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The image of the 'mysterious'' Indian was cultivated in the West when romanticised 'jugglers' and 'conjurors' (such as Ramo Samee pictured here) toured the cities of Victorian Britain. (Lamont & Bates 2007 p.310). Whilst it was not initially suggested that these acts were beyond scientific explanation, and purported that 'Hindoos' were simply more dexterous and skilful than their English competitors, eventually questions concerning genuine magic and India began to spread amongst the western public (2007, p.323). These early performers and their admirers have done much to contribute to the Western myth about Indian incredulity and miracles. Such a reputation still attracts Western journalists and travellers today.

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Despite their public proclamations of loyalty to the secular state and Constitution, Indian political figures still regularly conduct their political lives around various superstitions, including the avoidance of some regions such as Noira in Uttar Pradesh during election campaigns. Unsurprisingly superstition has a long history in Indian politics. Dipesh Chakrabarty writes that Mahatma Gandhi, who, although deeply spiritual was a major proponent of the secular state, once framed the 1934 earthquake in Bihar state as a moment of 'divine retribution for the sin of untouchability' (Chakrabarty, 2008. p.17). In this article I find it surprising that Narendra Modi, the leader of a party that has so often criticised secularism and has previously actively campaigned against anti-superstition legislation, draw a distinction between faith and 'blind faith'. Chakrabarty concludes that it is unsurprising that superstition and politics mix. He writes that whilst politics is communal, the 'taming of chance' through superstition is naturally a private endeavour, and therefore the two are not incompatible and exist side by side (2008, p.18).

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for his record in office and ignoring the superstition attached to incumbents visiting Noida.

"I want to congratulate the very energetic chief minister Yogi Adityanath whose focus on good governance is taking UP to new heights-- I am very happy," Modi said while inaugurating a new line of the Delhi Metro. "Due to his dress, few people find it fashionable to believe Adityanath is not modern enough but it is Adityanath who has done what chief ministers of UP did not d o-he has come to Noida."

Visiting Noida is supposed to be unlucky for an Uttar Pradesh chief minister and most have avoided doing so until now.

"Faith is important but blind faith is not desirable," the Prime Minister said. " If anybody thinks not going to a place will prolong their tenure and visiting a place will curtail it, such a person does not deserve to be a chief minister. Unfortunately, there were superst itions associated with Noida and in his own style, Adityanath has risen above these superstitions and come to Noida."

Modi cited his own example when he had become chief minister of Gujarat for the first time and was told of a few places where the state's chief ministers didn't go because they were inauspicious. "I was clear. I would go to all those places in my first year itself. Driven by blind faith and superstition, leaders never went to places for decades. How unfortunate is that ," PM said.

The event had run into controversy because Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was not invited for the inaugural although the Magenta line runs from Botanical Garden in Noida to Kalkaji Mandir in Delhi. The BJP said that since the event was being held by the Uttar Pradesh government and not the Delhi Metro Railway Corp., it was the state's prerogative to choose the invitees. The Aam Aadmi Party said it was an insult of the federal structure of the country.

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PM Narendra Modi hails Yogi Adityanath for rising above superstition

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for his record in office and ignoring the superstition attached to incumbents visiting Noida. "I want to congratulate the very energetic chief minister Yogi Adityanath whose focus on good governance is taking UP to new heights-- I am very happy," Modi said while inaugurating a new line of the Delhi Metro.

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General Elections in India can be said to occupy the space between the rational and irrational. Whilst the technicalities and legitimacies of democracy are widely accepted (although new electronic voting machines had sparked rumours that they could 'read minds' or were being monitored to spoil the secrecy of the ballot), the reality is that with such an enormous population, one vote makes an infinitesimal difference to electoral outcomes. Mukulika Banerjee asks why the rural electorate so regularly walk huge distances to join the queues at polling booths. She finds that their appeal is one of confirmation of existence to the state ('If I don't vote, no one will know I exist!') and, even if briefly, 'cast a shadow' over the established elite (Banerjee, 2007, p.1561). Ultimately elections act as social events, they are secular rituals through which one confirms their own empowerment, their equal status with other Indians, and their commitment to both the state and the democratic tradition. Such an event carries a symbolic weight that transcends the practicalities of such an act, carrying it into the realm of superstition.

