There is an item of considerable interest which I certainly did not realise was there. This is a note book of A.C.'s working with Virakam ... There is with it a typescript and one carbon complete except for horoscope figure ..." (This carbon he has sent me.)

"Practically all the other items have been issued or published in one form or another, as for instance the Golden Dawn notebooks in the Equinox, and most of the others are crossed through in pencil showing that typescripts have been made ..." (I do not think that these typescripts have survived). I am sure that Jones has no legal right to keep the above, a.d. your only hope of getting it is to go to law. On the other hand this may be difficult, and I think it would depend on who legally was Secretary General of the O.T.O. and I am not sure whether you would be able to substantiate in the law courts that you are Secretary General. Jones and Tränker's X degrees go back to Reuss and not to A.C. They therefore in the Constitutions of the O.T.O. are the ones who establish the next O.H.O. [Outer Head of the Order], and even if you are X degree from Crowley, they can outvote you in a council to choose the new O.H.O. They could then appoint their own Treasurer General, and he could I think lay legal claim to the effects and the copyright. It would therefore I think be a mistake to go to law.

Jones letter goes on "Among my personal records I have the typescript carbon A.C. gave me of Diary of a Magus from June 28 1916 to March 6 1917 ... Next I remembered I had just one of A.C.'s black note books, which was left with me some time or another, but apart from the parcel of items mentioned above ... This is part of the Diary of a Magus from July 19 to September 21 AN XIV ... Finally A.C. gave me two albums of photographs of drawings and paintings done in New York, some of them of a startling nature ...".

Personally I think that you will have to wait for Achad's death to get all this. On his death you will be able to purchase from his widow or his heir. The two portions of the Diary of a Magus are not all that important as the guts of them survive in 'The Urn' and the unpublished portion of the Confessions.

Tomorrow I go to John's apartment to sort what is left, and send you everything except those items which he wants to complete the life. Sorry I could not get more out of Jones. He is a very strange creature. I told Kenneth Grant to write to you. I thought he had the full set of O.T.O. rituals, but now find he only has VII VIII and IX. I also find that A.C. gave IX to a certain Fitsgerald [sic]. He does not however know what it is about. The only Vernon Simmonds I know of is the proprietor of Netherwood, Hastings. I cannot believe it is the same as Vurnum Simmons, whose military address is Berlin you had.  

Yours
[sign. Gerald Yorke]
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Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Postby admin » Mon Nov 04, 2019 12:40 am

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/3/19

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Image
His Excellency, The Right Honourable, The Earl of Lytton, GCB GCIE PC
Earl of Lytton, photo by Nadar
British Ambassador to France
In office: 1887–1891
Monarch: Queen Victoria
Preceded by: The Viscount Lyons
Succeeded by: The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava
Viceroy and Governor-General of India
In office: 12 April 1876 – 8 June 1880
Monarch: Queen Victoria
Preceded by: The Earl of Northbrook
Succeeded by: The Marquess of Ripon
Personal details
Born: 8 November 1831
Died: 24 November 1891 (aged 60)
Nationality: British
Political party: Conservative
Spouse(s): Edith Villiers
Children: 7
Parents: Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton; Rosina Doyle Wheeler
Education: Harrow School
Alma mater: University of Bonn

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC (8 November 1831 – 24 November 1891) was an English statesman, Conservative politician, and poet (who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith). He served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880—during his tenure Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India—and as British Ambassador to France from 1887 to 1891.

His tenure as Viceroy was extremely successful, but controversial for its ruthlessness in both domestic and foreign affairs: especially for his response to the Great Famine of 1876–78, and the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Lytton's policies were alleged to be informed by his Social Darwinism. His son Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, who was born in India, later served as Governor of Bengal and briefly as acting Viceroy, and he was the father-in-law of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who designed New Delhi.

Lytton was a protégé of Benjamin Disraeli in domestic affairs, and of Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, who was his predecessor as Ambassador to France, in foreign affairs. His tenure as Ambassador to Paris was successful, and Lytton was afforded the rare tribute – especially for an Englishman – of a French state funeral in Paris.

Childhood and education

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Harrow School

Lytton was the son of the novelists Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton and Rosina Doyle Wheeler (who was the daughter of the early women's rights advocate Anna Wheeler). His uncle was Sir Henry Bulwer. His childhood was spoiled by the altercations of his parents,[1] who separated acrimoniously when he was a boy. However, Lytton received the patronage of John Forster - an influential friend of Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Walter Savage Landor, and Charles Dickens - who was generally considered to be the first professional biographer of 19th century England.[2]

Lytton's mother, who lost access to her children, satirised his father in her 1839 novel Cheveley, or the Man of Honour. His father subsequently had his mother placed under restraint, as a consequence of an assertion of her insanity, which provoked public outcry and her liberation a few weeks later. His mother chronicled this episode in her memoirs.[3][4]

After being taught at home for a while, he was educated in schools in Twickenham and Brighton and thence Harrow,[5] and at the University of Bonn.[1]

Diplomatic career

Lytton entered the Diplomatic Service in 1849, when aged 18, when he was appointed as attaché to his uncle, Sir Henry Bulwer, who was Minister at Washington, DC.[6] It was at this time he met Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.[6] He began his salaried diplomatic career in 1852 as an attaché to Florence, and subsequently served in Paris, in 1854, and in The Hague, in 1856 .[6] In 1858, he served in St Petersburg, Constantinople, and Vienna.[6] In 1860, he was appointed British Consul General at Belgrade.[6]

In 1862, Lytton was promoted to Second Secretary in Vienna, but his success in Belgrade made Lord Russell appoint him, in 1863, as Secretary of the Legation at Copenhagen, during his tenure as which he twice acted as Chargé d'Affaires in the Schleswig-Holstein conflict.[6] In 1864, Lytton was transferred to the Greek court to advise the young Danish Prince. In 1865, he served in Lisbon, where he concluded a major commercial treaty with Portugal,[6] and subsequently in Madrid. He subsequently became Secretary to the Embassy at Vienna and, in 1872, to Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, who was Ambassador to Paris.[6] By 1874, Lytton was appointed British Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon where he remained until being appointed Governor General and Viceroy of India in 1876.[6]

Viceroy of India (1876–1880)

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Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

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The Delhi Durbar of 1877 at Coronation Park. The Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton is seated on the dais to the left

Midway on his journey [to India] he met, by prearrangement, in Egypt, the Prince of Wales, then returning from his tour through India. Immediately on his arrival in Calcutta he was sworn in as Governor General and Viceroy, and on 1 January 1877, surrounded by all the Princes of Hindustan, he presided at a spectacular ceremony on the plains of Delhi, which marked the Proclamation of her Majesty, Queen Victoria, as Empress of India. After this the Queen conferred upon him the honor of the Grand Cross of the civil division of the Order of the Bath. In 1879 an attempt was made to assassinate Lord Lytton, but he escaped uninjured. The principal event of his viceroyalty was the Afghan war. (The New York Times, 1891)[6]

After turning down an appointment as governor of Madras,[5] Lytton was appointed Viceroy of India in 1875 and served from 1876 to 1880.[1] His tenure was controversial for its ruthlessness in both domestic and foreign affairs.[1] In 1877, Lord Lytton convened a durbar (imperial assembly) in Delhi that was attended by around 84,000 people, including Indian princes and noblemen. In 1878, he implemented the Vernacular Press Act, which enabled the Viceroy to confiscate the press and paper of any Indian Vernacular newspaper that published content that the Government deemed to be "seditious", in response to which there was a public protest in Calcutta that was led by the Indian Association and Surendranath Banerjee.