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In an article taken from the English-language arm of the RSS-backed Hindu Nationalist press, The Organiser, there is evidence of a sustained campaign by the Hindu right to oppose anti-superstition bills introduced to state-level parliaments by framing them as anti-Hindu and anti-rural. Superstitious rituals are described as socially beneficial, warning that their prohibition will create a void that will lead to 'alcoholism and social deviance', and medically valuable in that they provide 'local solutions... to psychosomatic disorders' for those in rural Hindu communities. Anti-superstition campaigners are dismissed as 'Marxists' and 'Hindu-hating intellectuals', but more pertinently they are criticised for ignoring those practices of Christians and Muslims that can be viewed as ‘superstitious’. In the religiously-charged political climate, superstitions are just another battleground for the Hindu right. The defence of superstitious practices can be read as an attack on what they see as the special treatment that minorities receive from the secular state. Superstition is a value judgement that does political work, and this work, no more so than in India.

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The Karnataka Cabinet on September 27 cleared the Anti-Superstition Bill to prevent and eradicate "inhuman evil practices" and said it would table it during the winter session for approval.

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Public miracle demonstrations carried out either by gurus or their followers have long been associated with India. Writing in 1883, Harry French describes them as being ‘almost a trademark of Hindustan’ in 1883 (2007. P.310). Lamont and Bates reported that during the Victorian era, ‘British witnesses could be equally credulous… suggesting that the real secret lay in some form of mesmeric and occult force’ and that these conclusions continue to be drawn today, as ‘ambivalent associations with psychic forces are reinforced with the emergence of modern spiritualism and the growing debate about the phenomena associated with it’ (2007, p.315). The power of these feats lies in their publicity, more specifically their witnesses investing in it. The video demonstrates that this tradition continues today, and shows how modern technology has been able to inflate the number of people who engage with the performance. Gurus are now able to gain a global audience with an online presence, and superstitious practices and beliefs are spread around the world.

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How to Levitate a Coconut - Power of Levitation, Demonstration by Student of Paramahamsa Nithyananda

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Banerjee, Mukulika. "Sacred Elections." Economic and Political Weekly 42.17 (2007): 1556-562. Web.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "The Power of Superstition in Public Life in India." Economic and Political Weekly 43.20 (2008): 16-19. Web.
Chatterjee, Partha. "Modernity, Democracy and a Political Negotiation of Death." South Asia Research 19.2 (1999): 103-19. Web.
Copeman, Jacob, and Deepa S. Reddy. "The Didactic Death." HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 2.2 (2012): 59-83. Web.

Lamont, Peter, and Crispin Bates. "Conjuring Images of India in Nineteenth-century Britain." Social History 32.3 (2007): 308-24. Web.

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As the Indian economy was opened up to foreign investment in the 1990s, gurus and their followers can make substantial profits through superstitious practices performed for an international audience. Independently owned television channels rely on the high viewing figures generated by televised demonstrations and debunking of miracles. By controlling the means of perception through new forms of media and technology, gurus can attract personal followings not only nationwide but overseas too. As mentioned above, India has always retained a particular mysticism in the eyes of some Westerners, and this curiosity has occasionally been conflated with Euro-American traditional capitalism by spiritual leaders with the help of the internet. The video below demonstrates the persuasive influence of a traditional spiritual belief remodelled to meet an increasingly business-orientated Indian and global society, whilst the article portrays how gurus market their personal brand with neoliberal capitalist methods.

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#Nithyananda #Comedy
The Business Plan that will make you the Richest Man in the World