Lytton's son-in-law, Sir Edwin Lutyens, planned and designed New Delhi.

Indian Famine

Main article: Great Famine of 1876–78

Lord Lytton arrived as Viceroy of India in 1876. In the same year, a famine broke out in south India which claimed between 6.1 million and 10.3 million people.[7]

His implementation of Britain's trading policy has been blamed for increasing the severity of the famine.[7] Critics have contended that Lytton's belief in Social Darwinism determined his policy in response to the starving and dying Indians. He did, however, establish a commission to recommend ways to mitigate the threat of future famines, and he supported its recommendations when they were made in 1880.[5]

Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1878–1880

Main article: European influence in Afghanistan

Britain was deeply concerned throughout the 1870s about Russian attempts to increase its influence in Afghanistan, which provided a Central Asian buffer state between the Russian Empire and British India. Lytton had been given express instructions to recover the friendship of the Amir of Afghanistan, Sher Ali Khan, who was perceived at this point to have sided with Russia above Britain, and made every effort to do so for eighteen months.[5] In September 1878, Lytton sent the general Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain as an emissary to Afghanistan, but he was refused entry. Considering himself left with no real alternative, in November 1878, Lytton ordered an invasion which sparked the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Britain won virtually all the major battles of this war, and in the final settlement, the Treaty of Gandamak, saw a government installed under a new amir which was both by personality and law receptive to British demands; however, the human and material costs and relative brutality of the brief guerrilla war (the war resulted in great loss of life on all sides, including civilians) provoked extensive controversy.[1] This, and the subsequent massacre of the residents of the Kabul representative Sir Louis Cavagnari and his staff,[5] contributed to the defeat of Disraeli's Conservative government by Gladstone's Liberals in 1880.[8]

The war was seen at the time as an ignominious but barely acceptable end to "the Great Game", closing a long chapter of conflict with the Russian Empire without even a proxy engagement. The Pyrrhic victory of British arms in India was a quiet embarrassment which played a small but critical role in the nascent scramble for Africa; in this way, Lytton and his war helped shape the contours of the 20th century in dramatic and unexpected ways. Lytton resigned at the same time as the Conservative government. He was the last Viceroy of India to govern an open frontier.

Commemoration

A permanent exhibition in Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, is dedicated to his diplomatic service in India.

Domestic politics

In 1880, Lytton resigned his Viceroyalty at the same time that Benjamin Disraeli resigned the premiership. Lytton was created Earl of Lytton, in the County of Derby, and Viscount Knebworth, of Knebworth in the County of Hertford.[6] On 10 January 1881, Lytton made his maiden speech in the House of Lords, in which he censured in Gladstone's devolutionist Afghan policy. In the summer session of 1881, Lytton joined others in opposing Gladstone's second Irish Land Bill.[9] As soon as the summer session was over, he undertook "a solitary ramble about the country". He visited Oxford for the first time, went for a trip on the Thames, and then revisited the hydropathic establishment at Malvern, where he had been with his father as a boy".[10] He saw this as an antidote to the otherwise indulgent lifestyle that came with his career, and used his sojourn there to undertake a critique of a new volume of poetry by his friend Wilfrid Blunt.[11]

Ambassador to Paris: 1887–1891

Lytton was Ambassador to France from 1887 to 1891. During the second half of the 1880s, before his appointment as Ambassador in 1887, Lytton served as Secretary to the Ambassador to Paris, Lord Lyons.[12] He succeeded Lyons, as Ambassador, subsequent to the resignation of Lyons in 1887.[12][6] Lytton had previously expressed an interest in the post and enjoyed himself "once more back in his old profession".[13]

Lord Lytton died in Paris on 24 November 1891, where he was given the rare honour of a state funeral. His body was then brought back for interment in the private family mausoleum in Knebworth Park.

Writings as "Owen Meredith"

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The Right Honourable The Lord Lytton

When Lytton was twenty-five years old, he published in London a volume of poems under the name of Owen Meredith.[1] He went on to publish several other volumes under the same name. The most popular is Lucile, a story in verse published in 1860. His poetry was extremely popular and critically commended in his own day. He was a great experimenter with form. His best work is beautiful, and much of it is of a melancholy nature, as this short extract from a poem called "A Soul's Loss" shows, where the poet bids farewell to a lover who has betrayed him:

Child, I have no lips to chide thee./ Take the blessing of a heart/ (Never more to beat beside thee!)/ Which in blessing breaks. Depart./ Farewell! I that deified thee/ Dare not question what thou art.

Lytton underesteemed his poetic ability: in his Chronicles and Characters (1868), the poor response to which distressed him, Lytton states, 'Talk not of genius baffled. Genius is master of man./Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can'.[1] However, Lytton's poetic ability was highly esteemed by other literary personalities of the day, and Oscar Wilde dedicated his play Lady Windermere's Fan to him.

Lytton's publications included:[6]

• Clytemnestra, The Earl's Return, The Artist and Other Poems (1855)[1]
• The Wanderer (1859), a Byron-esque lyric of Continental adventures that was popular on its release[1]
• Lucile (1860). Lytton was accused of plagiarizing George Sand's novel Lavinia for the story.[14][15]
• Serbski Pesme (1861). Plagiarized from a French translation of Serbian poems.[16][17]
• The Ring of Ainasis (1863)
• Fables in Song (1874)
• Speeches of Edward Lord Lytton with some of his Political Writingss, Hitherto unpublished, and a Prefactory Memoir by His Son (1874)
• The Life Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton (1883)
• Glenaveril (1885)
• After Paradise, or Legends of Exile (1887)
• King Poppy: A Story Without End (partially composed in early 1870s: only first published in 1892),[1] an allegorical romance in blank verse that was Lytton's favourite of his verse romances[1]

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Vanity Fair Print 1875 editors text

Further reading

There is a detailed biography of Lytton by A. B. Harlan (1946).[1]

Marriage and children

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Edith Villiers, Countess of Lytton

On 4 October 1864 Lytton married Edith Villiers. She was the daughter of Edward Ernest Villiers (1806–1843) and Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell and the granddaughter of George Villiers.[18] In 1897, she was one of the guests at the Duchess of Devonshire's Diamond Jubilee Costume Ball.[19]

They had at least seven children:

• Edward Rowland John Bulwer-Lytton (1865–1871)
• Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-Lytton (12 June 1867 – 28 March 1942).[18] Married Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, brother of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.
• Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton (1869–1923)[18]
• Hon. Henry Meredith Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1872–1874)
• Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964). Married Edwin Lutyens. Associate of Krishnamurti
• Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton (1876–1947)[18]
• Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton (6 February 1879 – 9 February 1951)[18]

References

1. Birch, Dinah (2009). The Oxford Companion to English Literature; Seventh Edition. OUP. p. 614.
2. Birch, Dinah (2009). The Oxford Companion to English Literature; Seventh Edition. OUP. p. 385.
3. Lady Lytton (1880). A Blighted Life. London: The London Publishing Office. Retrieved 28 November 2009. Online text at wikisource.org
4. Devey, Louisa (1887). Life of Rosina, Lady Lytton, with Numerous Extracts from her Ms. Autobiography and Other Original Documents, published in vindication of her memory. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co. Retrieved 28 November 2009. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
5. Stephen, Herbert (1911). "Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 186–187.
6. New York Times, 25 November 1891, Wednesday, Death of Lord Lytton—A Sudden Attack of Heart Disease in Paris—No Time for Assistance—His Long Career as a Diplomat in England's Service—His Literary Work as Owen Meredith
7. Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 1-85984-739-0pg 7
8. David Washbrook, 'Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer-, first earl of Lytton (1831–1891)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 29 September 2008
9. Balfour, Lady Betty, ed. (1906). Personal & Literary Letters of Robert First Earl of Lytton. Vol.2 of 2 (2nd ed.). London: Longmans, Green & Co. pp. 225–226. Retrieved 27 November 2009. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
10. Balfour, Lady Betty (1906) p.234
11. Balfour, Lady Betty (1906) pp.236–238
12. Jenkins, Brian. Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War. McGill-Queen’s Press, 2014.
13. Balfour, Lady Betty (1906) pp.329–320
14. Bulwer-Lytton, V.A.G.R. (1913). The Life of Edward Bulwer: First Lord Lytton. 2. Macmillan and Company. p. 392.
15. "Mr. Owen Meredith's "Lucile"". The Literary Gazette. New Series. London. 140 (2300): 201–204. 2 March 1861.
16. "Owen Meredith". The Illustrated American. 9: 165. 12 December 1891.
17. "Robert Bulwer Lytton". The Brownings' Correspondence.
18. David Washbrook, 'Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer-, first earl of Lytton (1831–1891)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 2 Nov 2015
19. Walker, Dave. "Costume Ball 4: Ladies only". Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Lytton
• Works by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton at Internet Archive
• Works by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• The LUCILE Project an academic effort to recover the publishing history of Lucile (which went through at least 2000 editions by nearly 100 publishers).
• His profile in ancestry.com

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Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of Lytton [Edith Villiers]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 5/10/21

Image
The Right Honourable, The Countess of Lytton
Portrait by George Frederic Watts (1862)
Born: Edith Villiers, 1841
Died: 17 September 1936 (aged 94–95)
Resting place: Knebworth[1]
Nationality: British
Other names: Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Lady Lytton
Known for: Vicereine of India
Spouse(s): Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Children: 7
Parent(s): Edward Ernest Villiers; Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell
Relatives: Villiers family

Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of Lytton (née Villiers; 15 September 1841 – 17 September 1936) was a British aristocrat. Wife of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, she led the Indian Imperial court as Vicereine of India. She was later a court-attendant of Queen Victoria. Her children included the suffragette Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton.

Life

Edith Villiers was born on 15 September 1841, into the aristocratic Villiers family. She was the daughter of Edward Ernest Villiers (1806–1843) and Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell. She was the granddaughter of George Villiers,[1] and the niece of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon. The Pre-Raphaelite portrait of her by George Frederic Watts was painted when she was 21.[2] She was then the only unmarried daughter as her twin sister Elizabeth had married Henry Loch, 1st Baron Loch in 1862. (There is a tale that Henry proposed to the wrong girl by mistake and then refused to admit it.[2]) Edith was living with her widowed mother at the home of her uncle, the Earl of Clarendon. She had been trained in dancing, music and art, but she had not received a structured education.[2]

Villiers married Robert Bulwer-Lytton (later 1st Earl of Lytton) on 4 October 1864. She brought her new husband an income of £6,000 per year. Robert, an aspiring diplomat, was relatively poor for a member of the British upper classes, although his father Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a well-known writer and was raised to the peerage in 1866. His father controlled his son and it was his choice for his son to become a diplomat. Having previously broken up a match between Robert and another girl, he also disapproved of the marriage to Edith. For the first year he refused to speak to her but eventually warmed to the marriage.[3]

Edith accompanied her husband during his diplomatic career, and several of their children were born abroad. The children were:

• Edward Rowland John Bulwer-Lytton (1865–1871)
• Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-Lytton[1] (12 June 1867 – 28 March 1942) who married Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour
• Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton, born at Vienna (1869–1923),[1] British suffragette activist.
• Hon. Henry Meredith Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1872–1874)
• Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964) who married the architect Edwin Lutyens.
• Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, (1876–1947)[1]
• Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton (6 February 1879 – 9 February 1951)[1]

India

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The Delhi Durbar of 1877. The Viceroy of India is seated on the dais to the left.

Her husband served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880.[4] Edith would be the Vicereine.[5] In 1876 she gave birth at Shimla to her son Victor. He was the third of her sons but Edward and Henry had died as infants in 1871 and 1874. Victor and her last child Neville who was born in 1879 would in time inherit the Earldom.[1]

The Delhi Durbar of 1877 was held beginning on 1 January 1877 to proclaim Queen Victoria as Empress of India. The following year Edith, as Vicereine, was invested in the Imperial Order of the Crown of India.[6] Edith was also decorated with the honorific Lady, Royal Order of Victoria and Albert. Edith and her daughters restyled the court which they considered inferior to the courts of Europe. Fashions were ordered from Paris. Edith was noted for her support of the education of women in India.[1] Her daughter Emily retained an interest in Indian culture after the family's return to England and was converted to theosophy. When Edith's husband resigned in 1880 he was made an Earl by Benjamin Disraeli.[4]

Paris

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Lady Edith Villiers dressed as Lady Melbourne for a costume party at Devonshire House[7] (1897)

Edith's husband became the British Ambassador in Paris in 1887 although he was weakened by heart disease. He seemed to make a good impression as when he died suddenly in Paris in 1891 he was given, unusually, a state funeral in France. Edith was the chief mourner along with her surviving five children. The funeral was attended by ministers of state and the French government arranged for 3,500 soldiers to serve at the funeral, before his body was taken by rail to England.[4]

At court

Edith had a much reduced income. She became Queen Victoria's Lady-in-Waiting (Lady of the Bedchamber) in 1895 taking the post left vacant by Susanna, Duchess of Roxburghe. She was asked personally by the Queen and she received £300 per year and served with eight other aristocratic maids of honour.[8] In 1897, she was one of the guests at the Duchess of Devonshire's Diamond Jubilee Costume Ball on 2 July 1897.[7]

When the Queen died, Edith rode with the body on the funeral journey from London to Windsor.[9] She then held the office of "Lady of the Bedchamber" to Queen Alexandra until she retired in 1905.[1]

Retirement

Her retirement lasted more than thirty years. She lived at Homewood, a dower house on the family estate at Knebworth, Hertfordshire. The house was designed c. 1901 by her son-in-law Sir Edwin Lutyens, in Arts and Crafts style.[10] Her daughter Constance suffered a stroke in 1912 and returned to live at Homewood,[11] remaining there until shortly before her death in 1923.[12]

Bibliography

Her granddaughter Mary Lutyens published a book Lady Lytton's Court Diary, based on Edith's experiences at the court of Queen Victoria.[13] Mary's other publications include The Lyttons in India: An account of Lord Lytton's Viceroyalty, 1876–1880.[14] Another granddaughter, Elisabeth Lutyens, mentioned Edith's life at Homewood when recalling her own childhood in her autobiography A Goldfish Bowl (1972).

Legacy

Edith and Robert had five children, who led influential lives. She also sat for the noted painting by George Frederic Watts. Some have deprecated her contribution as she had no formal education and her husband's biographers have thought her lightweight.[2]

References

1. Washbrook, D. (2008, January 03). Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer-, first earl of Lytton [pseud. Owen Meredith (1831–1891), viceroy of India and poet]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 6 Mar. 2020. Subscription or UK public library membership required.
2. Lyndsey Jenkins (12 March 2015). Lady Constance Lytton: Aristocrat, Suffragette, Martyr. Biteback Publishing. pp. 24–. ISBN 978-1-84954-892-2.
3. Leslie George Mitchell (2003). Bulwer Lytton: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Man of Letters. A&C Black. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-1-85285-423-2.
4. Obituaries of Lord Lytton, Lucille Project, Retrieved 3 November 2015
5. Vicereine, Definition by OxfordDictionaries, Retrieved 3 November 2015
6. "No. 24539". The London Gazette. 4 January 1878. p. 113.
7. Walker, Dave. "Costume Ball 4: Ladies only". Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
8. Greg King (4 June 2007). Twilight of Splendor: The Court of Queen Victoria During Her Diamond Jubilee Year. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 79–. ISBN 978-0-470-04439-1.
9. Votes for Women By June Purvis, Sandra Stanley Holton
10. Homewood, Knebworth http://www.parksandgardens.org.
11. Jenkins (2015), pp. 195–6.
12. Jenkins (2015), pp. 228–30.
13. Lady Lytton's Court Diary, 1895–1901. R. Hart-Davis. 1961.
14. London: John Murray, 1979, ISBN 0-7195-3677-4

External links

• Edith Bulwer-Lytton, ODNB (subscription or UK public library membership required)
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Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Postby admin » Mon Nov 04, 2019 3:23 am

Gerard Encausse [Papus]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/3/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.




Image
Papus

Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (July 13, 1865 – 25 October 1916), whose esoteric pseudonym was Papus, was the Spanish-born French physician, hypnotist, and popularizer of occultism, who founded the modern Martinist Order.

Early life

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Gerard Encausse was born at A Coruña in Spain on July 13, 1865, of a Spanish mother and a French father, Louis Encausse, a chemist. His family moved to Paris when he was four years old, and he received his education there.

As a young man, Encausse spent a great deal of time at the Bibliothèque Nationale studying the Kabbalah, occult tarot, magic and alchemy, and the writings of Eliphas Lévi. He joined the French Theosophical Society shortly after it was founded by Madame Blavatsky in 1884–1885, but he resigned soon after joining because he disliked the Society's emphasis on Eastern occultism.

Career

Overview


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In 1888, he co-founded his own group, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix. That same year, he and his friend Lucien Chamuel founded the Librarie du Merveilleux and its monthly revue L'Initiation, which remained in publication until 1914.

Encausse was also a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn temple in Paris, as well as Memphis-Misraim and probably other esoteric or paramasonic organizations, as well as being an author of several occult books. Outside of his paramasonic and Martinist activities he was also a spiritual student of the French spiritualist healer, Anthelme Nizier Philippe, "Maître Philippe de Lyon".

Despite his heavy involvement in occultism and occultist groups, Encausse managed to find time to pursue more conventional academic studies at the University of Paris. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1894 upon submitting a dissertation on Philosophical Anatomy. He opened a clinic in the rue Rodin which was quite successful.

Encausse visited Russia three times, in 1901, 1905, and 1906, serving Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra both as physician and occult consultant. It has been incorrectly claimed that in October 1905, he conjured up the spirit of Alexander III (father of Tsar Nicholas), who prophesied that the Tsar would meet his downfall at the hands of revolutionaries. Encausse's followers allege that he informed the Tsar that he would be able to magically avert Alexander's prophesy so long as Encausse was alive. Nicholas kept his hold on the throne of Russia until 141 days after Papus' death.

Although Encausse seems to have served the Tsar and Tsarina in what was essentially the capacity of a mediumistic spiritual advisor, he was later curiously concerned about their heavy reliance on occultism to assist them in deciding questions of government. During their later correspondence, he warned them a number of times against the influence of Rasputin.


Involvement and influences

Levi, Tarot, and the Kabbalah


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Encausse's early readings in tarot and the lore of the Kabbalah in translation was inspired by the occult writings of Eliphas Lévi, whose translation of the "Nuctemeron of Apollonius of Tyana" printed as a supplement to Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855), provided Encausse with his nom de plume. "Papus" is the name of a Genius of the First Hour in the Nuctemeron, and is translated in the text as "physician."

1891 l'Ordre des Supérieurs Inconnus

In 1891, Encausse claimed to have come into the possession of the original papers of Martinez Paschalis, or de Pasqually (c. 1700-1774), and therewith founded an Order of Martinists called l'Ordre des Supérieurs Inconnus. He claimed to have been given authority in the Rite of Saint-Martin by his friend Henri Vicomte de Laage, who claimed that his maternal grandfather had been initiated into the order by Saint-Martin himself, and who had attempted to revive the order in 1887. The Martinist Order was to become a primary focus for Encausse, and continues today as one of his most enduring legacies.

1893-1895 Bishop of l'Église Gnostique de France

In 1893, Encausse was consecrated a bishop of l'Église Gnostique de France [Gnostic Church of France] by Jules Doinel, who had founded this Church as an attempt to revive the Cathar religion in 1890.

Most important, the central doctrine of nazism, that the Jew was evil and had to be exterminated, had its origin in the Gnostic position that there were two worlds, one good and one evil, one dark and one light, one materialistic and one spiritual.... The mystical teachings of Guido von List, Lanz von Liebenfels, and Rudolf von Sebottendorff were modern restatements of Gnosticism.

When the apocalyptic promise of Christ's resurrection was broken, the Gnostics sought to return men to God by another route, more Oriental than Hellenist. They devised a dualistic cosmology to set against the teachings of the early Christian Church, which, they claimed, were only common deceptions, unsuited for the wise. The truth was esoteric. Only the properly initiated could appreciate it. It belonged to a secret tradition which had come down through certain mystery schools. The truth was, God could never become man. There were two separate realms -- one spiritual, the other material. The spiritual realm, created by God, was all good; the material realm, created by the demiurge, all evil. Man needed to be saved, not from Original Sin, but from enslavement to matter. For this, he had to learn the mystical arts. Thus Gnosticism became a source for the occult tradition.

A famous medieval Gnostic sect, the Cathars, came to identify the Old Testament god, Jehovah, with the demiurge, the creator of the material world and therefore the equivalent of Satan. Within Gnosticism, then, existed the idea that the Jewish god was really the devil, responsible for all the evil in the world. He was opposed to the New Testament God. The Cathars tried to eliminate the Old Testament from Church theology and condemned Judaism as a work of Satan's, whose aim was to tempt men away from the spirit. Jehovah, they said, was the god of an earth "waste and void," with darkness "upon the face of the deep." Was he not cruel and capricious? They quoted Scripture to prove it. The New Testament God, on the other hand, was light. He declared that "there is neither male nor female," for everyone was united in Christ. These two gods, obviously, had nothing in common.

The synagogue was regarded as profane by Christians. The Cathars -- themselves considered heretical by the Church -- castigated Catholics for refusing to purge themselves of Jewish sources; Church members often blamed the [Cathar] Christian heresy on Jewish mysticism, which was considered an inspiration for Gnostic sorcery.

But Gnostic cosmology, though officially branded "false," pervaded the thinking of the Church. The Jews were widely thought to be magicians. It was believed that they could cause rain, and when there was a drought, they were encouraged to do so. Despite the displeasure of the Roman Popes, Christians, when they were in straitened circumstances, practiced Jewish customs, even frequenting synagogues.

This sheds light on an otherwise incomprehensible recurring theme within Nazi literature, as, for example, "The Earth-Centered Jew Lacks a Soul," by one of the chief architects of Nazi dogma, Alfred Rosenberg, who held that whereas other people believe in a Hereafter and in immortality, the Jew affirms the world and will not allow it to perish. The Gnostic secret is that the spirit is trapped in matter, and to free it, the world must be rejected. Thus, in his total lack of world-denial, the Jew is snuffing out the inner light, and preventing the millennium:

Where the idea of the immortal dwells, the longing for the journey or the withdrawal from temporality must always emerge again; hence, a denial of the world will always reappear. And this is the meaning of the non-Jewish peoples: they are the custodians of world-negation, of the idea of the Hereafter, even if they maintain it in the poorest way. Hence, one or another of them can quietly go under, but what really matters lives on in their descendants. If, however, the Jewish people were to perish, no nation would be left which would hold world-affirmation in high esteem -- the end of all time would be here.

... the Jew, the only consistent and consequently the only viable yea-sayer to the world, must be found wherever other men bear in themselves ... a compulsion to overcome the world.... On the other hand, if the Jew were continually to stifle us, we would never be able to fulfill our mission, which is the salvation of the world, but would, to be frank, succumb to insanity, for pure world-affirmation, the unrestrained will for a vain existence, leads to no other goal. It would literally lead to a void, to the destruction not only of the illusory earthly world but also of the truly existent, the spiritual. Considered in himself the Jew represents nothing else but this blind will for destruction, the insanity of mankind. It is known that Jewish people are especially prone to mental disease. "Dominated by delusions," said Schopenhauer about the Jew.

... To strip the world of its soul, that and nothing else is what Judaism wants. This, however, would be tantamount to the world's destruction.


This remarkable statement, seemingly the rantings of a lunatic, expresses the Gnostic theme that the spirit of man, essentially divine, is imprisoned in an evil world. The way out of this world is through rejection of it. But the Jew alone stands in the way. Behind all the talk about "the earth-centered Jew" who "lacks a soul"; about the demonic Jew who will despoil the Aryan maiden; about the cabalistic work of the devil in Jewish finance; about the sinister revolutionary Jewish plot to take over the world and cause the decline of civilization, there is the shadow of ancient Gnosticism.

-- Gods & Beasts: The Nazis & the Occult, by Dusty Sklar


In 1895, Doinel abdicated as Primate of the French Gnostic Church, leaving control of the Church to a synod of three of his former bishops, one of whom was Encausse.

1895 - 1888 The Golden Dawn; Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix

In March 1895, Encausse joined the Ahathoor Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in Paris.

Although Encausse claimed as his "spiritual master" the mysterious magician and healer known as "le Maitre Philippe" (Philippe Nizier), his first actual teacher in the intellectual aspects of occultism was the marquis Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1842 - 1910). Saint-Yves had inherited the papers of one of the great founders of French occultism, Antoine Fabre d'Olivet (1762 - 1825), and it was probably Saint-Yves who introduced Papus to the marquis Stanislas de Guaita (1861 - 1897).

In 1888, Encausse, Saint-Yves and de Guaita joined with Joséphin Péladan and Oswald Wirth to found the Rosicrucian Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix.

1901 Questionable Anti-Semitic writings

In October 1901 Encausse collaborated with Jean Carrère in producing a series of articles in the Echo de Paris under the pseudonym Niet ("no" in Russian). In the articles Sergei Witte and Pyotr Rachkovsky were attacked, and it was suggested that there was a sinister financial syndicate trying to disrupt the Franco-Russian alliance. Encausse and Carrère predicted that this syndicate was a Jewish conspiracy, and the anti-Semitic nature of these articles, compounded by Encausse's known connection to the Tsar of Russia, may have contributed to the allegation that Papus was the author who forged The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[citation needed]

1908 - 1913 Encausse, Reuss and paramasonry

Encausse never became a regular Freemason. Despite this, he organized what was announced as an "International Masonic Conference" in Paris on June 24, 1908, and at this conference he first met Theodor Reuss, and the two men apparently exchanged patents:

Reuss elevated Encausse as X° of the Ordo Templi Orientis as well as giving him license to establish a "Supreme Grand Council General of the Unified Rites of Ancient and Primitive Masonry for the Grand Orient of France and its Dependencies at Paris." For his part, Encausse assisted Reuss in the formation of the O.T.O. Gnostic Catholic Church as a child of l'Église Gnostique de France, thus forming the E.G.C. within the tradition of French neo-gnosticism.

When John Yarker died in 1913, Encausse was elected as his successor to the office of Grand Hierophant (international head) of the Antient and Primitive Rites of Memphis and Mizraim.

Death

When World War I broke out, Encausse joined the French army medical corps. While working in a military hospital, he contracted tuberculosis and died in Paris on October 25, 1916, at the age of 51.

Partial bibliography

The written works of Papus (Gerard Encausse) include:

• Papus (Gerard Encausse). L'Occultisme Contemporain. 1887. PDF scans (État HTTP 404 – Not Found) from Gallica
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). L'Occultisme. 1890.
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). Traité méthodique de Science Occulte. 1891. PDF scans from Google Books
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). La Science Des Mages. 1892. PDF scans from Gallica
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). Anarchie, Indolence et Synarchie. 1894. PDF scans from Gallica
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). Le Diable et l'occultisme. 1895.
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). Traite Méthodique De La Magie Pratique. 1898. PDF scans from Gallica
• Niet (Gerard Encausse and Jean Carrère). La Russie Aujourd'hui. 1902.
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). La Kabbale. 1903.
• Papus (Gerard Encausse). Le Tarot Divinataire. 1909. PDF scans from Internet Archive

External links

• Media related to Papus at Wikimedia Commons
• T. Apiryon, brief biography
• Complete bibliography of the writings of Papus (in French).
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Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

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Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross
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Accessed: 11/3/19

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Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross
Ordre kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix
OKRC.gif
Modified version of the emblem of O.K.R.C. from a 19th-century occultistic/mystical work.
Formation 1888 in Paris (France)
Type Christian-Cabbalistic organisation
Headquarters Las Vegas
Location
NV, USA
Leader
Viscount Louis-Charles-Edouard de Lapasse (1850–1888)
Stanislas de Guaita (1888–1897)
...

Jean-Louis de Biasi (1999–Current head)
Website Https://www.okrc.org

The Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross (French: Ordre kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix – O.K.R.C.) is the first occult society in France at the end of the 19th century.[1] The order was founded by Stanislas de Guaita and Joséphin Péladan in 1888. The structure and teaching of the order in many respects had similarities and intersections with the Martinist Order of Papus (Ordre des Supérieurs Inconnus), and has an emphasis on Christian Kabbalah as its domain of study and direction of spiritual work.[2]

Teaching and structure

The OKRC conducted classes on Christian Kabbalah, an esoteric form of Christianity, the goal of which is to reveal the hidden mystical ability to ‘penetrate the essence of the Bible and the Divine’. Also, the order conducted examinations and awarded grades that named after the academic degrees in universities. This feature favourably distinguished the order from the bulk of the secret societies of its time.[1]

Degrees of the O.K.R.C.

1. Bachelor of Kabbalah
2. Licence of Kabbalah (Master of Kabbalah)
3. Doctorate of Kabbalah

The structure of the degrees was created in the form of the University, they were awarded only to those who attend lectures and pass examinations.[1]

Brief history

In 1890–1891, Joséphin Péladan—one of the founders—abandoned the OKRC and established his own Ordre de la Rose-Croix catholique du Temple et du Graal which included many of the prominent Symbolist artists of the period. The reason for the split is that Péladan ‘refused to associate himself with spiritism, Freemasonry or Buddhism’.[3] Stanislas de Guaita, on the contrary, said that he doesn’t want to turn the order into a salon for artists.[4]

After the sudden death of Stanislas de Guaita in 1897, Papus succeeded him as Grand Master of the OKRC, he was the ‘Délége General de l’Ordre kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix’ until his death in 1916.[5]

Today, the order still operates in several countries in the world and in several languages.[1] The French published author and spiritual teacher Jean-Louis de Biasi is the current head (as of 2019) of the Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix. He lives in Las Vegas.[6]

References

1. Greer, John Michael (2006). The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies. pp. 252–253.
2. Caillet, Serge (2003). La Franc-maçonnerie égyptienne de Memphis-Misraïm (in French). p. 200.
3. Churton, Tobias (2005). Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions. p. 322. ISBN 9781594777677.
4. Billy, André (1971). Stanislas de Guaita (in French). p. 37.
5. Roggemans, Marcel (2009). History of Martinism and the F.U.D.O.S.I. Translated by Bogaard, Milko. Morrisville, North Carolina: Lulu Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4092-8260-0.
6. "Jean-Louis de Biasi". http://www.debiasi.org. Retrieved 17 April 2018.

External links

• Official website
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Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

Postby admin » Mon Nov 04, 2019 4:41 am

Lucien Chamuel
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/3/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


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Lucien Chamuel, pseudonym of Lucien Mauchel, (18? - November 22, 1936 ) was a French publisher, Rosicrucian, Martinist and Occultist.

Chamuel was from Vendée and studied law. He was a friend of Papus (Gerard Encausse). One day Papus said to him: A few notes of 1000 francs are enough to open a publishing house for books on occultism. Shortly thereafter, Chamuel rented a building on Rue de Trévise, 29 in Paris. Together with his friend Papus, he founded La Librairie du Merveilleux in 1888. The publishing house with bookstore and conference rooms quickly achieved success. It became a meeting place for everyone who was interested in Hermetism. Young poets, writers, artists, doctors and others also visited the bookstore.

The publishing house was sold to Henri Chacornac in 1901. In 1895, the bookshop moved to Faubourg Poissonnière, 79. From 1896 to 1898, the bookshop moved into the building on rue de Savoie, 5, in the 6th arrondissement. This building was then occupied by the Amitiés Spirituelles, the spiritual association of Paul Sédir.

Joséphin Péladan, Stanislas de Guaita, Albert Poisson, (Charles Barlet) Albert Faucheux, Georges Polti, Emille Gary, Colonel de Rochas, Paul Adam, Lemerle, Paul Sédir (Yvon Le Loup), Marc Haven (dr. Lalande), Abel Haatan and Jean Chaboseau were some of those visitors.

In 1888, Chamuel, together with Papus, founded the monthly magazine L'Initiation. Papus became director, George Montière was editor-in-chief, assisted by Charles Barlet and Julien Lejay. The monthly magazine was open to topics such as freemasonry, martinism, spiritualism, theosophy, but also to poetry and literature. Later this monthly magazine became the magazine of the Martinist Order.

Chamuel was a member of the Martinist order. In 1891, the first Supreme Council, under the name L'Ordre des Supérieurs Inconnus, was founded by Papus. Chamuel became a member of this Supreme Council.

Lucien Chamuel and Victor-Emile Michelet were martinists of the first hour. Various groups of martinists had emerged over the years. Chamuel, Michelet and Augustin Chaboseau met in 1931. They wanted to bring new life to the traditional Martinist order that they had started with Papus and proclaimed themselves the only successors to the original Martinist order. The order of this order was on July 24, 1931 under the name Ordre Martiniste Traditionnel.

Chamuel was also a member of the L'Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose Croix, founded in 1888 by Marquis Stanislas de Guaita. In 1920, Chamuel became grandmaster of this order.

In 1890, Jules Doinel founded l'Eglise Gnostique. He dedicated Chamuel under the name Tau Bardesane, bishop of La Rochelle and Saintes in 1892. Other martinists were then initiated: Papus as Tau Vincent, bishop of Toulouse and Paul Sédir as Tau Paul, bishop of Concorezzo. These three initiates formed the core of the newly established Eglise Universelle Gnostique. In 1932 Chamuel became the patriarch of the church.

In 1893 he received from Baron Spedalieri a thousand original letters from Eliphas Levi, which together form a kabbalah course .

According to Sédir, a friend of Chamuel, he was a very calm and warm personality. With determination, he helped his friends and interested parties and assisted the young seekers of truth with advice and action.
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Re: Freda Bedi, by Wikipedia

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Paul Sedir [Yvon Le Loup]
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Accessed: 11/3/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


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Paul Sedir

Paul Sédir, pseudonym of Yvon Le Loup, ( Dinan, 2 January 1871 - Paris, 3 February 1926) was a French publicist, mystic, kabbalist, rose crosser and martinist.

Course of life

Sédir was born as son of Hippolyte Le Loup and Séraphine Foeller. The family moved from Brittany to Paris at a very young age. His parents had a very difficult time. This had consequences for the small Le Loup. Because of deprivation he had a hidden tuberculosis, broke a leg and got Pott disease (tuberculosis of vertebral bodies).

As a child he wanted to become a shepherd. He once wrote a book about the shepherd dog. He later had another wish and wanted to become a handyman.

Le Loup already had a very young hand, a beautiful handwriting and he would keep that for the rest of his life. In 1882 he got the chance to take violin lessons.

He followed Catechese in the church of Saint-Augustin and in the school of François-Bourgeois; he attended primary school with the brothers of the Christian Doctrine. On July 10, 1883 he obtained the higher education diploma.

In a very unfortunate fall he broke his leg for the second time. During this forced rest period he read many books and developed his drawing talent.

It was a time when he was worried about his situation. He found a job as a clerk at an office. An old friend of the family gave him the opportunity to take the entrance exam at a bank. On October 28, 1892 he joined the Banque de France as an assistant. During the lunch break, which was just over an hour, he always walked along the banks of the Seine, always looking for old books in the stalls of the booksellers.

Only with his perseverance, his intelligence and with the books he could have bought with his small budget, Le Loup had studied esotericism for about two years. He decided to contact the esoterics living in Paris.

In 1888, Papus (Dr. Gerard Encausse), together with Lucien Chamuel, had founded La Librairie du Merveilleux. This publishing house with bookstore and conference rooms was a meeting place for everyone who was interested in Hermetism. At the end of 1889, Le Loup visited this bookstore and said to Chamuel: "I want to do occultism." Papus who was also present said: “That is very good my boy. Come to me next Sunday.” That Sunday Papus informed the newcomer how to keep the valuable library in order. This is how the Breton boy who called himself Yvon Le Loup began his studies in occultism.

Le Loup immediately became a contributor to the magazine L'Initiation, founded by Papus in 1890. Sédir published his first article in October 1890: Expériences d'occultisme pratique, under the name Yvon Le Loup. It is in L'Initiation of October 1891 that one can find the name Sédir for the first time. Sédir is an anagram of désir (desire). This was an allusion to L'homme de désir or The Man of Desire, an expression of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin to describe a phase in the spiritual evolution of man.

By the power of will we project an idea through the mind, where it takes concrete shape as a thought-form by drawing mind-stuff around itself from the Region of Concrete Thought. The mind ... projects the image in one of three directions, according to the will of the thinker, which ensouls the thought-form. It may be projected against the desire body in an endeavor to arouse feeling which will lead to immediate action. If the thought awakens Interest, one of the twin forces, Attraction or Repulsion, will be stirred up.

If Attraction, the centripetal force, is aroused, it seizes the thought, whirls it into the desire body, endows the image with added life and clothes it with desire-stuff. Then the thought is able to act on the etheric brain, and propel the vital force through the appropriate brain centers and nerves to the voluntary muscles which perform the necessary action. Thus the force in the thought is expended and the image remains in the ether of the vital body as memory of the act and the feeling that caused it.

Repulsion is the centrifugal force and if that is aroused by the thought there will be a struggle between the spiritual force (the will of the man) within the thought-form, and the desire body. This is the battle between conscience and desire, the higher and the lower nature. The spiritual force, in spite of resistance will seek to clothe the thought-form in the desire-stuff needed to manipulate the brain and muscles. The force of Repulsion will endeavor to scatter the appropriated material and oust the thought. If the spiritual energy is strong, it may force its way through to the brain centers and hold its clothing of desire-stuff while manipulating the vital force, thus compelling action, and will then leave upon the memory a vivid impression of the struggle and the victory. If the spiritual energy is exhausted before action has resulted, it will be overcome by the force of Repulsion, and will be stored in the memory, as are all other thought-forms when they have expended their energy....

Where no immediate action is called for by the mental images of impacts from without, these may be projected directly upon the reflecting ether, together with the thoughts occasioned by them, to be used at some future time. The spirit, working through the mind, has instant access to the storehouse of conscious memory, and may at any time resurrect any of the pictures found there, endue them with new spiritual force, and project them upon the desire body to compel action. Each time such a picture is thus used it will gain in vividness, strength and efficiency, and will compel action along its particular line grooves, and produces the phenomenon of thought, "gaining" or "growing" upon us by repetition.

A third way of using a thought-form is when the thinker projects it toward another mind to act as a suggestion, to carry information, etc., as in thought-transference, or it may be directed against the desire body of another person to compel action, as in the case of a hypnotist influencing a victim at a distance. It will then act in precisely the same manner as if it were the victim's own thought.

When the work designed for such a projected thought-form has been accomplished, or its energy expended in vain attempts to achieve its object, it gravitates back to its creator, bearing with it the indelible record of the journey. It success or failure is imprinted on the negative atoms of the reflecting ether of its creator's vital body, where it forms that part of the record of the thinker's life and action which is sometimes called the sub-conscious mind.

This record is much more important than the memory to which we have conscious access, for the latter is made up from imperfect and illusive sense-perceptions and is the voluntary memory or conscious mind.

-- The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception: An Elementary Treatise Upon Man's Past Evolution, Present Constitution and Future Development, by Max Heindel


Papus had also introduced Sédir to other esoteric groups, where Sédir included Paul Adam, F.-Charles Barlet, F.-R. Gaboriau, Emile Gary de Lacroze, Julien Lejay, Jules Lermina, Victor-Emile Michelet and René Philipon met.

It was also the period in which Stanislas de Guaita founded L'Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose + Croix. Papus had just founded his Martinist order. Sédir became a member of L'Ordre Kabbalistique de la Rose + Croix and became a doctor at Kabbala. In the Martinist order, of which Sédir also became a member, he made it a member of the Supreme Council.

Through Barlet, Sédir became a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.

With Philipon he renewed the Freemasonry of Misraim and became a Councilor of the Société Alchimique de France, of Jollivet-Castelot.

Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Flaubert, Honoré de Balzac, Laurent Tailhade and Joséphin Péladan were other important people in Sédir's life.

Between 1894 and 1898 the first articles and the first works of Sédir were published by La Librairie du Merveilleux.

Between 1894 and 1906, Sédir also published the first translations into French of authors such as Jacob Boehme, Gichtel, Jeanne Leade, William Law. He also wrote a preface or introduction to reprint works by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, Antoine Fabre d'Olivet, Isaac Loriah, Salzmann. He also published his own work in which he explained the results of his research.

Sédir marries Alice, Estelle Perret-Gentil on 13 June 1899. A sweet woman who was the ideal partner for Sédir. Ten years later Alice would die.

Sédir was always very careful when he spoke about the invisible. One day this caution changed. He spoke and responded with authority and with certainty. He suddenly spoke as a wise man. He left many of his friends behind and devoted himself exclusively to the Gospel. This evolution surprised his old friends.

Sédir only had one doctrine: loving fellow human beings and that combined with the search for the Kingdom of God.

In recent years, Alfred Haehl, who was a dear friend of Sédir, had spoken openly about l'Inconnu: Maître Philippe Nizier Anthelme. A healer and spiritual teacher from Lyon. Sédir therefore had the privilege of meeting his ideal, not in the abstract worlds of ideas, but in a living person. A Sunday in July 1897 on the platform of the Gare de Lyon in Paris, Sédir was accompanied by Papus and met Monsieur Philippe for the first time. Papus called Mr Philippe the father of the poor. Monsieur Philippe was his spiritual teacher for Papus. Sédir called him, in his novel Initiations: Andréas.

That first meeting was very short. Sédir could only have spoken a few words to this man. Sédir, however, saw him several times in Paris. Sédir, accompanied by Jean Chapas, also stayed at Monsieur Philippe's house in L'Arbresle. Here the most loyal students met, such as Jean Chapas, Marc Haven, Alfred Haehl, etc.

In May 1905, at the request of Alice Le Loup, Sédir stayed longer in L'Arlresle. Alice Le Loup was incurably ill. She had expressed the wish to stay a few days longer with the Master. It was the last visit because the Master died on 2 August 1905.

The death of Alice Le Loup, on April 23, 1909, changed the life of Sédir. He left the bank.

His friends insisted that he become the leader of a spiritual group. Sédir did it but couldn't. He only wanted to follow the circumstances, be an instrument of the will of God.

He was asked to give lectures; Sédir did it. He was asked to give his lectures; Sédir did it. He was asked to gather all the benevolent ones who had gathered around him; Sédir did it. He rented a room where the friends of the Amitiés Spirituelles met. The remarkable knowledge that Sédir put at the service of the Gospel brought together a lot of new interested people. The room became too small and Sédir had to find a larger location. Finally, the Marius et Ary Leblond brothers' secretary obtained an apartment in Rue du Cardinal-Lemoine. The La Vie magazine was developed there.

Only God knows how much Sédir loved his friends. For many years he helped many, he listened with patience to the suffering of others. For years he provided education, support, comfort.

Sédir was mobilized from 1915 to 1918. He worked at l'Ecole de Guerre (Office for Information on Prisoners of War).

After the war, Sédir resumed his normal duties, meetings, and journeys. He gathered around him many people of goodwill. They insisted on publishing a magazine as a means of keeping in touch with sympathizers in the province and abroad. The first issue of the Bulletin des Amitiés Spirituelles was published in February 1919.

It was later decided to set up an association according to the law. On July 16, 1920, the journal Officiel published the announcement: Les Amitiés Spirituelles, Christian association, free and charitable.

On 30 May 1921, Sédir married Marie-Jeanne Coffineau (Jeanne Jacquemin), who died in October 1938.

For years following the creation of the Amitiés Spirituelles, the activities of Sédir continued their normal course within the association: letters, articles, meetings, lectures in Paris and in various French cities and abroad, mainly Poland. Groups of sympathizers had formed everywhere.

The last public presentation that Sédir gave was on November 17, 1925 at the Université Alexandre-Mercereau, boulevard Raspail.

In January 1926 Sédir went to a friend in L'Arbresle. They were welcomed by Jean Chapas, the great servant of God who humbly continued the work of him whom they called their Master.

Sédir had announced three lectures on Le Sacrifice before February 1926 (Le sacrifice antique, le sacrifice de Jesus-Christ, le sacrifice du disciple).

Sédir died after a few days of illness on 3 February 1926. The three lectures were later published by Albert Legrand.

A church service was dedicated in the church of Notre-Dame de la Miséricorde. Sédir rests on the Saint-Vincent cimetière.

Sédir has put his life at the service of God. He was a witness of Christ, a messenger of the Gospel. His life and his teaching were a testimony from Him who filled his life, enlightened his life. A Protestant lady of the higher social class stated: When Sédir speaks about Christ, Christ is present.

Just as Christ was all his thoughts, all his love, all his hope, so was the Gospel all his faith, all his teaching. In the Light of the Gospel, he answered all questions, gave confidence and hope, turned uncertainty into certainty.

Emile Besson wrote: The works and books Sédir wrote about the Gospel are the most beautiful, the most moving, the most comforting I have ever read.

Working

Sédir published in French. All his works have been translated into English and Polish. Some in German and Italian. Only The prayer was issued in Dutch.

• Les Amitiés Spirituelles
• Les lettres magiques (1903)
• Les miroirs magiques (1907)
• Les plantes magiques (1907)
• Initiations
• Histoire des Rose-Croix
• Méditations pour chaque semaine
• Les Forces mystiques and conductor de la Vie
• La dispute de Shiva contre Jésus
• Martyr de la Pologne
• La guerre de 1914 selon le point de vue mystique
• Les sept jardins mystiques
• Le sacrifice
• Essai sur le cantique des cantiques (1906)
• Les guérisons du Christ
• Quelques Amis de Dieu
• Le courronement de l'oeuvre
• La Voie Mystique
• Mystique chrétienne
• Le Royaume de Dieu
• L'Éducation de la volonté
• Le sermon sur le montagne
• Les lettres mystiques
• L'Énergie ascétique
• L'Enfance du Christ
• Le devoir spiritualist
• La Prière (in Dutch: Prayer, Baarn, Hollandia, 1949, translation: Carel Vorsterman)
• La charité
• Le Fakirism Indou et les yogas (1911)
• Bréviaire mystique (1909)
• Le bienheureux Jacob Boehme (1901)
• Bibliographie méthodique et illustrée de la science occult (1912)
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